Jalandhar, April 5
Rules are rules for an ordinary man but perhaps not for the kin of a legislator. That seems to be the style of functioning of the Municipal Corporation.

A showroom in an under-construction shopping mall located in the posh New Jawahar Nagar colony, owned by a relative of Akali MLA Sarabjeet Makkar, has been allowed to be opened three days back in violation of various building bylaws.

Construction of only a part of the building is complete while work is going on in the second part. The parking lot is still being readied and cars cannot go down in the designated basement as of now.

The lift in the three-storey showroom has not yet started functioning. The tiles in the walking platform around the building are still being laid. A part of the area is still covered with concrete and broken pieces of glasses.

Clearly, the building owner is not in a position of getting a completion certificate from the Municipal Corporation, without which he cannot legally throw it open for public. This also indicates that the owner has violated section 272 of the MC Act, which stipulates possession of the certificate prior to any use of the building. A deviation from it amounts to sealing of the building.

Corporation officials, perhaps, apprehending a backlash from the ruling party have preferred not to show any stand on the issue. Trilok Singh, Municipal Town Planner, rather feigned ignorance on the issue. “I need to check records or visit the site before commenting on it,” was all that he said.

Viney Bublani, Commissioner, MC, too toed the same line. “I need to get it checked tomorrow morning.” Interestingly, the nephew of the MLA, Prince Makkar, is also a councillor of ward number 60 of the Jalandhar MC.

MLA Makkar, when asked about the matter, admitted, “Though the complete basement has been designated for parking, it cannot be put to use as of now because some finishing work is still left.” He also admitted that the other part of the building, which is to be taken by food chain Yo! China, is still incomplete but he insisted that the area opened was fully ready (minus an important provision of an elevator).

Interestingly, this is the same building over which Makkar had a tiff with Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia on granting of various exemptions.

Nawanshahr, April 5
With a view to improving education standards, particularly science, at the senior secondary level and to ensure the optimum use of the infrastructure available at private colleges, especially in rural areas, the Punjab government has permitted the engineering colleges and polytechnics to set up “junior science colleges” on the existing campus for starting classes XI and XII in science (non-medical). The Punjab School Education Board has been asked to relax the parameters for expeditiously granting affiliation to the junior science colleges.

Under the scheme, the education board has so far granted affiliation to 12 engineering institutes for opening junior science colleges, and the Doaba group of institutes, Chhokeran, near Rahon, in the district is one of them, said executive director Manjit Singh of the group and vice-chairman of the Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA) here today.

“PUTIA has taken up the issue of deplorable condition of science education at the school level with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal as well as senior bureaucrats related to technical education,” said Manjit Singh. PUTIA apprised them of the factual data showing that in the primary schools the number of students enrolled was 19,20,631. But only 2,86,671 reach the senior secondary level. “There is not only a huge gap in the number of students reaching the senior secondary level from the primary school level but out of them, just 3 per cent students opt science subjects,” he lamented, while attributing the dismal scenario to lack of proper infrastructural facilities as well as faculty in government schools, especially in rural areas.

“While there is lack of infrastructural facilities in schools, especially in rural areas, the huge infrastructure available in private engineering colleges, most of them situated in the rural areas, is lying under-utilised,” Manjit Singh added.

Finally, after discussing the issue at high-level meetings, the government has decided to accord affiliation to the engineering colleges. The details granting affiliation to junior science colleges were finalised by a committee comprising Dr Buta Singh Sidhu, Dean (Academic), PTU, Mohanbir Singh Sodhi, Additional Director, Technical Education, Punjab, and Manjit Singh at a recent meeting.

Nawanshahr, April 5
Residents here have not only been braving the announced and unannounced power cuts, consumers had to suffer for depositing electricity bills, thanks to the apathetic and casual approach of senior officials of the Punjab State Electricity Board in making arrangements for accepting the bills at the Pandora Mohalla counter here today.

The alternative arrangement was made when the harassed consumers raised slogans against the PSEB officials and brought the matter to the notice of local mediapersons and that, too, on the intervention of Chief Engineer, Jalandhar, D.K. Sharma.

