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Lawlessness at polling station
Bathinda grows but civil hospital lags behind
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Ayurvedic docs seek pay parity with allopathy docs
First meeting of councillors tomorrow
Patwaris go on mass casual leave
Showers bring respite from heat, flood roads
‘Builders defy norms’
Two minors raped in 2 days
5 booked in dowry case
Three booked for sexually exploiting married woman
‘Dabwali, related incidents unfortunate’
July 23 bandh
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Lawlessness at polling station
Talwandi Sabo, July 21 As per the details available, elections for the Sarpanches of four villages, namely Bangi Raghu, Bangi Deepa, Sukhladdi and Bangi Ruldu were slated for today at Tehsil complex here. The elections for Bangi Raghu and Bangi Deepa villages were smoothly conducted but for Sukhladdi, the elections were postponed for Tuesday at 4 pm and election in Bangi Ruldu was deferred till further orders. According to sources, at 5.15 pm the returning officer, Harlabh Singh, was going to conduct elections for village Sukhladdi, when policemen informed him about the tense situation outside the polling station, due to huge presence of supporters of Bangi Ruldu candidates. The RO then, getting the nod of candidates, postponed the elections of Sukhladdi and called the Panches of village Bangi Ruldu. All nine Panches cast their votes through secret ballot putting cross seal against name of their willing candidate. But after the announcement of results, Gurpreet Kaur group, which was sure for five votes out of nine raised objection over getting only four votes. On the other hand, their rival Nazam Singh group claimed to have one secret vote being cast in its favour. The situation was astounding when five members raised hands in Gurpreet’s favour. They accused the RO of showing undue favour to the opposition. During the arguments, supporters of both the groups started raising slogans outside the Tehsil office. The matter was then brought to the notice of the DDPO and SDM, Talwandi Sabo. In between, Gurpreet group allegedly turned violent and tore off two pages from the official register of the election staff. Reportedly, one of them even tried to snatch the ballot papers but police remained a mute spectator. In the free for all that ensued, the elections were deferred till further date. When contacted, RO Harlabh Singh said, “Despite efforts to hold free and fair elections, it was a chatic situation due to which I had to postpone the elections.” |
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Bathinda grows but civil hospital lags behind
Bathinda, July 21 The number of patients in the 100-bed hospital is more than the number of beds. Resultantly, doctors have been accommodating even two patients on a bed. Even in the scorching summer, the ICU ward has only two air-conditioned cabins against the five. The refrigerators at the mortuary have been facing power-snags for the past one month. Sometimes, doctors ask kin of the deceased to bring ice to preserve the body. The plasma separator machine of the hospital is out of service, due to which the patients suffering from jaundice and other viral infections could not get the PRP cells from the hospital. The computerised registration counter at the hospital is not operating due to a fault in the server. Most importantly, the condition of the hospital’s building is poor. Some of the rooms at the second floor of the hospital have already been declared unsafe. Though the hospital authorities have been reported, the bio-medical waste is still burnt in open on the premises of the hospital. Even the SMO of the hospital had been charged for the negligence in this regard. The hospital has ventilator equipments, but giving the excuse of staff shortage, the machine has not been unpacked. The hospital does not have an inquiry counter, due to which visitors either find their patient themselves or confirm from the emergency medical officer. In the absence of SMO, when contacted, Ajit Pal Singh, who has been given the additional charge of the deputy medical commissioner said over phone, “All this has been looked into during the recent inspection of the hospital. The report would be presented to the civil surgeon, who is supposed to take action in this regard.” |
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Ayurvedic docs seek pay parity with allopathy docs
Bathinda, July 21 The association has submitted a memorandum of demands to the 5th Pay Commission of Punjab. The association claimed that the 6th Central Pay Commission has recommended total pay parity including all allowances to ayurvedic doctors with allopathic counterparts under the Dynamic Career Progression Scheme (DACP). The association demanded a pay scale of Rs 32,600- Rs 56,000 for ayurvedic medical officer, with effect from January 1, 2006. The senior ayurvedic medical officer must get Rs 39,100-Rs 69,000 under the DACP scheme after four years of service, where as Rs 44,500-Rs 72,000 has been demanded for chief ayurvedic medical officer or district ayurvedic officer after nine years of service under the same scheme. The joint director ayurveda should get Rs 56,000-Rs 84,600 after 13 years of service from the entry level. Dr S.S.Romana, general secretary of the union and medical officer at Maur Mandi, said that the 4th Pay Commission of Punjab reasoned that since the ayurvedic system is under developed, so its practitioners couldn’t be treated at par with allopathic counterparts. “The English literature is more developed than the Punjabi literature, but lecturers of both Punjabi and English are paid equally. In the same way, we are also serving the patients in an effective manner,” he said. When asked about the
