Jalandhar, August 16
Hundreds of patients coming to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) everyday are a harassed lot nowadays as the 'man-made' garbage dumping site just in front of the hospital has left the whole atmosphere in and around the PIMS stinking.

The stench and ugly sight of waste dumped along the two gates of the hospital not only presents an ugly picture to the hospital visitors but also stray dogs, crows, cows and pigs rummaging through the 'all you can eat garbage' buffet cause lot of inconvenience to the commuters passing on the busy Garha road.

"It seems that neither the Municipal Corporation (MC) nor the PIMS authorities are bothered about the well being of the city residents and are waiting for another epidemic break in the city. As it is the main link road to reach Garha, many people like me are everyday threatened by stray animal hovering on the open garbage area and occasionally coming in between the fast moving traffic on the Garha road," said Puneet Sharma, a student of a Garha-based coaching institute.

Although the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) had made plush and swanky colonies like the Choti Baradari Phase I and II and the Urban Estate part I and II, but in one of the biggest lapse ever in the colonising infrastructure, it forgot to allocate a centralised dumping site in any of its colonies. Finding no place, the residents of these colonies initially throw the garbage in a nearby empty plot but once it gets occupied, conveniently throw the litter on this man-made dumping site which has been reserved for plots/shops by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JDA) from the last few years.

"Here, you cannot blame our civic sense as the colonies developed by PUDA have no garbage dumping site of its own. Where should we throw the litter? Even the MC does not lift the garbage on daily-basis resulting stray animals to scatter in prominently on the Garha road," said Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Choti Baradari Phase I.

Accepting the lapse, Gurpreet Singh Khehra, Chief Administrator, JDA, said it has indeed brought to his notice that these colonies does not have even a single dumping site of its own causing the residents to dump the garbage in the open space in front of the PIMS and assured that soon action would be taken into the matter.

"Since, no dumping site was allocated at the time of planning these colonies; it is difficult to allocate some area now. But, we will try to make a temporary arrangement by allocating some vacant plot as a temporary garbage dumping site in these colonies," said Khehra.

Also, Manpreet Singh Chatwal, the Municipal Commissioner of Jalandhar assured that till the time JDA makes some alternate arrangements to dump the garbage of these colonies, he would ensure daily lifting of garbage from the site. Also, he said efforts would be taken soon to make some arrangements in the colonies already handed over to the MC by the JDA.

"I would ensure the daily lifting of the garbage from these colonies but would also like to request people to dump the garbage in a more responsible and hygienic way as after all it is them who are the most affected from this menace, "said Chatwal.

Kapurthala, August 16
A 12-year-old girl was reportedly raped by her uncle when her mother left her at his place in Shakti Nagar few days back to visit a holy place in Jalandhar. While the incident took place on August 12, the girl narrated the story to her mother today when she asked to her to accompany her to Sanjeev Kumar's place again. The girl resisted and broke down after which her mother asked about the incident.

A class VIII student is herself a complainant in the case. She has said that on August 12 when her mother was to go to Jalandhar with the wife of the accused, they left her at Sanjeev's place. His children were away to school at which he took the advantage and attempted the rape.

SHO City Harpreet Singh said the accused had been arrested and booked under Sections 376 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code.

He will be presented before the court tomorrow.

Jalandhar, August 16
The NRI Police Station today helped an NRI save his prime property worth Rs 6 crore falling in Shakti Nagar on Bhagwan Mahavir Marg with the arrest of one person who had reportedly twice attempted to sell his property on the basis of a fake Power of Attorney (PoA).

A case against the accused Kulwinder Singh of Dhian Singh Colony at Phagwara had been lodged earlier as well on December 5, 2008 and he was being tried in the court on the matter. There was another attempt at which the NRI Police Station has lodged a fresh FIR on August 6. SHO of the NRI Police Station Dalbir Singh said the accused was nabbed on August 14 and produced in court. "He is now on a four-day remand," he said.

While the property belongs to US-based Mahinder Singh, son of Sadhu Singh, the accused made an attempt by using his relation with the name sake of the owner also based in the US. The PoA had the name of Mahinder Singh, son of Kapoor Singh. Kulwinder now has two cases registered against him by the same complainant under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B and 511 of the IPC.

