Jalandhar, July 15
The councillors of the ruling alliance expressed their dissent against prevailing norms and working conditions of the Municipal Corporation during a House meeting here today.

An issue raised by BJP state secretary-cum-councillor Ravi Mahendru pinpointed at some kind of malfunctioning in the B & R Branch. “While in a bid to ensure the use of quality material Mayor Rakesh Rathour has made third party inspection of newly constructed roads mandatory, but there is no laboratory and no tests being conducted for quality checks before issuing any report,” he alleged.

At this, the Mayor asked Joint Commissioner Rahul Gupta to reply. Gupta earned the wrath of the Mayor and other councillors as he gave a very vague reply, “I don’t think there is any need to conduct a test. Experienced people can give report on quality just by mere observation.”

The Mayor immediately pulled him up. “We just cannot give reports on the basis of trust and thinking. Then why do you think all these dozen-odd tests for quality of bitumen extract, cement and stone crusher have been devised?” he questioned.

At this, the councillors raised the issue, “If no tests are to be conducted, after all why are we paying fee to the third party?” Mayor asked SE Kulwinder Singh also to take the liability. He ordered, “I want you to get the laboratory started within two and a half months, failing which you will be held responsible. Till then you may send samples to laboratories either at Ludhiana or Chandigarh.”

Councillor Shiv Dyal Chugh from the same party said that the inflated power bills and tariff rates on streetlights needed to be checked immediately. He said while domestic consumers were paying Rs 26 per kw per month, the rate that MC was paying was far far higher at Rs 1.200 per kw. “At points where there is no meter, the PSEB is charging Rs 1,800 per kw,” he reported.

The SE, A.S. Dhaliwal, pitched in to add, “The PSEB is charging us for 12 hour consumption per day even as we may be switching on lights for less than five hours. The power cuts are also not taken into account.” At this, discussion on power audit by a private consultant ensued.

Jagdish Raja, a Congress councillor, raised the issue of footing of a power bill of Rs 36,000 due to two air-conditioners installed at a library in a park at Model Town.

Congress councillor Mahesh Puri alleged discrimination saying that just Rs 5 lakh had been spent on B & R works in his ward for the past three years.

Jalandhar, July 15
Though years have passed since the introduction of mid-day meal scheme in Punjab, the authorities concerned are still not able to provide the required infrastructure to run the scheme.

As many as 351 primary schools and 429 upper primary schools in the district are still waiting for LPG stoves to cook food on the school premises.

With an aim to run the scheme efficiently, it was promised that each school would be provided with an LPG connection and stoves (bhatthis). However, staff and cooks in these 780 schools across the district are left with no other option but to borrow the required logistics from other non-department sources.

A sum of Rs 5,000 per school has been allocated to equip schools with LPG connection, cylinders, LPG stoves and fire extinguishers. Out of the total 950 primary schools in the district, such gadgets have been delivered only to 250 and 379 primary schools in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

When contacted, Amarjit Singh, district in charge of mid-day meal scheme, said the department received the required funds for these schools just a few days back.

“Funds could not be disbursed due to some technical constraints and it would take a few more days to accomplish the task,” said Singh.

For 429 upper primary schools, the department had floated tenders in May and June but failed to arrive at any conclusion. It will be only after finalising the tenders that upper primary schools would be provided with the required infrastructure.

“We are in the process of finalising the issue at the earliest. The issue could have been settled on July 12 but it got delayed due to some official meetings in the state capital,” said Deputy DEO Parminder Singh.

Jalandhar, July 15
If you have attained the age of 18 by January 1 this year and you have not registered yourself as a voter in the new electoral list published by District Election Office, you may do so from July 16 to 31.

The District Election Office has provided such people another chance to get themselves registered as voters.

For that, one is required to submit form 6 to the Returning Officer (RO) concerned. These forms are available with ROs and BLOs. One is also required to submit form 001, along with photos to prepare the voters’ identity card on the spot.

DC-cum-District Election Officer (DEO) Priyank Bharti claimed BLOs had conducted a door-to-door survey to achieve the target of 100 per cent corrections in the electoral rolls.

A new voters’ list had been published after the survey, he said, adding that the District Election Office provided printed sets of the new voters’ lists to BLOs, representatives of recognised political parties and Registration Officers (ROs).

Bharti said though those who had turned 18 had already been included in the voters’ lists during the survey, yet if any voter found his/her name missing, he/she might submit the form concerned to get himself registered as a voter.

The DC-cum-DEO further said the preliminary publication of electoral rolls had been done and objections and claims might be submitted from July 16 to 31.

Bharti stated that eligible voters might take the benefit of making corrections in the voters’ lists, if required. While form 6 might be submitted for registering new voters, form 7 for deleting names, form 8 for making corrections in names, etc. and form 8 O might be submitted for shifting votes from one place to another, he added.

Jalandhar, July 15
Harjinder Kaur, daughter of a labourer, never knew that a chance visit to the coaching-cum-guidance centre for the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (SC/ST) would change her future. The girl not only completed her free stenography course, but also filled forms for a government job.

