Bathinda, May 20
Tuesday proved to be a long day for the students and parents awaiting the results of Class X examinations. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had notified on its website that the results will be declared on Tuesday and they were announced by 4 pm.

When the results were announced, there was little anxiety among the students, parents and school authorities alike. The introduction of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system for the Class X examination three years ago has taken away the fear associated with the frightening judgmental marking system.

Everybody seem to be agreeing with the fact that the system has taken the fizz out of the Class X CBSE results. Gone are the days when the students competed with their peers to secure the first position as now, a group of students at every school constitutes the toppers. And needless to say, almost all the schools have attained 100 per cent result.

Dr Arunjee, principal of the DPS, said, “It is true that the spirit of competition has been taken away from the students appearing for the Class X examinations since there are no clear toppers, but the students still work hard to achieve high CGPA and aim for 10. This is reasonable in a way since once they appear for Class XII examinations, the sense of competition will be back.”

Principal of St Xavier’s School, Father Eulalio Fernandes, stated that although the CCE had curtailed the burden on the students, the students who had opted for the Board-based examinations were still working hard to secure the CGPA 10 and were elated to do so.

As many as 40 students of St Joseph’s Convent School secured the CGPA 10 while of the total 82 students of DPS, who had appeared for the examination, as many as 16 students secured cumulative grade point average (CGPA) 10. Out of the 237 students who appeared for the examination, 62 students achieved the CGPA 10 while 78 students secured grade A1.

Of the 191 students of RBDAV Public School, 15 secured CGPA 10 and 50 students secured CGPA between 9 and 9.8. At Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, 25 of the 1,673 students who had appeared for the examination secured CGPA 10, 84 students secured Grade A and 79 students secured Grade B.

Bathinda, May 20
Tension gripped Bhai Rupa village in Rampura block of Bathinda district after a clash between the SGPC workers and the villagers over 161 acres of land.

As per the available information, Bhai Roop Chand Sewa Langar Society had locked horns with the SGPC over the land. The issue was the holding of bhog of Shri Akhand Path on May 20 at the gurudwara in the village where they planned a huge gathering.

It is learnt that the villagers, with the support of the BKU Ekta Ugrahan and the Bhullar community, had announced a rally on May 29 in the village. To make both the events successful, they even called people from outside for support.

The villagers gave a call for people to gather in their support. The development took place against the sequence of events some days back wherein Chief Minister Parkash

Singh Badal had to intervene and announce support for the SGPC by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Ten SGPC members from Bathinda and Mansa had resigned and the president of the Bathinda unit of SAD Sikander Singh Maluka had come out in their support after the alleged inaction of the police in the case.

BKU Ekta Ugrahan leader Shingara Singh Mann said the committee has given a call for holding a bhog ceremony on May 23 and a rally on May 29 against the SGPC, that is allegedly trying to take over the land.

Mann added that both the events will be held jointly by the villagers and a large number of people from across the state would come out in support of the committee and the villagers.

Rajwinder Singh, president of Bhai Roop Chand Sewa Langar Society, said the police wrongly booked 16 persons of the village under pressure from the SGPC. The land belongs to the society as Bhai Roop Chand donated it to the village long ago and the SGPC cannot encroach upon it forcefully, Singh said.

It may be mentioned that on May 8, a clash took place between the members of the SGPC and the villagers, when the former was auctioning the land. The villagers opposed it which led to a clash between both the sides leaving many persons injured.

Bathinda, May 20
Members of the ETT Teachers’ Union today submitted what they called their last memorandum of demands addressed to the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal threatening that if the state government failed to heed their demands, they would be left with no option but to take recourse to staging a dharna in Lambi.

Explaining their demands, state president of the union, Gurjit Singh Jassi and vice-president Swaranjit Singh Bhagta stated that before the elections in 2007, the CM had assured the teachers that their demands will be met and had also requested the teachers to support the state government.

The teachers alleged that post elections, the CM went back on his word and did not fulfill the promises. The teachers stated that they have been demanding that the schools under Zila Parishad be brought back under the state education department, revive the recruitment process to solve the problem of shortage of teachers, take up cases of promotion of the teachers posted at the schools under Zila Parishad and hike their salaries, among other things. While submitting their memorandum of demands to the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, the teachers stated that this was the last time they were submitting a memorandum. They added that they were looking forward to meeting Punjab Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka on May 25 and were waiting for the outcome of the meeting.

