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City declared smoke-free
A flex board carrying the no-smoking zone sign has been put up near a petrol pump on Mall Road in Bathinda.
A Tribune photograph
Residents gherao Ambala DRM
What freedom is for youth today
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Headless body of woman found in canal near Gobindpura
Schools hold functions to mark I-Day
Veggies burn hole in buyers’ pockets
CLU defaulters: MCB to tighten the noose
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City declared smoke-free
Bathinda, August 14 Along with Bathinda, districts of Sangrur and Muktsar have also been declared smoke-free. The declaration has come on the basis of compliance and monitoring report of the School of Public Health, PostGraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, submitted to the Tobacco Control Cell. Confirming this, in-charge of the cell Rakesh Gupta said: “All three districts accorded the new status have registered compliance above 93 per cent.” “Perhaps the Health Department, now, has better experience in working on the Act. The pilot project was started from Ropar. The districts declared smoke-free (in a chronological order) include Mohali, Mansa, Amritsar, Ropar, Nawanshahr, Fatehgarh Sahib and Gurdaspur and the new ones - Bathinda, Sangrur and Muktsar. Within 15 days, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala may also be declared smoke-free,” he added. As per the letter issued to the Bathinda Health Department, the PGIMER compliance report states that the compliance of Section 4 of the Act has been found 84.8 per cent in the district. Section 4 translates into ensuring that all public places are made free of smoking and carry designated signages disallowing smoking at these 349 public places in the district. The overall score district has earned is 93.8 per cent, which includes compliance of other sections of the Act as well. Declaring Bathinda smoke-free does not mean that the sale of tobacco and its products will be banned. It also does not mean that people cannot smoke. It means that smoking is not allowed at public places and no sale of tobacco products to persons under the age of 18 will be allowed around educational institutes and the hospitality industry will have to assign designated places for smoking. However, officials of the Health Department said: “With the declaration their responsibilities have increased.” “A nodal officer has been designated at each public place who will be responsible for discouraging public smoking by challaning offenders,” they said. The department will now have to work on maintaining the momentum of challaning and checking as well as implement Sections 5 and 7 of the Act. The objective
The aim is to save non-smokers or passive smokers who are affected by fumes emanating when people around them smoke. Pregnant women and children are known to be affected most due to the same. Smoking in public places has been banned in the country since October 2, 2008. |
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Residents gherao Ambala DRM
Bathinda, August 14 The DRM, Anil Kumar Kasba, listened to the grievances and assured them of taking action over the same. Later, he left for Sri Ganganagar. Their demands include new 20-feet-wide railway footbridge with ramp facility to enable cycles and two-wheelers to pass in the place of the existing railway footbridge. The present footbridge was constructed in the 1895 and has been repaired twice since then. Platform to platform underground subways have also been demanded for elderly and physically challenged people. They also demanded railway over bridge crossings on the railway lines of Sirsa, Delhi, Ganganagar and Ferozepur and an under bridge at the Sirki Bazaar railway crossing. The iron-made railway footbridge connecting platform No. 3 to 7 has been lying defunct and locked for the past around 25 years. The residents demanded that the bridge be shifted towards the area near the church on the railway road with the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) office located on the Mall Road. “The trans-railway lines area has a population of 1.25 lakh and 17 municipal wards. Despite such a huge number, the ticket window towards Pratap Nagar does not work and even the private one has been closed down. Also there are eight ticket windows at the Bathinda railway station of which only two remain open. We requested that all windows should be made functional,” said Vijay Kumar. The demand for widening the Thandi Sarak hospital road to 30 feet as well as that of roads around the railway ground was also raised. People want the godam of railways to be shifted out of the city to ease the traffic bottlenecks. They also demanded that toilets and urinals in and around the railway platforms should be repaired and cleaned regularly. Mentioning the underdeveloped and poorly maintained areas of the railway colony, the residents demanded that the water tanks should be covered. Around five people, including two children, have got drowned in the tank. They demanded that the first two tanks be covered and the third one, which has been lying defunct, should be covered permanently and a playground be provided. The delegation that met DRM included Sanjiv Kumar Soni, Baldev Kumar, Madan Mohan Sahni, Alamjit Singh, Balwinder Singh, Om Prakash and Anjani Kumar.
