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‘Permanent’ relief for sanitary workers?
Gadhari mela begins
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GT Road turns transit route for drug mafia
Poor disposal of dirty water angers people
International symposium at KMV concludes
Unused Funds Of Welfare Schemes
Phagwara Zone
Tandon not aspirant for state BJP presidentship
Young World
Khaira leads protest against SAD’s vendetta politics
Supply going smooth, veggie prices remain static
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‘Permanent’ relief for sanitary workers?
Jalandhar, October 29 All mohalla committees will be dissolved after making these workers permanent safai karamcharis in the MC. According to the Punjab Municipal Safai Karamchari Service Rules, 1984, the age of an applicant should be between 18 and 35 years, but the Punjab Government raised the upper age limit to 47 years vide a decision on December 11, 2008. Though as per rules, only literate candidates are eligible for selection as sanitary workers, the government relaxed this rule also vide its decision on August 13, 2009. As per information, there was a plan to regularise all 1,213 temporary sanitary workers of the mohalla sanitation committees. However, 59 candidates have fallen under the doubtful category due to incomplete or seemingly faulty documents. A committee will be formed to scan the candidature of these 59 persons. Other than that 22 candidates remained absent from interviews and 24 were above 47 years of age. Seven of these 1,213 candidates have died. The process for regularisation of these workers witnessed three different committees, several years and massive agitations by workers. Other important issues which may be discussed in the House are user charges for door-to-door collection of garbage for the solid waste management project. Charges proposed by the MC are Rs 10 per household in slum areas, Rs 20 per 50 sq mt household and Rs 30 for households from 51 to 150 sq mt. Charges will be Rs 50 for households above 150 sq mt. Expense details of the inauguration programme of the new corporation building will also be introduced in the meeting. An expense of Rs 1.22 lakh is expected for the inaugural celebration.
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Gadhari mela begins
Jalandhar, October 29 The first day saw students from schools and universities across the state participating in a declamation contest on “Women reservation and role of political parties”. Convener of the cultural affairs of DBYH Gurmeet Singh said it was for the first time that the declamation contest was conducted jointly for boys and girls. Apart from the event, spectators, especially book lovers, enjoyed the day, buying and exploring bestsellers during the mela. Paramjeet from Panj Aab Prakashan, who has put up a bookstall, said they look forward to the Gadhari mela as this was the place where book lovers gathered and love to explore the new arrivals. “This time we have launched a book on Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga authored by Dr Jasbir Kaur,” he added. Another highlight of the mela was sale of CDs of the previous plays held during the Gadhari melas. “The CDs have been made on the demand of spectators and certain educational institutes,” said a bookseller. The CDs were of the plays like “Lal Batti” by Baldev Singh, “Kudesan” by Kewal Dhaliwal, “Bulla” by Madiha Gauhar of a Pakistan-based theatre group. Another event which caught the attention of the spectators was thought-provoking posters by Vinod Kumar Dutta, a retired professor. The elderly crusader of humanitarian concepts has written on corruption, erosion of human values, commercialisation of educational institutions, pollution, female foeticide, etc.
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VC for minimum private players in education sector
Jalandhar, October 29 He said, “Entry of private firms in the education sector should be minimised if not totally discouraged, as the agenda of nearly all private players is profit multiplication and not charity. Private educational institutes encourage only profit-oriented researches. In this scenario, how can we expect them to conduct research with orientation of social and public welfare?” On being asked about deficiencies of infrastructure in colleges affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University, he said, “The university will prefer to develop basic infrastructure like laboratories, libraries, etc. Though facilities like auditoriums are also important for any institution, needs of this kind will be considered secondary.” While relating education with overall socio-economic structure, he said, “Economic disparity between the rich and the poor should be reduced. Popularity of subjects like humanities, which are essential for the overall personality development of a person in particular and society in general, is not possible if economic disparity prevails in society.” He asserted that the education system in India needed reforms at all levels. People would see drastic reforms in the functioning of the university, he claimed.
