Jalandhar, March 23
True to his thoughts, the thinking and ideology of revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh still echoes loud among the youth. Perhaps it is due to the revolutionary zeal of this legendary freedom fighter that even to this date scores of youth gathers at Khatkar Kalan-the ancestral home of Bhagat Singh to participate in martyrdom function.

A mere click on social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook and a search on Google with the name- Bhagat Singh opens up a long list of groups and communities speaking volumes about his life as a freedom fighter. And a large number of youngsters support the ideologies and thinking of martyrs Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

From The Legend of Bhagat Singh to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Revolution thy name is- Bhagat Singh and Mera Rang De Basanti Chola every community has on an average 5,000 members across the globe. The list is endless.

But what attracts these youngsters towards Bhagat Singh remains a big question. The Tribune spoke to a cross section of youngsters who are members of these social networking sites and those who support the principles of Bhagat Singh.

Harshdeep Singh, a local student, said, “I was virtually hooked to this slogan-Aazadi hi meri dulhan hai on one of the community on Orkut. Although I was not much aware of the freedom struggle of Bhagat Singh but I joined this community and later read a lot about him on the Internet. It was actually motivating”.

Youngsters feel that a major reason behind this attraction toward Bhagat Singh’s life is the fact that he died at a young age. “It sounds impossible but Bhagat Singh did it. He attained martyrdom at an age when many of us enjoy our college days. I joined this group- Bhagat Singh - The legend, after a friend of mine joined it”, said Meenakshi Aggarwal.

Another student said he joined the social community- Shaheed Bhagat Singh after he read about him in the books and on the Internet. “In fact I also visited the Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh Museum at Nawanshahr. And I also read blogs on Bhagat Singh bringing to the fore various facets of this legendary freedom fighter,” said Vikram Singh, a youngster.

However, the youngsters rued that educational institutions do not play an active role in conducting educational tours to Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh and Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh Museum at Nawanshahr.

Principal of the local CT Public School, Lakhwinder Kaur said her institution had organised a trip to the ancestral village two years back. “If we will take the students to Khatkar Kalan on a regular basis they would feel bored. However, conducting an educational trip to Bhagat Singh’s village is very much on our agenda and we would surely take our students there”, she added.

Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa, the principal of the local Lyallpur Khalsa College, said they had been taking their students to Khatkar Kalan on a regular basis. “We could not send our students on the martyrdom as the final university exams are going on. But our students participated in a large number during the 100th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh”, he added.

Further answering a query pertaining to any UGC grant for conducting trips to Khatkar Kalan, Dr Randhawa said, “It is a matter of shame that there is no UGC grant under which students and faculty can pay regular visits to his ancestral home or take up major research projects or make documentaries”, he lamented.

Sale of meat, eggs banned
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
The district police has banned the sale of meat and eggs in the city on account of the birth anniversary of Lord Mahavir on March 28.

Exercising his powers under section 144 of the CrPC, Deputy Commissioner of Police P.K. Rai has banned the sale of meat and eggs in all dhabas, rehris, restaurants and hotels, besides issuing closure orders of all slaughter houses in the city that day.

Jalandhar, March 23
History has rarely given a chance to a poet to be called a martyr. But Avtar Singh Sandhu, popularly known as Paash, is one such martyr.

Spewing revolt through his poetry, which later marked the qualitative shift in the entire paradigm of Punjabi poetry, the legendary poet was killed by militants at the age of 38 on this day in 1988.

Quite taken in by the wave of Naxalite movement of the late sixties, Paash was one among those writers who impulsively transformed the realm of Punjabi literature and gave it a violent and radical hue.

“Like many other poets, he also highlighted subjugation of masses in his poems. But what makes him different is that he himself took part in people’s struggles. Due to his participation in those struggles and agitations, he was put in jail and falsely implicated in a murder case. Before writing, he himself experienced the tools of state oppression on his body and mind,” said his friend and poet Mindherpal Bhathal.