The property in question is a 30-marla residential plot number 209, Shakti Nagar, with a current market value of over Rs 6 crore. The property falls on the road declared for commercial use, making it even more costly. The issue has even been dragged into the sangat darshan conducted by former NRI Affairs Minister Col Balbir Singh Bath. As of now, the property does not even have an entry gate as one of the four NRI brothers owning the property have got the entrance closed by constructing a full high wall on the outer boundary for fear of trespassing. The owners, whenever they visit, have been using the entry via an adjoining house.

The property currently stands in the name of Himat Singh, Dr Mahinder Singh, Narinder Singh and Manohar Singh; all brothers are settled in the US.

Jalandhar, August 16
While one would suppose encouraging students to reads is one of the prime responsibilities of teachers and the department that supports them, the state of reading in government schools has taken a pretty bad hit - thanks to government policies.

Unkempt libraries, limited books, underpaid library staff and lack of mobilisation and advancement of library infrastructure sums up the school library story these days.

While libraries are mandatory in senior secondary schools, over time and due to shortage of space or lack of posts many have closed down. While there are about 440 upper primary schools in the district, the number of libraries, sources say, is very less.

Even among the existing ones, problems of upkeep abound. More importantly there are only about 30 librarians in the district to support these libraries. The recent crisis which has made things even difficult is that while librarians are much more qualified than a clerk, despite their expertise, they are paid almost on par or lesser. This has caused a lot of agitation among library staff and in recent times protests have also |broken out.

A delegation of members of the School Library Staff Association on Independence Day, met the Education Minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema at Ghoman and submitted a list of their demands which have been raised by them time and again for the past over a decade.While there is no limit on the amount of books being kept in a library, schools receive bi-annual grants to upgrade books. This year in the moths of March and May they received grants of Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000, respectively, to upgrade books.But the upgrades come with uncomfortable conditions.

"We had made an entire list of books to be upgraded to our school library. But the government conditions on purchases included that only books with 40 per cent discount from the publisher allowed had to be bought and secondly only one copy of any of the books being purchased was to be bought. So we ended up leaving a lot of books we actually wanted to buuy for students because they were not covered under discounts," said a school librarian in Jalandhar.

"Besides, we are not provided benefits as per our job. We have no holidays like teaching staff so we have to attend school during vacations. We are only permitted to avail medical leave of a minimum of 15 days due to which we end up taking earned leaves or half-pay leaves. While the pay scales of clerks have increased dramatically ours go down with every pay commissions recommendation. They are even lowered than the present salaries and we have to hold agitations to get the government to pay us even our previous pay scales," the librarian added.

A number of libraries in the district have dripping roofs, lack of proper seating arrangements, lack of requisite books needed by students among a plethora of other problems.

Librarians also demand that there should be at least some weekly periods allocated to them per week during which students go to libraries. Right now there are none.

The demands furthered by the library union to the education minister yesterday, include, different promotion channels for librarian, granting of former pay scales to librarians on par with ETT teachers, grating of pay scales to library restorers on par with clerk, library attendant be brought to class 3 status like laboratory assistant, all library staff be given the facility of summer holidays, the condition on non teaching staff not to avail leave of more than 15 days be removed, government work on advancement and contemporisation of libraries is very important.

Jalandhar, August 16
As a ready reckoner, the Municipal Corporation authorities have come up with a soft copy of the details of all the 21,068 No Objection Certificates issued by it for regularisation of properties in illegal colonies of the city.

The MC has posted the copy on its official website www.mcjalandhar.in and even provided the same to the tehsildars at the tehsil complex so that they can easily cross-check the same at the time of any registry. The list has the names and addresses of the applicants along with the NOC issuing date.

MC Commissioner Manpreet Singh Chattwal said anyone buying a new property would also be able to easily cross-check whether NOC has been paid and that he would be able to get the registry of the property done in his name.

He said that as and when more NOCs would be issued, updation of the data would be done. He said that even the NOC holders would be able to cross-check their own status from the web.

Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishor Yadav has also expressed satisfaction in having a soft copy of the data. Since there is a complete restriction on doing registry of property for which no NOC has been issued, he said that the computerised list would be a great help.

Jalandhar, August 16
Various NGOs gathered on Independence Day to protest against the alleged denial of admission to students at a local college. It was demanded that the affiliation of the said college be cancelled and strict action initiated against the authorities. Association of Volunteers for Students Rights and Punjab Education Movement held a protest march against the Khalsa College for Women and its principal here on the occasion of Independence Day.

