Bathinda, November 6
The reason behind the rising crime in Bathinda city seems to be the disorganised jurisdiction of police stations, as cops sitting at the nearest police station of the crime scene remain mute and helpless spectators, while those sitting at the other end of the city have to rush to the spot.

Jurisdictions of police stations were revised around a year ago following assembly-wise delimitation of police stations. This had led to confusion not only among people but also among the cops.

While the right side of the road from Rose Garden Chowk towards Bibi Wala Chowk is quite close to the Thermal Police Station, it actually falls under the jurisdiction of the Civil Line Police Station. The area is at least a 20-minute run from the Civil Line Police Station.

However, the left side of the road from the Sirhind Canal up to the Bibi Wala Chowk, including the Rose Garden Chowk, is under the jurisdiction of the Thermal Police Station.

In view of the longer distance, cops from the Civil Line Police Station find it tough to pay a visit to the crime scene at the Rose Garden chowk, the distance acting as a deterrent for them which in reality, it should not be so. Similarly, the feeling is that the cops from the Thermal Police Station avoid reaching the Bibi Wala Chowk, which is near the Cantonment Police Station.

In case crime takes place in front of the Civil Line Police Station, cops there express their helplessness in taking action. Instead, they call cops from the Cantonment Police Station under whose jurisdiction the area falls. It is over 2.5 km away from the place.

Interestingly, even the land on which the Civil Line Police Station is situated, falls under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Police Station. In case of a mishap inside the police station, the Cantonment police station cops would come to record the statements and take action.

"It is so confusing that public as well as officials of the police control room (PCR) do not know where to report a crime. Many a times, people end up reporting the matter to the nearest police station. But they are re-directed to the police station concerned," said a PCR cop wishing not to be identified.

The chaos is the outcome of assembly-wise delimitation of police stations in the district that was implemented in April last year.

The delimitation had adversely effect the working of the cops. In 80 per cent of police cases, low-rank officials such as constables are responsible for carrying out the investigation work. These employees do not get any conveyance allowance.

"Earlier, we used to cover an area within the radius of five km of our police station. Now, it is as far as over 10 km. We just tend to ignore minor fights, brawls and accidents. Why should we spend fuel from our own pocket to go so far when we are not paid for the same," asked a constable posted at a police station in rural area.

Similarly, people face a lot of problems in reporting the crime to the respective police stations in the urban areas as well. The Rampura bypass is under the Rampura Sadar police station whereas the area across the railway lines falls under the city police station.

While Maur DSP is the in-charge of Rampura Sadar, the in-charge of the city is Phul DSP. To report their problems, residents of the Sadar area have to travel all the way to Maur even as the DSP Phul is available in the city.

Bathinda, November 6
Opening ceremony of an eating joint in front of Harchand Cinema on Goniana road caused traffic snarls on Sunday evening.

The owners of the eating joint setup a stage, encroaching upon the parking area of the Improvement Trust market. Even the freshly laid interlocking tiles were damaged to erect stage and lighting facilities for the event.

It led to chaos, brawls among commuters and people working in the adjoining offices. Even visitors to function have parked their vehicles across the road. Music at high decibel was played at the event wherein members of the dance troupe danced.

Haphazard parking of vehicles led to traffic jam on the road leading to Rose Garden. When informed, a group of cops reached at the spot but were later seen enjoying the evening instead of asking organisers to slow down volume. Cops at the spot also turned a blind eye towards the parking woes much to the chagrin of commuters.

Tehsildar Avtar Singh Makkar said he had not given permission to hold the event. “The SDM has been on leave since November 5 and I am not aware if he gave any permission”, he said.

Meanwhile, a man was caught pilfering petrol from the bike of a photojournalist.

The PCR cops Balwinder and Surinderpal said that there was no need to register a case as one of the organisers had apologised.

The cops also claimed that organisers had been given the permission to hold the event till 9 pm. 

Petrol pilfered

y An employee of the organisers was caught stealing petrol from the bike of a photojournalist. The matter was brought to the notice of the police who refused to catch the culprit or take any action.

Bathinda, November 6
The Bathinda police today booked a couple for beating up an assistant junior engineer (AJE) of the Powercom on Tuesday.

In his complaint to the police, AJE Nirmal Singh alleged that the couple, Ganga Singh and Kuldeep Kaur of Fatehgarh village near Talwandi Sabo, had beaten him with sticks.

The AJE had gone to check an electricity transformer in the village when the couple attacked him.

