Chandigarh, June 2
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) is mulling doubling power cuts in the localities with high incidence of power thefts, to save both money and power.

The move, when enforced, could lead to power cuts of up to six or eight hours per day in the walled city area in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana as well as those in Muktsar and Hoshiarpur and the border belt. The PSEB has already decided to enforce cuts ranging from three to four hours daily from June 15.

The issue was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal besides Power Secretary Suresh Kumar and senior officials of the PSEB recently. The PSEB was ‘advised’ to implement the proposal to bring in much-needed discipline in power distribution.

Board Member (Distribution) KD Choudhary said though the proposal had not taken shape till now, “we will definitely look into it”. He said areas, which had high power losses, included Amritsar city where the losses were in the 35 per cent range despite a board average of 20 per cent distribution losses. He said other areas, which had losses from 30 to 35 per cent, included Jalandhar (east division), Hoshiarpur (city division) and Patran division besides border areas.

According to board sources, while power theft in Amritsar and Jalandhar and parts of Ludhiana have been high due to narrow streets and gullies, which facilitate the use of hooks to steal power, in Muktsar, political patronage is the main reason for power thefts. In border areas, power theft, which has been calculated at around 40 per cent, is mainly due to delayed checking and lack of easy accessibility.

The PSEB is trying to speed up an earlier initiative launched from Ludhiana under KD Choudhary’s initiative to remove all meters from inside residences and place them on poles outside homes in urban areas and in specially made iron boxes in rural areas. The Board has submitted a Rs 600-crore proposal to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for this purpose. It also proposes to increase checking during summer to minimise distribution losses.

Mohali, June 2
Boys achieved top two positions in results of class X examination of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), declared here today.

In the merit list, girls got majority of positions with Ludhiana district topping the tally with 80 positions of total top 101 rankers. Of the first 391 positions ranked by the board, girls got 300 positions. In the district-wise tally, Tarn Taran, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar are the worst performers.

Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon, chairman of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) said of 2,67,596 students 3,16,200 cleared the examinations. Pass percentage of regular students was 88.31 and of private students it was 74.07 . Overall pass percentage stood at 84.63 per cent --- an increase of 13 per cent compared to last year. Pass percentage of regular students was 75 (2008) and 65 (2007) and for private students it was 50.35 (2008) and 50 (2007).

He denied the rise in pass percentage was due to compulsory grace of nine marks against seven given last year. There has been no change in the grace of pass percentage, maintained Dr Dhillon. Against total of 650 marks, total marks this time were 850. Another significant factor, decline of 43,014 students appearing the Class X examination compared to total students appearing in the March 2008 went unnoticed.

In the girls’ domain, Sahil, student of MC Jolly DAV Public Senior Secondary School, Urdmur, Hoshiarpur, secured 92.24 per cent marks followed by Rahul, a student of AVM Senior Secondary School, Batala, Gurdaspur, who secured 92 per cent marks. The third position is shared by two girls, Renu Bala, student of Swami Shivananda Sarhitkari Senior secondary School, Morinda, Ropar and Neha Sharma, of BCM Senior secondary School, Jamalpur Colony, Focal Point, Ludhiana. Both secured 91.88 per cent marks.

The chairman said instead of publishing result gazettes, the board would paste it on the website and email or SMS to the students

The chairman said the result could be accessed from the board’s website www.pseb.ac.in on the night intervening June 3 and June 4. The result would also be emailed to the students who register themselves on the website.

Bathinda, June 2
The police seemed to be napping while Ashok Jadeja’s agents duped residents of Malwa in Punjab and Rajasthan of Rs 15 crore promising it trebled.

The victims have come on the streets in Bathinda, Ferozepur, Abohar and Hanumangarh seeking government help and compensation.

Jadeja had spread his tentacles here in the beginning of the year, but the police remained unaware of the scandal exposed after Jadeja’s arrest in Gujarat yesterday.

Many had reportedly handed over life ‘s savings and sold land to pass money to Jadeja’s agents for greed . Jadeja never visited here but his agents spread cooked up stories of Sikotar Mata, a deity , having blessed him to double their money. They lured members of the “Sansi” community in particular to deposit money with him and see it being tripled in days.

The victims were demanding their money be returned as the Gujarat police had now arrested the conman.

