Faridkot, May 20
The district and sessions court of Faridkot today convicted four women for killing a newborn baby and sentenced them to life. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on them.

As per the details, a murder case was registered against Baljinder Kaur, Santosh Rani, Raj Rani and Chand Rani following a complaint by one Gurmail Singh at the city police station in Kotkapura in September, 2007.

The complainant had alleged that his 19-year-old daughter Rajni Bala was introduced to flesh trade by these women when he was away on work. They also made her a drug addict, he alleged.

He further said Rajni became pregnant and instead of taking her to a doctor, these women took her to a midwife for delivery.

The baby was taken away by them and killed. They then informed Rajni that the baby was born dead. The police recovered the body and after a medical examination, it was confirmed that the child was not born dead.

The baby had been strangulated to death. Additional sessions judge Ashok Kumar Singla sentenced all the four women to life here today.

Bathinda, May 20
Timely intervention prevented a major loss when the 66 KV grid of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) located opposite the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power Plant here today got engulfed in flames.

According to PSEB sources, the fire broke out when repair work was going on there. Negligence on the part of the staff put on duty to repair a high voltage cable box is being attributed as the reason behind the mishap.

As per the information available, there was a snag in the cable box at the grid, to repair which, some employees of the PSEB were put on duty.

After repairing the cable box, the cable was attached to it but the fitting was apparently not properly checked, as a result of which, when the power was released, a blast took place.

Employees of the PSEB, who were repairing the cable, themselves tried to douse the flames, but finding it to be beyond their control, called in the fire brigade.

The TNS team, present at the spot, also witnessed a verbal duel among the fire brigade staff and the PSEB technical staff, when PSEB employees were giving instructions to the firemen, who claimed to have better experience than them in handling fire incidents.

Superintendent Engineer Jarnail Singh said, “The mishap occurred as the cable box got damaged.”

But when he was informed about the version of the staff repairing the cable box that the box was repaired and the fire took place when power supply was released on a trial basis, he parried the query.

It is pertinent to mention that the repair followed by the fire outbreak caused a lot of inconvenience to the public, as for almost the whole day, in many localities of the city, power supply remained suspended and people sweated it out in the scorching hot weather.

Bathinda, May 20
With the mercury rising continuously, the persisting heat wave has claimed about 10 lives in the district during the past three weeks, including two today.

The situation has aggravated with the maximum temperature varying between 43 to 46°C. The situation has worsened further due to unscheduled power cuts in the urban areas (after the results of the Lok Sabha polls) and the paucity of water in several rural areas.

According to details gathered from NGOs working in Bathinda, around 10 persons died due to torrid heat this month.

Though the deputy commissioner-cum-district magistrate, Bathinda, Rahul Tewari could not confirm the number of deaths occurring due to the heat wave.

According to Vijay Goyal, president of Sahara Jan Seva, volunteers of the NGO had picked up about six dead persons, who reportedly died due to heat stroke in the last 20 days.

Giving details, he mentioned that on May 3, a youth was picked up from Talwandi Sabo after he was found dead on the roadside in scorching heat.

Then on May 13, two bodies, one from Vishal Nagar and other from near the Municipal Corporation office, were picked up. One of them was identified as Balbir Kumar of Janata Nagar. On May 15, Sonu Singh (25) of Amarpura Basti was found lying dead at Sirki Bazar.

Meanwhile, after suffering heat stroke, Maghar Singh (70) of Sangrur died at the railway platform here today. In another case, 30-year-old labourer Kishori Lal was also found dead near the Municipal Corporation office.

Goyal further informed that in many such cases one thing that has come to light is that if a drug addict moves around in intolerable heat after consuming intoxicants, chances of his death increase.

Recounting incidents of such deaths, Sohan Maheshwari, president of Hanuman Seva Saniti said that on May 19, one Davinder Kumar (24) of the Railway Colony felt uneasy at home. When the volunteers of the NGO rushed him to the Civil Hospital, doctors declared him dead due to heat stroke.

Earlier, on May 1, Tek Chand (24) of Jogi Nagar, suffered from fever due to heat stroke. The NGO volunteers took him to the hospital but he died.

On his part, Sonu Maheshwari, president of Naujwan Welfare Society said, “Though we have not observed any cases of death due to heat, a number of cases of persons who collapsed due to heat come to us.”

Bathinda, May 20
Bathinda and the nearby places continued to reel under heat wave conditions on Wednesday despite a break in the northward movement of the mercury.

Although the mercury relented a bit today and recorded 44.5 degrees Celsius, altogether 1.7 degrees low than yesterday, it proved insufficient for giving respite to the residents of the region as there was no change in the minimum temperature from yesterday. The day’s minimum was 26.5 degrees Celsius, as per the Agro-MeT Advisory Services, PAU Regional Station, Bathinda.

