Moga, July 20
The Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) in association with the local Municipal Council (MC) has on Tuesday finally decided in principle to upgrade the existing indoor sports stadium and construct an open stadium on 12.5-acres of land in Moga at a cost of Rs 3.25 crore, the money for which would be raised by selling some booths and shops. The rest of the money would be handed back to the local body.

The meeting was presided over by Sarvjit Singh, chief administrator of the PUDA, in which divisional engineer of the PUDA, RK Jaidka, SL Lotey, assistant director of the sports department and Barjinder Singh Brar alias Makhan Brar, president of the Moga MC, were also present.

They all agreed to make it a state-of-the-art stadium for holding the national and state-level events. The works approved in the today’s meeting include factory seasoned wooden flooring inside the indoor stadium for badminton, basketball and table tennis games as per the sports standards, which would approximately cost Rs 80 lakh.

Barjinder Brar said the most interesting feature of this stadium as per the revised layout plan is that the PUDA has followed the latest guidelines of preserving the environment by planting hundreds of trees, raising grass beds and providing a proper system of rain harvesting by setting up a small lake to preserve the rain water.

Bathinda, July 20
There is virtually no response to the mandatory provision of rooftop rainwater harvesting in this parched Malwa region of Punjab mainly because of indifference of the government functionaries and lack of awareness among the masses.

Although rooftop rainwater harvesting has been made mandatory in most states of the country, but in the Malwa belt of Punjab, the rule was being observed more in defiance.

While construction activity was in full swing in the main cities of Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot, Barnala, Ferozepur and Moga, the builders generally avoid installing rooftop rainwater harvesting structures. Officials of the local bodies were also not keen to implement the provision that aims at recharging groundwater.

What to talk of private bungalows, the water harvesting concept has not been provided even in sprawling government buildings that have come up in the recent past or were under construction.

The sandy Malwa belt in the neighbourhood of Rajasthan and Haryana receives annual rainfall ranging between 38 to 48 cms.

The authorities in Punjab, where the problem of speedy depletion of groundwater has become a serious issue over the passage of time, have failed to learn any lesson from the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh where the rule for provision of rooftop rainwater harvesting has been made mandatory for each and every private and government building irrespective of size.

Top officers in the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) and municipalities of other towns feigned ignorance about the provision in building byelaws. Commissioner of BMC, Ravi Bhagat, admitted that the rule was being observed more in defiance. There was a need to create awareness about the concept, he said.

Deputy Mayor Tarsem Goyal expressed concern over the issue and stressed the need for strict implementation of the rule as the groundwater was depleting at a fast pace in Punjab and particularly in the Malwa belt where it has also got contaminated due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers.

He regretted that the rainwater was being allowed to flow waste in drains and the sewerage system. The waste water flowing out of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants that could be utilised for recharging groundwater was also flowing into the sewerage system of the towns, he added.

While in Punjab the building bye-laws were amended making it mandatory to install rainwater harvesting system in all buildings of above 200 square yards, the BMC has made it compulsory for all buildings on 500 square yards plots. However, this too has remained confined to the rulebooks and its implementation was nil.

Goyal said the rule could not be implemented in Bathinda, which is the main city of the Malwa belt, because due to a spurt in the price of land, the upcoming colonies had plots below the size of 200 square yards.

Hardly any initiative to create awareness on the issue was being taken by government agencies.

Announcing major amendments in the building byelaws in Punjab, local government minister Manoranjan Kalia had recently said that clubbing of plots for the purpose of constructing one unit with provision of rainwater harvesting system would be allowed.

Keeping in mind that the climate change was impacting resources of water, the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has urged the states to be pro-active in making the institutions adopt rooftop rainwater harvesting and promote artificially recharged ground water. The principle is to catch every drop where it falls.

A report of the CGWA indicated that no initiative was taken in the Malwa belt and particularly in the Muktsar district to create awareness and training for rooftop rainwater harvesting that would help recharge of groundwater.

Bathinda, July 20
A four-member team of the Central government, comprising secretary of the Central Water Commission Neeraj Kumar, Bala Subramanium (Animal Husbandry Department), Ajmer Singh (Surface Transport Department), and Mukesh Sharma (Finance Department), today visited the flood-affected areas in the Sardoolgarh sub-division of Mansa district.

