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Real wealth lies in literacy: Sibal
Minister for use of electronic diary connected to central server by cops
Union Minister Kapil Sibal being presented a memento at a function held at the District Court Complex in Bathinda on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma |
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Next dengue outbreak will be more dangerous, says study
Aided school teachers to protest at state-level felicitation function
Members of the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union during a meeting in Bathinda on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
Need felt for more ASHA workers
Seminar on oral hygiene held at RBDAV Sr Secondary School
Minor rape victim sent to Nari Niketan
Grant seekers left disappointed
Adesh students observe 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda
5 kg of poppy husk recovered
Tractor mandi notified as site of dharna
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Real wealth lies in literacy: Sibal
Bathinda, September 25 Hitting out at the Opposition for starting a debate over the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, he said the country should rather worry about its Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). “The country’s real wealth doesn’t not lie in its treasury, it’s in schools, colleges and universities. We should ensure that a larger number of students go to universities. The GER increased from 12.4 per cent in 2009 to 19 per cent in 2013 but the Opposition does not talk about it.” He also accused the Opposition for not letting at least four bills pass in the Lok Sabha. “Within the first 100 days of my taking charge of the HRD Ministry, I had introduced four bills in the Lok Sabha to strengthen the education system but the Opposition did not let them get passed. They had even opposed the Right To Education Act, which is showing positive results these days.” Comparing India’s statistics with those of the developed countries, he said in those countries, private companies invested large amounts on intellectual property (IP) but here in India, everyone upped the ante if a corporate wanted to invest in the education sector. Citing the example of US industrialist Leland Stanford, who founded the Stanford University, he exhorted Indian corporate houses to keep their purses open for investing in the IP. “Today, the world knows Stanford for setting up the university. Only when we will invest in new and scintillating ideas, we will be able to put the country onto the path of development.” He also announced that the Central government was working towards connecting 2.5 million gram panchayats with a fibre-optics network. “This will mean that a teacher sitting in Bathinda can be seen and heard by students in some other state of the country. This will empower the gram panchayats with internet connectivity,” he said. He concluded by reciting one of his poems, “Khuda keh de ke mauka milega, yaa aise hi chalta rahega." Earlier, during the function, students of the college presented a dance-drama performance on a poem penned by the Union Minister, "Aankh khuli azad thi main". The minister had written the poem in connection with the December 16 Delhi gang rape. Meanwhile, Putting all speculations to rest, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Partap Singh Bajwa attended the function at the college where the Union Minister was the chief guest. Although Bajwa was scheduled to host four rallies in the city, he came with the Union Minister but left early. For several days, detractors had been pointing out that in an attempt to outshine Bajwa’s rallies in the city (organised by Harmander Jassi), Surinder Singla had invited the Union Minister to attend a couple of functions in the city on the same day. Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Sunil Jakhar was also present at the function. He surprised the gathering by calling India a “country of hypocrites”. “While we choose female politicians as our leaders and fight for more
rights for women, we don’t do much for their upliftment. It’s not a political statement since it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that our women are educated, free and safe. If we can’t assure this, we fail as a society,” he said. ‘WE NEED TO INVEST IN SCINTILLATING IDEAS’ Comparing India’s statistics with those of the developed countries, he said in those countries, private companies invested large amounts in intellectual property (IP) but here in India, everyone upped the ante if a corporate house wanted to invest in the education sector. Citing the example of US industrialist Leland Stanford, who founded the Stanford University, he exhorted Indian corporate houses to keep their purses open for investing in the IP. “Today, the world knows Stanford for setting up the university. Only when we will invest in new and scintillating ideas, we will be able to put the country onto the path of development,” he said.
