Phagwara, January 11
The Punjab government is determined to control imbalanced ratio of gender in the state by accelerating its campaign against female foeticide and to strengthen women empowerment. This was announced by Social Security, Women Welfare and Child Development Minister Swarana Ram while presiding over a state-level function of Lohri dedicated to girl child in the Kamla Nehru College for Women here on Monday.

The minister distributed cheques for Rs 45,000 among 45 infant girls under the kanya jagriti scheme in the function. He announced that the state government would construct a home for infant girls by spending Rs 10 crore in the state. Swarana Ram said the state government had opened 6,487 new anganwari centres to facilitate 10,63,539 infants and 3,01,474 expecting women with a budget of Rs 100 crore during this financial year.

He claimed the government was seriously working to stop female foeticide.

Addressing the function, Principal Secretary S.S. Sandhu said the department was initiating a state-level scheme to provide stitching, embroidery and computer education through aanganwari centres to the girls of the age group of 11 to 18 years who had left their academic education midway.

SDM Amarjeet Paul, Director of Social Security Dharam Dutt, Joint Director Nashatar Singh, District Programme Officer Sukhdeep Kaur and Civil Surgeon of Kapurthala Dr Ranbir Singh also addressed the function.

Students of the Kamla Nehru College for Women presented a cultural programme. Swarana Ram announced a grant of Rs 51,000 to the college.

Phagwara, January 11
Fear of swine flu stopped a family from cremating their family members in the crematorium on the local Banga Road where a victim of the disease was already being cremated under the supervision of doctors from the PGI who had come from Chandigarh along with the body of Phagwara photographer Varinder Kumar who had died in the PGI last week.

According to reports, citizens, relatives and family members of Dharam Paul Ghumman, who died in Model Town yesterday due to old age, came to the Banga Road crematorium for his cremation where Varinder Kumar was already being cremated under the supervision of PGI doctors and family members who were 
wearing special dresses to protect themselves from swine flu virus.

The doctors advised the relatives and family members of Ghumman to cremate him at another crematorium as the virus of swine flu from a dead person was more dangerous during cremation.

The panicky family members and relatives of Ghumman then went to the funeral ground on the local Hoshiarpur Road and cremated Ghumman.

When contacted, Senior Medical Officer Dr Rajiv Gupta expressed his ignorance about any such instructions from the government that no other cremation could be held within a radius of 1 km of the cremation being done of any swine flu victim. He, however, said that the department had advised people to keep 10 feet away from swine flu patient.

Jalandhar, January 11
The counter clerk and visitors at the Suvidha Centre, near the office of the Deputy Commissioner had a close shave in an accidental firing here today. Panic gripped the area when a loaded .32-bore revolver owned by a potato trader accidentally went off.

The police said Girdhar Gopal, a local resident, had been to the Suvidha Centre to get the licence of his weapons - a double-barrelled gun and a revolver - renewed. The incident occurred when Girdhar Gopal approached Counter No 14 and was getting his weapon numbers checked. No sooner did his show the number of his revolver to the clerk, the trigger of the weapons got pressed accidentally, leading to firing. The counter clerk and visitors at the centre were shocked. Luckily, there was no casualty.

Additional Deputy Commissioner G.S. Khaira reached the spot and asked the officials to impound the weapons and their licences. The administration has initiated the process for the cancellation of the licences owned by the potato trader.

Sub-Inspector Davinder Prasad of police station Division-4 revealed that a DDR had been lodged against the trader after seizing the weapons and their licences.

Employees of the Suvidha Centre and other government offices, hotels, restaurants, marriage palaces and public places have demanded a ban on the entry of armed security guards of politicians, bureaucrats, VVIPs and VIPs as their weapons may lead to some tragedy any time.

Amritsar, January 11
Border Security Force (BSF) officials conveyed resentment against the firing of rockets from the Pakistani side to officials of Pak Rangers during an unscheduled meeting on the zero line at the Attari-Wagah joint check post today.

The BSF IG, Himmat Singh, said the frontier force categorically warned the Pak Rangers to stop such kind of misadventure in future. He said in case such incidents recurred, the BSF would take stern action. Himmat Singh informed that a sector commander-level meeting took place between the BSF DIG, Mohammad Aquil, and Pak Ranger Brigadier Kamran.