Paash wrote his first book “Loh Katha” at the age of 19, second at the age of 23 and third in his late twenties. “Loh Katha” was merely considered as “bunch of slogans” in literary circles.

However, his second book “Uddeyaan Bazaan Magar” marked his formal entry, along with his entirely different style, in the Punjabi literati. Most of the poems published in this book were written while he was in jail.

His third book “Sade Samiyaan Vich”, published in 1978, includes most of his classical poems.

Though this book established him as a poet-cum-philosopher-cum-critique of rare intellect, poems in this book clearly reflected the melancholic taste of the worldwide drowning of the left movement.

Later, after his death, the Paash Memorial International Trust in the book “Khilre Hoye Varke” compiled his unpublished work.

The beauty of his verses is that they can talk about both the rising prices of foodgrains and the beautiful eyes of a village girl in one line.

He talked of peasants, labourers, policemen, girl friends, childhood friends, village commonplace, pet animals and even the fragrance of flowers in his poems.

The martyrdom day of Paash, incidentally coincides with the day on which Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death in Lahore Central Jail in 1931. He was killed amid the same mustard flowers which he used as icons in one of his poem for his beloved.

Hoshiarpur, March 23
Even though technology has come a long way in the teaching-learning scenario, there is still no substitute for a good teacher. It is a hard fact that a large number of teachers are still untrained.

Prof K.R. Srivathsan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi, said this while addressing over 200 participants from the north region at a seminar organised at the Guru Nanak College of Education, Dalewal, near here.

Focused on spreading-wings of teacher education with sub-themes like right to education, teacher education and value education, reforms in the education system, curriculum transaction, teacher education and world peace and challenges before the teacher in the changing scenario, resource persons shared their experiences and views in the seminar.

Srivathsan made a clarion call for better values in life, besides providing quality leadership to society and the nation. He also emphasised on the changing trends of teacher education and appreciated the efforts of management in providing needed facilities and proper education to teacher trainers.

Prof Raj Gupta provided a peep into the historical development of teacher education in post-Independence India and stressed on the need to recollect, recognise and reframe what we had lost in the pages of history.

Prof Neshla, a retired professor of Kurukshetra University, said teachers should come forward to shoulder their responsibilities because it was their work that would get recognition for them.

Those who spoke on the occasion include Dr Manoj Dash from IGNOU, Dr Jayshree Samnatray from Himachal Pradesh, Dr G.Q. Sheikh from Jammu, Dr Nazam-ud-Din from Srinagar, Dr Santosh Kumari and Sanjiv Kumar, president of A4C, a local NGO.

Dr Sampla Om Parkash chaired the session, while Paramjit Singh, Chairman of the Guru Nanak Educational Trust, paid a vote of thanks.

Jalandhar, March 23
The District Badminton Association (DBA) has demanded an inquiry into the alleged misuse of Rs 3 crore by honorary secretary of the association Rajinder Paul Singh Kalsi. Joint secretary Rakesh Khanna has written a letter to Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu, also the President of the DBA, to constitute a committee to look into the matter.

Addressing a press conference, Khanna said it should be ascertained as to how Kalsi exceeded his powers and spent huge funds without seeking approvals from the executive committee. “The DBA bylaws were flouted as he made misuse of the funds and powers for personal scores. He even raised loans without the approval of the executive committee,” Khanna added.

He said the financial statements for the years from 1987 to 2006 did not carry signatures of the statutory auditors, rather they were the certified copies which further affirmed the belief that these accounts were prepared later. — TNS

Jalandhar, March 23
The ongoing recruitment of men and women constables in the Punjab police and the Punjab Armed Police has drawn flak from the public as more weightage is being given to the parameters of height and additional qualification.

Although introduced for the first time, experts feel that the parameters are quite at variance with the earlier ones. The authorities have not kept any written test or any reward for viva voce for the candidates.

