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Lure of distant lands
Cable price hike issue hots up
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Hygiene, child care & nannies
Traffic police launches new helpline
Police DAV Public School swim to overall title
‘Rudan’ against female foeticide
University toppers
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Youths from Doaba still head for foreign lands. Many are duped by travel agents; landing far away from the land of their dreams. Lure of lucre takes many to war-torn zones, putting their life on the line so that members back home can have a good life. The illegal means adopted by many also brings misery for them as well as their families, writes Deepkamal Kaur Doaba has been the NRI heartland of the state since long. The trend of going abroad; across the seven seas (or lands now), looking for greener pastures, refuses to subside. The dream to make big bucks lures many from the safe environs of their home to the battlegrounds, where many times lives are drowned in the sound of bullets and bombs. Not all go to the dreamlands of the USA, the UK or Australia. Many land in obscure countries, which themselves have enough trouble with unemployment and poverty. Doaba youths, mostly from villages, have for the past many years shown their inclination to go abroad, by any means, legal or illegal. They are ready to work for even blacklisted companies to fend for their families here. But such steps often land them in troubled waters, bringing misery to their families and themselves. Back from war-ravaged Lebanon, brothers Faqir Singh and Dalbir Singh have taken refuge at their home in Talhan village. But they are eagerly waiting for the Lebanon airport to open so that they can go back to their workplaces. The lure to return to the greener pastures is so intense in the two that they are ready to risk their lives than to stay and work here. They can provide a better livelihood to their families back home if they work there, they said.. Barely 10 days after being evacuated by the Indian Government, the brothers are undeterred by the terrible scenes they had witnessed in the war-torn zone. “We have neither been able to find suitable jobs here nor are the employees ready to pay sufficient amount with which we can look after our families. I have been working in Lebanon for the past 10 years as a welder while my elder brother has been there for the past 20 years, doing shuttering work. We get sufficient salaries with which we can save enough for ourselves there and send back the rest for our families”, says Dalbir adding that he would leave for Lebanon the moment conditions got better. Dalbir Singh said the sooner he went back more certain he would be of retaining his job. Besides, he said he had kept his valuables with someone there and in case he is unable to go back early, he would also lose them. Sanjiv Kumar, from Authaula village, is said to be in police custody in Iraq for the past one and a half months since he went there from Kuwait driving a KGL truck to ferry chickens. Mr Ramandeep Singh Bharowal, secretary, Lok Bhalai Party, said the police had taken away his passport and the company was not ready to help him. He said that his party was planning to hold a protest in front of Parliament during the current monsoon session for not coming to the rescue of the two youths, including another one from Gurdaspur, unlike Sarabjit’s case wherein the government officials had extended much support. Earlier too, five youth, including Babbi from Kapurthala, Pappu from Satnampur Mohalla in Phagwara and Sukhwant Singh from Killwala in Jalandhar reportedly died of jaundice in Algeria due to unhygienic environment they had been forced to live to evade arrest. They were in the country illegally as they possessed fake documents. Many times youths take the illegal route in an attempt to reach Europe. Unscrupulous travel agents mint money from gullible guys promising a safe passage. Most of the times these youths land in places from where they find it difficult to extricate themselves. Nine boys from Hoshiarpur, 10 from Kapurthala, seven from Jalandhar, four from Gurdaspur, six from Amritsar and one from Ferozepore were duped by travel agents who gave them fake visas in lieu of few lakh rupees for sending them to Europe through Algeria and Morocco. Four of these youth, including Kashmir Singh and Ravi Kumar, are on their way safly back to India, Mr Bharowal said. Such illegal means also result in mental harassment for the family members. Many times families borrow money or take loans to translate the dream of going abroad into reality. If the youth fails to reach the intended destination, the family loses in ways more than one. Ms Sibo from Abadpura in Jalandhar, said she