Ferozepur, May 30
Fear gripped Arniwala town of this district after a resident died due to hepatitis-C. The residents of neighbouring village Dhipanwali came in for a rude shock when they learnt that two members of family have fallen prey to hepatitis-C a few days ago.

Nand (name changed), a resident of Mandi Ladhu Ka, who was found inflicted with hepatitis-C, has been battling for life. He has been undergoing treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh. A medical practitioner of village Mullianwali of this district died of hepatitis-C a few weeks ago.

Over the past few years, the hepatitis-C has become a serious problem for the residents of this border district, who have braved 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars. Despite an increase in death cases due to hepatitis-C in the nook and corner of this district, no survey to find out such patients has been carried out by any agency of the state health department.

Information gathered by the TNS revealed that over the past few years, the situation has reached a point wherein patients suffering from hepatitis-C could be found in every inhibited area of this district. Most such patients had been inching towards death as they could not afford the expensive treatment ranging from Rs 4 lakh-Rs 10 lakh per patient.

The unregistered medical practitioners, who have been catering to the medical needs of residents of this district, devoid of various fundamental facilities, are wreaking havoc on the lives of people by using already used needles and syringes making them prone to hepatitis-C.

“I have been receiving patients of hepatitis-C in large numbers from Abohar, Fazilka, Mandi Ladhu Ka and other parts of Ferozepur. I can claim that Ferozepur district perhaps tops the country due to the maximum number of patients of hepatitis-C,” said Ravinder Sharma, a senior doctor of Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan.

He warned that if the corrective measures were not taken, hepatitis-C would bring catastrophe as the population of patients of hepatitis-C had been increasing by leaps and bounds. In the recent past, it had been noticed that all members of a family had been suffering from hepatitis-C, he added.

Tejwant Singh Kathpal, senior Akali Dal leader of Mandi Ladhu ka, whose domestic help is also suffering from hepatitis-C, said in the absence of health centres in rural and semi-urban areas, unscrupulous medical practitioners had become the only option for treatment. A group of people from rural areas met Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, when he visited this district on May 18-19 for Sangat Darshan and urged him to save them from hepatitis-C. Badal assured them that all possible steps would be taken.

Dalip Kumar, Civil Surgeon, while alleging that unscrupulous medical practitioners had been thriving in the region, said a fresh survey would be carried out. He added that all such so-called medical practitioners would be brought to book at the earliest.

Bathinda, May 30
Hundreds of full-grown green trees are being axed along the Bathinda-Kheowali road, which connects Bathinda with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s native village—Badal—- located in Muktsar district.

The merciless cutting of trees has initially been started on a stretch of 4.5 km near village Ghudda, on the pretext of stepping up the ambience of the Central University of Punjab (CUP), which is to be set up there.

Ironically, the construction project of the CUP is still confined to the papers only but showing some urgency, authorities concerned have hurriedly put the well-grown trees on the death row.

The trees, which are being targeted, include Tortalis, Neem, Kikkar and Sheesham. Many of these trees are between the age of 30-40 years with well-grown trunk and branches.

Though the project has been started after the approval of the departments concerned, it has made people of this district raise hackles, as they are already affected badly by air and water pollutions.

Sources in the divisional forest office, Bathinda, informed that as many as 1182 trees standing within the 4.5 km stretch (from 13.1 km to 17.6 km) on the Bathinda-Badal-Kheowali road (number MDR-73) are to be felled before the end of the next month.

Meanwhile, a highly placed official in the district administration informed that the CM is keen to see the whole stretch, leading from Bathinda to Badal village, having four lanes. A project for widening the Bathinda-Ghudda stretch (about 13 km) is already pending for the approval, while another project for Ghudda-Badal road is also being framed.

“Everybody is aware that the road, in question, does not cater to much traffic. Despite this, if the project gets cleared to satisfy the desires of the bigwigs, thousands of trees would have to be axed, without any valid cause,” officials lamented.

Divisional Forest Officer SP Anand Kumar said, “We have started cutting the trees only after getting the approval from the authorities concerned. Moreover, as compensation for the axing of the trees, we will cover double its area under afforestation.”

On his part, the executive engineer, PWD (B&R) Manjeet Singh quipped, “We are just implementing the project sent to us after approval.”

Fazilka, May 30
The museum set-up in the 1971 Indo-Pak War Memorial complex has been given a facelift by the members of the War Memorial Committee Asafwala (Fazilka) with the help of the Armymen posted in Fazilka.

The photographs of martyrs and insignias of Four, Jat Regiment, Assam and Rajput regiments have been put on view. The war history of the 1971 Indo-Pak war has been displayed to inspire and attract the visitors.

Notably, the War Memorial Complex was constructed at village Asafwala, seven kilometers from here to commemorate the supreme sacrifices of the officials and jawans of the Army units, who had laid down their lives during the 1971 Indo-Pak war defending Fazilka. Collective cremation of war heroes was performed at the site of the memorial.

The war museum project chairman Mohan Lal Paruthi and Shashi Kant said the dream project of the sabha to raise an attractive war museum has come true. “These memorials instill the feeling of patriotism amongst the young generation in particular,” said Paruthi and Kant.

