Jalandhar, March 13
A senior BJP minister today invited the media for a press conference here but was rather unable to answer even basic questions as he seemed to be ignorant about various issues concerning his departments.

Six days after his portfolio was allocated, Ch Swarna Ram, minister for social security and development of women and children and technical education and industrial training, failed to give replies as he repeatedly gave an excuse: “I am yet to assume the charge. I have fixed a meeting with officers tomorrow in Chandigarh and would get the facts and figures from there.”

This left the mediapersons wondering as to why the conference was called by him. The minister did not have to make any announcements on his own and he rather asked everyone to ask him questions. He failed to reply on the issue as to why 33 per cent reservation for women had not been made in Parliament. He also did not have any reply on the issue of privatisation and upliftment of ITIs and polytechnic institutes.

He was asked as to why state-level Women’s Day celebrations which should have been held on March 8 being organised today to which he answered: “We got the portfolios on March 7, just a day before the event. We wanted to send out goodwill signals to the women for which we decided to celebrate the day, though five days later.”

Asked whether any new policy was going to be announced for the women welfare today, the reply came: “No, not as of now”. Over the issue of child labour, he said the problem was being dealt with by the labour department and he had no business in this matter.

The mediapersons then asked him to reply over questions of his own constituency, Phagwara, and thankfully he could reply on the issues.

He said a pending flyover would be completed by October and a new contractor had been handed over the Rs 27-crore project. He said the issue related to the construction of bus stand was being discussed with the PRTC. He also talked about the construction of a wooden footbridge over railway lines near Bhagatpura and said that it would be completed soon.

Jalandhar, March 13
Narinder Singh, 80, is no longer his active self. He is still up at 3 am and regular with his morning “path”. After returning from his shop in the afternoon, he has his lunch. It is on the dinning table when he tries to locate “dal” full of saucer with his spoon that one finds that he is not able to see.

He had a cornea ailment in the right eye. He was running his PCO shop near the railway station here with his partial vision. He is the victim of wrong-site surgery, experiencing only inconvenience and an unneeded scar.

He went to the PGI for the treatment. He was called for the surgery on August 17, 2006, when he was told that the cornea was not available for transplantation. He was asked to come back in a week.

In the OPD, family members accompanying him met an “agent” of Cornea Centre, Sector 22, Chandigarh. Dr Ashok Sharma of Cornea Centre examined him.

Dr Sharma found the right eye completely damaged. He advised immediate operation. After certain tests of the right eye conducted at Medicos Centre and Mirchia Laser Eye Clinic, the patient was operated upon on August 25, not on the right but left eye.

Narinder Singh was informed about the wrong operation. Dr Sharma assured him that within one week the operated eye would be all right and then he would operate upon the affected eye.

On August 28, when the octogenarian complained of pain in the operated eye, Dr Sharma told him that infection had occurred in the eye and there was no option but to remove the left eye immediately. His left eye was removed.

Narinder Singh moved the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, on September 25, alleging deficiency in service on the part of Dr Sharma.

Refuting the allegations levelled by the patient, the eye surgeon had said the surgery failed not because of surgical skills but due to post-operative infection.

The redressal commission penalised Dr Sharma on March 7 for carelessness and negligence in conducting the operation that resulted in blindness.

Pronouncing the order, Justice K.C. Gupta, its president, directed the doctor to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the patient and refund the operation fees of Rs 33,500.

Jalandhar, March 13
Dr Upinderjit Kaur, minister for education, has claimed that her topmost priority is to fill 45,000 posts of teacher in various government schools.

The minister said this today while addressing mediapersons here. She admitted that the standard of school education had fallen down miserably due to low teacher-student ratio of 1:40. It could not be revived without posting adequate staff.

Dr Kaur did not exactly specify as to when it would be done as she replied it was too early to tell.

She, however, said she was of the view that it be done not just on the basis of merit certificates that could be fake in some cases and that some other modalities be worked out. She hinted that the recruitment process would be online again but with some improvisations so as to avoid any hassles.

The minister said 80 per cent schools were headless as the posts of headmaster and principal had not been filled. She said the teachers with sufficient experience would be promoted to fill in these posts.

An educationist and perhaps one of the most educated ministers in the cabinet, she opined that the demand of the management of aided colleges for 95 per cent grant was genuine as she felt that the grant-in-aid be not cut and be rather restored to the same percentage.

The minister also expressed her consent for introducing grading system for schools on the pattern of the CBSE. She said this way the students would not face much embarrassment and rate of drop out could come down.