Jalandhar, October 4
While Punjab has nearly 77000 child labourers working in various sectors, the Jalandhar district administration has planned to conduct a survey from October 23 to 27 to identify child labourers in rural and urban areas of the district.

Finding that the menace of child labour has been spiralling in the country, the Government of India has decided to implement the Child Labour and Prohibition Act, 1986, strictly from October 10.

Under the Act, no person or organisation would be allowed to employ children below the age of 14.

At its level, the district administration has decided to identify those children who are below the age of 14, but who have been forced to do some work due to one or the other reason.

After identifying such children, they would be provided with opportunities to acquire free education under the “Sarb Sikhya Abhiyaan”.

“We are going to launch the district-level survey from October 23 and it would continue till October 27. Anyway, the survey would be completed by October 31,” said Mr A.Venu Parsad, who also convened a meeting of senior officials of the Department of Labour and directed them to complete the survey within the stipulated period.

“The findings of the survey would be used to eliminate the menace of child labour in the district. We would be doing our bit, but people should come forward and contemplate ways and means so that these deprived children can be educated at par with other children,” said Mr Parsad.

He further said that the survey would be conducted by patwaris, panchayat secretaries in the rural areas.

In the urban areas, the job would be accomplished by executive officers of the Nagar Councils or other civic bodies.

Jalandhar, October 4
To protest against the “indifferent” attitude of the Punjab Government towards their demands, veterinary pharmacists burnt an effigy of the Punjab Government in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here today.

Mr Paramjit Singh Grewal and Mr Amrik Singh Kahlon, district president and secretary of the Veterinary Pharmacists’ Union, respectively, said that though there was no financial aspect in the demands of the union, still the state government was not doing anything in this direction. The union also alleged that the artificial insemination process of animals was being affected due to the “lackadaisical attitude” of the government.

The protesting pharmacists also took out a rally and threatened to continue their struggle in case their demands were not accepted by the state government.

Jalandhar, October 4
The Democratic Employees’ Front, Punjab, has urged the Punjab Health Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, to provide general nursing training facilities to the in-service and fresh aspirants at Jalandhar.

Mr Jaswant Virli, secretary of the front, said that fresh nursing aspirants had been provided training facilities at Jalandhar up to 1981 when the nursing school was converted into promotional training institute.

“Now there is no such training institute in Jalandhar. The aspirants have to face a lot of inconvenience. Though there are a large number of private institutes in Punjab, mostly these are ill-staffed and ill-equipped. There is an urgent need to restart the training facilities at Jalandhar,” said Mr Virli.

Jalandhar, October 4
As part of its ongoing expansion plan, the Transaero, a Russia-based airline, started operations of its Moscow-Amritsar route by landing its first Boeing 767 airliner at Amritsar international airport around 1.30 am today.

The Transaero would be operating the Moscow-Amritsar flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Vyacheslav Ivanovich Trubnikov, Ambassador of Russia to India, Mr V.K. Khanna, general representative of the Transaero Airlines, and other officials, said it was for the first time in the history of the Indo-Russian relations that a direct scheduled flight was connecting the Russian capital, and Amritsar that is one of the most spectacular Indian cities and fountainhead of the Sikh religion and culture. The launch of the Moscow-Amritsar flights would become a significant step in the ongoing expansion process of the Transaero operations in the Indian market, he added. 

Jalandhar, October 4
An SDM posted in the district and residing at Baradari here who had been “showing his clout” by not paying electricity bill to the PSEB has now paid complete dues.

Not just that, the SDM has also reportedly agreed on relieving a JE from poll duty, a task which the latter had been “deliberately assigned” after he had cut the power supply at the SDM’s residence for not paying a bill to the tune of Rs 8300 about three weeks back.

A senior official of the board confirmed that the SDM had paid an amount of Rs 3300 which was due from him. He had earlier paid Rs 5000 when he had asked for restoration of power supply. The board official said that the SDM had called on the JE, asking him to meet him so that he could be relieved.

The Tribune had on September 22 carried a news item pertaining to the incident, reporting how the employees of the board had to make several rounds to collect the due amount from the SDM. Each time an employee tried to approach him personally, his gunmen would “show them the door”.

On the orders of the PSEB, a JE cut the power supply at his home, and the SDM felt “slighted”. Being the Electoral Registration Officer, he took the “revenge” from the JE by putting him on election duty.

Since the JE had been given a crucial charge of dealing with the technical problems related to hotline feeders that supply power to administrative and MC offices, the officials had been pressing that he be spared from the poll duty. 

Phillaur, October 4
Tension prevailed in Chak Saboo village when eight persons sustained serious injuries in an attack allegedly over caste issue in the village on Tuesday evening.

According to reports received here today, the members of a particular community were holding a religious congregation in the village when some members of another community, who were allegedly under the influence of some intoxicants, passed “derogatory remarks and used abusive language” that led to a clash between the two communities.

The members of one community were allegedly attacked with some sharp-edged weapons and sticks, leaving eight of them injured.

“We were stopped from holding religious congregation here in the village by the members of the other community and they started abusing us. There was altercation, too, between the two communities,” alleged Rachna Rani, sarpanch of the village.

It was learnt that the police team led by ASI Jagan Nath reached the spot immediately on getting information about the clash and took control of the situation.

When this correspondent visited the village today morning, sarpanch Rachna Rani alleged that this was the third attack on their community within a year. “On Tuesday around 7 in the evening we were holding a religious congregation when four youths, who were under the influence of some intoxicants, started passing derogatory, casteist remarks and attacked our men with sharp-edged weapons and sticks, causing serious injuries to them,” she further alleged. The police has registered a case against four youths. 

Phagwara, October 4
A shopkeeper Kamaldeep Singh was allegedly beaten up by two cops, who also snatched his mobile phone on the Phagwara-Dosanjh Kalan road.

According to reports received here today, Kamaldeep Singh, who was running a mobile-repair shop in Dosanjh Kalan village, was returning to his local Bhagatpura house when a sub-inspector of Phagwara police and a head constable (who were allegedly under the influence of liquor), stopped him near Virk village, beat him up and snatched his mobile phone.

Kamaldeep Singh immediately rang up Kapurthala SSP Rajiv Aheer, who assured him of action against the said cops and ordered local police officers to conduct medical examination of both cops.

In another incident, two miscreants snatched cash worth Rs 5500 from a migrant labourer Ram Rai near local Mansa Devi Nagar.

The victim was also beaten up by the miscreants. The police has registered a case.

Kapurthala, October 4
A man from Bhanu Langa village has allegedly raped a 22-year-old girl of the same village after luring her on the pretext of sending her to England.

The accused Ranjit Singh was arrested yesterday after the registration of an FIR against him under Section 376 of the IPC at Sadar police station.

He was produced here today in a city court which remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days.