The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Gadhari Mela
Choosing Bhagat over fat jobs, Techies bring Gadhari hope
Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service

Members of the Revolutionary Youth Association sell T-shirt, posters and books on Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his accomplices at Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Jalandhar, November 1
The premises of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall saw the youth thronging the stalls of the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), a Bathinda-based group working to promote the ideologies of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, during the 18th Gadhari mela.

A platform to raise the voice of the downtrodden and highlight injustice like oppression, poverty, unemployment and corruption, the group has been working actively to promote their campaigns. The group is being managed by young members, all former students of Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (SLIET), Longowal.

The highlight of the association was the instant chord that they managed to strike with the youngsters through their innovative “revolutionary T-shirts”, posters and books available at reasonable prices. The association also brought similar revolutionary T-shirts for girls as well.

The general secretary of the association, Hasmit Singh, said they were trying to make the youth aware of the life, ideologies and thinking of Shaheed Bhagat Singh through such publicity material. “We are aware of the fact that the youth is not much interested in reading heavy literature about freedom fighters. And keeping this fact in mind we have made stickers, T-shirts, posters reflecting simple messages, which will definitely serve the purpose,” he added.

The young engineers preferred to give voice to the oppressed than joining a secure job. Answering a query pertaining to their future, the boys said, “Initially there was stiff resistance from our parents but gradually we managed to convince them. And today we are a strong association of approximately 4,000 members across the state.”

At present the association is looking forward to making a documentary on revolutionary Ghadarite Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, who died on May 22 this year. “We would soon start extensive research work on Baba Bilga and his life history and start the work in the coming days,” Hasmit Singh added.

Earlier in the day, painting competitions were held in which 545 students in the sub-junior, junior and senior categories took part. In the senior group, Rohit Kumar, a student of Government College, Hoshiarpur, bagged the first prize, Gurpreet Singh of Mehr Chand Polytechnic, Jalandhar. secured the second position and Chandar, a student of the local Apeejay College of Fine Arts, bagged the third position.

In the junior category, Vinod Ahir, a student of the local Government Model Senior Secondary School (co-ed), bagged the first position, followed by Gursimran Singh of MGN Public School and Bunty from M.D. Dayanand School, who bagged the second and third positions, respectively.

In the sub-junior category, Hardeep Bhagat of the local Lala Jagat Narayan DAV Model School, bagged the first prize, followed by Jaskomal Singh of SBBS International School, Jalandhar. The third position was bagged by Deepali Chand from the local Lala Jagat Narayan DAV Model School.

A special quiz competition on the historic Meerut conspiracy case was also held in which 36 teams took part. Later in the evening, the audience enjoyed the “kavi darbar,” which was followed by nightlong plays by various theatre groups at the Yaadgar Hall.

‘Jhande da geet’

‘Jhande da geet’ ceremony being held. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

The last day of the 18th Mela Gadhari Babeyan da began with the hoisting of the traditional Ghadar party flag by Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall (DBYH) trustee Prithipal Singh Maghimera during an impressive ceremony held here today.

On this occasion, the artists performed on the customary ‘Jhande da geet’ titled ‘Na Badle Itihas, Badlaye to Bina’, penned by Amolak Singh. The acting president of Yadgaar committee, Darbara Singh Dhillon urged the people to get back to their roots and released a souvenir on ‘Mela Gadhari Babeyan da’ dedicated to the Kirti Lehar. Addressing a large gathering, which converged from across the state and abroad to attend the annual event, Maghimera emphasised on the need for economic, political and social liberty in the nation.

“The Ghadarites and freedom fighters propagated the message of a secular nation but till date their dreams have not been fulfilled,” he said. Later in the evening, students, scholars, academicians and the elderly gathered to enjoy night-long plays dedicated to social messages.

4 of family among 5 killed in crash
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, November 1
Five persons, including four of a family, were killed on the spot in a head-on collision between a car (CH 04E 9448) and a truck near Balachaur, on the Jalandhar-Nawanshahr-Chandigarh highway, at about 12.30 am on Sunday.

As per available information, Ashwani Kumar Aggarwal (46), along with his wife Pooja (44), son Dhruv (14) and nephew Archit (15), was returning to his residence at Panchkula (Haryana) from a function at the residence of his brother Dinesh Kumar at Civil Lines in Jalandhar.

A truck coming from the opposite direction collided with the car, consequently killing all of them.

Besides the Aggarwal family, their driver Pawan Kumar was also killed in the accident. The truck driver has absconded from the site. The police has registered a case under sections 279 and 304 A of the IPC and started investigation.

Even in the hour of grief, Dinesh Kumar Aggarwal of Jalandhar, who is a motivator of eye donation, did not forget his commitment to the noble cause. After reaching the accident site, he managed to establish contact with Rattan Kumar Jain, a local social worker, associated with the District Eye Donation Society, and expressed his desire to donate the eyes of his son Archit and his nephew Dhruv. The District Eye Donation Society has lauded the gesture of the aggrieved family.

Unable to return money, debtor kills man
Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, November 1
The police today claimed to have solved a blind murder case of Swaran Singh of Daburji (Tanda), who was found killed near a bein of Pul Pukhta village on October 14, with the arrest of Jagjit Singh, alias Bittu, of Bhulpur.

SSP Parmod Ban in a press release said the police found an unidentified body, which has. marks of blunt weapons. A case under section 302 of the IPC was registered in Tanda police station in this connection.

A special team headed by Dasuya DSP Harpreet Singh was formed to solve the case. Meanwhile, the body was identified as of Swaran Singh of Daburji.

To get a clue, the police checked the record of mobile phone of Jagjit. It emerged that one number, which was in the name of Taranjit Kaur of Bhulpur, was used by Jagjit Singh to call Swaran Singh. The police arrested Jagjit Singh today.

