Jalandhar, September 21
A week after The Tribune highlighted the outbreak of dengue with death of a teenager at a private hospital, the district administration confirmed four dengue cases here today.

The health authorities have also submitted a comprehensive report on the
outbreak of dengue, and about the number of dengue patients in the district,
to the government.

The district health authorities have confirmed only those cases which were either registered at the civil hospital or on the information of certain private hospitals having dengue positive cases with them.

Sources in the health department revealed that the number of dengue cases might be much higher as almost all the hospitals were hesitant to disclose information about the dengue patients with them.

The district health authorities have been receiving information from two hospitals - Paul Hospital and Sacred Heart Hospital - on regular basis since the outbreak of the disease in the city and vicinity.

Talking to The Tribune, district health officer Dr Raman Trehan revealed that four patients - Kulwinder Singh, Jatinder Thakur, Rita Thakur and Naresh Kumar - have been confirmed positive for dengue.

“The district authorities have even sent the report regarding the outbreak of the disease to the Punjab government,” claimed Dr Trehan.

A suspected dengue case is confirmed to be positive when the report of IGM test is positive with the platelet count being around 40,000, claim epidemiologists.

Interestingly, the private hospitals and the Jalandhar chapter of the Indian Medical Association, Punjab, have not come forward with confirmed or suspected cases of people with dengue undergoing treatment with them.

Ironically, the IMA feels that the number of dengue cases was too less to be disclosed to the district health authorities or claim it as an outbreak of the disease.

In the local civil hospital, over 30 suspected cases of dengue have been registered in over a week out of which only four were confirmed positive.

In a door-to-door drive launched by the health authorities for collecting blood samples, a team of the department covered 278 houses in Khurla Kingra, Ghandi Camp, Preet Nahgar in Sodal and Amar Garden and prepared 119 blood slides of suspected patients on Saturday.

Jalandhar, September 21
With its campaign to bring every child under the purview of compulsory education, the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) authorities recently completed the house hold survey (HHS) which was started by human resource development, government of India, in the month of January this year.

The three-day survey was conducted from January 29 to February 3. The survey was conducted with an aim to reduce the drop-out-rate of the students, physically assess the working of the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and initiate alternative innovative education (AIE) centres in various parts of the district.

The SSA officials were asked to identify 4,045 school children aged 8-14 years. Out of these, 1,911 have been admitted in AIE centres in the district.

“At present, we are focusing on the 1,561 children for whom the SSA is in the process of starting up “mobile AIE centres” to teach one and all,” said district project coordinator, SSA, Rajiv Kumar Joshi.

According to sources, the SSA officials have so far placed as many as 573 children in regular schools from HHS.

The SSA officials got a target of 2,993 children in the age group of 6-8 out of which 1,512 children were identified from HHS, 447 from EGS and 352 from AIE.

The rest of the 682 children are those who have either migrated to other places or special children who require aides.

“The survey report has been implemented in such a manner that not a single
child from any part of the district would be left without education. For this
purpose, we have started AIE centres for the EGS children under which they
would study for a period of nine months, after which they would be sent to
government schools,” maintained Joshi.

Initially, the SSA had asked the Jalandhar-based NGOs to come forward to teach the drop-outs but did not receive much response.

At present the SSA has recruited ‘education volunteers’ to achieve this purpose. The children are being taught in village gurudwaras, community halls and government schools. The SSA has already started approximately 70 schools.

Kapurthala, September 21
One person was killed and two others were injured when their jeep rammed into a tree on Fatudinga road here on Sunday.

According to sources, the mishap took place after driver lost control over the wheel. The deceased has been identified as Gurpal Singh (20) of Jhal Thekeriwal village.

The injured Gunjan Singh of Fazalpur and Kashmir Singh of Ghughbet were rushed to the local civil hospital, from where they were shifted to a Jalandhar hospital.

Gurpal Singh’s body would be handed over to his family members after the post-mortem examination, said a police official.

Batala, September 21
A young woman, Sukhwinder Kaur, daughter of Harvinder Singh of Saidpur village, was found dead in suspicious circumstances here on Friday.

The police have conducted the inquest proceedings under section 174 Cr PC and the dead body was sent for post mortem examination here on Saturday.

The father of the deceased Harvinder Singh alleged that Sukhwinder, who was married six years ago to Sukhdev Singh, was subjected to cruelty by her in-laws who were pestering her for dowry.

Despite the complaint of Sukhwinder’s father, the police allegedly did not
register any case.

“The police is trying to hush-up the matter saying that the viscera of the deceased were to be sent for analysis and only after the receipt of the report would further action will be taken”, alleged Sukhwinder’s father.

Police station SHO Narinder Singh, Kila Lal Singh evaded the query that apparently the offence could be registered in the face of the complaint but he maintained that the report of the viscera will be the basis of the FIR.

The relatives of the deceased, however, were adamant and said they would report the matter to higher authorities to get justice.

Chandigarh, September 21
Twentythree Punjab police personnel, declared proclaimed offenders in an encounter case, but still serving in different police stations, will soon have to face trial.

Taking up the pleas by deputy superintendents of police and other officials now posted in various districts, including Patiala, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has categorically stated “enough is enough. They have already delayed the trial for almost a decade and a half, and it’s high time they are now made to face the trial”.

Justice Ranjit Singh has also directed senior superintendents of police to ensure they are produced before the court of law.

“The SSPs of the districts, where they are presently posted, are expected to
realise that it is their legal duty to arrest all the proclaimed offenders, even if
they are police officials.”

Justice Ranjit Singh has further asserted: “They should not be seen shirking from their legal duties in this regard. They must realise that be you ever so high, the law is above you.”

