Bathinda, June 21
Displacement of a portion of wall on the railway under bridge (RUB) on the Bathinda-Mansa road has set alarm bells ringing for the PWD (B&R), which has decided to reconstruct the collapsed as well as displaced walls after getting it re-designed from the Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh.

Confirming this, Madan Lal, Superintending Engineer, PWD (B&R) said 
the civil engineering department of the PEC, Chandigarh, has been asked to design the structures and also enlist the things that have to be used in construction.

“We have already started dismantling the affected portions. Our workers will work day and night to ensure that the structure is brought down by Saturday evening,” he said.

Madan Lal added that till the affected portion of the bridge is not reconstructed, the traffic will remain closed and people will have to follow the diverted route.

Though no time period has been set for completing the construction of structures, but the government has directed the PSE (B&R) to rush with the repair work and the reconstruction.

The total area to be reconstructed is around 36 m and includes the collapsed retaining wall of the approach road to the RUB from the Talwandi Sabo side and a portion on its opposite side.

Earlier, the department and the district administration had roped in experts from the civil engineering department of the PTU Giani Zail Singh campus and the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, to study the structure and point out anomalies. However, the final work of making design has been handed over to the PEC, Chandigarh.

Sources said the department wanted to get the designs made only from the institute that had an experience of designing such structures.

While the principal secretary, PWD (B&R) PS Aujla is on leave, the additional secretary, Harjit Singh Kandhola, said the decision of recovering the cost of repairs and reconstruction would be taken only after a two-member team, designated by the state government to conduct an inquiry into the incident, submits its report.

The team members, Lieutenant-General BS Dhaliwal (retd) and PWD chief engineer KK Garg, are conducting the inquiry.

“We would be able to know the party at fault only after we get the inquiry report. If the contractor is found guilty, the cost will be recovered from him and in case the officials are found guilty, the recovery will be done accordingly,” he said.

The Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi division, AK Sachan, under whom the Delhi-Bathinda railway line falls, was not available for comments. However, a junior officer said since the collapsed portion of the wall lies in the civil area, there was no danger to the rail traffic running on the Delhi-Bathinda line.

Bathinda, June 21
An alternate route was opened for light vehicles alongside the railway under bridge (RUB) on the Bathinda-Mansa road, which was closed after a wall panel collapsed following incessant rain on Saturday. Traffic cops were deployed on the ITI flyover today to divert the route of heavy vehicular traffic through the Dabwali road.

The contractor, Ram Kumar, and his site engineer Arun Kumar claimed that while the wall on one side of the bridge had collapsed but the other side is absolutely perfect.

"There is no harm if vehicles or light vehicles including cars and two wheelers pass under the RUB but the B&R department has closed the entire bridge, which has led to harassment of hundreds of commuters," claimed
Ram Kumar.

Showing three deflection meters, the contractor claimed that the wall has not displaced even a single inch during the past three days.

A senior PWD B&R official, while pleading anonymity, corroborated the contractor's claims. He stated that just one millimeter of deflection was recorded. "Light vehicles could pass under the bridge without any harm," the official claimed.

The contractor said he even offered to deploy two to three of his employees and engineers at the bridge round the clock if the B&R department felt that the wall was susceptible.

The workers demolishing the broken wall said they failed to break the concrete wall using a small electric hammer. "We have to use a JCB machine fitted with a large hammer to demolish the wall and it took more than four hours to bring down a small portion. It will take another day to demolish the -feet long and 20-feet high wall," the workers said.

PWD (B&R) Superintending Engineer Madan Bansal said that since the wall is declared unsafe it has been closed for all types of vehicles.

"We managed to make an alternate non-metallic road along the RUB, which was opened for light vehicles in the evening today," Bansal said.

Bathinda, June 21
City boy Jatin Chopra has once again brought laurels to his school and family. He has secured an all-India rank of 109 in the JEE (Advanced), the result of which was announced this evening. Jatin has topped the Malwa region in the examination.

This is not the first time Jatin has tasted success. Earlier, he had topped the district in the non-medical stream of the CBSE class XII examination by securing 97 per cent marks. He had also scored 295 marks (out of a total of 360 marks) in the JEE (Main) examination.

Delighted over the result, Jatin said he wanted to take admission in the best engineering institute in the country and would settle for nothing less than that. “Now, I can see my dream of getting a seat in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi coming true. I had been following the rankings of the engineering institutions across the country and according to the latest rankings, the IIT-D is at the top.”

He said he would like to either take up computer science or electrical engineering.

