Mohali, October 23
It’s surprising but true. The MD Forensic Science degree being given out by the Government Medical College Amritsar for the past 23 years is not recognised by the Medical Council of India.

The degree has been awarded to over a hundred students since the starting of this course in 1985 but these students continue to hold degrees which have no validity. The students cannot apply for government jobs and also cannot teach in government medical colleges anywhere in India or abroad despite availability of jobs in the field.

The MCI’s inspection of the facilities being provided by the college to run this degree was conducted in August this year, 10 years after the last inspection was carried out in 1998. The council has, after the inspection, declared the college unfit to run the course. It has also asked the college not to admit students for the 2009- 2010 batch.

A host of old students who passed out from the college with this degree have approached the government to press upon the college to make efforts to get the degree recognised. “It’s a shameful chapter in the history of the Punjab government. No one bothered to get the MCI inspection done. We had to virtually force the college authorities to invite their team for an inspection. Former students had to even dole out Rs 5,000 each for the arrangements for the MCI’s visit,” alleged a former student.

“We were also told that the deficiencies pointed out by the MCI in its report of 1998 have been met and there is a very strong possibility of getting the course recognised, but nothing materialised,” added the student.

These students added that in case the MCI recognised the course even now, all former students stood to benefit as all degrees given out by the college over the years would be recognised. A similar course run by Government Medical College Patiala is recognised.

Despite the sorry state of affairs, no action has been taken against those responsible for the situation. “Why has no action been taken against the present principal of the college, Dr J Gargi, who is the head of the Forensic Science Department, and the present Director Research and Medical Education (DRME), Dr JS Dalal, who is also the state’s medico-legal adviser for years,” questioned a student.

The students have now written a number of communications to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Punjab Chief Minister to probe the whole matter.

Dr Dalal said the course had never been recognised and the reasons were known only to the current principal. He, however, admitted that when he was the principal of the college, no MCI team visited the college.

Principal Gargi said the deficiencies pointed out by the MCI team were being removed. He denied that any money had been taken from the students for the inspection. “We are trying our best to get the degree recognised,” he said.

Jalandhar, October 23
Political momentum has started picking up in the Majha belt with candidates of the SAD-BJP combine for the Lok Sabha polls preparing for election campaigns. The combine has announced its candidate for all three Lok Sabha seats in the Majha region.

Film star-turned-politician Vinod Khanna will contest as BJP candidate from Gurdaspur and cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar. Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala will contest as SAD candidate from Khadoor Sahib. “The party will start the campaign officially only after the dates for the Lok Sabha elections are announced, but those candidates, whose names have been announced, have been told to start the campaign”, said a senior leader of the SAD.

Though officially no declaration has been made for other Lok Sabha constituencies, the picture for most of these is almost clear. From Sangrur, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa will most probably the SAD candidate and Prem Singh Chandumajra is expected to be fielded by it from Patiala.

From Faridkot, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan is expected to be the SAD candidate and from Jalandhar Pawan Kumar Tinnu seems to be front-runner in the race for SAD ticket. Vijay Sampla may be put up by the BJP from Hoshiarpur that is now a reserved constituency. From Fatehgarh, Charanjit Singh Atwal appears to be leading the race for SAD ticket. The SAD may field a new face replacing Zora Singh Mann from the Ferozepur constituency and from Bathinda certainly some member of Badal family or its confidant will contest the election.

For Ludhiana, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon will most probably put up again this time by the SAD. There is a possibility of BJP demanding the Anandpur Sahib seat from the SAD for Avinash Rai Khanna, who is a BJP member of the Lok Sabha.

Instead of three seats, the BJP has been pressing the SAD for allocation of four this time. However, SAD sources said it would be impossible for it to leave Anandpur Sahib for the BJP because the name of the town was associated with Sikh Gurus and the party would like to field a Sikh candidate from there.

Though the Congress, main opposition party, has not announced any name, it has completed preliminary exercise of preparing a panel of names of “strong” candidates in this regard. Last week, Congress observers visited respective Lok Sabha constituencies.

There are several senior Congress leaders who are this time keen on contesting the Lok Sabha elections. They include former union minister Buta Singh, PPCC president Mohinder Singh Kaypee, union minister Ashwani Kumar, MLA and former Congress minister Partap Singh Bajwa.

For the past several years, Parkash Singh Badal has been taking lead over his political opponents in the announcement of candidates for the elections.

Hazur Sahib, October 23
This small town of Maharashtra, situated on the banks of the Godavari, was like any other centre of pilgrimage a year ago. Now, it has started bustling with the tercentenary celebrations of Gurta Gaddi Diwas amid unprecedented security cover of more than 5,000 personnel.

