Bathinda, December 17
The ‘high,’ Som felt after buying fruits for his kids defeated the ‘kick’ he used to get after taking drugs. Som has seen his family suffering from his habit. Now, he has decided to shun the self-destructive path.

Years back, Sumit somewhat also felt similarly so he thought that no one could be better than him in a position to explain as to what he experienced was bad and how to give up the ‘suicidal’ mode.

Sumit is not alone. There are many like him who left the self-destructive path and turned anti-drug crusaders. More importantly, people seeing him and others taking the cudgel to fight against the menace of drug-addition followed him. Useless to say, drug abuse, which means compulsive use of a substance despite its negative or dangerous effects, has reached an alarming proportion in Punjab particularly in the rural areas of the Malwa belt.

Considering the gravity of the problem, in a collective effort, volunteers, some of whom have been addicts, have initiated war against drugs. They have been holding camps with the help of the volunteer doctors. The rehabilitation process includes identifying the addicts, motivation and detoxification. Later, follow-up on a weekly and fortnightly basis besides family counselling is done.

“There is never a wrong time to do the right thing. I fell prey to drugs when I was a teenager. Strong determination helped me get rid of addiction. I am making all-out efforts by holding camps with the help of the doctors to de-addict those who are in the murderous clutches of drug abuse and prevent future users from becoming addicts. Science and art has been combined to fight the menace. I believe social support system plays a vital role in this regard,” said Sumit.

“I was in my teens when drugs drew me into the vortex out of the thrill and curiosity. Simple experimentation soon turned into addiction and it led me towards destruction. I joined a drug de-addiction camp some time back. More than the detoxification techniques, my strong will power made me overcome addiction. We will be holding camps in the rural areas soon and the war against drug abuse would continue. I appeal to the youth not to try it even once as the ‘first drink does the damage’,” said Tarun Mittal, another volunteer.

During the camps organised so far, around 700 drug abusers have been identified. The respondents blame it on easy accessibility at lower prices, addiction in family history, social and cultural acceptance, peer pressure and mental stress.

“We arrest the drug traffickers but the accused are soon released on bail and get back to the illegal business. Strict laws are needed to check the menace,” said a police official pleading anonymity.

“I am the only bread winner in my family. I cry often as I made my family suffer due to drug addiction. However, it is better late than never. It has been two-three days since I joined the camp and I have not even touched the drugs. Instead of spending money on drugs, I bought fruits for my kids yesterday. The smiling faces of my kids gave me a great sense of satisfaction,” said Som Singh.

“A drug rehailitation programme can go a long way provided the addicts realise that they are not alone in their struggle. The first step towards quitting drug abuse is detoxification. However, psychiatry is more important as in many instances underlying psychological issues drive people to addiction. Besides, we cover the medicinal part in the camps wherein we provide the patients with free of cost medicines. Moreover, law enforcement can make a big difference as in the absence of supply, the addicts would be compelled to join the rehabilitation centres,” said Dr Anil Goyal, MD, consultant psychiatrist, Bathinda.

“One’s recovery is not only determined by the nature of drug rehabilitation programme, but the amount of efforts put into applying what is learnt during the treatment and sticking to it helps patients lead a successful and productive life. We are focused on the idea that even after the availability of drugs, people reject it,” said Dr SK Verma, MD, psychiatrist.

“To motivate the addicts, I went to the Amarpura Basti and promised awards besides trying to provide jobs to those who give up addiction completely,” said Sarup Chand Singla, area in-charge of the SAD for the Bathinda urban assembly constituency.

The next de-addiction camps would be organised from December 4-13 at New Khalsa Public School, Amarpura Basti, and from January 8-17 at Gurdwara Sahib Street no. 3 (Amarpura Basti). 

Bathinda, December 17
After covering the metropolitan cities across India, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) started holding camps in Bathinda in July this year.

At present, the unique identity cards, popular as Aadhaar cards, are being made at the Amarpura Basti, Qila Road and Dharamshala (adjacent to Vishal Nagar Suraj Giri temple) centres and plans are also underway to open centres at other locations in the city so as to expedite the process.

Although the centres are scheduled to function from 9 am to 5 pm, on day one at the Dharamshala centre, the processing of the cards could start after a delay of an hour and a half in the morning. The Dharamshala centre has five operators and a supervisor.