During interrogation, Jagjit Singh revealed that he took a loan of Rs 50,000 from deceased Swaran Singh and the latter was forcing him to return the money. To get rid of Swaran, he called Swaran to Pul Pukhta village on some pretext and when the latter arrived, he assaulted him with the iron rod due to which he died on the spot. Before fleeing, he took away Swaran’s gold ring and gold bangle, said the SSP.

Stepfather rapes 8-yr-old

Phagwara, November 1
In an unfortunate incident, a minor girl Pooja (8) was reportedly raped by her own stepfather, a migrant, identified as Santosh Kumar, alias Munna, at her house in the local Urban Estate locality on Sunday afternoon.

Phagwara DSP Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, while confirming the incident, told newsmen here today that police has arrested the accused under section 376 of the IPC and sent the victim to the Phagwara Civil Hospital.

Khakh said the accused Santosh had illicit relations with Sheela Rani, the young mother of the victim, who has three children and works as a domestic help in various houses.

Her husband, Shankar, had left her about seven years back after some minor dispute following which Sheela started living with Munna. The DSP, while giving details of today’s incident, said Sheela, mother of the victim, told the police that she got married to the accused in a temple about three years back.

Today Munna raped his own stepdaughter when Sheela was away to work in other houses and her three small children, including the victim, were alone in the quarter of a kothi. The victim told the police that the accused sent her younger brother to play outside and raped her, while her youngest brother (one-and-a-half-year-old) was playing inside the quarter. Some neighbours told the police that they heard the voices of Pooja who repeatedly raised alarm.
The victim has been admitted to the local civil hospital
for medical examination
and treatment. — OC

Passbook scam: PO agent nabbed in New Delhi airport
Parmod Bharti

Nawanshahr, November 1
Post office agent Rajesh Kumar of Lasara village in Jalandhar, who was wanted by the local police in a fraud case, was nabbed at New Delhi airport, while he was trying to flee the country. The airport authorities handed over the accused to the Nawanshahr police.

Rajesh was accused of duping 16 investors in various small saving schemes by providing them fake post office passbooks.

The investors belonged to Aur, Malla Bedian, Mahil Khurd and Garhi Ajit Singh villages and were identified as Prem Pal, Anita Rani, Subash, Sushil Rani, Sanjiv Kumar, Raj Kumar, Sita Devi, Bhajan Singh, Hanish Joshi, Balbir Singh, Sunita Rani, Vijay Kumar, Paramjit, Sonia, Prem Lata and Anant Ram. They filed a complaint to the Nawanshahr SSP on October 24 in which they alleged that the PO agent duped them by provided fake passbooks in lieu of their deposits in different small saving schemes of the post office.

No record was available in the post office in connections with their deposits under various small saving schemes through the errant post office agents. On the basis of the complaint lodged by the fraud victims, a case under sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC was registered at the Sadar police station against as many as 5 persons - Rajesh Kumar, Babita, Vipan Kumar, Tejinder Pal, Paramjit Singh, Rajinder Kumar.

The police as well as the senior officials of Department of Posts have been conducting investigations into the scam.

The police officials refused to divulge any details on the pretext that the investigation is on and senior officials of the Department of Posts at Jalandhar were maintaining guarded silence, the information got out from some inside sources of the department.

“The errant post office agent had not only duped his investors by providing them fake passbooks in lieu of their investments under different small saving schemes, but he had also earned commission and got the lucky coupons issued from the Department of Posts against these deposits,” say the sources.

If it happens to be true, then it is quite possible that there was connivance of the officials of the Department of Posts with the errant post office agents in the scam.

Staff shortage mars Pulse Polio campaign
Amaninder Pal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 1
It seems that shortage of permanent staff in the Health Department and all its other offshoots is one of the major reasons for this programme lingering on. This fact can be ascertained after a mere glance at the manpower used only in one district of the state.

The mop up round in Jalandhar was aimed to administer polio drops to nearly 2 lakh 96 thousand children below the age of five years.

Nearly double number of households (4.5 lakh) was estimated to be covered mandatorily, under a door-to-door campaign, by teams constituted of vaccinators.

Nearly 5,452 team members were employed to chalk out
this round.

As per information, around 600 members out of these 5,452 are the permanent staff members of the Health Department. Addition of anganwadi workers to this number raises figures only up to around 1,300.

A basic unit, which performs the door-to-door job of vaccinators, consists of two members from NGOs, youth clubs, students, welfare organisations etc. But professionals working at the ground level believe that there should be at least one health worker in every team.

“As we saw in this round, some households refused doses from teams constituted of students or volunteers from organisations. In national rounds, we establish temporary booths for one day where one regular health worker is present along with other three members.”

“However, problems arise when these members start door-to-door administration of vaccine drops. Teams bereft of a health worker usually fail to perform at par with teams equipped with health personnel. Due to shortage of staff, a single LHB, ANM and male worker is involved as supervisor, to monitor 8-10 teams, who otherwise can be involved as a vaccinator in teams.” said District Immunisation Officer Dr. Rita Jairath.

Some sections of professionals also feel that all departments of administration should be involved in massive programmes like pulse polio. The process should be similar as the one while conducting elections and census.

Each team has to cover 125-150 households in rural and 150-200 households in urban areas.

However, ratio of ANMs is 1:5000 in rural areas as compared to 1:10000 in urban areas. Even higher authorities feel the shortage of staff in urban areas

“Even after putting every effort, it is very difficult, in thickly populated cities like Ludhiana and Jalandhar, to efficiently run massive health campaigns due to shortage of staff. But with the induction of ASHA workers in the programme, the situation will improve very soon,” said State Immunisation Officer Dr. VK Goyal.