had taken a debt to pay Rs 7 lakh to an agent to send her son Ravi to Europe. Ms Muskan from Hoshiarpur said her husband, Mr Avtar Singh, had gone to Kuwait six months back after paying Rs 1.25 lakh to an agent but to no avail. “Neither has been given any work nor is he being allowed to come back as his passport has been taken away”, says the shattered wife. Three youths, Manmohan Singh Sandhu, Avtar Singh and Balbir Singh, had to spend a year in jail in Morocco, as they had been supplied fake documents by travel agents. Even murders of Punjabis in the Philippines have failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the people of Doaba from going to Manila. More than eight Punjabi men have been killed recently in separate incidents. Other than death, there are various problems. A carpenter from Pandori village who had moved to the city after been assured of Rs 40,000 monthly salary has been sitting idle there for the past two and a half months. He had paid Rs 3 lakh for reaching that destination. Another youth from Mahitpur, who had gone on a one-year work permit is stranded in Kuwait as his agent took away his passport, the LBP secretary added. Problems of unemployment, poor industrial set up, small land holdings, lack of awareness and meagre wages for skilled and unskilled labourers is the cause of the transit abroad. “Why would anyone like to work here when he can earn better even in poorer, unsafe countries?” he asked saying that no one could feed his family with Rs 1500 per month. He alleged that small traders were not getting any subsidies even as the same were being allowed to big industrial houses opening their set-up in the state. Capt I.S. Dhami, Assistant Director, Youth Services, said his department had a foreign exchange cell with C-Pyte at Kapurthala with permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for sending youth abroad after setting up links with governments of other countries, but he said that the service had not been utilised even once. The legal route is not used while the illegal gets preference. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, said a major drive had been launched against unscrupulous elements. Many travel agents have been caught on complaints submitted by the victims recently. |
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Cable price hike issue hots up
The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum on Monday issued summons to M/s Win Cable and M/s Siti Cable through its owner, Mr Sheetal Vij, regarding a complaint filed by members of the Vasant Vihar Housing Building Cooperative Society. He is to appear on August 4 regarding the sudden increase in subscription charges and cable disconnection in the area.
The orders were issued after the proprietor of the Rainbow Cable, Mr Kanwaljit Singh, today made a request in this regard. The cable operator said that he had to make a payment from his collection to owners of Siti Cable or Win Cable. The forum also passed orders of restoring connection to cable subscribers in the area after the latter had submitted few affidavits saying that the operator had stopped transmission to their homes. The forum had earlier asked the operator to charge Rs 100 from the subscribers against the increased charges of Rs 300 and restrained him from cutting cable connections. The cable operator has been asked to file reply on August 4. The residents of the area also complained about the scroll of strip advertisement on the screen due to which their viewing area was reduced. The forum asked the respondents to file a reply in this regard as well. Meanwhile, the fourth meeting of the cable operators and subscribers convened on Monday at 4 pm to resolve the matter in the presence of the ADC, Mr S.P.S. Marar, proved futile as the cable operators did not turn up. The ADC and residents waited for 45 minutes after which the meeting was postponed. Representatives of subscribers, including Mr Sant Singh Pasricha, president of the Kapurthala Road Welfare Society, Jalandhar, Mr H.S. Minhas, representative of the grievances committee, and Mr Varinder Pal Singh from Urban Estate-Phase-II, had appealed that the subscription charges be fixed at Rs 100. The ADC said he would consult the Deputy Commissioner and other officials in this regard. The ADC said the proceedings of the four meetings would be presented during the grievances committee meeting to be held on August 7. The three earlier meeting on July 14, 21 and 26 had also failed to provide tangible results. |
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Young World Tribune News Service
The arrival of monsoons was welcomed at the Kanya Maha Vidyalaya in the form of Teej celebrations on Saturday. Swings, stalls of bangles, eatables and games dotted the college.
