Jalandhar, June 7
Apparently giving an extremely loose string to illegal colonisers, the Punjab Urban Housing and Development Authority (PUDA) has come up with the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Act 2013, clipping powers of the officials to act against them for a period of one year.

As per the Act (a copy of which has been dispatched to officials of all development authorities), till the new norms, policies, guidelines and feasible strategies are finalised to deal with the problem of unauthorised development in a year’s time, the officials have been barred from taking any punitive action.

The officials have been told not to take action on the erection or re-erection of buildings in an area in contravention of the provisions of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act 1995 or Punjab Municipal Act 1976 or Punjab Municipal Act 1911 or Punjab Town Improvement Act 1922, except where there already is a pendency in any court or an FIR lodged by the police.

The Act reads, “All notices issued by any local authority for the initiation of action against unauthorised development shall be deemed to have been suspended for a year and no punitive action be taken.” Section 5 of the Act, however, does not provide any relief for construction unauthorisedly started or continued after April 1, 2013.

But the officials contend that it is extremely difficult to establish as to the construction started after April 1 or prior to it. The Act also comes in contradiction of the previous orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had made the SDMs concerned accountable for any illegal colony coming up in their respective areas.

Ever since the orders had come, the SDMs had started razing a few illegal colonies in the periphery of the city, including those at Pholariwal, Dhanal Kalan, Shahpur, Qadianwala and Fatehpur villages.

Chief Administrator PUDA Supreet Singh Gulati said since the Act clearly implied that all action against illegal colonisers was to be suspended, he had passed the directions to his regulatory wing.

Jalandhar, June 7
Finally acting against the marriage palaces which have failed to apply as per the new policy framed by the state government, the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) today sealed two palaces in the district.

A team led by Executive Engineer (Regulatory), JDA, Sumittar Singh, today sealed the premises of Aashiana Complex at Beas village and Utsav Palace at Kangniwal village. Two other palaces which were to be sealed today were spared as the owners had reportedly stopped the use of the place for marriage purposes.

The Executive Engineer said the owners of Ajit Palace at Deep Nagar had removed the hoarding and were not using it, so they did not seal it. He added that RP Farms had started using the premises as a store instead, owing to which his staff did not take action.

The JDA team plans to continue sealing of the remaining 47 palaces across Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala in the coming days, picking any four palaces from the list.

Jalandhar, June 7
The working of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) is in for a major overhaul these days. The staff, which has always been used to working under political bosses or administrators showing little interest owing to multiple official duties, is finding it quite hard to adjust to the working of young, agile IAS officer Supreet Gulati, who took over as the chairman of the civic body about two and a half months ago.

The errant staff which has not been able to keep pace with the chairman has either been shown the door or is running for cover. The Trust has got its new executive officer (EO) Dayal Chand Garg, replacing Jatinder Singh who has been shifted to Barnala.

Two clerks Varinder and Jatinder have been placed under suspension. While one of them could not allegedly produce a sale file kept under his supervision, the second clerk reportedly did not pay heed to present a file on time related to a court case pertaining to a refund claim sought by a handicapped allottee. This folly on part of the clerk has invited contempt proceedings against the Trust authorities in the case.

Further, the chairman has not given extension to six data entry operators who reportedly had been appointed overlooking the minimum qualification criteria. The Trust, which started its single-window system about three months ago, now has just one system operator to take care of the applications. Harjit Singh, a Senior Assistant, has tendered his papers seeking pre-mature retirement.

Gulati, when contacted on the matter, said that he was simply trying to make the staff more accountable to the public and ensure quick redress of the grievances. The officer has been himself accepting the complaints of the visitors, jotting down their cell phone numbers and even making his staff call back the complainant over the issue the same day.

He added that he had also sought a list of 50 to 60 properties owned by the JIT so that these could be sold off to fetch some revenue and improve the fiscal health of the Trust.

Jalandhar, June 7
For the second time in four months, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the premises of Happy Forex, a money changer, at Adda Hoshiarpur here this morning.

The ED officials claimed that they had learnt that the owner of the company Jeewan Kumar had continued to indulge in hawala transactions even as investigations were on into the alleged Rs 1000-crore racket unearthed earlier in February.

The officials, who had raided the premises to take some documents required for investigation into custody, reportedly did not get any cooperation from the owners for the purpose and had to break open almirahs to lay hands on vital documents.

