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11 school students detected with cancer
Indira Awas Yojna Scam |
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Plight of Border Residents-4 Tilling land for years, but no ownership rights yet Ferozepur, March 7 Though residents of border villages have been tilling different patches of land for the past many decades, they have failed to get ownership rights of the same. Their generations together have worked hard to clear elephant grass from the land, to level it and to make arrangements for water.
Raja Narinder Singh’s services to SAD lauded
Cheating cases
Amritsar-Ferozepore rly link awaits Centre’s nod
Forced Conversions in Pak
Empowering poor women effectively
CM’s felicitations on Women’s Day
2 brothers die in mishap
Ex-servicemen to deposit medals with President
Sahir Ludhianavi Cultural Centre
Pau Pensioners
PMET Scam
Fellowship for Pbi varsity scholar
MC to stop water supply to defaulters
10 die as buses collide in Punjab
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11 school students detected with cancer
Patiala, March 7 Under the NRHM, medical check-up of the students of the government primary schools is done twice a year, whereas students of Class VI and above undergo medical check-up once a year. During the camps in the past few months, the doctors diagnosed 11 students, in age group of 10 to 18 years, studying in different government schools of Patiala, for cancer. The students, who have been found suffering from heart problems, are in the age group of five to 17 years. Officials of the Health Department said that from a total of 11 cancer patients, free treatment of five patients had already started, whereas the rest of the suffering students had left the school. The students suffering from heart problems had been referred to medical institutes like the PGIMER, DMC&H and CMC&H. Eight heart patients had left the school and parents of five patients have refused treatment. “Though under the NRHM, a government school student suffering from cancer can avail free treatment at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, or at Mohan Dai Cancer Hospital in Ludhiana but still it is very difficult to convince the parents of the suffering students to send their ward for treatment,” said Health Department officials, preferring anonymity. Though in the past few years, there has been a spurt in the number of cancer cases from Patiala district but what has worried everyone, including health officials, is that it was for the first time that students in the age group of 10 to 18 years have been diagnosed for this deadly disease.
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3 inquiry officers changed; no action yet
Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service
Moga, March 7 As many as three inquiry officers had been changed by the department during the past six months. An on-the-spot preliminary inquiry into this scam was conducted by Gurdev Singh, Director of the department, and then the Additional Deputy Commissioner was asked to hold a regular inquiry. The sarpanch and panchayat secretary were suspended from their posts but a couple of months after this scam, the sarpanch was reinstated following orders of the high court and the panchayat secretary was also reinstated in service by the department and transferred to some other place. The high court, however, asked the Director to hold an inquiry into it and take action, accordingly. The Director of the department took back the file of this case from the ADC and handed it to the Deputy Director (Ferozepur division) but when he almost completed the inquiry, the file was sent to his junior district development and panchayat officer of Moga, last month. The Director in his order has stated that “the sarpanch had challenged through civil writ petition no. 1285 of 2010 before the high court, therefore, in view of this petition the regular inquiry is being transferred to the DDPO with immediate effect.” The DDPO Joginder Kumar said after receiving these orders, he had issued notices to the sarpanch, panchayat secretary and three others to appear before him on March 12 to record their statements. A few beneficiaries of the IAY in this village revealed before all inquiry officers that the sarpanch and panchayat secretary had demanded Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 from them for giving cheques to them. Since they were very poor, they could not afford to grease their palms. So, they were not handed over the cheques. As such, validity dates of the cheques expired. A grant of Rs 35,000 in two instalments of Rs 17,500 is provided to families holding Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, particularly to the poorest of the poor in their village to build their own pucca houses. The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) issues cheques in the names of beneficiaries and sends them to the BDPOs for distribution among them. Normally, the BDPOs further hand over these cheques to panchayat secretaries for distribution with the help of sarpanches of the villages.
