Jalandhar, March 29
Agitated shopkeepers held a protest march in Garha, falling under the Cantonment Assembly segment ,to protest against the imposition of the property tax.

Shopkeepers in Johal Market, Garha, Jyoti Nagar, Mithapur Road, Urban Estate and surrounding areas observed a token strike against the property tax. They were accompanied by former Jalandhar cantonment MLA Jagbir Brar. They staged a dharna in their respective markets and also carried out protest march against the property tax.

Chairman of the Johal Market Shopkeepers Welfare Association AS Duggal and its general secretary Arvinder Pal Singh demanded that the Parkash Singh Badal- led SAD-BJP government should immediately withdraw its decision of levying the property tax in public interest.

Addressing the protesters, Jagbir Brar said"Instead of putting extra burden on the common man in the shape of property tax,the Badal government should judiciously use its funds, as Comptroller and Auditor General ,in its report, stated that Rs. 3100 crore was misused."

Brar said" Punjabis in general ,and residents of Jalandhar, in particular, are agitated over the imposition of the property tax as the shopkeepers of various markets have been observing strike by turn to lodge their protest. The shopkeepers of almost all markets, falling under the Jalandhar cantonment Assembly segment have already observed token strike turn by turn to show their resentment against the property tax."

Brar threatened that if the decision of imposing the property tax was not withdrawn, the agitation would be intensified.

Jalandhar, March 29
While the tenure of eminent writer Kartar Singh Duggal as the Rajya Sabha MP lapsed in 2003 and the man himself passed away in January 2012, there still is an unutilised amount of Rs 15.91 lakh lying in his discretionary MPLADS account.

The pending amount pertains to the ongoing construction of Virsa Vihar, a hall meant for promoting art and culture, at Ludhiana. The long pendency of a decade speaks volumes about the unnecessary delays and red tape in the bureaucracy hindering the implementation of a dream project conceived by the litterateur, which he has ironically not himself lived to see.

The matter came to light during a recent meeting of the Vigilance Monitoring Committee. The Deputy Advisor, Statistical Department, Rani had presented a report on the matter before the Chairman and current Lok Sabha MP Mahinder Singh Kaypee. “The Ludhiana administration failed to provide land for the MP’s project for a long time. The funds were retained for the purpose and were put to use just about two years ago back when the land was finally allotted”, the staff of the department said.

There were other MPs who no longer hold the charge but still have their unutilised grants under MPLADS. Rana Gurjit Singh, whose tenure as MP Jalandhar ended in 2009, has Rs 1.93 lakh pending. Charanjit Singh Atwal, who represented Phillaur, has Rs 22,000 pending from his MPLADS funds.

The current MPs ,too, have a huge amount as balance in their kitty. While Kaypee has been released 768.28 lakh since his tenure started in 2009, he has a huge Rs 432.27 lakh as balance. Likewise ,Rajya Sabha MP, Naresh Gujral has been released Rs 1290.23 lakh, he, however ,has only Rs 150.86 lakh pending.

Congress leader and non-official member of the Vigilance Monitoring Committee, Manoj Arora, commented that delay in Duggal’s project can be a case study material. “The whole purpose of utilization of funds gets defeated when the man himself is no more to see the project which he vied for”, he said. 

Jalandhar, March 29
While the Class X and XII board examinations are over, the district witnessed as many as 30 unfair means cases (UMC) cases at various examination centres.

Only one FIR was registered during the exams in which a Class X student at the Baopur centre fled with his answer sheet and a case of impersonation also surfaced.

While the open centres were the prime concern of the Education Department, some other centres also proved to be major problem areas for the department.

Lohian Khas (five cases), Shahkot (one case), Udowal (one case), Malsian (one case), Samrai Jandiala (one case) and Sanghowal remained the most notorious centre with eight cases.

While the majority of the cases were reported from the rural centres, some urban centres hogged the lime light for their unruly examinees.

While only one of the city centres (Class XII history exam at Shahkot) had been cancelled owing to 14 cases being caught, for the rest it is the end of exams in the city for now.

Jalandhar, March 29
Unidentified persons broke open a car and looted Rs 9 lakh in cash belonging to a mobile phone dealer at Phagwara Gate late this evening.

Neeraj Grover, a resident of mission compound, had kept the cash in his car and was about to move when all of a sudden he went back to his shop for some work. On returning, he found that the windowpanes of his car had been broken and the cash bag had been looted.

The police said since there were no eyewitnesses in the case, there was no clue to the episode. An FIR regarding the theft has been lodged against unknown persons.

