An overloaded auto-rickshaw ferries school students; and underage students indulge in triple riding as an overloaded auto drives past them

Certain erring school administrations just shrug off the responsibility on battered, almost dilapidated vehicles saying they were on contract. Even as school vehicles bear the schools' name, the schools claim they are not answerable.

Admn out of slumber!

The district administration woke up from its slumber after the Ambala tragedy on Wednesday and called a meeting of city schools on Thursday. ADCP traffic Sukhdev Singh said: "We are planning to hold a meeting on the issue on Thursday. All school administrations have been informed. The idea is to take more stringent measures about the safety of schoolchildren in future."

No trained drivers

Lakhbir Singh, president of NGO PAHAl, said: "Trained and committed drivers are rare and school administrations also don't hire trained or experienced drivers. Also, bikes should be banned in schools. Parents should also not allow children to go to school on bikes."

No action taken

Amarjit Singh Anand, president, Chanan Association, said: "School managements have not been abiding by traffic rules and traffic police has not taken any stringent measures to check defaulters despite court rulings."

Shahkot, January 4
The Jalandhar Rural police today claimed to have solved the mystery behind the blind murder of a Killi village farmer in Shahkot with the arrest of a class X student.

The accused has been identified as 20-year-old Jugraj Singh, a resident of Killi village.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Rural, Yurinder Singh Hayer said the accused was arrested by the Shahkot police this morning following a tip-off. The SSP said the police had received information that the accused has been roaming near the Shahkot bus stand.

The police laid a trap and arrested him. The SSP stated that during preliminary investigation, the accused confessed that he had hacked the farmer to death on the New Year eve.

About the reason of killing the farmer, Jugraj, whose father lives abroad, said his father had given an agricultural land on contract to the farmer. He said the farmer was not giving the contract money to him on time.

"On the New Year eve, I need money for celebrations and I requested the farmer to pay the contract money which was already due, but he paid no heed to my request. Subsequently, in killed him, the accused told the police.

Additional station house officer, Shahkot, Avtar Singh said the weapon used in the crime was yet to be recovered.

A 42-year-old farmer was hacked to death at his cattle shed on December 31, 2011.

Jalandhar, January 4
The prevailing weather conditions have fogged up the campaigning schedules of candidates restricting their movement in the mornings and evenings.

With all political parties more or less having declared their candidates, campaigning has begun in right earnest in the past couple of days. Coupled with the shorter campaigning period this time, the fog too has proved to be dampener for them.

While it is easy to get in touch with the homemakers, the timing has to be right to catch the early birds, youngsters and office goers. This is where they have to keep their schedules flexible and the programme lists for the day are changed according to the situation on the ground.

As PPP candidate from Shahkot Dr Navjot Dahiya says: "The dense fog for the past few days has been an impediment for our door-to-door meetings since most people remain indoors between 7. 30 am to 8 pm. Earlier, we had been starting our day at 6 am or so, especially in the rural segments of my constituency. It was an hour later when we canvassed in the urban segments, he revealed.

But now, the fog and the biting cold wave have kept people indoors in both the segments. In fact, now we leave home only after 7 am after calling our supporters in advance. Similar is the case when we canvass in the evenings, he pointed out.

Others with a mainly urban constituency like KD Bhandari, BJP nominee from Jalandhar North, too echo the same sentiment and said that the fog was indeed affecting their poll-related activities.

The cold keeps the people indoors in the mornings. It's not right to knock at anyone's door after they are in the evening. In view of the lesser day hours, we mostly keep our door-to-door contact during the day and try to cover the maximum areas during daylight, he pointed out.

Similarly, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, the SAD nominee from Nakodar, says that they were leaving home only by 8.30 am as people prefer to keep indoors before that. Most of the canvassing is done during the day and we end our day by 10.30 pm by going door-to-door in the constituency, he revealed.

Fog or not fog, all three candidates agree that the voters are enthusiastic about the whole election process and the eagerly look forward to exercise their franchise on January 30.

Jalandhar, January 4
Only a few people in the city perhaps would know the location of the office of Deputy Director of Local Bodies (DDLB). As the office generally does not deal with the public, many people are seen hunting for the office of the DDLB, Karnail Singh, for he is also the returning officer of the Jalandhar North constituency.

Ever since the renovation work started at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium, the office of the DDLB was shifted from there to a discrete residential building owned by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust at Master Tara Singh Nagar. The building is not on the main lanes of the colony and visitors are often seen lost in the internal lanes to locate the building.

Moreover, the authorities have not bothered to set up signboards for the convenience of the public who tend to visit the office to lodge an election complaint.

Since yesterday was the second day given to applicants to get themselves registered as voters, huge rush was witnessed outside the office. Applicants from far-off colonies, including Charanjitpura, Suranussi and other areas were seen standing at the office gates. Chaos prevailed outside the office as the officer was away for a meeting.

Karnail Singh, DDLB, said: “There have been nearly 200 applicants in the past two days. We have taken all applications and are in the process of scrutinising them.”

