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Overburdened
Shifting times: Many farmers take to integrated fish farming
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Winners of the ‘He Khalsa’ and ‘She Khalsa’ titles strike a pose in Amritsar on Saturday.
NGO marries off 35 needy couples
Declamation contest on
Gurta Gaddi celebrations
Gurdaspur to go 3G by March
World Bank mission:
Hygiene, sanitation
APPU’s drive: Banish social evils
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Fill posts of doc for better
healthcare: PCMS
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 30 “Owing to a large number of vacant posts, specialist doctors posted at various places have to perform duty for 18 to 24 hours for several days in a month. As their much time is spent in performing general duty, they are unable to provide medical care to patients who are needed to be attended by a specialist doctor,” said association general secretary Dr S.P. Bhagat. The association said that handing over of the dispensaries to zila parishads had caused a lot of harm to the health services in the countryside. As this experiment has failed, health services at the village level should be restored to the Punjab Health Department. “There is no coordination between the zila parishads and the health department with regard to providing healthcare to people in the rural areas,” said Dr Bhagat. As doctors posted in zila parishads were not answerable to the health department, this severely affected implementation of all national health programmes in rural areas, added Dr Bhagat. Many specialist doctors have applied for voluntary retirement under the VRS as they feel over-burdened with the work in hospitals in the absence of vacant posts of doctor. The association said the health department authorities had been delaying promotion of doctors. Meetings of the departmental promotion committee were not held for several months, it said. “We are being treated like bonded labour,” said the association. The Punjab government should appoint doctors on the basis of the Indian Public Health Standards that had been implemented in all states of the country. Doctors for general duty should immediately be recruited to spare specialist doctors for handling patients requiring special medical care. Specialist doctors should be given special scales, incentives and additional pay for doing service in rural areas. All vacant posts of senior medical officer, deputy directors and other senior officers should be filled soon. A ban on the VRS for doctors and on acceptance of their resignation should be removed immediately. Those doctors who wanted to serve in government medical colleges should immediately be relieved from duty in civil hospitals and community health centres. The association said it would resort to an agitation in case the state government failed to meet the demands raised by it.
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Shifting times: Many farmers take to integrated fish farming
Shahkot (Jalandhar),
November 30 Though the number of such farmers is quite less, they have tried to show the way to the farmer community of the state. As per revenue records, 460 farmers have brought 65 hectares of land under pisciculture in Jalandhar alone. More than 230 have switched over to the integrated form of farming in the district.
They have opted for a combination of culturing fish with poultry, fish with piggery or fish with dairy. An industrialist, who has cultured different species of fish in over 35 acres in Bara Pind, near Kartarpur, has been reaping the fruits of his labour for the past couple of years. Quitting his job of 26 years, a government teacher by profession, Gian Singh of Malsian village availed the voluntary retirement scheme and opted for pisciculture on 2.5 hectares in 1991. After undergoing training from the fisheries department, Gian Singh found fish farming to be a profitable business and later switched over to integrated farming by introducing 600 broiler chickens along with it. Telling his success story to The Tribune, Gian Singh said he also involved his son Paramjit Singh in the integrated farming after he finished his bachelor's degree in the science (medical) stream. He claimed that since the scope for getting a government job in this era was bleak, he motivated his son for self-employment and to accept challenges. Pisciculture experts said their expenditures on fertilisers had been reduced by half ever since they had taken to fish farming. Irrigating fields with manure-enriched fish pond water was quite economical, farmers added. Farmers of the area, however, complain that the government has not been providing required help to those willing to go in for crop diversification (especially fish farming). The farmers switched over to fish farming when they failed to get adequate returns from their landholdings, said Charan Das, assistant director, fisheries, Jalandhar. He claimed that integrated fish farming had also started attracting farmers in the district. Under this scheme, the farmers could multiply their returns manifold by going in for fish-duck, fish-poultry and fish-pig combinations, he added. |
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Arvinder and Prabhjot clinch ‘He & She Khalsa’ titles
