NEIGHBOURHOOD

Real Punch
Back home, Akhil’s god to many
Ravi Dhaliwal

Patiala, August 18
In an attempt to uplift the standard of education in government primary and middle schools, the government has granted Rs 8.25 crore under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan scheme.

This was stated by deputy commissioner D.S. Grewal while talking to The Tribune here today. Out of this grant, Rs 1.70 crore will be spent on 68 primary schools for the construction of rooms while 100 middle schools will be given Rs 2.50 crore. The DC also disclosed that 22 primary schools of the district had been upgraded to middle schools. An amount of Rs 1.32 crore will be spent on upgrading the existing infrastructure in these schools.

He added that under the scheme, 32 schools had been identified which had no drinking water facilities. To overcome this, an amount of Rs 17.5 lakh was being spent to ensure proper supply of drinking water. An amount of Rs 73 lakh is being spent on upgrading infrastructure in 322 middle and 1,022 primary schools in the district.

A 20-day training would be given to teachers to improve their technical skills. The cost of this camp, which would be around 83 lakh, would be borne by the state government, he said.

He further said he had urged officials at the block and village levels to ensure participation of the volunteers for the Rashtriya Pendu Rozgar Guarantee Yojna. He said he had directed officials to prepare job cards for these volunteers. Till now, 21,499 job cards had already been prepared by the district administration, the DC informed.

Patiala, August 18
The vice-chancellor of Punjabi University, Dr Jaspal Singh, has made a strong declaration today for making every department of the university as financial autonomous for its refurbishing, and toning up on their own.

He said that the departments would be allocated their share out of the total annual budget of the university without any hassles of getting prior approval from the authorities concerned.

Dr Jaspal also announced special grants for renovating and making the university library, Guru Gobind Singh Bhawan, Museum and Art Gallery and the Arts Auditorium centrally air-conditioned. The science auditorium, he said, has already been made centrally air-conditioned.

The vice-chancellor also fixed two dates of retirement-June 30 and December 31 for teachers. This will largely benefit the faculty financially and students on the academic front. Another benefit announced was that of reduction of service by five years for getting all pensionary benefits from 33 to 28 years.

He further said that the UGC team that had visited the university last month to take stock of the progress made by the university during the tenth plan and allocate budget for the next five-year plan has given “exceptionally good” report. “A substantial rise is expected in the grant to be allocated to the university for the next plan,” he added.

Dr S S Khehra, registrar, said that the vice-chancellor had cleared a larger chunk of backlog of promotions of teachers under the career advancement scheme. More than 60 teachers have been promoted as senior lecturers, readers and professors during the last two months, he said. Interviews for ten promotions are to be held this week, he added.

Dr Sucha Singh Gill, dean, Academic Affairs said the university has seen about 15 per cent rise in admission to various courses, especially in the humanities and social sciences streams.

He laid emphasis on innovative practices as impact factors to be showcased during the visit of the NAAC team from August 26 to 28 for peer group assessment for granting upgraded accreditation to the university. The university was granted highest five-star status by the NAAC during the previous period of five years.

Bassi Pathana, August 18
SAD councillor Kulbhushan Malhotra, alias Babla, took charge as council president during an impressive function today. The leaders of all factions of SAD, including newly nominated district SAD president Jagdeep Singh Cheema, MLA Didar Singh Bhatti and Rajesh Pal Singh Lalli, attended the installation ceremony.

Taking the charge officially, Babla handed over Rs 1 lakh to the executive officer for development works and announced not to take salary from the council. It is worth mentioning that earlier, Babla had donated Rs 1 lakh to the council when his wife Sunita Malhotra took charge as the council president.

Addressing the function, Cheema said it was his first function after taking over as president. He urged all leaders and workers present there to co-operate so that the policies and programmes of the government and message of Sukhbir Badal could be taken to the grass-root level. He said the services of all those who would work for the party would be duly recognised. He urged all leaders to work unitedly for the party by ignoring petty differences. He assured to initiate development in the town.

MLA Didar Singh Bhatti appreciated the decision of the high command in nominating Cheema as the district president. He also congratulated Babla for taking the charge and said government was committed to the development of the town.

