Bathinda, June 17
Not taking any chances after the retaining wall panel of the railway under bridge (RUB) on the Bathinda-Mansa road collapsed, the district administration has directed the PWD (B&R) to issue a no objection certificate declaring that the bridge is safe before traffic is allowed to ply on it.

Putting the safety of commuters at risk, the PWD (B&R) opened one of the roads under the RUB that leads to Talwandi Sabo. However, as soon as the district administration officials learnt about the development, they rushed to the spot and asked the B&R officials to give an undertaking in writing that the passage is safe enough for traffic to ply on.

"Public inconvenience is not the issue at this time. We are more concerned about the safety of people. Unless and until the department gives an NOC, we will not open the RUB to the traffic," said Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Damamjit Singh Mann.

When asked about the NOC today, the B&R officials were hesitant and bought time till tomorrow to confirm whether an NOC will be given or not.

A team comprising Chief Engineer KK garg and the officiating head of the department of civil engineering, Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCET), Dr Gurpreet Singh Bath, inspected the damaged side panel of the bridge today.

Bathinda, June 17
An abducted city resident was rescued from the clutches of his kidnappers with the help of police today.

Gurdev Singh Money (22), a resident of street number six on the Power House Road and a property dealer by profession, was called by two unidentified youths. The latter said they wish to take a PG (Paying Guest) accommodation in the city. On meeting Gurdev on Sunday evening, they asked him to join them in their Swift car. However, over the pretext of withdrawing money from an ATM, they first took him to an ATM on the Bibiwala Road and then to Bibiwala village.

They further took him to Gobindpura village. After reaching there, they made him talk to his mother telling her that he had been kidnapped and the abductors were demanding Rs 50,000 for his release.

The matter was brought to the notice of the police and a team comprising Cantonment SHO Paramjit Doad, SP Amarjit and other police officials in plain clothes accompanied the victim's family members. Following the directions of the kidnappers, the family members followed by the police team reached Rampura. The kidnappers reached the place in the car and after identifying the victim's brother and mother, they asked them to hand over the money. The moment the accused got the money, the railway barrier ahead closed to allow clear passage to an approaching train.

The accused kidnappers took a U-turn and rushed towards Gill Kalan village side. However, they took a blind alley which did them in. The cops overpowered and arrested one of them but two accused managed to escape.

The arrested accused was identified as Sukhpreet Singh, a resident of Gumti Kalan village in Bathinda. Those on the run are Harwant Singh and Kala Singh.

The police has also seized the car used in the crime.

The police said Sukhpreet had a contract of selling forms in the Phul courts while Harwant Singh and Kala Singh were working on contract basis at Suvidha Centres in Mansa and Bathinda, respectively. A case under Sections 364-A and 392 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered.

The victim stated that the accused had used a weapon to kidnap him. However, the police said no weapon was recovered so far.

Bathinda, June 17
While the management of the Government Rajindra College has long been engaged in works related to beautification of the college premises, flex posters of a private coaching institute is defacing its boundary wall.

Flex posters nailed to a wall of the college bears the contact details of the Vinayak Institute and publicises one of its academic courses. Intending to lure students to join the coaching institute, another poster has been attached to a plant enclosure on the footpath outside the college. Both the college and the plant enclosure are government properties and the acts on the part of the institute authorities tantamount to defacement of public property.

When Bathinda Tribune contacted the principal of the college, Vijay Goyal, he said he was out of the town, adding: “A similar matter was brought to my notice a few months ago as well. We had immediately removed the posters pasted on the college boundary wall. I will get these flex posters removed too.”

The owner of the Vinayak Institute, Rishabh Gupta, said, “A chartered accountancy exam was conducted on Sunday and the Government Rajindra College and DAV College were two of the examination centres. We wanted to share the details of our institute with the students. So, we had put up flexes outside the college for a few hours.”

When asked if he had taken permission from the college authorities before doing so, he said, “The principal was not in the college so I checked with the guard. He said there was no problem if I nailed the flex to the boundary wall. This is not the first time I have put up flexes outside a college.”

This is also not the first time the college has been at the receiving end of the whims and fancies of private coaching institutes. Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago, a few coaching centres had even pasted their handouts on the college’s notice board.

Bathinda, June 17
The district health department has started seeking details of the cancer affected patients who have not reported for treatment to the hospitals they were referred to.

