 |
|
|
Miscreants strike at ATM
Surprise check at nursing institutes
DC office gets notice for not paying water & sewer bills
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
City set to party hard on New Year’s eve
Bathinda reels under intense cold
Elderly people bask in the warm sunshine in Bathinda on Monday. photo: Bhupinder Dhillon
AYUSH empoyees flay allotment of duty for another
scheme
Unaided school teachers beat drums, stage protest
Security up for New Year
NSS camp begins at Rajindra College Rs 4.80 crore property tax collected Residents wait for their turn to deposit property tax on Monday. photo: Bhupinder Dhillon Gadgill is PMRA chief
|
|
Miscreants strike at ATM
Bathinda, December 30 Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurpreet Bhullar said the machine seems to have been fixed with a loose knot at its base and there was no CCTV camera or security guard deployed in the ATM cabin. Located on the outskirts of the city, lack of security guards or CCTV camera in the ATM cabin are the factors that seem to have allured the thieves who uprooted the machine, dragged it and took it away in some vehicle, police said. Though the ATM machine had a hidden CCTV camera inside, that too got carried away along with the machine. The machine contained Rs 86,600. Bank officials said the cost of the machine is much more (around Rs 4.5 to Rs 5 lakhs) as compared to the money lying inside it. Policemen investigating the case said the machine weighs 3.5 to 4 quintals and it is the handiwork of at least four to six persons. After detaching the machine from its bolts, it was dragged up to three to four meters towards Bathinda-Mansa road from where it was loaded in a vehicle, said investigating officer Jaskaran Singh. Being Sunday, the thieves do not seem to have given a thought to the possibility of there being little cash in the machine before striking. Bank officials said the machine usually contains Rs 8 to 10 lakhs but being Sunday, most of the cash was withdrawn by the customers. There was no guard deployed outside the ATM and due to the cold and fog, there was no vehicular activity or people on the road. Police suspect the involvement of people in the crime from the adjoining state of Haryana. Police is taking the help of mobile phone companies to ascertain the use of mobile phones near the bank between 2 am to 4 am on the intervening night of Sunday and
Monday. The bankers in the city said though the private banks have deployed guards round-the-clock outside the ATMs, most of the banks in the government sector are yet to deploy guards at night. "To secure ATMs at night, the public sector banks have to spend at least a minimum of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per month and three guards are required with an eight-hour duty for each. Though the private banks have secured their money and machines, others are yet to take any steps in this regard," said a Mansa-based private banker, pleading anonymity. Moreover, the money looted has already been secured by the banks with the insurance companies. He added that most incidents of theft are reported in the public sector banks and that too at night on the outskirts of cities or in rural areas. Despite the RBI guidelines, these banks are yet to deploy guards and the banks seek to impose a charge of Rs 6 per transaction on the customers to compensate for the cost of deploying security guards. It is pertinent to mention here that some unidentified persons had uprooted an ATM machine in a similar manner using a JCB machine a few months ago. Canara Bank manager Narinder Kumar said he came to know about the missing machine at around 8.45 am today. He said the machine was insured. As per the bank records, the last transaction was carried out at around 2 am. SSP Gurpreet Bhullar said a case has been registered in this connection by the police. The SSP has urged the banks to secure their ATMs by deploying security guards round-the-clock. Though the police continue to patrol their respective areas, the banks too should deploy security guards at night, he said. |
|
Surprise check at nursing institutes
Bathinda, December 30 On a visit to the city during the ongoing exams for various courses of nursing, Cheema paid a surprise visit to these institutes in the morning. Sources said Cheema spoke to the management of these two institutes where reports of unfair means being used in exams had poured in. Last week, chits had been recovered from the nursing institute at Katar Singh Wala, while some other methods of cheating during the exams had allegedly been used at the Maur institute. At the nursing institutes, government nursing instructors are posted as the examiners. Cheema said she was on a visit to the state nursing institutes. "Action will be taken against the employee found to be erring. I will be submitting my report to the state government," she said. Meanwhile, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Vinni Mahajan said that to keep a check on the cheating menace in the examinations, the department had adopted a two-pronged strategy. Under the first strategy, deputy commissioners of all the districts, through