Kalka, August 18
Resentment prevails among villagers of this subdivision against the allotment of plots under the below the poverty line (BPL) scheme to migrant labourers, tenants and other “outsiders” in the rural areas.

Villagers said they had consolidated shamlat land since generations with enterprise and they feared their own people would be deprived of land.

Lajja Ram, a Congress leader and former chairman of INFED, Haryana, has warned the government against any such allotment to any person who is not part of the “sajra nasab” of the village, else they would take legal recourse.

It is learnt that outsiders have obtained ration cards in various villages, which though not a document of identity, may be misused during the allotment of plots.

Already there is rampant encroachment of shamlat land in several villages of this area by outsiders who allegedly sell land at hefty prices on the basis of affidavit.

The green cover here is disappearing fast and a concrete jungle is coming up. The villagers hold the government responsible for the destruction of their social and cultural fibre.

Rajpura, August 18
A large number of farmers from seven villages today burnt the effigy of Rajpura MLA Raj Khurana for not helping them to get a good price for their fertile land to be acquired by the government for a thermal power plant.

The villagers alleged that the MLA, instead of helping the farmers in getting good price for their land, was ignoring the interests of people for a long time. The effigy was burnt at Old Grain Market.

The villagers had been agitating against the acquisition of 1078.16 acres of fertile land for proposed supercritical thermal power plant. They demanded Rs 1 crore for their land.

The government has proposed to build 1320 MV supercritical thermal power plant on the fertile land. Villagers rued that there was panic as many of the farmers, some of them good agriculturists, would loose fertile land.

"No farmer would be able to sustain agriculture if such trend of land acquirement continues," said Gurbax Singh, former sarpanch of Sadhror village.

The villagers said the MLA had promised the villagers that he would do every possible thing to get good price for their land, but did nothing.

"We have always voted for the MLA during elections and now he is doing nothing to help the farmers," said Rashpal Singh.

Villagers said the government was not acquiring entire landholdings and instead had decided to take just a few portions. "Once the farmers are dislocated, they would never be able to settle down again. I would not be able to buy consolidated land at any other place while leftover small portions of land will be of no use," said village lambardar Balwant Singh.

The villagers had been holding protests against the land acquisition by blocking traffic and staging dharnas in front of the SDM office.

The villagers from seven villages Suralkalan (with 330.12 acres), Suralkhurd (262.98 acres), Nalaskhurd (221.58 acres), Nalaskalan (37.60 acres), Raimajra (27.26 acres), Sadhror (174.84 acres), Rangian (23.78 acres) have also staged dharnas outside the office of the Rajpura SDM a number of times demanding Rs 1 crore per acre.

The villagers also rued that 5 million ton coal would reportedly be burnt in the thermal plant increasing pollution level in entire area.

Senior officials said the government would give Rs 34 lakh per acre and many farmers wanted that their land be included in the thermal plant.

MLA Raj Khurana said he was no authority to get Rs 1 crore to the farmers. However, he was always there to help them. "They went to the CM on their own, but got nothing there. I have told them to come to me with a memorandum, but they all are singing different tones," he said.

Kharar, August 18
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) today imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on various residents of three villages.

A team of PSEB officials comprising SDOs, JEs and XEN conducted raids at around 4 am and detected as many as 15 kundi connections in Cholta Khurd, Cholta Kalan and Pannuan villages.

XEN P.S. Bains and Kharar SDO Gurvinder Singh said stringent action would be taken against the defaulters. “We have already warned the villagers not to steal electricity,” he added.

Ropar, August 18
Deputy commissioner Baldeo Purushartha today convened a meeting with various department officials to review flood control measures in the district.

All officials have been told not to switch off their mobile phones as the next 72 hours would be very crucial keeping in view heavy rains and rising level of water.

ADC (g) Arshdeep Singh Thind was made the in charge of Nangal and Anandpur Sahib while ADC (D) was given the charge of Chamkaur Sahib and Ropar.

As many as 42 rescue centres have been formed in entire district and officials have been told to remain alert and be in touch with the village heads and other officials. They have been told not to leave their headquarters. The concerned officials of various departments have been told to plug various breaches in canals. B&R department officials have been ordered to repair the damaged roads. Tehsildars were ordered that girdawari should be as per the calamity relief fund guidelines to uninsured people only.

