Moga, February 6
Reacting to a complaint regarding the use of sub-standard material, the Vigilance Bureau today collected four samples of road work carried out by the local municipal council during the previous Congress government.

A team of the Bureau comprising DSP Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu, executive engineer Arshdeep Singh and assistant executive engineer S.K. Sharma came here this morning.

They collected samples of roads from Kotkapura bypass-Bohna Road, Wadhawa Singh Khooh-Pahara Singh Chowk, Dev Hotel-Street No. 1 and Dutt Road, which were sealed in the presence of the complainants.

The former president of the MC, Dr K.S. Gill, and a former councillor Ajay Gora, in a written complaint lodged before the Bureau, had levelled allegations regarding the use of sub-standard material in the construction of various roads/streets of this town by the local body during the tenure of the previous government.

This was for the fourth time that the technical team had come here from Chandigarh to look into the allegations and collect samples of the construction works.

On July 7, last year, this technical team came here for the first time to collect the samples but it could not collect the samples due to the non-cooperation of the employees of the municipal council.

Then, on October 4, last year, the technical team arrived here for the second time and took only one sample but the complainants objected to it on the pretext that the samples were not taken in their presence.

On October 10, last year, the technical team came here for the third time. Both the complainants were summoned by the executive officials of the Bureau and a few samples were taken in their presence.

An official of the Bureau revealed to The Tribune that they would send these samples to a government laboratory for tests. However, the Bofficials did not reveal the results of the previous samples taken by the agency saying that the matter was still under investigation.

Senior officials of the local body were also present when the technical team took the samples. The local body had submitted the record of construction work on as many 35 roads in the town during the past three years.

Bathinda, February 6
Global recession has not only hit the capital markets or workers across the world. It also gave the students doing professional courses a cause to worry. The news about companies reducing their headcounts every other day are keeping the students on tenterhooks whether they would get a job after they finish their respective professional courses.

Swati, doing her sixth semester in electronics and telecommunication from the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, said, “What is the point of studying when we won’t even get a job? When employees are losing their jobs or their salaries are being reduced, why would a company appoint us,” she asked, adding, “Our mental peace has been badly affected due to recession. We are not able to concentrate on our studies.”

Students feel that it was wrong on the part of institutes to make false assurances of providing 100 per cent placement in the admission notices.

Mehak works with the ISHRD, Panchkula, an institute that offers MBA courses to students. She said, “We have a placement cell and the intake of students has come down by 40 per cent.” She added, “Fee for a two-year-course of MBA is Rs 5 lakh. With that much of fee, the students are finding it difficult to invest so much in a course, especially when it would not even fetch a job.”

Harleen Kaur did her MBA in HR from the Chitkara Institute, near Chandigarh, and is working with the Vodafone. She said her college did not arrange a placement for her. She alleged that the placement cells in most of these colleges were fake.

“Students manage internships on their own and if they are lucky, their companies absorb them,” she added.

Students also said there was a sharp decline in number of job notices and companies visiting colleges for campus placements.

“We used to get interview notices in the month of February. But as of now, there is no interview call from any company,” rued Swati.

Ferozepur, February 6
Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon today laid the foundation stone for ditch channel modernisation project. The project will cost an estimated Rs 5.61 crore.

Sekhon also laid the foundation stone for the lining of the Talwandi Drain on which an estimated cost of Rs 168 lakhs is likely to be incurred.

While addressing the gathering on the occasion, Sekhon said that the ditch channel provides water for irrigation to over 76,240 hectares of land. He said that after the proposed modernisation of this channel, the villages of Mudki, Fidda, Kot Karorkalan, Bhumber Bhan, Patli, Luham, Jitsinghwala, Kabarvacha, besides several others, would get optimum irrigation water according to their demand.

Sekhon said that Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, during his last visit to Talwandi Bhai on December 28, 2008, had promised the locals that the drain would be permanently lined so as to enhance the discharge of the irrigation water, which is often blocked by the waste thrown into it as the drain passes through the main town.

