J A L A N D H A R

Cong gone Akalis in — Where does PIMS stand?

Jalandhar, May 10 Constructing 500 bed Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) was an ambitious project of the government, the foundation of which was laid years back and acres of sugarcane farms on Garha road were got vacated for the project.

Awaiting its fate: The building of the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences.— A file photograph

Finally Surinder gets helping hand

Jalandhar, May 10 She was running pillar to post but everything fell on deaf ears. And this strive for justice forced Surinder Kaur, a widow and her daughter-in-law of Kishangarh village to stop the cavalcade of Sukhbir Singh Badal and narrate their tale of woes to the acting president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) here today.          Surinder Kaur

Surinder Kaur narrates her problems to SAD acting president Sukhbir Singh Badal in Jalandhar on Thursday. — Tribune photo by Pawan Sharma

MoU signed for tree plantation
Hoshiarpur, May 10
In order to maintain the ecological balance on the four-lane build, operate and transfer (BOT) roads (Balachaur-Dasuya, 105 Km.and Hoshiarpur-Tanda, 28 Km.), the Forest Department, Punjab, and a local NGO Sahyogi have signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) for jointly launching a project named as “Save Earth” here last Tuesday.

Nawanshahr ITI under CoE scheme
Nawanshahr, May 10
The local Industrial Training Institute ( I.T.I) has been chosen under the central government sponsored scheme - “Up-gradation of I.T.Is into Centre of Excellence”. Under the scheme, it would be upgraded as ‘Center of Excellence’ for providing multi-skilled work force for chemical industry sector. A sum of Rs. two crore would be spend on developing infrastructure under the proposed plan. 

Protest over govt’s plan
Jalandhar, May 10
The All India Insurance Employees Association today organised a conference to protest against the perceived move of the government to weaken the LIC and public sector GIC through a comprehensive budget presented this year in the parliament.

Punjabis, the unsung heroes of 1857
Chandigarh, May 10
It has often been asserted that Punjab didn’t participate in the First War of Independence and Punjabis worked against the cause. But Chandigarh-based eminent scholar of Punjabi studies Harnam Singh Shaan has found irrefutable evidence showing that Punjab not only participated in the War, its people smilingly laid their lives too. Only they were never saluted for their role. A striking proof that the War, as elsewhere, started in Punjab on May 10, 1857 comes from the accounts of Frederic Cooper, the-then Amritsar deputy commissioner, whose book titled ‘The Crisis in the Punjab from 10th May to the Fall of Delhi, 1857’ is revealing. It was published in London in 1858 and contains details of the execution of Punjabi soldiers ordered by Cooper in 1857

Cong gone Akalis in — Where does PIMS stand? 
Anuradha Shukla
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 10
Constructing 500 bed Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) was an ambitious project of the government, the foundation of which was laid years back and acres of sugarcane farms on Garha road were got vacated for the project.

The project got delayed in completing the building, owing to financial constraints on part of the Congress government. Now the huge structure stands at its site waiting for the government decision as to who would run it.

The possibility of running the College and Hospital on public private partnership is also not being ruled out by the present government.

The government seems to be following the footsteps of the previous Congress government over the fate of the medical college and hospital. While the Congress government wrote to the Centre to run the institute on the pattern of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) the present government too has decided to write to the Centre with the same request.

Principal secretary, Department of Medical Education and research, Jagjit Puri, talking to The Tribune said, “The future of the Shaheed Beant Singh Memorial College and Hospital is at discussion stage and the government is going to write to the Centre to grant AIIMS like status to the institute,” he said.

Ironically, former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh too had written to the Centre to develop it as one of the proposed six centres of medical excellence akin to AIIMS, Delhi.

“We are going to request the government of India to bear the expenses of running the project,” said Puri. “We are also considering running it on public private partnership said Puri saying he did not know about the steps taken by the previous government in this regard as I have just joined,” said Puri.

The 500-bed medical college and hospital is spread of 100 acres and has been completed at cost of Rs 200 crores.

Former CM Captain Amarinder Singh had also written to the Centre that the hospital will require around Rs 50 crores annually to run it, and the Centre must recruit its faculty and run the institute.

Finally Surinder gets helping hand
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 10
She was running pillar to post but everything fell on deaf ears. And this strive for justice forced Surinder Kaur, a widow and her daughter-in-law of Kishangarh village to stop the cavalcade of Sukhbir Singh Badal and narrate their tale of woes to the acting president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) here today.

Sukhbir, who was here to attend a function organised by managing director of the Jalandhar Central Cooperative Bank Anil Dutta, lent a patient hearing to Surinder Kaur and deputed Avinash Chander, chief parliamentary secretary and SAD district president Charanjit Singh Channi to solve her problems.

A wailing Surinder Kaur, her daughter-in-law Jaswinder Kaur were so upset over the ‘injustice’ being meted out to them by a resident of Rasoolpur Brahmanan and the ‘indifferent’ attitude of the local police authorities that they stopped the cavalcade of Sukhbir Singh Badal and forced him to listen to them. And Sukhbir did so and directed his party leaders to intervene immediately.

