Bathinda, February 16
The interim budget (general) for the year 2009-10 presented today by the acting finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has failed to address the problems due to economic recession being faced by the industry and the corporate houses of the city.

K.K. Mittal, an industrialist, said the budget was completely a non-event. It was more of a political statement rather than an interim budget. There was nothing for any sector, he said.

"It was more of a report card of the government for the last five years. It did not carry any specific new proposal. Anything, which had a new dimension, would probably come up only after the new government comes to power," he added.

Prof Rajinder Singh, an economist, said the interim budget did not address the major problems being faced by the nation, including job cuts and other implications of the economic meltdown.

He added that what the acting finance minister had presented was a 'repetition of President Pratibha Patil's opening address to the budget session' of the Parliament.

R.K. Singla, a businessman, said, people were really not expecting much out of this interim budget.

However, Deepak Sharma, a final year student of an engineering college, welcomed the schemes in the social sectors and the pension scheme for widows. He added that another area that could have been addressed was to change the guidelines for the National Rural Health Mission and the National Rural Employment Guarantee schemes.

Narinder Bhatia, a government employee, said it was imminent and keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, he did not expect income tax sops at this juncture.

Bathinda, February 16
Colleges in the city rue the attitude of the Punjab government over filling up of the vacant posts of lecturers in colleges.

Sources in the Government Rajindra College here said that last year, around 260 posts of college teachers were advertised. It has been a year but no progress has been made following the receipt of applications.

The sources added that according to the state government's guidelines, if a post remains vacant for six months or more then it is considered as abolished. These instructions attracted a lot of criticism but the situation has remained the same.

R.K. Banger, principal of the college, said "We are facing a lot of problems due to the shortage of regular teachers. We do place a guest faculty for a vacant post but these teachers are not regular and students could not gel with the temporary staff. The temporary staff is paid quite less. Those who have retired from our college are often approached to work as temporary staff but they decline the offer because they earned more when they were regular employees. Who would like to work for Rs 3, 500 a month?"

Apart from teachers, even labs have no one to look after. Junior lab attendants, senior lab attendants and clerks retire and there is no one to replace them. "We need lab attendants to organise the labs at the time of practical examinations," Banger said.

There are many colleges that do not have principals and the government was not taking interest in filling up these posts, sources said.

"Our college has a huge campus and we have only four sweepers to clean the entire area. How can one expect the washrooms and all the classrooms to remain clean? The situation becomes worse when the sweepers are on leave," a college source said.

Satnam, a student of the college, said the college had 16 guest lecturers at the moment. "We do get teachers to take our classes on time but I have heard from my friends that other colleges do not have a teacher for some subjects for the entire session and the students have to study on their own. We cannot build a good rapport with a guest faculty the way we can with regular teachers. I don't understand why the government doesn't fill up vacant posts when there are several eligible applicants for the posts?" he said.

Bathinda, February 16
Dr Jaswant Deed, assistant station director, Doordarshan, Jalandhar, interacted with the students of the Government Rajindra College here today and motivated them to take interest in Punjabi literature.

He exhorted the students to come forward and infuse life back into the dying literature.

Dr Jaswant has six poetry books, a story, a prose and the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2008 to his credit.

The students put to him some questions regarding creative writing and other language-related questions. The visitor said: "Literature is not about writing what is happening around, but deriving meaning out of what is happening. It should be something that should attract the readers."

Raman Kumar, a news reader with the Doordarshan, Jalandhar, also spoke on the occasion. Principal R.K. Banger welcomed the two guests while Nirmal Preet Singh, head of the department, Punjabi, assisted in the interaction. — TNS

Fazilka, February 16
The Municipal Council, Fazilka, has some plans to uplift the economic status of the economically weaker sections of people and provide them with sources of income by adopting new measures.

In this connection, the meeting of the council was held here on Monday, which was presided over by its president Anil Kumar Sethi.

The meeting decided to allot about 1200 small residential plots for the economically weaker sections on Senia road. The plot measuring 15x45 feet would be allotted on collector's rate by conducting a draw of the eligible person. The applicants eligible for the allocation of these plots should be an enrolled voter or ration card holder for 10 years. The applicants should file applications before the municipal council within 15 days.

