Behman Deewana (Bathinda), January 8
While there were signs of the incidence of addiction of drugs declining here, this village on Bathinda—Abohar road is in for yet another major problem of environmental pollution as the National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) has started dumping huge quantity of ash here.

The contractor, who has been assigned the task of removing ash from the premises of the NFL unit, was dumping about 25 truckloads of ash daily along the railway track that passes through the village. Trucks and tractor trolleys were being used for carrying ash here from the coal-based unit of NFL at Bathinda.

An elderly Mohinder Singh, resident of the village, said that the entire area was getting polluted with ash that would fly to the adjoining agriculture lands and households during summers and also create health hazards.

When contacted, a senior functionary of the NFL said that 1200 to 1400 tonne of coal is burnt every day in the unit that produces urea for the farm sector. This generates a considerable quantity of ash that is first converted into slurry and dumped in the ponds within the premises.

The NFL recently awarded the contract of emptying ash slurry from these ponds and dispose it in the village. However, residents of the village pointed out that they were not taken into confidence by the NFL authorities or the contractor before dumping ash here.

The pollution control board is sitting quiet on the matter.

The coal-based NFL production unit and the thermal power project at Bathinda have become a major source of environmental pollution in the area. Seeing a clear blue sky has become a rare phenomenon for residents of the town as a thick layer of smog flies above. Housewives cry that fresh ash settles within their houses soon after they do the cleaning. The people, especially young ones, are also facing respiratory problems.

For the past many years residents of the town have been demanding immediate steps to check pollution that is being generated by these two government owned units. 

Bathinda, January 8
The farmers of the state have a reason to cheer because this spell of rain will prove to be favorable for all the crops. Even the potato farmers, whose crop is already suffering due to frost, will now be happy with the weather gods, as the dry winter spell has been broken.

Today, the city recorded a minimum temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature was 15.5 degrees Celsius.

Bathinda, which is believed to be ‘not so cold’ area of the state, has already recorded a temperature of –1.0 degree Celsius on January 3, 2008. On this New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2007), the minimum temperature in the city was 0.2 degrees Celsius, which also happened to be the minimum 
temperature of 2007.

As per data received from Punjab Agricultural University Regional Research Station (PAURRS), Bathinda, in 2008, January 1, 2 and 4 recorded 1.0, 0.2 and 0.5 degree Celsius respectively. On January 7, city recorded a minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius.

Gurmit Singh Buttar, director, PAURRS, said, “In 2006, the minimum temperature of the year (-1.8 degrees Celsius) was recorded on January 9 while May 13, being the hottest day (46.4 degrees Celsius) of the year. September received the maximum rainfall of the year (118.4 mm). Hottest day of the year was on June 12 (46.5 degrees Celsius). Maximum rainfall was received in the month of February (97.6 mm).”

Paramjit Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Bathinda, said that this spell of rain is good for crops like wheat and fodder. “Even the potato farmers who are suffering from the problem of frost in the Rampura belt will now have a sigh of relief as the dry spell has been broken by rain today.” 

Bathinda, January 8
If you think that there is no taker of Number 13 as it is considered unlucky; here is a surprise for you.

The number today sold out at a price of Rs 81,000 during the auction bid of numbers of the new series (PB 03 R) for registration of vehicles, organised by the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) in the city.

In fact, the number associated with the principles of Guru Nanak Dev ‘Tera Tera’ scored over numerology.

The amount earned by the authorities concerned from the Number (0001) displayed the people’s craze for VIP vehicle registration number in the city, as it was released on Rs 1,80,000, much higher than the expectation of the authorities. The proud owner of the prestigious No. 1 of the new series Gurteg Singh was upbeat after having it.

The Number 0002 has been released for Rs 68,000, Number 0003 - considered auspicious - auctioned at Rs 1,07,000, while Number 0005 was released at Rs 1, 31,000, Number 0007 was sold at Rs 1,61,000 and at the same end number 0008 also pleased the department by fetching Rs.1, 27,000.

