The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Cong wants united fight against feuding Badals Balwant Garg Tribune News Service Gidderbaha, November 18 If earlier, in all likelihood it was Congress-versus Akalis in Gidderbaha at the hustings, the coming assembly elections will witness a multi-cornered contest in this assembly constituency. After contesting and winning all four elections from Gidderbaha seat since 1995, Manpreet is faced with a daunting task of staging a comeback for a fifth term, though after his departure from SAD (B). Though Manpreet has high stakes in Gidderbaha but as the coming elections will determine Manpreet’s political future, so the SAD (B) is doing everything possible to turn the tables on the former finance minister. And in this Badal versus Badal intense political fight in Gidderbaha, the Congress is also leaving nothing to chance in reaping the electoral harvest in this family feud among the Badals. The body language of the Congress party’s leaders who organised a political rally in Gidderbaha on Thursday, exudes confidence and the party supporters are optimistic of winning the seat after 20 years break. As the Congress party’s leaders went to the hustings a divided house in 2007 elections, this time they are in a mood to give a ‘united’ fight to the ‘divided’ Akalis. In the last one week when the Congress party leaders of Gidderbaha were organising village-level meetings in the area to mobilise the people for the party rally on November 17, they faced very discomfiting questions from the party supporters for indulging in leg-pulling during the elections. “So, to win the confidence of the party workers, we are holding the ‘ardas’ and taking oath that the party leaders will wholeheartedly support the party candidate,” said Gurdas Girdhar, Congress president, Muktsar district. In 2007 assembly elections, Congress candidate Raghubir Singh faced a tough contest not from the SAD (B) candidate Manpreet but also from the Congress dissident Sant Singh Brar who contested as an independent. While Manpreet got 53,111 votes, the Congress candidate and the dissident had polled 34,283 and 28,177 votes, respectively. “Had te Congress leaders contested unitedly, the party would have won the election. Learning from the past mistakes and trying not to repeat them, we are taking solemn oath in the gurudwara not to oppose the party candidate,” said Gursant Singh Brar, a senior party leader in Muktsar. During a meeting with party supporters in Kauni village, Raghubir Singh, Sant Brar and many other party leaders took a solemn oath in the village gurudwara not to oppose the party candidate. While the Congress leaders are radiating confidence this time, the ruling SAD(B) is leaving nothing to chance for this prestigious seat this time. While Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is on a whirlwind tour of Gidderbaha and Lambi constituency for the last one week, daily holding 10-12 Sangat Darshan programmes, next week, Harsimrat Kaur Badal is also reaching the constituency to start a series of political rallies to muster support.
	Battle to make Rahul PM to begin from Punjab Sushil Goyal Tribune News Service Bathinda, November 18 The battle for making Rahul Gandhi, the Prime Minister of the country in 2014, will begin from Punjab with the ensuing assembly elections to be held in February next year in the state. So, all Congress persons should work in a united manner in these elections. Stating this here today, an observer of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) for the Bathinda district Assembly constituencies J.D. Seelam said there might be some differences among the Congress persons (party leaders and workers) but they should keep the same confined to themselves. He also emphasised that all the Congress persons should work whole heartedly for the victory of the Congress candidates in the Assembly elections. Seelam held meetings with the district urban and rural units of the Congress party at the office of the District Congress Committee here today. He visited the city to know the views of the party workers and leaders, relating to ensuing Assembly elections. Among others who participated in these meetings, included MLA Harmander Singh Jassi, MLA Ajaib Singh Bhatti, delegates of Punjab Congress K.K. Aggarwal and K.K. Sharma, district president (urban) Ashok Kumar, district president (rural) Narinder Singh Bhaleria, district president of Mahila Congress Mohinder Kaur Rani, Tehal Singh Sandhu, Sukhdev Singh Chehal and Inder Singh Sahni. Seelam said he was not here to select the candidates as he was here for making preparations for the Assembly elections and work for the victory of Congress candidates. He said all people should work for the victory of the Congress candidates in a united manner as victory in elections was not an easy task. He said every one knew that during the previous assembly elections the Congress party was about to form the government again in Punjab but it could not happen due to some shortcomings, and the Congress lost to the SAD-BJP alliance. He also asked both district units to prepare lists of the failures of the SAD-BJP government and achievements of the UPA government, led by Congress, to tell the people during the election campaign programmes. He said he would also meet the senior party leaders of the district to know their views. Seelam urged the party workers to expose the negative points of the SAD-BJP government to the people by visiting door to door. He also said he would not send any report to the party high command about the prospective candidates for the assembly elections as he was not here for this purpose. To a question, Seelam said that the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi might visit Punjab during the ensuing elections. Seelam also asked the leaders and workers to work hard for making the December 5 Congress rally, to be held at Bathinda, a big success.
