Pvt aided school teachers suffer as pay not paid
Mahesh Sharma

Mandi Ahmedgarh, July 19
Peeved over the alleged indifferent attitude of leaders of the area towards non-payment of salaries for many months, office-bearers of the district unit of the Private Aided School Teachers Association has threatened to launch an agitation if the payment was not made immediately.

The association has urged the management committees of respective schools to impress upon the state government to pay the pending salaries and stand by the employees.

Meanwhile, the management committee of the Ahmedgarh Vidya Parcharak Sabha has decided to advance interest-free finance to employees of the aided school being run the organisation. According to Mr Amrit Pal, president of the Sangrur district of the association, staff at 13 private aided schools have not been paid salaries for 10 months. Besides these schools, nine more institutes had not received grant for seven months.

Referring to the information received from office-bearers of various units in the district, Mr Amrit Pal said thousands of persons depending upon employees of 22 schools were virtually starving. The grocers and milkmen had stopped extending credit any more. “Besides, a large number of power connections and telephone connections had been disconnected, obviously due to non-payment of bills consistently. Inability to pay instalments of insurance policies and mandatory tax payments made private teachers pay fines and penalties,” said Mr Amrit Pal.

Mr Baldev Singh, an office-bearer of local unit of the association at MGMN Senior Secondary School, contended that the non-payment of salaries for such a long time had forced wards of the employees of private schools to drop from studies this year. “As huge amounts were required for depositing annual charges, teachers had to withdraw their wards from educational institutes this year,” said Mr Singh.

The union leaders urged the social and political organisations to impress upon the government to pay salaries of the staff.

Little ones vie in star hunt contest
Asha Ahuja

Ludhiana, July 19
Throughout India 40,000 children are participating in the talent hunt contest called Rin Advanced White Star Hunt. The hunt started a few days ago and students aged 4 to 14 years are participating in it.

In the city, around 100 students got a chance to showcase their talent today in DAV Public School. The judges were simply wowed by the performance of the kids. The parents were also impressed with the performance of their wards.

The Principal of DAV School, Mr R.S. Patial, said, "This is the first time our students are participating in the competition being held at the national level . We are thankful to Rin Advanced for organising a contest on such a large scale and providing a platform to the students to exhibit their talent."

The two winners will again participate with the winners of other schools and finally 50 children will be shortlisted throughout the country. Finally the Super Star chosen will get a scholarship of Rs 5 lakh to pursue his/her studies. 

Prayers mark new session in colleges
Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, July 19
Enthusiasm, fun and confusion prevailed among students with the new academic session of colleges beginning in the city. Hundreds of newcomers were seen dressed in their best on the first day in the college.

Many enthusiastic youngsters looked forward to making new friends whereas some others, who could not find their classes, teachers or new friends were a confused lot.

The academic session of Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women unfolded today with the bhog of Sri Akhand Path on the premises. The students were welcomed by Dr Madanjit Kaur Sahota, Principal. She said, "I wish that their stay in the college is rewarding and meaningful."

Ms Varinder Kaur Saluja, a new entrant in the college, said it was a different experience. "We are being welcomed by the Principal and staff. They have been very cooperative. We are facing initial problems," she said.

The academic session of SDP College for Women also commenced with havan and prayer to the Almighty. A tree plantation drive was also launched to make the campus green. Dr Veena Gian Singh, Principal, welcomed the new entrants and introduced them to the staff members.

For the success of students in all fields like academic, sports and cultural, Gobindgarh Public College organised a havan on the college premises. Principal Dr Suresh Tandon welcomed the newcomers and congratulated the staff and students for excelling in annual examinations. He advised the students to maintain this momentum in next academic session also.

Meanwhile, huge rush was seen in the canteens of various colleges here. Aruna, a BA I entrant, said, "We are free, so are enjoying the variety of eatables here", she said. Ms Neetu, another student from Chandigarh, however, found it difficult to adjust with the new environment at a local college here. "I am not been able to find the classes and teachers. Though three days have been passed, I have not been able to make one good friend," she added.

A huge rush of young boys was also witnessed outside colleges for girls. The boys were seen on bikes and cars and cops on duty were finding it difficult to disperse the traffic in the afternoon.

Tulsi, neem plantation drive
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 19
Clinic plus ayurveda started its first phase of tulsi and neem plantation here yesterday. More than 700 students of various schools were given tulsi plants by company officials and were told about the good qualities of tulsi and neem.

In addition to tulsi saplings, students were also given an attractive storybook on ayurveda delineating the properties of tulsi and neem. Principal of Jain Girls School Praveen Jain and of S D Girls School Asha Rani Chopra were also given tulsi saplings to plant in their schools.

Over 25 schools participated in this drive in Ludhiana, which would culminate on July 28.