Today was the last day for depositing the electricity bills and consumers in large numbers had started queueing up in front of the cashier’s window. But they had to face a lot of harassment as they waited for the cashier to open the counter. “We came to know that the cashier was on leave, but the apathetic attitude of the PSEB officials in making an alternative arrangement added to their worry,” said consumers.

The attitude of senior officials could be gauged from the fact that when a mediaperson contacted Superintending Engineer Darshan Singh for solving the problem being faced by the consumers, he just replied that he was on his way to Chandigarh. Then mediaperson then brought the matter to the notice of Chief Engineer Sharma, who instructed the officials to make some arrangement and receive all the bills by the evening. At about 11 am, an alternative arrangement was made and the process of depositing bills was started.

SDO Surinder Singh, however, claimed that the PSEB office had been facing an acute shortage of staff. Out of three posts of cashier, there was only one cashier working in the office. He had to go on leave today due to some problem.

Although counters for depositing electricity bills have also been set up at Suvidha Centre, people had to return without depositing their bills as mostly the requisite data regarding bill collection were not available there.

Phagwara, April 5
Former Congress minister Chaudhary Santokh Singh has urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to implement the Union government’s announcement of providing the Right to Education Act.

Talking to newsmen here, Santokh Singh welcomed the Central government’s decision to provide free education to children, and claimed that this decision would also provide employment to lakhs of youths.

He alleged that the SAD-BJP government remained a failure as far as provision of basic amenities to the people was concerned and the people of the state were fed up with the anti-people policies of the state government.

He alleged that the SAD-BJP government could not utilise the huge funds sent by the Union government for the development of the state.

Batala, April 5
The report of the magisterial probe ordered by the Punjab government into the causes leading to imposition of a curfew on the industrial hub of Batala is still being awaited, although the timeperiod of the inquiry, which was to be completed within 15 days, has elapsed.

When the curfew was lifted on February 23, Commissioner (Jalandhar Division) S.R. Ladher had announced at a press conference that a magisterial inquiry would be held into the sequence of events leading to clashes between Hindu and Christian organisations. Ladher had played the pivotal role in brokering an agreement between the warring factions.

The curfew was clamped on February 19 after members of the Christian and Hindu communities clashed and vandalised public property.

The town’s Church of Epiphany was torched and some shops were vandalised. Activists of the Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena had objected to the demand of the Christian community to close shops, following which groups of both communities went on the rampage and looted shops. A Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation bus and another private bus were stoned. The mob then burnt six scooters and motorcycles.

Inquiry officer R.P. Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), said he had asked for more time from Ladher to submit the report.

Batala MLA Jagdish Raj Sawhney claimed he had asked district administration officials about the report but he failed to get any convincing reply.

A senior official said the report, whenever it came, would be quiet on the causes that led to protests and it would dwell only on damages to public property and the quantum of compensation to be given to the affected people.

Another senior officer, preferring anonymity, said it would be “irresponsible on the part of the district administration to place on record the reasons behind the clashes. “The issue is dead and let it remain dead,” he said.However, Sawhney said he wanted to know the reasons of unrest and if the causes were not pinpointed, the report would just be a piece of paper and nothing else.

Meanwhile, senior Christian leader and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Salamat Masih declared that the management of Church of Epiphany would not be taking any money from the administration for repair work.

Jalandhar, April 5
A student of Lovely Professional University, Chandeep Singh Arora, has been selected among top 40 best essay writers in the country. In an international essay writing competition organised by the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) in India and Bhutan, his entry has been selected from among five lakh entries received from more than 10,000 schools and colleges.

Arora will be honoured at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, on April 11. The competition was held in September 2009.

Six other students of the LPU, Adfer Jan (B. Tech Honours ECE), Akanksha (B. Tech CSE), Neelanchal Vaid (B. Tech-III), Tushar Gupta (B. Tech III), Mrinal Saxena (B. Tech Honours ECE) and Sunil (B. Tech-III) made their mark at the district level.