Jalandhar, August 14
Amit Kumar and Sumit Kumar, sons of a tea vendor, who had qualified for the Indian Institue of Technogy (IIT) entrance examination despite adverse circumstances in their life, will be among the 24 persons who have been selected for felicitation at the district-level Independence Day function to be held at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium tomorrow.

The two boys had qualified the entrance exam to the country’s topmost institutes for the second time since they had earlier lost a chance to take the seat because of financial problems. They had maintained the zeal and went on to clear the papers again, for which the district administration too wants to appreciate their efforts the way other social bodies have done in the city.

Among the recipients of the appreciation certificates will also be ASIs Raghunath Singh and Surjit Singh, posted at Nurmahal here, who had on August 11 saved the life of a drowning woman at Ropar while returning from Chandigarh after appearing in a court case there. While one of the ASI had jumped into the Sutlej, the other had pulled him and the woman out with the help of a rope.

Also in the list are sub fire officer Rajinder Kumar Sharma and fireman Naresh Kumar who had suffered burns rescuing 13 persons during a fire at a house in Shivaji Nagar on November 29. While Sharma has recuperated, Naresh Kumar’s wounds still pain and he is currently deployed only for receiving calls at the city’s main fire station.

The list also has the name of a student Kuljit Singh of Government Senior Secondary School Gakhal who is among the few cadets from the region to be picked for the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

The list of awardees includes Gurmangal Dass Soni, who runs the Youth Football Club at Rurka Kalan. The young man had left his engineering profession to work for the underprivileged rural youth and has been arranging foreign trainers for the boys there. The club has produced 12 international football players, 100 national level players and is currently providing training in 12 villages.

Another NGO to be recognised is Ahluwalia Youth Welfare Sports Club at Shahkot, run by Davinder Singh. The club is said to be working in the field of social services and youth leadership, spreading awareness against female foeticide, drug abuse, HIV and polio eradication for the past 20 years.

There have been six more recommendations from the Nehru Yuva Kendra. These include those for Amarjit Singh of Dr BR Ambedkar Youth Club Langria working for the capacity building of youths, Satinder Singh of the Samarpat Youth Club Badiana, Saljit Singh of the Doaba Youth Sports Club, Ravinder Singh of the Jagriti Club Kang Sabu, Harvinder Singh of the Youth Club Kuhala and Harbans Singh of the Guru Gobind Singh Youth Sports Club Mand.

In the list of recommendations made by the Civil Surgeon is gynaecologist Dr Sukhjit Kaur of Sub-Divisional Hospital at Nakodar who has done 1,600 deliveries, including 612 caesarian cases and 989 normal deliveries and gone 200 per cent above the given target. Surgeon Dr Satinderjit Singh Bajaj, Dr Gurmeet Kaur and specialist Dr Kashmiri Lal will also be felicitated for the recommendation of Jan Aushadi Store for medicines to the patients.

In the education field, the recipients for the coveted honour will be Ram Kishan, social studies teacher at Government Middle School Rampur. His students have cleared the district-level Spell Bee competition and have topped the District Model Making Competition. Three students each have qualified for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship and Punjab Talent Search Examination Scholarship.

Surjit Lal, district assistant guidance counsellor, will also receive the honour for his participation in the electoral awareness programme launched by the administration ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Deepika, guide teacher, NCC Office, and Alka, NCC officer, have also been chosen for appreciation. Buta Ram, numberdar, too, will be among the awardees for his social work. 

Jalandhar, August 14
Having recently relinquished the charge as Police Commissioner and now posted at the DIG Jalandhar range, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh is among the top cops from the country to be selected for the President’s Police Medal.

An officer of the 1998 batch of the Indian Police Service, he has been credited with setting up the cyber crime cell of the Punjab Police in Mohali as its founder SSP. Armed with varied qualifications ranging from MA in Sanskrit with specialisation in Indian Philosophy, PG Diploma in Human Resource Management, PhD on Human Rights of Prisoners and LLB, he has served as SSP in Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdsapur and Batala. He also worked as the DIG Prisons of the Amritsar Central jail. He has written three books, including Universal Teachings of Kabir and Cyber Laws and Investigations.

Meanwhile, many city residents have congratulated him for his selection for the prestigious award. 

Jalandhar, August 14
ADC (Development) Kumar Amit today directed the staff of various veterinary dispensaries that none of the rural veterinary staff will proceed on leave without permission from him.

The ADC had conducted surprise checks at dispensaries at Pratap Pura, Pholariwal, Kalyanpur and found rural medical officer Guramrinder Singh absent at the Partap Pura dispensary. He recommended strict action against the absent official. Sarabjit Singh, DDPO, Jaspal Singh Ghumman, Deputy Director Animal Husbandry, Suresh Bakshi, Superintendent, were present on the occasion.

