Bathinda, September 5
Fun and frolic marked the Teachers’ Day celebrations in the city schools today. The day also witnessed protest by members of the ETT Teachers’ Union and the B.Ed Teachers’ Front.

The teachers and students took part in cultural programmes and played games at schools across the city. Students played the teachers’ part giving the teachers a day off from their routine. At Delhi Public School, students conducted the morning assembly which was conducted by the students unlike other days when the teachers carry out the assembly. Students also gave greeting cards to the teachers. Senior class students enacted as teachers and carried out the junior classes.

At St Xaviers’ School here, students had organised a cultural show and enacted their favourite teachers for the rest of the day.

Neelam Verma, principal of the Silver Oaks School, said, “Students of classes IX and X enacted teachers today. Dance and plays were organised on the school premises. The student, who gave the best performance as a teacher, would be declared on Monday.”

Lord Rama Public School celebrated Teachers' Day with great enthusiasm. The students showed great love and respect for their teachers. They also organised games for their teachers. They vowed to follow the good ideals set by their role medals and become the useful citizens of nation. Principal Suraj Setia delivered a speech on the occasion. In his speech, he said that all teachers are hard working and making sincere efforts for progress of school.

Students of the SG Public School, Dasmesh Public Senior Secondary School and the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Khalsa Technical College also celebrated the day.

However, the day was not as rosy at government schools here.

Opposing the tradition of having a day off for teachers on the Teachers’ Day, Rajesh Monga from the Government Secondary School, Sangat, said, “The trend of spending the day in organising only cultural activities in the school is not right because teaching holds more importance on this day as it is our day. Apart from routine academic classes, we should tell students how to make this world a better place to live in.”

Meanwhile, the ETT Teachers’ Union wore black badges today to protest against government for not accepting their demand of bringing them under the education department as promised. The B.Ed Teachers’ Front held rallies across the state to protest against the government for delaying in taking out a notification of recruiting 32,000 teachers, as promised by the SAD when it came to power.

Faridkot: Employees of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kauni here, observed the day as a hunger working day to draw the government’s attention towards their demands. — TNS

Ferozepur: The Teachers’ Day was celebrated at the RSD Raj Rattan Public School here. B.B. Sanwalka, secretary of the school, was the chief guest at the function arranged by the students. Principal Usha Kiran and director of the school S.P. Anand were also present on the occasion. — TNS

Faridkot, September 5
Viral fever has been reported among the children in two government schools at village Jhakkarwala near Bajakhana in the Faridkot district, following which, the administration has shut-down the school for three days.

The chief medical officer of Faridkot, Dr Vivek Jain, while talking to The Tribune, revealed that viral infections coupled with fever had been reported in at least 60 students of both the primary and high schools, out of which, 15 cases were being suspected of malaria.

Adding that the medical authorities had taken the blood samples and prepared slides for clinical examination, he said that there was nothing to worry.

“I have myself visited the schools and checked-up the children along with a team of experts comprising paediatrician, pathologist and other medical officer’, Dr Jain said.

Denying the reports of swine flu reported in a section of the vernacular press, he said that it appears to be a simple flu due to viral infections, which was quite normal in the monsoon period.

The CMO said that some children were suffering from throat and nose infections but they reported of mild fever only.

In reply to a query, he said that as per the details available from the teachers and students of the schools, two or three children had suffered from viral infection few days back. They continued to come to the school and probably communicated the infection to other students.

The CMO said that the medical authorities were in constant touch with the affected children and their families and monitoring the situation minutely.

“We are fully equipped to face the situation and have all facilities for clinical tests and medicines to meet such situations,” he claimed.

Dr Jain said that these viral infections were restricted to only these two schools in the village and there were no reports of such outbreak from any other part of the district.

Bathinda, September 5
The death of a convict has put the authorities of the Central Jail Bathinda in a controversy.

According to information, the prisoner Jaskaran Singh of village Bhagi Vandar in Bathinda district, was in jail from past three-and-half year. He was sentenced 10 year imprisonment in a case of attempt to murder besides two year imprisonment for keeping weapons.

Jaskaran was feeling uneasy from the past couple of days. The jail authorities took him to Civil Hospital for many times. The jail authorities admitted him to Civil Hospital Bathinda on Friday. Later the doctors referred him to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot today.

The jail staff accompanied by a pharmacist rushed him to Faridkot, while the doctors declared him brought dead. The declaration of the doctor infuriated the kin of the deceased.

Creating disturbance in the hospital, they openly alleged the jail staff for causing delay in bringing him to the hospital. Further, they accused jail staff for providing insufficient medical facility to the convict.

