Bathinda, June 20
The Advanced Cancer Diagnostic, Treatment and Research Centre, coming up at Bathinda near the Central University of Punjab, in the industrial area, would be given `60 crore for its setting up.

Finance Minister, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, today announced the sum for hospital as part of the first budget of this term of the SAD-BJP government today.

With the announcement, uninterrupted flow of funds has been ensured for the setting up of the first cancer treatment facility in the government sector.

The vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) Dr SS Gill, who is spearheading the project, said `28 crore would be spent on the construction of the building and the remaining `32 crore would be spent on equipment.

“The facilities at the center would be a replica of those available at Faridkot. All the equipment is being imported to provide the best medical care to the cancer patients,” he said.

Dr Gill added the budget is not enough to bring in the kind of latest technology that is needed in Malwa. For advanced cancer treatment, a cobalt unit costs `5 crore, brachytherapy unit costs `1 crore and a linear accelerator costs `12 to `14 crore.

Endorsing his view, Dr Satish Jain, former medical superintendent of Mohan Dai Cancer Hospital in Ludhiana, who was also a member of the high powered committee constituted for setting up the advanced institute at Bathinda, said the amount is sufficient to set up a facility, but more funds would be needed once the unit starts operating.

“`60 crore is enough to start a 100-bed hospital with all kind of facilities. Moreover, it would provide the much needed relief to the cancer patients in Malwa who have to go all the way to Bikaner to undergo treatment at reasonable rates,” Dr Jain said.

He added that the high power committee had recommended setting up of hospital in public sector. “We understand that the damage done by the disease is irreversible and the best way to lessen the pain is by introducing the patients to cheap treatment module,” he said.

Bathinda, June 20
Punjab finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa’s populist and tax-free state budget has failed to strike a chord with the people.

Having meagre resources earmarked in the name of development for power and infrastructure sector, the state budget has fallen short of the expectations of all those who feel the urgent need for better civic amenities and infrastructure.

TNS spoke to a cross- section of the people to gauge their perception of the budget introduced:

Powerless power sector
“The budget has just `3,300 crore for the power sector, which is mainly meant for the power plants that are already coming up. The budget is silent on the proposed thermal plant in government sector near Mukerian. As against the restricted demand for 10,000 MW, we have just 6,500 MW generation capacity.

The budget is also silent on the power subsidy accorded to farmers. As per the rules of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the state government should pay a month in advance to the state electricity board the subsidies it seeks. For timely payment, provision has to be made in the budget itself. But here, budget is silent. This would lead to a crisis for the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL),” says Baldev Singh Sran, president, PSEB Engineers’ Association.

Extend austerity measures to beyond CPS
The budget proposes austerity measures to be imposed on the chief parliamentary secretaries, which is expected to yield `250 crore for the state. Austerity drive should have been extended beyond CPS. Even the ministers need to ration down luxurious services and the security they enjoy while being in office.

Being an agrarian economy, the need of the hour is to pull out farmers from the quagmire of debt. Giving `2 lakh to the suicide victim’s family will not serve any purpose unless those left behind are not rehabilitated. The government needs to promote organic farming with lesser chemicals.

Seventy-four per cent of the budget is meant for meeting the expenses of the Punjab government employees. These employees should not be given more sops when they are already taking fat salary packages.

To generate income, the government should uphold its policy of imposing house tax for houses above 150 sq yards at the rate of `1 per sq yard. This would not only generate revenue for the local bodies but also ensure enough funds for local development. Also, more funds could have been generated by levying taxes on liquor that would also have controlled the alcoholism in state,” says YL Chopra, retired head of the department of economics, Government Rajindra College.

No potable water but tablets for students
Budget promises hi-tech tablets for all the 1.5 lakh students of class XII in government schools. Keeping in view the controversy surrounding Mai Bhago Scheme, wherein girl students were distributed free cycles, success of this tablet scheme is anybody’s guess. What would a tablet PC do when students do not have safe drinking water in the schools?

There are plenty of learning aids and tools, but no one to teach them. Government has also doled out facilities for the SC, BC and minority students most of which are projects funded by the Centre and the state government’s role is restricted to being that of a contributory body.

The government should have included measures in the budget to fulfill demands of the agitating teachers whose protests not only disturb commuters of the road they protest on, but even the classes in their schools,” says educationist DS Mastana.

Set up entrepreneurship cells in govt colleges
Besides giving the promised unemployment allowance to the tune of `1,000 per month to every unemployed youth, the government should have set up separate budgetary provisions for establishing entrepreneurship cells in the government colleges.

