Jalandhar, December 11
Punjab Technical University has decided to introduce short-term, skill-oriented, certificate courses in retail and insurance under its distance education programme soon.

The good news is that there will be an assured placement for all the students who pass the examination as the courses are being started following a tie-up with Reliance retail stores and Unicon Investment Solutions, a subsidiary of India Bulls.

As per the tie-up, Reliance will pick 5,000 students on the completion of three months course for its Reliance Fresh stores in and around Delhi. Unicon is also planning to open more than 250 centres across the country and has asked for training 10,000 students in a year’s span. The insurance course will be of six-month duration.

There is another feel-good factor attached with these courses. The fee structure of the courses is being planned in such a way as it will be returned to the students in one and a quarter of a month, said Dr R.P. Singh, dean, distance education.

Explaining his point, he said, “The fee structure for retail courses has been fixed at Rs 6,000 and Reliance has assured us that the students will be paid at least Rs 5,000 per month as their starting salary. Unicon will have a better pay package of Rs 8000 to Rs 13,000 per month.”

Singh said the retail course would be introduced soon as the learning material and syllabus had already been planned and the company wanted trained youth in three months. “But we will start the course only in our centres in the NCR as the company wants trainees from that area only. Anyone with the qualification of XII standard will be able to join the course. The course content includes store management, customer sales and services and communication skills,” he said.

The insurance course, however, will have a course on principles of insurance, insurance products and pricing and insurance sales and marketing. The university will grade the trainees for both the courses. “Anyone who passes with 90 per cent marks or more will be considered highly proficient. Those with 75 to 90 per cent marks will be considered skilled. Ones with 60 to 75 per cent marks will be rated as adequately skilled. Those with 45 per cent to 60 per cent will be considered semi-skilled. Those scoring even lower will not be considered pass and will only have an option to repeat or quit,” the dean said.

Singh also pointed out that students would be taking training in Reliance Fresh or Unicon offices for the second half of the course. He said while the courses would be run as pilot projects for the first batch, there was a plan to start some remuneration for the students during the training period for the second batches.

Batala, December 11
The police today booked an auto-dealer and patwari Lakhwinder Singh allegedly for usurping shamlat land worth crores. A case of cheating and forgery was registered against the patwari today.

According to SDM Sandeep Rishi, 17 marla of prime land situated on Jalandhar Road has been usurped by Amarjit Singh Bal, owner of Baba Motors.

The accused raised a big auto showroom at the spot. The shamlat land was originally allotted to Dharam Singh whose whereabouts are not known. The accused prepared a fake exchange deal of some land situated at Bijliwal village allegedly in connivance with the patwari. Balbir Singh, a resident of Raichak village, complained to the deputy commissioner in this regard. The enquiry conducted by the SDM revealed that Bal in connivance with patwari Lakhwinder Singh manipulated revenue records and the exchange deal.

Bal had also contested the assembly election for the Akali Dal (Amritsar). The police has registered a case under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B, IPC, at Civil Lines police station, Batala. No arrests have been made so far.

Khajrula (Kapurthala), December 11
After catching three sambars from different parts of the district during the past few days, the forest department caught another sambar from Khajrula village, falling under Phagwara subdivision of Kapurthala district. Confirming this, Phagwara forest range officer S.R. Bhatti told The Tribune that the sambar did not harm any person and it was sent to a wildlife sanctuary located in nearby Hoshiarpur district.

Bhatti said he received information from villagers about a wild animal which had strayed into Khajrula village. A forest officials’ team rushed to the village.

The villagers extended every possible help in catching the sambar and it was caught near the primary school of the village at 10.45 am, he added. Several incidents of wild animals straying into Jalandhar and its neighbouring districts have occurred in the recent past.

While three sambars had strayed into different parts of the district, one of them had entered a house in the thickly populated Ekta Nagar, near Chugitti, in the city and created panic among the residents for several hours.

While the forest officials’ team caught all the three sambars, some of the sambars were hurt during attempts to catch them. All of them were sent to the Hoshiarpur wildlife sanctuary. Interestingly, the reports of the presence of a panther in Pholriwal and surrounding Munpur and Alipur villages, falling under Lambra police station, created panic among the villagers in the last week of November. 

Nawanshahr, December 11
The situation remained tense here for a few hours as the panthic organisations gathered at Gurdwara Singh Sabha here to oppose the proposed programme of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) to burn the effigy of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in protest against the installation of his portrait in the Sikh Museum in Amritsar, at Chandigarh Chowk. A heavy police was deployed in apprehension of a clash.

However, no one turned up to burn the effigy. SGPC member Gurbaksh Khalsa, SAD (youth wing) leader Param Singh Khalsa, Chhinder Pal Singh and Jarnail Singh of Dal Khalsa said the panthic organisations would not tolerate any interference in the religious matters.

The issue of Sant Bhindranwale’s portrait is bound to keep the situation tense in the coming days.

The Congress is going to hold district-level protest dharnas on December 13. Former Congress minister Harnam Dass Johar recently convened a meeting of party workers to mobilise them to participate in the proposed dharna in a big way.

On the other hand, SAD general council member Paramjit Singh Mirpur criticised PPCC president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal for unnecessarily flaring up the issue. Such gimmicks by the Congress were aimed at disturbing the Hindu-Sikh unity just to take political mileage, he said.