Bathinda, September 1
The Government Elementary School at Gillpati village in Bathinda district will become a model school for all government schools in Punjab. The activities at the school, including the teaching pattern and the upkeep of class rooms, would be video-recorded and the compact discs (CDs) distributed in the government schools across the state.

Director General School Education (DGSE) of Punjab Krishan Kumar had paid a surprise visit to the school recently after he learnt from his subordinates about the school’s performance.

Harpal Singh, district coordinator of the Parho Punjab, Bathinda, said the DGSE did not inform the school before going there because he wanted to know whether the feedback given to him by his staff was valid or not.

“During his visit, the DGSE honoured Satnam Kaur, headmistress of the school, with an appreciation letter. He watched the students’ assembly for over an hour. The assembly was extended that day for the DGSE’s visit and children displayed various activities. He took a round of the school and was impressed with the way the class rooms of the school were kept. He asked Davinder Boha, state coordinator, to record a programme based on the daily activities at the school and distribute the CDs in all government schools in Punjab,” Harpal said.

Sources in the Education Department of the city said such a step had never been taken before and it was for the first time that a programme on a government school would be distributed.

The DGSE also expressed happiness about the success of the Parho Punjab project in Bathinda as it came first in the state after its progress was reviewed. On August 15, finance minister of the state Manpreet Singh Badal had given appreciation certificates to 44 per cent schools of Bathinda for getting an ‘A’ grade in the Parho Punjab.

Bathinda, September 1
The ‘pleasant’ weather conditions, prevailing in Bathinda and its adjoining places for the last three days following rains, are likely to continue for the next two to three days as there is a possibility of monsoon maintaining its activities during the period.

The parched soils in some pockets of the region have been getting some respite following rains - though moderate - during the last three days. The Agro-Met advisory service, PAU regional station, Bathinda, recorded 6.8 mm rain on Monday. The region experienced slight increase in precipitation the next day, as 8.4 mm rain was recorded on Tuesday.

As far as the behaviour of mercury is concerned, it has been affected considerably by the rains. The mercury has been ranging between 32 and 36 degrees Celsius for the last three to four days at maximum level while at the minimum level, it has been around 24.5 to 27 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the weathermen also predicted some rains in the region in coming days.

According to the weather forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh, for Bathinda region on Tuesday and received by the Agro-Met advisory services, PAU regional station here, there is possibility of partial cloudy to cloudy conditions with possibility of light to moderate rainfall at few places in the region during the next two to three days. There are also chances of thundershowers during the period, the weathermen added.

While the current monsoon activities and its resultant affects may continue to cheer up urban residents, who had undergone unprecedented ordeal during the last several weeks due to the truant monsoon and long power cuts, it may also give some reasons for farmers, cotton as well as paddy, to smile.

The director of PAU, regional station, Bathinda, Dr Gurmeet Singh Buttar, while talking to TNS on Tuesday evening, said rain in this period would prove beneficial for farmers to some extent.

Besides helping vegetation, the rain might also check overexploitation of underground water, he added. Dr Buttar also said that some farmers, who could not apply the second dose of nitrogen fertilisers due to shortage of water, could apply the same with rain.

Bathinda, September 1
About two years back, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, while celebrating his 80th birthday in Bathinda, promised to revamp the whole canal system of the state. Later, his son and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal came up with a fresh plan to beautify this canal by installing fountains in it.

The statements are now appearing like chasing a mirage as even after passing a long period, the state government released not even a single penny for this canal.

This 87 miles long Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal, with its damaged banks and hyacinth choked channels, has been crying for help for the past many years but it appears that the government is waiting for some major tragedy to happen, before taking notice of its vulnerable condition. At many places the water level is at par with the level of canal banks. The ongoing rains in the state have raised the threat of overflowing and breach at various points of the canal. Despite knowing about cautioning stage nothing has been done to check the threat yet.

During a random visit along the canal banks towards Bir Talab and Nathana sides, canal banks were observed damaged at various points. Due to ongoing rains, water flow has increased and at one place it was touching the kutchha road along the bank. All this poses a grave danger to the city, villages and agricultural fields along the canal.

During the past two years, reports of breach in canals and distributaries remained quite common in the district. Whenever a breach took place, the administration remained concerned only about plugging in the particular point but forgot to take further step.

