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Govt schoolteachers on never-ending leave
Dowry: Husbands, in-laws of 4 women booked
Bring back Freight Equalisation Policy to revive foundries: Industrialists
100 villages flood-hit
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MJMC course: Just 17 out of 30 seats filled
Delay In VAT Refund
Kahlon, Langah should resign: Cong
B.Sc (Nursing) entrance exams date clash
Gang of vehicle thieves busted, four arrested
Youth drowns in sarowar, body recovered
Government transfers 6 officers of NCs
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Govt schoolteachers on never-ending leave
Much to the dismay of the Education Department, 167 schoolteachers in the district have been absent for a period ranging from the last few months up to years. Nearly all these chronic absentees, who took leave either to pay a visit overseas or under the self-employment scheme, did not rejoin their respective duties even after the completion of their leave period. The absence of such teachers from schools takes its toll on the studies of thousands of students, as the department makes no replacement in such cases. Sensing the gravity of the problem, the State Education authorities had directed all the districts to gather the exact number of such teachers. Ironically, a large chunk of such teachers teach core subjects like
general sciences, mathematics and social studies. Teachers, who teach other important subject like vocational, physical education, commerce and the three languages, are also included in the list, which has recently been compiled by the office of the District Education Officer (secondary). As far as basic subjects are concerned, as many as 25 mathematics, 29 social studies, 41 science, 11 Hindi, nine English and five
chemistry teachers have been found to be absent for ‘long period’. Such teachers also never reciprocated official communication and left the repeated written appeals from authorities concerned, to rejoin their duties, unanswered. “We have already sent a list of such teachers to higher authorities. As per rules, actions ranging from fine, declining of increment up to the termination of services can be taken. However, all this has to be decided by the higher authorities”, said Jogindr Dass, DEO (secondary). To curb such practices, authorities have framed a new regulation according to which services of a teacher will automatically be terminated if he or she fails to turn up after completion of the leave taken, said Dass. “In future, the department will consider such absence as a teacher’s resignation”, he claimed. |
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Dowry: Husbands, in-laws of 4 women booked
Hoshiarpur, July 11 According to police sources, Jagjit Kaur, daughter of Satwinder Singh of Pandori Sumala, alleged that her husband Onkar Singh, father-in-law Salinder Singh, mother-in-law Surjit Kaur and brother-in-law Gurpreet Singh, all of Mand Bhandair, used to torture, maltreat and beat her for bringing more dowry from her parents. They also threatened to kill her if she failed in fulfilling their demand. Later, they threw her out of the house. The Hariana police has registered a case under sections 498 A, 406 and 506 of the IPC. In the second case, the Mehtiana police has booked Taranjit Kaur’s husband Gurwinder Singh, father-in-law Achhar Singh and mother-in-law Kuljit Kaur, all of Thaplan, under sections 406 and 498 A of the IPC. Taranjit Kaur, daughter of Sikander Singh of Nadalon, alleged that the trio used to torture her to bring more dowry. In the third case, on the complaint of Shivani Thakur, daughter of Dharam Singh of Bhavnaur, the
Talwara police has booked Ajay Kumar, his father Prem Singh and mother Usha Devi for torturing the former for bringing more dowry. Kapis Dutt Sharma and his father Girdhar Lal Sharma of Talwara have been booked for allegedly torturing Kapis’ wife Priti Sharma for dowry. In her complaint to the police, Priti alleged that the father-son duo was torturing her to bring Rs 4 lakh from her parents. When she did not fulfil the demand, they threw her out of the house. They were booked under sections 406, 498 A and 34 of the IPC. |
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Bring back Freight Equalisation Policy to revive foundries: Industrialists
Experts in the business disclose that when the policy was withdrawn, the government brought in the ceiling freight plan which too was taken away by the central government. Under this format, industrialists had a uni-freight scheme from Delhi to their respective destinations. This means that the same freight charges would be levied from Delhi to other destinations irrespective of their distance from the national capital. Rakesh Goel, Executive Partner of one of the
successfully managed foundries-Rashtriy Engineering Works, “We want the government to bring back the Freight Equalisation Policy. If that is not possible, the ceiling freight scheme should be introduced on steel and iron products. Moreover, there should be a special package for all the four districts- Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Ferozepore of this area bordering Pakistan. There should also be rationalisation of excise duty structure which should be based on fixed turn over basis instead of percentage basis. Moreover excise duty on cast iron products like cast iron pipes, fittings and machines should be on optional basis like they have in textile sector.” Former legislature Ashwani Sekhri, who has also remained President of the Batala Foundry Men Association, says, “I agree the foundry business is floundering. The region’s very economy used to be based on this business. The state government should come up with a special package for small-scale industrial (SSI) units in all the four border