Jalandhar, November 16
High political connections and the allure of appointments in city schools has taken a toll in the quality of education in the schools of rural areas in the entire Jalandhar district, where over 1,000 posts of school teachers of various cadres have been lying vacant for the past over two years.

Over 1,370 such posts of principal, head teacher, lecturer, master and classical and vocational (CV) teacher cadre lie vacant in the government middle, higher secondary and senior secondary schools of rural areas.

This shocking revelation came to the fore in a report, recently compiled by the education authorities to ascertain the exact number of vacant posts in the district.

As per data compiled in the report assessed by TNS, 292 out of the total 811 posts of the lecturer cadre lie vacant in schools. Similarly, 557 and 372 posts of the master and CV teachers’ cadre, respectively, lie vacant.

Another awful aspect of the report is that around 104 out of the total 129 posts of head teachers are vacant and 48 schools in the district run without a permanent principal.

A teacher, requesting anonymity, said schools in villages situated around Shahkot, Nurmahal, Phillaur and Lohian are the worst affected.

Although the number of sanctioned posts is above 10, you can’t find more than two-three teachers in some schools located in these villages, he said.

As per sources, posts of principals and head teachers will remain vacant till the meeting of departmental promotion committee, expected to be held in the coming months.

Accepting that the schools located in the peripheral areas were invariably bearing the brunt of vacant posts, Joginder Dass Maqsoodpuri, DEO, secondary, said the rural areas of the district are at a receiving end as teachers prefer to work in cities.

“The department has already conducted the counseling of teachers against the vacant posts. The process to recruit teachers has already begun and teachers would be employed in the coming weeks,” said Maqsoodpuri.

Jalandhar, November 16
Love and break-ups are common among youngsters. But there are few who take inspiration from these episodes and pen down a novel on their real life stories.

A budding engineer from Lovely Professional University has done exactly that and interestingly his novel has become the national bestseller.

Meet 19-year-old Abhishek Kothari who calls his novel ‘A feeling beyond words’ as a moving tale about love, life and fate.

“It’s a mesmerising story based on several real life incidents which follow the lives of a boy deeply in love with a girl, ready to go against any thing and destroy the whole world for just one love. But things take a different turn and the relationship gets broken with the passage of time”, is how the young author describes the plot.

Dehradun-based Kothari claims that it took him almost two years to come up with a novel but it got sold out pretty fast. “It was out in the market after being published by Delhi-based Srishti Publishers about four months back and soon it became the bestseller. The best part is that it is priced at just Rs 100,” he says.

Kothari adds that the narration of his novel comes in a somewhat different pattern. “It is for the first time that an author has come up with a book without the portagonist’s name. There is no use of ‘I’ either. Instead I have used ‘He’ in italics to describe the main character,” the B.Tech (mechanical-honours) third year student says.

“There is just one difference in my real life drama and the novel story. Everything that happened with me was in Dehradun but in the novel there is a mention of my love affair at school time at home as well as during hostel life in LPU, just to add a punch,” he adds.

The budding novelist has now also come up with his portal, www.abhishekkothari.com, where he has mentioned that he had written a novel at the age of 10 but it somehow was never published. The portal carries a bit of his personal detail, introduction to the novel, synopsis and two-page excerpt.

The author has one grievance. “I had written the novel just for that girl. I wanted her to know about my intensity of love for her. Initially I had not planned to sell the story in the market. Since I could not directly contact her, so I gave it the shape of a novel. But the girl has not responded ever since”.

Jalandhar, November 16
The paramedical employees working on contract in the state Health Department for the past over four years, registered their resentment against the decision of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to regularise over 6,000 contractual computer teachers.

The paramedical employees expressed their anger over the decision as just a week ago the Chief Minister had denied to admit their demand to regularise them in the Health Department by citing poor fiscal situation as the reason.

Notably, in a meeting held between the Chief Minister and representatives of contractual computer teachers a few days ago, the Chief Minister accepted their long-pending demand and agreed to regularise over 6,000 such teachers, working in schools for the past two and half years.

Calling today’s decision as playing a double game, Vajinderpal Singh, president of the Paramedical Contractual Employees Union, which represents 2,488 such employees in the state, said in the meeting held between the Chief Minister and union representatives on November 6, the Chief Minister refused to entertain their demand of regularisation.

“The Chief Minister told us to wait until the poor fiscal situation improves. How the state fiscal health has ameliorated just in a week, and that, too, for the computer teachers who hve more than double the strength of paramedical employees,” he said.

