Jalandhar, November 18
Enthusiastic winners won the much-publicised DD Annual Awards-2006 amidst electrifying performances by top Punjabi singers Gurdas Mann and Hans Raj Hans and top literary and media personalities, Mr Leela Dhar Mandloi, Director-General of Doordarshan, and Janapeeth Awardee Gurdial Singh.

It is for the first time that Doordarshan organised its national awards function in Jalandhar and outside Delhi and Mumbai.

"Mr Leela Dhar Mandloi has honoured Punjab by organising the DD Awards in Jalandhar. DD is the most powerful media and I believe that it can be used for discussing and finding a solution to most basic problems faced by India," said Mr Gurdial Singh.

As Bollywood actress Divya Dutta invited Gurdas Maan to the dias, the audience welcomed him with a thunderous applause. Maan responded with equal warmth before starting with a religious number, "Moori rakhiyo laaj…."

He then switched over to popular songs like "Lakh pardesi hoyie” while Jaspinder Narula had the audience dancing to her numbers.

The awards ( in different categories) were given away by Mr Gurdial Singh, Mr Brijeshwar Singh, CEO, Parsar Bharti, Mr N.S. Ganesan, Mr R. N. Bisarai, Member, Parsar Bharti, and veteran actor Parikshat Sahni.

Mr Ashok Jailkhani, Deputy Director-General (Awards), said it was a special day for him as he was watching the prestigious awards ceremony in the e city and premises where he had served as Director.

DD's special awards went to Mr Siraj Quraishi, Deputy Director-General, Dr. T.K. Das, Deputy Director-General, Mr Ganesh Iyer, Ms Nupur Shandliya, Ms V. Sekhose, Deputy Director-General, Mr MCS Rao, Mr R.P. Luthra, Mr Mohan Dewadi, Mr Chetan Vyas and Ms Chayaya Ganguli.

The awards in other categories were bagged by Mr Satyapal, Mr R.N. Meena, Mr M.K. Gupta, Mr S.N. Singh, Mr G.B. Carpenter, Mr N.M. Nilangekar, Mr J. Ravikantha Babu, Mr S.K. Mohindra, Mr Rakesh Srivastva, Mr Partip Kumar Ray, Dr Ashok Tripathi, Dr S.K. Grover and Sudhir Tailang, well- known cartoonist of "Asian Age". The award on behalf of Tailang was received by his wife Vibha and daughter Aditi.

Apart from Mr Jailkhani, Mr Govardhan Sharma, Deputy Director-General and other senior officers of Doordarshan, including, Mr Manohar Bharaj, Mr Daljit Sandhu, Mr Avinash Singh, Mr Amarjit Kukku, Mr A.P.S. Randhawa and Mr Rakesh Suri were present.

Patiala, November 18
Taking Mr Manjeet Singh Calcutta, former secretary, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), head on, its president Avtar Singh has said the former should resign from its membership before issuing any white paper on the committee’s functioning.

The SGPC president was in the city yesterday to attend a religious function organised in a college. He said the committee had taken a serious view of the incident of cutting of Sikh boy’s hair in a racial attack in London and talked to the British Embassy in Delhi in this regard.

He said the committee had written to the Prime Minister and the Union Foreign Minister seeking to protect symbols of the minorities living in this country and abroad.

Amritsar, November 18
Medical Council of India team headed by Dr Kamlesh Kohli of Lady Harding College, Delhi found several shortcomings and discrepancies in the medical college, here, founded in 1926 by the British government.

It is learnt the team has restrained the college authorities from admitting MBBS students to the next academic year till discrepancies were cleared. The college authorities had shown junior residents as teachers to save the institution from being de-recognised. The team, however, held an ‘identification parade’, and checking of document. The team also checked ration card to know credentials of the doctors.

The team has also found equipment of the medical college outdated and obsolete. Books in the library were found to be old. The latest medical journals were also not available during inspection.

The team also pointed that the departments of the medical college were scattered and tackling of emergency was difficult.

Earlier, the medical authorities had reportedly promoted 10 medical officer to the post of senior lecturer to save the college from de-recognition two days before the inspection by the Medical Council of India team.

Patiala, November 18
Mr R.K. Rao, member, Mechanical, Railway Board, today said what was most needed in the present era was that every organisation should keep a focus for making arrangements to work to the satisfaction of their customers.

Mr Rao, who visited the local Diesel Loco Mechanical Works (DMW), a production unit of Indian Railways, emphasised the need to ensure timely measures so that the DMW was able to provide necessary support required in the context of ambitious future targets of Indian Railways, including the need for greater customer satisfaction.

Mr S. M. Bhardwaj, chief administrative officer, apprised him of the different activities being undertaken at the DMW as also the diversification work planned.

Mr Rao also inaugurated the heritage exhibition organised at the DMW on the occasion.

Chandigarh, November 18
A local court today summoned the court record pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of Rs 20 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund during Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal’s brief tenure as the Chief Minister of Punjab. The next date of hearing has been fixed for November 23.

The orders were passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr R.S.Baswana, after the Punjab Vigilance Department submitted its report on the findings of the case.

In its report, the Vigilance has stated that receipts submitted by the Deputy Chief Minister were found to be genuine. The case had also stirred controversy following allegations that Mrs Bhattal had submitted fake receipts to prove her innocence.

In 2005, the Vigilance Bureau had moved an application in the local court for reinvestigating the case on the plea that it wanted to get the authenticity of the receipts verified. On its application, the court had given the custody of the receipts to the SP, Vigilance.

Today, the Vigilance through the public prosecutor submitted its findings in the court. Legal experts believe since the receipts were found to be authentic, the Vigilance would seek withdrawal of the case. However, it would be for the court to decide the future of the case.

Interestingly in 2004, the court had framed charges against Ms Bhattal under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (1) D of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Chandigarh, November 18
There is a heart-warming development for small and marginal farmers. The Punjab Farmers Commission has come out with an innovative scheme to help such farmers for whom the buying of tractors and implements is non-viable.

The commission has decided to set up Farm Operations Management Centres at all subdivisional headquarters with the help of the State Agriculture, Horticulture and Cooperation Departments and private entrepreneurs to provide tractors and implements on nominal rent to small and marginal farmers.

Revealing the outlines of the scheme, Mr K.S. Pannu, secretary of the commission, told The Tribune that the commission had kept Rs 45 lakh for the setting up of such centres.

He said the commission would give subsidy on buying implements to the government agencies and private parties interested in running such centres. Besides, the commission would help arrange interest-free loans for such centres. At the centres, there would be a common pool of agricultural implements and one or two tractors. Farmers would be able to get implements and tractors on rent from such centres, he added.

Mr Pannu said the commission would arrange more money once the Rs 45 lakh was spent on providing subsidy. In due course, the scheme would be extended to the block level. As such farmers had no resources to generate additional income, they had been caught in a debt trap for years after buying tractors with loans secured from cooperative or commercial banks, he said.

Sangrur, November 18
Mr Surjit Singh, Special Secretary, Animal Husbandry Department, Punjab, has been posted as the first Deputy Commissioner of the newly created Barnala district.

Talking to The Tribune here this evening, Mr S.R. Ladhar, Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur, said Mr Inder Yash Bhatti, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Sangrur, had been posted as ADC of Barnala district.

Mr T.K. Goyal had been posted as Assistant Commissioner (General) of Barnala district. However the Barnala SDM would have additional charge of the post of the SDM, Tapa, a newly created subdivision in the Barnala district.