Tarn Taran, June 13
In an intriguing development, deputy commissioner Ajoy Sharma proceeded on long leave reportedly after pressure from the ruling alliance in view the forthcoming municipal council elections.

This is worth mentioning that about a week ago, senior functionary of the district administration Baldev Singh, the sub-divisional magistrate also went on one-month leave reportedly under similar circumstances.

Talking to The Tribune on the phone, Ajoy Sharma said he had taken a two-day leave, but later he would be going for departmental training for eight weeks.

However, when he was asked to comment on his sudden decision to go on training at the moment when the municipal council elections were round the corner, he declined to comment.

It is learnt that the deputy commissioner had brought this to the knowledge of the Chief Secretary and expressed his helplessness to work under such circumstances.

Reliable sources in the administration revealed that after pressure from the ruling alliance during the recently held panchayati raj institution elections, the DC found it difficult to cope up with the same pressure for the ensuing poll. Hence, he had decided to proceed on leave, they added.

CPI district secretary Tara Singh Khehra described the situation as worrisome and said that a large number of officials in the administration had expressed their mental positions that they were forced to work on the line of the ruling alliance.

Meanwhile, Amritsar deputy commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu has assumed the additional charge of Tarn Taran deputy commissioner after receiving orders from the state government. Sharma proceeded on leave on June 11.

Pannu paid obeisance at Darbar Sahib, Tarn Taran, and later in the day held a meeting with the district officials to take stock of the situation.

Interacting with the administrative officials he assured them that he would devote due time to both the offices at Amritsar and Tarn Taran.

Sandhar (Hoshiarpur), June 13
Life has been one long ordeal for Darshan Kaur. The 60-year-old woman, who hails from Sandhar village near Sham Chaurasi here, spent 16 prime years of life, taking care of her husband Parkash Singh who suffered from a muscle degeneration disease and died bed-ridden.

But it didn’t end her agony. Darshan’s son Tirath was also diagnosed of suffering from the same crippling disease. His lower limbs have degenerated and he moves using his hands or the wheel chair.

No steady earnings have compounded the woes of the poverty-stricken. Darshan, who works as a sweeper in the Central Cooperative Bank of the village, draws a paltry sum of Rs 300 per month. Tirath gets a monthly-disability pension of Rs 250. He also runs a small tea-stall in the village, but it has hardly any takers.

“Though me and my husband lived hand-to-mouth for the first 10 years of marriage, we were a happy couple with three children, two daughters and a son.

But the day my husband started showing signs of lower limb degeneration, our life became a hell-ride,” said Darshan recalling her tragic past.

“Since my husband, who was a cloth-weaver, could not work any longer and my kids were too young, it became my responsibility to earn the daily bread for the family. My only hope was Tirath, but he too acquired the disease when he was Class VI,” added the woman with a tear rolling down her cheek.

Even more shocking is the fact that Tirath’s nephew (sister’s son), Mandeep, who is barely 12 years old, has also started showing the symptoms of the disease.

While Mandeep’s mother is normal, his left leg has become weak and there’s a slight change in his gait.

It may be noted that all the female members of the family, including Tirath’s nieces, are free from any disease. However, all the male members have acquired it at least symptomatically.

Dr Anshuman, a government practitioner, said while the exact problem could be known only after thorough examination of the patients.

“All I can say is that genetic counselling and chromosome testing of Darshan Kaur’s family, especially before any further conception, needs to be done so that it does not get carried on further”, he said.

Jalandhar, June 13
In a bid to provide quality healthcare services at the doorstep of the common man, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has come up with a proposal for restructuring the Subsidiary Health Centres (SHCs) in rural areas in the state.

A meeting in this regard was held at the civil surgeon’s office here today. According to the plan, the health authorities have expanded the services of the SHCs by introducing an extra female auxiliary nursing midwife (ANM) against the previous strength of one male worker and an ANM at the sub-centre.

Apart from this under the changed norms for the SHCs, the population strength of rural dispensary has been increased from 5,000 as against the previous number of 10,000. At present there are 2,858 SHCs in the state and the authorities further plan to increase this number up to 4,000.

Health and family welfare director Dr S.P.S. Sohal said the initiative had been taken keeping in mind the need to improve the existing healthcare delivery.

“The funds for restructuring the SHCs would be made available by the state government and the NRHM. Our aim is to improve the existing infrastructure of the state health services,” he said, adding that some of the rural hospitals and SHCs constructed in the early 1970s would now be scrapped.

Six civil surgeons from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur districts and medical superintendent Dr Ranbir Singh participated in the meeting. — TNS

Hoshiarpur, June 13
Head constable Makhan Singh posted at Mahilpur police station and his nephew were injured when four persons of their village allegedly assaulted them with sharp-edged weapons while they were coming to Mahilpur in their car (DL-2CJ-0267).

According to police sources, Makhan Singh, along with his nephew Gagandeep Singh, was coming to Mahilpur in their car from their village Halluwal around 1.30 pm today.

On the way, when they found the road blocked with boulders they tried to reverse their vehicle, but four youths, Mandeep Kumar, Sanjiv Kumar, sons of Ashvani Kumar, Jatinder Singh, son of Baljit Singh, and Sonu, son of Avtar Singh, did not give them passage which led to a confrontation between them.

The enraged youths assaulted Makhan Singh and Gagandeep with sharp-edged weapons and fled.

Makhan Singh and Gagandeep were admitted to the civil hospital, Mahilpur, from where the former was referred to the DMC, Ludhiana. — OC

Positive results would be seen shortly, claims Hoshiarpur MP Avinash Rai Khanna in a press release here. — OC

Nawanshahr, June 13
The theme of the World Blood Donation Day this year is “Once is not enough, donate it regularly”.

This was disclosed by Pushap Raj Kalia, founder secretary of Blood Donors Council, an NGO working in the field of mobilising voluntary blood donation and safe blood transfusion for the past two decades.

Kalia said every year June 14 is observed as blood donation day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Karl Landsteiner who discovered blood groups.

He said every year 80 million units of blood was collected throughout the world, but only 38 per cent of this collection was attributed to the developing countries which had 82 per cent of the world population.

He said in prosperous states like Punjab people were mainly dependent on the donation from family members and friend circle and that too only at the time of crisis. — OC