Under the second phase of cancer campaign in the state, after collecting door-to-door data on cancer, the health department has identified suspected cases of cancer. These suspected cases were then subjected to diagnosis at the primary healthcare centre, community healthcare centre, divisional hospitals and the district hospital.

Around 3,488 cancer patients were detected during the symptom based door-to-door cancer survey conducted in the district.

Of these, only 509 cases of symptoms were reported at the district hospital, while the rest were not found to be suffering from cancer at the primary level. Dr Randhawa said the figures reiterate that scare is more widespread than the disease itself.

Of these 509, around 102 could not be diagnosed because of the inadequate facilities available at Bathinda Civil Hospital and were hence, referred to the Government Medical College at Faridkot. "Now, we are tracing patients that did not report at the medical college at all. We have directed the field staff to find those patients and ask them the reason for not turning up. The government wants to ensure that no one is left sans treatment and that precious lives could be saved," Dr Randhawa added.

The cases, which could not be diagnosed at the district hospital, were referred to the Government Medical College at Faridkot for further diagnosis. DHO Dr RS Randhawa said that the health workers and ASHA workers in the villages have been asked follow the patients referred to medical colleges for diagnosis but did not reach there. "It is important to follow the patients who haven’t reported," he said.

Bathinda, June 17
The Director General of School Education (DGSE) has issued a directive to all the cluster in-charges and school heads to convey to their respective staff members that they need to be available for duties related to the Gram Panchayat elections.

In a letter issued by the DGSE, the teachers have been told not to leave their respective stations. The elections are slated to be held on July 3.

Citing Section 129 of the Punjab State Election Act 1994, the letters states, "Every local authority in a district shall, when so requested by the District Electoral Officer, make available to any Returning Officer such staff, as may be necessary for the performance of duties in connection with an election".

As a result of this directive, several teachers, who had planned a trip with their families, have been forced to either cancel the same or return to their station earlier than scheduled.

On Saturday, all the cluster in-charges were asked to submit details of their staff members at the Desraj School in the city. The in-charges were asked to submit details like the numbers of teachers in the government schools under them, details of the posts they were holding and the number of teachers who had been given election duties in the past, etc.

Although the elections are a one-day activity, those on election duty have to attend the rehearsals, reach the stations allocated to them a day before the polling and sometimes also work during the counting of votes.

For the Zila Parishad elections held last month, the teachers on election duty could not perform their school duties for as many as seven days. On May 10 and May 15, those on election duty attended the rehearsals. They had to collect the material and literatures related to the election on May 17 and reach their respective booths on May 18 for the Zila Parishad elections.

After the elections got over, the teachers were told that they were being given duties for the counting process as well. They attended rehearsal for the same on May 20 and performed duties on the day of counting on May 21.

"Then there were the district and state-level Inspire awards exhibition. Several teachers couldn't deliver lectures in schools as they had to attend the 
exhibitions. A lot of working days of the teachers were spent on duties other than taking classes. The government pays little attention to the fact that since the teachers are given duties, the students lose out on studies," said a teacher of a government school in the district. 

Bathinda, June 17
A six day national-level training programme sponsored by the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and SRM University was inaugurated at the Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo today. The programme will be based on teaching with Matlab (matrix laboratory) and Simulink to take the teaching and learning process to a new level.

While Matlab is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming, the Simulink is a data flow graphical programming language tool for modelling, simulating and analysing multi-domain dynamic systems.

Vice-chancellor of the university, SK Ahluwalia, was the chief guest at the inaugural session. Registrar Dr Raj Kumar Goyal delivered the welcome address. Dr RK Bansal, Dean (Research), made the programme familiar to the participants. — TNS

Bathinda, June 17
As many as 89 per cent children in the age-group of 0 to 5 years of the migratory population were administered pulse polio vaccine under the national round being held for the migratory population.

District Immunization Officer Dr Rakesh Goel said that the children are being administered bivalent vaccine instead of the trivalent vaccine given during the usual national rounds. "This is because no case of polio has been detected in Bathinda or in its near vicinity," he said.

He added that 6612 children were immunised on Monday and the remaining will be covered on Tuesday. A total of 131 teams have been formed including two transit teams, 89 house-to-house teams and 40 mobile teams. Children in the high-risk group, including those living in slum areas, hamlets, brick kiln, migrant labour and construction labour, were covered.

Bathinda, June 17
Police has registered a case against Bhupa Singh, a resident of Sirsa in Haryana for creating chaos on the roads by driving an overloaded tractor-trailer in the city area.