A protest was rally held on the occasion. It passed from Abadpura, Buta Mandi among other areas and ended at the local Dr Ambedkar Bhawan. The protests were held against the alleged denial of admission to two students to BEd class as per the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme.

While talking to the media persons, social activists Parminder Singh and Harjinder Heer said the students had all the requisite papers meant for admissions as per the scheme.

They alleged when the students went to seek admission to the college on July 25, they were told they were they would not get admission under the scholarship.

They alleged that despite the students visiting the college for a week, they did not get admissions.

Dharminder Singh and Harjinder Heer demanded strict action against the college and on the occasion the activists also stressed that protest demonstrations against the college be continued.

Activists demanded that the affiliation of the college be cancelled and no government help be extended to it in future.

They said the prime reason they chose to hold the protest on Independence Day was that after 67 years of the Indian Independence, Dalit students were yet to get their requisite rights.

Jalandhar, August 16
Renewable energy products seem to have occupied the Apex trade Fair Expo 2014 held at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall in Jalandhar. There were around six stall displaying and providing information about Renewable energy products, including solar water-heating system, solar cooker and solar inverter.

Harpal Singh from Manik Solar Innovation said, "Following the present power crisis in Punjab, renewable energy products are going to be best possible alternative. It is a sort of one time investment."

He said, "Such products have recently been introduced in the state."

There were some stalls that were offering such products on Equated Monthly Installments.

Apart from this, a stall of alcoholic anonymous was too a centre of attraction in the fair. The volunteers said a number of people who want to quit alcohol have approached them.

India's leading FMCG brands - Tops & Royal Taste by GD Foods Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd too participated in the fair. The four-day trade platform and shopping extravaganza kicked off on Friday.

Tops by GD Foods offered mouth watering range of products in various categories such as jams, pickles, ketchup, instant mixes, cornflakes, cake mixes and vermicelli.

Jalandhar, August 16
Dairy farmers in the region seem to have been taking a sigh of relief as veterinary inspectors have called off their indefinite strike. The veterinary inspectors were observing a strike for the past ten days. It was called off in the wake of assurance made by animal husbandry officials to accept their demands.

Hardyal Singh, a dairy farmer of Ranipur village, Kapurthala, who has around 40 cattle was running pillar to post to get his few of his cattle artificially inseminated. However, because of the on-going strike he was not able to get it done. He said now he was relieved as the strike has been called off.

During the course of strike, the dairy farmers were forced to call private veterinary doctor, even for a minor problem, who charges much higher fee and amount for transportation than the government veterinary inspectors.

A dairy farmer for Nakodar said private doctors charges Rs 400 to 600 for one visit, which was so exuberant.

A Jalandhar-based veterinary inspector Amrik Singh Kahlon said there were over 2,000 veterinary inspectors in the Punjab, who have been working as per the Veterinary Act, after getting required training. Meanwhile, there has been a notification issued by Animal Husbandry Secretary in 2011 that the work of artificial insemination would not be done by the veterinary inspector. Despite the issuance of the same notification, the Animal Husbandry Department intentionally did not circulate the notification to the veterinary inspectors. However, the inspectors carried on doing same job until now.

“We have been illegally made to work since the issuance of the notification. The credit of the work done by us was being given to the veterinary doctors,” he alleged.

Jalandhar, August 16
A front containing eight different organisations of landless labourers today held a state-level convention at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall to discuss their issues and demands. The representatives urged the both state and centre government for land reforms.

Their demands were distribution of surplus and government land to landless labourers and peasants, allotting 10 marla plots to labourers for house construction, providing Rs 3-lakh grant for house construction, providing employment under the MGNREGA scheme, increasing daily wage to Rs 350, setting of pension scheme for differently able and old age people of Rs 2,000 per month and subsidised ration.—TNS

Jalandhar, August 16
Sports Goods Export Promotion Council (SGEPC) organised a seminar on financing schemes and subsidies by Small Industries Development Banks of India (SIDBI) and National Small Industries Corporations (NSIC).

The seminar was included a presentation on 'India sports 2014' that will be organised by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) from November 6 to 8.

The seminar was attended by over 60 industry representatives from sports goods sector.