Moga, August 22
Floods in the low-lying areas along the river basin of Sutlej in Moga and Ferozepur districts besides few other parts of the state had brought into focus the indiscriminate encroachments on irrigation/drainage channels, apathy of the state government to strengthen the river embankments and above all infringement in the natural course of the river by cultivating and making settlements within the embankments.

The continued indifference of the irrigation department authorities for past about two decades to the problem was surprising. Instead of evicting the encroachers from the river areas, the department allowed thousands of farmers to cultivate within the embankment areas. Much more, the revenue department had issued registries and even 'intkaals' for these lands.

The interference of illiterate farming community in the river areas and setting up of permanent settlements had not only weakened the 'bandhs' but also made it almost impossible to strengthen it naturally through plantation.

In Moga district, there were many villages situated within the embankment areas, which had always been vulnerable to the river that swelled during monsoons.

Things were going so worse that indiscriminate encroachments on irrigation and drainage channels had also come to light at many places, which added to the devastation caused by the floodwater. At some places, the channels had completely vanished due to encroachments.

At one point on the main road between Kussuwala and Makhu, the flow of water in the natural drain was stopped by the people and they were not allowing the floodwater to pass through it. Resultantly, the district authorities had to use police force to bring things to order.

Meanwhile, the officials of the irrigation department, Moga district, revealed that the state government had not provided even a single penny to maintain the 30-km stretch of the embankment in the district, which was indeed one of the causes leading to breaches in the river. During the past two decades, hardly any plantation was done to strengthen the embankment.

Even if some funds were earmarked for the purpose, they could have possibly been used by the district administrations or the irrigation department for some other purposes, which needs to be probed, demanded Jaswinder Singh, state general secretary of the association of panchayat representatives. His village Takhtuwala in this district was one of the villages that were badly hit by the floods for its proximity to the breach.

He demanded that the state government hands over the work of strengthening the embankments to panchayats, either through NREGA or by a separate provision, so as to ensure public participation and bring in a sense of collective responsibility among them.

Jaswinder added that there was also a need to constitute village-level disaster management committees so as to meet the emergency situations of floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Lambi/Bathinda, August 22
Relenting after the night-long protest which the activists of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union staged at village Kheowali, where they were assaulted by the police on Thursday, the district administration today accepted their demands, in the early hours today.

Around 18 activists of the union, including women, had sustained injuries when police resorted to a lathicharge, fired rubber bullets and used tear gas shells and water cannons to stop them from moving towards the Badal village, on national highway number 10.

In an attempt to resolve the matter, senior officials of the district administration including the deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police, Muktsar, held a series of meetings with them at night. A compromise was reached when the DC Muktsar, Vikas Garg, condemned the incident and gave in writing the acceptance of their demands. Village Kheowali had started resembleing a camp office of the district administration.

Further, the DC assured that the protesters who were injured due to firing of rubber bullets, would be compensated within 15 days of the submission of their medical report. He said the FIR lodged against the protesters would also be cancelled. A financial help of Rs 25,000 to the familes affected by militancy in village Fatoohiwala was also provided.

The administration also assured that proper action would be initiated against the DSP Muktsar, Baljeet Singh Sidhu, and SHO Sadar police station, Muktsar, Rajan Parminder Singh, who alleged used derogatory language against those belonging to the reserved categories. It was also assured that a compensation of Rs 25,000 would soon be provided to the family of Jagroop Singh Killianwali, who was killed in a lathicharge on March 26 at village Singhewala.

About the rest of the demands, the administration assured them of soon arranging a meeting with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Confirming the details, DC Muktsar, Vikas Garg said, "We were already trying to fulfill their demands, but there was a problem due to the enforcement of the code of conduct which is now over."

Ending the dharna, Lachman Singh Sevewala, general secretary of the union, thanked a number of organizations, which stood by them them. In the dharna, activists of the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) were also seen present in large numbers.

Bathinda, August 22
The opposition Congress has condemned the use of "brute police force" against the innocent landless labourers who wanted to stage a protest in support of their demands yesterday at Lambi, home town of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. In a joint statement today, several Congress MLAs maintained that the SAD-BJP government which had proved to be an all round failure was trying to vent its ire on the helpless landless labourers.

