Mansa, September 4
Teachers giving lesson to students is normal! Here is the story of a role-reversal, which was enacted in Gehle village of Mansa district some six-years ago when tiny-tots gave their teacher a lesson of her life time.

A 36-year-old ETT teacher, Harpal Kaur of Mansa has made a commitment to herself that she would enable the poverty-ridden kids live a normal life. After performing her duty at the school, she visits a slum area located on Thoothian Wali road and spends about two hours with the children there. She imparts them the basics of education.

When asked what made her to take this challenge, she replied, “About a couple of years ago, my son had lost about 70 per cent visibility, due to which I went into depression. One day, I saw a number of my students coming to the school barefooted. Surprised, I asked the reason for the same and came to know that they had been visiting temple and gurdwara for past couple of days to pray for my son’s early recovery. Their prayers and wishes resulted in a miracle. My son regained the visibility within few months.”

“But the devotion of pure-hearted students raised a question before me. I found myself very small in front of them when I asked myself that what was the objective of my life and what I did for the society,” she recounted.

“After pondering over for some days, I made a commitment to myself that I will dedicate a bit of my life to the children living in slum area. Initially, I started with arranging health check-up camps. But later, I realised that due to limited resources I might impart them basic education, which could help them in leading a good life,”

“Since that day, I am particular about my routine. The changes that have developed in the behaviour of my students, who live in slums, satisfies me to a great extent as this is what I had committed to myself,” she claimed.

Bathinda, September 4
“Cyber-age society seeking eco-friendly buildings for sustainable comfortable life has to turn towards Indian traditional wisdom,” said eminent architect, researcher and academician Yatin Pandya. He added that our past was still relevant for us for making eco-friendly and comfortable buildings. “India has had 6,000 years of traditional wisdom to create humane and environmentally sensitive buildings,” he claimed.

Delivering the key note address at national seminar on Green Building Philosophy here on Saturday, Pandya said it was a myth that making green buildings was a costly affair.

The seminar was organised by Chief Engineer, Bathinda Zone, Military Engineering Services (MES), under the aegis of Chief Engineer, South West Command, in association with the Institute of Engineers, Bathinda, at Bahia Resort here.

Pandya said there was no formula for ensuring sustainability. Green building was a concept and philosophy of living in harmony with a place and its people, he added.

Eminent scholars and experts from government organisations, institutions building construction, industry and others attended the day-long seminar. Aparna Dixit and Vivek Dixit, green building designers and practising architects from Pune, spoke on the elements of green building concepts.

Earlier, Lt Gen K Surendra Nath, GOC, 10 Corps, inaugurated the seminar. The GOC emphasised the need of cleaner and green environment. He called upon architects to design such buildings that could be instrumental in environment conservation.

Chief engineer, South Western Command, Maj Gen Balwinder Singh said green buildings were environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout their life cycle. Speakers said the green building concept and its execution reduces the impact on environment by using energy, water and natural resources efficiently; protecting occupant health; reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation.

Senior army officials, including chief engineer, MES, Bathinda Zone, Brig SB Vajramatti, academicians, practising architects, builders, officers from MES, Guru Nanak Dev Thermal plant, NFL and others attended the seminar. Students from Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology here were also present.

A large number of new building construction materials, including green products, were displayed at the exhibition organised on the sidelines of seminar.

Bathinda, September 4
With the arrest of an ex-serviceman, the police today claimed to have unearthed a scam involving fake driving licences. It is learnt that acting upon a trip-off, the Canal Colony police nabbed ex-serviceman Sukhdev Singh, who runs a photostat shop, on the charges of making fake driving licences and issuing them to Army officials and jawans besides civilians.

During the raid, the police recovered four fake driving licenses, 30 blank licence forms along with six stamps related to district transport officer and motor vehicle authority.

Police officials claimed that during interrogation, the accused admitted to having prepared about 2,000 fake driving licences, which he had sold for Rs 1,000-1500 each.

Bathinda, September 4
The Punjab State Farmers Commission (PSFC) has approved of 61 agriculture service centres to be set up in multi-purpose agricultural cooperative societies of this district.

