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Evasion of external development charges
Teacher’s Day: Permanent varsity lecturers go on mass casual leave
MC employee found dead on office terrace
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chanchal murder
Protest against ‘faulty’ policy
Members of various teachers’ unions today observed Teacher’s Day as an occasion to protest against the “faulty’ rationalisation policy of the Punjab Government.
Demanding the allocation of the right number of periods (rather than the increased periods which had been allocated to them) and asking for teacher-student ratio as per the RTE Act, teachers across the district today burnt effigies of the state government and Education Minister at the DEO’s office.Government teachers burn an effigy of the Education Minister outside the DEO’s office in Jalandhar on Wednesday. Photo: Sarabjit Singh
Teacher’s day special 
There are some who teach for a living and others who just teach because they want to make a difference, share a burden or just to spread laughter. This Teacher’s Day, The Tribune takes a look at two teachers for whom teaching has become a means of spreading kindness and sharing the fortune that they were bestowed with.Neha Khanna takes a class of poor students at her home in Jalandhar. A Tribune photograph
Another baby dies due to ‘negligence’
While the uproar over the alleged negligent treatment meted out to a mother, Jyoti, carrying a dead baby in her womb, is yet to die down, another case of the death of a baby due to negligent treatment at the Civil Hospital surfaced here today.
Outgoing Mayor Rathour may re-inaugurate Company Bagh project
Perhaps in a bid to clear most of his ongoing projects before the expiry of his term on September 9, Mayor Rakesh Rathour has plans to re-inaugurate the pending project of Company Bagh tomorrow.
Finally, state govt gives
Rs 21 cr to cantt board
In a major relief to the Jalandhar Cantonment Board, the Punjab Government today finally paid the outstanding amount of Rs 21 crore collected by it from additional excise duty on CSD liquor to the board authorities.
Blockade by farmers, labourers hits rail traffic
Passengers were today stranded at the Jalandhar City and Cantonment Railway Stations as a number of trains delayed due to the dharna at railway track near Goraya and Dhilwan by 17 associations of labourers and farmers. The associations have given the call of “Rail Roko Andolan” in Punjab from noon to 3.30 pm today.
HC tells senior procurement officials to resolve matter
Passing its judgment over the issue of chargesheets to as many as 400 field employees of Punjab State Warehousing Corporation in 1999-2000, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the senior officials of all procurement agencies who had bought foodgrains during the period to hold a meeting and resolve the matter.
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Evasion of external development charges
Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 5
PPR Developers and Builders, too, have evaded an amount of Rs 94.5 lakh for their colony Greater Kailash at Nakodar in an area of 54.43 acre. PPR Associates have also failed to deposit Rs 46.32 lakh for their Jalandhar Kunj Extn-1 Colony at Wariana village on Kapurthala Road. Prince Chopra, son of builder Anil Chopra, has also defaulted on development charges on two accounts - Silver Kunj at Pholariwal against which Rs 18.35 lakh were to be paid and Jalandhar Vihar Villa at Wariana village against which Rs 9.94 lakh are due. The other defaulters include Rohit Vij for Radisson Enclave, near DAV College, who is yet to pay Rs 80.45 lakh, and Simar Builders, who has to pay Rs 52.78 lakh for carving out a colony, East Enclave, in Kot Sadiq. PUDA officials revealed that several colonisers had their bank guarantees expired or were yet to get their licences renewed. They pointed out that many realtors had also not taken NOCs from the Forest Department, Punjab Pollution Control Board or even PowerCom. Insiders revealed that nearly 20 more notices were likely to be issued in coming days. Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chief Administrator of the Jalandhar Development Authority Priyank Bharti confirmed having issued show cause notices to 19 realtors defaulting on the dues.
