Sarabjit’s sister crosses over to Pak
Attari, June 6
Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian prisoner Sarabjit sister who is on death row in Pakistan, today crossed over to the neighbouring nation via the Attari-Wagah border.

Patiala, June 6
Dearth of facilities, finances and family problems could not dampen the spirit of local boy Rohit Rajdev who has topped the Punjab School Education Board Class XII examination, results of which were declared today.

A student of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Rohit has secured 95 per cent marks in commerce stream. He has stood first in his stream and is also the overall topper in the state.

Hailing from a low middle class family, he lives in a rented accommodation in Tripri, Patiala, with his family. His father Jagdish Rajdev works at a garment store while his mother Sangeeta Rajdev is a housewife.

Due to meager resources, Rohit’s relatives have been paying for his and his elder brother Robin’s studies. Robin is pursuing BTech from Thapar University, Patiala.

Overwhelmed by the result, Rohit said, “I have seen very tough times and am glad that I have finally made it. I wanted to study non-medical after Class X, but my parents couldn’t afford the expenses of my books and tuitions. Therefore, I opted for commerce.”

Dedicating his success to his parents and teachers, he said. “My teachers knew I cannot afford books, therefore they gave me their books to study. Moreover, watching my interest in studies, they even gave me personal attention and time.”

About his future plans, he said he wanted to do BCom from the Delhi University, followed by MBA from a good institute. “I want to find a good job soon after completing my studies so that I can provide all facilities to my parents who have struggled day and night to educate me and my brother.”

Rohit’s mother said they may not be able to send him to Delhi University for further studies as the family lacked finances. “We will have to see if we can manage the expenses with the help of our friends and relatives. Otherwise, we will certainly look for some another good option. Who does not want to give their kids the best education?” she added. 

Mohali, June 6
The pass percentage of students, both regular and private, has been logged at 72.71 per cent, indicating an improvement of 8 per cent in the Class XII results declared by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) here today.

Attributing the improvement in the pass percentage to the conduct of exams through the semester system, Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon, PSEB chairman, while declaring the result said the pass percentage was 66.67 per cent in 2009 and 64.69 per cent in 2010.

Of the total 2,67,953 students who appeared in the science, commerce, humanities and vocational streams, 1,94,823 cleared the exams.

Though boys have managed to bag the first position in the commerce and science streams, girls have taken the lion’s share by securing the maximum number of positions in the merit list of 217 students released by the PSEB. Even the pass percentage of girls was 81.89 per cent compared to boys who just managed to secure a pass percentage of 66.21 per cent.

Rohit Rajdev of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Patiala, has topped in the commerce stream in the state by securing 95 per cent marks.

Nihal Kumar of DAV Public Senior Secondary School, Ropar, has topped in the science stream by securing 94.9 per cent marks. Doing the girls proud is Diksha of Sanatan Dharam Senior Secondary School, Malout (Muktsar), who has secured 94.6 per cent marks in the humanities stream.

In the vocational stream, Amandeep Kaur of GSS, Ajnala (Amritsar), has been ranked 99th in merit list by securing 90.2 per cent marks. In the district-wise merit, Ludhiana has topped with 97 students figuring in the list of 217 students. Hoshiarpur and Amritsar have 24 and 21 students in the list, respectively.

PSEB chairman Dalbir Singh Dhillon said the detailed result, merit list and pass percentage would be available on board’s website www.pseb.ac.in. This is the first time that the result is being declared online.

Chandigarh, June 6
Seized by the urgency of nationalising a new policy on grain storage to ensure national food security as envisaged by the Food Security Bill, a meeting was held between representatives of the Planning Commission and the Punjab Government here to seek the state’s participation in adopting storage models.

Presenting its case, Punjab has demanded that the Union Government implements the steel silos model of storage in Punjab.

The meeting was held today between Dr JS Samra, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), who is representing the Planning Commission, and Punjab’s Food and Supply Minister Adesh Partap Singh.

It was emphasised that though Punjab is a major contributor of rice and wheat and tops the national pool, there is not enough storage space available in the state or outside to safely store the foodgrain.

The Planning Commission has suggested that the foodgrain should be stored in the consuming zones, whereas Punjab is demanding the setting up of steel silos in producing zones where they can serve both the objectives of a warehouse as well as a marketing zone.

