Jalandhar, January 30
Hundreds of applicants visiting the District Transport Office (DTO) were a harassed lot as nine of the 10 counters in the office remained shut today.

Barring a counter for accepting the fee for the high-security number plates, all counters remained closed, as the clerks on duty had, perhaps, chosen to take leave. Even DTO Kehar Singh remained off duty with his cellphone switched off.

The entire staff of the DC office was confused as to what had happened. The applicants who had come to get their work done waited for some time and then moved towards the office of DC Varun Roojam to ask him about the matter. Since the DC had left for the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan in the wake of the ongoing controversy over the condition of its head Ashutosh, the applicants took up the matter with his GA Shikha Bhagat.

Bhagat then went to the office of the DTO and found that seven clerks in the office had kept their leave applications in the office, but had not got these approved from anyone. She even found the office of the section officer locked.

Harcharan Singh, an applicant, said he had come all the way from Nakodar to get a copy of his driving licence. He said he had been making rounds in the office since September 3 to take his licence copy, but to no avail. He showed a copy of the receipt of the payment he had made for the purpose.

Manjit Singh from Basti Bawa Khel and Kamal Kishore from Alawalpur, too, said that they had come from far-off places to get the copies of their licences, but to no avail. Daljit Singh said he wanted to get his licence renewed, but with no staff of duty, he was helpless and would have to come all over again. 

Jalandhar, January 30
The Department of Land Records has been planning the digitisation of manually prepared drafts of villages and urban areas and mapping these with satellite imagery to make the working of the revenue department easier.

The department has held workshops in this regard acquainting the SDMs, patwaris and kanungos from across the state with the Geographic Information System (GIS) and linking it with the working of the revenue department to achieve a greater degree of correctness in the demarcation of properties.

At such workshops, the patwaris have been demonstrated the use of various hi-tech equipment such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices which can map the properties with a minimal error level of 0.5 cm, which they believe is far more correct than with the use of the measuring tape.

Experts have said that various other GPS devices such as those used in the phones are said to have a huge error level of up to 25 m.

“Higher the accuracy level, more closer we go to mapping the manual drafts with satellite imagery which, otherwise, is extremely difficult in achieving,” said a resource person in the office of THE Directorate of Land Records.

The SDMs from three Commissioner Divisions participated in a workshop on the issue organiSed by the directorate at its Kapurthala Road office yesterday.

During the training, the magistrates and officials were also apprised of electronic land measuring gadgets, which can be loaded on tripods and work on light wave technology for better accuracy. They were told that such gadgets could be deployed in open fields only.

The revenue staff has also been told that the directorate would give them new primary reference points for demarcation from which the secondary and tertiary points would be later set up, again to achieve more accuracy.

The officials were told that there are 13,000 villages in the state, of which "fards" of as many as 12,500 villages had been put on the official website of the Punjab Land Records System.

Only a few villages of Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana, falling in the periphery of the city, were remaining to go live, they were told. 

Jalandhar, January 30
Members of the District Bar Association today held a massive demonstration outside the Suwidha Centre, demanding that there should be a separate queue for them to represent their cases.

The protest by the lawyers caused inconvenience to several applicants who were not allowed to enter the gates in the peak dealing hours between 11.30 am to 1 pm.

Led by secretary of DBA Satnam Singh, the lawyers said they often had to plead the cases of their clients in cases of the revenue department, marriage registration and getting certified copies of various documents for which they should not be made to stand in queues.

The lawyers said they had given representations to the administration officials a number of times, but they had not accepted their demands, owing to which they were forced to lodge a protest.

The administration, however, has been maintaining that there was no need for lawyers to make rounds of the Suwidha Centre with the applicant, for they only wanted a complete set of documents and the personal appearance of the applicant only, for which there was no need to make any such provision. 

Jalandhar, January 30
The inter-state bus terminal here today wore a deserted look as the Joint Action Committee of the Punjab Roadways Employees Unions observed a two-hour dharna at the bus stand against policies of the Punjab Government.

An elderly commuter from Pathankot, who was looking for a bus to reach home, said it was absolute harassment for him due to the strike.The government must initiate some sort of a mechanism to deal with the issue.

Speaking about their long-pending demands, Amrik Singh Gill, convener of the Join Action Committee, said different unions of the Punjab Roadways were struggling to get their demands met. These included the merging of debt-free Punbus with the mainstream Punjab Roadways, termination of contract-based recruitment, recruitment of employees at the Punjab Roadways workshop, implementation of cash-less policy and payment of 30 per cent arrears.

