Know your candidates — VI

Ms Gurvinder Kaur Sodhi
(Independent)

A social worker, she has been closely associated with politics for a long time. Her husband, Mr Sukhjinder Singh Sodhi, is a trade unionist and represents the Markfed Employees Union.

Both husband and wife had been ardent supporters of Mr Satya Pal Jain. "I am contesting in protest against the denial of ticket to Mr Jain," says Mrs Gurvinder Kaur.

A graduate, she is a regular blood donor and has donated blood more than 25 times. She says 50 per cent reservation for women in all spheres, grant of time scales to all employees, unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000, free education up to the graduation level, increase in the income tax limit to Rs 1 lakh and pucca booths to auto mechanics are some of the items on her election agenda.

"I can assure my voters that in case I am not able to get auto mechanics pucca booths within five months of my election, I will quit my Lok Sabha seat," she says. She has been moving from door to door and maintains that she is concentrating on the support from employees and women voters.

Mr Dilbagh Singh Saini
(Ajeya Bharat Party)

A mechanical engineer by profession, Mr Dilbagh Singh Saini is now an industrialist who has been initiated into politics by Mr Sunil Saini, President of the local unit of the Ajeya Bharat Party.

After working in the Small Scale Industries Department of the Central Government, he worked in some major industrial houses of Punjab before taking to telecommunications and designed some telephone exchanges. He has three industrial units at SAS Nagar.

Mr Saini is for introduction of technical education from fifth standard in schools and wants to work for 100 per cent literacy. Extension of ''lal dora'' in villages, special schemes for unemployed youth, special programmes to control population and pollution, amendment to present law so as to make it people friendly, abolition of the Periphery Control Order, construction of old-age and senior citizens homes, rationalisation of sales tax, better parking facilities and construction of more flyovers and bridges to end traffic congestion in the city are some of the areas which he says will get his special attention.

— To be concluded

'Student politics has yielded little'
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Aug 31 —vital issues concerning students largely remain untouched in student politics,said Dr Satya P.Gautam,Department of philosophy, at a conference on student politics and student unrest at Gandhi Bhavan in Panjab University here today.

Dr Gautam said there was ample proof of political parties' involvement in student politics for personal gains.

Another area which remains untouched by student organisations was the state of primary education.Despite change in times and life style,few had bothered reform the system.Student organisations with their indifference had only added to the problem,he said.Teachers could contribute in this direction.

Mr Hattar,a News Editor of the BBC, said it would not be wrong to say that the education policy has distorted after Nehru's era.He said it was sad that educationists did not have substantial representation in framing the education policies.

Involvement of educationists was must for the betterment of the whole education system.Reservation of seats for certain sections of society was more than 79 per cent in institutions which was another hampering agent in the development of the system ,Mr Hattar said.

He said the reservation system should be done away with to improve the academic atmosphere.Growing number of students and shortage of staff hardly left scope for their fair assessment in examination.

Mr Munish Anand, a former President of the Panjab University Students Council, said student reaction on significant national development issues was a positive sign.This area needed immediate attention as student interest in politics was waning at large.

Mr Arun Saxena from a local daily and Dr Anirudh Joshi, a former Dean Student Welfare, also spoke on the occasion.

‘Child labour issue lowest on agenda’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 31— The abolition of child labour seems to have been accorded the lowest priority in the country as a majority of candidates in 250 labour abundant districts in the country have “outrightly refused” to sign a declaration to work for eradicating this menace once they are elected.

This was stated by Mr R.S. Chaurasia, general secretary of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), while talking to TNS here today. Mr Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the organisation could not come as he was indisposed.

Elaborating further he said the SACCS is a conglomeration of more than 515 voluntary organisations, which have launched a massive campaign against child labour in 12 states on the occasion of the 13 Lok Sabha elections with the dual objective of educating the electorate as well as making the politicians accountable to honour the constitutional mandate for the elimination of child labour and implementation of free and compulsory primary education.

Their volunteers approach the contesting candidates and urge them to sign a declaration, pledging that they would honour and work towards implementing Article 45, 21 and 39 (e) and (f) of the Constitution. The candidates who will sign the pledge letter would be termed as pro-childhood candidates and those who do not would be declared as anti-childhood ones.

A campaign has been started and mukti caravans have fanned out in all constituencies where their members would be organising street plays and distributing pamphlets stressing the need for working towards abolishing this inhuman practice.

Having an estimated child labour force of more than 1 crore, Uttar Pradesh with its carpet weaving, scissors, glass and lock making industry tops the national average. Other states are Madhya Pradesh (slate and slate pencils), Rajasthan (gem polishing and carpets), Punjab (agriculture and sports goods industry), Haryana (stone quarry and brick kilns) and Chandigarh (domestic help) in the northern region.

