Bathinda, January 31
The public hearing of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for 2013-14 tariff plan turned into a grievance redressal meeting with the rice millers complaining against the officials of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

Chairman, PSERC, Romila Dubey, with members Varinder Singh and Gurinderjit Singh by her side, presided over the first public hearing in the state for 2013-14 tariff.

Dubey had to repeatedly intervene to stop the verbal duel between the representatives of rice millers and the PSPCL officials.

Rice millers and a farmer from Muktsar accused 
the PSPCL officials and lower-rung workers of using foul language, being absent from their place of duty, drinking liquor during duty hours and misbehaving.

Calling the wrong hefty power bills a mistake of the PSPCL officers, the rice millers’ union president Narayan Garg said despite repeated requests and numerous reminders, wrong bills are not rectified.

“The PSPCL officials say ‘Tussi aiveyin bhaunkde phirde ho (you are wasting your time)’," he told the chairman. They also alleged that the public hearing is never publicised properly and no grievance redressal meeting is ever held to address the issues of the industrial sector.

Millers accused the PSPCL officials of not publicising the meetings to avoid the industrialists complaining against them to the higher officials.

Farmer Shivcharan Singh from Muktsar complained that in the village neither the linemen nor any other PSPCL official was ever available. He requested the PSPCL officers to put up notices barring its employees from gambling and drinking liquor in office.

BS Kamal and HS Khurmi from Power Engineer Associates proposed that the naked low-tension wires should be replaced with insulated ones as has been done in Haryana and Delhi. This would control power theft through kundi connections and save many lives. LT lines should also be laid underground, they demanded.

They added that the no-objection certificate (NOC) by PSPCL to residential colonies should be brought under the Standards of Performance and a time period be framed for providing the service.

Industrialists protested against the power hike introduced in mid-year and burdening the consumers with arrears, as was done last year.

Bhagwan Bansal from Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginning Association said due to such wrong policies and over burdening the power sector, no one was ready to make capital investment in the state for any new project.

"We are losing employment avenues and revenue to Gujarat and Chhattisgarh," he said.

Another industrialist pointed out that the ginning industry was seasonal and was given power connections from September 1 to March 31.

However, last year, the raw material started arriving in market after March 31. Since the power connection was no more available in Punjab's ginning industries, the entire business went to Haryana that provides power on the basis of requirement.

People at the hearing did not object to the revised tariff plan, but said the government should provide them uninterrupted power supply, especially to the agriculture sector.

Bathinda, January 31
The cash-strapped Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will spend Rs 5.5 crore on renovating the existing office of SE Operations office to turn it into a VIP guest house.

The four-decade-old Lake View guest house of PSPCL, located by one of the lakes of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, is a favourite place of the politicos of Punjab.

The board of directors of PSPCL, which has senior IAS-level officers of Punjab Government on board, passed a resolution in its 23rd meeting held at Mohali on December 21, 2012 to sanction Rs 5.5 crores to convert it into a state-of-the-art VIP guest house.

Chief engineer (civil construction) of the company has been asked to swing into action to do job with instructions to spend Rs. 1.5 crores out of the total amount by March 2013, sources said.

Till a few days ago, the guest house was the office of the deputy chief engineer (operations) of PSPCL. The officer has already been issued instructions to move out. "The office is now being shifted into one of the dull residential quarters in the Thermal Colony that has small rooms which will not be able to accommodate the staff. PSPCL seems to be in a hurry to dismantle the old building and replace it with new one,” revealed a PSPCL engineer, requesting anonymity.

The move has raised many an eyebrows and invited objections from various quarters. The power engineers have decided to raise this issue at their executive body meeting to be held soon. Engineers rued that government was splurging tax payers’ money for erecting lavish guest houses. "Instead of providing the office of deputy chief engineer (operations) with a better alternative, the staff is being transferred to an insufficient accommodation," added one of the employees.

Sources added that the guest house would have latest building materials, ultra modern bathrooms, teak wood furniture and imported furnishings. Expert engineers and architects are being grouped by PSPCL to do the job on priority basis.

Deputy Commissioner, Kamal Kishore Yadav, confirmed the move and said the guest house would be under the jurisdiction of PSPCL only. "Bathinda lacks sufficient government houses to accommodate visiting officials. The new guest house would be helpful in giving visitors a better option,” he said.

Bathinda, January 31
The math lab at the Government Senior Secondary School, Deon, may make a person with Arithomophobia (fear of mathematics) fall in love with the subject. The coloured walls of the lab are filled with charts, graphs, derivations of various mathematical theorems, trigonometry formulas and 3-D images of geometrical figures.

Maths teacher Sukhdev Mittal teaches students at the math lab in the Government Senior Secondary School, Deon. A Tribune Photograph

The lab has become so popular that a team sent by the Director General of School Education (DGSE), Chandigarh, visited the lab and decided to include its photograph in the Mathematics Module book which has been distributed in all the government schools of the state. The book directs the teachers on how practical mathematics is to be taught.

Sukhdev Mittal, one of the two mathematics teachers in the school, the brain behind the lab, told Bathinda Tribune, "Mathematics is a demon for many students. We wanted to make it interesting for the students and that is how we decided to make the lab in the school."

The lab, for the students of class VI to class X, has models made by the students as well as the mathematics teachers. "We get Rs 500 per year to buy material for the lab and we use the money judiciously for adding value to the lab. Many of the models have been made by the students. The latest addition to the lab are the models on probability and geometrical graphs," he added.

