The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Deaths in Faridkot jail Inadequate medical service to blame: Supdt Balwant Garg Tribune News Service Faridkot, August 13 The rising cases of deaths in Faridkot Central Jail has sent shock waves among the civil, police and judicial authorities in the district. Twenty-eight cases of death due to natural causes and over a dozen incidents of suicide and self-harm were reported in the last 18 months. Amid concerns that poor health care and high rate of drug addiction are leading to premature death of prisoners, the district administration and the health authorities today held a meeting with the jail officials to find out the reasons and suggest solutions. At the meeting, the jail authorities sought to convey to the district administration and the Health Department that death rates were higher in the jail due to poor medical facilities which include an acute shortage of doctors and medicines. Kulwinder Singh, jail superintendent, said shortage of medical staff in the jail could be gauged from the fact that against the requirement of 10 doctors and medical specialists in the jail that has the capacity to house 2,000 inmates, only one doctor is catering to the needs of the inmates. Moreover, there is no laboratory and lab technician to examine the patients and the quality of drinking water being served in the jail is poor, Kulwinder Singh said. The Deputy Commissioner, SSP, Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) and other health department officials participated in the meeting, held in the jail building today. The jail superintendent said the process to procure the medicines in the jail is so cumbersome that it affects the medical services. Ravi Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot, said the district administration had already raised the matter with the state government, demanding that more doctors be deputed in the jail for better treatment. He asked the Civil Surgeon to raise the matter with the health department authorities in Chandigarh to fill the vacant posts of doctors and paramedical staff. The DC said the District Red Cross Society will help the jail authorities in getting the timely supply of necessary drugs so that no inmate dies due to the absence of medicines because of procedural bottlenecks . The DC said there should be mandatory medical examination of every new entrant to the jail and his medical history should be prepared. A copy of this medical history should be provided to the health department, jail hospital and the family members of the inmate. Dr SS Gill, vice -chancellor, BFUHS, said as the Faridkot jail has a large number of inmates, there should be proper categorisation of the ailing prisoners so that they are provided the necessary treatment as per the need. Fact file Twenty-eight cases of death due to natural causes and over a dozen incidents of suicide and self-harm were reported from the jail during the last 18 months. Amid concerns that poor health care and high rate of drug addiction are leading to premature death of prisoners, the district administration and the health authorities held a meeting with the jail officials to find out the reasons and suggest solutions. The Deputy Commissioner, SSP, Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences and other health department officials participated in the meeting.
	Illegal mining: 10 held Anirudh Gupta Ferozepur, August 13 In a major swoop down on the illegal mining activity, the police has arrested 10 persons and confiscated 12 tractor-trolleys besides a JCB machine being utilised for the purpose. Over and above, till date around 70 FIRs have been lodged in connection with the illegal mining and more than 150 offenders have been booked. However, notwithstanding stringent measures, still the process of illegal mining had been reportedly going on unabated in a clandestine manner. Sources said in the villages along the border, the illegal mining was taking place at odd hours so as to evade any kind of interception by the authorities concerned. At times, the top surface of the sand was filled with earth or any other material to dodge the officials. Even the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while taking up a petition filed by Anokh Singh and others, had issued directions to district administration last month to ensure that the illegal mining was brought to halt in the district. " If found guilty of excavating minor minerals, price thereof etc be recovered in accordance with Section 21(5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957" the bench had instructed. However, still well-connected people were minting money out of this illegal process. Officials belonging to the Industry department who are the “watch and ward” to check the illegal mining, rued that they have to work in the office the entire day and then tour the vulnerable areas during the night to catch the offenders. “To keep a hawk's eye on the movement of people involved in illegal mining along the entire stretch of the district was quite a challenging task given the fact that we do not have sufficient manpower and resources,” the officials said. Not only the illegal mining here was an issue. Even though, the district administration had fixed the rate as Rs 286 per 100 cubic feet towards the cost of sand at the approved sand pits, still much higher amount was being charged. DC Manjit Singh Narang said the sand contractors were entitled to collect only Rs 100 as miscellaneous charges on account of enhanced labour costs and cost of setting up of weighing bridges. As per the DC's orders, the cost of a trolley of sand works out to be Rs 2080/- only, but still it was being sold at anything between Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. The DC said following reports regarding excessive charging several sand pits have been closed. Out of 57 authorised sand pits in the district, only four are functional now. The rest have either been surrendered or closed by the administration following complaints against them. Meanwhile, the DC today ordered ban on any kind of mining activity from 7 pm to 7 am, adding that any kind of violation will be seriously viewed. “I have instructed the police authorities besides all other concerned departments to check illegal mining activity in their area else they will be held responsible,” the DC said.
	Villagers protest against ‘inflated’ power bills Barnala, August 13 A large number of villagers today blocked the Barnala-Sangrur main road for more than half an hour at Badbar village near Dhanaula to protest against what they said was the receipt of electricity bills from the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) that contained huge amounts. They alleged that these bills had been issued to them by adding miscellaneous charges. Due to the road blockade, the commuters faced great inconvenience. After getting information about the road blockade, Station House Officer (SHO) of Dhanaula police station, Gurbhajan Singh, along with a police party, reached the blockade site. The protesters said till the PSPCL authorities rolled back the hike, they would not deposit the bill amount. They also demanded the withdrawal of the hike without any delay and extension of the last date for depositing the bills. The road blockade was lifted when a sub-divisional officer of the PSPCL gave an assurance to the protesters that he would forward their application to the senior officials. — TNS
	To transform schooling, Sampark Foundation inks MoU with Punjab Sanjeev Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 13 The Sampark Foundation, founded by Vineet Nayar, vice-chairman, HCL Technologies, has signed an MoU with the Punjab Government to launch a school transformation programme called 'Parivartan'. The initiative, in its first phase, will cover 500 primary schools in Patiala district benefitting 50,000 primary schoolchildren and will expand to cover 13,500 government primary schools and impact 2.5 lakh children all over Punjab. Sampark Foundation is seeking large-scale transformation in the areas of education, livelihood and social entrepreneurship projects. 'Parivartan' aims at improving academic outcomes through holistic adoption of a large number of schools and driving change through intervention in curriculum, learning outcome assessment, headmaster and teacher training. Nayar said the project would be funded by Sampark's own resources over the next 5 years. Sampark has tied up with the US think tank, Brookings, to measure the learning outcomes of the project. Anjali Bhawra, Principal Secretary, Education, Punjab, said, "We are happy that Sampark Foundation has partnered with the Punjab Government to implement a new teaching methodology that promises to transform learning process in our primary schools across the state". Nayar says this is now the third phase of his career. The first was when he spent his early 30s building a startup, HCL Comnet which is now $1.4 billion in size. The second phase, which began in 2005, was to lead the 30,000-strong HCL Technologies team in its transformation journey. Nayar’s eight-year stint in executive leadership role at HCL Technologies saw its revenue, profit and market capitalisation grow eight-fold.
	BJP gears up for LS poll Tribune News Service Bathinda, August 13 With an eye on general elections 2014, a day-long national level workshop of all the media cells of the BJP will be held in Delhi on August 17. All the state convenors and co-convenors have been asked to attend the meeting so that they could communicate the viewpoint of the party in a more cogent manner to the media and the public alike by Punjab chief Kamal Sharma. Sunil Singla, convenor of the state cell, said the party is of the view that the media is going to play a crucial role in the outcome of the polls. National chief Rajnath Singh, leaders of the opposition, both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, will conduct the workshop with other senior leaders of the party, he added.