"Every time we start a centre at a new place, it takes us some time to set up the systems on the first day. And that's what happened today as well," said Deepak Kumar, the supervisor of the Dharamshala centre.

Speaking about the processing of applications, one of the operators Gurbhajneek Singh said, "We were trained on the usage of the system in July. After the work on preparation of cards started, we have been moving in Bathinda and its neighbouring areas. The delay has not been on our part. People coming for enrolment are taking very long time to fill the form and provide sufficient documents."

Raj Kumar, president of the Residents Welfare Association of Vishal Nagar Phase 1, was instrumental in setting up the centre at Dharamshala. "We found Dharamshala as an easily accessible location and hence, thought of setting up a centre here as well. We may also, very soon, set up a centre in Green Avenue. The centre at Dharamshala will be open initially for three days, barring Sunday. The period may extend to five days."

By the end of the day one, the centre had registered only about 150 persons. Deepak blamed it on the poor publicity of the centre.

"We didn't see many enrolments today. Many in the city are yet to realise the importance of the cards. The news is spreading only through the word of mouth and a few announcements by municipal corporations. We are expecting more people over the next few days," he said. 

Bathinda: The day one of the UID card enrolment centre at Dharamshala was dogged by problems.

"People making the announcements were asked to also announce which documents were required to be attached to the Aadhaar form. But still, most of the people coming for enrolment didn't know the details. Ever since the centre started work this morning, people have been going back and forth from the centre," said Deepak Kumar, supervisor at the centre.

And then there were those who just heard about the centre but had no clue about what was underway.

"I stay near Sepal Hotel which is quite far from this place. Volunteers here don't know whether they will set up a centre near Sepal Hotel or not. Also, I didn't know which documents were required and I had to go back home to bring the right ones. I didn't know that every single individual is required to personally come to the centre for the enrolment process. Now, my husband will have to come separately," said Devika Rani, one of the many confused people at the centre.

Harsimrat Kaur, who had come to the centre with her husband, said she didn't know that cards could also be made for children as young as a month old. "Now, I'll have to bring my children to the centre."

Bathinda, December 17
Retired divisional engineer BSNL, SL Garg, had never imagined while serving the telecom major that after the retirement life would be tough enough for him that he has to move from one place to another just to avail the medical facility or get the medical bills reimbursed.

Dharam Chand, a retired guard from the Indian Railway, who had been helping running trains for many years, was never thought that he would be devoid of the free-privilege pass.

Like SL Garg and Dharam Chand, many other pensioners today shared their experiences of the post-retirement life, their expectations and day-to-day inconveniences as they assembled under the banner of the Central Government Pensioners Welfare Association, Bathinda, to celebrate the Pensioners' Day 'at the Public Library in Bathinda on Saturday.

The meeting was presided over by the president of the association, Rajinder Singh, retd assistant commissioner of income tax, Ram Singh and Hardev Singh Sewak.

SL Garg explained that after the scrapping of the fixed monthly medical allowances on October 1, he moved from one place to another for treatment, for getting bills and to submit claims etc. "It is like harassment in absence of single-window like system," Garg said, adding that health becomes a major concern in old age so medical facility must be 'hassle-free'.

Not only medical allowances, the day-to-day life has also become tough for senior citizens as explained by general secretary of the association, Ram Lal Garg. "Today our country is passing through a phase where black money, lawlessness and corruption are the order of the day. Today, senior citizen is most affected with the rise in cost of every commodity and authorities are sleeping over the things," Garg said.

While talking about the relevance of the day, Ram Lal Garg said that the Supreme Court in its ruling in DS Nagra case on December 17, 1982 said that pension is the right of the employee and not the alms. Pension is the part of our contribution towards government service. This is a deferred wage.

The pension holders demanded that the central government should act to make their post-retirement life a bit easy. Their main demands included, provision of medical allowance at the rate of 1,000 per month minimum and restoration of Rs 1,000 medical allowance to the BSNL employees per month, a five per cent increase in pension after every five years i.e. after 65th, 70th year, provision of LTC once in two years, senior citizens household should be established in every district and major towns, improvement in law and order in the city.

The meeting was attended by more than hundred pensioners of the Department of Telecommunication, the BSNL, the Railway, the Income tax and the Post Offices. JS Sandhu, Sita Ram Garg, Giani Bant Singh and also addressed the meeting.

