Bathinda, March 25
With poor performance, many commercial banks operating in this debt ridden and industrially backward Malwa belt have failed to meet the credit-deposit ratio (CD) benchmark of 60 percent.

Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari releasing the district credit plan in Bathinda on Tuesday. — Tribune photo by Malkiat Singh

Although the main crops have repeatedly suffered losses due to pest attacks, certain leading banks have not met the target of advancing crop loans and for allied agricultural activities.

According to the report prepared by the State Bank of Patiala, which is the lead bank here, as many as 16 of the 27 banks operating here failed to meet the benchmark of the CD ratio till December last year.

The Bank of Rajasthan was at the bottom of the list by achieving CD ratio of only 5 percent, while the Dena Bank and the Corporation Bank touched 15 and 28 percent respectively. The performance of the HDFC, Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and United Commercial Bank was equally poor in this sector.

These figures have been revealed in the report of the district credit plan that was released here today by deputy commissioner Rahul Tiwari. For the current year a sum of Rs.2462.40 crores has been earmarked in the district credit plan.

Against the target of Rs.481.80 crores in the annual credit plan, achievement of the banks here was Rs.451.94 crores. The Bank of India failed to advance any loan out of Rs.2 crores earmarked for crops till December last year, whereas the Centurian Bank of Punjab was also unable to advance any loan out of its target of Rs.6.45 crores. With a wide network of branches here, the Punjab National Bank disbursed 42.83 crores towards crop loans against the target of Rs.68.54 crores during the period.

It is worth mentioning that the Malwa region has earned disrepute of the highest incidence of suicide among small peasants and farm labourers as they were not in a position to repay the debt of private moneylenders. 

Bathinda, March 25
Decks were cleared for starting Lower KG classes in St Joseph School as the District Judge J.S. Klar vacated the stay and permitted the school authorities to go ahead in the larger interests of the students.

However, the District Judge directed the School authorities to keep four seats unfilled till the disposal of the case so that the petitioners could be accommodated, in case their plea is accepted.

The decision of the court has come as big relief for the school authorities as the stay on starting the LKG classes hampered the studies of the students who got admission. The parents of these students were also jittery over delay in starting the classes.

Some aggrieved parents whose wards failed to get admission had filed the case alleging irregularities in admissions to Lower KG and sought intervention of the court. The parents also alleged that the school authorities violated the directions of Supreme Court in regard to admissions to LKG and urged the court to order seizure of records to avoid tampering.

The Judicial Magistrate (Class I) Nirmal Singh stayed the admission process and appointed Commissioner for recovery of the records to be submitted to the Court. However, the School authorities did not handover the records and taking suo moto notice of non compliance of Court orders the Judicial Magistrate directed the Principal to appear in the in person with relevant record.

While the school authorities were feeling the heat of pressure mounted by the aggrieved parents, a section of parents came forward to bat for school authorities. The pro school management parents denounced the misinformation campaign let loose by some vested interests and claimed that the school had committed no wrong or irregularity in admissions to LKG. These parents also filed sworn affidavits, refuting the allegations of the petitioners.

Meanwhile the other case pertaining to initiating contempt proceedings against the Principal of the school has been transferred to the Court of Chief judicial Magistrate Baljinder Singh for further hearing to be held tomorrow.

Both the petitioners and respondents have welcomed the judgement and expressed their faith in judiciary.

Bathinda, March 25
Relatives of a woman patient, who died during an operation at a private nursing home, staged demonstration in front of the hospital, accusing the doctor of negligence, here late this evening.

Om Parkash Bansal, husband of the deceased Rani Bansal, informed, “Dr Sanjay Kumar of Delhi Nursing Home admitted my wife for a ‘minor’ operation of uterus on Sunday morning. Before operation, the doctor asked us to submit 10 units of O negative blood group. The doctor came out of the operation theatre at 2 pm and demanded for more units of blood.”

He alleged, “But at that time she was dead. Without disclosing the fact he called for an ambulance in the evening. At 6 pm, we were informed about her death. He placed the body in the ambulance and sent it to our house, without getting any documents signed by us.”

“The body was cremated on Monday morning and this evening, we had come to obtain some reports and medical bill for insurance matters. The doctor told us to wait while he left the hospital in the meantime,” Om Parkash further alleged.

“When the doctor did not turn up till 7:30 pm, we called up our acquaintances. We demand the arrest of the doctor and the clinic to be closed,” he said. “We had paid over Rs 20,000 as fee and also submitted 17 units of blood,” he lamented.

ASP (city), SHO Kotwali, SHO Thermal and in-charge of the civil lines police post reached the spot. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the police prohibited the doctor from visiting the spot.

Bathinda, March 25
Punjab will launch a two-week Family Health Awareness Campaign tomorrow to sensitise people in the age group of 15-49 about sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS. Informing this here today principal secretary, Health, Vijay Kain said during the campaign, special camps would be organised, particularly in the rural areas and urban slums in each district to provide diagnostic, testing and treatment facilities.

About 150 such camps would be held at the sub-centre level and a team of doctors and paramedical staff would be deputed at each camp. The treatment would be provided free of cost to both partners suffering from sexually-transmitted infections. Condoms would also be distributed to the patients, he added.

Kain said the Punjab AIDS Control Society had provided medicines and funds for the campaign.

He informed that the main factor contributing to the spread of HIV infection was poverty, illiteracy, urbanisation and increase in the inter-city transportation combined with high prevalence of reproductive tract and sexually-transmitted infections.

