Jalandhar, July 11
If you have taken admission to the PTU-Caparo School of Excellence for Manufacturing and Material Technology on the Kapurthala road, just be prepared to bear some initial hassles.

Since the building is still under-construction, the boy students and male staff members will most likely have to arrange for their own accommodation. The hostels have not been constructed as yet and the girl students and woman staff members will be given preference for lodging in few rooms readied for the staff.

Those who do not get accommodation would have to arrange for their own lodging around the place or commute from Jalandhar daily.

Those students who are sensitive to dust will have to come to the campus with some masks or elbow-length gloves as there is a lot of dust emanating from construction material.

Students also need to be prepared to encounter the deafening sounds emanating from construction gadgets as two more blocks of the building are yet to come up right in front of their classrooms and seminar halls.

As of now, a reception made of glass walls and a set of four rooms have been readied on the ground floor. Another set of rooms is ready on the first floor. Rooms on the second floor are still to be given a finishing touch. The rooms are being given the last coat of paint. Some saplings are being planted in and around the campus.

Furniture and laboratory apparatus is yet to come and the parking lot has also yet not been cemented.

With less than one month to go for the beginning of the session, there is hardly any time left for the local private constructors, G.S. Builders and Engineers, to make headway. All seats to be filled in the three streams of electrical, electronics and mechanical engineering have been filled in the PTU-CET counselling. Those remaining vacant fall in the outside state quota and will be filled through the AIEEE.

Dr V.K. Arora, secretary of the construction committee, said, “We have been told that the classrooms, seminar rooms, workshop room, laboratories and computer centres will be ready by the first week of August when the session begins. Orders have been placed for laboratory equipment. The appointment of faculty for the basic sciences subjects too has been made as the first semester entails to these courses only.”

Dr Arora admitted that the students would have to face some initial problems related to the ongoing construction work and accommodation, but he said these would be sorted out at the earliest.

Nawanshahr, July 11
The State Institute of Science Education (SISE), Punjab along with the district education department held an awareness rally to mark “World Population Day” here on Wednesday.

As many as 400 students belonging to different schools of the city participated in the rally imparting hazards of population explosion through posters, banners and placards.

The rally was flagged off by the deputy commissioner Bhawna Rakeha from JSFH Khalsa Senior Secondary School. The rally passed through different areas including Chandigarh road, Kothi road, Geeta Bhawan road and ended at Doaba Sikh National High School.

Meanwhile, the district health department in collaboration with the NSS unit of Government Senior Secondary School organised a seminar on "Involvement and participation of men can change the lives of women."

While addressing the seminar, the district health and family welfare officer Dr I.S. Shekhawat stressed upon the need of bringing change in the mind set of the society. “Male chauvinism should be shun and the men folk should concentrate on being 'caring brother, husband and father,” he said.

The seminar was followed by a declamation contest on world population in which 15 students participated. The first prize was won by Manpreet Kaur Thandi while Kamaldeep Kaur and Jyoti secured second and third positions respectively.

Phagwara, July 11
The local police has registered a case under sections 376, 420, 323, 315, 493, 148, 149 and 120B of the IPC against Sat Paul of Ludhiana on the charges of bigamy, levelled by his first wife Kavita Bajaj, alias Tina, resident of Gobindpura, Phagwara.

According to report, Kavita Bajaj, who was married six years back to Sat Pal, was informed by somebody that her husband was going to register his new marriage solemnised with an NRI woman in the local courts. Kavita reached the courts and prevented the registration of the marriage.

On the complaint lodged by Kavita, the police registered a case against Sat Paul, Ajit Singh, Budhau, Pappu, Pamma, her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and other family members.

No arrest has been made.

Phagwara July 11
Phagwara police has been declared as the best in Jalandhar range. DIG Narinderpaul Singh inspected City, Sadar and CIA Staff police stations here on Wednesday evening and appreciated the performance of Phagwara cops, headed by DSP HPS Khakh. The DIG also praised SSP Kapurthla Rakesh Aggarwal.

Talking to newsmen, DIG said police was actively working in a transparent manner to ensure that law and order situation is well maintained in the area. Replying to a question, Narindepaul Singh said the cops have been able to crack a majority of cases. Only 15 per cent cases are yet to be solved,” he added.