They regretted that instead of listening to their woes, the state government was using all kind of brute force against them. They pointed out that the labourers were only demanding implementation of an agreement the government had reached with them a few months ago. The legislators pointed out that on earlier occasions, the government had used brute force against the teachers and the Aanganwari workers here and that too in the presence of Parkash Singh Badal.

The Congress leaders pointed out, that such an incident could happen in the home district and the ancestral village of the CM itself speaks volumes about the functioning of the government, which is now trying to "gag and crush" the voice of the poor. The MLAs signatory to the joint statement included Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Joginder Singh Panjgrayan, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, Makhan Singh, Naresh Kataria, Sukh Sarkaria, Mangat Rai Bansal, Sher Singh Gagoowal, Harmohinder Singh Pradhan, Joginderpal Jain, Ajit Singh Shant , O.P. Soni, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Darshan Singh Brar, Nirmal Singh and Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu.

Bathinda, August 22
Containers without lid, foul smell, scattered bio-medical waste, rags, garbage and stray animals zealously searching for food! This is the scene that one witnesses behind the wholesale cloth market in the city.

The garbage containers lying in the open pose a threat to the health of the residents in the area but the authorities of the health department and the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) remain indifferent.

As many as two garbage containers have been lying open between the commercial and residential localities for a long time. Taking advantage of the indifference of the officials, some people even dump the garbage in the open. As a result, the entire area has become a hunting ground for stray dogs and other animals.

The BMC authorities have been pasting posters and flex boards everywhere in the city, asking people to keep the city green and clean, but no one seems to be bothered about the peoblem.

Despite the threat of dengue, malaria and chikungunya, the place has been alowed to turn into a huge garbage dump. If one sees the dark underbelly of the city, which the leaders of the ruling party claim, would be developed on the lines of cities abroad, their real concern can well be understood. All their promises seem like mere platitudes.

President of the cloth market, Satpal Goyal, said, "We have been requesting for the past seven years but no one is ready to listen to us. Whenever we visit the authorities concerned, they pass on the buck and tells us to find a new place for shifting the containers."

"The market is surrounded by hospitals, hotels and residential areas but the hazardous waste remains lying here posing serious health hazards," rued Pardeep Kumar, owner of a shop facing the dump.

On his part, the sweeper in charge of the area, Veer Singh, said, "People scatter the garbage which we regularly keep in the containers."

Attempts were made to contact the BMC mayor, but he could not be contacted. 

Bathinda, August 22
Some stories have a tendency to repeat themselves. Go to any part of the country and these stories will pop out from every nook and corner. Of course, there are reasons-valid or not--- is another story altogether. This time round, we are talking about how railway employees are forced to go to private hospitals as the Railway Health Unit in Bathinda, has failed to provide proper medical facilities.

Lack of adequate staff and the dilapidated condition of the building is taking its toll on medical services being provided at the Railway Health Unit, Bathinda.

Though railway health administration assures the best of treatment for railway employees and their family members, patients prefer to get medical treatment from private hospitals as the department has failed to provide sufficient medical facilities.

That health facilities are not really up to the mark became apparent at a recent accident in which a railway employee sustained serious injuries while dismantling a bogey at the Bathinda railway station and the department's doctors, allegedly failed to visit to administer first-aid in time, in the absence of an ambulance.

Things are in a bad shape nowadays. Former railway employee Bhagat Singh says, "When I was in service, I used to get treatment from my department hospital free of cost. But now, authorities are not able to provide sufficient medicines required in emergency and they refer patients to private hospitals, which charge a ransom."

Bhagat Singh was a patient of asthma but he alleges that doctors at the railway hospital failed to diagnose him properly, as they do not have proper facilities even in a city like Bathinda.

Patiala resident Shakuntla, wife of a railway employee, has something similar to tell. "It is the duty of the railway department to ensure that medical facilities are available for railway employees and their families, but hospital authorities failed to give required medical treatment."