districts.” Industrialists are also sore over the Employees Provident Fund Act. The act states that every employee must be covered under the act from the day he joins. This needs to be changed, feel foundry owners. Says Dinesh Mahajan, Director, HUDCO and who has been closely associated with the business, “The act is not at all practical. Any employee before being covered under the EPF and Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act must have put in at least 90 days of service.” Meanwhile, Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa says there should be a constant interaction between the industrialists (read foundry owners) and their counterparts in countries like China, Romania, and Poland where the foundry business is flourishing despite government restrictions. He says he would get in touch with the foundry owners to ensure that delegations are regularly sent to these countries. He further adds he is also trying to get the VAT collections restricted to 50 per cent in these four border districts. |
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100 villages flood-hit
Tarn Taran, July 11 Jagdeep Singh Momi, District Revenue Officer-cum-District Flood Control Officer, while talking to this correspondent here today, said most of these villages were from the Mand area - situated on the Beas river - from Goindwal Sahib to Harike, including Verowal, Kirri Shahi, Dhunda, Minda Pind, Karmuwala, Gharka, Kirrian and some villages of the border area like Sabhra, Masatgarh, Thathi, Dhollan, Khalra, Gilpan etc. Momi said the Health and Animal Husbandry Departments were instructed to take all necessary steps to provide all medical help to civilians and to provide fodder to animals in case of need. The officials of the Canal Department were ordered to repair the
weak banks of the canals, besides removing encroachments from encroachers, said Momi. He added that the district administration has identified safer places to provide shelter for the people of the affected areas and has also established contact with the Kar Sewa sects to provide food to the affected population. Besides, a district level Flood Control Room and sub division level Control Rooms have been established in the district, added
Momi. Paddy crop in
1,000 acres inundated
Phagwara: More than 1,000 acres of paddy crops is under knee deep water in nearby villages of Saifabad, Tehing, Buchhowal and Noorowal in the Phillaur sub-division. Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Sarwan Singh Phillaur along with SDM Pritam Singh visited the affected villages and assessed the situation. He also talked in detail with Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti in this regard. The Phillaur SDM met several farmers and heard their problems. He assured the farmers to provide them adequate compensation for the losses to their paddy crops. CPS instructed Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh to assess the loss and take all possible steps to help the farmers. Phillaur also assured the farmers that he would take up the issue with Punjab Chief Minister to provide required financial assistance to the farmers. |
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MJMC course: Just 17 out of 30 seats filled
Jalandhar, July 11 This, despite the fact that the university authorities had extended the date of online admissions to July 8. Earlier, the last date of counseling was June 28. The dates were further extended after the university received a
poor response to the online admission system. University sources also maintained that since they were left with hardly any option, they had to allot seats to all the 17 candidates. The classes are scheduled to begin from July 19. Dr Kamlesh Singh Duggal, the Head of the Department of Guru Nanak Dev University, Regional Campus, Ladhewali said this is a sad trend that despite extending the dates, only a handful of 17 candidates applied. “Now we have decided to seek special permission from the GND varsity to fill the rest of the seats. We would soon meet Vice Chancellor, Dr AS Brar to discuss the likely filling of seats for this course,” he added. He also said looking at such a lukewarm response, they have decided to reduce the total number of seats to 20 from 30. “The university authorities had increased the number of seats in the wake of enhanced pay packages of the lecturers. As the university expenses keep on increasing, it was decided to enhance the number of seats,” he said. Lecturers from the field of journalism pointed towards a sudden decline of interest of students in media courses. “It is evident that students are least interested in taking up media courses anymore. A major factor behind this trend is the pay packages in this sector. Not every student gets a chance to get placed with the leading brands in the field of media, which often leads to frustration among students,” he added. Students, on the other hand, maintained that the sudden fee hike by the university restricted them to apply. “A year back, students were paying around Rs 21,000 for one semester. However, it has been increased to Rs 23,320 plus another amount of Rs 7,000 from this academic session”, he added. |
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Delay In VAT Refund