The victims in Abohar said Jadeja’s agents lured them by claiming the Sikotar Mata had “ordered” him to make each member of the Sansi community millionaire. Jadeja himself belongs to the de-notified Chhara tribe.

Roshan Lal said initially he deposited Rs 23,000 and was refunded Rs 69,000 after three days but later he lost the entire amount he again offered for being tripled. To raise cash, Bhago and Gango Devi sold the ornaments they had got made for their daughters. Shanti Devi mortgaged her house in the hope of her money being multiplied by the miracle man.

At Ferozepur, Shammi Bai, a rag picker is a disillusioned, as she along with her husband, who is cobbler, has lost Rs 2 lakh she had saved for the marriage of daughter.

Chanduram Pradhan, who represents the “ Saansi” samaj said there were around 250 “ Saansi” families residing in Basti Nizammudin, Sukkar Nahar and Gol Bagh area on the periphery of Ferozepur town all of whom are menial workers. Chandu claimed these families had deposited around Rs 1 crore with Jadeja.

The agent fled with the money he had collected from members of the community, Om Parkash sobbed. Another victim, Lali Devi said she had lost Rs 1.30 lakh she had saved for her daughter’s marriage.

Ironically, when the victims went to the SSP, Bathinda, he expressed inability to act in this matter he said was “out of his jurisdiction”.

Members of the Sansi community in Sriganganagar have been duped of Rs 3 crore, painter Mirza spokesman for the action committee alleged.

SP (CID), Bathinda, SS Chahal said, “How could we come to know about the incident without any complaint? The victims cried only when they realised that they were duped.

SSP Bathinda, Ashish Chaudhary said, he was unaware of the incident till yesterday. Most of the victims had gone to Ahmedabad to deposit money with the conman and now they were asking the police here to retrieve the amount. “We will join investigations with the Gujarat police”, he added. (With inputs from Rajay Deep, Raj Sadosh and Anirudh Gupta).

Bathinda, June 2
The students planning to go to Australia for studies are having second thoughts following incidents of racist violence there .

However not to let the potential migrants go out of hands, more than 12 IELTS coaching centres here brush aside these incidents as normal crime that could happen in any part of the world. These institutes were imparting training to about 3,000 students in the course and thereafter also handling their migration to Australia and other countries. But Australia has become the most favourite destination among people here.

At least two hoteliers, who talked to this correspondent on telephone from Sydney this morning, also claimed these incidents by no means were racist . They blamed the media for calling these incidents ‘racial’ and TV channels highlighting demonstrations by Indian students in various parts of Australia. An instructor of a local IELTS centre said there was anxiety among parents of students taking coaching in the institute.

Rimmi Bhardwaj, lecturer in a local education and migration services institute, said they were processing papers of 10 to 15 prospective migrants every month. She said parents of the students had started asking whether it was safe to send their wards to Australia.

Ashok Sadiora, director of another institute, claimed these incidents had not at all affected his business and he was handling 15 migration requests every day.

Avtar Singh Billu, who runs an Indian restaurant at Harris Park in Sydney, claimed never in 23 years, when he migrated from Nawanshahr district in Punjab, he faced racist discrimination in Australia.

He claimed druggies were generally involved in such incidents of violence.

Dr Jagvinder Singh Virk, who has migrated to Australia from Bathinda and was chairman of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, said panicked parents had started asking their children to return to India. But most of the students have satisfied their parents they were safe.

Chandur Tulani, who migrated 34 years ago and runs five -star hotels in Australia, said his daughter was studying in the university there and was not facing any racial problem.

Kurali, June 2
Balwant Singh, an officer posted with Markfed, curses the day he allowed his son Maninderpal Singh, alias Sunny, to board a flight to Melbourne, Australia. Two years hence, after Sunny was found dead under mysterious circumstances on railway tracks in Lloyd Street, Kensington, on May 29, 2008, Balwant Singh feels that his son was also a victim of racist attack.

“Till date we don’t know how our child died. We are not even aware if the body cremated at Melbourne was of our child,” said Balwant.

A promising youth, Sunny left for Australia in January 2007 for pursuing diploma in hospitality management at College of Holmes, Melbourne. “Sunny followed his friends abroad and wanted to do big in life. He was a sincere boy and a noble soul,” reminisces his father.

He remained in touch with his family till the first week of May, 2008. He called up his mother and told her that he was going away for vacations and would call on his own. For three months there was no word from Sunny and his parents assumed that he was holidaying with his friends.