Investigating officer in the case, sub-inspector Joginder Singh said htat the power connection to the residence of the couple was snapped by the Powercom officials few days ago as the couple had failed to pay the power bills of nearly Rs 10,000.

The investigating officer added that the AJE was among those officials who visited the house of the accused while snapping the power connection.

The couple saw the AJE inspecting the transformer in the village and started abusing him for disconnecting their power supply. The couple then beat up the AJE after he objected to their foul language.

The couple has been booked under Sections 353, 186, 379, 323 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and has been sent into 14 days of judicial custody.

Bathinda, November 6
The Kabaddi players living in various hotels of Bathinda are relishing the Indian cuisines, Basa fish and fresh fruits in Bathinda.

All the seven teams staying here munch on the Indian cuisine complete with the spices and Indian condiments. Mutton, fish and chicken too are on the menu and lapped up as soon as they arrive on the tables, says professional caterer Ashwini Malhotra who has charted out the menu of these visiting teams.

Sources said that on the day of inaugural ceremony, Pakistan team savored the food served. "The team members preferred chicken and fish. Though halal mutton was also available, but the team members doubted it. In their dedication towards maintaining the sanctity of their religion, they kept away from the mutton served," said the sources.

All the teams living in city are served Basa fish, which is in great demand. Known to have good taste and no foul odor, the fish is most sought after.

Supplier of the fish in Bathinda Balwinder Singh from Ranjit Poultry Farm said that fish is brought in the form of frozen fish from Chandigarh.

"This fish is found in Switzerland and Thailand. From there it is frozen on the spot at minus 18 degree Celsius, zipped in pouches and transported to various parts of country. This fish has zero wastage, which means that all parts of fish are edible and not wasted in the form of extra bones or anything," Balwinder added.

On the other side, the Australian team staying at Sepal Hotel is more inclined towards English as well as Italian food, which is bland when compared to Indian food. Similarly, the Canadian team also loves to savor Italian food.

There are total around 75 percent Indians in all these teams, but just 10 to 15 percent vegetarians. For the breakfast players mainly consume fresh fruits, which are in demand a lot.

"Following a fitness regime, the players are having best kind of fresh fruits available in the city. Similarly, there has been great demand for dates in dried as well as wet form," added caterers at Bahia Resorts.

Bathinda, November 6
With hundreds of vehicles coming up on the roads every year, utter chaos prevails on the busy roads of the city. Lack of space, parking sense, parking places, shortsightedness of the government and lackadaisical attitude of the traffic police has made the city roads worst than hell.

“It is a nightmare to drive through the city roads these days. There is hardly any road, which is not choked with traffic every time,” said Sukhchain, an elderly resident of the Ajit road, adding that people are to be equally blamed for reckless driving. “With the rising vehicular traffic, unchecked encroachments, engineering faults on the roads, lack of traffic police and rash driving have made the situation has become more miserable,” said another Gulshan Kumar.

He said the city was never like this just a few years ago. “The ever-rising construction work, setting up of the refinery, malls and private colonies have increased the level of pollution and also dust on the city roads,” Gulshan added. Besides the heavy flow of trucks, which occupy a major portion of various roads in the city, the tractor-trolleys carrying bricks, sand and other construction material too create nuisance.

The trucks either move at snails pace or are driven too fast. “If the trucks are driven slow, they choke the entire city roads or if they move fast, they hit pedestrians or two-wheelers and blow the dust on the roads,”said Manwinder, a resident of the Dabwali road. Besides the city roads, including Mall Road, Ajit Road, Bhagu Road, Mehna Chowk, Railway Road, the roads on the outskirts comprising Mansa Road, Barnala Road and Goniana Road too have been occupied by the encroachers.

The traffic police and the Municipal Corporation hardly pay attention towards removing the encroachments, which keep swelling each passing day.

Vegetable and fruit sellers occupy most of the roads during the daytime while soup, egg, chicken and others come out during the night hours and make their earnings by parking their rehri's at the roadsides.

“There seems to be no space crunch for parking vehicles but these are the encroachments, which lead to traffic chaos on the roads. If things are managed properly by the executing agencies, there would be no traffic bottlenecks or accidents on the roads,” said Harman Sidhu, president of a Chandigarh-based NGO, Arrivesafe, which is creating awareness among people regarding the safety measures on the roads.

Bathinda, November 6
Though the government is spending crores on the World Cup Kabaddi-2011, it has missed to include the most dynamic as well as important channel of information to reach its worldwide audience.

