Jalandhar, March 21
In a move that took the Municipal Corporation (MC) employees by surprise, a Joint Commissioner, who has joined here recently, today took a round of the administrative complex at 9:10 am and found that as many as 152 of the nearly 200 employees had not turned up for duty by that time.

All these employees, including 15 heads of the departments, were issued show-cause notices at the end of the day and were asked to explain the reason of their coming late to the office. Those found coming late were Senior Town Planner Tirlok Singh, SE B&R Kulwinder Singh, SE O&M PS Jaggi, XEN O&M Lakhwinder, XEN B&R Rajneesh Dogra, Deputy Controller Finance and Auditing Rajpal Singh and Ravinder Singh, Assistant Health Officers Varinder Kalia and Dr Harjinder Pal Singh, House Tax Superintendents Rajeev Rishi and Maheep Sareen, Property Tax Superintendent Maninder Kaur, Tehbazari Superintendent Vikrant Singh and Landscape Officer Daljit Singh.

Joint Commissioner Gurmeet Singh took a round of all offices in the building and took note of those missing from their seats. He then took away their attendance registers with him and kept them in the office of the Superintendent Establishment. He then deputed his office staff near the entrance of the office, telling all the employees entering thereafter to first go to the office of Superintendent Establishment to mark their attendance.

The JC said he found that many employees kept coming casually till 10:30 am or even 11 am. “I feel pity for the visitors who start pouring in for their work right at 9 am and keep waiting for officials for hours. To my utter surprise, even the SEs and XENs came so relaxed, not at all bothering to maintain any punctuality,” the PCS officer fumed.

Gurmeet Singh said he would keep doing such checks in routine till the staff got into the habit of punctuality. He said in case the staff refused to fall in line, he might even issue orders for deducting their salaries. The JC added that he was planning to install a biometric attendance machine in the office.

Interestingly, a similar exercise had been initiated by Mayor Sunil Jyoti as well when he had joined his office in September 2012.

Jalandhar, March 21
An HIV positive woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy at the Civil Hospital on Tuesday. The hospital authorities confirmed both mother and the child to be healthy. The authorities are now waiting to ascertain the HIV status of the new born which would be clear only after three weeks from now.

“The baby was born through caesarean section and weighs 3.5 kg. We have given a single dose of navirapina to both mother and the child. Now the baby is under observation and will be given a single dose of the medicine everyday for six weeks,” confirmed Dr Sangeeta Kapoor, senior medical officer. She also said that since the HIV positive antibodies from the mother were present in the child till three weeks after the birth, the test to confirm the HIV status of the child would be performed only after that time.

The baby is born to the HIV positive couple which already has a 12-year-old son. Since the couple was not aware of their HIV status, they planned to conceive again after the death of their second son, who died within a few hours of his birth. “We do not know how we contacted the virus, but two years ago, when my wife gave birth to our second son, she was given two bottles of blood by a private hospital in Phagwara,” said the father. He also said that they came to know about their HIV status only when the Civil Hospital authorities conducted the HIV test on his pregnant wife recently.

Since the mother was not aware of her pregnancy till first four months, she had to undergo the caesearian section for the third time.

“It was a big shock to us. Since we came to know about my pregnancy only in the 16th week, we could not abort the pregnancy. Although in the beginning we faced a lot of harassment from the hospital staff, as they were scare to even stand near me, the doctors, who operated upon me, were very supportive and informed me about all precautions to be taken after the baby’s birth. Now, I just wish my baby to be fine and free from the deadly virus,” said the mother.

The hospital authorities are taking utmost care to keep the deadly virus away from the newborn child. Whether they succeed in giving a healthy life to the little baby is yet to be seen.

Jalandhar, March 21
The State Information Commission has asked the Executive Officer (EO) of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) to pay up an amount of Rs 2,000 as penalty to an applicant for not providing him attested copies of the documents sought by him.

State Information Commissioner Narinderjit Singh, in his orders on January 30, had directed the EO-cum-Public Information Officer (PIO) of the JIT to allow the applicant Kailash Thukral of Rasta Mohalla to allow him inspection of the record on a mutually agreed date, which was February 17. The applicant said that after inspection, he identified the additional documents required by him.