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Tilling land for years, but no ownership rights yet
Chander Parkash Tribune News Service
Ferozepur, March 7 Thousands of landless farmers, who have been tilling pieces of land belonging to the provincial government, have been waiting for the day when their names will be entered into the revenue records as owners. “Our family members spent days and nights to make the land fertile by surmounting all kinds of odds, but we could not become the owner of the same due to indifferent attitude of the successive state government,” alleged Kashmir Singh, a member of Panchayat of Habib Ke, a village bordering Pakistan. The government has drafted a policy under which farmers are required to pay an amount of Rs 25,000 per acre of land falling between the fencing and the international border, Rs 75,000 for land between the fencing and the Sutlej and Rs 1.5 lakh for land beyond the Sutlej towards the city. The amount is to be paid in six instalments. Though thousands of farmers belonging to villages situated along the Indo-Pakistan border lodged a protest time and again against the SAD-BJP government’s decision to grant ownership rights of the provincial government land along the border at an exorbitant price to landless farmers, it could not fetch any relief for them. President of the state Border Area Development Struggle Committee Hansa Singh said: “When the state government had been charging Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 per acre of land from the SC and general category tillers, respectively, for conferring ownership rights of the property belonging to evacuee land on them, then why the state government has fixed high prices for the allotment of provincial land.” “Is the state government punishing us for converting this waste land into foodgrain-producing pocket,” asked Makhan Singh another landless farmer. He added that a cross section of landlords had been trying to get ownership rights of such pieces of land by showing them as cultivators and by “tempering” with the revenue records. General secretary of the PPCC Parminder Singh said he had been organising landless farmers so that a movement could be launched to press the state government to allot land to cultivators at nominal prices. He asked that how landless farmers could pay such a huge amount to the state government for getting ownership rights of land being tilled by them. (Concluded)
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Raja Narinder Singh’s services to SAD lauded
Nabha, March 7 He added that in the coming state budget, the emphasis would be given to improve facilities like education, electricity and infrastructure. He said the development of any state depends on electricity, so more and more power plants had been planned in the coming years. He said the decision of giving arrears to the Punjab government employees would be taken soon. He praised what Raja
Narinder Singh had done for the SAD and CM Parkash Singh Badal. Advising Maaninder Singh, grandson of the Raja, Badal said his sole aim of joining politics should be service of people. Maaninder is seen as successor of Raja Narinder Singh.
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Cheating cases
Fatehgarh Sahib, March 7 He said different flying squad teams across the state had found these teachers helping students directly or indirectly during exams. He said four teachers were found helping students in Gurdaspur district, two each in Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr and one in Mansa district. He said stringent measures had been taken during these exams, which would continue till March 30. —
TNS
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Amritsar-Ferozepore rly link awaits Centre’s nod
Amritsar, March 7 Confirming this, railway board chairman SS Khurana, during his visit to Amritsar today, told that it should been on priority of the state government’s agenda to pursue the matter. It is evident to mention that rail track between Khemkaran
and Ferozepore has yet to be restored to make it feasible through
Amritsar. About the progress of work at the Bhagtanwala Railway Station, the chairman told that it would soon be started and the advent of this station would give a fillip to state’s trade and commerce. The Centre has been starting the three new trains on the Amritsar-Sialkot, Hoshiarpur-Amritsar and Chandigarh-Amritsar route. Besides, some other fast trains from Amritsar to New Delhi and Jaipur are also on the cards.
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Sikh body approaches UN
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 7 Disclosing this here today, SNO president Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa said the issue of forced conversions in Pakistan had come to light with “execution by beheading” of two Sikhs (Jaspal Singh and Mehal Singh) for refusing to embrace Islam. The Sikh body demanded immediate repeal of the controversial regulation. Randhawa said the intents of arbitrary dictates that are possible under the powers bestowed upon tyrant ‘Taliban Rulers by Law of Pakistan’, through this regulation stood amply exposed with forcible cutting of hair of other two Sikh captives (Surjit Singh and Gurvinder Singh) to convert them to Islam, who were rescued/escaped or “released with warning to the Sikh Community in Pakistan.” The SNO said the release of Sikh captives was claimed to have occurred as a result of the “rescue operation” by the Pak Army, but intriguingly no details of the operation were officially provided all these days despite the announcement. Though Gurvinder has supported the rescue version due to obvious reasons, but community sources tell a different story, it added.
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Empowering poor women effectively
Ludhiana, March 7 They are now all set to earn their livelihood. A public park in Ludhiana has now become an open air practical workshop for these women, who learn lessons of virtual empowerment while being dressed in a clean uniform. It is here where they learn how to greet, to behave, to clean houses hygienically and become a perfect maid.
