Nawanshahr, January 6
In a bizarre incident, teenage lovers - Hardeep Singh and Gurwinder Kaur - allegedly committed suicide by strangulating themselves at the residence of the deceased girl at nearby Durgapur village, on Sunday.

As per the available information, the family members of Gurwinder were away from the house when Hardeep came to meet her at her residence.

But, some villagers saw him entering the house and they shut the doors of the house from outside and informed the father of the girl about it.

When, the father of the girl returned home, he was stunned to see the bodies of both the lovers hanging from the roof girder.

Perhaps, the teenagers took the extreme step in panic as the boy could not find the way to escape from the house.

SHO city, Rakesh Kumar, immediately reached at the site and started investigation. The bodies were brought to the civil hospital for post-mortem.  

Jalandhar, January 6
Even as the CBSE has laid down certain recommendations and a 100-point scale for admission to nursery classes in its affiliated schools, the authorities here have a mixed reaction to it.

While some principals have said they would strictly follow these suggestions, others have said the methodology was practically applicable only in Delhi or other metropolitan cities. The CBSE recommendations, put up on its official website, call for the elimination of any interview, interaction or observation of children (both in formal or informal conditions) to decide their admission.

The board also made recommendations against any draw system while adding that a formal interaction with parents be carried out only after the list of selected children is displayed. It has also asked the schools to put up the lists of selected candidates on the on the notice board as well as on their website while also giving their points for different criteria and the total points allotted.

Points have been given for children from neighbourhood, siblings studying in the same school, parents as alumni on the campus, girl child, social disadvantage and physical challenge. The recommendations also suggest that the discretion of the school management should not exceed 10 per cent of the total seats.

Police DAV Public School has decided to forego the board criteria. Rashmi Vij, principal of Police DAV Public School says, “The board suggestions are meant only for big cities like Delhi. Distances are short here and children do not need to travel very long in Jalandhar even if they are residing in the fag end of the city. Since our school basically supports police families, we are bound to take all children of police personnel. There are often less than 100 seats for the civilians. One way in which our school follows the new guidelines is that we have children from varied backgrounds. We have a child of gardener or a cook studying with the child of the top cop.”

Eklavya School director Seema Handa too, holds a similar opinion. She insists that the concept of a child coming from a five km radius is a western concept that cannot be applied here. “There, they have good schools in all localities but not here”, she makes a point, adding that interaction with parents is also a must.

Raj Kumar, principal of Dayanand Model School, Dayanand Nagar, said though the admissions in his school are a month away, he had decided to strictly follow the CBSE norms. “We will conduct admission by the point system as has been recommended”, he asserted.

Innocent Hearts School too has decided to apply CBSE guidelines from this time on. Dheeraj Banati, a member of the administration panel of the school, said, “I am not in the favour of holding interviews of parents. Even a parent who is illiterate has the right to impart good education to his child. Since we will not conduct any interview of the parent or the child, the point system will help us form a criterion for admission”.  

Jalandhar, January 6
The NRIs are not only getting palatial houses constructed for themselves in Punjab, but also the donations made by them for various philanthropic works are gaining a significant momentum.

Former media in charge of the NRI Sabha Satnam Singh Chana has prepared a case study by culling the data from 477 villages of Doaba region and come out with a conclusion that the amount of donations made by the NRIs in the past five years has risen by four times. He will present his findings at a conference on “Indian diaspora with focus on the state of Punjab,” scheduled to be held at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in Chandigarh on January 14 and 15.

The study was conducted in two phases. It was conducted in 477 villages falling in seven different subdivisions of Doaba in 2002. Second time, the study was conducted in December, 2007, in 28 villages falling in six different subdivisions out of the earlier 477 villages.

Chana said he had found that an amount of Rs 200 crore had been spent by NRIs in 477 villages till 2002, which averaged to an amount of Rs 40 lakh per village. He said again in 2007, he found that the NRIs in 28 villages, surveyed in the second phase, had contributed Rs 11.53 crore in a span of next five years, which again averaged to an amount of Rs 40 lakh per village. He concluded that the average amount spent till 2002 was equal to the average amount spent in the next five years in these 28 villages.

The survey also showed a trend that the NRIs were now less interested in spending on religious places and more on educational institutions, hospitals and public health. Seven of the 28 villages surveyed in 2007 did not receive a single rupee for religious places.

The study also proved that factionalism somehow affected the donations as three out of the 28 villages where NRIs had contributed Rs 29.38 lakh till 2002 did not receive any contribution in the next five years. These villages include Maheru in Phagwara, Sahlapur Bet in Sultanpur and Sukhani in Kapurthala.

Some villages got a better response from the NRIs in the past five years. Naurang Shahpur in Kapurthala received eight times more donations, Lidhar Kalan in Aur block of Nawanshahr received six times more donations and Autholi in Kapurthala received five times more donations.

Maximum donations were seen to be pouring in from Aur block where an amount of Rs 84 crore came from 74 villages till 2002. The adjoining Phagwara subdivision with 75 villages received only Rs 21 crore from NRIs. The contributions were found to be very low in Hoshiarpur-1 where 155 villages contributed only Rs 11 crore.