He said the union had decided to hold protest in the constituencies of the Chief Minister and Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, as she had failed to pursue their genuine demands.

Jalandhar, November 16
Guru Nanak Dev University is perhaps ready to take over the Punjab Technical University’s old campus on the Ladowali Road here.

GNDU Vice-Chancellor Ajaib Singh Brar, who was in the city in connection with the university youth festival at Apeejay College of Fine Arts, visited the campus and held an hour-long meeting with PTU VC Dr Rajneesh Arora.

During the meeting, Dr Brar is said to have insisted that he needed a quick possession of the campus since the students at the Guru Nanak Dev evening college, Basti Nau, have to be shifted here by January owing to an order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Dr Brar who came along with the engineers from the construction wing called for quick renovation of the frontal portion of the building so as to have classrooms there.

Dr Arora said that the teachers’ training programme that was on would continue at the campus. He added that the evaluation of papers that was also going on would also continue till March 31, as per the deadline decided by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal recently. 

Jalandhar, November 16
Alarmed over the declining level of sports, the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) has decided to set up more sports academies in various disciplines. The PAP currently has 16 sports disciplines.

The PAP has already started seven sports academies in football, hockey, cricket, shooting, golf, wrestling, tennis and swimming. While efforts are on to start sports academies in other disciplines too.

Talking to The Tribune, the DGP, PAP, Shashi Kant, said they had the best of coaches, who coupled with the state-of-the-art sports academies could deliver desired results. “PAP is committed to promote sports at the grass-roots level and hence focus is being laid on the expansion of the sports academies. We are in the process of tapping the potential sportspersons out of the fresh recruits,” he added.

He highlighted that in the due course of time the PAP would tie up with the local groups for sports promotion. While the youth would also be roped in the academies to inculcate sporting spirit among them. “In the past few years the standard of sports in the PAP has come down drastically owing to constant hectic law and order problems. Even the problem of fewer resources, too, confined us from expanding further. However, now we are hopeful of a positive outcome,” he maintained.

On being asked about the dismal show of hockey team of the PAP in the past few years, he said, “No doubt there has been a gradual decline in the performance of the hockey team, but things are set to improve with the setting up of a special hockey academy on our campus. The Punjab Police hockey team has been a leader in the game and we would be back to our days of glory again,” said the DGP.

Apart from this, the PAP would also throw open its academies for the youth of the region to make this initiative a success. “We have received a thumping response to our shooting, cricket, swimming, hockey and soccer academies in the PAP and with the opening up of academies in other disciplines, sports would surely pick up,” he quipped.

Jalandhar, November 16
Agitated at the sudden hike in the annual subscription charges of Hansraj Raizada Badminton Stadium, badminton players today gave a written complaint to Commissioner of Police Gaurav Yadav against its honorary secretary Ashwani Kumar.

The District Badminton Association has drawn flak from the badminton players for arbitrarily increasing its annual subscription charges from Rs 850 to Rs 3,600. The players have been demanding immediate rollback of the steep fee hike in the middle of the year.

Ritin Khanna, a badminton player, said the association was looting the players by steep hike in the annual subscription fee. “The badminton association had been charging Rs 850 from the players for the past 10 years. However, now it has enhanced the amount under the name of donation, which is sheer cheating,” he added.

The badminton players also maintained that the association did not discuss the matter with the players and took the decision at its own level. Earlier, last week the badminton players wrote a letter to Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti and sought his intervention but to no avail. “Despite raising this issue for the past almost a week, DC Bharti did not take any action, whereas he regularly comes to play at the stadium,” the players rued.

The players demanded that the fee should not be enhanced as the association already earn profits worth crores annually. “Even if the association wants to increase the subscription charges, it has to be within the framed rules of the association,” the players demanded.

Phagwara, November 16
A free press is the mother of all liberties, said Rajveer Kaur, Doordarshan News Reader, and radio jockey at a function oraganised by the Journalism Department of Kamla Nehru College for Women, Phagwara, to mark National Press Day today.

Addressing the students of journalism and mass media, Rajveer said freedom of the press was not an end in itself but a mean to achieve a free society.

Replying to students’ queries, she said, “If speaking is your passion, talking to people comes naturally to you and you can react to every song or item played, than you are fit for the job of a radio jockey.”

For becoming a good a news reader, she said emotional quotient should be high enough for being a news reader and virtues like a calm face expression, a genuine smile and very good pronunciation come handy.

