Bathinda, October 12
Drenched in festivities which fall this month, the city is swarming with activities and so are the flies on the heaps of garbage accumulated at prime spots in the city.

In a city that produces 110 tonnes of garbage everyday, the piles of waste material lying in markets and public places, have become an eyesore. The Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a brigade of sweepers including 501 permanent ones, 381 temporary sweepers while 75 are those who have been given rehris (wagon) but do not get a salary.

Of these 957 employees, around 100 work as servants in the residences of the deputy commissioner, police officials including the DIG and SSP, Mayor, commissioner, assistant commissioner, judicial officials and even in the houses of retired BMC employees like clerk and storekeepers, who left their respective jobs ten years ago. Most of the municipal councillors too have sweepers working in their homes as servants and drawing salary from the corporation.

Krishan Kumar Garg, who has been one of the most vocal municipal councilors, said that two employees, namely, Mango Devi and Raj Rani (who draw more than Rs 15,000 per month) work as maidservants at the house of the MC Health Officer Dr Ajay Gupta, who is paid Rs 6,000 for his part-time job.

However, Dr Ajay Gupta, who lives in Patel Nagar, said that no BMC employee has ever come to work at his home. "I am a part-time medical officer with the corporation and I do not have any MC sweeper coming to my house," he added.

Of the remaining 857, around 50 are busy doing odd jobs. These 50 include 17 acting mates, 20 drivers while 13 have been entrusted the job of cleaning the corporation office.

Also, another set of around 55 people sweep the judicial complex and another set of 32 employees sweep the Mini-secretariat.

"This leaves us with less than 750 people to clean the 50 wards under the corporation. Above all, there are just 200 wagons for 802 sweepers of the MC. There is neither adequate infrastructure nor enough staff to deal with a city that has expanded beyond imagination," said Gora Lal, the president of the BMC Safai Sewak Union.

One of the sweepers said that being a hot spot for political activities, Bathinda and its nearby areas always witness VIP movement. At times, either the chief minister or the deputy chief minister or the Bathinda MP keeps visiting the nearby areas. "In either case, people from Bathinda are sent to sweep and clean the areas where the VIPs are supposed to come. Even if the CM has to visit Kaljharani, our people go to clean the premises. Why do the officials forget as to who will do the work of those who are being sent away," rued one of the sweepers.

Bathinda, October 12
As the festival of Diwali is approaching, an apprehension, regarding the preparation of sweets from spurious or adulterated khoya, has started developing in the minds of the people. In view of this, the district health authorities have not only started creating awareness among the masses, but are also collecting samples of the sweets.

As part of its campaign against the preparation of spurious or adulterated sweets, the health staff today collected some samples of the sweets, including kalakand, barfi and rasgulla from Bharat Nagar chowk, Sau Footi road and Guru Nanakpura etc.

Following the complaints regarding the preparation of spurious khoya and sweets during the festival season in 2010, the district health authorities had collected 26 samples of various sweets, prepared by the sellers, from various parts of the district.

However, of these 26 samples, six had failed the tests. The authorities have filed cases in the court against three, whose samples had failed the tests, while three cases are yet to be filed in the court.

The sweets, whose samples failed the tests, included items like khoya, milk cake, barfi, gulab jamun and cheese.

It may be mentioned that on October 28, 2010, during Diwali, the health staff had taken a sample of khoya (about six quintals in quantity) from a cold storage in Bathinda. After receiving the report of the sample from the Public Analyst, Chandigarh, that the sample had been found to be adulterated during testing, the health authorities destroyed the entire quantity that had been seized on that day from the cold storage. The khoya had been stored there by a local sweetmeat seller. A case against the owner of the khoya has been filed in the court here.

District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said here today that to prevent the sale of any type of sweets, made from spurious or adulterated khoya, they had already started carrying out inspections of the places, where the sweetmeat sellers prepared sweets, besides collecting the samples.

The DHO said they would destroy the sweets it was found that they were being prepared at unclean places or in unhygienic conditions.

Already, the trend of people preferring dry fruits over sweets is being seen due to the fear of spurious khoya made sweets flooding the market. Health concerns have prompted the change.

Bathinda, October 12
Nirmal Singh, a resident of village Deon, has approached the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum against the Baba Farid Vidyak Society, claiming that the institute has duped him.

In his complaint before the Forum, the student has stated that he took admission in the M.Sc (Airlines, tourism and hospitality) course run by the Baba Farid Group of Institutes. The BFGI gave advertisements in the newspapers claiming that it had adequate facilities and teaching staff to run the two-year postgraduation course.

