The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Penalty imposed on Bathinda SSP
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 2
The State Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 1,000 on the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bathinda, for “carelessness” in supplying information under the Right to Information Act (RTI) to an applicant.

State Information Commissioner PKVerma ordered the SSP to pay the amount to the applicant Vishwas Kumar Garg who faced inconvenience and unnecessary expenditure of traveling to Chandigarh to attend a hearing on his complaint in May.

Garg had filed an application under the RTI in November last for seeking details
of progress of investigations in an FIR in the Kotwali police station.

The commission imposed the penalty on SSP on July 15 this year and copies of the order were circulated by Garg to the media today.

In reply to a show-cause notice issued earlier by the commission, the SSP pleaded that complete information could not be supplied to the complainant because of confusion on account of multiple complaints filed by him.

Musical & scented fine but thread-shaped a hit!
Anjali Singh Deswal
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 2
With the festival of Raksha Bandhan right in the corner, markets in Bathinda have been flooded with the 'threads of love,' popularly called rakhis. And women are thronging shops here to choose the 'best ones' for their dear brothers.

Among the numerous ones, the variety which is winning hearts of almost all is the thread-shape rakhis. The reason: Such sorts of rakhis, besides looking elegant and sober, are easy to post to brothers living at other places.

“My brother stays in Delhi and every year I buy a thread-shaped rakhi as it is easier to post. In earlier times heavy rakhis were in but now, with 'light' being in trend, even rakhis are not exception," said Puja Gupta, a BA-I student of a local college.

But if shopkeepers' viewpoints are any indication, girls are going for trendy rakhis like musical ones. "We have many varieties. Children and girls are crazy for musical rakhis. Even animated rakhis are being picked up by little girls for their brothers," said Sushil Kumar, a shopkeeper.

Other rakhis like those embossed with mythological pictures and pictures of gods and goddesses are also hit. The pictures are made of sandalwood smelling substance and the shopkeepers often call it the chandan rakhi.

Stone studded rakhis are another favorites among women and these would cost anywhere between Rs 35 and Rs 65, depending on the size and make of the rakhi.

In the new arrivals are the fragrant rakhis which are available in fragrances like sandalwood, rose, jasmine etc.

The sale of rakhis begins a month prior to the festival date and as the day approaches, there are chances of rakhis becoming more expensive.

The festival may have several economic aspects which also underway change with time but what is, even being single, have not been changing with time and place is — the emotional facet associated with the festival: the ever-enduring bond a sister shares with his brother!

"No matter how busy we are in the fast-paced world, a brother, even staying apart, does not forget taking time off from his busy schedule to talk to his sister or sister on the Rakhi day," said Swati Sethi, and added, "My brother does not live here and I miss him the most on Raksha Bandhan. I never forget to post a rakhi to him and he never forgets to call me on this day even if my rakhi reaches a bit late. I think that it is the feeling attached to this festival which makes it so special."

Lower courts indulging in ‘legal dereliction’
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 2
The Punjab and Haryana High Court believes subordinate courts in the two states and Chandigarh are indulging in “legal dereliction”.

Justice SD Anand is of the view that the courts are bypassing the prescribed procedure of recording the evidence of prosecution witnesses before declaring an absconding accused a proclaimed offender. For rectifying the neglect, Justice Anand has called for the details of all such cases from the sessions divisions of the two states and Chandigarh within a fortnight.

In a two-page directive liable to put right a legal blunder going unobserved for years, Justice Anand referred to a case before asserting: The trial magistrate while declaring the petitioners proclaimed offenders ordered the consignment of the file to the records.

“The magistrate did not proceed to adjourn the case for recording the evidence in terms of provisions of Section 299 CrPC, which require the court to examine the witnesses, if any, produced on behalf of the prosecution, and record their depositions; and any such deposition may, on the arrest of such person, be given in evidence against him on the inquiry into, or trial for, the offence with which he is charged, if the deponent is dead or incapable of giving evidence or cannot be found or his presence cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable”.

Justice Anand asserted: “The present is not the only instance wherein a court did not comply with the provisions of Section 299 of the CrPC. It is understood there are cases a plenty in which a similar stance may have been adopted by the judicial courts in the states of Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh.

“Each provision contained in the procedural segment of law has a significance compulsive relevance. It is not open to a judicial functionary to give a go by to a provision, which is meant for compliance. The provisions of Section 299 are basic in character, and non-compliance therewith places the prosecution at a disadvantaged placement. The prosecuting agency ought also be alive to the significance of the provisions of Section 299 CrPC and it is under a professional obligation to bring the relevant provisions to the notice of the presiding officer of the criminal court.”

BKU condemns lathicharge on EGS teachers in Jalalabad

Bathinda, August 2
The Bhartiya Kisan Union today condemned the lathi- charge on peacefully protesting EGS teachers in Jalalabad on Friday. In a press release issued here today, Surjit Singh, vice-president of the union, demanded that cases be registered against erring police personnel who misbehaved with women teachers.

