Bathinda, October 9
Despite the tall claims of shifting nearly 200 stray animals from the city area to a gaushala, residents of various localities in Bathinda said the efforts made by the authorities are not enough.

Those who are suffering from the stray cattle menace said the number of stray animals being shifted from the city outnumbers those that gain entry into the city areas from the nearby villages.

As per Chief Sanitary Inspector, Jaspal Mankhera, nearly 200 stray animals were shifted by the corporation during the past one and half month. “We are shifting at least six to eight animals to a gaushala in Faridkot every day,” he said.

A section of city residents, however, lament that the number of animals shifted in routine is quite low. “The number of animals coming to the city almost outnumber those which are shifted out of the town,” said Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Veer Colony.

Kuldeep’s brother-in-law was attacked by a stray animal Singh last week. “My brother-in-law received a fracture near his thigh when he was hit by a stray bull while riding a two-wheeler. Though the authorities claim to shift successfully some animals from road but still, there are large numbers of animals roaming at the stretch,” he said.

He pointed out that the process of shifting the animals is quite slow and is quite late. “The officials remain in silent for over a year and now, they have launched the irritatingly slow process of shifting these animals,” said another person Inderveer Singh, a resident of Ajit Road.

Officials of the municipal corporation said they have set a target of shifting 500 animals in the first phase and the expenses incurred upon the care of these animals will be paid to the gaushala authorities by the corporation.

It is pertinent to mention here that around 15 persons have lost their lives in various incidents involving stray cattle in Bathinda city and adjoining villages in past two years and large number of vehicles are damaged in road accidents.

Bathinda, October 9
Girl students of all the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will now learn the tactics of self-defense in programmes to be organised in schools. As per a directive sent by the CBSE to the schools, the schools are bound to impart self-defense training to girl students of Classes IX and X.

Aiming to make the girls self-dependent and prepare them for untoward situations considering the rising rate of crimes against women, the board has now turned this into a mandatory task for all the affiliated schools. Earlier, the board had kept this task as an option for the schools but apparently the initiative didn’t take wings.

The circular also stated that in case, the schools fail to abide by the directive; the board may take a disciplinary action against the schools. As per the directive, training in self-defense will be imparted to the students as part of the physical and health education.

Appreciating the move by the board, principal of RBDAV School, Satwant Kaur Bhullar, said, “It is a good move that the board has made this mandatory. We had, earlier, launched the programme but since it was optional, students didn’t show much interest. Even the parents asked their wards to focus on classes rather than attending self-defense classes.”

She added that although the board had taken a good step in making it mandatory, the programme will work only if the board keeps a tab on whether the schools are following the directive or not.

“We plan to keep aside sometime during the morning assembly to train the girl students in martial arts and other forms of self-defense techniques. I expect that other schools will also take the security of their girl students seriously,” she added.

Principal of DPS, Dr Arunjee, was also all praise for the initiative. “When we expect the girls to study, earn, go out and make a place for themselves in the world like the boys do, we should also spare a thought about their safety and wellbeing. The most effective way of ensuring that they are safe, prepared to face the world and have minds without fear is to empower them by training them in self defense. The board has taken a noble initiative,” he said.

Bathinda, October 9
Players of the World Kabbadi League will spread the fame of the game from October 10 to October 12 at the Hockey Stadium, Bathinda. It will be for the first time in Bathinda that the Pakistani club, Lahore Lions will show their kabbadi performance at the Hockey Stadium, here.

The matches will start from 5 pm on October 10. Every day, two matches will be held at 5 pm and 6.30 pm.

The schedule of matches for three days will follow as; on October 10- Vancouver Lions Vs California Eagles will be at 5 pm and at 6.30 pm Yo Yo Tigers Vs Lahore Lions.

On October 11, matches will be played between; California Eagles and United Singhs USA (5 pm), Khalsa Warriors and Vancouver Lions (6.30 pm). On October 12, at 5pm, there will be a match between Royal Kings, the USA and Yo Yo Tigers. Lahore Lions will take on Punjab Thunders on 6.30 pm.

Bathinda, October 9
The upcoming elections of Shri Sanatan Dharma Sabha have turned bipolar with two groups announcing their separate sets of candidates for 10 posts for which the polling will be done. The elections will be held at SSD Girls College, Amrik Singh Road, on October 12, starting 10 am.

Two groups led by Manohar Lal Gupta and Pramod Mittal are vying for the votes of as many as 192 members of the Sabha. The elections hold importance since the Sabha owns four colleges, six schools and three temples in the Bathinda city. The property owned by the Sabha is roughly valued at Rs 1,000 crore. From the Pramod mittal group, advocate Abhay Singla will be vying for the post of the Sabha president, KK Aggarwal, will contest for the post of vice-president, Ramesh Goyal for the post of secretary, Suresh Bansal for finance secretary, JP Goyal for administrative secretary, Nand Lal Garg for the post of the president of the SSD Group of Colleges, OD Sharma for president of the SSD Public Senior Secondary School, Satpal for president of the SSD Moti Ram Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Ashok Gupta for president of SSD Boys School and Raj Kumar for the president of SSD Mangat Ram School.