Bathinda, December 17
While the unemployed linemen are taking to the streets demanding jobs from the state government, two of their colleagues have lost their jobs because they had participated in the year-long agitation.

The services of these two were reportedly terminated by their employers as during the agitation, they spent over a fortnight in jail. Due to this, they are now facing financial problems. They have more than one acre of land which is insufficient to fall back on in case of necessity.

Angrez Singh, a resident of Mojo village, near Bhikhi in Mansa district, had to lose his job as he was arrested along with the other unemployed linemen by the police in the last week of September when they were staging a protest during the Chief Minister’s visit to Bathinda.

He remained in jail for more than 15 days. At that time, he was a field assistant in the Bhikhi area in a pesticide company, drawing Rs 11,000 as salary. However, when he was released from the jail and went to join the duty, he was not allowed to do so as his services had been terminated by the company. Since then, he has no job in his hand.

Angrej said he had two daughters, five and two years old. The elder daughter has been studying in a government school. A man with responsibilities, he has been facing financial problems as he has no other source of income, except for his one acre of land. Angrej said he had worked in the pesticide company for nine years but the company terminated his services as he had been sent to jail. He had completed his apprenticeship as a lineman in 2001 after passing out from the ITI, he added.

Like Angrez Singh, Daler Singh from Khanpur Fakira village, near Dirba in Sangrur district, lost his job in May this year as he had also spent more than 15 days in jail in April this year. Daler had been working as a pump operator since 2002 through a contractor at a water works of the Punjab Mandi Board at Sunam, getting Rs 4,800 per month.

Daler said he had been arrested along with the others on April 14 this year while protesting against the Chief Minister at Talwandi Sabo, seeking jobs for the unemployed linemen. He said he remained in jail till April 29 this year. When he went to join duty, he was informed that his services had been terminated. He said he had met the chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board several times, but to no avail. He had completed his apprenticeship as a lineman in 2002. He had just one and a half acres of land which is insufficient to make both ends meet, he added. 

Bathinda, December 17
Huge supply and the resultant dip in prices have helped green vegetables make a comeback in a big way on the menu making housewives happy but vegetable sellers are not finding the situation favourable for themselves.

With the onset of the winter, the supply of vegetables generally increases, this year the 'bumper' production has posed problem of plenty before the vegetable sellers who in past months were facing problems due to poor sale caused by high prices.

"While one month ago, high prices of vegetables failing us to find the buyers, nowadays we are not finding enough buyers to take away the vegetables which are in huge supply these days," said Gurdev Singh, a seller at Gol Diggi vegetable market. Gurdev said that both the situations were not turning out to be favourable for us.

"Profit will continue to elude us even in the winter," said Rinku another vegetable seller. He explained that the vegetables which cost them Rs 10,000, hardly gave Rs 6,000 to them.

"We are in fact will be in loss," he added. Other vegetables sellers are also not appearing optimist with the state-of-affairs.

"During the peak of winter, cold response from the buyers is evident as they prefer to keep themselves indoor rather than go to the market," another seller said, adding when needed they bought from hawkers.

Housewives are also not thronging markets to buy vegetables even though prices are touching a new low. Citing the reasons for not buying more vegetables, a housewif said, "We will buy as per our requirement."

Meanwhile, vegetable prices have been dipping with each passing day. The rate of tomato at wholesale market is somewhere between Rs 5 and Rs 8. Potato is also in the similar bracket. Other vegetables like cauliflower, brinjal, pea are seeing a new low each day. As far as the retail prices of these vegetables are concerned, prices vary, not in a considerable manner, from market from market and area to area.

In general one kg of potato is costing around Rs 10, matching the rate of tomato and peas at Rs 10-15.

Bathinda, December 17
As the pharmacists, working in the government hospitals and health centres, will continue their mass leave for an indefinite period from Monday (December 19), the patients will suffer further on account of non-distribution of medicines among them, especially the poor, through the dispensaries. Earlier, the pharmacists had gone on mass leave from December 12-17.

District president of the Punjab State Pharmacists Association Ravinder Goyal revealed to the TNS over the phone this evening that over 130 pharmacists in the Bathinda district would also go on mass leave from Monday in the light of the decision of the state body of the association.

Goyal further added that the pharmacists would also observe a chain hunger strike from December 19 at the district headquarters to compel the state government to accept their demands.