One entrepreneur gives job to thirty people. Such cells are needed to make youngster realise their potential as well as create fountainheads of employment. Sadly enough, less than 25 per cent of technical graduates are employable.

Need was to hone the soft skills and technical skills of these students making them more employable. Government has created little or no avenues of employment and in a way people are still dependant on the state to give them means of livelihood.

Moreover, though the government has made claims of giving unemployment allowance, it has not specified the definition of an unemployed youth 
and not even rolled out number of unemployed we currently have in the state,” says entrepreneur Vicky Singhal.

Bathinda, June 20
The meeting of the members of the 7654 Sanjha Front at the Teachers' Home here today turned out to be quite an interesting one as the union distributed posters saying ‘Gumshuda Di Talash’. And the person ‘gumshuda’, or missing, in this case is none other that the Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal.

The teachers alleged that they have been trying to get in touch with the CM for over an year now but have failed to seek an audience with him.

Speaking to Bathinda Tribune, Parvinder Singh, district general secretary of the union said, “We have met the Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka a couple of times and every time, he consoles us by saying that the CM is yet to decide on the matter. Our repeated attempts to meet the CM have failed. For us, he is missing.”

The union says the government had taken out an advertisement for the appointment of these teachers on various posts in the year 2009 and it was mentioned that within three years they would be made regular.

“The applications were submitted in 2009 and the counselling was also done the same year but for some reason or the other, the government kept deferring our appointments which finally happened in the year 2011. We are demanding that the three years be counted from the date of advertisement as was done in the case of appointment of the education providers and teaching fellows,” said Singh.

The 7654 union teachers are opposing the government’s decision to count three years from the day of appointments. “The government delayed our appointments, why should we suffer?” ask the teachers.

They are also demanding an increase in their salaries and that they be paid as per the new pay scale. “While a regular teacher is being paid `40,000 per month, teachers appointed under the 7654 scheme are getting mere `10,000,” said the teachers.

They are now planning to organise a state-level protest in Mohali on June 27 and then march towards the CM’s residence in Chandigarh. “In case the government doesn’t take any decision on our demands till June 27, we will hold a state-level protest on June 27,” said Singh.

Fact file

The teachers allege that they have met the Punjab Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka a couple of times and every time he tells them that the Chief Minister is yet to decide on the matter. They say for them the CM is missing since they’ve failed to meet him.

Bathinda, June 20
The Congress municipal councilor, Jagroop Singh Gill, today registered his protest against the proposal of inclusion of area beyond Bibiwala Chowk towards Silver Oaks Township within the municipal limits.

One of the members of the delimitation sub-committee of Municipal Corporation Bathinda, Gill said the area does not hold any key significance in terms of commercial establishments and would be more of a liability for the corporation.

“The area does not have provision to develop as a commercial hub. If we include the aforesaid township in MC limits, we will have to provide them with sewerage facility.”

“Thirty-six inches wide sewerage will have to be laid from Bibiwala Chowk to the township and this would cost around `70 crore. Since we are not charging any house tax, there is no other source of income generation from this area. Moreover large portion of the city is underdeveloped, why should we add new liabilities,” Gill reasoned.

He added that the developer of the township has left 3 to 4 acres of land vacant for seting up a sewer treatment plant. On inclusion within the MC limits, the developer would be let off from the responsibility of setting up the plant and may use the land for some other commercial purpose.

Today’s meeting was a follow up of the one convened on May 14. On May 14, the sub-committee had met to discuss delimitation of the city limits.

Gill, however, raised objections demanding that the economical ramifications of the exercise be produced before the sub-committee to help it decide whether delimitation would bring any income to the MC or not.

In its report presented, the MCB’s engineering branch stated that there was no immediate expense on increasing the municipal limits. The road infrastructure is already present and any further commercial establishments would only add to the MCB’s coffers.

Gill said impetus should be on developing the trans-railway line areas where corporation charges `300 per square yard development charges paid at the time of getting residential building plan passed.

“But there is nothing in the name of development in all those areas,” he added. He said the city’s municipal limits should be brought in sync with the revenue department’s limit.

Others including Mayor Baljit Singh Sidhu, senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal, assistant commissioner Kamal Kant, MC Nirmal Singh Sandhu and Raju Sran were also present.

Bathinda, June 20
The local unit of the Congress today withdrew its dharna against the Bathinda police. The party was demanding the registration of a case after a Congress leader was beaten up during the municipal corporation bypoll for ward number 6, held recently, allegedly by some Akali workers. Though the incident took place 13 days ago, the police registered the case only yesterday.

Congress leaders alleged that despite having named the assailants, the police registered a case against unidentified persons.

