Bathinda, October 27
Residents of Parasram Nagar area today lodged a protest against the rising onion prices, which have crossed the Rs 100 per kg mark.

Led by Vijay Kumar, a former municipal councillor, the protesters designed onion as a bomb and showed a man wearing the mask of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi putting it on fire.

The protesters also staged a cricket match wherein a person posing as the Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, aims at the ball (onion) delivered by one wearing the mask of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who willingly let him hit it to reach a century, signifying the current price of onion. The bowler had 10 heads just like the demon king Ravana. Each head marked a “corrupt” politician, including Suresh Kalmadi, A Raja, Pawan Bansal and others. Accompanying them as fielder was the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, who signalled everyone to keep mum to rising prices.

The most intriguing part of the protest was tomatoes and potatoes that had been placed on wickets. The protesters claimed that the prices of these vegetables were to see a rise next.

The protest showcased onions being sold at per piece basis and being given as a Divali gift.

Vijay Kumar, who signified a common man, was buried in a heap of four quintals of onion with people wearing masks of UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh ‘hammering’ his head.

Vijay said he had purchased four quintals of onions to stage the protest. “We bought onions at a wholesale rate and later, returned them to the sellers,” the former councillor said. Going by the wholesale rate of Rs 80 per kg, the protesters reportedly purchased onions worth Rs 32,000 for the protest.

Bathinda, October 27
The rising prices of various commodities, including foodstuff, has led to a sudden rise in incidents of quarrel between the buyers and sellers in Bathinda.

Three such incidents have been reported in the city during the last five days wherein buyers and seller locked horns over the unreasonably high prices of vegetables and fruits.

An Army jawan opened fire after an altercation with a coconut seller over the issue of exorbitant price. The incidence occurred when the Army man, arguing over the high price of coconuts, was answered back in a loud voice by one of the sellers. The seller advised the Army man to purchase it from somewhere else at a cheaper price.

The Army man felt insulted but the entire fruit and vegetable sellers stood up against him. Seeing the aggressive body language of the shopkeepers, the Army man used his licensed weapon and fired a gunshot. The bystanders had a narrow escape and both the parties had to be taken to the police station.

The matter was resolved after both the parties were pacified by senior police functionaries to arrive at a compromise without any formal complaints against anyone.

DSP (City) Gurmeet Kingra, who enquired into the incident, said the bullet fortunately did not hit anyone and both the Army man and the coconut seller realised their mistakes and were let off with a stringent warning. The DSP admitted to a rise in cases of fights buyers and sellers over the issue of escalating bills of edibles at hotel, dhaba and roadside vends.

The very next day of this firing incident, a woman was beaten up by a vegetable seller for not paying Rs 20 after purchasing vegetables. The incident occurred just a few meters away from the spot where the firing incident took place a day earlier.

Advocate Shahbharat Sidhu, a witness to the woman being assaulted near the vegetable market, said the woman refused to pay Rs 20 and took away the vegetables by forcibly taking discount from the seller.

The seller, however, got upset and entered into heated arguments and a brawl with her in full public view. The police control room was informed about the incident and both the parties later reached a compromise.

In another similar incident that took place, a case of house trespass, assault, voluntarily causing hurt, damaging private property armed with deadly weapon and common intention was registered against five persons.

The miscreants ransacked a dhaba and seriously injured its owner Sachin Kumar, for denying them non-vegetarian food. The dhaba is situated in Adarsh Nagar on Goniana Road.

A case under sections 452, 323, 427, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Avtar Singh of Adarsh Nagar, Pali of Gillpatti village and three unidentified persons.

Investigating officer Sukhmandar Singh from Thermal police station said the customers at the vegetarian dhaba failed to control their temper after Sachin Kumar flatly refused to serve non-vegetarian food.

All the accused involved in the attack were unemployed youths from middle-class families, armed with batons, rods and baseball bats. They are yet to be arrested by the police for the alleged offence.

Bathinda, October 27
To commemorate the Infantry Day and pay rich tributes to the Infantrymen who made the supreme sacrifice for the country, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at Bathinda Military Station today.

Lt-General NS Ghei, General Officer Commanding, Chetak Corps, laid a wreath at the imposing war memorial "Yodha Yadgar" in the presence of officers, junior commissioner officers (JCOs), other ranks and their families. In his message to the Infantry soldiers, the GOC exhorted them to carry forward the ideals of true professionalism to greater heights while evolving with changing times so as to face the challenges in battlefield in the modern times.

October 27 is celebrated as Infantry Day to mark the achievement of the Indian Army in its maiden military engagement post-independence. On this day 66 years ago, the first contingent of Infantry soldiers had landed at Srinagar airfield to counter the threat posed to the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity by Pakistan.

