Jalandhar, May 19
Following the dropping of Manoranjan Kalia from the Local Bodies Ministry, the already pending projects of the Municipal Corporation (MC) are likely to get further delayed.

The various projects, including the starting of the sports hub at Burlton Park and solid waste management project at Pholariwal village, which are lying at the technical proposal stage, may take a few more months to get started. Some insiders believe that these pet projects of the former minister may not even get commissioned for the term of the existing government is coming to a close.

The opening of the already accomplished project of the DAV College flyover, which was expected anytime this month, is also bound to get delayed by at least another fortnight. “The new minister, Tikshan Sood, needs time to settle down. Moreover, the CM and Deputy CM have put off all engagements for the time being owing to the ill-health of Surinder Kaur Badal (CM’s wife),” officials of the B&R Department in the MC revealed.

Certain projects lying midway are also likely to get slowed down. The renovation of Nehru Garden, which lies in front of Kalia’s residence, which is already going at a snail’s pace is likely to get stuck up again. The contractor had asked for an advance payment from the MC, which had been approved by the government but with a rider that it would be paid with interest. The contractor has expressed disagreement, owing to which further delay is bound to happen.

There also are speculations that some senior rung officials in the MC who are close to Kalia would shortly have to move, which would further scuttle the progress.

Political observers point out that such a changeover in the important ministry in the last stage of the ruling government would come as a big blow to the BJP. While at this stage the projects should have got expedited, things are instead getting delayed, they point out. Some have even raised the point that it was after nine years that the Local Bodies Department was going to a minister from outside Jalandhar.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary K.D. Bhandari said he and Mayor Rakesh Rathour were planning to meet Tikshan Sood at Hoshiarpur this weekend. “Our agenda would be to apprise him of the status of the ongoing important projects, including Domoria Overbridge and Burlton Park sports hub, so that these are taken up on priority,” he informed.

Jalandhar, May 19
It’s celebration time for students who emerged toppers in the ICSE Board exams in the city. The results of Class X and XII were declared on May 17.

Among Class X achievers were the students of St Joseph’s Convent School and St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School for Boys, Jalandhar.

It was Sukhsehaj Kaur who stood first in the state and the district by scoring 97 per cent followed by Viveksheel who got 95.8 per cent and Bhavneet Singh and Ashvjit Singh Bawa who jointly scored 95 per cent.

Sukhsehaj Kaur, a student of St Joseph Convent School Girl, was on cloud nine mentioning her above 95 per cent marks in all seven subjects.

“I worked very hard and without any break. Though I was sure about a good score, becoming a state ICSE topper was actually a dream come true,” she said.

Sukhsehaj has already taken admission in Class XI at BN Model School in Chandigarh and started taking coaching for IIT entrance.

Viveksheel, a student of St Joseph Senior Secondary School for Boys, who stood second in the district, said he wished to become a doctor and specialise in the field of cardiology.

Bhavneet Singh and Ashvjit Singh Bawa, who jointly shared the third position, had one aim in common. The duo wanted to become computer software engineers. Bhavneet finds the field of computer too interesting to resist and Ashvjit is inspired by the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. “I would rather love to become a computer software engineer instead of following the path of medical,” Ashvjit Singh Bawa.

Among the Class XII toppers were Jaspreet Singh, also a student of St Joseph Convent School Boys, who stood first in the non-medical stream with 92.5 per cent. Edwin Paul and Anju, both students of medical stream, bagged first position in the same school with 86.7 per cent. In the commerce stream Nitashu Pandey stood first with 75.7 per cent marks.

Nakodar, May 19
The police officials visited Rupewal Mandi, a melon market, near Shahkot in Nakodar, and instructed the farmers not to disrupt traffic by parking their vehicles on the roads.

Such traffic violations would not be tolerated, the police said.

SHO Onkar Singh Brar, while giving instructions to the farmers, said if the police would legal action against the erring farmers. It is pertinent to mention here that due to ongoing season of melon and water melon crop, farmers often cause traffic jams. One of the farmers said more than 500 trolleys of melon come to the mandi from the adjoining villages daily and due to the shortage of space in the mandi, farmers are forced to park their vehicle on the roadside.

Phagwara, May 19
The Doctors Federation of India (Docsfed) has demanded a CBI probe into the functioning of the National Rural Health Mission, Punjab, and decided to file a petition with the Lokpal to get the acts of omissions and commissions investigated.

This was announced by Docsfed president Dr DC Sharma in a press release issued here on Saturday.

He alleged that there have been number of scams in the Punjab Health Department, especially in the centrally-funded National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), whose funds were misused during the past four years when Laxmi Kanta Chawla was the Health Minister.