Farmer leaders Sukhdev Singh and Joginder Singh said if no action was taken against the guilty police cops, they would intensify their agitation to get justice. — TNS

Anaemia is a silent epidemic, warns doc
Anil Jerath/Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 2
The city has a plethora of social organisations, social activists and NGOs helping the poor and the needy. And to aid such people, the city also has the Manav Seva Samiti, an NGO, which doled out free medicines to a large number of slum population suffering from deficiency diseases due to lack of knowledge about the constituents of a balanced diet.

A team of doctors led by Dr Sunil Gupta, a psychiatrist at the local Civil Hospital, examined about 120 patients at a free blood check-up camp organised at Shri Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Dharamkot, near here today. The camp was inaugurated by Swami Surya Dev, a disciple of yoga guru Swami Ram Dev. Suresh Goel, chief coordinator of the camp, said out of the total 120 patients, 56 were found to be suffering from deficiency diseases.

Dr Gupta informed that shifting of traditional food pattern to modern has resulted in unavailability of some elements, deficiency of which causes various ailments. Anaemia was most prevalent out of these ailments, he claimed. Terming it as a “silent epidemic,” Dr Gupta said nine out of 10 adolescent girls, children and pregnant women in India were anaemic as per various statistics.

malwa diary
When poetry finds echo on canvas!

The memento presented to celebrity poet Mohan Aalok (extreme right) carried his sketch and poem. A Tribune photograph

Toom-10, an NGO founded by some eminent visual artists, has initiated efforts to vitalize poetry with supporting paintings and photographs.

Having successfully organised an exhibition titled 'Jugalbandi' at Hanumangarh a few months back, the NGO recently organised another exhibition with the help of a literary society,
Srijan, in Maharishi Dayanand College at Sriganganagar.

Eminent poet and academician Janak Raj Pareek, who inaugurated it, said such efforts are bound to open new vistas for the poets and artists in the region.

On display in the 'Jugalbandi' were some of the popular poems composed by the national and provincial Sahitya Akademi award recipient Mohan Aalok. The poems were supported by matching photographs clicked by Naveen Jain, a Haryana-born IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre besides excellent brush work by senior artists, namely, Mohinder Pratap Sharma, Rajinder Singh Suthar, Om Purohit 'Kagad', Radhey Shyam Koty and Ram Kishan 'Adig'.

The themes included black buck, sunset, flowers, thirsty crow, fire, spring, farming and sparrow in nest. Having retired after serving in the local municipal council, Aalok had not missed describing miseries of a clerk through his pen. This too was displayed along with a befitting painting.

Senior art critic Lalit Sharma and veteran poet Khazan Chand Kulesh recalled that Aalok had been one of the most popular Hindi poets who enthralled gatherings during Kavi Sammelans not only in Rajasthan but also in the Malwa region of Punjab till 1985.

However, he later concentrated on poetry in Rajasthani and was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi award. — Raj Sadosh

Villagers feel rejuvenated as RO plant results filter
in
Ravi Dhaliwal

Gidderbaha (Muktsar), August 2
“Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.”

This was the dilemma the residents of Gidderbaha sub-division were facing till the Punjab government, working in collaboration with a non-government organisation (NGO), set up a series of reverse osmosis (RO) plants in this non-descript township.

Jagdeep Kaur was a mental wreck and was bed-ridden because of the poor quality of drinking water she had to do with.

After the installation of an RO plant in her village at Gidderbaha, her health has improved significantly and now she performs all her household chores which earlier had to be consigned to the back burner.

Jagdeep Kaur’s is not an isolated case. Here the health of thousands of residents, many of them bed-ridden for years, is being revived just because of the good quality drinking water they are now getting. For these villagers, water has become the elixir of life. Such is the miracle wrought about by the RO plants in the area.

It was under the Shudh Jal Pariyojna scheme that RO plants were set up in 42 villages of Gidderbaha sub-division. The project is handled by a Hyderabad-based NGO-Naandi foundation and technology for these plants is provided by the Tata Project Limited. These plants were set up about 15 months ago and the results are now filtering in slowly but steadily. The prime function of these plants is to change hard and impure groundwater into safe drinking water.

Till these plants came up and rejuvenated the local populace, the residents consumed an alarmingly high dose of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). A survey revealed that the TDS count in Gidderbaha area was between a whopping 1500 to 9000 while the World Health Organisation prescribed limit pegs is at just 50-70. This high TDS count meant that the locals were drinking water which had a high dose of calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and bicarbonates. Experts opine that having all these substances in water was a prefect recipe for cancer.

This vital statistic unnerved the local MLA Manpreet Singh Badal who is also the Finance Minister. He urged the panchayats of the sub-division to donate land which they willingly did. Then he successfully urged the government to dole out a grant of Rs 4 crore for the project.

Once this was done, Badal got in touch with Naandi foundation and things, with the help of Tata Project Limited, started falling in place, much to the relief of the locals. That is the reason why Manpreet's name is taken with reverence in the area and in some villages where the incidence of cancer was abnormally high he is even regarded as the messiah of the poor.

Water in this community based scheme is sold at 10 paise per litre and people do not mind paying what Badal says is a “quality product.” He said, “the myth that people will not pay for quality services has been blow to smithereens.” He added that buoyed by the success of these plants, the state government had identified nearly 471 villages in Muktsar, Faridkot and Bathinda districts where such plants will be set up.