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Edu dept faces tricky situation
Finance Minister Dhindsa
non-committal on DA
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Sangrur civic body in financial mess
Maharaja’s case: Trust allowed to withdraw `50 lakh
‘Treaty of Amritsar’ sold
Protest held after crematorium razed in Barnala village
DEO among 8 suspended for wrong info
Clerical ‘error’, blank CD cost the Faridkot DEO, officials dear
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Edu dept faces tricky situation Faridkot, August
22 But before the scheme was withdrawn and these new identity cards declared as nullified, thousands of students had already been issued these I-cards. But as these cards were written and printed in English, the Punjab Government’s emphasis on promoting the Punjabi language proved to be a stumbling block in the use of these cards. While the Education Department officials failed to explain the reason for the scheme being revoked, it has left the students who had paid the money and got the identity cards in English sulking for no fault of theirs. In a letter (No. 4725, dated July 1, 2013), the office of the District Education Officer (DEO), Faridkot , directed the heads of all middle, high and senior secondary government schools in the district to collect Rs 20 from each student and deposit the money with a private firm to provide laminated identity cards to every student. The firm was to provide the I-cards to the students with their photographs, address, name of the school and class mentioned on it. On the rear side of the card, the fundamental rights and duties of every citizen were printed. But over a month later, when a large number of students had already received the I-card after paying Rs 20, the department woke from its slumber and a letter (No. 4764, dated August 18, 2013) was dispatched to all schools, directing them not to collect money from the students to provide them I-cards. Amarjit Singh Khokhar, District Education Officer (DEO), Faridkot, confirmed the withdrawal of the decision but did not explain the reason for this. However, sources in the department revealed that when a private firm put forward a proposal of providing identity cards to all the students for Rs 20 each in the last week of June this year, the higher authorities did not give a second thought to the suggestion before giving their nod. Within the next one week, all schools got the directions to get the identity cards issued. In Faridkot, thousands of students got their I-cards but it started raising hackles as these cards were in violation of a resolution passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on March 25, 2008. As per this resolution, making use of Punjabi language was mandatory for all government officials for the promotion of the mother tongue but the identity cards issued to the students were written in English.
I-Card issue
The Education Department directs all middle, high and senior secondary government schools to collect Rs 20 from students for providing them with identity cards prepared by a private firm. A month later, the department decides to roll back the plan as the I-cards were printed in English which violated a resolution passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha making use of Punjabi language mandatory for all government officials for the promotion of the mother tongue. By that time, thousands of students had already got their identity cards. |
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Finance Minister Dhindsa
non-committal on DA
Patiala, August 22 Dhindsa, who was in the city to attend the 'Global Village' function at Playways Senior Secondary School, said many state governments had not yet given DA instalments to its employees. He said the Congress leadership in Punjab was deliberately misguiding people about the fiscal health of the state. Notably, the Centre released the 8-per cent DA for government employees, pensioners and family pensioners from January 1, 2013, and with the latest enhancement, the DA has gone up from 72 per cent to 80 per cent. Refuting the allegations levelled by PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa that the state was heading towards a financial emergency, Dhindsa said the fiscal health of the state was much better than that of the Central government. “July to September are usually lean months as we have a lot of pending bills. Though the state’s revenue growth has been slow of late, I am hopeful of a good revenue growth from the next month. We have an overdraft now but there is no need to panic and we will clear it within the stipulated time,” Dhindsa said. On the remaining 30-per cent instalment of the 5th Pay Commission arrears from January 1, 2006, to July 31, 2009, he said the government would try to release a part of it at the earliest. On taking Rs 1,000 crore from PUDA, Dhindsa said the money would be invested on Capital Investment of the government and was not meant for daily expenses of the government. “It is not a loan that we have to return. It is a payback from PUDA as the government has transferred land to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore for building infrastructure,” he said. |
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Sangrur civic body in financial mess
