Bhai Bakhtaur (Talwandi), May 12
Men, women and children of this village today blocked the gate of the Government High School here to prevent contractual teachers from replacing the regular ones, who were posted in the village for the past many years.

Reports of villagers locking gates of the government schools at Sidhana in Phul block and Kothe Chet Singh in Bathinda district to protest against appointment of contractual staff have also been received. Students of these schools boycotted classes and raised slogans against the government.

Residents of the village squatted outside the gate of the school throughout the day and said the dharna would be lifted only after the existing staff was restored.

Upgradation of six middle schools in the district to high school under the Centre-sponsored Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), where under fresh contractual teachers have been appointed in place of the regular staff, has triggered protests by villagers. About 70 schools in the state have been brought under the RMSA. Village elders accused the government of takin an arbitrary decision of replacing the regular staff without taking into confidence the panchayats concerned that had donated land for these schools.

Malkiat Singh, a member of the panchayat, said residents of the village were taken by surprise yesterday when the seven regular teachers received summons from the district education officer to give their option for fresh place of posting.

Village residents have constituted a 19-member action committee to thwart the “attempt by the Punjab government to privatise the school”. They announced that the joining of the contractual staff would be resisted.

Meanwhile, on the orders of Deputy Commissioner Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, ADC (Development) C. Sibin summoned sarpanches of the six villages and cleared their doubts that the schools were being privatised. Siban warned that a strict action would be taken in case gates of the schools were locked tomorrow.

Jagjit Singh Joga, district secretary of the CPI, who is spearheading the agitation, claimed that some classrooms in these schools were constructed with donations of parents and panchayat. Appointment of contractual staff was a step towards privatisation of education in Punjab, he added.

District Education Officer Harbans Singh Sandhu clarified that these schools had been upgraded under the RMSA and contractual staff had been appointed according to provisions of the scheme. He alleged that certain vested interests were misguiding the villagers that the schools were being privatised. The contractual teachers for English, science, math and social studies would be paid a monthly remuneration of Rs 16,500 whereas those for other subjects would get Rs 10,000, he said.

Bathinda, May 12
Encouraged by the success of three multi-purpose cooperative agriculture service societies of this district in collecting payment of electricity bills from the villagers and depositing the same with the erstwhile PSEB’s offices, the local office of the deputy registrar (DR), Cooperative Societies, has now planned to give the work of collection of payment of the electricity bills in villages to all remaining 175 multi-purpose cooperative agriculture service societies of the district in a phased manner.

In the first phase, three societies, Rai Ke Kalan (Bathinda), Bangi Ruldu (Talwandi Sabo) and Bhai Rupa Patti Kangar (Rampura) started collection of payment of electricity bills from the villagers. Now in the second phase the district office of the Cooperative Department with an aim to expand the scheme to other 11 societies have sent the case to the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab for approval.

Talking to the TNS here today the DR, Cooperative Societies, Bathinda, Harbant Singh Jatana said the names of villages of 11 societies, whose cases had been sent for approval, were Jalal, Dhapali, Jeond, Maluka, Nathpura, Jodhpur Bagga Singh, Pucca Khurd, Jodhpur Pakhar, Gidder, Jida and Puhli. He said in the third phase, all remaining societies would be covered to collect the payment of the electricity bills in the villages to benefit the villagers. A majority of the villages had no centre for the collection of payments of the electricity bills, so the villagers had to go to far away places, he added.

Jatana also stated that his office had sent cases of 72 multi-purpose cooperative agriculture service societies of the district to the Punjab Farmers’ Commission for approval so that they could get subsidy to the tune of 33 percent from the Commission on the loan of Rs 10 lakh, meant for purchasing tractor, laser land leveler, rota-vator, Happy Seeder to run service centres.

Jatana said 28 societies, including Mandi Kalan, Maluka, Deon, Jalal, Salabatpura, had already got the benefit of the subsidy from the commission in the district. He said these societies were now earning money by giving tractor, laser land leveller, etc to the farmers on hire basis.