While the Manohar Lal group has not named any candidate for the post of Sabha president and presidents of the four schools, it has named Prakash Chandra as its candidate for the post of vice-president, Chandrashekhar Kumar has been named as the candidate for the post of secretary, Subhash Gupta for finance secretary, Navin Singla for administrative secretary and advocate Sanjay Goyal for the post of president of the SSD Group of Colleges. While the reigning Pramod Mittal group is sure of winning the elections with a majority, the Manohar Lal group is taking the Mittal group to task over matters such as delay in reclaiming the land in Sanguana Basti which belongs to the Sabha and delay in resolving the court cases which the Sabha is fighting.

Bathinda, October 9
The ongoing coal crisis has left about 11 units of three power plants owned by the state government while only a single unit in each of thermal plants in producing the power. Only two-day coal has been left in these thermal plants.

The power cuts following with the coal crisis loom over Punjab that the Deputy Chief Minister had dreamt of making power plus state. The consumers have been facing power cuts of more than four hours for the last four days.

Gurcharan Singh, a resident of Mansa said, “Today, there was more than four-hour power cut in our area. We had faced power cut yesterday also.”

Bathinda, October 9
In a late evening development, members of the District Congress Committee led by district president Mohan Lal Jhumba staged a dharna outside the Canal Colony police station protesting the alleged misbehaviour by SHO Gurpreet Singh.

“One of the senior Congress leaders, Darshan Bansal, had asked information regarding a ration depot under the RTI Act. Pertaining to the same, he was called by the SHO who tried to put pressure on him to withdraw the application. He also misbehaved with him. He also misbehaved with other Congress workers. We wonder how they behave with the common man,” said Jhumba.

Meanwhile, Gurpreet Singh said Congress workers were levelling false allegations against him. He explained that the depot holder, Vimla Rani, had accused Darshan Bansal of misbehaving with her.

He said he called both the parties to the police station to know the details. After the matter had been settled mutually and the application had been withdrawn, Jhumba objected to the mutual settlement and raised a hue and cry, he added.

The Congress workers also demanded that an action should be taken against the SHO, failing which, they would continue to sit on a dharna outside the police station.

Jhumba said the police had pressured Bansal to withdraw the RTI application if he wanted the complaint against him to be withdrawn.

Bathinda, October 9
The district health authorities heaved a sigh of relief when they came to know that the test reports of villagers examined for diphtheria were negative. Reports say the villagers were out of danger.

The authorities had, however, vaccinated a number of villagers of Jai Singh Wala of the Bathinda district, besides creating awareness among them.

A case of diphtheria, a contagious bacterial infection marked by the formation of a false membrane in the throat and other air passages causing difficulty in breathing, was found in July this year in the village.

District health officials vaccinated around 1,200 children at Jai Singh Wala village where a case of diphtheria was detected recently.

A six-year-old child, Khushi, was detected with diphtheria as she was also a classmate of the other deceased girl Sushmita, who died of diphtheria earlier.

Khushi, however, was treated at PGIMER, Chandigarh, and returned safely to the village. The Health Department examined about 18 students of her circle and her schoolmates. A team of health officials visited the village after the case was detected and remained there for more than a week.

Bathinda Civil Surgeon Tejwant Singh Randhawa said, “Our team had remained in the village for more than a week. The team, besides spreading awareness, had examined a number of villagers and the reports were now found negative for all of them. There is no such danger or risk of any another case. The team also vaccinated many children who were not got vaccinated by their parents earlier because of lack of awareness.”

“Punjab is almost free from this disease for the last few decades. At the time of birth, all infants are compulsorily given a DPT (diptherial, pertussis and tetanus) vaccine dose. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, used to be common among the infants,” he said.

Bathinda October 9
The fourth theatre festival started today with the Natyam group artistes performing street plays at seven different places in the city. The aim of performing the plays was to make the people aware of the bad effects of drugs.

Those who watched the plays at Dhobi Market said they gave a strong message against the rising problem of drug addiction in Punjab. The participants said they performed the plays at Punjabi University’s Regional Centre, Mehna Chowk, Dhobi Bazaar, Cloth Market, Railway Bazaar, Ajit Road and Urban Estate Phase-III.

Director of Natyam, Kirti Kirpal, said on the first and second day of the theatre festival, street plays written by Jaspreet Jassi, would be performed at 14 different venues in the city.