“We give them lessons in behaviour and house management. We have tied up with Punjab Agricultural University’s department of home science to provide them know-how of perfect cooking. We are paying the PAU for their services,” said Gauri Singh, an Architect from Chandigarh, who left her profession to help the women in need. She added they had 1,000 domestic workers ready, who could work well in industries also and can be sent to the place of work just on a phonecall. The next step the NGO is working towards is to provide them with a public transport and set up a creche for their children. Besides making them earn, the NGO is promising to stand by them in difficult times. They would be encouraged to save a few rupees every month and a corpus fund would be created from their money.
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CM’s felicitations on Women’s Day
Chandigarh, March 7 In a message on the eve of International Women’s Day, Badal said women had tremendous potential to usher in an era of prosperity and development across the globe. “Today the Indian women had also shared the responsibility to safeguard the international borders of our counter,” said
Badal.
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2 brothers die in mishap
Moga, March 7
The deceased were identified as Sanjiv Sood and Avinash Sood, both residents of Moga town. The driver of the Jeep, Sukhchain Singh, was also seriously injured in the mishap. He was referred to the DMC Ludhiana by local doctors. The police has registered a case of negligence against the Jeep driver.
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Ex-servicemen to deposit medals with President
Bathinda, March 7 Taking a strong exception to the statement, the vice-chairman of the ESM, Major General Satbir Singh (retd), said the reason as to why the PM made this “wrong” statement was beyond comprehension. In an exclusive interaction with The Tribune here today, he said the way the PM brushed aside the issue of pensions of defence personnel by stating that the enhancement recommended by the committee had been implemented revealed that either the staff at his office had not correctly briefed him or the government itself was “indifferent” to their genuine entitlements. “It is emphatically reiterated that the enhancement of pensions of jawans and JCOs as announced by the government in Parliament on July 6, 2009, and again announced by the Prime Minister on August 15, 2009, from the ramparts of the Red Fort for which Rs 2,140 had been earmarked to benefit 12 lakh ex-servicemen jawans and JCOs has not at all been implemented,” claimed Satbir Singh. Accusing the system of damaging the morale of the ex-servicemen, he said, “It is a sad reflection of the government’s attitude that 22,000 prestigious medals have been returned to the President by ex-servicemen on six different occasions to express their anguish. Still, the government continues
to ignore their main demand of one-rank-one pension.” “Witnessing the callous attitude of the government towards our problem, we are going to intensify the protest. Ex-servicemen from all states will deposit their medals with the President for the seventh time on March 14 along with a memorandum signed
in blood to express deep anguish over the apathy of the government,” said Satbir Singh. “This is not the only pain. The President is not even granting audience to a delegation of the movement, who have been leading the protest to secure justice for defence personnel,”
he alleged.
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Sahir Ludhianavi Cultural Centre
Ludhiana, March 7 Paying tributes to Sahir on his 89th birth anniversary that falls on March 8, the conglomerate of intellectuals, including doctors, writers, poets and professionals pledged in Ludhiana to materialise the “dream project” of the Sahir Ludhianavi Cultural Centre at a special Ghazal evening organised yesterday in the poet’s memory. Despite getting 60 lakh grant from the Centre from the Department Of Local Bodies, Punjab, in 2000, the Sahir Cultural Academy was unable to get the project going due to bureaucratic interference, as the funds were transferred to another project.
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CM to give Rs 75 cr more
KS Chawla
Ludhiana, March 7 The PAU has been facing a serious financial crisis for the past many years. The CM convened a meeting of the senior officers of the state government and the PAU on February 11 at Chandigarh and agreed to help the university in tiding over the financial difficulties. In separate letters to the CM, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah, Kang has stated that the decision of the government would serve as moral booster for the scientists of the university. Meanwhile, renowned agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha member Dr MS Swaminathan has sent a sum of Rs 20 lakh to the PAU for the renovation of the Museum of Social History out of MPLAD funds.