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Minister for use of electronic diary connected to central server by cops
Bathinda, September 25 He stressed the need of passing correct information to the common man and using better infrastructure and modern techniques while investigating and delivering justice. Sibal began his speech by saying it was a sort of pilgrimage in view of his late father's association with the city, where there are contemporaries of his dad who were still practicing. The Law Minister said he became a teacher by choice (he was teaching in Delhi University), was a lawyer by profession and politician by accident and he was still recovering from the pleasant accident, amid applause from the audience. Commenting on the demand of setting up of CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal), AFT (Armed Forces Tribunal) and DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) in Bathinda, which was raised by the District Bar Association, he gave examples of Meerut and Thiruvanantpuram where lawyers of Agra and Cochi protested setting up of such tribunals in "remote" areas. He urged the lawyers to
be united in setting up of such tribunals in their respective states. Sibal stressed the necessity of the use of electronic diary by the police investigating officers, which should have connectivity with the police station
and forensic lab to have a better understanding of the crime scene through the central server. "Most of the times, vital evidence is lost due to a biased system of investigation, which cleanses the proofs," Sibal said. He lamented the lack
of leadership in the bar associations, where leaders of nation were produced earlier. He said the justice-delivery system was skewed with traces of corruption in it. The system does not allow an honest person to get justice, he said. Earlier before Sibal's arrival, members of the VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) raised slogans and raised black flags. Around a dozen protesters were arrested from outside the court complex while five were arrested from inside the complex. The protesters entered the complex by posing themselves as lawyers. |
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Next dengue outbreak will be more dangerous, says study
Bathinda, September 25 Bahia will be presenting his research paper at a conference to be held in Hobart Tasmania, Australia. The conference will be organised by the Australian and New Zealand Critical Care Society(ANZICS/ACCCN) on October 17 and October 19. In the study, Bahia took into account 568 dengue cases reported at the AIMSR in 2011. The dengue fever cases started pouring in from September and the outbreak attained its peak in October 2011. People of all age groups were affected but those who were affected the most were those between 21 to 30 years of age. Men were affected more than women and urban patients were more affected as compared to their rural counterparts. The study concluded that while 30 per cent had no complications, 70 per cent developed complications and 4 per cent cases had underlying co-morbidities and co-infections. “The 2011 dengue outbreak in Bathinda had a long-lasting impact on the health of patients. Being the first outbreak of Bathinda, it was still controllable. Dengue viruses are of four types. The type I causes the first outbreak, but when type II or type III viruses strike during the second outbreak, things can get worse. The same thing applies for the districts of Ludhiana and Jalandhar, which too have suffered a similar outbreak,” said Bahia. Out of the total number of patients, 45 per cent developed hepatitis, 42 per cent witnessed a platelet count of less than 1 lakh and other hemorrhagic features. Seven per cent developed pancreatitis, which causes diabetes abdominal fullness and six per cent develops excess fluid around lungs, according to the study. A large number of patients had multiple and atypical complications and required hospitalisation. No mortality was reported despite co-morbidities and co-infection. Awareness, early treatment with aggressive fluid replacement therapy with close monitoring, supportive management, and patient education showed promising results and zero mortality, the study states. During the epidemic period, a wide spectrum of atypical presentations of dengue fever had been observed. In this study, the spectrum of dengue was analysed in 568 patients of dengue-like fever. All patients were investigated thoroughly for ascertaining the cause of fever. During the study, the patients were classified according to age, gender, duration of symptoms on admission, associated co-morbidities and co-infections, complications that developed after admission, the final outcome and the duration till death after symptoms developed. Dr Jagjit Singh, Dr Gurpreet Singh Gill, Dr Vippan Goyal , Dr Yadwinder Singh, Sehmeet Singh, Amisha Chawla and Dr Himika Dalia have co-authored the study. HIGHLIGHTS
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Aided school teachers to protest at state-level felicitation function