Sangrur, August 22 Apart from about 100 employees and workers, who have not received their salaries so far, former municipal councillors, whose five-year term had expired on July 21, have also been waiting for the payment of their honorarium for the month of June and 21 days of July. Sources said the council had not paid salaries to about 20 employees of the fire brigade and the sewerage wing of the council for July so far while about 50 contractual employees of the water supply wing had not been given salaries for the months of June and July. Besides, about 30 sanitation workers of Mohalla Sudhar Committees had also not been given their monthly payments (Rs 2,400 each) for the past four to five months, they said. The sources said the council had not deposited the electricity bill pertaining to tube well motors of June amounting to Rs 16 lakh. They said it would now have to pay about Rs 1.20 lakh as fine along with the bill amount to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited. Besides, they said, the council had received the electricity bill of Rs 14 lakh for the month of July. They said the council authorities were concerned about how they would pay over Rs 30 lakh in time. In addition to this, the council requires about Rs 60 lakh for the payment of arrears of retirement benefits to about 15 of its retired employees. Due to financial constraints, the council has been making payments to retired employees in instalments for the past few years. Sources said the council had not deposited three instalments of a bank loan (about Rs 10 lakh) for May, June and July. They said this amount had been deducted by the council from the salaries of employees but it had not been deposited in the bank so far. |
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Maharaja’s case: Trust allowed to withdraw `50 lakh
Chandigarh, August 22 The court also allowed the trust to withdraw Rs 50 lakh from bank accounts to meet expenses on a hospital run by the trust, salaries and legal expenses regarding the Maharaja’s properties. The court also directed the trust to present an account of these expenses before it on the next date of hearing on September 26 and 27 when the arguments in the case will be heard. On July 25, Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajnish Kumar Sharma disposing of a petition filed by Amrit Kaur, the Maharaja’s eldest daughter, challenging the will, had declared the will as “null and void”, making the trust non-existent. The decision of the court entitled Maharaja’s two daughters Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur, to inherit his property worth Rs 20,000
crore. |
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London, August 22 "We are honoured to be selling this rare document. The Amritsar Treaty was very important in the foundation of the great empire Maharaja Ranjit Singh had built," said Richard Westwood-Brookes from Mullock's auction house. The East India Company's need for a defensive treaty against the French resulted in the pact, which chalked out the frontier of land controlled by Ranjit Singh along the Sutlej. The treaty was presented to the British Parliament in 1818. A number of other historical documents and photographs related to Punjab went under the hammer yesterday.These included a stamp with the image of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and an early watercolour of a Sikh Guru that fetched 440 pounds. — PTI |
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Protest held after crematorium razed in Barnala village
Barnala, August 22 The villagers informed the police about the demolition but the police allegedly did not act quickly against the alleged accused. The villagers then held a protest and raised slogans against the police. They also announced that they would organise a dharna in front of the office of the deputy commissioner if action was not taken against those responsible for the demolition. Station House Officer (SHO) of Tallewal police station Harwinder Singh Khehra said a complaint had been filed by some persons from Beehla Khurd village (situated near Tallewal), alleging that certain persons from their village had demolished the crematorium. He said an inquiry was being conducted. On the basis of the inquiry report, action would be taken against those responsible for demolishing the crematorium, he added. |
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DEO among 8 suspended for wrong info
Chandigarh, August 22 Those suspended are Amarjit Singh, DEO (Senior Secondary), Faridkot; Balwinder Singh, superintendent; Roop Singh, junior assistant; Jagdish Chand and Jarnail Singh, both clerks in Ludhiana DEO’s office; Bal Kishan, superintendent; and Harjinder Singh, clerk in Ropar DEO’s office; and Sarbjit Singh, computer faculty. The minister told senior officers of the department to make sure that the explanation report reached his office within 10 days. — TNS
Clerical ‘error’, blank CD cost the Faridkot DEO, officials dear
Faridkot, August 22 The Education Minister was annoyed with the staff members of the DEO office at Faridkot for their casual approach toward their duty. These officials were placed under suspension for sending incomplete information regarding the inter-district teachers' transfer cases to the Director Public Instruction (DPI-Education Department), Punjab. Sources in the Education Department revealed that the minister had directed the DEOs last week to submit the lists of inter-district teachers' transfer cases to the DPI office for consideration. Besides a printed hard copy of these lists, a soft copy of these lists in a compact disc (CD) was also to be submitted to the DPI office. One such list from the Faridkot DEO office was also sent to the DPI office. But there were some glaring mistakes in these lists. The names of two teachers who are reportedly close to an Akali MLA were found missing in these lists from Faridkot. Moreover, the CD which was sent to the DPI office with a hard copy of the list was bizarrely found to be blank. Because of the negligence, the Education Minister today ordered the suspension of Amarjit Singh, DEO (Secondary), Balwinder Singh, superintendent and Roop Singh, a junior assistant in the DEO office Faridkot. Kamal Garg, DPI, Punjab, confirmed the suspension but declined to share the details of the reasons for it. The DPI said that the headquarter of the suspended officials would be the office of the Circle Education Officer (CEO), Faridkot.
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