Nirmal Singh enrolled for the course in the 2011 batch and submitted Rs 23,580 as its first semester fees on July 15. The academic session for the class was to begin from August 2011 but when Nirmal Singh used to go to the institute, neither was he given any syllabus nor was there any teacher available to teach the students.

Nirmal Singh kept on complaining to the principal about the issue, but nothing was done. On September 5, Nirmal and his batchmates were told that the course has been closed due to lack of sufficient number of students. Also, Nirmal was asked to get his fees of Rs 23,580 refunded.

In his complaint, Nirmal pointed out that in the information brochure of the course, it was not mentioned that in case sufficient number of students are not there, the course would be closed. "Had it been so, I would have not taken the risk and saved my one precious year," he pleaded before the Forum.

Nirmal said he be refunded the fees along with an interest of 18 per cent per annum from the date of payment till its actual realization. He has also claimed a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakhs and Rs 10,000 as litigation expenses.

Meanwhile, the principal of the institute Manish Bansal said he is aware of the case. "We had asked the student to take admission in some other course but he refused. When we started the course, we had experienced faculty but the University Grants Commission (UGC) raised objections saying that the faculty should have qualified in the NET conducted by the UGC. This is a relatively new course and hence, we could not get the UGC NET qualified teachers. So, we decided to close the programme," he said.

Bir Talab (Bathinda), October 12
The Bir Talab mini-zoo is in a state of neglect. Paucity of funds and poor management is claiming the lives of animals housed in a pathetic state here.

A visit to the zoo revealed that its boundary wall has collapsed at many places. Visitors to the zoo tease the animals and the broken boundary wall fails to prevent the people from the nearby areas from answering the nature's call under the shades of trees in the zoo premises.

Stray cattle and dogs roam around uninhibited. Also, a few monkeys were seen jumping outside their cages scaring the visitors.

There was no employee present outside the cages of birds and the monkeys and two daily wagers were seen offering green fodder to the state animal, black deer, outside their enclosure.

The employees said that the number of visitors remains thin on working days and it swells only on Saturday and Sunday with 60 to 100 footfalls recorded.

"The deer inside the cages were hungry as green fodder gets delayed everyday. We buy it from the local Bathinda vegetable market where it is auctioned late. It takes more than one-and-a-half-hours to shift green fodder to the zoo and by that time, the animals start fighting amongst themselves for want of food," said one of the employees, pleading anonymity.

He added that the delay in the arrival of the fodder and the state of the animals struck by hunger was brought to the notice of senior functionaries many times but nothing has been done in this regard so far.

The animals in the zoo are in a state of neglect as the authorities fail to initiate recreational activities to help them come out of their boredom.

Many deer deaths were reported in the past at the zoo due to various ailments and lack of basic facilities.

The black buck, which is the state animal of Punjab, is more in number at the zoo, which too is in a pathetic condition. Due to lack of expertise, scientists, experts and doctors, the deer are housed together in a single enclosure. They have not been segregated as per their breed, leading to the problem of inbreeding.

Experts say that reproduction within the same breed leads to inbreeding, which generates calves with reduced immunity that are more vulnerable to the diseases. Inbreeding reduces immunity with a resultant rise in ailments. Such animals fail to live longer and die. Earlier, the problem of inbreeding was reported among the lions at the Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park in Banur where many lion deaths were reported.

The zoo authorities at Bir Talab said that for the last many years, the supply of funds has been very poor. In the absence of adequate finances, they fail to maintain the enclosures regularly. Repair also becomes difficult and the authorities are unable to meet with other routine expenses. Lack of maintenance and care has left the zoo teetering towards a total collapse. Employees remember getting the funds way back in 2005.

Meanwhile, Forest Range Officer, Gurpal Dhillon said that as per the plan, 115 out of a total of 161 acres, will be converted into a deer safari wherein new roads will be laid for the plying of vehicles.

People would enjoy watching the deer in wildlife settings either sitting in battery-operated vehicles or in their own vehicles after paying for separate tickets.

A separate 30 acres of deer park would be set up wherein the deer would be kept in cages. The renovation project as well as the work on new cages and repair is likely to be completed within this financial year.

Renovation work would be initiated as per the guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA). A grant of Rs 12 crores would be spent in two phases.

Work in the first phase has been started, including the laying of 6 kms of road for deer safari and 2 kms outside the safari. Construction of boundary wall will also begin soon. A high-rise boundary wall of 7 to 8 feet and 10-meter chain link fencing would also be constructed near the boundary wall so that the noise coming from the outside and the entry of stray cattle can be restricted.

