Bathinda, May 3
The "unpleasant" experience on election day have forced the AAP and the Congress to deploy party workers outside the three buildings at the Industrial Growth Centre where electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been kept in tight security.

“We do not want to take chances after hectic canvassing," said a Congress supporter, Bhupinder Singh of Sardargarh village.

Bhupinder was sitting under a tree since morning. “I am on a 12-hour duty from 6 am in the morning and will leave only after my colleague arrives for night duty," Bhupinder said.

The workers have also been allowed by security agencies to put up tents inside the buildings. Numerous sandbag walls in corridors are being erected, which are guarded by the paramilitary forces.

CCTV cameras and three different registers are also being maintained to keep a record of visitors at the main gate of the buildings.

Though the Congress workers have put up tents, and have arranged bedsheets and mattresses, there is no power supply to give respite from the heat.

Meanwhile, AAP Party workers make rounds of the these buildings after every few hours.

“We bring food, water and tea from our villages. The entire area plunges into darkness as the bulbs installed on roadside electricity poles are missing," said Kulwant Singh of Deon village.

A visit to the buildings gives an impression that the place is indomitable where more flood lights were being installed and more than 20 labourers were busy filling bags with sand.

“Apart from making lighting arrangements, we have also blocked all corridors and stairs," said SP (H) Jasvir Singh.

SP Swaran Singh said every visitor, including the candidates, DC or SSP, made their entries in the register and were being videographed. SSP Gurpreet Bhullar, too, visits the buildings twice a day and takes stock of the security arrangements.

Bathinda, May 3
Poultry farming in the region is facing a tough time due to the high cost of feed and uneven changes in the market. A number of poultry farms have been closed due to this in the recent past.The price of feed, which includes maize, bajra, soya extracts, groundnut extracts, rapeseed extracts and rice, has gone up considerably.

A worker feeds hens at a poultry farm in Bathinda on Saturday. tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Another reason behind the closure of poultry farms is the slump in the market.

Harneik Singh, owner of Ranjit Poultry Farm, said that the biggest issue before the industry was that production could not be increased or reduced according to the changes in the market.

"Sometime bird flu and high feed cost affect the business. In such conditions, small and marginal farmers cannot bear losses for long and are forced to shut down their farms," he added.

He appealed to the government to consider the plight of the industry. He said poultry farms could only be saved by the intervention of the government.

Subsidy on feed and rates of the produce should be fixed by the government.

Manjit Singh, a poultry farmer, said the reason behind the closure of poultry farms was that the business could not run without the personal interest of the owner. "People are opening poultry farms with the mindset of taking work from labourers, but this business cannot be run on their shoulders," he said.

He appealed to the farmers, who want to open poultry farms, to undergo proper training before venturing into the business. He blamed big corporate houses for the plight of the sector. 

Bathinda, May 3
The staff deputed on election duty alleged disparity in honorarium provided to them. Darshan Singh, an assistant presiding officer (APO) posted at Kaloke village, was paid Rs 900 while APO Najar Singh was paid Rs 950 during election duty at Bhagta village. APO Sudhir Kumar was also paid Rs 950. He was posted at Bhai Rupa village.

Similarly, polling officers Kanta Devi and Amandeep Kaur, posted at Kotha Guru village and Kangar village, respectively, were paid Rs 950 each while Binder Pal Kaur posted as a polling officer at Bir Behman village was paid Rs 1,200. For the same post, Shivani Batra, who was posted at Neor village, was paid Rs 950.

While the polling officer posted at Punjabi University campus in Phul was paid Rs 950, his counterpart posted in Bathinda urban was paid Rs 1,250. The presiding officer at the Phul campus of the university was paid Rs 1,450 while Rs 1,750 was paid for the same post in Bathinda.

The divisional secretary of the All-Indian Postal Employees' Union, Makhan Lal, said all employees on poll duty were entitled to get payments for four rehearsals and the polling day. The polling staff rehearsed on April 6, April 20, April 26 and April 29.

He said the government should pay all employees equally. As per the Election Commission of India guidelines, a presiding officer and a counting supervisor should be paid Rs 350 per day and a polling officer and a counting assistant will have to be paid Rs 250 per day. Class IV employees are paid Rs 150 per day. Besides, Rs 150 are spent on every meal for them.

Meanwhile the videographers, who worked round-the-clock during election rallies since the imposition of the code of conduct, too, have been paid Rs 50,000 only. The amount of Rs 50,000 has been paid to three parties only. Besides, Rs 19.70 lakh is yet to be paid to 50 videographers who worked between April 29 and April 30. District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav said that he would look into the allegations of disparity in providing honorarium to the polling staff. 

Bathinda, May 3
The hot and dusty winds continued to lash Bathinda and its adjoining areas on the third consecutive day on Saturday. The dusty winds and the harsh sun for the major part of the day forced the residents to stay indoors. City markets wore a deserted look during the day and those who did step out their houses did so with their faces covered with clothes to protect themselves from the heat.

Bathinda, May 3
Deducting an uneven monthly amount from a current account cost the Mall Road branch of the Axis Bank dear. The branch has been directed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum to refund the amount of Rs 40,000, along with a fine of Rs 5,000.

In a complaint to the Forum, Kamal Kumar, owner of a transport company, said he opened an account with the bank after the assurance of one of bank agents that it will be a zero balance account.

