The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

38 lakhs kids to get drops
Three-day Polio Plus progamme begins
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, February 7
Principal secretary of the health department Satish Chandra chose to inaugurate the Polio Plus campaign at Abohar today. The camp at the Sharda Eye Hospital was organised by an NGO Maheshwari Sangathan led by Anand Periwal. NGO secretary, Jayinder Maheshwari, SMO, Dr Ramesh Verma and social activist Shiv Garg were among those who welcomed the visiting dignitary.

Giving details of the campaign, Satish said that the health department had planned to administer polio prevention drops to 38 lakh children during the three-day campaign and 60 per cent of the target was expected to be achieved today. Teams will go door to door on Monday and Tuesday to ensure that rest of the children get benefitted.

As many as 17,000 booths have been set up with the assistance of NGOs and 70,000 volunteers involved. So far only four polio cases, all in migrant workers families, have been detected.

Speaking about the development plans, Satish Chandra informed that new maternity blocks in the civil hospitals would be developed with a budget of Rs 11 crore at Abohar, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Sangrur, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and Hoshiarpur during this calendar year. Health minister Prof Luxmi Kanta Chawla will lay the foundation stone of the maternity ward next month that is to be raised at a cost of Rs 3 crore at Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital here.

The existing building of the hospital will also be extended for which another Rs 3 crore grant has been sanctioned. Chawla visited the hospital last year and found that increase in the OPD as well as indoor patients had been recorded but accommodation was inadequate. Satish Chandra said the state government has decided to recruit 200 more doctors on permanent basis in April to improve the rural health services.

Appointments of female doctors and paramedics during the past three years had resulted in 60 per cent increase in arrival of women for deliveries in the civil hospitals, he claimed.

Meanwhile, while inaugurating the polio plus camp at the Swan Public School in the old Suraj Nagari here today, District Human Rights Association, president, Mona Singh apprised the locals of their rights guaranteed by the constitution.

The camp was organised by the Punjabi Sabhyachar Manch. Its chairman BL Sikka, former SDM, president, Gurcharan Singh Gill, Arya Mahila Propkarini Sabha, president, Jamuna Devi Chawla also spoke. Health department team led by Dr Ramesh Verma inspected the camp and helped in administering polio prevention drops.

The team later also visited Seva Samiti Ayurvedic dispensary and supervised the camp, informed project in-charge Hanuman Dass Goyal.

Wildlife protection
Advisory panels planned
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 7
Aiming at the protection and augmentation of forest and wild life, the state government is going to constitute a number of advisory committees at divisional, district and sub-divisional level, which would not only advise on protecting the forest and wild life but also help in punishing culprits endangering it.

Deputy commissioners in the state have been empowered to constitute such committees.

Issuing a copy of notification, RC Nayyar, financial commissioner (forest), Punjab, informed that such committees would focus on protection of environment, forest and wild life, which would include the protection of wild life from hunters and providing them with food.

Further, the committee members will work on issues like plantation of trees, protection of trees, spreading awareness about forest and wild life among every section of society.

The members will also be assigned jobs like advising for betterment of the affairs of the forest department.

The committee members will also inform about the damage or expected damage to the forest and wild life, including lending help in getting the culprits punished.

Besides, any other suggestion or contribution by committee members that may help in protecting and making people aware about the forest and wild life will be welcomed.

As per the notification, the members will also make efforts for the development of eco-tourism spots to generate new sources of employment and make schemes in this regard.

The divisional forest and wild life advising committee will comprise of 15-25 members. Divisional forest officer (DFO) will be the member secretary of the district level committee. If the headquarter of his/her department is out of the district, then the senior-most forest officer posted in the district will hold the post.

In the sub-divisional committee, the DCs will appoint the member secretary and the chairman. If no official of the forest department is posted there, a senior official from the civil administration will be appointed.

For the divisions having more than one government administrative district, number of members will be appointed in accordance with the Census 2001.

In the committee, at least a member each will belong to woman, SC, BC and ex-serviceman categories.

