Bathinda, April 7
Roses are in full bloom at the famous Rose Garden of Bathinda. The garden has become central to the city’s identity much like the GNDTP chimneys, only that its beauty is more ethereal. It is not just the sheer variety of roses that draw the attention. It is also the range of activities that revolve around this garden, that engage the mind.

The garden is a secret tryst for those struck by Cupid’s arrow. It is also a place where children flit around with gay abandon.

Harried traffic cops will only be too delighted to see people moving around in the arena here listing rules for driving safely. To top it all, morning walkers will testify about the presence here of a laughter club, that only goes on to prove that laughter remains the best medicine.— TNS

Bathinda, April 7
With road accidents remaining the single largest killer in Punjab, the government has decided to upgrade the 57 hospitals along the national highways to well-equipped trauma centres at a cost of Rs 23.89 crore.

There are 10 national highways passing through the state. According to sources, seven persons die and nine get injured in road accidents on the state highways every day. The worst-affected areas are Bathinda, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Patiala. In 2003, hospitals handled 36,850 roadside trauma cases, which declined marginally to 36,214 in 2004.

Talking to TNS, T.R. Sarangal, managing director, Punjab Health Services Corporation (PHSC), said, "Increased traffic on the highways and negligent driving has resulted in an increased number of fatal accidents. The lack of first aid facilities and poor communications and transport along the highways remain the most significant causes for mortality."

"Therefore, we want to upgrade all the hospitals along the highways and have sent the proposal to the Government of India for the final nod," he added.

The National Health Policy-2002 specifically foresees trauma as a significant public health problem and it specifies that "rising vehicle density in large urban agglomeration has led to an increased number of serious accidents requiring treatment in well-equipped trauma centres".

He further said that all secondary-level health institutions in the state had been upgraded to modern healthcare centres.

For further strengthening trauma care in hospitals, only additional dedicated staff, equipment and supplies were required, the managing director said.

Bathinda and Hoshiarpur would get CT scan machines while Patiala and Jalandhar would have both CT scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.

Around 182 emergency medical officers along with an equal number of nurses would be posted at these centres to deal with cases of serious injuries on highways.

Muktsar, April 7
Alleging that the staffers of Orbit Bus Service, reportedly owned by the Badals, were resorting to hooliganism, the students of an engineering college here demanded that their bus passes be recognised in private buses as well, because of the drastic decline in the number of the state-owned public transport vehicles.

The students have scheduled a sit-in in front of the Muktsar Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Thursday next to stage protest, and have also demanded the withdrawal of “false cases” registered against some students during the agitation which had been carried out after one of the students was hit by a bus reportedly belonging to the Orbit company, in front of Bhai Maha Singh Engineering College here last week. The student had suffered a fractured leg in the mishap which led to the agitation in which the windows and windscreens of two buses were smashed by the agitated students.

“Though many bus operators have agreed to entertain our bus passes, as issued by the PRTC, the staff of Orbit and New Deep Bus Services, are adamant not to allow the students to board their buses, in the absence of the state-owned public transport vehicles,” the college students’ action committee spokesperson Manpreet Singh said in a statement issued here.

Treating it as a common cause, the students from other educational institutions of Mukstar would be joining the ‘dharna’ in front of the DC’s office on Thursday, as they too faced harassment at the hands of the private bus conductors and drivers, especially those of the Orbit buses, Singh said.

Citing the attitude of the staffers of Orbit Bus Service, the students stated that the Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed himself to be the ‘messiah’ of the youth of Punjab but the drivers and conductors of his own transport company were resorting to “hooliganism” and taking the passengers for granted.

 Significantly, the verbal duels between the employees of the PRTC and the private bus operators at the bus stands have become a common scene as they are often seen arguing on the time-schedules and picking up of the passengers.

Only some time back, ITI students had agitated in Bathinda too, demanding passes in buses run by private operators.

