Bathinda, August 5
Raksha Bandhan, the sacred festival symbolising sister's love for brother, was celebrated with traditional fervour and enthusiasm in the city and surrounding areas today.

It was a heart rendering scene at the central jail at Bathinda today as brothers came to get rakhis tied on their wrists from their sisters, who are lodged as prisoners in the jail.

A brother-sister duo lodged at the jail here celebrated raksha bandhan on the jail premises.

In an attempt to bring smiles on the face of our brave soldiers on this day about 24 girls from Dashmesh School and Government Girls School, Mall Road, went to the ITBP battalion here to tie rakhis to the soldiers of ITBP.

In a unique manner, Brahma Kumaris, while tying the sacred thread on the wrists of their spiritual brothers, explained the real significance of the ancient festival which was a symbol of selfless and pure love between brother and sister.

Applying of 'tilak' on the brother's forehead was indicative of the sister suggesting to her brother to remain in consciousness of the living spirit as also to see others as souls.

These girls had made these rakhis themselves and they also distributed more than 100 cards to these men which were made by the girls. 

Bathinda, August 5
In yet another case of blind murder, some unidentified persons killed a 66-year-old retired woman employee of the cooperative department, at her house located at Mehna Chowk in Bathinda.

The incident has put the district police in a fix as the police was already finding it tough to solve the blind murder of Sandeep Singh, son of former Akali Minister Teja Singh, a few days back.

The deceased, identified as Sheela Devi, had retired from the cooperative department as Sevadar. She had no offspring and had adopted the daughter of her brother. But she too is married and stays with her in-laws at Ajit road.

Sheela Devi lived alone and had some tenants with whom, reportedly, she used to have quarrels.

The woman was killed with a sharp-edged weapon as deep wounds were noticeable at her neck.

Ironically, the killers did not snatch the gold chain she was wearing around her neck. Police officials initially ruled out the possibility of murder for the sake of dacoity and are considering it as a case of personal rivalry.

Sensing the gravity of the incident, another blind murder within a week, the SSP himself visited the spot.

When asked, SSP Ashish Chaudhary said, "We are looking at all possible theories to solve the murder mystery."

Bathinda, August 5
The guaranteeing of education to children between six to 14 years of age by passing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory education Bill, 2009, by parliament has been termed as pro-society decision by the educationists of this region.

But what concerns them is the implementation of this decision.

Shaminder Singh Gill, vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences stated, "The implementation is difficult but not impossible. We have no alternative except to implement this Bill to improve the educational status of the country, especially Punjab. Even if its implementation is difficult, we should not be deterred from executing it. Sincerity is needed to ensure its success. Today, education is only for those who are good at it. There is no space for an average student. Every child deserves education and it should be given to all. If given an opportunity, I will do my best to execute this decision," he stated.

Educationists feel that setting up of neighbourhood schools to accommodate children would not be easy, although the Centre would be providing financial assistance for this. But the most important aspect is planning and then executing the plan without any delay.

"This step is pro-society. It should have come into force long back. The implementation of this Bill would go through rough patches because the roadblock to development is ignorance of beneficial rules. Government should ensure that every one is made aware of this right. This is a landmark development and it already existed in our directive principles of state policies but now it is a fundamental right.

“The government should not leave it at discussion level only and delay its execution by stating lack of funds. Let us get started as we are already late by 62 years," said J.S. Anand, principal of DAV College, Bathinda.

Raj Gupta, principal of Swami Vivekanada Girls' College, stated that it was not enough to provide elementary education, higher education was also needed. The only way for this was encouraging distant learning programmes to ensure that elementary learning translates into jobs.

"I do not know how government will incorporate 75 per cent parents in school management committees. We will have to sit back and see how the actual implementation takes place," Anil Lawrence, principal of St Paul's School, said.

Experts from the field of education also felt that the dropout rate needed to be checked. The government's schemes to ensure that children stay enrolled in schools like mid-day meals were always in the news for the wrong reasons.

The decision was also welcomed by teachers who were not getting jobs, especially here. They said for meeting the requirement of the Bill, the government needed teachers and the passing of the Bill has raised their hopes. 

Bathinda, August 5
The District Food and Supplies Department has taken a series of measures to streamline the Public Distribution System (PDS) under the 'atta-dal scheme' in the district.

A press release issued by DFSD, Bathinda, here today stated that the officials of the department had checked as many as 17 ration depots in the district and detected serious irregularities in the distribution of rationed commodities like levy sugar, food grain and kerosene.

The officials cancelled the licences of seven ration depots and issued show-cause notices to 10 other depot holders, asking them to explain why their licences should not be cancelled for committing irregularities and malpractices in the distribution of rationed commodities.

