Developing path of self-employment for rural youth
Rural Self Employment Training Institute — funded by Centre and run by Punjab National Bank — inaugurated
Amritsar, March 25
From preparing traditional local eatables, like pappar and warrian, to hi-tech computer and mobile repair courses, the rural youth would be equipped with several skills to promote self-employment opportunities.

Amritsar, March 25
Even as Amritsar falls in the high-risk seismic zone (seismic zone IV), the city’s preparation on tacking disasters is pathetic.

To start with, the fire brigade has been crying hoarse for last over a decade for its overall upgradation.

At present, besides severe staff crunch, the department is left with outdated fire dousing equipments to handle emergencies.

In case of any fire eruption in the high-rise buildings in the city, the fire brigade staff would prove a failure that could eventually lead to huge loss of life and property.

The four fire brigade offices are running from dilapidated buildings.

“In case of earthquake, perhaps it would be the fire brigade staff which would lose their men under the debris of its office building,” quipped an official of the fire brigade staff requesting anonymity.

He revealed that at present there is only 25 per cent staff available with the department while remaining posts are lying vacant for past many years.

The repeated requests to fill the posts have fallen in deaf ears and in the name of equipments they have just eight fire tenders against the requirement of 25-30 fire tenders for the densely populated holy city especially the old walled city.

The department, for a number of times, raised its concern with the government but nothing has been done so far.

“Frankly speaking we are not even equipped to extinguish the fire erupted in the high rise buildings,” said the officer.

The civil defense which forms an important part for the rehabilitation and relief work in case of any eventuality is almost ‘dead’.

It did not have staff, infrastructure or equipments for carrying out relief work.

“It’s the lack of will on part of the all the authorities and departments concerned with the people are also to be blamed for this,” pointed out R S Ahluwalia, district coordinator of the disaster management. A few departments have done something in this direction but then they don’t have proper coordination, he said.

There are many unsafe buildings especially in the walled city and municipal corporation should demolish them as per the law. Besides it should not allow the buildings which are not earthquake proof, he added.

As far as the health services, the hospitals are only equipped to handle emergencies like road mishaps. “We are only prepared to handle emergency services such as road accidents in which the number of injured persons is up to 100.

“But in case of mass casualties during the earthquakes or any other natural disaster we are not equipped at all,” said Civil Surgeon, Dr Chandanjit Singh Kondal.

Deputy Commissioner, Kahan Singh Pannu said that the district administration was serious about the subject and its proper implementation. He said it has prepared a disaster management manual in this regard which would be implemented soon. He said the administration have written to the government for procuring fire brigade equipments besides other basic apparatus for handling any eventuality.

“We have also asked the Municipal Corporation to demolish the unsafe building in the city that poses a great danger to life besides asking them to not to pass the maps for buildings which do not adhere to earthquake resistant norms,” said Pannu.

Answering the query regarding existing high rise buildings, he said retrofitting could save such buildings from any major harm during earthquakes. But then we don’t have any law to ask the owners of the buildings to go for retrofitting in their complexes. However, he appealed the people to do so in better interest of life and property.

Amritsar, March 25
Local textile manufacturing units are facing umpteen problems with rise in cost of raw material, levying of excise taxes, increase in security for getting new power connection, delay in release of capital subsidy and workers agitation.

Already the small-scale industrial units here are awaiting the capital subsidy of 30 per cent of fixed capital investment as announced by the state government in 2003. Levying of excise came as a rude shock, said an industrialist P.L. Seth.

As per the policy, the government had also announced to make annual budgetary allocation of Rs 25 crore to be distributed as capital subsidy on quarterly basis.

Besides, the state government failed to honour its another subsidy on freight charges also. The government had announced freight subsidy for export oriented units in 1996.

However, H.S Makhni, General Secretary, Textile Manufacturers’ Association (TMA), alleged that the state government failed to allocate this budget to boost the sagging border industry. He said countless representation had been given to the concerned authorities but of no avail. He said many entrepreneurs encouraged by the government’s announcement had mortgaged their assets to start new units. Earlier, this border had got a severe set-back during terrorism.

On the other hand, Punjab’s textile business was facing a severe shortage of technically-skilled hands as technical educational institutes in the state were churning out students taught with obsolete courses.

Though regular power supply still remains a distant goal yet the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) increased the security on getting new connection for the manufacturing units.

The TMA demanded that the limit of SSI units be raised from Rs five crore to Rs 10 crore as the prices of land, machinery and other material had skyrocketed in the last decade.

