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DEOs told to check food stored in schools
House tax waiver scheme extended till August 31
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Cong councillor Shravan Grover dead
Autorickshaw union ends strike
New services at Suwidha Centre lead to chaos
Workshop held against femicide
Five snatchers arrested
Two bikers killed in road mishap
Student selected as Google ambassador
Cong for formation of vigilance monitoring panels
Punjab govt misutilising central funds: PMC chief
Peace bikers return to Amritsar
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DEOs told to check food stored in schools
Jalandhar, July 30 The DC, during a monthly review meeting today, also asked the health officials to do the sampling of the drinking water in all government schools of the district and to submit the report to her by next week. She said as per a previous report, just one of the 20 schools had their samples passed, which was highly alarming. Shruti Singh directed the school authorities present to ensure that the tap areas and water storage tanks were cleaned up, chlorination was done and there was no internal source of contamination. She warned that in case any of the 29 schools where samples had failed earlier, meet a similar fate, some heads would definitely roll. The DC also today pulled up the SMOs of Bundala and Shankar village for low institutional delivery of 15 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, of the set targets. Both SMOs came up with the excuse that they did not have a gynaecologist or a staff nurse with them. On the contrary, the SMOs of Kala Bakra and Shahkot won accolades from the DC with as many as 135 and 162 deliveries a month which, she said, was close to 150 per cent of the target. She asked the concerned SMOs who too surprisingly said that they were short-staffed. SMO Kala Bakra said the gynaecologist deployed at her centre had an additional charge and was visiting just twice a week. SMO Shahkot pointed out that she did not have any gynaecologist and the deliveries were being primarily done by other staff who was at times not ready to deal with cases and there had been incidents of maternal deaths. She said no caesarian deliveries were possible, as there was no anaesthetist available. She said all complicated cases had to be diverted to Nakodar, where, too, the doctors were at times not ready to take the cases owing to the rush. The DC said if despite problems, the two SMOs could show up such good results, others, too, could with a similar gesture. |
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House tax waiver scheme extended till August 31
Jalandhar, July 30 Earlier, the Department of Local Bodies had allowed the payment of dues without interest till May 31. However, a majority of the residents could not avail of this chance as the orders were received late by the MC and these were not widely publicised. The corporation is geared up to receive the much-needed funds in times of extreme financial crunch. Presently, the MC has to recover arrears worth Rs 18 crore in house tax and Rs 11 crore in water and sewage charges. "People are coming forward, but still a majority of them are paying in installments. Now, with the extension of this scheme, we are hopeful to get a major chunk from the outstanding amount," said Ved Vyas, assistant commissioner, Municipal Corporation. Although, a majority of the people have welcomed the move, those who have cleared the entire dues in July before the announcement of the extension of amnesty scheme are feeling cheated. "I could not pay my house tax earlier due to the marriage of my daughter. Now, in severe cash crisis, the excess interest amount which I have paid, the MC should return to me," said Fateh Singh, a resident of Maqsudan. " A Majority of the people are paying their arrears in instalmentS. However, whosoever has paid the amount from July 1 till July 15 should inform us," said Nachattar Singh, assistant commissioner, municipal corporation.
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Cong councillor Shravan Grover dead
Jalandhar, July 30 A large number of persons from all walks of life, including politicians from different parties, social workers and officials, attended his cremation at Model House crematorium in the evening. Popular among the general public, especially of the areas falling under his and surrounding wards, Grover was elected councillor for the fourth time during the last Municipal Corporation elections held last year. He defeated his nearest rival Dr Ajit Bhardwaj of the BJP by a margin of 2,683 votes, the highest among all 22 winning Congress councillors. Either Grover or his wife Kamlesh emerged victorious in all the five MC elections held since 1991. While Grover won in 1991, 1997, 2002 and 2012 MC elections, his wife Kamlesh registered her victory in 2007, when the ward was reserved for women. An active member of the Dynamic Group of Congress councillors, Grover had effectively participated in an agitation against the property tax a few months ago. |
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Autorickshaw union ends strike
Jalandhar, July 30 Owing to the strike by the union against the administration and the police for frequent challaning, the autorickshaw and mini buses had gone off road for two days, forcing parents to themselves visit the schools of their wards twice a day. For the same reason, there had been a lot of rush outside campuses, leading to the blocking of roads for more than an hour in days of intense heat and humidity. The union representatives today met Commissioner Police in this regard, who reportedly did not agree to their demands and said that the challaning of the vehicles would continue as per the law. Joginder Singh, president of the union, said the strike had been withdrawn in view of the problems faced by parents.
