The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Pesco to start fire-fighting courses for unemployed Pass out students will be eligible for jobs of fire safety officers Sushil Goyal Tribune News Service Bathinda, November 9 The Punjab Ex-Servicemen Corporation (PESCO) would shortly introduce fire-fighting course for unemployed youth.It corporation has been imparting training in certain job-oriented courses, including JCB machine course. This course is being started for the first time in this Malwa region. The Pesco has planned to impart knowledge and training to about 90 persons (30 persons in each course) in three courses of fire and safety. According to information, the Pesco will conduct a 12-month post-graduate diploma in fire and safety, a six-month advance diploma in fire and safety, and a six-month certificate course in fire and safety. These courses would be run at the District Sainik Welfare Complex here. An official of the Pesco said here today that after doing course in fire and safety a person could get a job of thousands of rupees in private sector as well as in government departments as after passing post-graduate diploma a student would be eligible for the post of fire officer while the holders of advance diploma and certificate courses would be eligible for the posts of fire safety officer and fireman. The persons, who were already in service, could also join these courses as refresher courses to update their knowledge, he added. In the first phase of the course, special attention will be paid on physical fitness by involving students several exercises, including physical exercises, monkey rope, vertical rope, long jump and high jump etc to keep the students fit and active. After that training will be imparted to them to fight against the fire by using several equipments, including pump portable, water hydrant, sealing hook, fire beater, aluminium extension ladder, hose pipe, dry powder fire extinguisher and ABC cease fire.
	Sets deadline Hold general house meeting, BJP to Mayor Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Bathinda, November 9 The in-house opposition is continuing to cause problems for the SAD affiliated Mayor of Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC), Baljeet Singh Birbehman. On the one hand, some of his party members in the BMC are making efforts to rock his boat and remove him from his chair, on the other, Congress councillors leave no stone unturned to grill him on any issue. In the latest development, his BJP partners, who used to claim of standing by him against all odds, too have started frowning at him. Finding himself to be a victim of circumstances, the Mayor has now started feeling that he is ploughing a lonely furrow. The in-party opposition against the Mayor started when he ordered imposition of a huge sum of tax upon a shopping mall-cum-multiplex, which belonged to the kin of his party councilor, also a former president of the BMC. The matter snowballed into a big issue and a specific group of SAD (B) councillors opened a front against the Mayor and started accusing him of incompetence. The rift came to the fore at the recent BMC general house meeting, which took place on September 18, where the anti-mayor group of some SAD (B) councillors, in a pre-planned move, accused the Mayor of misusing his power in such a way that the Mayor left the meeting hall adjourning it for an indefinite period. Since that day, Mayor has not called again for the resumption of the adjourned meeting and all items on the agenda are pending. Taking a serious note of it, the BJP councillors today held a closed door meeting, where they decided to give a period of seven days to the Mayor for calling the adjourned meeting. Otherwise, they would be forced to take some harsh steps, they threatened. While submitting the memorandum to the Mayor, a delegation of eight BJP councillors, namely, Tarsem Goyal (senior deputy mayor), Gurinder Pal Kaur Mangat (deputy mayor), Shanti Devi, Mithu Ram Gupta, Raj Kumar, Inder Lal, Anjana Rani and Raju Mittal rued that his difference of opinion with his party colleagues was making the residents of city face difficulties. "All works related to basic amenities like cleanliness, patch work, lights, drinking water, sewerage are suspended just because you are not calling the general house meeting. Despite being sitting councillors, we find ourselves to be helpless, when people come with their grievances and we lament our helplessness," said the delegation of BJP councillors. The memorandum states, "We will wait for one more week, within which you call the adjourned meeting, otherwise, we will be forced to take further steps." After receiving the memorandum, Mayor Baljeet Singh Birbehman cited his intra-party rivalry as the reason for not holding the meeting. "Some people are bent upon vitiating the atmosphere of the BMC, I urge all of you to lend your supportso that we can collectively find a solution and give our best for the development of the city," Birbehman said.
	Wheat rotting for want of proper storage facilities Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Bathinda, November 9 About 1.18 lakh metric tonnes of wheat purchased by the government procurement agencies got rejected in Punjab during the period 2003-07. The cost of the rejected wheat is being assessed at Rs 63.27 crore. Meanwhile, for the period 2008-09, the food and supplies department of the state government has not yet been able to calculate the loss that occurred. The deficiency in storage arrangements is being cited as the major reason for the loss. Further, sources informed that taking serious note of such a high scale of loss, the state government had put the blame on the officials of the procurement agencies, and it was being recovered from their monthly salary. They added that very few officials of the procurement agencies could escape the penalty. A highly placed source in the department informed that the rejected wheat was now being sold to cattle feed producers at a much cheaper rate. According to information procured from the food and supplies department, Punjab, with 39949 MT of rejected wheat, Markfed made the government incur loss worth Rs18.88 crore. Further, the damage to wheat procured by Punsup was calculated at 22619 MT, which amounted to Rs 15.64 crore. Further, the value of 32857 MT rejected wheat lying with Punjab Agro was calculated at Rs 13.91 crore. The 13331 MT of rejected wheat of the Punjab State Warehouse Corporation cost Rs 8.74 crore. The rejected wheat of Pungrain was calculated at 9877 MT worth Rs six crore. The details state that Bathinda district tops the list in incurring losses, with 21246 MT of rejected wheat worth Rs 20.93 crore, followed by Sangrur with 43127 MT rejected wheat worth Rs 18.91 crore. In contrast, the minimum loss was assessed at Gurdaspur, where 205 MT wheat was rejected, worth Rs 19 lakh. No loss was reported in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Muktsar, Barnala and Nawanshahr. When contacted, DS Grewal, director, food and supplies department, Punjab, confirmed the loss due to scarcity of storage arrangements. He added that it could further be checked if the export of the surplus could be increased. About such losses being incurred in 2008-09, he denied having received any such report.
