Kapurthala, September 4
In an attempt to foil the plan of the Education Volunteer Teachers Union to observe Teachers’ Day as black day on Wednesday, the district police forcibly removed about 70 teachers, including several women, sitting on a dharna outside Punjab education minister Upinderjeet Kaur’s house this morning.

A large number of teachers from different parts of the state would also reach Kapurthala to observe black day on Wednesday. Security has been beefed up at the entry points

One of the protesting teachers Jujar Singh from Sangrur told The Tribune that they had been sitting on a peaceful dharna since Sunday. A large number of policemen came there this morning and forcibly took the teachers in different vehicles to Shalimar Bagh, 2 km from Upinderjeet Kaur’s house, located at Char Batti Chowk on the Sultanpur Lodhi road, he added. The teachers continued their dharna in the bagh itself and the police cordoned off the area.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone, state president of the union Ishwar Dass said the union would show black flags to acting president of the SAD Sukhbir Singh Badal during a proposed state-level function on Teachers’ Day at Sainik School, Kapurthala, on Wednesday morning.

A large number of teachers from different parts of the state would also reach Kapurthala to observe black day on Wednesday, he added.

Several policemen have been deputed at the entry points of Kapurthala to foil the plan of contractual teachers to reach the town. When contacted, deputy commissioner J.M. Balamurugan said the teachers were removed from outside Upinderjeet Kaur’s house and taken to Shalimar Bagh as section 144 of the CrPC had already been imposed in the town and the bagh had been earmarked for holding demonstrations and peaceful agitations. To a query, he said the district administration had taken the step as a precautionary measure in view of the state-level function on Teachers’ Day. At the same time, he said, it was a general practice to ask the different protesters to hold their agitation in the bagh.The protesting teachers demanded that the 1,700 contractual teachers appointed about three years back should be regularised before starting fresh appointment of teachers.

Ishwar Dass said the union would also hold protest at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s proposed function in a Ropar village on September 8.

Jalandhar, September 4
The Punjab State Aided School Teachers’ and Other Employees Progressive Front today announced that its members would hold a protest by wearing black badges tomorrow on the occasion of Teachers’ Day.

Front members said they would wear black badges from 8 am to 2.25 pm as they would take classes tomorrow in their respective schools of the district. At 3 pm, they would assemble and take out a rally to the office of the deputy commissioner to present him  a memorandum.

The members said thousands of teachers working in aided schools had been working without salaries since April this year. They pointed out that the retired teachers had not been paid pensions since May, 2003. As a result, they said they were finding it difficult to make their two ends meet.

Front president Narinder Pal Singh Kang and general secretary Rakesh Sharma said the teachers were upset with the attitude of the government. They said they had hopes from the ruling SAD-BJP government as they had taken up the issue of the restoration of pension in its manifesto.

The Government Teachers’ Union has held a meeting with education minister Dr Opinderjit Kaur. Members said they had put up their demands on the regular release of salaries, change of school timings, making changes in ACR, release of grant to schools for payment of power bills, telephone bills and stationery expenses and making amendments in  promotion scheme.

The members said they would meet at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall for a convention to be held on September 19.

Nawanshahr, September 4
The process to convert the local Shaheed-E-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Industrial Training Institute ( I.T.I.) into a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in chemical sector has been started, with a view to imparting training to the youth as per the changing scenario, to enable them to tap the growing employment avenues in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. Besides, it would also bridge the gap of skill requirement in the industry.

The admission process to fill as many as 115 seats, for imparting special training to equip the youth for getting placements in chemical industry, would be started soon. The basic qualification for admission to the training is +2 in the science stream. The department of industrial training and technical education has started making up for the shortage of staff at the CoE here, by shifting faculty members from Jalandhar, Moga and Bhatinda.

The Department has also sought data regarding requirement of faculty and administrative staff and estimated expenditure on the construction of a new building for the CoE. To start with, the CoE would be set up in one of the wings of the existing ITI building.

“The estimate of the expenditure for renovating the wing for setting up the CoE has already been submitted with the concerned authorities,” said Jaspal Singh Gidda, Incharge, CoE in the local ITI. The new training course would have six modules - Fundamentals of Electronics Computer, Basic fitting & measurement, Basic mechanical process, Fundamentals of general chemistry & physics, Basic instrumentation and Basic unit operation process.

The trainee will have to complete at least three modules to seek placement in the industry. However, one can get re-admission for completing other modules also, as per his choice.

It is worthwhile to mention here that setting up of the CoE in Industrial Training Institutes is a centre sponsored programme, aimed at providing multi-skilled workforce for different industries. Under the project - a number of ITIs have been selected for being converted into CoEs in different industrial sectors, as per the choice of representatives of the industry. Besides, to ensure involvement of the industrialists in the design and implementation of the scheme, Institute Management Committees (IMCs) comprising members of the local industry and state government have also been constituted.

K.C. Sokhi, chairman, IMC of the local CoE in Chemical Sector, while sharing his views with The Tribune said, “Nawanshahr would have the distinction of being the first training institution for imparting training in Chemical sector. Presently, there is great dearth of skilled workforce in pharmaceutical & chemical industry as there is no training institute for the purpose. The efforts to develop Nawanshahr as a model training institute would also be made.”

Hoshiarpur, September 4
Protesting against the Hoshiarpur SDM for effecting a mutation of 52 kanal “disputed” temple land in the name of Pandori Atwal resident Ram Lubhaya, sadhus, mostly from the Shiv Temple staged a dharna for more than four hours at Tahli Adda of Dholbaha village here today.

Joined by several Congress leaders, around 75 sadhus demanded cancellation of above said deal and asked for a probe by the vigilance department into those documents under which the SDM had effected mutation, made on August 28, 2007, in favour of Ram Lubhaya.

The sadhus and villagers warned the district administration to immediately cancel the mutation made by the SDM, failing which they would intensify the agitation. It is reported that Mahant Kashtriya Giri, who was possessing the said land, made a will in the name of Jaibansh one of his follower in 1970. The inhabitants of the village and management of the Shiv Temple filed a suit against the aforesaid will of Mahant Kashtriya Giri, but the decision was given against them. Later, they also approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this connection, but lost the case in 1994.

They again filed a revised petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and under its instructions the then deputy commissioner of Hoshiarpur visited the site and declared the disputed land as custodian property in 2002. — OC

Hoshiarpur, September 4
On the recommendation of Hoshiarpur SSP, Hajipur police has booked four travel agents on the charges of duping seven youths of Rs 42 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad.

According to the police sources, Satish Kumar, Rajinder Singh, Pardeep Kumar, Rameshwar Singh, Jasbir Singh, all residents of Nangal Bihala, Malkiat Singh of Bhagrah and Surinder Kumar of Sundian had alleged that they had been lured by Gaurav Lal, his father Kulbhushan Lal, Manoj Kumar and his brother Rajan Bansal. The agents had asked them to pay Rs 6 lakh each for settling them abroad. The youth further alleged that accused had taken their passports. But the travel agents neither send them abroad nor returned their money.

A case has been registered, however, travel agents are absconding.