Jalandhar, July 4
Members of the Anganwari Mulazam Union Punjab (CITU) today held a protest dharna at the DC office and gheraoed Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar in support of their long pending demands.

Raising slogans against the government, the workers held a demonstration outside the DC office. They later submitted a memorandum to cabinet minister Ajit Singh Kohar.

In the memorandum, addressed to Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, the workers demanded minimum wages, regular feed for children under their care, allocation of government anganwari centres and stopping of any political interference in their day-to-day work.

The Transport Minister assured them that their demands would be conveyed at the state and central level. He also told them that their demands from the state government would be deliberated upon.

Presently, there are 53,312 anganwari employees in the state (the numbers of workers and helpers being 25,656, each). While the anganwari workers are getting Rs 5,000 per month, their helpers are getting Rs 2,500 per month.

In Haryana, on the other hand, a worker is being paid Rs 7,500 and helpers are being paid Rs 3,750.

State president Usha Rani said, “The CM himself has admitted to the bad condition of the anganwari centres in the state. Anganwari centres are running at makeshift places, marriage halls, under trees, with bad infrastructure. For more effective functioning, we neëd proper infrastructure.”

District president of the union Balbir Kaur said protests and demonstrations were being held in various places, with anganwari workers observing demand day across the nation today.

With the DC leaving office and the workers unable to meet him even after knocking at his door, they caught up with Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar. The minister was just leaving the administrative complex premises after conducting surprise checks at the local DTO office.

Gheraoing him, the workers talked to him about their demands and also submitted a memorandum to him on the occasion. Members exhorted the government to pay them at least their minimum wages and implement the Haryana pattern in the state.

Other demands of the workers are that the recommendations of the 44, 45 labour conference be implemented, workers be paid pension and gratuity as per class III and IV employees, immediate recruitment of supervisors, arrangements of gas stoves be made at anganwari centres.

They also demanded that the age limit for the promotion of helpers be removed, employees working under advisory board be brought under the project ICD, mini anganwari centres be converted into bigger anganwari centres and water and electricity connections be provided to all these centres.

Jalandhar, July 3
In the alleged suicide case by a 22-year-old 
youth, employed in the 21 Punjab Regiment, at a hotel here yesterday afternoon, a court of inquiry (COI) has been ordered by the Army.

Amandeep, a resident of Akhnoor in Jammu, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at hotel Samrat, situated on the Mandi Fentanganj road.

“After checking in the hotel on Wednesday evening, the youth was to check out at 12 noon on Thursday, but he didn’t come out of his room.

The hotel manager Yogesh got suspicious and when he peeped inside the room, he found Amandeep in deep pain and informed the police. After the victim was taken to the hospital, he died there, police sources said. — TNS

Jalandhar, July 4
In an awkward move, Punjab Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar used his private staff to check the District Transport Office in his hometown this morning.

Kohar came along with his squad of 12 youths, who kept checking official records of the department till this evening in the office. The minister himself sat for just about an hour and a half in the DTO’s seat during which he neither exchanged any word with the office staff nor asked them for any file.

His private men confiscated files, receipts and cash which was in possession of staff but returned it to them after counter-checking soon after. Asked about the purpose of his visit, Kohar said he had come for checking. “A detailed report of any irregularities found in the functioning of the department would be presented to me in the form of a report which I will share with the media tomorrow,” he said. Asked about his accompanying team, he said, “These boys are from my private staff. Next time, when I go checking, I will involve the departmental officials”.

All public counters were closed for more than three hours, with applicants unaware of when their work will be done. While most of them had to return homewards, many angrily barged into the DTO office where the minister had been sitting. The minister told them to be patient as he said, “I have come here for checking. You all have to bear with the inconvenience.”As there were more complainants turning up to tell about the harassment faced by them at the hands of the staff, the minister instead of giving them a hearing, told them to send copies of complaint to him on his official fax number.

Asked about the poor response to the e-auction of fancy registration numbers, Kohar said, “We are in the process of evolving it further.” On high vacancy in the department, he said, “We are in the process of appointing staff. We will do it in our tenure.” 

Jalandhar, July 4
Two thefts were reported in the city at two places last night.