After securing a degree in engineering, Jatin wants to serve the nation by getting into the civil services.

Jatin studied at the St Joseph Convent School till class X. Later, he shifted to the Sudesh Vatika School in Bhagi Bander village and began taking coaching at the Vidya Mandir Classes, the Magnet Institute, the IITians Classes and the Lakshya in the city.

The young achiever said success came his way as he managed his time well. He said he made sure that he devoted enough time to prepare for both the JEE and the CBSE examinations.

While Jatin’s mother is a housewife, his father RK Chopra is the head of the department of computer science at the Government Polytechnic College, Bathinda.

Bathinda, June 21
It seems that Bathinda’s pre-monsoon joy was short-lived. Even after the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) announced the onset of monsoon in Northern India, Bathinda and its adjoining areas will have to cope with the dry weather for the next two-three days.

According to the new forecast, released by the Agri-Met Department of the PAU regional station, Bathinda, weather is expected to remain dry over the next two-three days.

Meanwhile, the heat wave seemed to have hit the region again on Friday. While the maximum temperature was recorded at 42.4 degree Celsius, the minimum temperature was recorded at 27.5 degree Celsius.

The Indian Meteorological Department, however, predicted that the region might experience light showers over the next four days. As per the IMD, the maximum temperature is expected to increase further.

The IMD predicted partly cloudy sky on Saturday while thunderstorm and rain on Sunday and Monday.

The rain is also expected to bring down the temperature in the region. 

Bathinda, June 21
Class IV employees of the Adesh Hospital staged a protest in favour of their demands today. The protesters were also joined by the members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan). The employees are demanding an increase in their salaries. They also demanded that their duties should not be changed frequently. They said the management changed their duties from one department to another very often.

They said they had been made to pay for treatment at the hospital. They demanded that free medical services should be provided to them as they were the employees of the hospital.

A deputation of the protesters also met the members of the hospital management. At around noon, a settlement was reached, wherein the management assured the employees that their salaries would be increased.

The matter got out of hand once again after the employees asked the management to make a written promise but the management refused to do so. Another round of talks was initiated in the evening till the filing of this news. 

Bathinda, June 21
Punjab Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka today assured all possible help for the family members of Punjab Police Commando Gurmeet Singh, who was killed in a road accident near Panipat on June 13.

Gurmeet was among those who received fatal injuries while sitting in a pilot gypsy, escorting the vehicle of Maluka on way to Delhi. Maluka assured to help in taking up the education expenses of Gurmeet’s children.

The minister attended the bhog ceremony of the commando at his village in Kot Fatta. He was accompanied by DIG Amar Chahal. Bathinda (rural), MLA Darshan Kotfatta, SAD leader Balbir Sidhu, Prem Pal Kaur Maluka, Amarjit Khanna, DSP Des Raj were present on the occasion.

Bathinda, June 21
VJ Constructions beat JS Property Dealers to reach the final of the the Drug De-Addiction Cricket Tournament today. The second semifinal match played at Police Public School Grounds today. VJ Constructions won the match by 52 runs.

VJ Construction won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored 162 runs at the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Parvesh remained the top scorer for his team. He scored 43 runs in 41 balls. For JS Property Dealer, Johny was the highest wicket taker. He took two wickets in his four overs.

JS Property Dealers fell like nine pins under the bowling attack of VJ Construction. The batsmen were sent back to the pavilion with only 110 runs on the board in 19.2 overs. Sunny was the top scorer for JS Property Dealers. he scored 27 runs in 24 balls. Gagan of VJ Construction was named the man of the match for taking four wickets in four overs. Johny of JS Property was won the award of the catch of the match.

The final match is scheduled to held on Sunday. VJ Construction will play Sachin XI for the trophy. DIG Bathinda Zone, Nirmal Singh Dhillon and SSP Bathinda, Ravcharan Singh Brar will be the chief guests during the prize distribution ceremony. 

Bathinda, June 21
The Health Department along with the district police officials challenged twelve people under the campaign to make Bathinda smoke-free today.

Recently, at a meeting of the district task force, held under nominated chairman ADC Mohammad Tayyab, the Health Department had ought the support of the police for the campaign.

District health officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said the team carried out checking at several public places, including railway station and bus stand. Eight people

were challaned for smoking in public, which was in violation of the Cigarettes and Other tobacco products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

Similarly, the team carried out a checking at the railway station, wherein ithe team challaned four shopkeepers for not adhere to the norms under which selling of tobacco and the products made from it to people below 18 years of age was prohibited.