Bathinda, April 3
Exercising your franchise will no more be a mundane affair, with the District Election Office making elaborate plans to ensure that casting votes becomes a fun -filled and memorable affair.

From holding “chhabeels” to garlanding first voters of the day to putting- “May I help-desks” to presenting bouquets and giving appreciation certificates to the first-time voters, voting on April 30 will be a totally new experience at the polling booths in Bathinda.

Additional District Election Officer Sonali Giri said work was also going on to roll out a voters’ awareness rath yatra that will comprise a couple of vehicles to motivate people to vote. “Earlier, we had decided to ask one of the big industrial houses of city to help us out with the exercise. The industrial houses have, however, extended their sponsorship. The vehicles participating in the yatra are being readied and will be rolled out after April 12. The motivating yatra will continue till the time state goes on poll,” she said.

The yatra will carry exhibition on wheels depicting the history and importance of right to vote. It will also run a signature campaign wherein people can pledge their support to the voting exercise in the form of their signatures taken on a flex panel.

Yatra will move in all the urban local bodies of district and especially in those areas wherein polling booths have registered less than 70 per cent voters’ turn out during last the Lok Sabha elections.

In 2009, Bathinda urban recorded the least voting percentage of 66.52 per cent. The Election Office has identified 29 such polling booths in the district. Interestingly, most of the booths are from posh localities of the urban pockets as well as that from the cantonment area.

At 20 polling booths in the city, less than 70 per cent polling was registered in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The percentage varied from 50 to 65 per cent at all the 20 polling stations in Bathinda urban.

The same figure was mere 2 to 3 per cent in the three polling stations of Bhagu village wherein the armed forces personnel and their families are registered as voters. At four other polling stations in Bhagu, 5 to 11 per cent voter percentage was registered.

Similarly, in the city area of Talwandi Sabo the voting was registered at 36.68 per cent, while at village Jatri it was registered at 66.82 per cent.

The election staff reasoned that most of the urban voters from posh colonies do not want to stand in queue in summers to cast votes. “The rural voters are more responsible in this aspect,” he observed. 

Bathinda, April 3
The first training for election staff of the district will be held on April 6. All the 5,970 government employees are being asked to be at their designated centres for training on time.

The training would be held at Punjabi University Neighborhood Campus, Rampura, for the staff from Rampura. The training for the staff of Bhucho Mandi Vidhan Sabha constituency will be held at Government Polytechnic College, Bibiwala Road, Pesco Training Centre in Industrial Growth centre at the Mansa Road.

For Bathinda urban, the training will be held at the IHM Institute on the Mansa Road and for Bathinda rural, training will be held at the Community Hall, Model Town, Phase III, and Pesco Centre in the rowth centre.

Similarly, the training for the Talwandi Sabo constituency will be conducted at Dasmesh School, Talwandi Sabo, while for the Maur constituency at Punjabi University, Neighborhood campus.

Second training for the election staff will be conducted on April 20.

During the time period from April 6 to April 20, the District Election office will randomise staff assigning them stations. “It is not necessary that an employee reporting in particular constituency on April 6 training will report at the same place on April 20 or at the time of elections on April 30,” said officers at the district election office.

Bathinda, April 3
The Additional District Magistrate here today issued instructions barring people from carrying arms openly, including the licensed ones ahead of the general elections.

It has also been made mandatory to provide one’s identity details while taking rooms on rent in hotels, restaurants and dharamshalas and the owners of these establishments have been asked to maintain a record of the identity provided.

Playing vulgar songs in private or government buses has also been banned. All the orders are applicable from March 30 to May 30. 

Bathinda, April 3
The entire staff of the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, including medicos, para-medical staff and nurses, observed a token strike today to protest against not receiving their salaries for the past two months.

Members of the PCMS Association, the Lab Technician Association, the Para-medical Association, the Class-IV Employees Union as well as the NRHM staff observed the strike.

The strike was observed from 9 am to 10.30 am.

President of the PCMS Association Dr Beant Singh Mann said tomorrow, all the staff members will meet to discuss the further line of action.

He said that everyone was finding it difficult to make both ends meet with no salary for the past two months. He added that the situation in the households were a matter of concern wherein only one person was earning hand.

