Jalandhar, March 25
The entire administrative faculty of the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology today resigned from their duties, following the Director Prof SK Das' refusal to address their demands regarding pay anomalies.

The resignation was submitted to the Director of NIT Jalandhar, Prof SK Das, this morning through a declaration signed by the staff and a copy was marked to Ashok Thakur, secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD, Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Board of Governors NIT, and Deputy Commissioner Varun Roojam.

All faculty holding extra administrative posts - head of the departments, deans, proctors, deputy registrars - resigned from their respective administrative positions.

Although the total teaching staff in the institute numbers 110, among these, the staff holding these extra-administrative responsibilities numbers 56. Due to the resignations, all the paperwork at the institute shall remain suspended until they get back to work.

Following the director's rejection of the primary recommendations of a committee which was looking into the issue of staff demands (submitted to the director) on Friday, the faculty had been hoping for a dialogue with the director on the issue. But an order issued by the director on Monday morning wasn't taken well by the staff.

Lack of any conclusive decision during the director's meeting with faculty deans - which went on until late last evening - added to the staff stance on resignations. Faculty sources said had the director relented in the meeting, an alternative could have been worked out.

The director, yesterday, had asked all head of the departments to send report of the classes taken by their faculty members along with photocopies of attendance register of each class held from 12/3/2014 to 24/3/2014. They were told to submit the same by 10 am today (25/3/2014), failing which action under service rules of NIT-J would be initiated against them. This greatly irked the staff.

Staff had not been teaching classes since March 12 in support of the demands which included M Tech/Ph D/M Phil increments for assistant professors at entry level, M Tech/Ph D/M Phil increments for faculty in service, pay fixation and anomalies among others.

Notably, the staff had also written to Ashok Thakur, secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD, highlighting staff issues, stating - "faculty is compelled to show their resentment by observing 'no teaching' from March 12, 2014. Besides this, 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, 2014.

On the issue of why an internal matter of the NIT had to be taken to the DC, Jalandhar, staff sources claimed some days ago the director had also marked a copy of an order meant for the staff to the DC and SSP.

Jalandhar, March 25
With the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, huge hoardings portraying Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi have all of a sudden emerged in the entire city.

At least a dozen such hoardings have been installed on unipoles of the Municipal Corporation in the city. All the hoardings have Modi and Badal looking in the same direction with symbols of both the parties and SAD's old slogan 'Raj Nahin Sewa'. None of them have the pictures of the party candidate on them.

However, all of them cover different aspects and projections of the alliance in the state. For instance, there is one that reads 'Sada Mission' (meaning our mission): 100 per cent water and sewage connection in the next three years.

A hoarding puts another claim of the alliance that Punjab is the first state to bring in administrative reforms while giving figures of Sanjh Kendras, Suwidha Centres, Fard Centres and number of services offered.

There is another one projecting the state as power surplus. There still is another wherein there is a claim of connecting all cities of the state by way of four-laned roads.

Similarly, the Congress has put up advertisements on bus shelters with the pictures of former PM Rajiv Gandhi regarding details of the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna along the Kapurthala Road.

The scheme which pertains to slum housing is yet to get implemented in the city as there is so far not even a single beneficiary of this scheme. The slum dwellers in the city have been taking benefit under a two year old scheme which is less flexible.

Jalandhar, March 25
With Congress councillors sore over Mayor Sunil Jyoti not giving them even a minute's hearing during the budget meeting of the House and having failed in executing any development work in the city, the Congress councillors today sought his resignation.

Holding him accountable for the worst ever condition of roads and poor lifting of garbage in the city, the Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja said Jyoti does not have any moral right to continue on the post and he should better quit himself. "People have been falling in craters on the roads and losing their lives. There are others who have got limb or joint fractures. What worse can the people expect of us," he said while addressing the media along with councillors of his party.

The District Congress Committee president Rajinder Beri too spoke out, "The copy of the budget mentions that Rs 36 crore have been spent on roads this year and Rs 13 crore for patchwork. Where has all this money gone? It does not show at all. Have they all gobbled up the amount? It is beyond my comprehension".