Dhillon said that a master plan of the zoo was submitted to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), which was initially approved in July.

A few changes were made in the project and a final report is likely to be sent back to the CZA in Delhi in the next few days.

Bathinda, October 12
The Baba Farid Group of Institute (BFGI) has set up its multi-facility centre in the institute premises. Bathinda SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill inaugurated the centre.

Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, chairman, BFGI, welcomed the guests and said the organisation dedicated the year 2009 to social welfare and also launched the Baba Farid Blood Donors’ Squad.

The squad has been persuading the students to strive for social welfare and fight against the social evils.

The year 2011 is deducated to youth development. He said today that the educational organisations provide only degrees intended for basic studies and pay no attention to the overall personality development.

SSP Dr SS Gill gave the green signal to the BFGI ambulance dedicated to Kuldeep Singh Gill, former Director, Finance.

Ambulance services could be availed by dialling 9501115111 and 9501115555. Mementoes were presented to the SSP and Sukhdev Singh, Dr Sardool Singh Grewal, Sukhdev Singh Pakka, Hem Raj Sharma, principals of different colleges and the staff members of the BFGI.

Bathinda, October 12
In view of the widespread dengue fever cases and other types of viral fever cases in the city for the last three weeks, as many as 25 teams, jointly formed by the Health Department and the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC), that have been conducting door-to-door survey for the three days, have detected larva, causing dengue, at 35 places in the city.

As per the information, the teams had started door-to-door survey from October 10 last in the city. In each team, a doctor has also been included for the counselling of the people. District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said here today that during the survey, conducted in the three days, these teams had surveyed 7,000 houses.

On the first day, the teams surveyed 527 houses, on the second day 2,913 houses, while on the third day (today) 3,556 houses.

Randhawa said during the survey of 7,000 houses these teams had detected larva, causing dengue, from 35 houses. These teams today detected larva from 16 places and on Tuesday from 13 places. He said the teams had also found many persons, suffering from fever in the houses during the survey. On the first day (October 10), the teams filled forms of 15 persons, suffering from fever, while on the second and the third day, they filled 29 and 56 forms.

It may be mentioned here that there are reports from various parts of the city that hundreds of persons have been suffering from fever while the number of confirmed dengue cases have also been increasing day-after-day daily.

This season more than 225 patients, tested positive for dengue fever during Mac Elisa test, have been reported from the city so far.

Bathinda, October 12
An eight-day drama fest would be held from November 6-13 in the memory of dramatist Bhai Gursharan Singh.

A first of its kind initiative, the fest comprises nukkad natak (street plays) and elaborate dramas to be held at Balwant Gargi Open Air Theatre. Addressing the media here today, director of Natyam Group Kirti Kirpal and lyricist Amardeep Gill said the event would start with the seminar and street plays.

“Bhai Gursharan Singh was the founder of street plays in Punjab. His plays were for the common person, highlighting his/her plight and the society a common person lives in,” said Kirpal. Renowned theatre artists including Samuel John from Lehragaga, Prof Sompal Heeran from Raikot, Rajinder Raja from Ludhiana, Surjit Gami’s team from Mansa and Natyam Manch Jaito would present street plays spread over three days from November 6-8. About 15 to 20 plays would be staged.

“Plays would be presented in markets, educational institutes and at other public places. We are finalising the three days schedule,” Kirpal said. From November 9 to November 13, plays would be presented at Balwant Gargi Open air theatre in Rose Garden.

On the culmination day, November 13, the book of artist NRI Chander Shekhar named Mitti Di Kahani would be released.

Renowned artists of Punjabi literature including Dr Atamjeet Singh, Prof Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Dr Ravel Singh from Delhi Sahitya Kala Akademi, Dr Pali Bhupinder Singh, artist Kewal Dhaliwal, Dr Saheb Singh, Dr Nirmal Jaura and others would be a part of this mega fest.

Bathinda, October 12
Gurdev Singh, brother of the founder of Prof Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation, Jagdev Singh Jassowal, passed away today.

In a condolence meeting held here today, the members of the Youth Clubs Organisations, Punjab, condoled the demise of Gurdev Singh, who breathed his last at Ludhiana.

The members present at the meeting extended their condolences to the bereaved family. Gurdev Singh was elder to Jagdev Singh Jassowal and was living in Jassowal village. He was looking after the agriculture business of the family. Jagdev Singh has been holding Prof Mohan Singh Mela since 1979 in the memory of the luminary.