Jalandhar, May 6
One of the most busy intersections in the city, BMC Chowk, has undergone a sea change over the past five years.The façade of the intersection, which is marked by the crisscross of six roads, was once bordered by green lawns and vegetation on both sides. It began changing ever since the roundabout was dismantled for installing of traffic lights to make way for easy traffic movement.

The look further changed as British Motorcar Company, after which it was named, shifted its office to Master Tara Singh Nagar.

The site was later taken over by a son of local Congress MLA Amarjit Singh Samra, who developed it as a tall commercial complex.

There was another major development at the site as the statue of former Chief Minister Beant Singh was installed on an island towards the road leading to the courts complex. This gave a new idea to people, “The name BMC could be retained for the place as ‘Beant Memorial Chowk’ even after the shifting of British Motorcar Company office.”

The biggest change, however, has come now with the construction work of a flyover across the chowk, over the GT Road from near the bus stand to Namdev Chowk. After the construction, the landmark is bound to lose its importance. The plantation around the area has been removed. The GT Road from the bus stand side has been dug up for the purpose.

With the construction work gaining pace, the chowk has begun to wear a congested look. Most people have started avoiding it, for they need to wait for long in the hot weather at the lights. The side towards the bus stand is not open due to the construction of a railway over bridge, further limiting the use of the passage.

Jalandhar, May 6
Besides verbal orders by the higher authorities to their subordinate ones, the district education authorities have failed to implement any special measures to make possible smooth functioning of schools during the 45 days census exercise. With more than 70 per cent staff of primary schools on census duty, would it be possible for the Education Department to maintain academic environment in schools.

Situation turned apprehensive amid reports that teachers are doing census duty during school hours. Even the sections of the teachers are of the opinion that it is not possible to put the whole network of schools under the surveillance.

“With limited manpower, it is not possible to check the status of all the schools across the district at one go. We have directed Cluster Master Trainers (CMT), and Block Master Trainers to regularly check the schools. But we cannot rule out the chances of teachers skipping their duties in schools to perform census duties,” said a senior education officer, requesting anonymity.

“There are few reports that the teachers are doing census by alternatively adjusting their classes with each other in school”, he added.

Total number of teachers employed in primary schools across districts is 2,863 and out of this 2,086 primary teachers are appointed as enumerators to perform census duty in different blocks of state. Moreover, 100 per cent staff of nearly 280 schools, out of total 986 schools, has been appointed on census duty.

However, teachers are justifying this practice by citing that some teachers have been appointed as enumerators far away from their native villages and cities. “Some of the teachers are posted away form their native places and it is not possible for them to stay there even after job hours”, said another primary teacher.

When contacted, District Education Officer (Secondary), Joginder Das, said it was only up to the principal of all upper primary schools to take action against the teachers, who perform census duty during school hours. However, we have made sure that anybody who would skip school would be marked absent, he added.

Jalandhar, May 6
Sloganeering on “100-day employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)” is just a means for the Central and state governments to fool people. There is a wide gap between the number of workers employed and funds released for the scheme. This was stated by Sukhdev Singh, state president of the 
Panchayats Association, which is a conglomerate of 4,000 panchayats in the state.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Sukhdev Singh said as per the government’s record, approximately 6.5 lakh workers were issued job cards in the state.

“The MGNREGA funds are allocated at a ratio of 60:40, with 60 per cent costs being allocated for labour and 40 to infrastructure. To give 100 days of employment to 6.5 lakh workers at the rate of Rs 133 per day and to provide the cost of infrastructure, the Central government would have to allocate at least Rs 1,300 crore. However, the Central government has allocated only Rs 204 crore for the state under the MGNREGA during the financial year 2009-10, and out of this amount, only Rs 148 crore has been spent by the state government,” he said.

“Hundred days of employment has been given only to 7,634 families across the state. This clearly reveals that only a few registered workers are getting employment under the scheme,” said association general secretary Yadwinder Singh Sidhu. Reacting to the “pick-and-choose policy”, he said officials were not uniformly implementing the scheme in all the 12,800 villages of the state.

