Bathinda October 27
A ‘debt-ridden’ farmer of Behman Kaur Singh village in Bathinda district ended his life by consuming pesticide, at the village, late last night.

His elder brother also had committed suicide allegedly due to the agricultural debt, only recently.

Sources in the village informed that Labh Singh and Jagtar Singh, both sons of Karnail Singh, were depressed for some time due to the debt burden.

The family owned seven-eight acres of agricultural land, where about five years ago, they developed a kinnow orchard. Facing scarcity of canal water, the plants got damaged without even bearing fruit.

To manage the loss incurred, they took loan from the Punjab and Sindh Bank. Utilizing the loan amount of Rs one lakh, they again invested the money in the field. Unfortunately, in the next two seasons, the crop got damaged—once due to hail storm and the second time, due to deficit rain.

Later, taking loan from the village, the duo took to farming chillies, which too, proved to be unsuccessful as due to the ‘bandi’ of canal water supply, the plants got damaged.

Frustrated over the regular loss and the mounting debt-burden, the brothers became depressed.

The kin of the deceased informed that unable to repay the loan and to overcome the losses incurred over five years, Labh Singh committed suicide on October 11, hanging himself from a tree in the village.

His bereaved father Karnail Singh had just completed performing his last rituals when his younger son, Jagtar Singh, ended his life, consuming poison late on Monday evening. Jagtar Singh has two children.

Expressing concern over the ill fate of the family, activists of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) demanded that the government should lend the monetary help to the family and also sought job for the kin of the deceased.

When contacted, Anil Garg, Sub-divisional magistrate, Talwandi Sabo, said, “We are investigating the matter. As soon as the formality is completed, the report will be forwarded to the department concerned for necessary action.”

Moga, October 27
The Moga police arrested a police head constable and a homeguard jawan who tipped off a drug smuggler to run away from the spot during a raid at his premises after taking a bribe of Rs 1,00,000 on Monday night.

At a press conference held here on Tuesday, SSP Ashok Bath said the police party posted at Baghapurana was informed by an informer that Ikattar Singh, presently a resident of Baghapurana, had brought in large quantities of poppy husk from Rajasthan, which was kept at his home.

He also said that a head constable Jaswinder Singh and a homeguard jawan Swaran Singh went to Ikattar Singh’s house on Monday and did not arrest him after taking Rs one lakh as bribe from him, said the SSP.

The SHO of Baghapurana police station Pratap Singh registered a criminal case under section 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and section 13 (2) and 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Ikattar Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Swaran Singh.

A police party led by DSP Jagjit Singh Saroya first raided Ikattar Singh’s house and recovered five bags of poppy husk weighing 35 kg each.

Meanwhile, a local court has sent both the cops to one-day police remand for further investigations. “We will also look into whether any more policemen are hand-in-glove with the drug smugglers,” said the SSP.

On the other hand, a hunt had been launched by the cops for Ikattar Singh, who is a known drug smuggler of the area.

Mansa, October 27
The process of paddy procurement has been going slow at some of the purchasing centres in Mansa, claimed leaders of the Bhartiya Kissan Union after visiting purchasing centres on Tuesday.

District general secretary of the BKU (Ugrahan) and block leader Bhan Singh informed that many farmers have been waiting for buyers at Burj Hari and Khara procurement 
centres.

Farmers leaders visited Nangal, Mussa, Dalel Singh Wala, Burj Hari and Khara purchasing centres today. They also inspected the weighing of crop in the markets. Meanwhile, District Mandi Officer Ram Gopal Singla said that nearly 164138 tonnes of paddy had arrived in the markets of Mansa.

Nearly 136292 tonnes had been purchased till now by different government procurement agencies, he claimed. About 56000 tonnes of paddy was waiting to be lifted at the purchasing centres, he informed.

Due to high content of moisture, there were no buyers in the markets, he said. Government purchasing agencies like Warehouse, Markfed, FCI and Punjab Agro have been trying to make early purchase, he informed. 

Bathinda, October 27
Bathinda and its adjoining areas have started experiencing early signs of winter. As the southward direction of mercury has been gaining momentum, particularly in night, with each passing day, the nip in the air, especially in the morning, is becoming more and more perceptible in the region day by day.