“Awareness will lead to attitudinal and behavioural changes among individuals towards safe sex. Early diagnostic and effective management of sexually-transmitted infections can significantly reduce HIV transmission,” he added.

Kain said, “The virus affected about more than six million Indians and India ranked second, next only to South Africa, with the largest number of HIV-infected people.”

Barnala, March 25
A special Lok Adalat was held here today in connection with the implementation of the Trident land agreement issue. Additional session judge Vivek Puri chaired the Lok Adalat.

Hundreds of framers with activists of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan came to the court complex hoping to receive cheques. But as 211 cases were to put up before the Lok Adalat, the procedure was quite lengthy. Representatives of the Trident group, land acquisition officials were also present in the court to give final shape to the land awards.

Till the filing of the story, the Lok Adalat was in process and the farmers whose land awards have been finalised as per their consent have been asked to go to the deputy commissioner office. The farmers and BKU activists were still camping at the grain market. Deputy commissioner R.L. Mehta said that a team of government officials comprising director industry Vijay Jajua, land acquisition collector Sanjay Popli were also camping at court complex to issue the compensation cheques. He said they were waiting for the final orders as soon as they get it from the Lok Adalat they would distribute the cheques without any delay. 

Mansa, March 25
Literacy rate in Mansa district was lowest in comparison to other districts of the state.So there was a need to launch a drive to boost it, said deputy commissioner-cum-chairman of district Sarv Siksha Abhiyan committee in his address at the first state-level Sarv Siksha Abhiyan mela organised in village Bhainibagha today.

He said that under the Abhiyan scheme, a project with the cost of Rs 6.47 crore had been planned and Rs 2.50 crore had been received.

Sukhvinder Kaur Brar mandal education officer, Faridkot said that basic infrastructure had been formed in the schools under this scheme. Davinder Singh, Sarv Siksha Abhiyan authority Chandigarh Punjab said that the aim of holding this mela in Mansa was to bring awareness among the children. “The target had been fixed to enrol 5000 children in schools who could not get admission in the schools,” said Darshan Singh Dhillon district coordinator of Sarv Siksha Abhiyan committee, Mansa.

Children of government primary school Reond-Kalan enacted plays to attract poor children towards education.

Baljeet Singh Sandhu additional deputy commissioner development, vice-chairman of district Sarv Siksha Abhiyan committee and district education officer elementary Bhupinder Kaur and School heads and students were also present in this mela. 

Bathinda, March 25
Ravinder Singh alias Ravi (12) of Balhad Vinjhu village of this district ran away from his home on Sunday evening and was reunited with his family only after one night’s zippy efforts made by the Nehiana Wala police, who recovered him from Amritsar.

Sources in the village said the boy had a petty quarrel with one of his three sisters, following which he made up his mind to flee to his maternal house at Dabwali. Since he had no money, he sold one cock for Rs 100 and boarded a bus to Bathinda from where he took a bus to Amritsar by mistake.

The family members felt panicked when the boy did not turn up till evening. They filed a complaint at the Nehiana Wala police station, which in turn flashed the message to Punjab and Haryana police.

The boy in the company of a family reached the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar. Realising his mistake, he called up at his home.

After tracing the number, the Nehian Wala police sent the message to the Amritsar police that recovered the boy. Meanwhile, the Nehiana Wala police rushed to Amritsar and brought him back.

When contacted, probationer IPS officer Pardeep Kumar Yadav said, “The matter was very sensitive as many points were being considered like kidney scam.”

Abohar, March 25
Buoyant over positive behavioral changes in day to day working of 130 jawans and officers who had attended the first six-day Art of Living camp in middle of January this year, the BSF sector headquarter today organised another camp with same number of participants here.

Meenu Chandra, a senior preacher, who had also conducted the camps in BSF sector headquarter and the Military Station earlier, was welcomed by Nicky Sharma wife of the BSF DIG V.K. Sharma.

Hoping that the camp would help in learning stress-management, the DIG said that the largest paramilitary force in the world (BSF) was keeping round-the-clock vigil on the international borders so tremendous tension was obvious.

Meenu Chandra said that the Sudershan Kriya is the soul of the six-day basic course. Efforts would be made to train another batch of 130 participants in way to shun negative and wasteful thinking besides gaining expertise in yoga and ideal respiratory system.

Narrating experiences, she said the Art of living preached by Sri Sri Ravishankar had succeeded in averting divorces besides uniting families with ideals values. The course helped in solving chronic problems in day-to-day life automatically. The aim is to make the cosmos smile, she added. She informed that advance camps would be held in the DAV Auditorium and Homeopathic Medical College here next month.  

Fazilka, March 25
The health department, Punjab, with cooperation of the Social Welfare Society, a Fazilka-based NGO, organised a workshop on AIDS control and intravenous drugs used by addicts at civil hospital here today. It was presided over by Rajiv Prashar, SDM, Fazilka.

While addressing a gathering of civil hospital officials and paramedics, Prashar said it was significant to organise such workshops and seminars as they helped in 
creating awareness.

On the occasion, the president of the society, Raj Kishsore Kalra, observed that strong political will coupled with stringent action by the administration and backing of all sections of society was essential to eradicate the menace of drug abuse and control of AIDS.

Renu Dhuria, in-charge of the AIDS Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC), branch secretary of the Indian Medical Association, Fazilka, Narinder Sethi Y.K.Gupta, senior medical officer, civil hospital also attented the workshop.