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Moga students denied mid-day meals
Tarn Taran hospital needs a checkup
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State govt to invest proceeds from sale of co-op properties
Open market sale pricing flawed: Flour millers
BJP councillors start lobbying as Mayor elections draw near
Charak warns Cong dissidents
Kiln owners want hike in lump sum tax withdrawn
SGPC college in Mohali soon, says Makkar
New bus stand to come up at Bassi Pathana
Shivali Case: Plea for probe by independent agency
DSP booked for taking bribe from tainted official
Cornered by cops, snatcher kills self
Woman sarpanch among three booked for fraud
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Moga students denied mid-day meals
Moga, September 10 The Centre has launched the mid-day meal scheme with a view to enhancing student enrollment and attendance, simultaneously improving the children’s nutritional levels. The Punjab Government, in a public-private partnership, gave its approval to setting up three Adarsh Schools at Daulatpura, Manawan and Ransinh Kalan villages in Moga district. Land for the schools was provided by the village panchayats on a 99-year lease at a nominal rate of Rs 50 per acre per year to the BIS Group of Institutes, Gagra, that runs these schools. The Punjab Government provided a subsidy of 50 per cent on the capital cost incurred on raising infrastructure for these schools. The operational cost of these schools is shared by the state government in the 70:30 ratio. These three Adarsh Schools became operational in 2011 even as construction work on the schoolbuildings is yet to be completed. The mid-day meal scheme was started in 2011 for primary and upper primary classes but could not be sustained for even a few months. Instead of giving cooked food to the students at Daulatpura and Manawan, the managements reportedly started providing the students packets of cheap varieties of biscuits. The foodgrain provided by the Centre was sent to the college campus of the BIS Group of Institutes at Gagra, which house boys’ and girls’ hostels. When the matter came to the notice of the district administration, an inquiry was held in December 2011, after which the then District Education Officer (Primary), Baldev Singh, stopped allocating foodgrain to these schools. Since then, schoolchildren have been deprived of mid-day meals. The present DEO (Primary), Bhupinder Kaur Sandhu, said the foodgrain supply was stopped after the school managements gave in writing that they would provide mid-day meals on their own. “However, it’s unfortunate that the students are not being served mid-day meals. I will bring the matter to the notice of the Director-General of School Education for necessary action”, she said. Nachattar Singh, president, Teachers’ Union, Adarsh Schools, alleged that the schools had fudged enrollment figures last year, probably to get more
foodgrain. Shortcomings galore
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Tarn Taran hospital needs a checkup
Tarn Taran, September 10 “There is a rush of patients and we are short of beds,” says a nurse, escorting the patient to the labour room. The maternity ward is full of visitors. There is no special ward for the newborn and expecting mothers are taken to stinking labour rooms for delivery. Though the government has made repeated announcements on setting up 50 neo-natal care units, nothing on ground has happened so far. A senior doctor, pleading anonymity, says the government focus is more on raising buildings than providing trained hands to run basic healthcare services. “Unfortunately, new and ultra-modern buildings with ceramic tiles, granite tops, electrical and sanitary fittings do not heal patients. They need qualified doctors to treat patients, trained technicians to operate equipment, pharmacists who can dispense medicines and pathologists to conduct tests,”he says. Tarn Taran may boast of a state-of-the-art hospital building at its district headquarters and another one at Khadoor Sahib, but this border town continues to struggle to meet the growing rush of patients. While a new ultramodern building with glazed floors and the latest fittings built at a cost of Rs 7 crore (designed for the upgraded Tarn Taran Civil Hospital) awaits inauguration, a similar building for the Khadoor Sahib Civil Hospital has already been handed over to the department. Both Civil Hospitals at Tarn Taran and Khadoor Sahib are encountering acute staff shortage, including specialists, to cater to the rush of patients from this backward border belt. The Tarn Taran Civil Hospital is short of eight specialists. It has a sanctioned strength of 21. Khadoor Sahib has only one Medical Officer as it awaits posting of