While stressing that common villagers were the sufferers of the failure of such flagship programmes, he said, “Officials and bureaucrats are not interested in forwarding proposals and projects to the higher authorities. Their reluctance causes loss of financial assistance, which is otherwise available under the scheme. Ultimately, both the projects and 100-day employment never make it to the beneficiaries.” The association stressed that per day payment under the MGNREGA should be increased as labourers were available in the open market at Rs 200 per day. Members said the interference of local politicians was also a major barrier in the non-performance of the scheme as owing to such interference, allocated amounts hardly reached beneficiaries in time.

Phillaur, April 20
About 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat had arrived in different mandis of Jalandhar district and payment of Rs 187.35 crore had been paid to the farmers till Monday evening. This was stated by Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti while talking to newsmen during his one-day visit to the grain markets of Lassarra, Goraya, Phillaur, Rurrka Kalan, Bilga and Apra.

Bharti said 77 purchase centres had been set up in the district. He instructed the officials to redress the problems of the farmers and provide all possible facilities to them.

Answering a question the DC said that an assessment of the burnt wheat crop would soon be made to provide compensation to the victim farmers.

Jalandhar, April 20
Members of the All-India Central Government Pensioners Association today flayed the UPA government for rejecting one rank, one pension demand of the ex-servicemen.

Association member V.S. Jolly condemned this action and termed it as cheating with lakhs of retired soldiers. It is a matter of shame that the ex-servicemen had not been given their due. “Recently thousands of soldiers had returned their gallantry awards and medals to the UPA government for adopting a dilly-dallying approach towards their genuine demand of one rank, one pension,” he said.

He said this move of the UPA government had led to a lot of resentment among ex-servicemen. 

Jalandhar, April 20
Criticising the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government for deploying teachers for census, the Congress demanded that jobless youths should 
have been employed for 
this work.

PPCC secretaries Virendra Sharma, Rishi Verma and DCC (Urban) president Arun Walia said the UPA government had ensured education for each child by enacting Right to Education Act, whereas the Punjab government engaged teachers for census which would adversely affect the studies of children. Talking to The Tribune, Sharma said the Badal government was providing extra money to teachers for census, but this amount could have been given to jobless youths for the same work. Their work could have been monitored by government supervisors, he added.

Even if the state government was in no mood to employ jobless youths for this work, the employees of other departments should have been engaged to ensure uninterrupted study at government schools.

The Congress leaders said they had already sent letters to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this regard. They would meet Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner on Wednesday, he added.

Jalandhar, May 6
The district administration has made all arrangements for the easy availability of fertiliser and agricultural implements in the forthcoming paddy season, said Dr Gurdial Singh, Joint Director, Agriculture, while addressing a farmer awareness camp at Jamsher village today.

He informed that the state target of urea has been raised to 12.59 lakh MT from 12.14 lakh MT that of DAP has been raised to 6 lakh MT from 4.18 lakh MT. Similarly, machines like the paddy transplanter, happy seeder, laser leveller and fodder cutting machine would be available at 25 per cent to 50 per cent subsidy to the farmers.

To fulfil the requirements of the national foodgrain security mission, Jalandhar has been chosen for bringing more area under pulses cultivation.

Zila Parishad chairman Mahla Singh said the state had taken several steps against the abuse of natural resources like water besides cutting down on wasteful farm input practices.

The direct seeder method of paddy sowing had also gained acceptance among the farmers due to the efforts of the department. He urged the farmers to consult the PAU scientists to revert to new agricultural practices in view of the changing climate for better gains.

Zila Parishad chairman Mahla Singh also applauded the exhibition by the Agricultural Technology Management Agency that was of great use to the farmers.

Chief Agricultural Officer Dr K.S. Deol said the area under basmati would be increased to 16,000 hectares from 15,000 hectares at present. Similarly, the area under maize would also be raised to 11,000 hectares from 10,000 hectares.

He said the department was in talks with a Bangalore-based company for the supply of the paddy transplanter and Pepsi for the direct seeder. The department was also promoting the cultivation of moongi for the spare time before and after the reaping of wheat and paddy in the state, respectively.

Jalandhar, May 6
Prices of essential vegetables and other commodities of daily use witnessed a mixed change this week. Prices of sugar witnessed an increase of Rs 1 per kg this week and remained at Rs 35 per kg.

