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Poor implementation of NREGA
2 lakh children administered polio drops
9 colleges to be set up
This blood donation society works non-stop
‘India, Pak need to strengthen ties’
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Docs urged to help stop female foeticide
Remove Sarna barrier, demand traders
Ashk - Doyen of Urdu’s new school of thought
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Poor implementation of NREGA
Jalandhar, February 1 Presiding over a meeting of the BDPOs concerned, Gurdev Singh Sandhu, director of the department, expressed his displeasure over the non-disbursal of funds meant to help the poor families get employment for at least 100 days a year. He is learnt to have told the officials to implement the scheme in letter and spirit and submit a report in the next meeting. Strict action would be taken against erring officials, The director was upset since only Rs 28 crore has been spent out of the Rs 80 crore received under the scheme in these districts. There was no dearth of funds under the scheme and the districts should ensure that the maximum number of people were benefited, he pointed out. Sandhu impressed upon them that the scheme worked in not only generating employment but also helped in the overall development of the village. “We must start more schemes so that we get the maximum number of grants for this purpose,” Gurdev Singh Sandhu added. He told those present to follow the Amritsar model wherein the district administration had utilised the optimum amounts under the scheme. The district got a grant of Rs 9 crore, out of which Rs 7.23 crore had already been spent. The BDPOs were instructed to issue job cards to all poor families in their districts. “We can approach the Centre for more funds only if the state utilises 60 per cent of the funds,” he pointed out. Incidentally, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had claimed in one of his sangat darshans that NREGA is not feasible for Punjab. He had stated that the money spent by the Centre on the scheme should be given to the state government for development works, as this scheme was not at all practicable
in the state. Badal had observed that only Rs 100 per day was given to a person getting work under the scheme in the country, but in Punjab no labourer was getting such low daily wages for his or her work. Being a prosperous state, even labourers here were getting Rs 150 or even 175 as daily wages, he added. “We cannot find proper persons to provide them work under this scheme and most of the times we engage those persons under this scheme who are not even interested to work,” the CM had added. |
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2 lakh children administered polio drops
Jalandhar, February 1 Addressing the health officials, she said 17,000 pulse polio booths were put up in the state to administer polio drops to approximately 38 lakh children. To achieve the target 64,000, officials from the health and other departments were put on duty. The minister supervised the polio booths at Kathar village, Alawalpur, Community Health Centre, Kala Bakra, and Jalowal Colony. She lauded the efforts of the voluntary organisations in the drive. Meanwhile, civil surgeon Dr S.S. Walia said on the first day of the campaign 1,80,503 children below the age of five were administered polio drops in the district. These included 1,04,098 children from rural area and 76,405 children from the urban area. Punjab director of health and family welfare Dr S.P.S. Sohal said, apart from the pulse polio booths, special teams were sent to railway stations, bus stands, barriers, brick-kilns, construction sites and the roadside slums as well. “To cover all the children under the ambit of the pulse polio campaign a special door-to-door survey would be conducted on February 2 and 3,” added Sohal. Pathankot: Over 17,861 children were administered oral polio drops at 50 polio immunisation camps here today. The SMO, Ravi Dogra, inaugurated the Pulse Polio immunisation programme by administrating polio drops to a baby at the local civil hospital. He said 176 workers had been pressed into service and mobile vans were also used in the drive. |
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9 colleges to be set up
Amritsar, February 1 Stating this, education minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur, while presiding over the culmination of the women empowerment week programme held at the SR Government College for Girls here yesterday, said nine government colleges were also being set up in the far-flung areas of the state. Talking to mediapersons, she admitted that there
was a shortage of basic infrastructure in several government schools. She said Punjab was getting only 1.29 per cent of the total revenue, which was resulting in delay in various ongoing development projects in the city. Earlier, addressing girl students on women empowerment, the minister exhorted them to improve their working capabilities so that they could make their mark in the world. |
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This blood donation society works non-stop
Nawanshahr, February 1 The council has a ready list of 12,000 plus donors with their blood group details, 250 motivators and 26 employees who work in tandem to cater to the needs of critically injured accident victims, thalassaemia and cancer patients and those undergoing surgical interventions. Situated on Rahon Road here, the council perhaps works in the most well-organised and effective manner. The schedule of the 50 camps to be held round the year gets finalised at a motivators’ meeting in the first week of January. Most of the days enlisted for the purpose include commemorative days, including Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s birth and death anniversaries, when motivational level is usually higher. A cremation ground is also fixed as one of the venues for donation where people gather and donate blood annually in the memory of the departed souls. For general awareness, the schedule of the next blood camp is displayed outside the premises on a notice board. The blood group, which falls short with the council’s blood bank at any given point of time, is also specifically mentioned on the board to encourage more donations from people of that group. There also is a walk-in donation of three to four people on an average daily. Works manager Harbinder Singh said, “People come and donate blood on their birthdays, children’s birthdays and marriage anniversaries. One of the motivators Charanjit Singh Bheen organised a blood camp on the very next day of his marriage encouraging all relatives who had gathered for the occasion to donate blood. The couple also recently donated blood on their first anniversary.” He added, “All donors have a card made in white, yellow, pink or green colours as per their international code in recognition with their blood group. Every donor who has donated more than five times gets registered as a master donor.” One of the directors Jaspal Singh Gidda said the charges levied from the recipients as testing charges of blood they receive were perhaps one of the lowest. “Even as the average testing cost of each unit of blood taken is Rs 850, we charge Rs 250 per unit from patients admitted in government hospitals, Rs 300 per unit from those in charitable hospitals and Rs 550 a unit from patients coming from private hospitals. In case we find that the patient is poor, we waive off all charges or take some minimal amount. No charges are taken from any accident patient,” he revealed. Encouraging the good work done by the people associated with the society, there are several financial donors. “The council’s office building has also come as a donation. The cost incurred on conducting camps, running hi-tech laboratories and Rs 1.4 lakh drawn as salaries of various employees are managed with aid from generous donors,” said the members.
