Jalandhar, February 14
There has been a major administrative reshuffle in the district in the past one week ahead of the imposition of election code for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

As of now, there are four posts going vacant, including those of ADC (G), ADC (D), SDM-1, SDM Nakodar, GA to DC and Deputy Director Local Government.

Today, Praneet Bhardwaj, who had been holding a dual charge as ADC (G) and (D), GA to DC Dr Shikha Bhagat, SDM Nakodar Hardeep Dhaliwal and Anupam Kler Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, were relinquished of their charges with further posting only coming for Dhaliwal as SDM, Gidderbaha. No officer has been replaced on these posts other than that held by Kler.

The post of Joint Commissioner MC has been given to Gurmeet Singh, who had been appointed as the Secretary, RTA, recently. The post of Deputy Director Local Government had gone vacant after Daljeet Kaur had been moved from the post. The post of SDM-1 too has gone vacant after the posting of Iqbal Singh Sandhu to Phagwara on four different positions there.

The SDM had been holding the post for more than three years. MBBS qualified PCS Officer Dr Shikha Bhagat had to be moved as she hailed from the city only. Anupam Kler has her brother serving as the SAD MLA from Phillaur. However, there was no such clause for Praneet Bhardwaj to be transferred.

Even the post of District Revenue Officer which was held by Daljit Singh Chhina has gone to Varinder Kumar. There has been a major reshuffle among tehsildars as well. Seema Singh has been posted as tehsildar-II while Jait Kumar would join as tehsildar-I.

Jalandhar, February 14
The Local Bodies Department is yet to materialise the projects recently launched by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and more hurdles are coming from all quarters.

The persons occupying Dhobi Ghat at Gujral Nagar, today gheraoed Jalandhar Central MLA Manoranjan Kalia while he was leaving after attending the SAD-BJP workers' meet for preparations of the Narendra Modi rally at a marriage palace here. They are supposed to vacate the land as the Jalandhar Improvement Trust wants to put the 4,000 sq yard site for sale for the construction of an elevated road on Kapurthala Road,

The shopkeepers of the Basti Bawa Khel locality in front of which the elevated road is to come up have lodged a protest against the project.

Even the Airforce authorities are moved by the proposal of the PUDA to construct the 22-storey apartments at the old jail site saying that no permission for such high-rise construction had been sought from them.

Defence PRO Naresh Vig said the Airforce officials are planning to meet the civic authorities soon to make them aware that a mandatory permission had to be sought for such a construction.

Vig said, "Such high-rise buildings can be an obstruction for flying."

The Airforce Authorities have already taken up the issue of the 10-storey flats that have come up at the Jalandhar Improvement Trust land in Nitishree Apartments without their prior permission.

The issue of the 18.97 acre jail land being mortgaged with a bank by the state government last year in March has also led to the 832-flat group housing scheme getting mired in controversies. Even the budding players have been demanding that the JIT's swimming pool site at Partap Bagh should not be sold for incurring revenue for the forthcoming projects.

Jalandhar, February 14
Squash players in the city are a distraught lot as the only stadium, which was built near Guru Nanak Dev District Library here by the Jalandhar Administration in 1988, is in a deplorable condition.

The stadium was built about 26 years ago, but it could not be utilised for the want of basic facilities. Leaking roofs, wooden floor in a bad state, court covered from three sides by concrete walls instead of glass are the few things that make the place non usable by the players. Apart from this, there is no coach to mentor the budding players.

The foundation stone of the building was laid way on August 7, 1988, by Sudhir Mittal, the then Deputy Commissioner.

Rakesh Khanna, former secretary of the Jalandhar District Squash Racket Association, said, "In 1987, we had tabled a proposal before Mittal, requesting a squash court for the city. He immediately agreed and helped us in procuring land. A grant of Rs 1 lakh for the construction was given by the Education Department. An initial amount of Rs 51,000 was contributed by the members of the association. Around 2,000 sq ft land was given on lease for 33 years and the court was built on the 1,100 sq ft (22ft x 50 ft) area."

But, ever since the court was constructed, it stands unnoticed, underutilised and ignored. People from the nearby areas do not even know about its existence.

Except a few small events held about seven years ago, no significant event has taken place till date. The court is without any coach since its inception and very few players come here for practice.

Regarding the non-availability of a coach and pathetic condition of the court, Khanna said, "We don't have funds to improve the condition of the court, then how we can afford a coach. We have to pay for small expenses like painting of walls from our pockets. Had we not shelled out money, the condition would have been worse or may be it would have been closed by now."

Sunil Jain, a playing member, said, "Players prefer stadiums with modern facilities. We don't have glass walls, which is the basic necessity of a squash court."

Rahul Sethi, a Punjab champion of the game in 2010, said, "I have been practising on my own and playing without getting any proper guidance as there is no coach in the stadium. Moreover, no physiotherapist has been hired for medical aid."

Gulbag, a coach at KMV College and HMV College, said: "Even an air conditioner has not been provided, leave aside other facilities. In the absence of grading and sponsors, the game is going unnoticed."

The players feel that its inclusion in 2020 Olympics will definitely attract people towards the game.

Jalandhar, February 14
Reacting to the release of documents that suggested the Margaret Thatcher government facilitated the Indian government in planning Operation Bluestar, Member of Parliament from UK, Seema Malhotra, said not just the Sikhs, but the entire Indian diaspora was shocked at the reports.