“As my father is a labourer, we have a virtually hand-to-mouth existence. However, while pursing this course I not only learnt stenography, but also earned Rs 500 as monthly stipend. And now I have applied for the post of stenographer (Grade C & D) under the Staff Selection Commission (SSC),” she added.

This time she motivated many other girls to pursue the free stenography and computer course. And this is not the lone example. Neetu, another candidate, who is working as a radio jockey with AIR, Jalandhar, said she enrolled immediately when she learnt about the course. “We are being informed time to time to apply for various government jobs. Even we keep a tab on Employment News to look for openings in various sectors,” she quipped.

The Sub-Regional Employment Office distributed certificates among 27 students, while a total of 32 passed the 11-month free stenography course yesterday. The course started in July last year. The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment started free stenography and computer course with a stipend of Rs 500 to equip the SC/ST students with professional skills to bag jobs in the government sector.

Talking to The Tribune, Sub-Regional Employment Officer Ashish Kullu said it was noticed that a majority of the vacancies for the SC/ST candidates in various Central Government jobs remained vacant owing to lack of awareness. “The ministry issued guidelines to enrol SC/ST students for these courses and help them in getting government jobs. And we received a good response,” he added.

Apart from this, the students were also informed about the openings at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. “We have made a database of the students to inform them about various vacancies in the central as well as the state government,” he said.

Now the local employment office is all set to start its next batch for free computer course. The Sub-Regional Employment Office has earmarked its next batch of 50 students for this course. “Apart from this special focus is also laid on general knowledge, current affairs and general awareness of the students during their course,” he added.

Jalandhar, July 15
Up in arms against an immigration consultancy, scores of applicants yesterday gathered in front of the office of a consultancy adjacent to the local bus stand and protested for hours.

The protesters raised slogans against OGIC and its owner Sandeep Ohri and were later forced to move to BMC Chowk after the consultancy management did not turn up to satisfy them.

The protesters from across Doaba disrupted traffic at BMC Chowk, demanding action against the consultancy.

Demonstrators alleged that the immigration consultancy had charged huge amounts of money from them to send them abroad for a study-base visa. Instead of the visa and other documents, they received passports with objections.

This is not the first incident when youths seeking visa for a foreign country have protested against the consultancy, scores of affected people had also lodged their protest against OGIC a couple of months ago.

Even Lok Bhalai Party supremo Balwant Singh Ramoowalia had led a group against the same consultancy, demanding action against its proprietors for allegedly duping scores of youths.

Sandeep Ohri, when contacted, claimed that his rival immigration consultancy had been creating propaganda by instigating applicants against him. He claimed that the consultancy had already taken in writing from the applicants that the “processing” money and certain other funds were refundable.

Jalandhar, July 15
In protest against the Clinical Establishment Bill, the local unit of the IMA organised a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The protesters also submitted a memorandum of their demands to the DC.

Dr R.S. Parmar, president, IMA, Punjab, said certain clauses in the bill would hamper the growth of new hospitals and was anti-medicos. Dr Yash Sharma, ex-member of the Punjab Medical Council, said the bill was anti-people.

The IMA members would meet members of the Rajya Sabha to raise the issue in the coming monsoon session.

Phagwara: On a call given by the national unit of the IMA, all doctors belonging to the Indian Medical Association closed their clinics and nursing homes in support of their three-point charter of demands here today. A dharna-cum-protest rally was organised which was addressed, among others, by IMA president Dr N.P.S. Makkar and general secretary Chiman Arora who opposed the government’s decision to introduce the Clinical Establishment Bill without bringing the government hospitals under its purview, implementation of the Bachelor of Rural Health Care (BRHC) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and dissolution of the Medical Council of India by an ordnance.

Later all doctors, wearing black badges, marched towards the tehsil complex and submitted a memorandum to SDM Amarjit Paul to forward it to the Prime Minister. The protesters were demanding freezing of the present form of the Clinical Establishment Bill and scrapping of the BRHC and resolution on the Medical Council of India.

Jalandhar, July 15
The local District Sainik Welfare Office is going to conduct a one-year computer course, approved by the National Council of Vocational Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment, from July 22.

Interested students should have passed class XII with minimum 50 per cent marks.

Deputy Director of the Sainik Welfare, Lieut-Col Manmohan Singh said though preference would be given to the wards of ex-servicemen and widows, SC/ST/BC and other wards from the weaker sections of society can also apply. “Students can get the prospectus from the office from July 10 onwards,” he added.

Jalandhar, July 15
Twenty-one final-year students of various engineering disciplines of the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology (DAVIET) bagged placements with leading companies of India with lucrative pay packages.

Neha Deora, Shivika Mahajan (both from electronics and communication aengineering) and Harleen Kaur (computer science and engineering) bagged placements with IBM India Limited at an annual package of Rs 3 lakh. Ashish Chaddha and Bharat Arora (both from electronics and communication engineering) secured placements with Vodafone Essar South Limited at Rs 2.80 lakh per annum.

In another placement drive organised by Accenture India, seven students were placed at a starting package of Rs 3 lakh annually. The selected students include Jaideep Ghambir, Maninderjit Singh, Nitika Dhameja, Iesha Mahajan, Rajat Khanna, Abhinav Sharma and Vivek Madan.