Patti (Tarn Taran), October 9
Fifty workers of the Cooperative Sugar Mills, Sheron, were detained by the police when they were protesting at a function presided over by Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, Minister for PWD and Education, Punjab, today.

The workers were protesting against the failure of the state government in releasing their salaries for the last more than 10 months.

Mr Bajwa was in this border town to preside over the inauguration of repair work of the Tarn Taran-Patti road. The workers raised slogans against the government. They later moved to another site where the minister was to address a meeting of Congress workers convened by Mr Harminder Singh Gill, a member of the Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board.

The workers were led by Mr Harpal Singh Sra, chairman, Punjab State Cooperative Sugar Mills Workers Joint Action Committee.

The workers started raising slogans against the government before the arrival of the minister. The police detained all the agitating workers as soon as the minister arrived at the site. The workers remained locked for more than six hours at the Sadar police station, Patti, under the supervision of ASI Rajesh Kakkar.

A three-member deputation of the workers was later brought to meet the minister at the residence of a local Congress leader. The workers were let off by the police in the evening.

Mr Sra, while condemning the state government for its policy of privatising the mill, declared that the proposed demonstration by the sugar mill workers on October 11 at Chandigarh would be held as usual.

Ludhiana, October 9
World Day against Death Penalty will be observed tomorrow all over the world. Anti-death penalty activists will be organising meetings, seminars and marches protesting against governments which still uphold capital punishment.

In India, the death sentence awarded to Afzal Guru in the case of attack on Parliament has put the issue into focus. Though his death sentence has been put on hold as a result of the mercy petition filed by his wife to the President of India, the issue of death penalty is likely to remain in focus for quite some time.

In Punjab as many as 16 persons are on the death row for different crimes. Mr Navkiran Singh, human rights lawyer practising in the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that he will not spare any effort to ensure commutation of all these death sentences to life imprisonment. The mercy petition of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and those of the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi are also pending with the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Last year, the President had made a suggestion to the government to debate all aspects of capital punishment in Parliament and to frame a comprehensive policy incorporating the sociological aspects of each case.

The Sikh human rights organisations and political activists have been lobbying against death penalty for quite sometime since the hanging of Satwant Singh, Kehar Singh, Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha.

Prof Jagmohan Singh, general secretary and spokesperson of the Shiromini Akali Dal (Amritsar ) said today that every Sikh deeply empathised with the family and friends of victims of all kinds of heinous crimes but there is no doubt that another death will neither heal nor resolve the tragedy of such families.

He believed that killing of one human being by another person or state was wrong and that capital punishment was not a deterrent to crime and served only the purpose of revenge. He went on to say that Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler in his 40 years reign did not use the death penalty even in cases where he was the subject of attack. Prof Jagmohan Singh pointed out that his party would observe the day by sending a petition to the President after holding a protest meeting against death penalty at Ludhiana.

Patiala, October 9
The ‘pride’ of being resident of this ‘royal city’ and hometown of the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, holds no relevance for residents of its Kallar Colony where a sizeable section of its population has been suffering from skin diseases for the past many years as the authorities concerned are yet to take notice of the same.

Instead of boasting of the status of being resident of the ‘royal city’, the helpless inhabitants of Kallar Colony are forced to go into isolation due to their skin diseases, which has reduced their interaction with other people significantly.

As the authorities concerned are yet to take notice of their plight, the victims belonging to all age groups and of lower income groups have started taking life as it comes despite the fact that the colony falls in the ward represented by Mr Kabir Das, Senior Deputy Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Patiala.

Interestingly, Dr Rakesh Gupta, Civil Surgeon, Patiala, when asked about his comments over the situation prevailing in the colony, said he had come to know about this from this correspondent only. He said that he would send a team of doctors to that colony tomorrow to get the real picture and subsequently necessary steps would be taken.

Manjeet (name changed), a 30-year-old woman, has been witnessing ulcers appearing all over her body as she is unable to get treatment for the same. Not having enough money to get treatment and in the absence of any help from the Health Department and other authorities concerned, Manjeet has been left with no other option but to confine herself to bed.

The residents while talking to TNS pointed out that most of those, who had been suffering from skin diseases, belonged to the poor section of society and, hence, were finding it difficult to get treatment for the same. They added that only a comprehensive survey of the entire colony by the authorities concerned could reveal the exact number of residents suffering from skin diseases.

