Phagwara, October 30
Taking a serious note of adulterated milk, ghee, khoya and paneer being sold, the health department has launched a state-level campaign to check the menace.

This was confirmed by the Kapurthala civil surgeon Dr Ashok Nayyar here today. He said the district health officers have been instructed to launch campaigns to provide pure sweets to the people during the festival season.

Regarding district Kapurthala, CMO said special teams of food inspectors have been formed to check the adulterated sweets, milk and milk products.

The milk products being brought from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan would be checked at railway stations. Besides, trucks transporting these products would also be checked.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the health minister Prof Lakshmi Kanta Chawla has written to the health ministers of the concerned states to launch a campaign in their respective states to check milk products before sending them to Punjab.

According to the instructions, all civil surgeons have been asked to issue written directions to all sweet shop owners making it mandatory for them to inform about the consignment of milk products being brought from other states.

Moreover, these consignments should be used only after getting a clean chit from the health department.

Meanwhile, Milkmen & Dairy Union Punjab have urged the state government to bring transparency in Food Safety and Standard Act 2006, and to review Food Adulteration Act 1954.

Union state president Paramjit Singh Sohal and general secretary Joginder Paul have announced to start a series of district level conferences throughout the state in support of their demands.

Jalandhar, October 30
The health department conducted raids in the wee hours today to check the adulteration of milk products supplied to sweet shops for the ongoing festival season.

The officials had a tip-off that spurious khoya from UP was finding a huge market here. In the raid, food inspector Harjot Singh found that the material was reaching city at cantonment railway station.

They found that two sacks of khoya weighing 50 kg each were supplied to a cantonment-based Krishna Sweet Shop .

The officials took the samples and confiscated the entire material. He said the khoya material being purchased by the shop was quite hard and dry.

He suspected it to be mixed with lots of starch. He said that since pure khoya was an expensive ingredient for sweets, the spurious product is mixed with refined oil to soften it and use further. The officials also took two milk samples from the shop.

Phagwara, October 30
The Phagwara administration and the police are taking steps to ensure uninterrupted traffic during the festival season so that the residents can walk freely in bazaars for shopping.

SDM Amarjit Paul said here on Tuesday that in a first step towards ensuring a free flow of vehicles, the administration had decided to provide the first paid parking on very nominal charges of Rs 2 for scooter and Rs 5 for a car parking in old Dana Mandi here. Bids had been invited for November 16 by the marketing committee.

The SDM said entry of heavy vehicles would be banned from 8 am to 8 pm in the crowded bazaars of the town.

Meanwhile, in an appreciable step, the city police has divided the town in different zones to prevent any untoward incident during the festival season.

DSP H.P.S. Khakh said different police officers had been deputed in various zones to control the traffic. Khakh said law and order would be maintained at every cost.

Kapurthala, October 30
A delegation of the Kapurthala District Bar Association (DBA) met judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday in Chandigarh.

It requested them to cancel the proposal of shifting judicial courts from the present court complex, which also comprises executive courts, to Nurpur Dona village on Jalandhar road, as both the places are situated at a distance of seven kilometers to each other.

“The six-member delegation of the DBA, led by one of its former presidents Rakesh Sharma, met Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, who is also the chairman of the building committee, and Justice Vinod Sharma, who is the inspecting judge for Kapurthala in this regard,” said a senior advocate RS Dhillon.

The DBA delegation also included Pradeep Kumar, RPS Bajwa, Sarabjeet Singh Walia, advocate and municipal councillor Paramjit Singh.

Dhillon told The Tribune that the delegation requested the High Court judges to cancel the scheduled programme of laying the foundation stone of the judicial complex at Nurpur Dona on November 17 and further withdraw the proposal of shifting the judicial courts altogether.

The senior advocate said the DBA is in favour of either keeping both the judicial and executive courts at the present courts complex or shifting both the judicial and executive courts at one place.

Dhillon said the matter would be presented before the five member building committee to take final decision in this regard. He said the DBA representatives would also meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this regard.

It may be recalled that the DBA had passed a unanimous resolution a few days back, requesting the state government and Punjab and Haryana High Court not to initiate the process for shifting the judicial courts.

The advocates are opposing the proposal of shifting the judicial courts mainly for two reasons.

First, hundreds of litigants would have to suffer a lot and would have to spend extra money for reaching the proposed place to attend their cases.

Secondly, there was a proposal of shifting only judicial courts to Nurpur Dona and the executive courts would either remain at the present court complex or would be shifted to a place located on Sultapur Lodhi road.

In both the cases, the advocates would have to keep on making several rounds every day, covering several kilometers of judicial and executive complexes for appearing in separate cases and it would not be feasible for advocates as well litigants.

DBA sent the copies of the four-page resolution to the CM Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and registrar general of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

DBA also requested the state government to ask the Union government to start the process of de-notifying the present court complex as a heritage building.

The DBA brought the matter to the notice of SAD leader Raghbir Singh, who is arranging a meeting of DBA representatives with the CM.

The massive influx of information has revolutionised the way youngsters of today shortlist their career options.

The conventional trio of medical, non-medical and commerce has given way to the specialised professions in the fields of sports, medicine, fashion and many more.

To begin with, medicine, the old-time favourite profession, is finding diverse and innovative forms with the new generation.

For instance, physiotherapy, a highly job-oriented alternative, is fast becoming the first choice of aspirants, instead of serving just as the last option.

Similarly, an increasing number of students from the medical stream, especially girls, are becoming dieticians.

Equipped with this qualification from a good institute, they are getting attractive offers from health clubs, hospitals and even insurance firms.

With the larger preference shifting gradually towards alternative medicine, homoeopathy has emerged out as an another option.

Yoga, the latest in fitness and health management, is also an upcoming field. With the likes of Sunita Williams setting an all-new example for the young scientific minds, it is not surprising to find even the students studying in class V or VI showing a strong inclination to become astronauts.

“I am strongly inspired by the feat accomplished by Sunita Williams and plan to become an astronaut when I grow up,” says Hetarth Chopra, a student of class V.

Another alternative career gradually catching up with the youngsters is gemology, the science, art and profession of identifying and evaluating gemstones.

With the wave flowing incessantly towards professionalism, conventional beautician courses are also giving way to specialised courses in skin and hair care.

Not to be left behind, even students of the commerce stream are discovering new horizons, far away from the clichéd routes of MBA and the like.

With the gateways to overseas education getting gradually wider, students are now aiming to become financial analysts and business consultants.

For those in the arts stream, options have widened with high-quality courses available in subjects like psychology, including the likes of regression therapists, spiritual healing specialists and child counsellors.

Freelancing, another convenient option for those not willing to bind themselves to a single workplace is also an increasing trend, especially those who specialised in their fields.

Jalandhar, October 30
The departments of mechanical engineering and civil engineering at the DAV Institute of Engineering Technology (DAVIET) are organising a two-day techno-event, “Techkrieg ’07” at the institute that began today.

The expo featured unique cars like Rolls Royce (silver spirit), Jaguar XJS, Jaguar XJ 16, Porsche (Bauxter), Lancer (Ballistic) and Baleno modified.

Numerous technical competitions held during the event witnessed an active participation by DAVIET students.