The auditorium was decorated on the theme of Punjabi culture. Students and staff members were decked up in traditional Punjabi attire, intensifying the festive mood. Dressed as gabrus and mutiyars, the students vied with one another to win prizes. Kulvir of BA-II was crowned ‘Ms Teej’. The title for ‘Tor Punjaban Di’ went to Anita of BA-II. Harjit was adjudged as the ‘Best Punjabi Gabru’. Students presented folk dances. Ms Poonam, faculty member from dance department, sang Punjabi folk songs. Teej was also celebrated at MGN Public School, Adarsh Nagar, where the campus was decorated with flowers and balloons. Kids wore colourful traditional dressed on the occasion. ‘Teej Prince’ title went to Simran Sandhu of LKG Red and Manya was chosen the ‘Teej Princess’. Seminar on
de-addiction A one-day seminar on ‘Drug De-addiction’ was organised at the Trinity College here on Monday. Chief guest on the occasion SSP Ishwar Singh asked the students to join hands in the elimination of the menace. Also present on the occasion was DSP (Traffic Police)Gautam Singla. He informed students of the traffic rules. The students also interacted with the guests. Reverend Fr Director Kurian C. Muttathupadam and Fr Franco were also present. Solo dance contest Students of Sahibzada Ajit Singh Ji Public School, Sarhali, participated in a solo dance competition on Saturday. Over 130 students participated in the contest. They danced to tunes of popular Punjabi folk songs. School president, Mr Harminder Singh Samra, and principal, Mr R.S. Chahal, distributed prizes to the students. Environment awareness Spreading a message on environment, students of the Police DAV Public School were assigned a unique project to get one sapling from home and plant it in the school campus this week. The students also organised an exhibition during which they tried to spread awareness through models. The students depicted models of green house, rainwater harvesting, soil reclamation, and desert scene with sand dunes, cactus and camels. Painting
competition A painting competition was organised by the District Child Welfare Society at Red Cross Bhavan in which 300 students from 30 schools, including Red Cross School for the Deaf and Khosla Deaf School, participated. Ms Promit Dada, honorary secretary of the District Child Welfare Council, was present on the occasion. Job fair Over 3500 candidates from all over northern India got themselves registered for a job fair organised by the CT Group of Institutes in association with naukri.com on Friday. Over 500 students got placments with top companies, including Reliance, Dell, Nestle, ICICI Bank, Capital Local Area Bank, Sonalika and Microlab. Fight against drugs Pledging to fight against drug addition, students of CT Public School started an awareness programme last Tuesday. Ankush, a Plus Two student, said drugs were a sure way leading to end life. He said it was the worst process one could choose for self-destruction. Ms Lakhwinder Kaur, principal, Ms Anumita Gosal, vice-principal, teachers and students also took oath to fight against the menace. Exhibition An exhibition was organised at Dayanand Model School, Model Town, on Monday. The students designed models of biology, chemistry and physics. Aesthetic sense of the students could be judged from an exhibition of paintings put up in the art room. Ms B. Manuja, principal, said students had shown immense talent by coming up with a variety of exhibits. Felicitation ceremony A felicitation ceremony was held for the merit position holders of Apeejay College of Fine Arts on Monday. Those honoured included first position holders in the university, Nancy Dutta of BBA-I, Sakshi Chadha of BCA-I, Esha of MA-I (fine arts) and Sugandha Mishra MA-I (music vocal); second position holders Megha Jain of B.Com-I, Pallavi Chopra of BA-I, Nidhi Srivastava of MA-I (dance), Karandeep Kaur of MA-I (music vocal) and Ekta Handa of MA-I (music instrumental); and third rank holder Akshay Aggarwal of BBA-I. Declamation contest Army Public School, Jalandhar Cantonment, organised an inter-school declamation contest for Army schools and Army public schools under the 11 Corps at Vajra Central Hall on Saturday. Teams from six Army schools at Beas, Tibri, Ferozepore, Kapurthala, Amritsar and Jalandhar participated with enthusiasm. The contest was divided into four categories with