The Opposition MP from the Labour Party said this while interacting with the media this evening. She was in the city with British Deputy High Commissioner David Liliot.

She said ever since the release of the documents regarding the UK’s role in planning Operation Bluestar against Sikh militants hiding inside the Golden Temple complex, the government had been contemplating on how to regain the confidence of the Sikh community there.

She said she wanted more documents to come out and people, who have been raising questions on the matter, must be completely satisfied.

“Even though there has been an inquiry, people are not satisfied with it. They still ask the names of all those officials who had then been consulted,” the UK MP said.

Malhotra originally hails from Jalandhar and is the first woman MP of Indian-origin to represent Feltham and Heston constituency in the UK.

Liliot too termed the incident shocking. He said trust-building efforts with the Sikhs were being made by the government over there.

Jalandhar, February 14
The cold wave intensified in the region following showers thus forcing the residents to stay indoors for the past 24 hours.

Jalandhar received showers on Friday. Photo: Sarabjit Singh

The minimum temperature, however, was recorded 10 degree Celsius at Adampur Ari Force Station, against Thursday's minimum temperature of 1.1 degree Celsius. The Meteorological Department registered 2.8mm rain in the region, today. "It will be partly cloudy on Saturday and region will again receive a spell of light showers," said the department officials.

Naresh Gulati, agriculture officer, Jalandhar, said: "Rain will benefit farmers as they will not have to water their crops. There will be no frost and thus no loss to the crops. With the rain washing the dust partials, the crops will be healthier as there will be high photosynthesis process in vegetation."

The moderate rain played a spoil spot at marriage 'pandals' and other outdoor functions leaving the venues wet across the district.

A fair organised at an area near Ravi Das Chowk to celebrate the Parkash Utsav of Guru Ravi Das also drew less crowd then the previous year's celebrations.

The markets wore deserted look after 4 pm due to fresh spell of rain in the evening.

Pooja, a Model Town-based housewife, was of the view that the rain has ruined their plans to celebrate Valentine Day. "We had planned to go out for a long drive but the rain and the cold weather played a villain," claimed Nidhi, another student.

The rain also caused traffic chaos on various city roads, including the GT Road.

Business of the roadside vendors was also affected adversely as there were hardly any customer and the water accumulated along the road sides further added to their woes.

Pradeep Singh, a rehri vendor opposite Suvidha Centre, said his sale was just Rs 500 against yesterday's sale of Rs 2,000. "The rain forced me to wind up my establishment at 4 pm," said the vendor.

Jalandhar, February 13
The State Information Commission has issued a show-cause notice to the Principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Bhargo Nagar, Nirmala Kumari, for denying information under the RTI Act.

The applicant submitted a complaint regarding the denial of information to the commission on December 7, 2013.

The information sought through the RTI was - the tenure of various Drawing and Disbursal Officers (DDOs) at the school, their addresses and mobile numbers, details of house rent allowance, attested copies of house rent receipts, list of all leaves availed by present DDOs, details of duties assigned to present DDOs among other documents.

While the commission has noted that the information asked for was never provided to the complainant, it has ruled that Nirmala Kumari will show cause under Section 20 (1) of the RTI Act as to why a penalty not be imposed on her for willful delay/denial in supplying the information and why shouldn’t the information seeker be awarded any compensation under the provision of the act.

The respondent has been asked to submit the said information and avail herself of the opportunity of a personal hearing before the next date of hearing in the case, failing which, the commission will proceed to take further proceedings against her.

The next hearing for the case will be on March 25.

Kapurthala, February 14
Research scholars, faculty members and subject experts associated with different fields from different educational institutions of 10 countries shared their experiences and opinions on the role of science and technology for sustainable growth at the 17th Punjab Science Congress that started here today. It is being organised by Punjab Technical University (PTU) on its campus.

National Research Professor, University of Hyderabad, Goverdhan Mehta, who was the chief guest on the occasion, inaugurated the conference. In his address, Prof Mehta harped upon how science and technology is touching our lives.

Giving example of the mobile revolution, he claimed that the technology had converted the world into a small village. He stressed on the need to use science and technology for sustainable growth, environment conservation and routine life.

Vice president and principal, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Professor Deep Saini, said it was essential to maintain and conserve water and other natural resources for growth. He cited the example of Middle Eastern countries that have made efficient use of science and technology despite water scarcity.

Earlier, Vice Chancellor, PTU, Dr Rajneesh Arora, in his welcome address, emphasised the importance of language in science education.

“China is one of the greatest examples wherein science is taught in the native language and this is precisely why their students excel in the subject. We too need to make the course syllabus available and teach science and technology in regional languages,” he said.

The congress will feature 40 talks, three plenary sessions with six speakers, four technical sessions, including one for young scientists, 133 oral presentations and 240 poster presentations.

Jalandhar, February 14
The representatives of the Shiv Sena Bal Thackerey group held protest against the celebration of Valentine’s Day by burning placards and posters at the Company Bagh Chowk here today.

District president of the party, Ashish Arora, said immoral activities were spreading by way of such western festivals. The members of the Bharatiya Hindu Yuva Morcha were seen distributing pamphlets appealing to the people to celebrate the day as family day.

Numerous couples were seen together at shopping malls and restaurants. The market places, eateries and cinema halls remained abuzz with activities.