On September 18, 2008, the Kurali police got a message from the Interpol that Sunny was found dead on the railway tracks on May 29, 2008, and the same message was passed on to his parents.

As per the letter issued by the Melbourne police, Sunny had died in a train accident on May 29, 2008, at 9.23 pm. But the family was informed three months after the incident.

His father alleged that neither the Melbourne police nor Indian authoritis helped the family in tracing actual belongings of Sunny. He said the wave of racist attacks against Indian students had just started at that point of time and his son might be amongst its early victims.

Chandigarh, June 2
Terming the racist attacks on Indians in Australia as unfortunate, Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today said the issue should not be politicised and asked political parties to play a proactive role in reducing tension and unite to fight against the situation.

“Some frustrated anti-social elements of Australian origin are out to create fissures amongst the international community,” she said in a statement here.

Asserting that these elements had no religion, creed, caste or nationality, she praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for holding parleys with Australian authorities immediately after the attacks to control the situation. — PTI

Chandigarh, June 2
Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh has asked director, hospitality, Punjab, to submit a report on the case of a Pakistani national booking into and leaving the state guest house without giving any details of his identity and without paying the bills.

The matter has been brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary by NS Brar, director, hospitality, whose staff reported that a Pakistani national was brought to the state guest house in Sector 39 on April 26 and given accommodation following a request made by RK Kaushik, additional secretary, finance, with the Punjab government.

According to sources, the Pakistani national accompanied by Kaushik had checked into the guest house. However, when the staff went to note his identity and other details of his visit, he allegedly refused to give any information saying he would let them know all details the next morning. However, the next morning the staff realised that the person had left the guesthouse.

The matter was brought to Brar’s notice who submitted the facts to the Chief Secretary. “We have asked for a complete report on the matter,” said Ramesh Inder Singh.

Sources add that Kaushik met the Chief Secretary last evening and told him that the Pakistani national was his friend and was visiting India on a valid visa. Kaushik is also said to have paid the bills on behalf of the Pakistani national.

Bathinda, June 2
This year too dates of examinations for various medical and engineering colleges clash. It has created panic among students. Date of entrance examinations fixed by the Longowal Institute and the Punjab Technical University’s (PTU) JET is the same - June 6. Students, who have filled forms for these examinations blame the PTU for this .

Rampal, whose ward is to appear for both PTU’s JET and Longowal’s entrance test, was concerned this coincidence taking place every year. The date for PTU’s JET was May 30 earlier, and now the university has changed the examination date to June 6, which clashes with the Longowal’s entrance test. We have spoken to the PTU authorities and they said, “You can get your money refunded.” The fee for the form was Rs 500 and prospectus was priced at Rs 350. They would only refund Rs 500. What about the prospectus money?

This causes anxiety to students because it becomes difficult to choose which college entrance test to opt for, said Shivani, who is to appear for the Longowal’s entrance test.

The same happened with Anjul Verma this year for entrance tests of medical colleges. The dates of entrance tests for the CMC, Ludhiana, and Indraprastha University, Delhi, were clashing, which made many students drop one of the examinations. The form of the CMC was priced at Rs 1,100 and that of the Indraprastha Rs 800. Anjul dropped the CMC test and appeared in Indraprastha’s test.

Bathinda, June 2
Polluted air here is causing respiratory and ophthalmic diseases, particularly among children. According to doctors almost every second child visiting a paediatrician or general practitioner, shows symptoms of respiratory or ophthalmic diseases and the incidence was increasing. Dr H S Narang, who monitored respiratory disease among children, said ome 20 to 30 per cent children visiting his clinic display symptoms like cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, asthma and symptoms of nasal allergy . Respiratory diseases were on the rise , he said . Rise in respiratory diseases in the city was attributed to increasing pollution of air due to thermal plant ash.

On diseases caused by polluted air Dr Narang said allergic bronchitis and allergic asthma were affecting the children more followed by allergic rhinitis, bronchitis, etc. He said environment of the city was harming children.

Dr Narang added on an average around 12 to 15 per cent childern displayed symptoms like cough, shortness of breath, nasal symptoms, wheezing and asthma maintaining respiratory symptoms had increased in the recent past. "The physical condition of the children has been affecting their ability to study and play,” claimed Dr Narang

“Repeated chest infection decreases immunity of children, and is unable to tolerate stress. The condition also affects ability to concentrate on studies and play outdoor games,” he observed.

