Jalandhar, August 10
Tension prevailed at Burna village after the caretaker of a religious place pulled down a Nishan Sahib late this evening. The police from adjoining areas had to rushed to the village to prevent any untoward incident.

Police sources said the religious place had been in existence since the past 80 years and the villagers had no problems with the previous sewadar, Mohan Das, who passed away some years ago.

However, before his death he had willed some land of the religious place to his successor, Jagdish Anand.

The villagers resented this and both parties had been involved in litigation. The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently ruled in favour of Anand, who is said to have taken possession of the land and pulled down the Nishan Sahib today.

Jalandhar, August 10
Scores of students who were trying for admission in top engineering colleges of the country through the AIEEE online counselling are crying foul.

Punjab students said many of them had withdrawn in the fourth round dissatisfied with the options that they were getting, believing that it was the last one with no hopes ahead. “We had taken a refund and instead started trying through the state counselling when we realised that the Central Counselling Board had planned to conduct a fifth round,” they said.

“Had I been apprised of the change through an update on the website, www.ccb.nic.in, or any other source, I would not have opted out and could have got a better seat at some National Institute of Technology (NIT). I had no information of the sort till July 24, which was also the last date for seeking a refund from the allotted institute. Since I took the refund of Rs 24,000, I became ineligible to proceed for a better choice,” rued a youngster who had a 28,000 plus all-India rank.

The students, many of them from Jalandhar, said the candidates with ranks lower than theirs managed to get a better seat than them. “I got to know this when I learnt that fifth round result were declared on August 6,” said an affected candidate hailing from Guru Nanakpura here.

He said this happened because of a delay on part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in taking decision in this regard and a further delay in conveying it to the participating institutes. He, too, mentioned that the letter by the MHRD which he came across as an eye opened much later on a site, www.entrancecorner.com, had no mention on the official website.

Blaming that there had been a technical error of sending across the message late, the CCB should consider their case as well in the fifth round and allow them to get a better choice.

The staff from the admission cell of Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology confirmed to having come across numerous such cases. They expressed their helplessness in this regard for they said the final authority on the matter was NIT, Warangal, which was the central authority for conducting admissions this time.

The staff seemed irked with several problems arising due to repeated rounds. “It has become an endless problem this time. We have now been hearing that there could be sixth round. The session has already started since July 27 and we still are not clear about the admission status.

“After the fifth round, we have 37 new admissions while 79 candidates who had taken admission with us earlier have withdrawn. The CCB should apply its brakes and let the NITs fill vacant seats on their own on the basis of merit of students contacting them,” they suggested.

Nawanshahr, August 10
Baradari Garden, a historical place, which was developed into a beautiful park to provide recreation facility for residents, about three years ago, has not only been plagued with the lack of infrastructural facilities but has also been emerging as a conducive harbour for drug addicts and “love birds”, especially those playing truants from schools and colleges, thanks to the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned.

It is worthwhile to mention here that in 2006, the Baradari Garden was spruced up into a sprawling park with the efforts of the then Parliamentary Secretary Parkash Singh and the then Deputy Commissioner Krishan Kumar.

A track for facilitating residents to have morning and evening walks was prepared. A park for children, a library and a canteen with ultra-modern facilities was set up at the Baradari Garden to fulfill the long-cherished dream of residents to have a recreation centre.

But after the transfer of former Deputy Commissioner Krishan Kumar, the Baradari Garden started facing official neglect. Consequently, the garden started emerging as a harbour for drug addicts and love birds, resulting in a considerable fall in the number of persons visiting the garden for recreation.

A social worker, Lally Saini, honorary secretary, Family Counselling Centre, while lamenting the deplorable condition of the Baradari Garden, suggested that the district administration should impose a nominal entry fee, with a view to raise funds for its maintenance as well as to monitor the entry of unscrupulous elements in the garden.

“An employee should be deputed at the main gate to collect the entry fee and to register the particulars of the visitors. This simple exercise would prove as a deterrent for miscreants,” said a social worker, adding that it would help to maintain the sanctity of the garden.

Social workers Kamal Kant Barthwal, president, Nagrik Hitkarini Sabha and Naresh Suri, president, Citizen Welfare Council, have suggested the installation of CCTV cameras at the Baradari Garden to put a curb on the activities of unscrupulous elements.

Jalandhar, August 10
The Punjab government is not implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) wholeheartedly thus affecting hundreds of rural workers.

This was the general perception of workers who had come from various parts of the state to attend a meeting organised by the Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan at Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall here on Friday.

Those present criticised the statement of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in which he claimed that the scheme was not popular with the workers since the wages were very low. Many among the gathering showed their job cards and alleged that the district administrations were not doing the needful to find them work.

They also alleged that the scheme was not being properly implemented due to the vested interests of the powerful landlord lobby. These landlords did not pay even the minimal wages to the workers, they pointed out.

Prabhjot Kaur, media coordinator of the outfit, said the problems of the workers were manifold. The village panchayats were not showing interest to issue job cards and where the cards had been issued no work had been provided.

She said there were many cases where the wages had not been paid after the completion of the work. It was resolved that a new outfit, NREGA Workers Union, would be formed to fight for their rights and that Jai Singh would be its chief.

Amritsar, August 10
The Punjab and Haryana HCaccepting the civil writ petition of five unsuccessful candidates for the posts of Assistant Town Planner directed that appointments would remain subject to the decision of the present writ petition.

The interviews for the posts were conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission recently. Ranndin Sher Jatinder Singh, Ritika Arora, Jaskiran Kaur, Padam Saini and Madhu Arora in their petition to the high court alleged that 50 per cent weightage to academic performance and equal number for interview gave ample elbow room to tinker with merit.

They claimed that this criteria was publicly announced after the declaration of result. The aspirants claimed that higher qualification and long professional experiences were ignored by the PPSC. Ranndin Singh, a project manager with a private company engaged in preparing master plans for six cities and towns of the state, stated that he earned gold medal in M.Tech, besides he had four-and-a-half-years experience, yet he was not selected.