The team visited Jhanda Khurd, Sardoolgarh, Bhunder, Sadhuwala and Kahnewala villages besides the Chandpura bandh.

The team members said they would submit their report regarding damages to the standing crops and houses in Punjab and Haryana to the Government of India through RP Nath, secretary, Home, Government of India.

It may be recalled that due to recent floods in the Ghaggar, standing crops on about 8,000 acres were reportedly damaged while 15 villages were affected adversely in the Mansa district.

Bhawna Garg, the secretary, National Disaster Management, Punjab, and Mansa DC Kumar Rahul accompanied the team. — TNS

Fazilka, July 20
The Congress workers of this area led by its former MLA, Mohinder Singh Rinwa, today extended a financial help of Rs 51,000 to the family members of Jarnail Singh, a jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who attained martyrdom while fighting the Maoists on June 27.

Jarnail Singh, who belonged to village Badha, located at the stone’s throw from this town, was the only breadwinner of his family. Jarnail Singh was cremated with guard of honour on July 1.

Rinwa, along with a section of leaders from the party, went to the house of Jarnail Singh and handed over the cheque to them.

“The Congress will make all efforts to find a suitable job for Baljeet Singh, son of Jarnail Singh, in any department of the Punjab government,” he assured.

He said he had promised the family members of Jarnail Singh that the Congressmen would be available for any kind of financial help whenever they would need it.

The family would not be allowed to face any kind of difficulty for arranging education for the daughters of Jarnail Singh, he added.

Sriganganagar, July 20
A teenaged girl was feared to have drowned near Tibbi town even as gushing Ghaggar waters crossed over to Pakistan through a border outpost near village Binjaur in Anoopgarh sub-division.

A resident of Tibbi, Nadeem Farukhi said scores of locals rushed to the Ghaggar river today in the morning as the family of Hem Raj Meghwal in ward number 13 informed that their daughter Kalwati (15) was feared drowned.

She had gone to harvest grass along with her mother at 9 am and slipped into the gushing waters while washing hands. Another resident Prabhu Ram said phone calls were made to the civil and police officials immediately but they took an hour to reach the site for rescue operations. Professional divers had not been able to locate the girl till evening.

Meanwhile, the BJP workers led by the district treasurer Kanshi Ram Godara toured the areas affected by the Ghaggar fury. They informed the district administration that brick lining of some canals too had been damaged besides intensive loss to standing crops and houses in some of the dhaanis (cluster of houses).

Fazilka, July 20
Three persons were killed in a road accident on the Fazilka- Jalalabad road here today late in the evening while another was seriously injured as two motorcycles collided head-on.

As per details, Kashmir Singh, a resident of village Chack Mauzam, Ramesh Kumar, a resident of village Subaj Ke and Surinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, residents of village Jodha Bhaini were going to their villages on two different motor-cycles.

As they reached near village Bagheke on the Fazilka-Jalalabad road, four kilometres from Jalalabad, their motorcycles collided head-on. The collision was so severe that all the four motorcyclists fell on the road and received fatal injuries on their head and other parts of the body. Two police personnel who were passing by through the road with the help of other passers by shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital in Jalalabad.

Ramesh Kumar and Surinder Singh succumbed to their injuries.

The two other seriously injured, Kashmir Singh and Jaswinder Singh, were being shifted to a private hospital in Muktsar. Kashmir Singh also succumbed to his injuries while on way to Muktsar.

The fourth seriously injured, Jaswinder Singh, is reported to have been admitted to a private hospital at Muktsar.

Bathinda, July 20
Under a Centre-sponsored scheme, upgradation of local Ayurvedic hospital for mainstreaming of the AYUSH (Ayurvedic, Yoga, Unani, Sidha, Homoeopathy) is on the cards. A project costing about Rs 37 lakh has been sent to the Director, Ayurveda, Punjab, for approval by the office of the District Ayurvedic and Unani Officer.

The office had received the project report on July 14 from the executive engineer (Civil), Punjab Health System Corporation, Patiala.

Dr HS Dhaliwal, the officiating District Ayurvedic and Unani Officer, said the new building would have an operation theatre, a sterilisation room, waiting hall, two wards for patients and two rooms for doctors. He said work would be completed within six months after it begins. The hospital would also have a yoga centre. Ayurvedic hospitals at Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur were selected for upgradation under the scheme.