Bathinda, May 12
MP from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal today held ‘Sangat darshan’ in five villages of the Bhucho Assembly constituency, namely Bibiwala, Lehra Mohabbat, Lehra Sondhan, Tungwali and Lehra Dhurkot. During the programmes, she distributed cheques worth Rs 25 lakhs to the village Panchayats for development works. She also inaugurated a reverse osmosis system plant at Bibiwala village.

Addressing the programmes, Harsimrat said she had toured 435 villages of the nine Assembly constituencies of her Lok Sabha constituency so far. During these tours, she had distributed about Rs 25 crore for development works with the cooperation of the Punjab government.

She announced that she would visit all villages of her constituency and would provide requisite funds for development works.

Among others who accompanied Harsimrat during the tour included Deputy Commissioner Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill, Bathinda SDM KPS Mahi, DTO Amandip Bansal, Gura Singh Tungwali, Devinder Pal Singh Mann and Dr Om Parkash Sharma.

Abohar, May 12
As the cotton sowing season is nearing its end, needy farmers have been paying a premium to purchase their requirement of the Bt cotton seeds from the traders to complete that exercise well in time.

"Yes we know that farmers have been paying higher prices of the Bt cotton seeds of both BG1 and BG2 categories. However, no one has been coming to us with a complaint against the unscrupulous traders, who have been fleecing the needy farmers and hence we are not able to take any action," said Gurdial Singh, deputy director, seeds, state agriculture department, Punjab.

A godown where the Bt cotton seeds, meant for distribution in southern India, which was being sold to needy farmers at much higher rates than the rate printed over the packets was detected and its entire stock was seized immediately.

Besides, a complaint had also been moved to the local police by the agriculture department when a farmer gave an affidavit that a shopkeeper had sold him Bt cotton seed on premium a few days ago, he pointed out adding that he along with a team of officials had been roaming in the cotton belt for the past two days.

In these two days, two shopkeepers, who were not running their business as per norms, had been asked to stop their sales.

Hanuman, general secretary, BKU (Lakhowal), Abohar block, said that farmers had been forced to pay premium to buy the Bt cotton seeds as unscrupulous traders had created its artificial scarcity in the region despite the fact that the state government claimed that about 25 lakh packets of the Bt cotton seeds had been arranged for the current season.

He said that some of the farmers had been forced to pay Rs 1,600 per packet of the Bt cotton seeds, whose control price was Rs 925 per packet. Not only this, a section of traders had been selling Bt cotton seed by bringing the same from the southern states as its price was less in that region than the control price in Punjab.

A section of farmers, to whom TNS spoke to, said that period of one month, from April 15-May 15, was recommended as optimum sowing period for the cotton crop. Due to unavailability of water and the Bt seeds in the past few weeks, they were forced to delay the sowing. As they were in hurry to complete the operation by the end of this month to get good yield so they were being forced to pay more for the Bt cotton seeds, they said.

Moga, May 12
Gross irregularity on the part of an examiner in the Punjab Technical University (PTU) has come to light, which has put the career of a BCA student at stake.

The student, Mohit Kumar, a Moga resident, studying at the Punjab College of Technical Education at Badowal (Ludhiana), appeared in the IVth semester examination last year.

At mathematics examination, he got only nine marks as declared by the university. However, after he applied for a challenge evaluation by paying a sum of Rs 2,500, the evaluator Jyoti Aggarwal in his presence found that the total marks were 39 instead of nine.

On April 30, she wrote a letter to Dr Rajneesh Arora, vice-chancellor of the PTU admitting her previous mistake requesting him to “please ignore this clerical mistake and update the university's result with 39 marks of the student.”

The Vice-Chancellor on her written request on May 6 asked the authorities concerned to update the marks of the student and return the evaluation fee to him.

