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Unrecognised schools mushroom in district, govt clueless
Jalandhar, April 27
Although the success of the education services in the district is being talked about and hailed, the education authorities here have no idea about the number of unrecognised private schools running across the district and the number of students getting education in such schools.

Forest fire wreaks havoc in Kandi area
Nawanshahar, April 27
Fire that destroyed vegetation on acres of forestland in Pujewal, Harema, Chhochhewal and Dorowal villages located along the Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib road in the Kandi area near Nawanshahr on Monday night. With the onset of summer, forest fires have once again become the cause of trouble in the Kandi area. Fire destroyed vegetation on acres of forestland in Pujewal, Harema, Chhochhewal and Dorowal villages
Fire that destroyed vegetation on acres of forestland in Pujewal, Harema, Chhochhewal and Dorowal villages located along the Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib road in the Kandi area near Nawanshahr on Monday night. A Tribune photograph

SC ruling slap on SAD-BJP’s face: Cong
Jalandhar, April 27
Hailing the decision of the Supreme Court for restoring the assembly membership of Capt Amarinder Singh, Congressmen said it was a virtual slap on the face of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance.

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Youth killed in road mishap
Nakodar, April 27
Robin Jassal of Jalotian Mohalla was killed on the spot when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a three-wheeler on Railway Road here last night. The police has registered a case and impounded the three-wheeler. The body of Robin was handed over to the family after conducting a post-mortem examination at the Civil Hospital today. — OC

INSPIRE Awards
Modelling skills
A student gives a demonstration of her model at the science mela at Government Senior Secondary School in Nawanshahr on Tuesday. Nawanshahr, April 27
More than 100 school students belonging to upper primary classes exhibited their models on different projects like “solar energy”, “rainwater harvesting”, “natural disasters”, “air pollution”, “solar still”, “global warming”, “renewal sources of energy”, etc. on the inaugural day of the five-day-long district-level science mela being organised at Government Senior Secondary School here.

A student gives a demonstration of her model at the science mela at Government Senior Secondary School in Nawanshahr on Tuesday.

3 youths loot 1.5 lakh from villagers
Jalandhar, April 27
Three unidentified youths allegedly looted Rs 1.50 lakh from Kang Kanal residents while he was riding a motorcycle with his father on the pillion near Nawanpind in broad daylight at Lohian today. According to the police, Kulwant Singh and his father Tarsem Singh were riding a motorcycle with a bag containing Rs 5 lakh when the snatchers, who were also riding a motorcycle, collided their bike with Kulwant’s bike.

Mystery shrouds woman’s death
Jalandhar, April 27
Mystery shrouds the death of a newly wed woman whose body was found hanging in her house in the Basti Sheikh area this afternoon. The body of Sonia was found hanging from a ceiling fan of her room.

2 attacked, injured
Batala, April 27
About two dozen persons armed with weapons trespassed into the house of a farmer at Mand village under Ghuman police station and caused injuries to Gurmeet Singh and his servant on Sunday night.