Amritsar, March 25
From preparing traditional local eatables, like pappar and warrian, to hi-tech computer and mobile repair courses, the rural youth would be equipped with several skills to promote self-employment opportunities.

For the purpose, Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI) was formally inaugurated at Mallian village, about 20 km from here, today.

Funded by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, under the Entrepreneurship Development Programme, the institute is being run by Punjab National Bank. Temporarily the centre is being run from the village gurdwara. Over 125 applicants approached the RSETI on its inaugural day. Majority of these candidates came from the below poverty line families.

Of these, 25 would be short-listed for the maiden course of developing their skills in preparing pappar and warrian, and items used during marriages like sehra, kaliray and churrah..

With a view to find trainers from varied fields, a 16-member local advisory committee was formed with members drawn from the district administration, ITI, polytechnics, district, industry centre, district employment officer and NGOs. They would assist in arranging and providing requisite skilled masters in these vocations to train the candidates. The RSETI would pay these masters from Rs 200 to Rs 700 per day as per the guidelines of the ministry.

Candidates from 18 to 45 years age group having passed middle, matriculation and even illiterate could enroll in the programme.

The government has approved 64 courses which would be 30 days to 45 days duration. The trained candidates would be given bank loans on priority. Besides, the professional needs, and troubles of the trained candidates would be looked after for the next two years. The candidates would be offered free of cost boarding and lodging.

Besides, the RSETI would also hold orientation programme for 850 loan beneficiaries from the BPL families, who took advances during 2010-2011 fiscal, for motivating them to pursue their vocation vigorously.

KS Pannu, Deputy Commissioner, who presided over the function, said the ministry released a grant of Rs one crore for the centre. He added the ministry planned to establish these rural self-employment training institute in each district across the country.

Harpal Singh, Deputy General Manager, Circle Head, PNB, Amritsar, informed that his bank had taken an acre of land for 33-year lease from the Gram Panchayat Mallian against an annual rent of Rs 40,000 with 10 per cent annual increase.

The land is located on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road where a state-of-the-art building equipped with a lecture hall, laboratory, and residential arrangements for staff and candidates would be constructed.

Among others Harpal Singh, Deputy General Manager, Circle Head, Punjab National Bank Amritsar, Rakesh Kumar Deputy CEO Zila Parishad, N.K. Gupta, AGM, PNB, Jatinder Mankotia, Chief Lead District Manager, Baldev Singh, Sarpanch Mallian, Paramjit Kaur, Block Development Project Officer, Jandiala Guru and senior officials from various Banks, government departments and agencies attended the programme. Sarpanches and dwellers of surrounding villages also took part in the programme.

Amritsar, March 25
People should not ignore the continuous headache as it could be life threatening leading to brain haemorrhage and strokes. The immediate treatment for such patients becomes an important part in the absence of which about 20 per cent patients lose their lives.

Usually such patients were recommended with operation involving high risk to life. But now the new technique called aneurysm coiling, introduced first time in the state, could prove to be life saving for such patients.

While introducing the technique, Dr Rohit Kapoor along with Dr Sandeep Sharma, vascular surgeon, pointed out that “the demand for immediate treatment of neuro-vascular patients is very high in our country, as the numbers of patients are increasing daily.”

They said headaches and strokes are the most common symptoms for underlying neuro-vascular problem and timely diagnosis and expert consultation can prevent future complication that can be life threatening.

Detailing about the technique, Dr Sharma said coil treatment is a minimally invasive technique for reliably treating brain aneurysms through a small puncture of an artery in the groin. From there, a fine tube (microcatheter) is pushed within the blood vessels and navigated into the aneurysm. Extremely soft, flexible platinum coils are then deposited within the aneurysm. The final result is filling of the aneurysm sac with clots mixed with coils. The recovery time in this is two-three days unlike in surgery (two-four weeks), he added.

Amritsar, March 25
Taking a cue from the ongoing Jat agitation, the All-India Vimukat Jatis (de-notified tribes) Sewak Sangh has renewed its demand seeking the scheduled tribe status for 193 tribes and nomadic groups.

Baldev Raj, national advisor to the sangh, announced that the members of the organisation from across the country would gather in New Delhi on August 31 to make their demands heard.

He warned that they would resort to agitation if their demands weren’t met. “Of the 193 tribes, 43 were declared as backward classes while the rest of them were clubbed in the scheduled caste category on August 31, 1952, in Parliament,” said Baldev Raj.

