Jalandhar, July 14
The agitated parents of the students of MGN Public School today met Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu and submitted a memorandum regarding the sudden fee hike in the school.

Earlier in the morning, an 11-member committee gathered at the District Administration Complex to discuss the issue. “The Deputy Commissioner directed ADC G.S. Khaira to look into the matter,” said Parminder Singh Jolly, president of the committee.

He added that though the management and the parents met at the ADC office, but no conclusion was drawn.

The parents accepted the fee hike of Rs 200 on the terms that the management would not increase the fee in the next two years.

However, the management maintained that they would reduce the fee by Rs 125 per month per child and would not increase it the next year. But the parents reportedly remained adamant on their point.

The parents would now meet the management tomorrow morning once again. “We would discuss the matter in detail with the management at the school and lead it to a logical conclusion,” he said.

Meanwhile some parents gathered on the school premises in support of the fee hike and termed it justified.

Jalandhar, July 14
It’s bad luck for the residents of Chhoti Baradari here. Even the re-carpeting of roads was launched last month, the work has been stalled again due to the monsoons.

The road recarpeting project was launched with much fanfare with MLA Jagbir Brar, MC councillor S.D. Chugh and Jalandhar Development Authority Chief Administrator Parveen Kumar reaching the site on June 23 and announcing the commencement of the project at a cost of Rs 88.2 lakh for a stretch of 4.45 km of roads in the colony.

But to the dismay of the residents, just one road in Phase II, passing in front of Cambridge International School towards Gurjaipal railway crossing, has been re-laid.

Parveen Kumar says the work could resume only after rains were over or else the newly-built roads could get washed away.

It was after a gap of over four years that the roads were being constructed in the area. The work to improve the condition of the potholed roads has been put off several times due to delay in getting sanctions, dilly-dallying in passing of estimates and bad weather, forcing hundreds of residents to experience bumpy rides to reach their homes.

The condition of the roads is so bad that these have completely worn out in most of the stretches. Car drivers try to take the roadsides to avoid jerks and motorists prefer to get down and walk all the way.

Residents said they had been demanding for long that both the works be executed at the earliest so that they did not face any hassles during the monsoons. They lamented that the roads already were quite accident prone and with water filled in them, the commuters could not see the potholes which could result in mishaps.

There is just one good news, the condition of parks has improved. They are now better maintained with some of them even getting swings and slides.

Jalandhar, July 14
The district planning board has sanctioned Rs 1.49 crore to provide nutritional products to pregnant, lactating women and children up to six years of age.

Board chairman Charanjit Singh Channi chaired the first meeting in which he directed the officials of various departments to judiciously use the funds meant for various development schemes. All round development would be their mantra so that the government fulfilled all its electoral promises, he added.

He warned the officials against shoddy work and said sign boards should be put up in those villages where some work was going on. The signage should contain all information about the work, its expenditure and date of completion. The board members should inspect the works regularly and submit a report to him, he added.

The board also gave its approval for the plan schemes for 2007 - 2009 amounting to Rs 2,326 lakh.

DC-cum-secretary of the board - Ajeet Singh Pannu - directed the officers of various departments to submit user certificates of completed works amounting to Rs 1,386 lakh for the years 2005 - 2009, at the earliest.

This would enable them not only to ascertain the amount that has been spent on the works but also if any money has been siphoned.

He also directed the officers to get the objections, raised by the audit department, settled in the coming days.

Pannu also asked the department concerned to provide all the technical help to NRIs who were constructing underground sewerage facilities in their villages. This would ensure that the projects functioned properly and the money spent did not go down the drain, he added.

Jalandhar, July 14
Two scooter-borne miscreants snatched a polythene bag containing Rs 50,000 from Ram Chand of Avtar Nagar near Mota Singh Nagar yesterday. According to information, Ram Chand was going in a rickshaw to deposit the amount at the Mota Singh Nagar branch of the State Bank of India.

Jalandhar, July 14
Dejected at the injustice meted out to his married daughter, a Jalandhar-based resident has appealed to the President of India against increasing NRI matrimonial frauds in the Doaba belt of Punjab. The man has been fighting a lonely battle for the rights and honour of his daughter.