Today, the RSS organised a nagar kirtan from Narasi village, the native place of Bhagat Namdev whose Bani (holy hymns) have been enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib, to Takht Hazur Sahib. The direct descendant of Bahgat Ramdev, Krishan Nam Dass, Pravin Togdia, international general secretary of the VHP, and a number of senior leaders of the RSS participated in it.

Talking to The Tribune, Togadia said the RSS and the VHP had organised this religious procession with a view to bringing the followers of all bhagatas whose Bani had been enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib in the mainstream of Sikhism. He said Guru Granth Sahib gave the message of universal brotherhood and communal harmony.

However, he parried question whether Sikhs had distinct identity as announced by Akal Takht. He said all Hindus were followers of Sikh Gurus. He further said both Sikhs and Hindus had fought for the national cause and would continue to do so.

Meanwhile, Dr Parvinder Singh Pasricha, chairman, Takht Hazur Sahib Committee, said the management had made arrangements for accommodation of more than two lakh devotees expected to reach here for the celebrations. Congress Working Committee member Iqbal Singh offered Pasricha of all cooperation on behalf of the UPA government. He said the grant under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission had been increased from Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,500 crore for making Nanded an international tourism destination.

Pasricha said a number of serais had been raised here while a huge campsite had been set up at a cost of Rs 60 crore. All facilities, including potable water, medical and langar, would be provided round the clock. As many as 350 buses had been hired by the committee to ferry devotees from the camp to Takht Hazur Sahib.

Expressing satisfaction over the arrangements, Iqbal Singh assured the chairman that the UPA government would ensure complete facelift of the town.

A panorama to be built at a cost of Rs 23 crore would depict the history of Sikh Gurus and Guru Granth Sahib. He said the embankments of the Godavari had been spruced up with landscaping and illumination.

The committee honoured Surjit Singh Barnala, Governor of Tamil Nadu and Iqbal Singh.

Chandigarh, October 23
Cooperative housing from Punjab Housefed is set to challenge the monopoly of private builders both on the outskirts of the city as well as in Kapurthala and other cities in Punjab by providing low-cost housing at competitive prices.

Cooperation minister Capt Kanwaljit stated this at a meet-the-press programme here today. He said Housefed would provide flats at prices ranging from Rs 6 to Rs 8 lakh so that the middle and lower-middle classes, who were being squeezed out of the housing market due to high costs, could also purchase flats in Punjab.

Housefed managing director V. K. Bansal told The Tribune that the agency would invite applications for low-cost flats in Banur and Kapurthala next month. He said 911 flats would come up in Banur on 15.5 acres of land and would be allotted to Class III and Class IV employees of government cooperations.

Bansal said another 200 flats, which would come up in Kapurthala on the Kapurthala-Jalandhar road, would, however, be open to everyone. He said these flats would come up on five and a half acres of land. Ten per cent of houses in both Kapurthala and Banur have been reserved for economically weaker sections and will consist of one-room flats.

A proposal has also been prepared for constructing low-cost housing on 50-acre plots of each of two spinning mills in Abohar and Bathinda, which have closed down for some time. The department has also identified surplus land on the sugar mill premises in Jagraon and Faridkot and is considering using this also to provide low-cost housing.

Bansal said Housefed was consulting Building Material Promotion Council, a subsidiary of the housing ministry, which had recommended use of hollow bricks as well as other effective cost-cutting measures. The cooperative department is also in talks with architects, known for offering low-cost housing solutions. Bansal said by using this expertise, Housefed expected to market its flats at around Rs 750 per square feet.

Meanwhile, the Housefed chairman said that two of its flats projects at Amritsar and Ludhiana were under construction. He said while 92 flats were coming up in Ludhiana, 168 flats were being built in Amritsar.

Allocation of Paddy
Mill owner’s guarantee to lessee arbitrary
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is of the prima facie opinion that the requirement of mill owner’s guarantee before the allocation of paddy to a lessee for milling was apparently arbitrary.

A lessee rice mill is required to furnish a guarantee for being declared eligible for the allocation of paddy. Apart from the mill owner, any eligible rice mill owner was earlier allowed to stand guarantee for the lessee rice mill.

But the state government changed the conditions in the custom milling policy, asking lessee rice mill to furnish the guarantee of the rice mill owner.

Aggrieved, a lessee rice mill has filed a petition in the High Court seeking the quashing of the condition “requiring the petitioner to furnish guarantee of the rice mill owner for the allocation of paddy to the petitioner for milling”.

In his petition placed before the High Court Division bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Nawab Singh, the petitioner contended it had taken a rice mill on lease from the owner for two years from 2007.

Going into the background of the matter, the petitioner contended the Punjab government allocated paddy to rice mills. For the purpose, it prepared a list of eligible rice mills.

