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Ruckus at Balluana rly station
Water Woes |
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Discrepancy in weighing wheat
Dental programme held
BSNL staff call off strike after assurance from Centre
Huge arrival of wheat chokes grain markets
Wheat bags await lifting in Abohar
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Robbery at jeweller’s house sparks off protest
Students in dilemma over wrong translation
Cong chief whip lauds PM for ‘pathbreaking measures’
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Ruckus at Balluana rly station
Bathinda, April 20 The arrested persons, reportedly labourers working for a private railway contractor, allegedly created a ruckus at the Balluana station, caused threat to life to train passengers, disrupted rail movement besides misbehaving with Train Ticket Examiners (TTE) after being fined for ticketless travelling. The RPF had registered a case against 100 unidentified persons under several sections of the Railway Act including section 141 for pulling chain, 145 creating nuisance, 146 obstructing railway employees in working, 153 causing threat to life to train passengers -a non-bailable offence - and 174 for disrupting rail movement. The RPF team led by Post Commander, Bathinda, MK Panwar, arrested 67 persons in connection with the case till Monday night and on Tuesday, the accused were produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bathinda, AS Virk. The court sent the accused to judicial custody till May 4. Confirming the development, Post Commander MK Panwar told TNS on Tuesday evening that all the accused were kept at the Railway Institute here on Monday night and brought to the court in a private bus today. Perhaps for the first time, the RPF has arrested such a large number of persons in connection with a case. Senior officials of the railway said that the action by the RPF would serve as a deterrent for many who consider railway as a soft target. It may be mentioned that railway has always been at a receiving end during any sort of agitation by any organisation. "Disruption of train movement by protesters has become a routine affair nowadays. Such action will convey the message that anyone who causes loss to railway property, hinder railway service etc, will invite stringent action," railway officials said. |
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Water Woes
Abohar, April 20 The SDE of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB) opted to send a junior engineer to appear on his behalf during the hearing of the application that had been filed by a consumer. While deciding the application under section 22-(b) (IV), Adalat chairman Amarjit Singh Katari and member Dr RL Taneja had on December 14, 2009 issued specific directions but none has so far been complied with, regrets Sat Pal Khariwal, chairman of the Consumer Movement and district president of the RTI Activists Association, Punjab, even after a lapse of four months. A perusal of the six-page award (a copy of which is available with this correspondent) reveals that the Adalat directed that potable drinking water as per the ISI specifications be provided to the residents of Abohar, water storage tanks should be cleaned fortnightly to ensure that they are free of any contamination, all sources of contamination of water in the tanks should be checked and samples of water should be drawn fortnightly and their reports from the bacteriologist should be made public. The Adalat had directed the District Health Officer to take at least one sample of water from each ward. He took 31 samples out of which nine failed the test. The record of the PWSSB was examined by the Adalat. It showed that the PWSSB had no stock of lime and bleaching powder for treating the water on some occasions. The PWSSB had not challenged the assertions of the applicant (Krishan Kumar) that water pipes (that too are a source of contamination of water) are eroded and leaking. A visit to the old waterworks, located opposite the main bus stand, indicates that the floor beds and side walls of the outlived storage tanks remained choked for more than 15 years. The Municipal Council has earmarked its garbage dump depot close to the boundary wall of the waterworks. Not only fish were found dead in the tanks many a time but citizens prefer to commit suicide by jumping into these tanks. Dead animals too were fished out on some occasions. The new waterworks located near the sub-canal has also been surrounded by wild shrub growth and garbage dumps. The cash strapped municipal council has failed in performing its statutory duty to supply alum and bleaching powder regularly, sources in the PWSSB said. No major grant has been received during the past three years for renovating water and sewerage system. And also, most soda water factories, some of them unlicensed, are now using groundwater to prepare lemon soda, the favourite soft drink in summer, a survey conducted recently indicated. There had been no check on the factories in preparing ice using contaminated water. Adulterated soft drinks, ice candies are being sold in and outside educational institutions besides residential areas. The groundwater in Abohar is high in sodium content, the experts had confirmed occasionally. (To be concluded) |
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Discrepancy in weighing wheat