Besides, the state vice-president of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Pardeep Kumar said the Punjab Government had given the contract of the Punjab Roadways to a Chandigarh-based provider company, which was not at all an employee friendly. ‘‘Most of the private bus transport companies in Punjab belong to the people who are either themselves politicians or have good links with political parties. That is the sole reason that the quality of Punjab Roadways is not being improved. We need more than 1,000 buses in the present fleet to survive in such conditions,’’ Pardeep added.

He said there were more private buses than roadways buses on most of the roads. The government must get rid of such policies. 

Jalandhar, January 30
Lack of proper bus stops in the city has been a major problem for the residents. There are 15 city buses and several mini-buses plying on various routes in the city. But there are only a few designated bus stops.

Even the existing ones are in a dilapidated condition and buses hardly halt there. Commuters have been complaining since long but nothing has done so far.

‘‘I used to wait for a bus at the BSF bus stop. But the bus drivers hardly stop there. Now, I no longer take buses and but prefer auto-rickshaws even if I have to pay double the bus fare,” said Tarsem Lal.

In the absence of any fixed schedule for the buses to halt, people raise alarms anywhere which results in major traffic jams. ‘‘Drivers just stop buses wherever we shout for or they feel like. It happens due to lack of functional bus stops,” said another resident.

Areas such as PAP Chowk, BSF Chowk, Nakoder Chowk, Guru Nanak Mission and Kapurthala Chowk are in dire need of a bus stop.

On the contrary, the district administration and the Municipal Corporation (MC) have plans to expand the city bus project without addressing the old problem.

Jalandhar Municipal Commissioner MS Chattwal said JMC would launch 134 buses on 17 routes and construction of fully functional bus stops was a part of the same project.

Jalandhar, January 30
The rising number of accidents and increased traffic chaos on the roads of Punjab has clearly got the authorities worried. The Transport Department has tied up with the Education Department to conduct EDUSAT classes on vehicle safety and awareness in schools across the state.

A 40-minute session under the Safe School Vahan Scheme will be aired on EDUSAT receivers in schools.

As per the scheme, school staff and students shall be receiving training under the EDUSAT programme. EDUSAT classes under the scheme will be delivered in all government, government aided, PSEB affiliated, associated and private schools. As a part of the programme, every school shall be expected to send a school teacher, driver and a student to receive lessons through EDUSAT on January 30 and 31.

Deputy Director, EDUSAT Punjab, Rajiv Sharma, said, “The Transport Department expressed the intention to spread awareness among school staff and students regarding traffic awareness. The initial directives were received from the State Transport Authority. EDUSAT being a powerful medium at schools will help spread awareness among staff and students regarding transport safety.”

A representative from the State Transport Authority, DTO Mohali, Karan Singh and expert Bindu Gulati will arrange a panel discussion, which will be aired to EDUSAT receivers in schools across the state.

About 300 aided and associated schools and 440 government schools in the district will attend these classes tomorrow.

Schools which do not have the EDUSAT facility available on their premises will receive these classes at a nearby school or the cluster school. The cluster schools will have to ensure that these lessons are attended by all students.

While the former DC of the district had sought a comprehensive report on vehicle anomalies existing in various schools after the gruesome Nakodar accident, which claimed the lives of 14 school children, several accidents due to overloaded (or old) vehicles have taken place in the district since then. There is a complete absence of stringent action against schools which continue to use outdated vehicles and untrained drivers.

District EDUSAT coordinator, Jagtinder Sohal, said, “A number of accidents involving school children have compelled the authorities to start this programme. It is the first time ever that staff will be receiving information on matters concerning school transport safety on EDUSAT.”

Sources in the Education Department said the rising number of accidents, traffic chaos on roads and increase in people breaking traffic rules with impunity had caused the Transport Department to adopt a new method of spreading vehicle safety awareness.

Jalandhar, January 30
A bunch of young professionals working in the field of Punjabi music launched the Sufi album ‘Ishq-e-Sufi’ at the Punjab Press club here today. A team of about 10 people with an average age of 25 got together to work on the project.

While the vocals for the album have been provided by Mohit, the music has been provided by a Ludhiana-based young artist Harmeet Singh, his venture being popular by the name of ‘Beat Robbers’.

A group of six, responsible for shooting the video of the song also go by the hillarious name ‘Frame Singh Videowale’. The lyrics for the album have been penned by Jassi Singh.

Speaking on the occasion, the MD of Music Dust company Gagandeep Singh said their aim was to provide good Punjabi singers to the music industry. The song’s video directors Mohit Middha, Punit Singh, Sukhmanjot Singh, Yogesh Singh, Aman Virdi and Honey along with Gagndeep Singh, were also present.