Thukral had told the Commission that he had been allowed to inspect the records, but had not been provided the attested copies of the documents pertaining to his RTI request. It has asked the PIO to provide the attested copies of the documents to him in 15 days and compensate him by paying Rs 2,000 for causing him harassment. The information sought by the applicant pertains to Gujral Nagar, a 25-acre scheme of the Trust. The applicant had sought a certified copy of the site plan and the latest revised layout plan, list of the land owners, list of special purpose sites, khasra number details of areas encroached, details of unalloted land, re-transfer plot cases of allottees and any plots resumed by the JIT.

Jalandhar, March 21
The Excise and Taxation Department has received 1,295 applications for the draw of liquor vends in the 14 zones falling in the Jalandhar city limits. The draw of the vends will be held tomorrow at Red Cross Bhawan.

Outside city, the Mehatpur zone has received the maximum response, with 333 applications. Bhogpur is the next sought after zone with 164 applications. Nurmahal where the licence fee stands highest at Rs 11 crore, too, has got 68 applications.

The Jalandhar Division, which includes Doaba, has netted an amount of Rs 38.10 crore as the non-refundable application fee from 7,135 applications received for 75 zones against the state’s total income of Rs 250 crore on this account.

In Jalandhar 1, which includes 14 zones of the city in addition to Phillaur, Goraya, Muthada and Apra, there are 1,733 applications. In Jalandhar-2, which includes the rural belt with 13 zones, the number of applicants is 1,383. The total applications for Jalandhar come to 2,116.

In Jalandhar Division, the maximum response has come for Hoshiarpur, where 753 applications have been received for just two zones. In Phagwara, 243 applications have come for three zones. Incidentally, the lowest response zone too falls in the district with the maximum response. Miani in Hoshiarpur has received just eight, the least number of applications for the division.

Deputy Commissioner Excise and Taxation Sarojini Gautam Sharda said all security arrangements for the event were in place. Even the bank officials had been asked to be ready with the preparations, she said.

Jalandhar, March 21
An ASI who was recently posted at Division No. 2 police station has been placed under suspension and booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The cop, Resham Singh, had allegedly received Rs 15,000 from a person for withdrawing a case against him under the NDPS Act. After having received the complaint a few days ago, he had been sent to the police lines.

Today on the orders of Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh, he was suspended and booked under the PC Act.

Jalandhar, March 21
Who wouldn’t like to vote when it means discounts on mobile phones, accessories and cool parties at their favourite food outlets. This election season, the district administration has all this and more in store for the young. All they have to do to avail these offers is vote.

Ahead of the final March 30 deadline for enlisting new voters for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the district has been marked by hectic efforts by the administration to lure young voters for the LS poll.

The District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner has been visiting different educational institutes every day to rope in voters under the “Wake Up Jalandhar Programme” under SVEEP. In a tie-up with media partners 92.7 FM, restaurants and eateries, on the other hand, have announced 20 per cent discounts for young voters on the day Jalandhar goes to the polls.

A “Wake Up Jalandhar Page” was also opened on the Facebook this evening.

During the SVEEP drive across educational institutions, so far 1,500 students in the age groups of 18 to 21 have been enrolled in the city. The drive, which started on March 10, has seen the DC visiting about eight educational institutions in the district. It will go on till March 30.

About 327 voters were enrolled at one such programme today as well.

Meanwhile, fast food joints and restaurants, especially those popular among the youth - like Head Quarters, Knickerbockers, Sunny Side Up, Heat 7, Vimpy’s among others, shall be offering 20 per cent off for all voters seeking to binge there, after voting.

Äpart from this, city based electronics outlet Bahari Electronics will also be offering discounts of 10 per cent on mobile phones and up to 15 per cent on mobile accessories for young voters.

As if this wasn’t enough, the administration has also tied up with some banks which will be providing free caps and T-shirts to young voters.

While the DC has been sharing these offers on a platter with the city youth, youths have also been very upbeat about it.

District Electoral Officer-cum-DC Varun Roojam himself said the enthusiasm this season was unparalleled. “When one tells them just a vote will get them 20 per cent off on their favourite food at HQs (or other favourite outlets), you can hear the excitement in the crowds,” the DC said, recalling the experience at a SVEEP programme held today.

“Early bird certificates will also be distributed among the early bird voters - that is the first 20 voters on chosen booths. We shall be choosing some of the booths, according to the concentration of youngsters on those booths. Of the 1,800 booths in the city, certificates will be provided at a sizeable number of booths. About 1,000 early voters are sure to get them, maybe more will be added. About 100 model booths will also be chosen,” he added.