Bathinda, April 20 According to information collected, the matter came to light, when some farmers alleged that a firm—Madan Enterprises, Mandi Kalan—- was cheating them of two kg per quintal by overweighing the grains, while purchasing from them. But the owners and staff of the firm settled the matter with the farmers and their leaders on Monday. However, irked, a farmer captured the whole incident in his video-enabled mobile phone and brought it to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda. It was said that the accountant of the firm in question had confessed the mischief in the video. Acting upon the allegation, the DC marked an inquiry to the District Mandi Officer and asked to take appropriate action in this regard. Probing the matter, the DMO found the firm to be guilty and suspended the licence of the firm for four days. Talking to the media, DMO Gursewak Singh confirmed that following the legal formalities, the licence of the firm had been suspended for the next four days after which the owners of the firm would have to pay fine, which is yet to be imposed. He disclosed that it was not for the first time that the allegation was levelled against the firm. Earlier too, the firm had been slapped a fine for the same lapse, he added. Meanwhile, sources in the Mandi Board informed that the aggrieved farmers have apprised the principal secretary to chief minister Darbara Singh Guru, who was here on Monday, during his visit to inspect wheat procurement measures. |
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Dental programme held
Bathinda: The Bathinda branch of the Indian Dental Association (IDA) conducted a full day continuing dental education (CDE) programme on 3-D endodontics about new techniques of root canal treatment (RCT) at the local Civil Lines club on April 18. The information was given by honorary secretary of the IDA Bathinda Dr BD Puri. The speaker at the programme was Dr Anil Dhingra from New Delhi. President of the Association Dr Meena Gupta, president-elect Dr Amnish Singh and treasurer Dr Jatinder Singh were also present. —
TNS |
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BSNL staff call off strike after assurance from Centre
Bathinda, April 20 However, they called off their protest late in the afternoon following information concerning assurance from the Union Ministry of looking into the matter. The strike call was given by a joint forum of unions that has both executives and non-executives as members. The work was affected in the initial hours today at many BSNL offices here while in many offices employees were found working. Customer care centre at the BSNL office at Bharat Nagar here was affected. The indoor and outdoor work of the company was also hit for some hours. Tara Singh Brar, district secretary of the Sanchar Nigam Executive Association told TNS today in the evening that the strike had been called off after assurance from the union minister during a meeting with the leaders of the unions in New Delhi today. Manohar Lal, Jaswant Singh Sandhu and others members of the employees union were also present at the dharna in front of BSNL’s Bharat Nagar office. The staff were protesting against the VRS and divestment proposals of the Sam Pitroda Committee’s recommendations, which suggests voluntary retirement (VRS) to 1 lakh employees and 30 per cent disinvestment as part of improving the financial health of the PSU. Ferozepur: Hundred of BSNL employees under the joint action forum on Tuesday resorted to indefinite strike against the implementation of the recommendations made by Sam Pitroda Committee which were submitted to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The protesting employees said that the recommendations of Sam Pitroda were not in the interest of the department and its employees. Ajay Jindal, Jagan Nath, Baljit Singh, Madan Mohan, Ajay Kumar, Davinder Singh besides other leaders said that they would not allow the government to disinvest 30 per cent share. Unbundling of copper cable network would also be opposed, they said. |
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Huge arrival of wheat chokes grain markets
Moga, April 20 The Punjab government claims that the state is expecting to cross the mark of 115 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, which was procured last year. As per the figures available, the government agencies and private millers had procured more than 69.02 lakh metric tonnes of wheat till last evening as compared to 64.37 lakh metric tonnes in previous year on this day. Out of total procurement of 69.02 lakh metric tonnes of wheat in all the procurement centres, the government agencies had procured 68.90 lakh metric tonnes (99.8 per cent), whereas, private traders procured just 11,468 metric tonnes (0.2 per cent) of wheat. Interestingly, out of the total of 69.02 lakh metric tonnes of wheat arrival, as much as 38 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was yet to be lifted by all the agencies. The highest stock of wheat harvest yet to be lifted is lying in the border district of Ferozepur, which stands at 4-lakh metric tonnes followed by Taran Taran district 3.36-lakh metric tonnes, Patiala 3.2 lakh metric tonnes, Ludhiana 2.15 lakh metric tonnes and Moga 2.13 lakh metric tonnes. The basic reason for non-lifting is the sudden arrival of the foodgrains during the past one week. The daily arrival of wheat in the state at present stands at around seven lakh metric tonnes while the same figures stood at around 5.74 lakh metric tonnes, last year during these days. District Mandi Officer of Moga RS Dhaliwal revealed to The Tribune that the daily arrival of wheat in all the markets of the district is at around 65,000 metric tonnes. As against this, at least, 45,000 metric tonnes of wheat is being lifted daily due to limited resources. “The gap is due to sudden arrival of the foodgrains,” he said. District Magistrate of Moga Satwant Singh Johal said that even as the arrival of foodgrains is beyond expectations there appears to be no problem with lifting within the limited available resources. “We have set up a control room at the district-level to report any problem that is solved immediately, besides, negotiating with all the truck unions to provide their services for this task,” he added. Overall, the state government has set up 1,650 procurement centres and activated its total machinery to ensure smooth procurement of wheat. |