Highlighting the importance of National Press Day, Prof Reena Gulati of the department said this was the day on which the Press Council of India started functioning.

On this occasion photo caption, on-the-spot writing and radio jockeying contests were organised. In photo caption contest, Kamaljeet Kaur, Amrita and Nirmala stood first, second and third, respectively. In on-the-spot writing contest, Amandeep, Ravinder and Kaifi secured first three positions. In radio jockeying contest, Sarbjeet and Preeti stood first and second, respectively, and Amrita and Rajinder were declared third.

Jalandhar, November 16
In an apparent move to make a dent in usual Congress supporters, the BJP SC Morcha has decided to strengthen its base in Punjab, especially in its Doaba region, by constituting its ward-level units.

All-India BJP SC Morcha secretary Harinder Pal stated this at Circuit House here during his maiden visit to Jalandhar today.

Also in charge of the state SC Morcha, Harinder said there was an ample scope of increasing its base in the region. He also held a special meeting with the representatives of the state SC Morcha in this regard.

Earlier, Harinder was given a warm welcome by the activists of the state BJP SC Morcha, led by its newly appointed secretary Deepak Telu.

Telu suggested Harinder to raise funds from the central and state units for the SC Morcha to increase its activities to further strengthen its base as its members were not so financially sound.

Jalandhar, November 16
The All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) demanded a high-level probe into the incident occurred in Ludhiana in which Jaspal Singh, a 1984 riots affected peerson, was killed.

Jaspal Singh was killed in a scuffle when riots-affected families were trying to take possession of the flats, which were originally meant for them.

In a press statement released by Karnail Singh Peermohammad, president, and Devinder Singh Sodhi, general secretary, of the federation, they said for the last 26 years all governments had failed to address the demands of riots-affected Sikhs.

They demanded that the culprits behind the incident should be arrested at the earliest.

They said over 1,000 cases to make red cards for the victims of the riots were still lying pending in the various districts of the state and the government should take steps to register them as riot victims.

Jalandhar, November 16
To pay tributes to the six martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle who were hanged to death on November 16, 1915, the National Martyrs’ Memorial Committee today commemorated the day as the 96th Martyrdom Day.

Ninetysix years ago, the six heroes of the struggle for independence, including the legendaries Kartar Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley, attained martyrdom in the Central Jail, Lahore.

Others who were sent to gallows were Bhai Jagat Singh Sursingh, Bhai Harnam Singh Sialkot, Bahi Bakshish Singh Gilwali, Bhai Surain Singh Gilwali and another Bhai Surain Singh Gilwali.

R.P. Mittal, Inspector-General of Police, presided over the function and Maj-Gen G.G. Dwivedi was the chief guest. Dr Hairsh K. Puri, eminent scholar on the Ghadar movement, threw light on the lives of martyrs and the Ghadar movement.

Madhusudan Sharma, general secretary of the committee, B.S. Dhingra, president, K.C. Mahindru and Avinash Arora was also present on the occasion.

Phillaur, November 16
Rich folkloric traditions of Punjabis, Sikh martial art form Gatka, as well as hospitality of Punjabis left a mesmerising effect on the 11-member Greek delegation from Piraeus, Athens, which finished its week-long tour to Punjab.

Led by Xanthenia Mantas, Director of the Polymorfi Folk Ensemble, Greece, the group participated in three major international festivals --- Punjab Multicultural Festival at Gurusar Sadhar (Ludhiana), Punjab International Folk Festival at Guru Nanak College, Batala, and Khalsa College International Folk Festival, Amritsar, organised by Punjab Cultural Promotion Council (PCPC) to strengthen the international friendship, culture of peace and cross country educational-cultural relations.

The Greek delegation visited Phillaur and participated in the ‘International workshop on bhangra and other Punjab dances’, organised by the Punjab Cultural Promotion Council.

Greeks also liked Gatka, displayed by PCPC gatka artistes on this occasion. They also visited Maharaja Ranjit Singh War Museum, situated near Phillaur on the Ludhiana-Phillaur highway and showed keen interest in the history of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his historic fort here.

Terming Punjab visit as wonderful experience of her life, Greek artiste Dr Tammy commented, “There is a close resemblance between the folkloric traditions of Greek people and Punjabi community. We enjoyed giving folk presentations for Punjabis in general and students in particular.”

The Greek delegation visited the state on the invitation and initiative of Punjab Cultural Promotion Council’s Director Dr Davinder Singh Chhina.

