Batala, December 4
The urban population of Punjab has been burdened with exorbitant water and sewerage bills by the local bodies department. A majority of the residents of Batala were shocked to receive water bills amounting to thousands of rupees starting from 2003.

As per a notification issued by the government in 2003 and made applicable with effect from 2006, water tax at the rate of Rs 100 per tap with Rs 50 for second tap for all the consumers (owning houses in an area of more than five marlas) would be levied.

The implementation of the notification was kept in abeyance in 2006 owing to the approaching assembly elections and to avoid wrath of the urban voters.

The increase in the water tax is approximately five times of the earlier rates.

Moreover, a question mark is also being made on making the area of the house as criterion for fixing rates of water and sewerage connections. The municipal authorities had been charging Rs 20 for a single tap and Rs 7.50 and Rs 4.50 for the second and third tap, respectively.

The implementation of the notification will put an additional burden of Rs 100 per month on the urban consumers with a 5 per cent increase every three years.

The increased water charges, amounting to thousands of rupees of arrears of water tanks since 2003, have caused great anguish in the Bharatiya Janta Party circles here. The urban residents demanded that the municipal council should continue to charge water and sewerage bills at the old rates and if needed the government should subsidise the water and sewerage services on the pattern of rural consumers.

Batala BJP general secretary Harinder Singh stated that the matter had been discussed at the municipal council meeting and the issue would be taken up with local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia.

When contacted today, municipal council executive officer Manmohan Singh stated that they would not use any coercive methods to make the consumer pay the bill. Rather the consumer will be allowed to pay taxes in instalments. 

Jalandhar, December 4
Spending lot of money on infrastructure and then treating it like discarded material seems to have become a common practice. At least it seems so to a visitor at the School of Nursing at SBLS Civil Hospital here. Two buildings (the nursing school and its hostel) are lying almost vacant, but for three or four-odd members of the nursing school staff. The institute building looks nothing short of a haunted house.

Interestingly, the last batch which studied in the school was admitted in October, 2003, and passed out in March, 2006. Since then no admissions have been made nor any classes conducted. The classrooms with locked doors and empty seats make for a rather eerie spectacle. Not only this, the school has hostel facilities for around 100 students and the hostel has been renovated recently. The toilets have been tiled and geysers installed. A warden has been employed but there are no students.

The school, which started in 1952, is one of the oldest nursing schools in the state. Earlier, it was used for giving promotional training to the multipurpose workers or ANMs under a government scheme.

The ANMs were given study leave for two and a half years and during the tenure they were given full pay. A large number of girls from economically weaker sections benefited from the scheme.

However, after withdrawal of the scheme, no batch has been admitted. The school building lies vacant with just the principal’s office being used.

Talking to The Tribune, principal Gurbaksh Kaur said, “Presently the school has two tutors and one warden. As there is no batch going on, we have been assigned the duty to look after the nursing students coming from private institutes for clinical training at the civil hospital.” Civil hospital medical superintendent Dr Ranbir said, “We wish that the school should be used for imparting training in nursing. In fact not only service training should be imparted but courses for students, who have just passed class XII, should also be started.”

Talking to The Tribune, Punjab health and family welfare minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla said, “As far as starting the school is concerned, the DRME is responsible for opening the nursing school. However, our department is planning to hold refresher courses for the in-service nurses of the state in the school.” 

Jalandhar, December 4
Admitting that there was an acute shortage of teachers in government schools, Punjab education minister Upinderjit Kaur yesterday revealed that the government had decided to recruit 14,000 teachers to upgrade the standard of education in the state.

“The process for recruiting 14,000 permanent teachers has already been initiated and scrutiny of the 2.5 lakh applications received for this purpose is being done by the committee constituted by the department,” the minister told reporters here, claiming that the recruitment process of these posts would be completed by March 31, 2008.

The minister also said that the government had planned to regularise all the teachers recruited on contract within three years. “Though the SAD-BJP alliance had promised permanent recruitment of teachers before the Vidhan Sabha elections, due to the bad condition of the state exchequer the government had to recruit the teachers on contract basis which, she said, would be regularised soon,” she explained.

In order to enable the students of government schools of the state to compete with the outside world, the Punjab government was considering to change the passing criterion for the students in the board examinations held every year, she said.

Earlier a student who didn’t even pass in the important subjects like mathematics, general science and English could pass the board examination but viewing the importance of these subjects in today’s competitive era the state government had been considering to make it compulsory for the students to secure passing marks in these subjects, she added. — PTI