B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Health officials collect water samples from city
Bathinda, July 24
In the wake of recent rains, the district health authorities collected six water samples from various parts of the city on Thursday and sent it to the State Public Health Laboratory, Chandigarh, for purity tests. The results of the water samples are awaited.

'Mindless urbanisation hitting ecology hard'
Faridkot, July 24
Punjabi Sufi singer Rabbi Shergill, who got fame from the song ‘Bulla Ki Jaana’ by introducing ‘baani’ style melody, has urged the policy makers of the nation to hold a national-level debate for developing the model of sustainable development for Punjab, the food basket of the country.

Two die after being hit by trains in Barnala
Barnala, July 24
Two persons died in past 24 hours after being hit by separate trains in Barnala. Police sources said Raj Kumar, son of Madan Lal of village Bathera of Mukerian in Hoshiarpur, died on the spot after being hit by a goods train near Barnala railway station last evening at around 10 pm. The train was on way from Ambala to Bathinda. The sources added that the deceased was crossing the railway track to return to his house in Barnala when he was hit by the train.

Survival of the fittest: Chaos rules the roads near Bathinda bus stand in the absence of proper regulation of traffic by the authorities concerned. Stretches from Fauji Chowk and Mini-secretariat Chowk towards the bus stand remain clogged with vehicles for the most part of the day. Ironically, traffic policemen stand as mute spectators to the violation of motor vehicle laws by truckers and motorists. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Border town an education hub
Ferozepur, July 24
Ferozepur, one of the biggest districts of Punjab, bordering Pakistan, witnessed many ups and downs in the past three centuries such as the Anglo-Sikh wars, partition of the country in 1947 and frequent floods in river Sutlej.

Mobile phone seized from jail inmate
Bathinda, July 24
An inmate of the Central Jail has been booked for possessing a mobile phone. The Civil Lines police here has registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC against Raj Kumar of Mansa district for possessing a mobile phone, which was reportedly found during the checking of the barrack number four where the inmate was reportedly lodged. The mobile phone has been seized.

PSEB engineers stage protest against govt
Bathinda, July 24
The PSEB Engineers’ Association today protested against failure of the Punjab government in fulfilling the commitments made during restructuring of the organisation.

Clarification
In the news report “Fake degree racket busted” published in these columns on Saturday, it has mistakenly been written that Ajay Kumar is the owner of the Bawa Model School, Kotkapura. In fact, he is living near the school. Principal of the school Renu Thakur has clarified that Ajay has nothing to do with the school. The error is regretted.

Health officials collect water samples from city
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 24
In the wake of recent rains, the district health authorities collected six water samples from various parts of the city on Thursday and sent it to the State Public Health Laboratory, Chandigarh, for purity tests. The results of the water samples are awaited.

District health officer (DHO) Dr RS Randhawa said here today that they took one sample from the Wadi street, near Amrik Singh Road, after a person from the locality informed over the phone that he had been getting “contaminated” water from the tap installed in his house. He said they immediately took the water sample from his house. “We appreciate his effort in informing us. He has set an example of being an aware citizen,” he added.

The other five samples were collected from a water tanker of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (near Fire Brigade office) and water sources in local Arya Girls School, Des Raj Senior Secondary School, Vishwas Public School, and an RO plant situated at Amarpura Basti.

The DHO said generally, tap water got contaminated when rain or drain water entered the water supply pipelines through micro holes of the rusted pipes installed outside the houses by the owners to receive water from the municipal water supply pipelines. He appealed to the public to keep a close watch on the rusted pipes and its joints to check contamination of water.

Dr Randhawa also appealed to the people not to use tullu pumps to draw water from the municipal water supply pipelines so as to prevent mixing of rain or drain/sewerage water with the drinking water.

'Mindless urbanisation hitting ecology hard'
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, July 24
Punjabi Sufi singer Rabbi Shergill, who got fame from the song ‘Bulla Ki Jaana’ by introducing ‘baani’ style melody, has urged the policy makers of the nation to hold a national-level debate for developing the model of sustainable development for Punjab, the food basket of the country.

He was talking to the media here today. He had come to this town to participate in a function organised by a local NGO Kheti Virasat Mission on environmental issues concerning the society.