The financial commissioner clarified that no allowance or perk would be given to the committee members for attending meetings, except for issuing identity cards on government expense. The committees would function for two years after the notification.

Confirming the details, Bathinda DC Rahul Tewari said, “We have received the letter and soon the process of constituting committees would be initiated in consultation with higher authorities.”

Killing of Bhunder village teacher
Body recovered from Rajasthan feeder
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 7
The body of Bhupinder Singh, a school teacher of village Bhunder who was reportedly killed after abduction about a month ago, has been recovered from the Rajasthan feeder canal, about 175 km from here. With the recovery, the Bathinda police today claimed to have completed investigation in the case.

Senior police officials disclosed that the body was recovered from village 280 RD Rajyasar in district Suratgarh of Rajasthan last evening. After identifying the body as of Bhupinder Singh, his kin gave their consent to get the post-mortem examination conducted at the Civil Hospital, Suratgath. The body being badly decomposed, bereaved family members cremated it there.

Bhupinder Singh had gone missing on January 6 when he left his village to catch a bus for Shahkot, his place of duty. Initially, the police remained callous in nabbing the accused. Irked villagers staged dharnas to make the district police initiate a probe into the matter. Facing the political as well as social pressure, the police registered the case of abduction on January 21 against unidentified persons.

During investigation, the police nabbed four accused — Gurkamal Singh Singh alias Gogi of Dhipali, Jagdish Singh of Kotda Kodianwala, Narinder Pal Singh of Mandi Kalan and Lakhwinder Singh of Dhipali — who reportedly admitted their crime during interrogation.

Claiming to have cracked the mystery on Februray 2, police officials stated that Gogi had an affair with Bhupinder’s wife Rajwinder Kaur when she was unmarried and studying at Rampura. Later, the girl married Bhupinder but Gogi kept on loving her and wanted to continue the relationship. In such an attempt, Gogi took the help of his friends and chalked out a strategy to kill Bhupinder to clear his way.

On January 6 morning, Bhupinder left his house and reached the Rampura bus stand to catch a bus for Shahkot. As of the plan, the accused offered him a lift in their car, claiming that they were going to Jalandhar.

On the way, they gave him intoxicants mixed in tea. Bhupinder became unconscious after consuming it. They took him to Rajasthan feeder canal near Malout and hit him on his head. They removed all his clothes, tied weight to his waist, threw him in the canal and fled from the spot.

After ascertaining the facts, the police launched a process to find the body, for which messages were flashed to all police stations along the canal up to 400 km from the place of occurrence. Meanwhile, divers found the weight, which was tied to the body, at a distance of few miles in the canal, which forced the police to suspect the body would have floated far.

A former sarpanch of village Amarpura Jattan in Rajasthan informed the Suratgarh police about a floating body on Saturday, which prompted the Bathinda police to rush the kin of deceased to the spot for identification.

Confirming the facts, SP (D) Ajay Maluja said, “The culprits are already in police remand. After recovering the body, we have completed our investigation.”

Bathinda gets funds for pension scheme
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 7
The Bathinda district has received a budget of Rs 49.19 lakh from the government for disbursing the pending pension amounts for four months (August 2009 to November 2009) to 6,149 beneficiaries of this district of a Centre-sponsored “Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme”. Under the scheme, a sum of Rs 200 per month each is given to the beneficiaries.

However, nothing could be stated at this stage as to when the government will release funds for the pensions of December 2009 and January 2010 to the beneficiaries.

After receiving the amount, the authorities concerned have now sent the file to the chairman of the District Planning Committee for his approval to release the funds for disbursing the same among the beneficiaries.

Later, the district social security office here would distribute the same among the beneficiaries.

Out of the beneficiaries, about 3050 purely belong to the below poverty line (BPL) families while remaining 3,100 belong to the BPL as well as the above poverty line (APL) families. It is worth mentioning here that persons, who were aged 65 years or above and belonged to only BPL families, are now eligible for getting the benefit of the Centre-sponsored scheme.

