Bathinda, June 2
Employees of the treasury departments at Bathinda, Rampura, Talwandi Sabo and Nathana divisions are working overtime, and even on holidays, to complete the procedure of online billing under Punjab government’s ambitious Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

Bathinda is among the six districts in the state where the IFMS has been launched that makes it mandatory for all the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) to submit bills related to salaries, contingency funds, fuel expenses, medical reimbursements etc. online.

For this, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was entrusted with the job of managing the entire online system. The TCS set up its server at Chandigarh that caters to the needs of all six districts attached to it.

“However, the single server is unable to bear the load of so many treasuries and sub-treasuries connected to it. It becomes impossible to upload all the bills during office hours. So, all of us work overtime and complete the procedure till 8 pm,” said the employees at Bathinda treasury.

At Talwandi Sabo and Rampura sub-treasury today, the staff members were busy uploading data, despite it being a government holiday.

While the entire billing of Bathinda local has been made online, only the budgets of sub-treasuries of Rampura, Nathana and Talwandi Sabo are online. The log-in of sub-treasuries is yet to be created, which may take another one month, said the officials at the district treasury department.

Besides this, not all the government offices have computers. Many officials have to work from cyber cafes and shell out extra money to ensure that the work is done.

“Government wants to graduate to paperless work of treasury department in next one or two years. Keeping in view these problems, the goal seems to be unattainable within such a short span of time,” pointed out senior treasury department officers.

While the state level treasury official term these technical problems as teething troubles, the district level official say education department is the worst hit.

Earlier, in the school education department, principals or head masters of different schools were conferred with DDO rights. However, few weeks ago, government revised its policy and said only regular principals have the DDO powers. Consequently, one principal was made the DDO officer of more than three schools.

“As per the TCS software provided, log-in of a school can open at that computer only where it has been installed. This has left principals in a fix. Now we have requested the government to make amendments so as to enable accessing accounts from any computer,” said the district treasury officer, Ashok Kumar Chopra.

Chopra said during a recently-convened meeting on May 22 with the state level officers, all problems were discussed. “We were assured that things would be set in order by Monday,” Chopra said.

Director (treasury and accounts), Government of Punjab, CS Talwar was not available for comments.

Bathinda, June 2
Aiming to give tourism in Bathinda district a shot in the arm, the Hotel, Restaurant and Resorts Association has written a letter to the Punjab Tourism Minister, Swarn Singh Phillaur.

In the letter, the president of the association Satish Arora and the general secretary Anil Thakur, have given the tourism minister a low-down on the historical importance of the various monuments in the city.

Calling Bathinda a city of “historical, cultural and religious importance”, the association said the city had huge possibilities of becoming a major tourist attraction.

The association pointed out that the absence of a tourist information centre in the city was taking away the popularity of the area.

It added that the proposal of setting up such a centre was approved a couple of years back but the centre was yet to come up.

Citing the case of the dilapidated Qila Mubarak — the historic fort — the association raised doubts over the seriousness with which the heritage properties were being taken care of in the region.

The association also brought to the attention of the tourism minister that the funds, being released to the Archaeological department for the upkeep and maintenance of the fort, were inadequate for the task.

Bathinda, June 2
The Excise and Taxation Department today took the possession of 266 imported goods from the local railway authorities. The goods were allegedly imported after evading VAT (Value Added Tax) worth lakhs by one of the agents involved in importing such goods.

These goods were brought from Delhi without any bills or invoice. The parcels containing electronic, grocery, hosiery, edible and others goods were being ferried in a train for further sale in the local markets of Bathinda.

Department officials said the amount of penalty would be between `5 lakh and `7.5 lakh. The owner of the goods would be able to have their goods released only after paying the penalty, the officials added.

Joint Director, Enforcement Taxation Faridkot and Ferozepur, Captain YS Matta said he had to visit Ambala to meet the Senior DCM (Divisional Commercial Manager), GM Singh of the railways to take the goods into the department’s possession.

Matta said some agents were quite active at the Bathinda railway station who help in importing goods by evading VAT. He said a large number of iron, scrap, grocery, electronic and other goods were being imported by businessmen at various railway stations of Punjab in a similar manner.

On May 31, the Excise and Taxation Department had detected tax evasion on goods during a surprise checking of goods in the Lalgarh-Guwahati Express at the Bathinda Railway Station.

The railway authorities had refused to hand over the goods to the Excise Department officials and had asked them to first get permission from the DRM or the DCM, based in Ambala.

The department officials said they had filled the indemnity bond to take the goods into their possession from the railway authorities.

They added that the net worth of the seized goods would be evaluated and 50 per cent penalty and VAT would be imposed before releasing them.

Bathinda, June 2
“Vegetarianism is my way of life. I own a huge dairy farm, with around 600 heads of cattle, and it’s the yellow milk (first milk) of new mothers that supplements my protein needs,” said Varinder Ghuman, the 28-year-old world’s first vegetarian bodybuilder, who is the ambassador for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s product line in India.

In the city to promote his maiden Punjabi film, “Kabaddi Once Again”, Varinder met his fans at a mall here today.

It was Varinder’s religious beliefs and family background that made him take the vegetarian route to becoming a bodybuilder.

Ghuman completed his MA (English) from Lyallpur Khalsa College before taking up bodybuilding as a career. “People have a wrong notion that one can be a success in bodybuilding, without being educated. I would advise all aspiring bodybuilders to first complete their education and then pursue bodybuilding,” he said.

Ghuman is the first Indian and also the first Asian to make it to the top line of Arnold Classic Europe, the international body-building championship, premier ranks of Mr Universe contest and also first Indian to win the Australian Grand Prix 2011.

