Bathinda, April 23
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Bathinda police is ill-equipped to deal with the heavy influx of cases related to economic frauds and discrepancies.

At present, the team is investigating 98 cases and gets four-five fresh complaints every month. The cases are not only related to Punjab, but other states, like Delhi, as well.

“Just one Mahindra jeep has been allotted to us and there are no two-wheelers. With no other option, we are forced to travel in the complainants’ vehicle,” disclosed one of the cops, pleading anonymity.

The team is not only ill-quipped in terms of mobility but also does not have an internet connection, which can otherwise prove very helpful to trace antecedents of the accused from other states or access websites of other district or state police portals.

“If we require to surf the net then one of us has to go to our headquarters in the Mini-secretariat,” said one of the cops.

The team has only one computer terminal which is used to record statements and take printsouts. “We have got a number of cases wherein habitual offenders commit crime and are already booked at other places. With an internet connection, investigation expedites and we get new clues in different cases,” added another cop. The team is operating from three dingy rooms allotted to them near the local grain market.

The EOW team gets cases pertaining to travel agents duping people in the name of sending them abroad, property disputes such as properties re-sold without consent or information to actual owners and frauds committed in the name of giving jobs.

An investigating officer in one of the cases said a large number of complainants are caught on the wrong foot due to their own mistakes and eagerness to get jobs without qualification or dreams for greener pastures.

Craving to settle their young, unemployed children, many parents offer money to agents and middlemen without giving a second thought. There are many cases wherein people purchase property without getting its documents scrutinised from the professionals.

“The need of the wing arose out of the sheer desperation of general masses. In cases of duping, we always advise the complainants to adopt lawful ways and shun the unlawful short-cuts,” suggested the senior officials.

In-charge of the wing, inspector Malkit Singh said in the cases of swapping of ATM cards at the ATM machines, the CCTV camera footages are too poor to detect faces of the accused involved.

“The banks do not install high definition cameras. In the incidents of ATM swapping, the CCTV footages are the main source of evidence and we miss out on it because of its poor quality,” he added.

He said most of the times the cops had to rely on their own expertise to ascertain the truth.

Bathinda, April 23
Bathinda has once again bagged the opportunity to host the matches of the prestigious Punjab State Inter-District Cricket Plate Group Tournament. The tourney for 2012-13 will kick off on April 26.

Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is organising the tourney for U-16, U-19 and U-22 groups. The matches would be held at various districts across the state as per the draws framed by the PCA.

Honorary general secretary of the Bathinda District Cricket Association and co-ordinator for the Minor County Plate Group tournaments, OD Sharma, said altogether 14 minor districts were taking part in the championship. The districts had been divided in two zones, he added.

Zone-A would comprise Ferozepur, Faridkot, Muktsar, Bathinda, Mansa, Sangrur and Barnala districts. Zone-B would include districts like Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Nawashahar, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Moga.

Sharma also informed that each zone had further been divided into two pools, as per the draws framed for the tournaments.

Bathinda would host altogether five matches during the nearly two-month-long cricket tourney. The matches would be played according to the inning-based format.

Bathinda would play against Sangrur at the opponent’s pitch on April 26-27 in the U-16 group. It would take on Muktsar at Muktsar on April 29-30 while it will play against Barnala on home ground on May 2-3 in the U-16 group.

In the matches of U-19 group, Bathinda will play against Sangrur at Sangrur on May 17-18. In the next match in the group, it would take on Muktsar at the rival’s turf on May 20-21 and Bathinda would play against Barnala at home turf again on May 23-24.

As far as Bathinda’s matches in U-22 group are concerned, Bathinda would host all its three matches. It would play against Sangrur on June 8-9, Mansa on June 11-12 and Barnala on June 14-15.

The plate group tourney is considered important as on the basis of their performance during the tournament, players would be selected to attend a camp at the PCA for the onward finalisation of the state team for each age group.

All the selectors of the PCA have been deputed at various venues to witness the matches and record the performances of the players. 

