The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Eight DHOs transferred
Amaninder Pal/Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 5
Enforcing a do-or-leave policy, the Punjab Health Department today transferred eight district health officers (DHOs) in the state. Four district health officers were transferred a few days ago.

Confirming the transfer of such a good number of health officials, Principal Secretary (Health) Satish Chandra today said it had been decided at the government level that the officials, including DHOs and civil surgeons, who would not perform their duties in an efficient manner, would be shifted away from administrative posts. The department had introduced a performance monitoring system on trimester basis.

The DHOs were told to continue the campaign against food adulteration round the year. “We have transferred those who did not perform to our satisfaction with regard to the campaign against adulteration and also those who have a longer stay at one station. Some health officials were working at one station for the past many years. They were shifted today,” said Satish Chandra.

He said the performance of the DHOs would be determined by the number of samples collected by them and percentage of failure of such samples during laboratory analyses. Civil surgeons had been also asked to compile and send their performance reports. “Some of the remaining DHOs, who have not been transferred, have been given three months’ time to show results,” he added.

Election process of Central Cooperative Bank stayed
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the ongoing process for the elections of Directors of the local Central Cooperative Bank.The court stayed the election process till the next date of hearing on August 23 on the writ petitions filed by two former Directors of the bank Sukhwinder Singh Lalli and Sukhwinder Singh Supra Bhode Saprai.

Saprai’s advocate Manmohan Singh Kang told The Tribune that three of the four persons were declared elected Directors unopposed against the bylaws.

The three Directors elected unopposed, Bachittar Singh, Swaran Singh and Gurpreet Dhillon, were relatives of a bank clerk, Gurnek Singh, whereas according to rules no relative of a bank employee could be elected as Director.

Swaran Singh and Gurpreet Dhillon were father and wife, respectively, of Gurnek Singh. Further, Bachittar Singh was underage for contesting election. He was just over 18 whereas according to rules, minimum age for contesting bank elections was 21.

Another ground of writ petition was that the number of Directors was reduced from 15 to nine, which was also against the rules.

Interestingly, all the four Directors declared elected unopposed were close relatives of Revenue Minister Ajit Singh Kohar. While Bachittar Singh is Kohar’s grandson, the other three Directors Swaran Singh, Gurpreet Dhillon and Kewal Singh Rupewali were also his close relatives.

Meanwhile, various SAD and Congress leaders express satisfaction over the stay order issued by the high court.

PTU PhD enrolments under PSHRC scanner
Pradeep Sharma/Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5
Alleged irregularities in PhD enrolments in Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, have come under the scanner of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC).

Taking cognisance of the alleged irregularities in the PhD enrolments, Justice Baldev Singh and LR Roojam, members of the commission, issued a notice to the university to explain its viewpoint on September 9.

A complaint filed by advocate S.M. Yadav on behalf of the Global Human Rights Council(GHRC), had alleged that two candidates, Neeru Malhotra and Sangeeta Arora, had hatched a conspiracy for getting admission in the PhD in the PTU by “violating the rights of other meritorious and genuine students who were suitable aspirants for admission”.

At a meeting of the Board of Governors of the PTU on September 3, 2009, it was resolved that “all applications received on or before August 31, 2009, may be processed and approved as per the previous practice and applications received after the cut-off date be returned to the candidates till the finalisation of the new regulations in the light of the new guidelines of PhD registration come into force”.

The applicants alleged that during the process it came to light that Neeru and Sangeeta were registered for the PhD after the expiry of the stipulated date by using “unfair and illegal” means through the then Dean (Academic) of the PTU.

Overloaded vehicles challaned

Nawanshahr, August 5
District Transport Officer R.L. Jassal accompanied by the members of the District Road Safety Committee challaned as many as 10 overloaded vehicles on different roads in the district.

Penality amounting to Rs 12,500 each was realised from the errant truck operators. Besides, the overloaded vehicles were released after unloading about 10 to 15 tonnes of excess material being carried by them, said the DTO while issuing a strict warning to the truck operators not to carry excess load in their vehicles. — OC

Crime Zone
Boy murdered, 2 held

Nawanshahr: The police arrested Roshan Lal, alias Laddi, and Raju, both residents of Balachaur, for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a boy, Mohit, of ward no 8 in Balachaur. The body of the victim was found in Hasanpur Kalan village after the accused confessed to their crime. An accomplice of the accused, Nek Singh, is still at large.

SSP Narinder Bhargav in a press release issued here today said boy’s father Varinder Puri had lodged a complaint with the police on August 3 that Mohit had been kidnapped and he had received a telephone call demanding ransom of Rs 5 lakh.