The IG said Pak Rangers alleged that their post was fired upon by the BSF. At this, the BSF conveyed to them that the retaliatory fire was targeted only towards the place from which rockets had been fired.

Jalandhar, January 11
The Punjab Chief Election Officer (CEO) has sought comments from all the district election officers (DEOs) regarding alleged false affidavits submitted by several candidates about their expenditure during the parliamentary elections held in May, 2009.

In the information provided by the CEO office to a representative of Nawanshahr-based Human Empowerment League of Punjab (HELP) Parwinder Singh Kitna under the RTI Act, it has been stated that DEOs were asked to send comments on the alleged false affidavits submitted by several parliamentary candidates.

Earlier Kitna got information from DEOs about the expenditure shown in affidavits by the winner and runner-up candidates in all the 13 parliamentary constituencies of Punjab. He came to know that most of the candidates had concealed a huge amount spent on their campaigns while submitting their affidavits, he said, adding that they did not even include the money spent on advertisements given to several dailies.

After collecting the information, Kitna sent a letter to the CEO to know what type of action was being initiated against the candidates who had provided false information in their affidavits about expenditure in the elections.

At this, the CEO sent the letter to all the DEOs to get their comments. Subsequently several DEOs have already sent notices to the candidates to clear their position.

Kitna demanded appropriate action under different provisions of the law against those candidates who provided wrong information in their affidavits.

Jalandhar, January 11
Having launched a drive against temporary encroachments in the city for the past one week, the Municipal Corporation continued to show a tough stance to members of the Rehri Phari Association.

After the MC held anti-encroachment drives in the city near General Post Office, Rama Mandi, Milk Bar Chowk, Jail Road and Rainak Bazaar, the rehri owners held a demonstration outside the MC office. They later met officials who, in turn, hinted them to shift out of the busy streets, get themselves reorganised and find a place in areas that are less prone to traffic congestion.

While the rehri owners have been saying that the MC officials were targeting the poor people who made small money by selling goods on carts, the MC officials have been alleging that the rehri business was instead being managed by a few mafia groups who enjoy a considerable clout in the pockets of the city where they rule.

The rehri owners have been pointing fingers towards the officials saying that the traffic congestion on these roads was a problem more because of illegal parking by the car owners on either side. “Why can you not strictly enforce parking of vehicles in designated parking lots that have specially been created at PNB Chowk and Jyoti Chowk?” they repeatedly questioned the officials who simply kept on murmuring that it was the next issue on their agenda.

MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani said he was firm on his stand this time and would not allow the rehris to get back to areas from where they had been lifted. “I am specially concerned about the old GT Road which otherwise is so wide but has now been reduced to a narrow lane because of encroachments by shopkeepers selling bicycles, bikes and auto parts. The MC has even decided to pay Rs 20 lakh to the PSEB for shifting of street lights backwards towards the footpaths so that these do not become a traffic hurdle and allow the showroom owners to safely encroach upon the road,” he added.

Hoshiarpur, January 11
The managements of Ayurvedic, homeopathic and Ayurvedic pharmacy colleges of the state at a function today honoured Punjab Minister for Medical Education and Research, Parliamentary Affairs, Forest and Labour Tikshan Sud for his efforts in getting passed the resolution in the recent session of the state Assembly to set up Guru Ravi Dass Ayurved University on the Hoshiarpur-Una road in the district.

Various speakers said Guru Ravi Dass Ayurved University was third of its kind in the country, which would promote ancient Ayurvedic system of medicine, which was ignored after the introduction of allopathic system of medical science.

Tikshan Sud said the Ayurvedic system of medicine had a capacity to cure even chronic diseases. With the setting up of the university at Hoshiarpur, the system could further be promoted.

The state government had provided Rs 148 crore to the government hospital, Amritsar, Rs 68 crore to the hospital of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, and Rs 30 crore to the Rajindra Government Hospital, Patiala, for the improvement of existing infrastructure according to the present need.

The Forest Department would set up an adventure park at Purani Bassi, adjoining the city, for which Rs 1 crore had been given, said Sud.