He said, “The segregation of the vimukat jatis was not justified and hence we demand ST status for all of them.”

He said about 15 crore people belonging to these tribes were residing in the country, including 25 lakh in Punjab. Baldev Raj said, “We also demand that the Union Government allocates separate funds for the socio-economic development of the vimukat jatis in the five-year plans.”

He recalled that separate allocation of funds had been made in the first three five-year plans only.

He said these communities needed greater allocation of funds as school dropout rate was very high and majority of them were living in slum areas of the city.

He informed that his organization had held a rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on March 14 and gave a representation to Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik.

Amritsar, March 25
“The success of Grahmeen Bank in Bangladesh as the best model of social entrepreneurship is yet to be seen in India. In the absence of proper regulation of the micro finance system here, there emerged “loan sharks” in the country which is undesirable", opined Dr. M.S. Hundal, Dean, College Development Council of the Guru Nanak Dev University while inaugurating a 2- Day Workshop on the "Future of Social Entrepreneurship in India", at GNDU campus here.

While introducing the theme of the workshop, its director Dr. Anjali Mehra told that more than 150 participants from different parts of the country have been taking part in this workshop, being organized by the School of Social Sciences.

Delivering the key-note address, Prof. Sampati Guha from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, said that liberalization has promoted industrialization-led- development in India which has resulted in increasing inequalities among Indian population. Quoting Roderick, Prof. Guha said "Openness of the economy has widened the income and wealth disparities which have rendered population highly marginalized, and there is need to look for the alternative to industrialization led development".

She further emphasized that there is greater need to work with state and the market to find out the solution of people’s problems. “Addressing these problems through charity or philanthropy or voluntarism would not be of much help. Social entrepreneurs can bring systematic positive social change by building local capacity that alters the local norms, by developing tools and resources for transforming economic process of development and by building local movements to challenge the system and help marginalized section of people to establish their rights, further said Prof. Samapati Guha.

In the technical sessions, besides scholars of International repute like Prof. Sampati Guha and Prof. Bino Paul from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Ms. Amita Dahiya, National Coordinator UNV, UNDP, New Delhi, Prof. Subhash Chander renowned Management Specialists and Prof. Gurpreet Bal, a renowned Sociologist from GNDU Campus also shared their views with regard to the importance of Social Entrepreneurship in the country.

Representatives of NGO 'Pratham' Brij Kaul and Payal Randhawa from ‘Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation’ also shared their practical experiences of having worked as Social Entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, G.S. Bajwa, Dr. Rajesh Kumar, and Dr. Nitin Arora also spoke on this occasion.

Amritsar, March 25
A 2-days UGC-sponsored national seminar-cum-workshop on “New Horizons of Socio-Legal Research Methodology” organised by Guru Nanak Dev University was inaugurated here today.

This seminar was organised by the Laws Department of the university.

More than 80 scholars from Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra and Haryana participated in this seminar and presented their research papers on socio-legal research methodology.

In brief, the research scholars highlighted the importance of identification and formulation of research methodology, hypotheses, review of literature, tools of data collection, foot notes, bibliography, curves, graphs and other advanced methods of research methodology.

Prof Mohd Afzal Wani in his keynote address, said Socrates and Guru Nanak Dev did not attend any school or college but their thoughts have brought revolutionary changes in the thoughts of this world.

He exhorted the research scholars and students to develop their own research methodology. “Do your own experiments and draw new conclusions”, he said.

Prof Gurdip Singh Bahri in his presidential remarks said research methodology has changed entirely due to the innovations of science and technology.

He said now the databases are available on the internet which has changed the research methodology.

Dr Thukral desired that one chapter of law for common man should also be taught in the schools.

Prof Rajinder Pawar, Dean, Faculty of Law, said research was a continuing process. She stated that we have introduced research methodology in LLB syllabus of this university for providing training to the students in learning research methodology in the field of law.

She said contribution of jurists is unprecedented in developing the law according to the needs of the changing society. 

Amritsar, March 25
“Everyone must harvest rainwater and make the required efforts to replenish the falling water table of Punjab,” was the crux of the two-day national seminar on “Environmental analysis and remediation” organised by the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University, which concluded here.

Dr Mini Bajaj, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, highlighted the problem of selenium (Se) in some parts of Punjab. She discussed about the influence of long-term irrigation with Se-burdened groundwater on the total Se concentration in the top soil profile and the potential role of microbes in selenium mobility.