students from Classes X, XI and XII speaking on ‘Role of Youth in Today’s World’ and ‘New Careers in the 21st Century’, Classes VIII and IX students on ‘Perfect Parents’ and ‘Importance of Value Education’ and Classes VI and VII students on ‘Knowledge in Power’ and ‘Importance of Character’. In the senior most group, Shivani of Army School, Ferozepore, Wakinder Bajwa and Sahiba Sidhu of Army Public School, Jalandhar Cantonment, were declared first, second and third, respectively. In the middle group, Lohitash from Army Public School, Jalandhar, was declared the winner. Komala Sood from Amritsar and Tanya Mehta from Ferozepore were ranked second. Gurcharan Kaur was declared third. In the last group, Neha of the host school was declared the winner. Gubruk, again of the host school, and Pooja Sharma of Tibri were second. Gurjant of Beas school won the third prize. The host school team lifted the overall trophy. Reading week To inculcate the habit of reading among children, a series of week-long activities were organised at Eklavya School. Pre-primary children participated in various interesting activities like picture reading, nature reading and library etiquettes. Pre-nursery class participated in picture reading. UKG students read sentences from the board. Primary school and middle school children read newspaper headlines from English, Hindi and Punjabi newspapers in the assembly. In the class, the children participated in story reading by reading stories in English, Hindi and Punjabi. At the end of the week the children were given badges in the assembly to boost their morale, said Ms Sapna Bakshi, Principal. |
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Hygiene, child care & nannies
The trend of nannies is catching up fast in Phagwara. According to the current statistics, there are 38,350 working women in the city.
Those with nuclear families are often forced to either leave their children in crèches or hire nannies to take care of them, while they are away to their offices. Many people in the city consider nannies to be nurturers, companions, caretakers and even mentors for their children. However, this positive notion regarding their nannies may not always be true. Unlike the western countries, nannies in India have no initial training in childcare. According to Dr R.S. Bhatia, nannies in India are ignorant about basic concepts such as hygiene. “Nannies tend to ignore the basic principles involved in childcare. They not only lack the required knowledge, but many of them are also uneducated.” According to another child specialist, Dr Akash Sapra, “Many nannies batter up babies when they cry, often causing fractures. At times, they use unsterilised bottles which spread diseases like diarrhoea among children.” Making a special mention of communicable diseases being transferred from maids to kids, he gave the example of a four-year-old child contracting TB from the maid. Dr Sapra suggests that parents should take extra care of their maid’s hygiene and habits and get them registered with the police. Jaswinder Kaur, a city resident, who was earlier a teacher, shares her experience, “My son, who is five years old, previously used to suffer from various gastric problems due to the unhygienic feeding habits adopted by our maid. “I had to finally leave my job to take care of him myself.” As parents, the child’s health should be the |
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Weekly Roundup Tribune News Service The District Traffic Police has set up a new helpline for gaining knowledge on use of number plates for vehicles. In a press note, Mr Gautam Singal, DSP Traffic, said that anyone could come to Traffic Control Room or dial 0181-5055359 to get assess to related information. He has also asked the residents to call up on the same number in case they find any vehicles not conforming to the set pattern. Appointment
Congress worker from Basti Peer Dad here, Navjot Shally, has been appointed as the coordinator of Mass Contact Programme for Muktsar Assembly constituency in view of the forthcoming elections. He has been asked by the PPCC president, Mr S.S. Dullo, to coordinate with the minister in-charge, president of the District Congress Committee and general secretary in-charge of the PPCC. Compensation
claims
