Jalandhar, December 17
A three-member delegation headed by Naresh Nagpal, additional director, State Technical Education and Industrial Training Board, held a meeting with the agitating PTU employees on the university campus here today. 

The standoff between the PTU and its contractual employees remained unresolved after the meeting. The strike entered its fifth day today.

Nagpal assured members of the PTU Non-Teaching Employees’ Association that their services would also be regularised as had been done in case of the ad-hoc employees of the board earlier. The employees demanded a copy of the notification to prove the same. Unable to get the copy the employees refused to resume work.

Meanwhile, PTU registrar, Sarojini Sharda Gautam, has issued a warning to the agitating employees asking them to resume work. She urged the staff members to resume work to avoid any action by the university.

She said, “An attempt has also been made to clarify the recruitment process to address the demand of the staff for regularisation. The employees have not responded to the first appeal which has threatened the normal functioning of the university.”

Employees working on a contract basis with the university are demanding that they must be regularised instead of appointing new staff since they had been appointed by the state government as they fulfilled the eligibility criteria adopted by the university. The PTU VC Dr S.K. Salwan stated that the authorities had already given all possible relaxation to the employees by way of increasing age limit and counting their experience with the university while making fresh appointments.

The standoff remains unresolved despite recent efforts by the former technical education minister and senior Akali Dal leader Jagdish Singh Garcha held meetings with the employees as well as officials of the university on December 14 but failed to resolve the strike.

PTU Employees Union president Yadwinder Singh had stated that the dharna outside the university campus will continue till a committee is formed to concede to their demands. He demanded that three members of the union must also be included in the committee.  

Hoshiarpur, December 17
The district consumers forum, headed by its president P.D. Goel, ordered New India Assurance Company Limited (NIACL) to pay Rs 1,83,118 to Meenakshi Jarial of local Model Town with an interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from the date of complaint till the payment, with the further direction to pay Rs 1,000 as cost of litigation within one month from the date of receipt of this order.

Jarial had filed a complaint with the forum alleging that the NIACL had repudiated the claim of her comprehensively insured Tata truck bearing temporary registration number PB-10-BG-6866, which met with an accident on January 14, 2007, on the railway overbridge at Mansar village, on the ground that the vehicle was not registered on the date of accident and did not have a valid fitness certificate and route permit.

The vehicle in question was new so the fitness certificate for one year was not required as such.

The consumer forum held that the insurance company could repudiate the claim in case there was a breach of the policy conditions and the breach was fundamental or material so as to vitiate the insurance contract. It was further held that there was no connection between the possession of the registration certificate (RC), route permit and fitness certificate of the vehicle and the cause of the accident.

The non-possession of the registration certificate, route permit and fitness certificate was neither the cause of accident nor responsible for the damage caused to the vehicle. The consumer forum remarked that the NIACL was not justified in repudiating the claim of the complainant, which amounted to deficiency in service. 

Phagwara, December 17
Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has appointed former minister Joginder Singh Maan as convenor of the Scheduled Caste & backward Classes Welfare Committee. The working president of PPCC Mahinder Singh Kaypee will be the chairman of the panel.

The appointment letter was received by Maan today. Former minister Ch Santokh Singh, ex-MPs Santosh Chaudhry amd Mohinder Singh Kalyan, ex-minister Ch Jagjit Singh, ex-MLA Dr Raj Kumar Verka, Tarlochan Singh Sund, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa will be the members of the panel looking after the interests of Dalits. Several Congress leaders, including, BCC(U) president Pawan Sharma Pappi, BCC(R) president Inderjit Singh Khaliyan, former Nagar Council chief Malkiat Singh Ragbotra, Sanjeev Bugga, Ashwini Sharma,G agandeep Soni, Sanjeev Gupta, Daljit Raju, Avtar Dhillon, Surjit Kherra and Kusum Sharma have hailed Maan’s appointment. — OC 

Hoshiarpur, December 17
The members of Punjab pensioners’ welfare association have alleged that the state government has failed to give them their due.

In a resolution, the association president Mohinder Singh Parwana urged the government to fulfill their long pending demands, including a national-level criterion for fixing the salary of the pensioners, cancellation of the July 2003 notification which reduced the commutation pension and restoration of the dearness allowance to those parents whose son or daughter had obtained employment on compassionate grounds.

A demand to give 5 per cent old-age allowance to all those pensioners, who are above 80 years, was also put forward. A function was also held to felicitate the elderly pensioners. Deputy commissioner DK Tiwari was the chief guest, He assured the pensioners that all their difficulties would be solved. In case of any problem, they could personally meet him he added. 

Phagwara, December 17
Three members of Babbar Khalsa International, including Gurinder Singh, a resident of Friends colony, Zorawar Singh, a resident of Mandi Gobindgarh and Parminder Singh, a resident of Amloh who were arrested by Phagwara Police along with a huge quantity of RDX on December 13 were produced before the judicial magistrate today. 

They sent them to police custody till December 20 for further investigations.

Advocate K.S. Hundal appeared in the court on behalf of the accused. He alleged that the accused had been tortured by the police. The police denied the allegations saying the accused had been medically examined by the doctors of the civil hospital before producing them in the court.

When contacted senior medical officer, Dr Kailash Kapoor, confirmed that two of the accused Parminder Singh and Zorawar Singh were medically examined before producing them in the court around 3 PM.

The two were found to be normal. The three will be produced in the court on December 20. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and DGP N.P.S. Aulakh have lauded role of the Phagwara Police in the case.  

Jalandhar, December 17
Western disturbances have further plummeted temperatures in the region with Adampur touching a new low of 0.6 degree Celsius this season. This is a departure of minus 3.2 from the normal according to the Met station, Adampur.

Amritsar recorded a low of 1.6 compared to 1.8 degrees recorded yesterday, while Pathankot recorded 4.4 degree Celsius from 5.4 degrees recorded yesterday.

Chandigarh stood at a low of 6.6 degrees compared to 5.4 yesterday. Bathinda recorded a low of 5.4 same as yesterday. Ambala recorded a low of 4.2 degrees compared to 3 degrees yesterday. Jammu recorded a low of 7.2 degrees from a low of 5.4 yesterday.

Srinagar reeled under severe cold at a low of minus 7.2 degree Celsius compared to 5.4 degrees recorded yesterday. Udhampur recorded a low of 1.6 degree Celsius, which is higher than Adampur.

According to army and Met station spokesperson Naresh Vig, the changes in temperatures are occurring due to western disturbances. For the next 24 hours, the Met department has predicted fog and mist at several places in the morning.

Dew in the morning will be followed by fine weather throughout the day, Vig added. Changes in the western disturbances are likely to cause more variations in temperature in the region.