Dr Beant said if the salaries are not released in time, the employees would be forced to take up the path of agitation

Bathinda, April 3
The expenditure observers Vaibhav Jain and Sudipta Guha today conducted meetings with the teams observing expenses of candidates contesting election from the Bathinda parliamentary seat.

Officials of the Vidhan Sabha constituencies, Bathinda rural, Bathinda urban, Bhucho, Talwandi Sabo, Maur, Mansa, Budhlada, Sardulgarh and Lambi interacted with the observers. These officials included assistant returning officers, in-charge of video team, video viewing team, flying squads, accounting team, static surveillance teams and others.

The observers also took details from election control room, media certification teams, monitoring teams and accounting teams.

They directed the teams to properly maintain shadow expenditure registers. The AROs, expenditure supervisors and police officers were asked to coordinate sharing information.

Vaibhav Jain is expenditure observer for assembly constituencies like Talwandi Sabo, Maur, Mansa, Budhlada and Sardulgarh. Similarly, Sudipta Guha is expenditure observer for Bathinda urban, Bathinda rural, Bhucho and Lambi.

DC Kamal Kishore Yadav, ADC Sonali Giri, Municipal Commissioner Vipul Ujwal and ADC Rajiv Prashar were also present at the meeting.

People can also reach out to election observers

People can also reach out to the expenditure observers lodging their grievances. Observer Sudipta Guha is staying at the NFL. He can be reached at 8427531584 and 0164-2270104. Vaibhav Jain is stationed at the Police Lines, Mansa, and can be reached at 8427531820, 0165-2232900, 232700 and facsimile at 0165-232713. 

Talwandi Sabo, April 3
Guru Gobind Singh Polytechnic College, Talwandi Sabo, organised a job fair on the campus for diploma holders and final semester students.

Companies, including Pact Solutions, OIT Frames, AS Chandigarh, Health Street, Pic N Frames and others visited the campus to select students.

Training and placement officer of Guru Kashi University, Karanjeev Singh, said students from various polytechnic colleges from the region participated in the drive.

Principal, GGS Polytechnic College, Dr Amit Tuteja, said HR managers of these companies selected students through a rigorous selection procedure that included written aptitude test, group discussions and technical interview.

53 students were selected and given offer letters on the spot. They included - 24 students of the CSE, 14 students of ECE and five each from mechanical, electrical and civil branch. 

Bathinda, April 3
Bathinda Vikas Manch (BVM) organised a voter awareness programme in Maisarkhana village.

BVM president Rakesh Narula while addressing the people said that on the polling day, every voter should cast his or her vote.

He appealed to all for casting the vote ‘Na Nashe Se, Na Note Se, Desh Badlega Vote Se’. He added that on voting day BVM volunteers will launch a campaign Bell Bajao Voter Ko Jagao, motivating the voters to come out of the houses for casting the vote.

Bathinda, April 3
A team from the Department of Architecture of Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh Campus won laurels at the three-day national convention held at Om Group of Institutes, Hisar.

The team comprising 45 students participated in ZO-NASA-2014 under the guidance of Ranjit Kaur Johal, faculty members Gaurav Jindal and Harpreet Sandhu.

National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) is a nationwide students oriented body, which hosts conventions all across India in six different zones. 36 colleges and around 700 students from the north zone participated in the convention.

Students of Giani Zail Singh bagged the third position in Reubens Trophy competition, which displayed their annual work in the form of presentation sheets and reports prepared by students of the department. A team headed by Puneet Sokhi won the third position in mural design competition in which the students made a sculpture based on modern art.

Entries for various other events were short-listed, including the main design headed by fourth year students wherein they were asked to design an open air art gallery and theatre. The product design headed by second year students was also short-listed wherein students were asked to design an architect’s workstation.

Mehak and Shipra participated in the model making and bagged the first position. 

Bathinda, April 3
A high-voltage drama was witnessed today at the District Courts Complex where two factions of lawyers entered into heated arguments and had a brawl outside the Bar Room over the issue of replacing the unanimously elected returning officer for the elections of the District Bar Association (DBA).

Though the lawyers later held a meeting, barring media, after the brawl to find out an amicable solution, the pandemonium, however, continued till the evening. A team of policemen reached the complex under the supervision of DSP (City) Gurjeet Romana.

