Amritsar, October 19
Aimed at creating cordial relations between the police and community, the PRO cells introduced earlier this year are acting as a bridge between the police and the public. Headed by women police officers, who were given special powers and involved in decision making, the PRO cells are proving to be a boon for better policing in the department.

At least this is what the response indicates. Anant Kumar while lauding the step initiated by the police opined that the people were now not afraid of visiting police stations for the redress of their grievances, which was not the case earlier. He said the common man felt safe meeting policemen in police station.

On the appointment of woman police officers, SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said the women were more accountable than their male counterparts.

“Normally, when people used to visit police stations with their grievances, they were attended by ‘munshi’ and at times even their genuine complaints were not dealt with properly,” admitted the SSP.

“I used to get a number of complaints from the aggrieved parties related to mishandling and misbehaviour by police officials. Most of the cases remained unattended due to unfriendly behaviour of the munshi,” he said.

Setting up of PRO cells was the best option for not only ensuring proper dealing but also making police more accountable. Earlier women police officers used to remain confined to police lines and were not used in active policing. But now they have been brought into active policing and given the responsibilities. These officers are now involved in the decision-making process, which was not there earlier. The other positive affect of this is that their male counterparts have also become more disciplined, besides developing a sense of confidence among the common people visiting police stations.

There is one more unique dimension to this type of policing. The Rotary Club Civil Lines has adopted the civil lines police station to assist PROs to bring improvements in the overall functioning of the police station. K.V.P. Singh said a club member acted as a public man who also watched the working of the police and discussed with senior police officers and gave suggestions for the necessary changes.

Hoshiarpur, October 19
In a press release here today general secretary of CITU, Punjab, Raghunath Singh, alleged that capitalists, contractors, jagirdars and government were openly violating the Minimum Wages Act and Labour Laws.

“They were allegedly doing economic exploitation of poor industrial, agricultural and kiln labourers. The government had not made any amendment to the Minimum Wages Act for the past seven years,” he added. “There were more than 30 lakh industrial and agricultural labourers in the state. The state government had not even fixed the minimum wages for the labourers working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It was a pity that the state government was claiming itself that Punjab was a prosperous state of the country, but was paying monthly wages of Rs 2,525 to each labourer, whereas the minimum monthly wage of Rs 3,426 was being paid in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Rs 3,516 in Haryana. Similarly, monthly wages of agricultural and industrial labourers were much more in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttaranchal and Tamil Nadu,” he lamented.

He further alleged that the law violators were being patronised by the state government.He urged the government to ensure implementation of the Minimum Wages Act and Labour Laws and immediately fix monthly wages of unskilled labourers at Rs 5,000 each, semi-skilled Rs 6,500, skilled labourers Rs 8,000 and the most skilled Rs 10,000 each.

Jalandhar, October 19
It is one festival which brings together all the Bengalis residing in the city and around. Men, women and children, originally hailing from West Bengal who have been putting up here for the past over a decade because of their employment or business propositions, have been jointly taking part in the Durga puja rituals being organised under the banner of Jalandhar Kari Bari at the Jalandhar Photographers Association here.

Over 45 families got together this morning for the Ashtmi puja. While women jointly prepared the prasad comprising cut fruits, kheer and sweet yellow rice, the menfolk took care of other arrangements. There were contests for women for playing shank and singing ulu-lu-lu, while children remained engrossed in making drawings and paintings of scenes related to Durga puja.

The evening saw a cultural programme wherein men, women and children enacted scenes from the mythology, sang hymns and devotional songs, recited poems and gave speeches. This was followed by a Navratra special dinner prepared without adding salt.

The members felt that the six-day celebrations, commencing on the fifth Navratra, helped them mingle well with one another and make their children come close to their roots. “Our children are neither learning Bengali here in schools nor do they have an environment which gives them an insight into our original culture and heritage. All what they know is speaking a few Bengali words and those too not as fluently as they speak Punjabi. But here during the festival they learn a lot while having fun all the time”, said M.D. Roy, a member who is professor of textile technology in the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology.

In fact, there are three other professors from the institute, Arobindo Chatterjee, Pramod Kumar and S.K. Sinha, who are Bengalis and have been members of the association for the past more than 15 years. The association has members from the JCT, Phagwara, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, and a leather industry in Ropar.

The members said there would be Ram Navami puja tomorrow, followed by sandhya aarti in the evening.