The counsel for the complainant Ashok Gupta said the agent informed his counsel that no amount will be deducted from his account even if his balance is zero. The complainant said the bank officials obtained his signature on various blank documents without informing him about the contents of the forms.

The Forum summoned the bank authorities who refused, through their counsel, about the allegations of the complainant. The bank officials also refused having taken signatures on blank forms or papers.

The Forum further said the account was opened under the scheme code of the Current Account for Inland Road Transport (CAIRT) with a zero balance facility. It was, however, revised from zero balance to Rs 1 lakh across all the metro/urban localities and centralised communication was sent to customers including the complainant.

The Forum after listening to the arguments of both the parties, observed that the opposite party (bank) failed to place on file, except an affidavit, that it has ever informed the complainant about the reviewing of the Average Monthly Balance (AMB) requirement to Rs 1 lakh as minimum balance from zero per cent balance.

Moreover, no document in this regard has been placed on file by the opposite party, the Forum observed. The opposite party also failed to put on record the claims of sending monthly account statements to the customers, including the complainant.

The Forum, while observing deficiency on the part of the bank, accepted the complaint with Rs 5,000 as cost and compensation and directed the bank to credit the amount deducted from the account of the complainant on account of non-maintaining of the minimum balance of Rs 1 lakh.

The Forum also directed that the complainant, in future, will maintain the minimum balance in his account as per the requirements of the bank i.e. opposite party. 

Bathinda, May 3
A Mansa boy, Lakhvinder Singh, has secured the second all-India rank in the CSIR-NET examination conducted on December 22, the result of which was declared on Friday. He secured the second rank in the lecturership (LS) section.

A post-graduate in physics, Lakhvinder, refused to be bowed down by his family background and worked towards achieving his goals. “Although my parents are tailors by profession, my grandfather, who was an English teacher, was my inspiration.” said Lakhvinder.

The happiness of doing well in the examination is also marred by the fact that fewer permanent jobs are being offered by the universities these days. “I will wait for the universities to announce recruitment against vacant posts. It is rueful that less number of permanent jobs are being offered by the universities these days. Most of the educational institutions advertise for contractual jobs,” he said.

Bathinda, May 3
The Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, will offer three new post-graduate programmes from this academic session.

The courses include MSc in bioinformatics, MSc in human genetics and MSc in genetic diseases and molecular medicine. The university will offer 10 seats for each course.

As per the admission notification, the entrance tests to all the 28 courses will be conducted at Ahmedabad, Bathinda, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida and Shimla.

The university, however, maintained that it may decide not to offer the programme in a particular discipline if a minimum number of candidates suitable for the admission are not available.

The online submission of applications has already begun. The last date for submission of forms is June 5. The admission will be done through an online all-India entrance test to be conducted on July 28-29. The university plans to declare the results on July 7. 

Bathinda, May 3
Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana, has found only 40 takers so far since its inception on March 1.

Also, the distribution of 40,000 cards has been put on hold due to the imposition of the election code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections, while 90,000 cards have been distributed. The state government had launched the scheme in November last year, which came into effect from March 1 onwards.

Under the scheme, below poverty line (BPL) families that are holders of blue cards are given cashless indoor healthcare services up to Rs 30,000 per family per year. Up to five members of a family can be enrolled under the scheme as a family. The family would comprise the head of the family, spouse and up to three dependents.

The beneficiaries are entitled to get the facility at any of the empanelled hospitals of their choice. All government hospitals empanelled under the Rashtriya Sehat Bima Yojana (RSBY) automatically stand empanelled under the scheme too.

All the beneficiaries of atta-dal scheme were enrolled under this health insurance scheme. Though people have the smart cards, they are not aware of the benefits of this card. “We always thought that this card had to be shown while taking ration. Recently, my son had fallen ill, and I ended up paying from my pocket for his treatment. Had I known that this blue card was meant for health benefits, I would have surely claimed one,” said Afasan Bibi, who works as a maid.

Some card holders reasoned that as the OPD was not free for the card-bearers, it has failed to find enough takers despite the facility available.

The facility is available at all the community health centres in Balianwali, Bhagta, Bhucho, Goniana, Maur, Mehraj, Nathana, Raman and Sangat. Besides, it is also available at Civil Hospital, Bathinda, sub-divisional hospitals Rampura Phul, Talwandi Sabo, Ghudda and women and children’s hospital, Bathinda.

Bathinda, May 3
Constable Gurchet Singh was injured in an accident, involving a PCR bike and a commercial four-wheeler moving in a wrong direction, today.

Riding pillion on the PCR bike, Gurchet was going towards the District Courts Complex (DCC) when the commercial four-wheeler hit his bike. The vehicle was carrying water campers to be delivered at a marriage palace. Police officials from Civil Line police station reached the spot and took the four- wheeler into its custody. 

Bathinda Tribune invites feedback from its readers on issues of public concern relating to Bathinda city and the nearby areas. Readers can email their views to

bathinda.feedback@gmail.com

They can also send their views to: Feedback, Bathinda Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh - 160029.

Letters sent by post must mention 'Feedback for Bathinda Tribune' on the envelope and it should be signed and must contain the address and telephone number of the sender. It should not be more than 150 words.