Over lakh kids vaccinated in Bathinda
Tribune News Service

A child being administered anti-polio drops at Bathinda railway station on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Bathinda, February 7
As many as 1,07,878 children of this district were administered anti-polio drops today. Administering the drops to children in Beant Nagar, a slum area, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rahul Tewari inaugurated the plus polio campaign.Meanwhile, principal secretary, Health, Satish Chandra made a supervising visit to the district to get a first-hand account of the progress of the campaign.

According to the details received from the health department, there were about 1,84,439 children in the district in the age group of 0-5 years, whom the department aimed at administering drops. However, 1,07,878 children could be covered till 4.30 in the evening, which is 58.48 per cent of the target.

Confirming details, Civil Surgeon Neelam Bajaj said the health department had set up about 691 booths throughout the district along with 38 transit teams and 28 mobile teams.The children, who were left today, would be administered drops on Monday and Tuesday. The teams would visit door-to-door to make the campaign successful, the Civil Surgeon added

Fazilka: In the second phase of the Plus Polio programme, about 7,473 children up to the age of five years were administered polio vaccine drops in Fazilka by the teams of the health department today.

According to Dr YK Gupta, Senior Medical officer (SMO), Civil Hospital, Fazilka, 31 booths were set up in different localities of the town. Two transit teams were set up at the railway station and the bus stand along with two mobile teams. All the medical officers of the civil hospital were engaged in supervising immunisation programme.

According to Dr Hans Raj, nodal officer on February 8-9, teams of the health department along with volunteers would visit door-to-door to administer polio vaccine to the remaining children. About 12,000 children would be administered polio vaccine. — OC

Malwa diary
Celebrating life on canvas

The exhibition “Celebration of Life” exhibiting the artworks of Kiran Soni Gupta, former Deputy Commissioner of Sriganganagar, attracted dignitaries from far off places.

Kiran seems to be in complete departure from the stereotype bureaucrat keeping her creativity and soul alive through her childhood interest which is now fully blossomed into a passion and obsession.

The paintings captivate the essence of life in India from the ordinary and mundane to the emerging new patterns of the contemporary society.

The visitors included prolific writer and Indian Ambassador at Bhutan Pawan Kumar Verma, Padamshree Arjun Prajapati, eminent miniature artists Nathu Lal Verma, Chinmay Mehta, Umesh Chander Sharma, Bhawani Shankar, Kailash Tiwari, Govind Srivastava, Mohan Singh Rathore, Sunit Gilidyal, Sunit Banerjee secretary tourism and former king of Mewar state Arvind Singh Mewar.

Anne Beldon from Canada, Jimmy Tomas and Jennifer from USA, Nimmi Raj and Nilesh from California were among the distinguished guests at the closing ceremony last night.

Jhenggud, a celebrity Chinese landscape artist, got so impressed with Kiran’s paintings in Chinese style on rice paper that he invited her to showcase Indian artists’ work at “ye yaw fang gallery” in China.

Senior executives of the corporate houses, army officers, academicians and large number of students also visited the exhibition. Kiran’s creativity finds the best illustration.

Her works reflect not only her conviction on issues of women, children, poverty, development and environment, but also her sensitivity, keen observation, and an abounding faith in humanity as well, said Sulochana Kashyap a budding artist. — Raj Sadosh

This border town offers rare food delicacies!
Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, February 7
Ferozepur, as one may assume may not have big shopping malls with food courts, any famous chain of restaurants, fast food outlets. However, to one’s utter surprise, it offers hosts of rare food specialties, which are famous all over the northern part of the country.

The most popular amongst all is shop of Amichand Halwai, popularly known as “Ramu puriwala” where one gets special stuffed puri with aloo sabzi.

Every morning, one can witness long queues of people waiting for their turn to get this sumptuous aloo-puri treat.

On Sunday, one has to wait for hours together as the residents more often like to have Aloo-puri in the breakfast. Besides, his stuffed Kachoris, gulabzaman and zalebi is also in demand and is famous all over the place.