The teachers threatened that if the meeting with the education minister also didn’t go in their favour, they would have to resort to staging a dharna in Lambi to bring their demands to the attention of the CM.

Jasmail Singh, Nachhatar Wirk, Rajkumar Verma, Kuldeep Sharma, Arjan Dhillin and Avtar Dass were also present. — TNS

Bathinda, May 20
The land on which the Civil Lines police station is situated lies under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment police station and has created confusion among the residents.

Due to this, whenever any crime takes place under the jurisdiction of the Civil Lines police station, the cops reach the spot of the crime late.

Interestingly, in case if any mishap takes place inside the police station, the Civil Lines police cannot register a case. Officials from the Cantonment police station have to come to record the statements and take action.

Sometimes, if something happens outside the police station, they are helpless in doing anything and have to inform and call the Cantonment police.

People living in Model Town Phase-3, where the Civil Lines police station is located, remain confused as despite the police station being located near their house, they have to report the matter to the Cantonment police station.

It is also affecting the police officials economically, as clerical work is being done by the lower rank staff and they have to cover a long distance on their own because they don’t get any conveyance allowance.

A police official said on the condition of anonymity that usually, people come to report the matter but they are sent to the Cantonment police station as the area falls under it.

Police officials said this happened due to the delimitation of the area by the Election Commission of India in 2011. Otherwise, the area used to come under the jurisdiction of the Civil Lines police station.

Earlier, one SHO covered the entire area that fell in three or more assembly constituencies. As per the orders of the Election Commission of India (ECI), a DSP is the in-charge of one assembly constituency. Consequently, one SHO used to end up reporting to more than three or more DSPs thereby creating administrative problems at the time of the elections.

Instead of solving the issue, this has resulted in creating confusion and making complex the jurisdiction of the respective police stations. 

Bathinda, May 20
Demand for the resignation of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Pratap Singh Bajwa is getting louder within the party and is also getting support from leaders in Bathinda.

Congress MLA from Bucho, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, demanded the resignation of PPCC president Bajwa after the debacle of the party in the Lok Sabha elections.

Bhatti said, “He should resign himself on moral grounds immediately, unless he will be compelled to resign.”

“Bajwa was not able to retain his seat, which was quite easy to win. Despite strong anti-incumbency against the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, he lost by a margin of more than 1.20 lakh votes,” said Bhatti.

Congress leader and former MLA Makhan Singh said anyone who fails to bring good results should own the responsibility and resign on moral grounds. Even Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had resigned on moral grounds and AICC president Sonia Gandhi and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi had taken the responsibility for defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

He stated that Bajwa should have resigned the day after the declaration of the results of the Lok Sabha elections as he not only lost the election from Gurdaspur but even failed to take lead in any of the nine assembly constituencies. He also failed to secure lead in Qadian assembly segment from where his wife is a sitting Congress MLA.

Congress leader and former president Bathinda rural president Narinder Bhularia also demanded Bajwa’s resignation stating that the state needs an aggressive leader to take on the mighty Badals.

He also demanded that Capt Amarinder Singh should be made the PPCC president as he has proved that he is a leader of the masses, and can win any election from anywhere in the state.

Remaining tightlipped over the issue, general secretary, PPCC, Harminder Singh Jassi said it is up to the party high command to decide. They will analysis and take a decision accordingly and the party will abide by the decision of the high command.

Bathinda, May 20
District Education Officer (Elementary), Amarjit Kaur Kotfatta, inspected some schools on Monday. Accompanied by her team, she checked the Government Primary School in Naseebpura in Kalebander, primary and senior secondary schools in Bandi Kalan, primary and middle schools in Kot Bakhtu and primary and middle schools in Mannwala.

“The aim of the inspection was to ensure that the teachers were discharging their duty properly and also to see the status of the distribution of books among the students. At some schools, we found that the school management had bundles of spare books with them and argued that they had done so to meet the requirement in case some more students joined after the summer vacations,” said Amarjit Kaur.