Quoting a rule from the Municipal Corporation Act 1976, Jagdish Raja said, "As per the laid down rules, there should have been a monthly meeting of the House. Since the Mayor has exactly completed 18 months today, he should have had 18 meetings by now but there have been just five including one election meeting and two budget meetings had he been conducting a meeting every month, corrupt people would have either mended ways or come under scanner and work progress would have been regularly monitored. The Mayor has been so erratic in holding meetings for he never wanted transparency to prevail," he said.

Des Raj Jassal, also a councillor of the same party, said, "There were so many questions in our mind. We are worried over just Rs 2.59 lakh coming to us on account of road cutting whereas the entire city has been dug up by the telecom companies. The advertisement tax which stood at Rs 4 crore three years back has come down to just Rs 67,000. The figures are alarming and the discussion was a must which the Mayor showed no interest in."

Aruna Arora and Surinder Kaur, both councillors, too took a dig at the Mayor as they said that he had not left them face the residents of the area. "People keep on blaming us for no work in the area. How we pacify them each day only we know?" they lambasted Mayor reiterating the demand put forth by Raja.

Dalwinder Kaur, ward number 8 councillor, said that works to the tune of Rs 4 crore had been sanctioned but left midway in her ward. "We stand helpless with no answers for the problem," she said.

Mayor Sunil Jyoti, however, maintains that he wound up the meeting fast as the safai karamcharis had started lodging protest and he was worried that the meeting could get stopped on an unsavoury note. He said that the road construction work for Rs 60 crore had been passed and the work was already on in the city.

Jalandhar, March 25
The city is facing huge LPG scarcity nowadays. Due to the repeated change of government stand on the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) Scheme since January this year, a huge gap has occurred between the demand and the supply of the domestic gas.

According to reports received from around 24 gas agencies in the city on Tuesday, around 55,000 gas bookings are still lying pending for deliveries. Most of the agencies have even reported manhandling by the frustrating customers who visited the agencies following automatic cancellation after 72 hours of the booking. Although, the oil companies have doubled up the supply from the last few days including Sunday, still distributors feel that it will take at least one more week to end the massive backlog.

"The cause for this sudden scarcity of domestic gas in the city is mainly due of the recent announcement of the rolling back of the DBTL Scheme by the central government recently after raising the cap on subsidized cylinders and de-linking it with the Aadhaar card. Till March 7, the supply was as per the demand, but immediately after the announcement, the demand was raised manifolds within three to four days due to huge slashing of rates of the LPG cylinders from Rs 1,300 to Rs 440. Since our servers were switched off from March 7 to 11 to upgrade the software with the new rates as prescribed in the policy, huge backlog was reported during these days," said Rajiv Patel, Chief Area Manager, Indian Oil Corporation. He however has also informed that efforts are being taken to finish the backlog at the earliest. "We are trying to end the inconvenience caused to our customers due to this sudden backlog. For this, we along with our distributors are working on Sundays as well. Very soon, we will be able to bring the situation under control," confirmed Patel.

Sources at the gas agencies have also revealed that since March 1, the Oil companies have switched off the main server for at least 8 days. First, the servers were switched off from March 1 to 4 for updating the monthly rates that were announced every month according to the international market and later switched off again from March 7 to 11 for upgrading the software according to the new policy announced by the central government. "Due to this, we get huge backlog in the beginning of this month itself. The switching on the main server for almost 8 days in a single month is the main cause behind this huge backlog. Most of the distributors received around 2,500 to 3,000 undelivered bookings as soon as the server was switched on at 2 pm on March 11," said one of the distributors. Harsimran Kaur, president, All-India LPG Distributors Federation, said, "Although the oil companies have doubled up the supply from the past few days, people are getting panicked due to the repeated automatic cancellation of their bookings." "According to the LPG booking guidelines fixed by the oil companies, the bookings get cancelled automatically if not delivered within 72 hours of the booking. Presently, due to huge backlog, most of the bookings are getting cancelled automatically due to the delay in their deliveries. This is causing lot of inconvenience to the people hence bringing them to fight with the agency staff," said Harsimran Kaur. She however has also confirmed that very soon, the situation will be brought under control. "We are sped up the work and with the continuous supply from the oil companies, will improve the situation within few days from now," said Harsimran Kaur.