A senior official of the canal department disclosed to this correspondent that the canal banks have become very weak due to many reasons—rat holes, erosion, damaged roots of the trees situated along the banks, etc. He termed the canal as a ticking bomb, which can explode anytime and cause destruction.

Some volunteers of social organisations, who keep recovering dead bodies from the canal, informed that the canal required de-silting as its depth has been reduced a lot. It has been observed that at various points, hyacinth had blocked almost half of width of canal, which hinders the water flow.

When contacted, the Executive Engineer of the irrigation department, Bathinda, Harlabh Singh Chahal accepted the facts, saying, “This canal requires a thorough revamp. We have apprised the concerned departments about its vulnerable condition a number of times but further action is still awaited.” 

Bathinda, September 1
Duped of his one kanal piece of land, a 50-year-old marginal farmer of village Mahinanagal reportedly ended his life by consuming some poisonous substance today.

According to details available, Gurmel Singh, with the mediation of property dealers Manjinder Singh of Laleana and Parveen Kumar of Jeewan Singh Wala village sold one kanal of his land to one Kaku Singh of village Mahinangal on Monday. After signing the sale deed in the name of Kaku Singh, he flatly refused the promised price for the land. Depressed, he informed his son Raju Singh late on Monday evening. Since morning, Gurmel had gone missing.

Meanwhile, the Talwandi Sabo police received information about a dead body lying on the Malkana-Teona Pujariana road. However, the kin of the deceased reached the spot before police and identified the body as that of Gurmel.

On searching the clothes of the deceased, the police got a slip mentioning the cause of his death. Confirming the facts, investigation officer Harnek Singh said, “The slip mentions that he sold one kanal land to Kaku Singh for Rs 40,000 with Manjinder and Parveen Kumar as the mediator. But they refused to pay him the price of the land.”

Acting upon the statement of Raju Singh, the police booked all three accused under section 306 of the IPC. However, no one could be arrested. — TNS

Bathinda, September 1
A farm tourism scheme, which was introduced by the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) in January this year, has been marred due to the scorching summer. Farm houses identified by the Punjab government in the Malwa region are waiting for tourists to come and stay with them.

The owners expect that they would start getting queries related to farm tourism from the next month.

Around 23 farm houses, eight from Malwa, have been approved in various districts of the state under three categories - silver, gold and diamond.

Gursewak Singh Chahal, who owns Chahal farm house at Jiwan Singh Wala here, said, "We are still waiting for tourists to come and stay with us. The tourist season would begin next month due to extreme heat in this region. During the meetings held by the PHTPB, we were told about the standards of hospitality that were to be maintained by us. It would be reviewed by the local authorities and the tourism officials. The government told us that the details of the scheme would be put on the 'make my trip.com'. But I have not seen it yet."

Gurcharan Singh Mann from the Mann Makhi fram house at Tungwali said the identified farm house owners were trained by the government about how to manage the tourists, adding that they were awaiting tourists. "The charges have been left to us and we would charge Rs 1,100 per day," he said.

The scheme was designed to allow the travellers take a plunge in the culture of Punjab. Those registered under the scheme would have to provide a hygienic and clean environment, comfortable accommodation, home-cooked food and sight seeing in the village where the farm house is located and the areas around. The tourists would also be made familiar with the farm practices, like agriculture, floriculture, bee keeping and dairying.

The main aim of the scheme as stated by deputy director, Punjab tourism, Surinder Bajaj, was to give an exposure to local life through the art and culture of Punjab, dance, music, food and panchayat meetings. "Visitors will be offered a village tour and attend marriages and festivals taking place in Punjab. Trips to places of tourists' interest can also be arranged. Games played in the state like wrestling, kite-flying and riding the bullock carts would also be there," Bajaj informed.

According to the information provided by Rajat Bhandari, who is working on this project, the Punjab Tourism participated in travel and tourism fair held in Hyderabad in July this year where the state was awarded the most innovative product award for farm tourism. Besides, the Punjab Tourism had also participated in travel and tourism fair held at Surat in August this year.

Bathinda, September 1
On a call given by the All-India Defence Employees Federation, members of the MES Workers’ Union staged a gate rally in front of the GE (utility) here this morning.

