Bathinda, May 30
A resident of Nathpura village has been booked by the Women Police Station for allegedly sexually abusing his own daughter repeatedly in the last five years.

The victim, 21, in a written complainant to the police, has stated that five year ago, when she was studying in Class IX, she was at home preparing for exams while her younger brother and her mother had gone to work at a factory.

Suddenly, her father started touching her and threatened her if she would not follow his instructions he would kill her. He also threatened her not to disclose it to her brother about it.

She further alleged that this continued for quite some time and then, a year and a half ago, she got married and went to Ganganagar in Rajasthan, there also; her father used to come and would abuse her.

Last month, she came to her parent’s home. Again, her father started abusing her, but this time, the victim decided to disclose the matter to her mother and later registered a complaint with the women police station.

SHO of the women police station, Beant Kaur, said this is quite a shameful incident in which a father had been sexually abusing his daughter for the last five years. She said a case against the accused has been registered under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC and further inquiry had been handed over to Nathana police station.

Nathana SHO Ucee Chawla stated that the accused was at large and would be arrested soon.

Bathinda, May 30
A fleet of private buses parked at the road side at the back of office-cum-residence of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranagal is affecting the flow of the traffic on Power House Road in the city.

Despite the tall claims of the traffic police having tightened the noose around traffic violators in the city, the violations galore continue, as large number of buses and trucks are being parked at the road side in side.

At the Power House Road, the vehicles create nuisance for the commuters as it is a highly busy road.

It is worth mentioning that the district administration had passed instructions prohibiting parking of heavy vehicles like trucks and buses from parking at the roadside in the city.

Source claimed that buses are mandatory to be parked inside the bus stand, but private bus operators in order to save the money as if they park the buses inside they have to give monthly fee to the PRTC, to avoid this large number of private buses did not enter the bus stand and are operating from the outside only.

Sanjeev Kumar, commuter said, the situation exposes the double standards of the traffic office, as if they park their cars just one inch outside the line, the police tow away their vehicle, but they don’t say anything to private bus operators fearing their high political connections.

Even the recently widened spaces on many arterial roads were conveniently being turned for roadside parking in the city. In places, where the road width is more, permit parking and place boards authorising the place to be a used as a parking lot. In places which are yet to be classified as parking or no-parking zone, people are parking vehicles and that too for throughout the day. Such a trend was seriously affecting the free flow of vehicles and traffic police is sleeping keeping hand on hand.

Traffic in charge Balwinder Singh claimed that they issue challans to buses which stand outside the yellow line in the city.

Bathinda, May 30
A large number of protesters, including parents of the rape victim and and members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta-Ugrahan, were again arrested on the fifth day of their protest outside the Inspector General of Police, Bathinda zone, Paramjit Singh Umranagal, demanding justice in minor girl’s rape case and unconditional release of their some of the BKU leaders and workers who have been arrested by the police while they coming to protest here earlier and had not been released so far.

It is worth mentioning that the BKU Ekta Ugrahan leaders had given a call that each day their group of workers will protest outside the IGP office and surrender. Accordingly, activists and parents are coming here to protest for the last five days and are not allowed to protest against the IGP office and were arrested as they reached outside the office. However, they are being released in the evening every day. The protestors alleged that even after four months of the incident, the accused was roaming free due to political pressure. It is pertinent to mention that that three persons had gang-raped a minor girl in Muktsar district on Jan 24. The police, however, arrested two of the accused but third accused is still at large. — TNS

Bathinda, May 30
The 108 ambulance service appears to be slowly and steadily limping back to normal functioning as Ziqitza Health Care Ltd (ZHL), the company operating the services in Punjab since April 3, 2011, has started recruiting new employees as per directions of the state government after a section of its employees went on an indefinite strike.

Speaking to the Bathinda Tribune, state project head, Jintendra Sharma said, “After the employees on strike turned down companies repeated requests to resume services, the company was left with no option but to recruit new employees. We have recruited more than 300 drivers and more than 100 emergency medical technicians to help the service get back on its feet again. While the drivers have already taken the charge, the EMTs are currently under training and will join services on June 5.”

He further stated that a section of employees which had sided neither with the company nor with the protestors and had gone on mass leave had also been served notice to resume service or else recruitments will be done for their positions as well. He stated that the new drivers were being accompanied by policemen to prevent any kind of untoward law and order situation.

The service was disrupted on May 23 after a section of drivers, GNMs and emergency medical technicians went on strike demanding lesser working hours, overtime for extra work, reinstature of a terminated employee, union leader Bikram Saini and formation of a working/disciplinary committee.

Since the company agreed to and implemented all the demands barring the one pertaining to overtime and lesser number of work hours, the employees continued the strike and severely disrupted the emergency medical service across the state.

“The staff operating the ambulances although may be present in the ambulance for more than eight hours (which includes the spread over time as well), the actual working hours in which the staff shall operate the ambulance is much less than eight hours. The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, permits an employer registered under the Act to employ its staff for more than eight hours, including the spread over time. The ZHL is an undertaking registered under the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961 and the Punjab Motor Transport Workers Rules, 1963,” he said.

He added that although on February 25, the company representative and 40 union leaders had agreed to sign the a settlement draft stating that a 10 per cent annual salary hike will be given, duty hours will be defined and working committee and disciplinary committee will be formulated and that whoever will sign the draft will not go on a protest on any other demand, the union members defied the agreement and went on strike.

