Bathinda, November 19
The nine-day long stand off between the lawyers and the policemen ended today with the intervention of the new SSP Gurpreet Bhullar.

Four hours after his joining, Bhullar called up the District Bar Association (DBA) president Mohinder Sidhu and assured that every possible means would be adopted to clear the deadlock.

Later, SP (City) Des Raj, DSP (D) Ranjeet Singh and Civil Line SHO Sikandar Singh reached the chamber of the DBA to clear the issue. “They assured every possible help for the lawyer fraternity,” said DBA president Mohinder Sidhu.

The SP addressed the lawyers in the Bar room on behalf of SHO Sikandar Singh and assured the bar members that such an incident would not be repeated.

Earlier, lawyers had been on strike after the Civil Line SHO allegedly misbehaved with a senior lawyer and a member of the DBA while discussing a case registered on the complaint of the advocate.

Former DBA secretary Gurwinder Mann said the immediate intervention of newly appointed SSP was appreciated by lawyers as it was on his directions that the stand off ended.

SSP Gurpreet Bhullar said he would try his best to maintain bonhomie with the lawyer fraternity. “We cannot function without lawyers as they take up various cases with us in the courts and they too depend upon us at different stages,” Bhullar said. He added that there was a little misunderstanding between the police and the lawyers which stands cleared today.

Senior advocates Rajan Garg, Guriqbal Chahal, JR Khattar and Gurwinder Mann welcomed the move of the police and expressed their satisfaction over today’s development.

Gurwinder Mann said the courts resumed functioning today after advocates called off their strike against the police.

Bathinda, November 19
Nearly 40 huts were gutted today after fire broke out in the Jhuggi Basti situated along the railway crossings on the Bathinda-Barnala road in Rampura. No casualty was reported as most of the families were out basking in the sunshine as it was cold inside huts.

Though the exact cause of fire could not be ascertained initial reports suggest that fire broke out in a kitchen stove and spread to swallow the hutment made of dry grass and wood. The huts were situated quite close to each other.

It took more than two hours for two fire tenders to douse the flames as helpless families comprising small children and elderly looked upon helplessly.

Families lost their entire household material, including electronic gadgets, clothing, utensils and other material, lying in the shanties.

“Most of the shacks were two to five years old. People living in them worked as labour and small-time vendors,” said Rampura city SHO U Cee Chawla.

“All the woollens of my three kids, including a newborn, were reduced to ashes besides medicines and electronic gadgets. Now, I don’t have a place to sleep and it would be biting cold as the evening sets in,” said Seeta, who sells popcorns to bus passengers at the railway crossing for a living.

The poor family members were all in tears and some old people reportedly fainted after seeing their huts in flames.

Some Rampura NGOs, social workers and prominent people of the city have helped the families to erect a huge tent as shelter and provided them with one night’s food and blankets.

The police said a complaint has been lodged in this connection under Section 427 of the IPC. Action would be taken if anybody was found at fault.

Raj Kumar, one of the leaders of the residents of the Basti, said there were around 100 huts in the Basti and 60 to 70 people were registered. A few of the shanties had power connections. He said people were residing in Basti for the past around 30 years. Seeking compensation for the victims, he said the state government should offer financial aid to help the poor people and assist them in making new huts.

Bathinda, November 19
The private players in the milk and its products distribution are giving a tough competition to the Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation or Milkfed.

Owing to a sudden increase in the rates of milk procured from dairies across the district, dairy owners have started selling more milk to private players rather than the Milkfed, which has a sizable share in the organised sector of milk and its products. Consequently, the Milkfed’s Verka ghee is not available in the market while the rest of ghee packets are being sold above the Maximum Retail Price (MRP).

With demand for the ghee increasing in winter, shortage of the Verka product has pinched the city residents hard.

Sources said right after the Diwali festivities ended, private companies hiked the rates offered to dairy farmers increasing the margin by 50 paise to Re 1 per litre. While the Milkfed collects milk through cooperative societies, the private players have thrown bait for dairies to bite in the form of handsome turnover. In such a scenario, even the members of cooperative societies have started providing milk to private players instead of the Milkfed, sources said.

Besides catering to the local market, the Milkfed also has “liability” in the form of supplying fixed quantity of milk and its products to the Central Jail, Bathinda, Army cantonment, various gurdwaras and other institutions. “The private players do not have any liability and operate purely for commercial interests. On the other hand, we not only support the cooperative societies but also have to fulfil the responsibility the government has assigned us,” said general manager of the Milkfed, Bathinda, Rupinder Singh.

He added that daily production of ghee at the Bathinda plant was 1 tonne. Soon after Diwali festivities concluded, the city soaked in weddings and gurpurb celebrations, which fuelled the demand for ghee.