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Teacher’s Day: Permanent varsity lecturers go on mass casual leave
Jalandhar, September 5 As many as 500 lecturers from GND University and around 200 of them from Jalandhar held a peaceful protest at Sector 25 in Chandigarh and demanded early release of arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission lying pending with the state government. The strike was supported by the Government College Teachers Union and Punjab Private College Teachers Union. The permanent lecturers had gathered on a call given by the Joint Action Committee of the Punjab Federation of University College Teachers Organisation. The lecturers raised anti-government slogans and demanded lifting of ban from fresh recruitment of lecturers in colleges and release of 95 per cent grant to private aided colleges. Dr Tejinder Virli, leader of the Punjab Federation of University College Teachers Organisation, said they urged the state government to immediately release the held-up arrears of the permanent lecturers and also start fresh recruitments, as that was dwindling the standard of education in the colleges. “The lecturers, who had already been on strike in their respective colleges for the past some days, today took mass casual leave and threatened to intensify the stir if the arrears were not released,” he added. Earlier in the day, Private Colleges Non-teaching Employees Union, Punjab and Chandigarh, also held a dharna and demanded the release of 95 per cent deficit quarterly grant to private aided colleges held up by the DPI (Colleges), Punjab, for the past nine months. General secretary of the Private Colleges Non-teaching Employees Union, Punjab and Chandigarh, Madan Lal Khullar said the colleges were facing financial crunch in the absence of the grant by the DPI (Colleges). He added that some of the colleges had also taken loans from banks for the disbursement of salaries to the employees of their colleges. “A majority of the colleges have not received the balance grant for the years 2008-09 and 2009-10 from the DPI (Colleges). This despite the fact that the colleges have sent repeated reminders to the DPI (Colleges) in this regard,” he added. Khullar added that the DPI (Colleges) had not fixed the revised pay scale from January 1, 2006, of the non-teaching employees of private aided colleges of the state. “Any loss of studies of the students owing to lack of funds would be the responsibility of the DPI (Colleges),” he added. |
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MC employee found dead on office terrace
Jalandhar, September 5 Hailing from Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh, the deceased, Suresh Kumar, was attached with the MC’s streetlights wing, housed on the fourth floor, had been residing with his nephew Amritpal Singh in the Model Town area for the past many years. The body, smeared with blood, was noticed on the terrace by his colleague who had been to the rooftop to check a water tank this morning. As the news spread in the complex, the MC Commissioner and other senior officers visited the spot and subsequently the police was informed. Station House Officer (SHO) of the Division No 4 police station Surinder Singh revealed that Suresh Kumar had been complaining of chest pain for couple of days and often used to go to the rooftop for smoking. The SHO said there was a possibility that Suresh Kumar died due to cardiac arrest or brain hemorrhage. The police handed over the body to Suresh Kumar’s family members after postmortem at the Civil Hospital. The SHO claimed that inquest proceedings had been initiated, but the exact cause of the death could be known from the postmortem report.
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2 youths arrested
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 5 The accused, identified as Vicky of Ram Nagar and Gagan of Arya Nagar, allegedly attacked the youth Chanchal, a resident of Sher Singh Colony, with sharp-edged weapons on Sunday and chopped off his arms in an attempt to teach him a lesson for teasing Vicky’s sister, the police said. An Akali leader Pritam Singh, reportedly, took the critically injured Chanchal to the local Civil Hospital where he succumbed to injuries. The police had seized a sharp-edged weapons used in the crime. A case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered in this regard.
