Jalandhar, February 12
The Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate, Priyank Bharti, today constituted a four-member committee to look into the land dispute case in which a clash took place at Partap Pura village, near here, yesterday.

The committee, comprising Additional District Magistrate, Additional Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), District Welfare Officer and District Development and Panchayat Officer, would look into the allegations levelled by villagers in the allotment and lease of the Wakf Board land in the village. The report would be submitted within 15 days.

The decision came following the gherao of Deputy Commissioner (DC) Priyank Bharti’s residence by agitated villagers of Partap Pura and activists of various Dalit unions in the land dispute case this afternoon.

Bharti said Commissioner of Police Gaurav Yadav had been asked to ensure status quo on the disputed land till the time the committee submitted its report. “The committee will also check that whether the allotment and the lease of the 10 acres of land has been done as per law. It will also check that whether the land actually belongs to the Wakf Board or not,” he added.

Union activists, led by district president of the Pendu Mazdoor Union Hansraj Pabwan, handed over a memorandum to the DC to be forwarded to the Lokpal, Punjab. The activists also sent a copy of the memorandum to the Commissioner of Police, Chairman, Punjab State Human Rights Commission, and Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Bharti stated that they had sought information from the Chairman of the Wakf Board requesting to make available all documents to the inquiry committee. “We have sought clarifications from the Wakf Board in the allotment and lease of the land,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that as many as 10 persons were injured and two two-wheelers were burnt at Partap Pura village after the persons who came to take possession of the Wakf Board land allegedly attacked members of the Dalit community. Following this incident, a large posse of police was deployed at the site and case was registered.

Earlier in December, Baldev Singh, who claimed to have the legal possession of the land, had tried to get it vacated with the interference of police.

Meanwhile, the activists demanded arrest of those involved in the case and police security for the Dalit community in the village. “If justice was not done, we would start district-level dharnas in the coming days,” they added.

Kapurthala, February 12
The prison authorities have made a special plan to inculcate positive thinking in prisoners of the model jail at Theh Kanjla in Kapurthala, which witnessed violence by its inmates in November last. As a part of its plan, Ravidass Jayanti was celebrated with religious fervour on the jail premises today.

Jail Superintendent SP Khanna said, “A Kapurthala-based singer, Lucky, sang several religious songs. All the 1,640 prisoners, including 700 convicts, enjoyed the religious songs.”

Earlier, the bhog of akhand path was held today after it was started on Friday in view of Guru Ravidass Jayanti on February 7. Former Jalandhar Mayor Surender Mahay attended the celebrations.

Prisoners partake of langar while sitting in queues, he said, adding that all religious and other functions would be celebrated on the jail premises with full fervour.

Khanna stated that the prisoners were also motivated to engage themselves in various sports activities, including volleyball and kabaddi.

The prisoners were provided several volleyballs and a net was fixed in each jail ward, he added.

Jalandhar, February 12
Following reports of “bumpy drive” on the busy National Highway-I, also known as GT Road, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has finally re-carpeted the entire broken stretch, leading to a smooth drive for commuters.

Jalandhar Tribune had highlighted the poor condition of the GT Road from Rama Mandi Chowk to PAP Chowk and from PAP Chowk.

The GT Road had developed huge potholes due to continuous rains in January. It was owing to this reason that the stretch had become accident-prone, especially for those commuting on two-wheelers.

The NHAI has now re-carpeted the broken patches of the road, which has come up as a major respite for the commuters travelling to and fro from Phagwara, Ludhiana, Delhi, Ambala and many other places.

“It is such a relief that the broken stretches on both sides of the road have been finally re-laid. The condition of this highly busy national highway had gone bad to worse in the past sometime. Since, we commute daily from Phagwara to Jalandhar, huge potholes on this road would give us a tough time,” said Amarjit Ghuman, a student of Lyallpur Khalsa College.

“It is after a long gap that this stretch of the GT Road has got repaired. Since, this is National Highway-1, the NHAI authorities should ensure its regular maintenance. But, now that the broken road has been repaired one can actually enjoy a smooth drive on the highway,” said Kavita Ghulati, a city resident.

Earlier, in January the NHAI authorities had filled patches on the road, but that had further gave a tough time to the commuters as crushed stones came out of them.

As the GT Road witnesses heavy flow of vehicular traffic, even the repared patches also got broken and the condition of the road deteriorated.

The Project Director of the NHAI, Rajesh Kumar Kondal, was not available for comments.

