Nawanshahr, December 9
Amarjit Singh Rajpal, senior vice-president of 1984 riot victims’ welfare society, Punjab, while talking to the mediapersons here today, condemned the ‘apathetic attitude’ of the bureaucrats in extending facilities provided under special package to the riot victims for their rehabilitation.

He said, “Under special rehabilitation package, Rs 440 crore was announced for the 22,000 riot victim families in the state by the central government last year. However, Rs 200 crore is still not disbursed.” Besides, 10,000 families could not submit their applications to avail rehabilitation grant of Rs two lakh per family owing to lack of awareness. Out of 12,000 riot victim families, which have submitted their applications, around 3,500 families were still struggling to get their grant, he added.

He attributed the problem to the condition of submitting documentary evidences such as ration card, passport, driving license etc. to prove their continuity of stay in Punjab from 1985-2006. He said, “The victims of 1984 Delhi riots underwent a traumatic period and at that time they could not even think of obtaining such documents during initial years of their migration to the state.”

Meanwhile, the matter has been brought into the notice of CM Parkash Singh Badal, who expressed sympathy with the affected families and has issued instructions to the senior officials to relax the unnecessary conditions.

Besides, the society has been organising district wise meetings of the affected families for providing proper guidance for submitting applications to avail the benefits.

Nawanshahr, December 9
Lally Saini, young and elegant social worker associated with the district family counselling centre, not only has a passionate heart for the victims of fraudulent marriages by NRIs but also has an insight into their problems. Working with a mission to mitigate sufferings of these victims, this young woman is helping the sufferers by counselling them.

“With the characteristic penchant among Doaba people for settling abroad, even the misuse of sacred institution like marriage has become a common affair. There are a number of cases in which spouses of NRIs lead miserable lives here as their dreams of greener pastures abroad are shattered due to fraudulent practices adopted by the NRIs while solemnising marriage,” says Lally Saini, honourary secretary of the district family counselling centre, adding that the pathetic conditions of fraud marriage victims made her to go deep into the problem.

In her bid to do something concrete for them, she contacted embassies of different countries via Internet and got encouraging response from departments concerned. She helped victims by submitting their complaints narrating their woes to the embassies concerned to ameliorate their sufferings.

However, to check the menace of marriage by NRIs, Lally Saini stressed on the need of introducing some strict provisions such as cancellation of offending NRI spouse and declaring runaway grooms as proclaimed offenders for arrest in India or extradition. Besides, at the time of marriage registration, marriage certificates for NRI marriages should be issued in duplicate and it should also carry the passport details along with social security number (SSN) of the NRI spouses. A provision to provide detailed particulars along with photographs of spouses in the passports could also be included, suggested Lally.

Advising parents seeking NRI alliances for their daughters not to merely depend on the information provided by the mediator, she said the parents should ask for the social security number of the NRI concerned as it could help them get factual information from the services unit of the embassy concerned.

“In the present era of information technology, access to the services units of different embassies is quite easy and can help parents not to fall prey to the unauthorised agents. By having SSN of the NRI spouse, it would be easy to trace guilty for seeking justice from the embassy concerned in the case of any fraud by the NRI spouse,” adds Lally.

Stressing on the need to create social awareness, she said, “There is a need to evolve a mechanism for educating people, especially youth to make them aware of the risks while entering into matrimonial alliances without proper verification. They should also get their credentials verified from the embassies concerned.”

Jalandhar, December 9
Even as communal groups and political leaders are on loggerheads over the construction of a channel destroying a part of the mythological Ram Setu or Adam’s Bridge, a former deputy chief civil hydrographic officer of the Indian Navy has pointed out that there could be navigation hazards in using the channel.

Well-known submarine geo-morphologist of India Dr J.M. Agrawal has said the west of the Palk Strait through which ships would pass to use the Setu Samundram channel through the Palk Bay would have to be dredged rigorously as it contains dangerous submarine features with less water.

Having conducted various marine geomorphic studies from 1980 to 2000, he has found that an anti-clockwise tidal current pattern was prevalent in the area depositing silt on a higher rate. He has suggested that if a channel has to be made, the silt deposition problem has to be first solved by creating breakwaters on both sides of the Palk Strait and silt reaching from the coastal belts of the Indian peninsula and Sri Lanka needs to be controlled.

Agrawal has even warned that if any controls are not done, the days are not far when the area would turn into sea swamp and further in land. “We will then have to use an international boundary line separating the two countries rather than a maritime boundary line. The phenomenon may happen, if allowed in its natural way, in 200 to 300 years and there will be buses moving on the area,” he said.

He said, “Ram Setu is a natural defence against storms and tsunamis. Regular silting of the channel will add problems of removing wracks and towing of ships for repairs and removal will be a Herculean task.” He warned that the LTTE activities and their threat could not be ignored while using the channel.

The former naval officer said if the project was continued, similar repercussions would occur as in the case of the Tuticorin port.

“There is no point going ahead without solving a technical problem. There will be no fun constructing a channel which will only be used for navigation of medium or small ships. In that case, it is more advisable to take a longer route encircling Sri Lanka than taking a small, difficult cut”, he advised.

The scientist has suggested that Ram Setu be better left untouched and well-worshipped. “It is believable that the rock blocks seen now must have been used as base for bridge in Lord Ram’s time and are rightly observed as part of the bridge,” he concluded.