Similarly, Andhra Pradesh (agriculture and unorganised sector) and Tamil Nadu (match and firecracker making) in the southern region, Maharashtra (sexual exploitation) in the western region, Bihar (migrants, carpet and bidi making), Orissa (fish farming and agriculture) and West Bengal (zari, bidi and unorganised sector) in the eastern region are the major areas where this practice is common.

He said during a similar effort in the previous elections, many prominent candidates had refused to sign the pledge letters. This was expected as investigations had proved that a majority of the politicians extended their patronage to such business establishments for extraneous considerations and also blocked the debates on this issues in the state assemblies and other forums.

Business houses too have started to engage labour on contract. The blame is passed on to the contractor who further exploits the children to work from their homes.

Citing figures, he said as 6 crore children, excluding domestic help, are forced into child labour, 14 crore children are out of school when it is enshrined in our Constitution that the government shall provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14 years and no child shall indulge in child labour at the cost of his/her health, education, safety, freedom and movement.

In spite of all this, the government deems it fit to spend less than 1 per cent of the GDP on primary education, he lamented.

Need for time management stressed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 31 — A one-day management development programme on 'Enhancing Personal Effectiveness through Time Management' was held at the ICSSR, Panjab University, here today.

Mr P.K. Verma, Executive Director, Human Resources, Punjab Tractors Limited, and President of the Chandigarh Management Association, inaugurated the programme. Mr Subhash K. Bijlani, a management consultant and President of Magnus Consultants, who conducted the programme, focussed on the need to build awareness of the importance of time management, to analyse individual and group use of time and style of functioning and to develop skills and techniques to improve time management.

Mr Bijlani said many persons failed to be effective in their professions because they were poor time managers. The problem arose because they worked harder when they should be working smarter, he stated. While emphasising on the importance of time in the increasingly competitive environment, he said unless time was managed, nothing else could be managed.

Mr Bijlani added that like other skills, management of time could be learnt, which would help develop abilities to accomplish a lot more in limited time. Those who attended the programme were told about the systems and techniques to manage time, individual time assessment, listening skills and mission and life goal analysis.

Phone exchange of no utility
From Our Correspondent

BATTA (Ropar), Aug 31 — The telephone exchange of Batta village in the Chandigarh Telecommunication Circle, which is expected to serve more than 10 villages, has not released any telephone connection during the past five months.

This exchange was installed in a rented building in 1995 and commissioned in March this year, but it has not released even a single connection so far.

According to sources, the exchange has a capacity of 152 lines. The department has spent more than Rs 5.5 lakh on it but since no staff, not even a watchman, have been posted here, the exchange has remained locked since its commissioning.

A number of telephone seekers of Batta, Bassian, Bajheree, Rora, Mehmoodpur, Malikpur, Sill, Sotal, Sakrulanpur, Grangan, Kheri and Sil Kapra villages have been waiting for connections.

The department is paying a rent of Rs 3,500 per month for the building. Moreover, sophisticated machinery worth lakhs of rupees has been gathering dust for the want of maintenance.

Villagers complaint that though the department has laid telephone cables and met all other technical requirements, yet the applicants are not being given telephone connections.

Mr Gurpal Singh, General Secretary of the Baba Nand Lal Youth Welfare Club, Batta, said the department had dug up the village pucca streets because of which two kutcha houses had got damaged.

The Batta Telephone Exchange Subscribers Union complained that the Subdivisional Officer (SDO) of the exchange had told them that it could not be run because of shortage of staff. The union also complained that the Deputy General Manager (DGM) and the Principal General Manager (PGM) of the Telecommunication Department had turned down their repeated requests for telephone connections. The union threatened to sue the DoT if the connections were not released soon.

The staff posted here earlier had left the place. A class IV employee posted in the exchange died in May, the SDO said.

Mr Khushwant Rai, DGM, refused to comment on the issue and Mr Prithipal Singh, PGM, Chandigarh Telecommunication Circle, could not be contacted despite repeated phone calls.

Home gardening tips

* Do not starve your plants of the nutrients essential for it to complete its lifecycle. A properly fed plant gives the best of fruits, vegetables, flowers and foliage (as in the case of indoor plants)

* Nitrogen is responsible for the green colour (chlorophyll) of the plant. It can be applied through urea and Can (Calcium Ammonium Nitrate). The roots and shoots of the plant deficient in nitrogen are stunted.

* Phosphorus gives strength to the plant’s framework and roots. It is available as superphosphate in the market.

* Potassium give the plant strength to fight diseases, regulates water in the plant and also improves quality of fruits and vegetables. It is available as Murcate Potash (MOP) in the market.

* Zinc though required in minute quantity is very important for fruit quality and plant health. Its deficiency may lead to dieback, leaf littling, shortening of leaf internodes etc. Provide it by zinc sulphate sprays.

* `Do not use urea in pots. You may kill the plants if quantity added is in excess.

* CAN (Kisan Khad) is a safe fertiliser for use in potted plants. It has neutral reaction and can be used in any type of soil.

— Satish Narula