Jalandhar, February 12
With cases of mentally challenged girls being abandoned by their parents getting frequent, along with parents, the role of city NGOs has also came under a scanner. Even as fingers have been pointed at many of the NGOs for not taking in a girl abandoned recently, when asked about the matter, the NGOs had their side of the story to speak about.

While private NGOs mostly talked about space constraints, the government-funded NGOs in the city almost unanimously complained about facing fund delays from the respective funding departments and ministries that were responsible for running their affairs.

Interestingly, none of the district NGOs are being funded by the district administration directly. They are getting funds from various departments directly or indirectly associated with central ministries.

And all of them, without exception, have got complaints.

At Prayas School, irregular funds play a constant dampener.

The school, which has 40-42 (30 attending, others awaited after holidays) children at present and a staff of about 14 persons, has recently had a reshuffle of the administration. It has had no grants for the past one and a half years, says general secretary, Hospital Welfare Section, Red Cross, Jagdish Khaira, one of the members of the school.

“We do not take loans from the Red Cross and though we have a few donors, they are not enough to fund us appropriately. The cost of milk for children comes to Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. On top of it, if we don’t get timely grants, how are we going to handle affairs properly?”

The Red Cross School for the Deaf, which currently houses 136 children (there is a staff of 29 persons, including teachers, administrators and class IV employees) needs Rs 16 lakh per annum as expenditure.

Ten shops, owned and rented by the school, are also a source of income. Donors abound but only extend help in kind and the school relies on the centre (or the Red Cross in case of emergency) for funds.

Harvinder Kaur, Principal of the school, funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, says she has made countless rounds for the timely issuance of funds.

“For the four years that I have been here, I have always seen funds remaining pending. Technical glitches are cited as reasons for delay in funds. We have funds for the entire last (2011) year pending and before that too, we got only half the grants of the preceding year (only Rs 8 lakh received in 2010). We arrange funds from somewhere or arrange loans from the Red Cross,” she says.

Thing at Sanjeevani Home are also not good in this regard.

The home gets its grants from the Union Ministry of Human Resource (Department of Woman and Child Development) through the Punjab State Social Welfare Advisory Board and the delays in grants are pretty common.

Parminder Beri, general secretary of the home, remained tight-lipped on the matter, “The ministry has been giving us money to run the home. We don’t have many qualms about the funds. Only there are some delays at times. If we start getting funds in advance, the running of the home would be a bit smoother.”

Though sources sat things at the ground level are way different.”

Delays are regular and the story is pretty similar to the rest of homes. The usual excuse for the delays is “technical mistakes”.

The Sanjeevni Home is run with about Rs 7 lakh per year and it houses 40 destitute girls.

The Nari Niketan gets funds from the Social Welfare Department, Chandigarh. Trustee of the Mata Pushpa Gujaral Nari Niketan Trust Anajana Talwar says,

“Till 2010 we were getting Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh annually and in 2011 the funds were increased to Rs 4 lakh. We have not been sanctioned a single penny this year so far. Though we get Rs 25 lakh every year from our president Maresh Gujral.”

“Our monthly expenditure is Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. We are barely meeting our basic needs with this expenditure. There are many donors. People from across the world have been contributing money and parents of adopted children are also contributors, but our needs are increasing day by day and we don’t have enough according to our needs,” she adds.

Jalandhar, February 12
In order to provide some relief to the residents from regular traffic jams on various roads of the city, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has identified 11 more roadsides to be used as parking lots. Joint Commissioner, MC, DP Bhardwaj said the 11 roadsides identified as parking lots would soon be auctioned. Currently, there are only three proper parking lots near Narinder Cinema, PNB Chowk and Milap Chowk in the city. Besides the three permanent parking places, as many as seven roadsides have been identified and are being used as parking lots.

The seven roadsides, which are currently being used after their auctioning as parking lots, include the Police Lines road in front of President Hotel, GT Road in front of Gobind Niwas, front of Kamal Palace, front of Leo Fort, area between the Bank of Punjab and State Bank of India near Skylark Hotel, opposite Sacred Heart Hospital in Maqsoodan and Opposite Tubewell Park on the Police Lines road.

Meanwhile, criticising the MC for using roadsides as parking lots, social activist Rajat Mohindru said instead of using roadsides as parking lots, the MC should construct proper parking places in various parts of the city to provide relief to the residents from regular traffic jams. The MC should not think of generating revenue by auctioning roadsides as they are mostly used as footpaths by pedestrians, he added.