Addressing a meeting of Rural Medical Officers and Rural Veterinary Doctors under the Zila Parishad Jalandhar at the District Administrative Complex, here today, the ADC instructed them to prepare a list of all medicines required in dispensaries at the village and block level so that the requisite drugs could be allocated to the dispensaries from the Civil Surgeon’s office.

The meeting was attended by all the aforementioned officials and all rural medical officers and veterinary officers from rural dispensaries.

Notably, the surprise checks were followed by complaints from various villages regarding lax dispensary officials as well as those from the rural medical dispensary at Partap Pura. Villagers from a number of dispensaries had complained that doctors were slipping away or not coming at all, while pharmacists or support staff marked their attendance.

Also, following the prolonged unavailability of semen and vaccinations (hemorrhagic septicaemia) for cattle in the district, officials of the Animal Husbandry Department were also instructed to make the same available in all dispensaries in the district within the next 15 days.

The ADC also instructed that all dispensaries should keep their records in movement register so that anyone going out for a government or other visit makes an entry about it in the register. The photo copy of this register will then be compulsorily submitted along with the attendance. He instructed rural dispensaries to work in tandem with the respective panchayats to ensure good facilities to residents. He also instructed the rural medical officers to ensure tours or visits after 2 pm to make sure no patient suffers due to their absence. He also instructed all dispensary staff to submit respective dispensary reports with the Zila Parishad on the 5th of every month so that health services could be improved over time after detailed checks of these reports.

The ADC said those putting up good work would be honoured. Health officials were asked to submit a list a of activities in their dispensaries to him.

Supply of semen, vaccines

There are 22 veterinary rural hospitals in the district, all of which fall directly under the ADC. As many as 65 veterinary hospitals fall under the Director Animal Husbandry Department. These 65 hospitals are supported by 57 veterinary doctors and 82 veterinary inspectors. The Animal Husbandry Department caters to 1,70,000 cattle in the district which have to be vaccinated and attended to annually. There is one Veterinary Officer per 5,000 cattle in the district. Amidst complaints from rural vets that the supply of semen and vaccines were not reaching them, today’s meet called for the prompt supply of the same.

Sources said the reluctance of the rural vets to take supply from the Animal Husbandry Department and the lack of supply as well caused a crisis recently. Director, Animal Husbandry, JS Ghumman said he had sought the supply by Tuesday and rural veterinary doctors were instructed to take the same from him by Wednesday. 

Phagwara, August 14
The Shiv Sena (Bal Thackrey), Punjab, condemned the alleged dictatorial attitude of the Jalandhar police for taking party workers in custody while opposing the Dal Khalsa. 

In a press release, senior vice-president Inderjit Karwal urged the Union Home Ministry to immediately remove the state government, which, according to them, was playing into the hands of separatists. He alleged that Khalistan supporters were carrying out their activities while the government had remained a mute spectator. —OC 

Jalandhar, August 14
The Khalsa Welfare Society (International) with the assistance of some UK and Europe-based Sikhs donated a bus equipped with modern facilities to Dharam Parchar Lehar head Baldev Singh. 

He is spreading awareness among the youth about drug addiction, female foeticide and superstitions.— TNS

Jalandhar, August 14
Two labourers were killed early this morning after they were crushed by high-speed Shatabdi Express when they were trying to cross the railway tracks near the Sodal crossing.

Both labourers were in possession of phone sets, which also got badly crushed, owing to which their identification could not be established by the GRP.

The bodies of the victims were sent to the mortuary of the Civil Hospital. 

Jalandhar, August 14
A day ahead of the Independence Day, the CIA Staff of the Commissionerate Police arrested four persons with illegal weapons and drugs. ADCP (Crime) Satpal Singh Bhangu said the four persons had been arrested from separate locations.

He said Amarjit of Dhina village had been arrested from near Rattan Hospital at Shakti Nagar during a naka laid there. He said the accused was trying to flee on his bike PB-09-S-0577, but he slipped and was nabbed.

He was found to be in possession of 330 gm of intoxicating powder. He was booked at the police station Division Number 2 under the NDPS Act.

In the second incident, a car owner, Bikram Singh, of Khusropur village was arrested from near BSF Chowk. During his checking, 40 gm of heroin was found from him.

He was booked at the police station Division Number 7 under the NDPS Act.

A pistol and live cartridges were found from Harpret Singh of Kohala village during a naka at the Wariana T-point.

The accused was going in a three-wheeler. Kamaljit Singh of Tej Mohan Nagar was arrested with the recovery of a pistol from him near Babrik Chowk.