Commenting upon community policing, the senior officer said citizens were responding well to the scheme. “The idea is to make the force more people-friendly. We want to convey to residents that police is always there for their help,” he added. When asked why the sensational 2005 robbery case has not been solved yet, the DIG said cops were working on two different theories and the culprits would be soon behind the bars. Notably, the Rs 33 lakh robbery near Capital Bank, Phagwara had created quite a stir in the area.

The officer further revealed that working at police stations levels was being computerised. The DIG also addressed a meeting of high-level officials, including SSP Rakesh Aggarwal and DSP Khakh. 

Jalandhar, July 11
Municipal corporation today partly demolished front portion of a cafeteria and underground parking lot constructed near Jyoti Chowk on BOT basis.

According to MC authorities, the structures did not adhere to the building plan. Norably, local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia on Monday had sought the report card of BOT projects from the MC commissioner C.S. Talwar.

The cafeteria and parking lot was constructed during the previous Congress regime, with active support from former local bodies minister Ch Jagjit Singh. The Akali-BJP councillors and politicians were totally against the project.

Though the cafeteria had been receiving a good response, parking has not found many takers as residents prefer to park their vehicles along the road. 

Hoshiarpur, July 11
The health and family welfare department, in association with the education department, organised a seminar on “men as partners in maternal health” on the occasion of World Population Day at Government Senior Secondary School (Girls), Railway Mandi, here today.

In his presidential address, district family welfare officer Chaman Lal said it was time for men as fathers, brothers, husbands, community and religious leaders and government officials to become partners in maternal health.

Expressing shock over the 1.36 lakh maternal deaths annually in India, he said all of us should work together to achieve the aim that no woman should die giving life.

Everyone should promote the right of every woman to enjoy a life of health, dignity and equal opportunity.

Social worker Ajay Bagga said World Population Day was a time to focus on commitment and action to ensure that every pregnancy was wanted and every birth was safe.

He emphasised the need to create awareness about the ill effects of over population. If the present trend continued, the Indian population would touch the figures of 1.44 billion in 2025, 1.53 billion in 2030 and 1.65 billion in 2050. No religion was against stabilisation of population. Six predominantly Muslim countries, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco, actively promoted family planning.

“Ignorance, lack of good health facilities for all and lack of political commitment are responsible for increase in population, Dr Bagga said.

Service Training School principal K.K. Saini, mass media officer Manmohan Kalia and principal Upinder Kaur were among those prominent persons who addressed the participants comprising teachers of 70 schools and students of the school.

Phillaur, July 11
Facing a severe financial crunch, a mother and her daughter, residents of Mitharra village, near here, committed suicide yesterday. The deceased, Parveen Rani and her 18-year-old daughter Amandeep, reportedly consumed poison and later died on the way to hospital.

It is learnt that Parveen was forced to take this extreme step as her husband Kuldip Ram, who had been living in Italy for the past several years, met with an accident last year. In the accident, Kuldip Ram lost both his legs and was unable to send any money to his family in Phillaur since then. Although Parveen received no help from the relatives or villagers, she tried to manage her household for some months with the savings. The bodies have been handed over to the family members after conducting a post-mortem examination in the civil hospital. aIn another mishap, one unidentified middle-aged man was run over by a train between Phillaur and Goraya on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar rail section last night. The railway police has sent the body to the civil hospital for a post-mortem examination. The deceased was crossing the rail line, the GRP said. — OC

Hoshiarpur, July 11
At last after about five years Godfrey Phillips India Limited has recognised the bravery of Bahader Singh, son of Jasbir Singh of Bulhowal of Hoshiarpur district, and has awarded him the bronze medal for saving the life of a student, Aparna, on October 29, 2002, while she was drowning in the Ravi in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh.

Bahader Singh was a student of DAV College, Hoshiarpur, at that time when he along with other students, including Aparna, of the college had gone to Chamba on a study tour. While tracking, Aparna fell into the Ravi. Bahader Singh jumped into the river and saved her after struggling hard.In a well-organised function at Chandigarh, film star Priety Zinta conferred a bronze medal on Bahader Singh with other recipients of the award. — OC

Kapurthala, July 11
A rail coach factory (RCF) employee Pramod Kumar was injured while working in the finishing shop here on Wednesday. The accident occurred during shunting of a coach by rail-cum-road vehicle (RRV).

Pramod’s, whose leg got badly crushed, was immediately taken to RCF’s Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital, from where he was further shifted to CMC, Ludhiana.

RCF administration has ordered a high-level fact-finding inquiry into the incident. The report will be submitted within 48 hours and necessary action will be taken after that.