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Protest against ‘faulty’ policy
Jalandhar, September 5 Demanding the allocation of the right number of periods (rather than the increased periods which had been allocated to them) and asking for teacher-student ratio as per the RTE Act, teachers across the district today burnt effigies of the state government and Education Minister at the DEO’s office. Teachers of the Democratic Teachers Front, Punjab, Government Teachers Union Punjab and SC/BC Teachers Union, Punjab, became a part of the protests in which the effigies were burnt. Effigies of the government were burnt across district headquarters in the state. Masters and lecturers of the Master Cadre Union, Punjab, and the Government School Union, Punjab, among others, chose to wear black badges to protest against the government’s various policies. They protested against decisions like the rationalisation policy, different directorate for the Kandi, border areas, not giving DDO powers in schools, among others. |
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Helping underprivileged by imparting education to them
Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 5 Neha Khanna
For Neha Khanna, a housewife, living in the Model Town area of the city, it all began with her maid’s decision to get her children out of school. While Neha was happy enough being a homemaker, seeing the neglectful condition of her maid’s children provoked her to prevent them from losing out on precious education. Talking to The Tribune, Neha said, “About two years ago my maid told me that due to family constraints she was going to take her children out of school. She also said her children lacked seriousness. Somehow that spurred me to action and I told her to send them to me. I began with teaching them ura aira and ABC…. They got better in studies.” “Soon, children from my domestic help’s neighbouring households of Mithapur quarters also began asking if I could help them. I began taking in more students and the strength of the class expanded to 30,” Neha said. Teaching them from 4 pm to 6 pm, Neha began distributing books and copies among them and she earned the acclaim of a woman who could get children back to school. Her work was noticed by some NGOs, too, which began making contributions to books and stationery. While her classroom strength has substantially decreased, Neha cites one prime reason with a heavy heart i.e. child labour. “I have got students back from schools, held counselling sessions with their parents and worked hard to get children interested in studies, but there are some parents who just do not stop getting their children involved in child labour,” said Neha. “My aim is not just getting children to take schools seriously for a while but also to ensure that a better future is ensured. But a few families cooperate fully,” said Neha. Sadly, Neha’s maid’s daughter is now a domestic help, too. “If they get to Class XII or graduation level, they can get a much better job than this but they do not persist. Some children run away from schools to pursue day jobs, others come from schools to sit on a tea stall or a chemist shop or girls are employed as domestic helps. Most of the families are tempted by this little extra money and end up spoiling the future of their children,” Neha lamented. Despite a decrease in her classroom strength, Neha hasn’t given up hope. She continues working with students who are keen and want to take studies seriously for a long time. AK Goswami
The other crusader in the fight for educating the poor is a senior citizen, AK Goswami. Retired as an additional general manager from Indian Ordnance Factories, Goswami used his retirement life as a means to fulfil his passion to teach. His day job is to give precious management lessons to the young and in the evening, he teaches underprivileged children. While he takes the classes of management students on an honorary basis at the Khalsa College Lyallpur Institute of Management and Technology during the day, in the evening his lessons are reserved for the children of migrant labourers around his house, whom he teaches in his verandah. Like Neha, the number of his students also keeps on increasing and decreasing. While he teaches four to five students now, earlier there were much more. Along with his regular lessons, he also makes them work on their behaviour, personality and importance of life. The first five minutes of his class are always reserved on ‘how to face life’. “It is important to invest in the young as their future belongs to them. It is a joy to see them smiling when they learn a lesson well. When a student from an underprivileged section learns something new that he can share with his peers, it gives him/her that much-needed boost of confidence,” Goswami said. |
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Another baby dies due to ‘negligence’
Jalandhar, September 5 Satish, a rickshaw-puller, alleged that one of his (twin) babies delivered at the Civil Hospital last night died due to the negligence of the hospital staff. He said due to the lack of proper equipment (ventilator) at the Civil Hospital, his surviving baby had to be shifted to a private hospital this morning. Talking to The Tribune, Satish said, “At about 2 am, my wife Babita began feeling discomfort. I went to get a nurse or doctor, but no one came. Then a nurse came in and the babies were delivered on the hospital bed itself.” Satish said it took a while for the nurses to turn up after he called them. Satish alleged, “While both our babies were alive when they were delivered, early this morning at 6 am one of our babies died. While a nurse had taken me to a doctor after delivery, the doctor said the babies are serious and the Civil Hospital won’t be able to do anything about the case. The staff asked us to take the baby to some other hospital. For the entire night, no one checked the baby after that, nor did they put the babies on any sort of machine or provided any medication.” “It had taken about half an hour for the delivery and after that the nurses went back to sleep and did not turn up till morning after that,” he said. In the morning Satish was asked to take the baby to some private hospital. “I don’t know of any hospital, where I could have taken the baby. I asked the staff, but they said take them wherever you like. They said they couldn’t handle the case,” alleged Satish. Satish alleged that while they asked the authorities to provide them with an ambulance to take their second child to a private hospital, they were not provided with any. Finally, they took the child to a private hospital on their own where the child is presently kept on a ventilator. While children are usually delivered in the labour room, in this case, the child was delivered on a ward bed. Staff members, however, said in some cases it was not uncommon for deliveries to happen on ward beds. Pediatrician Dr Jaswinder, while talking to The Tribune, said, “The couple had been told beforehand that the babies would be feeble. The babies were too premature and the weight of the said baby was a mere 750 gm.” She confirmed that the Civil Hospital did not have a ventilator. When asked were all children in need of a ventilator referred to private hospitals, she said, “We never refer babies to a private hospital. We refer them either to Amritsar or PGI, Chandigarh. But it depends on the parents where they want to take their babies.” Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Gurinder Brar said she wasn’t aware about the issue so far.