Asked on the need of putting up signboards for direction, he said: “I have asked MC Commissioner BS Dhaliwal to put up two boards at entrance of the colony for the convenience of visitors.”

Jalandhar, January 4
After delivering the message of 'don't vote for SAD-BJP combine' to the students in colleges owing to their anti-education policies, the members of Punjab Chandigarh and College Teachers Union (PCCTU) are now further planning to propagate this message on a larger scale.

A decision in this regard will be taken during the executive body meeting of the members of PCCTU at Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, on January 8.

PCCTU members will formally declare the 'anti SAD-BJP' campaign to be launched by them after the meeting, sources said.

In December, lecturers and non-teaching staff across the state had remained on strike, following which the colleges had also remained closed for more than a fortnight.

Principal of Khalsa College-cum-general secretary of the principal's federation, Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said, “Following a series of protest , we delivered a five-minute message to the college youth highlighting the anti-education policies of the state government and their failure in fulfilling them.”

He also alleged that the state government also failed in fulfilling the promises made in their poll manifesto.

“What to talk of other assurances, they have failed to deliver even those, on which they had sought votes from us," he said.

“The decision to propagate the message on the anti-SAD-BJP government stand was followed by all the lecturers, whether permanent or on ad-hoc basis. In fact even during the protests and hunger strike in December, the strike was supported by the ad-hoc lecturers,” Dr Randhawa said.

The SAD government in its poll manifesto during the assembly elections 2007 had promised to implement pension and gratuity scheme for the lectures, implement the 6th Pay Commission and increase the pay scales of the academicians and lift a ban on the fresh recruitments of the lecturers in colleges.

“We kept demanding arrears according to the 6th Pay Commission but the government remained a mute spectator. While the issue of lifting a ban on fresh recruitments remained at the centre stage, the pension and gratuity too was not fulfilled by the government,” he added.

Now, the PCCTU members will chalk out an anti-SAD-BJP government stand of the lecturers in the state during the assembly elections, he said.

Jalandhar, January 4
Dr Avtar Singh Jarewal joined today as the Civil Surgeon here after the retirement of Dr HK Singla from the post last month.

The outgoing civil surgeon said, “There is a major lack of co-ordination between the trauma and emergency wards at the Civil Hospital. While this is a departmental problem but the inter-departmental tussle results in the neglect of patients.”

Dr Singla said, “Cleanliness in the old wing of the hospital is certainly compromised. Better cleanliness measures have to be observed to ensure quality treatment.”

Singla also admmitted to problems like inadequate staff and that some staff members were not serious towards their duties.”

He said hospital needs grants for Mata Kaushalya Scheme from the 

Jarewal said, “I joined today but I plan to only take action on certain things instead of speaking about them. I will just bring the changes and show.”

Jalandhar, January 4
Tightening the noose on media, which had indulged in ‘paid news’ in Punjab during the assembly elections in 2007, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up 24X7 ‘Media monitoring and certification committee’ this time at the DC’s office.

Ironically, the media-also called the watch dog of the society, had come in for all-round criticism from the intelligentsia and the masses for resorting to unfair means in disseminating misinformation in the garb of news.

Not only the working and functioning of the committee but those selected for this important job have been carefully selected considering their apolitical profile and educational qualifications for the job.

A visit to the committee room revealed that those on duty were busy scanning newspapers and listening to various news channels to detect any violation of the code of conduct in the district comprising nine assembly segments.

The selected persons are working in three shifts from 7 am to 3 pm, 3 to 10 pm and 10 pm to 7 am. So whether it is wee hours of morning or late at night, the committee room remains abuzz with activity.

News channels have been distributed among the members, which they monitor to spot any ‘paid news’ or ‘surrogate advertisements’ if any, alternatively after every half hour.

In case of any violation, such clip is downloaded/recorded and sent to the District Electoral Officer (DEO) for necessary action while the same is later forwarded to the State Election Commission.

The committee members comprise four professors from local colleges, two from the department of English of DAV College, Jalandhar, Professor BPS Bedi and Professor HK Bajaj, Assistant Professor Sandeep Chahal, also from the department of English of Doaba College and Rajinder Bhagat, professor of electronics from the Government Polytechnic College for Girls, Ladowali Road. While the professors are working on the content of news channels and recording, various paid news and surrogate advertisements, other staff members scan the newspapers that show bias against a particular candidate or party and runs down their opponents. Prof Chahal said, “On an average we are sending 10-12 video clippings of all such news channels, which are misleading and violating the code to DEO.”

Prof Bedi said it is an honour to be of service to the society and we are performing this duty to the best of our ability. “We have asked to work till the polling day (January 30) and that too without any leave,” he said.

Jalandhar, January 4
Dr AL Sangal, registrar of Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jalandhar, has joined as the principal of DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology (DAVIET).

A senior professor from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT, he has been working for 20 years. He studied at DAV College, Jalandhar, and then pursued his B. Tech from Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh, and M.Tech from Thpar University, Patiala.