Ishq-e-Sufi is among the popular recent ventures which see a number of youths taking to the profession of making music.

Members of the ‘Frame Singh Videowale’ group said their unusual name came for their extra emphasis on the ‘framing’ of the videos they shoot. We have always been careful about our video’s framing. Hence, the first choice of name was Frame. Then since all of us were Singh, we went with Frame Singh Videowale. The group which came into existence in the year 2013, have so far shot six different videos in a short period of time and will be coming up with two more in February.

Jalandhar, January 30
The Punjab Government’s website to address grievances of government employees — publicgrievancepb.gov.in — has failed in its purpose.

Jalandhar-based 70-year-old Avtar Krishan Sharma, retired group instructor, Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Moga, has been trying hard for the past two years to get his gratuity dues. Despite several complaints to the concerned department, he did not get any satisfactory reply.

Avtar later filed complaint his complaint at -publicgrievancepb.gov.in, on June 10, 2013. The website, instead of solving the problem, replied on October 10, 2013, “The principle and office superintendent of ITI Moga will be warned for causing such situation and replying the letter after a long delay, which creates unpleasant situation in the society”.

Talking to The Tribune, Avtar said this was the most pathetic reply he ever got.

He said he retired from ITI Moga on Fabruary 28, 2002 and received death-cum-retirement gratuity of Rs 2,86,655. He added the accountant general (AG), Punjab, issued order on March 24, 2012 to pay him Rs 17,589 as arrears of gratuity as he was supposed to get Rs 3,04,244.

“Apart from this, I wrote to B Purushartha, Director of Technical Education and Industrial Training Department on November 5, 2013, in this regard. But nobody seems to be bothered,” he said.

Jalandhar, January 30
In protest against the misbehaviour of the police with members of the Government School Lecturer Union Punjab, during a dharna at Chandigarh, the lecturers in the district took mass causal leave and expressed their anger through a dharna and protest.

The Jalandhar unit of the union demanded that the headmasters’ DPC for the year be done after amendments in the 2004 service rules. They said if the headmasters were promoted as principals without the said amendments, then the dharna will be intensified.

As per Service Rules 2004, the eligibility quota for lecturers was 55 per cent, for vocational masters was 15 per cent and for headmasters was 30 per cent. The union now demands that their number of post being the highest, their quota should be increased.

The current number of lecturers is a about 12,000, vocational masters is 1,500 and of headmasters is 450. Hence, it is being demanded that eligibility quota for promotions should ideally be 81 per cent for lecturers, 10 to 11 per cent for vocational masters and 10 per cent for headmasters as per their numbers.

It is thus being demanded that the promotional lists to be released after the ongoing departmental promotion committee meetings should be based on the proposed quota and not the 2004 service rules recommendations.

Lecturers held mass casual leave today and threaten to boycott exams if their demands are not met. 

Jalandhar, January 30
To observe the Balidan Divas, the district health authorities today distributed towels, eatables and medicines among inmates of Kushta Ashram, here today.

Jalandhar, January 30
Two persons were killed and six injured in two road accidents in the city today.

The first accident took place near Raipur village on the Pathankot road where an elderly man, Surjit Singh (60), of Jamail Nagar, Jalandhar, was killed on the spot after the bus he was travelling in collided with a speeding truck loaded with sand and gravel. Six persons travelling in the bus escaped with minor injuries.

The accident occurred due to the alleged negligence of the truck and bus drivers as both were reportedly driving rashly.

The second accident took place near Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, where a cyclist after being hit by a speeding truck was killed on the spot. The pillion rider sustained minor injuries. The deceased was identified as Davinder Kumar (19) of Vaishali, Bihar, and his injured friend was identified as Dinesh of Mazaffarpur. Both were daily wage labourers and were residing in Sanjay Gandhi Colony.

The police arrested the truck driver Harjinder Singh, a resident of Adarsh Nagar here.

Mayor World School organised a Punjabi inter-house debate competition on January 30, 2014, for the participants of grades VI to VIII to make them skilled and eloquent young orators. The topic for the argument was current and contemporary.

The participants from all four houses spoke enthusiastically-both for and against the motion. The judges were greatly impressed by the witty orations. Students also enjoyed the heated arguments, which the participants put forth in the attempt to prove their points.

The competition was won by the students of Keats House Prabhleen Kaur and Rangat Sandhu. The second position was bagged by the students of Wordsworth House. Nitya Bhalla of Shakespeare house was awarded as the best speaker.