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GT Road turns transit route for drug mafia
Jalandhar, October 29 The mafia, allegedly in connivance with certain politicians, personnel of the armed forces and high-profile traders of the region, has been using the route for smuggling drugs from across the border. The magnitude of the trade could be imagined from the seizures made by the Punjab police, the Border Security Forces (BSF), Counter-Intelligence (CI) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in past one decade. Drug peddlers have not only been using different tactics for trafficking drugs in bulk but also are equipped with modern equipment of communication and high-tech weapons. Seizure of over 10.8 kg of heroin valued at more than Rs 54 crore in past two months in Jalandhar and its vicinity has raised many eyebrows. Though the police has nabbed six carriers of the contraband, the main brains are still out of the reach. Information collected by The Tribune reveals that a majority of the kingpins of the trade are either enjoying political patronage in India or using their “remote controls” from neighboring countries. On June 5, the CI, Janandhar (Zone), unearthed an international drug mafia operating from the region and seized 4 kg of heroin. It arrested Navdeep Singh of Mohali, Pal Singh of Lal Palace in Phagwara and Sarabjit Singh, alias Sarab, of Jhamat village in Payal in Khanna, for smuggling the contraband along with a revolver (.32 bore), six cartridges and Indian currency of Rs 9 lakh, besides a Qualis vehicle. The alleged kingpin, Rupinder Singh, alias Robb Sidhu, is still at large. The police on September 25 arrested Balwant Singh of Naushera Dhal village on the Indo-Park border in Tarn Taran district for smuggling 1.8 kg of heroin from Transport Nagar. The police nabbed three drug peddlers from different parts of the city. All of them were linked with Kazi Mandi adjacent to Jalandhar railway station. The police arrested Gurnam Singh and Kashmir Singh of Hasimpura village in Ajnala tehsil of Amritsar district at a naka on Ladowali Road for smuggling 5 kg of heroin. They were working for Balwinder Singh, a kingpin of the trade.
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Poor disposal of dirty water angers people
Phagwara, October 29 The demonstrators belonging to different political parties and social organisations alleged that thousands of residents were living in miserable conditions due to the lack of disposal of dirty water from the streets of these localities. They alleged that the indifferent attitude of Nagar Council president Balbhadhar Sein Duggal, who could not initiate even a single step to solve the problems of the residents who were facing difficulties for more than 15 days, was behind the problem. The demonstrators, however, failed to meet Duggal as he was not available in the office. They submitted a memorandum to SDM Amarjeet Paul who assured them of necessary action. The SDM told The Tribune that he would visit the localities tomorrow. Duggal, however, claimed that required steps were being taken for the early disposal of dirty water. |
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International symposium at KMV concludes
Jalandhar, October 29 The event saw a brainstorming technical session as scientists from various reputed national and international-level institutes shared their knowledge on the characters of nano-structured materials. The day began with the lecture of Dr Mohan Rao, Deputy Director, CCMB, Hyderabad. Earlier in the day, Prof Subhash C. Kashyap from the IIT, Delhi, spoke on “Magnetic nano-materials for spintronics”. The scientist highlighted the study and application of the extra degree of freedom of carriers, namely their spin, for the development of multi-functional and novel devices like spin valves, magneto resistive sensors, magnetic tunnel junctions and much more. In another session on “Well dispersed nano-particulate calcium phosphate systems for rapid fabrication of customised scaffolds,” the speaker, Prof Jose M.F. Ferreira said with the increase in the age of the population and the concomitant increasing incidence of bone diseases like osteoporosis, osteomyelitis, malignant tumours and traumatic accidents, the demands for bone grafting had also increased. “This is where techniques for shaping ceramic components, such as direct writing and
robotics, generates. When parts of the skeleton are lost in traumatic accidents short-term customised synthetic bone grafts are required,” he added. Earlier, yesterday Dr Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, delivered the presidential address. He emphasised the need for strict educational reforms for better human resource. Dr Brar advocated the need for research works to be conducted and more vocational courses in the varsity in the coming days. Dr Rakesh Kumar Bhandari, Director of Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, presented the inaugural address and said the nano-structured materials had shown immense promises, both for fundamental research and technological applications. He termed the international symposium as highly relevant to the interdisciplinary areas such as physics, chemistry, materials science, device technology, biotechnology and environmental science. The keynote address of the day was delivered by Dr J.V. Yakhmi, Associate Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai. The scientist emphasised on the need for quality research work in various disciplines. Dr Yakhmi highlighted the role of nano-materials from ancient days of Ayurveda to the present stage. Among others, who spoke on the occasion were Prof R. Chatterjee from the IIT, Delhi, Prof N.P.Singh from PTU, Jalandhar, Dr J.P. Singh from the IIT, Delhi, Dr R. Oulton from EPSRC Fellow, University of Bristol, UK, and Dr Andrew Ramsay from the University of Sheffield,