A number of visitors who visit the retreat ceremony at the Sadiqi Joint Check-Post (JCP) in Fazilka sector daily also used to pay obeisance at the war memorial, which is situated at village Asafwala between Fazilka and Sadiqi JCP.

In an exemplary motivational move, Jitender Kumar Soni, posted as a teacher in a government school at Nethrana village, was accorded a warm public reception in his hometown Rawatsar located on the Abohar-Hanumangarh-Pallu road for obtaining 29th position in the IAS exam, on Friday.

He had earlier topped in the IAS exam in the OBC category but preferred to continue teaching and prepare for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Jitender was escorted to Ramdev Dharamshala for civic reception in a procession that was led by motorcyclists.

Residents came out to shower flower petals and greet the successful lad. Former DSP Manphool Godara was joined by Jagdish Meghwal, former chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, Dharminder Mochi ex-MLA, Sriniwas Soni, president of Soni Samaj and other dignitaries in honouring Jitender who was born and raised at village Dhannasar, is also widely known as a poet.

While revisiting his early life, Jitender revealed that he had been lending books at 50 paise per day each to other needy students to raise money for buying more syllabi books to continue studies.

He did not forget to mention that values inculcated in him by his parents had helped a lot to achieve the goal.

He used to devote only 90 minutes a day for studies at home and never visited metropolitan cities for coaching.

Senior teacher Roop Singh Rajpuri recalled that a common man could not think of competing in the ICS during the pre-independence era as exams were held in the UK. While others presented garlands and shawls, Madan Lal presented a portrait of Rabindra Nath Tagore that has been painted by him.

Jitender expressed his feelings through a poem that reads as, “Mujhe ghutan nahin chahiye, main jeena chahta hoon, suraj ki roshani ban kar, chand ki chandani ban kar”. — Raj Sadosh

Bathinda, May 30
The pitchers and earthen flagons, known as water coolers for poor people, are not attracting a good number of buyers for the past several years. While the emergence of water coolers, campers and refrigerators hit their sales hard during past more than three decades, the change in lifestyle of the people did the rest of the damage.

Not only the pitchers and earthen flagons, people also do not prefer to buy earthen toys or other items these days. Therefore, potters have been compelled to switch to other vacations and jobs like rags collection or a truck cleaner.

Due to modernisation, the potter community in Punjab has been facing several problems to keep their age-old profession alive. The potters feel if the people’s attitude towards their products continued like this, the number of potters may decline in a big way in the years to come.

In Bathinda city, some potters told TNS that there were days when they could not find a single customer. Sometimes, their sales range between Rs 200 and 300 only, which was not enough to make both the ends meet.

A potter said they asked Rs 30 to 50 for a pitcher depending upon its size, still people preferred against purchasing their product. He said they purchased a trolley of “kaali mitti” (black soil) for Rs 1,500 and the colour to paint the pitcher for Rs 45 per kg. “When we purchase material at such high rates then how could we sell our products for peanuts,” he asked.

The potter said a majority of their customers were migrant labourers or the people living in slum areas. He said if a well-to-do person purchased a pitcher or earthen flagon from them, he would certainly be a lover of natural cold water. Sometimes, people also purchased pitchers as doctors advised them to do so, he added.

Meanwhile, it is also a matter of concern that the tradition of placing big pitchers along the roadsides in temporary huts so as to provide cold water to the passers-by, has almost disappeared nowadays. Even if such “Pau” (pitcher containing cold water) exists somewhere, the number would be much less.

Bathinda, May 30
The driving licence section of the Suvidha Centre here is in the news once again for the wrong reason. This time, 400 learning licences have been misplaced from the section concerned.

According to sources in the police, the matter came to the notice of the supervisor of the Suvidha Centre a few weeks back. Finding packets of licences missing, the supervisor informed the Deputy Commissioner, who marked an inquiry into the matter.

After going through investigation report, the Deputy Commissioner recommended to the SSP Bathinda to register a criminal case against Avtar Singh, the chowkidar (watchman) of the Suvidha Centre, as it was observed that the licences were misplaced from the office late in the evening when only he was on duty.

The Kotwali police has booked the watchman of the Suvidha Centre. The further investigation into the matter has been marked to Buta Singh, the SHO, Civil Lines.

Rana (Ferozepur), May 30
Liquor flowing from a health centre may sound unbelievable. However, it is true. The authorities concerned seem to have used its ‘wisdom’ to make the best use of a subsidiary health centre (SHC), lying disused in this village, by allowing a liquor vend to run from its premises.

In the ‘special’ vend, perhaps first of its kind in Punjab, Bacchus lovers are allowed to consume liquor as the vend employees provide them glasses and snacks also.

Though Sukhwinder Singh, excise and taxation officer (ETO), said a liquor vend could not be run from the premises of a health centre and legal action would be taken against the vendor concerned, the liquor stock lying in the premises was shifted to the undisclosed destination after the authorities concerned came to know that some media persons had taken photographs of the liquor vend.