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Beneficiaries under scanner
Megha Mann Tribune News Service
Ropar, March 7 “We would now scan the people for whom Sonal Jain, who appeared five times for different state PMETs as impostors, posed as aspirants. We hope to net more people in the module. Also, the moles in staff of Baba Farid University of Medical Sciences Faridkot will be scanned now,” Yadav added. He added the police had filed third round of challan in PMET scam case wherein 68 people had been challaned and six declared proclaimed offenders. Those challaned in Faridkot recently include three medical students and two aspirants for hiring impostors. Yadav said the challaned impostors include Pankaj Kumar student of MBBS final year of King George Medical College, Lucknow, and Mohammad Yusuf second year MBBS student of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, Kanpur. Aspirants who allegedly hired impostors include NRI Zorawar Singh (a native of Kapurthala) and Susham Shamer of Hoshiarpur. Rakesh Kumar resident of Samastipur Bihar and student of Karnataka Medical College were arrested for acting as broker and fixing the deals. SIT has burst this module and arrested youngsters, who have appeared not only for Punjab PMET but for other state PMETs as well. The heads of coaching centers have also been held who primarily run this racquet. The epicenter of gangs working in these arenas is mainly Patna, Lukcnow, Kanpur and Delhi.
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Fellowship for Pbi varsity scholar
Patiala, March 7 Sabharwal will be provided fellowship of Rs 16,000 per month along with contingency grant of Rs 50,000 per annum by the UGC to carrying out research work on “investigation of uranium and its decay products in soil, water and air using nuclear techniques in Malwa belt of Punjab” at Physics Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Prior to this research, he was working on “investigations of multiply Compton backscattered gamma rays” in the university. Sabharwal is member of the International Radiation Physics Society (IRPS) and several other renowned scientific societies like Indian Society of Radiation Physics (ISRP), Punjab Academy of Sciences and Nuclear Track Society of India. He has to his credit number of research papers in journals of national and international repute.
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MC to stop water supply to defaulters
Patiala, March 7 As per the data of the defaulters tabulated by the civic functionaries, presently Rs 18.34 lakh is pending towards the government officials/ employees, in the form of unpaid water and sewerage bills. Civic functionaries said officials residing in houses allotted by the PWD and Irrigation Department do not bother to pay the water and sewerage bills. Likewise, majority of the employees putting up in government quarters of above said departments figure among the defaulters. Municipal Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang said, “Water and sewerage bills of Rs 3.22 lakh are pending towards the government accommodations in the Pepsu Bhakra Colony of Irrigation Department. The figure of the arrears of 500 government quarters in Rajpura Colony stands at Rs 6 lakh. Similarly, pending bills of the residential accommodation given by the Public Works Department (PWD) to its officials on Passi Road and Bhupindra Road have touched the figure of Rs 2.61 lakh.” Perturbed with the unhealthy practice of not paying the bills, civic officials had sent letters to officials of the PWD and Irrigation Department on January 7, 8 and February 10, asking the authorities to instruct all the officials/employees of their respective departments to clear the pending bills but to no avail. Now, the Municipal Commissioner has finally shot off a letter to Estate Officer, PWD and Executive Engineer of Irrigation Department, while cautioning that in case bills were not cleared by coming March 15, the water supply connections of the defaulters would be disconnected. Civic body has also made it clear that expenses being incurred on disconnection of the services would be recovered from defaulters.
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10 die as buses collide in Punjab Ferozepur, March 7 Though, hospital sources at Jalalabad did not confirm the exact number of causalities, information gathered by The Tribune revealed that more than 10 persons have been killed. The accident took place when the speeding buses coming from opposite directions (Ferozepur to Abohar and Fazilka to Ferozepur) collided head on near a toll barrier near here. Some of those killed were sitting on the roof of the buses at the time of the collision. A driver was also among those killed whereas the other was critically injured. As Jalalabad Civil Hospital did not have sufficient logistics to accommodate the injured, private doctors from in and around the area were pressed into service. According to DC Kamal Yadav, six persons have been killed where as 32 were injured. As many as 20 of the injured have been admitted to Jalalabad Civil Hospital and seven others have been referred to Government Medical College, Faridkot, while six have been sent to Civil Hospital,
Ferozepur.
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There will be a common general sale tax (GST) system from April 1, 2011, throughout India and no state can increase or decrease that tax.
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal expressed these views at Gurdwara Akalgarh Sahib on occasion of the 87th birthday celebrations of SAD ex-minister Raja Narinder Singh.