The number 0100, known for the police, in the vehicle registration number auction was released at Rs 21,000.

Giving the details of the auction, the district transport officer, Bhupinder Singh, said, “The department has earned beyond expectation through this auction as the total earning with the sale of only 31 number has crossed Rs.13,88,000.”

He added that the fancy number selected from 0101 to 9999, would be sold through auction on Wednesday. The officers present at the auction said, “Had the total 31 numbers been sold at the reserved price, it could have fetched only Rs.1,89,000.”

The secretary, RTI, Avtar Chand Sharma, was present as an observer.

For the first time, the district witnessed the auction of such nature.  

Mansa, January 8
In order to get reasonable price for the land acquired for a proposed thermal plant, to be established at Banawali village, a joint struggle committee of farmers and the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, Punjab, staged a dharna in front of the deputy commissioner’s office here today.

State president of Punjab Kisan Union Ruldu Khan, state secretary of CPI (ML) Liberation Rajvinder Singh Rana, state secretary of Mazdoor Mukti Morcha Bhagwant Singh Sammaon, president of the joint struggle committee of farmers Malkeet Singh addressed the dharna.

On the occasion, the speakers said they understand that establishment of industry was important for the development of a country but the government should give reasonable prices to the farmers, whose land had been acquired, and that the youths of the concerned areas should be provided employment in the industries.

The leaders further said that two big industries had been established two decades ago, a cotton mill at Mansa and a sugar mill at Budhlada. However, the two industries were later shut down for incurring loss.

They alleged that in the process, some political leaders earned crores by purchasing the land of the closed industries. 

Bathinda, January 8
The hoardings extending New Year and Lohri greetings to the people that have been put up by political leaders of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (B) have generated a controversy here and have become a source of gossip.

This has once again created bitterness among different groups of the party which were not seeing eye-to-eye for the past some time.

Putting up this kind of flexes has become a trend among politicians to project themselves in the eyes of common man. But this time these flexes have triggered uneasiness among the party activists here.

The flexes put up around the yearend by Sarup Chand Singla, area in-charge, Bathinda, display portraits of senior leaders, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Sikander Singh Maluka, Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan. But in the recently installed flexes all of them have been ignored and an effort has seemingly been made to project only Singla as the main leader of the party.

The hoardings carrying portraits of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, working president of the SAD (B) Sukhbir Singh Badal and the area in charge Sarup Chand Singla have been installed at strategic places around the city. Old timers of the SAD point out that Singla was trying to steal the show although he was a newcomer to the party and had never made any sacrifice for the organisation.

When contacted, Singla clarified that “If I am close to the Badal family that is only because I devote my time to the party and the development of the city.” About the flexes, he said that he had not even seen any of his flexes but he stated that these were installed by some of his friends and well wishers.

Taking a serious note of these flexes, a former minister, Chiranji Lal Garg, accused Singla of trying to ride over the heads of the party activists.

On the other hand, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, general secretary SAD (B), said, he was not in favour of such hoardings that glorify politicians. “This was a very cheap stunt of popularity,” he added.

Condemning the act, Sikander Singh Maluka, District in charge, SAD (B), said, “No one can gain popularity by putting up such posters and hoardings. Only work can make the person respectable in the party and public”.

Member of Parliament, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan could not be contacted for her version on the disappearance of her photo from the new hoardings. 

Bathinda, January 8
The Government Rajindra College, Bathinda, defeated the Government College, Malerkotla, by nine wickets on the opening day of three-day Punjabi University Inter College Cricket Championship for Girls being held at Government Rajindra College ground here.

The Government Rajindra College won the toss and elected to field first. Batting first, Malerkotla team scored 51 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Rajindra College successfully chased the target at a loss of one wicket in just three overs.

As per college principal, Ram Krishan Bangar, a total of four teams will be participating in this championship.

Tomorrow’s match will be held between the Physical Education College, Bhagu Majra and the Government College, Malerkotla.