Bathinda, April 7
“The Khalsa Action Committee (KAC) will honour eight families whose members have played a significant role in the anti-Dera Sacha Sauda drive at a conference to be held at Talwandi Sabo on the occasion of Baisakhi, convener of the KAC, Bhai Mohkam Singh, disclosed this here today.

Speaking further on the issue, the members of the KAC said that during the Baisakhi conference, future strategy on ways to combat the influence of Dera Sacha Sauda would be discussed.

“To lure voters, the Shiromani Akali Dal (B), Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress all have been coming up with the statements supporting the Dera followers, which is a clear violation of the hukumnama issued by the Akal Takht to discontinue all engagements with the Dera followers,” charged Bhai Mohkam Singh.

Lashing out at the CM, the members of KAC said, “The attempt of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to suppress the fourth estate of the democracy has revealed his true belief. The Badal government is not ready to listen to anything against it and if anybody dares to raise his voice, the government tries to seal his lips.”

“The assault on and maltreatment of the protesters are enough to expose the reality of the CM’s slogan “Raja Nahi Seva”. The government is not working in a democratic way,” they alleged.

Condemning the incident that took place on March 27 in the presence of the CM, where the media was treated badly and the women workers of Anganwari were dragged by their hair by the police, members of the KAC disclosed that they would meet the Governor on April 11 to demand action against the administration and the government.

“By issuing a statement about forming its own force to tackle unpleasant situations for the Chief Minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, the ruling party has expressed its wish to impose a ‘mafia rule’. The SAD force will be no less than a ‘goonda brigade’,” they aleged.

Lashing out at the Congress ties with the SAD (B), they said, “It is the cordial relationship between them which got Bhattal a clean chit in the financial scam. MLA from Bathinda, Harminder Singh Jassi, is also a part of the game as he never speaks against SAD because the leaders of the ruling party have allowed him to continue his chairmanship.

During a meeting held at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Daljeet Singh Bittu, Bhai Mohkam Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Baba Manmohan Singh and Darshan Singh Jaga Ram Tirath addressed the mediapersons.

Faridkot, April 7
It is almost effortless to become famous in this tiny former princely town. Asking about the location of the Kamiyana gate brings about suspicion in the eyes of the locals. The locality has become infamous because of the reported easy availability of drugs.

The family of Sarbjit Singh, 34, is indebted to the police for keeping a tab on the activity of drug peddlers and weaning him away from the vicious clutches of drugs.

Sarbjit was among 40 persons of this locality, who have been weaned away from drugs, especially smack and heroine. This change came about following a campaign launched by the police on the initiative of its former district police chief L.K. Yadav.

Posted in this former princely state last year, Yadav observed the activity of the drug cartel which had gained in strength. With the passage of time, the cartel had consolidated its presence and its tentacles had spread far and wide.

"Soon, I realised that a multi-dimensional approach was needed not only to deal with the menace, but also to wean away the youth from its deadly grip," Yadav said.

There is always a strong possibility of addicts turning into drug peddlers thus increasing the number of persons trapped in it. The same was happening to this locality. The pattern showed that the drug addicts belonged to the 18-30 year age-group.

Lanky Sarbjit, an unemployed graduate, fell prey to drugs. Unable to find a job, he found solace in the company of friends who coaxed him to take to drugs, he recalled.

Similar was the case of Manminder Singh of this locality, who after completing his MA in Political Science, fell into the drug trap.

The former district police chief hired psychologists to persuade people to give up drugs while yoga instructors were hired to make them stronger from within.

Soon, a police post was set up in the locality to send a strong message to the drug peddlers.

Yadav informed that about eight persons, including a woman, were apprehended. The woman was a maid who managed to get the son of her employer hooked to drugs.

The walls of the streets were painted with slogans that warned about the grave consequences of drug addiction and asked people to keep away from them.

Yadav introduced various games, including basketball, volleyball and kabaddi, to channelise the energy of youngsters of the locality in order to provide them with a healthy pastime.