	Unrecognised schools mushroom in district, govt clueless Amaninder Pal Tribune News Service Jalandhar, April 27 Although the success of the education services in the district is being talked about and hailed, the education authorities here have no idea about the number of unrecognised private schools running across the district and the number of students getting education in such schools. Quite a high number of schools, without affiliation from the Punjab School Education Board and recognition from the office of the District Education Officer, run in both the urban and rural areas. The quality of education in such schools is largely compromised. Besides, nearly all such schools run in rented houses and grossly lack sufficient infrastructure needed for the overall development of the students. Ironically, the authorities are not in a position to formulate any concrete policy for such schools as no objective data about the number and location of such schools are available with the department. District Education Officer (Secondary) Joginder Dass confirmed that the department was not in a position to reveal the exact number of such unaffiliated and unrecognised schools. “Information pertaining only to government, government-aided and recognised private schools is available in our office,” he said. He, however, confirmed that the quality of education and availability of infrastructure were negligible in such schools. “Such schools are like shops and people are running them in their houses,” he added. The schools flout the basic norms as teachers in most of these schools are not eligible to teach both at the primary and middle levels. Experts are of the opinion that there should be strict surveillance of such schools as education at the primary level is the most important and basic component of education. “Our basic task of promotion of government primary schools is nullified by the mushrooming of unauthorised schools in underdeveloped areas. Tagged as “public” and “model” schools, these attract parents at the first instance. However, once admitted and after getting education for a few years, the scope of the overall personality development of students is massively diminished. Since they are not affiliated, getting their students to appear as private candidates is also a common practice,” said educationist Tarsem Goel. “Such schools get students from the lower middle class. The owners are minting lakhs of rupees,” said a primary teacher.
	Forest fire wreaks havoc in Kandi area Bipin Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Nawanshahar, April 27 With the onset of summer, forest fires have once again become the cause of trouble in the Kandi area. Fire destroyed vegetation on acres of forestland in Pujewal, Harema, Chhochhewal and Dorowal villages located along the Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib road last night. Simmering since last evening, the fire spread to an almost 5-km-long stretch in the forests and destroyed a massive green cover. Though forest officials claim no loss of wildlife, eyewitnesses, however, said that small birds and reptiles perished in the fire. Wild animals were seen shifting to safer places, they revealed. The Garhshankar forest authorities had to press a fire engine and forest guards to extinguish the flames. Locals and wildlife lovers also joined the extinguishing operation as the flames went high. Divisional Forest Officer, Garhshankar, Tajinder Singh said the fire was almost controlled late in the night. He claimed no wild animal and bird perished in the fire. He claimed that some persons must have made mischief by setting a weed in the forest on fire. The DFO also said a burning butt of cigarette thrown in the forest area must be the reason. “After the incident, we have laid more fire lines, besides taking other necessary precautions to prevent fires in the forest area in the near future,” said the DFO. Nikhin Sangar of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Nawanshahar, who visited the spot and swung his team in the fire extinguishing operation last night, claimed, “I noticed a lot of wild animals escaping from jungle as the fire spread fast. “It is a bad time for wildlife, especially for birds, which hatch eggs in this season. Scores of bird-chicks, reptiles and small animals fall prey to the fire in the Kandi area every year in these days,” he added. The Kandi area was a favourite habitat for red jungle fowl, peacock, barking deer, wild boar, hare, sambar, blue bull and various other wild species but the regular fires have caused a decline in their population in the past, he pointed out.
	SC ruling slap on SAD-BJP’s face: Cong Tribune Reporters Jalandhar, April 27 Hailing the decision of the Supreme Court for restoring the assembly membership of Capt Amarinder Singh, Congressmen said it was a virtual slap on the face of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance. While a large number of leaders were seen distributing laddoos among their supporters, some were seen dancing to the beats of drums in the city. Former minister Chaudhry Gurmail Singh, along with Garhshankar MLA Luv Kumar Goldy, hailed the decision and distributed laddoos at a function at Mahilpur today. Similar functions have been planned in other towns and villages in the coming days. In Jalandhar, DCC chief Arun Walia and general secretary Virender Sharma also distributed sweetmeats among their supporters at Congress Bhavan. They said the SC decision had exposed the real face of the SAD that had all along being claiming that it did not pursue vindictive politics. They said the ruling combine was synonymous with corruption and misgovernance. Similar scenes were witnessed at Kapurthala and other places in the region where the news has brought cheer all around. The rural unit of the Youth Congress, led by president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhry, burnt effigies of the government and raised slogans against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. They criticised the undemocratic methods adopted by the state to get Amarinder Singh expelled from the House. Nawanshahr: At a meeting of the district unit of the Ex-Servicemen Cell (PPCC) held at Punjab Mata Vidhywati Bhavan, president Lieut-Col Jernail Singh hailed the decision of the apex court regarding quashing the expulsion of Capt Amarinder Singh from the Assembly. A similar meeting was also organised by senior Congress leaders Iqbal Singh, Kartar Singh Sekhon, Swarn Singh Barnala, Shaminder Singh, Kashmir Singh and Avtar Singh Sauna.
	INSPIRE Awards Modelling skills Our Correspondent Nawanshahr, April 27 More than 100 school students belonging to upper primary classes exhibited their models on different projects like “solar energy”, “rainwater harvesting”, “natural disasters”, “air pollution”, “solar still”, “global warming”, “renewal sources of energy”, etc. on the inaugural day of the five-day-long district-level science mela being organised at Government Senior Secondary School here. District Education Officer Darshan Kaur and District Science Supervisor Balihar Singh Bains said the science mela was being organised under the aegis of INSPIRE awards launched by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, and the Sarv Shikhia Abhiyan, Punjab. “The objective of this innovative project is to mobilise school students to give wings to their scientific imaginations and to prepare a model on any topic of his or her choice. For enabling the students to give concrete shape to their imagination, a grant of Rs 5,000 per student has already been provided in the last quarter of the previous year,” they said, adding that 290 meritorious students of different schools would exhibit their models and out of which 5 per cent exhibited during the five-day-long mela would be selected by a team of experts. The selected models would be eligible for participation in the state-level science mela. Dr Ajmer Singh, Assistant State Project Director (ASPD), Sarv Shikhia Abhiyan, Punjab, visited the mela today. He asked project-related questions from the students. The ASPD claimed that Punjab was the first state to implement the INSPIRE awards scheme. Dr Devinder Kumar, one of the judges, appreciated the initiative to provide an opportunity to the government school students, especially with rural background, for having a such lifetime experience of participating in the district-level competition.
	3 youths loot 1.5 lakh from villagers Jalandhar, April 27 Three unidentified youths allegedly looted Rs 1.50 lakh from Kang Kanal residents while he was riding a motorcycle with his father on the pillion near Nawanpind in broad daylight at Lohian today. According to the police, Kulwant Singh and his father Tarsem Singh were riding a motorcycle with a bag containing Rs 5 lakh when the snatchers, who were also riding a motorcycle, collided their bike with Kulwant’s bike. Kulwant and his father were on their way back home after withdrawing the cash from a PNB branch at Lohian. With the impact of the collision, the victims fell on the road and the money scattered on the road. As Kulwant and his father started collecting the money, the trio also collected Rs 1.50 lakh and sped away. The police has registered a case against the unidentified persons on the complaint of Kulwant Singh. — TNS
	Mystery shrouds woman’s death Tribune News Service Jalandhar, April 27 Mystery shrouds the death of a newly wed woman whose body was found hanging in her house in the Basti Sheikh area this afternoon. The body of Sonia was found hanging from a ceiling fan of her room. Eyewitnesses revealed that while the body was hanging with a piece of cloth tied to the ceiling fan, her legs were touching the bed, which raised doubts about her death. Meanwhile, the police is working on various theories to know the exact cause of the death. The woman was alone in the house. Police station Division 5 SHO Subhash Kumar said that her brother-in-law noticed the body this afternoon and subsequently raised the alarm. The husband and the father-in-law of the deceased have absconded after the incident. The police has registered a case under section 304-B, IPC, against Varinder Singh, husband of Sonia, and his family members on the complaint of Gian Singh of the Umrapura locality in Batala. No arrest has been made in this regard as yet.