Moga, July 10
Sexual relationship among family members and close relations, leaving behind all moral values and principles, seems to be a perplexing problem fast emerging in the modern day society in Punjab, if one were to go by some such cases that came up before the family counselling centre here today.

No matter it would be premature and rather difficult to fully assess the extent of the problem but it surely indicates that the number of families affected by the lust for extra-marital and pre-marital relations within families and close relations were shockingly increasing in the society.

Neelam, a 33-year-old married woman (name changed), having two children, a resident of Baghapurana, recently approached the local family counselling centre, pleading for help to save her from the clutches of her father-in-law, who was indulging in sexual relations with her. As a result of which, her marital life was disturbed and was almost at the brink of separation.

Parminder Kaur Johal, wife of the local district magistrate, who actively takes part in social activities along with a young family counsellor Kanwalpreet Kaur, an advocate-cum-woman activist, Meena Sharma and a couple of other women activists of the area today discussed this issue in the presence of the complainant woman, her husband, father-in-law and some other family members.

The complainant's husband, who is working as a daily-wager, was given suggestion by the counselling team to hire a separate accommodation and live with her wife and children leaving his parental house. Although, he was not financially strong enough to hire a separate accommodation but still he agreed upon to do so to save his marital life from separation.

Another shocking case came up before the counselling centre today, in which a 30-year-old woman Harpreet Kaur (name changed), a resident of this town, pleaded to save her marital life. She complained that her husband had almost left her and three children, and had started living with her sister without taking care of them. She revealed that her husband had developed sexual relations with her own younger sister.

The couple appeared before the counselling team and after advice by the experts had mutually agreed upon to reunite and live together and take care of their children jointly.

They went back home together and hopefully would live together, said Meena Sharma.

Johal was of the view, "Timely counselling and advice are probably all that it takes to check the alarming increase in the number of such cases of marital disputes to save married lives."

As many as eight new cases of marital disputes had also come up before the counselling centre. A look at them revealed that a majority of people seeking counselling were those who were depressed after marriage and were looking at it was a penultimate step before filing for divorce.

Adding that they were trying to help people understand the idea of family counselling that could help in saving married lives from separation, psychologist Kanwalpreet Kaur said she was worried over the decline in moral values among the people that was quite evident from the nature of complaints, which were coming before them. 

Abohar, July 10
Concerned over unending reports on the non-availability of potable water in the region, the IFFCO Foundation today installed three solar-based water purifiers in different villages of the Abohar and Fazilka sub-division. They were inaugurated by the IFFCO chairman Surinder Kumar Jakhar.

The main function was held in the office complex of the Khuyiansarwar Multipurpose Cooperative Society at village Khuyiansarwar, 15 km from here. The Fazilka Central Cooperative Bank shared the expenses incurred on the project. The IFFCO also used the occasion to organise a seminar on Bt cotton by inviting experts from the Punjab Agricultural University.

Informing that one purifier was today gifted to the Bhag Singh Hayer College for Women located in village Kala Tibba to provide pure water to about 1500 students who belong to 60 villages, Jakhar said the residents of village Khuyiansarwar in Abohar and Rampur in the Fazilka sub-division would be supplied pure water by the cooperative societies at nominal charges.

Speaking on the occasion, Paul de Reus Ing, an expert, who has been specially flown to India from Netherlands for the project, said the developing countries were facing a major threat to human life due to contaminated water besides the environmental pollution.

S.K. Mahajan, consultant with the IFFCO Foundation, appraised about the welfare plans undertaken so far.

IFFCO state manager Gian Singh Thind, area manager Amarjit Singh and R.K. Gawri, district manager of the cooperative bank, offered mementos to the senior guests. 

Barnala, July 10
About 200 consumers of BSNL at village Bakhtgarh in the district are facing problems due to poor services of the department.

The villagers alleged that they had approached the authorities at Barnala and Sangrur a number of times and requested them to improve the service but in vain. The consumers further alleged that the indifferent attitude of the authorities had adversely affected their business.

These 200-odd consumers demonstrated before the BSNL branch at Bakhtgarh today. They raised slogans against BSNL officials. Raj Singh, Harinder Singh, Rajinder Singh, all consumers, said that BSNL services were very poor for the last one year. The tower had fewer batteries, due to which the signal becomes weak. The officials concerned had made false promises to make available the batteries but so far nothing had happened in this regard, they said.

If one has to listen to the mobile, he or she has to go to the roof of the house. The voice through landline phone is also not clear. And most of the time, the connections remain dead.

Raj Singh said that surprisingly the private companies were doing very well in the same business. They were providing better service in comparison to the BSNL, he clamied.

He said if the BSNL still failed to take any action to improve the services, these 200-odd consumers would shift to private phone companies. 

