The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	9 private schools say no to polio vaccination Amaninder Pal/TNS Jalandhar, October 28 The Pulse Polio is in doldrums as some of the major private institutions of the city have refused administering teams to give drops to the students up to 5 years in their schools. Urgent mop up round to administer polio drops is being chalked out in 11 districts of state including Ludhiana, Mohali and Jalandhar. It is learnt that management of nine big privately run institutions in Jalandhar have denied teams of vaccinators to administer polio drops to their students. Managements and faculty of these schools are apprehensive they will be answerable to parents in case of any complication, if occurs, after administering polio vaccine to students. As per information, principals and managements did not pay heed even to the orders of the public authorities. According to officials, the schools included St Soldier school, Choudhary Public School, Shiv Jyoti Public School, MLD DAV School, Vivekanand school and MGN Public School. “Even after requests by senior officers of the Education Department and medical officers, principals of few schools did not allow polio vaccination. We need to divert our work force first to schools and then again to homes of these students. Only way out is that our teams should wait outside the gates of these schools and administer polio vaccine to students,” said a senior doctor associated with this mop up round. According to the professionals involved in this round, time given for the logistical preparation of this round is too short to perform well. “Mop up round has been announced just one week back. In this limited time, optimum propaganda to sensitise people for this round was not possible. People feel scared when we enter their homes to give polio vaccines. Much of the population even do not know about this hurried round,” said one worker. Moreover, workers also failed to train students from high and secondary schools up to the mark, which doesn’t help the teams in door-to-door administration of polio drops. Some of these teams are constituted of new untrained students. This mop up round is also running without establishment of temporary booths alongside roads as temporary booths are set up in nationwide rounds. In the absence of these temporary booths, some children who are commuting may get skipped.
	Drive Against Peddlers Two arrested with 5 kg heroin Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 28 The police arrested two persons for smuggling 5 kg of heroin worth Rs 25 crore in the international market at Ladowali Road here today. The car-borne drug peddlers were arrested along with the contraband at a naka just a few yards from the offices of the Senior Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Commissioner. The police also impounded an Indica car used by the peddlers for transporting the consignment in waterproof plastic packets, weighing 500 gm each. SSP R.K. Jaiswal identified the suspects as Gurnam Singh and Kashmir Singh of Hasimpura village in Ajnala tehsil of Amritsar district. They were working for Balwinder Singh, kingpin in the case. The SSP said, “In preliminary investigations, the suspects have disclosed that Balwinder Singh had hired them to supply the contraband to certain persons at Jalandhar. For this, they were promised Rs 1.25 lakh.” Gurnam Singh came in contact with Balwinder Singh through Tejinder Singh when he had been lodged in Ambala jail on rape charge some time ago, the SSP said. He, however, was reluctant to disclose the origin of the contraband. The SSP said the suspects were of a criminal background and were wanted in many cases of robbery, drug peddling, rape, etc. A case has been registered against them at Police Station Division No 4. A trap had also been laid to nab Balwinder Singh, the SSP said. This is the third seizure of heroin in the district in the past five months.
	Mystery shrouds death of newlywed couple Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 28 Mystery shrouds the death of a newlywed couple who allegedly committed suicide by hanging themselves in the Verka area last night. The incident came to light this morning when the mother of the boy came to their house and knocked at the door which was bolted from inside. Getting no response even after repeated knocks, Paramjit Kaur, the mother, informed neighbours, who broke opened the door and found their bodies hanging. Incidentally, it was the second marriage of both the deceased, identified as Inderjit Singh of Fatehgarh Shukarchak and Parveen Kaur. They had been residing in a rented accommodation in the Guru Nanak Nagar locality in Verka for the past five months. While the first wife of Inderjit had died, Parveen was a divorcee, said Pritam Singh, father of the girl. The police team did not find any suicide note at the spot. However, it has initiated action under section 174 of the CrPC and handed over the bodies to their families after a post-mortem examination.
	4 suspected cases of dengue reported Hoshiarpur, October 28 Four suspected cases of dengue fever have been reported in the Civil Hospital since last night. Civil Surgeon Dr S.K. Gupta said with the admission of these persons to the Civil Hospital, the number of suspected dengue fever cases in the hospital had risen to six. Keeping in view the reporting of number of suspected dengue fever cases, preventive measures were being taken to control the spreading of the disease in and around the city. Anti-larva spray was being done in slum areas and the awareness drive against the epidemic had been launched, said Dr Gupta, appealing to the people to immediately report any of the suspected dengue fever case to their nearest health institution. — OC
	Firm directed to pay widow insurance money Our Correspondent Hoshiarpur, October 28 Providing relief to Harvinderjit Kaur, widow of Jaspal Singh of Dalewal village, the District Consumer Forum, headed by its president P.D. Goel, directed the local branch of The Oriental Insurance Company Limited (TOICL) to pay Rs 1 lakh with interest at the rate of 9 per cent to the former from the date of complaint till realisation along with litigation expenses of Rs 1,000 within one month. Harvinderjit Kaur had filed a complaint against TOICL stating that her husband Jaspal Singh got himself insured for Rs 1 lakh in case of accidental death under the Janta Personal Accident Insurance Scheme on April 27, 2008, for one year. Jaspal Singh got serious injuries in a road accident and died. She being a nominee of deceased Jaspal Singh lodged a claim but the insurance company repudiated the claim on the ground that the post-mortem examination was not conducted on the body of deceased Jaspal Singh. The insurance company authorities took a plea that there was no document to link the death of Jaspal Singh on account of alleged injuries. Harvinderjit Kaur had failed to produce post-mortem report of deceased Jaspal Singh, which was a vital document to know the cause of death. The forum held that there it was not mandatory that there should be necessarily FIR or post-mortem examination. If accidental death was proved otherwise, then in the absence of FIR or otherwise the claim should not be rejected as the death of the insured was only due to accident and his case was fully covered under the policy. It was further held that the insurance company was not justified in repudiating the claim which amounted to deficiency in service.
	‘Miss PTC Punjabi’ contest tomorrow Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 28 As many as 16 girls from different parts of the state would vie with one another for the “Miss PTC Punjabi” title, the grand finale of which has been scheduled for October 30 at Khalsa College here. The girls in the fray are Miss Patiala (second runner-up) Saruchi Sharma, Miss Amritsar (second runner-up) Jasmeen Kaur, Miss Batala Ramandeep Saini, Miss Ludhiana (second runner-up) Sheeba Sethi, Miss Jalandhar (second runner-up) Paramvir Kaur, Miss Hoshiarpur (first runner-up) Ekamjeet Kaur, Miss Chandigarh Kamaldeep Kaur, Miss Patiala Aprajita Sharma, Miss Delhi Taranjit Kaur, Miss Bathinda Manveen Baweja, Miss Batala (second runner-up) Jatinder Kaur, Miss Ludhiana (first runner-up) Jatinder Kaur, Miss Hoshiarpur Ginni Sehgal, Miss Ludhiana Neha Rishi, Miss Amritsar (first runner-up) Radhika Mehra and Miss Amritsar Greeta Malhotra. Punjabi artistes like Sarabjit Cheema, Amrinder Gill, Kaler Kanth, Nachhattar Gill, Mangi Mahal, Gippy Grewal, Yudhvir Mank and Sonu Walia will hit the stage with their dance performances and songs.