There has been no official website formulated by the organisers of the tournament to cater to the viewers of the participating nations where there is no access to the television channels, which are broadcasting the world cup.

On the other hand, some private websites are gaining popularity by providing the live matches to its audience and also the social networking site such as Facebook, where the kabaddi lovers have already made a ‘Kabaddi World Cup 2011’ page, where the minute to minute update has been uploaded by its administrators.

Till today, as many as 605 viewers have liked this page and a lot of discussions regarding the teams and matches are going on. Moreover, there is no information regarding the world cup has been updated on any of the existing websites of the kabaddi federations. Neither Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), nor the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) has any display of the ongoing world-level tournament.

The websites were last updated last year. The game, which is very popular among the NRIs, is still not easily handy to them as there are only two broadcasters of the world cup, one is the PTC channel and the other is Pakistan's Geo TV channel.

Other than Punjab, the PTC channel can be seen in few other countries such as the US, the UK, Australia and Canada.

However, whether the kabaddi tournament is being shown in these countries or not, is not known.

There are many other nations, which are participating in the tournament, such as Spain, Turkmenistan, Sri-Lanka, Germany, Italy, Norway, Afghanistan, Nepal and Argentina, where the only source would be the internet or the newspapers.

Director of the Sports Pargat Singh said, "I personally feel that there should be an official website of the tournament, however, the publicity of the world cup and management of media is being looked after by the Public Relation Department of the government. I will discuss the matter with the department and launch the website as soon as possible.”

Bathinda, November 6
The students Shubhlakshmi and Bhavna won first place in the face-off debate event held during Tarannum - the annual fest of Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCET).

In the mock press conference, Prashant was declared the winner, in solo singing (Girls) Balwinder Kaur secured the first position while in hat-cap designing Meenakshi and Cherry were declared winners.

In rangoli making competition, Paras and Bhanu stood first, in choreography Anupriya and group secured the first positionwhile in dance to beat Vishal and Group stood first. In the folk dance contest Ravneet and group were declared winners, in solo dance (Boys), Shubham Kansal stood first, in group dance, Shivani and group stood first while in skit, (parody) Harpal and group secured first position.

In the ad-mad contest, Gourav and group stood first, in stick modelling, Jashpreet and Gagandeep were declared winners, in blind art event, Puneet was declared winner, in clay modeling, Cherry and Meenakshi, in cartooning, Mohit was declared winner, in pressure cooker event Aditya Abhishek were declared winners, while in waste collage Paras and Bhanu were declared winners. As a mark of honor to the noted dramatist Sardar Gursharan Singh ji, two street plays were presented. 

Bathinda, November 6
The three-day event, Prof Mohan Singh Mela concluded here, today. Prof Mohan Singh award was given to Jaswant Singh Kanwal. Sant Baba Sucha Singh Gurmat award to Giani Pinder Pal Singh, Tarlochan Singh Riyasati Memorial Enviroment award to the environmentalist Baba Balvir Singh Seechewal while Singh Sahib Mann Singh Jhaur award was conferred on Giani Sahib Singh Shabad Markanda.

Bapu Kartar Singh Jassowal award was given to Baba Budh Singh Dhahan Kaleran, Kavishar Karnail Singh Paras to Dhadhi Sandeep Singh Rupaloz, Balwant Gargi NRI Punjabi literature to Shiv Charan Jaggi Kussa while dramatist Gursharan Singh award was conferred on Dr Satish Kumar Verma. Didar Singh Sandhu award was given to Raj Kakra, Lal Chand Yamla Jatt to Hakam Sufi, Inderjit Hasanpuri award was conferred on Mangal Hathoor and Sant Ram Udasi award was given to Tarlochan Lochi. Gurnam Singh Teer award was to Saroop Parinda, Prof Karam Singh Folk Art award was given to Avninder Singh Grewal and Balraj Sahin Punjabi Film award went to Satish Kaul. — TNS

Bathinda, November 6
Five vehicles were stolen from the city including two cars and three bikes. The complainant, Harveer Singh of Baba Farid Nagar, said his black coloured Verna car was stolen from the Kamla Nehru Colony and also a Maruti of his friend was stolen from Model Town phase-II. A case in this connection has been registered at the cantonment Police Station under Section 379 of the IPC.

In another incident, Shamsher Singh of Baba Farid Nagar said his splendor motorcycle was stolen from the city.

Meanwhile, another Nirbhay Singh too lodged a complaint that his bike was stolen. Also a bike of the city resident is stolen from the Power House Road. The cases have been registered in this regard.