The postmortem of the body could not be conducted today. The body kept on lying in the ambulance for couple of hours. To avoid the uncomfortable situation, the pharmacist, reportedly, skipped out of the hospital. Pacifying the kin of the deceased, body was later kept in mortuary.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities brought the whole incident in the knowledge of the district administration. The district magistrate assigned the responsibility of inquest proceedings to an executive magistrate of Bathinda.

The deputy jail superintendent, Kaur Singh said, “We gave proper attention to the convict. The allegations of kin of the deceased are baseless.”

When contacted, the pharmacist, Dharmender Singh, who accompanied the convict to Faridkot, said, “He was alive but was in serious condition. But reaching Faridkot the doctor declared him brought dead, he would have collapsed on the way. There was no foul play.”

Lambi (Muktsar), September 5
CM Parkash Singh Badal decided to dole out cheques for Rs one crore to six villages where he held fort, during a sangat darshan programme here today. Badal gave a patient hearing to people from all walks of life and also listened to the problems faced by village panchayats.

While addressing a gathering at a village, the CM exhorted people to use Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in order to save electricity.

In an important development, the CM said agro-centres would be opened in villages where farmers, whose land holdings are small, could avail various facilities. He said tractors to needy farmers would be rented out from these centres.

He said that training centres to cater to the youth would be opened at village levels soon where youngsters would be given training in various trades.

He asked officials of the district administration to keep a track of various developmental works initiated in villages and later they should submit reports of the same. He also asked sarpanches, panches and senior citizens to keep an eye on the developmental works in their respective villages.

The CM exhorted villagers not to illegally divert or steal canal water and also urged farmers to keep away from stealing power to irrigate their fields.

Retorted a villager, “What Badal sahib is saying is good for the ears. However, as things stand farmers seldom listen to him and are openly indulging in power thefts.”

The CM was accompanied by his Special Principal Secretary K.J. S. Cheema, Muktsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal, ADC Varun Rusam and Muktsar SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill apart from other officials.

Bathinda, September 5
The arrest of one Mandeep Singh of Jhunir village in Bathinda district today generated fresh hopes for the Punjab Police to extract more clues to a high-profile case concerning alleged planning to kill the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

According to details available, Mandeep Singh was arrested from the VIP colony of district officials this evening. He was in possession of a .315 bore country made pistol and two live cartridges.

During the preliminary interrogation, the accused said he was carrying the weapon to kill his father, a priest in a Gurdwara. The accused said he was irritated due to his father's alleged illicit relation with a woman.

He claimed that earlier too, he bought some pistol but was nabbed before he could commit the crime.

The police has booked him under the Arms Act.

The police, however, is apparently not satisfied with the interrogation as Mandeep was earlier an accused in an unsuccessful bid to make Binder Singh, an accused of terrorist activities, escape from the Bathinda bus stand when he was brought here to appear in the district courts.

In that case, one Makhan Singh of Sardulgarh was his accomplice.

It may be mentioned that Makhan Singh has been arrested in a dera follower's murder case, which took place in Mansa about a month back. He, among others, is being interrogated in Patiala for the murder of Rulda Singh, an RSS leader. Meanwhile, one of his arrested accomplices reportedly confessed to have made an attempt to kill Sukhbir Badal.

Following the interrogation of Makhan and one Raj Singh, another accomplice, the Patiala Police recovered huge quantity of RDX on Friday, which was said to be used for carrying out blasts in the state.

When contacted, SP (D) Ajay Maluja said, “We will not take any chance as arrested person has link with the accused in a case related to threat to national security. Police is interrogating him to get more details.”

Bathinda, September 5
Sleuths of the Vigilance Bureau (VB), Bathinda range, today nabbed a Punjab Sate Electricity Board (PSEB) lineman for taking bribe.

According to details available, Gopal Dass Sharma of Sardulgarh lodged a complaint with the VB that a lineman of the PSEB, Parmod Kumar, was seeking bribe from him. The accused had received bribe on earlier occasions also to restore the electricity supply to the complainant’s house. The board had disconnected the supply about one-and-a-half months back for the complainant failed to pay a bill of Rs 1,600. Each time, after receiving the bribe, the accused assured him of regular supply. This time, he sought Rs 1,500 from the complainant to restore the supply. However, the deal was settled at Rs 1,000.

A team led by DSP Des Raj caught the accused receiving the bribe. Kehar Singh, SDO, Irrigation, and Paramajit Singh, a clerk with the Irrigation department, were present as official eyewitnesses.

SSP (VB), Bathinda range, Chaman Lal, said, “The accused lineman has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.”