Bathinda, September 25 The Bathinda unit of the union also announced their plan to gherao the treasury office of the district to protest against the non-payment of their salaries. Union general secretary Shrikant Sharma said, "The teaching and non-teaching staff of the aided schools have not been paid salaries for the last seven months. Imagine how the class IV employees must be making their ends meet. We will gherao the treasury to protest against the indifferent attitude of the state government towards these schools." He said the employees had to struggle to get their salaries, grants, dearness allowance, revised pay grades and arrears among other things. He said the school authorities had to run from pillar to post to get the grants sanctioned and released from the state government. Sharma said 95 per cent of the expenditure of these schools is borne by the state government and that was what making the government indifferent towards these schools. He said the government had frozen the recruitment of teachers to these schools in 2003. Since no fresh recruitments had been made all these years against the posts left vacant after teachers retired, only 4,000 teachers were left in as many as 484 aided schools in the state. The union accused the government of "administering a slow poison to these schools" to make sure that the schools closed down. The union members said in 1987, the state government had announced pension benefits for the staff of aided schools but withdrew the scheme in 2003 and resumed it only this year. The union stated that if the government was aiming at shutting down these schools, it should reinstate the staff of these schools to the Education Department and post them at government schools. |
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Need felt for more ASHA workers
Bathinda, September 25 Dr Ravanjit Kaur said the department had a total of 840 ASHA workers in the district, but it fell short of 26 such workers at Goniana and 10 at
Bhagta. Being the backbone of the health delivery care system in rural pockets under the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM), the paucity of these workers affected the health sector activities. She added that emphasis should be laid on recruiting the village's daughters-in-law instead of daughter as ASHA worker. "This is because daughters marry and leave, creating a void," she reasoned. The intervention of Zila Parishad was also sought for making the health
sub-centres at Natheha and Jeevan Singh Wala villages operational. These schemes have been in the pipeline since 2010. In 2010, Bathinda had been given four village-level
sub-centres at Natheha, Jeevan Singh Wala, Bhucho Kalan and Mansa Kalan. A grant of more than Rs 75,000 has been disbursed twice to the panchayats of Natheha and Jeevan Singh
Wala, but the centres are yet to come up. In the absence of dedicated
centres, sub-centres are being run in the village dharamshalas. The Zila Parishad chairman was asked to ensure that all the villagers below poverty line
(BPL) have their BPL cards so that they can avail benefits under the Janani Suraksha Yojana
(JSY) that promotes institutional deliveries and other schemes. Issue of the funds earmarked for the Village Health Sanitation Committees
(VHSC) lying idle was also discussed. Since the village panchayats have been newly formed, the VHSC are yet to be constituted. Emphasis was laid on forming these committees so that these can spend the funds meant for different works. Though a monthly meeting of the VHSC is to be conducted, the same is not followed properly. The issue of immunisation of children, school health
programme, vector diseases control programme, tuberculosis control programme and others were also discussed. Block Samiti members, village panchyat members, senior medical officers and officials of the education department were also present at the meeting. FAct file
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Seminar on oral hygiene held at RBDAV Sr Secondary School
Bathinda, September 25 Dr Neha focussed on tough lifestyle and eating habits of the modern generation and attributed the dental problems to negligence about cleaning teeth. She explained how healthy teeth get affected and the type of food to be adopted to maintain sound oral health. Talking about the reasons behind cavities and dental caries, she said the infected teeth could cause many health problems such as cancer. Principal of the school, Dr Satwant Kaur Bhullar, thanked Dr Neha her informative lecture and also invested faith in the teachers to empower the students with such important tips on dental care. BFGI students honoured
As many as 224 students of MBA, BBA, B.Com, B.Com Professional and B.Sc (ATHM) were honoured by the chairman of the Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI), Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal. Medals and monetary rewards were conferred on these students. The students who were honoured during the ceremony included those who had secured more than 80 per cent marks in the university examinations and also those who had secured top positions in the university merit list. The list included 13 students from B.Sc. ATHM, 97 students from MBA, 58 students from B.Com and B.Com Professional and 53 students from BBA. The star performers were Ramandeep Kaur, Satveer Kaur and Harpreet Singh. Addressing the students, Dhaliwal congratulated the students and their parents on this achievement. He emphasised on the all-round development of the students and elaborated upon a special programme, 'Earn While Learn', initiated by the BFGI to make the students financially independent. Dr Manish Bansal, deputy director (academics) and director principal of the Baba Farid College of Management and Technology, was also present during the award ceremony. |
