Bathinda, November 23
Construction boom in Bathinda is proving to be bane for commuters, particularly those using two-wheelers, as construction materials lying on roadsides pose serious threat to their lives.

The number of building material sellers in Bathinda has increased manifold during the past few years in view of a large-scale construction activity in the district.

While sellers have encroached upon the pavements along all important roads in the city, those carrying out the construction activity too use roads to keep their construction material.

Construction material is even lying in front of the District Administrative Complex.

“The dumping of construction material has not only affected the movement of traffic but has also damaged roads, but nobody cares,” said Joginder Singh, the owner of a local driving school.

“Just at the entrance to the city from the Mansa side, construction material could be seen piled up haphazardly. A similar situation prevails at the grain market near Haji Rattan gurdwara, parking area at the vegetable market, on the stretch from Rose Garden chowk to Bibiwala chowk, the Multania road, Parasram Nagar market, area opposite to the DAV College, area in front of three cinemas on the Bathinda-Goniana road and Rose Garden Chowk,” said Prof JS Brar Rangi.

He said yellow lines on the roads, which are meant to border the parking of vehicles, get hidden under the construction material. Resultantly, vehicles remain parked haphazardly on roads while traffic move at snail’s pace.

“Traffic policemen hardly pay any attention towards the disorder on the city roads which leads to accidents,” said Vicky Singla, a resident of Goniana whose cousin received serious injuries near the Rose Garden chowk.

Vicky said the scooter of his cousin skidded due to the construction material lying on the road.

The area residents pointed out that the trucks dumping the construction material on the roadside too pose serious threat to commuters.

Bathinda, November 23
Out of total 50 posts of rural veterinary officer (RVO), as many as 20 have been lying vacant in the 20 rural veterinary dispensaries, functioning under the Zila Parishad in the district. About 12 posts have been lying vacant for the past more than one year while the remaining posts have fallen vacant during past some months.

Due to the 20 vacant posts, the functioning has been affecting in 40 rural dispensaries as the 20 RVOs have been given additional charge of the dispensaries, in which posts have been lying vacant. So these days they have also been performing duties on every alternate day in the dispensaries, in which the posts are lying vacant.

On account of this arrangement, the villagers have been facing problems in getting their cattle treated in time as due to alternate day duty the RVOs can not perform their duties on all working days in these dispensaries. The names of the dispensaries, where the posts are lying vacant, are Jethuke, Peerkot, Chaoke, Raiya, Ghanda Banna, Selbrah, Malkana, Singo, Behman Jassa Singh, Kanakwal, Adampura, Rajgarh, Alike, Dialpura Bhaika, Laleaana, Tungwali, Bhagwangarh, Jhanduke, Rae Ke Kalan and Natheha.

According to information, 12 posts of the RVO were already vacant while remaining posts have fallen vacant recently after the selection of the RVOs to the Punjab Veterinary Department through Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

However, only four posts of rural veterinary pharmacist have been lying vacant in the rural dispensaries. These posts have also fallen vacant recently following the selection of the pharmacists in the Punjab Veterinary Department.

Sources in the Zila Parishad said the Director, Rural Development, Punjab, had been asked to fill the vacant posts of the RVO.

Sources also said that in case the government decided to fill the vacant posts through the Rural Development Department then an advertisement would be issued at the state level.

Bathinda November 23
Though over ten days have passed, only eight small-scale industries replied to the notice served to them by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for polluting the area.

Early in this month, the PPCB identified over 40 small-scale firms situated at the New Focal Point on Dabawali round and found that nearly 20 small-scale industries require the nod to operate under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

All the firms which have been served notices by the PPCB fall under the red category, which means they are causing pollution in great amount as compared to other firms having the green and the orange labels. These labels are given considering the quantity of pollutants produced by the firm.

When contacted, the XEN of the PPCB regional office of Bathinda, Najjar Singh Manshahia, said, “Only eight small-scale industries replied to our notices and that too in a very casual manner. They have sent us their lame excuses for their wrong doings and no valid points and assurances have been given. Moreover, other twelve units have not bothered to respond to the warnings given by the PPCB.”

He added, "The industries were already given extra time by the PPCB as we can understand that sometimes postal problems can be the reason for the delay in reaching the notices to the receiver. Therefore, we record the time from the date when the show cause notice is received."

The PPCB had also received complaints about these industries in past.

Najjar Singh said, "We will take the matter seriously if the industries owners fail to give satisfactory replies and also fail to come up with proper 
solutions to the problems being caused by them. Any further delay will not be tolerated."

Bathinda, November 23
A man sustained burn injuries as a stove burst in his house here today in the morning. The inured, Kala Singh (30), is a resident of the Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar in Bathinda.

As per sources, Kala has been dying clothes on the Ajit road for the past some time. He was rushed to the local civil hospital by the volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa for treatment.

Two milch animals were electrocuted on Wednesday afternoon as a high voltage wire fell off on the animals at the Guru Ki Nagari in Bathinda.

The owners of the cattle, Sandeep and Harvinder Singh, said that the animals were worth more than Rs 1.10 lakhs.

A Junior Engineer (JE) of the Powercom reached the spot and inquired into the incident.

The junior engineer said that the 400 volt electric wires fell down due to short circuit.

The junior engineer added that the electric wires usually fall down and that people should avoid passing under the wires or tying their cattle to the electric poles.

In a similar incident, electric wires fell off near the district administrative complex on Tuesday.

Fortunately, no one was injured but the incident has highlighted the need for the authorities to take notice and redress the problem.

Bathinda, November 23
As the grounds of the Multi-purpose Stadium, which hosted the World Kabaddi Cup is "unfit", the district schools sports meet would be held at the Thermal Sports Stadium in Bathinda between November 28 and November 30.

Sports authorities in the education department said that the ground was not good enough to hold track events. “Moreover, barricades are still installed and so are other structures. Since it is district-level sports, we decided not to take any chances and requested the District Education Officer to allow the annual meet to be organised at some other place,” said officer Harnek Singh Virk.

The department zeroed in on the thermal play grounds, which are nearer than grounds of other schools with wide expanse. Meanwhile, the department has constituted various committees to hold this event.

These committees include welcome committee, technical committee, over all in-charge of tracks, jumps and throws as well as medal ceremony convener, purchase committee etc.

Students from 14 to 19 years of age group would be participating in different events including races (100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 600 m, 800 m, 4X400 m, 4X100 m, 3000 m and 5000 m), pole vault, discus throw, long jump, short put, high jump, triple jump, hammer throw and javelin throw.

Bathinda, November 23
The Goodwill Society, Bathinda, in association with a pharmaceutical company, organised a free bone mineral density camp (BMD) for the orthopaedic patients at the Goodwill Hospital here.

Nearly, 85 patients were diagnosed by a team of doctors, including Dr Manisha Katiwal, Dr VK Kaushal, Dr Rimpal and Dr Meenakshi.

Various tests were carried out free of cost to detect the problems of bones in females over 40 years and males above the age of 50 years.