In another significant decision, the MC decided that the 252 acres of agricultural land, owned by it would be divided into pieces of 25 acres each and leased for agriculture. The MC would earn Rs one crore annually through it. The council had decided to create a bypass from the MC Colony, Abohar road, to Senia road. The bypass would act as the link road from outskirts of the town near the cremation ground to Abohar road. This would ease the traffic problem. The council also proposed to raise the residential colonies on both sides of the bypass.

The MC had decided to shift the venue of the truck union from busy Abohar road to Senia road. The council also took up the matter of the construction of Mini Secretariat on prime commercial land during Congress regime allegedly by encroaching upon the land without paying a single rupee to the council. The Mini-Secretariat was constructed by PUDA by spending about 1.25 crore. Sethi said that now the PUDA was ready to pay Rs 11 crore towards the cost of the land. The MC had demanded Rs 22 crore from PUDA as a value of the land at collector's rate.

Sethi said a scheme had been launched to further the beautification of the historic clock tower. The council had now also called the tender for different development schemes. An amount of Rs 4 crore would be spent for this purpose. The amount was released by local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani.

Bathinda, February 16
The monthly meeting of the Senior Citizens and Pensioners’ Vikas Manch, Bathinda, was held at the Fountain Park, Model Town, Phase-I, under the presidentship of B.L. Jindal, senior vice-president.

The meeting discussed and demanded the release of the Fifth Punjab Pay Commission report at the earliest. It also sought removal of disparity in pay pension fixation formula between the serving employees and the pensioners. It demanded that the withdrawal of LTC facility to PSEB pensioners should be revoked.

The Manch said as per state government’s instructions, banks paying pension are to complete the pension books, which they are not adhering to. So, the banks should be made to comply with the order.

Press secretary Amrit Lal said the meeting demanded that male senior citizens should get 50 per cent concession by the Railways instead of the present 30 per cent to remove the discrimination between male and female senior citizens. — TNS

Bathinda, February 16
Keeping in view the unending sequence of dharnas and rallies in Bathinda, the district administration is planning to allocate a specific piece of land for the purpose that can be loosely termed as an official dharna site.

On the lines of sector 25 in Chandigarh and Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Bathinda would be the first city in Punjab to get a special place identified as an official dharna site.

According to highly placed sources in the administration, the deputy commissioner, in consultation with other officials, has selected a place near the Rose Garden as “dharna ground”.

Bathinda has of late seen protests by MBBS doctors, veterinary pharmacists, ETT students, EGS or computer teachers, PRTC employees, radical Sikh organisations, unemployed youths, farmers and landless peasants.

As of now, there are six organisations, which have set up makeshift tents outside the Mini-Secretariat here to lodge their protests.

While the protesters find the place convenient to espouse their cause, it creates inconvenience for commuters and traders in the area.

“We can book them for creating law and order problems, but because of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, they are being allowed leeway,” lamented a senior police officer.

Official sources disclosed that recently the DC held meetings with representatives of a number of protesting organisations to convince them about the usefulness of the site near the Rose Garden, but has not got much response.

Confirming the facts, Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, Rahul Tewari, said, “Due to the increase in makeshift tents of protesters outside the Mini-Secretariat, we have selected a site beyond the hustle-bustle of the city, for such causes. As of now, protesters are not ready to accept the proposal, but efforts are on to convince them.”

Abohar, February 16
Rosal Sharma and Chet Ram were adjudged as best athletes among girls and boys in 49th annual athletic meet of the DAV College here, principal Dr B.B. Sharma informed.

IFFCO chairman Surinder Kumar Jakhar, who was the chief guest on the occasion, gave away the prizes to the winners in different events.

Toppers among the girls are: 100 meter- Pawanjot Kaur, 200 meter and 4x100 meter relay- Deepa, 800 meter-Seema, long jump-Sonu Bala, high jump-Rosal Sharma, double leg race- Pooja, three-legged race- Sheenu and Gurjeet, discus throw- Piyushi and shotput-Priya.

Toppers in different sporting events among the boys are: 100 meter,200 meter and long jump- Chet Ram, 4x100 meter relay-Harbans, 800 meter-Karan, 5000 meter-Ravi Kumar, high jump-Hari Dass, slow cycling-Raj Kumar, javelin throw-Amanpreet, discus throw-Arun Makkar and shotput-Parminder Singh.