B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Badal becomes first village to have door-to-door garbage collection
Badal, October 23
Badal - the native village of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal - is the lone village in the state, where a private company has started the system of door-to-door garbage collection and cleaning up the roads and streets on the pattern of municipal towns.

Ferozepur ahead of all districts in terms of procurement: Commissioner
Ferozepur, October 23
Following instructions from the state government to ensure the smooth procurement of paddy crop, VK Sharma, Commissioner, Ferozpur and Faridkot division, along with Manjit Singh Narang, Deputy Commissioner, besides officials from various procurement agencies today visited the grain markets in Mamdot, Guruharsahai, Suba Kadim, Bareke, Karma, Lakho Ke and other places and took stock of the ongoing procurement process.

Conference on educational intelligence begins today
Chandigarh, October 23
The StudentSpace and Nihal Technology Group along with the Punjab Technical University (PTU) will organise a mega Educational Intelligence Conference at Hotel Mountview on October 24 and 25.

Poppy husk seized, four arrested
Abohar, October 23
The Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Punjab Police have seized 6,225 kg of poppy husk by intercepting two vehicles here today. The Superintendent of Police, Kuldeep Singh Chahal, said the team, led by Darshan Singh, in-charge of the cell, intercepted a canter that was being escorted by a car near Gaddandob village of the sub-division last evening. During the search of the vehicle, 25 polythene sheet bags of poppy husk each weighing 25 kg were recovered.

Sriganganagar IMA president killed
Abohar, October 23
Eminent physician Dr Dinesh Garg, president of the Sriganganagar unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), was killed while his wife Dr Neeru Garg sustained injuries. The driver of the car and his daughter who was also travelling with them, sustained injuries.

BJP to raise Patel's statue, 600-ft high
Chandigarh: The BJP will lay the foundation stone of the “Statue of Unity” on October 31 as a tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution to the freedom struggle. The 600 ft statue will be built at Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat. — TNS

Badal becomes first village to have door-to-door garbage collection
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Badal, October 23
Badal - the native village of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal - is the lone village in the state, where a private company has started the system of door-to-door garbage collection and cleaning up the roads and streets on the pattern of municipal towns.

Five men and a garbage collection vehicle have been pressed into service to make the village clean from October 1. The village has been divided in two parts where the sweepers do their jobs on rotational basis.

Wearing a green and yellow colour uniform, these men with large brooms in their hands are a common sight between 7 am and 3 pm. The special focus is on cleaning the road in front of the CM’s private residence.

“Earlier, there was hardly any system in place to clean the village. The administration used to bring some sweepers from the nearby towns only during the visits of the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister,” said Charanjit, a sweeper of the JITF Urban Infrastructure Limited.

He said that after collecting the garbage from here, they dump it at a particular place allocated to them in Gidderbaha. “Besides collecting garbage from houses and streets, we collect trash from government offices, hospitals, schools and colleges too,” Charanjit added.

The residents of the village said the initiative was good as they were not being charged even a single penny. But some of them, living on the periphery of the village, highlighted their grievances saying, “The sweepers are not collecting garbage from our houses. The project has been started to benefit the big landlords as the sweepers collect garbage from only the houses of the rich."

Speaking over the phone, Sunil Singh, General Manager, JITF Urban Infrastructure Limited, said, “Acting upon the directions of the Chief Minister, who wanted to start a door-to-door garbage collection system in the villages, we started this in Badal village as a pilot project. However, neither has any agreement been signed nor has any amount been fixed for this service. At present, we are doing it without receiving any money. But it will cost us around Rs 1 lakh per month.”

He termed it as an expensive venture, saying it was not viable everywhere.

Sunil Singh further said, “Our company is providing this service in nearly 70 towns of Punjab, barring a few stations where we have not been paid by the local authorities. A huge sum is still pending towards the local municipal council towns."

Ferozepur ahead of all districts in terms of procurement: Commissioner
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, October 23
Following instructions from the state government to ensure the smooth procurement of paddy crop, VK Sharma, Commissioner, Ferozpur and Faridkot division, along with Manjit Singh Narang, Deputy Commissioner, besides officials from various procurement agencies today visited the grain markets in Mamdot, Guruharsahai, Suba Kadim, Bareke, Karma, Lakho Ke and other places and took stock of the ongoing procurement process.