In his application, Moti Ram Rattu, the father of the girl, has sought intervention of the Ministry of External Affairs in tracing his son-in-law. Rattu got his daughter, Asha Rani, married to a France-based NRI, Des Raj Badhan, on May 22, 2005.

After spending three months in India, the boy went abroad on August 8, and stopped keeping in touch with the girl and her family. Meanwhile, the girl lived with her in-laws at Malu Pota village, near Nawanshahr, for some time. “Her in-laws started torturing her for dowry and forced her to leave the home. We tried to solve the issue amicably at the initial stages but all in vain,” said Rattu.

“The boy also reneged on his promise of getting the marriage registered in court. Instead, he snapped ties with her,” said the aggrieved father. On the other hand, the boy’s family said the couple never stayed together after the marriage. “Even the girl’s family is also aware of the relations between them. As soon as the boy went abroad, they started harassing us by implicating us in false cases of dowry. There was no exchange of material gifts between both the families,” said Lahori Ram, elder brother of Des Raj.

However, Rattu denied these allegations and said the boy’s family was trying to save their skin by levelling such baseless allegations. “Being the father of the girl, I tried my best to save the marriage, but the indifferent attitude of the boy’s family forced me to look for justice with the higher authorities,” the father said.

Jalandhar, July 14
A delay in flight has cost Jet Airways dearly. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has asked the airline to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kaushal, refund him Rs 7,000 as hotel and food charges and pay Rs 2,000 as cost of litigation. 

The company has been directed to further deposit Rs 20,000 as punitive damages in the account of consumer welfare free legal aid fund in the office of the forum for filing a false affidavit in the case.

In his complaint, the SP said he had booked tickets for himself, his wife Anu Kaushal and sons Ajitesh and Anirudh for a journey from Delhi to Ahmedabad and back. He said the return journey was booked with Jet Airways and Jet Lite through Youvee Worldwide Services for January 3, 2008, on Jet Lite flight S2 6122.

The SP wrote that since the time of his departure from Ahmedabad was 11.05 am, he reached the airport with his family at 10 am so that the necessary security formalities could be completed. He said when almost all formalities were completed, he was told that the flight had been cancelled with no reason assigned for the same.

He said had he been informed in advance, he could have avoided the trouble of reaching the airport.

The complainant said he was instead told that the same flight for his family had been booked for the next day. Since the airline did not make any arrangements for his board and lodging, he had to bear additional expenses of hiring a taxi back to the hotel, spend Rs 5,000 as room tariff and 
Rs 2,000 as dining charges.

The plaintiff said when he was again about to leave the hotel the next day at 9.30 am to catch the flight, it was conveyed to him that his flight had again been delayed and was likely to get cancelled. He said after much insistence, they booked him for the next flight scheduled for departure at 3.15 pm on January 4, 2008, from Ahmedabad to Delhi via Mumbai. This flight again took off after an hour’s delay. 

The boarding passes were also delayed and the family finally reached Delhi only after 8.30 pm. The counsel for the Jet Airways filed a reply saying that Jet Airways and Jet Lite were two separate legal entities and there was no deficiency on its part, calling for the dismissal of the case. An Assistant Sales Manager of the company, based at Jalandhar, even filed an affidavit in this regard. 

The counsel for Jet Lite and booking agency failed to appear, causing ex parte proceedings to be carried against them. In reply, the complainant presented downloaded copies from the official website of Jet Airways, which mentioned that Jet Lite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways India Limited, which was acquired by Jet Airways in April 2007. 

The forum represented by Surinder Mittal and Rakesh Kumari thus pronounced the order in favour of the SP.

Jalandhar, July 14
Government doctors of the district donated 21 units of blood during a special blood donation camp organised at the District Blood Bank located on the Civil Hospital premises under the aegis of the district unit of the PCMS Association today.

President of the PCMS Association Dr Harish Bhardwaj, general secretary Vijay Singh, Blood Transfusion Officer (BTO) Dr Gagandeep Singh and epidemiologist Dr T.P. Singh were among those who donated blood.