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Minor rape victim sent to Nari Niketan
Bathinda, September 25 The crime was perpetrated on September 22 when the police registered a case against 70-year-old man and his two sons for raping the six-year- old child and molesting the three-year-old. Following complaint by a social worker Neelam Rani, police has registered a case. The children's mother has been missing since long, while their father had died 10 to 12 days ago. The accused were the neighbours of the children and had kept them after the death of their father. Cops attending to the children said while the younger one has managed to overcome the tragedy early and had been cheerful, it took a few days for the elder one to regain her composure. "Children are very innocent. In the initial days, the rape victim was scarred and scared. However, when she discovered children of her own age, she was soon her normal self again. Today, both the sisters were chattering merrily in the bus when we went to drop them," said head constable Gurcharan Singh. The children might forget the incident but the scars will remain forever. Meanwhile, the three accused, Ranjeet Singh Nihang and his sons Buta Singh (30) and Gurditta Singh (35), have been sent to judicial remand. Ranjeet's wife had died 20 years ago and both his sons were unmarried. In yet another incident, the Canal Colony police registered a case against a 16-year-old resident of Paras Ram Nagar for raping his 12-year-old
neighbour. The case has been lodged on the complaint of the victim's father who told the police that the accused had raped his daughter on September 22 when she was alone at home. The accused is absconding. |
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Grant seekers left disappointed
Bathinda, September 25 After PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh from his MP quota during a function at the SSD Girls College, the college authorities pinned high hopes on the Union minister to do the same. Chairman of the SSD Colleges Nand Lal Garg, SSD sabha president Parmod Mittal and former state Finance Minister Surinder Singla used different words to seek funds from Sibal for the college. Mittal said in other educational institutes, grants were misused and Re 1 was turned into 20 paise, adding, “If you will give us Re 1, we will show you how it can be turned into Rs 2.” However, Sibal made no announcement in this regard. |
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Adesh students observe 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda
Bathinda, September 25 The theme for all these events was peace. Students depicted many activities related to themes like poster making, T-shirt painting, egg shell painting, glass painting, clay modelling, slogan writing, salad arrangement, flower arrangement and best out of waste. Principal Dr Harkiran Kaur illustrated the importance of promoting peace in this era of violence. Secretary, Adesh Foundation, Kamaldeep Kaur, while addressing the students, said it isn't enough to talk about peace and that one must believe in it and work at it. Other faculty members, Dr AK Maria, Dr Rajiv Mahajan, Dr Parmod Goyal and Dr Sandeep Kaur, were were also present on the occasion. In order to pay homage to the spiritual leader, the students wore white and orange dresses. Students Meghna and Ravneet, Nikita and Shivkaran, Akanksha and Ekta got the first, second and third positions, respectively. The event was judged by Dr Manraj, Dr Amnish Singh, principal, AIDSR, Dr Rajiv Chawla, Dr SS Brar, Dr Patil and Dr Ekta. Dr AK Maria and Dr Suri gave away the prizes. Dr Dubey, convener, cultural committee, appreciated the efforts of all the
participants and exhorted them to imbibe in their lives the great ideals of Swami Vivekananda so that they can shape up as better individuals and be of help to the others
in society. |
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5 kg of poppy husk recovered
Bathinda, September 25 Cash, laptop stolen
Rs 1 lakh in cash, laptop and some documents were stolen after breaking open the glass of a car on Mall Road near the Nagpal Hospital. In his complaint lodged with the police, Sukant Singla, a resident of Bengali Sweet street on court road, stated that he had parked his Verna car at the Mall Road. When he returned after sometime, the car's glass was broken and the valuables were missing. He has suffered an estimated loss of Rs 1.25 lakhs, he claimed. Motorcycle stolen
A motorcycle was reportedly stolen from Pukhraj Colony. In his complaint lodged with the police, Ranjit Singh from Prajapat Colony, Bathinda, stated that he had parked his motorcycle in street number 7 of Pukhraj Colony. The red colour Hero Honda CD Deluxe motorcycle was stolen. Police has registered a case against unknown miscreants. |
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Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal visited the lawyers' bar room in the District Court Complex here today.
Members of the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union have announced that the staff of the aided schools had planned to take mass casual leave and protest at the function to honour teachers of the state in Patiala. State Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka will be the chief guest at the function.