Local Congress leader Balwant Rai Nath was injured following heated arguments, scuffle and manhandling of the party workers during the voting in ward number 6.

District press secretary of the Congress, Rupinder Bindra said the complainant Balwant Rai Nath was admitted to the hospital for four days with internal and external injuries after the incident. He said a section of the Akali workers had tried to create chaos to disturb the voting.

"The police deliberately delayed the registration of the case for 13 days and even now, they have not included the names of any of the accused involved in the fracas," Bindra said. It clearly shows that the police was acting as a puppet in the hands of the Akali leaders, Bindra added, and pointed out that the case was registered only after they sat on a hunger strike in front of the District Administrative Complex.

ASP City-II Kuldip Chahal, however, claimed that the police failed to identify anyone by name during the course of the investigations during the last 13 days. Police officials said they might identify the accused during further probe.

The Congress workers sitting on dharna said ASP Chahal has assured them that the accused involved in the incident would be identified. He also assured of taking necessary steps to send the accused to jail, the Congress workers said.

"We may again sit on a hunger strike at the same place if the police fails to identify the accused and send them to jail. We have already demanded stringent action against the accused," said Rupinder Bindra. He said the police has registered a case under sections 341, 323, 148 and 149 of the IPC at the Cantonment police station.

Bathinda, June 20
Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI) is organising a mega job fair again at its campus on June 23. As many as 50 companies would be present at the job fair to recruit students with various profiles.

Some of the big names that would make their presence felt at the job fair include electrical and power distribution equipment manufacturer Havells, security and safety needs provider Autocop, retail giant Walmart apart from other companies like Vardhman, Bonn, NIIT, Country Inns & Suites, Unicon, NDTV, Sodexo, Hyper city and Ratnagiri Impex, among many more.

Talking about the job fair, assistant director of BFGI's Department of Training and Placement, Gaurav Garg, said, "The job fair is aimed at bringing various companies on a platform to hire freshers as well as experienced candidates. The job fair promises to offer a large number of jobs, under different profiles, to suit the expectations of the candidates."

The job fair is open to the final year students, of BFGI and other institutions, of BTech (CSE, IT, automobile, mechanical, civil, electrical, site engineering), business administration (BBA, MBA), fashion technology (BFT, MFT), food technology, marketing, commerce (BCom, MCom), pharmacy (B. Pharma, D. Pharma), computer applications (BCA, MCA), journalism, mass communication and many other streams and courses.

The candidates are expected to register for the job fair at the on-the-spot registration desks. 

Bathinda, June 20
International Democratic Party (IDP), BKU (Sidhupur), Punjab Kisan Sabha (Sambar) and Punjab Kisan Sabha (Taggar) today submitted a memorandum to the Bathinda DC demanding that the Punjab Agriculture Debt Relief Bill be passed immediately. 

IDP state general secretary Karnail Singh Jakhepal said the bill should be passed immediately to bring relief to farmers. — TNS

Bathinda, June 20
The neighborhood campus of the Punjabi University at Maur has begun admissions for the academic session 2012-13. According to the principal, Dr DK Madaan, admission for courses in MBA (integrated), B.Com (professional), BCA, PGDCA, M.Sc-IT, MCA and MBA have started.

The last date for the receipt of admission forms is June 22. A late fee of Rs 500 would be levied on the forms submitted upto June 29, Rs 1,000 on forms submitted upto July 6 and Rs 2,000 upto July 11.

The campus also offers online admission facility. For all the courses being taught at the campus, international methods of instruction like field study, class room presentation, seminars, group discussion, simulation etc are used. The campus has 10 per cent extra seats reserved for the students belonging to rural areas and also offers fee concession for the students from poor financial background, and those belonging to the SC, ST and other such categories. — TNS

Bathinda, June 20
A resident of Partap Nagar landed in soup for preparing fake documents to release prisoners lodged in jails for various criminal acts. The accused, Krishan Kumar, was arrested following a tip-off. Civil Lines SHO Gurdev Bhalla said the investigating officer in the case, Nirmal Singh, received information in this regard and he arrested the accused from the local court complex.

Bhalla said it is not yet clear as to how many people the accused managed to get released from the jails on the basis of fake papers. The fake documents have been taken into possession, and sent for further scrutiny. A case under sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Civil Lines police station.

Woman arrested with 15 kg poppy husk

A woman of Amarpura Basti has been arrested by the police for possessing 15 kilogram of poppy husk. A police party near the Naruana village arrested her during a special checking. The woman has been identified as Charno. A case under sections 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against her at the Sadar police station on the basis of ASI Jai Singh's complaint.

