Kapurthala, October 1
Taking cautions after last week’s bizarre demonstration by some members of the EGS Teachers Union, Punjab, who climbed a water tank, the district police today did not allow any protesting member of the Government School Teachers Union to leave Shalamar Bagh, earmarked by the district administration for holding demonstrations and staging dharnas.

Members of the Government School Teachers Union Punjab, led by its president Jagmel Singh Pakhowal and general secretary Balkar Singh Valtoha, had planned to stage a dharna for the acceptance of their demands outside education minister Dr Upinderjeet Kaur’s house on the Sultanpur Lodhi road on the 50th anniversary of taking over of schools by the state government from zila boards and committees.

The members of the union gathered at Shalamar Bagh to proceed towards Upinderjeet Kaur’s house, but the police did not allow them to do so. Several teachers from other districts were stopped at entry points of the city in an effort to prevent them from reaching Shalamar Bagh. These teachers raised slogans at the points where they were stopped.

When contacted, SSP Rakesh Agarwal told The Tribune that the gathering of four of more persons had been prohibited at any place other than Shalamar Bagh by the district magistrate using his powers under section 144 of the CrPC. That was why the protesting teachers were not allowed to leave Shalamar Bagh, he added.

Agarwal said Shalamar Bagh had been earmarked for holding demonstrations and staging dharnas and if any organisation wanted to do so in any other part of the city, written permission from the district magistrate was required.

When they were not allowed to leave Shalamar Bagh, the teachers held a demonstration in the bagh and handed over a memorandum to SDM Gurpreet Singh Khaira.

Their demands included taking over by the state government of schools handed over to local bodies, including zila parishads and municipal committees, and restoration of 35,000 posts of teacher abolished by the previous Congress government.

The union demanded to appoint teachers on regular basis by abolishing contract system. It was also demanded that the centre and the state governments should earmark at least 10 and 30 per cent of their annual budgets for education.

Hoshiarpur, October 1
The Border Security Force (BSF), in association with the Health and Family Welfare Department, held a seminar on “make voluntary blood donation a way of life” at the Subsidiary Training Centre (STC) of the BSF at Kharkan today. The seminar was held to mark National Voluntary Blood Donation Day.

It’s imperative to eliminate wrong perceptions associated with blood donation — Tikshan Sud

Minister for medical education and research, forest, labour and parliamentary affairs Tikshan Sud, DIG of STC Alok Sinha and representatives of social and religious organisations addressed the seminar. Sud said voluntary blood donation was very less in India as compared to developed countries. “In India 10 million blood units were required annually out of which only 60 per cent units are collected through voluntary blood donation,” he said. The health department, religious and social organisations had played a vital role in eliminating wrong perceptions associated with the voluntary blood donation due to which people hesitated to donate blood, he added.

District health officer Dr M.L. Puri and social activist Dr Ajay Bagga said such seminars would help in creating wider public awareness about blood donation. Thakur Suresh, Jovendra Singh, Mayor Kumar, Randhir Singh, Ramesh Lal and Ved Parkash of STC were honoured on the occasion for donating blood for cancer patients.

Batala, October 1
The body of a six-month pregnant woman, Harjit Kaur, which was found hanging from the ceiling-fan, was recovered  from the third-story house of her in-laws at Civil  Lines here.

Her husband Kuldeep Singh; father in-law Veer Singh; mother in-law Sudesh, her husband’s sister Satinder Kaur and the wife of her husband’s elder brother Amrita have been arrested in this connection. The body of Harjit (who was a resident of Simble Batala) has been sent for postmortem to Civil Hospital, Batala.

SSP, Batala R.N. Dhoke told newsmen here on Monday that the father of the deceased said his daughter was married to Kuldeep Singh on the 2nd of February this year, and ample dowry was provided according to their status, but her in-laws used to beat her and demand more dowry.

On Sunday morning they received the news of the death of their daughter. They alleged that she was  murdered. 

Phagwara, October 1
The Kapurthala Heritage Trust is going to organise the sixth Baba Jassa Singh Ahluwalia heritage festival from October 18 to 20 at Kapurthala.

Giving details about the three-day festival, trust secretary-cum-deputy commissioner J.M. Balamurugan said, “For the success of the event 17 committees have been set up. The festival would feature international artistes Shafqat Ali Khan of Pakistan, ghazal singer Jagjit Singh, bhai Manohar Singh, Shubha Moudgil, Manjri Chaturvedi and Mustafa Raza.

The Phagwara SDM-cum-convener of the committee of hospitality, boarding and lodging and transport Amarjeet Paul said the event was being organised to promote cultural activities and heritage of Kapurthla. A meeting was organised by him which was attended by district transport officer Daljit Kaur, tehsildar Amanpaul Singh, naib-tehsildar Mulkh Raj and nagar council executive officer Paramjit Singh. — OC

Jalandhar, October 1
The common effluent treatment plant situated on the Kapurthala road has resumed functioning after its upgradation.