Amritsar, November 30 They were elected winners from a total of 18 boys and girls who had won the semi-final rounds. Sandeep Kaur and Tarunjot Kaur were declared the first and second runners-up, while Varunpreet Singh won the title of “best turban”. Jasbir Kaur won the title of “best dress”. The girls and boys were attired in traditional Punjabi dresses and gave the answers to the questions with confidence. The contestants also performed bhangra and giddha on the occasion. Cabinet minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura was the chief guest who, while speaking on the occasion, said that such competitions filled the youth with self-confidence, besides motivating the Sikh youth to become “Sabat Surat Sikhs”. He said such programmes also helped in eradicating social evils. Kes Sambhal Parchar Sanstha chairman S.J.S. Pall, the organiser of the contest, said the main aim of the organisation was to promote and integrate the young Sikh children with Sikhism. Started in 1999 the organisation helped in the growth of the personality, which includes written tests, interviews to check general ability, spiritual knowledge, educational excellence, talent and hobbies. The participating young brigade felt that there was need to change the concept of Sikhs being presented in the Bollywood movies and they would showcase “Sabat Surat Sikh” complete in all respects. |
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NGO marries off 35 needy couples
Batala, November 30 Today the joy of Jasbir Kaur, who has been labouring hard to earn enough to arrange two square meals for the family, knew no bounds as her elder daughter was married to Kaku with the help of the Samajik Chetna Manch, a non-governmental organisation of the town. Similarly, Yash, daughter of Amrik Masih, a Christian, who has been working as labourer and living in a kutcha house, tied the nuptial knot with Surinder Masih with the help of the manch. Manpreet Kaur, a resident of this area, had left the hope of her marriage due to the fact that her family had been facing extreme poverty and no one was coming forward to help them to find a suitable match to marry her. Today, she was at cloud nine as she got married to Paramjit Singh. It was a festival of marriage today at the head office of the Samajik Chetna Manch, located on the outskirts of the town where 35 girls belonging to poor families of this region were married off by performing ceremonies according to the religion of the brides and the bridegrooms. Almost all the girls belonged to the families falling below the poverty line (BPL). All the brides and bridegrooms, nine Christian and 26 Sikh couples, were given household items, including furniture, electrical goods, utensils, dresses and beddings, worth about Rs 30,000 each. Manch patron Puran Chand Pyasya said so far the manch had married off more than 310 poor girls in the past seven years.
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Declamation contest on
Gurta Gaddi celebrations
Nawanshahr, November 30 In the college category, Mandeep Kaur (RK Arya College, Nawanshahr), Gurpreet Kaur (BAM Khalsa College, Garhshankar) and Paramjit Kaur (GNBAM Girls College, Mazari) won the first three positions, respectively. In the school category, Gurpinder Kaur (Shivalik Public School, Nawanshahr), Amandeep Kaur (Babbar Karam Singh Memorial Senior Secondary School, Daulatpur) and Rajwinder Kaur (WL Arya Girls Senior Secondary School, Nawanshahr) bagged the first three prizes. |
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Gurdaspur to go 3G by March
Pathankot, November 30 He said the 3G (third generation) services were planned in Pathankot and Gurdaspur areas and would be launched before March next year. The scheme will allow 3G customers to enjoy TV and other video and data services on mobile phone. He said according to the new scheme of the BSNL, customers could get new pre-paid CDMA connection at Rs 832, including taxes, with Rs 300 talk value and a 90-day validity. He said the cost of the new SIM had also been revised from Rs 112 to Rs 203 with Rs 100 talk value and a 90-day validity was provided at the time of activation. Regarding the services of wireless broadband, he said with the introduction of WiMax towers in the district at Dunera, Pathankot, Narotjaimal Singh, Dinanagar, Dhariwal, Kotli Surat Malhi, Bhaini Mian Khan and Qadian, the facility of wireless broadband will be available to the customers. He said the department had a plan to provide broadband connections to all 257 CSCs (common services centres) all over the district.
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World Bank mission:
Hygiene, sanitation
Amritsar, November 30 Addressing officers of the Amritsar and Tarn Taran circles, WBMWSS team leader Shayamal Sarkar said steps should be taken to intensify the project in these border areas so that proper hygienic facilities could be provided to the people, besides maintaining sanitation by laying sewer lines in the villages. Among others, district programme director-cum-engineer G.K. Gupta, Mohali state programme management cell executive engineer J.J. Goel and district programme specialist-cum-executive engineer Narinder Pal Singh Kahlon, attended the meeting. |
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APPU’s drive: Banish social evils
Amritsar, November 30 Stating this to mediapersons, upsabha president J. Kackria said the basic aim of the day-long vedic virat arya sammelan was to inculcate spiritual values enshrined in our ancient books for a prosperous life. She said the function would open with 51
yagnas, distribution of food packets among the poor and needy, besides providing 100 sewing machines to widows, 50 tricycles to the handicapped, CD players with brail system to the blind and organising 11 wedding of the couples who had been selected by the sabha. Kackria said 101 Sikh youth would join the sammelan. — OC |
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Woman held with smack
Amritsar, November 30 |
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