It is estimated that 52 to 74 million tonnes of food storage space is required nationally to ensure food security as envisaged by the Food Security Bill.

The foodgrain produced annually invites a subsidy of Rs 69,000 to Rs 92,000 crore nationally. Hence, putting a reliable storage system in place will come up at only a fraction of this cost. Samra told The Tribune that procurement in India was around 55 million tonnes while the storage was a mere 30.6 million tonnes.

To preserve the foodgrain, there is an immediate need for scientific storage along with proper logistics and management techniques. Covered bags on plinth (CAP) can protect foodgrain only for a year or one rainy season and storage godowns can save it for 18 months. But steel silos can preserve foodgrain for three or more years.

Kairon enumerated to Samra the peculiar problems being faced by Punjab in terms of storage and suggested ways to remove these bottlenecks.

Secretary Food and Supply DS Grewal stressed on the need to have storage in Punjab rather than in consuming states as the Food Corporation of India (FCI) looked at the quality of foodgrain at the time of lifting from storage facilities and often rejected improperly stored foodgrain.

This is the second meeting of the Planning Commission with Punjab. Earlier, a team of the commission had discussed the proposed storage policy with the state government on May 7 where it was suggested that there was an urgent need for scaling, upgrading, improving and diversifying storage in the marketed surplus production zones.

It was suggested that since the entire harvesting process is completed in 20 to 25 days due to mechanised harvesting, it is impossible to move stocks out of Punjab quickly. Therefore, scientific storage was the only viable option. 

Mohali, June 6
Punjab Health and Welfare Minister Satpal Gosain has directed his department's officers to display his telephone number and also the numbers of the Principal Secretary Health, Director Health Services, Civil Surgeon and Block Senior Medical Officer on the notice board outside the hospitals and the dispensaries.

The facility would help the patients and their attendants to register their complaints and suggestions directly at the telephone numbers. The minister who was at the State Institute of Health and Family Planning to chair the civil surgeons' conference said corruption would not be tolerated at any level. He directed that the hospitals should be checked regularly and in case, any irregularity was found, the civil surgeons of the district and SMO concerned would be held responsible for the same.

He also told the officers to take efficient steps to check food adulteration and illegal sale of habit-forming drugs.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander said, "As nearly 90 per cent of the patients coming in the government hospitals for treatment are poor, the senior officers should ensure that the doctors and other staff members in the hospitals extend proper care to the patients."

Principal Secretary (Health) Satish Chandra directed the civil surgeons to conduct intensive tours and hold meetings with the staff at the grassroots level to provide better health services. He asked them to give due priority to the delivery cases and said proper awareness should be created through media, group meetings and other ways regarding the free services being given by the government.

Others present at the meeting were NRHM director Krishan Kumar, Director (Health and Family Welfare, Punjab) Dr Ashok Nayyar and Director (Family Welfare) Dr JP Singh.

New Delhi, June 6
At a time when Law Minister M Veerappa Moily is pushing for reducing the average life span of court cases from 17 years to two years, at least 500 persons who had joined the Punjab Civil Secretariat as clerks have been fighting for seniority for over 30 years, despite the fact that most of them have already retired.

The seniority controversy had cropped up soon after a batch of clerks was appointed in 1975-76. When the services of the clerks were regularised on April 1, 1977, as many as 73 of them approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1980 seeking inclusion of their ad hoc service in the seniority period.

They fought the case in the HC for 11 years before a single- judge Bench ruled in their favour on December 6, 1991. The state government challenged this verdict but lost the case before a Division Bench of the HC in January 1993 and then in the SC in July 1993.

Even after this, the state government was reluctant to enforce the December 6 order of the HC, forcing the affected employees to file a contempt petition in the HC in 1993. This prompted the government to re-draw the seniority list in compliance with the court order and issue an office order in January 1994.

But the government order came to be challenged by another set of employees affected by the modified seniority list. The affected persons had joined after the 1975-76 batch but were enjoying seniority as they did not put in any ad hoc service. In the three petitions filed by them in 1994-95, they contended that the government had redrawn the seniority list without giving them an opportunity to present their viewpoints.

The fresh round of litigation initiated in the HC by the affected employees lasted about 16 years. On January 5 this year, a single-judge Bench of the HC ruled in their favour, effectively overturning the SC verdict which had benefited the other set of employees.