Dr K K Goyal, of local Civil Hospital, said thermal plant ash was the major cause of air pollution. In addition, industrial smoke, vehicular emission, smoking, lack of green cover, unhygienic conditions and poor sanitary habits, urbanisation and growing population were other factors responsible for respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma and tuberculosis among children. These diseases could be controlled and prevented if atmospheric pollution and smoking were controlled .

Dr Goyal said children probably feel effect of pollution at lower level than adults. If children are not properly treated at the right age, they carry the disease with them throughout their life.

Dr Amrit Sethi, an ophthalmologist and former president of the IMA, citing an example of a resident, said the resident was going to market but had to be rushed a doctor as some foreign body entered his eyes and started troubling him. He had to keep one of his eyes closed with bandage after he removed the foreign body. Dr Sethi said there was 20 per cent rise in patients reporting with foreign bodies in eyes, in two years.

“It is criminal to go without sun glasses in Bathinda,” he added. He said cataract was assuming alarming proportions in Bathinda with diabetes and pollution affecting population fast. Due to pollution, steroid-dependent asthma patients are being increasingly found to develop cataract later.

Jalandhar, June 2
The police has made elaborate arrangements for a smooth movement of traffic on June 4 in view of the cremation of Sant Rama Nand at Ballan village on the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway.

Commuters and vehicles on the Ludhiana-Amritsar stretch will use the Phillaur-Nurmahal-Nakodar, Kapurthala-Subhanpur road to reach their destination. Those travelling on the same route but in the opposite direction will also follow this route.

Vehicles moving from Pathankot to Ludhiana will move via Dasuya-Hoshiarpur-Phagwara road. Ditto for vehicles on the same route but in the opposite direction.

Similarly, commuters on the Chandigarh-Pathankot route will be routed from the Phagwara bypass-Hoshiarpur-Dasuya road. Vehicles on the same route travelling in the opposite direction will also use this route.

Traffic from Chandigarh to Amritsar will be diverted to the Phagwara-Nakodar, Kapurthala-Subhanpur road. Vehicles on the same route but travelling in the opposite direction would follow this route.

The traffic police have also urged the commuters to bear with the restrictions that will in force since early morning on June 4 only.

Amritsar, June 2
At least 150 shops opposite Golden Temple will be demolished by the end of this month to complete the last phase of the Galliara Yojna.

The brainchild of the Central government, the Golden Temple Beautification Plan, also known as the Galliara scheme, was announced with much fanfare in June, 1988, after Operation Black Thunder. Its objective is to remove all narrow lanes and bazars, which proved a hindrance for the security forces during Operation Bluestar.

Earlier, the administration had demolished a number of bazars as old as Gurus’ period or Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s time after Operation Bluestar and Operation Black Thunder. These bazars included Bazaar Maniaran, Pappranwala Bazar, Kapda Bazar adjoining Baba Atal, a portion of Atta Mandi, Mochi Bazar and the major portion of Mai Sewan Bazar.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Director of the project, notices have been pasted on the shops to asking the owners to vacate them by tomorrow. The notices read that the shops, already acquired under the project, would be demolished by tomorrow. However, on a request of the shopkeepers, Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu extended the deadline up to June 30.

The three phases of the project were completed during the Congress regime at a cost of Rs 75 crore. Earlier, many historical buildings, including Ghanta Ghar and its adjoining market, were demolished by the Improvement Trust. Town Hall School building, the first educational institute established by the British in the holy city, had been demolished to create a multi-storey parking lot.

In the original notification, it was proposed to demolish 500 buildings. This was later amended to 492, and out of these, 483 buildings were demolished in 1988. As many as 859 families were uprooted and 500 houses and 1,150 shops were demolished. The shopkeepers were rehabilitated in various markets like Pink Plaza, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Market, IDH Market and Green Plaza.

The fifth phase, which envisages underground parking for 200 cars, ground parking for buses, was delayed due to objections raised in certain quarters.

Chandigarh, June 2
Protesting against the proposal of the Punjab government to supply food to the anganwadi centres through NGOs, score of anganwadi workers from across the state gheraoed the Social Welfare Department Office in Sector 34, here today.