“I am a widow and my son Parvinder Singh has died of heart attack recently. After his death his former servant hailing from Rasoolpur Brahmanan village came to us and told that my son had sold our six marla shop premises to him. All this is rubbish.

How could he do so without telling me or his wife Jaswinder? The power of attorney was forged and it is an effort to usurp our house forcibly, ” said the sobbing lady.

“When we contested the servant’s version he started threatening us. Reporting the matter to police did not yield any results. We ladies of the house have been bearing this for months but, nobody is coming to our rescue,” said Surinder. 

MoU signed for tree plantation

Hoshiarpur, May 10
In order to maintain the ecological balance on the four-lane build, operate and transfer (BOT) roads (Balachaur-Dasuya, 105 Km.and Hoshiarpur-Tanda, 28 Km.), the Forest Department, Punjab, and a local NGO Sahyogi have signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) for jointly launching a project named as “Save Earth” here last Tuesday.

After signing the MoU, R. R. Kakkar, DFO, said to improve the environmental conditions, office bearers of Sahyogi had approached the Punjab forest department to make the plantation of 1.25 lakh saplings of various ornamental and shady trees on the either side of these BOT roads. — OC

Nawanshahr ITI under CoE scheme
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, May 10
The local Industrial Training Institute ( I.T.I) has been chosen under the central government sponsored scheme - “Up-gradation of I.T.Is into Centre of Excellence”. Under the scheme, it would be upgraded as ‘Center of Excellence’ for providing multi-skilled work force for chemical industry sector. A sum of Rs. two crore would be spend on developing infrastructure under the proposed plan.
It is pertinent to mention here that the scheme of converting I.T.I.s into Centre of Excellence has been chalked out to bridge the gap of skill requirement of industry as well as service sector besides imparting training to the youth as per the changing scenario in industrial and service sector so that they could be enable to tap the new employment avenues in the present era of globalisation.

Under the project, Institute Management Committees (IMC) comprising members from the local industry and state government have been constituted to ensure involvement in designing and implementing the scheme. A former state president of I.T.I. Employees Union, Jaspal Singh Gidda, while sharing his view with The Tribune, hailed the scheme of upgrading I.T.I.s into “Center of Excellence” but with a bit of skepticism. There are as many as 93 I.T.Is in the state. As many as 945 posts out of 1579 sanctioned posts are lying vacant in the I.T.Is.

Besides, as many as 30 I.T.I.s are functioning without regular principals. Due to the acute staff crunch, the admissions in the I.T.I.s has also fallen considerably. 

Protest over govt’s plan

Jalandhar, May 10
The All India Insurance Employees Association today organised a conference to protest against the perceived move of the government to weaken the LIC and public sector GIC through a comprehensive budget presented this year in the parliament.

A.K. Bhatnagar, general secretary of the association, said the government intended to increase cap on FDI from 26 per cent to 49 per cent to general additional capital and for better technical know-how. Calling in a complete farce, he said that it had failed to fulfill the aspiration of the government regarding $ 3 billion FDI coming to India in addition to global premium fund. — TNS

Punjabis, the unsung heroes of 1857
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 10
It has often been asserted that Punjab didn’t participate in the First War of Independence and Punjabis worked against the cause. But Chandigarh-based eminent scholar of Punjabi studies Harnam Singh Shaan has found irrefutable evidence showing that Punjab not only participated in the War, its people smilingly laid their lives too. Only they were never saluted for their role.
A striking proof that the War, as elsewhere, started in Punjab on May 10, 1857 comes from the accounts of Frederic Cooper, the-then Amritsar deputy commissioner, whose book titled ‘The Crisis in the Punjab from 10th May to the Fall of Delhi, 1857’ is revealing. It was published in London in 1858 and contains details of the execution of Punjabi soldiers ordered by Cooper in 1857.

On the night of July 30, 1857, a band of Punjabi patriots, 500 strong, were camping on the banks of Ravi, six miles from Ajnala.

The British spotted and enveloped them. Cooper ordered the killing of 150 soldiers.

While receding, several patriots were overpowered by the unsparing currents of Ravi. The remaining, about 282, were sent to Ajnala jail.

Several were brought out in groups of 10 and shot down in streets. Of those in jail, 45 died of suffocation and thirst. Their bodies, instead of being cremated, were bundled up and thrown into a nearby well which was covered with earth, by Cooper’s orders. The well still exists near Ajnala and is called ‘Kaliyan da Khuh’. The martyrs never got any memorial but their death sparked protests in ‘Bangar Desh’ (now Haryana). 
References to Punjab’s role in the uprising also emerge from the accounts of poet-historians of that age. In ‘Jagnama Dilli’, Khazan Singh refers to 1914 (Bikrami system) which corresponds to 1857 (Georgian calendar).

He writes, ‘Saal unin sau chaudhavan vartada si, sare desh de vich fatur paie; Kavi Singh aakhe ehnan kalian ne, topan bir ke morche aan laei.’(The fire of rebellion was raging all over. Indian sepoys joined the war with all their might).

Seeds of revolt were actually sown when the British captured Punjab after Ranjit Singh’s death.