Bathinda, July 9
The power situation might worsen for a couple of days as the 110 MW unit II of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), Bathinda, had to be closed down late last night due to leakage in the boiler.

Punjab is already facing a shortage of more than 250 lakh units. At present, the electricity demand of the state has touched about 1,700 lakh units daily while the availability is of not more than 1,450 lakh units.

According to highly placed sources at the GNDTP, a boiler leakage appeared in the unit II late last night, after which, the unit had to be closed down by the GNDTP authorities. “Now it would take at least 36-48 hours to restart the unit. Even the other three 110 MW units at GNDTP are not running at full load and are generating about 70-80 MW of power each. This is so because of the absence of proper coal feeding system. Even the coal mines are supplying damp coal to all thermal plants of the state. In that case, it becomes the responsibility of thermal plant authorities to maintain a stock of crust coal in advance, so that the units can run on full load,” sources pointed out.

Another source at Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat informed that the 250 MW unit III, which started power generation from April 14 onwards, has, not even for a single moment, reached its peak load. “Presently, its running at just half the load (125-140 MW). It is so because the coal feeding system for unit III is still not ready. But the other two 210 MW units are running at full load.”

When contacted, R.K. Sharma, chief engineer, GNDTP, confirmed that unit II had to be closed down due to boiler leakage. “The unit will start generating power in a couple of days.”

Bathinda, July 9
The 125-year-old building belonging to the canal department of Bathinda, along with a 21.87-acre piece of land, have been transferred to the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB). In lieu of the valuable property, the PIDB would construct a colony for all employees of the department concerned.

According to sources in the department, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, recently in a meeting with the officers concerned at Chandigarh, discussed the issue of transfer of the property to the PIDB. After the approval, the land has been transferred in the name of the PIDB and vacation of the offices of the canal lining number 1 and 2 has started.

As per the scheme, eight acres of the total land would be used for the construction of the state-of-the-art residential colony and offices of the department. There is a provision that in four-acre land, an Adarsh School would be constructed and the rest 10-acre would be sold by the PIDB.

For makeshift arrangements, the offices would be accommodated in the old building of the PUDA, situated at Bhagu Road. The renovation of the building has also been started.

The sources said that in the new colony, there would be 32 quarters of the class IV employees and for the officers’ class, there would be a separate locality in the area.

At present, in the 12.58-acre piece of the land, X-En residence, offices and quarters have been made, while in 3.78 acre residences of two X-En of the lining, superintending engineer, drainage department and five quarters of employees already exist there.

In the rest, SDO office, his residence, and quarters of other employees exist. The court of the canal department is also at the place.

It has also been speculated that with the sale of the 10-acre piece of land, the PIDB would earn hundreds of crores. And if one believes SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, the earnings from the sale of any property here would only be spent on the development of Bathinda.

Confirming the facts, X-En, canal department, Harlabh Singh, said that the department had even sent the requirement of the apartments to the administration. 

Ferozepur, July 9
Local authorities of the State Bank of India (SBI) today took into possession a building of a government primary school constructed on a private land by throwing out as many as 107 students and four teachers following dispute over non-payment of a loan for which this land was mortgaged to the bank as a guarantee.

The school was being run in the building for over five decades, claimed local residents. The students of the school after being thrown out from the school premises sat outside the main door and lodged a protest against  this 'insensitive' move of the bank authorities.

After having come to know about the incident, the District Magistrate (DM) of Ferozepur Megh Raj ordered the bank authorities to re-open the school.

Talking to The Tribune, the DM said, "I have ordered the bank authorities to re-open the school immediately and students will come to the school tomorrow morning in the same building as usual".

In reply to a question, he said that the bank authorities had been asked to acquire the land and building of the rice mill for which the loan amount was raised from the bank. The school land was mortgaged as a guarantee only, he said.

As per the details available from the bank authorities, the controversial land of the school building bearing municipal number B4-4-R-35-54 having wasika number 3291 situated outside Zira gate of the town owned by a local SAD leader Harbans Singh Palla, son of Dalip Singh, was mortgaged to the bank as a guarantee for raising loan to set up a rice mill. The SAD leader is a partner in the rice mill having 14 other partners. The rice mill company, M/s Modern Parboiled Mills Private Limited, Mishriwala, failed to re-pay the loan amount of Rs 51,43,087 along with interest as assessed on October 31, 2005, as a result of which, the bank authorities issued a public notice under section 13(2) of Securitization and Re-construction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of security interest act 2002 and then took into possession this controversial land on Wednesday. The actual loan amount as on date has crossed Rs 70-lakh, said a bank official.

It may be mentioned that when the school was started by the education department on this controversial land, it was not owned by Harbans Singh Palla. He purchased this land using his political influence from the actual owner about a decade back and was now trying to evacuate it for quite some time as its market value has increased to more than Rs one crore.

Local people say that Palla had intentionally mortgaged this land to the bank so that it could be evacuated from the education department and later he would get it back from the bank after re-paying the loan amount. 

Abohar, July 9
The Panjab University (PU) has authorised Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College, Abohar, to start BCA and MA English classes.

Principal of Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College, Neelam Mittu, told newsmen that the PU had accorded permission to the college to start admission to the BCA and MA English classes, staff for which had already been arranged besides developing computer lab as per the specifications. She expressed gratitude for the donors who had arranged Rs 8.50 lakh for renovation of the institution.

