The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Gadar Leader
Book published on Santokh Singh Kirti’s life
Jalandhar, February 1
After 83 years of his death, a book has been published on the life of Bhai Santokh Singh Kirti, who was heading the Gadar Party when the failed attempt of the Gadar uprising against the British Empire was made in India in 1915.

DC constitutes committee on bonded labour
Jalandhar, February 1
Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti has constituted a committee to ensure timely submission of the replies of the cases pertaining to bonded labour pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Young World
23 KMV students bag IBM placements
Jalandhar, February 1
The placement cell of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV) organised an on-campus placement drive with IBM Global Process Services. As many as 106 candidates appeared for the interview and 23 were selected for attractive posts with a handsome pay package.

Girls prepare langar at Layalpur Khalsa College in Jalandhar on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Welfare schemes in dist
Rs 434. 95 lakh sanctioned
Jalandhar, February 1
A sum of Rs 434. 95 lakh has been sanctioned for disbursal under various welfare schemes in the district. The sanction was given by Gurcharan Singh Channi, Chairperson of the District Planning Committee, at a meeting held here today. Senior officers were present on the occasion.

DBA members a divided lot over Tricolour hoisting on R-Day
Jalandhar, February 1
While the Tricolour was hoisted on the District Bar Association (DBA) premises for the first time in its history of 125 years on this Republic Day, the DBA has issued a show-cause notice to its senior vice- president advocate Sanjeev Kamboj to explain his conduct for arranging the function on January 26.

The Tricolour being hoisted on the premises of the District Bar Association in Jalandhar on Republic Day. A Tribune photograph

Seminar on media held
Jalandhar, February 1
Media needs regulation, media is distorting language and affecting culture, media is serving corporate interests and media is a handmaid of the powerful were some of the divergent opinions discussed during the two-day-long UGC-sponsored seminar on “Impact of media on language” at Lyallpur Khalsa College.

ESIC opens sub-regional office in city
Jalandhar, February 1
To provide rapid and transparent benefits to the beneficiaries of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the corporation today opened its sub-regional office in the city. The office was inaugurated today by the State Health Minister Prof Luxmi Kanta Chawla.

Robbers strike at Guru Amardas Colony
Take away cash, valuables worth lakhs of rupees from a house
Jalandhar, February 1
A gang of robbers struck at a house in Guru Amardas Colony on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway and decamped with cash and valuables worth lakhs of rupees in broad daylight today.

Tiger awarded President Medal
Jalandhar, February 1
B.S Tiger, DIG, Home Guards, and Civil Defence, Jalandhar Division, has been awarded with the President’s Distinguished Services Medal for his outstanding services.
A 1991-batch officer, Tiger was awarded the medal on Republic Day. A resourceful officer with special organising abilities, he earlier received the President’s Medal for Meritorious Services on Republic Day in 2004.

Lawyers to hold anti-corruption rally
Phagwara, February 1
Over 25,000 lawyers belonging to the BJP legal cell will hold a national-level protest rally in New Delhi on April 24 to raise their voice against the increasing corruption, allegedly encouraged by the UPA-led Union Government.

ASHA workers hold protest
Jalandhar, February 1
To press the government for conceding to their long-pending demand of hike in their salary, scores of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers hold a protest rally in front of the Civil Surgeon office today.

Trains restored
Phagwara, February 1
The Northern Railway today restored 10 important mail and express trains, which were earlier cancelled due to poor visibility caused by thick fog last month.

Gas cylinders seized

Kites fly ‘low’ this year
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 1
Kites are no more kids’ favourite pastime. The number of kite fliers has gone down all of a sudden. The phenomenon has also affected traders engaged in the kite business. Barring one or two, they all say there is a slump in the business of kites.

Vijay Kumar, a local trader, says he has been in the business for the past eight years. “People are no more ready to buy costly stuff. Even the fancy kites that we have are not fetching a price more than Rs 30-40. Kids prefer plastic sheet kites with a price tag of Rs 2 or little more because they are cheap. These are easy to handle and fly for kids. But overall the number of customers is less than the previous years. We can’t compete with Internet and mobile phones.”

Mani from Mani General Store at the Sheikhan Bazaar says the sale is lesser as compared to last year.

Surinder Chawla of Bhola Kite House, Gopal Nagar, says, “It has been 40 years that I am in this business, but things have never been this bad.”

Chawla, who also makes kite strings, says things were way better in the earlier days. “There was a lot of scope for profit. Now the very prices of the raw material for strings have shot up, but people are not ready to pay higher prices for the finished string.”