He pointed out that in case their demands are not accepted and implemented by Thursday, they would hold a rally in Ludhiana on Friday. Later, a protest march and rally would be held in Gidderbaha on Saturday, he added.

The demands of the agitators include hike in grade pay of pharmacist, chief pharmacist-grade-II and chief pharmacist grade-I, 25 per cent of the basic pay as non-dispensing allowance, and Rs 1,000 per month as patient care allowance. 

Bathinda, December 17
The medical laboratory technicians from Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa and Barnala districts, led by the state president of the Medical Laboratory Technicians Association (Punjab) Sikendar Singh, today took out a protest march from the Civil Hospital to the Hanuman Chowk here in protest against the non-acceptance of their demands so far. They also raised slogans against the state government.

State president said if the state government fails in accepting the demands by December 24, they would organise a state-level protest march on December 25 in Gidderbaha, in which, medical laboratory technicians from all over the state would take part. He also said an effigy of the state government would also be burnt on that day. The union leaders said their demands had already been accepted by the Chief Minister, Cabinet sub-committee, Health Secretary, and Director, Health Services. Besides, they had also promised to implement it. Despite this, nothing had been done in this regard so far, they said. They said they are demanding Rs 4,200 grade pay for the grade-II laboratory technician, Rs 5,400 grade pay for the grade-I laboratory technician and Rs 6,600 grade pay for senior laboratory technician, removal of disparity in pay-scales, rent free accommodation, risk allowance and regularisation of services of the contractual laboratory technicians.

Earlier, they held a dharna on the campus of the civil hospital here. Among others, who were present or addressed the dharna, included Harcharan Singh (Bathinda), Gursewak Singh (Muktsar), Gurtej Singh (Barnala), Nachhattar Singh (Mansa), Resham Singh Jalal (Bathinda), Varinder Kumar , Balwinder Singh Makha, Ajay Kumar and Nanak Neer.

Bathinda, December 17
The Unemployed Linemen Union Punjab has called upon the family members of the unemployed linemen to participate in the protest to be held at the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) ‘Mahan rally’ in Moga on December 18.

The union has also urged the families to reach Moga in large numbers so that the state government could be compelled to accept their demand, appointment of 4,000 linemen in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

According to the union leaders here today, around 3,000 unemployed linemen from all parts of the state will reach Moga tomorrow to take part in the protest, for which messages have been conveyed to them by the union leaders over the phones or by way of other methods of communications.

Talking to TNS here today state general secretary of the union Jagtar Singh Mahinangal said the unemployed linemen would reach the rally venue at Moga in a planned manner so that they could not be stopped by the police from entering the rally. They would also rent the air with slogans from different spots in the rally, he added.

He said they had planned this action as the state government did not seem serious towards their demand as they had not even been informed by the government whether it had filed the special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on December 15 to get the stay on the recruitment of linemen, imposed by the High Court, vacated.

Another leader of the union said as the SAD was going to hold its 'Mahan rally' at Moga, they would hold their 'Mahan Sangharash' there tomorrow so that the people of the state could be told about the government's attitude towards the unemployed youths.

Meanwhile, the dharna by the unemployed linemen outside the Mini-secretariat here today entered its 13th day.

The protesters also raised slogans against the Punjab government for not accepting and implementing their demand so far.

The protesters were adamant not to lift the dharna, saying they would not lift their dharna from here till the government issued appointment letters to them. 

Bathinda, December 17
On the third day of the knee check-up-cum-treatment camp organised by the Kot Shamir Welfare Society, Bathinda, at the Bhana Mall Dharamshala Trust here, about 170 patients were examined for various knee ailments.

A total of 60 patients got knee braces at concessional rates, according to Suresh Kumar Bansal, president of the society. The four-day-long camp will conclude on Sunday. — TNS

Bathinda, December 17
A ‘Manav Ekta Sammelan’ was organised by Sant Nirankari Mandal, Bathinda zone, yesterday at the Model Town, phase-3 ground. The discourse at the function was delivered by Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Maharaj.

The Manav Ekta Sammelan witnessed a huge gathering of devotees from different places of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

In his discourse, Hardev Singh Maharaj shared his concern over the deteriorating human values in society. He regretted the discrimination prevails today in all its forms. He also brought out the futility of the predominance of materialistic pursuits over spirituality.