Bathinda, October 12
The Bathinda Fort is the only tourism spot in Punjab that has been selected under the Clean India campaign.

While the project has been launched to create awareness in educational institutes around the Fort, cleanliness within the Fort is not good enough.

An initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, the Clean India campaign has been launched with an aim to address the problem of unclean environment at the tourism spots.

The walls of the Bathinda Fort have been defaced by lovers who have written their names on them. Garbage littered by visitors to the gurdwara that is situated on the premises of the Fort is another cause for concern.

On a number of occasions, employees of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the people managing the affairs of the gurdwara have exchanged arguments on maintaining cleanliness on the premises of the Fort.

ASI conservation assistant MC Sharma said the proposal of taking up the Bathinda Fort from Punjab was made during a meeting held at the Red Fort, Delhi, a couple of months ago. "Of all the important historical monuments in Punjab, the Bathinda Fort is in the worst condition. Therefore, it was decided to select the Fort for the Clean India campaign," he said.

Sources said though it was the ASI's task to keep the Fort clean, it was facing shortage of staff. The ASI has often sought the gurdwara management's help in cleaning the premises.

Many a times, especially on important religious events, garbage collected is either set on fire after couple of days or is simply piled up in a vacant structure near the site where langar is organised.

The Ministry of Tourism identifies that tourism is the major revenue earning industry of the country and unclean surroundings of the historic monuments keep most of the tourists away.

The tourism sector is the worst hit because of inadequate environmental cleanliness where the first impression is the last impression.

Affiliated and government higher secondary schools with four sections in each class or at least hundred students each studying in classes IX, X, XI and XII will be taken under the project.

The schools should be located within the ambit of five km of area from the monument. Even the NGOs, that are running on no profit-no loss basis for the past three years, can also be roped in.

The programme will be run for a period of one year. At the end of the year, the performance of participating schools and the NGOs will be studied on different parameters. The Quality Council India will evaluate the participants.

The schools or NGOs with the best work will be awarded Rs 2.5 lakh; the better works would be awarded Rs 1 lakh; and the good works will be awarded Rs 60,000.

Bathinda, October 12
Apart from the ever rising snatching incidents there has been a spurt in vehicle lifting. Besides, material to the tune of lakhs has reportedly been stolen from government departments, especially schools in the rural areas of Bathinda.

Shyam Kumar Sharma, a victim of theft incident that took place in his house, said the police seemed to be indifferent towards solving theft cases. "On the day material worth more than Rs 4 lakh was stolen from my house in Model Town Phase-1, the police assured me of conducting raids on suspected elements the next day. Since then, I am awaiting a response from cops," he said.

He said the stolen material included old coins, gold jewellery, silver utensils and other costly material. The victim said the matter was brought to the notice of the Cantonment police but to no avail.

"I suspected a few persons residing in the nearby slum area could have committed the crime but the police seems to be reluctant in pursuing the case seriously," Shyam said.

The investigating officer in the case, Kaur Singh at the Cantonment police station, said though he was now deployed at Faridkot in view of strike but he would soon return and try to trace the case. "We have conducted raids and would soon arrest the culprits," Kaur Singh claimed.

Narrating similar incidents, officials of the Education Department said due to lack of chowkidar and rising drug menace, thefts were reported every third day in government schools.

On October 7, material worth more than Rs 30,000 was stolen from the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and there is still no clue about the perpetrators.

A case under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons at the Cantonment police station. The stolen material included an LCD, a computer, some computer parts, a UPS and a printer.

Similar incidents were reported to the police by various other schools.

Material worth Rs 40,000 was stolen from a school in the city last month. The stolen material included admission register, steel buckets and electronic items. The case was registered at the Civil Lines police station.

The police termed the rising incidents of thefts due to the rising drug menace.

Officials of the Anti-narcotics Cell, which arrested four boys aging between 14 and 18 years with stolen bikes from various parts of the city, said the arrested boys were hooked to drugs.

"The boys belong to middle-class families and are got hooked to smack, tobacco and other forms of drugs. They started stealing petty material and soon graduated to lifting vehicles," the officials said. They said five motorbikes were recovered from their possession, which were lifted from busy market places in the city and surrounding mandis.

The police officials said most of the arrested boys belong to reputed families. Their parents could not believe that their children were behind such illegal acts.

Since the students required money to purchase their daily dose of drugs, they started stealing material lying on their school premises and sold it off for monetary consideration.