Sekhon said that it was for the first time that any state government had sanctioned irrigation projects to the tune of Rs 3,240 crore which would enhance the water flow in the rivers and canals of the state by 25 to 30 per cent.

Sher Singh, MLA, who has been allocated party ticket for the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency, also addressed the gathering and exhorted them to vote for SAD-BJP candidates in the state.

Sher Singh said that the state government has taken a historic decision by granting P-rights to the small farmers who were tilling the provincial government land along the border for the last so many years. Deputy Commissioner Megh Raj and officials of the irrigation department were also present on the occasion.

Bathinda, February 6
The project to revamp the Bhadaur canal distributary is yet to take off as it is caught in a tussle between the forest and the canal departments.

As per the details available, the canal department, in view of the low level of water supply through the distributary, chalked out a plan to revamp it. The project was approved by the state government and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal laid the foundation stone for the project.

Under the Rs 35 crore project, the canal department is supposed to widen the distributary for about 30 kms, due to which around 10,000 trees along the embankment, were required to be removed.

The canal department, claiming that the trees stood on its land, asked the forest department in Bathinda and Sangur range to remove the trees free of cost.

In reply, forest officials are learnt to have expressed their inability to do so claiming that it was part of “protected forest, vide a notification dated 3.5.1958,” and said the trees were older than 40 years. For felling them, a fee was required to be deposited along with approval from the Union forest department.

Even after negotiations, none of the department is ready to cede its claim over the land.

According to official sources, both the CM and the Deputy CM had asked the deputy commissioner, Bathinda, to settle the matter and start the work. The DC even held meetings with the officials but in vain.

The matter was then reported to the Chief Secretary, Punjab, who reportedly held meeting with the secretaries of both the departments but the outcome was fruitless.

As per the information received, Sukhbir Badal, is expected to enquire from the officials about the progress of the schemes on February 11, when he visits the area.

When contacted, executive engineer, Canal, H.S. Chahal, said, “The distributary has been running at half its capacity and due to this, farmers are not getting water through the channels in their fields. The forest department, which has no right over the embankment, has been creating hurdles.”

On the other hand, DFO, Bathinda, S.P. Anand Kumar said, “We are acting according to the provisions of the law.”

Bathinda, February 6
Disgruntled over ‘unfulfilled promises’ of the SAD-BJP government, the indefinite chain hunger strike of Rural Medical Services Association (RMSA) doctors entered the second day today.

A group of rural medical officers (RMOs) today started a mass contact programme wearing black headgear at the local bus stand. They distributed ‘Think and Act’ pamphlets to make people aware about their right to health and plight of the rural doctors.

The RMOs working on contract under Zila Parishads in the state had launched their state-level protest rally yesterday and later sat on an indefinite chain hunger strike to press for their long-pending demand for regularisation of services.

The doctors were appointed on a three-year contract in rural dispensaries of Punjab by the Congress government in June 2006. They were demanding that the Badal government should keep its ‘poll promise’ and regularise them before the termination of their contracts on May 31.

Dr Aslam Parvez, president of the RSMA, told TNS that all the RMOs had quit the contractual chairs given to them by the government and were attending the OPDs on floor mats. The RMOs started a medical camp on floor mats with free medicines for the rural people in front of the mini-secretariat.

In order to further the cause of doctors, Dr Aparna Goyal, an RMO from Sangrur, sat on a hunger strike against medical advice despite having ‘massive disc prolapse’.

Dr Parvez said absence of in-service benefits, including earned leaves, incentives and allowances, and no provision of post-graduation for rural doctors had demoralised the doctors working in rural dispensaries.

Another doctor from Muktsar, while citing a recent example of unavailability of doctors, presented a letter wherein he was deputed on VIP duty during deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal’s visit to Lambi.

The protesters demanded regularisation of services on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh, which had been providing loads of incentives to doctors working in rural areas.