Bathinda, April 23
The Directorate General School Education (DGSE) has divided the English syllabus, along with mentioning the number of periods required to teach each section, for the teachers of classes VI to X for the academic session 2012-13.

Aiming to ensure that the teachers are sure about the distribution of the syllabus throughout the year, the DGSE foresees that the exercise would enhance the teaching and learning process in a more comprehensive and effective manner.

The month-wise division has been done according to the number of working days in a particular month and the number of periods that are allotted to an English teacher.

The syllabus for the students of classes VI has been divided under the topics: English reader, paragraph, story, formal/informal letter writing, and poem. In addition to these topics, the students of class VII will also be taught notice and telegram writing.

In the list of topics for the students of class VIII, writing headlines for newspapers, dialogues, application letters, completing incomplete paragraphs and comprehension of unseen paragraphs have been added.

English syllabus for the students of class IX and X has been divided according to the main course book, supplementary reader, reading, writing skills and comprehension, apart from grammar and poetry.

Praising the division of syllabus according to the number of months and the number of periods required to teach a particular topic, an English teacher at a school in Bathinda, said, “The division will help teachers from spending unnecessary time on one topic. If they stick to the division, they will be able to complete the entire syllabus well in time and also take out time for revision before the exams.”

“The division states how much time is required to teach a poem or a chapter. In this way, no teacher will be able to give an alibi for not being able to complete the syllabus withing the prescribed time period. It would be helpful if similar division is also done for other subjects,” said another teacher.

Bathinda, April 23
The government depot holders would intensify their agitation if the government failed to provide them the salaries which they have been demanding for a long time.

Bathinda, April 23
The members of the Special Trainer Teachers Union, Punjab, today climbed atop a water tank in Bhokra village and also took out a protest march in the Jai Singh Wala village near Sangat Mandi.

The protesters came from different districts of Punjab to protest against the government’s decision to terminate their services next month.

Nearly 60 of the protesting teachers reached Jai Singh Wala village where they tried to climb atop a water tank but their plans were foiled by the police. Later, the teachers took out a protest march in the village and blocked the road near the bus stand of the village.

Gursewak Singh, vice- president of the union from Moga, said trainers from Moga, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Jalandhar had come to express their anger against the state government’s decision.

He said earlier they had protested at Rampura where a senior SAD leader had assured them of the withdrawal of the government’s decision, but nothing had been done in the regard so far.

He pointed out that there were 1875 teachers in Punjab, employed at different centres. They locate the school dropouts from the slum and rural areas and offer admission to such students.

Such children are taught by them in the centres situated in various government primary schools.

He also added that there were many centers which had failed to trace school dropouts and hence, had very few students.

The government has now decided to terminate their services at the centres where the number of students is quite low or nil.

The government had earlier assured the teachers that it would give them regular school classes where there was a dearth of the school dropout students at the centres.

Now the teachers fear that they would be shown the door by next month. “We are well qualified with ETT and B.Ed degrees and got the jobs in 2011 but now we are struggling hard to retain the jobs”, said another teacher, Devinder Singh.

Earlier, the teachers were ordered to be relieved on March 31, but the date was extended by a month by the government over the pretext of preparing the merit list of teachers again, claims the union.

They were later told that those selected will get the centers where the number of children was high. The centers where there was no children would be shut down, said the teachers.

Bathinda, April 23
The Government School Lecturers Union, (GSLU), Punjab, will oppose the latest move of the state government to shift the drawing and disbursing officers (DDO) powers from schools which do not have a permanent principal to nearby schools, which have a permanent principal.

The government has initiated the move on the ground that it would create chaos in the school administration.

Stating this in a press release, Iqbal Singh Bhairupa, district president, GSLU, Bathinda, said the move was aimed at blocking the promotion channels for school lecturers as gradually, the posts of the principals would be abolished from those schools, which did not have a permanent principal.

He said the latest move of the state government had been initiated after a section of the DDOs asked the government to pay higher salary on being burdened with administrative work. He said an urgent meeting of various unions of the school education department had been held today and a large number of DDOs, lecturers, masters and union leaders had attended it. The delegates also expressed solidarity with the GSLU on the issue and demanded the withdrawal of the letter.

