Jalandhar, February 15
After the much-publicised and tragic demise of Rooth, the daughter of one of the protesting EGS teachers at Bathinda recently, the state government is trying to ensure that a similar situation does not arise elsewhere.

Be it a protest in the cold or atop tanks, the administration seems set to discourage acts of resentment. A measure taken by the city police today to prevent a similar protest — even before it happened — points towards the same.

A protest by members of the Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) Teachers Union was prevented by the police even before the teachers could climb the tank to express their resentment, which the police said was allegedly their motive.

Twentyfive to 30 AIE teachers who had gathered at the bus stand to protest on an issue were rounded up by the police and allegedly kept at the police station No. 7 for hours.

State president of the AIE teachers Union Swarana Devi said, “The police is now taking all sorts of measures to prevent a situation which might embarrass the political parties. Members of the union were rounded up in the afternoon and kept at the police station till late in the evening. It was only after 7 pm that the police let them go. While they kept telling the cops that their intention wasn’t to climb any tank, they were picked up minutes after they reached the bus stand.”

Meanwhile, sub-inspector Sukhdev Singh from the police station No. 7 denied keeping the teachers at the police station. “They weren’t brought to the police station and I wasn’t there when they were rounded up.”

DSP (under training) Richa Agnihotri, who was present when the teachers were rounded up, said, “The teachers were not arrested and weren’t even taken to a police station. They were made to sit in a bus and taken to another location just to prevent the situation from deteriorating. We had received information about their plans to climb a tank. So, this was a necessary measure.”

Teachers said while Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had offered two years' of gainful contractual employment to them in the Education Department, this January teachers complained that their status remained the same.

“We were told that we would be given jobs in elementary schools, but we are working on pensions which are worse than peons.

Even labourers get Rs 300 a day, but we are getting only Rs 5,000 a month. While the ETT failed teachers are getting Rs 2,500, those who have passed it are getting Rs 5,000. We were told that we would work in elementary schools, but we are still working at the old centres. Our pays should be raised,” Devi demanded.

A woman runs for cover after alighting from a bus as it poured

Jalandhar, February 15
Giving much relief from intense cold wave, the Sun played hide and seek along with moderate rain in this part of the region today. The rain that continued to lash the city for the second consecutive day today not only flooded the low-lying areas, but also added to the woes of potato growers while bringing a smile for wheat-growing farmers.

A minimum of 2.8 mm rainfall was recorded in the region on Friday followed by 15.6 mm today. A defence spokesperson of the Adampur Air Force Station said a minimum temperature of 9.9°C was recorded today, 10°C on Friday and 1.1°C on Thursday. The maximum temperature remained at 16.9°C today.

The Meteorological Department has predicted partly cloudy sky, fair and mist haze on Sunday morning.

Residents of the low-lying and Basti areas had to face inconvenience as the rain water entered their houses and business establishments. They had to flush out muddy water from their dwellings.

The kuccha hutments were submerged at various places. Migrant labourers putting up in jhugis along the GT road and highways had to shift to safer places.

A visit by The Tribune team to different parts of the city and vicinity found that the rain water had filled in potholes on different roads. Speeding vehicles were seen splashing muddy water on pedestrians and commodities of various business establishments along roads.

The worst affected were the roundabouts, where knee deep water had accumulated leading to traffic snarls. The district administration had deployed traffic police personnel at various intersections for regulating traffic.

Long queues of vehicles were noticed on roads and crossings at under bridges on GT Road. Motorists were seen taking wrong sides. Jai Deep Singh, a shopkeeper at Adda Hoshiarpur Chowk, lamented that crossing vehicles smeared eatables displayed inside his shop with muddy water.

“The rain has affected our business as not even a single customer came to my shop since morning,” said Prithi Chand of Kishapura Market.

Jalandhar, February 15
As many as 75 bonded labourers were rescued from a brick-kiln in Kapurthala, where they were being made to work without proper wages for the past two years.

On a tip-off, a team of Delhi-based NGO Bandhua Mukti Morcha visited the brick-kiln where 35 men, 29 women (three of them pregnant) and children were allegedly being made to work for the past couple of years without the payment of proper wages.

The NGO, accompanied by the police and labour officials, raided the kiln on Friday.

The kiln, situated at Sikri village in Bholath tehsil of Kapurthala district, has seen the oldest of these labourers employed for the past four years, while some others were working for the past one to two years.

The labourers are migratory residents, who are natives of Chattisgarh or Uttar Pradesh.

Nirmal Gorana, activist of the NGO Bandhua Mukti Morcha, while talking to The Tribune, said, “All these labourers are members of the Dalit community who were brought to the kiln by an agent. From what we saw at the site, various acts were simultaneously being violated in the way these people were being kept.”

“The Bonded Labourer Act, 1976; Inter State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979; SC/ST Act; POSCO Act, 2012 were all being violated at the site. A minor girl was also violated from what the labourers told us. These people were not brought here in a legal licenced manner and no proper records were being maintained regarding their payments or allowances,” he said.

Jalandhar, February 15
A 22-year-old unmarried woman committed suicide by hanging herself at her house in Birring village.

The incident took place at around 10.30 am. Daughter of a labourer, Pritam Kaur was reportedly mentally disturbed. Soon after she made the attempt to end her life, she was rushed to the Civil Hospital, but did not survive.

