Bathinda, October 7
Lodging an electricity-related complaint will be just a call away! The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has decided to launch a call centre facility and customer care centres to considerably reduce the inconvenience that general public experience while dealing with it. The services aim at facilitating the receipt of complaints and addressing them in a specified period.

Talking to The Tribune today, Jarnail Singh, Deputy Chief Engineer, PSEB, Bathinda, said the services would be launched around the end of this month.

While the call centre will deal with the complaints related to power supply the customer care centres will address queries related to electricity meters, bills and power load. The customer care centres through its single-window service would also issue, collect and register application forms for issuing a new meter or changing and repairing of old meters. It will also advise, guide and help out the visitors.

Giving details about the call centre, a senior XEN at the PSEB, Bathinda, said a complaint could be lodged through a toll free number connected to the call centre. A reference number would be allotted to each complaint and the complainant could seek the status of his complaint by providing the call centre executive with the reference number.

The call centre would be outsourced and the service will be centralised with headquarters based at Ludhiana, sources said.

The call centre would receive the complaint and forward it to the PSEB staff, who would update the call centre on the status of the complaint. “Once the complaint is attended to in a specified period and snag removed the complainant will be intimated,” the official said.

“Earlier, the person with a query did not know whom to approach and he used to run from one desk to another. Generally, even the staff did not have first hand information on every account. The facilities would bring these shortcomings to an end,” the Deputy Chief Engineer said.

In Bathinda, the customer care centres will be opened at Sirki Bazaar and on the Power House Road. These centres would cater to four sub-divisions — City, Civil Lines, Sub-urban and Cantonment. The centres would be centrally-airconditioned with three to four service windows — a separate window for senior citizens.

At present, the service is available in Ludhiana and the Board has decided to launch the service in the municipal limits of Patiala, Jalandhar and Amritsar besides Bathinda, the sources said.

Bathinda, October 7
The Railways will carry out an investigation into the yesterday’s beam falling incident occurred at the Malout station. A 110-foot long concrete beam, forming a part of a railway-over-bridge (ROB) on the Malout-Dabwali road, collapsed on Tuesday afternoon causing the debris to fall right in the middle of the Gidderbaha-Delhi railway track.

The railway traffic remained disrupted for about eight hours following the mishap, which also caused stoppage of several trains at different places. The normalcy was restored at around 8 pm. After the incident, the Railways made special arrangements for shifting the passengers from Gidderbaha and Malout stations. The Railways also regulated some trains at different stations.

Karan Singh, senior divisional commercial manager, Ambala, said Passengers train 335 was terminated at Gidderbaha and started as 336 to Ambala. Altogether 513 passengers of 335 passengers train were shifted from Gidderbaha to Malout by special buses arranged by the Railways. Passengers of 4526 were also shifted from Malout to Gidderbaha.

Nearly 1000 passengers were shifted by five special buses arranged for the purpose by the Railways on Tuesday after the incident, Karan Singh said.

Bathinda, October 7
The three- member committee formed to look into the allegations levelled against the principal of the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) would draft its report tomorrow. The committee conducted hearings during the past two days.

In a fresh development, a faculty member, Manisha, today backtracked on her statement given against the principal, SK Banerjee. According to the principal, Manisha stated that Shiv Singh, another faculty member, had forced her to make a written complaint against him. Manisha, however, could not be contacted.

ADC (D), Bathinda, Shruti Singh, who is a member of the committee, stated that statements of both the parties had been recorded.

Neelam Bajaj, civil surgeon, Bathinda, also a member of the committee, said, “Our hearing was to take place today for filing the report but it had to be postponed.”

Meanwhile, the principal refuted the charges levelled against him once again and claimed that it was not only Manisha’s but all the three complainants’ signatures that had been forged by a faculty member. “I don’t understand the intentions behind it. It has not been even a month since the institute opened and students have started giving me complaints against the faculty,” Banerjee added.

Abohar, October 7
At least seven persons including three women sustained injuries as the city police resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse an irate mob that reportedly ransacked a private nursing home here today to express resentment over the death of a pregnant woman during treatment. The woman had three daughters.

As per information, Renu, wife of Main Paul of Dharam Nagari, was admitted to the private nursing home with acute menstrual pain on Tuesday afternoon. Her in-laws said they had deposited the package fee for a major surgery but late in the evening, the in-charge of the nursing home asked them to shift the patient to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital as her condition was deteriorating. Accordingly, the patient was rushed to the civil hospital where she died along with a nine-month-old child late at night.

Relatives of the deceased along with other residents of Dharam Nagari today marched to the nursing home alleging negligence, ransacked it smashing glass panes and other equipment.