The commissioner said that around 9 lakh MT paddy was expected during this season in the district of which 6.5 Lakh MT has already arrived in the market. He further said that 6.33 lakh MT of paddy has already been procured by various procurement agencies and 93 per cent of the lifting has been done. Nearly 63 per cent of the payments have also been made so far. The commissioner said the border district of Ferozepur was ahead of all other districts in the state in terms of procurement so far. He said procurement officials and commission agents have been instructed that the farmers should not face any problem in selling off their produce. The commissioner also listened to the problems of the commission agents and assured them of all possible help. The DC asked the officials of the procurement agencies to do bidding for the stocks regularly.

Conference on educational intelligence begins today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23
The StudentSpace and Nihal Technology Group along with the Punjab Technical University (PTU) will organise a mega Educational Intelligence Conference at Hotel Mountview on October 24 and 25. A range of issues from providing quality jobs to youth and imparting world-class education to monitoring faculty competence will be discussed at the conference.

Renowned speakers, including Dr Steve Cox, MIS Director, RIO Grande University, USA, Dr Frances Levine, ex-Dean, Santa Fe Community, USA, Dr Chuck Dull, Dean Cleveland College, USA, Prof SNS Nagra, President, Asia Pacific, StudentSpace, USA, and Sunil Gulati, business intelligence expert and founder of ZX Consulting Group, will discuss the issues.

Briefing media personnel, Prof SNS Nagra said, “We are targeting students and institutions. In India, there aren’t enough jobs generated for the thousands of youths graduating every year. This conference is being organised to bridge the gap. It is a long term process but we want to start working on it.” On the involvement of institutions in the project, Nagra said, “Students and institutes from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana and Rajasthan will participate in the conference.”

A panel discussion on NRI Punjab Tech Vision will also be held at the conference with members speaking on start-ups in robotics and nanotechnology.

Poppy husk seized, four arrested
Tribune Reporters

Abohar, October 23
The Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Punjab Police have seized 6,225 kg of poppy husk by intercepting two vehicles here today. The Superintendent of Police, Kuldeep Singh Chahal, said the team, led by Darshan Singh, in-charge of the cell, intercepted a canter that was being escorted by a car near Gaddandob village of the sub-division last evening. During the search of the vehicle, 25 polythene sheet bags of poppy husk each weighing 25 kg were recovered.

The police has arrested four persons, identified as Yog Das and Gurmit Singh of Kot Isse Khan (Moga-Jalandhar road) along with local residents Satpal Singh and Jagsir Singh, whereas six persons managed to flee the scene.

They have been identified as Nishan Singh of Kot Isse Khan, Gabber Singh, Pamma and his brothers Prem and Karni of Maseetan village. Muktsar: The district police today claimed to have nabbed five drug peddlers along with over four quintal of poppy husk in two separate cases. A spokesperson of the district police said that a party led by sub-inspector Ashok Kumar, in-charge, CIA, Malout, laid a naka at Karamgarh village on the Malout-Abohar national highway where a tractor-trolley vehicle was intercepted. As many as four persons were found travelling with 18 bags of poppy husk. Each bag weighed about 20 kg poppy husk, the police said.

The accused were arrested and identified as driver Jasvir Singh, alias Seera, of Alamwala village, Gurpreet Singh of Inna Khera, Bhagwant Singh of Bhulerian and Sukhwant Singh of Ratta Khera village. In another case, a police party caught a person Manjit Singh of Tarmala village with a bag of poppy husk weighing about 52-kg.

Two separate cases have been registered in this regard.

Sriganganagar IMA president killed
Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 23
Eminent physician Dr Dinesh Garg, president of the Sriganganagar unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), was killed while his wife Dr Neeru Garg sustained injuries. The driver of the car and his daughter who was also travelling with them, sustained injuries.

The family was escorting Dr Garg who had landed at New Delhi after visiting Singapore. The car reportedly collided head-on with another car on the Fatehabad road last evening. The doctors closed their clinics for hald-day today to mourn the tragic death of their colleague. Chemist shops also remained closed. Dr Neeru Garg has been hospitalised with fracture in her feet.

In another incident on the Abohar-Sadulshehar road today, Kuldeep Singh (25) of village Wahabwala, 10 km from here, was killed as the car that he was driving, reportedly rammed in to a roadside tree. The victim was going to village Khara Chak to meet his relatives, sources said.