She added that the inspection team directed the school authorities to store a maximum of five bundles of books on the school premises and return the remaining sets to the DEO’s office.

The schools were also asked to compile the details of their requirement of furniture, uniforms, RO plants and any other facility, and submit the same with the office.

“At the primary school in Bandi Kalan, for 255 students, there are only five teachers. I have assured the teachers that their strength will be increased at the earliest. I have asked them to let me know the name of any teacher who wants to be transferred to another school,” the DEO said. 

Bathinda, May 20
As many as 226 have been issued challans for smoking or using tobacco products at public places in Bathinda district under the ‘Tobacco Control Act’ and the ‘Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008’ implemented from October 2008 by the Government of India. Besides, the health authorities have collected a sum of Rs 14,840 by imposing fines on the violators of the Act and the rules.

In 2013, the authorities issued challans to 554 persons for smoking at public places and recovered Rs 47,817 as penalty for the violation.

Whereas in 2012, the authorities issued challan to 644 violators and collected Rs 60,218.

Despite declaring a smoke-free district, the number of violators in Bathinda is quite high.

It is worth mentioning that officials from the Health Department, Municipal Corporation, water supply and sewerage department, PWD, agriculture, animal husbandry, PRTC, NFL and Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) are empowered to issue challans to those who smoke in public.

As per information, the maximum number of challans have been issued by the PRTC at the bus stops near the city. The main objective of the Act and the rules is to protect the common masses from ill-effects of the smoking by way of preventing smokers from smoking at public places as the non-smokers too suffer on the health front by becoming passive smokers. The use of tobacco and the smoking, including passive smoking, have widely been identified as one of the causes of cancer. District Health Officer Dr Ragubir Singh Randhawa said many departments are involved in this and it is being ensured that anybody who violates the law is challaned.

The district health authorities would continue their campaign in a big way against the persons smoking at public places as they not only violate the provisions of the Act and the rules but also turned other people into passive smokers, he added.

Smoking in public has been banned in India since October 2, 2008, to save non-smokers from inhaling obnoxious fumes of tobacco.

Bathinda, May 20
A man was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for seriously injuring a panchayat member of Siriyewala village three years ago.

The panchayat member had suspected the involvement of drug addicts behind the theft of utensils and edibles of mid-day meals in the government school of the village three years ago.

Announcing the verdict today, the court of the Additional Sessions Judge Avtar Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on the accused.

Earlier, the court held the accused guilty in the case and the quantum of sentence was announced in an open court today.

The complainant’s counsel Sandeep Jeeda said the incident took place in 2011. The then panchayat member of the village, Gurjant Singh, had informed the police about a theft incident in the school.

After getting clues and discussing the issue with the villagers, the police then questioned one Bhalwinder Singh of the village and enquired about his role in the theft incident. The police rounded up Bhalwinder Singh to reach at the depth of the theft incident.

The local residents also suspected the role of Bhalwinder and four others, including a juvenile, behind the theft incident. Upset over the police questioning, the accused in the theft case, decided to teach a lesson to the panchyat member and attacked him with sticks. The attackers suspected the panchayat member of naming them in the theft case. The victim received serious head injuries and was hospitalised.

The three attackers were identified by name and two remained unidentified in the attack on the panchayat member. Bhalwinder was the main accused whose name was included in the FIR lodged at the Dyalpura police station.

A case under Section 308 of the IPC, attempt to commit culpable homicide was registered against Bhalwinder and others.

Advocate Jeeda said the statements of the injured panchayat member and his brother, an eyewitness, were recorded during the trial in court.

While the other accused in the case are facing a trial, one of the three persons died during the course of trial. Jeeda said that the court ordered to send accused in jail who was already arrested by the police. 

Jalandhar, May 20
Suspecting the involvement of some persons in drug trade, the city police today raided two localities, including Ali Mohala and Rama Mandi, here.

During the raid, the police also faced protest from the residents of the locality.

A youth, identified as Nannu (20), was nabbed by the police with 5 gm of heroin from Ali Mohala.

The raid was conducted under ADCP, Naresh Dogra, who was accompanied by a heavy posse of police force. Sources said the youth was into drug trade for the past several months and the police would seek his police remand to explore his links with drug peddlers.