Jalandhar, February 15
After approaching Jalandhar Central MLA Manoranjan Kalia yesterday at the SAD-BJP workers meet, members of the Kanojia Maha Sabha gave a memorandum against the sale of Dhobi Ghat site at Gujral Nagar to BJP state president Kamal Sharma during his visit to the city today.

Sabha's Punjab unit president Om Parkash Kanojia said as many as 350 families had been working from the 4,000 sq yard site. Feeding their families and any attempt of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust to sell the land for commercial use would affect their livelihood, he added. The Trust intends to sell the site for construction of Rs 55 crore elevated road project on Kapurthala Road, near Basti Bawa Khel. — TNS

Jalandhar, February 15
Corps of Signals of the Indian Army celebrated its 104th Raising Day by organising a number of events, here today. Wreaths were also laid on the War Memorial to pay homage to martyrs of the corps.

Keeping with tradition, a barakhana, was also organised for serving and retired JCOs/ORs and their families. Apart for this, voluntary blood donation, various sports, adventure, band display and cultural activities formed a part of the event.

A defence spokesperson in a statement said the corps had reached out to renew association with disabled soldiers, widows, Veer Naris and aged, needy veterans. Signal units across India had identified and adopted over 400 such members of their extended family, and the journey continues.

Raised in 1911, the Corps of Signals embarked on the 104th year of its glorious journey today. The corps remains inspired by its rich traditions, rooted in the present and aligned with the future, enabling the Army’s transformation into a fully network centric force.

Kapurthala, February 15
Students have lost interest in science in the recent past. The fact is evident from the trend observed by the experts that students graduate from school level to higher education in less numbers.

The experts, however, suggest that to restrain this trend and motivate the students to opt science, some path breaking steps are needed.

This was the main focus of a panel discussion held on the second day of the Punjab Science Congress aimed at science and technology for sustainable growth, organised at the Punjab Technical University (PTU) campus, near here today.

Experts agreed that teaching science in easy language, communicating concepts effectively, making learning aids easily available, would help retain interest of students in the subject.

Panelists concurred that it was important to achieve a common ground between ancient sciences and the latest scientific developments, for using science for sustainable growth and to achieve this objective.

Scores of students and participants attended the Science-Expo on the second day. The YS Group of Institutes, Barnala, put up robotic science models, Bhai Gurdas Institute, Sangrur, displayed solar grass cutters, Ryat and Bahra Group students showed automatic railway gates and Gurukul Vidyapeeth displayed aircraft design at their stalls which attracted many.

In the technical sessions, Dr Raghubir Chand Gupta, Dr C Ghanshyam, Chief Scientist, CSIO, Chandigarh, Dr Megh R Goel of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, Dr MS Chauhan, Dr Prashant Sharma of the PGI, Chandigarh, Dr Amar Singh Azad, Dr Kamaljit Singh, Director, Punjabi University, Patiala, Dr SK Sharma, Department of Semiconductor Science, Dongkok University and VM Trehan of the Mekaster Group, shared their experiences.

Jalandhar, February 15
Having earned a tag of one of the pioneer professionals, registered theatre groups from the city, YUVAA — Young Upcoming Versatile Artistes Association — has already carved out a niche for itself in the region in a span of just six years.

Catching the pulse of theatre lovers and having struck chords with youngsters, Young Upcoming Versatile Artistes Association, formed in 2007, has already presented multiple shows of its 24 plays in the city and all over Punjab. It has gained immense popularity in as short span of time.

The group has produced some classic plays like Konark, Hamlet, Charandass chor, Court martial, Planning, Accidental death of an anarchist, Ek tha gadha and Kalyug da rab. Founder member of the group, Ankur Sharma, said, “The big leap came when Gulzar sahib gave us the copyright to perform his play “Kharashein” in the city. We were invited to the Fifth Punjab Theatre Festival in 2011. It was loved by the audiences, who came across Punjab.”

Sharma has himself directed 20 of the 24 plays while the rest have been directed by the other team members. Sharing background of the group, Sharma said, “I used to be the teacher-in-charge for both the music and theatre teams of Doaba College for the GNDU youth festivals. During the preparations, my love for theatre grew. By and by, I discovered that there was hardly any theatre activity here in the city on professional scale. So I took it as a big challenge. I along with some students, theatre lovers, practically started from ground zero.”

“We attended workshop, did rounds of National School of Drama in Delhi and at the same time kept making our own plays,” he added.

While describing group’s journey, he said, “I primarily started this group for the ones who were keen to do theatre. We give regular training to students. Various voice exercises, physical exercises and theatre games are part of this training. Theatre is a serious art that needs to be imbibed. It is an amalgamation of all kinds of art forms. It is the strongest means of reaching out to the people. If performed effectively, it catches the pulse.”

On asking about the best play shown till now, he said, “Dance of life and death — YUVAA's own classic play about AIDS patients and drug addicts. The play was so moving and realistic that everyone was sobbing and was in tears. It was presented keeping in mind especially the young generation, which gave us a sense of satisfaction. Then we got a chance to perform this play at the Punjab Natshala, Amritsar. Repeated performances of the play helped us improve each time.”