The Punjabi University girls cricket team for the All India Inter Varsity Cricket Championship would be selected on the final day of the championship (January 10).  

Bathinda, January 8
The Defence Research and development Organisation (DRDO), is all set to celebrate its Golden Jubilee year with a bang from tomorrow.

The year long celebrations with chain of events to be held during the year will be flagged off by Defence Minister AK Antony tomorrow.

The main event will be organised in the DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi and the Golden Jubilee Brochure-2008 will also be released on this occasion. The brochure will especially highlight the achievements of the DRDO during 2007 and will dwell on the major systems delivered, systems that are in pipeline and some vital future programs.

The event is important from Bathinda point of view as it will also bring out the intangible outputs of the DRDO such as its efforts in fostering fundamental research, manpower training and development, enhancing its interaction with private industry and developing a special relationship with the user services.

Since its inception on Jan 9, 1958, the DRDO has grown multi-dimensionally and is today a major technology generator for the nation, effectively meeting the requirement of developing and fielding defence systems to the Services and paramilitary forces. The DRDO today has a proven competence to produce a wide range of highly, strategic defence equipment and technologies for our armed forces.

The DRDO has not only attained self-reliance in strategic defence weapons and delivery systems which no country is willing to part with, but has also provide the country with an array of tactical, battlefield systems like Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas), Main Battle Tank (Arjun), family of missile such as Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Nag and BrahMos with capability of delivery of different payloads to varying ranges. The recent successful launch of Agni III and Interceptor missile technologies developed by the DRDO has taken India to an elite, club of developed nations having similar capability.

The other success story of the DRDO has been the development of a series of radars, electronic warfare systems, secured communication, torpedoes and armaments.

The life support technologies developed by the DRDO have helped to improve the operational efficiency of our troops in extremes of environmental and operational conditions. In the current global political scenario, Nuclear Biological Chemical defence also has assumed a great significance and the DRDO has achieved a significant level of self-reliance in this area.

The defence spin-offs in civil sector and the DRDO societal missions have immensely benefited the society at large.

It may be worth mentioning here that in Bathinda, the army and local administration share a healthy relation.

The DRDO community feels that it should consolidate all that have been achieved and also present how it will organise itself for the coming decades by organising a year long Golden Jubilee Programme. 

Abohar, January 8
Neel Kamal Goyal of the MD College, Sriganganagar, was honoured with the young scientist award for her performance at the National Conference on Recent Advancement and Developments in Chemical Sciences that concluded in the tastefully decorated DAV auditorium here today.

The Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Defence and Research Development Organisation sponsored the two-day event. The DAV College had the privilege of organising the function.

Rajni Garg of Bathinda and Ritu Nigam from Vikram University, Ujjain, were given second and third prizes respectively.

Aneesh from Panjab University, Chandigarh and Rekha Gaba from Kurukshetra won the first and second prizes respectively in the poster presentation contest.

Conference convener B.B. Sharma joined veteran guests in honouring the winners.

Today’s sessions were presided over by Narender Bhojak of Dungar College of Bikaner, Arvind Kumar of the CSMCRI, Bhavnagar (Gujarat), D.V.S. Jain and J. K. Puri of Panjab University and Ishtiaque Ahmed from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Those who presented their papers included V.K. Sharma of Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Raj Pal Sharma from PU, Chandigarh, besides the chairman of different sessions.

Meenakshi Munjal, Saroj Madaan, Suresh Sharma, Megha, Anupam, Aabha and Rahul coordinated the conference.

While presenting a paper on the recent advances on AIDS, Pawan Kumar Sharma from Kurukshetra University said, “Out of all new diseases that strike the mankind from time to time like lyme disease, Hanta virus, Ebola virus, toxic shock syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, SARS, AIDS etc, the AIDS has acquired the most notorious dimension. Few people would have imagined that something that started in 1981 with just 41 gay men in New York and California would acquire such a monumental proportions. Today, about 40 million men, women and children are infected with HIV and we have already lost about 25 million people to this killer menace.”