Bathinda, May 30
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced Rs 50 lacs for the construction of parks and Rs 3.25 crore for laying streets in the township during a sangat darshan programme here today.

Heads of almost all the government departments accompanying the Chief Minister visited various places to listen to the problems of the residents.

Varinder Sharma,Chief Administrator, Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), said as per the blue print,1.5 acre parkat a cost of Rs 20 lakhs would be built in Rama Mandi and another 2.5 acres park at a cost of 30 lakhs would come up in Talwandi Sabo.

People had been seeking the construction of parks for the past long time and the Chief Minister gave a green signal for its construction ahead of the by-elections.

Varinder Sharma said the money would be released by the BDA and the work of laying the streets and parks, however, would be looked after by the respective Municipal Councils of the areas.

The Chief Minister also discussed the modalities related to some projects of the city area to be undertaken by the BDA.

The BDA officials said a project of shifting some scattered shops into a single complex is in the offing for which nearly three acres of land would be required. “It is too early to say about this project at this moment since the project is not completely on the papers and it will take few more days to divulge more details about it”, said another senior BDA official. 

Bathinda, May 30
Max Super Speciality Hospital (MSSH) will organise a free obesity awareness camp on its premesis here tomorrow between 10 am to 2 pm.

Dr Ashish Vashistha, a laparoscopic expert and bariatric surgeon from Max Hospital, Delhi, Dr Sushil Kotru, diabetes specialist and Dr Vikas Jindal, laparoscopic and GI surgeon at MSSH, Bathinda will provide free consultation.

Tests like blood sugar, BP and BMI will be done free of cost. Benefits on other lab and radiology tests will also be provided at the camp. In a press release, Dr Vashistha said through this camp, they hoped to educate people about the significance of the physical activity and the how obesity conditions could be avoided through simple physical activities. — TNS

Bathinda, May 30
The dharna by the Inclusive Education Resource Teachers (IERTs) continued for the third day today. The teachers, recruited in 2005 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan Scheme, are demanding that they be treated at par with other teachers of the state Education Department and be given the benefit of summer vacations and other annual vacations like the other teachers avail. They argued that since they had also been recruited as per the rules of the Punjab government and given joining letters by the Punjab Director of SSA, they should be treated at par with other teachers.

The work of the IERTs is to aid the deaf and dumb children. If a child is not able to come to school, the IERTs have to give them remedial training at their home.

Bathinda, May 30
Niharika Singla and Hasanpreet Kaur secured first position in Guru Teg Bahadur Public School, Bardwal, with 96.2 per cent in Class XII examination. Puneet Kaur secured second position with 94.2 per cent in the non-medical stream.

Principal of the school P Madhusthanan expressed his happiness over the brilliant performance of the students. Toppers of the school are: commerce stream- Muskan 94.4 per cent, Arshdeep Kaur 93.6 per cent, Jugraj Singh 93.6 per cent; non-medical stream - Khushpreet Kaur 91 per cent, Navneet Kaur 90.2 per cent, Karan Gupta 90.2 per cent, Narinder Singh and Ankita Dubey 90 per cent.

Bathinda, May 30
Rise in the crime graph in the district have left the residents worried.Despite the police claims of regular patrolling in the district, the incidents of assault and theft have failed to subside.

Recently some persons entered the house of Amarjit Kaur, a resident of Dasmesh Nagar. In her complaint to the police, she stated that the accused had assaulted her,snatched her mobile and vandalized her house. Police have registered a case against Monu, Manoj, Raju, Bittu, Pappu, Sagar and Manjinder Singh of Bathinda. But no arrests have been made .

In another incident, some persons entered the house of Pappu Singh in Bir Talab village and assaulted him along with his mother and sister-in-law. Police have registered a case under Section 452, 323, 148, 149 of the IPC at Canal police station against the Nachattar Singh, Mintu Singh, Anba Singh, Soni, Katta, Bhola, Kuldeep Singh resident of Bir Talab village.

Two big burglaries had been reported in the city in last ten days.A theft took place at three shops in hospital bazaar last week, in which material worth lakhs of rupees had been looted. But after passing of one week police is clueless about the thieves.

In another burglary incident six-seven persons in broad daylight entered the office of Dasmesh Transport Company located on the Malout road and looted seven lakh rupees from the cashier of the company.

Gursewak Singh, a resident of Model Town had registered a complaint of a car theft at Cantonment police station last week.

It is worth mentioning here that the police have been receiving complainant of car and motorcycle theft in the district.

The city residents have expressed their concern over the rising cases of theft and burglaries. They said police officials should identify and arrest the accused involved in such crimes.

They alleged that a majority of theft cases remained unsolved and the role of the police was limited only to registering FIRs.

Investigations moved at a snail’s pace as police officials remained busy with other commitments such as VIP duties, say residents.

Bathinda, May 30
As per the National Action Plan 2014-15, and under the instructions of Punjab Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh, a seminar on ‘World No Tobacco Day’ was organised at Baba Farid Group of Institute, Bathinda, by the District Legal Services Authority, Bathinda.

The seminar was presided over by Tejwinder Singh, District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Bathinda. Jasbir Kaur, CJM/secretary, DLSA, Bathinda, was also present on the occasion.

Managing Director of the institute, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal welcomed the chief guest and elaborated on the ill-effects of the tobacco. Other guests also shared their views on the topic.

Jasbir Kaur apprised the students about the history of the day besides throwing light on the legislation over consumption and sale of tobacco and other products. — TNS