However, so far neither the result of the student has been updated nor the money has been returned to him. Besides, no action has been taken yet against the examiner.

Similarly, this student also applied for challenge evaluation of operational research paper of the Vth semester by paying a sum of Rs 2,500, in which he got only 14 marks. After evaluation, he got 20 marks. However, he has again objected to the challenge evaluation as per the university rules.

He has dispatched a written complaint to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal giving details of the gross errors committed by the university and demanded impartial re-checking of his answer sheets from the teachers of any other university.

Fazilka, May 12
The local municipal council (MC) authorities, who have courted a number of controversies in the past, are heading for another embarrassing situation as allegations levelled against it that execution of certain development works was started without floating tenders for the same, have been found true in the inquiry conducted by the deputy director, local bodies, Jaskiran Singh.

In the inquiry, it was found that execution of three development works had been done by a section of contractors, despite the fact that no tenders were floated for the same, in partial manner. In one of the development works, about 32 per cent work was completed, in another development work, about 25 per cent of work was completed while in the third development work, about one per cent work had been completed so far, said Singh.

"C. Roul, principal secretary, local bodies, Punjab has asked me on the phone to conduct an inquiry on the basis of a news item, which appeared in a section of press. I got the inquiry conducted by sending two-member team to make on the spot examination to verify the allegations, which were levelled in the news item," he pointed out.

He added that he had sent the inquiry report to C. Roul as action on his inquiry report could be taken at his (Roul) level.

Interestingly, the MC authorities opened tenders of bids made by different civil works contractors to execute the development works, on May 7 even when inquiry by Singh was going on into the allegations that a section of development works, for which the tenders were opened on May 7, had already been executed by certain favourite contractors. Even Mahesh Gupta, a senior activist of the ruling BJP, also lodged a formal complaint levelling serious allegations against the MC authorities for getting some development work done from their favourite contractors, without floating tenders for the same for competitive bidding.

Satinder Singh Savi, municipal councillor and former vice-president of the MC, said that as inquiry conducted by the deputy director regarding various bunglings in the execution of development works had established the fault of the MC authorities, tenders opened on May 7 must be cancelled and legal proceedings must be launched against the guilty officials.

Anil Sethi, president, MC, said that so far he had not received inquiry report from the deputy director. He added that action would be taken against the guilty as per the contents of the inquiry report under the relevant provision of law.

Abohar, May 12
The brick lining of the side walls of the Abohar branch canal that had been carried out at an initial cost of Rs 2.7 crore in the early 1995 has been completely covered by the wild growth of shrubs and plants resulting in loss of 200 cusecs for the Malukpura distributary that feeds a major area of Muktsar and Abohar sub-division.

Interestingly, some villages in the Lambi segment represented by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal are too connected to this canal system.

A visit to the canals recently indicated that the pucca walls had been eroded due to wild growth in the Abohar branch canal over more than a hundred burjis up to the shutters that regulate water to the Malukpura distributary.

Progressive farmers including Tejwinder Singh Aulakh, former sarpanch of village Kallarkhera, Jaswinder Singh sarpanch Usmankhera, Har Gobind Singh senior vice-president SAD circle Khuyiansarwar, Rupinder Singh Aulakh and Kulwant Singh Sandhu, official spokesman of the Rajasthan State SAD, pointed out that the irrigation department had not filled up the vacancies of mates who had been carrying patrolling on the canals and used to remove unwanted growth for the past ten years.

Efforts to clean the Abohar branch canal since its lining were never made. The canal was designed with 1914 cusecs capacity. Out of this, Malukpura and Arniwala distributaries are entitled to get 650 cusecs each. However, the farmers on the way fear these would breach if water is released to their actual capacity.

The Samiti members said they were planning to meet the Deputy CM to get funds sanctioned as the fate of 1.5 lakh hectare area under cultivation is involved.