The managing director, Milkfed, Alaknanda Dayal said there was no scarcity at the production end.

“Anticipating a rise in the rates of ghee, many retailers seemed to have hoarded huge stocks of the dairy product. We have reports of people asking for an unusual number of ghee packets. Since our ghee is the best and is being sold at the lowest price in the market, retailers have held it back to create an artificial scarcity that would fuel its rate,” she explained.

Dayal hoped that the situation would ease over the next few days as Verka too would revise its rates.

Bathinda, November 19
Members of the Aided School Teachers & Other Employees Union, Bathinda, staged a dharna at the Ambedkar Chowk outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner here today. A day earlier, the union had announced its plan to gherao the treasury office but failed to do so.

The protesters at the dharna venue stated that the teaching and non-teaching staff of the aided schools have not been paid salaries since September. They added that the employees had to struggle every time to get their due financial benefits like salaries, grants, dearness allowance, implementation of the pay commission recommendations, revised pay grades and arrears among others.

The teachers also accused the government of being indifferent towards schools and “administering slow poison” to make sure that the schools either shut down or were merged.

The union members stated that if the government was aiming to shut these schools, it should merge the staff of these schools into the Education Department and post them at government schools. — TNS

Jalandhar, November 19
With reports of many industrial units operating in the district indulging in the violation of pollution control norms, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) authorities are gearing up for a massive crackdown on the erring units.

According to highly placed sources, the state government has taken a very serious note of the matter and the PPCB authorities have been instructed to adopt a zero tolerance approach towards the industrial units flouting the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

Though officials of the PPCB are tight-lipped over the matter, a senior Board official said in the coming days, the PPCB would tighten its noose around the violators. "Though we keep conducting surprise checks on a regular basis, there are reports that some of the industrial units are discharging their untreated waste in the Kala Sanghian drain at night," said a PPCB official while refusing to divulge further details.

It may be mentioned here that there are 200 electroplating units which are operating from Jalandhar. It is learnt that many of these industrial units do not have the effluent treatment plant (ETP) installed and are discharging a high amount of toxic chrome in the Kala Sanghian drain. Though till date the industrial units had been maintaining that they send the untreated effluents for treatment to the common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Ludhiana, sources have revealed that some of the industrial units are not following this practice and the PPCB authorities are having details of some of the erring industrialists.

Bathinda, November 19
Preparations for the 35th Prof Mohan Singh Memorial Punjabi Sabhyacharak Mela are in full swing. The mela will be held from November 22 to 23 in Talwandi Sabo and Bathinda.

As part of the mela, a seminar and kavi sammelan will be organised at the Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo on November 22. The mela will be inaugurated by Jagdev Singh Jassowal at the Thermal Stadium here. Throughout the first day, cultural activities like gatka, folk music, bhangra, giddha and exhibition will entertain the visitors at the stadium.

Sufi music will be organised by Kanwar Garewal in the evening of the first day and this will be followed by staging of the play, "Canada De Nazare". The play will bring the audience closer to the life of Punjabi youth in Canada.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Member of Parliament from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, will be present as the chief guests on the second day of the mela.

On the second day, budding artistes will showcase their talents while North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC) will host a programme showing the folk dances of the state and the country. This will be followed by performances by some of the renowned folk singers of the state.

Bathinda, November 19
Many will give their right arm to get a three-hour job. But that's not the case with Gaghar Singh. Although his working hours last for only three hours, he wouldn't want his sons to follow in his footsteps. "After all, the younger generation doesn't use a daatun. Some may not have even seen it," he says.

Gaghar Singh has been selling daatuns for as long as he can remember. Before him, his father, Jagar Singh sold the bitter mouth freshening keekar sticks. "For the past 40-50 years I have been doing the same work. In fact I never did anything else. My father used to sell daatuns in the city. I started by assisting him," he adds.

Every evening between 4 and 7 pm, he chooses a spot at the Sadbhavna Chowk in Dhobi Bazar and waits for customers, many of whom are loyal. The hours before 4 pm are spent by Gaghar cycling through the city's green areas and the nearby forests to collect tender keekar sticks which he brings back home and cuts them to size.

"Apart from Dhobi Bazar I also go around the Civil Hospital, Qila and other prominent places of the city selling daatun. Since I am the only daatun seller in the entire city, customers wait for me," he says proudly.

The pride however, subsides when he is asked if he would want his children to follow his profession. "My sons Karan and Sonu study in a government school in the city. Although I don't know which standards they are in, I want them to study further and take up another profession. The demand for daatuns is on the decline. Where do daatuns stand a chance against the various brands of toothpastes available in the markets?" he asks.

"Who would want a job which leaves the worker with a lot of free time, little money and a bitter taste in the mouth?" he asks.