B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Rs 4.8-cr hospital bldg rendered redundant
Faridkot, June 11
Months after the state health department spent Rs 4.80 crore to raise a big hospital in Sadiq town of Faridkot district to provide specialised treatment to the patients in the rural areas, the health department has put a freeze on all five specialized posts in the hospital even before it could be inaugurated, thus rendering the new building redundant.

Dalit girl kidnapped, sexually abused
Moga, June 11
A 20-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly kidnapped from Dharamkot bus stand and sexually abused by a youth.

Cong leader Jassi lashes out at SAD govt
Bathinda, June 11
Harminder Singh Jassi, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, today criticised Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for depriving the farming community of electricity and irrigation water.

Rs 4.8-cr hospital bldg rendered redundant
Posts of specialist frozen at yet-to-be-inaugurated hospital
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 11
Months after the state health department spent Rs 4.80 crore to raise a big hospital in Sadiq town of Faridkot district to provide specialised treatment to the patients in the rural areas, the health department has put a freeze on all five specialized posts in the hospital even before it could be inaugurated, thus rendering the new building redundant.

The health department had an ambitious plan to to install modern gadgets and equipment to provide specialised medical treatment to the people in the rural areas some months back. But in a U-turn last week, the health department excluded Sadiq hospital from the list of 100 community health centres (CHC) in Punjab where the health services would be upgraded to provide specialized treatment.

Now, all five posts of specialized doctors, including that of medicine, surgeon, gynecologist, anaesthetist and paediatrician, in Sadiq CHC have been frozen. “As Sadiq CHC now does not provide specialised health services, so only MBBS doctors are appointed at the hospital,” said Dr BS Sahota, Civil Surgeon, Faridkot.

With 40 rooms, four operation theatres, indoor and outdoor facilities, the newly constructed hospital building in Sadiq is now useless in the absence of medical specialists, said Dr Chander Shekhar, vice-president, Punjab Civil Medical Service (PCMS).

“We work as per the direction from the higher authorities. We will use this newly constructed building for other services,” said Dr BS Sahota.

The construction of the building was completed some time ago and it was waiting for a formal inauguration. But before it was done, the CHC at Sadiq was stripped of the status of being a specialised hospital. "It is an amazing case of shortsightedness on the part of the health department. After spending a huge sum, the building has now been rendered useless. It shows that the department had no planning," said Dr Chander Shekhar.

At the Faridkot Civil Hospital also, a newly constructed building for child birth and care facilities is lying redundant, lacking specialised doctors and paramedical staff.

At the Faridkot Civil Hospital, against the 26 sanctioned posts of medical specialists, there are only 10 working specialists. Even at the district level, there are 52 sanctioned posts of specialists in Faridkot but the district has only 19 posts that have been filled.

   Dalit girl kidnapped, sexually abused
Tribune News Service

Moga, June 11
A 20-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly kidnapped from Dharamkot bus stand and sexually abused by a youth.

She was kidnapped on May 7 this year. The youth, identified as Kapil Dev, a resident of Lohgarh village, took her to Shimla and other places where he allegedly physically abused her before leaving her at home.

The police on Monday evening registered a criminal case of kidnapping and rape against the accused. His father Kewal Singh, mother Baljit Kaur and another woman relative, a resident of Jagraon in Ludhiana district, have also been booked by the police for conniving in the crime.

Inspector Gopal Chand, SHO, Dharamkot police station, who is investigating the case, said the youth kept the girl at Shimla for a couple of weeks and then brought her to Jagraon in Ludhiana district. At Jagraon, she was again raped. The accused also took signatures of the girl on plain paper, the police official said.

On Monday, Kapil left the victim at Lohgarh village. She narrated the incident to her parents who complained to the local police.

The accused and his parents were eluding arrest. 

   Cong leader Jassi lashes out at SAD govt
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 11
Harminder Singh Jassi, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, today criticised Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for depriving the farming community of electricity and irrigation water.

Addressing a series of rallies here, Jassi said farmers were facing hardships as they were deprived of irrigation water at a time when it was required the most to transplant paddy.

Electricity supply was erratic due to which the farmers were forced to run tubewells on diesel generators for irrigating the crops.

He said the SAD-BJP government has failed to meet its commitment of uninterrupted power supply for eight hours during the day.

Jassi alleged that the sand and building material mafia was flourishing in Punjab and the law and order situation was the worst.

Police officers were feeling unsafe following a couple of attacks at them, allegedly by the activists of SAD.

He said the state government lacked the will to check smuggling of drugs. Purchasing helicopter was a priority for the SAD-BJP government while the teachers and other staff were not being paid their salaries regularly.