It had been found earlier that the money changer had been making transactions with countries, including Canada, the UK, USA and Germany. Inquiries had also revealed that the racketeer enjoyed the backing of politicians, police officials and even hand tool exporters, whom they helped turn black money into white. It had even been established that the companies evaded income tax by showing black money as income made from exports.

The ED sleuths had then raided the premises of Happy Forex and recovered cash to the tune of Rs 1.35 crore. It had also reportedly found documents indicating hawala transactions of Rs 500 crore.

Jaalndhar, June 7
For a generation which has been brought up in the fast lane, amid a host of media options to keep them distracted, books in the present times, have never had much value or charm, save for the mandatory demands of the school syllabus.

While the competition-driven, result-oriented academic scenario has somehow made students forget the “joy” of reading (as opposed to the mundane, tailored-for-exams drudgery of it); the “happening” (colloquial or western) lingo and slangs promoted by popular culture further help a great deal to distance students from purity and accuracy in language.

In the ensuing mayhem, the prime motive of language is lost on the minds of the unsuspecting students.

Concerns like these probably made the CBSE issue strict instructions to schools to promote reading among students.

Some of the city-based academicians in turn devised special activities, routines or schedules to introduce students to reading and the joys of it.

While the Eklavya School in Jalandhar was one of the first schools to set up a library for its students which has a collection of literary treasures, the school had also extended an open invitation to students of other schools to become members of their library.

Very few turned up, but for the school, the experiment has resulted in positive results. While most of the summer camp activities across schools have paid scant attention to promote reading among children, the school has a special class reserved for its young readers.

Director Seema Handa says, “Special story-telling sessions will be arranged for students for the summer camp which will start in the mid of June. A red carpet has been laid out in one of the classes where students will sit with cushions on the floor listening to story-telling sessions from teachers.”

While the summer camp is only till class 5, the school has special through-the-year reading classes for students from class one to 10.

“From Enid Blyton and Tintin (comics) for juniors the reading classes include the likes of Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Jules Verne among others for elder students. Special activities include team-based exercises, asking them to read a book and to look for five to 10 difficult words and their meanings. Our libraries are also not the usual quiet places. Children are encouraged to ask, discuss and seek solutions to queries and doubts under the supervision of teachers.”

Rashmi Vij from the Police DAV Public School says, “We realise the importance of book-reading among students and the blinding speed at which TV and video games are edging books out. Thus, special reading exercises are promoted. There are class libraries. During holidays students are asked to get books issued and prepare a review based on the book, they read.”

“While we have Cinderella classics and Panchtantra reading for younger students, it slowly advances to the Enid Blyton, Arabian Nights and mature reading like Bride and Prejudice among other classics for seniors. Under the Scholastic Books Club, the school specially gets books issued for students based on what they want to read.”

Deepa Dogra, Principal, Cambridge International School, says, “We were among the first schools to introduce supportive and extended learning among students. The CBSE’s making additional reading mandatory is a welcome move because it is indeed a national problem.”

“Exercises we encourage among students include asking them to read a book and side by side elaborating on the practical issues it might address in their lives, as it is taken up in class. Our school also has readers’ and writers’ club. One of our students recently authored a book of her own.”

Jalandhar, June 7
The Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha in a meeting today decided that they would take out a rally towards the Chandiagrh residence of state Education Minister Sikandar Maluka on June 20.

The morcha members had asked the CM to release the jailed CSS teachers and to discontinue the present rationalisation policy and had also sought the implementation of the 2011 policy.

The demanded that scandals in the Education Department should be looked into by a sitting judge and the guilty must be brought the book.

Their other demands included promotions of all categories of teacher, cancellation of subject-wise seniority lists, brining of zila parishad schools under the Education Department, regularisation of contractual teachers and permanent rule for teacher transfers.

Karnail Singh Sandhu, Shov kumar, Balkar Singh Shahkot, Bhupinder Varaich were present in the meeting among others.

Jalandhar, June 7
With the temperature soaring by day, unscheduled power cuts during night in various pockets of the city are not only causing inconvenience to residents but also putting scores of patients and their attendants at various government-run hospitals in a great hardship.

Residents of New Green Model Town lamented that they have been facing power cuts after midnight as a result of which they were passing sleepless nights for the past week. There is nobody to attend upon their complaints at the nearby PSPCL complaint centres.

