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Board bans entry of journalists at exam centres
Jallianwala afire over lathi charge
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Rajpura thermal power project to go to Cabinet
Committee’s no to promotion of
Kaushik, Shashi Kant
Now, log in to see your FIR
Upgrade professional skills: Governor
Sood tells principals to be strict
New pay scales for teachers to be implemented in toto: Chief Secy
Sukhbir promises action against music piracy
CM tells DGP to hold probe, report in 24 hrs
DROs’ assn office-bearers
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Board bans entry of journalists at exam centres
Mohali, February 12 A decision was circulated among the district education officials and other staff on examination duty at a recent meeting called by the board to review arrangements for examinations. To justify the decision, the authorities said certain “local” journalists in the border districts --- having links with private academies--- use identity cards to enter the examination centres and help private students in examinations.’The district education officers and other examination related staff is directed not to allow journalists in the examination centres”, mentions the note circulated among the district education officials and staff on examinatin duties at a recent meeting called by the board. The board has not mentioned the name of the journalists who have been allegedly helping the students of private academies. Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon, chairman, PSEB, confirming the decision said it did not amount to banning the journalists. “ If any journalists wants to visit the examination centres, the board can certainly issue permission” he added. He evaded the query about specific names and the related involving journalists. Referring to specific complaints from teachers --- at recent sangat darshan of Punjab CM at Ludhiana --- regarding involvement of certain board officials and Education Department officials putting selective officials on duty, sources said the board authorities viewed the matter seriously. Dr Dhillon said the complaints had been received and he was looking in to the matter. The chairman reportedly has pulled up the officials of the board.
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Jallianwala afire over lathi charge
Amritsar, February 12 A large number of activists of both bodies assembled near the memorial to protest changes in its original structure and design. The memorial is undergoing beautification. Gurmukh Singh Maan, state president, PSU, said the police was brutal in dealing with the protesters, who were holding the rally aimed at preserving the original character of the national memorial. He alleged the police chased the agitators up to the “joda ghar” of the Golden Temple complex. However, SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh denied that the police entered the Golden Temple premises. He claimed that the police picked up the agitators from outside the temple complex. Meanwhile, SGPC chief Avtar Singh ordered an inquiry to ascertain the fact whether any inconvenience was caused to devotees visiting the temple during the police action. Earlier, addressing the rally at the memorial, Maan and Raminder Singh Patiala, state president, BNS, maintained that their organisations would not allow tempering with the basic character of the memorial where freedom fighters had laid down their lives. A new gate had been installed besides the construction of a glitzy platform at the entrance of the historic narrow lane of the memorial from where Gen O’ Dyer had brought his platoon inside the garden. They said even the original outlook of the historic well in the garden had been changed. Meanwhile, the district police chief accepted that the force had to be used after the agitators became violent and tried to damage the structure inside the memorial. He said the police station, B division, had registered a case under Section 427 regarding damage to public property and for rioting under Sections 148 and 149. Maan said the agitators did not damage the national memorial but they only tried to remove the newly raised open-air stage for the proposed light-and-sound system. Jallianwala Bagh was not a tourist spot but a national memorial, he added. Earlier, the protesters converged at Gole Bagh and marched towards the memorial. Chandigarh-based High Court lawyer Malvinder Singh Waraich also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the alleged tempering with the original structure of the national memorial. Charanjit Singh Gumtala, patron, Amritsar Vikas Manch, said beautification of the national martyrs’ memorial must be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) so that its original character could be preserved.
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Rajpura thermal power project to go to Cabinet
Chandigarh, February 12 The private player - Lanco, had submitted lone bid for the 1200 mega watt Rajpura project offering power at average rate of Rs 3.38 per unit a few months back. The special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by the PSEB for the purpose had opened the bid after permission of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission but referred the matter to the PSEB. The board passed the buck to the government saying the bid, was on the higher side. Sources said the government formed a negotiating committee headed by the Chief Secretary, which discussed the bid with Lanco. They said following this Lanco had agreed to lower per unit price to Rs 3.30 , reduction of eight paisa per unit. Sources said the negotiating committee now sent the negotiated price to the PSEB for consideration and asked the PSEB whether it should be accepted. It has also asked the board to give suggestions whether the contract should be rebid or executed by the board itself. Sources said the issue was likely to be taken up to the Cabinet for final approval as unanimity on the per unit price was yet to emerge even though the PSEB earlier obliquely justified the apparent high cost of power generation saying there had been change in the investment environment. However others claim the rate is high and cite the example of similar projects awarded in Jhajjar (Haryana) for Rs 2.99 per unit and at Karchana (Uttar Pradesh) for Rs 2.97 per unit. They claim one-paisa increase translates into cost difference of Rs 1 crore per year and even if Lanco had agreed to Rs 3.30 per unit, it was still very high.
