Barnala, January 15
About eight years after it mooted the idea of starting the de-addiction centre in Barnala, the police have yet to turn the idea into reality. Though the police managed to get the building for the centre almost completed but it has failed to move beyond that and is yet to provide full infrastructure to start the centre in this area where drug abuse prevails.

Sources said the idea to have a de-addiction centre in the area was mooted on the Punjab Day in 2003 with humanitarian Mahant Pyara Singh donating eight acres of land to start Baba Aala Singh de-addiction center in Barnala. They added that on November 1, 2003, the then DGP of Punjab AA Siddiqui had assured the people of the state on fighting drug abuse by laying the foundation of the centre.

Sources further said in course of time, a musical programme of singer Harbhajan Mann was organised and the then MP Simranjit Singh Mann had also donated Rs 3 lakh from the MPLAD fund. Later, on June 26, 2005, Inspector General of Police SM Sharma had laid the stone for the centre’s revised plan, they added.

Sources further said the then Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had also sanctioned Rs 10 lakh in August 2007 to complete the ambitious project.

They added that with the authorities showing little interest in the project, the centre had failed to become operational.

“Though the building of the centre has been completed about two years ago but due to paucity of funds and also non-availability of any psychiatrist, the centre is yet to become operational,” said a police source.

“On many occasions, we have reminded the present DGP Punjab PS Gill about the centre not being made operational but with little result. If the centre becomes operational, the menace of drug abuse can be fought to a large extent in this area,” sources said.

A close confidant of Pyara Singh, who donated the land, pleading anonymity, said it is ironical that the police have failed to utilise the land donated by the philanthropist.

He added that if the centre would have become operational, it could have helped in checking drug menace to a large extent in Barnala and even in the adjoining districts of Sangrur and Mansa.

Sources in the Red Cross Society said though the present DGP PS Gill had assured twice of arranging funds for the infrastructure (other than building), but he has failed to fulfill his commitment.

SSP Barnala Gurcharan Singh Toor said the work on the centre is in an advance stage and it would be competed very soon.

Bathinda, January 15
Keeping in view the 359 reported jaundices cases from the Bathinda city in a month (from December 14 to January 14), the district health authorities have got a survey conducted on 68 jaundice patients to study their cases and prepare a report on that basis.

The jaundice history of 68 patients from the city has been entered in the forms that the Integrated Diseases Surveillance Project (IDSP), Chandigarh, sent to the district health authorities for conducting the survey and preparing a study report.

Talking to TNS today, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Raghbir Singh Randhawa said though from the results of the blood samples of the jaundice patients it was clear that the disease was water-borne in the city but the health authorities still wanted to conduct a study to finally ascertain the root-cause of the disease, as the water samples taken from the city had passed the tests.

The DHO said that from December 14 to December 31, as many as 319 jaundice patients were reported in the city by the Civil Hospital, the Women and Children Hospital and private doctors whereas during past 14 days, only 40 jaundices cases had been reported.

He said they had collected blood samples of 10 jaundice patients from the local Ajit Road area the previous day and had sent the same to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, for testing to ascertain the type of jaundice (hepatitis).

Earlier, the authorities had got 48 blood samples of jaundice cases tested from the Faridkot Medical College, of which 43 tested positive for A, E and A-E categories of the hepatitis that belong to water-borne diseases' categories. The remaining five samples had tested negative for hepatitis.

Sriganganagar, January 15
The bandh call, given by the farmer organisations over the canal water regulation on Saturday, evoked a good response in the border region. CPM MLA Pawan Duggal, Zila Parishad member Sunil Godara and Rakesh Tholia, chairman of the Raisinghnagar Agricultural Development Bank, along with scores of other workers moved through the markets in the the border town of Anoopgarh to ensure that a complete bandh is observed till 2 pm.

The local Bar Association had also supported the call. One Narinder Bhojak informed that the farmer organisations have decided to block the vehicular traffic on all the roads in and around Gharsana on January 18 and no government office would be allowed to function on January 24.

In Gharsana, which had been an epicentre of major farmers’ agitations, a day-long bandh was observed. One Jagroop Singh said the state government had decided to shift the administrative control centre to regulate the water supply from Srivijaynagar to Hanumangarh. This will cause much inconvenience to hundreds of farmers as they will have to traverse about 150 kilometre distance while Srivijaynagar is located 35 kilometre away from Gharsana.

Krishan Duggal (BJP) joined the CPM legislator Pawan Duggal in appealing to the citizens to join the bandh.

Former MP Nihal Chand (BJP) was joined by the Congress leader Raj Kumar Lakhotia, former Zila Parishad member Lachhman Singh and Planning Board member Mahesh Derasari in ensuring a good response to the call for a bandh in Srivijaynagar.

MC president Sushil Middha urged the state government to withdraw the decision related to shifting of the water regulation office to Hanumangarh.

Sahi Ram Meghwal, president, Khajuwala unit of Kisan Mazdoor Beopari Sangharsh Samiti said there was no justification in depriving the farmers of regular supply of water till ripening of the crop when most of the canals were running to their capacity.

Sriganganagar, January 15
RC Aggarwal has taken over as the general manager of the North Western Railway recently.

Earlier, he was working as an additional member (Telecommunication) Railway Board, looking after the telecom related policy framing for the Indian Railways.

An officer of the Indian Railways Services of Signal Engineering (IRSSE) 1975 batch, he held many important posts such as Deputy Director in the Research and Design Standard Organisation at Lucknow, Divisional Railway Manager (Samastipur), Chief Signal and Telecommunication Engineer, North Western Railway and Central Railway.

RC Aggarwal is also credited with commissioning of various signalling work such as electronic interlocking at stations, automatic signalling and modern telecommunication systems.

Bathinda, January 15
The district unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) held a rally to celebrate the birthday of the party supremo and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Mayawati, at the Ambedkar Park near the Mini-secretariat here today.

District president of the party Major Singh presided over the rally while BSP state secretary Ajmer Singh was the chief guest. Apart from wishing Mayawati on her birthday in their speeches, the speakers flayed the Congress on corruption front in the light of the 2G spectrum scam, the Adarsh Housing Society scam and the Bofors scam. They also accused the BJP leaders of corruption. — TNS

Abohar, January 15
The career and counselling cell of the DAV College of Education on Saturday organised a workshop on developing human strengths, new horizons. Eminent educationist and former NCERT adviser Dr MR Chilana exhorted the postgraduate students to focus on self-education and holistic development.

Principal Dr Venita Singh, Dr Mandeep Kaur and Gurpreet Kaur also spoke on the occasion. — OC