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Unused Funds Of Welfare Schemes
Jalandhar, October 29 The DSSO, Karnail Singh, said the administration had recovered the money from the village panchayats. “After conducting the survey it has come to the fore that no misuse of the government funds has taken place. However, there was no timely record of the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes, which lead to the confusion,” he added. Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu said the designated banks under the welfare schemes in the villages had given them the details pertaining to the status of the beneficiaries of the old-age pension. “At present we are looking forward to the survey of the urban areas of the district. The report of the urban areas will be available soon and accordingly the money will be recovered,” he added. The district administration has ordered a special survey recommending deletion of 4,439 beneficiaries from the official list as most of the old-age pensioners were either found dead or not available. It was also found that while a majority of the pensioners were dead or had either left the village or went abroad, but owing to the poor database of the department concerned the money was lying unused. It needs mention here that the village panchayats usually distribute pensions to the beneficiaries in a random manner. However, as per the rules, the pension should be distributed by a nine-member village committee, which includes sarpanch, former sarpanch, government schoolteachers, anganwari workers, panchayat secretary, woman panch, Scheduled Caste woman panch and a supervisor of the Social Security Department. The rules also mention that at the time of the disbursement of the pension to the beneficiaries at least six members from the committee should be present. However, the rules are being flouted openly. Harnam Singh, a pensioner from Mehatpur village, near Nurmahal, said he never received his pension in the public. “Rather a member from the committee approaches me at my residence and get my signature done and provides the pension to me,” he added. “The survey has helped us bring back the unused money of the pension beneficiaries schemes of the state government,” said the DSSO.
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Phagwara Zone
Phagwara, October 29 The police arrested the driver of the tractor trolley and impounded the vehicle. The body of the deceased was handed over to the family after the postmortem in local civil hospital. ‘Donate blood regularly’
A workshop on “Promotion of Voluntary Blood Donation” was organised in Civil Hospital, Phagwara, today, in which experts felt that blood donation should be made regular exercise. Head of The Department of Transfusion Medicine DMC Ludhiana Amarjit Kaur and Associate Professor Rajesh, Senior Medical Officer Phagwara Rajiv Gupta and SMO Panchhatt Kailash Kapoor addressed the workshop. Bharat Vikas Parishad Phagwara President Dr Subhash Sharma, former NC President Malkiat Singh Ragbotra, principal Kusum Verma and representatives of different social organisations also attended the workshop. |
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Tandon not aspirant for state BJP presidentship
Phagwara, October 29 Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday night, he cleared his stand that if he was made president, being a loyal party worker he would not defy the the high command. Interestingly, neither Phagwara MLA and Technical Education Minister Swarana Ram nor Block BJP president Jagdish Veerji and Improvement Trust Chairman Tejaswi Bhardwaj was present during Tandon’s visit. When asked about the crisis in the Amritsar BJP where party MLA Anil Joshi sat on dharna against SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, Tandon admitted the party was faced with indiscipline at some places, but all issues would be settled soon. — OC
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This dairy complex lies neglected
Jalandhar, October 29 Jamsher Dairy Complex, cluster of nearly 250 milk dairies situated on the outskirts of Jamsher village, falls under the control of the MCJ, but no one from the corporation ever bothered to visit this area, as far as case of dengue prevalence is concerned. As there is no proper facility provided by the corporation for the proper disposal of faecal refuse of cattle, all vacant spaces around dairies are turned into massive cesspools and quagmires. Though the MCJ has initiated a campaign to incorporate mobile oil in ponds and anti-larval fogging in villages and wards, not even a single round of fogging and oil diffusion has been carried out in this complex, which is sprawled in the area of nearly 106 acres. “The corporation has provided drainage system to dispose of faecal matter, but manpower employed here by the corporation is very meagre as compared to workload and eventually accumulation of cow dung in these channels causes blockade. This causes seepage of water to nearby plots,” said resident Paramjeet Singh. “As there are nearly 20,000 cattle housed in these dairy complexes, it is estimated that thousands of quintals of cow dung is generated in these dairies. Moreover, thousands of litres of fresh water is used by workers for bathing cattle and other purposes. Everyday this water gets accumulated in open spaces and causes threat of dengue outbreak,” said Ajay Kumar Dhillon, who shifted here seven years back. “Approximately 3,000 workers are working here in this complex. In addition to this 30 families have permanently shifted to this complex. Working conditions are very compromising due to daily deaths of few cattle, polluted surroundings and compromised quality of water due to nearby flowing Garha Drain. In this condition, workers here become prone to diseases like dengue and malaria,” said Jarnail Singh, who resides here with