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Outgoing Mayor Rathour may re-inaugurate Company Bagh project
Jalandhar, September 5 The project had been hanging fire for the past nearly two years after which the previous contractor had even been chargesheeted for going slow with the work. Ever since the cost of the project has escalated from Rs 3.27 crore to Rs 3.84 crore with contract going to AS Enterprises. Rathour said, “Since we have a foundation stone already laid there, we will just be cutting a ribbon to make it a little formal”. The Mayor also has plans to inaugurate a skew bridge near Leather Complex tomorrow. The outgoing Mayor, however, would not be lucky enough to get the Burlton Park project inaugurated. The project is awaiting legal clearances. The agenda item of the F&CC meeting that was held today on the issue mentions, “A notice of motion has been initiated for September 13 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a civil writ petition no 16224 of 2012 filed by the Burlton Park Welfare Society. The orders read that status quo regarding the land use of the park land shall be maintained till further orders”. The fact that the higher cost of Rs 154.9 crore quoted by the construction company is to be approved from Punjab Government is also a hindrance in the project. The Mayor said the lowest bidder, Nagarjuna Construction Company, had agreed to reduce his bid amount by Rs 8 crore. Regarding solid waste management, the F&CC members agreed to give some more time to Jindal company to start its project. They said the company was to pay up tipper fee three months prior to starting the operation. The members gave approval of three works pending from the MC side regarding the project including widening of road leading to the site at Jamsher village, removing electricity poles coming in the way and shifting of dairies which fall in the earmarked area.
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Finally, state govt gives
Rs 21 cr to cantt board
Jalandhar, September 5 The Director of the Defence Services Welfare-cum-Secretary of the Rajya Sainik Board handed over the outstanding payment to the cantonment board authorities. The huge amount of Rs 21 crore came after a long wait of 19 years as the Punjab Government was using dilly-dallying tactics to return the revenue collected by it through additional excise duty in lieu of octroi on liquor till 2007. Sources in the cantonment board maintained that the Punjab Government woke up from its slumber only when they filed a writ petition with the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2002 in this regard. The amount had been pending since 1988. “Despite a writ petition, the government did not agree to pay the amount and adopted dilly-dallying tactics. Later, we filed a caveat in the Supreme Court and then in March, 2012, the court gave a verdict that the Punjab Government should pay the outstanding amount to us,” the sources added. It was disclosed that the state government was levying additional excise duty on liquor disbursed to defence canteens situated in cantonments in Beas, Adampur and nearby stations for the soldiers. “We pursued this matter with the Punjab Government many a time and also sent repeated reminders, but to no avail. They kept on collecting the additional excise duty on CSD liquor and did not hand over the amount to us,” the sources added. The elected members of the cantonment board also thanked the Punjab Government and said although late, but finally the grant had come. “It is a big relief for fund-deficit cantonment board. Now, we would be able to use this grant for various development works,” said Nistha Goel, councillor. Official speak After a long wait, finally today we received a grant of Rs 21 crore from the Punjab Government, which was pending as the revenue gathered through additional excise duty on CSD liquor. Our continuous efforts bore fruits and we would be able to utilise this huge amount for various development works in the Jalandhar Cantonment Board. — Vibha Sharma, Chief Executive Officer
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Blockade by farmers, labourers hits rail traffic
