Bathinda, March 24
A jail inmate received injuries today when a clash between two groups of detenues took place in the Central Jail, Bathinda.

As per information available, those involved in the clash have entered in similar fisticuffs on earlier occasions also. Today, one of them received head injuries and had to be admitted to the local Civil Hospital.

Jail authorities said those entered in the clash had been lodged in separate barracks and those inmates, who were involved in instigating each other, have also been punished by lodging them in dingy barracks.

The authorities said despite giving exemplary punishment and lodging them in separate cells, there seems to be no end to the clashes between the two groups. Repeated counselling had also proved futile, the authorities added.

The inmate who received head injuries today has been identified as Rajkumar Raju. He was booked under Section 308 of the IPC. He had entered in a clash with Gurjeet Bhati and other inmates.

Raju said he was getting ready for the courts to attend a hearing and was attacked by other inmates.

Vikram, brother of the injured and also an undertrial, said the inmates had clashed on March 22 also. He said for the past few months, two groups of jail inmates were fighting with each other for one reason or the other.

They would leave no opportunity to pick up a fight.

An investigating officer from the Civil Lines Police Station had been sent to jail to record the statements of the injured jail inmate. A separate case of brawl and inflicting injuries on the inmate would be registered, said the jail officials.

Bathinda, March 24
While decoding the provisions related to income tax in the Finance Bill-2012, chartered accountant (CA) Neeraj Chawla said the provisions were not beneficial for the common man.

The provisions seeking amendments in the Income Tax Act were apparently an attempt more to strengthen the income tax department than fulfilling the expectations of the common people that include salaried and middle-class businessmen, said the experienced CA Neeraj Chawla while talking exclusively to the Bathinda Tribune here today on the sidelines of a study seminar organised by the District Tax Bar Association, Bathinda.

“The common men wishes for tax relief in two forms, first from an increase in exemption limit and second from deduction and incentive, like tax relief on purchasing insurance policy,” Chawla said, adding that on both the parameters, the common men would only be marginally benefited and would not be getting what they had expected.

The provisions were more for procedural clarifications, Chawla said.

It may be mentioned that the income tax rules may be amended through the Finance Bill.

Earlier, Chawla addressed the members of the Bathinda District Tax Bar Association, comprising advocates and CAs, who assembled at the discussion-cum-seminar to decode the income tax-related provisions in the Finance Bill presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament recently.

The nearly three-hour long discussion included the key-speaker Neeraj Chawla’s viewpoints on several aspects of taxes like Alternate Minimum Tax and a question-answer session.

The discussion concluded that the Finance Minister could be suggested to make changes in the provisions in the Finance Bill meant to be effective from the back date. “Those provisions should be effective from the current date,” the members suggested.

Later, the association honoured its senior members with the Life Time Achievement Award for the financial year 2011-12 for being constant mentors.

Speaking about the significance of the award, president of the association PP Maheshwary said the association was honouring four senior members in the age group of 70 years and above for their constant guidance, blessings and patronage to the organisation.

The veterans namely, Shiv Chand Garg, VP Garg, KC Jain and PD Goyal were presented awards amid applaud.

The association also cheered the occasion for adding its 100th member.

Meheshwari proposed the vote of thanks and secretary of the association Amit Dixit conducted the proceedings.

Over 60 members and office-bearers of the association, including joint secretary Jimmy Mittal, treasurer Nitish Garg, Ashwani Juneja and others were present during the seminar. 

Bathinda, March 24
The police has initiated the inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC in the roof collapse incident that took place in Ballaram Nagar here on Friday. Two labourers engaged for repair work in five shops there were killed while six others received injuries in the mishap.

One of the deceased was identified yesterday as Suman Paswan (35), a migrant labourer. The other deceased was identified today as Pawan Kumar, a migrant from Bihar.

Narinder Kumar, reportedly the owner of the shops, said he was not aware of the reason behind the roof collapse. “The shops were built in 2006 and we had got the building plan approved from the then Municipal Council, Bathinda,” he said.

Narinder claimed that the shops were recently sold off to someone who was getting the repairs done. When asked whether he contributed to compensate the poor labourers, he said, “We have got them treatment at the local Civil Hospital and have also offered money to the family members of the deceased.”

