Bathinda, January 2
Dense fog coupled with biting cold following intensification of the prevailing cold wave conditions in the region hit normal life in Bathinda and its adjoining areas on Saturday besides disrupting road and rail traffic.

For the region's residents, who have been reeling under cold wave conditions for the last couple of days, the weekend began on a harsh note as they not only got up to a blind start today, but also experienced a drastic dip of mercury at the maximum level.

The foggy conditions remained prevalent almost throughout the day making the desire of a sunbath an elusive dream with the sun failing to penetrate the veil of fog. The visibility started to improve around 10 am. The sun did appear in some areas around 2.30 pm but was seen only for around half an hour or so.

Dense fog in Bathinda on Staurday. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

The mercury, although, climbed at the minimum level to touch 3.4 degrees Celsius, nearly a degree higher than yesterday, the dip in the maximum level, in fact, wreaked havoc as it fell as many as 9 degrees Celsius from yesterday's 20.2 degrees Celsius, to settle at 11 degrees Celsius, as per the Agro-met advisory services, PAU regional station, Bathinda.

Road traffic in the entire region moved at a snail's pace with vehicles moving with their headlights on due to almost zero visibility caused by fog in the morning.

The conditions also caused delay in the movement of several trains here as the railway deliberately ran the trains at slow speed to avoid mishap. The 2137 Punjab Mail reached Bathinda about four hours behind schedule while the 3007 Udyan Abha was reportedly running late by about 12 hours.

As per the weather forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh for Bathinda region on Friday and received by the Agro-met advisory services, here, the condition is likely to improve after Sunday with the possibility of partial cloudy to cloudy conditions in some pockets in the region. 

Bathinda/Muktsar, January 2
The chirping of the house sparrows is seldom to be heard these days as the population of this species is on the decrease in the region due to the proliferation of mobile phone towers- both legal and illegal. Since times immemorial birds, particularly, the sparrow, have enjoyed an enduring relationship with humans. However, things have changed and now people wake up in mornings only to miss the twittering of birds.

And, as experts say, the problem in the region is symbolic of the malaise all over where mobile towers have been erected. “We conducted a study at the centre recently and found that uncontrolled and unscientific proliferation of mobile phone towers is bringing down sparrow population. Conservation of house sparrows require enforcement of strict rules and regulations as far as erection of mobile phone towers is concerned,” Rakesh Sahu, an ornithologist working with the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty (Coimbatore), said.

“The study revealed that the birds, which nest near towers, were found to leave them within one week. Incubation takes 10 to 14 days. But eggs laid in nests near towers were found to have failed to hatch even after 30 days. The study also revealed that mobile towers were found to emit electro magnetic waves of a very low frequency but that was enough to harm the thin skull of chicks and their egg shells,” said Sahu, who had been working in the centre for the past 14 years.

Keeping in view the falling population of the house sparrow, experts feel that it had become imperative to include this bird in the endangered list and take steps to protect them from vanishing.

There are more than 80 mobile towers in Muktsar district alone. In many places, three or four towers are erected within half-a-km radius. Sources reveal that a mobile tower emits microwave radiations in the Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR) part of the spectrum of electro magnetic waves. RFR is a source of thermal energy and in adequate doses, has all known effects of heating on biological systems, including burns and cataracts in the eyes.

“Leave alone the sparrows, the heating effect of RFR can also become a problem in individuals with metallic implants like rods in bones as electromagnetic interference can interact with cardiac pace makers,” Dr Vaneet Gupta, an oncologist working with Adesh Institute of Health Sciences, said here.

“House sparrows like areas modified by humans like farms, residential clusters and urban areas, where they nest in crevices inside or on buildings. However, with mobile towers springing up in a haphazard manner, sparrows are getting killed due to radiation emitted from these structures,” Dr Gupta added.

“To satisfy the requirement of consumers, cellphone companies are installing tower almost at every place in small towns and villages also. With an average life span of 13 years sparrows tend to forage for food on the ground, using a hopping movement when not in flight. They aggressively protect a small territory around their nests. Mobile tower radiation destroys that territory and with it the innocent sparrow,” said Jatinder Sharma, chief conservator, Forests (Hills), Punjab.

Lt Gen (Retd) Baljeet Singh, a keen bird watcher, differs and expands a different theory for the disappearance. He says: “The rapidly changing habitat of the house sparrows is the main reason for their disappearance. I have heard that radiation from mobile towers is responsible but I have not come across any scientific evidence which proves that radiation is killing the birds”.