At the same time, he said the MC should also continue its campaign of removing temporary encroachments made by the shopkeepers in various parts of the city to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

This is pertinent to mention here that regular traffic jams on several roads, especially the old city roads, have become a routine feature. The circular road area, comprising Mai Hiran Gate, Valmiki Gate, Jail Road, Nehru Garden Chowk, Luv Kush Chowk, Phagwara Gate, Hoshairpur Adda and Adda Tanda, is the worst hit.

While the narrow roads are one of main reasons for traffic jams here, the problem is further aggravated as the shopkeepers have made temporary encroachment on a major portion of the roads in front of their shops by keeping there various items. Besides the encroachment by vegetable and fruit sellers, inadequate parking lots and a negligible number of traffic cops deployed for controlling traffic here add the the traffic snarls.

Kapurthala, February 12
Farmer Kashmir Singh of Lakhan Kalan village today ploughed his field having potato crop, which was damaged due to recent rains. Talking to The Tribune, he said he was left with no option but to plough his field as the crop had been damaged due to rains in mid-January. He had cultivated potatoes in 160 acres of land after getting it on contract, but almost the entire crop was damaged due to inundation of water in the fields.

One of the main potato growers of the area, Kashmir Singh, stated that he had tried his level best to save his crop by digging the land around the fields with JCB machines to get rid of rain water, but in vain. “Now he is ploughing his field to prepare the soil for sowing some other crop,” he added.

The farmer said, “They had to throw their crops on the roads during last season as they did not get much price for it due to its excess production at that time. Now the same has been damaged due to rains.”

His case is not an isolated one. Most of the farmers of the potato belt of Doaba region had to plough their field having potato crop due to its damage in the rains.

General secretary of the Jalandhar unit of the Potato Growers Association, Punjab, Jaswinder Sangha said 20 to 30 per cent crop had been damaged in the potato belt, especially in Adampur, Kartarpur, Bhogpur, Kapurthala and Malsian.

Over 90 per cent of the total potato crop cultivation area (around 80,000 hectares) in Punjab is located in the Doaba belt.

Sangha said, “Potato growers had to suffer a huge loss firstly due to rains in January and now due to mist.

The Punjab Government should order girdawari of the damaged crop to pay compensation to the farmers.”

Jalandhar, February 12
An academician of Lyallpur Khalsa College has earned laurels for his research works in the field of biotechnology. Dr Arun Dev Sharma has been awarded the Roshan Lal Best Teacher Award, which was conferred on him by the Punjab Academy of Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala. He is the only, professor from the state to have been selected for this honour by the university.

The award was presented during the 15th Punjab Science Congress held at Guru Nanak Dev (GND) University, Amritsar, recently. The award was presented by Vice-Chancellor of GND varsity Dr AS Brar and VM Trahan, Chairman of Mecaster Telecom Industries.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Dr Arun Dev, who is also the Head of the Department of Biotechnology at the college, said he was given the award on the basis of various research projects undertaken by him in the field of science.

Dr Arun Dev has to his credit as many as 32 research papers in international journals in the area of biotechnology. He has completed two research projects, which were sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, and the UGC, New Delhi.

“These days, three MSc students and one PhD student are pursuing their research works in biotechnology under my guidance,” he added.

At present, Dr Arun Dev is working as principal scientist in a UGC-sponsored research project studying the effect of certain enzymes like chaperons and its likely role in wheat under water stress.

“Wheat is one of the most important crops in arid and semi-arid areas worldwide, which is sensitive to drought and temperature stress. Through my research, soon we will be able to find out the main biochemical and molecular processes, which will help in imparting water stress tolerance to wheat crop,” he added.

Dr Arun Dev had presented his research findings in many international conferences in countries like Italy, US, Poland and China.

Jalandhar, February 12
The Apeejay College of Fine Arts bagged the overall trophy, while DAV College came the first runners-up followed by Prem Chand Markanda SD College for Women as the second runners-up on the last day of “Synergy-2012”, which was held at Lyallpur Khalsa College.

Kapurthala, February 12
The Punjab Homoeopathy Department organised an orientation programme for proper care of mother and child here today. Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Singh inaugurated the programme.

A number of homoeopathy officers from various districts were also present on the occasion. The proper care of mother and child was discussed.

Among others, Kapurthala district homoeopathy officer Dr VK Sharma, Jalandhar district homoeopathy officer Dr Charanjit Lal and homoeopathy officer Gurdaspur Dr Ramesh Chander attended the programme.