Jalandhar, July 11 Association president Raj Kumar Sharma said the traders and industrialists were getting VAT refund without any difficulty from April 1, 2005, to October, 2009, but the SAD-BJP government issued a notification with which it was made mandatory that no VAT money would be refunded without prior submission of Form C. Sharma said it took two to three years for the businessmen to get form C from the parties concerned. As a result, crores of rupees of the businessmen were pending with the Excise and Taxation Department. The association president said they had met Kalia several times who assured them of restoring the earlier system of refunding VAT without Form C but nothing was done in this regard so far. The association president said the traders and industrialists were left with no option but to get loan on exorbitant interest rates from different banks to run their businesses. Sharma demanded that the condition of prior submission of Form C should be withdrawn immediately and the businessmen should be refunded VAT money with interest immediately. If nothing in this regard was done shortly, they would gherao Kalia. Meanwhile, the patron of the association, Gursharan Singh, said they would submit a memorandum to DC Priyank Bharti tomorrow in this regard. A 15-day ultimatum would be given to the Badal government to act for providing VAT refunds to businessmen at the earliest, failing which they would be left with no option, but to start their agitation, including Kalia’s gherao, he added. |
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Kahlon, Langah should resign: Cong
Jalandhar, July 11 Sharma and Walia said both of them had no right to continue on their posts as the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Kahlon, whereas a case was lodged against Langah in Ambala for abetting his PA to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Congress leader Shiv Kanwar Singh Sandhu demanded from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Centre should send special teams to assess loss due to floods in different parts of the state. In a press-note issued here today, Sandhu said Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon should resign from his post on moral grounds as he had been chargesheeted by the CBI. PPCC secretary Dr Ram Lal Jassi has claimed the pre-monsoon showers causing immense damage to human lives and property caught the state government virtually napping. To hide its failure in dealing with the situation, the Punjab Government is passing the buck to others, he alleged. He pointed out that the regular de-silting of canals was not carried out in time that led to the disaster. Majority of the tributaries of rivers and canal beds were under illegal possession. The illegal occupants - largely politicians an bureaucrats - had obstructed the natural flow of these tributaries and canals. The ill-equipped government hardly paid any attention to remove these obstacles that proved to be the main cause of the floods in various parts of the state, he claimed.
— TNS |
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B.Sc (Nursing) entrance exams date clash
Nawanshahr, July 11 The parents of the students aspiring for the B.Sc (Nursing) course have demanded that the BFUHS, Faridkot, should immediately change the date announced for conducting the entrance test. “The date of PMET conducted by BFUHS, Fardikot, did not clash with those of Panjab University, Chandigarh, and CMC, Ludhiana. Then why the BFUHS has fixed the same date that had already been scheduled by the PGI, Chandigarh, for conducting the entrance test for B.Sc (Nursing),” Balbir Kumar, one of the aggrieved parents, said. “This has put the students and their parents in a quandary as it would deny the students an opportunity to sit for the the PGI nursing course entrance examination,” Balbir Kumar said, adding that as the PGI, Chandigarh, had already fixed the date for the entrance test in May this year, the BFUHS authorities should not fix the same date for conducting the entrance test, keeping in view the larger interests of the students.
— OC |
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Gang of vehicle thieves busted, four arrested
Pathankot, July 11 While giving detail, Lok Nath Angra, SSP, said on a tip-off a police party, led by the SHO, Police Division-1, Sukhjinder Singh, laid a naka on the outskirts of the town on the Pathankot-Jammu road near Khanpur chowk and intercepted an Esteem car and asked about the documents of the vehicle. As the occupants of the car could not produce any document related to the vehicle, they were taken in police custody. Angra said on interrogation the arrested members of the gang confessed to their involvement in stealing vehicles. He said the gang used to steal vehicles parked on roadsides, change their original registration papers and sell them to people. Angra said those arrested had been identified as Anurag, Chetan, Rajeev and Varinder Pal, all residents of the town. A case under sections 379 and 411 of the IPC was registered against them. |
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Youth drowns in sarowar, body recovered
Tarn Taran, July 11 Arjan Singh, the manager of Sri Darbar Sahib, said here today that Sandeep had come here to take a dip on the monthly Amavasya, with his associates from the village. The rescue operation could not start in the cover of darkness, but later the manager brought divers from Harike, who recovered the body. The city police have lodged a report under section 174 of the CrPC and the body has been handed over to the parents. Meanwhile, a pickpocket Sulakhan Singh of Sakhira village has been nabbed from the Darbar Sahib premises by sewadars. A case has been registered against the accused. |
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Government transfers 6 officers of NCs
Phagwara, July 11 According to transfer orders issued by the Local Bodies Department, Punjab, Dasuya EO Adarsh Sharma has been transferred to Phagwara, while Paramjit Singh has been transferred from Phagwara to Moga in place of KS Brar who has been put under suspension due to some alleged irregularities. EO Sandeep Tiwari has been transferred from
Forozepur to Mandi-Gobindgarh while Shakti Kumar has been
posted in Firozepur.
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Jalandhar, July 11
Batala, July 11