Jalandhar, November 18
The management committees of 10 gurdwaras from Greece had appealed to parents, whose daughters are living in Greece, to call them back as they are forced to do a number of petty jobs, including prostitution, to sustain themselves.

Showing the copy of the letter - written on the letter pad of Sri Guru Nanak Darbar, Athens, Greece, addressed to the Lok Bhalai Party by a conglomerate of 10 gurdwara managing committees - Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, president, LBP, said Punjabi girls are illegally reaching Greece via Turkey and Georgia on study visa but are forced to languish there as there’s no work for them.

“A Georgia-based Punjabi agent is illegally making such girls indulge in trafficking en masse as such girls don’t even have passports with them. A good number of such girls have already applied for Emergency Certificate in the Indian embassy,” reads the appeal.

“Although we are providing them the accommodation to stay, it is only for the day time, as according to the guidelines of the government of Greece, such girls and boys, cannot live in the gurdwaras during night,” the appeal further adds.

Adding that one of the reasons that the scores of Punjabi boys and girls languishing in Georgia find no government support, he alleged it was because there was no Indian embassy in Georgia and the Indian foreign authorities run all their affairs through the embassy in Armenia.

Quoting a report of the UNO office desk on drugs, crime and smuggling of migrants from India (2010), he said Punjab has been declared one of the worst states in human trafficking, by the UNO.

Jalandhar, November 18
Aimed at improving the quality of wheat grain in the wake of declining water table, Dr Arun Dev Sharma, a biotechnology researcher from the local Lyallpur Khalsa College has cloned a gene from plants responsible for acid phosphatases from wheat.

The findings of this researcher have been accepted for publication in the international journal - Emiratus Journal of Agricultural Sciences.

He took up this major research project three years back, which was supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Delhi.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Sharma said if the findings are implemented, it would lead to increase in the number of grains in wheat and would improve its size too.

“The yield of this genetically modified wheat would also increase the content of protein and starch,” he added.

He said the gene (DNA) of acid phosphatase (P-ases) was cloned from wheat tissue. The gene was cloned by using PCR technique by using primers from conserved regions from different plant sources.

The gene was submitted to NCBI gene data bank of USA, which was available on-line.

“P-ases are enzymes and proteins, which are secreted by plants inside the soil, just to break down and absorb free in organic phosphorous (Pi). Pi plays a vital role in plants, like in photosynthesis, respiration and nitrogen fixation and much more,” he added.

Dr Sharma highlighted that the yield of wheat seeds in fields depends totally on Pi absorption.

“To maintain the Pi level in the soil of fields, farmers are constantly using fertilisers to cope up with Pi level. But this, in turn, is increasing pollution level in soils by using large amount of fertilisers,” he maintained.

“India is an agriculture-based country and if we need to improve the quality of food grains, it can be done through researches in biotechnology. Moreover, due to global warming, temperature is increasing day by day and water level is depleting fast,” he added.

Further, he maintained that under these conditions P-ases play key role in Pi absorption from soil.

“Even under water deficiency, plants having higher P-ase activities can withstand water stress and maintain the seed productivity under natural conditions,” said Dr Sharma.

Jalandhar, November 18
Commissioner Jalandhar Division S R Ladhar will review the revision of voter rolls in seven districts from November 19 to 25.

He visited Jhandu Singha village today and oversaw the revision being done in the village and inspected the special booth being prepared for the old and the physically challenged voters at the Senior Secondary School for Girls there. SDM Anupam Kler accompanied him.

Ladhar also went through the initial lists that have been displayed on the school notice board for the benefit of the people. He also instructed the headmaster to ensure that all the senior students who were of voting age should be registered in the ongoing exercise. He later went around the school and examined the school textbooks that have been distributed by the government among the students. He also interacted with the students and tested their general knowledge and awareness levels. The practice of teachers to educate the students from help books should be discouraged and the emphasis should be on teaching from the syllabus books.

Later in the day, he presided over a meeting of all the EROs and AEROs and said that he would be checking the revision work in the coming days. He would be visiting Kapurthala and Tarn Taran (November 20), Amritsar, and Gurdaspur (November 23), SBS Nagar and Hoshiarpur (November 25).

The Principal Secretary (Polls) would also be visiting the state and reviewing the entire process, he added.

He said the people can submit their objections could be filed till November 27. The voters who want to prepare their identity cards could do so on November 20 under a special drive. The booth level officers should be present at their assigned booths on that day for the convenience of the people, he added.

The EROs of the assembly segments in the division should personally visit the educational institutions in their area and ensure that all the youth of voting age should be enrolled on January 1, 2011.

The entire process would also be highlighted through the media so that the maximum number of people could get themselves enrolled, he added.

All the BLOs should ensure that all arrangements for power, drinking water and other conveniences were in place in all the booths, he directed.

Jalandhar, November 18
With the regularisation spree of contractual employees in the departments headed by Akali ministers, contractual employees working in the BJP minister-led departments have started criticising their ministers.

Taking a big leap further, they now say if they had worked in a department overseen by an Akali minister, they would have been regularised long ago.

Such employees, who form a large chunk of those working under the department of health, transport, technical education and medical education, alleged that working under their respective departments has cost them the regularisation of their job, as the ministers heading these departments - all of whom hail from the BJP - neither gave ear to, nor pursued their justified demands with the Chief Minister.

Vajinder Pal Singh Randhawa, president, Para Medical Contractual Employees Union, said thousands of employees in the education department have been regularised and the government is also mulling the regularisation of those working in the department of rural development and panchayati raj, both headed by Akali ministers.

“BJP ministers of all these departments never spared time to listen to our demands. The health minister, in particular, never attended the meetings held among the paramedical employees and the Chief Minister, regarding the employees’ regularisation demand.

“Rather, we feel the health minister is in no mood to pay heed to our demand,” he added.

Jarnail Singh Patti, president, ITI Instructors’ Union (contractual), rued that although the government is whole heartedly regularising the employees of the departments headed by the Akali minister, thousands of contractual employees working in the BJP ministers’ departments still languishing on contract basis, just due to the reluctance of BJP ministers to forcefully pursue their regularisation demand.

Refuting the allegation, technical education minister Chaudhary Swarna Ram said the thought process to regularise employees in the department is already under way.

On the other hand, health minister Luxmi Kanta Chawla preferred to remain silent on the issue.

“I have already come across such allegations by the employees. However, I rather prefer not to comment on the issue”, she said. Tikshan Sood, medical education minister and Master Mohan Lal, transport minister, were not available for comments.