“The PCPC has invited 19 international folk ensembles, sports groups and student delegations to Punjab since December 2002 to promote the rich heritage of the Punjab globally and strengthen international cooperation,” said Dr Chhina.

Ioannis described his Punjab visit as spiritual visit. Panagiotis and Constantina promised to visit Punjab again and again. “We visited the state to explore the history and traditions of Punjabis and we are immensely impressed by the heritage of Punjab,” said Anastasia.

Polymorfi Director Xanthenia termed her group’s visit to the Golden Temple as lifetime experience. “We all got eternal peace, spiritual strength to see and explore Sikh history. We prayed for humanity and global peace at the Golden Temple, Amritsar”, disclosed Mantas.

Greeks promised to highlight Punjab’s great traditions in international media and Greek TV channels on its return back home. They also explored village folk life of Punjab, family culture of Punjabis and also contributed for international and educational cultural exchanges by interacting with students of GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, Guru Nanak College Batala, Khalsa College Public School and Khalsa College of Education, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar during its Punjab journey.

PCPC Director Dr. Chhina announced that next edition of Punjab International Folk Festival and Amritsar International Folk Festival (Amritsar) and Punjab International Folk Carnival, at Jhoke Harihar, Ferozepur, would take place in January - February 2011, in which Polish, Korean and other International folk artistes, students from other continents would participate.

Jalandhar, November 16
Popular retail store Easy Day has been made to pay a heavy price for getting printed certain pamphlets with a misleading visual representation of cheaper products.

On a complaint lodged in this regard by a Basti Bawakhel-based resident, Rajinder Masih, the District Consumer Disputes Forum has asked the store proprietor to pay him up Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 1000 as the cost of litigation.

The plaintiff said Easy Day had been advertising about its products including household items, electronic goods, grocery and home appliances through pamphlets by offering prices lower than the market and other stores. He said that on going through one of these pamphlets, he felt lured for purchasing a Philips DVD player from advertised in pamphlets at a low price of Rs 1,295.

He said at the store, the employees told him that instead a local brand DVD player was available at this rate and that they had given a wrong advertisement by mistake.

He said he approached the officials and told them that he had seen the pamphlet where in it was advertised that the Philips DVD player was available at Rs 2,990 and was being provided at Rs 1,295, which is why he had opted to visit the manager of the store.

The complainant said outlet staff misbehaved with and the manager told him that the Philips DVD player was also available in the market but at Rs 2,499.

He said he was compelled to buy a Philips DVD at a much higher rate than that advertised in pamphlets. He said he asked the employees of Easy Day to refund the excess amount charged by them but instead they misbehaved with him.

The counsel for Easy Day pleaded that the images of products used in pamphlets are only visual representations of items only for general identification or for indicative undertaking. “Pamphlets are subject to a disclaimer written on the backside where it was clearly mentioned that the pictures are not for specific identification/ categorisation of products. The store of the company is a self-service format store where the customers chose items themselves. There is no way that the store associates can compel the customers to purchase. The complainant out of his own freewill picked up the DVD player from the shelf and took it to the point of delivery for billing”, he stated.

The forum represented by president AK Sharma and members Rakesh Kumari and Darshan Singh opined that since the store had issued advertisement for sale of Philips DVD player on reduced price, an ordinary consumer was likely to get attracted.

“He was rather aggrieved when he had to pay Rs 2499 instead of Rs 1295 within the limited offer period. A valid contract comes into existence when consumer clinches the offer of products at displayed price in pamphlet and gets ready to purchase the same. This is nothing short of hoodwinking the gullible consumers to fleece them with higher price of product at a crucial time after they have fallen to a trap by unscrupulous dealers”, they stated.

Jalandhar, November 16
Manav Sehyog School, Shahpur, Jalandhar organised a Baal Mela on the occasion of Children’s Day on November 14. Pavinder Jain (managing partner of Bombay Box Factory and Printers) inaugurated the fete. Dr SK Sharma, chairman of the school, Dr NK Khosla, patron of the Manav Sehyog Society, co-chairman Mukund Rai Gupta and members of the school management visited the school.

Dr SK Sharma congratulated students on Children’s Day. Children spent the whole day playing games and participating in competitions like fancy dress. Lucky draw was held at 4:00 pm. Chief guest Rakesh Gupta (managing partner Vinko Alaska Factory) and his wife Arti Gupta presented prizes to the winners of the lucky draw.

