Bathinda, August 10
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today handed over cheques worth Rs 8.50 lakh as ex-gratia to the families affected in the Jogi Nagar blast that had claimed six lives and left several injured on Saturday evening.

Expressing condolence with the bereaved families, the CM granted an ex-gratia amount of Rs one lakh for each death, out of the Chief Minister's Relief fund. Further, he awarded compensation (varying upon the gravity of damage) to people, whose houses sustained jerks due to the impact of blast. Further, Badal announced that the state government would bear the medical expenses of all those who sustained injuries in the blast. Meanwhile, he assured that the education expenses of the son of the deceased Nachhattar Singh, in whose house the blast took place, would also be borne by the state government.

However, the award of compensation amount failed to satisfy the affected families.

Karamjeet Kaur, who lost her husband and two daughters, asked the chief minister to grant her some more relief amount. Pleading before the CM, she did her best to convince him for lending an assurance of a job to her to help her eke out livelihood and ensure the upbringing of her sole surviving son but refraining from make any commitment, Badal said it was not possible for him.

When asked about the cause of the blast, which still remains a mystery for all, the chief minister said, “Various agencies were investigating the cause and hope they would ascertain it soon.”

Replying to a query related to the award of compensation to the flood victims, the chief minister flayed the union government for ill-treating Punjab. He said even after being aware of the calamity that affected hundreds of people of the state, the union government released not even a single penny till date. Later, the CM inspected various under construction/renovation projects, including the cycle path, Bir Talab deer park, the Central University (Ghudda) and directed the officials to speed up the pace of development.

During the visit, he laid the foundation stone of a Rs 1.5 crore worth urban health care centre at Paras Ram Nagar, also.

Further, he visited the bereaved family of a teacher, Sharan Deep Singh, and expressed grief over his demise.

Bathinda, August 10
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's visit today brought to the fore that the district leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party was at loggerheads.

The differences between the allies have ostensible become so deep that the whole district leadership of the BJP today boycotted the chief minister and remained at a distance from all his scheduled programmes.

Ironically, when the chief minister, accompanied by a number of SAD leaders, visited the blast affected families to hand over relief cheques, none of the BJP leaders accompanied him.

Later, a large number of district leaders of the BJP, including Improvement Trust chairman Ashok Bharti, senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal, district president BJP (urban) Sham Lal Bansal, assembled at the Paras Ram Nagar chowk and then visited the blast affected families, separately.

The two separate visits of SAD and BJP leaders created confusion at the blast site. Some BJP leaders were heard telling people there, "We are not on good terms with the local SAD leaders so we avoided coming with them in the morning."

It may be mentioned that despite being present in large numbers, the BJP leaders delivered gave nothing to the affected families except for an assurance to stand by them always.

Speaking to TNS, the BJP leaders said, "All this was done as a mark of protest. None of us were invited for the CM's visit, which was otherwise the duty of the constituency in- charge of SAD. We were left with no other option but to boycott as the district level leaders of the SAD always try to dominate and ignore us."

A few days back, all BJP councillors had skipped the inaugural ceremony of the single window system at the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) to lodge protest against the "high-handedness" of SAD councillors.

The repetition of such incidents is being seen as a challenge for the SAD to win the coming assembly polls from Bathinda constituency, which they had earlier lost to the Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi.

Bathinda, August 10
Gearing up for the festival of rakhi -- the celebration of thread of love -the India Post have made special arrangements to ensure sure, secure and on-time delivery for these bonds of love.

Besides introducing an elegantly designed envelope made of 'good' quality paper, the postal department is issuing instructions to its staff for making rakhi sending a hassle-free experience to every customer.

For making the emotional experience of 'sending and receiving rakhi' a pleasant one, the India Post has come up with beautifully designed envelopes which carry pictures of rakhi on it. Further, the rakhis are made up of good quality paper that make the envelope water resistant to some extent and could prevent the same from wear and tear.

The envelopes, postal officials said, will cost Rs five (postage extra) and has been made in such a way as to bear rice and other such items, that people generally put in envelopes along with rakhi.

Postal officials said that to ensure secure and on-time delivery of rakhi, such mails would be separated from others and would also be handled on a priority basis. Envelopes could be sent through letter post, registered post or speed post.

Postal officials said that like every year, the staff are being instructed to guide and help customers in the packing of envelopes.

Customers could also use any envelope for sending rakhi but the envelope should be made of good quality paper to ensure secure delivery, suggested the officials. There should not be sharp and pointed items in envelopes that could tear it, they added.

As far as the charges are concerned, Rs five would be charged to send a 20 gram weight envelope in India through ordinary post while for sending abroad, Rs 25 will be charged for 20 grams. Importantly, the charges for sending rakhi aboard vary from country to country and the nature of mail preferred like registered or speed post.