Charan Singh, who has been running the kite business for the last 20 years, agrees the business doesn’t show much promise this year. If you jack up the prices of all commodities, how does a modest hobby like kite flying survive? The business is going from bad to worse every year. Forget about profits, we are not even able to recover the amount invested.”

Charan Singh blames the slump in the market wholly onto inflation. All kite traders feel that the Chinese kites, which were till recently much sought after among the people of the city, are no more desired.

Vijay Kumar says, “They were a good trend that eventually died out. Reason? “They were flashy but no good practically. They are huge and colourful, but are made of cloth or other materials lined with iron strings, which makes them difficult to soar. The colourful paper kites are much better substitutes.”

Though shopkeepers elsewhere blame the slump on the inflation or changing tastes, two traders on Ladowali Road have an interesting reason to give for bad business - The Khalsa College ROB. “Last year the ROB was under construction so all vehicles passed from this side. This year, however, there’s not much traffic on this side. This has massively affected business,” say Suresh Sharma (who runs a cycle repair shop the year round) and his neighbour Komal (from the Deepak Tent House).

Their neighbour Ajay Pal, who began business this year right after he completed his plus two education, has devised an interesting strategy. Pal is the only one with a happy face in this crowd of brooding people. “I get the best of designs and sell them at cheaper rates. No two kites would be similar in my shop. People from the bastis, Lambra, etc, come to buy my kites. I invested Rs 1,000 and have earned Rs 25,000 until now. This is just the beginning.”

The traders gave a mixed reaction on the ban on Chinese strings. The strings have caused a lot of havoc owing to the harmful material used in them, even causing deaths in some cases. While those in the city bazaars say they never sold Chinese strings since they never had too many takers, those at Gopal Nagar still sell them. “Yes, we have heard about the ban, but it’s only in Amritsar. We did hear some noise about it, but we haven’t received any orders so far.”

The Ladowali Road traders, however, say they stopped selling Chinese strings after they heard that an order has been issued. “But we have not seen the order”, they added.

Most of the traders say it is wise not to use Chinese strings since they are very harmful. “Indian string is practically much more useful, since it is made by joining nine or seven strings. The Chinese string is very harmful and breaks easily,” said Surinder Chawla.

3 Sikh celebrates 155th Raising day
Battalion to start Sikh Regimental Martyrs’ Children Hostel in Jalandhar Cantonment
Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 1
Aimed at providing world-class education facilities to the children of its war widows, serving soldiers and ex-serviceman, 3rd Battalion of The Sikh Regiment will be starting Sikh Regimental Martyrs’ Children Hostel (SRMCH) at Jalandhar Cantonment from April 1.

The hostel was inaugurated by the Colonel of the Sikh Regiment, Lt-Gen R.S. Sujlana, on February 12 last year during the silver jubilee celebrations of 13th Battalion of The Sikh Regiment.

According to Gen Sujlana, the hostel, which was earlier meant for the children of war widows, would now be thrown open to the children of serving soldiers and ex-servicemen from this academic session.

The hostel would be run with the funds issued from the Sikh Regimental Centre, Ramgarh Cantonment. And the students, a majority of whom come from rural backgrounds, would get a chance to study at CBSE-affiliated Kendriya Vidyalayas and Army Public School in Jalandhar Cantonment.

Situated in a peaceful environment, the hostel is equipped with eight rest rooms, study room, IT laboratory, dining hall, guest quarters for the visiting parents of the children, large kitchen, living room and sports facilities.

It might be noted that last year, 13th Battalion of The Sikh Regiment had taken the initiative to start a hostel at the behest of the Sikh Regimental Centre. While the war widows were informed of admitting their students at the hostel, but due to some reasons it could not be started.

The Sikh Regimental Centre also owns a hostel, “Baal Sadan”, at its headquarters in Ramgarh, but being situated at a far-off place from Punjab, it failed to get a good response. It was owing to the ideal location of Jalandhar Cantonment that the hostel was planned here. Even the war widows were also not much interested in sending their children to Ramgarh Cantonment. However, the opening of the hostel in Jalandhar would mark the beginning of another major contribution of the Sikh Regimental Centre to the war widows and its soldiers.

The 3rd Battalion of The Sikh Regiment celebrated its 155th Raising Day and 94th Battle Honour Day from January 30 to February 1.

The Colonel of the Regiment, Lt-Gen R.S. Sujlana addressed a sainik sammelan. Six women were honoured during the Veer Nari meet.

The unit also opened a new heritage and archives room, Surendra Motivational Hall, which displays the rich history and heritage of the unit. A book on the field tenure of the battalion, titled “The Assam tenure of Third Battalion of The Sikh Regiment” was also released on the occasion.