To compensate the 8,615 untraced claimants from India who suffered injuries or losses during the Iraq-Kuwait Gulf War of 1990-91 from the Compensation Commission of United Nations Security Council, a special drive has been started by the Ministry of External Affairs. A list of the claimants has been put of the website of the ministry, www.mea.gov.in. The last date fixed by the council for locating the persons is September 30 after which their claims would lapse. Keeping in view the minimum time required by banks to secure funds from the council, the claimants have been asked to ensure that their letters intimating their new addresses must reach by August 20 at the address of Ms Sarita Bali, Joint Secretary (SKC and library), ISIL Building, New Delhi. New
association
The Medical Service Providers appointed by Zila Parishad in Jalandhar have united to form a Rural Medical Service Providers’ Association. Dr Anshuman Verma, press secretary, said two meetings of the association had already been conducted and were chaired by its president Dr Rishi Bhardwaj. Dr Tarun Sehgal, general secretary, said they had received their first month salaries from the office in time and that they expected the same in the future. Tree plantation
drive
Doaba Youth Sports Club launched a tree plantation programme at Gazipur during which 200 saplings will be planted. The programme was opened by Capt I. S. Dhami, assistant director, Youth Services. The club president, Mr Baljit Singh Sohal, said the saplings of neem, kikkar and tahli were being planted during the drive. |
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Yahoo! city resident among Q&A leaders
Rajesh Kumar Duggal bought a PC less than a year back. Then he got an Internet connection, a Yahoo account, and began playing Yahoo! Answers. This online Q&A community allows people on the worldwide web to post open questions on any topic (“from the serious to the irresistibly trivial”) and seek answers from anyone who might happen to know. The questioner starts with 100 points, gets minus five points for asking a question, three for choosing the best answer, five points again if no answer to his query is voted best, two for asking a question, one each for voting and rating a best answer and 10 for getting the vote for the best answer. As he moves to level II, a minimum of 250 points are added. In level III, points are 1000, in level IV, 2500, in level V, 5000, in level VI, 10,000 and in level VII the points are 25,000. With all these traps and rewards, 40-something Duggal, a vaastu consultant, from December 2005 till date, has answered whopping 5,809 questions. He has asked only 60 questions. His climb from level I to VII, has garnered him 69,640 points. Yahoo thinks this is an achievement. It has put Duggal’s name and photograph on Yahoo Answers leader board; fourth from the top. It also, though inadvertently, made him the first Indian to be featured on the one of the core websites on Internet. The Yahoo! Answers Team (India)’s Blog writes on Yahoo! 360 degree: We are proud to present our first Indian featured user Rajesh Kumar Duggal, a Vaastu Consultant from Punjab. Having reached level VII, he answers questions mainly in Careers and Employment, Small Business and Computers and Internet.” Now, Mr Duggal has become a self-taught Internet expert. He says, “All my knowledge about Internet was through hits and trials. I keep exploring newer depths of the Net.” Like every game, rules are subverted here too. “People sometimes use subtle forms of ‘cheating’ to garner points. Even an answer as ‘I don’t know’ gets points. Then you can request a friend to put up a ‘difficult’ question and then you can post the ‘only’ answer,” Mr Duggal adds. “But one can’t go far this way”. Asked if he tried these too, Mr Duggal only smiles. The resident of Upkar Nagar in Jalandhar can do wonders with your average Internet queries: from solving e-mail queries to Acrobat problems. The father of two is as enthusiastic as a teenager. “No. I have not tried hacking yet,” he says. Here is a query he answered: How do you get an avatar? “Either to use ur pic or use ur avatar. U bring the icon of avatar on ur yahoo toolbar.” A question by Mr Duggal: Which scientist brother and sister invented lizard repellant to help the global society? If you know the answer and want to play the game, just log on. Try this one (that Mr Duggal cracked): How do you erase Yahoo’s search history?
