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Police resolves to end drug menace
Trials for Bathinda teams from Nov 5
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With polls round the corner, stubble burning goes unchecked
Sale of crackers fails to sparkle in city
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Police resolves to end drug menace
Bathinda, November 2 Nirmal Singh Dhillon, Inspector General, Bathinda zone, administered the oath to senior police functionaries, including DIGs, SSPs, SPs, DSPs and other cops, from Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Moga, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts during a function organised at the District Administrative Complex (DAC). Cops repeated the pledge read out by the IG wherein they promised to take all necessary steps within the ambit of law to curb the menace of drugs in their respective area. The policemen vowed to help addicts shun drugs by not allowing smuggling and sale of drugs in their areas. The noose will also be tightened around chemist shops selling habit-forming drugs. Apparently not satisfied with the arrest of 3,000 drug peddlers and registration of as many as 3,500 cases during the past just six months, the police decided to further intensify its anti-drug campaign. It is pertinent to mention here that during his visit to Bathinda, DGP Sumedh Saini had stated that there was still a lot to be done in the districts under the Bathinda police zone. The IG said meetings were being held with his counterparts in Rajasthan and Haryana and soon, a special initiative to curb the menace would be launched at the school level. Dhillon disclosed that during the past six months, 450 vehicles were impounded and 50 kg of heroin, 300 kg opium, more than 1 lakh kg of poppy husk were seized in the areas falling under the Bathinda zone. DIG Bathinda Amar Singh Chahal, DIG Faridkot range Mohnish Chawla and SSPs Ravcharan Brar (Bathinda), Narinder Bhargav (Mansa), Gurmeet Singh Randhawa (Faridkot), KJS Dhaliwal (Moga), Surjit Singh (Muktsar), Ashok Bath (Fazilka) and Manminder Singh (Ferozepur) were present. ‘Mittran da naam chalda’
To a query about the negative aspect of the absence of the entire police brass in the seven districts, as cops were in Bathinda to attend the pledge taking ceremony, the IG replied that a cop’s name was enough to instill a sense of fear in criminals in the area under his jurisdiction, ‘Mittran da naam chalda’. |
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Trials for Bathinda teams from Nov 5
Bathinda, November 2 Selection trials for the Bathinda district teams will be held in Bathinda on November 5 and 6. While the trials for boys will be conducted on November 5, talent of female players will be tested on November 6. In a press statement released here, District Sports Officer Karam Singh Sandhu stated that the trials for athletics, basketball, kabaddi, kho-kho, handball, wrestling, volleyball, judo and football teams of the district would be conducted at the Multi-purpose Sports Stadium. He added that the hockey trials would be held at the hockey stadium in Government Rajindra College and boxing trials would be held at Khalsa Senior Secondary School in Talwandi Sabo. Sandhu said the age of the players should not be above 16 years as on December 31. The venues
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With polls round the corner, stubble burning goes unchecked
Bathinda, November 2 Farmers are burning the paddy leftover to make their agricultural fields ready for sowing of the next crop. With the authorities concerned not ensuring strict adherence to the pollution control norms, farmers resort to putting their post-harvesting fields ablaze thereby polluting the environment and killing a large number of insects and rodents besides micronutrients required for a healthy crop. The practice continues even as they have to spend a lot of money on buying fertilizers to better the quality of soil afterwards. A blanket of smog was witnessed till 8.30 am today on all the roads leading to Bathinda as farmers had been burning paddy stubble in the fields on the city outskirts. So far, the district administration has not taken any action against the farmers indulging in the illegal practice. No farmer has been arrested for polluting the environment. Though no major accident was reported today, four vehicles, including a bus, car and a tractor, collided on the Barnala road at around 8 am owing to poor visibility due to smog. The pollution generated due to burning of crop leftover causes respiratory problems and proves hazardous for asthma patients. "We were already upset over the pollution emitted by burning of waste in Guru Nank Dev Thermal Plant Colony. Burning of paddy stubble has only added to our woes," said Jaswant Singh, a resident of nearby Kothe Amarpura village. He said the government ought to show teeth to offenders in paddy fields. "Instead, the entire government machinery is busy checking drug menace overnight following the statement of the Deputy Chief Minister to curb the menace in Punjab," Jaswant said. He added that the Deputy CM should rise above politics and issue directions to check the menace of stubble burning. "Since the equipment offered by the Agriculture Department is expensive, farmers find it easy to burn the crop leftover to ready their fields for the next crop," said Jatinder Brar, a soil expert in Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bathinda. On Diwali, the level of pollution will rise further as a large number of people will burst crackers to celebrate the festive occasion. Earlier, deputy commissioners were directed to check stubble burning by taking strong action against the offenders like snapping power connection to tubewell. "An immense amount of smoke in the air causes irritation in eyes, respiratory problems, difficulty in driving and affects the eyesight to a great extent," said an eye surgeon Kashish Gupta. He pointed out that there was a rise in the number of patients complaining of irritation in eyes. Those who have undergone eye surgery recently should refrain from going out without sunglasses, Gupta said.
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Sale of crackers fails to sparkle in city
Bathinda, November 2 Although illegal stalls of crackers came up in different parts of the city apart from the stalls that were set up at the places designated by the district administration for sale of crackers, the sellers claimed that the business was damp. "We deal in branded fireworks only. Since these are expensive than the locally prepared crackers, people are not ready to spend more by purchasing branded fireworks. While they do save money by buying the local produce, they forget that they are compromising on their safety," said Ratanjot, who was looking after a stall set up at the Multi-purpose Sports Stadium here. Another vendor, Satish Kumar, complained that the sale had gone down by almost 30-40 per cent this year. "There is an increased awareness among people about saving the environment by bursting a lesser number of crackers since these produce a lot of smoke and noise. This time around, a majority of my customers bought only small crackers for their children," he said. "I was warned by many against setting up a stall of crackers outside my shop since this could bring me in the line of ire of the district administration. However, I could not afford to pay the fee for setting up stalls at the designated places. Anyway, there is no guarantee that I would have been able to hit the break even. The craze among the public to burst crackers has gone down tremendously," said a vendor who chose to spread out crackers on a wooden plank outside his grocery store on the Amrik Singh road. "My 12-year-old son is very fond of bursting crackers. Instead of waiting for the stalls to be set up in the city, I asked an acquaintance to bring eco-friendly crackers for me from Delhi's Sadar Bazar. While some of the crackers are made of recycled paper, some throw up only small pieces of papers when they burst. I also made sure that I bought only branded fireworks since they are safe and the companies vouch for the fact that children are not employed in the production of these crackers," said Raman Jindal, a resident of Ganesh Basti. Meanwhile, local schools and NGOs also did their bit to spread awareness about the harmful effects of bursting crackers on the environment by organising rallies. While schools like DPS and Police DAV Public School organised anti-cracker rallies in the city, several NGOs organised marches and distributed pamphlets requesting the city residents to celebrate the festival in an eco-friendly manner. |
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