About 200 of them have now challenged this ruling in the SC. After hearing the pleadings of senior counsel PS Patwalia and Pragati Neekhra, a vacation Bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar today issued a notice to the state government and 300 other respondents. Only eight petitioners are still in service. The others have retired. The outcome of the case in the SC would have an impact on the retired employees’ pension.

Patiala, June 6
Accusing the district administration of not initiating steps to control the menace of stray dogs and cattle in the city, the Society for Peoples’ Welfare and Awareness Patiala (SPWAP), an NGO, has given an ultimatum to the authorities to act within a month’s time, failing which it will resort to protest from July 1.

After having deliberations on the issue, during the general body meeting of the society, held under the leadership of its chairman KS Jatana, it has been decided to send a last reminder to the MC, requesting the civic officials to put an end to the said menace.

Giving further details, Jatana said, “The district administration and the MC have failed to understand the gravity and seriousness of the situation. The stray dogs not only lead to accidents, but also pose threat to the kids playing on the streets.” He further said the MC authorities have miserably failed to make the 1city free from the menace of the stray cattle. “The situation indicates that the problem is acquiring alarming proportions and is also leading to road mishaps,” he added.

Secretary General of the society Dr DS Bhullar claimed that during the past few months, they have sent several requests to the authorities, but to no avail. “The stray dogs can be seen any time roaming on the city streets and those who are victims of the dog bite have to undergo expensive and painful treatment. The problem requires urgent attention, but unfortunately neither the MC nor the administration is serious to end the problem,” said Dr Bhullar.

SPWAP members demanded that Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, should intervene and instruct the district administration authorities and civic officials to take immediate measures to control the menace.

“The society has also sent a request letter to the Punjab State Human Right Commission (PSHRC) to intervene in the matter,” said Jatana.

Chandigarh, June 6
Social Security and Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla on today visited three anganwari centres at Sampli and Pamour villages in Fatehgarh Shaib district and took a serious note of the shortcomings there.Chawla directed her department officials to fix the upper age limit of workers and helpers immediately as at one of the centres, one of the workers was found to be hearing impaired while the other was above 70.

The centres, it is learnt, were found lacking in proper seating arrangements for children and nutritious food for pregnant women.

Meanwhile, the Minister said the state would follow the pattern of Gujarat as far as juvenile homes were concerned. She said she had recently visited such homes in Gujarat and found that children were provided with educational, medical and recreational facilities to ensure all-round development. 

Patiala, June 6
Patiala has issued the maximum number of challans in the state for violation of the Tobacco Control Act-2003 since October 2008. Civil Surgeon Dr Japinder Kaur said concerted team effort had brought desired results in checking the menace of smoking and tobacco chewing at the public places.

Giving details of the challans, nodal officer Dr Vikas Goyal informed that 2,144 challans were issued in Punjab since the Tobacco Control Act- 2003 came into force in 2008 and a total fine of Rs 2,10,000 was collected.

“Out of this, 520 challans were issued in Patiala alone and a fine of Rs 43,000 was collected. Smoking was not very popular in Punjab till five years back because of religious sentiments, but down the years, the trend of smoking and tobacco chewing has started picking up due to multiple reasons. Therefore, we have been conducting raids time and again to check the sale of tobacco,” he said.

Talking about various steps being taken by the department in this regard, Dr Goyal said the department was keeping a check on all the public places, especially bus stand and railway station to check this practice. “We have put up smoke-prohibition hoardings in almost all the public offices and are very strict that no one should smoke within 100 yards of any educational institution. There is a need to apprise adolescents and people from low social groups aware regarding this social evil so that they don’t fall prey to it,” he said.

Chandigarh, June 6
The Punjab Government today sanctioned Rs 122 crore to enable the Irrigation Department to complete flood protection measures before the onset of the monsoon in the state.

Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon said the amount would be spent on strengthening the 1,198-km-long embankments, training 3,800 workers and de-silting the 7,233-km-long drainage system. Of the total amount, Rs 101 crore had been sanctioned from NABARD.

Sekhon said the government had already sanctioned 19 projects under the Rural Infrastructure and Development Fund of NABARD to save the southwestern districts of Punjab from flood fury. He said work on 14 projects had already been completed while that on the remaining five was nearing completion. — TNS