After shortlisting, the allocation of paddy was made to all selected rice mills on furnishing adequate guarantee. Counsel for the petitioner contended that the rice mill before the court continued to mill paddy till the end of the paddy season in March.

But the petitioner was, subsequently, not short-listed, following which it approached the director, food and supplies. The director, in turn, told the petitioner it was not eligible as per clause 6 (g) (iii) of the custom milling policy of 2008-09.

Challenging the change in condition, the petitioner said it was left vulnerable at the hands of the lessor. He was well aware that without his furnishing the guarantee, the lessee would not be entitled to the allocation. As such, the lessor was in a position to make unreasonable demands and dictate terms.

Taking up the matter, the Bench observed: Prima facie, we are of the opinion that one can understand the furnishing of a guarantee, but the furnishing of a guarantee from the owner seems to be arbitrary.

Admitting the petition, the Bench added: In the meantime, the respondents are directed to release paddy to the petitioner forthwith on the furnishing of guarantee of two rice millers to ensure the interest of the state.

Jalandhar, October 23
Notwithstanding the announcement by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to provide free treatment to dengue patients in the government hospitals, the health department has not as yet released any circular in this regard.

Moreover, the government has failed to provide additional funds to the health department to tackle the dengue crisis in the state.

As a result, dengue patients are being forced to spend money on their treatment from their own pocket. The patients belonging to poor families have been spending Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 daily on medicines and that, too, while undergoing treatment in government hospitals.

Inquiries by The Tribune revealed that a majority of the government hospitals have been running short of beds for the patients. At certain places, doctors and other paramedical staff have been called back from the field temporarily besides seeking help from ESI hospitals.

Sources in the health department said the department was ill-equipped for conducting confirmatory tests for dengue. To get confirmation, the department had to send blood samples to Delhi.

A resident of Phagwara, Amit Kumar (24), who is undergoing treatment for dengue in the ICU Ward of the civil hospital, Jalandhar, lamented that he had been spending Rs 500 to Rs 700 on medicines every day. The hospital authorities were providing him only pain-killers and glucose free of cost.

“My family has spent almost Rs 5,000 on my treatment so far. I have not received any free medicines from the hospital till date. Moreover, the hospital authorities have not told us about any free treatment of the disease,” he claimed.

Authorities of the Jalandhar civil hospital claim that they have not received any official circular or any communication in black and white in this regard. Dr TP Singh, district epidemiologist, claimed that the department had been refunding the money, charged for tests, after a patient was detected positive for dengue in serology tests. “We in Jalandhar are charging only Rs 400 for a serology test against Rs 1,000 being charged by the private hospitals,” claimed Dr Singh.

Confusion prevails over the allocation of funds for the treatment of dengue patients, admitted to different government hospitals in the state. While officials in the health department said that no instruction had been circulated in writing as yet, Punjab health minister Luxmi Kanta Chawla claims to have authorised the civil surgeons of all districts to spend money from the Natural Calamity Fund.

She claimed the Chief Minister had said that the health department may use money from the Natural Calamity Fund to tackle the dengue crisis in the state. The fund, however, can be spent in specific areas only. Moreover, the state government has not declared the dengue as an epidemic.

Gurdaspur, October 23
The police resorted to a mild lathicharge today when about 350 teachers, including women teachers of the government-aided private schools of the district, allegedly tried to make a forcible entry into the deputy commissioner’s office here. They had earlier held a protest march and a rally in the city to pressurise the Punjab government to implement their already accepted demands.

After resorting to the lathicharge, the police bundled the teachers into buses and took them to the Sadar police station. All the teachers were released late in the evening.

Sources said though they were arrested for violating Section 144 of the CrPC, which was in force in the district, whether criminal cases were registered against them or not by the police could not be known.

In protest against the lathicharge, the Government-Aided School Teachers Union decided to intensify its agitation, which could include closure of private schools for an indefinite period and gherao of Chief Minister after November 5. They also demanded that the police officer, who ordered the lathicharge on them, must be suspended immediately.

The teachers, while talking to The Tribune, alleged that the Punjab government had failed to resume the pension scheme for the staff members of government-aided private schools despite the fact that the SAD (B) made it a poll promise with them.

They added that as the pension scheme had been stopped since 2003, hundreds of teachers of aided private schools had died without availing the benefit of pension. Though the state government had been taking money from them for contribution in the CPF, they were being denied pension without any reason.

Besides, the state government had not been making any recruitment to fill hundreds of vacancies of teachers in the government-aided private schools.