Jalandhar, September 5 Harnek Singh of Jainpur village in Kapurthala district said: “He had reserved his ticket for Delhi in Swaraj Express. The train was scheduled to reach at 2.45 pm at Jalandhar Cantonment Railway Station, but it arrived here at 4 pm”. Similar was the case of hundreds of other passengers who also remained stranded for hours at the city and cantonment railway stations. The activists of 17 labourers-farmers associations, including Kirti Kisan Union, Pendu Mazdoor Union, Dehati Mazdoor Sabha, Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and Jamhuri Kisan Sabha, staged dharna at the Goraya railway track in support of their demands for providing Rs 10,000 per acre as compensation to labourers and farmers and declaring Punjab a drought-hit state. Their demands also include 10 marla plot to each labourer and waiving of their pending power bills. State presidents of the Kirti Kisan Union Datar Singh and the Pendu Mazdoor Union Tarsem Peter said: “Instead of providing relief to labourers-farmers (khet mazdoors), the state government has imposed more taxes on them.”
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HC tells senior procurement officials to resolve matter
Jalandhar, September 5 Members of the Punjab State Warehousing Field Employees Union had filed a case three years ago, claiming that they were being chargesheeted and recoveries were being made from them on account of less storage gain. Holding the same grouse, they had been on strike, not dispatching grains to other states for the past fortnight. To put in their point that no scientific formula was being adopted by the government for making a calculation regarding increase or decrease in weight of stores’ grains owing to weather conditions, the ex-president of the union Akshar Kumar had referred to an affidavit filed by the Joint Director of the Food and Civil Supplies Punjab in the Supreme Court. The Joint Director had deposed, “Though the matter was referred to the Indian Grains Storage Management and Research Institute, Hapur, for guidance and a report had had been submitted to the Government of India, the recommendations were not considered.” “It has been specifically provided that the increase in weight during storage is a result of the absorption of moisture content from the atmosphere. The moisture content in the atmosphere has a direct relation with the humidity and quantity of rain. In case, there is drought in a year, humidity will be low. As a result, there may not be much gain during the storage of wheat as against the period of rain. While the study recommends gain in weight on a month-to-month basis, the government has issued a policy for taking standard increase in weight at the rate 1 per cent for wheat stored in godown and 0.7 per cent for wheat stored in the open,” the unionists had written in their petition. The court opined that even it did not have an expertise on the issue as to whether the percentage gain provided for in instructions of the government or the corporation are reasonable or not. “Since the conditions vary from year to year, region to region, no definite formula for fixing the gain in wheat could be worked out by the IGMRI. Though some more studies are also going on, it still is not clear whether it would lead to concrete conclusion,” it was observed. The judgement copy reads, “Nothing has been produced on record to show what policy was being followed by all the procurement agencies for the period prior to crop year 1999-2000. Moisture content in the air has direct relation with the rains. Any policy framed for the purpose is required to be reviewed periodically. The exercise should be done by all procurement agencies sitting together by taking advice from the experts. Opinion of the representatives of the employees can also be considered.”
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Topping the list with a payment due to the tune of Rs 1.56 crore is Ludhiana-based coloniser Mehak Buildcon Ltd, who had carved out Estate NRI Extn-1 in 72.96 acre at Malko, Jagan and Badshahpur villages.
Perhaps in a bid to clear most of his ongoing projects before the expiry of his term on September 9, Mayor Rakesh Rathour has plans to re-inaugurate the pending project of Company Bagh tomorrow.