Bathinda, February 6
Tuberculosis patients, who earlier used to disappear after availing of medical treatment, will now be e-monitored. Launching an ambitious project to keep a tab on TB patients moving to other states, Punjab’s Tuberculosis Centre has now been linked online to four states where patients are either referred out or transferred.

While talking to TNS over phone from Chandigarh, Dr Pawan Kumar Bansal, state programme officer, RNTCP (Revised National TB Control Programme), Punjab, said, “We were facing major problems in tracking the patients, who used to move out of the state after availing of direct observation treatment of the disease. These patients showed their inability to continue the treatment here and returned to where they came from — mainly UP, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.”

With the new project, the Punjab health officials hope that the attitude of doctors monitoring TB in these states is likely to improve since it has now become mandatory for the state TB officers to submit a report on such patients to the Central TB Division (CTD).

To monitor the ‘migrating’ population, the CTD has evolved a website, which is linked to the four states.

“The TB patients require long-term medication. But a many patients don’t do it, making themselves vulnerable to developing multi-drug resistance,” Bansal added.

Bathinda, February 6
The district health authorities have chalked out a detailed programme to organise camps for male non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) operations in seven different locations of the district. The camps will be held from February 14-21.

Talking to TNS here today, district family welfare officer M.S. Gill said the NSV was a simple and minor family planning procedure for men, which required no incision or stitches. The person undergoing the NSV could go home the same day and resume his normal work without any break.

He said the operation lasts only five to 10 minutes and the patient hardly required any precaution.

Gill said the success rate of vasectomy conducted through non- scalpel procedure had been high and there were no complications during or after the operation. He said the camps were being organised to make the NSV popular among the common folk.

The official said that the eligible male persons coming forward for the NSV procedure would get cash incentive of Rs 1,100 and a blanket. Apart from that, the State Bank of Patiala would also give Rs 200 as a motivator.

As many as 1500 male vasectomy operations were expected to be performed during the camps, he said.

As per sources in the health department, these camps would be organised in Bathinda, Goniana, Bhagta, Nathana, Ballianwali, Talwandi Sabo and Sangat.

Bathinda, February 6
A fire broke out in unit III and IV of stage II of the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP), Lehra Mohabbat, here on Friday.

According to highly-placed sources in the GHTP, the fire broke out at around 2.30 pm. The accident occurred as the stage II units were incomplete and some mechanical job was going on them. A spark from welding equipment is believed to be the cause of fire, due to which two coal belts and cables got damaged. The coal supply to the units was disrupted due to it and the units had to run on the already existing stock.

To run the units with the existing quantity of coal, the engineers at the GHTP decreased the load of the units having a generation capacity of 250 MW each to 150 MW each.

Due to reduction of load, the production loss is being estimated at 1 lakh units per hour for each unit.

Technical experts said it would take at least 24 hours to rectify the fault.

It may be mentioned that earlier too, snags have been reported at the units. The unit IV is being run by the Bharat Heavy Electricity limited (BHEL), which would hand it over to the PSEB on February 11.

While confirming the facts, Gopal Sharma, spokesperson, GHTP, said, “Though power generation has been temporarily decreased due to the snag, repair work is on. Soon the units will start running normally.”

Abohar, February 6
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) today held a meeting here at the Nehru Park and resolved to join the call given by five organisations for blocking road and rail traffic on February 10. Block president Mahal Singh Jhurarkhera presided over the meeting.

District general secretary Sukhmander Singh while criticising the Central government regretted that rates of fuel had not been reduced as per the trend prevailing in the global market.

Mansa: Five farmer organisations seeking decrease in oil prices will block railway and road traffic on February 10 in the the state, district president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) Ram Singh Bhainibagha informed.

This decision was taken in the meeting of the farmers’ organisation at Chandigarh on Thursday. Bhartiya Kissan Union (Ugrahan) Punjab Kissan Sabha (Taggar), Kirti Kissan Sabha, Punjab Kissan Sabha, (Sambar) and Kissan Sangarsh committee would also take part, he added. — OC

Fazilka, February 6
After offering floral tributes at the Indo-Pak War Memorial at the village Asafwala today, local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani presented a cheque for Rs 6 lakh for the beautification and further development of complex.