The price of wheat flour remained static this week.

Onion and tomato witnessed a decrease in prices and remained at Rs 10 and Rs 11, respectively, this week.

Tomato witnessed a decrease of Rs 4 per kg in it price.

Items like capsicum, bitter gourd and ladyfinger witnessed a sharp fall in prices this week.

Capsicum witnessed a decrease of Rs 4 per kg and remained at Rs 18 per kg this week.

Similarly, bitter gourd witnessed a decrease of Rs 4 per kg and remained at Rs 28 per kg this week, against Rs 32 per kg of last week. Similarly, ladyfinger also witnessed a decrease of Rs 8 per kg in prices and remained at Rs 24 per kg against Rs 32 per kg of last week.

On the other hand, prices of garlic and peas witnessed a marked increase this week.

Peas remained at Rs 45 per kg against Rs 38 per kg of last week. Similarly, garlic also witnessed an increase of Rs 10 per kg and shot to Rs 70 per kg this week, against Rs 60 per kg last week.

Cauliflower also witnessed an increase in prices and remained around Rs 20 per kg against Rs 14 per kg of last week. 

Jalandhar, May 6
Doing up ones nails with crystals, sequins and swarovski crystals is the latest in fashion being offered by Cleopatra Saloon and Spa in the city.Managing Director Ritu Kolentine said decorating nails was the ultimate fashion statement.

“That is why we have launched Glamour Nail this summer. Our clients will see that they can try new nail forms rather than just painting them in different colours.” 

Jalandhar, May 6
For Mohammad Muddser, son of a small-time shopkeeper, bagging placement in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) was nothing less than hitting a jackpot. This Rajasthan-based boy has got a starting package of Rs 10.50 lakh per annum.

A final-year student of Civil Engineering at the Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), his job has proved to be a windfall for the family. He is the only boy from his village, Rajgadh, to become an engineer and bag a job with a leading PSU. “My father runs a small shop at Rajgadh and it was difficult for us to manage the family expenses. It is indeed God’s grace that I have bagged a placement with HPCL at a handsome package,” he said.

While Deepak Kumar, a student of Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE) hailing also from Rajasthan, termed his placement with HPCL as a major turning point in his life. “I was more interested in pursuing a career in medicine but could not clear its entrance exam. Then I shifted to engineering. Especially my parents are on cloud nine as it has fulfilled their dream of a secure financial career for me,” he maintained.

The success story of these students does not end here. A majority of them have two jobs options to choose from. Rachana Kapoor, a student of computer science engineering (CSE), bagged placement in Bharat Electronics Limited at a package of Rs 10.50 lakh, while she has already been placed in the IBM. “I have two good job options and now I can easily decide on a better one,” she said.

As many as 20 students from the institute have bagged placements in both HPCL and Bharat Electronics. Nitika Gupta from CSE also bagged placement in HPCL and Infosys. Sulmeet Kaur, a student of ICE, bagged placed in HPCL and Infosys. Rahul Mahajan from CSE secured placement in Bharat Electronics and Infosys. Ankush Bhardwaj, a student of electronics and communication Eengineering (ECE), also bagged placement in HPCL and Infosys.

Among others who got placement in the top PSUs include Smeet Jindal and Manda Parveen Kumar, both students of civil engineering, who bagged placement in HPCL, Udit Gupta, Jagdish Kaur, Neha Verma, Nikhil Kumar, Nutan Bala and Jagdish Kumar from ICE, who bagged placement in HPCL, and Ashish Samalia, Rahul Kumar and Pawan Kumar from mechanical engineering, who bagged placement in HPCL.

HPCL visited the campus on April 28, while Bharat Electronics Limited came to the campus on May 4. It is pertinent to mention here that nearly 46 students from the institute also qualified for GATE entrance.

Director of the NIT Dr Moin-ud-Din said the placement of the students in leading PSUs had come up as a major boost for the students and the institute. “Our students in the past one year has bagged placements in leading companies like Power Grid Corporation of India, Infosys, Bharat Electronics, HPCL and many others,” he added.

Phagwara: The house of NRI Bhai Pritam Singh was reportedly burgled at nearby Chack Hakim village on Thursday.