demi-official letters, were directed to conduct independent checking of the institutes during the exams. Under the second strategy, the PNRC was asked to conduct surprise checking and check the compliance or orders passed to colleges and nursing schools. She said there was no specific complaint about the colleges visited in Bathinda. It is pertinent to mention that the eighth meeting of the task group on health and medical education of Punjab Governance Reforms Commission had raised concerns over the poorly trained students of private nursing schools and colleges who were being trained at government hospitals. It was pointed out that the clinical training of many of these colleges was being conducted in government hospitals. However, the training was grossly inadequate as the students usually came for training only during the OPD hours and were hardly taking any part in patient care in the wards and other areas. |
|
DC office gets notice for not paying water & sewer bills
Bathinda, December 30 Ujwal added that earlier, the recovery was Rs 2 lakhs per day, which has doubled to Rs 4 lakhs per day now. "We want people to pay voluntarily as the money collected would be spent on their welfare only," he said. Taking strict action against the defaulters, the MCB had started plugging the connections of defaulters. However, the move drew flak and the Congress accused the MCB of sparing the big defaulters. The Youth Congress workers tried to plug the water and sewer connection at the municipal commissioner's official residence. On the orders of municipal commissioner Vipul Ujwal, the MCB officials have prepared a list of 1,000 defaulters whose bills are more than Rs 20,000 each. Government offices and public places like dharamshalas and educational institutions figure in defaulters' list. These establishments have not paid their bills for many years. They were served notices a number of times, but all the warnings fell on deaf ears. Going a step ahead, Ujjwal would convene a meeting of the defaulting departments to discuss the issue. On April 1 this year, Rs 12.4884 crore of sewer and water bills were pending in the city, while the target for 2013-14 was Rs 4.87 crore. Despite eight months of the current fiscal having passed, Rs 3.38 lakh is still pending. See also P2 |
|
City set to party hard on New Year’s eve
Bathinda, December 30 Almost all of the best hotels in the city have plans to usher in the New Year with the two things that Punjabis love the most - clinking glasses, eating to their heart's content and dancing to blaring music. This year, the HBN Country Club has come up trumps by planning two separate parties keeping in mind the tastes and the pockets of people from different sections of society. If you are looking at exotic beauties dancing to music while you and your family enjoy drinks and dinner, head straight to HBN Country Club. For a cover charge of Rs 5,000 per couple, you may get to enjoy drinks, starters, dinner and a Russian troupe to entertain the gathering. At the second and humbler version which would cost Rs 3,000 per couple, a troupe from Delhi would showcase its dancing skills. The newly-opened hotel Best Western Stella has also planned a party in its basement hall. The couples will have to shell out Rs 3,000 to enjoy an evening of drinks, dance, and dinner. If you are the kind who would like to bring in the New Year with a splash, hotel Comfort Inn is the place to be at. The hotel has organised a party by the pool side. The wine, dine and dance party will cost a couple Rs 3,500. Never mind if you are a stag and wondering where to head! You may take your friends along to Bahia Resorts which has a per person cover charge of Rs 475 for adults and Rs 350 for children. The party here would have a live orchestra. Don't' forget to wear your dancing shoes or stilettos for that matter as you may get to showcase your talent by participating in competitions and games for couples which are also a part of the parties at several hotels. Service to children below five years of age is complimentary at all places. To allay all worries about the law and order situation at the parties, the Bathinda Hotels, Restaurants and Resorts Association has already conveyed to the hotels to ensure a level of decency and host only family entertainment programmes. |
|
Bathinda reels under intense cold
Bathinda, December 30 Despite the sun shining bright throughout the day on Monday, the minimum temperature dipped to be recorded at 0 degree Celsius while the maximum temperature was recorded at 17.6 degree Celsius. The maximum and minimum temperature on Saturday was recorded at 18 and 0.6 degree Celsius, respectively. On Friday, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 1.4 degree Celsius, the maximum temperature was recorded at 18.8 degree Celsius. On Thursday, the temperature was recorded at 1.5 and 18.4 degree Celsius, respectively. In the last week of December last year, although the city experienced thick envelopes of fog in the mornings, the maximum temperature was recorded at around 15-18 degree Celsius but the minimum temperature remained at around 1-3 degree Celsius. On January 2, maximum temperature recorded at 10.2 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature was 5.6 degree Celsius. As per Dr Rajkumar of the Agri-Met Department of the PAU regional station, the chill in the air is also resulting in heavy frost during the early morning hours. He added that the weather was expected to remain similar at least over the next three days. As per the weather forecast released by the Indian Meteorological Department for Bathinda district, the city may experience fog on the first three days of the new year. Meanwhile, several NGOs of the city have joined hands to help the destitute and the homeless. They are collecting old woollens from households and distributing the same among the needy and poor people. |