The battalion was raised on January 31, 1856, by Captain Thomas Rattray at Lahore as Bengal Military Police Battalion. Since it’s raising, the unit has achieved 10 battle honours, five theatre honours and two Chiefs of the Army Staff Unit Citations.

The battalion carved a special niche for itself in counter-terrorist operations in late sixties in Mizoram and Nagaland and since 1980 in North-Eastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the last tenure of the unit in Jammu and Kashmir, it was awarded the Chief of the Army Staff Unit Citation for commendable role in counter-terrorist operations. Subedar Surinder Singh was awarded the Ashok Chakra for his most conspicuous gallantry in eliminating six foreign terrorists before succumbing to injuries in a daredevil action.

The battalion has to its credit one Ashok Chakra, two Kirti Chakras, three Shaurya Chakras and 31 Sena Medals, besides 159 pre-Independence gallantry awards.

	Gadar Leader Book published on Santokh Singh Kirti’s life Amaninder Pal Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 After 83 years of his death, a book has been published on the life of Bhai Santokh Singh Kirti, who was heading the Gadar Party when the failed attempt of the Gadar uprising against the British Empire was made in India in 1915. He comes from the batch of unsung heroes of the Indian freedom struggle, as his name hardly finds any reference in the presently available literature about the Indian independence movement in general and the Gadar movement in particular. Written by Dr Tejinder Virli, the book has come up with the assistance of the Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Committee (DBYC), which has provided detailed inputs about Kirti’s life. On February 19, 1926, he also started publishing “Kirti”, a popular newspaper of pre-Independence Punjab, which later on became the mouthpiece of the freedom struggle in the entire North India, said Naunihal Singh, general secretary, DBYC, who wrote foreword of the book. Kirti, as a general secretary of the Hindustan Gadar Party, played a pivotal role in organising Gadar, an armed revolt against the British Empire, in India and British-ruled South-East Asian countries, he added. “On February 15, 1915, he reached Singapore and contacted Indian soldiers deputed there. With their help, he organised a revolt there and freed Singapore for seven days. However, Gadarite’s successes were reversed when Japanese and British joint armies defeated the Gadar forces,” said Virli. Born in 1893, Kirti belonged to Dhardeo village in Amritsar district. He moved to England in 1910 and later to the USA in 1911. After Lala Hardyal’s four-month brief tenure as a founder general secretary of the party, he remained at the position for eight years, from 1914 to 1922,” Virli added. Besides North America, he campaigned in Vietnam, China, Burma, Thailand, Germany, Japan, USSR, Iran and Afghanistan to garner support for the Indian National Struggle. He died of tuberculosis on May 19, 1927.
	DC constitutes committee on bonded labour Kusum Arora Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti has constituted a committee to ensure timely submission of the replies of the cases pertaining to bonded labour pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The committee comprises the SDM, DSP (Rural), DSP (Urban), Assistant Labour Commissioner, tehsildar and naib tehsildar from the district. The committee was formed in December last following the instructions of the high court. In his orders, the DC has asked the committee members to submit the replies of the writ petitions of bonded labourers in the district “on priority” and before the final date of hearing in the court. The orders also read that the committee members should address the cases of the bonded labourers in their respective areas at the earliest. Talking to The Tribune, the DC said bonded labour was prohibited under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-1976, but it was still rampant at various places. “The committee has been keeping a watch on the number of raids conducted in the district and ensuring the timely submission of replies in the high court,” he said, adding that efforts were being done to ensure that no violation of the Acts took place. However, on being asked about the rampant child labour during the state-level NRI Divas at Jalandhar on January 18, the DC said, “I have ordered an inquiry in the child labour case and constituted a separate committee to look into the matter. The report will be compiled within a day or two,” he added. It might be noted that a section of media had reported about the child labour during the NRI Divas function at Jalandhar, following which the DC had ordered an inquiry in the case. “As per the Prevention of Child Labour Act, we are committed to protect the rights of children in the district,” he stressed.