As per the press note, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari asked the depot holders to properly distribute the rationed commodities among the people and warned that in case of any malpractice, stern action would be taken against the guilty. — TNS

Bathinda, August 5
Dr Vitull K. Gupta, member, Punjab Human Rights Committee (PHRC), today condemned the government's action against Dr Harshinder Kaur, medical officer, Government Medical College, Patiala, for presenting facts prevalent in Punjab at UN Interfaith International Conference recently.

In a press release issued here today, Dr Vitull said Dr Kaur, who had been documenting facts regarding status of immunisation and working against female foeticide, was being punished for presenting facts available on government's websites and correcting misrepresentation of facts by Promila Srivastava, an IFS officer, who presented adverse report regarding Dr Kaur. Dr Vitull demanded immediate withdrawal of the chargesheet against her and an inquiry against Srivastava.— TNS

Moga, August 5
The Moga police has arrested an NRI facing charges of allegedly murdering a former MLA and father of the present Punjab DGP from outside the district courts on Tuesday in a fresh criminal case of submitting false documents to get a police clearance certificate for seeking Canadian citizenship.

The alleged accused Jagdev Singh, son of Joginder Singh, had come here from Canada to appear before the court in the pending case of murder of former MLA late Nachattar Singh Gill, who was the father of Paramdip Singh Gill, presently serving as the DGP of the Punjab police.

The DGP's father was murdered in the year 1991 and an FIR under sections 302, 307, 120-B, 34 of the IPC, sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act and sections 5, 6 of the TADA Act was registered against his family members including mother Pritam Kaur, brother Hardev Singh, sister Paramjit Kaur and three others.

His father Joginder Singh was allegedly murdered under mysterious circumstances and all his family members were arrested by the police at that time. Facing threat to life, he left the town and went to the US and then to Canada. In the meantime, the police during the course of investigation also included his name in the murder case while producing the 'challaan' in the court.

This case became high profile when the Supreme Court interfered in it five years after the murder incident. While agreeing to the arguments made by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, the defence counsel, the SC acquitted all his family members from charges of murder, nine years back.

After knowing that his family members had been acquitted from the case, Jagdev came to India in the year 2003 and applied to get a police clearance certificate mandatory for seeking the Canadian citizenship. On January 3, 2004, the police gave him the certificate and he went back to Canada and got the citizenship there. Now, he has a Canadian passport.

Last year, he again came back to India and was surprised to know that the case of murder was still pending against him. He immediately surrendered before a local court. The court of additional sessions judge Amarjot Kaur Bhatti allowed him to go back to Canada with the condition to appear in her court on every date.

A few days back, he came here with regard to this case. On Tuesday, when he was coming out of the court, the police allegedly took him into custody and registered a fresh FIR under sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC on charges of submitting false documents to get a police clearance certificate, which was given to him by the police, five-and- a half years back.

The police produced him before the duty magistrate here, on Wednesday. The SHO of the city police station Kuljinder Singh, who is investigating this case, demanded a 20-day police remand from the court. But the court had granted only one-day police remand for further investigations.

Ramesh Grover, the defence counsel brought to the notice of the court that his client had been falsely implicated in this case by the police because of the personal enmity of the DGP with him and his family.

The Tribune tried to contact the SSP of Moga Ashok Bath to get an official version but he kept this correspondent waiting outside his office for about 40 minutes and also did not speak on telephone. 

Moga, August 5
An elderly person has died of suspected diarrhoea in the district hospital here on Wednesday amid continuing panic among the residents of this town and its surrounding villages with more cases of intestinal infections being reported to the health authorities. The deceased was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday.

The senior medical officer (SMO) of Moga Sadhu Ram Mittal when contacted claimed that the patient Nirmal Singh, son of Jeet Singh, a resident of Dhidhike village, had probably died of septicaemia suffering from multiple infections in his body.

"We initiated the process to conduct clinical tests of septicaemia but unfortunately he died before the tests were conducted," he added. Meanwhile, six more patients were admitted to the hospital complaining of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis during the past 24 hours taking the total number to 14 patients. 

Fazilka, August 5
Ravinder Luthra chairman and Shashi Kant press secretary of the Co-ordination committee, Para-medical and Health Employees, Punjab, while addressing a selected gathering of para-medic employees of Primary Health Centre Jandwala Bhimeshah of this sub-division alleged that the government is heading towards privatisation of health services in the state.

They alleged that there is large scale misappropriation of funds under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Criticising the pay panel report and government attitude towards its implementation, the para medic representatives said the government has not followed the Central pattern as already accepted in principle. They demanded regularisation of services of all the employees working on contract basis. — OC

Moga, August 5
A teenaged brother and sister were electrocuted at Khosa Randhir Singh village about 9 km from the district headquarters on Tuesday evening.

As per the details available, Jagdip Singh (13), son of Shingara Singh was electrocuted, while starting the water-pump in his fields for drinking water.

His sister Veerpal Kaur (15) tried to save her brother but was also electrocuted. They died on the spot. Police had initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC into the incident. — TNS