Yurinder Singh of Gurunanakpura area said unscheduled powers cuts were a cause of concern and worst-affected were children and the elderly.

Dairy products and eatables get spoiled in refrigerators without power supply, said Sanjiv Kumar, who runs a shop on Ladowali Road.

Attendants of patients at the local Civil Hospital are forced to sleep on the corridors of the hospital building, courtesy unscheduled power cuts.

A low water pressure and lack of potable water has further multiplied their woes, complained Jyoti, an attendant at the Civil Hospital.

Ravinder Singh, Executive Engineer, PSPCL, Model Town area, said no unscheduled power cuts were carried in his area.

Jalandhar, June 7
Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) has started new courses at its Jalandhar college.

MBA (five-year integrated) and MCA (five-year integrated) courses have been introduced under the dual degree system on the pattern of the varsity campus.

A student will get BBA (honours) or BCA (honours) degree on the completion of six semesters and will be awarded MBA and MCA degrees on the completion of 10 semesters.

Some of the courses have also been redesigned keeping the financial difficulties of students in mind.

As per instructions of the Vice-Chancellor, the annual fee for MBA (five-year integrated course) under the dual degree system will be Rs 60,000 per year for the first three years and for the last two years it will be equivalent to MBA (two year course).

Jalandhar, June 7
Students of the Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar won first position in the International Space Design Contest, organised by the National Space Society (NSS) and co-sponsored by NASA, America’s Research Center for the sixth consecutive year.

Students of APJ Public School enjoy a game during the summer camp in Jalandhar on Thursday. a Tribune photograph

The objective of the project, entitled Columbiat, was to design a settlement for 22,000 people, which could act as a business and banking hub in the space, consisting of residential, agricultural, industrial and research areas. The team was invited to participate in the International Space Development Conference which was held in San Diego from May 23 to 26. They gave a presentation to an eminent space scientist.

The team comprised Abhijeet Singh, Anirudh Aggarwal, Gobind Marwaha, Vishavjeet Singh, Geetanjali Verma, Saniya Verma, Jessica Brar, Jessica - all students of class VIII and their mentors Navdeep Sharma and Karam Inder Singh.

Super Fifty

A student Rajwinder Kaur from DIPS, Nurmahal and Pargat Singh DIPS, Mehta Chowk have been selected to join the bandwagon of Super Fifty students from rural Punjab to be provided specialised education for XI and XII for getting admission in any IIT. It will be a prodigious and prestigious project to launch these students to seek entry to the dream course. The project, started at the initiative taken by Prof AS Brar, VC Guru Nanak Dev University, has secured the approval and appreciation from Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister. An entrance test was conducted to select these students. They will be admitted to Khalsa College Public School, Amritsar and will be provided lodging and boarding by the Khalsa College Management Trust. The students will be taught by selected and highly qualified professionals as per the syllabus of the CBSE. Simultaneously they will also be provided special training by experts to prepare them for IIT entrance test. Chairman Gurbachan Singh and the entire DIPS fraternity have congratulated these students.

Summer camp

About a100 students are participating in a summer camp running in MGN Urban Estate, Phase II camp. Painting, music, dancing and swimming classes are being conducted at the camp. Distinguished personalities are being called to interact with the students.

Prize distribution

Ramgarhia College of Education organised an annual prize distribution-cum-farewell function to give awards to brilliant students and to bid adieu to the M.Ed and B.Ed students of session 2012-13. Students performed various cultural items, histrionics and mimicry to entertain the audience. These items were followed by modelling and annual prize distribution. In modelling, Dheeraj Sharma and Ramandeep Kaur won farewell titles, respectively. In the annual prize distribution, Karan Dev Jagota got the Best Actor Award, Jasvir Chand was announced as the Best Speaker, Rekha got the Best Artist Award, and Manpreet Singh, Narinder Gahat, Rajni, Shavina Shahi, Jatinder Kaur, Sukhdeep Kaur and Gursewak Singh were awarded with appreciation prizes. Akriti Sharma was awarded the Best Student of the Year. Principal Dr Surinder Jit Kaur in her address, congratulated students. Bharpur Singh Bhogal, chairman-cum-president, Ramgarhia Educational Council, congratulated the staff and students.