specialists, emergency medical officers, a gynaecologist and a paediatrician to become fully operational. The Tarn Taran hospital is also short of five emergency medical officers. The district hospital has an ultrasound machine but no radiologist to operate it. The only radiologist posted here has been absent from duty. For the 70-odd ultrasound machines in state hospitals, there are only 12 qualified radiologists. Some of these radiologists have been promoted to administrative positions and do not conduct diagnostic tests any more. This leaves only eight radiologists available for the patients. There are no intensive care or neo-natal care units at this 100-bedded Tarn Taran hospital. The old hospital building emits an unbearable stench. The labour room is in a shambles with rusted beds and stools. A stinking storage room adjoining the labour room makes patients prone to infection. At times because of the rush of patients, beds have more than one patient with little or no room for the newly born. Almost every third delivery needs surgical intervention which is carried out in unhygienic conditions. Tarn Taran district has also reported a number of cancer cases. Early this year, 209 confirmed cases of cancer were forwarded to the state government for financial assistance. The Cancer Roko Mobile examines patients once or twice a year. Like other major districts, the hospital does not have any mammography facilities.“We are trying to manage with whatever is available with us. Our Out Patient Departments (OPDs), gets about 400 patients a day. Our average intake is 700 patients a month,” says Dr Dharmpaul, Civil Surgeon. — With inputs from
Gurbax Puri
Dismal Scenario
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State govt to invest proceeds from sale of co-op properties
Chandigarh, September 10 An official said a decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He said income generated from
the sale of land and buildings held by cooperative institutions would not be spent on routine expenditures like disbursement of salaries. Under the new policy, the Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer or President of the primary cooperative society or institution which intended to sell its land/building would have to put his case before the Board of Directors (BoDs) along with his recommendations citing the reasons for sale. In case a resolution is passed for the sale of land/building by the BoDs or the MD, the case will be sent to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies for his approval. The policy has recommended that open auction is the best route to fetch the maximum price. The reserve price will be fixed by the Deputy Commissioner concerned on the basis of the prevailing market price. In case any cooperative institution fails to get the reserved price from the auction held twice, the reserved price can be slashed by a maximum of 20 per cent. To ensure transparency and accountability in the auction, a representative of the Registrar Cooperative Societies will be appointed as observer. In case of sale of land/building belonging to apex institutions, a representative of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies will be the observer. A video recording of the entire proceedings of the auction has been made mandatory. In case any cooperative institution is not willing to dispose of its land through open auction, it can undertake the sale of such land through PUDA or other development authority like GMADA, GLADA after getting it developed by them or directly.
Money wise
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Open market sale pricing flawed: Flour millers
To register their protest against the high wheat prices in Punjab, the flour millers today abstained from submitting tenders under the OMSS with the Food Corporation of India. Against the 50,000 tonnes of wheat that was to be allotted under the OMSS, tenders for only 600 tonnes were submitted. The flour millers said unless they were given a level playing field, they would not participate in the wheat allotment process. The millers are demanding that the Ministry of Food should have the same pricing norms under the OMSS for all states. The Ministry has a common reserve price for wheat under this scheme, which is now Rs 1,285 per quintal, up from the reserve price of Rs 1,170 per quintal last month. However, while allotting tenders under the OMSS, the flour mill owners and traders are charged all taxes that the FCI had paid to the state while procuring wheat. As a result, the price at which wheat allotted to different states varies according to the taxes imposed on the foodgrain at the time of its procurement. Talking to The Tribune, Naresh Ghai, president of Punjab Flour Mills Association, said because of high