The first theft was reported in the Santokhpura locality where burglars barged into a house and decamped with cash and gold.

Surjit Kaur, house owner, said all family members were sleeping upstairs, and when they woke up in the morning today and went downstairs, they were stunned to see the broken locks. Thieves had broke open an alimirah and decamped with Rs 1.5 lakh and some silver ornaments, she added.

In the second incident, thieves struck at a dental clinic in the Model Town locality and decamped with some electronic equipment. Clinic owner Ranjiv said the thieves entered the clinic after breaking open a ventilator. The thieves took away a laptop, an inverter and some other equipment. The police division No. 6 reached the spot for investigation.

Several incidents of theft have been reported in the past two weeks, but the city police have failed to solve even a single case. Many high-profile theft cases, including the one at Punjab and Sind bank, from where thieves decamped with cash and ornaments worth several crores is still lying unsolved.

Jalandhar, July 4
The Jalandhar police have busted a gang of robbers who were involved in numerous incidents of robbery and dacoity.

Three accused have been arrested — Gurpreet Singh, alias Gora, of village Randiala in Moga, Gurvinder Singh, alias Shali, of village Talwandi Bhaike in Ferozepur and Yadwinder Singh, alias Lali, of Ferozepur. Some members of the gang are at large.

Police Commissioner Kunwar Vijay Pratap stated that this gang had snatched a swift car on June 28 from a woman named Manju Shahi of New Jawahar Nagar in which a case under Sections 382 and34 of the IPC was registerd at the police division No. 5

Today, the gang was planning to commit another crime when its members were nabbed. A Swift car No. PB-08-CR-5153, a country-made pistol, a live cartridge, an air pistol and a sharp-edged weapon were recovered.

These gang members have a notorious past as numerous cases were registered against them. Gurpreet Singh, alias Gora, is a proclaimed offender in the Basti Bawa Khel station under Sections 309, 345, 323, 324,148 and149 of the IPC.

He is also wanted in several cases of theft and snatching in various police stations of other districts. 

Jalandhar, July 4
The Industrial and Traders Joint Action Committee while launching a scathing attack on the state government’s social security scheme, alleged that government should fulfill their demand to increase the amount of benefits under the scheme.

Sources said despite camps being organised by the Excise and Taxation Department at various parts of the city, the traders have shown least interest in getting themselves enrolled in the scheme.

Sources revealed that till July 1, around 1,500 traders have enrolled for the scheme in the division, comprising of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts.

Recently when department had organised a camp in sports markets, then traders had held a special meeting in which they found shortcomings in the state government’s Social Security Scheme for the business community and had then demanded that the government should increase the amount of insurance promised in the scheme for the industrialists.

Ravinder Dhir, convener, Khel Udyog Sangh, said under the scheme, three insurance covers were being extended, including life insurance (accidental death and disability insurance) to provide a cover of Rs 2 lakh per beneficiary, including accidental death and permanent or partial disability and health insurance cover to meet the expenses incurred on hospitalisation for medical treatment up to Rs 50,000 per beneficiary.

It also includes the fire insurance scheme, under which a cover of Rs 5 lakh per beneficiary would be provided for the losses caused due to fire, he said, adding that only VAT dealers having a turnover of less than Rs one crore could be enrolled under the scheme.

Traders have been demanding that life insurance cover should be increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, health insurance from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2, 00,000 lakh and the fire insurance cover from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. 

Jalandhar, July 4
Spates of accidents in which young lives have been lost by being crushed by tractor-trailers have not yet shaken the Punjab Transport Minister Ajit Singh Kohar.

Even as there have been at least a dozen fatal accidents of the kind in the recent past, but these seem to be making no difference to the policy makers.

Asked by the media about the same during his surprise check at the DTO office, Kohar said, "Accidents keep happening. We cannot do much about it."

Further told that the tractors had been illegally plying in the city, he said, "Since these are owned by farmers, we cannot do much about them."

It may be recalled that a 22-year-old youth had died on Nakodar Road after being hit by a tractor-trailer on Tuesday. The incident had even led to a major agitation at the site by the family and their supporters.

Even on Wednesday, another biker had got injured when a tractor hit him in the Partap Bagh locality.