	Dearth of skilled teachers Megha Mann/TNS Bathinda, November 18 “There is a dearth of skilled and quality teachers. We don’t want to swell by the numbers only, but we should have quality as well,” said principal secretary, education, Hussan Lal, while talking to TNS today. Hussan Lal was here to conduct a surprise checking of government schools and conduct meeting of all the schools’ heads. He conducted such checking in the districts of Mohali, Kapurthala, Faridkot and Sangrur. At Faridkot, he came across a government school where all teachers were found absent and taking action, he suspended all the absent teachers. He has been randomly visiting the districts with his inspection teams. Hussan Lal said that the government’s decision to introduce Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) is based on the aim of weeding out the unwanted people. “Punjab has enough number of education colleges and yet we lack the kind of teachers we are looking for. Already 55,000 teachers have been recruited and more are being recruited,” he said. Talking about the funding under Sarv Shiksbha Abhiyaan (SSA), Hussan Lal said that funds were not a problem. Punjab got Rs 584 crores last year, Rs 1,051 crores this year and would likely get Rs 1,500 crores next year. With enough funds in place, the level of education is expected to rise further. Commenting on the lecturers promoted as principals after retirement, he said that the office of Director General of School Education (DGSE) had sent case for promotion of 251 candidates to the department of education. “However, some of the other teachers went against the department to court and matter lay pending. Consequently, by the time case was decided around 40 people had already retired. So they were promoted after the retirement,” he said. The General Category Welfare Federation has been raising objection on more than 14 per cent scheduled caste candidates being promoted in this process. Hussan Lal added that most of the candidates were promoted on the basis of merit. “It is sheer coincidence that the promoted candidates had more SC people in them. Nothing was done against the allotted quota of reserved category,” he said.
	Trains on Fazilka-Abohar route sought Our Correspondent Fazilka, November 18 A large number of activists of the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Sarv Bharat Naujawan Sabha, the All India Students Federation, the Northern Railway Passengers Samiti and the Narega Mazdoor Union, district Fazilka unit, burnt the effigy of the Railway Minister at the local railway station in protest against the non-commencement of a train on the newly-built Fazilka-Abohar rail track. General secretary of the Fazilka unit of the CPI, Hans Raj Golden, rued that the commuters using buses were paying four times more than the train fare. The other leaders, Dr Amar Lal Baghla, Rajpal Gumber, Lila Dhar Sharma, Amarjit Chimnewala, Laxmi Narayan Yadav, Satpal Chhabra, Ramesh Chander, Vikram Sharma, Harbhajan Chhapriwala, Bimla Rani and Tota Ram regretted that after every few months a new date for starting the train is announced. They warned the General Manager, Northern Railway, that they would seek the support of more NGOs and would launch bigger agitation on all the railway station falling in this 42 kilometre rail stretch, if the train on the Fazilka-Abohar route was not introduced in near future. Dr Amar Lal Bhagla, president, Northern India Passengers Samiti, demanded the introduction of direct trains from Fazilka to state capital Chandigarh and the national capital Delhi. Besides a washing line should also be set up at the Fazilka railway station, which has sufficient land and infrastructure to meet the demand, said Dr Baghla.
	Convent boys lift Netaji Football Cup Our Correspondent Abohar, November 18 Assumption Convent School boys clinched the Netaji Subhash Football Cup by defeating Vikas Model School by three goals on the concluding day of the 2nd Annual Tournament organised by the Netaji Subhash Charitable Trust involving the District Football Association. Sister Lucy, principal of the school, joined the winning team in receiving the trophy from the chief guest, Anand Kansal, president of the Aggarwal Sabha and the special guest Amit Doda. The SGPC member Kaur Singh was also present. They exhorted the youth to associate themselves with sports and yoga since there could be no other viable way to get rid of the drug menace in the region. Chief organiser Dr NC Chatterji said 20 teams from different institutions had participated in the seven-day tournament that was aimed at promoting football, a game that had been accepted by many countries. The Trust had planned to raise a stadium here exclusively equipped with a coaching centre for football, he said.