Antisepsis approach commonly referred to as Gene Therapy offered new hopes in our fight against the HIV, he said. 

Lambi (Muktsar), January 8
The students of different schools today paid tributes to Bhagat Singh at Badal village near here today. The students recited poetry and songs at the inter-school competition to mark the birth centenary of the martyr.

The poetry describing his valour and the episodes of the Shaheed-e-Azam’s fight for freedom and social justice echoed the college hall as the participants won applause at the Dasmesh Girls College of Education (DGCE) which organised the event.

A clay modelling competition was also organised on the occasion under the guidance and supervision of renowned sculptor Manjit Singh. The model for the little hands trying their skills on the clay was Bhagat Singh’s bust.

Speaking on the occasion, known academician Prof. Lok Nath said the event had brought forth the rural children’s talent. Nath along with Panjab University Muktsar Regional Centre’s lecturer Ravinder Kumar and Punjabi theatre director Preet Pal Rupana were honoured on the occasion by the DGCE Principal Surinder Singh 
Sangha.

Preel Pal Rupana had presided over the inter-school competitions.

In the song competition, Jaskaran Singh of Government School Raike Kalan, Rukman Khan of Government School, Badal, Muktsar and Sukhdeep Singh of Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Bhagu stood first, second and third respectively.

Ramandeep Kaur of Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Bhagu, Sandeep Singh of Government School, Badal, Muktsar and Sukhpreet Kaur of Government School, Raike Kalan were placed first, second and third respectively in the poem recitation category. Rajvinder Kaur of Government School, Lambi, Amandeep Kaur of Government School, Badal and Surinderpal Kaur of Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Bhagu stood first, second and third in the declamation contest.

The winners of Art workshop were (first) Sandeep Singh of Government School, Badal Muktsar, (second) Ravneet Kaur of Dasmesh Girls Senior School, Badal and (third) Rupinder Singh of Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Bhagu. 

Abohar, January 8
The district general manager, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), G.S. Gill inaugurated the broadband service here today and said that now, the urban customers here can get the broadband connections on demand.

BSNL’s customers in rural areas were also interested in availing the broadband connection service not only to update their knowledge but also to interact with their friends and relatives abroad or in India. The BSNL has thus planned rural multiplex broadband centres for Ramsara and Waryamkhera villages in Abohar, he said.

Claiming that the newly installed broadband equipment here would facilitate the BSNL customers connect with the entire world, Gill said the services include broadband access to the internet for residential and business customers, content-based services and various internet enabled value added services.

Informing that the broadband connections in Ferozepur telecom district had increased to more than 3200, the general manager said the broadband service was coming at 41 locations and the project has been planned for all the exchanges in rural areas.

He said that with the introduction of various promotional schemes, the number of mobile subscribers in the district had increased to 2.40 lakh as the BSNL had offered the lowest tariff compared to its competitors besides ensuring transparency in the billing system.

In the current financial year, about 200 more mobile towers have been planned, he added.

Referring to the reports in a section of media that some telecom operators had increased the charges for SMS and voice calls and that they were charging for facilities like CLIP, directly or indirectly, separately, Gill said the BSNL in Punjab circle had not made any such increase.

On expansion project in Abohar, the general manager said new base terminal stations (BTS) have been planned for Ramsara, Dharampura, Killianwali, Khubban, Kullar, Ramgarh, Bahadurkhera, Gobondgarh, Malukpura and Diwankhera villages.

He said the BSNL would launch a mobile billing and connection van equipped with computer network in the area before January end in order to redress the grievances of its rural customers.

DET N.S. Gill and other officials also spoke on the occasion. 

Barnala, January 8
With an aim to make the school-going children aware about the importance of traffic rules and the implications of their violation, the district police is planning to set up a children traffic park very shortly, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Barnala, Paramjeet Singh Garewal said on the concluding day of the 19th road safety week held here today.