Sportspersons from his department were deployed who held evening sessions to inculcate zest for healthy living among the drug addicts.

Moga, April 7
Students of the Sacred Heart school organised a vast rally on World Health Day, today. SDM Lakhbir Singh, PCS, flagged off the students’ rally.

On the occasion, chairman of the school, Charles Teba Kumar and principal Vijaya Jeba Kumar were also present.The rally commenced from the school via G.T. Road and finally reached the Joginder Singh roundabout and again returned to the school.

With the co-operation of the village panchayat, a seminar was organised in village Talwandi Bhangarian. Here Jaspal Kaur and Shuwinder Kaur gave several tips for keeping good health. In the end, school students performed a skit and cultural programme and thanked the people and the village panchayat.

Mansa: The District Red Cross Society, Mansa, organised the World Health Day with the cooperation of the health department.

Deputy commissioner-cum-president of the District Red Cross presided over the function, where the participants held a discussion on “Global Warming and Healthcare.”

While speaking on the occasion, deputy commissioner Surjeet Singh Dhillon said, “We should make efforts to save energy resources. Destruction of trees and lowering of water table should be checked,” he added.

Civil surgeon G.S. Nagi stressed upon the need to save the atmosphere from pollution.

He informed that 35,000 people had perished due to climate vagaries in 2003. Representatives of some social organisations were also present on the occasion. 
— OC

Hindumalkot (Abohar), April 7
A thunderous hailstorm that lashed the border villages in Sriganganagar district as well as those located on this side of the inter-state border on Saturday night wreaked havoc on the farmers, who had earlier lost their mustard crop due to frost in winter.

Heavy rain was experienced in the region for the second time in less than a week, the farmers rued.

Balwinder Singh Baldev, a former municipal councillor from Abohar, who is now settled in Sriganganagar district, said he had not seen such damage to crops in the past three decades.

The size of the hailstones collected by farmers in some villages, including Chak 2LC and Masaniwala Bunia, were that of a cricket ball and none of them weighed less than 100 grams.

The farmers were busy irrigating the fields when the hailstorm lashed the region. They faced a tough time finding a proper shelter for at least 25 minutes until the storm subsided.

Equally difficult was the task of shifting the livestock to safer places.

In Jaitsar, the road that linked the government girls’ school with the bus stop was not worth using on Sunday as accumulated rain water had not been drained out.

In village 50 GB, some of the houses had partially collapsed.

Heavy rain coupled with hailstorm affected Odhanwali, Sardarpura, Morjandkhari, Sunderpura and Chak 38 villages besides Gulabewala, Delwan and Sangatpura.

Wheat crop was totally flattened in Ratanpura, Udsar and Nirwana villages.

The farmers said that many of them had to uproot mustard plants at the fag end of the winter season due to repeated frost attack.

Adding to the woes of farmers, a breach in the Sameja canal near village Chak 8NPB flooded the adjacent fields. A day earlier, the farmers were complaining about the damage caused due to breach in the Karniji distributaries and PS sub-canal.

The affected farmers rued that the officials did not pay heed to their requests to plug the breach on time.

Abohar, April 7
The Jamhoori Kisan Sabha has decided to organise a rally at the Nehru Park here tomorrow to express resentment over the “mischievous” decision by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on waiving off farm loans.

Kulwant Kirti, sub-divisional secretary of the Sabha, said that landless farmers and daily-wage earners were the worst affected by inflation and debts, but the policy announced by the Prime Minister on waiving off loans did not cover them.

Kirti said that a memorandum would be submitted before the sub-divisional magistrate after the rally.

The Sabha urged the district administration to conduct a special girdawari to evaluate the losses caused to wheat and mustard crop in the region by hailstorm and duststorm besides the recent rains and compensate the affected farmers.

Abohar, April 7
The hardliners had not allowed the cremation of Baba Bulleh Shah, the disciple of a Qadiri Sufi, upon his death only because he preached communal harmony and tranquility, but later he was globally recognised and respected as a great Sufi saint.