taxes on wheat in Punjab, the stock was allotted to them at Rs 1483.16 per quintal. “Wheat is made available to millers at Rs 1,313 per quintal in Uttarakhand, at Rs 1,323 per quintal in Delhi, at Rs 1,330 per quintal in Rajasthan and at Rs 1,462 per quintal in Haryana. Punjab imposes maximum taxes on wheat. These include 2 per cent market fee, 2 per cent rural development fund, 5 per cent purchase tax and 2.5 per cent arhtiya commission and 3 per cent infrastructure development cess. By including 5 per cent VAT that we pay on wheat, the cost of wheat in Punjab goes up to Rs 1,600 per quintal, which is unviable,” he said. The millers said this different pricing had created a situation where wheat flour produced by them was expensive while the flour produced by mills outside Punjab was cheaper. Dharminder Gill, a flour mill owner from Ludhiana, said though Punjab had contributed 129 lakh metric tonnes of wheat to the central pool, the people of Punjab would have to pay more for wheat flour because of this “flawed policy”. “We agree that the FCI has to pay high taxes while procuring wheat from Punjab, but while allotting wheat under these OMSS, these taxes paid should be passed on uniformly to all states instead of collecting these only from Punjab millers,” he said. Costly grain
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Cheapest tablet Aakash-2 to be made in Amritsar
Amritsar, September 10 Tuli said he had decided to set up the first unit in Amritsar as it was the holiest place for Sikhs across the world. He said it would be among the company’s five manufacturing units in India where Aakash tablet, a slim scanner and other devices would be manufactured. Tuli also disclosed that the latest version of the tablet Aakash-2 would be launched soon. “It has double the capacity as compared to the earlier version with 512 MB RAM, 4.5 Android OS and 4 GB capacity, besides a camera. It is equipped with applications like science encyclopaedia, Krish Villa for farmers, internet calling, video chat and weather forecast. It will also be used as a mobile phone by inserting a SIM card”. He said the company would be supplying one lakh Aakash tablets to the Union Government by October-November this year at a cost of Rs 2,263 each. Its price in the open market would be Rs 3,700-Rs 4,500 for which the company had already received orders for 38 lakh tablets, he said. Tuli said countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey had also evinced interest in Aakash and talks were on to export the device to these countries. He said with Aakash, people from every section of society would have access to computer and the internet. “As per TRAI figures, 90 crore people in India use mobile phones, but only 1.3 crore have access to the internet. On the contrary, 80 per cent of the US population uses the internet,” he said. The CEO said Datawind had also come out with the smallest scanner which was among the 30 devices invented by the company.
Aakash-2 soon
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BJP councillors start lobbying as Mayor elections draw near
Patiala, September 10 The party's high-level committee comprising its state president Ashwani Sharma, state general secretary Kamal Sharma and Ajay Jamwal, general secretary (Organisation), Punjab, would finalise the candidature based on feedback from the BJP state core committee. The core committee had already spoken with all the municipal councillors of Patiala in Chandigarh on September 3. BJP insiders said, “Patiala Deputy Mayor Sonia Devi (BJP), who had resigned from the post, accused Bajaj of causing gross financial irregularities in the Patiala Municipal Corporation. Bajaj's competitors are hoping that these accusations will force party leadership to field a new face for the election of Senior Deputy Mayor.” As per the existing system, either a woman councilor or an SC councillor will take the post of Deputy Mayor. "If the Ludhiana Deputy Mayor post goes to a woman, then Balwant Rai (SC) is likely to sail through. However, if an SC councillor gets the post in Ludhiana, then BJP's Lata Aggarwal will lead the race for the Patiala Deputy Mayorship,” said a confidant of BJP state president Ashwani Sharma.
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Charak warns Cong dissidents
Party general secretary in-charge for Punjab Gulchain Singh Charak said action would be taken if Amarinder reported any instance to the high command. Amarinder had, however, earlier said he did not want to recommend any action against anybody. Charak said the high command was yet to take a final decision on leadership of the state unit. He said Capt Amarinder will continue to head the Punjab Congress until his resignation is accepted by party president Sonia Gandhi.