As many as 24 agriculture service centres will be set up in Bathinda Tehsil, 27 in Phul Tehsil and 10 in Talwandi Sabo Tehsil. Each centre will be given 33 per cent subsidy on the purchase of agriculture machinery and implements costing Rs 10 lakh.

There are a total of 178 agricultural cooperative societies in the district and 42 of them already have agriculture service centres. With 61 more such centres coming up in the district, the total number of such centres will rise to 103.

Under the scheme, it is compulsory for a cooperative society to buy a tractor and laser land leveller. Out of rota-vator, trolley, Happy Seeder and cultivator harrow disc, the society can buy two implements.

Deputy Registrar (DR), Cooperative Societies, Bathinda, Harbant Singh Jatana said the cooperative societies would establish newly-approved centres by October 31. He said the cases of the remaining cooperative societies for setting up such centres would be forwarded to the PSFC as and when a resolution in this regard was received from these.

Farmers, who cannot afford costly agriculture machinery or implements, can hire tractor, laser land leveller and other agriculture implements from the centre. The state government launched the scheme to reduce agriculture costs and help small farmers.

Abohar, September 4
Hundreds of students may not appear in the supplementary exams scheduled to start on Monday owing to the ‘negligence’ on the part of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) that has not so far supplied roll number-cum-admit cards to them.

The students including Shimla Rani, Asha Rani, Rakesh Kumar, Bimla Devi, Raj Rani, Ashish, Ashok, Daya Ram, Devi Lal and Vinod Kumar visited the local depot of the PSEB here today to collect the admit cards. The staff asked them to collect it from Chandigarh, head-office of the PSEB. The students alleged that their examination forms had been misplaced by the local staff.

Depot manager Gurmeet Singh refuting the allegations said one Rajeev Kumar had deposited the forms at Chandigarh but some technical snag in the computer prevented inclusion of their roll numbers on the website of the PSEB.

Sriganganagar, September 4
The political controversy over arranging a BSF boat for cremation of an elderly woman has prompted the administration to provide a boat to facilitate movement of the residents of the border village Purana Binjaur that remained inundated with the Ghaggar water for more than three weeks.

Last Sunday, senior BJP leader Dr OP Mohindra, former deputy chief in the Vasundhra Raje-led BJP government, claimed that he pursued the BSF authorities to provide a patrolling boat from the BoP Majnu (border outpost) to enable the aggrieved family to carry the body of Charanjit Kaur for cremation outside village Purana Binjaur.

However, he had to cut a sorry figure as husband of the deceased woman came up with a statement clarifying that the boat was actually arranged by the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Kuldeep Indora,

Tehsildar Prahlad Chand Meena informed today that the administration had put a boat at the disposal of the village panchayat now to facilitate movement of the people for urgent work.

Abohar/Sriganganagar, September 4
Anguished over killing of 23 birds (titars) at village Mala Rampura, located in the neighbouring area of Rajasthan, a team of the Akhil Bhartiya Jeev Raksha Bishnoi Sabha led by Rajinder Poonia, state vice-president (Punjab), rushed to express solidarity with the regional office-bearers there and joined the struggle seeking stern action against the poachers, who allegedly belonged to Lambi and Ram Mandi.

The sabha will assist the law officials in contesting the case, sources said.

The police confirmed having arrested Rajinderpal and Manpreet of village Danakhera (Lambi), Jashanjot Singh of village Attarsinghwala and Sukhman Singh of Ratangarh-Kanakwala (Rama Mandi) under section 9/51 of the Forest and Wild Life Preservation Act and 27 Arms Act.

The Tata Safari used by the alleged poachers has also been seized, investigating official Jai Singh Dahiya said.

A case has been registered on the basis of the statement of Vinod Kumar Bishnoi and Satpal Bishnoi. — OC

Ferozpur, September 4
To support the demand of reservation for Jats in the OBC category, the ‘Rath Yatra’ being organised by the All India Jat Reservation Samiti today reached here where members of the Jat Community belonging to Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims welcomed the yatra and organised a rally outside Dana Mandi in the city area.

Karnail Singh Bhawra, state president of the samiti said the rally was addressed by Yashpal Malik, national president besides other senior leaders of the Jat Community.

Malik said on September 13, the samiti will organise ‘Jat Chetavani Divas’ under which protest rallies will be held at 60 venues across the country.