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‘India, Pak need to strengthen ties’
Amritsar, February 1 These views were echoed by the intellectuals who dwelled at length on the Indo-Pak relations, which have nosedived in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks at a seminar on “Sweet and sour Indo-Pak relations” organised by the Sain Mia Meer International Foundation here yesterday. The seminar was held in the memory of founders of the Punarjyot movement Dr Shivinder Singh Sandhu and Manveen Sandhu. Giving details of the significant work done by the foundation to act as a bridge between the two beleaguered nations, foundation president Harbhajan Singh Brar said they had been able to unite more than 500 families separated at the time of partition. He said they would make all the possible efforts to bring the two nations closer and would not allow the bitterness to sour the relations in view of the threat by terrorists. Renowned writer Prof Surinder Mand said he strongly advocated that goodwill and harmony should prevail between the two neighbours, adding that a small group of the extremist elements could not be allowed to derail the peace process. He said a people-to-people contact and the movement started by several intellectuals and the right thinking people in both the countries should nurture the cordial relations.
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Docs urged to help stop female foeticide
Amritsar, February 1 Stating this, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, chief administrator, Nanhi Chhan project and wife of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, while addressing a seminar on female foeticide organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) here yesterday said the doctors should spread awareness about the repercussions of female foeticide. She said from sex determination to abortion of female foetus, doctors were involved at every step and they should resolve not to get involved in such a practice and prevent their counterparts from doing so. Addressing the doctors during the seminar, she said the IMA should identify black sheep within their fraternity and initiate disciplinary action against them at their level. She appealed to medicos to provide free treatment to at least one poor girl in their hospital or clinic, besides conducting a free operation (of a poor girl) every week. She said if possible they should also provide free education to them. — TNS |
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Remove Sarna barrier, demand traders
Pathankot, February 1 Rajesh Sharma and Ved Parkash, chairman and president, respectively, of the local unit of the Beopar Mandal, alleged at a press conference here yesterday that the barriers had become a major hindrance for the business activities as the small shopkeepers, traders and even people visiting the own for making purchases were harassed at the barrier. They said despite meeting and submitting a charter of their demands to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his visit here some time back, nothing concrete had been done. — OC
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Ashk - Doyen of Urdu’s new school of thought
Pathankot, February 1 Ashk is the son of eminent Urdu poet and jouranalist Kulwant Rai who earned name and fame as Kanwal Hoshiarpuri. Ashk was inspired to write Urdu poetry by his father who had been instrumental in organising mushairas before and after the partition of India. Josh Maleehabadi was one of the biggest fans of his father. At the time of his father’s death in 1971, Ashk was only 20 years old. Blessed with a poetic mind, Ashk started publishing his ghazals in the leading Urdu magazines of India. He has been honoured widely for his contribution to Urdu poetry. The list of his awards include “Shehanshah-e-ghazal”, “Firaque Gorakpuri”, “Ghazal Bhaskar”, “Ghazal Hero”, Bihar Urdu Academy award, the Bengal Urdu Academy award and the literary award bestowed on him by the languages department of Punjab. He has also been interviewed by BBC London. His word style and recitation have given new dimensions to the Urdu ghazal. His song titled “Asshqan di balle balle”, sung by Daler Mahandi and Jaspinder Narula, was part of Hindi feature film “Dhoom Dhadhaka”. T-Series has included his popular sad song “Palat kar na aayee kabhi jo dobaara wo ikk bevafa koi ladki thi yaraa” in its latest album “Kyon Dil Ko Toda”. Pop singer Altaf Raja has also included his songs in his forthcoming album. Recently, Ashk penned two romantic songs for the musical album “Ishq Kahani”. Ashk is also working with music director Ram Shankar on a Sufiana album. His Punjabi song “Channani” is also in line with the album being sung by famous film actress and pop singer Raageshwari. Presently Ashk is working with Bollywood doyens Roop Kumar Rathod, music directors Nikhil, Vishal Shekhar, Daler Mehndi, Ghanshyam Wasvani, Anand Raj Anand and Arvinder Singh. Author of Urdu ghazal collections like “Dar-B-Dar”, “Chandni Ke Khtoot”, “Ghazal Tere Shehr Mein”, “Doaa Zameen”, Parveen Kumar Ashk has introduced a new school of Urdu ghazal which has been acknowledged by Urdu stalwarts like Ahmed Nadeem Quasmi, Dr Wazir Agha, Saaqui Farooqui, Dr Anwar Sadeed, Nida Fazli, Bashir Badr, Mohammad Alvi and many more. Ashk has also expressed his critical impressions on more than 100 Urdu poets in esteemed Urdu magazines of international fame.
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