Bathinda, October 29
Twenty-two new confirmed cases of dengue have been reported in the district today, taking the total count of patients suffering from the fatal disease to 87.

Of the 22 new patients, nine are from Bathinda city, three from Rampura, two each from Sangat and Bhagta and one each from Goniana and Nathana. The Health Department had sent blood samples of 39 suspected dengue patients to conduct the confirmatory Mc Elisa test.

“There were five patients whose dengue status was confirmed at Bathinda as well as a private hospital in Ludhiana. These cases have been reported twice,” informed District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa stating that all the confirmed cases were reported to the state surveillance team daily.

During this season, the Health Department had sent blood samples of 204 suspected dengue patients in the district. Of these, 87 from Bathinda district have been confirmed to be suffering from the disease. These include 52 cases of Bathinda city, 21 of Rampura, five of Nathana and three each of Talwandi Sabo, Sangat and Goniana. These cases include those coming to the city from Hanumangarh, Mansa, Fazilka and other districts.

Dr Randhawa appealed to the people that they should not presume every fever to be dengue. “The confirmatory test has to be conducted at a government hospital only. People should not rely on private laboratories and ensure that their surroundings are clean enough to prevent breeding of dengue and malaria-causing mosquitoes,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Health Department today took out a rally to create awareness on dengue and malaria. Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni flagged off the rally at the Civil Hospital. The rally passed through vegetable market, railway quarters, Bir Road and Thandi Sarak to conclude at Sandeep Singh Memorial School in Paras Ram Nagar. On the way, people were given tips on safeguarding themselves against dengue, identify its symptoms and report to the nearest government health facility. A seminar was held at the school to make students aware about dengue and malaria.

Bathinda, October 29
Government Rajindra College is all set to add five new courses to the long list of courses that it offers to the students of Bathinda and nearby areas. In all probability, the college will begin offering these courses from the next academic session.

The state government has approved the introduction of new courses and the college authorities have got the intimation through a letter sent by the DPI (Colleges), Punjab.

Speaking to Bathinda Tribune, principal of the college Vijay Kumar Goyal said, "Plan is afoot to introduce courses in MA (history), MA (philosophy), MA (mathematics), MSc (physics) and BCom (Professional). We have got the permission from the government and the DPI (Colleges). We will soon prepare a detailed plan and send it to the Punjabi University, Patiala, for approval."

Although the news augurs well for the students seeking admission in the government college and also for those who don't wish to go to other cities for pursuing post-graduate courses, the students will have to shell out more money as fees since these courses will be offered under the Higher Institute Society of the college, which is already offering a couple of professional courses like BBA and BCA.

Prof Manvinder Singh, the in-charge of the society, said, "We will send the proposal to the university in December. Only on getting the approval will we be able to fix the fee structure for these courses and the number of seats that we can offer for each course. But certainly, the fees of these courses will be lesser than what private colleges charge."

Resources crunch

Interestingly, while the college is planning to introduce five new courses, it is already going through manpower and funds crunch. The shortage of classrooms in the college is so acute that several classes are held in the open. Six rooms in the academic block will be vacated once the new library starts functioning, but the college will still need at least five more rooms to begin the new courses.

As far as faculty is concerned, while the college has as many as 84 posts for permanent teachers, it currently has only 37 permanent teachers while 30 teachers are on contract basis and eight teachers work on part-time basis.

"Once we get approval from the university for starting the courses, we will also initiate the process of recruitment of teachers for these courses under the guidance of university experts. To address the problem of space crunch, we will have to build more rooms, perhaps a post-graduate studies block," said the principal.

Bathinda, October 29
The proposal to build a foot overbridge near the bus stand hangs fire as the PRTC workshop and the bus stand have to be shifted out of the city after some years.

Under the Patel Nagar 4.9-acre scheme of the Improvement Trust, Bathinda, the bus stand has to be shifted on the Barnala road.

Sources said in view of this, the project of constructing the overbridge has been put on hold.

On November 4, 2011, a proposal for building a foot overbridge at the bus stand was mooted in the general house meeting of the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB). The project aimed at providing a safe passage to pedestrians thereby minimising mishaps in the congested zone near the bus stand. According to the proposal, the MCB was to spend Rs 30 lakh on the project.

The MCB then directed the civil engineering department of Giani Zail Singh Engineering College to technically examine the site and prepare a project report. The department created a structural design for the overbridge proposing its height as 7 metres and width six feet. The department did not go in for a single pillar supporting the structure at its middle, which would have obstructed the free flow of buses. Instead, it was decided to build a free stand bridge.

Later, the MCB sent the structural design and the project report to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) seeking its permission for constructing the overbridge on the busy NH-64 that passes through the city.

Assistant municipal commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal said the NHAI authorities had raised some objections, after which the project would now be re-sent to the engineering college.

The officials of the college, who had worked on the project, said considering the behaviour of those visiting the bus stand it was unlikely that they would scale the flight of stairs of the bridge with heavy bags and suitcases.

“As per the proposed elevation, at least 18 stairs will be built on each side of the overbridge. People would not prefer to travel all the way up and then descend an equal number of stairs,” the college officials added.