Jalandhar, March 29
Two key libraries in the district have been crying for repair or even a building to house books.

Guru Nanak District Library has been a picture of lost glory for the past many years due to the need for repair.It has been disowned by all departments concerned.

The MC library, meanwhile was demolished and its books shifted to the MC building a couple of years ago. Currently its books lie stored in MC shops since there is no building available.

The Guru Nanak District Library is characterised by a broken crown (ramshackle roof which badly needs repairs), broken boundary walls and limited staff which make maintenance all the more difficult.

Chief Librarian Gurdial Singh Kahlon, who has been working at the library for the past two decades said, “The library has had as many as 34,000 members. Of these, as many as 17,000 are still members. In the session 2012-13 the library got 600 members. But sadly its popularity has only translated to numbers because all the concerned departments have been dilly dallying on the issue of its repairs.”

While the tranquil environs of the library make for an ideal place to read and concentrate for students and scholars, Kahlon worries about the safety of his members as well.

“The state of the roof is very bad. Concern about the reader’s (especially those using the upper hall) safety constantly hounds us. There is a long trail of paper work on correspondence with DPI (C ) and the PWD department. While the DPI ( C ) directs our complaints regarding repairs to the PWD Department, PWD officials say they have no money for us,” Kahlon says.

Talking about staff allocations, Kahlon said the library has a staff of a merely nine people while at least 18 are needed.

Ironically, while the library charges Rs 500 for permanent membership and Rs 100 for renewals per month, this money is not accessible for its own use.

“The money goes into the library’s personal fund which is a part of the government treasury and can’t be taken out by the staff for its own use. There is even no interest on the personal fund so the money is just being stored all this time,” Kahlon adds.

Meanwhile, following the demolition of the MC library on the Nehru Garden premises,about 27,000 books of the MC library now lie stored up in MC shops, waiting to get a proper building where they can be read.

Talking to The Tribune librarian Meenakshi, said, “The books are currently stored but will be shifted soon. Barring the library books, there are 116 to 117 centres (in gurdwaras and temples) in the city where the distribution of newspapers runs on MC supplies.”

While there were plans to shift the books of the MC library as well to the Guru Nanak District Library, the plans were changed after the staff at the district library expressed apprehensions in this regard.

Speaking on the issue, MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani said, “Due to technical difficulties cited by the district library staff, plans to shift the books there have been stalled, but as per the plans proposed in the recent budget, there are plans that the library will be accommodated in the galleries of the upcoming town hall which will be built on the present MC premises.”

While this is the tentative plan as of now, it is subject to change, said the MC Commissioner.

Jalandhar, March 29
There was an uproar at the local Cambridge International School for Girls situated at the Urban Estate, Phase II, here today, when Amandeep Kaur, seeking admission to the school, was allegedly denied admission by one of the staff members. Girl's father Harpreet Singh alleged that his daughter, who was seeking admission in Class IX, was denied admission by an employee on the pretext that the girl couldn't be allowed to attend the school wearing the customary head scarf (a sacred garment worn by Amritdhari Sikhs).

The school authorities, however, said the incident was caused due to a misunderstanding. Speaking to The Tribune, school principal Deepa Dogra said the matter had been resolved amicably and the school has conveyed to the girl's father that they were ready to admit her in the school.

Meanwhile, Harpreet Singh claimed, "We went to the school this morning and made enquiries regarding the admission at the school front desk. My daughter's previous class documents were checked and admission clearance was given. We were almost going in for the registration when my daughter expressed apprehensions about head wear being allowed at the school."

"The front desk employee said she would have to check with the school staff on the issue. A student couldn't be allowed to attend school while wearing a head scarf. Even as the front desk employee tried telling her about the scarf's importance, she did not pay any heed and blatantly disagreed," Singh claimed.

Harpreet said his daughter was born in the US and she wasn't even disallowed to wear a scarf there.

Meanwhile, many persons, including some from Sikh organisations, gathered in support of the family. Following the heated arguments between those demanding admission and the school authorities, the teacher, who refused admission, apologised and the school principal said they had no objection in admitting the girl.

Principal Deepa Dogra said, "We have many Amritdhari Sikhs studying in the school and there is no question of disallowing the child to study here. The school values its students and I believe a misunderstanding has created the confusion. Rupam, who is a receptionist at the school, is unaware about the school policies and had said that she would check with the authorities, whether head scarf is allowed but the girl's parents perceived it as denial. The misunderstanding has now been sorted out and the father of the girl would be visiting the school tomorrow."