Jalandhar March 25
The Bhargav Camp police have booked a man on charge of sodomy to an eight-year-old child. The accused has been identified as Amardeep Singh, a resident of Deol Nagar.

The complainant Vishal, kin of the victim, told the police that their neighbour Amardeep had sodomize their child.

"Accused used to visit our house and often take our son to market and bought him chocolates and candies. Earlier, we were not aware of the fact that Amardeep was into all this, but yesterday the matter came to our notice," said victim's father.

"Last evening, when their child reached home, he was not feeling well and family members asked him the cause, then he revealed everything," said the police.

Acting on the complaint, the police have registered a case of sodomy under Section 377 of IPC and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.

"Raids are being conducted to nab the accused," said the police.

Jalandhar, March 25
A visitor to the city can find scenes of traffic chaos outside the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Inter-state Bus Terminal (ISBT), which have become a regular feature.

Unscheduled stoppage of buses underneath the overbridge, haphazard parking of three wheelers and crawling of rickshaws has made the traffic scene worse. Although traffic policemen can be seen managing the traffic, they seem helpless in streamlining its flow.

Many a times, commotion leads to traffic jams. Serpentine queues of buses and auto rickshaws make it difficult even for pedestrians to cross the road.

Problem of traffic chaos has further escalated with potholes and water logging on roads near the ISBT. No day passes without an accident involving a two wheeler. "Yesterday, my bike got stuck in the potholes filled with rain water underneath the overbridge. I sustained minor injuries on my leg," said Vikram, a local resident.

Apart from buses, auto rickshaw drivers and rickshaw pullers have also created their own parking lot under the overbridge, which also leads to traffic jams.

"Administration has not allotted us any specific place for parking, so we have no other option than to park our vehicles, rickshaws under the bridge," said and a rickshaw puller. He said why action was not being taken against bus operators, who stopped buses under the overbridge to accommodate more passengers in their buses.

Assistant Commissioner Police (Traffic) did not respond to the phone calls.

Jalandhar March 25
Three witnesses have been killed in two separate incidents in the last three weeks in the city. It has not only put the security of the witnesses of criminal cases at stake, but sudden reporting of such incidents has also terrorised the city residents.

The police are leaving no stone unturned to nab the guilty. It has also formed special teams for the purpose, but accused have remained evasive till now.

A youth, identified as Richi Bhagat, was hacked to death by certain miscreants outside his house in Mochian Mohalla, on Sunday. He was murdered by assailants against whom he was a witness in a criminal case registered by the city police recently. The incident occurred despite the high alert sounded by the police and deployment of the CISF due to the enforcement of the poll code.

Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case against Jagjit and his three sons Vicky, Dharminder and Gora. Sources said these accused had developed enmity with Richi, after they (accused) had seriously injured Richi’s relatives Sunil and Kamlesh on January 5. Richi was a prime witness in the case.

The deceased’s kin alleged that after the registration of a case against the accused, they started threatening Richi. “The accused were threatening Richi not to depose before the court against them, but the latter didn’t budge,” asserted Richi’s kin. They said the accused hacked Richi to death apparently due to this reason.

On February 26, Bhana gang shot dead two youths identified as Simran and Deepansh and grievously injured another near Raja Garden in full public view. The gang had shot the duo as they were assisting Shami Kumar, an eye witness, whose son Prince was gunned down by the gang two years ago.

In the third such incident, on March 22, a group of assailants had grievously injured Aman outside the district courts over some past rivalry. The victim had come to attend the hearing in the district courts.