As to how much money did he give to the kin of the victims, he replied, “A retired inspector of the Punjab Police, Mahinderpal Ghai, had interacted with the family members of the deceased and he gave compensation to the poor family members,” adding: “bas ji naber ditta (got it settled somehow)”.

SHO of the Thermal Police Station Jagdeesh Lal said the police had learnt that Narinder Kumar was the owner of the shops and the retired cop was his relative. He said the owners of the land on which the shops were constructed had entered into litigation, which was resolved a few months ago.

He said the police would enquire if negligence was the reason behind the mishap. “An SDM has been asked to ascertain whether the owner of the building followed all the building by-laws and got the building plan approved from the municipal corporation,” the SHO said.

He said the injured had been discharged from the local Civil Hospital.

Later in the evening, it was learnt that the kin of the deceased were handed over cheques of `1lakh each by the shop owner.

Bathinda, March 24
To mark the World TB Day, the District Health Society (RNTCP) organised a TB awareness seminar at the Civil Hospital here today.

The event, which was held under the presidentship of the Civil Surgeon Dr Iqbal Singh, was attended by District TB Officer Dr Ashok Monga, the RNTCP (Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme) Communication facilitator Gagan Goyal, students of ANM School and multi-purpose health workers besides others.

On the occasion, the Civil Surgeon said most of the illiterate patients avoided treatment of TB due to which the disease spreads further. He said such persons should be detected immediately and covered under the RNTCP to protect the healthy persons from the disease.

Dr Monga stressed upon the need of creating more awareness among the masses to check the disease in an effective manner. He also gave information about the RNTCP and preventive measures against TB.

Gagan Goyal spoke about TB symptoms and about the treatment of the disease that has the potential to prove fatal. Dr Surinder Garg (Indian Medical Association) and Ashwani Kumar also addressed the gathering. 

Bathinda, March 24
Caring two hoots about the orders of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal directing all local bodies to come down heavily on illegal hoardings raised in their respective jurisdictions, the political sycophants in the city continue to flaunt their “dedication” towards the newly-elected MLA Sarup Chand Singla.

Huge hoarding deface all the major city landmarks, including the Fauji Chowk, the Rose Garden Chowk, the boundary wall of the Rose Garden, the AC market and the 100 feet-road Clock Tower area. Going a step ahead, a huge billboard has come up atop the market adjoining the Gole Diggi running across the entire building.

In the times when cash-strapped Municipal Corporation (MCB) here has been eyeing advertisement display as the major potential income grosser, the illegal hoardings only make a mockery of it.

“Instead of penalising the owners of these illegal hoardings and removing them, the corporation and the administration have preferred to turn a Nelson's eye. Had the same advertisements been put up at authorised places, the corporation could have earned lakhs as revenue,” remarked Congress municipal councillor Jagroop Singh Gill.

While presided over a meeting of the local government department on March 22, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had directed all the local bodies to come down heavily on the illegal hoardings defacing the city. He had issued strict instructions for removal of these hoarding forthwith and warned that the erring MC official would have to remain prepared to face the music.

“All such statements are mere paper tigers. The sycophants as well as the MC officials are well aware that no one would take action against them. Interestingly, the same politicians, who are being eulogised, have to take action against the erring officials,” remarked another Congress leader.

Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner Bhupinder Singh Rai said a drive was being launched on Monday to remove the illegal hoardings in the city.

Bathinda, March 24
Voluntary body donation – an initiative that solved the problem of paucity of cadavers in medical colleges of Punjab and Haryana – saw the Tarksheel Society and the Dera Sacha Sauda taking lead.

The revelation was made in a study of profile of cadavers donated to the anatomy department of a private medical college of Punjab for medical research vis-a-vis body donation programme.

An associate professor in forensic medicine, Dr Parmod Goyal of the Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (AIMSR), conducted the study over a period of five years (July 2006 to June 2011). It was published in the Journal of Research in Medical Education and Ethics.

The study mentions that till 2009, medical colleges in Punjab faced acute shortage of cadavers just like any other state in the country. In 2009, a religious and social sect in Haryana asked its followers to pledge their bodies to medical institutes for medical education and research. After that, almost all the medical colleges in the state became self-sufficient in terms of cadavers.

Before 2009, it was the Tarksheel Society, Punjab, which used to motivate people for body donation for medical education. The society initiated the body donation programme in 2001 by donating the body of Krishan Bargadi of Barnala.