On July 21, computers and its parts worth Rs 30,000 were stolen from a government school in Harnam Singhwala village.

Bathinda, October 12
The prestigious Dunes Club of the city, having government officials and prominent citizens as its members, has been constructed without the building plan approved by the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB).

The building of the club, to which a kitty hall was added recently, is illegal as far as the building by-laws are concerned.

Information received under the Right to Information Act by an activist has revealed that no building plan was approved for the club.

The club, headed by the Deputy Commissioner, spent lakhs during the last several years for renovating the existing building and construction of a new party hall.

In reply to the RTI application, the general secretary of the club has admitted that no building plan was approved. The club comes under commercial category. It was supposed to pay Rs 5 per square foot to the MCB but it did not pay anything.

Government officials can become members of the club at a nominal fee of Rs 4,500.

Besides, only prominent citizens having a good social standing can become members at a fee of Rs 51,000.

The Dunes Club has 121 government officials as its members besides 372 non-government members.

Mayor Baljit Singh Bir Behman said no complaint was ever filed with him regarding the violation of rules by the Dunes Club. “I will see the files and the necessary action will be taken,” he said.

Bathinda, October 12
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) suffered a loss of over Rs 14 lakh in 2011-12 due to digging up of its cable during various civic works carried out in the district. The matter was taken up at a meeting of the Telecom Advisory Committee (TAC) held here today.

Optic fibre cables of the BSNL frequently get damaged due to the digging work carried out by contractors of different departments like PWD buildings and roads, sewerage department and others. The act often results in disruption of services to BSNL consumers.

The BSNL has been raising the issue with various departments but is unable to recover the money. "Since most of the works are done by contractors we issue notices to them, but no one compensates the loss incurred by us. Many times, we also wrote to the police mentioning the names of erring contractors, but we are not able to recover damages," said BSNL GM Amit Garg.

While the loss of Rs 14 lakh during 2011-12 was direct property loss, the revenue loss remains uncalculated.

The BSNL employees claimed that due to snapped service, a large portion of their landline customer base eventually shifted to some other telecom provider.

"The government must realise that we fight against several odds to ensure continuous services. The police ought to cooperate and help us in recovering the damages from contractors, lest we should run into losses," said another BSNL official.

The exercise of sending notices to different contractors is done every year, but it yields little results.

A contractor suggested that the BSNL should serve notices to the department concerned that should further slap a notice on the contractor concerned. Coordinating with the department, the contractors who do not pay for the damages, should be blacklisted or their securities be forfeited.

Meanwhile, the TAC members said for the convenience of the BSNL as well as customers, a complaint could be lodged properly on the toll free number 198 by calling from a landline phone. The caller would get a complaint number. The complaint could be further pursued with the PRO on telephone number 0164-2246765.

On registration of mobile number against landline, subscribers may get frequent updates regarding issuance of bill, registration of complaint, rectification of complaint etc. All landline subscribers can get their mobile numbers registered by visiting the nearest centre or calling on 0164-2246765.

Prominent among others present at the meeting included TAC member OP Sharma, SP Bansal, Shiv Kumar CAO (TRA) and Ashwani Kumar SDE Bathinda.

Bathinda, October 12
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Mohammad Tayyab today convened a meeting of various departments to chalk out strategy for conducting the sixth economic census.

Addressing the officials, the ADC said the Government of India was conducting the sixth economic census in the country and in Punjab, the exercise would be held in December this year and in January 2013.

Tayyab added that under the economic census, all industrial units and economic establishments will be counted. He directed the officials appointed for counting to work diligently and collect all the information required.

The official said the figures collected will have a major role to play in the development of the state as economic policies will be charted out on the basis of this census.

A state-level team constituted under the Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, will supervise the exercise in the state. For this, the economic advisor, Punjab, has been made the nodal officer, who is also the additional census commissioner.

At the district level, the deputy commissioner is the chairman of the district monitoring committee and the vice-statistical adviser is the nodal officer.

The members of the district body include the additional deputy commissioner, all SDMs, civil surgeon, district revenue officer, district public relations officer, general manager, District Industries Centre, district development and panchayat officer, chief agriculture officer, district education officers, secondary and primary and the executive officers of the municipal bodies and nagar panchayats. The ADC added that as per the need, more people could be inducted into the committee.

He said the onus of completing the economic census on time lies with the committee and it will coordinate the census besides holding regular meetings.

