Bathinda, February 5
A class IX student of the Delhi Public School went missing on January 30 but the parents and the police are still clueless.

Ranjit is reportedly missing after he got down from his school bus last Friday at around noon. Repeated attempts by his worried parents and relatives to trace him have failed.

Arun Jee, principal of the school, said, “Ranjit used to come and leave by an Army bus. On January 30, classes were held for half day. While going back home, he got down from the bus about 10 to 20 metres before the bus stop. He told the driver that he had to go to his aunt’s place. But he did not reach his aunt’s place and is missing since then.”

Ranjit’s father, subedar Buta Singh, is serving at Pune while his family is staying at Guru Gobind Singh Nagar here.

Subedar Buta, when contacted, told TNS, “In spite of every effort possible, we are clueless about his whereabouts. An FIR has been registered in this regard by my wife Swaranjeet Kaur and my younger brother Satnam Singh on January 31.”

Satnam said, “We stay in street number 11 in Guru Gobind Singh Nagar. On that day, Ranjit had got down near street number 8.”

According to Sandeep Singh, SHO, Civil Lines police station, a day before Ranjit went missing, he had an altercation with his mother. “There was a parent-teachers’ meeting in the school on January 30. Ranjit did not tell his mother about the meeting. When his mother came to know about it, she chided him. The next day, Ranjit left for school in anger.”

He added that investigations to locate him were on.

Bathinda, February 5
The Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) Action Committee, Bathinda, today staged a dharna at the local bus stand on a call given by various trade unions here to protest against the “anti-employees” policies of the state government.

While addressing the gathering, Nirmail Singh Dhaliwal, convener of the committee, demanded that the state government should reject the transport policy of 1997. Further, he demanded nullification of the disinvestment commission constituted by the previous government.

The workers have asked the management to release the pensionary benefits and other arrears due to the retired workers, stop contractual recruitment of drivers and conductors and stop the termination of workers under one pretext or the other.

Dhaliwal alleged that the contractual employees were asked to work for nearly 10-12 hours a day against the normal working time of eight hours without any extra monetary benefits.

The leaders demanded that the PRTC management and the state government should redress the problems of the employees and set up two-tier committees with representatives of all unions and other sections at depot level and solve the matters amicably.

They said if their demands were not met they would go on a statewide strike on February 18.

Moga, February 5
Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar has called upon the nursing professionals to provide services to the suffering with dedication and responsibility.

She was addressing the students of nursing and the passing out graduates during the annual convocation-cum-prize distribution ceremony at the Dr Shyam Lal Thapar College of Nursing here, last night.

She said that nursing profession provides an opportunity for realising the pain and agony of patients and providing them instant relief, which inculcates a strong sense of dedication to human cause. This profession demands dedication, patience, professional commitment, responsibility and punctuality, she said.

Revealing that she also got a six-month basic training in basic nursing during her last days in high school, Meira Kumar said that the job of a nurse was to give bedside care to convalescing patients.

"I used to prepare beds for patients and ensure that they were perfect for different patients during my training", she added. She further said that young nurses who were receiving their degrees and entering a new phase of life, must, thus, value that nursing was one of the noblest professions in the world.

Indeed, fortunate were those chosen ones, who dedicate their lives to the selfless service of humanity, she said.

Dr S.S. Gill, vice-chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Medical Sciences, Faridkot, while congratulating the passing out graduates said that on this auspicious occasion, they should pledge to stand by the needy and work for them with dedication.

Earlier, the chief parliamentary secretary, medical education and research, Sheetal Singh inaugurated the convocation by lighting the lamps but left the venue just few minutes before the arrival of the Union Minister, probably, due to political considerations, being from a rival political party.

Dr Malti Thapar, chairperson of the nursing college, spoke about the contribution of her institute in providing service to the people.

Meira Kumar conferred degrees on 30 passing out graduates and also presented medals of excellence to those who figured in the merit list. 

Moga, February 5
A 30-year old mentally challenged woman who could not even speak was allegedly raped by a person of the same village at Mann Marar village near Sadik in Faridkot district, early this morning. The culprit has been arrested under section 376 of the IPC.

As per the complaint lodged by mother of the victim, one Joginder Singh of the village jumped over the outer wall of their house at about 5 am on Thursday and sexually assaulted her daughter who was sleeping in a separate room.