He said the state needs to spell out viable strategies for the realisation of a vision for the sustainable development in the light of current issues being faced by the society. “We should come together on a common platform keeping at bay our personal/political considerations to suggest strategies to come out of the problem of environmental degradation and deteriorating social values in the society”, he said.

Rabbi said it was unfortunate that Punjab was being used as a dumping ground by the industrialists as well as the people without looking into its future implications. “Our natural water resources have become unfit for drinking water, food grains possess chemical residues and air has also become unhealthy for breathing resulting into various deadly diseases like cancer, which is a great concern for our society,” he said.

Adding that the capitalist policies introduced in the 1990’s in the country had to a great extent hit our traditional values and customs completely changing the socio-economic system of the country based on the western model of development.

“The signs of degradation are all around us for all to see. The mindless urbanisation and ever depleting water tables for growing cash crops have now become a bane for us,” said Rabbi.

He said, “We first need to define the challenge and this is very crucial. The media, the intellectuals of Punjab, all need to come together. This is a task which cannot be fulfilled until we join hands together for sustainable development.”

Later, he was impressed to see the photo exhibition of Raghu Rai on the Bhopal tragedy, which according to him reflected the devastation caused by the corporate sector due to lack of poor planning and vision of our country. In the evening, he performed some of his popular songs enthralling the audience.

Two die after being hit by trains in Barnala
Tribune News Service

Barnala, July 24
Two persons died in past 24 hours after being hit by separate trains in Barnala. Police sources said Raj Kumar, son of Madan Lal of village Bathera of Mukerian in Hoshiarpur, died on the spot after being hit by a goods train near Barnala railway station last evening at around 10 pm. The train was on way from Ambala to Bathinda. The sources added that the deceased was crossing the railway track to return to his house in Barnala when he was hit by the train.

In another case, Manjeet Kumar Gautam, son of Radhey Shyam Gautam of Garakpur in Sanauri of Madhya Pradesh, presently residing at the Govind Colony here and working with the Trident Group, died at around 9 am after he was hit by the Sri-Ganganagar to Haridwar Express near SD College here. The deceased was returning home after dropping his children to school. He was hit by the train while crossing railway track.

The sources said the General Railway Police (GRP) had registered cases under relevant sections and started case proceedings.

Meanwhile, the police said one Vikas Garg, an operation manager with the Axis Bank here, allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance at his residence in a colony near New Grain Market road here around noon today.

Border town an education hub
Chander Parkash & Anirudh Gupta
Tribune News Service

Students were seen applying for admission in different courses at a girls college in Ferozepur. Tribune photo

Ferozepur, July 24
Ferozepur, one of the biggest districts of Punjab, bordering Pakistan, witnessed many ups and downs in the past three centuries such as the Anglo-Sikh wars, partition of the country in 1947 and frequent floods in river Sutlej.

However, its dignity as one of the educational hubs of the country has remained intact so far. The social organisations took up the initiative to set up colleges exclusively for girls and co-education also.

Though the successive state governments failed to establish any college in the government sector in this district, which has also allegedly been meted out step-motherly treatment in others spheres, the colleges running in private sectors, have been doing yeoman’s service.

“We have the honour of producing first woman from Punjab, Serla Grewal, to have made it to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Serla Grewal remained the principal secretary to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Governor of Madhya Pardesh,” said Madhu Prashar, principal of the Dev Samaj College for Girls.

In undivided Punjab, the college would attract Muslim girls from Pakistan and other Muslim nations. Now, the college has been attracting students from West Bengal, Chandigarh, Himachal Pardesh and other parts of the country.

The college offers various courses. “The strength of students, which was 990 in 1992, would cross the figure of 3,000 this year. The strength of teaching faculty, which was 40 in 1992, has gone up to 125 now,” Prashar pointed out.

Pushpinder Walia, principal, DAV College for Girls, said the college was opened in the cantonment area to provide the girls of rural areas with quality education and vocational courses.

She added that the students were inclined to get admission in the Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) course this year. A large number of students interested in different courses were pouring in every day. “Various multinational companies (MNCs) were regularly invited to the college campus for placements,” she said.

Mobile phone seized from jail inmate

PSEB engineers stage protest against govt
Tribune News Service