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Breach inundates Fazilka fields
Fazilka, September 10 The openings were 25 to 30-ft wide and occurred within a km between Chaurianwali and Kikkarwala villages on the Fazilka-Malout road. Standing cotton and paddy crops, besides green fodder, on hundreds of acres of land were left inundated in knee-deep water. The exact losses, however, were yet to be ascertained. Farmers claimed the canal’s banks gave way as they could not sustain the gush of water released from the Chack Pakhi head-works. “For the last two days, water is almost overflowing the minor’s banks. The breaches were noticed between 3 am and 4 am,” a farmer, Krishan Lal, of Chaurianwali village said. Officials at the head-works, however, denied any extra water had been released. Sub-Divisional Officer (canal) Amarjit Singh said “The canal has a capacity to carry 100 cusecs of water. But at present, just 50 cusecs of water is flowing,” he said. He claimed that a few farmers, apparently due to heavy rain, had plugged the water course at some places, which resulted in overflow at the points where the breaches occurred. Over 50 activists of Shah Satnam Ji Green Welfare Force, apart from the government machinery, have been trying to plug the gaps, a process that is likely to last two days.
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Kiln owners want hike in lump sum tax withdrawn
While category-A kilns will now have to pay Rs 6 lakh against the earlier Rs 3 lakh, the revised tax on category-B units will be Rs 4.80 lakh; category-C kilns will have to pay Rs 4.20 lakh. There are about 2,700 kilns in the state, of which 160 are in Sangrur district. A large number of kiln owners today gathered at Banasar garden here and took out a protest rally till the district administrative complex. Wearing black badges, they later submitted a memorandum of demands to Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul. Punjab Brick Kiln Welfare Association senior vice-president Kewal Krishan Longowalia said though no hike in brick prices had been made so far, they will soon have to revise the prices. "After the hike in lump sum tax, kiln owners have little option but to pass the increased cost of production to the consumers," he said. Longowalia said there would be an increase of Rs 200 to Rs 400 per thousand bricks if the government failed to withdraw the hike in tax. He also warned that the kiln owners may even stop the sale of bricks if the state government did not roll back the increase in tax. "Stopping the sale of bricks will, among other projects, affect the government's developmental initiatives," he said.
Seeing red
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Cambridge wants research collaboration with Punjab
New Delhi, September 10 Ruling out any move to set up a campus in India or offer a joint degree with any Indian institution, Prof Leszek Borysiewicz, VC, University of Cambridge, said today that the institution was looking to partner with Punjab in various fields and had met the state Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and academics in this regard. He specifically offered to help the state on the issue of the state’s receding water table. Speaking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the India-Cambridge Summit here, Prof Borysiewicz said Cambridge was open to research collaboration with Punjab in the business, innovation, enterprise, studies of inter-faith issues and technology. “We have had a long-established collaboration with the SGPC which sponsors students to Cambridge... We are keen to collaborate on plant science and agriculture and can help the state with its declining water table,” said the 345th VC of the university. A former Chief Executive of UK's Medical Research Council and Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College, London, Prof Borysiewicz said he had plans for research partnership with India in the field of higher education. He appreciated Punjab in his inaugural address, saying “I respect India for the Golden Temple, among other things.” The top academic cleared the air on the possibility of Cambridge coming to India once the controversial Foreign Education Providers Bill is passed. He spoke after HRD Minister Kapil Sibal expressed hope that Cambridge would explore academic collaboration with India.
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SGPC college in Mohali soon, says Makkar
Anandpur Sahib, September 10 Makkar said the committee had decided to plants trees that existed during the times of the Sikh Gurus. The committee decided to set up a degree college at Mohali and shift the building of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Senior Secondary School at Baba Bakala to a more convenient place on Dhianpur road. It also decided to give 6 per cent DA to all SGPC employees. He said machines would be procured to prepare langar (community kitchen) at Gurdwara Baba Budha Ji Ramdas and Gurdwara Manji Sahib, Lashkari Kotan. Gurdwara counters will be computerised at Baba Bakal, Lashkari Kotan and Amritsar, he added.