The SHC was constructed by the department of rural development and panchayat about nine years ago and then MLA of Jalalabad and now MP, Ferozepur Sher Singh Ghubhaya inaugurated it.The foundation stone of the SHC was laid by Sukhbir Badal in 2000. Though SHC was formally inaugurated, it never started functioning as the successive governments never posted medical professionals and paramedical staff into it.

The residents said though they had objected to the permission given to the vendor to run a liquor shop from the SHC, the authorities concerned never bothered to redress their grievances.

Dalip Kumar, Civil Surgeon, Ferozepur, said neither the SHC was handed over to the Punjab health department nor any medical professional was posted into it by the authorities concerned yet. He said as the health department had no connection with the SHC, he could not take any action against those running the liquor vend in it.

Surinder Sethi, Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Fazilka, said as he had joined in Fazilka block recently, he could not comment on it.

Ferozepur, May 30
A new chapter has been added to the history of Punjab Home Guards (PHG) as its jawans will hold self-loading rifles (SLRs) in their hands within a few days by replacing the .303 bolt-action rifles, belonging to the pre-Partition era of the country.

The Border Security Force (BSF) authorities have decided to provide 500 SLRs of .7.62 mm make in one go to the PHG under an agreement reached between them and the Home Guards authorities in the recent past.

These rifles were inducted into the BSF in 1971.

Official sources said the delivery of SLRs had already been started after a three-member team had carried out a physical inspection of the weapons at the BSF, Punjab Frontier headquarters, at Jalandhar.

Sources added that out of the 500 SLRs, which had been given to the PHG authorities, 480 SLRs would be divided among the six battalions of the PHG, deployed in the border areas of Batala, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Amritsar, Patti and Gurdaspur, better known as Border Wing Home Guard (BWHG) and the rest of 20 SLRs would be sent to the Combines Training Institute (CIT), Mohali, to be used for providing training to the jawans.

It is learnt that all six battalions of the BWHG had acquired the knowledge of handling modern weapons during their participation in the Army exercise carried out in these pockets at regular intervals. Moreover, they had got an opportunity to handle modern weapons while performing election duties in Naxalism-infested states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Orissa.

“Even the jawans of the BWHG know how to operate the Insas rifle, which is considered as the latest weapon to deal with any kind of situation and is being handled by BSF jawans on the frontiers,” said a senior functionary of the BWHG on condition of anonymity.

He said the authorities had given fast- moving-vehicles and electronic gadgets to the PHG to modernise it. It had been facing blatant neglect for the past many decades.

Abohar, May 30
The Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) has flayed the Punjab State Education Board (PSEB) for directing the heads of all the schools to collect continuation fee from the students and deposit the same between June 14-23.

The heads of the institutions have also been asked to charge a late fee from the defaulters.

DTF local unit president, Bhagwant Bhateja said today a deputation is leaving for Chandigarh to meet the Director General, Education (Punjab), on June 1 and would press the demand for changing the dates.

Interestingly, summer vacations had started on May 26. The DTF regretted that the state government makes tall claims about providing free education in its school to attract students of the BPL and APL families but fee structure had been revised to make education more expensive under the pretext of continuation fee.

The DTF has demanded that the process of collecting continuation fee and filling up of forms should be started after July 10.

Abohar, May 30
The birth anniversary of Maharaja Arut was celebrated here. The office-bearers of the reorganised Arorvansh Sabha led by president Mohinder Pratap Bathla and Vijay Narang president of Arorvansh Dharamshala assembled in the Arorvansh Chowk outside the Nehru Stadium here to garland the statue of Arut Ji Maharaj.

Later, Bobby Mann, son of former MP Zora Singh Mann, inaugurated an air-conditioned meeting hall, dedicated to the memory of Satish Narang, former senior vice-president of the local municipal council.

Fazilka: To celebrate the birth anniversary of the founder of Arorvansh sect Maharaja Arut, a special programme was organised by the Shri Arorvansh Sabha, Fazilka.

Ashok Monga, spokesman of the Sabha, patron of the Sabha, Surinder Kumar Ahuja, Ashok Kumar Gulbadahr, president, Arorvansh Helpline, the associate unit of Shri Arorvansh Sabha, members of the Arorvansh including PPCC secretary, Davinder Sachdeva, Punjab Beopar Mandal, secretary, Satish Dhingra, Improvement Trust, chairman, Mohinder Pratap Dhingra, Bar Association, president, Sushil Gumber paid floral tributes to the founder of the sect Maharaja Arut.

Abohar, May 30
An unidentified motorcyclist was allegedly crushed to death near a sub-canal bridge on the Sriganganagar-Abohar road (NH 15) on Sunday, sources said. As per details, one of the heavy vehicles that formed part of an Army convoy reportedly hit the motorcyclist and dragged it for about 50 metre, perhaps unaware of the mishap.

Some migrants, who had assembled at a roadside nursery, raised an alarm and got the Army vehicle halted. The Khuyiansarwar police was informed by the witnesses. The investigation is on, sources said. Notably, the highway had been recently widened but this could not bring down the number of accidents.