The matter pertains to the escape of constables Rajwinder Singh and Mukhtiar Singh from police custody, and the death of one Baljit Singh.

Jalandhar Sessions Judge conducted an inquiry, following which the petitioners filed four separate petitions assailing the report.

Among the arguments raised in defence, the petitioners argued even if their complicity was accepted for argument sake, they were protected under the Punjab Disturbed Areas Act and the Central Government’s prior sanction was required.

The petition was dismissed by the high court on May 4, 2001, but it was observed that the sanction issue would have to be raised before the trial court.

Nearly seven years after the orders, officers Ram Singh and others approached the high court by filing the current petition with an “interesting prayer”. They asked for the implementation in “letter and in spirit” of the 2001 order.

In a crisp order running into seven pages, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: The petitioners were left with no option, but to approach the trial court to raise the plea seeking protection. They have not done so even after a lapse of over nine years. Apparently, they are using one mode or another to delay and prolong the trial.

Their conduct certainly cannot be appreciated. Apparently, all these moves are being made just to avoid appearing before the court when seen in the light that their prayer for pre-arrest bail in this case has already been declined.

Justice Ranjit Singh added: “The petitioners consider themselves to be privileged
accused and are attempting to seek special treatment. They are proclaimed
offenders. Serving police officials, 23 in number, are fugitive and still looking
for special treatment.

“The court can certainly ask as to why they have not been arrested and brought before law for imparting justice? Respective SSP has to do a lot of explaining. Someone is clearly acting to shield these police officials. It is high time that they are now made to face the process of law for their commission/omission”.

Drawing attention to gravity of offence, Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: The petitioners are accused of serious offence for having killed innocent persons in an encounter.

They have been approaching this court by way of one petition or the other, but would not think it proper to appear before the trial court. They are, thus, purposely avoiding appearance and have rightly been declared proclaimed offenders”.

Amritsar, September 21
With more than 8,000 seats in various engineering colleges lying vacant and over 10,000 seats in B.Ed colleges awaiting students, the education analysts are alarmed over the growing rate of Punjabi youth opting for foreign universities to realise their education dream.

According to well-placed sources, around 5,000 to 6,000 students from Punjab
have enrolled in various courses abroad this year. The figure is significantly higher
than previous years.

The details available with The Tribune reveal that majority of the students are heading to Australia which offers better educational packages, besides the offer of permanent residency along with job guarantee.

According to figures, more than 35,000 students from the country fly to Australia every year, while 28,000 go to UK, for pursuing higher studies. Over one lakh students migrate to other countries like USA, Canada and EU nations.

The education planners and administrators reveal that education sector is one of the mainstays of Australian economy which is getting added boost from India and other Asian countries.

The experts here feel the need for an immediate long-term plan to reverse the exodus and ensure that students prefer their country’s institutes to offshore schools. Says Dr RS Bawa, registrar of the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar:

“Foreign shores provide fabulous job vistas and hefty pay packages in comparison to what our country offers. At present, the Punjabi youth have limited career options, IT, engineering and MBA, to name a few. The need is to develop a corporate culture at par with the best in the world to attract and absorb talent. Only then we can change the trend.”

Amritsar, September 21
There is an urgent need to revise medical education system to get it in sync with the modern times.

Amendments are required in the existing medical services policy so that the benefits actually reach ruralites who constitute around 80 percent of country’s population.

These were the key deliberations made during a continuing medical education (CME) programme held at local government medical college today on the theme of “Medical education in the era of globalisation.”

The event, attended by over 400 delegates from Punjab, was organised by the
Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine in collaboration with Social
Medicine Association.

The experts were of the opinion that rules must be framed for the doctors who leave the country in search of greener pastures abroad.

Dr Deoki Nandan, director of Institute of Health and Family Welfare, said with the national health scenario rapidly changing, there’s need to ensure practical-oriented teaching in MBBS course.

“This is important because according to a report, a large number of medical graduates had no knowledge of simple procedures etc,” added Nandan.

Dr GPI Singh, professor and head of department of community medicine, DMC Ludhiana, in his keynote address, pointed out that even though there were considerable directions given by MCI regarding the course content, the qualitative aspects of the curriculum as well as the teaching methodology practiced by majority of medical colleges leaves much to be desired.

He said medical education experts must be part of the MCI team to form the syllabus which needs an overhaul.

“The present guidelines by MCI were largely unimaginative and out of sync with the current objectives of medical education,” said the professor.

He added that globalisation has given rise to new challenges and demands which need to be fulfilled to ensure that technology benefits percolate to grass roots.

Dr AS Padda, new director of Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, emphasised on the need for problem-based learning.

“It is important to identify what was vital and desirable in terms of knowledge and skills that a doc must possess,” he said, adding that doctors should be given adequate incentives to motivate them to work in remote areas.

Dr Tejbir Singh, chairman CME, said the focus should be on providing proper healthcare facilities to economic backward sections of the society who cannot afford even simple treatments.

Jalandhar, September 21
Members of 1984 Sikh Pervasi Sangharsh Committee Punjab today handed over a memorandum to Punjab Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal flaying the government’s alleged failure to implement rehabilitation schemes for victims of anti-Sikh riots.

General Secretary of committee Manmohan Singh Saluja said despite tall promises in the election manifesto, the SAD-BJP has not done much for the riot victims.

“In the name of rehabilitation, we have received Red Cards. We have neither been allotted LIG quarters as promised nor given any employment facilities,” he claimed.

“The government had announced to provide free education to the children of riot-affected families, but the schools and colleges are giving a measly 20 to 25 per cent fee concession. We feel cheated,” said Saluja.

The members through their memorandum to the CM maintained that if the government fails to take necessary steps for the welfare of the riot victims, the committee members would start a state-wide protest in the coming days.