The mercury taking a further dip settled at 10.5 degrees Celsius mark as minimum level, for the first time in the season, at 7.30 am on Tuesday.

The region has been witnessing noticeable fall in the temperature, both at the minimum and the maximum level, for the last couple of days.

The mercury has been hovering between 31 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees at the maximum level while its minimum range remained around 10.5 degrees Celsius to 12 degrees, as per the Agro-Met Advisory Services PAU Regional station, Bathinda.

The prevailing behaviour of mercury, the weathermen said, is usual in the last week of October. Almost all the atmospheric conditions, like humidity, wind speed, are typifying that winter is round the corner.

The region, however, might witness rise in night temperature in the next two to three days as the western disturbances active over western Himalayan region is likely to influence the weather conditions in Malwa, weatherman said.

According to the weather forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh, for Bathinda region on Tuesday, and received by the Agro-MeT advisory services, here, weather is likely to remain dry and clear in the next three to four days. There is possibility of rise in night temperature while there is no significant change likely in day temperature during the period.

Bathinda, October 27
On the second day of the breast cancer-cum-general medical check-up camp at Talwandi Sabo today, mammography was conducted on 14 women to detect breast cancer while one of them was found to be a suspected case of cancer.

Giving the information this evening, Dr Neelam Bajaj, Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, said now a fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) test would be conducted on the suspected patient to ascertain whether she was suffering from the disease.

Women were examined by a five-member team of cancer specialists from Delhi on both days at the camp. Mammography had been conducted on 21 women yesterday and two were detected as doubtful cases. Dr Bajaj said at today’s camp, over 130 patients had been examined for breast cancer and other diseases. These camps were being organised by the Health Department with the active assistance of the “Nanhi Chhaan Foundation”, she added. — TNS

Bathinda October 27
Besides providing civic amenities to the residents, now the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) will have an added responsibility, that of protecting the life of the people. 

According to a recently assigned duty, the BMC officials have been asked to assess the details of all high altitude buildings including water tanks, so that the chances of people committing suicide from there can be thwarted.

The BMC officials have also been asked to assess details to arrange for dry fodder, nets, mattress and cotton, which would be used in case someone climbs up the building and threatens to commit suicide by jumping down. 

The directive issued from the DC office, further states that to avoid any untoward incident, BMC will have to arrange some iron bar gates on the way to the stairs of the government structures, which will be opened only when required. Moreover, cops may also be deputed there. 

For the private buildings, duty to check such incidents has been imposed upon the owner of the building. 

Sources in the BMC said they have started proceeding upon the directions as the commissioner has to submit the report to the DC in the next meeting, where it will be discussed in detail. 

When contacted, BMC Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said, “We are preparing the report for which staff has already been deputed. Soon the report will be submitted to the DC for further orders.” 

On his part, DC Rahul Tewari said, “I have issued directions to the BMC in the light of previous incidents when some protesters climbed up the water tanks and forced the administration to accept their demands.”

Bathinda, October 27
In a memorandum given to the district administration here today, leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) and the Ek Noor Khalsa Fauz demanded an immediate release of Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu, chairman of the SAD (Panch Pardhani), and other leaders of the party, who were lodged in jails, so as to maintain peace in the state.

They also demanded stoppage of alleged “use” of the Punjab Police for political purposes. They sought stoppage of government support to the deras on the plea that these are spreading communalism in the state.

In the memorandum, they also alleged that the police was implicating their leaders in cases even as their party was committed to protect the interests of Punjabis and the Sikhs. Among others, the memorandum was signed by Balkaran Singh Khalsa, Mahain Singh, Jagdev Singh Malkana, Jagrup Singh, Baljit Singh, Mahinder Singh Jatana and Baljinder Singh Khalsa.

Bathinda, October 27
The trend of more number of teens and women in their early 20s switching to emergency contraceptive pills has started drawing flak from doctors now. They say that the practice is turning out to be a major cause of infertility among women.

Infertility is on the rise and one of the main reasons attributed to it was use of emergency contraceptive pills without guidance, said Dr HK Nagpal from Bathinda.

