Bathinda, December 23
The health services in the local Civil Hospital and the Women and Children Hospital, both situated on the same premises here, remained virtually crippled today as the medical officers (doctors) of both the hospitals went on mass leave while the pharmacists were already on mass leave since December 12 in support of their demands.

Besides the doctors and pharmacists, the medical laboratory technicians also observed pen-down strike as they had announced their two-day stir, on December 23 and 24, as the state government has failed to accept and implement their already accepted demands.

Thus, in a situation in which the doctors, pharmacists and the laboratory technicians were on strike, the health services in the hospitals remained badly affected.

Besides, another section of the health department, the multi-purpose health workers, also went on mass leave from December 22 to 23, in support of their demands. They have also been staging a dharna on the premises of the Civil Hospital here since yesterday.

According to information available, over a dozen doctors from the district today also went to Chandigarh to participate in a dharna in support of their demands.

However, the emergency services in the hospitals continued as the doctors on call visited and examined the patients in the emergency wing. However, they did not examine any patient in the OPDs.

Due to this, the new OPD block of the Civil Hospital today wore a deserted look in the afternoon though a large number of patients visited it in the morning and returned home without getting themselves examined.

However, the senior medical officers (SMOs) of both the hospitals, Dr BS Gill (Women and Children Hospital) and Dr Satish Goyal (Civil Hospital) said they had performed duties in their respective hospitals as there were several administrative work which had to be done by them today compulsorily.

Due to the agitation by the pharmacists and the laboratory technicians, the dispensaries in the hospitals also did not function while no tests were conducted at the biochemistry and the haematology laboratories in the new OPD block of the Civil Hospital here.

The agitating pharmacists will now go to Gidderbaha tomorrow to participate in a state-level rally there.

In this rally, the pharmacists from all parts of the state will take part to compel the government to accept their demands, including hike in pay scales and re-designating their designations.

Besides the pharmacists (on mass leave), the laboratory technicians will also remain on pen-down strike tomorrow. However, the doctors will resume their duties tomorrow.

The demands of the doctors include grant of six post-graduate (PG) increments at the time of implementation of new pay scale to him/her every time, enhanced grade pay to the doctors on the Central Government's pattern after 20 years of service, house rent on non-practice allowance (NPA) and the Deputy Civil Surgeon's designation for the senior medical officer.

The demands of the pharmacists include a hike in pay-scales, senior pharmacy officer’s designation for grade II chief pharmacist, chief pharmacy officer’s designation for grade I chief pharmacist and pharmacy officer’s designation for the pharmacists.

The demands of the laboratory technicians include Rs 4,200 as grade pay for grade-II laboratory technician, Rs 5,400 as grade pay for 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 contract workers.

Bathinda, December 23
Yet another inmate died in Bathinda Central Jail last night. This is the third death in the last two months. Jail authorities said the deceased has been identified as 42-year-old Krishan Singh of Ramnagar Chhanna village in Barnala.

Jail superintendent Prem Kumar Garg said that Krishan was summoned to the court and was brought back to jail at around 7 pm. His condition deteriorated late at night and he was rushed to the Civil Hospital where he was declared dead. Krishan was an undertrial since 2005 in a case registered under the NDPS Act.

Prem Kumar said the reason behind the death of the jail inmate would be ascertained only after the postmortem. However, preliminary reports reveal he was suffering from tuberculosis and was also a drug addict.

Jail authorities said the number of inmates has crossed 1700, which also includes 104 females. The jail was built in 1960 for 1146 prisoners. There is hardly any attention paid towards the upkeep or improving the infrastructure, added the jail officials.

Apart from daily brawls, the health of inmates too is at risk due to the overcrowding. Lack of expertise in handling the hard-core criminals and addicts too are instrumental in creating more chaos in the jail.

A senior jail official, pleading anonymity, said leaders and local politicians from across Punjab had been calling the jail authorities to accommodate either the prisoners or their relatives.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities today seized a sealed packet of tea leaves in which sedatives were being smuggled. "An alert jail employee on duty tore open the packet and found a large number of Alprax tablets," said Garg.

The accused, Major Singh of Dialpura village of Bathinda, had been trying to deliver the packet of tea leaves to his son who is an undertrial in an NDPS Act. He had sealed the packet with an adhesive.

Jail officials said that earlier too, efforts were made to smuggle drugs in capsicum, onion, toothpaste and battery cells.