It is learnt that Milkfed supplies milk, panjiri, sugarfed sugar, wheat and rice from the FCI to the anganwadi centres as part of the feed. They are government suppliers and the workers are agitated with the step of providing the task of distribution to private parties.

Sudden action of the protesting agitating workers even caught the intelligence wing of the local police napping and they came to know about the protest only after the protestors gheraoed the office. The disgruntled protestors laid a siege of the building for over four hours and resorted to picketing.

Though Sudarshan Thakur, SHO of the Sector 34 police station, reached the spot within minutes of getting the information, he was rendered almost helpless to control the situation in the absence of any lady police official. He, however, called for an additional force and soon a posse of commandos of the UT police reached there to tackle any untoward incident.

Earlier, the anganwadi workers organised a meeting in Cheema Bhavan in Sector 30, where they came to know that the state government was going to give charge of distributing food to the NGOs. Agitated over the proposal, the workers, led by their president Usha Rani and general secretary Harjit Kaur, began a march towards the Social Welfare Department Office in sector 34 and reached there around 12.30 pm.

Judging the seriousness of the situation, secretary of the social welfare department Harjit Singh called a delegation of the workers to his office around 3 pm. Despite efforts, the police could not persuade the protestors to stop picketing even as their delegation had gone for talks.

Talking to TNS, Usha Rani said the union had made it clear to the secretary that they would not, in any case, accept the government’s proposal of transferring the distribution to private parties. The president further stated that the entire project of distribution of the feed was worth Rs 40 crore.

Explaining the system, Harjit Kaur said zila parishads purchased the feed from the CDPO and supplied it further to the anganwadi centres.

Anganwadi workers and helpers prepared meals out of the raw material and distributed them further among expecting mothers, young girls and breast-feeding mothers. If the state government failed to meet their demands, they would intensify their stir, they threatened.

Ropar, June 2
Taking a note of sewerage and wastewater from villages being dumped into Sirhind canal, which originates in Sirhind and ends in Ludhiana, the rural development and panchayat department has taken up a project to save it.

The water from this canal is used for drinking and irrigation purposes in various parts of the state. Under this project, a team of the department visited Bassi Gujran and Dhaulran villages of Chamkaur Sahib block. These are the only two villages left in Ropar district whose wastewater finds its way into the canal.

The team, headed by principal secretary-cum-commissioner Jagpal Singh Sandhu, visited these villages and talked to panchayats to find an amicable solution to the problem.

It was decided that ponds will be built in the village itself that will contain wastewater and the openings of sewers towards canal will be blocked. Sanjiv Garg, DDPO, Ropar, said these ponds would be constructed under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) scheme. “These village panchayats have handsome earning and they can manage constructing the ponds on their own,” he said.

Meanwhile, the panchayats have decided to spare land for constructing ponds. If some farmer’s land falls at the location where the pond is to come up, he will be compensated from shyamlat (land in name of panchayat).

Though water from parts of Ropar city, including Giani Zail Singh Nagar, continues to find its way into the canal, officials said this too would be amended.

Similarly, two villages of Ludhiana district too will be directed to stop discharging wastewater into the canal. The two Ludhiana villages are Garhi Tarkhana and Katana Sahib. At Katana Sahib, the local gurdwara had been emptying its wastewater into the canal.

Sangrur, June 2
The Health Department today detected seven more jaundice cases detected in Lehragaga , 40 km from here. With this number of jaundice cases in a fortnight has risen to 21 in Lehragaga. Three cases were detected yesterday while remaining 11 cases were detected earlier.

Ajay Kumar, medical officer (MO), at Lehragaga community health centre (CHC), said out of seven patients, detected today, three were getting treatment from private doctors while remaining four patients would be treated by Lehra CHC. He said out of total 21 patients, 15 to 16 patients were from ward number one of the Lehragaga while remaining were from ward number nine or 10 etc.

Dr Ajay said no jaundice patient was now in the CHC. He said there was only one patient in the CHC today, he had also been discharged due to improvement in his health.

He said 10 health workers from Moonak today visited Lehragaga and surveyed ward number one and ward number 10 of the town. They also distributed chlorine tablets among the residents, he added.

Dr Ajay also said drinking of contaminated water seemed to be major cause of the spread of jaundice in the localities as even two to three persons from a family had also been suffering from jaundice. He also said though measures to curb the disease had been initiated but it would take some time as germs of water-borne diseases would take some time to die.