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Wheat bags await lifting in Abohar
Abohar, April 20 The purchasing agencies had engaged separate contractors but shortage of labour has upset the arrangements. The apex body of daily wage earners is believed to be the trouble shooter as its office-bearers do not permit the contractors to deploy local labour. The ADC had left for some rural centres that were expected to be visited by the senior officials from Chandigarh, the district heads of some departments were waiting for the representatives of the labour contractors at the time of filing of this report. |
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Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Mansa, April 20 Further, to enhance the level of self-confidence as well as a sense of security among the girls, a grant of Rs 5,000 each was released to 100 schools of this remote district, out of which, 59 schools used the amount for karate training of 3614 girls and the rest of the 41 schools utilized it on educational tours. Besides, the authorities concerned arranged some special tours of different locations inside and outside the state. As many as 7,972 girls of 175 schools participated in them and enriched their knowledge. Arranging for LCDs and projectors, the district education department also displayed Meena CD to 23,381 girls of primary and upper primary schools, to make them aware of the present system. Further, under the SC/ST activity, the officials promoted vocational education in 130 schools, where about 10,060 girl students of sixth, seventh and eighth classes availed of the benefit. Giving details, District Gender Coordinator (SSA) Raj Joshi said, "Despite such initiatives, we observed that girls were still lagging far behind in enjoying their fundamental rights. To bridge that gap, we arranged various social and constitutional awareness camps for the primary and upper primary girl students." Further, he informed that the department honoured
147 students of different classes for their academic achievements. Meanwhile, the girls, who attained the top three positions, were awarded with cash prizes through the deputy commissioner. Speaking about the experience during the year-long efforts, the district project coordinator of the SSA, Darshan Singh Dhillon said, “Though the results proved to be effective, we still have to do a lot to generate a demand in the community for girls' education.” “We are motivating parents as well as the community at large to create the push factors necessary to guarantee girls' education as this is the basic requirement to make the district develop in the real sense,” added Dhillon. |
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Robbery at jeweller’s house sparks off protest
Sriganganagar/Abohar, April 20 As per details, the thieves entered the house of a jeweller Sher Amir Singh Beer under the pretext of collecting donation to arrange langar at a gurdwara. The police visited the house after half an hour. SP Rupinder Singh also visited the house. The Chamber of Commerce leaders said that if the police failed in nabbing the robbers by April 26, they would stage protest. The SP informed that a case under sections 394, 342, 458 of the IPC had been registered. — OC |
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Students in dilemma over wrong translation
Abohar, April 20 A perusal of the question paper for MA History (I) sub-code 1299 exam code 159 conducted recently reveals that the students who chose English as medium were to explain the compulsory question. What was the cold war? How did it affect America? Surprisingly, the question for the students of Hindi and Punjabi medium was wrongly translated and they were asked to explain what the civil war was? How did it affect America? —
OC |
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Cong chief whip lauds PM for ‘pathbreaking measures’
Ferozepur, April 20 Stating this, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, chief whip of the Congress in Punjab Vidhan Sabha and MLA, Guru Har Sahai, said during his six years tenure, the PM had taken the country to the level where all the developed, developing and world powers had started looking towards India for its support on major issues concerning the global community. “The signing of nuclear deal to make India surplus in energy sectors in a decade or so and participation in Nuclear Security Summit, held in the United States (US) in the recent past is a strong evidence of the fact that the country has acquired highly respectable place in the world,” Sodhi said adding that by bringing the Right to Information Act (RTI), NAREGA and Right to Education Act (RTE), a new revolution had been initiated on the domestic front. The first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru laid the foundation of foreign policy of India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made that policy to start Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi started the concept of better and cordial relations with the neighbourer while keeping the esteem of the country paramount, he said. Stepping further on the Indian foreign policy, the PM had taken the country into that orbit where President Barack Obama of the US, a superpower in the unipolar world, gave importance to the fact that Obama must have one to one meeting with Indian PM on issues connected with security against terrorism across the globe. “He is the only PM, who has been managing to implement the policies, programmes and planning of the UPA government for the past six years without fail. His economic wisdom managed to bring the country out of recession,” said Sodhi. |
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All the 67 persons arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Bathinda, for allegedly causing threat to life to train passengers besides creating a ruckus.
Abohar, April 20
Bathinda, April 20
