Jalandhar, April 26
Despite Supreme Court ruling on the implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act, many schools in the city are still in no mood to implement it right away, claiming the admissions this year were already over and they would think on these lines in the next academic session.

The school managements are of the view that by forcing unaided schools to enrol 25 per cent children belonging to economically weaker sections, the government was trying to shirk its responsibility of providing quality education in government schools.

School principals have gone a step ahead saying that rather than forcing schools to reserve one-fourth seats for poor students, there were some better methods of improving the education system.

Principal of Police DAV Public School Ranjana Sud tries to draw the attention to the root problem. “I feel that irrespective of their income, all parents belonging to Punjab are sending wards to school. The problem lies with the children of migrant labourers. They need to be attracted to school by counselling parents.”

“There are some villages in and around Jalandhar which do not have a good government school up to Class XII. The village panchayats should provide buses to students to be taken to a nearby private school which can help solve a big issue in rural Punjab. This will be the real value addition to the society. We already have a fleet of 45 buses coming from Bhogpur, Kartarpur, Kapurthala and Phagwara.”

She claimed that the Police DAV School was providing free education to 10 percent students. She said 65 per cent students (wards of police personnel) were being charged half fee and the remaining 25 per cent were paying full fee. She rued that principals of private schools were not being taken into confidence while framing any such policy. Ranjana Sud claimed that she was ready to offer supervisory services for a government school in her own compound.

Ranjana Sud, who is also the director of Vasal Education Society, said: “I am ready send our teachers to an adjoining government school or even adopt it as far as sharing of facilities and staff is concerned. There are 207 students in a government school near Police DASV School and just one teacher, but there has been no response to my proposal. We don’t have a problem in reserving one-fourth seats for poor students, but some assurance on fee refund has to come from the government as well. The government has so far been silent on the issue.”

Rajesh Mayor of Mayor World School said: “We have announced free education to the wards of yellow card holders in all our advertisements, but there has been no response so far. We have mentioned the same outside our school campus and even at the reception, but we only have children of Class IV employees of our school coming for free education. We have even sent a message across to Gandhi Vanita Ashram asking the management to send their children to us for free education, but there has been no response from there also. Through the Sports Good Foundation of India, which we are funding, we have tried to set up three evening tuition centres across the city, including the one at Khurla Kingra, where children from poor families are made to sit and study for a few hours.” 

 

We have announced free education to the wards of yellow card holders in all our advertisements, but there has been no response so far. We only have children of Class IV employees of our school coming for free education. We have even sent a message across to Gandhi Vanita Ashram asking the management to send their children to us for free education, but we are still waiting for their response.~ — Rajesh Mayor, Mayor World School

Jalandhar, April 26
Mystery shrouds the death of a West Bengal resident, Kumar Bomzan, who was allegedly beaten up by security guards of an industrial unit located at Leather Complex a few days ago.

Though Kumar’s wife Rooma alleged that her husband was beaten to death by security guards of an industrial unit where he had mistakenly entered in an inebriated condition, the Basti Bawa Khel police today started inquest proceeding in the case today. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem at the local Civil Hospital this evening.

SHO Hardial Singh said the exact cause of the death could be ascertained only after the post-mortem report.

Rooma said that Kumar left to see his friends on Sunday night, but did not return. Two police personnel dropped him at her house with injuries marks on his body.

Rooma alleged that owner of the industrial unit and security guards assaulted him and handed him over to the police. Neither the police inform ed Kumar’s colleagues and the family about his injuries, nor they hospitalised him, which resulted into his death, she alleged. 

Jalandhar, April 26
An employee of the Punjab State Power Corporation (Powercom) was electrocuted when he was repairing power cables on a pole in the Santokhpura area of the city this afternoon.

Following the electric shock, lineman Ram Raj, a resident of the Santoshi Nagar area, fell on the ground and received serious head injuries.

He was rushed to a nearby private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The police has sent the body to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem. 

Jalandhar, April 26
Two unidentified motorcycle-borne youths snatched a bag containing cash and valuables from a schoolteacher on a busy road near Kartarpur this afternoon.

The incident took place about 4 km from Kartarpur when Baljit Kaur, a teacher at Government Middle School, Khara, was riding her scooter and her friend Jasbir Kaur of Chandan Nagar was riding pillion. The victim said two unidentified youths on a black motorcycle were chasing them and one of them suddenly took out the keys of her scooter.

In her complaint to the police, the victim, Baljit Kaur, a resident of Janta Colony in Jalandhar, alleged that one of the youths pointed a pistol at her and took away her purse containing cash, gold ornaments and a mobile phone. She alleged that the youths fired in the air before fleeing.

The police has registered a case under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC against the unidentified youths at the Kartarpur police station. A hunt has been launched to nab the suspects.

In a similar incident, two unidentified youths riding a scooter snatched a purse from one Santosh Rani in Gangasar Market this morning. The victim said the bag contained three mobile phones and cash.

Jalandhar, April 26
After establishing its name in the field of sports, Lyallpur Khalsa College has demanded financial aid from the state government for the setting up of a centre for excellence in sports.

The college authorities said as Guru Nanak Dev University and other leading universities were awarded centres of excellence by the UGC and the Union Government, the Punjab government should help the college set up a similar centre in the college, too.

A plan in this regard was mooted by the college authorities to promote sports on a larger scale.

College principal Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said since the college has made major contributions to sports at the university level, the state government should consider the demand. “We appreciate the sports policy made by the state government last year, but a provision to award a centre of excellence to colleges, which are doing good work in this front, will indeed bring great results”, he added.

“A centre of excellence in the college will give fillip to sports and provide better learning platform to students in the state. In fact the state government should frame a policy or a scheme to upgrade such colleges in the state, which have made maximum contribution in sports,” said Dr Randhawa.

The college was awarded Shaheed Bhagat Singh Trophy of GND University for its significant contribution in winning of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) trophy for the academic year 2010-2011. “Starting from MAKA trophy to the other leading sports events at the national and international level, our students have made their mark in every sports discipline”, he added. 

Jalandhar, April 26
Aimed at reaching out to maximum students for creating awareness about the Centrally sponsored merit-cum-means based scholarship scheme, the department of Welfare of Scheduled Castes (SC), Backward Castes (BC) and Minorities has started an SMS campaign.

Since the scholarship for the academic year 2012-13 has been announced, the officials of department are been forwarding SMSes to the faculty and students of different educational institutions to receive maximum response.

Additional Director, Social Welfare, Lakha Singh said, "The scholarship was announced in March this year and we have been informing the minority community students to avail the benefit through the easy online submission mode."

The department officials also clarified that applications received through post or any other mode would not be accepted. "Only online applications would be accepted and applications received through any other mode would be rejected by the department", he added.

Under this scholarship scheme, students belonging to minority communities (Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis) pursuing technical or professional courses at graduate and postgraduate level in an institution of Punjab were eligible to apply. To avail the benefit of this scholarship, the annual income of the parents should not be more than Rs 2.5 lakh from all sources. "Hostellers will get Rs 1,000 per month for a period of 10 months as maintenance allowance and Rs 20,000 as the course fee, hence amounting to Rs 30,000. The day scholars would receive Rs 500 per month for a period of ten months and Rs 25,000 as course fee, taking the total amount to Rs 25,000", he said.

Students who got admission in different colleges through competitive exams are also eligible to apply. However, such students should not have less than 50 per cent of marks at higher, secondary and graduation level. The selection of the candidates would be strictly on the basis of the merit.