Charanpreet Singh, son of SAD's Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia, too had died after being hit by a tractor-trailer almost three years back.

Jalandhar, July 4
With the Head post Office (HPO) in the city changing its operations to the Core Banking Solution (CBS) 10 days ago; the visitors at the branch are a harassed lot.

Due to slow networking problem and huge rush, the staff was even found to be working during late nights in the branch. Although, the branch has doubled the number of customer felicitation counters and even opened special counters for senior citizens and pensioners, still multiple account holders are posing a serious challenge to the staff members who have recently started working on ‘Finacle’ one of the most complex servers in the world.

“From the last so many years, we were working on ‘Sanchay Post’, a user friendly server but now with the entire operations are being carried out on ‘Finacle’. The problem has aggravated as it is a very complex and mostly goes offline causing huge backlog. Now, we are clearing the backlog and as well as catering to new customers on a dawdling server which is quite a challenging task in front of us,” said K.P Meena, Head Post Master, Jalandhar.

He said although the branch has almost doubled the number of customer felicitation counters and even opened new special counters for the pensioners and the senior citizens. But due to slow network, they have failed to provide any respite to its customers.

The branch officials are facing major problem through its agents’ network that developed huge backlog in the Monthly Income Schemes (MIS) due to the disrupted network services from the last one week. The branch has the largest customer base in Punjab with over 2.5 lakh customers. Presently, it has around 40 agents who get business for the post office in saving schemes. Also, the branch is facing another challenge from its multiple account holder customers who make single account customers wait for hours in front of the window. The post office officials have appealed to the customers to only come to the branch for emergency operation for at least a week till the network problem gets solved by the technical experts.

Jalandhar, July 4
'A Women's World', an exhibition organised specially for women at the Desh Bhagat Yaadgaar hall is attracting huge response from the women around the city.

The exhibition in its first two days has attracted the most affluent set of consumers in and around the city. The designer borders from Rajasthan, the fine-cut exquisite Rajasthani jewellery sets in American diamonds, the appliqué work of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and the designer 'wari' box from Saharanpur is selling as hot cakes at the exhibition that will last till July 8.

"The exhibition not only help the customers to buy the antique items and apparels from various parts of the country but it also acts as a platform to the large contingent of our talented craftsmen to promote by doing experiments with their work. Many craftsmen have designed things according to the choice and taste of the people of Jalandhar. Many are also offering fusion work like using Phulkari designs on Gujarati cushions and Pakistani cloths," said Rajesh Kumar, organiser of the exhibition.

The exhibitions have displayed work from the finest craftsmen in the country. It has around 50 stalls offering various lifestyle products. From patra Jewellery in Rajasthani design, to American diamond sets and also from designer suits in Karachi, appliqué and French knot designs; it is a real treat to the style hungry eves. The furniture of Saharanpur and the fibre work are also adding more value to the complete shopping experience.

Jalandhar, July 4
A meeting of the Master Cadre Union, Punjab, was held at the Adarsh Nagar Park under the district president Harbans Lal. Teachers stressed on the immediate release of held up salaries of the teachers in the state. The government was asked to release the yearly budget soon.

Speaking on the occasion teachers said there was need to bring all the posts of teachers in the department on par with each other because pay or promotion anomalies among various cadres and unions often created disturbances. They also exhorted the government to release posts lists once in a year.

Other demands aired on the occasion were - national pay fixation from 1/1/1997; promotions as lecturers and in charge from the master cadre soon; release of permission for visits abroad and for child care leave on the DDO level; bringing of 7654 union, RMSA, SSA to the education department on regular basis and on par with each other and stopping of contractual recruitments and starting of all teacher recruitments on regular basis.

Teachers also demanded that elementary education policy 2003 be implemented. Harbahajan Singh, Sukhwinder Pal, Jaswinder Singh, Resham Singh and Bhupinder Singh present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, July 4
Civil Surgeon RL Bassan today flagged off a health awareness vehicle. The vehicle will move in various localities and basti areas to make people aware of the precautions to be taken during monsoons.

The Health Department has also issued an advisory to the public to look after the cleanliness around their houses. It has also advised them to wear full sleeves to save themselves from dengue and other diseases.—TNS