Chandigarh, October 23
The SAD general secretary and Punjab’s co-operation minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh has said that the UPA government has proved to be a failure on three major fronts. These include curbing inflation, protecting the life and property of the people and in curbing the communal and sectarian forces in the country. His party is preparing to confront the government in the Lok Sabha on these issues.

Replying to questions at a meet-the-press programme at the Chandigarh Press Club here today, Capt Kanwaljit Singh said the policies adopted by the Centre on issues like agriculture were responsible for the indebtedness of the Punjab farmers.

“The Centre wants to confine the Punjab farmer to the wheat-paddy cycle, while we want the farmers to produce high-value crops so that they can come out of the financial mess”. He said a majority of the state's farmers had a holding of less than five acres, therefore the role of the Cooperatives was to reduce costs so that the marginal farmers could make agriculture a remunerative occupation. Punjab's agriculture needed to break out of this pattern and make a paradigm shift to a profit-motivated occupation.

To rescue the agricultural community from the clutches of private moneylenders, the Punjab State Cooperative Bank was advancing short- term credit in the form of crop loans to the farmers through the network of its branches in villages and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies, he said.

“We have come out with the Revolving Cash Credit Scheme for debt- swapping and bringing farmers out of the clutches of private money lenders. This credit facility is available at a much lower rate of interest for repaying the private moneylenders. Approximately 14,165 farmers have availed the benefit under this scheme to the tune of Rs 1,980 crore till now,” he added.

Capt Kanwaljit Singh said even though the agriculture sector contributed Rs 2,000 crore to the state revenue as compared to industry and trade which generated a revenue of 700 crore, it was the farmers who were facing a crisis. Justifying subsidies to the farmers, he said much higher subsidies were being given to farmers in the US and in the European Union. “Today, Punjab’s economy needs to be boosted and so the subsidies must continue”.

Industrialisation in the state was of course paramount, with agro-based industry to be promoted.

Milkfed, he said, had successfully provided an alternative to wheat-paddy rotation by ensuring high returns to farmers in the dairy business. The procurement of Milkfed had increased by 30 per cent in the past one year. He said for the revival of six closed sugar mills and three distilleries in the state, a consultant was being appointed who would evaluate the assets and recommend what was the best option for the revival of these sugar mills / distilleries.

Ludhiana, October 23
The fact-finding committee, which was set up by the state government to look into the causes of breaches in dhussi bundhs and canals during recent floods, has maintained that the implementation of the recommendations of earlier committees would have gone a long way in tackling the problem of floods on a long-term basis.

The five-member committee, headed by Gurdeep Singh Bansal, chief engineer, Irrigation Department, was given the task of finding causes of two major breaches in the Sutlej at Gidderpindi village in Kapurthala district and at Sanghera village in Moga.

Earlier, the government had appointed technical committees in the wake of floods in 1978 and 1988. The 1988 floods were devastating when the floodgates of the Bhakra Dam had to be opened.

The committee has found that the breach at Sanghera village was caused due to the diversion of the river flow at the points on the riverbed where villagers had raised houses. The breach at Gidderpindi village was caused due to the presence of illegal bundhs raised by villagers on the riverbed to protect their fields from discharge of excessive water from the dam. The dhussi bundh had collapsed when the discharge of river rose to 1,70,000 cusecs.

The committee has recommended that in view of the constant silting of river beds over the years and encroachments on the river bed, vulnerable points be identified by carrying out total hydrological survey of rivers, including plane-table survey, levelling satellite imageries to see the changing position of the main creeks of the river and model studies conducted by the Director Irrigation and Power Research Institute to ascertain its impact on the embankments.

The dhussi bundh should be repaired regularly with cement-soil mixture. The vetiver grass should be planted on it to improve its strength.

The committee has emphasised that the flood-control board meeting should be held well in time before March each year. Funds for the anti-flood measures be released in April well before the onset of monsoon.

Mastuana Sahib (Sangrur), October 23
To promote vocational education in a big way, Punjabi University, Patiala, will introduce more short-term vocational courses from the next academic session (2009-10).

The vice-chancellor of the university, Dr Jaspal Singh, said here today that the university would introduce 65 more short-term job-oriented courses. He said plus two pass students and graduates could join these courses. Even those students, who were doing other course, could join any short-term course as an add-on course, the vice-chancellor added.

Dr Jaspal Singh was here to participate as the chief guest in a seminar organised to mark the Gurta Gaddi Divas celebrations.

COURTS

7-year RI for militant

Fatehgarh Sahib, October 23
A local court today awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment to Harnek Singh, alias Bhap, a terrorist and self-styled chief of KLF.

Meanwhile, Harpal Singh Cheema of the SAD (Amritsar, Presidium) announced that his party would challenge the order in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Bhap had been arrested in August, 2004. — UNI