Abohar, May 12
The Abohar canal, which is the lifeline for hundreds of villages and some urban pockets including this town, has come under severe threat due to huge deposition of silt on its bed and its banks.

“The water carrying capacity of the canal has come down drastically than its sanctioned strength and hence, whenever water is released into it as per its sanctioned discharge, its banks become prone to breach,” said a senior functionary in a message send to higher irrigation authorities adding that the canal needed immediate repair failing which it could become a major source of destruction in this area.

A section of the farmers while talking to TNS pointed out that most of the time, they had requested the irrigation authorities not to run the canal to its full capacity as it could cause breach any time and hence could cause damage to their dwellings even. “We are left with no other option than to release less water in this canal than its sanctioned discharge of 1914.27 cusecs. The less release of water in this canal has been causing problems to the farmers of villages located at tail-end of this canal and its distributaries and minors as water rarely reaches their farms,” said a senior official. Due to inadequate level of water in the distributaries and minors, the farmers had been indulging in theft of canal water.

Amarjit Singh Dullet, chief engineer, irrigation, admitted the fact that the Abohar canal was in a bad shape and hence could breach any time, said the CM Parkash Singh Badal had promised to give Rs 2.85 crores shortly. He said the repair would be done in the next period of canal closure. BS Dhaliwal, Technical Advisor, chief minister, Punjab said cleanliness of different canals, where the problems connected with siltation was severe, would be done at the earliest.

Fazilka, May 12
Local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani today refuted charges levelled against him in the light of the PIL filed by the Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka secretary Navdeep Asija before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The HC has issued a notice to Jyani, Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur and executive officer MC Fazilka on Tuesday regarding encroachment by one Kewal Krishan at a rickshaw stand in the cycle bazaar in Fazilka. The court has issued notice to Jyani and others on August 17 to present their views.

Jyani has stated that he has not backed anybody for any reported encroachment as claimed in the petition. He has alleged that the facts presented by the GWAF before the High Court are quite misleading. Navdeep Asija on behalf of the GWAF has moved this petition under the garb of the welfare of the rickshaw pullers of Fazilka, the MLA alleged

Meanwhile, while commenting on the charges levelled by the MLA, GWAF general secretary Navdeep Asija said every project is running successfully. Our main aim is to establish the independent identity of Fazilka, he said, and added that it is the prime duty of the government and the politicians to provide amenities to every section of the society.

Ferozepur, May 12
In a tragic incident, a twelve-year-old schoolboy Sahil Gumber, was crushed to death by a school van. Sahil, son of a local businessman Deepak Gumber, was a student of class VI. He was standing outside his house at Preet Nagar locality in the city when the accident occurred.

Pooran Chand, the driver of the van was caught by the enraged family members and people from the neighbourhood. He was later handed over to the police.

The police have registered a case under section 304 A, 227 of the IPC against the driver.

KBathinda, May 12
On the call given by the Punjab Subordinate Services Federation (PSSF), a large number of employees and pensioners from Faridkot, Moga, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Barnala, Mansa and Bathinda districts held a rally in support of their demands outside the Mini-Secretariat here today. PSSF chairman Sajjan Singh led the protest.

The protesters demanded arrears of salaries and pensions for the 43 months as per the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, rural allowance, release of installment of dearness allowance from January (in cash), regularisation of the services of contractual employees, constitution of anomaly committee under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge for removing anomalies in Fifth Pay Commission report etc.

Speakers said to get their demands implemented, two zonal level rallies would be held on May 19 at Jalandhar and on May 27 at Patiala. PSSF leaders announced that if the state government did not meet their demands, they would be forced to intensify their agitation to state level. Besides Sajjan Singh, those present included state president of the PSSF Darshan Singh Lubana, state general secretary Kuldip Singh, state additional general secretary Prem Chawla, leader of the Class IV Government Employees Union Ranjit Singh Ranwan and state-level leader of the Government School Teachers Union Bhajan Singh Toor. — TNS