Amritsar, September 5
Teachers and students of the Khalsa College for women celebrated Teachers’ Day with usual fervour and enthusiasm.

The function turned out to be a felicitation ceremony for merit holders of academic session 2008-09 and they were honoured by Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal for their achievements.

Dr Mahal emphasised over the role played by the teachers in the development of creative pursuits amongst the students. “Teachers act as role models for students and the credit for academic excellence can be attributed to teachers. While the teachers have always been very supportive, students should also take part in co-curricular activities for their overall development,” said Dr Mahal.

Teachers were seemingly excited and thanked the government for acceptance of their long-pending demand of the notification of new grades by the Punjab Government.

Hoshiarpur: The students and management of the Hoshiarpur Institute of Management and Technology celebrated Teachers’ Day in the college campus here and paid rich tributes to great leader Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishan, the second president of the country, whose birthday is celebrated as this day.

Er. Pardeep Sharma, General Secretary of the Institute, explained the students about the achievements of this great leader and educationist of India. He also explained about the role and importance of a teacher in students’ life and emphasised that students must respect their teachers if they want to succeed in their professional as well as social life.

Without teachers, no one can think about any research and development, as teachers create engineers, doctors, scientists, etc. Principal of the institute Surinder Pal, on behalf of the management and faculty members, motivated them to do their best in studies during their stay in the institute. On the occasion, students presented a cultural programme.

Nawanshahr: Tributes were paid to former President Dr S. Radhakrishnan at various educational institutions here to commemorate his birth anniversary.

Lecturers, seminars, cultural programmes and competitions were organised to mark Teachers’ Day.

A special programme was organised during the morning assembly at Government Senior Secondary Schools here. Students of the Sandhu Institute of Nursing organised a special “Antakshri programme” for teachers. Dr D.P.S. Sandhu, former Director, Health, presided over the function and delivered a lecture to underline the need of strengthening traditional teacher-student relations.

The Gurukul Institute of Competitions organised a function at Vishav Karma Mandir here. Red Rose Public School organised different competitions in which school students participated. The local Lions Club organised “Adhiyapak Sanmann Samaroh” here at JSFH Khalsa Senior Secondary School on the occasion.

Jalandhar, September 5
Call it a reflection on incompetence of the teachers or a poor representation on their part by the senior education officials, none of the hundreds of teachers from the Doaba region figured in the list of the state awardees who were honoured during the Teachers’ Day function in Ludhiana today.

The facts are even more surprising going by the fact that Education Minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur represents the region that has been totally dejected this time. The list of 16 awardees who were felicitated includes as many as 14 teachers from Malwa region and two from Majha.

In fact, all teachers in the senior school category are from Malwa - three from Ludhiana, two from Patiala and one each from SAS Nagar, Mansa, Muktsar and Fatehgarh Sahib. The elementary teachers who got the honour included one each from Muktsar, Ludhiana, Roopnagar, Gurdaspur and Amritsar.

While normally one or two teachers from each district are selected for the honour, this time it seems to have been quite an unfair representation. Senior vice-president of the B.Ed Teachers’ Front, Punjab, Chander Sheikher demanded that rather than giving preference to the teachers of one area, all regions should get a fair representation. “Since it has been seen that many deserving candidates get rejected, there are several teachers who feel reluctant to apply for the award,” he pointed out.

The local teachers revealed that there were a couple of applications from the region, including those from Adampur and Bhogpur, but they could not manage to sail through. They rued that manipulation, approach and politics played a major deciding factor in the selection process.

District Education Officer Joginder Dass said there was a point system that decided the merit of the candidates. “Perhaps the candidates from this region could not qualify in that system,” he claimed, ruling out any incidence of partiality.

Jalandhar, September 5
The SAD (A) has demanded a CBI inquiry into the “Darbar Sahib sex scandal” besides making the findings of another such scandal involving a former SGPC secretary public.

Addressing mediapersons here today, party chief Simranjit Singh Mann alleged that the scandal had taken the lid off the shady and immoral activities taking place in the holiest Sikh shrine with the tacit approval of the committee.

In the present case, a woman was said to have used the rooms of the various inns on the temple premises to run her brothel. She used to take various rooms on rent and invited her clients there. Although the police had arrested her, the fact remained that the sordid episode could not have happened without the connivance of the committee, he pointed out.

This was not the first time. In the past too the then SGPC secretary was sacked on the grounds of moral turpitude. An enquiry was ordered into the incident but the report had not been made public till date.

Sadly, the government had also chosen to sweep the incident under the carpet instead of taking strict action against the culprits. Exemplary punishment to the accused would  have served as a deterrent to those  who violated the sanctity of religious places, he added.

Commenting on the Sikhs who had been placed on the blacklist, he said the government should revise the list so that they could visit their motherland.

Reacting to the recovery of huge quantities of heroin and explosive material in Punjab, especially in the border belt, he said it was a matter of concern that the narcotics were reaching Punjab in spite of the vigil maintained by the Army, BSF, Punjab Police and other intelligence agencies.

This showed that all these forces were in cahoots with drug smugglers at the behest of their political masters. All this was being done in deep-rooted conspiracy to ruin the coming generations of the Sikhs, he alleged.

On the conclave of the SAD at Shimla this month, he said history was testimony to the fact that the outcome of any agreement or meeting at the hill station was always negative. The venue chosen was symbolic of the fact that the Badal-led outfit had failed to click in Punjab, he said.

Others present on the occasion included Gurdial Singh Atwal, Dhyan Singh Mand, Gurinderpal Singh Dhanaula, Surjit Singh Kala Afghana and Ravinder Singh Ladi

Hoshiarpur, September 5
Inspector General, Jharkhand Police, H K Mishra took march past salute from 183 recruits of batch no. 186 of the Indian Reserve Police Recruit Constables, Jharkhand, in an impressive passing out parade at Subsidiary Training Centre (STC) of the Border Security Force (BSF), Kharkan, 12 km from here today.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, H K Mishra appreciated the turn out of the recruits and said it would help them while performing duties in their service period. He congratulated the recruits and showered his blessings for their success in life.

H K Mishra honoured recruits Lokesh Kumar, Mohmad Tabrej Khan, Satinder Singh, Kande Ram Bandra and Himashu Shekher Mehto for their excellent performance in various subjects during the training.

The Deputy Inspector General of STC BSF A M Bhatnagar said these trainees had been imparted 39 weeks training in physical education, weapon operation, field craft, field engineering, police competition, commando, battle field education and law etc.

Jalandhar, September 5
Body of a Kapurthala-based woman was found in a hotel room located adjacent to Maqsudan Chowk here, this morning.

According to the police, the deceased, Kuldeep Kaur, a resident of Dhaliwal village in Kapurthala, committed suicide by consuming some toxic substance. The police also claims to have recovered a suicide note from the room where she was putting up.