“Natrang”, a theatre society, by staging the renowned Pakistani writer Shahid Nadeem’s play “Bullah” at the DAV auditorium here last night, sought to convey that his teachings were still relevant as communal hatred and violence was taking a huge toll.

Guest of honour Subhash Nagpal, former state president of the National Integrated Medical Practitioners Association, said, “Baba Bulleh Shah composed a lot of poetry in Saraiki, a local dialect. His style of poetry is called Qafi, which was already an established style with Sufis who preceded him. The tomb of Bulleh Shah is in Qasur (Pakistan) and he is held in reverence by all Sufis of Sindh and Punjab. He had well said, “Chal Bulliah chal uthe chaliye jithe saare anneh, na koyi sadi jaat pachhane na koi sanu manne”.

Director Vikas Batra said that the great Sufi saint had penned: “The soil is in ferment, O friend, behold the diversity.

The soil is the horse, so is the rider.

The soil chases the soil, and we hear the clanging of soil.

The soil kills the soil, with weapons of the soil.

That soil with more on it, is arrogance

The soil is the garden, so is its beauty

The soil admires the soil in all its wondrous forms

After the circle of life is done, it returns to the soil

Answer the riddle, O Bulleh, and take this burden off my head.”

Even while the play avoided cheap inputs for entertainment, Gurjant Brar as Bulle Shah, Vikas Batra as Joginder Jogi, Vinay Gandhi and Puneet Watts as Sona Chandi and Pooja Kalra as Muradi Begum kept the gathering spellbound.

They were actively supported by the production manager Bhupinder Utreja, set in-charge Sanjiv Gilhotra, Baljinder Sandhu, Amit, Sandeep Sharma, Vishnu, Praveen Solia, Manish, lights director Raju Thathai, Jaspal Singh, Gurdev Singh, Satpal Yadav and Arpan.

Atul Khungar once again showed that he excels in the make-up job. Subhash Bagri composed the music and Gurtej Burjan, Kuljeet Bhatti, Shelja and Vikas Batra were background singers.

Mansa, April 7
The road leading to Teenkoni from the bus stand here and the court road had been 
witnessing congestion due to increased traffic and the residents have demanded that these roads be widened so as to ease the traffic movement.

Residents, including Dr Baldev Sharma, Tarsem Semi, Ranjit Dhaliwal, Bhupinder Singh and Jagseer Singh Billu, expressed concern over the traffic rush on the roads. They said, “The roads were arteries of the city as most of the city commuters use them for their movement.”

Advocates Rekha Sharma and Rajinder Sharma said, “These roads have become the cause of accidents and must be widened.”

They all demanded that authorities concerned should take note of the growing traffic problems on these roads and take necessary remedial steps. The residents suggested that the roads should be widened on both the sides and divided into two sides to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic.

Bathinda, April 7
Alarmed by the warning issued by the Anganwari Workers Association to disrupt the political conference of the ruling party at Talwandi Sabo on the occasion of Baisakhi, the Bathinda police has started collecting particulars and photographs of Anganwari workers to pre-empt the threat, it has been learnt.

Media Boycott The journalists of Bathinda passed a resolution on Monday boycotting the magisterial inquiry conducted by ADM Upjeet Singh Brar in the case regarding the misbehaviour with media persons and Anganwari workers by police personnel in the presence of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, during a seminar at the civil hospital on March 27

Giving details, an Anganwari worker in village Chak Ruldu Singh Wala said on the condition of anonymity, “Three policemen visited my house in the afternoon and demanded my photographs. As I was not at home, my family members refused to provide them. But one of the police officers gave his mobile number and ordered that the photograph should be sent by evening.”

The district president of the association, Mahinder Kaur, said over the phone, “I have come to know that the police has visited many of our workers. It is all being done to pre-empt our presence at the conference”.