Romana said the lawyers had told the police that they would reach some conclusion by tomorrow and till then no police action should be initiated.

“No written complaint has been received so far and we acted only after receiving a phone call at the police control room. The issue seems to have been resolved with the intervention of senior lawyers,” Romana added.

Earlier, some young outsiders were allegedly called in by a group of lawyers, who were detained for sometime by the police in a room.

With the term of the present association led by president Mohinder Sidhu coming to an end, the elections would be held on April 24.

Advocate Balwant Singh Dhillon was appointed the returning officer in a meeting of the general house on March 21.

Unlike the previous elections, this time it was decided that non-practicing advocates would not be included in the list of voters for the association’s elections. For this, every advocate was told to furnish details in a pro forma that he or she is not doing any job in government, semi-government, private or other allied sectors and is only involved in legal practice.

“The problem arose when the non-practising lawyers were scrutinised and debarred from casting their vote,” said a senior lawyer.

He said it was right to debar non-practicing advocates but to identify such lawyers was a herculean task. “For instance, there is a proof of lawyers who have got jobs in institutes or companies but what about those who are involved in business such as real estate or family enterprise,” he added.

He said there were some lawyers who fail to get clients and return empty-handed without doing any business in court.

The lawyer added that the manner of identifying such lawyers was not acceptable to many, so they raised a hue and cry.

Meanwhile, the “former” returning officer, Balwant Singh Dhillon, has lodged a written complaint with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh.

Dhillon said he along with a 20-member team, comprising senior and junior lawyers, scrutinised 952 affidavits. Out of these, 272 were found to be non-practising licence holders and the rest were found to be genuine, he said.

Dhillon has sought the council’s intervention for conducting smooth and fair elections.

Later, talking to Bathinda Tribune, Dhillon also accused a section of lawyers of taking away the record, including affidavits submitted by lawyers, by breaking the lock of a room in the complex.

Secretary of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Karanjit Singh, said he was yet to look into the written complaint. He, however, added that in case a dispute arose over the issue of conducting elections, the council will take the final decision.

“Now the ball is definitely in our court and our priority is to find an amicable solution or else a decision will be taken after going through the contents of the complaints,” said the secretary of the council.

DBA president Mohinder Sidhu said Rajbhupinder Sidhu had been elected as the new returning officer by replacing Balwant Dhillon. He added the elections would be held as per the set procedure and guidelines.

Bathinda, April 3
The court of Jasjit Singh Bhinder today awarded 12-year rigorous imprisonment to two accused who were arrested with 840 kilogram of poppy husk.

Accused Chhinderpal Singh and Ranjit Singh were found carrying the contraband in the Bhagta Bhai Ka area. The accused were arrested by the Anti Narcotic Cell of the police in July 2010.

The police had stated that the accused were carrying the huge quantity of the contraband in a truck which was intervened during a police patrolling.

Bathinda, April 3
A man and a woman, who consumed poison to commit suicide, were found unconscious in the fields near the railway under bridge on the Mansa Road, here today. Their two-year-old son was found crying bitterly besides his mother.

An NGO, Sahara Welfare Society, received a call around 12.30 noon informing that a couple lay unconscious in the fields. Sahara volunteers reached the spot and rushed them to the Civil Hospital. Both of them have been identified as Sukhpal Kaur from Talwandi Sabo and Happy Singh from Jaito. Their son is presently under the care of the Sahara volunteers.

Doctors said the couple seemed to have taken pesticides to end their lives. While Sukhpal was said to be serious, Happy was recuperating. Till evening, parents of both the victims had reached the Civil Hospital. No suicide note has been found. The police are investigating into the matter.

Bathinda, April 3
The local police today recovered nearly 10 kg silver jewellery during a special checking under the supervision of DSP (City) Gurjeet Romana along with an official of the district administration.

The person who was found carrying the jewellery has been identified as Raju.

The police sources said the matter came to light during a special checking at a check-point laid on the Dabwali Road.

Apart from buses, some vehicles were also checked on the instructions of SSP Bathinda, Gurpreet Bhullar. Bhullar said people had been warned not to carry unsolicited costly material including jewellery and cash. — TNS