It may be mentioned here that Bathinda was hottest in the state on Tuesday when mercury touched 46.2 degrees Celsius. Tuesday was also the hottest day for Bathinda and the adjoining areas of the season.

More importantly, the mercury movement above 42 degrees Celsius went uninterrupted for the ninth consecutive day in the region.

Bathinda, May 20
Result of classes X and XII of the ICSE was declared today. St Paul’s High School is the only ICSE affiliated school in Bathinda.

Students started thronging the school campus from 11 am as the result came out. There were mixed reactions after students came to know their results.

According to sources, the school has had 100 per cent result and all the students have scored first division.

Nischchay Lawrence is the topper with 87.2 per cent in Class XII and Shashank Gupta topped in Class X with 87.7 per cent marks. Nishchay scored 98 per cent in maths and 96 per cent in physical education while Shashank got 92 per cent in maths, 92 per cent in science and 95 per cent in environmental education.

Rajni Lawrence, Nishchay’s mother, said, “Nishchay wants to join the IIT. He always wanted to become an engineer and has remained focused. His school does not take dummy admissions and in a way it is good because class XII students are teenagers and it is not advisable to apply pressure on them for anything as they already are subjected to so many changes and mood swings. We did not apply pressure on Nishchay for anything during his schooling and that is the reason he has done well.” School principal A.K. Lawrence was away and could not be contacted.

Bathinda, May 20
In the race to get ahead it seems we have forgotten our elderly as they are suffering at the hands of their own children and due to lack of awareness.

There are old people in the villages who are not recognised by their own children now. They get a meagre pension of a few hundred rupees per month. At times, they do not even know where to go.

According to the doctors, in old age, psychiatric problems increase, psychological dependency and regular healthcare is needed.

But due to a very few old-age homes in the state and only one old-age home in a district getting grants from the government, the elderly lot is suffering.

There is no old-age home set up by the government unlike abroad where geriatric homes exist to ensure that proper care for the old.

Old farmers are committing suicides. The reason is not loss or loans always. According to villagers, these old men do not have anyone to depend upon.

Kartar Kaur from Bathinda, who stays in an old-age home at Badal village which is run by Devi Lal Memorial Trust, misses her sons and grandchildren.

"I came here in 2005, when this old age home was started. I have three children. One has passed away. My son is supportive but my daughter-in-law asked me to leave the house. There were fights at home because of me. My husband died 18 years ago and I had no one to look forward to. We miss our home but what to do," Kartar said.

Saahiba, who belongs to Bathinda and is staying at the same old age home also said that she misses her home but is left with no choice.

"I had come to Bathinda from Pakistan. I do not know my age but I was very young in 1947. My husband died and my daughter-in-laws did not want me to stay. Where do I go? Thanks to Badal who made this place, we would have wandered aimlessly," she said with moist eyes.

Gurbaksh Singh, manager of the home, said, "Two men have died since 2005 and we cremated them because they had no one to do it.”

It may be mentioned that the Maintenance of Parents and Senior Citizens Act was enacted by the state government for the protection of the elderly.

Rajvinder Singh Gill, district social security officer of Bathinda, when asked about the law, said, "We have an Act but no aged person till now has approached us with a problem. There were advertisements in the papers about the law and related news also appeared."

But when DSSO was asked about whether any awareness programmes exist telling old people about any such law, he said no. "We have not been instructed by the government about any such programme," Gill said.

Mansa, May 20
"Being a Sikh and Punjabi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh should announce a special package for Punjab," said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, while speaking to the media at Datewas village in the Mansa district today.

The Central government should solve the problems of farmers and labourers regarding crops and loans, he added. Sukhbir further said that farmers should be provided with reasonable rates for their crops and provided loan at cheaper rates. He demanded a loan waiver for the labourers and farmers.

While commenting on the results of parliamentary elections, he informed that the party would review the results of the elections at the meeting of core committee.

Parliamentary elections were fought in the name of the Prime Ministers and not in the name of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh, he added.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that action would be taken against those party leaders, who had opposed the party candidates during the elections.

Speaking on the relations with the BJP, he said the political alliance would continue with the BJP in the coming days. On being asked which constituency he would contest from in Vidhan Sabha elections, he informed that the party's core committee would decide upon it it. He assured that all the development projects would be completed in the state.

He also addressed public gathering at the residence of the SAD district president Harbant Singh Datewas.

He thanked the people to vote for the SAD candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal. SAD
general secretary Balwinder Singh Bhunder and ex-MP Chetan Singh Sammaon
were also present.