Jalandhar, December 23
Many applicants for the "atta-daal" scheme had a brawl with the Suvidha centre employees on Monday after the latter refused to accept their forms for the aforesaid scheme.

Although the deadline for submitting the forms for the scheme is over, many people in the district are still approaching the district administration for form submission as they could not apply for the same following a strike by the Suvidha Centre staff on the last day of the deadline. While many of the applicants are accusing the district administration of not providing them ample time to deposit the forms, the administration maintained that ample support and time had been provided to those who wanted to enrol themselves for the scheme.

The government had announced December 15 as the deadline, but the Suvidha centre staff went on strike the same day. Although the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s (SDM) office was collecting the forms on the last day also, many applicants being poor and illetrate, were not aware about the comprehensive arrangement being made and went home without depositing the same at the nearest tehsildaar’s office. Now, when the facilitation centre was reopened on Monday after five days' strike, they again went to the Suvidha centre, but were turned down by the Suvidha staff.

On Monday, around 100 to 150 people came to the Suvidha centre to deposit their forms, but went home miserably. “I have requested the Suvidha staff here to accept my form, but they refused to do so. I was not aware about it earlier. I recently came to know about this scheme from one of my friends. I came here on December 16, but the centre was closed due to strike. Nobody, including the watchman here, informed me about the forms getting deposited in the nearby tehsildaar’s office,” said Veena who came from Kaki village near Rama Mandi.

“So far we have received around 1.5 lakh forms for the 'atta-daal' scheme. This clearly shows that ample time has been given to the public to deposit the same. In fact, we have received the maximum forms on the last day only,” said Varun Roojam, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar.

Some of them also showed their annoyance with the administration for not putting up drop boxes as promised through which the complete file could have been moved swiftly to the SDM concerned for further processing. Presently, there are around 14,514 (below poverty line) BPL card holders, 73,000 blue card holders and 6,740 Antodiya Ration Card Holders (AAY) in the district. 

Jalandhar, December 23
Belying the tall claims of the district administration to serve people efficiently under the Right to Service Act, the Municipal Corporation (MC), one of the important public utility departments (PUDs), is still working manually.

The department has not gone fully computerised till date and the data is still being maintained in hefty registers, causing a lot of trouble to the people who come here for various registrations and verification of their records.

"Interestingly, the corporation does not have any control over its own finance department and is indirectly under the control of the Punjab Government. Most of the employees working here are those working on deputation. Also, maximum perplexity was found to be in this department only. In the absence of full computerisation, it is very easy to play with the figures written in multiple ledgers. The government should maintain complete transparency in the ledger wing," said Anil Vashist, president of the RTI Activist Foundation of Punjab. He had filed an RTI query, asking details about the upkeep of the accounts and records in the Municipal Corporation (MC) office. On Monday, he had scrutinised all accounts of the MC in their office.

He further revealed that there was absolutely no comprehensive record of various grants received and utilised by the corporation which itself raises suspicion on the money being diverted somewhere else.

Manpreet Singh Chatwal, Municipal Commissioner confirmed about the manual upkeep of the records, but also claimed that fudging with the records was not possible, as all money that came or was spent by the corporation was pre-audited by government auditors. "But definitely, I will look into the issue and the urgency of various departments for their computerisation in order to provide quick and better services to the public," he said.

Jalandhar, December 23
Shopkeepers of posh Model Town Market here observed a bandh today as part of the ongoing agitation by traders against the alleged high rates of property tax on commercial buildings.

On the call given by the Industrial and Traders Joint Action Committee (JAC), the markets of Model Town and surrounding areas observed a half-day bandh from 9 am to 12 noon today.

The shopkeepers, led by market president Manoj Arora, also held a rally in the market in support of traders' demand of reducing the property tax on all commercial buildings and charging it at par with industrial buildings.

Addressing the rally, JAC members Ravindra Dhir, Gursharan Singh, Raj Kumar Sharma, Congress leaders Jagbir Singh Brar, Rajinder Beri, councillors Jagdish Raj Raja, Aruna Arora and representatives of the shopkeepers flayed the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali-BJP government for imposing too high property tax on commercial buildings.

The shopkeepers of New Bhargo Camp Market and the shops situated from Layallput Khalsa School to Bhargo Camp Adda on the Nakodar road will observe a half-day bandh on the issue tomorrow.

Jalandhar, December 23
The District Sainik Welfare Board (DSWB), Jalandhar, is buzzing with youth activities nowadays as many youngsters, including girls from all over Punjab, are reaching here to get their pre-induction training for various competitive exams.