Another worker of the association accused the police of high-handedness. “They have been trying to create terror among us. They intercepted one of our workers on way to Bajak village and threatened her with dire consequences,” the worker pointed out.

According to reports received from the villages, the police visited Anganwari workers in village Pathrala, Talwandi Sabo, Gur Ke, Gurusar, Bhucho Khurd and Dialpura Bhai Ka in thgis regard.

When the cops were asked about their visits to Anganwari workers, they said, “We have been merely following the orders of our seniors. We too feel awkward asking for the photographs of someone’s wife or mother and are unsure how they would react to it.”

While talking to TNS, Shinder Kaur, block president of AWA, Bhagta, said, “The police came to our village to create terror. Many of us were not at home when the police came but they asked about our movements in the village. The police also visited the Kangar and Bhucho villages in this regard.”

It may be mentioned that the women members of AWA, after being released from the Central Jail, Bathinda, on April 3, had stated that keeping in view the ill-treatment they had received from the police in the presence of the CM, they had decided to disguise their identity and sit amidst people at the political conference of the CM at Talwandi Sabo wearing male dresses.

Bathinda, April 7
The announcement that the Shiromani Akali Dal (B) will create a force of 500 volunteers to handle “uncomfortable” situations for its leaders, has elicited unfavourable reactions from its coalition partner, the BJP. The announcement was made by former minister Sikander Singh Maluka at Kot Shamir village in Bathinda on Sunday where the Chief Minister had arrived to inaugurate a school run by the SGPC.

Maluka, apparently, to please the CM, said in his presence that everybody had the right to air his views in a democracy. But if deliberate attempts were made to create disturbances by mischievous persons at party meetings and gatherings, then the SAD force would deal with it firmly, he had added.

The statement has dug up gorge between the coalition parties.

Taking Maluka to task for his statement, Kamal Sharma, general secretary of the Punjab unit of the BJP, told the TNS over the phone, “As a coalition partner, I can tell leaders of the allies that they should exercise restraint while issuing statements.”

Speaking further, Kamal said, “Both the SAD and the BJP have seen such brigades in other states. So, the BJP can never support such an unconstitutional force.”

“BJP is the protector of the constitutional rights of the people. When people have been provided the right of speech and expression, why should any party try to suppress the voice of people,” he said..

Replying to a query about the BJP’s stand if the SAD brigade comes into place, Kamal said, “It could never be termed as good, and if it takes place, the BJP will take a serious note of it.”

On the other hand, Kamal also urged people to bring forward their demands in a peaceful manner.

It may be mentioned that the leader of opposition, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, the PPCC chief, has also condemned the move to form such brigade.

Ironically, controversy seems to be shadowing the ruling party everywhere as at the same function at Kot Shamir, some SAD leaders were prevented from meeting their top functionaries by the police force, which added another twist to SAD tale.

Bathinda, April 7
The police lathicharge on computer teachers in Bathinda has evoked strong reactions. District vice-president of the Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) union condemned the police action and said it amounted to anarchy.

“Future strategy to fight for the rights of the teachers would be chalked out in the days ahead, he added.

“The people have right to protest in a democratic set-up and to using the police to deny this right is not democratic and fraught with dangerous consequences,” said Rashem Singh, member of the Democratic Teachers’ Front. He also appealed to the people to come forward to protest the atrocities of the government.

The incident ironically has come soon after women Anganwadi workers were roughed up at Bathinda while protesting against the government apathy towards their demands.

The police actions at Bathinda and Jalandhar have come in for widespread condemnation by various organisations who see it as beginning of ‘authoritarian rule’ through use of state power. 

Bathinda, April 7
The BJP Mandal (West) Bathinda, held a special meeting at Baba Deep Singh Nagar on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the formation of the party, about 26 years ago. It was presided over by Madan Lal Gupta, and Mohinder Dharia, member of the district working commitee, was also present there.

General secretary Kulbhushan Bansal said that owing to sacrifices by its leaders and workers, the BJP was ruling in most parts of the country now.