Jalandhar, April 1
The government is yet to enact a law to protect the rights of hundreds of youths duped by unscrupulous travel agents and hapless brides abandoned by their NRI grooms every year.

Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) chief Balwant Singh Ramoowalia said he had been urging the government to make some changes in the existing laws but the matter had not been resolved for obvious reasons. A majority of the agents enjoyed political patronage and the grooms who abandoned their brides were also in the same league, he pointed out.

Claiming that incidents of matrimonial fraud were increasing, on Tuesday he enabled the refund of Rs 5 lakh to Amandeep Singh of Sirih village in Nakodar subdivision, who was cheated by an NRI girl by solemnising a paper marriage with him promising to take him abroad. Not only boys but even NRI girls are nowadays a part of the racket for easy pickings, he added.

The former Union minister revealed that the necessary paper work was completed with a girl of the same subdivision settled in Canada. Once the promised amount of Rs 8 lakh was given, the bride backtracked and refused to take Amandeep to Canada.

By pressurising the family of the girl here, LBP leaders managed a compromise between both the parties and finally Rs 5 lakh was returned to the cheated groom, Ramoowalia added.

Highlighting another such case, Ramoowalia returned Rs 2 lakh to Harvinder Singh Kang, resident of Lalheri village of Ropar district, who was cheated by a Chandigarh-based woman agent on the promise of sending his son abroad.

In view of the recurring incidents, the LBP chief demanded stern laws to deal with such agents so that the innocent youth of Punjab could be saved from frauds.

Later, he felicitated Sucha Singh Kaler, a Punjabi journalist of Canada, and his wife for the latter’s contribution in spreading the use of Punjabi language and culture, especially in Canada and North America.

Hoshiarpur, April 1
No criminal case of negligence would be registered against doctors before conducting an enquiry in case of alleged negligence in treatment.

This was declared by deputy commissioner N.K. Wadhawan while addressing an interaction organised by the Nursing Home Doctors Association (NHDA) here today.

Wadhawan said, “In case charges of negligence in treatment are brought against a doctor, it would be investigated by an expert committee. The team would work as per the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in its judgement in Jacob Mathew vs State of Punjab and others case in 2005”.

He said he would recommend and forward the doctors’ demand of seeking an act for prohibition of violence against doctors by the patients’ relatives. The act would be on the lines of the Andhra Pardesh Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2008. “This act makes the violence against doctors a cognizable, non-bailable offence, punishable with imprisonment for three years and fine up to Rs 50, 000,” he added. Besides, any damage to the property was also recoverable at double the rate of the original purchase price from the offenders.

Wadhawan exhorted the doctors to give subsidised treatment to the poor patients and asked them to take help from the Red Cross and use its physiotherapy centre for poor patients.

Dr Kuldeep Singh, former president of the IMA, Punjab, Dr Rajender Sharma, secretary, legal cell of the IMA, Punjab, along with NHDA president Dr Sarita Gulati presented a memorandum to the DC.

Nawanshahr, April 1
The parents of the victims of school bus tragedy, which occurred on January 25 this year, are still awaiting compensation announced by technical education minister Chaudhary Swarna Ram when he presided over the district-level Republic Day function here. Three children were killed and two injured when the school van of St. Joesph Convent School, Mallpur, collided with a truck on Banga Road here on January 25.

The very next day, the heart-rending tragedy was not only mourned at the Republic Day function held at the ITI here but chief guest Chaudhary Swarna Ram also announced a compensation amounting to Rs 1 lakh each to the parents of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the parents of the seriously injured kids. But till now, the announcements made at the Republic Day function are just proving to be “false promises”.

“We have met the senior officials of the district administration a number of times, but received nothing except assurances,” said affected parents while talking to The Tribune. General assistant to deputy commissioner-cum-SDM Upkar Singh, when contacted on the phone, said the district administration had been pursuing the matter with the authorities concerned. Besides, the local school management had also been asked to provide compensation to the victims.

The school management has also taken up the matter with the higher authorities, he added. The affected parents have urged local MLA Jatinder Singh Kariha to take up the matter either with Chaudhary Swarna Ram or the authorities concerned at Chandigarh to expedite the process of sanctioning the compensation amount. — OC

Jalandhar April 1
Family members of Shabeer Mann, deceased sarpanch of Lesriwal village, falling under Adampur police station, suspected foul play behind his death. On their request, SDM I Bhupinder Singh directed the police to exhume the body for autopsy to know the exact cause of his death.

A converted Christian, Mann succumbed to his injuries on February 16 after being found injured in mysterious circumstances near his village on February 11. First, he was taken to Miglani Hospital in Adampur from where he was shifted to a private hospital in Jalandhar.

He was buried at a Lesriwal cemetery without informing the police on February 17, Adampur SHO Jasbir Singh Randhawa said.

Randhawa said earlier Mann’s family members thought he had sustained injuries due to some accident, but now they suspected he might have been killed by someone due to some political rivalry.

Mann’s brother Mohan Lal lodged a complaint with the CIA, which was investigating the matter. The SDM directed the CIA staff to exhume the body on the request of Mann’s family members.

His body was exhumed this morning in the presence of Adampur naib-tehsildar Amarjeet Singh and SHO Randhawa.