Dr Sharma said most of the kids in the state remained without doses of Vitamin-A (provided free of cost by Central Government) during 2007-2009, yet State Immunisation Officer Dr VK Goyal instead of getting punished was recommended for a state award by the Health Department and was also given one-year reemployment on contract after he retired in 2009.

He was shunted out after few months when the Council of Ministers, refused to accord sanction to his re-employment. The same officer had been also the State PNDT Officer during that period. Despite the skewed Sex Ratio in the state, the enforcement of the PC & PNDT ( Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act, had been poorest during these four years, from 2007-08 onwards.

He also alleged that the enforcement of the PNDT Act was nil for three consecutive years from 2007-10 in the home district of the Health Minister, yet the then Civil Surgeon of Amritsar, Dr Lehmbar Singh was appointed as Director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation, on contract basis after retirement in 2010.

Sharma said he was given extension in his contract for one year more, which has been cancelled under the orders of the Chief Minister, due to strong protests from the PCMS-I Association.

Earlier, two other retired PCMS-I doctors, Dr Sat Pal Sharma and Dr DS Gill, were given re-employment on contract after superannuation, against all service rules.

Besides this, there have been several scams during these four years. There was a Sex Ratio Survey Scam where payments were made for an allegedly fudged survey report. The Facilities Survey Scam reported by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) where Rs 1.5 crore was paid without any proof of the original survey, the multi-crore Medicinal Plants Subsidy Scam where subsidies were paid to non-existent farmers as per report of the CAG, the ANMs Recruitment Scam in Ludhiana district in which about one crore of the NRHM funds were misused, the Purchase Scams in NRHM, the Doctors Recruitment Scam (doctors recruited directly by the Health Department without the PPSC).

Jalandhar, May 19
Punjab Technical University (PTU) started a two-week training programme on “Advanced digital signal processing” for the teachers of its affiliated colleges on Monday. The programme is being organised in collaboration with the National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh.

Through the workshop the participants would learn the use of new methods of teaching. Various experts from the IIT, New Delhi, IIT, Roorkee, and NITTTR are imparting training to teachers. About 25 lecturers are participating in the programme as trainees.

Dr K.M. Rastogi, Deputy Director, NITTTR, and Prof S.S. Patnayak, NITTTR, educated teachers about the use of projectors and digital equipment to cover the syllabus. Dr S. Parkaria delivered lecture on “Teaching with techniques”.

Special feature of the programme is that its video coverage is being relayed directly to various institutions.

Jalandhar, May 19
With mercury level rising, chances of various skin, eye and gastroenterological diseases loom large. Doctors claim that threat of diseases would persist over the entire summer season, though the severity would vary with the variation in the temperature.

Eyes, one of the most sensitive organs, are at greater risk owing to dry hot air. “The hot air cause rapid dryness of the protective moist layer, continuously formed around the eyeball. This sometimes proves detrimental to the general health of eyes and cause massive irritation in the eyes. The situation would remain so until the temperature come down in monsoons,” said senior ophthalmologist Dr Sachin Walia.

Senior ENT surgeon Dr Sanjeev Sharma said besides other general diseases of the ENT, chances of sudden profuse bleeding from nose (epistaxis) increases in this season due to high temperature. Chances are high among children and old age persons.

Dr Sharma said even those who have to stay long in the AC rooms were also prone to epistaxis. Chances of epistaxis are also high in persons suffering from high blood pressure, said Dr Sharma.

Dr Ashwani Gupta, skin specialist at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, said chances of skin rashes and sun burns due to high temperature and comparative high exposure to ultraviolet rays increases during this season. Gupta added that various fungal infections also start appearing during this season due to accumulation of sweat in the various body parts, especially in the obese persons.

Regarding malaria, dengue and gastro diseases, senior epidemiologist Dr TP Singh said so far the situation is under control. However, the threat of such diseases would increase in monsoon season when the load of sewer grid would increase due to rain and excessive use of water in households.

He, however, added that the teams of health workers and supervisors were already put on alert to deal with any threat posed by such diseases in near future.

Jalandhar, May 19
A seminar on “Protection of Human Rights Act-1993” was held for the staff members of Cantonment Board Boys Senior Secondary School, Jalandhar Cantonment here on Thursday.

Former DGP, Vigilance, Punjab State Electricity Board, Lalit Bhatia was the chief guest.

He highlighted the need and role of human rights in the civil society.

Lalit Bhatia also spoke at length on various duties and functions of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in safeguarding the human rights under various circumstances.

Phagwara, May 19
In a brave act, a woman, identified as Basanti, stopped a thief from stealing a bag that contained gold ornaments and a laptop.

Basanti was passing by a bank when she saw a youth stealing a bag breaking the windowpane of a parked car, owned by Rajneesh Mahey. Raising an alarm, she caught the youth. Though the youth after a minor scuffle managed to flee, he dropped the bag.