Sukhdev Mittal, district press secretary, Master Cadre Union, Bathinda, who attended the meeting, stated that the school heads perform many duties other than just drawing and disbursing salaries. He said schools head were the most important link in implementing the guidelines issued by various authorities including the SSA, RMSA, RTE and the Punjab School Education Board.

Paramjeet Singh Jeeda, district president, Democratic Teachers' Front, alleged that the move to shift DDO powers from unitary schools to such schools which have a permanent principal was a step towards privatization of the schools. He alleged that after the government failed to appoint permanent school heads, it decided to concentrate the DDO powers of the schools and the next step would be the abolition of the vacancies of the principals.

The union leaders said a joint memorandum seeking the withdrawal of these instructions would be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, on Wednesday at 4 pm.

Bathinda, April 23
The textile engineering department of Punjab Technical University (PTU) Giani Zail Singh Campus, Bathinda, installed a 1996 spindle Ring Frame machine RXI 240 e' in the yarn manufacturing laboratory on Sunday.

The coordinator of the department, Dr Anupam Kumar, said it was a machine equipped with modern technology and would be very helpful to the students in gaining practical knowledge before venturing into a career in the textile industry.

He added that the machine would also be useful for research scholars as well as for consultancy work. The lab in-charge, Prof Reeti Pal Singh, was also present during the installation.

The machine was purchased under the Modernisation and Removal of Obsolescence in Technical Education (MODROB) grant of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for the modernisation of the yarn manufacturing lab of the textile engineering department. The staff members of the department were also very excited about the use of the machine for the students as this is the only college offering a degree in textile engineering in the cotton rich Malwa belt of Punjab. The machine was inaugurated by the campus director, Dr JS Hundal, along with the registrar, Prof GS Bath. Dr Hundal congratulated the faculty, staff and the students and praised their achievements.

Bathinda, April 23
World Earth Day was celebrated at Baba Farid Group of Instituions (BFGI). Balvinder Singh Aulakh, DEO (S), Bathinda, was the chief guest on the occasion. S. Harcharan Singh, District Guidance Counsellor and the representatives of the Eco Club from various schools in the district were also present. BD Sharma, Deputy Director, BFGI, welcomed the guests.

Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, manging director, BFGI, asked the students to prevent pollution.

The chief guest appreciated the efforts of the BFGI and asked the members of Eco Club to make every student aware about pollution. — TNS

Bathinda, April 23
There may be little that women may love more that buying gold and diamond ornaments. And if there is an occasion or some alluring offers to do the same, nothing like it.

One such occasion is today, Akshaya Tritiya. The festival, also known as Akha Teej is celebrated as the day the Treta Yug started and the holy river Ganga, descended on the Earth, apart from being celebrated as the birthday of Lord Parsuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The day is considered auspicious for buying jewellery.

Talking about the popularity of the festival, state president of the Bhartiya Swarnkar Sewa Society, Kartar Singh Jaura, said, “The festival is not very popular among the Punjabi Sikh families, but the Hindu families know the importance of the day and also buy gold ornaments on the auspicious occasion. Although the festival is not as popular in Punjab as it is Maharashtra or Karnataka, the popularity is increasing.”

Jaura also hoped that seeing the trend of buying jewellery on Akshaya Tritiya, the day would, in the coming years, come close to Dhanteras. “Since years immemorial, people have been buying gold, silver and diamonds on Dhanteras. And now, slowly the interest of the public is also increasing in investing in jewellery on Akshaya Tritiya as well,” he added.

Harman Arora, manager of the Tanishq store in Bathinda, says at least 30-40 per cent of the customers that they attend to these days are purchasing jewellery for Akshaya Tritiya. “The purchasing trend is changing. The buyers may not be aware of the religious importance of the festival, but they are satisfied with the fact that it is an auspicious day to by jewellery. Many customers are also giving in to the lure of the Akshaya Tritiya offer that we have come out with,” she said.