After conducting autopsy, the body was handed over to the family in the evening for its reburial.

While the exact cause of death could not be ascertained during autopsy, the viscera has been sent to forensic laboratory in Patiala for examination.

Hoshiarpur, April 1
To make parents, especially expectant mothers, aware of the fact that daughters are assets and not liabilities, a special campaign will be launched in the last week of April here.

This was stated by MP Avinash Rai Khanna while talking to this correspondent here on Monday.

A special campaign is being launched to motivate working women to join this noble cause to get rid of the evil of female foeticide from society.

A special cell of BJP workers was being constituted which would motivate female employees to join this campaign.

Khanna had recently honoured all the women police officials in his constituency to make the poor parents realise that daughters could also earn bread for the family. He had also organised a seminar on female foeticide on March 23 at Ropar in which many women IAS, IPS and judicial officers participated. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s wife Surinder Kaur presided over and the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court was the chief guest.

Hoshiarpur, April 1
Providing relief to Sohan Lal, a resident of Bajwara village, the district consumers forum, headed by its president P.D. Goel, quashed the demand of Rs 55,278 made by the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) vide a memo on April 5, 2007. The consumers forum further burdened the PSEB with Rs 1,000 as litigation expenses to be paid within one month.

Sohan Lal field a complaint before the forum seeking to quash the demand of the PSEB on the ground that the power load of his connection is .64 KW and the demand is not based on actual consumption.

The PSEB took a plea that as per the report of the ME lab, the meter was found to be working properly and Sohan Lal was liable to pay the amount in question.

The consumers forum held that the ME lab report produced by the PSEB could not be termed as a complete and proper as neither the signatures of the consumer had been obtained nor consent had been placed on record and further the affidavit of the SDO of the lab had not been produced.

Batala, April 1
As many as 55 delegates, including 11 from abroad, took part in the one day international seminar on ‘Globalisation: Concept, trends and movements in different faith communities’, which was organised by Christian Institute for Religious Studies (CIRS) at Baring Union Christian College, here on Tuesday.

Rev RM Chaudhary, director of CIRS welcomed the guests. Speaking on the occasion, Neeraj Kumar Sharma, head of department of philosophy, BUC College, Batala laid stress on the need to incorporate the essence of multiculturalism and the value of respecting others in the futuristic world.

The first technical session was chaired by Prof BL Chakoo, former HoD of department of English, GND University, Amritsar. He said globalisation has resulted in the exploitation of the Third World by developed nations. Dr Anand Chandu Lalm vice-chairman of Baring Union Christian College Association expressed concern over the hijacking of the concept of globalisation by capitalistic forces. Robert Bos, a theologian from Uniting Church, Australia, said globalisation has a tremendous potential to generate universal brotherhood.

Rev. Seforosa Caroll, an Australian with a Fiji origin, shared her experience of migration and marginalisation in society. Rev. Mathew Wilson, an Australian research scholar, expressed his views on interfaith dialogue in Australia.

While presenting Hindu perspective on the theme, Dr BK Sharma, senior lecturer of department of English, BUCC, highlighted the need, role and importance of practice of spiritualism and yoga in the globalised World.

Second technical session was chaired by Bishop PK Samanta Roy from Diocese of Amritsar. He laid stress on providing the distributive justice to those who are leading as sub-human life due to scarcity created by capitalist forces.

Dr Mohammad Habib from department of religious studies, Punjabi University, Patiala presented his paper on ‘globalisation and the muslim religious motivations’ in which he raised some political, economic, social, cultural and religious reasons, due to which Muslim response towards modernity and globalization is ambivalent and suspicious. Dr.Jatinder Kumar Jain, Government College, Nabha, Prof (Dr) Surjit Singh Narang from GNDU, Amritsar and Syed Tanvir Ahmad from Ahmadiya Sect presented their views. SK Kakkar, principal of BUCC presented vote of thanks. 

Chandigarh, April 1
From this session on, the convenience of aspirants for the AIEEE (all-India engineering entrance examination) is a priority with the CBSE. The examination will be held on April 27 and the board has received 8.62 lakh application forms.

Accepting that students face problems due to incorrect entry in “particulars”, the board is putting a correction form on its official website. This can be downloaded and sent to the assistant secretary (AIEEE), Patparganj, New Delhi.

This would benefit applicants who had to go to the Delhi office to make corrections in the forms.

Confirming this, CBSE officials said, “Yes, we are putting up this provision on our official website. Because of the absence of such a provision, we had been receiving complaints from students and their parents that they had to go to the CBSE head office in Delhi for any correction in incomplete or wrong particulars.”

From this year, the board has also introduced e-concept whereby students can apply online through www.aieee.nic.in.

“Due to lack of awareness, students would use this service only to download forms. It can be used to fill forms online,” CBSE officials said.

“Candidates who apply online can intimate us online if their is a mistake in their forms or on the telephone by referring to the application number allotted to them,” they said.

If candidates find their names missing on the board’s website, they should approach the Delhi office along with two copies of their passport-size photographs, remittance fee proof, photocopy of the application form and the original receipt issued by the post office, they said.

The board is in the process of dispatching admit cards. Duplicate admit cards would be sent by post from April 11 to 21 or can be obtained from the Delhi office.