status of research in ayurvedic system, he replied that how could it grow when it
had been discriminated against for a long time. “We have high hopes from the central government as it is releasing funds for ‘traditional’ system but the state government is bent against us,” he rued. State president of the PAMSA, Harmanjeet Singh, said that there were 546 dispensaries, 17 health centres and five hospitals of the ayurvedic therapy in the state and around 175 posts of doctors had been lying vacant. “ Along with that, there is shortage of Class IV employees. There is scarcity of medicines too,” he rued. |
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First meeting of councillors tomorrow
Abohar, July 21 Meanwhile, his father Ram Kumar Goyal, a former MLA who had been undergoing treatment for high fever in a super specialty hospital at Mohali for last week has been advised more rest there. The district authorities today asked the executive officer of the council to convene the first meeting of the new members on July 23 in the morning. The councillors will be administered oath of office and would be asked to elect president and vice-president in the same meeting, sources confirmed today evening. Party sources indicated that junior Goyal decided to take the loyalists for sight seeing in Himachal Pradesh amidst reports that a section was trying to scuttle his desire to become the youngest, bachelor too, president of the council. Even when his father was taking it granted as most of the candidates fielded by him on the lotus symbol had won in the election, yet there was a strong lobbying for gifting the post to a councillor from the majority community of Aroras. As per information, three senior party activists who had allegedly opposed Ram Kumar Goyal in the last Assembly elections are camping at Chandigarh to pursue the party high command to issue a whip for electing a female member of the council as next president. It was believed that the post of the vice-president as per mutually agreed terms was to be given to the alliance partner SAD (B). The detractors of Goyal's move argued that the Arora community had not been given any important office in the past and this was the right time to please thousands of citizens who belong to this community, sources added. |
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Patwaris go on mass casual leave
Abohar, July 21 The staff had been wearing black badges during duty hours for the last week and had warned the district administration for the next phase of the agitation but it fell on deaf ears, Jagdish Kumar Kherwa sub divisional president of the union said today. The staff assembled in the Patwar-khana complex and shouted slogans against the district authorities. They handed over letters regarding mass casual leave to the officer on duty and reminded that a memorandum was submitted to the deputy commissioner on July 8. The union had resented callous delay in considering their genuine demands. The service books of some retired employees had been missing but no efforts were made to trace these out, the union rued. |
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Showers bring respite from heat, flood roads
Bathinda, July 21 And this again exposed the district administration preparedness for the rainy season. Most importantly, with that, the administration's recent claims of making arrangements to tackle and avoid water logging in the city took a severe beating as till the late evening water had not receded from
the roads. It may be recalled that the city had recently faced problems of waterlogging two times when the heavy rains lashed the region, turning the city into lake. The rain, added with much-awaited pleasant breeze, started around 3:45 pm and continued till 4:30 pm.Though it made the north-ward mercury plummeted, inundated several important areas, including Goniana road, Amrik Sing road, Parsa Ram Nagar, Sirki Bazar, Civil Lines road, Power House road and left the residents high and dry. It may be mentioned that today is the first Monday of Shrawan month, which is considered auspicious by many and showers on the day is considered as a good sign. |
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‘Builders defy norms’
Abohar, July 21 Residents of an approved colony in upper area of the Nai Abadi here complained to the authorities today about the overnight construction of a high boundary wall at the site that its coloniser had earmarked for a park. Some five years back, while offering residential plots, the coloniser had reportedly said that two parks would be developed besides a temple and educational institution complying with the prescribed rules. Though a small park and a temple were constructed but the development of a big park was pending. Last night, all of sudden scores of tractor-trolleys were employed to fill the site with sand and boundary wall was also raised apparently to convert the plot into a residential house, the residents rued. The developers were not available for comments. Tension prevailed in the colony.
