B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Cancer prevalance: BFUHS begins survey in Faridkot
Faridkot, November 9
A week after the state health department completed a cancer awareness pilot project in Faridkot district to map the prevalence of the disease, the social and preventive medicine department (SPM) of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) has also started a survey about the disease this week.

Preparation of sweets: Hygiene goes for a toss in Moga
Moga, November 9
Dirty rooms point to the unhygienic conditions at a number of shops manufacturing sweets in street number two of the new town area in Moga city and at other places in its outer areas.

Two highway robbers nabbed in Moga
Moga, November 9
The Moga police arrested two members of the inter-state gang of highway robbers known by the name of its gang leader 'Rocky' and recovered a 9 mm pistol along with live cartridges from them.

Family Welfare Association chairperson Gagandeep Bajwa inaugurates a three-day Diwali Mela at the Lalgarh cantonment on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Barnala school celebrates Global Dignity Day
Barnala, November 9
The local Takshila School today celebrated 'Global Dignity Day' with a series of special activities for students. The day is celebrated across the world to establish and recognise the right of human beings to lead a dignified life. The students wore crowns with 'Global Dignity Day' written on them. A special assembly was organised and students participated in various acts. To begin with, students depicted different characters from various walks of life while the song 'Saathi Haath Badhana' was played in the background.

ATM theft case
Kingpin sent to police custody
Abohar, November 9
The interrogation of suspects in the Rs 50-lakh ATM theft case by the Sriganganagar police revealed that the Bathinda-based gang of software engineers had developed a technique that the ATMs recorded the delivery of currency in the Rs 100 denomination but actually delivered Rs 500 denomination notes when one of them tampered with an ATM installed by the State Bank of Patiala (SBOP) near Baba Ramdev temple.

Cancer prevalance: BFUHS begins survey in Faridkot
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 9
A week after the state health department completed a cancer awareness pilot project in Faridkot district to map the prevalence of the disease, the social and preventive medicine department (SPM) of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) has also started a survey about the disease this week.

Though the survey by the SPM is being touted as an academic activity for the students, like the health department, the university is also sending its teams for door-to-door survey for a close scrutiny of the disease.

Choosing Faridkot for the pilot project, the health department had started the cancer surveillance project on October 2. Over a thousand health workers and auxiliary staff conducted a door-to-door survey to detect the cancer patients. The project was completed on October 30.

"From December 1, the cancer surveillance project will start in all districts of Punjab," said Dr Sanjeev Sethi, the nodal officer for the cancer awareness campaign in Faridkot.

In Faridkot district that has a population of 6.18 lakh, the health department survey detected 785 confirmed cases of cancer. Besides, 2950 patients were found with multiple symptoms of cancer during the survey. The total number of cancer related deaths in Faridkot was 1,112 in the last five years, said Dr Sethi.

He said 2,950 patients with symptoms of cancer need more detailed medical and laboratory examinations for the confirmation of the disease.

About the new survey by BFUHS, Dr Sanjay Gupta, the head of the SPM department in the university said the aim of the exercise is limited as an academic activity. As there are many misconceptions, there is a lot of fear attached with cancer. "So, we want the medical students to have a close interaction with the people so that it helps them understand better the psychology of the cancer patients and their family," said Dr Gupta.

"Our survey is limited only to the medical journals as an academic activity. Earlier, the university had conducted a survey in Bajakhana block of Faridkot and after this, the health department started the work on state survey to record the prevalence of the disease," informed Dr Gupta.

Preparation of sweets: Hygiene goes for a toss in Moga
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, November 9
Dirty rooms point to the unhygienic conditions at a number of shops manufacturing sweets in street number two of the new town area in Moga city and at other places in its outer areas.

A random check conducted by The Tribune revealed that some of the sweets were also being prepared in the open on the roadside.

The sampling of products at various outlets of major sweets sellers has been done by the health department but no sampling has so far been reportedly done in the manufacturing rooms located at sites other than the sale counters.

One of the main manufacturing units is in a big hall located in a residential area in a narrow lane between street number one and two where one can see stagnant water.

The workers were seen preparing 'khoya' in extremely unhygienic conditions.

There were also reports that 'khoya' in huge quantities has been brought from Saharanpur (UP) and Ambala (Haryana), and stored in the cold stores for the last many weeks.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr Joram Beda said the district administration has cancelled the holiday of the district health officer and his subordinate staff members on Saturday. The DHO has been directed to check all the sweets shops and their manufacturing units at the district headquarters and collect the samples of the raw material and sweets prepared by them.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Kamboj, president of the local halwai union, claimed no one has brought 'khoya' from other states as milk was available in abundance at the local level.

He also claimed that all the "halwais" in Moga city were complying with the norms of the health department to prepare the sweets.

Two highway robbers nabbed in Moga
Tribune News Service

Moga, November 9
The Moga police arrested two members of the inter-state gang of highway robbers known by the name of its gang leader 'Rocky' and recovered a 9 mm pistol along with live cartridges from them.

One of the gangsters identified as Gurmeet Singh, son of Mewa Singh, a resident of Daudhar village (Moga) fled from police custody on November 1 at Bathinda railway station when the Rajasthan police was on its way along with his gang leader Rocky from Bikaner (Rajasthan) to produce them in the sessions court, here.

SSP Surjit Singh Grewal said Gurmeet was arrested along with his accomplice Pinder Singh, son of Darshan Singh, a resident of Rama Mandi (Bathinda) while they were travelling on a motorcycle on a link road near Jhandeana village. A police party of the CIA s taff led by inspector Harinder Singh intercepted them. They tried to flee but the cops managed to nab them. During the search, a 9 mm pistol was recovered from them, he said.

The SSP claimed that there were at least 12 cases of highway robberies registered against Gurmeet at various places in Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. “He has already been convicted to 7-year imprisonment each in three cases by different courts,” the SSP added.

He said the terror of Rocky gang was spreading in many states of the country.

Further, investigations revealed that Gurmeet and Pinder had planned to get release their gang leader Rocky from the clutches of the police on his next date of hearing at Moga.

Barnala school celebrates Global Dignity Day
Tribune News Service

Barnala, November 9
The local Takshila School today celebrated 'Global Dignity Day' with a series of special activities for students. The day is celebrated across the world to establish and recognise the right of human beings to lead a dignified life. The students wore crowns with 'Global Dignity Day' written on them. A special assembly was organised and students participated in various acts. To begin with, students depicted different characters from various walks of life while the song 'Saathi Haath Badhana' was played in the background.

A satirical skit titled 'Chhote Wali Aaj Na Aayenge' was presented by students. Rupinder Kaur, principal of the school, informed the children about the importance and need for dignity in one's life.

ATM theft case
Kingpin sent to police custody
Our Correspondent

Abohar, November 9
The interrogation of suspects in the Rs 50-lakh ATM theft case by the Sriganganagar police revealed that the Bathinda-based gang of software engineers had developed a technique that the ATMs recorded the delivery of currency in the Rs 100 denomination but actually delivered Rs 500 denomination notes when one of them tampered with an ATM installed by the State Bank of Patiala (SBOP) near Baba Ramdev temple.

This resulted in a loss of Rs 13.32 lakh to the bank in August last year.

The police has arrested the third suspect in the case, identified as Bhupinder Singh of village Bhukkianwali in Bathinda. With this, the number of arrests has gone up to three. The fourth, Vikram Inder Singh alias Vicky, is still at large.

Ravinder Singh Maan, the mastermind of the racket, has been remanded in police custody till November 16.

Preliminary investigation reportedly indicated that the gang had looted about Rs 20 crore from different ATMs in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.