Earlier, the medical colleges were starved of cadavers as they received only few bodies through the Punjab Anatomy Act, which says the police should hand over all unclaimed bodies to the nearest medical college.

But due to technicalities in the Act, long procedural delays and increasing workload of the police officer concerned, the law was not implemented and most of the times, the unclaimed bodies were handed over to some NGO or the municipal corporation for performing the last rites.

The AIMSR started its body donation programme in 2006. And since 2009, it is receiving more than required number of bodies through voluntary donation.

Out of the 46 bodies received, 23 persons (50%) had pledged to donate their body. The major organisations motivating body donation were the Tarksheel Society (17 cases) and the Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa, Haryana (13 cases).

Out of 46, 29 bodies received were in the age group of 61 to 90 years while four aged above 90 years.

People are reluctant to donate the bodies of their female family members, which is evident from the fact that only 10 such bodies were donated. Rural masses took lead over their urban counterparts by pledging 50 per cent of the total bodies received while the remaining came from urban and semi-urban pockets.

“We experienced that it was easy to motivate less-educated persons for body donation in comparison to highly-educated ones,” Dr Goyal added.

Bathinda, March 24
On the World TB Day today, a designated microscopy centre (DMC) for sputum test was inaugurated by the Civil Surgeon Dr Iqbal Singh at the GS Laboratory situated on the GT road here.

The centre, where sputum test would be conducted free of cost, has been established in private sector with the efforts of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

State president of the IMA Dr Shiv Dutta Gupta said the government had sought the help of the IMA for eradication of tuberculosis (TB).

Dr Gupta said extending support to the government for the success of revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP), the IMA had imparted special training to 22 doctors here today for treatment of TB patients.

He said apart from the local Civil Hospital, sputum tests would be conducted free of cost at the newly-established DMC. 

Bathinda, March 24
The district unit of the Bharatiya Janta Party (Rural) today asked the party workers to start their activities in a big way for contesting the ensuing municipal councils’ elections, to be held next year in the state.

This call was made by the district president of the BJP (Rural) Dayal Dass Sodhi to the party workers at a district level meeting, held at the Circuit House here today.

Sodhi said under the Bathinda district’s rural unit of the party, there were eight municipal councils. He said the BJP, in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), would contest elections in all these municipal councils of the district. He also asked the party workers to prepare for winning the municipal elections.

He said the booth level committees of the party would be activated. Besides, Mandal level meetings of the party would also be convened. He said efforts would also be made to boost the morale of party workers in the light of elections.

Sodhi also congratulated the party workers for the victory of the SAD and 
the BJP candidates in 
the recently-held Assembly elections. He said due to the efforts of the workers the alliance had emerged victorious and once again formed its government in the state.

The meeting also passed a resolution to honour the newly-elected SAD MLAs and the two ministers, Janmeja Singh Sekhon and Sikendar Singh Maluka, from the district.

In the meeting, office-bearers of the district unit and block units of the party (Rural) also took part.

Bathinda, march 24
The martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev was observed here yesterday by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (Urban) under the chairmanship of district president of the unit Vikram Lucky.

Floral tributes were offered to the martyrs by the activists of BJYM at the local Fire Brigade Chowk.

Candles were lighted to pay them homage. On the occasion the BJYM activists resolved to eradicate corruption from the society and work towards a drug-free Punjab.

Addressing the gathering, Vikram Lucky said the sacrifice of the great martyrs must spur the youth to greater heights and they should contribute to the cause of nation-building. 

Bathinda, March 24
Newly-elected SAD MLA from Bathinda, Sarup Chand Singla, paid a surprise visit to the Civil Hospital yesterday to take stock of the situation in the hospital.

A member of the District Health Advisory Committee, Om Parkash Sharma, also accompanied him on the visit.

Singla met the patients undergoing treatment at various wards of the hospital, including emergency and surgical. He also checked the sanitation condition in the toilets in the wards.

Singla, reportedly, expressed his dissatisfaction and conveyed it to the senior medical officer (SMO) of the hospital.

Om Parkash Sharma said the patients and their attendants informed the MLA about the drinking water problems that were being faced by them.