Mansa, July 10
The health department, Mansa will organise several functions at block and district levels to mark the World Population Day on July 11. Civil Surgeon, Mansa, G.S. Nagi said that increasing population would create a lot of problems. 

So, one should make people aware about the problems. "If we want overall and sustainable development, steps must be taken to control the population," he said. He emphasised upon the need for providing information about family planning schemes. 

Bathinda, July 10
A three-day workshop for primary teachers of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) of Chandigarh region is going to be organised at the Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) - 1, Bathinda from July 12.

More than 35 teachers of various KVs falling in Malwa region would attend the workshop, said principal of the KV-1, Bathinda, T.D. Garg, who is also the director of the workshop. He added that teachers from KVs situated at Abohar, Barnala, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Halwara, Badowal and Faridkot would participate in the programme.

Garg further said that the workshop aimed at strengthening primary education. He said that the topics of discussion during the workshop, include use of Infrastructural Classroom Technology (ICT), constructivist approach to teaching, measurement evaluation with special focus on setting up of reliable and valid question papers at various levels in different subjects and areas, grading computation of primary level and developing classroom based projects.

He informed that the workshop would give special emphasis on the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – 2005.

He said that headmasters and headmistresses, computer teachers and teachers of other subjects of several schools would be the resource persons during the programme. 

Ferozepur, July 10
The auction of 15 sand trenches, which was conducted here yesterday on the instructions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and cabinet sub-committee, fetched an amount of Rs 88.06 lakh against the reserve price of Rs 46 lakh fixed by the state government.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Megh Raj, who personally supervised the auction process, said that the auction of 19 sand trenches conducted earlier had fetched Rs 1.71 crore this year, which made the total auction amount to Rs 2.56 crore against the previous year auction price of Rs 77.25 lakh.

Megh Raj further said that the state exchequer got an extra amount of Rs 1.80 crore this year on account of this auction. According to the DC, there are 42 sand trenches in the district, out of which 34 have been auctioned.

About the rest of the sand trenches, the DC informed that the high court had stayed the auction of seven sand trenches and one could not go for auction due to technical reasons.

Additional DC Jaskiran Singh, SP headquarters Harjinder Singh, joint director, industries S.P. Attri and GM, industries, Gurdarshan Singh were also present during the auction, which was conducted amidst tight security arrangements. 

Bathinda, July 10
Close on the heels of a bank robbery in the city, a fraud of around Rs 50,00,000 has come to light at the bank bazaar branch of the Bank of India here in Bathinda.

The incident happened on July 7. Sources in the bank confirmed that some people came with an authority letter from the Muktsar branch of the Union Bank of India along with a banker’s cheque of Rs 50,00,000. The Bank of India officials paid the cash.

The next day, when the bank officials put the cheque in the clearing box, the Union Bank of India authorities revealed that it was fake. The sources further revealed that they immediately informed the police.

The cash transaction between banks through the banker’s cheque is a routine exercise. Whenever a bank is short of cash, they get the money through the banker’s cheque.

SSP Bathinda, Ashish Chaudhry, said they had rounded up some people and revealing anything at this stage would hamper the investigations.

Zonal manger of the Bank of India, P.K.Bhandari, while confirming the incident, said that he had got the information that the Bathinda police has nabbed the culprits and around 99 per cent of the money has been recovered. It is important to mention here that two bank employees, head cashier and the officer concerned, have also been rounded up by the police during the investigations.

Vigil has been stepped up in the bank after the incident.

Bathinda, July 10
J.S. Anand is one of the very few Punjabi poets who have been successful in creating a niche for themselves in English poetry, a real hard task. Now, after a gap of almost two years, Anand has come up with his second book on Punjabi poetry, ‘Khillarda Sangreh’ which includes around 60 poems.

The 53-year-old has also been conferred with the International Poet of the Year award 2008 by Punjabi Vichar Manch, Patiala. It includes a cash award of Rs 50,000 besides a citation. He will be presented this award at the International Punjabi Conference to be held in November at Patiala. Anand’s poetry has attracted noted critics like Satinder Singh Noor and Brahamjagdish Singh.

Presently the principal of the local DAV College, Anand talks about his poetry with a twinkle in his eyes. “Many a time, I see normalcy in abnormal things around me and in a way I see what others fail to see. A couple of months back, I was driving to Delhi and saw trucks full of rice husk entering the city. That gave birth to one of my poems, ‘shehar da kehar.’

In one of his poems titled ‘Lattan te pet’, he portrays the real picture of today’s fast moving life, where everyone has veered off in the quest for the fulfillment of basic needs.

“My latest book is a sort of bridge between temporal and spiritual aspects of life. In most of the poems, I have discussed human problems in a spiritual framework. Sometimes, I express my feelings in a sarcastic way and sometimes in an ironic way,” says Anand who has more than 13 books to his credit.