“With television promoting their use, youngsters do not bother to know about the consequences of consuming emergency contraceptive pills easily available in the market. It is very easy for a girl to walk up to a chemist and ask for it. This practice can put her reproductive health in danger because there have been cases where these pills have caused infertility,” Dr Nagpal said.

After a random survey carried out by this correspondent on how many girls purchase such pills from chemists on a daily basis, it was found that every chemist gets five to seven such customers daily.

Blaming changed cultural patterns for this problem, a psychologist was reported saying recently that present college and school environment is responsible for incessant usage of such pills by youngsters.

“Hormones go awry when these pills are consumed too often, which causes infertility in majority of cases but due to lack of guidance among youngsters the problem is rising. By the time girls realise that they are unable to conceive, it is too late. Some kind of law should be enforced on chemists selling emergency contraceptives,” said Dr Prema Ravi, a gynaecologist from Chandigarh. 

Ferozepur, October 27
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum of Ferozepur comprising president Sanjay Garg and memberws Tarlok Singh, in a significant judgment, has ordered the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, to again provide treatment to the patients without any charges.

The DMC had also been directed to pay Rs 5,000 each to the complainants Nishan Singh and his wife Sarabjit Kaur, who had filed a complaint before the Forum accusing the hospital authorities of laxity in treatment.

They stated that in an accident, the bones in the right thigh of both the complainants had broken and they were referred to the DMC, a super speciality hospital. Both of them were treated there and bones in the right thighs of both of them were replaced with metal rods. A metal rod was also inserted in the right bicep of Nishan Singh.

However, after some time, metal rods inserted in the thighs of both the complainants again broke. The patients had spent a lot of money on their treatment. Nishan had spent Rs 3,10,000 and Sarabjit Rs 1,00,000 on their treatment. However, the DMC authorities refused to give further treatment of the broken nails without further charges.

Nishan somehow got the replacement of the broken nails with new ones from Amandeep Hospital, Amritsar. However, Sarabjit could not get her broken metal rod replaced for want of funds.

The Forum ordered that all the expenses of medicines, metal rod and even room rent would be borne by the DMC authorities and it directed to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 as litigation expenses to each of the complainants. And, free of cost treatment would be provided to the complainant woman.

Sanjay Garg, while writing the judgment, held that the fact of nail/metal rod breaking of both the complainants could not be said to be a coincidence. There seems to be some fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality and manner of treatment, which might not in strict terms fall in the definition of medical negligence but certainly fall in the definition of deficiency in service as defined under the consumer protection act.

He held that if a consumer proves some inadequacy or imperfection in the treatment by a doctor, especially when a doctor claims himself to be a super specialist, an action could be brought against the doctor for deficiency in service. “Reasonable care and skill is expected from a doctor but if the person professes to be a specialist in the field, the highest degree of skill is mooted,” he said.

He said, “Human conduct and social relations cannot be regulated and governed by law alone. A considerable number of them are regulated by morals. It is not a legal sanction alone that ensures the obedience of legal rules but morals also help in it.” Garg held that consumer forums have to decide such cases on the principle of natural justice keeping in view morality, equity and conscience. 

Abohar, October 27
Hundreds of school and college going students, citizens including women joined the Army on Tuesday morning in paying homage to Major Surinder Prasad during a solemn and impressive wreath laying ceremony that was part of the Infantry Day functions.

Colonel RS Bishnoi and other officers and jawans of the Elite Ekkis regiment were followed by Sumit Godara, nephew of the 1965 war hero and representatives of the NGOs in laying wreaths and offering salute to Major Surinder Prasad. The Army band played conventional tune, bugles were sounded and arms were reversed.

The gathering was informed that Surinder Prasad was the only son of former MLA and veteran Gandhian freedom fighter Master Teg Ram.

He was commissioned into 19 Maratha Light Infantry on December 17, 1961. In 1965 Indo-Pak war, his battalion was given the responsibility to recapture Thatti Jaimal village in the Khemkaran sector. As the company commander succumbed to injuries sustained due to heavy shelling by the enemy, Surinder Prasad led the offensive.

He was awarded Vir Chakra posthumously by the President of India. Later, Lalita Shastri, wife of former Prime Minster Lal Bahadur Shastri had especially visited Abohar to inaugurate the statue of Major Surinder Prasad.