|
AYUSH empoyees flay allotment of duty for another
scheme
Bathinda, December 30 Medical Officer, Homoeopathy, Dr Jagmeet Singh Buttar said the state government has deputed the entire staff of AYUSH working under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for the mobile teams formed for the RSBK project, which is to be launched in Punjab in January. Inclusion of NRHM AYUSH staff in these teams would mean that they are removed from their present places of posting. The Civil Hospital, Bathinda, has 100 OPDs for the homoeopathy section and around 60 to 70 OPDs in the ayurvedic section. There are scores of such doctors and dispensers who would be made a part of the RSBK dedicated health mobile teams. Already, the health department has directed civil surgeons of different districts to submit a list of NRHM AYUSH staff and submit it to the department. The listed candidates will undergo training to be held at Mohali in the first week of January. "The basic function of these teams would be to monitor children in the age-group of 0 to 18 years. The mobile units will examine 100 children every day in every district and refer them to the paediatrics or other specialists, if needed. This means that our role is that of an ASHA worker. Why should we be deputed for doing the referral work," said the doctors. Also, as per the directions of the Central Government, a separate and dedicated staff has to be recruited to run the scheme. The states of Haryana, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha have made new recruitments for the scheme and are running it already. The association members submitted a memorandum to the Health Department through the Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, Dr Ajay Sahni demanding that the NRHM AYUSH staff should not be deputed to run RBSK. They said if the government does not heed to their demand, they would be forced to undertake the route of protest and agitation. |
|
Unaided school teachers beat drums, stage protest
Bathinda, December 30 Braving the cold weather, the teachers raised banners stating ‘Lok jagao, aided schools bachao’. Addressing the teachers, the leaders accused the state government and the education department of giving a step-motherly treatment to the schools and hence, the teachers felt the need of making the public aware of the importance of the schools and how the government was neglecting them. The teachers also alleged that the state government was trying very hard to shut these schools down but the union will not allow to happen this as the aided schools are catering to children belonging to financially weak families. The teachers also threatened to stage a protest and disrupt traffic movement in the city on January 5 in case the administration fails to fix a meeting between the union members and Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal till January 8. |
|
Security up for New Year
Amritsar, December 30 Besides checking drunken driving, the patrolling teams will also regulate the traffic. "I have directed officials to impound the wrongly parked vehicles for at least 15 days to a month. The policemen have been instructed to take photographs of all the vehicles involved in the violation of traffic rules," the DCP said. The policemen will be deputed at various important places in civil dress
to prevent the incidents of eve-teasing and sexual harassment. "Heavy security arrangements have been made around the Golden Temple in view of the huge flow
of devotees who come to pay obeisance at the temple on the eve of New Year," the DCP said. He said the armed police and anti-riot teams would also be stationed at sensitive locations. |
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
The intense cold wave which is lashing the entire Northern India is also making the Bathinda residents shiver and is also all set to dampen the New Year revelry. This December is turning out to be colder than last year’s December and January, as per the Agri-Met Department of the PAU regional station, Bathinda.
MCB has collected Rs 4.80 crore of property tax so far. In order to cope with the rush, the MCB teams had set up a number of counters allowing everyone to pay the tax conveniently.
City industrialist Raman Watts demanded that the government should extend the last date of paying the tax with rebate till March 31, 2014, to enable people to pay the property tax easily.
— TNS
