Nadala (Kapurthala), April 3
Addressing a “lacklustre” party rally here today, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) President, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, told party workers that to defeat the ruling party in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab, they had to get rid of factionalism.

Though the much-publicised rally to kick off the election campaign in the district was held in an Akali stronghold, the organisers could not get the expected response from the people. Observers said not more than 4,000 persons, including women, turned up to listen to the former Chief Minister, and his son, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, an MP.

Though the SAD (B) had even roped in Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, a BJP Member of Parliament from Amritsar, to address the rally, even he could not help the Akalis much in attracting people from a constituency of more than one lakh voters, of which 5,000 voters come from Nadala only.

However, Bibi Jagir Kaur, the local SAD (B) MLA, said she was satisfied with the response from the constituency. Nadala falls under the Bholath Assembly constituency.

While talking to media persons after the rally, the SAD (B) Chief said the party would give a final shape to its election manifesto after a manifesto committee headed by the MP from Sangrur, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, along with Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal and some others as its members, consulted farmers, industrialists and other segments of the society.

When asked why the SAD (B) had not filed charge sheets against the Congress ministers in the state, as was earlier declared by him, Mr Badal said they were waiting for appropriate time. He added that the Congress was ruling at the Centre and Mr Lok Pal was their “own man”.

“Who will take action on the charge sheets?” he asked.

Earlier, Mr Sidhu, while addressing the gathering, alleged that not even a single minister from the state cabinet could claim that he was not corrupt.

The MP also alleged that the ruling party had “sold the interests of the state to liquor and land mafias”.

Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged the misuse of government funds on the publicity by the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh. He alleged that Rs 80 crore had been earmarked by the government for paying for advertisements on the bottom of newspapers, and the total publicity budget was Rs 3000 crore.

The SAD (B), too, added fuel to the ongoing agitation at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) today after the party’s President, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, declared that Akali MPs would stall the proceedings of Parliament in case the Central government did not drop the proposal of declaring the RCF a Public Sector Undertaking.

He was addressing a massive gathering of agitating employees and their families at the RCF gate this evening.

Mr Badal claimed that he had written two letters to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to intervene in the matter, as the issue was linked with the interests of Punjab.

Criticising Captain Amarinder Singh, Mr Badal alleged that the Chief Minister had not taken up the RCF issue with the Centre, despite assurances in the Assembly.

The SAD (B) Chief claimed to have demanded the transfer of the RCF General Manager, Mr Yash Pal Gupta, in a letter written to the Prime Minister. — TNS

Kapurthala, April 3
The Kapurthala police today arrested Amanpreet Kaur, the wife of Paramjit Singh Bheora, chief of the Babbar Khalsa’s India operations, along with one Manjit Singh, his wife, Davinder Kaur, and Jaswinder Singh for allegedly sheltering the terrorist after he had escaped from the Burail Jail in Chandigarh in January 2004. Bheora, who was arrested by the Delhi Police on March 20 this year, is one of the accused in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995.

According to police officials, Bheora’s wife belongs to Thugga Kalan village in Hoshiarpur district and the other three accused are residents of the Rail Coach factory Colony. A case has been registered under Sections 212, 216, 124 B and 120 A of the IPC against the four accused.

The police claimed that Amanpreet Kaur got married to Bheora in October 2005. It said that she was studying nursing from an institute in Hoshiarpur. The police added that the fugitive was hiding at the residences of Manjit Singh and Jaswinder Singh.

The arrests come a day after a resident of Phagwara, Gurcharan Singh, was arrested by the local police, also on charges of harbouring Bheora. A .30 bore mouser and two magazines were recovered from his possession.

Jalandhar, April 3
Aiming at assisting slow learners and checking school drop-out rate, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has now undertaken a task to devise self-learning syllabi and distribute these syllabi free of cost to students under its new CII Shiksha Scheme.

Unfolding the plan, Mr Y.S. Rajan, Principal Adviser to CII and Vice-President of the DAV College Management Committee, said the syllabi were being formulated for Classes VI to X for subjects of English, mathematics, physics and geography on the basis of the NCERT pattern.

Mr Rajan was here as the chief guest on the annual function of the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology.

He said the syllabi were being designed in English as well as Hindi. He said efforts were also now being made to translate the syllabi into Bengali, Tamil and Punjabi.

He said the students could use these syllabi as a tool in case they felt they were not able to maintain pace with the class or they were not able to comprehend the lectures of their teachers.

The CII Principal Advisor said big industrialists, including Jamshed J. Irani and J.N. Godrej, were closely associated with the project. He said software companies like IBM were also being roped in to make the teaching modules more creative.

He said private companies were coming up for assistance in the project on their own on voluntary basis.

Mr Rajan said it was being felt that just two per cent of the students were able to pursue higher education. Most students from poor families had a weak base and almost 90 per cent of such students were leaving their studies after completing their school education.

With the support of the school managements like DAV, Shastra and others, efforts were being made to set up nodal centres all across the state so that the staff and principals of such centres could sensitise other schools falling in five-km radius around it, said Mr Rajan.

He said one such centre was being set up at the DAV College for Women in Amritsar. The project had in the pipeline short-term e-teaching courses for B.Ed-qualified staff in the school. “It is often seen that teachers are not fully-equipped to use computer as a teaching aid.

The CII has planned a mechanism by way of which B.Ed-qualified staff in all schools would be imparted e-teaching in the next couple of years,” he said.

The CII Principal Advisor also revealed that the CII had recently launched “CII Skills Initiative”, a scheme to impart vocational training to the youth.

He said training was being offered in existing government as well as private institutes with accreditation by City and Guilds, a UK-based institute, so that the trainees could get recognition internationally.

He said course such as those in carpentry and automobile repair were being offered, depending on the need. He said one such centre had come up in Patiala.

He added that the average cost per student was coming out to be Rs 6000, and most of it was coming from philanthropists in the industry.