From Ludhiana the tulsi plantation drive would move to Jalandhar and then Amritsar. A company spokesperson said HLL is conducting a tulsi and neem plantation drive in over 75 schools in Punjab. This effort, which is being organised as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility, is also being carried out to encourage children to plant more trees and to highlight the considerable benefits of tulsi to school children. Over 10,000 students are expected to participate, the company said.

COURTS

Spice told to pay compensation
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 19
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed a cellular company, Spice Communication, to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation to a aggrieved consumer, on the charges of wrongly barring his outgoing calls facility.

The orders were pronounced by Mr A.S. Narula, president and members of the forum, Ms Puja Dewan and Mr Daljit Singh Bakshi, while deciding the complaint filed by a lawyer, Mr Rajinder Gupta.

The complainant had submitted that he had taken one mobile connection from the company. He was regularly paying the bills. He received a bill of Rs 487 and its last date for payment was August 16, 2005. It was claimed that he submitted a cheque dated August 10, 2005, to the company.

However, the outgoing calls facility of his cellphone was barred by the company on August 21, 2005, with the plea that his cheque was not encashed. When he enquired about the cheque, he got a memo of the bank with remarks “Not drawn on us.” The barring of outgoing calls facility caused a lot of harassment to him for which he be awarded compensation worth Rs 50,000, further added the complainant.

While on the other hand, the cellular company refuted the allegation of the consumer and termed the complaint to be false and frivolous. It was submitted that the consumer provided the cheque a day after the last date of payment. When the cheque was presented, it was dishonoured by the bank. Thereafter, number of messages were given to the consumer for making payment. But he failed to make the payment. So, as per the terms and conditions, his outgoing calls facility was barred rightly.

After hearing both parties, the consumer forum observed that there was no evidence produced on the record that the cheque was given by the consumer a day after the last date of payment. Apart from this no evidence was produced by the company which may show that the cheque was ever dishonored.

However, the consumer had placed on record the memo issued by bank, which mentioned that the cheque was not drawn on them. The cheque was given to the company and if it was not sent to the ‘drawee bank’ then no fault could be attributed to the complainant. Moreover, no statement of account of the consumer was produced to show that he was not having sufficient funds in his account to honour the cheque, further remarked the forum while holding the services rendered to be deficient. 

CULTURE

His heart beats for bhangra
Our Correspondent

HEALTH

Surgery saves eyesight of woman 
Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 19
A 30-year-old migrant woman, Isher Wati, might have lost her right eye besides sustaining damage to her brain but for timely treatment and innovative surgery performed by a team of Dr Harminder Singh, an eye surgeon, and Dr Parvinderjit Singh, an ENT surgeon, at Shri Krishna Hospital here.

Giving details to Ludhiana Tribune here today, Dr Harminder Singh said the woman had suffered an injury over the forehead with a block of wood nearly two months ago. She received treatment for the wound, unmindful of the fact that a big piece of wood had tore through one of the eye muscles and lodged itself behind the eyeball. One end of the piece of wood had also entered the brain.

Even as the open injury of Isher Wati had healed, she developed loss of vision in the injured eye. A scan of the affected eye showed that a big foreign body behind the eyeball and entering a part of the brain.

The team of doctors decided to operate upon the patient using the orbital approach and a piece of wood, measuring a little more than 4 cms was successfully removed. At the same time, the damaged muscle of the eye was reconstructed and attached to the eyeball.

According to Dr Harminder Singh, who had trained at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, timely removal of foreign body had not only prevented loss of vision but development of serious life-threatening complications in this particular case. Simultaneously, repair of the eye muscle had also saved the victim from the problem of double vision and cosmetic deformity.

Claiming that the surgical removal of this size of foreign body through orbital approach was a rare procedure, he said.

Health Dept drive to ensure cleanliness
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 19
Under the ongoing drive against food adulteration, teams of health officials comprising district health officer Dr I.D. Goyal, food inspectors Mr Manoj Khosla and Mr Ravinder Garg, conducted raids at several places and took around one dozen samples of eatables and soft drinks from different places in the city which were sent to government laboratory for analysis.

Giving this information, Dr Sat Pal Sharma, civil surgeon informed that three samples were taken from soya milk manufacturers from outlets located on Pakhowal Road, Canal Bridge and Sunet. Similarly, four samples were taken from the factory of a branded soft drink bottler.

The health officials also inspected eating joints and provisions stores in Chander Nagar, Haibowal, Lakshmi Nagar and Inder Vihar from where samples of salt, loose tea leaves and ‘namkeen’ were taken.

Dr Sharma said in the wake of coming rainy season, the eateries were given strict instructions to maintain desirable standards of cleanliness and hygiene as a safeguard against diseases. Owners of eating joints, provisions stores as well as dhabas and restaurants were warned against adulteration and use of sub-standard ingredients failing which stern action would be taken against them.