Taking note of this anomaly, District Sainik Welfare Office Deputy Director Lt-Col Manmohan Singh has written a letter to Principal Secretary (Home and Justice) A.R. Talwar to examine the issue.

He said, “The extra weightage for more height and additional qualification has nothing to do with the post of a constable in both the forces. This rationale would deprive the deserving candidates of their job opportunity and the matter should be readdressed immediately.”

The Director-General of Punjab Police had given an advertisement for the recruitment of men and women constables in the Punjab police and the Punjab Armed Police on February 28. The last date for submitting the forms was March 15.

As per the advertisement, an additional weightage of 20 marks would be given to male students with a degree of M.Phil, PhD, LLM and postgraduation. Extra marks over and above 20 have been kept for men with a height above 6 feet. Similarly, a male student getting between 55 to 65 per cent would get additional 21 marks.

However, as compared to this the plus two candidates would hardly get 10, 11 and 11.5 marks, thus reducing their chance of being getting selected for this post. The parameters for the female candidates are also the same with a variation in height, from 5’-3” to 5’-8”.

Further expressing concern over this issue, Lt-Col Manmohan Singh said that the criteria of written test and interviews for selection of candidates were time tested and the Punjab police had been following this for years.

He gave the example of the Haryana police which is also conducting recruitment of constables. “The Haryana police advertised the posts on March 18 and following the basic selection criteria of physical test, written test and IQ followed by an interview. They have not introduced any additional marks for the recruitment and the Punjab police should look into this matter,” he said.

Jalandhar, March 23
Under the corporate social responsibility, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), the 2nd largest oil PSU in the country, has donated Rs 13 lakh to the deaf and dumb school being run by Dr S.P. Khosla Charitable Memorial Trust, Jalandhar.

The company donated a Vivasonic Portable Bera Machine, worth Rs 12 lakh and Rs 1 lakh towards the purchase of hearing aids, when a single one costs about Rs 7,000.

Speaking to The Tribune, Rakesh Misri, General Manager of North Zone, HPCL, New Delhi said, “Since its inception, HPCL has tried to follow corporate social responsibility the sense of which comes from a feeling that not every achievement of the company is reflected in its balance sheets. The relevancy that a company achieves by virtue of its socio-economic participation surpasses the profit and loss measurements by far.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the company has set aside a budget of about Rs 8 crore for doing social good in the country.

The Vivasonic machine is a state of the art deafness-detecting portable machine. It will help check the level of deafness in a comfortable, easy and quick manner. As against earlier procedures, there will be no need to sedate a child before checking his/her level of deafness.

It is the 3rd machine in the State of Punjab costing nearly 12 lakh.

Dr Arpana Khosla said it would be of great help in the early detection of deafness, which would lead to improvement through surgery and greatly help in improving the speech of a child.

Rakesh Misri also highlighted that anybody can avail the services of this machine through this trust free of cost. He informed that the trust would check the children in the remote areas through monthly rural camps.

Jalandhar, March 23
The parents of differently abled children have demanded that the disability data be collected accurately in the census exercise beginning soon.

Chaanan Association for Mentally Retarded Children president Amarjit Singh Anand has said the correct figures are very important for framing any new policy at the national level and dissemination of benefits to the affected under various government schemes.

He has hailed the segregation of data under the disability category into seven columns - seeing, hearing/speech, movement, mentally retarded, mental illness, multiple and any other. “Earlier mentally retarded and mental illness had been clubbed as one. Both the conditions are strikingly different. Mental retardation comes by birth and not curable while mental illness arises later due to various other factors and is treatable,” Anand, father of a differently abled child, pointed out.

He added that the option “multiple”, too, was not there earlier. This column was added for the first time and would help in addressing the problems of those suffering from a combination of various forms of disabilities.

Anand said his NGO had also offered training to all enumerators of the state, especially for collection of data under the “disabled” category. He said the training was likely to begin around June.

Jalandhar, March 23
Students, faculty and staff of the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) paid tributes to revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on the 79th martyrdom day today.