Bathinda, October 29
The police today booked three persons, including a woman and a resident of Fazilka for pocketing Rs 17 lakh from nine unemployed residents of Bathinda and adjoining areas.

Following the complaint of nine persons, including Raj Kumar of Pattiwala village in Fazilka, the Cantonment police booked Snehlata, wife of Om Parkash, Prince, son of Om Parkash, both residents of Phase-II Model Town, along with Bharpur Singh of Dhani Karaiwala village in Abohar under Sections 420 and 34 of the IPC.

The complainants said after jobs in MES, Bathinda Cantonment, were advertised in newspapers, the accused approached them for helping them get the jobs. The accused demanded Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh from all the nine aspirants. The aspirants, however, failed to get jobs. Neither were they able to recover the money given to the accused.

Investigating Officer in the case DSP (D) Ranjeet Singh said in all, the accused pocketed Rs 17 lakh from the complainants. No arrests have been made yet. — TNS

Bathinda, October 29
Hosts Bathinda beat Barnala to bag the first position in the Netball competition in the Under-19 category at the 59th Punjab State School Sports Tournament being held at various venues in the city.

In the Under-19 girls’ category of the kabaddi competition played at the Government Girls Senior Secondary Schools, Mansa beat Barnala 35-24; Faridkot beat Tarn Taran 46-15; Amritsar beat Patiala 49-11. In other matches Mansa beat Bathinda 50-43; Ferozepur beat Faridkot 50-18; Amritsar beat Ludhiana 26-19; Muktsar beat Moga 42-28; Pathankot beat Mohali 54-26; Gurdaspur beat Fazilka 48-26; Ropar beat Sangrur 28-11; Moga beat Fatehgarh Sahib 67-43 and Maluka Wing, Bathinda, beat Pathankot 46-16.

In the Under-19 boys’ category of kabaddi, Muktsar beat Mansa 38-32; Moga beat Mohali 25-24; Ludhiana beat Pathankot 57-41; Sangrur beat Kapurthala 46-10; Fatehgarh Sahib beat Hoshiarpur 34-22 and Maluka Wing, Bathinda, beat Moga 35-6. While, Bathinda beat Saheed Bhagat Singh Nagar 20-12; Muktsar beat Mohali 22-8; Sangrur beat SBS Nagar 23-10; Moga beat Mohali 17-14; Bathinda beat Ferozepur 9-2; Moga beat Mansa 17-5 and Muktsar beat Faridkot 13-7.

In the Under-19 girls’ category of netball competitions, Barnala beat Tarn Taran 11-0; Bathinda beat Ludhiana 18-10; Muktsar beat Gurdaspur 21-20; Mansa beat Moga 12-2; Bathinda beat Mansa 32-5; Barnala beat Muktsar 11-7; Bathinda beat Muktsar 12-8 and Barnala beat Mansa 11-3.

In the final match played between Bathinda and Barnala, the hosts beat the opponents by a score of 12-5 to bag the first place while the second place went to Barnala. Muktsar beat Mansa 13-10 to bag the third place.

Bathinda, October 29
Members of the Punjab Students Union (Shaheed Randhawa) presented a street play (nukkad natak) at the Punjabi University's regional centre here on Monday. The play was presented to celebrate the completion of 100 years of the Ghadar Movement.

Members of the Awaam Rangmanch team from Bhagta presented the humorous play "15 August". Close to 250 students of the regional centre watched the street play and applauded the performances.

After the play, student leaders Sumit and Sarabhjeet addressed the gathering of students and told them about how the freedom fighters lay down their lives for the freedom of the country.

Bathinda, October 29
Three research papers of assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Adesh Medical College, Dr Vitull K Gupta have been accepted for presentation at the 18th Annual Congress of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR2013) to be held from November 11 to 14 in Yokohama, Japan.

Two papers have been accepted for oral presentation and one for poster presentation. Dr Vitull K Gupta said the first research paper studies the treatment given to patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) detailing whether treatment being given was in accordance with the recommended guidelines or not.

Dr Vitull K Gupta studied 4,287 COPD patients and the results showed that only 29.5 per cent patients were on inhalers. Nearly 70.5 per cent patients were on oral medication whereas the guidelines suggest that the patient should be given inhaler treatment first rather than oral medication, suggesting that COPD patients are not being treated properly in primary care practice.

The second study investigated the attitude, beliefs and perceptions about the use of inhalers in patients of chronic pulmonary disease and in the general population by asking questions about inhalers. Effectiveness of the inhaled drugs depends on the patient’s ability to use inhaler device correctly and the use of inhalers depends on the patients’ opinion about it. — TNS

Bathinda, October 29
Grandparents’ Day was celebrated at EuroKids playway school here on Monday. The theme for the function was ‘Grandpa and grandma nest where flock gathers’. The chief guest on the day was eye specialist Dr Amrit Sethi and his wife Amrita Varsha.

The concept was to focus on the bond between the children and their grandparents. They cheered the little kids with zeal during their performances.

The grandparents also participated in various activities like drawing a surprise, games, etc. — TNS