Ghuman has been chosen by Arnold to be the brand ambassador for his signature gymnasiums and food supplements in India that would be launched in October. Varinder said it’s the genes, diet plan and sustained gym sessions that bestowed his 6 feet 2 inches frame ripples of muscles, and bagged him his idol Arnold’s assignment.

Cricket enthusiast Varinder took to bodybuilding after watching a show featuring some of the toughest musclemen when he was 22. Father of two daughters and a son, Varinder wants his son to follow in his footsteps.

In “Kabaddi Once Again”, Varinder plays a village lad who leaves cricket to seek international glory for Kabaddi, much against the wishes of his parents and girlfriend. “His dreams shatter when he discovers that Kabaddi is not only a sport but a game of human trafficking, drug mafia and match fixing,” film’s director Sukhminder Dhanjal said.

Bathinda, June 2
The Youth Services Department, Punjab, has fixed a target of enrolling 6,800 NSS volunteers for current academic year in senior secondary schools of the Bathinda district. These volunteers, including old ones, will be enrolled from Plus one and Plus two classes of these schools.

Talking to this reporter here assistant director, Youth Services, Bathinda Dr Kamaljit Singh Sidhu said the department had fixed the target to enroll these volunteers by July 31. He said after that 34 week-long special camps would be organised for half of the total volunteers. These camps would be organised from September to January 2013.

Dr Sidhu further said each NSS unit, that would have 100 volunteers, would adopt a village or slum area for its social activities. Thus a total of 68 villages/slum areas would be adopted by the NSS volunteers during the current academic year. Every unit would organise six one-day camps in the year.

Dr Sidhu said the assistant director of the Youth Services Department over all looked after the NSS activities in the schools though the NSS programmes in the schools were being run by the NSS programme officers. He said they would certainly achieve the enrollment target by July 31. He also said students should come forward to join the NSS as its certificate helped the students in getting admissions in higher education institutes and the jobs.

During the NSS camps, the volunteers hold talks about environment, health awareness, adult education and disaster management etc. Besides, these units also take part in the cleanliness drive, tree plantation activities, pulse polio programmes and de-addiction awareness.

Besides, the NSS volunteers also take part in the blood donation camps, vocational training camps and awareness against social evils programmes. They also observe days of international and national importance to create awareness among the people about those days.

Bathinda, June 2
The first Bathinda District Chess Championship (U-25) began today at the Teachers' Home here. As many as 86 players are participating in the two-day tourney which is being organised by the Bathinda District Chess Association that is affiliated to the Punjab State Chess Association.

The top ten players of the tourney will be selected to take part in the Punjab State Chess Championship (U-25) - 2012.

By scoring 2 points each after Round -1 and Round -2, the top 10 winners, namely Ashish Kohli, Harmanjot Singh, Harpreet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Keshav Singla, Kiran, Lakshay Kothari, Lovish Kothari, Mayank Monga and Navneet Shahi, have qualified for the next round.

Two rounds each of two hours played on Saturday. And the next three rounds will be played on Sunday. The winners would be given cash award and a certificate.

Office-bearers of the Bathinda District Chess Association, president Davinder Singh, vice-president Vishal Garg, general secretary Pankaj Sharma, joint secretary Varun Garg, treasure Dinesh Goyal and chief arbiter Rohan expressed happiness over the enthusiasm expressed by the participants and the chess lovers.

Bathinda, June 2
One-week short-term course based on total quality management and NBA Accreditation in Technical Institutes concluded at Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh Campus on Saturday.

Campus course coordinator, Prof Anupam Kumar stated that more than 60 faculty members of nearby technical colleges participated in this weekly short term course organised by the textile engineering department of the PTUGZS Campus with collaboration of National Institute of Technical Teachers' Training and Research (NITTR) Chandigarh.

Campus Director Dr. Jasbir Singh Hundal appreciated the efforts of coordinators and participating faculty for their keen enthusiasm in this He said these courses had always proved a boon for the uplifting of academic excellence in technical institutes.

Bathinda, June 2
Applications are invited for the admission to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in village Teona Pujarian for the classes +1 for 2012-13 academic session.

The school principal KK Gautam said prospectus for the same would be available at the school as well as at the office of district education officer (secondary) Bathinda form 9 am to 4 pm.

Last date of applying is June 25. — TNS

Bathinda, June 2
To provide free check-up and treatment to patients, a physiotherapy camp was organised at the Gurdev Hospital here today.

Dr Harvinder Singh, head of the physiotherapy unit of the hospital, said many patients, suffering from neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, turned up at the camp while majority of them were found to be suffering due to occupational stress, improper lifestyle and lack of awareness.

Dr Gurdev Singh, the managing director of the hospital, said they would continue organising such camps in future too and would ensure that maximum number of patients were benefited.

Bathinda, June 2
The district administration has directed all banks in the city to not keep their generators on footpaths or roads.

District magistrate Kamal Kishore Yadav has directed that all banks should use noiseless generators in order to control the noise pollution in city.

The orders would be applicable from May 31 to July 30.

Bathinda, June 2
The Central Processing Unit (CPU) was stolen from an ATM at the Model Town-phase-1 here.

Chief Manager of State Bank of Patiala has lodged a complaint at the Civil Lines police station. He said miscreants stolen the CPU after breaking the door of ATM on May 19. — TNS

Bathinda, June 2
A couple and his son have been booked by the police after a woman allegedly committed suicide. In a complaint to the police, Balkrishan, a resident of Sirsa, said that his sister was married to Parmod Kumar who harassed his sister along with his parents and demanded dowry.

The woman committed suicide following continuous nagging by her in-laws and husband. A case has been registered in this connection against Parmod Kumar his father Sohan La,l mother Shanti Devi, Rajni, Devi and Seema

of Kalianwali. The accused have been booked under Sections 304-B, 498, 149 and 120-B of the IPC at Rama police station.