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New bus stand to come up at Bassi Pathana
Bassi Pathana, September 10 Residents of the area had been demanding for the bus terminus for a long time. Passengers would usually get wet during the rainy season with no shelter on the premises. Local MLA Nirmal Singh said the foundation stone of the terminus would be laid by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on October 3. PRTC would construct the bus stand on 14 kanals of land within 10 months. The land would be provided by the local municipal council. Singh and PRTC managing director DPS Kharbanda inspected the work going on at the project site. Kharbanda said the corporation would also construct bus stands with state-of-the-art facilities in Sirhind, Anloh, Patran and Mansa towns. He said these bus stands would be fitted with sound systems through which passengers would be informed the arrival and departure times of the buses. This system was already functioning at Patiala.
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Shivali Case: Plea for probe by independent agency
Chandigarh, September 10 Already, an FIR has been registered against Inspector Balwinder Kaur and photojournalists Brijesh Kumar and Ravi under Section 306 of IPC for abetment to suicide. Allegedly harassed and humiliated by Inspector Balwinder Kaur and camerapersons, Shivali jumped before a train on August 30.
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DSP booked for taking bribe from tainted official
The Inspector-General of Police, Vigilance, V Neerja, said: “ DSP Gurcharanm Singh has been booked for taking a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from the motor vehicle inspector, who is evading arrest.” Gurcharan Singh was recently appointed Assistant Commissioner of Police,Gill, and had taken charge a fortnight ago. He was to be promoted as Superintendent of Police (SP) soon, said Additional DCP (special branch) Harmohan Singh. Gurcharan Singh was absent from duty today. Police sources said Vigilance sleuths had raided Gurcharan Singh’s house and recovered a huge amount of cash. On July 19, the Vigilance Bureau had raided Rakesh Gupta’s residence, then posted as motor vehicle inspector, Ludhiana. It had recovered Rs 35 lakh, 1 kg of opium, Indira Vikas Patra for Rs 5 lakh and property documents worth several crores. Gurcharan Singh, then working as DSP, Vigilance, was part of the team that raided the house.
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Cornered by cops, snatcher kills self
Gurdaspur, September 10 Acting on a compliant filed by a woman resident that two men on a bike had snatched her chain near the BSF headquarters, a police party led by DSP (City) Navjot Singh and SHO (City Police station) Gurdip Singh laid a trap. The miscreants were spotted near a busy intersection and asked to halt. One of them, identified as Jagrup Singh, a resident of Kathunangal in Amritsar, was nabbed as he ran after abandoning the motor bike. His accomplice Harpal Singh shot himself in the temple from his .32 bore pistol when confronted by the police. Addressing a press conference, Gurdaspur Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Jit Singh said the criminals were involved in 16 chain-snatching incidents in Gurdaspur, Dhariwal and Dinanagar. In another incident, two youths snatched the purse of constable Poonam Rani after she was returning home from work along with a colleague. Snatchers injure woman DSP Jalandhar: Two bike-borne youths snatched a mobile phone from Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gurmail Kaur late last night. The DSP, who resisted the snatchers, was injured and hospitalised. Gurmail Kaur, who is deployed at the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) campus here, told the police that she and her daughter-in-law were returning home on a rickshaw when two miscreants, their faces covered, stopped their motorcycle in front of the rickshaw. They tried to snatch her purse but she resisted. They managed to take away her mobile phone. Station House Officer Harinder Pal Singh said the police was searching for the snatchers.
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Woman sarpanch among three booked for fraud
Moga, September 10 The police has registered a case against sarpanch Manjit Kaur, panchayat secretary Malkit Singh and village administrator Mohan Singh last evening. The Director, Department of Panchayats, had filed a police complaint after conducting a departmental inquiry. The department has suspended the sarpanch and an administrator has been appointed to look after the routine works. The inquiry revealed the state government gave a total of Rs 11.38 lakh in two years to the panchayat for development works. The sarpanch withdrew Rs 3.70 lakh from the bank on three separate occasions and did not spend the same on development works, said an official. Earlier, some village residents had complained to the Panchayat Department regarding misuse of panchayat funds. A senior police official said the accused would be arrested soon.
— TNS
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Chandigarh, September 10
Chandigarh, September 10
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