Four booked for beating up woman

Police have booked four persons for beating up a woman of Deon village.

In her complaint to the police, Rani Kaur accused Varinder, Naib Singh, Jasvir Kaur and Seera, all residents of Burj Mehma of taking her away to their house where they beat her up after gagging her with a piece of cloth.

Booked for beating up stall owner

Police has booked two residents of Jhuttika Mohalla for beating up a rehriwala.

The complainant, Raju, a resident of Sirki Bazar, accused Amritpal and Bablu of damaging his rehri (handcart) after it was hit by their four-wheeler. Raju said that after hitting his rehri, the accused came out of his vehicle and abused him.

The duo also manhandled the rehriwala and snatched his mobile phone and took away Rs 1,000 from him.

The accused were arrested by the police with the help of the bystanders and were brought to the Kotwali police station. They were booked under sections 279, 337, 427, 382 and 506 of the IPC at the Kotwali police station.

Muktsar resident arrested with smack

Sadar police have arrested a Muktsar resident with 150 grams of smack. The accused, Rashpal Singh, was arrested by inspector Gurjeet Singh.

Police has arrested the accused during checking in Bir Talab village. A case under sections 22, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at the Sadar police station.

Bank employee booked for cheating

An employee of the Punjab and Sind Bank has been booked by the police for providing loan to someone after manipulating the account of the loan seeker.

A case under sections 420 and 406 of the IPC has been registered in this connection against the accused at the Rampura city police station.

Two booked for beating

Police have booked two villagers for beating up a resident of Mehraj village. The complainant, Agya Ram, accused Harjeet Singh and Harcharan Singh of Mehraj village of beating him up following a quarrel between their children. A case under sections 324, 323 and 34 of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Rampura city police station.

Labourer dies after being hit by drunk biker

A labourer lost his life after he was hit by a drunk motorbike rider near Mandi Kalan village.

The labourer was working in the fields of a farmer, Labh Singh. The farmer lodged a complaint with the police wherein he stated that the labourer, Shankar, was told to water the fields on June 17. He was asked to take a round of his farm.

As soon as he came on to the road, he was hit by a speeding motorcycle driven by Malkit Singh of Ramanwas village. The farmer alleged that the biker was drunk and was driving rashly. Police has registered a case against the accused under sections 304-A of the IPC at the Balianwali police station.

Six booked for beating

Three villagers have been booked by the police for beating up a farmer following a land dispute.

The complainant, Devinder Singh of Khokhar village, accused Darshan Singh, Surjeet Singh and Malkit Singh of beating him up while he was watering his crop on June 19.

In another incident, three persons, Jagtar, Jaswant and Nikka, residents of Kotfatta village, have been booked under sections 452, 323 and 341 for beating up Resham Singh of Kotfatta village. Resham said he was sitting in his shop when the accused attacked him.

He said the assailants were upset over not being allowed to park their tractor trolley loaded with cotton stalk near their shop.

Bathinda, June 20
As many as four half-centuries by Bathinda’s batsmen helped the team to pile up a handsome total against Hoshiarpur in the final of the Inter-District U-22 Cricket Tournament for Plate Group.

The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is organising the Plate Group tournament in which altogether 14 district teams of Punjab participated in the four zones. Bathinda and Hoshiarpur reached the final after defeating Muktsar and Kapurthala, respectively, in the semi-finals.

After electing to bat first on the opening day of the two-day clash for the title at the Police Public School here, the host scored 420 runs at the loss of nine wickets before calling off its first inning at the end of the day’s play.

Sahil made quick 80 runs facing 89 balls which included four sixes and nine boundaries. Bathinda skipper Manil Bajaj scored 77 runs which consisted as many as thirteen boundaries. The 116-runs third wicket partnership between Manil and Manpreet proved to be a solid platform for the team to capitalise on. Manpreet scored 70 runs.

Encouraged by the brilliant performance by the top order, the middle order batters of Bathinda left no opportunity to squeeze Hoshiarpur bowlers and kept adding to the score. Dhurv Garg scored 50 runs while Harpreet added 42 runs to the total.

Bathinda lost its first wicket at the score of 47 runs. The host suffered another jolt when the score was 72. Soon, the captain gauged the situation and along with Manpreet started building the inning. The efforts proved instrumental as they brought the score tally up to 188 runs before the fall of the third wicket.

For Hoshiarpur, Karan Saini took 4 wickets while Sunil managed to capture a couple.

The highlight of the Bathinda’s inning were the successive partnerships that helped the team to score a respectable total against Hoshiarpur that will take guard on Thursday morning.

The winner of the final match would be elevated to the Elite Group of the PCA.