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New services at Suwidha Centre lead to chaos
Jalandhar, July 30 The number of applicants visiting the Suwidha Centre has jumped all of a sudden, with over 1,200 tokens being issued each day, against an average of 700 applicants visiting earlier. Owing to the ongoing admission in colleges, the rush of applicants for getting affidavits and certificates made has also got added up. For the same reason, the Centre remains jampacked at the token centre, reception and even counters.
Since the token counter has little covered space for queues, the administration has got tents pegged there for a temporary solution to protect the applicants from the sun. Plans are being made to extend the existing building towards the garden area site. The officials have also started the process of induction of more staff so as to handle the rush at all counters. The applicants today came up with a unique problem, as after getting the token slips made, they realised that there was no executive magistrate on duty to sign their documents. Malkiat Singh, father of a BA-I student of DAV College, said today was the last date for the submission of the income certificate at the college for availing a scholarship. “I had submitted my file at 9 am and even after four hours of wait, I am not sure whether I will be able to get the document,” he said. Similar was the case of Vinayak Gupta of New Jawahar Nagar who said that he had applied for passport for which he wanted to get the affidavit signed, but was clueless about the status after a long wait. “The passport office would not receive any application post lunch hour and tomorrow is a government holiday. My work has got delayed by two days,” he said. Naib tehsildar Phillaur, who was to perform duty as executive magistrate, remained absent. Naib tehsildar Parveen Chhiber, who was asked to report, got busy with the monthly meeting and some other works. Finally, the staff got the collected files signed from naib tehsildar Kirandeep Bhullar and handed these over to the applicants after a wait for over five hours. Rajbir Singh, in charge of Suwidha Centre, said he was trying to get the work expedited.
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Workshop held against femicide
Kapurthala, July 30 He added as per the figures, the sex ratio in the district is 912 girls per 1000 boys, whereas the overall figures for the state stands at 812 girls per 1000 boys. "The checking of the ultrasound centres operational in the district is being conducted regularly", he said, while adding that the need of the hour is to make the drive against the female foeticide a mass movement. Addressing the gathering, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Government Rajindra Hospital Dr Harshinder Kaur said though the killing of the unborn girls has been there since ages but with the advent of ultrasound, it has increased. "Parents could not afford the proper education of girls due to poverty and the fact is that only the education of the girls would be the harbinger of change and would lead to the end of this abominable practice of the female foeticide".
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Five snatchers arrested
Jalandhar, July 30 The arrested were identified as Suba Singh of Baldev Nagar, Shashi Pandey of Mohalla Kot Kishan Chand, Munish of Upkar Nagar, Robin Singh of Gobind Nagar and Rahul of Shah Sikander area.
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Two bikers killed in road mishap
Phagwara, July 30 The deceased were identified as Davinder Singh (18) and Pardeep Singh of Fateh Singh Nagar, Phagwara. The Mehatiana police has registered a case under Sections 304-A, 427 and 279 of the IPC against the bus driver Mohinder Singh and arrested him. The victims' bodies were handed over to their families after postmortem.