Due to its arduous efforts, the centre has gained a rare distinction to be the first of its kind training resource centre in the state, imparting multifarious trainings for various competitive exams. Other DSWBs provide pre-induction training only to boys and that too for armed forces only. This centre has taken a plunge to provide training to around 2,000 students, including girls every year for various competitive exams of Punjab Armed Police (PAP), Para Military Forces and also security guards for various nationalised banks.

A feather in the cap is the recent training module that has been introduced this year for the aspirants of Punjab Civil Services (PCS). Interestingly, due to this, the girl aspirants approaching the local welfare board are more than the boys. Also, the training is open for the youths of entire state.

"The youth of Punjab has a great potential. Limitation of thoughts and the swamp of hopelessness do not bog them down. The only thing required is to channelise their energy in a positive direction for which we have decided to impart multifarious training to youth for other services as well. This will epitomise their performance in various competitive exams," said Brig (retd) Manjit Singh, Director, Punjab State Sainik Welfare Board.

He said, "All the training programmes are being provided at a very nominal fee of Rs 750, except the PCS module, where the general category has to pay Rs 6,000, the SC and ST has to pay around Rs 5,000 and the ex-servicemen will only have to pay Rs 2,000 for the entire training module, including the CSAT and the main exam preparation."

He said, "Due to the lack of awareness, children are not being able to take maximum advantage of these programmes and are paying hefty amount of Rs 60,000 for such programmes."

This year, the board has imparted training to over 141 girls for post of Sub Inspector at the PAP. Over 48 girls got training for the post of constables in the Chandigarh police. Around 111 boys got the pre-induction training as jawans this year from the welfare board. The PCS training which will commence from Monday onwards had already registered around 38 aspirants till Saturday. Earlier, the board had trained around 35 ex-servicemen as security guards for various nationalised banks. Presently, the centre has a success rate of 35 to 40 per cent every year.

"We are providing training to over 2,000 students every year. Due to our miscellaneous training programmes, we are getting aspirants from all over Punjab. Due to our carefully planned training schedule, just 7 months before the specific exams, we have a very high success rate of 35 to 40 per cent every year. Now, shortly, we are going to start some vocational training also for the handicapped and mentally challenged youths," said Col (retd) HP Singh, District Sainik Welfare officer, Jalandhar.

Jalandhar, December 23
After two days of classical fare (lacking in substance matching the Harivallabh standards), the third day of the 138th Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, which ended at the break of dawn today, brought sterling performances, a packed house and some much awaited (read: a year) chirpy performers who the audiences had been waiting for, since last year.

Taufiq Qureshi (djembe), Vijay Ghate (table) and Niladri Kumar (sitar) got their instruments laughing, playing and poking each other as the audience sat in a packed pandal, witnessing sheer class.

Gwalior Gharana exponent Padmashree Pt. Laxman Krishnarao Pandit's wise, age-defying vocal prowess and Ustad Aashish Khan's Sarod provided the alternate high for the day.

Pt Laxman Krishnarao Pandit's ancient prowess, the apt Gwalior Gharana notes sounded of antiquity and sacredly conserved musical wisdom of yore. A tappa virtuoso, he performed Raga Lalit and Bahar, accompanied by Sudhir Pandey on the tabla. An octogenarian, his swaras were apt and only rendered more profound, deep and bold with age.

A fifth generation scion of the Gwalior Gharana, he brought riches to the stage and his breath control and sterling variations astounded and brought a close to the sammelan at 5 am this morning.

Before him, Ali Akbar Khan Sahab's son Ustad Ashish Khan's delightful sarod flowed with grace and ease. He performed Raga Des and Malhar with Santoor, rabab, tabla and pakhwaj for support setting the pace for the evening.

Ustad Mashkhoor Ali Khan performed Raga Malkauns.

The Djembe (playing the tabla) made a rocking debut with Vijay Ghate's forceful tabla for accomapniment.

Ace Sitar virtuoso Niladri Kumar, who was again joined by the djembe and tabla later, winked and moved through the recital, reflecting guitar and veena elements in his sitar and hitting the highest and lowest octaves with poignant, effortless ease. His sweet sitar also recalled a Raga Yaman Manjh composition by his guru Pandit Ravishankar, which he picked up from a record.

Qureshi's djembe - attempted the train percussion and cowboy-ish, fierce Ghate's racing tabla brought forth the vivid intricacies and rhythmic combinations of various taals with the teen taal remaining on the forefront (for both Qureshi and Ghate). Both moved in and out of various taals with ease also giving precious peeks of Usrad Allah Rakkha's taal todis in between.