Ferozepur, August 10
The construction of the local circuit house has created a history of sorts as it took 15 years for its completion, three years more than the 12 years period in which Bhakra Nangal Dam, the world’s second highest straight gravity dam built across the river Sutlej on the boundary of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, was completed. The circuit house in this border town, which was to be completed in ten months, took about 180 months for its completion. The Punjab government had to spend more than Rs four crores on its construction against its original cost of Rs 1.59 crores.

The foundation stone of the circuit house, which has been equipped with VVIPs suits, VIP suits, conference hall, dormitories, servant quarters and subordinate rest house and which would be formally inaugurated by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the eve of Independence day, was laid down by slain Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995.

“If the authorities concerned take 15 years to construct a cover area of just 25531 square feet then how Punjab would be able to meet the pace of development, which has been going on in its neighbouring states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh,” asked Parminder Singh, media in-charge, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.

He added that the state government must take those to task, who were responsible for criminal delay in its completion.

Information gathered by the TNS revealed that about Rs 92 lakh was given by the Punjab government at the time when its foundation stone was laid in 1995. With the change of guard in 1997 in Punjab, the funds were not allocated for its completion. Again a new estimate was made in 2009 and funds were sanctioned for its completion. In the past 15 years, the state government had to spend Rs 2.5 crores more than on the completion of the circuit house than its original cost.

“Paucity of funds was the main problem in completion of this building, basic structure of which was erected in 1995-96. There was no politics involved behind the ignorance of this project,” claimed a senior functionary of Public Works Department and Building and Roads.

Bathinda, August 10
After receiving a female baby just five days ago, the panghura (cradle) of the District Red Cross Society got another female baby today in the afternoon.

About a 15-day-old girl child was found in the Panghura at about 2 pm. Soon, the principal of the Mahant Gurbanta Dass Deaf and Dumb School, Maninder Bhalla, along with the attendant of the cradle, Sonia, took the baby to the local Civil Hospital reportedly in an ambulance of a local NGO, Naujawan Welfare Society, for medical examination and treatment of the child.

Talking to The Tribune at the Civil Hospital here, president of the Naujwan Welfare Society Sonu Maheshwari said the family members of the baby had been approaching the society for the past one week to hand over the child to it, but the society suggested them to put the child in panghura.

Maheshwari said the society would not disclose details about the family as it had made a promise to the family. However, he said the family had already two girls and was unable to bring up the third one due to its poor financial condition. He claimed that the society had already brought the matter to the notice of the deputy commissioner, Bathinda.

Dr Satish Jindal, a child specialist in the Women and Children's Hospital here, after examining the child, said the female baby, about 12 to 15 days old, had been suffering from mild jaundice, otherwise, she was okay. He said that if the child's health condition remained good then she would be discharged tomorrow morning after administering BCG and Hepatitis-B injections and polio drops. He also said her weight was 2.5 kg when she had been brought to the hospital. He also took an impression of her left foot on the admission file.

Earlier, on August 6, a one-day old girl child was left by in the panghura. The baby has been handed over to Patiala-based Yadvindra Puran Bal Niketan, a government approved organisation, by the secretary of the Bathinda District Red Cross Society (DRCS) JR Goyal at Patiala today.

The panghura was set up in February 2009 by the DRCS for accepting unwanted abandoned babies outside the Mahant Gurbanta Dass Deaf and Dumb School on Goniana road, here.

Bathinda, August 10
The Punjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU) today warned the Badal government that if it failed to implement the demands of the ministerial staff (clerical cadre) soon, then the state executive body of the union would decide and chalk out a new action programme at its meeting on August 21 at Patiala.

Talking to The Tribune here today, state president of the union Darshan Singh Bajaj said the government was dilly-dallying for the past several months. He said the government had even accepted some of their demands in principle, but it was not initiating steps to implement the same.

Bajaj said this was the reason why the ministerial staff had been resorting to rallies and dharnas to awake the state government, but it seemed that the government was not paying attention towards their demands.

He said the union members today also held rallies at all district headquarters, except Ferozepur, to remind the government about their demands.

The demands of the union include payment of arrears of new pay-scales for 43 months, grant of pay-scale of B. Ed. teacher to clerk, impart computer training to the clerks at all district headquarters, grant of education allowance to all employees, grant of house rent at the rate of 20 per cent to the employees of Bathinda and Patiala cities, and mobile allowance.

Today's dharna, organised by the district unit of the PSMSU outside the Mini-secretariat here, was addressed among others by Darshan Singh Bajaj, district president of the union Gurdev Singh Kot Fatta, district general secretary Sukhpal Singh Sidhu, Ashok Kumar Chopra, Khushkaran Singh, Kewal Bansal and Meharjit Singh.

Bathinda, August 10
With the whitefly (a pest) attack on the Bt variety of cotton seeds, the (cotton) growers of this region feel a cheated lot, this season.

Accusing the pesticide dealers of being the reason for all their woes, they claim to have sown Bt cotton as it was termed a completely pest-free variety but it proved wrong when it got attacked by whitefly. Further, they allege that acting upon the dealers' prescription, they wasted a lot of time and money in spraying unapproved varieties of pesticides as it could not check the multiplication of the pest.