Bathinda, January 2
The project officer of a local PNDT Cell Sadhu Ram Kusla today urged the Union Government to table a Bill on Surrogacy in the ensuing session of Parliament to safeguard the rights of the children, born by surrogate mothers several times, such children faced many problems after their birth.

Talking to this correspondent over the phone today, Kusla said such Bill was the need of the hour as some such babies had been refused to be accepted by the foreigners/Indians in the past. He expressed the hope that after the passage of a Bill on Surrogacy, the children would not become victim of any discrimination in society.

Kusla said he had also written a letter to the chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, New Delhi, regarding law on surrogacy. He said he had requested the chairperson to take up the matter with the Government of India.

Kusla also asked the chairperson to check the number of hospitals in the country where surrogate mothers were delivering children for other couples. It should also be noted that how many babies had been delivered by surrogate mothers and how many such children had been adopted by foreigners so far.

He had also urged the chairperson to look into the matter relating to those children who had been refused to be adopted by the foreigners and Indians. He said it should also be looked into whether the foreigners had completed all legal formalities, with regard to the children, delivered by surrogate mothers.

Kusla said it was a matter of great concern that in the absence of law, the business of renting wombs was flourishing in the country nowadays.

He said during only one year about 200 children had been delivered in a hospital in Gujarat. He said such a large number of deliveries by surrogate mothers only in one hospital in a year was really a matter of concern for society as well as the countrymen. 

Bathinda, January 2
Shop till you drop! This seems to have become the view of people in Malwa who are having a gala time these days as with the beginning of the New Year, markets are flooded with banners heralding winter clearance sales.

Be it branded ones or local made, almost every shopkeeper, selling sweaters, pullovers, jackets, stoles, shawls, caps, etc. is wooing customers, offering discounts ranging from 20 to 80 per cent on the printed price (varying upon the brands).

Expecting the winter season to stretch further, people, who were apparently waiting for the discount banners, have now started responding by shelling out the big bucks, without bothering to check whether the sales are genuine or not.

On the one hand, the customers have been enjoying discounts by buying garments in bulk for use during this season as well as the next season. On the other hand, shopkeepers are also feeling relieved by clearing their stocks, fearing a change in trend, colours and pattern of clothes, might mean losses for them in the days ahead. Moreover, shopkeepers feel the discount offer is an essential part of the market.

Ram Pal Singh, store manager of the Woodland showroom, located at Mall road, here, disclosed that the company announced clearance sale about a week earlier than the last season. Giving his reason, he said, "During the days of discount, our sale quadruples. Moreover, it is cut-throat competition, so no one can afford to let customers go and spend money on their rivals."

Amrit Pal, store manager of Liliput, a brand known for kids' apparel, said, "Whenever we hang the sale banner, we record a hike of 50 per cent in our routine sale average. All this is done to survive in the market. Moreover, in the next season, the company will come up with fresh colours and patterns to allure new customers"

Terming the discount offers as an outcome of their helplessness, Manish Kumar, owner of Cottons by Century showroom, located in Dhobi Bazaar said, "During clearance sale, our sale increases four times. We have no other option but to allure customers with heavy discounts as buyers seem to have made up their mind to purchase only during the days of clearance."

"Why dump products when our money can come back in circulation by offering affordable discounts?" quipped a shopkeeper, recounting the benefit of sale offers.

Bathinda, January 2
A 42-year-old man of village Lellowali village in Haryana, Gurjant Singh, who was recently admitted to a private hospital, here, was tested positive for H1N1 (swine flu), today.

Meanwhile, the laboratory report of the swabs of Dr Upinder Kaur, serving at the Adesh Medical College and Hospital and one Ajit Singh of Bir Talab village declared both of them as negative of swine flu.

The district health authorities said that with three new B-category cases, the number has reached 154, who have been taking anti-swine flu medicines as a preventive measure.

Meanwhile, seven new persons, who had come in contact with the H1N1 affected patients, have been identified. 

Bathinda, January 2
Claiming that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been focusing on identifying potential, former Indian fast bowler Harvinder Singh, said the BCCI firmly believes in the mantra of tap them young.Harvinder donned the Test cap for the country thrice and took six wickets while in the shorter version of the game, he shared the new ball on 19 occasions after making debut at Toronto in 1997 and picked up 28 scalps.

He was in Bathinda today as a selector to pick players for the team to represent North Zone in the Vizzy Trophy. Bathinda is hosting the North Zone Inter University Cricket Tournament.