A social worker of the area said that the health authorities were contacted a number of times in connection with arranging treatment for the residents suffering from skin diseases, but all attempts failed to get any positive response. Whatever help was being given to the victims, was not sufficient for them, said the social worker.

Mr Kabir Das, Senior Deputy Mayor, when contacted, said a few days ago about 600 residents assembled at one place in the colony and none of them reported to him about the fact that a section of them had been suffering from skin diseases. He added that he was leaving no stone unturned to provide all basic amenities to the residents of Kallar Colony.

Chandigarh, October 9
In a major decision, Mr Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on two Punjab Police personnel for having violated the rights of an accused while he was in custody.

He was disposing of a contempt plea filed by one Ashok Kumar of Abohar, seeking action against officials of the Abohar Police for having arrested his son in a false case, beating him mercilessly in custody and, later, handcuffing him while taking him for court appearance.

The petitioner’s son, Mohit Kumar, had been arrested on August 27, 2004, under the NDPS Act.

A medical examination, conducted on court orders on August 28, 2004, found that he had been tortured. An inquiry conducted by the CJM, Abohar, on the directions of the High Court, had also concluded that the boy had actually been tortured in custody.

In his petition, Mr Ashok Kumar had sought initiation of contempt proceedings against the erring cops for having violated the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in the D.K. Basu case, which dealt with the issue of arrest and handling of accused in police custody.

Today, satisfied that two of the cops had violated the settled law, Mr Justice Surya Kant directed ASI Surinder Singh and ASI Manjit Singh, both of Abohar Police, to pay Rs 50,000 each as compensation to the petitioner.

Mukerian, October 9
The local police today booked six persons of the family of the in laws of Jaswinder Kaur whose body was recovered yesterday.

The body of Jaswinder Kaur and her three children, daughter Kawal Preet (10) and sons Simranjit (6) and Anter (3), residents of village Bagran in Dasuya subdivision, were recovered from the Mukerian hydel canal head.

The case under Sections 302, 201 and 120-B of the IPC was registered against the in-laws of Jaswinder Kaur, including her husband Vir Singh, who is serving in the Army, Brothers-in-law Daljodh and Balbir Singh, mother-in-law Mohinder Kaur and sisters-in-laws Bhajan Kaur and Sukhwant Kaur, on the complaint of her brother.

The brother in his compliant to the police has alleged that Jaswinder had strained relations with her husband and the in-laws. Her husband forced her to stay separately.

She had complained against him to the Army authorities which used to deduct half of his salary and send it to Jaswinder Kaur.

Her husband wanted to marry again, but, Jaswinder Kaur was not willing to divorce him. The husband in connivance with the in-laws killed Jaswinder Kaur along with her three children, he has alleged.

Kharar, October 9
A woman was killed while her husband got seriously injured in an accident near Mundi Kharar here today. Their small child, however, escaped unhurt.

The accident led to a traffic jam on the national highway and long queues of vehicle lined up on both sides of the road. The traffic police reached the spot and got the jam cleared.

According to information available, Jaswinder Kaur got killed when she was allegedly run over by a CTU bus. Her body was taken to the local Civil Hospital for post-mortem. Her husband, Mr Swaran Singh, was admitted to the hospital.

It is reported that Mr Swaran Singh, resident of Bhedowal village, was going on a motor cycle along with his wife and a small child to Behlolpur village to meet his sister.

He lost control over his motor cycle while trying to overtake a vehicle, which led to a collision between the motor cycle and the CTU bus.

His wife fell off the vehicle and was allegedly run over by the bus. She died on the spot.

Amritsar, October 9
A brilliant student who has cleared the UGC test before completing her masters degree in economics is likely to face the music as her father has written to the Vice-Chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University that she may commit suicide if denied a special chance to appear in the MA Part II examination before the end of the year.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jai Rup Singh, has handed over the complaint to the district police chief through the security officer of the university, jeopardising the future of a bright student who has not been able to appear in the examination due to ill health.

She has been going from pillar to post to seek the special chance on the plea that her clearing the UGC test will be declared null and void by the end of the year if she fails to get her masters degree within the stipulated period.

Instead of providing her any relief, the university authorities have approached the police for taking necessary action.