However, perturbed with the entire episode, Harpreet Singh has decided not to send her daughter in the said school. "With whatever happened, I am now apprehensive about the attitude of the school authorities in case my daughter studies there. Hence, I would now be opting for some other school," he said.

Jalandhar, March 29
Special training teachers burnt their relieving certificates in a protest demonstration held outside the DC’s office here today. They were protesting against the government’s move of relieving them on March 31 this year.

A meeting of special training teachers was held at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall here, from where they headed to the DC’s office. Teachers from Jalandhar and Kapurthala gathered on the occasion and the meeting was headed by teachers Sunita and Paramjit Singh.

The teachers said the government had been meting out a bad treatment to them from the beginning. “Last year, we were ousted from our jobs three times. But then the government agreed to all our demands.”

They said the government was again ousting all the 1,894 teachers on March 31.

They said if the government did not agree to their demands, they would be holding agitations across the state in the coming days.

Jalandhar, March 29
The state government is seems is least bothered regarding redressal of public grievances. There has been no meeting of grievances committee in the state since the past four years, the last one having been chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. Since the last one year, the government has not even paid a heed to constitute any committee of the sort.

Badal convened just one meeting ever since he assumed the charge as chairman of Jalandhar and Bathinda committees on October 23, 2009. Prior to him, Capt Kanwaljit Singh was the chairman of the committee but he passed away in March 2009.

As per the guidelines, the grievances committee is expected to meet at least once a month. This implies that there should have been at least 48 meetings since the past four years but the local committee has been able to meet even once.

The guidelines stipulate that there have to be 25 to 30 members in the committee to be chaired by a cabinet minister. Assistant Commissioner Grievances Dr Sanjeev Sharma said that there had been directions from the government to formulate the committee at the earliest. We are already on the job, he said. 

Jalandhar, March 29
Despite widespread labour and child rights violations in the district, the lackadaisical approach of NGOs and lack of awareness among government sources is causing a lot of damage to children in the district.

While the government blames inaction on lack of complaints, NGOs say they are helpless because even if they pursue child rights cases, they are not backed by adequate government support.

The District Legal Services Authority is no exception.

While the DLSA can provide free legal aid to any child whose rights are being violated, the authorities say it is sad that they have, so far, not received any complaint in this regard.

Major Tejinder Singh, secretary, District Legal Services Authority, said, “The lack of complaints regarding children's issues is very sad, but ironically we have not been approached with a single complaint of child rights violation in the city. Even as we are aware that scores of children are being employed as domestic help, we are not receiving any complaint regarding any of these children.”

“Surprisingly, we are not getting any such complaints at camps we hold for the purpose. There is no doubt there is a massive under reporting regarding child rights violations and since children can’t report violations themselves, it is evident society isn’t serious enough about them,” Singh adds.

Kulwant Singh Nagra, a social activist, says, “Some months ago, we had taken up the issue of two SC/ST sisters who had lost both their parents. Putting up with their grandmother and blind grandfather, the family was making do with mid-day meal food that the girls brought home from school. At night, they were filling bellies with water mixed in the meal.”

“Belonging to the BPL families, these children were entitled to a pension. But last time we checked, they weren’t getting any. However, after we pursued the case, government sources said their case would be pursued. The government should ideally have a mechanism to identify these children and ensure the various schemes meant for them, added Nagra.

Sources said there were times when these children were rescued and taken to various NGOs, but the lack of volunteers to provide aid to them leaves the rescuer frustrated and then there were people who have actually given up helping owing to the lackadaisical approach of the authorities.

Phagwara, March 29
Hundreds of activists belonging to the Shiv Sena led by the local president Vipin Sharma, held a demonstration and blocked traffic on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road for a few hours to protest against the increase in the registration fees of the Amarnath Yatra pilgrims.

The protesters also burnt an effigy of the government and demanded withdrawal of the registration fees.

Phagwara, March 29
Activists of the Ambedekar Sena Mool Niwasi (Punjab) held a protest march, which was headed by its state president Harbhajan Suman.

The march started from Hargobindnagar Park and concluded at the Tehsil complex, where a protest rally was also organised.

During the march, the protesters burnt the effigies of Sarwan Singh Phillaur and Gulzar Singh Ranike and alleged that Dalit ministers could not come up to the expectations of the dalits and were ignoring the interests of the dalits community. Traffic on national highways remained interrupted during the protest.

Later the demonstrators submitted a memorandum to the officials concerned.