Jalandhar, November 22
The Labour Department conducted 134 raids across the district as per the Abolition of Child Labour Week. Nine children from across the district, working in various establishments, were rescued in these raids.

Labour-cum-conciliation officer Sukhjinder Singh said: “Nine children were rescued from across the district in 134 raids. While eight have been found to be minors, a medical test is to be conducted on one of the children, after which it will be confirmed whether the child is aged more than 14 years or not.”

“Eight of the children were found employed in hazardous occupations and one was employed in an occupation that was not hazardous,” Singh said.

Three teams conducted the raids in different areas of the district. While one of the teams was sent to Nakodar, the other two raided establishments in Jalandhar.

Notably, even as 134 establishments were raided, it is surprising that only nine children were rescued.

Singh said: “All children had their parents living in Jalandhar. None of them was employed as a bonded labourer.”

Even as FIRs are supposed to be lodged against employers by the district task force if a child is seen employed in a hazardous occupation, the same was not done in the raids carried out today.

Responding to a query regarding this, Singh said: “In one raid, procedure according to only one Act is followed. Acting on too many Acts during one raid results in a mix-up. The Labour Department acted as per the Labour Act and was supposed to challan the owners”.

Notably, no FIR was lodged even as police personnel had accompanied the raiding teams. The CDPO and social security officers also accompanied the team.

Even as an NGO is supposed to be an integral part of the district task force conducting child labour raids, none of the NGOs accompanied the raiding teams today.

Singh said they had called upon some NGOs to accompany them for the raids, but none of them turned up.

Dinesh Kumar, activist of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: “The labour team refused to take NGO activists along despite their regular activism and complaint submissions in this field”.

“We had expressed willingness to a Labour Department official to accompany the team this morning, but they refused,” Dinesh said.

The raids will continue till November 28 under the Child Labour Abolition Week.

Jalandhar, November 22
The world’s fifth multimedia Sikh museum is all set to open for devotees at Sultanpur Lodhi on November 26. The museum has been made in the Nirmal Kutia Complex on the banks of the holy Kali Bein.

Speaking regarding this at a press conference, environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and Dr Raghbir Bains, creator of the Sikh Encyclopaedia and the multimedia Sikh museum, said the inauguration of the museum would be done on the occasion of the seminar held on the Parkash Utsav of Guru Nanak Dev by Akal Takht Jathedar Gyani Gurbachan Singh.

No entry fee would be charged from devotees and scholars keen to take a peak at the Sikh heritage depicted in the museum.

Dr Bains said the museum had been equipped with four touch screens and LCDs and programmes with more than 400 hours would provide researched information to devotees and Sikh enthusiasts.

He said these programmes contained more than 60,000 pages, information regarding Sikh religion, culture, history and heritage.

He said the museum would be a treasure house of knowledge on 3,600 different subjects, including the Guru Granth Sahib.

Keeping in mind the international Sikh religion scholars, a large number of presentations could be heard and read in English.

Jalandhar, November 22
A hardcore criminal Raja Saipuria and his wife Sonia allegedly sustained burn injuries when their neighbours reportedly threw acid (used as toiletries) on them.

The couple was reportedly hurling abuses at their neighbours in Bhagat Singh Colony, which led to an altercation and then a scuffle with their elderly neighbour Bimla Devi.

When Bimla Devi’s son Pawan Kumar tried to intervene in the matter, he was also dragged into the scuffle.

Jalandhar, November 22
Vice-Chancellors of 40 universities of the northern region will participate in a two-day annual north zone meet of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) at Lovely Professional University beginning tomorrow.

Prof SN Puri, president of the association and Vice-Chancellor of Central Agricultural University, Imphal, said Vice-Chancellors from the universities of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Chandigarh, New Delhi and Punjab would participate in the event.

He said deliberations would be held on some important topics like “shortage of quality faculty at Indian universities and how to overcome this”, “inter-university partnerships for mutual success” and “academia-industry interface”.

These issues would be discussed to come out with possible solutions using the collective wisdom of all Vice-Chancellors of the zone, he said.

He said there were 661 universities across the country, of which 410 were members of the association. He said the maximum concentration of universities was in the north zone with as many as 95 members.

He said in other zonal meets held so far, the most-discussed issue was that of requirement of more financial aid from the state and Central governments.

While the association president would open the meet tomorrow, the chief guest for the valedictory session would be AIU’s secretary general Dr R Krishnakumar, Vice-Chancellor, Yashwantrao Chavan, Maharastra Open University, Nashik.

Prof Mohammad Abdus Sattar, Vice-Chancellor, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, would also address during the meet.

LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal said: “The meet has remarkable implication as the Vice-Chancellors, who are expected to participate in the deliberation, are the renowned leaders of higher education in India. Education is to be designed in such a way that ultimately it proves to be a forerunner of social and economic transformation of society. Knowledge capital has become the major shipper of society. As such, meetings of the think tanks, like this, are of utmost importance”.

Dr Ramesh Kanwar, Vice-Chancellor, LPU, said: “Through the conference, we expect some solid resolutions coming out which may be adopted by different stakeholders, namely government, Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors and other university functionaries.” — TNS

Jalandhar, November 22
The Gora group today formally announced its full team of four nominees for the post of office-bearers and 10 executives for the forthcoming election for the Gymkhana Club.

While Satish Thakur Gora, sitting secretary, has again plunged for the post of secretary, Dr Hardeep Oberoi will stand for the post of vice-president, Pankaj Kapoor will try for joint secretary’s post and Amrik Ghai for the post of treasurer.

The group has also announced its 10 nominees for the post of executive, which include the names of two women, Anu Matta and Sunita Uppal. The other nominees are Raju Virk, Dheeraj Seth, Tarun Sikka, Gurpreet Singh Major, Rajinder Singh, Dimpy Sachdeva, Saurabh Khullar and Vishal Kakkar.

All members announced the filing of nomination on the last day on November 24.

Jalandhar, November 22
A day before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to announce its district president, party secretary Manjit Singh Rai reportedly received nearly 15 nomination forms from the contenders.

Rai, who has been appointed as the in charge of the elections, held meetings with each nominee, who came forth to present their paper.

He also met the circle presidents, who form the electorate, to seek their opinion.

In case polling takes place tomorrow, the BJP North constituency does not have any representation since the posts of all three circle presidents falling in the area are lying vacant.

Jalandhar North MLA KD Bhandari said he hoped that elections would be held unanimously and there would be no need of any polling.

Rai said: “Even if voting takes place, there will be no problem without three circle presidents. We need 50 per cent circle presidents to cast vote. We will still have eight out of 11 voters.”

Among the contenders are two-time district president and ex-councillor Shiv Dyal Chugh, councillor Ravi Mahendru, district vice-presidents Punit Shukla and Subhash Bhagat, and general secretaries Anil Sachar and Raju Mago.