	Young World 23 KMV students bag IBM placements Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 The placement cell of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV) organised an on-campus placement drive with IBM Global Process Services. As many as 106 candidates appeared for the interview and 23 were selected for attractive posts with a handsome pay package. Stress management A stress management camp was organised by the Gandhian Study Centre of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV) on Tuesday. A lecture on the importance of meditation was delivered. Stationery was distributed by Principal Amita Sharma among the children of class IV employees. Contest winners Vaibhav and Arpana, students of Guru Nanak Dev University College, bagged the first and second prize at poetry recitation and declamation contests, respectively, held at Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Daroli Kalan. Grandparents’ Day Grandparents’ Day was celebrated at St Soldier Divine Public School here on Tuesday. Principal Yash Pal Rai Sharma discussed the importance of respecting grandparents with students. Training programme The Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSET) conducted a 30-day training programme on computer tally, sponsored by NABARD. As many as 16 boys and girls benefited from the programme. V.M. Nayyar, Director, RUDSET, informed that a 30-day training programme on mobile phone repair would start from February 7. Joint campus drive As many as 55 students have got selected by Hinduja Leyland Finance Services Ltd in a joint campus drive held at Lovely Professional University (LPU). Thirtyfour of the selected students are from LPU itself. The students have got selected under three categories of jobs as sales executive trainee, service adviser and technicians. It had invited graduates, MBAs, diploma holders, B.Techs and M.Techs in mechanical engineering. Many students of ITIs of Rajasthan and Haryana had also attended the event. Farewell party A farewell party was organised at CJS Public School for Class XII students. Students of Class XI organised a cultural programme. Ridhi and Manav were chosen “Ms CJS” and “Mr CJS”, respectively, whereas the title of “Ms Charming” was clinched by Priyadarshani and “Mr Handsome” by Nitish of Class XII. Apeejay School Students of Apeejay School, Rama Mandi, gave farewell party to Class XII and X students. Himanshu Sharma of Class XII (non-medical) has been chosen “Mr Apeejay” and Manpreet Kaur of Class XII (medical) “Ms Apeejay”. Rajbir Singh Badh of Class XII (commerce) was declared “Mr Handsome” and Meera Verma of the same class “Ms Elegant”. Principal Madhu Sharma congratulated the winners. Police DAV A farewell function was organised at Police DAV Public School by XI students. The function started with a Punjabi dance by the host students. Mementos were distributed among students by Principal Dr Rashmi Vij. The students were awarded various titles: Kritika - “Miss Police DAV”, Mayank - “Mr Police DAV”.
	Welfare schemes in dist Rs 434. 95 lakh sanctioned Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 A sum of Rs 434. 95 lakh has been sanctioned for disbursal under various welfare schemes in the district. The sanction was given by Gurcharan Singh Channi, Chairperson of the District Planning Committee, at a meeting held here today. Senior officers were present on the occasion. Channi said Rs 395. 252 would be spent on old age, widow and other allied pension schemes. The remaining amount would be spent on welfare measures in the rural and urban area. It was the duty of the officials executing the schemes that they should not only spend the mount expeditiously, but also ensure that no harassment was caused to the beneficiaries. The user certificates should be submitted at the earliest, so that further grants could be availed well in time for such projects, he added. It had been noticed in many cases that the sanctioned amount was not used with the result that the cost overran and often overshoot the budget. This meant that the beneficiaries were left high and dry and did not get anything till the budget amount was revised in the next plan, he pointed out. In the case of unused grants for certain villages, the money should be returned back so that it could be used in other areas and it did not lapse, he added. He also appealed to the officers to closely monitor the ongoing projects in the villages so the quality of work did not suffer. Shoddy construction or siphoning of funds should be reported to the higher authorities at the first instance, he said. Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti also urged the officials to submit the user certificates of all the works in the district by February 28. In case of any irregularities by the panchayats, strict action should be taken against the erring sarpanches, he added. He also told those present that senior officers were conducting surprise checks of all anganwadi centres to ensure that the children were getting quality mid-day meals.
	DBA members a divided lot over Tricolour hoisting on R-Day Dharmendra Joshi Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 While the Tricolour was hoisted on the District Bar Association (DBA) premises for the first time in its history of 125 years on this Republic Day, the DBA has issued a show-cause notice to its senior vice- president advocate Sanjeev Kamboj to explain his conduct for arranging the function on January 26. DBA members have been divided over the issuance of show-cause notice to Kamboj for arranging the function to hoist the Tricolour. While DBA president advocate Ashok Gandhi, also a former district BJP chief, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts, its secretary Rajiv Kohli told The Tribune that show-cause notice had been issued to advocate Kamboj for his conduct as he did not informed both president and secretary about the function and he did not even invited the latter to the function. “We are not against hoisting the flag on the DBA premises,” he added. Kamboj said the decision of hoisting the flag had been taken in a few minutes and the advocates whose houses were close to the DBA premises were informed regarding the function. He added that he also tried to inform the DBA president by calling on his mobile phone but the latter failed to respond. Kamboj said being a local BJP leader, Ashok Gandhi should not raise any question on the function held to hoist the Tricolour, especially, when BJYM president Anurag Thakur, along with senior BJP