	Cantonment board official sent to judicial custody CJM had issued non-bailable warrants for not appearing in the court on time Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service Ferozepur, November 9 The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Ferozepur, Lakshman Singh, has today sent Onkar Nath Sharma, the office superintendent of the Ferozepur cantonment board, to judicial custody for 14 days. He did not appear in the court in time in a criminal complaint filed against him and other officials of the board under sections 395, 397, 452, 506, 427, 148, 149 of the IPC by one Vijay Kumar Verma, a local resident. The CJM had issued non-bailable warrants against him. The other officials involved in this case include former chief executive officer of the board A Shekhar Babu presently posted in the head office at New Delhi, junior engineer Satish Arora and another office superintendent Yashpal Chawla. On Monday morning, the court had summoned four witnesses to record their statements in this case in the presence of the alleged accused officials of the board but Sharma did not turn up in the court even as the rest of the three alleged accused persons came in time. The CJM Lakshman Singh issued non-bailable warrants against Sharma for having failed to turn up in the court at the crucial time of recording the statements of the witnesses. However, when the CJM fixed coming December 9 as the next date of hearing and started hearing another case, Onkar Nath Sharma walked in the court. The court took a serious note of it and ordered to send him to a judicial custody of 14 days. It may be mentioned that the plaintiff Vijay Verma had stated in his complaint that the cantonment board leased out occupancy rights of a piece of land (including one room) to his brother Vikas Kumar for a period of three years commencing from May 16, 2005 to May 15, 2008 at a rent of Rs 750 per month that was being regularly being paid by them. They developed the land by spending lakhs and opened a school by the name of Bhumi Convent School raising adequate modern infrastructure. He alleged that on May 6, 2006 the CEO and his junior colleagues along with few other persons armed with sticks, rods etc. forcibly entered the school premises and took out furniture, computers and other items, loaded them in a truck and took it away. The matter was also reported to the local police but it failed to react to the situation and register an FIR against the alleged accused persons. Later, the DM investigated the matter through one of his senior colleagues of the civil administration. The board officials did not join the investigation and as such the final report of the findings was given in favour of these brothers. Meanwhile, a class IV employee of the board filed a complaint against the three brothers in the Punjab Human Rights Commission alleging that they misbehaved with him and passed caste-based comments. The commission asked the SSP Moga to inquire into the matter, the findings of which went in favour of the three brothers. During the course of trial in the past two years, the reports of the DM Ferozepur, the PHRC and the SSP Moga were summoned by the CJM's court and after observing the facts of the case, finally, the trial began against board officials in June, last year.
	Vacancies pile up as teachers retire Praful C. Nagpal Fazilka, November 9 Mismanagement prevails in the education department of Punjab as 80 per cent of posts of school heads and 60 per cent of block primary education officers are lying vacant even as hundreds of teachers eligible for promotion get retired every month. This is despite repeated announcements by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and education minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur to fill up the vacancies. Even the post of director public instructions (DPI) secondary is also lying vacant for the past two months. According to a survey conduced by an NGO Shiksha Sudhar Committee Punjab, of the 3046 and high and senior secondary schools, 2425 are without regular principals and headmasters. Of the 1304 Senior Secondary School, 1225 are being run by officiating principals while 1200 of 1742 high schools are being run by officiating headmasters. Of the total 228 Educational blocks in state nearly 60 percent are being run by senior head teachers who have been assigned the duties of block primary officer temporarily. Besides such large numbers of vacancies of school heads and BPEOs more than 5000 posts out of 12000 sanctioned posts of teachers of different subjects in senior secondary schools are lying vacant. According to statement of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, given recently 33000 posts of teachers in senior, high, middle and primary schools of state are lying vacant. The committee maintains that under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, the infrastructural deficiencies in the government schools have been removed to a large extent, yet the large number of vacancies have caused alarming situations. The patron of the committee, Raj Kishore Kalra, recalls that in year 2001, the government had decided to stop direct recruitment of principals and school heads and decided to fill up the vacancies by promotion from within the teaching cadre. However, the decision was not implemented and thousands of senior eligible teachers retired in the process while large number of others are about to retire.