Another famous delicacy of this border town is “gajrela” and “barfi” of Bhagat Ji Ki Dukan.

“Gajrela” made with pure desi ghee is really a treat for all foodies. People even sent this “galrela” to their relatives and friends residing abroad during winters when it is especially prepared.

Harish Goyal, owner of this shop, said his uncle Rishab Dev has started this shop in 1959. Goyal told that they do not use any additives like colour or silver foil in the sweets, adding that the “khoe ki pinnis” prepared by them are also quite popular.

In interiors of the old walled city is a small shop popular for lip-smacking “Chana-Kulcha”.

Popularly known as “Chuhi Chowk ke chole kulche”, it is served with kulcha dipped in the chana in somewhat rather untraditional way, which makes it exceptional. One can also have “chawal chole” served with cheese at this shop established in 1950 by Bansi Lal Sharma.

Another famous joint popular “Mehanga Machhiwala” was established in 1948 immediately after the partition.

Here, fish varieties are available such as, “damra, bachua, sohal” and the most appetising “shingari”. This outlet was started by Mehanga Ram and is now managed by his son Sukhdev Raj.

Besides, there are a lot of old sweet shops like Jia Lal Halwai at Sadhu Chand Chowk, Kasurian Di Hatti in the main bazaar and Mohan Halwai at Arya Samaj Chowk where one gets special Kalakand (Milk cake) and Barfi.

During the olden period, the fish pakoras of “Lotan Machhiwala” were very famous. Old times recollect that people from far and wide used to traverse long distances to have the fish pakoras of Lotan.

Another dish, presumably of Pakistani origin, “andressa” (Rice Cake) is prepared by Desh Raj Halwai whose relatives also run a sweet shop in Kasur (Pakistan).

Literacy march to reach Ferozepur today
Our Correspondent

Abohar, February 7
The “Mashal (Torch) Chetana March” that was kick-started by the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan Authority (SSAA) on February 1 at Fatehgarh Sahib to enroll the children aged 6-14 in the government schools will enter Ferozepur district on Monday.

Padho Punjab coordinator, Shankar Chaudhary informed today that DEO (E) Dr Harbans Singh Chahal will receive the march at Sadiq tomorrow and would be flagged off by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kamal Kishor Yadav for onwards journey on February 9.

Volunteers of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SAA) and Padho Punjab teams will join the march to motivate the people on the way to ensure admission of their children in the government schools.

Chetana March, in-charge, Dhirender Sachdeva claimed of tremendous response since launching of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan Authority in 2001 as dropout rate had declined considerably. Still a lot needs to be done.

Dr Chahal said that Anganwari workers are also being involved to make the march a success. SSAA, DG, Krishan Kumar will speak to the workers through Eduset system on Tuesday.

Karate tourney
Winners to be honoured on Feb 11
Our Correspondent

Sriganganagar/Abohar, February 7
Rajasthan has been declared champion in the first North-East India Karate tournament that has recently concluded at Bikaner earlier this week. Sensei Ganesh Kumar Harsh, chief coach of Bikaner Karate Sports Association, informed.

Avdhesh Acharya, a primary-class student in the Bikaner Kendriya Vidyalya, clinched gold in the junior boys’ Kumite (fight) and silver in Kata events while Mohammad Tauqir won gold in senior category Kumite and bronze Kata competition.

The winning team would be honoured during the annual function of the Bikaner Karate Sports Association which is going to be organised on February 11 at the Bikaner Sports Karate Training, centre president, Vikram Singh Chauhan said.

Choreography on Bhagat Singh’s life

Bathinda, February 7
A choreography based upon the life of martyr Bhagat Singh remained the main attraction of the annual function of Baba Farid Public School, Faridkot, which was celebrated on the school premises.

Various other items were also presented on the occasion.

Sarvesh Kaushal, principal secretary, Government of Punjab, was the chief guest. Chairman of the school Inderjeet Singh Khalsa gave credit to the chief guest’s contribution in the school’s success. — TNS