Drinking water storage capacity had been enhanced to 40,000 litres. Eight water coolers each having 100 litre capacity had been installed besides developing a fully air-conditioned library.

Unfolding her plans on giving the college a new look in all terms, Mittu said the daughter of a daily-wage earner had obtained more than 80 per cent marks in XII exam. She would be imparted education in the degree class free of cost.

Twenty-five students would be enrolled under the Earn and Learn scheme. They would work for three hours in different faculties daily to arrange money to meet the expenses of education.

Concerned over the security of the girls, the principal said a self- defence camp would be organised for the students to train them in karate etc.

Bathinda, July 9
Ex-servicemen from Bathinda, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar and Faridkot, under the banner of the Ex-servicemen Welfare Union, Punjab, staged a protest rally against the Sixth Pay Commission (SPC) at Muktsar on Tuesday. They rued that the SPC has done nothing for the pensioners of defence forces..

Lashing out at the union government, Capt B.S. Bhatti and Major Singh Brar urged the government to implement ‘one rank, one pension’ for ex-servicemen so that old pensioners can get justice.

They also cautioned the ex-soldiers to be aware of the hostile attitude of the union government towards ex-servicemen.

In a press release issued here today, secretary general of the union, Subedar Balbir Singh Sidhu said that while recommending military service (MS) pay for defence forces, SPC has done great injustice to the JCO category.

“Even the use of the word PBOR is mischievous and fraudulent. This word has demolished the JCO category. This is surprising that the JCOs will now get MS pay equal to the jawans. We demand that the JCOs should get MS pay of Rs 4,000 per month, otherwise, we would challenge it in the court. We have also submitted our demands to the Deputy Comissioner, Muktsar, who would forward them to the Prime Minister,” he said. 

Bathinda, July 9
Tired of being outrun by high-speed desperadoes and traffic offenders on Bathinda roads, the traffic police in the district have ultimately come up with sleek, powerful new bikes.

The traffic police would bid adieu to their old Bullet motorcycles to make way for a fleet of 20 brand new Bajaj Pulsar 200 cc bikes. The new bikes can be driven at 130 km per hour compared to 100 km per hour for the existing ones and also have a better pick-up.

Bathinda traffic police have already bought 20 new motorcycles, fitted with high-end communication systems, which will be used to patrol select corridors. The bikes will supplement the already existing fleet of 15 Police Control Room (PCR) vans in the city.

“It is a part of our modernisation programme. There was a long-felt need to get new bikes which are in sync with the times,” R.S. Dhillon, DSP (traffic) told TNS.

According to Bathinda traffic police, Bajaj Pulsar riders are mostly linked to cases of gold chain and purse snatching in the city.

 Police sources say instructions have been given to specifically look out for bikers riding swanky 150 cc or 180 cc black colour Pulsars who have a tendency to zip through roads in Bollywood style.

The new police bikes will not be diverted for any VIP duties and will be used solely for catching wayward drivers.

“The bikes are meant for motorcycle policing. They will be given to constables and head constables who will be on the move the whole day and will have the power to fine traffic violators,” Gill said.

The patrolling routes of the bikes with four stroke engines are yet to be decided.

The city’s traffic police have been lagging behind their counterparts in neighbouring districts, who have been using these bikes for quite some time.

The need for high speed bikes was felt all the more in June last year when around 75 young bikers zipped through the city’s roads. At least 45 were arrested for reckless driving and creating public nuisance. 

Mansa, July 9
District Congress president and MLA Ajitinder Singh Moffer and the district president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta) Ram Singh Bhainibagha have demanded compensation for farmers, who had suffered losses due to heavy rain during the last two days.

They said that heavy rain had damaged cotton crops. Many fields of cotton were deluged with rain water. The situation is worse in Sardoolgarh area where cotton crops in hundreds of acres is facing nature's fury. They said that the government should conduct a special girdawari of this loss and should provide compensation to farmers.

The special girdawari by the administration would help in correst estimation of the losses and would also help in determining the compensation that should be paid to them, the leaders pointed out.

Mansa July 9
State units of CPI and CPI (M) will mobilise the people of Punjab against the 'anti-people' policies of Central Government and the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The state secretary of CPI, Bhupiner Sambher, told TNS that both the parties would launch a state-level mobilising campaign from July 14. Two jathas of these parties would start a march from Hussainiwala, martyrdom place of Saheed Bhagat Singh and Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar.

He said that the Indo-US nuclear deal was not a part of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the UPA.

He also opined that the nuclear deal would not solve our energy needs. He blamed the UPA government for not taking Left parties into confidence while implementing the CMP.

Supporting the Left parties stand of withdrawing support from UPA government, he said that this step was taken considering interests of people and the nation.

Abohar, July 9
Three persons were killed in separate mishaps today. As per sources, the body of Karnail Singh of village Burjmuhar near here was found at the tail-end of a sub-canal near village Koyalkhera located near the international border today. Family sources said he had slipped in to the Panjawa sub-canal while taking bath yesterday. The relatives had been searching for him with the help of the police.

A retired home guard Banwari Lal was injured seriously as he hurriedly tried to board the Sriganganagar-Haridwar Inter-City Express morning but fell on the rail track here. The Nar Sewa Narayan Sewa volunteers shifted the victim to the Civil Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries in the afternoon.

A rickshaw-puller was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the canteen building inside the Civil Hospital in the morning today. The cause of the death was yet to be ascertained. His identity could not be established till this evening, sources said.