A case under section 364 of the IPC was registered and a special investigation team was constituted for tracing the case. The team worked on different theories and succeeded in tracing the case within 48 hours by arresting the accused and recovering the body of the victim. The two accused arrested in the case were presented in the court and were sent to police remand till August 9. — OC

Incest leads to killing

Nawanshahr: An old man, Dalbir, was allegedly murdered and thrown into a well by his son and nephew for his incestuous activities.

The body of the old man was recovered from a well here and the police has registered a case under sections 302, 201 and 34 of the IPC on the basis of the statement of the brother of the deceased, Prem Kumar, resident of Rahon. In his statement, he stated that on July 16 the daughter of Dalbir told her brother and cousin that her father had attempted to molest her. They got furious and killed Dalbir. — OC

Labourer murdered

Hoshiarpur: Migrant labourer Dhode Singh, son of Sartho Singh of Petigarh (Bihar), was found murdered at the tubewell of Amrik Singh at Shergarh village on the periphery of the town yesterday. According to police sources, Dhode Singh came from his work in the evening of August 3. His body was found lying in a pool of blood on the bed. Several marks of sharp-edged weapons were found on his body. The Sadar police has sent the body to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination and has registered a case under section 302 of the IPC in this connection. — OC

Murder case solved

Batala: The Batala Police solved the mystery of the blind murder of a migrant labourer Sabha, murdered during the intervening night of 7 and 8 December 2009 at the tube well of Joginder Singh, resident of Dyalgarh village. A case, under section 302 of the IPC was registered against unknown persons on the statement of Joginder Singh, who Sabha had been serving for the last 25 years. A team comprising SP (D), Batala Gurmeet Singh, DSP, City Batala and SI Kamalpreet Singh SHO Police Station Sadar Batala was formed to investigate the case. The team arrested one of the accused Robinbir Singh of Dyalgarh village today and recovered a datar (sharp-edged weapon) used to kill Sabha along with a purse and diary belonging to the deceased. Kali Masih, the other accused in this case, is still absconding. Robinbir revealed that he, along with Kali Masih, had killed Sabha to avenge the injuries caused to him (Robinbir) by Sabha one-and-a-half year back as Sabha had come to his house along with Deji and Happy (sons of Joginder Singh) armed with sharp edged weapons and injured him.

Investigation is in progress and Kali Masih will be arrested shortly, asserted Dinesh Partap Singh, SSP Batala Police District. — OC

Teenaged girl abducted

Hoshiarpur: A teenaged girl of Hardo Khanpur village was allegedly abducted by a youth of the same village. The Bulhowal police has booked Ashok Kumar, son of Parshotam Lal, under sections 363 and 366 of the IPC.
According to police sources, Neelam, wife of Joginder Kumar of Hardo Khanpur village, alleged that Ashok Kumar lured her 16-year-old daughter and abducted her on August 2. — OC

5 of looters’ gang held

Amritsar: With the arrest of five persons, the Airport police today claimed to have busted a gang of looters involved in robbing vehicles from people from areas around the Amritsar international airport besides other adjoining districts of the city.

The police recovered sharp-edged weapons besides stolen motorcycles from the accused identified as Harjinder Singh and Gurjit Singh of Miyadian Khurad village, Gursewak Singh, Balwinder Masih and Malkiat Singh of Karyal village.

Kirpal Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said “After a tip-off, the Airport police headed by Station House Officer, Prithviraj Singh, nabbed the accused who were hidden near a drain for committing crime. Three of them were nabbed yesterday evening while remaining two who had managed to escape was arrested today.”

The police also seized narcotics powder and intoxicants from them, he added. Two separate cases under sections 399, 402, 379 and 411 of the IPC and 382, 511 and 506 of the IPC have been registered against them in this regard. — TNS

2 travel agents booked

Tarn Taran: Two fake travel agents duped 12 persons of Rs 6.80 lakh, luring them to send to Muscat.

The accused have been identified as Jaswinder Singh of Khakh village (Goindwal Sahib) and Hardeep Singh of Sher Singh (Faridkot).

Most of the victims were from Khakh village, the same village as one of the accused Jaswinder Singh.

The victims were identified as Satnam Singh, Shamsher Singh, Sandeep Singh, Surjit Singh, Harjinder Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Ranjit Singh son of Babu Singh, Ranjit Singh son of Gurmej Singh, Gurjit Singh of Timmowal village, Paramjit Singh of Timmowal village and Paramjit Singh of Sohian village.