Whitefly, a pest (nymph and adult) sucks the sap from below the surface of leaves and also extracts honey dew from the leaves, which later on develop a sooty mould and ultimately result in the blackening of the leaves. The insect also transmit leaf curl virus in cotton crop.

Speaking to farmers of Bathinda and Mansa districts, it was observed that the pest attack was taking place on the cotton plants in scattered pockets of the region.

Farmers rued that immediately after observing the attack of whitefly, they informed the dealers from whom they had bought the cotton seeds, with the guarantee of pest-free crop. However, pacifying the farmers, dealers suggested to them to spray some self-prescribed pesticide mixtures, which too proved to be a futile exercise.

“We were cheated as initially the Bt quality of cotton seeds was costlier this season, then the climate remained unfavourable for us. Further, the whitefly attacked the plants. Even after witnessing all odds, we resorted to spraying pesticides but that too was a mere wastage of money as the pest is still multiplying day by day,” said an elderly farmer Karam Singh, whose fields are located on Talwandi Sabo-Maur road.

Parkash Chand of Lehari village said, “When the pesticide failed in weeding out the whitefly, I complained to the dealer in Talwandi Sabo. But instead of admitting his fault, he passed the buck on to me saying the way we sprayed the pesticide was inappropriate.”

When contacted, director, PAU regional research station, Bathinda, Dr GS Buttar said he was aware of the menace that some dealers were looting farmers by prescribing wrong combination of the pesticides.

Giving advice to the cotton growers, Buttar urged them to stop using insecticide mixtures and insecticides not approved for controlling this pest. “Farmers must visit their fields twice a week before 10 am to check the incidents of whitefly attack. If the whitefly population reaches six over a leaf or some honey dew appears on the leaves of half the total population of plants, the crop should immediately be sprayed with Hostathion 40 EC (triazophos) or Ethion under any of the three PAU approved brands-Volthion, E-mite and Fosmite," he suggested. Further, he asked farmers to report the matter to the PAU and the state agriculture department, if the pesticide dealers misguide them.

Fazilka, August 10
It seems that the administration has come out of hibernation after appearing of the report in media that dead fish were found in the pond of the canal-based drinking water supply project.

The district and local health department and the public health department swung into action and have taken nine water samples from the pond in the last 24 hours.

The health department team of the district Ferozepur led by the assistant civil surgeon Dr DP Godra inspected the site with other officials of the health department and municipal council.

They took water samples from the canal from where the water is supplied to the pond. Another two samples were taken from the pond and purified water.

While talking to this correspondent, Dr Godara said the samples have been sent to the government laboratory, Chandigarh, to verify its purity level.

The local team of the health department led by Dr YK Gupta, senior medical officer, civil hospital and the public health department each took three samples and sent them for analysis.

Dr Godara said the report of the samples taken would be received within three weeks. Meanwhile, the Municipal Council authorities have cleaned up the area in the vicinity of the drinking water project. Municipal Council officials have also cleaned the pond water.

Godara has directed the MC authorities to carry out proper chlorination of pond water periodically, from where the drinking water is supplied to the town residents. The residents feel the necessity of raising a boundary wall around the project to maintain proper sanitation.

Fazilka, August 10
Financial Commissioner (Rural and Panchayat Department), Punjab, while amending his earlier orders, has now directed to uphold the allotment of 98 kanal seven marlas land out of a total of 201 kanal six marla land of village Chaurianwali panchayat.

The land was donated by the village panchayat to Shri Bhagwan Mahavir Charitable Trust Fazilka in 2001 for the construction of Guru Atam Valabh Jain Institute of Technology and Management building.

It was decided through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the panchayat and the Trust that the latter would complete the construction of the college within three years.

However, the trust could not complete the construction within the stipulated period.

Ultimately, the villagers raised objection that since the trust could not complete the construction of the building within the stipulated period, so the allotment of land be cancelled.

Bathinda, August 10
Sleuths of Vigilance Bureau, Bathinda range, today nabbed one ziledar (canal) of Teona village while accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 for announcing turn of water.

The SSP (VB) SS Chahal said the ziledar in question, Amarjeet Singh was trapped on the complaint of one Tara Singh of village Bajak.

The accused was booked under various sections of the PC Act.

Moga, August 10
A middle-aged man died a few hours after he was beaten up in a clash between two groups.

As per police sources, Jasbir Singh, Paramjit Singh and Kuldip Singh came to Kussa village near Badhni Kalan in Moga district to sort out the issue of Harpreet Singh, a youth and their relative who was in love with a girl of this village. They all went to Manpreet Singh, uncle of the girl. However, they clashed with each other. Manpreet Singh and Jasbir Singh were injured in the clash and were admitted to the hospital last night. Jasbir succumbed to his injuries.

The police has registered a cross case against both the parties. Harpreet and Paramjit have been arrested while others were still eluding arrest, sources said.