Interestingly, Mittal had got a compartment in mathematics in his matriculation examination. "I left studies for two years and worked. My father let me take admission in college on the condition that I took mathematics as one of my subjects. That's when my interest in the subject grew. I wish to simplify the subject for the students too," he said.

Mittal also teaches Vedic mathematics which he says comes in handy for those preparing for competitive examinations and oral calculations.

Although the Deon school lab has been developed over a couple of years, the DGSE had, last year, passed orders and directed all the schools in the state to set up maths labs or math corners to conduct practicals for the subject.

The notification clarifies that in case a room is not free on the school premises, the existing library or science laboratory will have to be used as the math laboratory. The teachers will be provided the kit and apparatus required for conducting practicals.

Fact file

In a notification sent to the heads of all the government schools across the state in May last year, Director General of School Education (DGSE) had directed all the schools to set up Math laboratories or Math Corners in their respective schools.

As per the notification, these Math laboratories were to be set up for the students of class IV to class X, starting from the academic session 2012-13. These labs were to be used to conduct practical classes for the subject.

For the students of class VI to class VII, a total of 15 marks have been allotted to the arithmetic practical. This has been further divided into practical activities (10 marks), practical notebook (3 marks) and viva (2 marks). For the students of class IX and class X, a total of 25 marks have been allotted to the arithmetic practical. 

Bathinda, January 31
The Income Tax officials raided the shop, Kesri Cloth House, on the Court Road today. The team members collected records from the shop and went through them. Sources added that the team arrived in the morning and left after noon. Joint commissioner of the department, SK Mittal led the team.

Inspectors and other officials matched entries in the shop’s documents with the ones available with them.

Mittal said the checking was a routine affair of the department and some record has also been collected for verification. He said further investigations were on in the case.

Bathinda, January 31
The Maur police today booked two persons for pilfering LPG gas and filling it into smaller cylinders illegally. As per the information, inspector of Food and Civil Supplies Department, Sanjiv Kumar, raided the shop of the accused Hemraj and Jeevan from Bohar Wala Chowk Maur.

The team confiscated as many as 17 cylinders filled with LPG gas meant for domestic use and 64 smaller cylinders of 2 kg capacity.

The accused used to empty the domestic cylinders into smaller ones. A case has been registered under Section 7 of Essential Commodities Act. No arrests have been made so far.

Bathinda, January 31
Health officials said the newly-detected patient of swine flu is undergoing treatment at Adesh Medical College. The patient has had a history of prolonged sore throat for the last two months. Her confirmation report was received late on Wednesday evening.

District Health Officer, Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa, said a patient from Paras Ram Nagar has been cured.

A swine flu patient from Gobind Colony in Cantonment area had passed away on Wednesday morning.

Another patient, from Barnala is undergoing treatment in Bathinda. A swine flu patient from village Sekhu is undergoing treatment and is responding well.

Bathinda, January 31
This could have been a story straight out of a crime reality show on TV. The city police today sent back a woman to her native place in West Bengal after she was abandoned at the Bathinda railway junction by the owners of the house where she was working as a domestic help.

As per the information, Naujawan Welfare Society, a city-based NGO, was informed by some hotel owners near the railway station that a young woman, in her twenties, had been roaming around the area for the last two days.

The volunteers of the NGO reached the place and located the woman.

The woman, who identified herself as Aarti, said she was a widow and lived with her father and two children in Maal Thana, a village in West Bengal.

She added that an agent promised her a job in Delhi. When she landed in Delhi, she was placed as a domestic help where she was paid only Rs 1,000 per month.

After being thrown out of that house, she worked as domestic help in Haryana and Punjab. "She could not remember the city's name in Punjab where she was working as domestic help.

She told us that the owners of the house were not happy with her work and left her at the Bathinda railway junction to catch a train and go back to her place. We were informed by the NGO and we brought the lady to the police station where she was counselled by the women helpline in-charge, Jaswinder Kaur," said Kotwali SHO Jaspal Singh.

"After counselling her, we gave her money and bought her train tickets and sent a guard to accompany her to Delhi. The guard has also been entrusted with the duty of seating the lady in the Siliguri-bound train. The women said she knew how to reach her place from Delhi," he added.

The volunteers of the NGO had informed Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ravcharan Singh Brar about the woman. 

Bathinda, January 31
A seminar on women empowerment was organized today by the department of social welfare at the Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI). Arjuna awardee Avneet Kaur Sidhu, PPS, was the keynote speaker at the seminar.

Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, chairman, BFGI, congratulated Avneet on her achievements and said she is an ideal example of women empowerment. BD Sharma, deputy director (Activities) welcomed the guests. He said the BFGI dedicates every year to a noble cause. The year 2013 has been dedicated to women empowerment. — TNS

Bathinda, January 31
The Canal Colony police has booked a man for defaming a woman. The accused had pasted "provocative notices" on behalf of the woman in her street thereby defaming her.

In her complaint to the police, a resident of Lal Singh Basti, told the cops at the Canal Colony police station that on January 28, when she opened the door of her house, she found a group of men standing in the street. When she moved out, she saw hand-written posters pasted in her name with provocative things written about her.

On the basis of her complaint, the police booked Tejinder Singh, a resident of Goniana Mandi under sections 294 and 509 of the IPC.