his family. On contacting MC officials concerned, it is learnt that fogging and pond treatment is yet to be done in this area. MC Mayor Rakesh Rathore said though he is not fully aware of the matter, he would look into the matter soon. |
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Young World
Jalandhar, October 29 He also spoke on the use of ceramics in preparing bones and teeth and discussed the role of nano particles in the formation of ceramics, which become an integral part of growing bones, leading to early healing after fracture. The seminar was followed by an interactive session in which students from the zoology, physics and chemistry departments cleared their queries. Overall trophy
The Police DAV School bagged the overall trophy in the Mahatma Hans Raj Aryan Youth Festival (sub-zonal) which was held at Dayanand Model School from October 21 to 23. The school bagged the first position in classical dance, Hindi, English and Sanskrit declamation, Vedmantra, greeting card making, on-the-spot painting and ghazal competitions. The students bagged the second position in Punjabi declamation, skit, patriotic song, welcome song, group bhajan, folk dance and classical vocal and they achieved the third position in solo bhajan and quiz and the consolation prize in rangoli. Tennis gold
Guranshpreet Singh Sethi, a student of Guru Amar Dass Public School, bagged the gold medal in the XVI CBSE cluster table tennis championship held at MGM Public School, Ludhiana, from October 22 to 25. He has been selected for the CBSE national-2009 championship scheduled for December. The U-19 boys table tennis team got the silver medal. University toppers
Rishav Jain, a student of bachelor of design (V semester) of the Apeejay College of Fine Arts bagged the first position in Guru Nanak Dev University by scoring 912 out of 1,000 marks. The second and third positions went to Ashima Gupta (902) and Rohini Kundra (897 marks), respectively, of the same college. Disaster management
CT Public School conducted training in disaster management for the hostel students. A drill was held where students were taught precautionary measures to be taken during earthquakes, floods, tsunami, fire incidents and much more. Students were given practical tips to save lives in such adverse situations. |
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Khaira leads protest against SAD’s vendetta politics
Jalandhar, October 29 Addressing the protesters outside the SSP office, he said the Akalis were adopting double standards. While in the opposition, Badal and his party resort to various agitations crying vendetta but once in power they are posting and shielding guilty police officers responsible for the custodial ‘murder’ of innocent people like Aroor Singh. “When we protested the death of Aroor on the night of September 5 at the Dhilwan police station by blocking the GT Road, an FIR was registered against 16 persons. Although over 1,000 persons had participated in the protest, including many Akali sarpanches of the area, only Congress workers were named as the accused in the FIR at the behest of his rival Akali leader,” he said. Of the 16 persons booked under non-bailable offences, five persons were falsely implicated even though they never took part in the protest. Khaira today paraded PPCC Secretary Avtar Singh Walia, Gurdev Singh, former market committee chairman, Bikker Singh, President, Truck Union Nadala, before mediapersons who later surrendered before the Judicial Magistrate. He said it was a matter of shame that the entire administration, allegedly at the behest of former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur was hell bent to save the accused SHO Gurmukh Singh. Gurmukh has been reinstated and posted as SHO of Begowal even though a judicial inquiry is underway into the custodial death of Aroor Singh. Ironically, those protesting peacefully have been booked while ‘murderers’ in uniform get plum postings, he pointed out. All the police stations of Bholath have been ‘taken over’ by Bibi Jagir Kaur and her henchmen to facilitate the victimisation of Congress workers, he alleged. He also lambasted the government for brutally beating up ETT teachers, including girls, at Kapurthala the other day. Others present on the occasion included former minister Joginder Singh Mann, Jagjit Singh Bittu, President, Youth Congress Kapurthala, Inderjit Singh Khalyan, Block Congress chief Phagwara and Tejwant Singh, Block President, Sultanpur Lodhi.
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Supply going smooth, veggie prices remain static
However, onion prices after touching Rs 23 per kg last week, shot up to Rs 26 per kg. Prices of onion reached the same level fortnight ago. It was Rs 27 per kg 15 days back. Price of tomato remained static at Rs 18 per kg. Similarly prices of ginger also remained static, Rs 65 per kg, as that of last week. Prices of peas, Rs 70 per kg, too remained unchanged. On the other hand prices of potato witnessed increase of Rs 3 per kg and reached Rs 20 per kg. Prices of sugar witnessed increase of Rs 1. Sugar is rated Rs 34 per kg. Prices of masoor dal remained same, Rs 74 per kg, as that of last week. Chana dal witnessed decline in prices from Rs 40 per kg last week to Rs 35 per kg this week.
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Jalandhar, October 29
Jalandhar, October 29