October 11 onwards, six plays will be performed by prominent theatre groups, every evening at Balwant Gargi Open Air Theatre in Rose Garden.

On the last day on October 16, famous Punjabi actor and comedian Rana Ranbir’s play- ‘Khetan Da Putt’ will be the main attraction.

Bathinda, October 9
Guru Kashi University (GKU), Talwandi Sabo, organised an eye care awareness camp on the campus to observe the World Sight Day. Dr Gurdev Singh Sidhu, former CMO and Sukhdev Singh, a pharmacist, were the main speakers and the facilitators at the camp.

Dr Sidhu suggested many precautions to the students and the staff regarding eye-care. He said around 80 per cent of the cases of blindness could be prevented if necessary measures are taken.

Dr Sidhu shared that a balanced diet with sufficient quantity of vitamin C & E can keep the eyes healthy. Routine exercise can also boost eye-care up to a great extent. It includes blinking, rolling and frequently opening and closing. This can also help to overcome the irritating pains, burns and puffy heaviness, especially for the students.

He suggested using protective sunglasses while going out in the sun. Use of cucumber, papayas and other green leaves vegetables is very beneficial, he said.

Vice Chancellor Dr NS Malhi lauded the efforts of Dr Sidhu and Sukhdev Singh for imparting knowledge to the students and the staff of the university. He thanked and expressed the hope of enriching the students with more health related tips in future.

Managing director Sukraj Singh Sidhu also appreciated the activity to make the students and the staff aware about eye-care.

Apart from the staff and students, registrar Satish Goswami and Dr AK Kansal, dean basic sciences, were also present on the occasion. Prof Sukhdevinder Singh Kaurra, PRO, was the activity in-charge.

Bathinda, October 9
Students of Delhi Public School (DPS) who participated in the three-day state-level racquet ball championship held in Amritsar, brought laurels to the schools by winning in several categories. The students won the first position in the Under-17 (boys) and the second position in the Under-19 (boys) categories.

The national-level competitions will be held in Tamil Nadu this year. Four students (boy) of the team, Sudhanshu Ranjan, Saurav, Balraj and Aditya Raj have also been chosen for the national level team. As many as seven girl students of the school’s team have been chosen for the national level team. They include Jasmine, Neha, Patista, Sonali and Sonali. — TNS

Bathinda, October 9
Continuing its cleanliness drive, volunteers of NGO Sahara Jan Sewa today cleaned stretches of the Mall Road and GT Road. Twelve volunteers carrying brooms collected garbage from these areas.

The shopkeepers appreciating the efforts of the volunteers lamented that the workers of the Municipal Corporation failed to turn up during the holidays.

Though the safai workers of a private company hired by the Punjab Government sometimes clean the city areas, the MC employees fail to turn up during the holidays. Sahara Jan Sewa president Vijay Goyal said they had decided to clean one area every day.

“Today, we cleaned the parking area in front of three cinemas on the request of shopkeepers and the offices situated in the market. The shop owners have assured us not to litter garbage in the parking area and to extend cooperation to keep the city clean,” Goyal said. — TNS

Bathinda, October 9
Kulbhushan Bharti, younger brother of former chairman of the Improvement Trust, Ashok Bharti, today died of heart attack. Kulbhushan was associated with various social works.

He is survived by his wife and a son and daughter. The local unit of the BJP and state BJP president Kamal Sharma expressed their condolences to the family. — TNS

Bathinda, October 9
The police today arrested a Moga resident with 5 kg of poppy husk. The accused has been identified as Jagsir Singh, who was arrested near Rampura village.

Policemen from Sadar Rampura police station said the accused was found carrying poppy husk by a police patrolling team. The accused was brought to the police station and the contraband was seized. The seized material will be sent to a laboratory and a case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused. Police officials said they were trying to establish the place from where the accused managed to procure the poppy husk. Further investigation was on in the case, they said.

In another similar incident, the Kotfatta police have arrested a resident of Kotfatta village with 13 bottles of country-made liquor. — TNS

Bathinda, October 9
The police have registered a case against 13 persons for hurting religious sentiments of the people by chopping the branches of a peepal tree. Those booked by the police include Sachin Kumar and Vijay Kumar of Bathinda, Boota Singh of Bir Talab village and ten unidentified persons.

Ashutosh Kumar, the complainant , said the accused Vijay Kumar and Sachin Kumar run a sanitary shop on Amrik Singh Road, adjoining which the banyan tree existed.

People from surrounding areas used to worship it. Vijay Kumar and his son Sachin Kumar tried to uproot the tree without consulting it with anyone.

The accused chopped off the branches of the tree with the help of Boota Singh and a few other labourers.

People from nearby areas complained about it to the police who reached the place and after conducting a preliminary enquiry and registered a case in this regard.

Police officials said an FIR was launched under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code. No arrest has been made so far.