Besides, Dr Parminder Singh, Dr Mukesh Chandra, Dr Ashok Kumar, Dr Harjinder Singh and Dr Kamaljeet Kaur also donated blood.

Civil Surgeon Dr S.S. Walia inaugurated the blood donation camp by cutting the ribbon. Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjiv Babuta was present on the occasion.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Harish Bhardwaj said they had organised the blood donation camp due to shortage of blood for patients. The association would continue to organise such camps in future too.

Dr Bhardwaj said the association had already done several social works, including spreading awareness among general public about swine flu.

Jalandhar, July 14
The stock of only 100 units of blood has been left presently in the District Blood Bank. In other words, the stock of blood has reduced to one-fourth as the average stock of blood in the bank remains 400 units.

Blood Transfusion Officer (BTO) Dr Gagandeep Singh attributed the acute shortage of blood to the vacation in the universities and colleges of the district.

Usually the students of different universities and colleges donate blood for the blood bank and no blood camp could be organised during the past several weeks, he added. — TNS

Jalandhar, July 14
For city-based chess champ, Akarshan Gupta, nothing is impossible in life. It was due to his resolute approach that the champion gave a tough competition to many seniors at the recently held 1st International FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs or World Chess Federation)

Rating Open Chess Tournament at Kota (Rajasthan).

The seven-day long open chess championship brought out the best in him.

The 11-year-old scored 5 points out of the total 10 rounds. The junior champ represented Punjab in this championship and won a special prize and certificate for excellent performance. “It was a tough competition. The most interesting fact was that I played with some of the senior chess players. And it served as a great learning platform for me,” he said.

He also participated in the 1st Manali International FIDE Rating Chess Championship held at Chennai from June 6 to 12 and in 1st Mastercom tech Service FIDE Rating tournament held in Bangalore from June 16 to 21.

The little chess champ remained on toes due to various chess championships during his summer vacations.

Any regrets that the champ hardly got any time to enjoy his summer vacations? Prompt came the reply, “I enjoy my game than anything else.”

Akarshan recently attended a chess championship training camp at the local Mayor World School.

An ardent fan of chess maestro Vishwanathan Anand, he is now looking forward to U-13 national chess championship to be held at Delhi in December this year. “All these years he has been competing in the open categories. The U-13 national chess championship will bring the best in him,” maintained his father Dr Gupta.

The champion has been learning the basics of the game from his coach Rajneesh Dhusa. And the chess genius avoid wasting his precious time in mundane things rather prefer to surf the Internet.

“I stay in touch with the latest material about the game on the Internet. And prefer to read about the game as well,” he maintained.

Jalandhar, July 14
Two students from local colleges have done the city proud by attaining top ranks in the examinations conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University this year. Gurkanwal Kaur, final year B.Sc (non-medical) student of HMV College, has stood first in the university by scoring 1993 marks out of 2400.

A joint head girl of the college, she is now preparing for the MBA entrance tests. Daughter of a real estate developer, Gurkanwal aspires to enter the corporate world and take up a job with an MNC. As a student, she had participated in several science quiz events.

She stood second at one such event conducted for college students at Pushpa Gujral Science City on National Science Day this year.

She won prizes at the inter-college science exhibition organised by the DAV College this year.

Another student, Geetanjali Arora of BSc (economics) final year has stood first in the university by bagging 80 per cent marks. She has passed out of PCM SD College and is now trying for admission in MSc mathematics.

Aspiring to be a lecturer, Geetanjali has been a wizard in the subject throughout. She scored 100 per cent marks in maths in the class X PSEB examination as a student of Shiv Devi School. She obtained 98 per cent marks in the class XII examination.

She awaits her detailed marks certificate for the final year examination. She got 97 per cent marks in mathematics in the first year of her graduation and 94 per cent in the second year.

Besides academics, she also holds a record of active participation in various creative events, including essay and paragraph writing, chart making and computer presentations. Geetanjali’s father is a bank employee and mother a schoolteacher.