Talking to the media at a hotel here, Harvinder Singh, while expressing satisfaction over the arrangement made for the tournament, said that holding of such tournament had brought Bathinda on the cricket map.

He said the zone had several players who have the potential to excel at the international level.

Talking about areas which require attention for any player to get noticed by the selectors, he said that only batting or only bowling was not enough these days and one has to be a good fielder too as international cricket is becoming more and more competitive with each passing day.

An admirer of Test cricket, Harvinder said that T-20 or even 50-50 games were good for many reasons apart from factors like entertainment value. But the skills of a player could only be tested in Test cricket, he maintained, adding, "That's why it is called Test cricket."

He said that specialised coaches were the need of the hour as international cricket had changed a lot and there was no room for mediocrity at that level.

He said that as the calendar has become packed, a player, particularly fast bowler, should find time to relax his mind and body and re-charge himself. "Such practice is necessary to avoid injuries," he stressed.

Raj Kumar Sharma and others were also present at the press conference

Bathinda, January 2
Bad weather conditions played spoilsport on the opening day of the three-day final of the North Zone Inter University being played at Bathinda as only two hours of play was possible today.

Earlier, electing to bat first after winning the toss, the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, scored 78 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 29 overs before the suspension of the day’s play due to bad light.

Hitesh Anand with 35 and Arminder with 19 were at the crease at the end of the first day’s play. Rajvir took 2 wickets for 15 runs. The match started late, at 2.30 pm, due to fog. 

Bathinda, January 2
Breaking the old tradition of lighting pyre by sons, the daughters of 105-year-old Durgi Devi today lit the pyre of their mother in the presence of their brothers at Kusla village (Mansa) about 70 km from here. Durgi Devi was mother of Sadhu Ram Kusla, assistant project officer (APO) in the Bathinda district rural development agency (DRDA). She died last night after a brief illness.

Kusla said as the family believed in equality among sons and daughters so it preferred to convey a 
message to the society by way of giving an opportunity of lighting the pyre of their mother to the daughters.

He said the family also wanted to scrap the concept of son's dominance in every sphere in the family network.

Both eyes of the deceased were also donated by the family so that others could see with the eyes of Durgi Devi.

The eyes were taken away by Bharat Vikas Parishad, Bareta, to transplant the cornea in other person's eyes. 

Ferozepur, January 2
The beginning of the year 2010 seems to have turned over a new leaf in the lives of thousands of farmers as the Border Security Force (BSF) authorities have started the work connected with the repositioning of cobra fencing on the Indo-Pak border falling in Punjab state.

In the initial phase, which is being executed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), 20 kilometres of the cobra fencing falling in Ferozepur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts, which share its border with Pakistan, would be repositioned to bring it closer to Zero Line.

With this exercise, thousands of acres of land, now situated across the fencing, would be cultivatable without any restrain or hassle for farmers. The BSF personnel, who have been deployed to keep a watch on the activities of farmers tilling lands across fencing, would be free to perform other security duties.

Rajesh Gupta, DIG, BSF, Ferozepur sector, when contacted, said that work on shifting had been started and about five kilometres of fencing would be repositioned in Ferozepur sector alone and it would retrieve about 3000 acres of land from the fencing.

The length of the Indo-Pakistan border falling in Punjab is 553 km long, out of which fencing was installed on about 450 km long terrain, leaving besides the riverine gaps, where it is not feasible. The fencing was erected about 25 years ago during the peak days of terrorism in Punjab to check infiltration.

The distance of fencing from Zero Line also varies from place to place. At some points, it is about two kilometers inside the Zero Line and at other places, it is hardly 100 metres inside the Zero Line. The farmers have been resenting their frequent frisking by the BSF personnel whenever they go to till their lands and have been pressing the authorities concerned to reposition it so that a large chunk of agriculture land can be taken out from the area falling between the fencing and Zero Line.

Official sources said that after receiving inputs from various agencies and state government, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs sanctioned the project pertaining to repositioning of fencing and released adequate funds for shifting of 20 kilometres of it in the first phase.

The reduction of distance between fencing and Zero Line would also help the BSF to check smuggling. Over the past few years, the smugglers had started using these types of land for smuggling of narcotics in a ‘conceal and clear’ manner, said a senior functionary of the BSF.

Not only this, the shifting of fencing would also improve the relations between the civilians and BSF personnel, which some time back soured due to restrictions imposed by BSF personnel on the movement of civilians areas close to the Indo-Pak border. 

Sriganganagar/Abohar, January 2
Worried over smuggling of more than one lakh quintals of sugarcane from Rajasthan to Punjab during this week, the district authorities have slapped notices on 300 farmers in Sriganganagar district for violation of the agreement, sources said today.

