A little help would be great for schools

Two government elementary schools (GES) of Palasaur village are in need of attention from the Education Department with immediate effect for the overall better performance of their village schools. These are GES Palasaur Kalan and GES Kasur Nallha (Plasauar). While the former is situated in the heart of the village with a space of mere 90’ x 90’ where as many as 500 children study, the latter is spread over three acre having about 100 students. Mandeep Kaur, head teacher GES Palasaur Kalan, said the school neither has an open space nor a playground and it is difficult to arrange morning assembly and other functions on the premises. Despite this, she said, the students have been doing well in sports and other extracurricular activities at the state level. “If the school has a playground and an open courtyard, the performance can touch new heights,” Kaur added. The students of the pre-primary classes were made to sit near the cremation ground in the village due to the lack of space. Meanwhile, GES Kasur Nallha was without a building as the department released a grant for one classroom only a year ago. A number of village contributors primarily Parminder Singh, Gurbhej Singh (former sarpanches) were doing their best for the school. A section of the village has demanded that the number of the students of both the school be divided into suitable proportion keeping in view the availability of the space in the concerned school and release of grants for the building of GES Kasur Nallaha.

We are watching you

The district police announced the checking of the Jandiala Road of Tarn Taran with the help of drones to keep a close vigil on the activities of the anti-social elements on Republic Day celebrations. A day prior to Republic Day the Tarn Taran police had deployed heavy force as a rehearsal, Balwinderjit Kaur, a resident of the town, stated that she was returning home after withdrawing Rs20,000 from a bank when suddenly two motorcycle-borne youths appeared from nowhere and wrested the bag from her. This happened amid the drones’ watch – omit the drones from the scene and the outcome could have been much worse.

Good job SGPC!

The residents of the area have lauded the decision of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to give due recognition to the sacrifices of Baba Hazara Singh Aladinpur and Baba Hukam Singh Kot Vasao (Pakistan) recently. The duo was the first martyr of the Gurdwara Reform Movement (Gurdwara Sudhar Lehar) who laid down their lives in 1921. The move was launched to liberate gurdwaras from the managements of the mahants. The SGPC acting on the decision taken weeks back, had housed the portraits of these two martyrs in the Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar a few days prior. The native village of Baba Hazara Singh is Aladinpur, which was located just 2 km away from Tarn Taran. Kot Vasao village, the native village of Baba Hukam Singh was situated in Pakistan. The locals constructed a Gurdwara Baba Hazara Singh Baba Hukam Singh, Aladinpur, decades back. Besides housing the portraits of both the martyrs in the Central Sikh Museum, the SGPC was organising a two-day ‘gurmat samagam’ dedicated to the centenary day of their martyrdom in Aladinpur village on January 27 and 28. Owing to mismanagement of the gurdwaras by mahants, Gurdwara Sudhar Lehar was started by the Sikh masses in 1920. The followers of the Sudhar Leher decided to march towards the Darbar Sahib, Tarn Taran, in the early 1921. The Sikh sangat came from far-off areas in Tarn Taran and in a peaceful way managed to enter the Darbar Sahib despite obstructions installed by the armed men of the mahants. They attacked on the group with their traditional weapons like lathis, swords in which both died. The recent efforts of the SGPC had managed to attract the Sikh masses towards importance of the history of the place and the martyrdom of these two bravehearts.