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Committee’s no to promotion of Kaushik, Shashi Kant
Chandigarh, February 12 According to sources, the
DPC, headed byChief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh, and consisting of home secretary Sudhir Mittal and police chief NPS
Aulakh, did not take up the case of approval of both ADGPs because some documents, including annual confidential reports
(ACRs), were not attached. While Anil Kaushik is of the 1975 batch, Shashikant is of the 1977 batch. The DPC cleared all four IGPs of 1982 batch - Sanjeev Gupta, Sumedh Singh
Saini, Suresh Arora and Rajinder Singh for promotion as ADGP. Rajinder Singh will get his rank on April 1 after DGP Prisons Mohammad Izhar Alam retires. In the case of SS
Saini, the DPC considered the report of the Advocate-General’s office, which said there was “nothing which prohibited him from being considered for promotion”. The AG office had been asked to submit its report due to court cases pending against Saini on account of his role during the period of militancy in the state. Home secretary Sudhir Mittal said the entire issue had been considered in a holistic manner and the career record of the officer was perused before approving his name for promotion. In the case of promotion from Deputy Inspector General (DIG) to
IG, the DPC has reportedly recommended the names of BK Uppal, Paramjit Singh
Sarao, Paramjit Singh Gill and Tehal Singh. However, this reported list has been kept in a sealed envelope and will be submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court because there is litigation pending on seniority between officers of the 1991 batch. The DPC approved names of SPs RN
Dhoke, SK Asthana, Shashikant Prabha Diwedi, Kartar Singh, Paramjit Singh Grewal and Arpit Shukla for promotion as DIG. However, only the first three will be promoted immediately.
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NGO adopts 2 cancer-hit children
Bathinda, February 12 The NGO today adopted two children suffering from the disease and would bear expenses of their education too. The family has lost two members to cancer, while five members, including four children, have lost one eye each to the disease. All cancer-afflicted children, in age group of 1-2 years, had problem of eyes. Following doctors’ recommendation their eye balls had to be removed. The NGO, patron of which is Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today thanked The Tribune for highlighting the family’s plight headlined , ‘Water pollution hits this Malwa family in the eye’ on August 6 last year. “After reading about the tragedy, we were in touch with them,” said Sukhdeep Gill, senior general manager of the GCCI. He said the NGO would give Rs 1,000 to the family every month for school fee of Harmander Singh and Kiran Deep Kaur, students of class VI and IV, respectively. The amount would later be increased when they pursue higher studies In this children of Kendriya Vidyalya No 4 of Bathinda cantonment also played important role. Motivated by recent lecture session organised by the NGO in their school, the children collected money to help the affected family. Gill today organised a function in the school to honour children for the contribution towards this cause. Rupees 36,527 collected by the children was handed over the NGO. Emotional Joginder Singh, a member of the family, thanked the children and the NGO. “Doctors have said my niece Amrit Pal Kaur, who is just four , would not be able to survive long.”