Bathinda, December 23
The protesting unemployed linemen have decided to continue their chain hunger strike and the dharna outside the Mini-secretariat here as their meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal yesterday failed to provide an immediate solution to the issue of appointment of 4,000 unemployed linemen in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

Giving details of the meeting to TNS here today, advisor of the union Soma Singh Bharro said they had met Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal the previous day in Chandigarh and spoke to him with regard to the appointment of unemployed linemen.

He said that during the meeting, they stressed for immediate recruitment of the unemployed linemen, to which the Deputy Chief Minister replied that as they knew that the state government had already filed a special leave petition (SPL) in the Supreme Court to get the stay on the recruitment of linemen, imposed by the High Court, vacated, so they should wait till January 3 when the Supreme Court would start functioning after vacations.

Bharro said the Deputy CM told them that whenever the stay was vacated, the state government would issue the merit list and accordingly the orders would be issued for their appointment.

Bharro said in the light of this, the union had decided to continue their dharna and the chain hunger strike here till the completion of recruitment process of the unemployed linemen.

He said the agitators would hold their agitation in a peaceful manner.

Meanwhile, two leaders of the union — treasurer Bhola Singh and press secretary Nirmal Singh — today went to Patiala to meet PSPCL chairman KD Chaudhary in connection with the selection of 29 physically-challenged unemployed linemen who had been declared ineligible for appointment by the Powercom despite the fact that they had completed their two-year apprenticeship in the electricity department.

These unemployed linemen have been observing a dharna and the chain hunger strike here since December 5.

Initially, their family members also participated in the dharna and chain hunger strike to express solidarity with them.

Now, members of the union from one or two districts daily stage a dharna and observe the chain hunger strike here. Today, the union members from Ludhiana district staged a dharna and took part in the chain hunger strike.

Bathinda, December 23
As the mercury plunged further to settle at 1.2 degrees Celsius on Friday, Bathinda experienced the lowest temperature of the season so far in the morning today when severe cold wave conditions swept the region.

The chill worsened today creating frost to frost-like situations in some parts of the region. The day's high was 17.6 degrees Celsius, as per the agri-met department of the PAU regional station, Bathinda.

However, residents got respite from the blinding fog which had been wreaking havoc here for the last two days and bright sunshine remained another feature of the day.

With the sun coming out at the right time much to the relief of the residents, providing the much-needed warmth throughout the day, people appeared to be unaware of the mercury's downward swing in the morning as they basked in the bright sunshine to make the most of the winter sun.

However, the Christmas revellers, who have been waiting for the day, do not have to be pessimistic as the news emanating from the weather room could be termed as mixed.

Though mainly sunny days would be experienced in the next one to two days in the region, there is also a possibility of cold wave to severe cold wave conditions sweeping some parts of the region, the weather men predicted on Friday. So, weather is not likely to play spoilsport.

The weathermen also said that there are chances of frost to frost-like situations, like the one experienced today, in isolated parts of the region in the next 48 hours.

Bathinda, December 23
Two students including a 23-year-old student of M.Sc (IT) have been booked by the Bathinda police for uploading the photographs of a girl by making fake identity on the social networking site Orkut. Investigating officer in the case, sub-inspector Jaspal Singh said the accused have been identified as Devinder Singh and Baljit Singh, both residents of Lehra Mohabbat.

He said that they had morphed the photograph of a girl residing in their locality and uploaded it on Orkut and also distributed it in their friend circle and on other sites on the internet. He said the boys had used the photograph of the girl that had appeared in a newspaper after she had participated in a function. The complainant suspected the role of boys of her locality, in the colony of Guru Hargobind Thermal Power Plant at Lehra Mohabbat.

Police kept a track of their movements and the e-mails were traced. A case under sections 192 and 465 of the IT Act has been registered against the accused who are yet to be arrested. — TNS

Bathinda, December 23
Five UK-based NRIs have been booked for demanding dowry. In her complaint to the police, Dr Priya Parmar alleged that her husband and in-laws harassed her and demanded dowry and used to beat her up. A case has been registered under Sections 498-A, 406 and 420 of the IPC against Rajesh Parmar, his father Natwar Lal Parmar, his mother Bharti Sen, Munesh Parmar and Keta Parmar, all residents of Bedfordshire, the UK. No arrest has been made so far. — TNS