The plant had been closed since 2000.

The plant has resumed functioning, thanks to the efforts of the newly-constituted Punjab Effluent Treatment Society (PETS), comprising representatives from various tannery units and the government bodies concerned.

A sum of Rs 75 lakh has been spent on the upgradation of the plant that will be able to accept 1.5 to 2.5 million litres of discharged water per day and treat it before releasing it.

New floating aerators and mixers have been set up in the tank to collect pre-treated effluents released from the 46 tanneries in the area.

A contract for the purpose has been given to a Rajpura firm.

An amount of Rs 64 lakh has been released by the state government for setting up the plant. Since the capacity of the upgraded plant is lower than the volume of water discharged, around five million litres per day, a second module of the plant is also being planned at a cost of Rs 16 crore.

PETS chief executive Parveen Kumar said, “We have forwarded a proposal in this regard. We are expecting a grant of Rs 8 crore from the central government and a matching grant from the state soon. If the project for  the new module gets finalised, water bodies in the state can be saved from pollution.”

PETS has taken over the charge of the complex from the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC). It was made operative for six months in between but failed to take off.

The tanners are now being forced to discharge untreated effluents through open drains into the Kala Sanghian drain, leading to pollution.

The drain is released into the Chitti Bein that merges in the Sutlej, threatening its aquatic flora and fauna.

“But this is slump time and the production rate is slow. So the water discharge is also less. We will get it checked from the Punjab Pollution Control Board,” said Punjab Leather Federation member Raju Virk.

Virk said the state government would have acres of ground near Dera Bassi where the solid hazardous waste coming out of the pre-treatment and chrome recovery plants could be dumped from October 3.

The complex looked clean today as deputy commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu and chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander, himself the owner of a tannery unit, were expected to visit the complex.

Chandigarh, October 1
The Indian Army contingent deployed in Lebanon is organising a special camp to provide artificial limbs to Lebanese army personnel who were disabled in the recent conflict at Nahr-al-Bared.

The project is being assisted by Ali Oserain, member of the Lebanese Parliament from Saida. The Fransa Bank of Lebanon has pledged a support of $13,000 for the project, as a result of which victims of mines and cluster bombs would be provided artificial limbs free of cost.

The camp, being executed by 15 Punjab, is scheduled to be held in October. The battalion is deployed in strife-torn southern Lebanon under a United Nations mandate to maintain peace.

This would be the third such camp to be organised by the Indian Army in Lebanon which has been contributing troops for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for the past about 10 years.

The idea of conducting an artificial limb camp in Lebanon was conceived by the Indian Army contingent that had been deployed there in 2005. A survey was conducted by the battalion which confirmed the need for providing artificial limbs to numerous amputees afflicted by mines and cluster bombs. However, it could not accomplish the task of conducting the camp.

Thereafter, a Sikh battalion, to be deployed next in Lebanon, continued with the extensive groundwork and the first camp was held in June 2006 where 22 patients were provided with artificial limbs known as the Jaipur foot. Seeing the overwhelming response from the population, the unit had planned to conduct the second phase of the camp. However, due to the Summer War in July-August 2006, it could not be held.

The Jaipur foot was developed in 1968 by the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahatya Samiti and is low cost, durable, waterproof and a highly reliable prosthetic limb. It can be easily fitted, it is cosmetically and functionally very close to a human limb and it allows the wearer to carry on with all day-to-day activities like running, sitting, swimming, cycling and even climbing trees. Over the past 30 years, this artificial limb has been fitted on over three lakh patients in 19 countries all over the world. 

Phagwara, October 1
Given the change in the weather conditions and lack of proper sanitation, the town is in the grip of viral fever. Almost every third family is suffering from the fever but no practical measures are being taken by the health officials or the nagar council.

The Tribune talked to a few medical specialists in the town, including prominent physician Dr S. Mahindra, who admitted that a majority of the patients were suffering from viral fever. When asked whether he doubted it to be dengue, he said, “Nothing can be said without conducting the related tests, but it is true that platelet counts in blood were found reduced in many cases.”

He advised the people to adopt preventive measures and maintain cleanliness of their surroundings. When contacted, Kapurthala civil surgeon Dr Ashok Nayyar clarified that no dengue case was being diagnosed anywhere in the town. Meanwhile, it was learnt that several cases of viral fever have been referred to Ludhiana too. Speaking on the issue, Phagwara SDM Amarjit Paul said he would soon convene a meeting of all officials concerned to assess the situation.

Batala, October 1
Tajinder Singh (53), resident of Kohali village, died in an accident here today.

Tajinder Singh was returning home on his motorcycle when a tractor hit him near Umarpura village causing multiple injuries to him. He was taken to the local civil hospital, where he died.

The tractor driver, Bhupinder Singh, resident of Partap Garh village, has been arrested under section 279 and 304 A of the IPC.

The body of Tajinder Singh has been handed over to relatives of the deceased after post-mortem.