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Now, log in to see your FIR
Kapurthala, February 12 All FIRs registered at all the 14 police stations in the district are displayed on its website-www.kapurthalapolice.net - within eight hours of their registration besides other important information. Explaining the purpose behind creating this website, SSP Rakesh Agrawal, said, “Kapurthala has a large number of NRIs who face a lot of problems in contacting and getting information from the law enforcement authorities in India and this complaint has been redressed.” Besides, the people living here, too, will benefit immensely from the information on the website, he added. All the FIRs registered after January 1, 2009, are available on their website. With this, anybody who wants to go thorough any FIR registered in the district could do so at the click of a button. The person could also download or print the FIR, he added. We are aware that the lower constabulary made the complainants and accused do endless rounds of the police stations just to get a copy of the FIR, but that loophole has been plugged, he pointed out. Since the document is posted on the Net within eight hours of its registration, the people can download copies in the comfort of their homes, he added. Similarly, data about passport verification status has also been made online. Now anybody can log on to the website and find out the status of police verification of his/her passport verification. A list of proclaimed offenders (POs), including NRI POs, has been put up on the website. This serves a dual purpose. First, it provides information on the criminals wanted by them and secondly, if somebody feels that he/she has been wrongly declared a PO without their knowledge, then they can submit an application, online if they so desire, pleading their innocence to us, he added. The SSP said police clearance certificate forms, foreigners registration forms, etc had also been provided on the website. Last year, they launched the Hassle-Free Registration of FIRs scheme that had been a great success. Under this scheme, FIRs were registered first and investigation was done afterwards. But the accused were only arrested if there was sufficient evidence on the file and after my written approval, he said. This scheme is also an answer to the people’s complaint that the police was reluctant to registering their FIRs, he added.
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National Productivity Awards
Chandigarh, February 12 Rodrigues was addressing a gathering at the National Productivity Awards function organised by the National Productivity Council, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, in association with the Punjab Department of Industries and Commerce here today. He emphasised the need for aperformance audit and analysis of policies and programmes in different sectors of socio-economic growth. Rodrigues said this would enable corrective measures by identifying shortcomings and inadequacies.
Rodrigues presented awards to distinguished industrialists, which included: Lords engineering Enterprises,
Hoshiarpur, G.K. Manufacturing, Jalandhar, and Joshi Auto Industries, Jalandhar, under the micro-scale category; Sri Tools Industry Ludhiana, Ambika Overseas, Jalandhar, Ajay Industry, Jalandhar, bagged prizes under the small-scale hand tool category; Kudo Fabrics, Ludhiana, Shramanji Fabrics Pvt. Ltd, Ludhiana, and Lakra Industries Limited, Ludhiana, were given prizes in the medium-scale textile category. Ambica Auto Works, Jalandhar, got a special prize under the new emerging unit category.
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Ragging in medical colleges
Chandigarh, February 12 In a communiqué to the Vice-Chancellor,Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, director, medical education and research, director Ayush and principals of medical colleges, Sood told all institutions to implement latest guidelines of Supreme Court to check ragging. He said institutions must deal with erring students. He added all institutions must implement Raghvan Committee recommendations for the purpose. “ Delay by any institution to take action will frustrate the basic purpose of the complaint. If authorities are, prima facie, satisfied about the errant act of any student, they can in appropriate cases pending final decision, suspend him from the institution and hostel, if any, and give an opportunity to him to have his say,” Sood added.
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New pay scales for teachers to be implemented in toto: Chief Secy
Chandigarh, February 12 The Punjab government had invited the university and college teachers to discuss the demand of pay scale implementation. PFUCTO is a body comprising all the university and college teachers organisations of Punjab and Chandigarh, including
GNDUTA, PCCTU, PUTA, GCTA. PAUTA, and GADVASU. Its deputation of PFUCTO was led by its president SS Dhillon and general secretary Jagwant Singh. The teacher leaders emphasised that the notification be implemented at the earliest so as to claim the 40 per cent arrears from the Central government. for the financial year 2008-09. PFUCTO also brought to the notice of Ramesh Inder Singh that the Chandigarh administration also needed time to adopt and claim the amount and thus the matter deserved urgency. The Chief Secretary assured the teachers that he would take up the case with the Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal.
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Sukhbir promises action against music piracy
Chandigarh, February 12 Badal, after meeting a delegation of the music and entertainment industry led by Hans Raj Hans here last evening, said the government would soon frame an Act to safeguard the entertainment industry.. He instructed to the Home Department to draft the Act and put it up at the Cabinet meeting for approval. Badal directed the director- general of police to draw up modalities in this regard and assured the delegation of action to stop piracy to protect the entertainment industry.
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CM tells DGP to hold probe, report in 24 hrs
Amritsar, February 12 The Chief Minister directed the DGP to submit a report within 24 hours on the police officials responsible for the incident. Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Bhagwant Singh ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and directed the SDM, Sandeep Rishi, to submit the report within seven days.
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DROs’ assn office-bearers
Chandigarh, February 12 The meeting authorised the president to nominate other office-bearers and members of the executive committee of the association.
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