Jalandhar, February 11
Clearly admitting that political interference was affecting the day-to-day working of the municipal corporation, mayor Rakesh Rathour said leaders of the alliance parties often tried to play spoilsport when a demolition drive was planned against any encroachment, illegal construction or unapproved colony.

Addressing a press conference here today, the mayor did not specifically point a finger on anyone even as he said representatives of the BJP as well as the SAD came to the fore to prevent any such action openly aligning with law violators.

Citing an example, he said when the MC razed illegal constructions and cleared all encroachments extending beyond 15 feet on each side in the Rama Mandi area about two months back, several local leaders, councillors and former councillors of the area joined them instead of appreciating the move to clear the traffic blockade.

Quoting another glaring example, the mayor pointed out that he and senior officials had clearly made up their minds to restore the MC’s three-acre land that had been encroached upon by 11 groups on Kapurthala Road in the Basti Bawa Khel area. One of the encroachers is even running a factory in a six-kanal area.

He said while ILFS, a consulting company, had been asking for an additional 47 acres of land for setting up the plant, in addition to the available 25-acre space. The US company had agreed to work in the existing space.

Jalandhar, February 11
Illiteracy, lack of awareness, substance abuse, poverty and certain other evils have been playing a major role in rise of neonatal mortality rate.

Unless evils are overcome, the neonatal mortality rate could not be reduced, said Punjab health minister Luxmi Kanta Chawla.

The health minister, along with principal secretary (health) A.R. Talwar, director of health service Dr J.P. Singh and senior officials of the department, was in the city for the inspection of the local civil hospital today.

Chawla inspected the newly-installed dialysis unit on the top floor of the new building of the hospital. But the overstuffed, ill-equipped mockery of an ICU, with its fungus-ridden walls, was conveniently given a miss by the minister who shooed away mediapersons (who asked her to visit the ICU) claiming that they were interfering in her visit.

Earlier, she chaired a workshop organised by the department on Alternative Methodology in IUCD insertion.

Apart from scores of medicos, civil surgeons from Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Amritsar, Ropar and Kapurthala districts, gynaecologists participated in the workshop to update their skills.

Tarsem Peter, PMU state president, said to press for their demand of enquiry a rally would be organised at Kartarpur on February 17.

Nawanshahr, February 11
Obviously they don’t like ‘daliya’ and if given a choice they may have ‘gajrella’ 365 days a year. But the food under the packed mid-day meal scheme, which 55,000 students of government and government-aided schools in the district eat everyday, have certainly given them enough reasons to come to schools and moreover, enough time to study. Most relieved are the teachers, who now can concentrate on mentoring the GenNext.

The scheme was launched by the director general school education (DGSE), Krishan Kumar, on experimental basis in three districts - Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr), Tarn Taran and Ferozepur in September last year, aimed at relieving the teachers from the cumbersome duty of preparing the mid-day meal and maintaining its account as well as to ensure uniformity in supply of nutritious food to the school children.

Under the scheme, NGOs having experience of preparing and supplying packed mid-day meal to school students in New Delhi and other states were assigned the job. In Nawanshahr, New Delhi-based NGO Stri Shakti was engaged for the purpose.

Though in the beginning, the NGO faced a number of problems, including errant meal supply as per prescribed menu, due to which teachers had regular complaints.

But later, the NGO set up two more common kitchens --- one at Siana village in Balachaur and another at Dhahan near Banga --- to streamline supply of the meal.

Besides, to address the complaints regarding alleged poor quality of themed day meal from the common kitchen, DGSE Krishan Kumar deputed the school heads on rotation basis, to keep an eye on the functioning of the kitchen.

The school heads are, now, overseeing the preparation, packing of the meal, sanitary conditions etc at the kitchen daily.

Fakiria Ram, headmaster, Government High School, Shahabpur, who was on duty at the kitchen when the correspondent met him, said the experiment of supplying the mid-day meal from the common kitchen in the district has virtually proved a boon for the school teachers.

Besides, the account keeping of the grocery items used in the meal on daily basis was a complete nuisance for the teachers, he said adding that the food was prepared in the kitchen equipped with ultra-modern infrastructure facilities like broiler, mechanical containers etc for cooking food.

When this correspondent visited a primary school at the Banga Road here, school teacher Manjit Kaur was busy serving the meal to the children during the recess.

“The supply of mid-day meal has relieved them of a number of time-consuming duties. Now, they just have to check the proper distribution of the food to the students and sending a report on fortnightly basis about the attendance of the students, who have been served the food,” said Manjit Kaur, adding that proper health record of the students - height, weight, Hb, eyesight, hearing ability and immunisation against various diseases, was also being maintained.

The DGSE with a view to relieving the teachers from the duty of serving the food to the students, has asked the NGOs to engage servers for the purpose.

Gurpreet Singh of Stri Shakti said he had requested the BPEOs to engage servers. In Mukandpur block, servers had been engaged and even remuneration had also been paid to them.

Meanwhile, the scheme has also been instrumental in providing employment to the cooks and transporters.

As many as 25 vehicles have been engaged by the NGO to supply the meal to the schools and more than hundred workers to cook and pack food have been engaged.

Amritsar, February 11
The Improvement Trust today forcibly evicted illegal occupants from 3,000 square yard area, worth Rs five crore, near bus stand and managed to restore the property back to the trust.

Pardeep Sabharwal, administrator of the trust, said in an early morning operation, the officers of the trust backed by the duty magistrate and heavy police force evicted Nihang Ajaib Singh, who had occupied 150 square yard plot in the prime commercial area of the city center.

He said after initial resistance Ajaib Singh was detained by the police and was later released. The other area encroached by several jhuggis and slum dwellers were also cleared and were restored to the trust.

He said the trust had already erected a boundary wall on this area to restrict the entry of unauthorised people.

Sounding a warning to encroachers and land grabbers, Sabarwal said the government would deal with them with stern hands and would not allow government property to be encroached upon.

He said the trust would soon take a similar action to evict the illegal occupants from trucks stand scheme and Kabir Park area opposite Guru Nanak Dev University.

Meanwhile, the trust officials were planning a big commercial project at the 3,000 square yard plot and propose to build a shopping-cum-business complex.