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Two minors raped in 2 days
Ferozepur, July 21 A minor girl told the police that a woman Kashmir Kaur, her neighbour, took her along for nature's call in fields in the evening two days ago, where one Surjit Singh, a resident of Sona Sadar (Jalalabad) village, who was waiting for them, raped her. The victim revealed the whole incident to her parents, who took the girl to the nearby civil hospital, where it was confirmed that she was raped. The matter was brought into the notice of the police. The police registered a criminal case of rape against the accused, who is yet to be nabbed. In another incident, the Fazilka police had booked three persons for allegedly raping a 13-year-old minor girl, a resident of Dabhwali Kalan village, however, no one is arrested in this regard so far. Police sources said that as per the statement recorded by the victim before the police, the girl had alleged that she was forcefully picked up from a bus stand two days back by Sonu, resident of Sarhian, Shamsher Singh, resident of Turkawali and Karaj Singh, resident of Lalowali, and was brought at the residence of Sonu in his village, where she was allegedly raped by Sonu and Shamsher Singh. Anyhow, the girl managed to escape from Sonu's residence and came back to her native village where she narrated the tragic incident to her parents. The alleged culprits approached the village panchayat. The panchayat tried for a compromise but the parents of the girl refused. The girl was taken to the nearby civil hospital for a medical examination. The rape was confirmed in the medico-legal report. Later, the incident was brought to the notice of the police and after preliminary investigations; a case of abduction and rape against the accused was registered on Sunday. The accused had been eluding arrest, but a hunt had been launched by the police to nab them. |
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Ferozepur, July 21 She further complained that her in-laws also allegedly scolded her and used to beat her up at times. She said that when it became unbearable for her, she left her in-laws place and came to her parents, and narrated them everything. Later, a compliant was lodged with the police, which after the investigations, registered a case under the Dowry Act against Jaswinder Singh, Swarn Singh, Charanjeet Kaur, Tejinder Kaur, residents of Durga Nagar of Ambala city and Baldev, a friend of Jaswinder, who is resident of Lakho ke Behram. — OC
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Three booked for sexually exploiting married woman
Kotkapura (Faridkot), July 21 Police sources said the victim had stated in her complaint that she had strained relations with her husband and therefore, nearly a year ago she left him to live alone in a separate house. Six months back, one of the accused, Kashmir Singh, son of Bodha Singh and resident of Madhir village, took her along with him, and kept her at Bharu village in the house of one Sukhmandar Kaur, wife of Labh Singh, for about two months. Later, she was shifted to the house of one Ram Singh of Khusar village that falls in Sirsa district of Haryana, the victim stated. In her complaint, she alleged that both Kashmir Singh and Ram Singh gave false assurances of marrying her and kept on exploiting her sexually for months. However, she managed to escape from the house of Ram Singh and straightaway came to her parental house at Sadik village. She informed the events to her parents and later, to the local police. The police has registered a criminal case of sexual exploitation against Kashmir Singh, Ram Singh and Sukhmandar
Kaur. |
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‘Dabwali, related incidents unfortunate’
Abohar, July 21 Speaking to newsmen at his new grain market office here this evening, he said that Punjab had come out of the dark days only when the people who had got fed up with the turmoil cooperated with the then Congress government in flushing out militants. It was unfortunate that the present government had not tried to diffuse the situation that emerged out of the Dera issue, he regretted. Sincere efforts need to be made to save the peace and prosperity of the state, he felt.
— OC |
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July 23 bandh
Bathinda, July 21 |
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