The war memorial was raised by the citizens of Fazilka after 1971 Indo-Pak war to commemorate the martyrs who had laid down their lives defending the country in the Fazilka sector. The memorial is a testimony to the supreme sacrifices of 206 Armymen of the 4 Jat regiment, 3 Assam Regiment and 15 Rajput regiment, 18 Cavalry Unit and others.

Jyani accompanied by his wife Nirmala Jyani and Fazilka SDM Charandev Singh Maan, presented the cheque on behalf of the Punjab government to war memorial committee president Dr Rattan Lal Thakral, vice-president Umesh Chander Kukkar, PRO Amar Chand Bhateja.

Other dignitaries, including retired SDM B.L.Sikka, Pakka Artiya Association president Dina Nath Sachdeva, Punjab State Pharmacists Association district Ferozepur president Shashi Kant, Hanuman Mandir president and secretary Krishan Sachdeva and Alok Nagpal, Baldev Dhuria, Mohan Lal Sharm, Rakesh Nagpal, village Sarpanch Kalan Bai Government High School Asafwala principal Manju Thakral also paid glowing tributes at the memorial.

Jyani said that the coming generations should remain indebted to the Armymen who were the saviours of Fazilka. He said that the government would make all the efforts for the beautification and development of the memorial complex, which has been maintained meticulously in an ideal manner by the war memorial committee for over three decades. He said that paucity of funds would not be a hurdle in the development of the complex.

SDM Charandev Singh Maan, ex-officio patron of the war memorial said that with the first installment of Rs 6 lakh, necessary alternation would be made at the museum and beautification of the main memorial where the martyrs were collectively cremated and the memorial pillar of 3 Assam and 15 Rajput regiment adjoining the memorial site would be renovated. The floor would be relaid. The remaining amount would be released later in installments, he added.

Abohar, February 6
Members of the Punjab Government Pensioners Association on Thursday marched to the sub-divisional complex and submitted a memorandum to the SDM.

The association demanded that recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission be implemented at the earliest, slabs for increasing the pension be fixed for the pensioners as per their age and dearness allowance sanctioned by the state government be implemented with effect from January1, 2006 instead of November 2006.

The association also urged the state government to fix LTC from the date of retirement by amalgamating the dearness allowance.

They also wanted that the medical allowance should be increased to Rs 1,000 per month and the district heads of the respective departments should be authorised to sanction medical reimbursement bills up to Rs 50,000. 

Hanumangarh/Abohar, February 6
For Dhankuri Devi, widow of World War II soldier Chaudhary Hari Ram Isram, it was a delighful day as the camel safari team of the Rajputana Rifles showed deep reverence and presented her a shawl and memento to relive memories of her husband's long association with the Army at village Bharusari near Hanumangarh. The team had covered 40 km from Hardas Wali to halt for the night at village Bharusari.

Team in-charge Captain Pradeep Sheokand expressed gratitude to the woman sarpanch Poonam as she voluntarily motivated the youth by announcing a special incentive of Rs 11,000 for whosoever joins the Indian Army from this village.

Captain Sheokand led the team in planting saplings that they were carrying with them at the Government Senior Secondary School.

The heads of all the five schools in the village endorsed the slogan "each one, plant one" prompting hundreds of students.— OC

Bathinda, February 6
The department of architecture of Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology organised a talk by eminent architect and author from Chandigarh, Dr Sangeet Sharma. Dr Sharma specialises in sustainable architecture.

On the occasion, he spoke about his recently released book ‘Architecture, life and me’. The book is published by the Rupa and Co.

It highlights the journey of an architect discovering various facets of life and exploring the tangible and intangible relationship with design.

The book combines a series of essays compiled to form a candid memoir.

Dr Sharma has had the privilege of working with master architect and planner of the city beautiful, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanret.