Bathinda, March 30
While the parents and the district administration have been fretting over the poor condition of some of the vans and buses being used by schools to ferry students, the bus operators are seeking more time from the administration to add new vans and buses to their fleet.

Speaking to Bathinda Tribune, the president of the Bathinda School Bus and Van Operators' Association, Gurpreet, said, "The district administration is all set to crack the whip on the buses and vans which are in poor condition. However, the administration is not considering the amount of money that the operators would need to buy new buses and vans."

"While the school buses and vans in Haryana are exempted from paying road tax, we have to shell out close to Rs 20,000 per annum for a 16-20-seater bus, Rs 30,000 for a 20-30-seater bus and between Rs 40,000 and 50,000 for a bus with the capacity to seat more than 40 passengers. With such heavy taxes, it is financially difficult for the operators to buy new buses and vans," he added.

He said adding new buses and vans to the fleet would also, in turn, increase the financial burden on schools and parents. "While the 2006-2007 model buses and vans will cost us close to Rs 6-7 lakh, new vehicles will make our pockets lighter by Rs 10-11 lakh. We will have no option but to increase the transportation charges, which will further irk the parents," he said.

The association wants the district administration to give it a couple of months to discuss the situation with the parents of school students and ask them to increase the ferrying charges.

Members of the association pointed out that since there was no market offering good second-hand vehicles in the state, they were forced to go to Delhi and Gujarat to buy used vehicles. "The operators have to then run from pillar to post to get the registration numbers of the vehicles transferred. We also demand that a certain degree of leniency be shown in this case by the District Transport Office," said Gurpreet.

The Bathinda School Bus and Van Operators' Association is planning an awareness rally in Bathinda. The rally would urge drivers not to drink and drive while parents would be asked to make sure that the kids are picked from and dropped at safe locations.

Bathinda, March 30
The district administration has designated sites to hold protest and dharna in Talwandi Sabo and Rampura Phul.

The grain market in Talwandi Sabo and the Pashu Mandi (cattle fair market) in Rampura Phul have been marked for the purpose.

Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav said both the places have been notified in order to ensure that peaceful protests were held in the district and that the commuters were not put to inconvenience due to protests.

Since Rampura Phul MLA Sikandar Singh Maluka became the Education Minister, Rampura has seen a number of protests from the teaching community.

Agitating teachers have even resorted to holding traffic on the busy Bathinda-Chandigarh road to ransom causing inconvenience to commuters as well as sending the police and administration on toes.

From now on, a dharna or a protest can be held at the designated places only after getting due permission from the Rampura and Talwandi Sabo sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs).

Earlier, on March 14, the Deputy Commissioner had notified the Transport Nagar as a protest site in Bathinda city.

Protest sites are being earmarked following a decision taken by the Punjab cabinet.

Any individual or union holding a dharna at sites other than the designated ones would face action under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Also, a complete ban has been imposed on holding protest or dharna at the sites of bus stand, railway station, court complex and other public places.

The District Mandi Officer has been directed to provide drinking water and toilet facilities at the designated site in Rampura.

Bathinda, March 30
Students of the Punjab Institute of Technology (PIT), Nandgarh, in Bathinda district, who were distributed laptops by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal yesterday, are still studying at a makeshift campus.

The foundation stone for the PIT was laid by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in September 2011 but the construction of the building is yet to begin.

Aiming to offer IIT-type education to the youth of rural areas, the Punjab Government had proposed an ambitious project of setting up 11 PITs across the state. The PITs are constituent colleges of the Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar.

To set up the PIT campus in Bathinda district, a large chunk of 25 acres available with the Adarsh Senior Secondary School in Nandgarh village was transferred in the name of the PTU. Although 15 acres were earmarked for the PIT campus, the PTU authorities were informed that they would have to obtain change in land use (CLU) since the land was still registered as agricultural land.

The university authorities applied with the District Town Planning Officer (DTPO) for the CLU about a month ago. "We have been informed that the DTPO has forwarded our request to the State Town Planning Officer," said Dr GS Sidhu, registrar of the PIT, Nandgarh.

"A huge hall at the Adarsh School was taken on rent and divided into four parts. While two are being used as lecture rooms, the other two are being used for office works," added Dr Sidhu.

The first session of the Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) course started in July 2012. As many as 15 students had appeared in the first semester exams. Sources said the number of students was set to decrease as a few students were planning to drop out.

"From the academic session 2014-15, new courses like B.Com (Professional) and B.Sc (Agriculture) are expected to be introduced at the PIT. BCA will be introduced only after the campus building is ready," added Dr Sidhu.

Bathinda, March 30
A portion of the Bibiwala Road opposite the DAV College is being temporarily repaired to provide some respite to commuters.

The building and road department is carrying out the repairs. A patch on the road had been getting damaged frequently following stagnation of sewer water.

The area municipal councillor Master Harmander Singh said while the patch work was a temporary solution, efforts were being made to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Master Harmandar Singh said there was a plan to lay a sewer pipe connecting the DAV College area directly with the main sewer located near the ICICI Bank towards the North Estate so that the problem was resolved.

“An estimate for the work is being prepared and it would be presented before the next general house meeting of the Municipal Corporation,” he said. 

Bathinda, March 30
Branches of Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and State Bank of Patiala will remain open on Sunday for the purpose of receiving government taxes.

It is learnt that the banks have decided to conduct business in view of the ensuing annual closing and several holidays in the last week of March.

The deputy general manager of Punjab National Bank, GS Gandhok, said the branches would remain open to help customers who want to deposit government taxes. — TNS

Bathinda, March 30
The deadline set for declaring Bathinda a smoke-free district under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA 2003) may be extended as the administration has not been able to implement the mandatory guidelines under the Act before March 31.

Health officials said the departments have been repeatedly directed to ensure that all the guidelines, under the provisions of the COTPA, were strictly implemented at the meetings of the district task force. The district education officer was directed to ensure that the signs of “No smoking” were installed outside every government and private schools of the district.

“Though we are yet to get a list of the schools where these signages have to be installed, we know that the work is far from over. Officials of the education department will have to put in extra efforts to ensure that all schools comply with the orders,” said an official of the health department.

As per the Act, the ill-effects of tobacco consumption have to be displayed openly outside the tobacco selling shops.

“Though most shopkeepers have these warning 
signages, carrying pictorial depiction of the ill-effects of tobacco, they do not display it. They say that it dissuades their customers. We are finding it a little difficult to deal with such shopkeepers,” confided the health officials.

They said a dedicated wing of the Health Department was required for the proper implementation of the project. The problem of the staff crunch at the Health Department reportedly had affected the progress of the project.

Meanwhile, civil surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni said the work would soon be completed. The district task force would start conducting surprise checks and issue challans to the offenders. “We are sure that the Act is being complied with in letter and spirit. We will send the case to the state government,” he said.

After the case is sent to the state government, a team from the PGIMER, Chandigarh, will visit Bathinda and it will conduct repeated checkings to ensure that the Act has been properly implemented. Once the team is satisfied, it will declare Bathinda smoke-free.

Bathinda, March 30
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) along with various religious leaders and residents from the urban and rural areas today took out a protest march from Diyalpura Bhaika village to the District Administrative Complex (DAC) in Bathinda in protest against the hanging of Davinderpal Singh Bhullar, a convict on death row in connection with a case of car bombing in 1993.

A convoy comprising a large number of two and four-wheelers, raising slogans in favour of Bhullar, reached near the DAC where they handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner seeking clemency for Bhullar.

Speaking on the occasion, a religious leader Baba Hardeep Singh said the government should reconsider the death sentence in view of the people's sentiments against the hanging. "The Indian government is dealing with cases of Sikh minority with an iron hand," Baba Hardeep Singh alleged.

He said they would soon intensify the agitation to protest against the hanging of Bhullar. 

Bathinda, March 30
The Canal police has arrested a murder accused who had dumped the body of a woman in a Maruti Alto car on Thandi Sarak last week.

The accused, Satnam Singh, is the driver of a Rajpura-based advocate. He slit the throat of the woman, Reena, a resident of Kotkapura.

Reena had left her husband and started residing with Satnam in Rajpura. A mother of four, Reena, however, reached a compromise with her husband and decided to live again with her husband.

This upset Satnam who slit the throat of Reena and dumped her body in the boot of the Alto car. The accused had made calls on the cell phone of the woman's family members and told them that their daughter-in-law has been murdered and the body kept in the boot of a car near the Bathinda railway station. 

Bathinda, March 30
The Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, today inaugurated its women’s club with an objective to spread awareness about the safety, dignity and rights of women in society. The club aims at empowering its female faculty members and students in the university and will also work towards their welfare.

Jaswinder Kaur, wife of the campus director, was the chief guest on the occasion. She motivated the students and members of the club to take keen interest in the activities related to women empowerment.

Nanki Kaur Dhaliwal, wife of dean (academics), and Ravinder Kaur Randhawa, wife of dean (management), were the guests of honour.

The inaugural function started with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp, which was followed by a prayer. Dr Vijay Laxmi, president of the club, welcomed the dignitaries and briefed them about objectives of the club.

Female students from various departments recited poems about the life of women and also presented a few cultural events. Documentaries, based on the theme of saving the girl child, also attracted the audience.

It was also announced that the vice-chancellor of the university, SK Ahluwalia, has given his consent for offering self-defence training to the female students of the university.