leaders, had resolved to unfurl it in Srinagar. However, a former chairman of Punjab and Haryana Bar Council, advocate Navtej Singh Toor, welcomed the move to hoist the Tricolour on the DBA premises and said such programmes should be held on every Independence Day and Republic Day. DBA junior vice-president Pritpal Singh recorded his dissenting note in its executive committee meeting where the decision of issuing show-cause notice had been taken. Pritpal, who along with two executive members Damanjeet Singh and Deepak Jaitley, was also present during the ceremony, said his dissenting note was based on two grounds. Firstly, why a show-cause notice was being issued to only Kamboj, why not to all DBA members who were present during the function. Secondly, Kamboj had done nothing wrong by unfurling the Tricolour as every Indian citizen has the right to hoist it with respect under the National Flag Act and guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Kamboj said the show-cause notice should be withdrawn immediately.
	Seminar on media held Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 Media needs regulation, media is distorting language and affecting culture, media is serving corporate interests and media is a handmaid of the powerful were some of the divergent opinions discussed during the two-day-long UGC-sponsored seminar on “Impact of media on language” at Lyallpur Khalsa College. The seminar was organised by the Postgraduate Department of Punjabi and witnessed the participation of linguists, grammarians, intellectuals, scholars and teachers from across the region. During the seminar issues pertaining to changing scenario in language, linguistics and culture in the light of development of electronic and print media were discussed. While the impact of development of satellite channels, information technology and Internet on the language also came up in the seminar. Participants presented more than 40 research papers on different themes such as “Spread of media and cultural identity”, “Journey from Papyrus to Cyberspace”, “News reporting inducing culture of fear”, “Language change through Internet”, “Print media and social concerns”, and “Advertisement and Punjabi life style”. Former Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, Dr Joginder Singh Puar, former Editor of Punjabi Tribune Sidhu Damdami, Dr Ravinder Singh from Dyal Singh College University, New Delhi, Dr Ambarish, Senior Professor, Government Medical College, Amritsar, journalist Satnam Manak, eminent writer and journalist from Canada Shameel, Canada-based novelist Jagdev Nijjar and Principal of the college Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa spoke.
	ESIC opens sub-regional office in city Amaninder Pal/TNS Jalandhar, February 1 To provide rapid and transparent benefits to the beneficiaries of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the corporation today opened its sub-regional office in the city. The office was inaugurated today by the State Health Minister Prof Luxmi Kanta Chawla. The sub-regional office would be a boon for ESIC beneficiaries of Doaba and Majha region as it would provide services to over one lakh beneficiaries registered with the Amritsar, Chhehratta, Batala, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Jalandhar city and Jalandhar Focal Point centres of the corporation. This would shorten the clearance time of the treatment claim of the beneficiaries registered with these centres, as earlier all such claims had to be forwarded to the ESIC’s Chandigarh office for clearance. Now all such claim cases would be cleared at the sub-regional office. A Joint Director and two Deputy Director-level officers have been deputed at the office. Prof Chawla said the setting up of the office was the part of the policy of the corporation to decentralise its office network to provide rapid and transparent services to beneficiaries. She added that blood storage units would be developed in all ESIC-run hospitals of the state and exclusive Ayurvedic wings would also come up at such hospitals. She said Punjab topped the state’s list in implementing the national immunisation programme and was on second slot in implementing the no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) programme under the family planning programme. Dr Chayya Rani Gupta, Senior State Medical Officer, ESIC, Dr Bharat Bhushan, Regional Director, ESIC, Dr Ashok Nayyar, Director, Health Services, J.S. Dhanda, in charge, sub-office, Baldev Raj, Deputy Director, ESIC, and Dr S.K. Gupta, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, were present on the occasion.
	Robbers strike at Guru Amardas Colony Take away cash, valuables worth lakhs of rupees from a house Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 1 A gang of robbers struck at a house in Guru Amardas Colony on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway and decamped with cash and valuables worth lakhs of rupees in broad daylight today. The robbers came to the house of Lata Devi and introduced themselves as electricity meter readers. Narrating the sequence of events, Lata Devi said she, her daughter Shalu and son Rajat were at home when five turbaned persons reached the house on two motorcycles. One of them was wearing a khaki dress. The man wearing khaki dress took out a revolver and put it on Rajat’s temple, while the others demanded the key of the almirah. In the meantime, they took off the jewellery from Lata Devi and Shalu. They also broke open the almirah and decamped with valuables and cash, claimed Lata Devi. Before fleeing they tied one of the victims with a piece of cloth. Hearing their shrikes, the neighbours assembled at the house and the police was informed.