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What freedom is for youth today
“To me, independence means freedom of choice. Freedom has brought with it power and with power comes great responsibility. The present generation knows and values the freedom that the country gives them. In turn, it is the duty of the youth to work towards the uplift of the country. Greater independence would be achieved when all would have access to basic necessities and a sense of equality would prevail among all” says Gauravjeet Singh, 27, a telecom engineer Nitica Bir, a lecturer, echoes similar sentiments, “Independence reminds me of the struggle that the earlier generations underwent to give us the country that we now have. It has given us civic liberties which our ancestors couldn’t think of. To me, independence means freedom of thought, action and speech. At the same time, it also means that we have the responsibility of working in our own way towards the progress of society.” However, there are others for whom freedom has even wider connotations. “Independence means belonging to Punjab and working in Mizoram. It also means travelling from one state to another with a free spirit. Independence means openly criticising what I love and loathe about my country. It also means that I can also enjoy the fundamental rights and perform my duties without oppression” says Kapil Khurana, 28, an engineer by profession. Jagmeet Singh Sidhu, 24, a government employee, is of the view that the real independence lies in the fact the Indian constitution gives us the right to vote. This is the right which if used properly can strengthen the path of progress of the country. The youth should realise that by exercising our right to vote, we can choose the leaders and bring about a change in the nation. In fact, independence lies in being the change that we want to see.” |
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Headless body of woman found in canal near Gobindpura
Bathinda, August 14 Ten litres of intoxicant recovered
The Cantonment police arrested two people and recovered 10 litres of an intoxicating liquor from their possession. Police arrested Brij Lal, a resident of street number 2 of Aggarwal Colony and Jagdeep Singh, a resident of village Alike, in this connection. Besides, 500 grams of an intoxicant powder was also seized. The accused were arrested near Model town phase 3. Two booked in separate cases of dowry
Two people have been booked in separate cases for demanding dowry. The women's police station booked Hardev Singh from Kikkar Dass Mohalla area following a complaint by his wife, Surinder Kaur alias
Sonu, a resident of the Haji Rattan gate area. In another case, police registered a case against a resident of Jalandhar and his parents for demanding dowry from his wife. Police have booked Manjit Singh, his father Amar Singh and his mother Surjit Kaur, all residents of Mittho Basti in
Jalandhar. They had allegedly been demanding dowry from Rajwinder Kaur, a resident of village Jodhpur Romana in Bathinda. Poppy husk, smack seized
The police confiscated more than 3.5 quintals of poppy husk in areas under different police stations. Sangat police arrested a man and recovered 6 kg of poppy husk from his possession. Police arrested Pappi Singh, a resident of village Bangi
Raghu, in this connection. He was arrested from near village Harkishanpura
Kuti. In another incident, the Talwandi Sabo police recovered 3.15 quintals of poppy husk from a field. The police also recovered 20 kg of poppy husk and seized a Maruti car. A Maruti car bearing the registration number PB 47 49471 was intercepted near village Jagaram Tirath and 20 kg of poppy husk was found in it. The occupants of the car fled from the scene. |
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Schools hold functions to mark I-Day
Bathinda, August 14 Eurokids, a playway school, celebrated the Independence Day by organising a fancy dress competition on the theme 'Great Indian Freedom Fighters'. The tiny tots came dressed as freedom fighters. Khushween, Jotiraditya, Danish and Setay bagged the prizes. While Kalapreet Sodhi was the judge at the fancy dress competition, the head of the school, Gagandeep Bansal, spoke about the importance of the Independence Day. At the RBDAV Senior Secondary School, the celebrations began with the recital of the Vedic mantra. This was followed by the recitation of patriotic poetry by the pre-primary students. They also preformed on the song 'Nanha Munna Rahin
Hoon". The students of UKG also sang patriotic songs while the students of class I presented a skit-cum-dance on the theme of national integration conveying the importance of Independence Day. A fancy dress competition was organised at the Lord Rama Public School for the students of LKG. Kids came dressed as Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Rani Lakshmi Bai and other patriots. Principal of the school, Suraj Setia, lauded the students. for their efforts. A function to mark the Independence Day was also organised at the Daddy's Teddy play way school in Jujhar Singh Nagar. Here too, the schoolchildren came dressed as freedom fighters. Principal of the school, Ritu Rongta, spoke to the students about the importance of the day. She also explained to them the importance of the Indian national flag and national anthem and asked them to live up to the ideals of freedom fighters. |
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Veggies burn hole in buyers’ pockets
Bathinda, August 14 The biggest culprit is the humble onion, which is available in the retail market at Rs 55-60 per kg. The inflation in its price has forced consumers to resort to judicial use of the layered vegetable. According to the wholesale market, the consumption of onion has gone down by 75 per cent in the past few days owing to the rise in prices. Vegetable wholesalers argued that the rain had not only spoiled the onion crop, it had also hampered the transportation of the same. The wholesalers said the shortage was not as bad as the prices tell. “With the news of rain destroying stocks of onion, vegetable is being hoarded in markets. Other vegetables are following suit,” said a wholesaler. Tomatoes which were being sold at Rs 20 per kg till last week, were priced at Rs 40 today. Even the lesser-loved vegetables like bottle gourd (lauki) and ridge gourd (tori) are being sold at Rs 30 per kg.
— TNS |
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CLU defaulters: MCB to tighten the noose
Bathinda, August 14 Municipal Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta said only 175 people have applied for the CLU in the city and charges have been collected from 50 per cent of the applicants. Seventy of these applications were rejected due to one reason or the other. "As per our survey, around 200 more applications should reach us for the regularisation of structures. But since people are not voluntarily disclosing the status of their properties, nor are they paying the charges. We will be forced to take strict action against the defaulters," he said. To begin with, the municipal corporation has decided to snap the power, water and sewerage connections of the defaulters. Fact file
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The Tobacco Control Cell (Chandigarh) of the Department of Health has declared Bathinda a smoke-free city in terms of Compliance of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act.
Bathinda, August 14