Adding that her daughter is mentally challenged, illiterate and could not speak since her childhood, the mother of the woman said that when her daughter sounded an alarm, the family members and others woke up to extend help to her.

However, the accused managed to escape from the spot leaving behind some of his clothes from which he was identified by the people.

The victim was taken to a government hospital by the police for the medical examination the report of which was still awaited at the time of writing the news report.

During preliminary investigations, it came to light that a criminal case under the Arms Act was already registered against the culprit Joginder Singh and he was out on bail and is still facing trial in that case.

Bathinda/Muktsar, February 5
Finally, Muktsar police booked the doctors of Madho Hospital, who were recently accused of determining the sex of a foetus, which was later aborted by a nurse in Muktsar on January 27, today late in the evening. The police also got the court nod to investigate the case registered against Paramjeet Kaur, the nurse, who was booked for aborting the foetus under the MTP Act.

About the delay in booking the accused doctors, police sources informed that the Civil Surgeon, Muktsar, Jaswant Rai Chauhan, had not lodged a formal complaint with the police.

A senior police official said that despite being a cognizable and non-bailable offence, the Civil Surgeon had directly submitted the case in the court of the CJM, for reasons best known to him.

It is pertinent to mention that the PNDT cell Bathinda and an NGO, Beti Bachao Manch, in a joint operation, nabbed the couple, hailing from Manak Khana village (Bathinda). The couple have been accused of getting the foetus aborted.

The complaint says that information regarding female foeticide was passed on to the civil surgeon in time but he did not act. Instead, Chauhan, after getting the foetus aborted, safely left Muktsar.

Civil Surgeon Jaswant Rai Chauhan refuted all allegations and said the case was being pursued under the law. "We have submitted all documents to the police and as per my knowledge, a case has been registered today against the doctors of the ultrasound centre, in question." Confirming the facts, DSP, City, Baljeet Singh Sidhu said, "After the formalities, a case has been registered under the PNDT Act and the IPC."

The accused had, however, not been arrested when last reports came in.

Bathinda, February 5
Farmers have decided to support the truckers to once again put pressure on the Central government for reducing the price of diesel. They will ‘gherao’ the Parliament on February 18 and will start an indefinite ‘dharna’ there if the demand was not agreed to.

The decision was taken at a meeting of various transport unions and ‘kisan’ unions of Punjab held here today.

Representatives of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), Punjab State Goods Transport Association, Punjab Truck Operators Union, Ludhiana Goods Transport Association, Jullundur Goods Transport Association, Amritsar Goods Transport Association, Punjab Motor Union, All Punjab Mini Truck Operators Union, Tempo Union, BKU (Lakhowal), BKU (Rajewal), BKU (Pashuara Singh) and Punjab Union of Consortium of Indian Farmers Association attended the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by AIMTC president Charan Singh Lohara, BKU chief Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, who is also the chairman of Punjab Mandi Board.

Later, while addressing a press conference, Lohara said the truck unions of other states would also participate in the protest at Delhi. 

Abohar, February 5
K.C. Sharma of Dhuri has been elected president of the All India PNB Officers Association, Bathinda zone, H.R. Riwar, senior branch manager of the Punjab National Bank said.

Claiming that the officers of the Abohar belt had played a key role in the victory of the office-bearers, he said that Sham Lal Jindal of Longowal was elected as vice-president, R.D. Singla as zonal secretary, K.G. Kaushal as joint secretary, Ashok Kumar Bindal as treasurer and Hem Raj Garg as sub-treasurer. Kuldeep Kumar of Abohar, Kalu Ram of Pakkan Kalan and Bhupinder Singh of Ferozeshah have been elected to the executive committee. — OC

Bathinda, February 5
The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) will hand over the fourth and the last 250-MW unit at the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Power Plant to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) on February 11.

It is learnt that deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will preside over the handing over ceremony.

All the four units of the 920-MW project were scheduled to be commissioned by March 2007 but it got delayed because of the slow work pace of the BHEL. The BHEL took quite a time in synchronising the earlier three units of the project. Their commissioning was also marred due to teething problems. Concerned over the delay, the Union minister of state for power Jairam Ramesh visited the project recently to have a first hand information about the functioning of the BHEL engineers.