MGN Public School, Urban Estate-II, celebrated Children’s Day on November 15. Students from nursery to XI standard were given chocolates. Principal Jatinder Singh addressed students on the occasion. The school captains and prefects of the houses formed four teams and were made to play Antakshri, school quiz etc. The winners were given books as prizes.

To mark the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Children’s Day was celebrated on the premises of CT Public School.

A special assembly was conducted, in which teachers offered the school prayer and read the news. An English skit ‘listen to your conscience’ was staged by teachers Vivek Tiwari, Divpreet Kaur and Monika Aggarwal, which delivered a message for students. Likewise, the tiny tots in the CT Kindergarten also celebrated the occasion. The nursery staff sang wonderful songs and enjoyed with kids.

St. Soldier Group of Institutions organised its 11th Annual Fete-cum-Bal Mela in the campus located behind REC. As many as 25 schools and 18 colleges of the group participated in the fair.

Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, Arun Pal, IPS, DCP, Gurcharan Singh Channi, Chairman, Planning Board, were the guest of honours. A cultural programme was presented by students in which they participated in dance, modelling, fancy dress, healthy baby show, choreography, giddha and bhangra.

Jalandhar, November 16
In the wake of the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act and Inclusive Education programme, the onus of 
providing quality education to physically challenged students falls on teachers and that too with zero rejection policy.

These thoughts were expressed by resource person Professor Sudesh Mukhopadhyay from the department of Inclusive Education from the National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA), Delhi.

She was here for a day-long UGC sponsored orientation programme on Inclusive Education at the local Government College of Education, Jalandhar. This is the first college in the state to receive a minor research project on Inclusive Education from UGC.

The programme was held with an aim to sensitise school teachers about the inclusive education policy of the government.

Talking to The Tribune, Professor Mukhopadhyay said a majority of teachers do not treat children, with special needs, with dignity.

“At NUEPA we have found that teachers judge a child with their own experience. However, under the Inclusive Education we focus on the role of teachers becoming more responsible. We have been conducting researches on focused groups in the society to provide them with the best opportunities for growth,” she added.

Professor Mukhopadhyay also emphasised on the need to include special children under the ambit of mainstream school education. “The union government, under its 11th plan, has highlighted the inclusion of children with special needs, SC/ST/OBC and minority groups at all levels in higher educational institutes. The UGC is looking forward to the Equal Opportunities Cell (EOC) in all educational institutes for equal facilities and opportunities to such students,” she maintained.

While the principal investigator of the research project Dr Parminder Kaur, from the Government College of Education, highlighted the significance of research in the state.

“The UGC funded research project was awarded to our college in June, 2009. Under this project we are collecting data from all schools about the number of physically challenged students and imparting training to teachers about inclusive education,” she said, adding that special emphasis is being laid on how to create class rooms and to make such students part of mainstream school education.

Earlier, MS Hundal, dean, College Development Council, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar inaugurated the programme. He urged teachers to come forward to realise the aim of inclusion.

Principal of Government Arts and Sports College, Jalandhar, Dr Karamjit Kaur spoke at length on the need to include physically challenged students as an equally responsible part of the society. She also mentioned the role of teachers as nation builders to shoulder the responsibility of making this first of its research initiatives a success.

Meanwhile, principals and teachers of various colleges of education and more than 50 teachers from the primary schools of the region participated in the orientation programme.

Jalandhar, November 16
The Seema Sahastra Bal (SSB) routed the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in the ongoing 59 BN Mullick Memorial All-India Police Football Championship being held at the PAP grounds 
here today.

In other fixtures, the BSF held Assam 1-1 and Tripura sailed through by a walk over against the Railway Protection Force.

Similarly, Orissa won by two goals from Haryana. Assam Rifle defeated their rivals Uttrakhand 3-0. Bihar and Maharashtra routed Puducherry and Mizoram 4-0, respectively.

Uttar Pradesh defeated Nagaland 2-0. Meghalaya won from Andaman and Nicobar 5-1. The Madhya Pradesh-Gujarat match ended in a draw. West Bengal trounced Jammu and Kashmir 4-0, while Jharkhand rallied to win from Rajasthan 3-1.

The pre-quarter finals (knockout round) will be played between Punjab and UP, RPF and Bihar at 11 am, Assam Rifle and Jharkhand, Sikkim and Assam at 11 am, Orissa and Karnataka at 1 pm, SSB and CRPF at 9 am, Meghalaya and Manipur, BSF and MP at 2 pm at the same venue.