The SSP said since children had sharp memories and that their brains are fresh they could learn the traffic rules easily and remember them throughout their life.

On the concluding day of the road safety week, a seminar on traffic rules was also organised at S.D.Sabha Senior Secondary School here.

Deputy commissioner R.L. Mehta inaugurated the seminar and prevailed upon the public to obey the traffic rules in order to prevent accidents.

He said about 40,000 new vehicles are added to the total number of vehicles every year.

He urged those who drive vehicles at a fast speed, particularly youth, to drive within prescribed speed limits, as their act could prove fatal for others.

Sukhwinder Singh, district transport officer, Barnala, while giving details of the road safety week said during this week, the transport office held free pollution check-up camps and eye check-up camps at Bhadaur, Shaina, Dhanaula, Tapa and four other places.

At the camps, literature of traffic rules and traffic symbols were also distributed. 

Ferozepur, January 8
A woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself here today. Manjeet Kaur alias Simran got married three months ago.

Manjinder Singh, brother of the deceased, revealed that yesterday she rang up at her parental home in Abohar and threatened to commit suicide the next morning. And today, at around 4.30 am, she allegedly hanged herself from the railing of staircase.

She had married one Gurpreet Singh, a priest in the local gurudwara, on October 14, 2007 and had allegedly been harassed for dowry just after the few days of wedding, said Manjinder Singh.

A case has been registered against her husband Gurpreet Singh , father-in-law Gurcharan Singh and mother-in-law Manjeet Kaur in the Sadar police station. — TNS 

Bathinda, January 8
The Languages Department of Punjab at Patiala organised the Punjabi Week at MLM Senior Secondary School in Ferozepur cantonment. On this ocassion , ‘Punjabi Mini Kahani Darbar’ was held.

The Kahani Darbar was presided over by professor Gurdial Singh.

Sher Singh Ghubaiya, chief parliamentary secretary of agriculture department, was the chief guest.

In his presidential address, Gurdial Singh said that once ‘mini kahani’ was in use as filler, but now every magazine and newspaper were publishing it and the languages department had encouraged the writers by publishing a big sized issue of ‘mini kahaniyan’.

Additional director Balbir Kaur informed that in Punjabi, various arts were prevalent. She said that now even one, two or three sentence stories and those stories that had only few words could be available.

Various writers recited their stories in the function and the audience enjoyed that a lot. 

Bathinda, January 8
A woman Manjeet Kaur (45) resident of 100-feet road, sustained severe burn injuries, here on Tuesday.

According to the sources, in the statement given to the police, the victim disclosed that she was preparing tea in the kitchen, when all of a sudden the bottle of thinner, which was lying near the burner, caught fire.

Soon after receiving the information, the volunteers of the Sahara Jan Seva rushed to the spot and got her admitted to the Civil Hospital Bathinda. JMIC, Justice Ranjeet Kaur recorded her statement. Condition being critical, the injured was then referred to Ludhiana.

The husband of the victim said that she was in the kitchen when the fire broke out. After hearing her scream, he ran towards her and douse the fire with a blanket. He confirmed that as he deals in paints and thinner, the bottle of thinner was usually put in their house.

On the other hand, police sources said that the parents of the victim had pointed out some foul play behind the incident, but lodged no complaint against any one. The investigation officer Ranjit Singh stated that before the investigation, nothing could be confirmed. — TNS 

Bathinda, January 8
An undertrial of the Bathinda Central Jail escaped while he was being taken to Anoopgarh court after being produced before the Gidderbaha court.

Jail sources said that the undetrial Shingara Singh had been an inmate of the Bathinda Central Jail. He was taken to Gidderbaha court today for a hearing in connection with a case. Later when he was taken to Rajasthan in a train escorted by two head constables for a hearing in connection with another case all of a sudden, he allegedly jumped out of the moving train and disappeared.

The sources confirmed that he was allegdly involved in several cases registered under Talwandi Bhai, Kotwali, Gidderbaha police stations and some where in Rajasthan also. — TNS