The trends showed an encouraging response for spending on education, especially in Aur and Hoshiarpur-2 blocks where 71.73 per cent and 67 per cent, respectively, went to this sector. Phagwara and Tanda showed a reverse trend as 65.5 and 68.2 per cent, respectively, of the total donations went to religious places. Aur block also spent Rs 86.9 lakh on sports tournaments and developing sports infrastructure.

The study also proved that NRIs also showed keen interest in constructing memorial gates with Phagwara leading with Rs 63.85 lakh spent for the purpose. Money spent on crematoriums was also significant with Tanda villages making a contribution of Rs 48.88 lakh. 

Jalandhar, January 6
The brutal murder of principal of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV), along with her cook and two campus security guards, has left the city stunned. Rita Bawa was found stabbed to death at her residence on Saturday night.

The shocked residents were seen visiting the crime scene in large numbers.Among the visitors were some VIPs too. President of Arya Shiksha Mandal and KMV college management committee, Chandra Mohan, reached the campus as soon as he received the information.

Among others who visited the spot included MLA from Jalandhar north constituency, Krishan Dev Bhandari, former minister, Avtar Henry, former deputy mayor, Dr T.L. Bhardwaj and principal and lecturers of various educational 
institutions.

According to sources, Bawa, in her late fifties, was a divorcee and had been staying alone for the past few decades.

Having taught at some other colleges, including Kamla Nehru College, Phagwara, she was to retire from her post in March 
this year.

Her cremation was attended by a large number of distinguished persons from every walk of life at the Krishan Pura crematorium in the evening today.

The police is also trying its best to find answers to questions about the identity of the culprits and the reason behind the brutal killings. So police has been unable to reach to any conclusion and was working on every possible theory, SP City (I) Dr Surinder Kumar Kalia said. 

Amritsar/Nawanshahr, January 6
The Principals’ Association of the GNDU, Amritsar jurisdiction, and Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), condemned the murder of Dr Rita Bawa, principal, and three other employees of the KMV College , Jalandhar. They have decided to keep the colleges in Punjab closed on Monday. 

Giving this information, Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa and Dr Kuldip Singh, general secretaries of the Principals’ Association and PCCTU, respectively, expressed grave concern over the campus security, especially in colleges having hostel facility. They have urged the higher police authorities to take immediate effective steps to ensure campus security. They urged the authorities to book the culprits immediately. Meanwhile, GNDU’s vice-chancellor Dr Jai Rup Singh, dean academic affairs Dr Raghbir Singh and registrar Dr R.S. Bawa along with employees condole the sudden demises of Rita Bawa, principal of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar. 

Hoshiarpur, January 6
As many as 15,000 persons were examined on the first day of the three-day medical camp organised by MP Avinash Rai Khanna in collaboration with the district administration under National Rural Health Mission at Government Senior Secondary School, Garhshankar. 

Khanna said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will be weighed against blood donated at the camp on the valedictory function of the camp to be presided by him on January 6.

School students were also examined at the camp. Patients availed of medical facilities free of cost. As many as 56 government doctors conducted medical check-up at the camp. Deputy speaker, Charanjit Singh Atwal, accompanied by Capt Kanwaljit Singh and Master Mohan Lal, deputy speaker, Punjab, Sat Pal Gosain, BJP chief, Punjab, Rajinder Bhandari, MLAs Sohan Singh Thandal and Amarjit Singh Sahi, deputy commissioner D.K. Tiwari, SSP Anita Punj inaugurated the medical fair.

Atwal said such fairs should be held in rural areas to provide basic health services to the poor from far flung areas. — OC 

Hoshiarpur, January 6
Deputy commissioner D. K. Tiwari, assured a delegation of farmers of the Kandi area that adequate supply of water would be made available to them soon. 

He further assured that a special survey of the area would be conducted to identify poor farmers having small land holdings.

A deputation of Kandi Sangarsh Committee led by state committee member of CPM Comrade Darshan Singh Mattoo and Mohinder Singh Khariar apprised the deputy commissioner, of the apathetic attitude of authorities of the Punjab State Tube 
well Corporation (PSTC) towards them.

A deputation of the committee comprising of Avtar Singh, Gurdev Singh, Jeet Singh, Gurmail Singh, led by the above said leaders met the DC here today.

Comrade Darshan Singh Mattoo said the Kandi Sangarsh Committee and the affected marginal farmers would launch an agitation to pressurise the state government to roll back its anti farmer decision. 

Jalandhar, January 6
Members of the PSEB Employees Joint Forum held a convention to protest against the decision of the government to unbundle the board before February 29.

As many as 600 members took part in the deliberations in which the issue was discussed at length. Those present felt that once the board is divided into many small units, it would pave the way for privitisation of the power sector.

The leaders emphasised that the government was taking a wrong decision and should learn a lesson from other states where unbundling had failed to redress the issue of greater power generation and cutting transmission and distribution losses. In fact the operating costs had increased manifold, they pointed out.

They added that instead of redressing their long-pending demands, the government had opted for breaking up the board. The decision of the government to outsource work was also unfortunate, they said.

It was resolved that the employees would hold a state-level dharna in Chandigarh on February 5 and strike work on February 7.