He added that the attendants of the patients, admitted in the surgical ward and medical ward, located on the first floor and the second floors, told the MLA that they had to carry drinking water from the ground floor. They also told the MLA about the poor sanitation conditions in the toilets.

When contacted, the SMO of the Civil Hospital, Dr Satish Goyal, said he had told the MLA about the drinking water and sanitation problems, being faced by the patients and their attendants. He said as the number of attendants in the wards always remained more than the number of patients admitted in the wards, the sanitation conditions were not up to mark.

He also added that since th floors of the wards were old, these always looked dirty depsite being cleaned regularly.

He said the patients and attendants were facing water problem since the taps or pipes of the water coolers had been stolen by unidentified persons, even after the coolers were shifted to the wards.

He said he had told the MLA that for giving a new look to the bathrooms in the emergency ward, planning had already been done by the health authorities. 

Bathinda, march 24
Baba Farid Group of Institutions organised an event to observe the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, on Friday.

The key note speaker of the occasion was Dr Jagtar Singh Joga, associate professor, Nehru Memorial College, Mansa.

Managing director of BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, welcomed to all the guests and told the students that the aim of their life should not to control their minds but also to develop it harmoniously. While delivering his speech, Joga threw light on Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s life and asked the students to adopt his positive thinking in their lives as well, to be a good citizen.

Two documentaries, depicting the life of the martyr, were screened by the Baba Farid College of Engineering and Technology.

BFGI student Jatinder Singh presented a short play, dedicated to Bhagat singh. Members of the Tarksheel Society showed some magic tricks.

Bathinda, march 24
Two police recruits were seriously injured and a kiosk owner hurt in a hit and run case near Model Town Phase-III last night.

The cops were eating at a roadside kiosk when a speeding passenger vehicle hit the vendor and left the cops and the vendor injured.

The injured cops have been identified as Jaswant Singh and Ranjit Singh. While Jaswant is undergoing treatment for jaw and thigh fractures at PGIMER, Ranjit is admitted at the local Civil Hospital.

Volunteers of the NGO, Sahara Jan Sewa, helped in shifting the injured to the hospital.

Investigating officer, SI Major Singh, of Civil Lines Police Station said the kiosk owner had sustained minor injuries and was discharged from a hospital.

He said a case has been registered against the driver of the vehicle. While the driver is still at large, the vehicle is in police custody. 

Bathinda, March 24
Two persons, including a teenager, have been arrested for stealing a car and firing gunshots at the owner of a dhaba in front of the Bathinda railway station in the wee hours of Thursday.

The accused have been identified as Hardeep Singh (38) of Mehal Kalan, Barnala, and Manpreet Singh (19), a student of Diploma in Physical Education at the Government College of Physical Education, Patiala.

Sween Sunny, a resident of Nai Basti and owner of the Deepak Dhaba here, said he had parked his Hyundai Verna car in the parking lot at Gandhi Market on Thursday morning. He noticed three men standing beside his car and it seemed that they were trying to steal it.

When he enquired why they were standing near his car, they got into a heated argument forced him at gun point to sit in the car. While the three men were forcing the dhaba owner into the car, some passersby gathered and intervened.

In the meantime, the dhaba owner escaped and raised an alarm. Shopkeepers and other people chased the attackers, who tried to flee after firing gun shots. However, two of them were overpowered and were handed over to the police.

Investigating officer, sub-inspector Gurjeet Singh, said the two arrested persons were produced before the magistrate after a medical examination at the local Civil Hospital.

A case under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 379 (theft) and 511 (attempt to steal car) of the IPC have been registered against Hardeep Singh, Manpreet Singh and Harjeet Motu. Hardeep and Manpreet have been arrested while Harjeet Motu was absconding.

Bathinda, march 24
Master Mind College of Education, Gehri Butter, organised its 7th annual athletic meet on Friday and Saturday.

Dr SM Devgun, principal of the Bal Vidya Mandir Model Sr Sec School, Mandi Killianwali, inaugurated the meet.

Prof Dr Satnam Singh Jassal of Punjabi University Regional Centre, Bathinda, and Professor NK Gossain, dean, Malwa College were the chief guest and the guest of honour, respectively.

Prof DR Singla, director of the college and principal, DR Vinod Devgun welcomed the guests.

At the concluding function, the winners of the various track and field events were also felicitated.