Jalandhar, March 21
The staff of the National Institute of Technology (under its National Institute of Technology Faculty Forum Jalandhar - NITFFJ) has threatened to resign from all their administrative posts if their long-pending demands regarding staff and salary issues are not addressed. They are fed-up with the lackadaisical approach of director Prof SK Das, who has not shown any interest to redress their long-pending demands.

They are agitating in support of their long-pending demands for the past two-and-a half years. The director’s lack of consent to the recommendations of a committee formed on February 24 has sparked the move.

It emerged during a general body meeting today that the director has steered clear of agreeing to their long- pending demands, they have, for the time being, reserved the decision until Monday, since the staff could not hold its own meeting to resolve the issue today, sources said.

While the committee has submitted its recommendations to the director today, the director has reportedly disagreed with majority of them, even though the committee was formed with his own consent.

Staff members have declared that a meeting will be held on the issue at 12.30 pm on Monday, in which the final stance on mass resignations from administrative duties will be revealed.

Notably, the staff had also written to Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD, on the issue, stating - ‘faculty is compelled to show their resentment by observing ‘no teaching’ from March 12. Besides, all faculty members are going to resign from their administrative responsibilities - deans, heads of departments, deputy registrars, controllers of examinations, wardens, proctors etc.

The same letter was sent both to Thakur and Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT, on March 13.

Jalandhar, March 21
The District Consumer Redressal Forums across the state will now accept complaints of the mobile subscribers against the telecom companies. This was revealed by Justice Gurdev Singh, Chairman of Punjab State Consumer Redressal Commission, here today.

Five years ago the district consumer forums had stopped accepting complaints against the telecom companies.

He said after a recent judgement by the Delhi High Court the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, had already issued instructions that all complaints pertaining to mobile companies could be entertained under the Consumer Protection Act.

"We are now sending instructions to the District Forums to start receiving complaints by consumers against the mobile phone companies. Earlier, such complaints were also being entertained, but after the order of the superior courts, the same were not being considered by Consumer Forums,” Justice said adding that now after the order of the Delhi High Court in February this year, forums were told to start entertaining such complaints.

Sources said the district consumer forum had received as many as 11,079 complaints, of which 10,806 were cleared adding that 123 cases had already been cleared in the running year.

Jalandhar, March 21
Even after over three weeks, the city police has not been able to nab the most wanted criminals of ‘Bhana gang’ who had shot dead two youths in full public view.

Sources said the city police teams had been camping in the neighbouring states for the past over one week, but the gang members were still managing to dodge the police.

The police have already issued look out notices for the criminals and have also declared three of the gang members most wanted criminals, including kingpin Daljit Singh Bhana, and his two accomplices Gurbaz, alias, Baba, alias, Lalli and Gurpreet Singh.

Apart from this, the police had also announced to give cash rewards whosoever will inform about the whereabouts of the Bhana gang, but the police has yet not received any vital information about the gang members.

On February 26, Bhana gang had shot dead two youth, namely Simran and Deepansh and had grievously injured one near Raja Garden in full public view.

Simran had succumbed to his injuries on the spot, while Deepash breathed his last at the hospital. The gang had shot dead the duo as they were assisting the eye witness Shami Kumar whose son Prince was gunned down by the gang two years ago.

The senior police officials, including Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh, and Deputy Commissioner of Police Rahul S, have been personally monitoring the every minute update on the case.

New Delhi, March 21
DAV Colleges, Jalandhar, was today awarded the running shield and trophy for emerging on top in the 11th National Youth Parliament Competition for Universities/Colleges by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajeev Shukla at a function here.

This was for the second time in a row that the DAV colleges won the competition and it also presented a short sitting of "Youth Parliament''. The competition was organised across 14 institutions in various parts of the country. The performance of the youth was judged by a panel that included both serving and retired Members of Parliament and State Legislatures, officials of the Parliament Secretariat and academicians not associated with the participating institutions.

Besides, merit trophies were awarded to University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Benga, Jai Prakash University, Chhapra, Bihar, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and SMB Government College, Nathdwara, Udaipur for standing first in their respective groups.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has been organising Youth Parliament competitions in Universities/Colleges since 1997-98 and aims at inculcating among the younger generations the spirit of self-discipline, tolerance of diverse opinion, righteous expression of views and other virtues of a democratic way of life. Besides, the scheme also acquaints the students with the practices and procedures of Parliament, techniques of discussion and debate and develops in them the quality of leadership.