Jalandhar, December 16
The first day-long camp organised for collection of development charges from the residents of an undeclared colony here proved to be quite a dampener.

The first camp was held at Bank Enclave, near Mithapur Chowk, here. Mayor Rakesh Rathour inaugurated the camp.

The officials managed a collection of barely Rs 5.7 lakh from 22 houses. The officials blame the low turnout on nearly 200 open plots out of 480 in the colony.

Senior town planner A.S. Tuli said the road-paving work would begin in the colony as and when 75 per cent of the residents would pay the development charges. “As numerous plots are vacant in the colony, the scheme is coming as a cropper.

Still the response is known by the fact that it is the first camp of its kind. We hope that the campaign would gather momentum soon,” he said.

The officials have now planned to hold similar camps in Isharpuri Colony, near Bank Enclave, and Kalgidhar Colony falling on 66-Foot Road, near Urban Estate Phase-II.

The proposal to hold such camps was passed by the councillors at an MC house meeting a few months ago. The residents had got the self-assessment of their plots done and turned up with payments.

Town planning officials are proposing that non-construction charges be levied on the plot owners to encourage quick construction in undeclared colonies in line with PUDA’s rules.

The proposal is likely to be put forth at the next MC meeting. A strict action in the form of a penalty or forcible demolition could follow in case the existing occupants did not pay up, it is learnt.

As per the official records, there are 235 undeclared colonies. The camps have begun in these colonies.

Jalandhar, December 16
“We were thrown by gods like trash. One day my dad left me here alone as if I was not part of my parent’s emotion, their talks and their routine affairs. I can make concepts, I can think, I can smell, I can see and I am a human being.

“In spite of this sometimes I am reason for limited mobility of my parents, sometimes I am problem for them which is difficult to deal with, sometimes I become unhygienic to my surroundings and sometimes I am social stigma to my parents, my family.” This is how Harman narrates his saga.

Along with Harman, many of his friends ask questions with their eyes occupied with vacuum but not by dreams, with drooling saliva on the cheeks and chin, with the wobbled sounds of speech, with the crippled and paralysed hands limbs and fingers, with the crawl of kids studying and residing in “Prayas”. It’s their school, their home and heaven run by the Hospital Welfare Section, one of the five sections of the Red Cross.

Started with the efforts of group of progressive women of the city in 1991, the initial strength of school was eight, six of them were hostlers. But today this school-cum-home is equipped with 27 staff members and 89 children, 54 of them are hostlers. It is the second institution of its kind in the whole state which provides even residential accommodation to mentally challenged children, first being in Patiala, “Navjeevan”.

“Along with treating children with our motherhood attitude, we educate them with some scientific technicalities in our mind always,” said principal-cum-administrator Suvira Aggarwal. “In our staff, we have five special educators (all with medical education background, one speech therapist, one physio-cum-neuro therapist and one consultant psychologist,” she said.

On asking how this institution is unique in its kind, she replied, “Some children when came here were not aware of toiletries habits even. One must need possible attitude to deal with these kinds of problems. We have both male and female caretakers for every age group from three to 30 years.

“Secondly, we engage children, who are moderately challenged, in primary education and vocational activities like card making, candle making, cooking, food serving, sewing, etc. This can make some of our children to earn their livelihood in future.”

This institution works on a philosophy that mentally challenged children don’t need confined darkrooms but open grounds.

“Yoga classes and music therapy is part of our daily schedule. We even organise international-level sports competition under the banner of Special Olympics Association. Races, long jump, shot put, relay race, badminton, basketball, etc are among the events included in the competition.”

Noted progressive personalities like Mrs Promila Pawar and Mrs Saroj Ladhar, current president of the Hospital Welfare Section, are associated with this institution since long.

“Though child suffers due to hereditary and development disorder, these sufferings can be reduced if our whole society develops an attitude not only of sympathy but to involve them in basic social activities rather ignoring them,” she added.

He said the problems of the residents, of course, could be looked into and any plans for their security and peace could be formulated for a discussion on the same.

Jalandhar, December 16
Talk about armed forces and the first thing that comes to mind is the supreme sacrifices made by the valiant soldiers at the battlefront. In fact, the two are synonymous to each other.

But how many times do we actually remember the brave soldiers who have laid down their lives protecting the borders of the country? Perhaps, only at certain occasions.

But the city-based “Hall of Fame,” situated at Punjab State War Memorial, is one place, which salutes the true spirit of the men in olive green. Based on the lines of the British Hall of Fame in London, the place houses the records of gallant soldiers who have laid down their lives for the sake of the country.

A visit to the Hall of Fame virtually brings back the memory of numerous wars fought by the soldiers over the years.

Though the hall was constructed in 1982, but owing to the non-utilisation of the place it was handed over to deputy director of the local district sainik welfare office (DSWO) Lt-Col Manmohan Singh in 1989.

The hall was inaugurated by the then governor of Punjab, Virendra Verma, on October 12, 1990, on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the 1965 Indo-Pak war. The hall includes the names of as many as 2,300 gallant officers with some rare collection of weapons used in the wars at that time.

The Hall of Fame was presented the rifles used in the World War-I by 2 Dogra Regiment recently. In fact the previous GOC of Vajra Corps, Lt-Gen S.S. Kumar, especially asked all regiments of the corps to hand over an insignia of their units to the hall as a mark of respect.