The Indian Infantry has a glorious history of warfare and has been the key battle winning factor during all wars. Infantry has been the mainstay in all counter -insurgency operations and internal security duties.

Candidates outside a centre before appearing in the combined higher secondary-level exam conducted by the Staff Selection Commission in Bathinda on Sunday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

The SSC conducted the examination in two sessions. While the morning session was from 10 am to 12 noon, the afternoon session was held from 2 pm to 4 pm. To rule out any possibility of a paper leak, question papers were handed over to the teachers and officials on examination duty only in the morning.

Traffic travails

As a result of the heavy inflow and outflow of candidates before and after the examinations, respectively, the roads outside the examination centres were found choked. While the traffic moved bumper to bumper on the roads outside the exam centres, traffic chaos ruled the main chowks of the city. Since a large number of candidates had come from other parts of the district as well, crowd and traffic near the bus stand and the railway station increased after the examination sessions ended.

Bathinda, October 27
The Bathinda district has received as many as 12,255 applications in the month of September and 65,307 pages of computerised records have been provided to various applicants at the fard kendras.

In a press statement released here today, Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav stated that fard kendra at the district headquarter received as many as 1,912 applications in the month of September and 12,348 pages of computerised record have been provided well in time.

At the fard kendras, the common people, particularly the farmers, are given copies of computerised jamabandi (revenue record of land) in a hassle-free and transparent way.

The project has facilitated a copy of land records across the counter at Rs 20 per copy under one roof. He said that besides the district headquarters, these centres were set up, one each at the sub-division level at Rampura Phul, Talwandi Sabo, Bhagta Bhai Ka, Sangat, Nathana, Maur, Goniana and Balianwali.

He said that last month, 2,447 persons applied at Rampura Phul and 11,970 copies have been provided by disposing of all applications. He said that the fard kendra at Talwandi Sabo received 2,033 applications and disposing of all applications, 10938 copies of jamabandis were provided while the fard kendra at Bhagta Bhaika received 754 applications. Processing all the applications in time, 2,967 copies of computerised land record were provided to the applicants.

Similarly, the fard kendra at Sangat received 715 applications, Nathana 1,568, Goniana 881, Ballianwali 935 while Maur received 1,010 applications in the month of September.

Yadav added that out of a total of 292 villages, a record 289 villages had been computerised in the district.

Bathinda, October 27
The Bathinda unit of the Lok Sabhyacharak Manch, Punjab, in association with the Punjabi Sahitya Sabha, Bathinda, organised a literary discussion on the book "Zindagi Zindabad", penned by Jagmel Singh Jathol. The function was held at Teachers' Home today.

Coordinator of the Lok Geet Sangeet Mandli of the Punjab Lok Sabhyacharak Manch, Lok Bandhu, welcomed all the guests. Renowned Punjabi writer Attarjit addressed the audience and said that by bringing the youth of the state closer to its culture and its writings would make them better human beings and help them stay away from bad influences like habit-forming substances and inappropriate songs.

He also read a paper introducing the book to the audience. Gurdev Singh Khokhar, Dr Darshan Singh Faridkot, Kiranjeet Kaur Selbrah, Ravinder Singh Sandhu and others participated in the discussion on the book.

The speakers expressed the view that the writer, Jagmel Singh Jathol, had spoken of a healthy society. They said that the writer inspires the readers to work towards their goals with determination, manage their time well and not shy away from hard work. — TNS

Bathinda, October 27
An NSS camp was organised on the premises of the Government Rajindra College here today. NSS volunteers from Unit 1 and 2 (boys) participated in the camp. The camp was held under the guidance of Prof Satwinder Singh and Prof Multan Singh. The camp was presided over by the principal of the college, Vijay Kumar Goyal.

During the camp, the NSS volunteers cleaned the premises of the college and removed weeds from the area in the area behind the canteen. The students were also informed that as part of the placement drive, officials of IBM Daksh will be visiting the campus on Monday.

Bathinda, October 27
The students of Punjab Nursing College, Katar Singh Wala village, were sensitised on the issue of female foeticide.

Speaking at the event, eye specialist Dr Amrit Sethi exhorted the students to face bravely the dowry seekers and become self-assured and self-dependent in life.

Dr Sethi quoted the poignant lines of noted Punjabi poet Surjit Paatar to sum up the gloomy picture of female foeticide in Punjab. "Aithe kukkhan hoiyan kach diyan, aithe masaan hi bachian bach diyan, jo ach diyan agg wich mach diyan," he said (Here, wombs have turned into glass; girls are saved with difficulty; those who manage to survive are burnt in fire).