The victims, in their attested affidavits to the district police, alleged that they were duped of about Rs 7 lakh.

The accused took the amount from them in between June 2008 to January 2009 but neither did they fulfill the promise of getting them settled in Muscat, nor did they return them the amount. A case has been registered and investigations are on. The accused were said to be absconding. — OC

Purse snatched

Tarn Taran: Two unidentified, motorcycle-borne youths snatched the purse, gold chain and earrings of Navneet Kaur, a resident of Mohindra Avenue in broad daylight. A case under sections 382 and 34 of the IPC has been registered by the city police.

Police sources told this correspondent here today that the woman was returning home after getting herself diagnosed from a local diagnostic centre.

The woman said she was on a rickshaw when the two motorcycle-borne youths snatched her purse. When she tried to raise alarm, the youths threatened to kill her. The woman said the purse had her Samsung mobile phone, two rings, an ATM card and some cash. The incident happened in front of the residence of local MLA Harmit Singh, where there was a police post with cops on duty round the clock. — OC

Girl abducted

Tarn Taran: Four members of a family were booked for abducting a teenaged girl of Thatha village, 15 km from here, falling under Chabal police station. Three of the accused, Beera Singh, his wife Darsho and son Mithu, are from Thatha. The fourth accused is Beera Singh’s married daughter Sarabjit Kaur of Akalgarh Dhapai village.

The police said a case under sections 363, 366 and 34 of the IPC had been registered against the accused.

The mother of the victim in her complaint to the police said the accused abducted her daughter luring to marry her to Mithu. The police said raids hasd been conducted by the police parties to nab the accused. — OC

PO arrested

Pathankot: The police yesterday nabbed proclaimed offender Bharat Bhushan, a resident of the local Anandpur Rara locality, who was wanted by the police in different theft cases. According to the police, a case under sections 379 and 411 of the IPC was registered against him at Division 1 police station in 2007. He was evading arrest for the past three years. A case was also registered by the Amritsar police in July this year where he gave his identity as Lav Kumar to the police. He was produced before the magistrate yesterday who sent him to judicial remand. — OC

CBSE-run private schools in Jalandhar indifferent towards single girl scheme
Amaninder Pal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 5
Nearly all the reputed schools in the city are indifferent towards the single girl child scheme, which was introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) with an aim to provide totally free education to the girl student, who is the only child of her parents.

In a random survey conducted by The Tribune, barring a few, principals of such schools were either ignorant about any such scheme or expressed inability to implement the scheme, even if it existed.

Others said they were ready to implement the scheme, but were waiting for the ‘clarifications’, they sought nearly two years back in this regard from the CBSE.

Under the scheme, all the CBSE-run schools across the country were ordered to provide totally free education to the single child girl student with immediate effect from April 2, 2006.

Principals of Apeejay School, Eklavya Public School and Delhi Public School claimed that they had received no directions from the CBSE in this regard. They said no girl student was getting free education in their school under the said scheme.

“The school is giving concessions to the meritorious and students belonging to economical weaker sections, but not under this scheme. Moreover, we have not received any circular from the CBSE in this regard,” said Sapna Bakshi, Principal, Eklavya Public School.

Satwant Gakhal, Principal, MGN Senior Secondary School, and Dheeraj Banati, Principal, Innocent Heart School, said though the schools had received the orders, no further communication has been made by the CBSE authorities in this regard.

“We were asked by the CBSE to compile and forward the details regarding the number of single girl child students nearly one and half year ago. We had sent the data and still waiting to get further directions in this regard,” said Gakhal.

Harbhajan Kaur, Principal, Swami Sant Dass Public School, confirmed that the school has received the circular on March 3, 2006. “However, we are providing free education to such cases from Class IX to XIII, but not from Class VI onwards,” she added.

Rashmi Vij, Principal, Police DAV School, said as already hundreds of students are studying in the school by paying nominal fee, it is not possible for the school to implement such scheme without the financial help from the government.

OfficialSpeak

Dr Yadav, Regional Director, CBSE, Panchkula: We hold no authority to enforce the schools to implement such schemes. Such enforcement and monitoring is under the purview of the Directorate of Public Instructions (DPI), Secondary. So far as this scheme is concerned, budget for such schemes is to be provided either by the Central and state government.

Joginder Dass, DEO (Secondary): Schools, run by the CBSE, don’t come under our jurisdiction. We cannot monitor the day-to-day functioning of such schools. We are responsible only for the state government-run schools. Functioning in such schools can only be monitored by the CBSE authorities.