According to sources close to security officer S.S. Chinna, the Vice-Chancellor has ordered him to file a complaint with the police immediately.

Mr Jaspal Singh Bhatia, father of the girl, has admitted to having written to the Vice-Chancellor and attaching a medical certificate from a qualified doctor in this regard.

He is unaware of the developments, saying they will meet the Deputy Registrar tomorrow.

Gurdaspur, October 9
The Punjab Government has decided to increase salary of computer teachers. The computer teachers will now be given the scale applicable to ETT teachers. Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, Minister for Education, gave this information to The Tribune.

At present computer teachers posted in government schools get Rs 4,500 per month. Computer teachers have been alleging they, despite being better qualified, get salaries lower than that of regular peons of the department.

Mr Bajwa said keeping in view the demand of the computer teachers the government had decided to give them ETT teacher’s scales. With this salary of the computer teachers will increase from Rs 4500 per month to Rs 8500 per month.

At present there are 4500 computer teachers in government schools. The government has also started the process for recruiting 1600 more computer teachers. With this almost all senior secondary schools in the state would have at least one computer teacher, he said.

Mr Bajwa said the government had decided to start admission for the ETT courses in the state. There have been no admissions in the DIET institutions in the state for the past four years.

The result is that all ETT qualified teachers have been recruited in primary schools. Due to unavailability of ETT teachers the government now has recruited B.Ed teachers against their posts.

Now admissions are being allowed to generate more ETT qualified teachers for future requirements. The admissions to DIET institutions in the state will begin from November. There are 4000 ETT seats in Punjab. Merit would be the basis for admissions to ETT courses.

Chandigarh, October 9
Even as the Department of Posts grapples with the declining moolah on its postal services, it is in the process of re-inventing itself as a public mercantile establishment. In this direction, the Punjab Postal circle has decided to expand its Finance Marts from a present five to 10 by the end of this fiscal.

These Finance Marts, which deal with a bouquet of financial services - small savings, Indian Postal orders, international money transfers, Kisan Vikas Patra, processing loans for GE and HDFC, New Fund Orders of UTI et al - are already functional in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and in Chandigarh. Considering the success of these marts, it has been decided to set up these Finance Marts at Central Post offices in Ludhiana, Rajpura, Phillaur, Pathankot and at the Golden Temple, Amritsar.

Ms Manjula Prashar, Chief Post Master General, Punjab Circle, informed TNS that Investment Desks would also be established at all these Finance Marts. “We have trained our staff, who will be in charge of these desks and will advise the customers on how much to invest and in what all saving schemes,” she said, while adding that the post offices across Punjab are doing well in the international money transfer service. This service offered by post offices, acting as agents of Western Union Money Transfer, has helped earn a neat profit of Rs 1. 96 crore as commission in year 2005- almost double the commission of Rs 1. 02 crore earned in 2004.

However, the number of money orders has gone down from 26.52 lakh in 2003-04, to 23. 94 lakh in 2005-06. The number of registered post articles ,too, has gone down from 84. 7 lakh in 2003-04, to just 78. 17 lakh in 2005-06. The Punjab Postal circle has also lost out business in its Postal Life Insurance from Rs 55. 41 crore to Rs 45. 73 crore, though the Rural Postal Life Insurance business has increased from Rs 82 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 109. 65 crore in 2005-06.

Ms Prashar expressed concern about the decline in money orders and said that a study to examine the reasons for this would be undertaken in the Punjab circle soon. “But the decline in number of registered articles in the circle can be attributed to the surge in number of speed post articles. People prefer to use Speed Post services instead of registered post, thus the number of speed post articles has increased from 29. 86 lakh articles in 2003-04, to 39. 84 lakh articles last year,” she said.

When asked about the poor response to the direct post scheme in the entire circle, and Mobile Business Office in Chandigarh, the Chief Post Master General, Punjab, agreed that they needed to popularise the scheme.

From October 12, the Punjab Postal Circle will introduce the Instant Money Order Service from Chandigarh for 28 places in the country. Remittances worth Rs 1000- 20000 can be made by cash, while remittance above Rs 20,000 up to RS 50,000 can be made by a cheque/ draft. A person has to deposit the money at the nearest post office, and will be given a 16 digit code. He will give this code to the receiver, who can instantly go to the nearest post office in his city, and get the money instantly.