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Student selected as Google ambassador
Jalandhar, July 30 He will represent DAVIET at google as GSA and has been called to attend a google India community summit to be held from August 1 to 04, 2013 in Goa. The entire trip is sponsored by google for its all student ambassadors from across the country. The summit is going to bring together GSA’s, google business groups and google developer groups under one roof. Notably, the google student ambassador program presents the opportunity for students to serve as liaisons between google and their universities/institutes. These selected students are equipped with training, resources and tools to hold events and bring awareness about google products and programs on their campuses. Teej celebrated
As a part of Punjabi culture and tradition, the students of Lyallpur Khalsa College celebrated the festival of Teej today in the College campus. In an impressive function presided over by Deepinder Singh Purewal, member, College Governing Council. The girl students of the college performed Punjabi folk songs and giddha. Speaking on the occasion, college principal Dr GS Samra said folk arts truly represent the traditions and values of the culture and academic intelligentsia could play an important role in preservation of rich cultural Punjabi heritage. He reiterated the commitment of the Lyallpur Khalsa College to Punjabi culture. Apeejay school becomes overall champion
Apeejay School has been declared overall champion in the CBSE Sahodaya Inter School Table Tennis Tournament. Rakesh Kaushal, District Sports Officer felicitated the winners with medals and certificates. The tournament registered a record number of participating teams (90 teams) from different schools. KMV School wins championship
KMV Collegiate Senior Secondary School’s Badminton and Kho-Kho teams have won the first position in the Inter-Zonal Championship held in the KMV Campus. |
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Cong for formation of vigilance monitoring panels
Jalandhar, July 30 Issuing warning to Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government of hijacking the scheme for political gains as it has allegedly done in the other flagship programmes of the UPA-led Congress government, Punjab Congress spokesman Sukhpal Singh Khaira said, “As we are aware, the SAD-BJP government has issued blue cards with CM PS Badal’s photo, in the distribution of the ‘atta-dal’ scheme despite the fact that wheat is being provided by the Central government through its public distribution system. It is also a known fact that the Central government provides wheat at Rs 2 per kilo under its BPL and Antodya schemes, while the Badal government passes it on to the poor at Rs 4 per kilo.” “Now the UPA government plans to cover 67 per cent population for its food programme of wheat and rice, that is 1.82 crore population of Punjab is expected to be covered, instead of the approximately 30 per cent or 15.40 lakh families currently being covered under the ‘atta-dal’ scheme,” he added. Khaira further stated “Needless to mention, the Badal government has foisted CM’s photo on 108 Ambulance service run under the National Rural Health Mission programme. Similarly, the SAD-BJP government has also tried to hijack the PMGSY road programme, the SSA funds, the IAY money for construction of houses for the poor, the Badal government also made an attempt to take credit for 16 sub-divisional hospitals allocated to Punjab in the shape of Rs 50 crore per hospital by the UPA government.” “It has not only hijacked Central schemes, but has gone a step further and embezzled the Sarb Sikhshya Abhiyaan (SSA) and Border Area Development Programme (BADP) funds, as established by different inquiries,” he added. Khaira further stated “Therefore, the Congress has a very strong hunch that the SAD-BJP government will not implement the food security scheme transparently in letter and spirit. Since the state governments have been entrusted with identifying the beneficiaries of the scheme, the Akali government is likely to dole out cheap ration to its cadres.” “Even the ration shops and distribution centres have been allocated to Akali workers in the villages,” he alleged. |
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Punjab govt misutilising central funds: PMC chief
Jalandhar, July 30 A former minister, Thapar said she would visit different areas of the state to spread awareness among general public especially women regarding various central schemes.
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Peace bikers return to Amritsar
Amritsar, July 30 The Church of North India (CNI) organised a rally. Led by Bishop Pradeep Samantaroy, the rally aimed at spreading the message of peace, harmony and brotherhood. The rally passed through various cities and towns, including Palampur, Manali, Kotgarh, Shimla and Chandigarh, during its travel. The bishop said the message had assumed utmost importance in the contemporary world where peace and tranquillity was being threatened by divisive notions of castes, colour, creed, origin and community.
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