Patiala, August 18
On a call given by the All-India State Bank Officers Federation, representing State Bank of India and associate banks, complete strike was observed by officers of State Bank of Patiala against the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with State Bank of India.

While talking to mediapersons, general secretary of Associate Banks Officers’ Association Amar Singh said a unit of State Bank of Patiala informed that all unions were opposed the merger move of public sector banks. The federation was agitating against the merger and for extension of SBI superannuation benefits to associate banks. He cautioned the Indian Banks Association and Government of India that if the demands were not settled to the satisfaction of the officers and employees, the officers would go on indefinite strike in September.

Chandigarh, August 18
Delhi Public School, Chandigarh defeated DPS Jhakri by 37 runs and moved to the finals of North Zone-I Inter DPS Cricket Tournament (under-14). The tournament was held at DPS Chandigarh school grounds in Sector 40, here, today.

Paritosh of DPS Chandigarh, chipped in with an unbeaten 40 for the winning team. The maximum wickets were taken by Sai and Rubal. Dhruv Goel of DPS Jakhri gave a spectacular performance by taking four wickets in four overs at 20 runs.

In the second match, DPS Jagadhri, Yamunanagar, posted a one wicket win over DPS Karnal to enter the final. After restricting DPS Karnal to 87 runs in 19 overs, DPS Jagadhri, Yamunanagar scored the required runs in 10 overs with one wicket to spare. Aditya of Yamunanagar team made 29 runs.

Tomorrow the finals will be played between DPS Chandigarh and DPS Jagadhri, Yamunanagar for the first and second position at DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh at 9:00 a.m. Another match will be played for third and fourth position between Jakhri and Karnal teams at DPS Chandigarh school ground.

The scores (semifinal):

DPS Chandigarh: 120 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs

DPS Jakhri: 89 runs all out

DPS Jagadhri, Yamunanagar - 89 runs for 9 wickets in 10 overs.

DPS Karnal: 87 all out in 19 overs.

Mohali, August 18
The police has booked chief editor and news editor of a vernacular daily newspaper and a writer on charges of hurting the religious sentiments of a community as members of the Punjab Brahmin Sabha staged a protest outside its office.

SP (city) Varinder Pal Singh said the case had been registered against chief editor Joginder Singh, news editor Mohammad Aslam and writer Ashwini Kumar on the complaint of Devi Dayal Prashar, president of the Punjab Brahmin Sabha. The case was registered under Sections 295-A, 153-B, 500 and 120-B of the IPC. Heavy police force was deployed near the newspaper office to avoid any untoward incident. Barricades were put up on roads leading to the office.

Members of the Brahmin Sabha, who gathered to hold protest, were stopped by the police from going near the office. The protesters, however, managed to make their way. They raised slogans against the newspaper and also burnt the effigies of the chief editor and writer.

Prashar told newspersons that the writer of the news item published on August 15 had allegedly distorted historical facts while writing on Bhagwan Parsu Ram. Wrong use of words had been made while translating the piece. This had hurt the religious sentiments of the community.

The protesters later met the SSP.

Chandigarh, August 18
A ten-day advanced workshop on Haryanvi folk music commenced at the Punjab Kala Bhavan here today under the aegis of department Information and Public Relations, Haryana in collaboration with NCZCC Allahabad and Punjab arts Council.

The project conceived by KK Khandelwal IAS is aimed at documenting the folk music, especially the melody of those old folk instruments. The department had sought the expert guidance of the Bollywood music director, JP Kaushik.

Only well accomplished folk artists of Haryana, including folk ballad singers and musicians of sarangi, nagada, chimta, been, bansuli, tumba, kartal and others are participating in the workshop, said BS Balhara, project director.

Talking to the Tribune JP Kaushik said, “As the folk music styles and forms are not fixed with the rigidity of cultivated or classical music which is codified in notation writing, the pattern of same folk composition differs when presented by different artists.”

“We are striving to evolve the folk melodic compositions in proper rhythmic formats and audio-visual effects record these in the most modern studio for the promotion of otherwise rich Haryanvi folk music at national and International levels. Besides, all the twenty artists attending the workshop will be given advanced training to standardise their music compositions,” he added.