Police rushed in and used force to disperse the irate mob. Reacting to it, the demonstrators clashed with the police, tried to snatch their lathis, and indulged in stone pelting at the cops besides damaging some vehicles. The demonstrators staged a sit-in on the state highway, jammed vehicular traffic, raised slogans against the police and burnt an effigy. Later, City-2 SHO Tirlok Singh arrived and held talks and persuaded the protesters to disperse peacefully.

The doctor denied any negligence and claimed that the condition of the patient had all of a sudden deteriorated. The relatives were timely advised to shift her for better medical facilities, she claimed. 

Barnala, October 7
The Bhadaur police has registered a case against 13 persons, including Jagsir Singh of Tallewal village in whose fabricated murder case five innocent persons of Tallewal village had spent five years in jail.

The case has been registered against all of them under sections 420, 120-B, 193 (false evidence), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence), 195 and 196 of the IPC on the complaint of a former Sarpanch of Tallewal village Nachhattar Singh who along with his son Seera and three others had spent five years in jail from 1996 to 2001 (till their bail) on the charge of murdering Jagsir who is still alive. Seera had committed suicide on Diwali day in 2003.

The Bhadaur police said that it had registered case against Jagsir Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Gurdev Kaur, Surjit Kaur, Amar Singh (all residents of Tallewal village), Gurdev Singh (Raisar village), Jeeta Singh (Raisar), Mukhtiar Singh (Tajoke village), Surjit Singh (Tajoke), Gurcharan Singh (Barnala), Jangir Singh (Bhadaur), Karnail Singh (Dhilwan Nabha) and Bikar Singh (Deepgarh). However, no one could be arrested so far though police was conducting raids, the police said.

Regarding non-inclusion of the name of any police official in the FIR, the Bhadaur police official said as Nachhattar Singh had not mentioned the name of any police official in his complaint, so the name of any police official could not be mentioned in the FIR.

When contacted, ex-Sarpanch Nachhattar Singh said today that Jagsir Singh, his father Sukhdev Singh, his mother Gurdev Kaur and his sister Surjit Kaur were among 13 persons, against whom the Bhadaur police had registered the case for fabricating the murder case of Jagsir Singh (who is alive) by way of fabricating false evidences

It may be recalled that the members of Jagsir's family had got an FIR registered with the Bhadaur police station on June 11, 1996 against Nachhattar Singh, his son Seera, Nikka Singh, Surjit Singh and Amarjit Singh, regarding the murder of Jagsir.

After four-five days, a body had been found by the police from Gharreli village (Bathinda) that had been then identified as the body of Jagsir by his family members. In July 1998, all five persons were sentenced to life imprisonment, but they came out of the jail on bail in 2001 after spending more than five years there. 

Ferozepur, October 7
The first swine flu case of the region was reported here today. The patient identified as Moksh, a 15-year-old student studying at Alpine School, Bhawana (Pinjore), was tested positive following symptoms of high grade fever, cough and bodyache.

Dr Rakesh Sikri, DHO-cum-District Surveillance Officer said that the child reportedly got the infection in the school from a friend belonging to Delhi who had been tested positive earlier.

He said that the child was brought to his native place Guruharsahai on Friday by his parents following advisory of the school management to the parents to take the children from the school. However, when the parents saw the symptoms, they took the child to Government Medical College, Chandigarh where tests were conducted and the treatment was started. Dr Sikri said that the reports were also verified from the PGI Chandigarh.

Dr Sikri further said that the moment communiqué regarding the case was received yesterday evening, the health department immediately swung into action and a rapid response team led by Dr Gurmej Singh was rushed to Guruharsahai.

Dr Sikri said the child was responding well to the treatment. He said that all those persons who had come in contact with the patient ever since he tested positive have also been identified and their treatment has also been started. He said that personal protection equipment (PPE) has also been provided to all contacts including relatives, friends and servants.

The doctor said that the medical team was monitoring the case and the progress report was being sent to the state headquarters. 

Ferozepur, October 7
The lawyers protesting against transfer of judicial work pertaining to 125 villages of Guruharsahai to Jalalabad judicial sub-division further intensified their stir today as they locked the entry gate of sessions court here today. The employees of the sessions court who were aware of the strike had arrived half an hour early today.

SDM Gurjit Singh Pannu reached the court complex and held a meeting with the protesting lawyers. Sukhdev Singh Nagpal, president, Bar Association said that the sessions judge has assured them of all cooperation to solve the issue. He said that the Bar will now approach the High Court to shelve the move to shift the Guruharsahai villages to Jalalabad. — OC

Abohar, October 7
The Congress has decided to organise a rally on Friday morning outside municipal council complex, legislator Sunil Jakhar said.

Earlier, residents of Gobind Nagari met the MLA and explained that they had gone to the municipal council president Shiv Raj Goyal to complain against discrimination and use of sub-standard material in development works last month. But now, some of the protesters have been booked under sections 452, 506, 147, 149 of the IPC by the city police alleging that they attacked one of Goyal's domestic workers at the behest of the chief editor of a local newspaper.