The hall gives the details of the battle casualties of 1947-48 operations to 1962 operation followed by the 1965 and then 1971 Indo-Pak war. “Meanwhile we also included Operation Pawan (Sri Lanka) and Meghdoot (Siachen Glacier). Recently we added the name and pictures of the battle casualties of Kargil and other operations in,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that out of the 34 Kargil martyrs, eight were from Jalandhar alone. “And with maximum casualty from this city alone we made it a point to put up a special Kargil gallery with their pictures,” added Lt-Col Manmohan.

The idea to start the Hall of Fame in the city struck his mind during one of his visit to the British Hall of Fame at London.

He said, “It was during this visit that I decided to work on the same lines and construct a Hall of Fame here. I especially contacted the historical sector of the Indian Army, headquarters in Delhi, to procure the records of the soldiers from Punjab.”

He gathered the records of the gallant soldiers right from the World War-II to the recent Operation Vijay in Kargil.

“Apart from our efforts we got a lot of support by the then GOC of Vajra Corps, Lt-Gen B.T. Pandit, and deputy commissioner Sudhir Mittal. Though we confronted problems due to shortage of funds at the initial stage, but the joint effort of all officials concerned bore fruit and we managed to turn this project into reality,” added Lt-Col Manmohan.

The authorities concerned keep on updating the Hall of Fame as per the requirements to add to its beauty.

Jalandhar, December 16
The seventh Deedar Singh memorial bodybuilding championship was organised on Sunday. The championship was organised by Deedar Singh Memorial Club on Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara ground, Mohalla Gobindgarh.

Avtar Henry, state Congress president Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, former minister Jaikishen Saini and Devinder Singh Garcha, IPS, were present on the occasion.

While inaugurating the championship, Avtar Henry, said, “ It’s a good effort by the members of club to organise a health-promoting competition in those times when abusive habits like drug addiction is prevalent in our society. Definitely these kinds of efforts restrain teenagers from indulging in drug addiction and other anti-social activities.”

Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, after distributing prizes to the winners said, “Organising championships in the memory of their elders make newer generation committed to their social responsibilities. We will definitely try our best to give jobs to upcoming sports persons when we come to power.”

The competition had six categories. Manpreet Singh, Varinder Mahajan and Rashpal Singh stood first, second and third, respectively, in the 60 kg category. Ashok Kumar, Hardeep Singh and Devinder Singh came first, second and third, respectively, in the 65 kg category. Behari Lal, Sanpreet and Pawan Kumar were announced first, second and third in the 70 kg category.

Amrik Singh, Balraj Singh and Pankaj Aggarwal stood first, second and third, respectively, in the 75 kg category. Somraj, Narinder Singh and Balwinder Kumar bagged first, second and third positions, respectively, in the 80 kg category.

Varinder Ghuman, Viren Dheer and Jatinder bagged first, second and third positions, respectively, in the above-80 kg category. The overall winner was Varinder Ghuman.

Jalandhar, December 16
The government’s decision to introduce the right to free education to every child in the age group of six to 14 years and reservation of 25 seats to poor students in private schools has been welcomed by all quarters of society with obvious doubts.

“Definitely this kind of a law goes in favour of the public. Large families, who were unable to send their children to school due to limited sources of income, might be able to give good education to them now. This will be a positive step but only if implemented soon in letter and spirit,” opines eminent writer and retired director of Punjabi University regional centre, Bathinda.

According to renowned educationalist Dr T.R Sharma, “It is a well-known fact that private schools purchase land at very nominal rates to establish school buildings. Moreover, sometimes assistance is provided to teachers of these schools through government infrastructure. So schools must assist the government in providing quality education to poor children. With this law, people will be equipped with provisions to challenge school authorities if they refuse to admit poor children.”

Doubting the success of this law, he said, “Owing to the gross negative performance of government schools for the past few years, there will be an obvious rush towards good private schools. It would not be possible for private schools to admit too many poor students, due to limited seats and infrastructure. Moreover, there is no set criterion to decide which student is poor. No one refuses education in government-owned schools, but where is the infrastructure?”

Dr V.K. Tiwari, recently-elected president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Prinicipals Association, said, “Article 45 of the Constitution gives the right to education to children up to the age of 14 years. But the recent development limits this right from six to 14 years. If proper regulatory mechanism is applied for proper implementation of this law then it will be a historic turning point in education.”

But some sections turned up with sheer doubts. Jnanpith awardee novelist Gurdial Singh said, “This is purely a step showing the popular political attitude of the government. This step will ultimately boost private education. If ever implemented, poor students will feel alienated in these big private schools as they won’t adapt the upper middle and rich class culture of students of these schools.”

Rashmi Vij, principal of the Police DAV School, said, “Children are more important than roads, bridges, shopping malls, etc. This step should have been taken 60 years back.”

Students of four-year and one-year ITI hotel management courses prepared different continental dishes using oil, vegetables, masalas, chicken, fish, etc. Institute principal Rajan Saroha said the continental dishes were very famous in Europion countries and liked by foreigners in India also.

Jalandhar, December 16
The BSP demanded financial help for those workers who had lost their jobs due to ongoing global financial recession.

In a press note issued here today, Punjab BSP secretary Satish Kumar Bharti claimed that at least 50,000 workers had been fired from sports and engineering industries located in Punjab.

Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government should provide financial help to these workers and should ensure that these workers should be adjusted in different industries soon, he added.

Wards of ex-servicemen, their widows and serving defence personnel would be given priority in admission. Interested candidates could obtain brochure and application forms from the office before December 19.