The workers demanded that anti-labour policies of the government should come to an end. On the death of an MES employee, a job should be given to one of his family members and the ban in this regard should be lifted, stated Ruldu Singh, president of the union. Secretary Jaswinder Singh demanded that 60 per cent arrear of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations should be given to the employees at the earliest along with eight per cent interest thereon. The workers said they would observe a protest week from September 1-4, during which rallies would be organised. — TNS

Sriganganagar/Abohar, September 1
A new tri-weekly train 4705 Delhi-Sadulpur Express will be introduced on the Delhi-Sarai Rohila-Sadulpur-Delhi Sarai Rohila route from Wednesday, the North West Railway chief PRO G.L. Meena confirmed today.

The train will leave Delhi Sarai Rohila on each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 7.55 am and reach at Sadulpur by 12.15 noon. On return it will leave as 4706 Sadulpur-Delhi express by 1.55 pm to reach Delhi Sarai Rohila by 6.25 pm on the same days. The train will have halts at Delhi Cantonment, Gurgaon, Pataudi Road, Rewari, Mahendergarh and Luharu stations.

Meena said that the 2993/2994 Bandra Terminus-Jaipur Gharib Rath trains would be extended from September 4 and 5 respectively from the Bandra terminus and Delhi Sarai Rohila. The 2993 train will arrive at Jaipur at 6.40 am and leave by 7.10 am for onward journey to Alwar, Rewari, Gurgaon and Delhi Cantonment to reach Delhi Sarai Rohila by 12.10 noon on September 4. Its return journey will start on September 5 from Delhi Sarai Rohila by 9.25 am.

He said 2957 Ahmedabad-New Delhi Swarn Jyanti Rajdhani Express train will now run on all days. The railways have also decided to extend 0281/0282 and 0283/0284 Phulera-Rewari-Phulera Holiday special train up to September 15. 

Abohar, September 1
The Central and state governments had prepared a level play field for the multinational companies (MNCs) to carry multi billion insecticides business in Punjab and other states by allowing free aerial spray of insecticides three decades back, some of the progressive farmers alleged during the valedictory function of month-long training programme on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) at Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering Technology (CIPHET) here this afternoon.

One of them Sukhpal Singh from village Muradwala said his grand parents felt that only the governments were responsible for the extensive damage caused to the environment as well as farming community by promoting sale of insecticides and pesticides.

However some of the agricultural development officers who had arrived here for the training from different districts said they were able to identify the friendly pests during field visits and felt these should not have been eliminated by excessive use of insecticides for spraying.

The chief guest Amit Dhaka SDM said population growth rate was higher than the contribution of agriculture sector in the GDP. An average farmer will have to be provided certified seed, fertilizer and insecticides. Unfortunately small manufacturers were more interested in sales than quality in the insecticides business. SDM honoured Dr Gurdev Singh (Patiala), Dr Bhupinder Singh (Tarn Taran) and Dr Vijay Singh (Abohar) with "Best trainee" trophies.

Dr J.S. Josan, director regional station of the PAU said mealy bug had extensively damaged cotton in the region for last two years.

Dr R.K. Gupta in-charge CIPHET joined the participants in lauding the Union Ministry of Agriculture for organising such useful training through Jalandhar Centre.

Dr Jasvir Singh training coordinator was also present during the function.

Hanumangarh/Abohar, September 1
Alleging discrimination in giving job under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes, some migrants from Bihar who had developed a separate colony near 9-burji drain on the outskirts of Tibbi area of Hanumangarh district today held a protest demonstration against the Sarpanch of a village.

In a memorandum submitted to the SDM Ashok Sharma, the migrants alleged that the Sarpanch had been calling them for works but most of the times they were asked to put their thumb impressions on the attendance sheet and then asked to go since no work were to be carried on the day. They were not paid wages. The affected labour including Lila Devi, Shakunti, Hirai, Phool Kumari, Lalita, Ram Devi and Pitambar said only locals were being given work resulting in financial crisis for the persons of Bihar origin. They were unable to arrange two square meals.

The SDM reportedly assure to get it inquired. — OC

Sriganganagar/Abohar, September 1
Durgeshwar, representing Assam, has clinched a gold medal in the senior boys’ category badminton matches during the National Special Olympics held at the Maharaja Ganga Singh Stadium in Sriganganagar.

Kumar Nevar of the same state won silver while Ashwani of Delhi got a bronze medal.

In the master category, Santosh from Bihar, John from Goa and Ravindra from Assam got the first, second and third positions, respectively. In the senior higher group for children, Raj Akash from Gujarat won a gold medal. — OC