"We have no choice but to go to private hospitals for proper medical care in the absence of facilities at the health unit. I underwent an operation for the removal of kidney stones at a private hospital," Shakuntala alleges.

Tek Chand, general secretary, Northern Railway Pensioners' Welfare, who retired from the Railways eight years ago, says, "The department does have some special provisions for the healthcare of pensioners, but I did not take up that option because I was aware of the lack of facilities at the Railway Hospital."

Senior Medical Officer of the health unit, Dr Deepak Saxena, explains: "We try our best to provide the maximum facilities to the patients but we have our own limitations as we are dependent on the stock provided by the Central Railway health authorities."

Dr Saxena maintains that as authorities sometimes fail to provide the required stock of medicines in time, they have no other alternative but to refer the patients to the Ambala division of the Railways or private doctors for timely treatment.

Bathinda, August 22
Bathinda lads are set to shine in the cyber world with the invention of around 200 shortcuts to various websites. Their invention, "angle theory", is related to removing the barrier of language for easy and straight access during Net surfing.

Giving a demonstration of the invention, Sanjeev Kumar, whose brainchild it is, told TNS that they had multi-language search engines, like Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, etc. To enjoy the product, one has to press three letters twice and then dot (.) com. For example, if one wants to open games site, then he would have to press alphabets in "oppose A" shape angle, like mmjjnn.com.

Giving more details about shortcuts regarding some of the well used websites, he said to open images, they have found a "C" angle, like rrddcc.com and for videos, reverse "C" angle, like bbggyy.com. For search sites like google, it is gghhjj.com, for yahoo, it is yyhhnn.com and for the site so loved by youngsters, Orkut, it is ookkmm.com.

Launching their own search engine-www.atoall.com-- he said that if 10 per cent users of some website domain use their hot key technique, then it could be said that their search engine had a 10 per cent share in that domain, which the person wanted to log in.

When asked about the inspiration behind the invention, he said, "We are a group of eight people who have worked for at least two-and-a-half year to achieve this. We all want to earn money through this. It is an invention because search is a good profitable business."

Agreeing with this view, assistant marketing director of the company, Rinkle Sharma said, "All this comes under the cyber laws. So, there is no violation of any rule and regulation. Moreover, there is no need to install any new software in the existing computer or laptop."

"Financial crunch is the biggest hurdle in the way of advertising it," they lamented.

Replying to a query, they said that this search engine can bring billion s ofdollars to the country if the world accepts its usage.

Harike Pattan, August 22
Here is a good news for the nature lovers and wildlife research scientists. Dolphin, the only freshwater species of aquatic mammal found in Punjab at the wetland on the confluence of Beas and Sutlej rivers here are safe.

The high volume of water flowing in these rivers that forced the authorities of the irrigation department to open many gates of the run-through reservoir had no affect on the habitat of this rare species so far.

Just a couple days back after the flood, a class-IV employee of the wildlife wing of the forest department saw a dolphin, about a km upstream in Beas from the barrage, revealed Dheera, a chowkidar posted at the wildlife sanctuary.

When contacted, range officer of forest department Sukhbir Singh Bath posted here told TNS that the dolphins and most of the fish species do not move along the current of water. Therefore, there was no danger of dolphins going through the gates of the barrage towards Hussainwala and further to the Pakistan side.

He also revealed that with the opening of the gates at Hussainwala there was a possibility of few more Indus breed of dolphins coming to the Indian side as they move against the current.

It may be mentioned that many Indus dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) were safely kept by the Pakistani authorities in the Sulemani reservoir built on the Sutlej, about 25 km from the international border.

Originally, Indus dolphin was found in the Indus river and its tributaries in Pakistan, which were once linked with the river systems of Punjab.

Last sighted in Punjab in the 1930s, the Indus dolphin was thereafter believed to have become extinct. But recently, it was again sighted at Harike.

There was a theory under study by the wildlife experts that the dolphins found here had travelled upstream into the Beas from the Indus tributaries in Pakistan during the 1988 floods.

It is one of the seven surviving freshwater species of the aquatic mammal and classified as a critically endangered species in the Red Data Book of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Another species of dolphin - Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica gantetica) - found in India had been seen on the confluence of Ganga-Brahmaputra rivers.