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Police DAV Public School swim to overall title
The hosts Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar, won the overall trophy at the two-day Jalandhar Independent Sahodya Complex Inter-School Championship that ended on July 29 at Jalandhar. Army Public School also fared well at the meet. The Police DAV Public School sweptall the titles in the under-16 section as Gagandeep, Vipin and Gurlabh won the 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle top positions. The results: Girls: U-12: 50m freestyle: Ravleen (Army Public School) 1, Pragya (Police DAV Public School) 2, Astha (APJ School) 3.Boys: U-12: 50m butterfly: Aman Ghai (Police DAV Public School) 1, Shivanshu (Police DAV Public School) 2, Tanveer (Army Public School) 3.U-14: 50m butterfly: Ajay (Police DAV Public School) 1, Khuswinder (CT Public School) 2, Gurpreet (Delhi Public School) 3.U-16: 4x100 medley relay: Police DAV Public School 1, Army Public School 2, Delhi Public School 3.50m butterfly: Gagandeep (Police DAV Public School) 1, Navjot (Army Public School) 2, Veera Thapi (CT Public School) 3. 50m backstroke: Vipin (Police DAV Public School) 1, Vikrant (Army Public School) 2, Sarbpreet (Army Public School) 3. 100m freestyle: Gurlabh (Police DAV Public School) 1, Siddhant (Delhi Public School) 2, Navjot (Army Public School) 3. Under-19: 50m freestyle: CT Public School 1, Army Public School 2, Police DAV Public School 3.
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‘Rudan’ against female foeticide
Female foeticide is one of the biggest problems our society is facing today. The Repertory, Theatre Department, Punjabi University, Patiala, has staged the play ‘Mitti Rudan Kare’ at various places all over the state in an endeavour to make the people think about the menace. Kirandeep Kaur played the role of girl child (Navjot) successfully, Jagdeep Jaggi and Manjit played the roles of bhands. The play has been staged in each of the five blocks - Kapurthala, Dhilwan, Nadala, Sultanpur Lodhi and Phagwara – in the Kapurthala district. The Punjab Social Security Department made arrangements with the Repertory, Theatre Department, for staging shows in the district. The play directed by Dr Gurcharan Singh, in charge, Repertory, is based on a play written by Dr Ajmer Aulakh during a workshop held at the Punjabi University. The play depicts the confidence and inner strength of a girl child, who proves herself better than her brother despite all the difficulties she faces in life; making her father proud of her. The play hit out at the deep-rooted misconception of having a son for inheritance and him being the only hope to carry on the family name and traditions. The play is an eye-opener for all who want to kill the girl child in the womb itself. |
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Golfers together
A year’s difference means nothing when it comes to playing golf for the brother-sister duo of Harman Virk and Jaspreet Virk. The two recently participated in the district junior golf championship held at the Army Golf Club. The younger of the two, Harman took the title while his sister, Jaspreet had to settle for the fourth place. The two started playing golf recently. They are products of four months of playing experience. The chance came to take up golf when Mrs Gurmeet Bindra, Principal, Mayo World School, Urban Estate, introduced the sport in the school. Harman is a student of Class VI while Jaspreet studies in Class VIII. Besides golf, other sports were also started, including football, volleyball, throwball and basketball. The duo is blessed with sporting talent, which is not really surprising as their grandfather late Tarsem Singh, played hockey at the highest level, representing India at mother of all sporting contests, the Olympic Games. For Harman, golf was definitely not the first love. Football had that honour. He went for trials for golf too and the coach Balwinder found abundant golf talent in the youngster. The swing swung the balance in favour of golf. Jaspreet happened to be the only girl at the tournament. She loves to skate and dance is not too behind on her list of priorities. Jaspreet chose throwball at school and is better at it than golf. Harman and Jaspreet play every day for two hours, from 5.30 am to 7.30 am, before going to school. Of course weekends become special, when they can also play in the evening. They accompany their father to the Army Golf Club. Next on the list is a tournament in Haryana in September, where Harman’s golfing talent would definitely face a tougher challenge.
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University toppers
Navdeep Kaur, a student of MA-II (political science) from BD Arya Girls’ College, topped in the examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University, scoring 598 marks out of 800. Sukhwinder Kaur of MA–I (political science) also topped the university with 312 marks out of 400.
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Youths from Doaba still head for foreign lands. Many are duped by travel agents; landing far away from the land of their dreams.
Lure of lucre takes many to war-torn zones, putting their life on the
line so that members back home can have a good life. The illegal means
adopted by many also brings misery for them as well as their families,
writes Deepkamal Kaur
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