15% of education funds for primary games: Soni

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, October 28

School Education Minister OP Soni marked the beginning of the three-day inter-district Primary School Games at Khalsa College Senior Secondary School on Sunday. He also announced that 15 per cent of the funds of the Education Department would be kept for the promotion of sports at the primary level.

While addressing the gathering, Soni said, “I wish good luck to the participants. We aim to create a sports culture among primary schools. Henceforth, we will allocate 15% of the funds to promote primary school games.”

“The department will ensure that the budding players are provided with all kinds of support and training at the school level,” he said.

The department is spending Rs 3 crore to facilitate 5,000 participants at the school games under which diet, track suits and sports kits are given. The sportspersons conducted a march-past.

The primary-level games are being organised for the first times to strengthen the basic infrastructure.

PSEB’s transfer fiasco

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 28

Rumours of tussle and division of opinion in the Education Department have surfaced with the annulment of the PSEB Gurdaspur manager’s transfer and transfer of Jalandhar manager twice in a short span of four days. It has happened despite Education Minister OP Soni’s instructions that no transfer could take place without his permission.

As per the October 22 communique, as many as six district managers were transferred. Those transferred were Skattar Singh from Jalandhar to Gurdaspur, Satnam Singh fom Gurdaspur to Tarn Taran, Lalit Kumar from Kapurthala to Hoshiarpur, Tajinder Sharma from Hoshiarpur to Kapurthala and Sucheta Sharma from Rupnagar to Jalandhar. Harmanjot Singh Sidhu, posted at Mohalli, was given the additional charge of Rupnagar. 

As per the October 26 communiqué, the transfer of Satnam Singh from Gurdaspur to Tarn Taran was rolled back and PSEB Jalandhar manager Sakattar Singh, who was transferred to Gurdaspur, was against shifted to Tarn Taran. The board is abuzz with rumours of show of power at work.

When contacted, School Education Minister OP Soni said there was nothing like power game in the PSEB. He said the transfers took place when he was out of the country. “I will look into the reason behind the two transfer orders within a span of just four days,” he added.