Meanwhile, there is another good news that the chemical-infected water in the Harike reservoir had been discharged through the barrage and now the water available here was good for the health of the aquatic species.

The pesticides and fertilisers had added to the alarming level of pollutants besides more than 300 million litres of domestic and industrial effluent flows into the Sutlej and the Beas in Punjab every day.

The Sutlej had almost turned into a biological hazard with two industrial towns discharging their effluents into it besides many other towns polluting the Beas.

Abohar, August 22
Problem of insanitation in Azeemgarh locality in this sub-divisional town may be removed soon as following the persistence of the BJP councillor Manjit Kaur Sidhu, the municipal council here launched a cleanliness drive today.

A JCB machine was seen removing silt that had accumulated during the rains on both sides of the road that linked the locality with the state highway.

Some of the interior streets in the locality had been completely covered with silt during the past few days as the sanitation wing of the council remained reluctant in clearing up the blocked drains.

Meanwhile, the stink emanating from the cattle pond had caused respiratory and skin problems.

The JCB machine is likely to be used to remove the wild growth from the pond in the next phase, sources indicated.

Ferozepur, August 22
The health department today caught a quack red-handed while he was conducting illegal abortion at Nurpur Sethan village of this district. A foetus was recovered from the nearby area of his clinic. The quack has been arrested and an FIR has been registered against him.

Revealing this to TNS, the chief medical officer of Ferozepur, Balbir Singh, said his office after receiving secret information about illegal abortions going on in a clinic during the wee hours today constituted a three-member team, comprising female medical officer Vinita Bhullar, sanitary inspector Praveen Dhawan and deputy mass information and education officer Maninder Kaur, to raid the clinic.

During the raid, a young woman, identified as Mamta, was found bleeding in the clinic. She was immediately rushed to the civil hospital at Ferozepur for treatment.

The quack, identified as Jagjit Singh, son of Surjan Singh and a resident of the same village, was taken into custody along with some prohibited drugs. His wife, who used to assist him in conducting the illegal abortions, however, fled from the spot.

The team, during a search of the area, also found a four-month-old foetus lying on the banks of a drain near the clinic. The foetus was sent to the authorities concerned of the health department for a medico-legal examination to ascertain its sex.

On Vinita’s statement, the local police registered a criminal case against Jagjit and his wife under section 15 (A) of the Indian Medical Council Act, relevant sections of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

The police has arrested Jagjit, who would be produced before a local court on Saturday. The police had launched a hunt to nab his wife, said a senior police officer.

Mansa, August 22
A health department team raided a factory and seized synthetic milk, refined ghee and other items in large quantity. The department has initiated proceedings against the owner of the factory, Jagannath.

According to the information available, the owner of the Guru Nanak Milk Factory, had been involved in manufacturing and selling synthetic milk for a long time. A press note issued by the Mansa civil surgeon informed that the whole operation was being run from a secret store inside the factory premises.

Civil surgeon G.S. Nagi, food inspector Sanjay Katiyal, and the SMO raided the factory and seized 3500 litre synthetic milk, 64 tonne refined ghee and 32 packets of material used to manufacture synthetic milk. Samples of the material seized have been sent for analysis.

The civil surgeon informed that the factory was involve din manufacturing synthetic milk on a large scale and was posing a grave risk to the health of the people. The 3500 litre synthetic milk was thrown in the drain by the health department officials. 

Barnala, August 22
At a meeting held here today, the General Category Association (GCA) demanded that the disparity between the general category students and the students belonging to the reserved categories should be removed. In addition, it demanded the supply of free books as well as scholarship to the students belonging to the general category as they were available to SC and ST students.

A delegation led by the association’s state president Rajiv Barnala met deputy commissioner R.L. Mehta today and presented a memorandum stating their demands.

Rajiv Barnala, while talking to media persons, said the students belonging to general category, who were economically week, must be given free books from class IX to class XII so that they could study without burdening their parents.

The GCA also said the non-educational work should also be withdrawn from the teachers so that they can concentrate solely on the academic activities.