SHO of the police division five said the police had rounded up some suspects and efforts were on to trace the accused in Richi’s murder case. He said mobile phones locations were also put under surveillance.

Jalandhar, March 25
The state government finally released the first instalment of diet money three days ago after ‘The Tribune’ highlighted the issue of diet money not being paid to day scholars of the sports wing in the entire state from the last one year. However, the money, which was supposed to be credited directly into players’ accounts, was instead credited in the account of the District Sports Officer (DSO).

“The district treasury has released 8 lakh to be paid as diet money for August last year to the students of sports wing. Since most of the accounts details given by students were found to be incorrect, the money was deposited in the DSO’s account. Only after scrutinising the details of each player, the money will be transferred to their respective accounts,” said Rakesh Kaushal, District Sports Officer, Jalandhar. He said the department was waiting for the second instalment, which was expected to be released in April. The department would transfer the diet money to the respective accounts of the sports wing day scholars after receiving the amount, he added.

‘The Tribune’, in a news report, published last month, had highlighted that the Punjab government had not released the diet money for last year to day scholars of the sports wing. The government while amending the sports policy in 2012 had decided to deposit the diet money of Rs 100 per day directly into the bank accounts of the student players. Although the trials for the current year are almost over, the amount for the last year is yet to be credited into to the players account. Players residing in colleges are not getting any cash as the responsibility of their nutritional needs is being taken care of by the government contractor in their respective colleges.

Jalandhar, March 25
The district reverberated with classical notes here on Sunday evening. The visit of Pt Kaivalya Kumar, a Kirana Gharana classical musician, kick started a classical recital at the Vasant Utsav. The event was organised by the Harivallabh Sangeet Committee at the Saigal Memorial Hall here on Sunday. He performed bandishes in Raga Madhuwanti and a Thumri in Raga Bhairavi. He also rendered folk style Hori.

A Kirana Gharana musician from Hubli, Karnataka, the maestro, will also be a part of the four-day workshop started at Apeejay College of Fine Arts here on Tuesday.

The four day music workshop on voice culture has been organised by the Postgraduate Department of Music at Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar.

The motive of the workshop is to introduce students to the richness of Indian classical music.

Dr Rajinder Singh Gill, Director, North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala, presided over the function as the chief guest. Pt Kaivalya Kumar was the resource person at the event.

Principal of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Dr Sucharita Sharma, welcomed the guests. She said Apeejay College had always made a fruitful endeavour to promote and preserve the culture and tradition of Indian arts.

The principal said the workshop on the voice culture was another significant step in this direction as it would help students to get acquainted with the deepest and slightest details of the music. Pt Kaivalya Kumar inaugurated the workshop with his performance.

Students of classical music gave their performance today. Pt Kaivalya Kumar discussed various aspects of ragas with sudents on the first day of the workshop.

On March 26, students of classical (non percussion) will perform and Pt Kaivalya Kumar will explain various facets of Kirana Gharana to them.

On March 27, students of classical (non percussion) will perform and Pt Kaivalya Kumar acquaint them with how to choose ragas of different categories for specific performances.

Jalandhar, March 25
A child health workshop was organised at Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Nursing Institute at the Civil Hospital under the National Health Mission programme here today. Dr RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar and Dr Shushma Chawla, president of the Indian Medical Association, Jalandhar, were the chief guests on the occasion.

Addressing the seminar, Dr Bassan said efforts were being made to reduce the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the district. He also highlighted the importance of the registration of pregnant women at the earliest. He said free medical facilities were being provided to boys from their birth to one year and for girls till they were five-year-old.

Dr Gurmeet Kaur, District Welfare Officer, said the Health Department was providing home counselling to pregnant women, newly married couples and the people living in remote areas. Tips for taking care of the new born children for the first few months were also given to mothers. While addressing the gathering, Dr Shushma Chawla said the most serious concern was anaemia, which was affecting the adolescent women. It caused a lot of complications in pregnancies. She also highlighted the importance of a rich balanced diet for the women. — TNS