Tayyab directed the industrial and economic establishments to coordinate with the government employees collecting data for the census. Any information regarding this census can be taken from the vice-statistical adviser.

SP Gurmeet Singh, vice-economic statistical advisor, Paramjit Singh, chief agriculture officer, RS Brar, assistant revenue officer and Harmander Singh were among those present at the meeting convened today.

Bathinda, October 12
Members of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) today took out a protest march and raised slogans against the alleged corruption in the government departments.

District president of the party, Sushil Kumar, accused the officials of various government departments of harassing the commoners.

Sushil Kumar said the people are already reeling under a grave economic crisis and the government servants should help them instead of "misusing" their position.

"The Right to Service Act has failed to provide respite and is still not up to the expectations of the people," he said.

The Shiv Sena leader said his party would intensify its agitation and would not accept excuses like shortage of staff given by the officials.

The workers of the party said that they are planning to launch a massive protest with the help of likeminded people in the city to drive home the message to the officials manning various government departments.

Bathinda, October 12
Police have booked seven persons in two separate cases of fraud.

In a complaint to the police, Nachhattar Singh of Model Town said a resident of Sirsa and others cheated him of Rs 3.5 lakhs.

He said the accused pocketed the money on the pretext of buying him a plot of land. The matter was then brought to the notice of the police and it was investigated by the economic offences wing.

A case under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered in this connection at the Civil Lines police station.

Those booked by the police have been identified as Ravi Sharma of Sirsa, Kuldeep Singh of Kameke village, Jagmohan Singh and Veerpal Kaur, both residents of Baba Farid Nagar, Yadvinder Singh of Bhagu road and Manga of Parasram Nagar. No arrests have been made by the police so far.

In a similar case, the economic offences wing (EOW) of the police has registered a case against Harbans Kaur of Fullomithi village for cheating Sureshpal. A case under section 420 of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Civil Lines police station. No arrests have been made so far.

Bathinda, October 12
The BSNL officials today honoured the winners of the quiz contest held to mark the BSNL Week here. The contest was aimed at improving the knowledge of students about the various products and telecom services offered by the BSNL.

Ashish Singh from Baba Farid College of Engineering and Technology was given a Blackberry handset. A 3G data card with 1GB free download for a month was awarded to Twince Kumar from Government Rajindra College, Talveen Bajaj from Government Polytechnic College, Bedanshu Mishra from SGGS College of Engineering and Technology, Talwandi Sabo and Sandeep Jha, from the same college.

Bathinda, October 12
The teams of the St Xavier's Senior Secondary School bagged the first 12 positions in various events at the district-level tournament held here. The St. Xavier's team bagged the first positions in handball in the under-14 category for boys and girls.

The school team also won the top spot in handball in the under-17 category for boys and girls and in the under-19 category for girls as well. In softball, the under-19 teams — both boys and girls — secured the first place. In netball, the school secured the first place in the under-14, under-17 and under-19 categories for girls.

In the under-14 category for boys in football and under-19 category for goys in chess, the school team again secured the first place.

In the under-19 category for boys in badminton, the school team secured the second place. Principal Father Eulalio Fernandes and manager Father Menino Gomes congratulated the staff and the winning teams.

Bathinda, October 12
An exhibition boxing tournament was organized at the Adesh University campus today.

Six teams from the senior as well junior categories, including three girls, participated in the exhibition bouts. The event was held in collaboration with the Bathinda District Boxing Association.

Rahul Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Sandeep Singh were the winners among the boys while Muskan, Vimaljit Kaur and Mamta were declared winners among the girls.

Kulwinder Singh, Balwinder Singh (referee, Indian Boxing Federation) and Rajesh Goyal, (joint secretary, Bathinda Boxing Association) officiated at the event. The coach of the Adesh University, Dr Gagandeep Talwar, himself a boxer of national repute, coordinated the event. The students and faculty members from the medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and physiotherapy wings of the college witnessed the event with enthusiasm.

The chief guest, vice-chancellor of the Adesh University, Dr GPI Singh, felicitated the participants. He said boxing will be encouraged at the Adesh University as the official sport to build the physical stamina, mental robustness and determination among the youth.

The recent achievements of the Indian athletes in international sporting events like the Olympics have helped the youth shed their inhibition and participate more and more in sports, the VC added.

The event was sponsored by the students' council of the Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research under the leadership of its general secretary Mohnish Kumar.