As per details, the farmers had availed of enhanced supply of canal water for irrigation by making a commitment that they would supply sugarcane produce to Sriganganagar sugar mills but they had so far supplied 30,000 quintals of sugarcane to the cooperative sugar mill at village Bodiwala Peetha near Abohar 
while 80,000 quintals of sugarcane was supplied to a private mill at Dhuri.

The survey conducted by the authorities indicated that the mills in Punjab were purchasing sugarcane at the rate of Rs 250 per quintal and assured quick payment in cash while the Rajasthan government was yet to enhance the MRP for the produce that was last year quoted at Rs 150 per quintal.

The government had offered Rs 50 per quintal as bonus. The farmers of district Sriganganagar had launched agitation well before the beginning of the season demanding revision of the MRP but the state government remained indecisive.

The Rajasthan farmers were bearing Rs 55 per quintal as transportation charges for supplying sugarcane to Punjab mills that had deployed middlemen in Rajasthan and virtually does not gain much.

The mills at Bodiwala Peetha have got only 635 hectare area under sugarcane cultivation this year, which could ensure processing only for a month or so. Other mills face similar crisis. While confirming that more than 8,000 quintals of sugarcane had so far been processed at Sriganganagar mills during the past 24 hours, the authorities said water supply to the farmers, who had backtracked, would be withdrawn besides imposing penalty as per rules.

Some of the farmers said the state government had failed to set up new mills near Sriganganagar, the foundation stone of which was laid by the former CM Vasundhra Raje. 

Ferozepur, January 2
In a significant decision, the District Consumer Forum, Ferozepur, yesterday held that Rajesh Sharma and PR Badhu, medical practitioners in government hospital, Fazilka, Raj Chugh, private ultra sound practitioner and owner of Delight Laboratory, have caused death to Ajit Kaur, a patient, due to negligence.

Rajesh Sharma, who carried out the surgery on Ajit Kaur and removed uterus and ovaries without conducting the pre surgery tests and investigations, for not noticing the growth of carcinogenic cells in uterus/ovaries at the time of their removal and thirdly, for failing to send the sample of removed organs for biopsy/histopathological examinations with proper fixative/preservative, have been ordered to pay Rs one lakh as compensation to Bachan Singh, husband of the deceased, who approached the consumer forum through a complaint.

The owner of Delight Laboratory was ordered to pay Rs 30,000 as compensation to the complainant for indulging in unfair practices and not disclosing the results of biopsy report to the patient.

Ajit Kaur, whose uterus and ovaries were removed by Rajesh Sharma on May 26, 2007, died on August 13, 2007 in her house after she developed post-operative complications allegedly due to negligence shown by the doctors in her treatment.

Taking cognizance of the complaint, Sanjay Garg and Tarlok Singh, president and member, District Consumer Forum, Ferozepur, respectively, held that Badhu and Chugh, medical practitioners, would pay Rs 10,000 each for plasticising sonography without having authorisation in that connection.

The State of Punjab and health authorities were also directed to pay Rs 10,000 for being negligent. — TNS

Sriganganagar/Abohar, January 2
The Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti has urged the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to take stern action to check theft of water by the farmers of Punjab from the Rajasthan feeder.

Samiti spokesman, Captain (retd) Subhash Sehgal said on Saturday evening that the inquiry report reportedly submitted by the ADGP (Intelligence) to the CM recently is an eye-opener.

The intelligence wing is believed to have confirmed that farmers and owners of marriage palaces in Muktsar, Ferozepur and Faridkot districts had largely encroached upon the land on both sides of the Indira Gandhi Canal better known as the Rajasthan Feeder. — OC

Abohar, January 2
The play ‘Ankhein’ staged by the Abohar-based Aks Theater Society was adjudged the best during the Universal Rang Mahotsav that concluded at Dehradun recently.

The team was given a warm reception on return to the hometown on Saturday.Giving details, president Mangat Verma informed that teams from Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Nagpur, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat participated in the drama competition. Aks director, Surinder Narula, played the key role in ‘Ankhein’ and was adjudged the best director besides second best male artist.

His daughter Aastha Narula was adjudged the best female artist for her key role in the same play.

Budding make-up man Bobby Sandha was also honoured during the valedictory function.

Anshuman Gandhi, Anjum Gulati, Vikram Kamra, Mangat Verma performed different roles. Notably, the Aks team had earlier excelled in the Shimla drama festival.