Dr Geeta Sharma, Assistant Professor, University of Jammu, gave an oral presentation on the differential chromosome behaviour in male and female sex cells of some Allium species.

The post-tea session was coordinated by Dr Satwinderjit Kaur and chairpersons for the occasion were Dr D.S. Arora and Prof Neelu Sood. Prof Promila Pathak, Panjab University, Chandigarh, presented a talk on orchids and their importance in the ecosystem. In this session. three oral presentations were made by teachers of the University of Jammu, namely Dr Namrata Sharma, Dr Veenu Kaul and Dr. Jyoti Vakhlu.

The valedictory session was coordinated by Dr A.S. Soodan of the department wherein the chief guest, Barinderjit Singh, Chief Engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Patiala, was extended a floral welcome by the head of the department, Dr Saroj Arora.

In his valedictory address, he highlighted the current scenario of environment and degradation of air quality in Punjab. This was followed by the declaration of results for the best poster presentation by Prof G.S. Virk of the department.

The first position was bagged by Pritika Singh, Ashutosh Sharma and P.K.Patti, Department of Biotechnology, GND University. The second prize was awarded to Talwinder Kaur, Amarjeet Kaur and Rajesh Kumari Manhas, Department of Microbiology, GND University. The third prize went to Beetika Kohli and Veenu Kaul, Department of Botany, University of Jammu.

Two motivational prizes were also given away on the occasion. The first was given to Mukesh Kanwar, Sikander Chaudhary, Priya Arora, Suboth Kumar, A.K. Saxena and Renu Bhardwaj, Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, GND University. The other one went to Nishant Saxena, Rumani Singh, Tetsuro Ishii, Renu Wadhwa and Sunil Kaul of the AIST, Japan.

The vote of thanks was presented by Director of Research Prof A.K. Thukral. Prof Avinash Kaur Nagpal, Prof Renu Bhardwaj, Dr Jatinder Kaur, Rajinder Kaur, Manpreet Singh Bhatti, Bhupinder Pal Singh and Dr Rajbir Singh were present. All the chairpersons, invited speakers and chief guests were honoured by the head and faculty of the department with mementos. 

Amritsar, March 25
The maiden batch of super-50, being run in Khalsa College Public School for preparing students crack entrance examination of ambitious Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), completed its first year.

A brainchild of Prof. A.S Brar, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, the academy is being financed by the state government.

Principal, Khalsa College Public School, Dr Sarvjit Kaur Brar, who is looking after the Super-50, informed that second batch of this course would start from 1st June 2011 and for this entrance test would be held on May 25 2011.

She said under the project another batch of 50 meritorious students would be selected through a State Level Entrance Test. All these students hail from economically backward and rural based families. Some of the students would have dropped out from schools after completing their 10th due to their financial and social constraints.

Dr Brar was satisfied with the hard work of these students and sounded positive for them getting admission in IITs and other reputed engineering colleges. She said that under the project all these students were being provided free schooling, boarding, lodging and other facilities like uniform and books etc.

She said that apart from regular studies, sports and cultural activities; these students are also encouraged for their holistic development.

She added that with a view to provide parental and individual attention to these students three teachers each for girls and boys have been appointed as guardians. Vice Chancellor, GNDU, Prof. A.S. Brar also interact with teachers and keep them abreast with the latest national and international development in the field of education. Noble Laureates Prof. Richard Ernst, from E.T.H., Switzerland and Prof. Alex Pines, from University of Berkely, U.S.A, Mandeep Singh Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Punjab, Dr. Bhattacharya, professor from U.S.A, held interactive session with the students to motivate and encourage them to achieve their goal.

Amritsar, March 25
The Amritsar division of Excise and Taxation Department, which looks after three border districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur, earned Rs 25.19 crore from the non-refundable fee deposited along with 14,469 applications. The draw of lots for liquor vends was held on March 21 at respective districts. However, the draw of lots for liquor vends falling in the Amritsar Municipal Corporation would be held on April 25. The area could not qualify for the draw of lots in the absence of minimum requisite number of applicants.

Profit from the non-refundable fee surged by Rs 2.55 crore this year. Last year, the revenue earned was Rs 22.64 crore. Divisional Excise and Taxation Commissioner Ram Lal said following an increase in the license fee from last year’s Rs 146 to Rs 179 this year his department anticipated the revenue to rise accordingly. — TNS