Jalandhar, July 5
The authorities of a prominent government school here have been embroiled in an alleged scam wherein lakhs of rupees collected as funds from the students under Sanchayika Scheme have been embezzled. The office of the Director General School Education (DGSE) has ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The entire office record of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, pertaining to the said scheme, for the past five to 10 years, is being scrutinised by the team constituted by the office of Circle Education Office, Jalandhar Division.

Under the Sanchayika Scheme, each student had to deposit Rs 5 to 10 per month to the school authorities, which were further deposited in the saving accounts in post offices or banks. The amount accrued had to be returned to the students after completion of education.

However, in this case, some of school authorities and clerical staff at that time, reportedly embezzled the part of amount deposited in last five to 10 years and did not return it to 
students after completion of studies.

Balbir Singh Saini, Principal, Government In-service Teachers Training Institute, who is inquiring the matter, said, “As per the intimation from the higher authorities, money collected under the scheme was embezzled. I was asked to scrutinise the record of past five to 10 years and submit a report in 15 days.”

“As of now, I can’t comment upon the extent of embezzlement and staff involved”, he added.

However, sources revealed that amount of more than Rs 10 lakh have been embezzled by former school authorities in connivance with clerical staff.

Interestingly, the DC Jalandhar had also ordered an inquiry into the same case in 2008 and the team, at that time also, failed to tie some loose ends.

Harinder Saini, the then DEO, Jalandhar, who had conducted an inquiry in 2008, said, “What all I can recollect is that record pertaining to the Sanchayika scheme was not maintained by the school authorities and they were asked to produce the record.”

Jalandhar, July 5
The Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has allowed an appeal filed by a 70-year-old mentally deranged soldier challenging the rejection of his disability pension.

A former Sepoy, Gurmit Singh, a resident of Kalra village near here, had challenged the rejection of his disability pension. While the disability claim was rejected on the grounds that the disability is neither attributable nor aggravated by the military service.

A bench comprising Justice Ghanshyam Prasad and Lt. Gen N.S. Brar allowed the disability pension from July 25, 1993, within a period of six months of filing of the petition. They also ordered payment of eight per cent interest on the arrears. The tribunal held that the delay in approaching the court for pension is of no consequences as the cause of action in the matter is recurring and arises every month.

The appeal of Gurmit Singh was filed by Bhim Sen Sehgal, Chairman of the All India Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association under the Legal Aid Scheme of the association as the petitioner was invalid out of service due to hysterical reaction (mental disease) and nobody has taken up his case in the court of law.

Gurmit Singh joined the Army on August 27, 1963 and was declared invalid on May 4, 1966 on medical grounds. It was stated that the disease arose due to stress and strain in the field area during his Army service. However, his claim of disability pension was rejected by the military authorities.

The suit and appeal filed by Gurmit was dismissed on the grounds of delay of 30 years, despite the fact that the court admitted that he was entitled for the disability pension. Being a psychiatric patient and on account of illiteracy in his family he could not file the appeal in the high court, which resulted in a further delay of 1717 days.

Hence, the case for condoning the delay was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the All India Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association. Justice Arvind Kumar of the high court admitted the case while condoning the delay on extreme compassionate grounds as the appellant was a mentally deranged person and had become 100 per cent disabled by now.

The case was later transferred to the AFT, Chandigarh, after its constitution last year and came up for final arguments.

Rajesh Sehgal, counsel for the appellant, submitted before the bench that both the courts below have committed insurmountable illegality by dismissing the case on the grounds of delay as the law is well settled by the Supreme Court. He also maintained that the delay is not attracted to the pension matter being recurring cause of action and the right to receive pension accrues every month.

Jalandhar, July 5
Life in Doaba and Majha came to a standstill today as a result of ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by political parties, including the SAD, BJP and CPM, to protest against the Centre over fuel price hike.

Trying to enforce a complete bandh in Jalandhar city, the BJP-SAD leaders took various rounds on motorcycles and forced all those shops or banks to down the shutters.

Several filling stations and bank ATMs were also closed. Certain educational institutes, including HMV College, which were to open today after a summer break, remained closed.

BJP MLA KD Bhandari, state BJP secretary Ravi Mahendru, district SAD president Gurcharan Singh Channi and BJP councillor Sunil Jyoti took rounds leading their own groups.

Meanwhile, senior vice president of the District Congress Committee Sanjay Sehgal claimed that various BJP leaders who were busy getting various markets closed had themselves kept their own premises open.

“The shop run by MLA Bhandari’s father in Malkan Chowk, Sant Valves factory of BJP Mayor Rakesh Rathore and Ciella International at Sports and Surgical Complex of BJP MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal were open”, alleged Sehgal.

The Mayor, however, countered the allegations saying that a few labourers unknowingly had come to the premises this morning. “We had all kept our establishments closed”, he maintained.

Kapurthala: Complete bandh was observed in this town and surrounding areas. SSP Ram Singh said no untoward incident was reported from any part of the district.

Phagwara: Bandh was peaceful in Phagwara, Goraya, Phillaur, Nakodar and Noormahal today.

Banks and other offices remained open. Buses were plying normally on main roads except on link roads.

Activists of the BJP, BJYM and Shiv Sena stopped Jammu-bound Mumbai-Jammu Swaraj Express, Jalandhar-bound goods train and Indore-bound Malwa Express at Phagwara Railway Station.

Meanwhile, shops in outskirts of Phagwara town remained open.

Gurdaspur: This border town observed a complete bandh with shops and other commercial establishments keeping their shutters down even as attendance in private and government schools remained low due to the unavailability of modes of public transport.

With the mercury soaring to 44 degrees, residents were spared of long power cuts with the Punjab Powercom authorities diverting electricity from the commercial supply (CS) to the residential sector.

Trains ran on schedule as the police had made tight security arrangements at the railway station.

The Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Pirthi Chand said that buses were not allowed to ply as the administration feared that some notorious elements might resort to stone pelting.

Hoshiarpur: Shops, banks, LIC office, post offices remained closed. Buses of Punjab Roadways and private companies and trains did not ply.

Punjab Minister for Medical Education, Research and Wildlife Preservation Tikashan Sud along with BJP supporters and office bearers took a round to enforce bandh.

Leaders of CPM, CPI, Janata Party (S), Lok Jan Shakti and Social Democratic Party (India) staged a rally in Shahid Udham Singh Park and burnt effigy of the UPA Government at Phagwara Chowk.