Bathinda, May 19
Sukhdev Singh, an inmate at the local Central Jail, died within an hour after he was shifted to the Civil Hospital here after his condition deteriorated in the morning today.

An inmate of the Central Jail, Bathinda, died on Thursday. He was admitted to the de-addiction centre inside the jail premises. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Sukhdev alias Bedi, 35, was lodged in the Central Jail here on May 11 after a case in connection with the smuggling of narcotics was registered against him at Phul police station of the district on May 10 under the NDPS Act.

According to Central Jail sources, Sukhdev, who belongs to Sandhu Khurd village of the district, was admitted to the de-addiction centre, inside the jail premises as he was an addict.

After remaining at thede-addiction centre for nearly a week, he was shifted to the hospital, located in the jail premises for treatment. Today, at around eight in the morning, the condition of Sukhdev started deteriorating and he was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital.

Though he was given proper medical care by the doctors, who attended on him, he did not survive. The jail authorities informed his kin about Sukhdev's death.

Kaur Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Jail, said the post-mortem of the deceased was conducted by a panel of doctors. The body was handed over to his family members after the post-mortem.

Information has been sent to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), DGP, Punjab, Home Department, Punjab and the District Magistrate, Bathinda. 

Bathinda, May 19
After observing pen-down strike for six consecutive working days since May 11, the ministerial staff today observed mass casual leave through out Punjab to put pressure on the state government to accept their demands, without any further delay. The call for mass casual leave on May 19-20 was given by the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU).

Patron and secretary general of the PSMSU, Darshan Singh Bajaj and Raj Kumar Arora, told TNS that the call evoked a huge response as they had received such reports from various districts, including Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala, Mohali, Barnala, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Mansa, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, besides Chandigarh.

The main demand of the union is release of a grant of Rs 100 crore for the clerks and stenos etc in lieu of a higher pay scale (10300-34800) for them. It may be recalled that in response to this demand, the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a meeting, held on January 12, had agreed in principle to grant an amount of Rs 100 crore for clerks and steno typists.

Besides, the other demands include 20 per cent house rent allowance for the employees, posted in Bathinda and Patiala cities and conveyance allowance.

Meanwhile, ministerial staff from various departments after taking mass casual leave today, held a rally on the premises of the Mini-secretariat here. They also wore black bands and raised slogans against the government. Among those present were Darshan Singh Bajaj, Ashok Chopra, Kewal Bansal, Ram Singh, Suresh Kaushal, Meharjit Singh, Mukhtiar Kaur and Jaswinder Singh. 

Bathinda, May 19
This summer is proving to be a tough one for Bathinda residents. Soaring mercury, insufficient availability of potable water, frequent power cuts and the smoke and fly ash billowing from the chimneys of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant have made the life of people here miserable.

According to Met officials at the regional research station of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Bathinda, the mercury is unexpectedly shooting north.

The maximum temperature on Wednesday was recorded at 45.2 degree Celsius that reached 46 degree on Thursday. The minimum temperature has also witnessed an increase and reached 27 degree Celsius today.

On the other hand, the thermal power plant is continuously emanating fly ash and smoke, making people inhale polluted air with adverse effects on lungs, eyes and skin.

Meanwhile, the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) is unable to provide water supply to nearly half the total populace of the city.

What else can one expect from the official machinery when it can't even provide sufficient supply of potable water to its tax paying residents in the sweltering hot weather? is a common question.

Residents of over a dozen localities still have to scramble when water tankers arrive. Women and children rush to place their buckets under its nozzle. The frequent power cuts also have added to power woes.

Those who can afford are depending either upon the fuel consuming generators or the battery operated invertors, while others, who form the majority, have no option and bear the scorching weather.

People feel deceived as during the elections Bathinda was given a status of cut-free zone with an assurance to provide the uninterrupted power supply for bearing the thermal plant's air-pollution but on ground the assurance stood nowhere.

Residents of localities around the thermal plant including, Green Avenue, Bir Colony, Adarsh Nagar, Tagore Nagar, Vishal Nagar, Amrik Singh road were the worst hit today as the power supply remained suspended from morning to evening.

The senior executive engineer of the Powercom, Hardeep Singh Sidhu, when contacted, claimed the power supply was suspended for maintenance purposes.

Though Sidhu claimed it was not a scheduled cut, he admitted that the cut schedule had not been publicized properly.

Moga, May 19
A UK-based businessman and NRI Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, hailing from Bir Raoke village of the Moga district, has recently been nominated as the roving ambassador of the 'Roko Cancer' campaign.

It is a UK-based charity organisation working for creating awareness and detection of breast, cervix and oral cancer in the semi-urban and rural areas in India.

The charity was envisioned by an NRI, APS Chawla in the memory of his wife Manjit Kaur Chawla, who lost her life to cancer.

This organisation is running a fully equipped mobile breast cancer detection unit taking free mammograms tests on women in Punjab and other states of India.

Dhaliwal, while talking to The Tribune, said Roko Cancer project is of vital importance because people in India are not aware of cancer.

“The project could create awareness in the far-flung areas. Roko Cancer provides impetus and strength to the existing not so aware regions towards cancer eradication," he said.

He feels that the government should come up with stringent laws on environmental degradation and excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers to tackle deadly diseases like cancer, besides, ensuring clean potable water in the cities, towns, villages and other settlements.

It may be mentioned that in February, this year, he along with Mike Rudkin, MD, north-west region (UK) of the Mercedes car manufacturing company collected one million pounds for cancer patients by walking three days from the western coastline to the eastern coastline of Britain and in December 2009 he raised £1,00,000 for cancer patients by organising a similar show at Manchester in the UK.

He also made efforts in the native village to improve girl child ratio and for the last six years the number of girls born in his village has been constantly outnumbering boys in Punjab.

He also runs a charity Sant Singh Dhaliwal Trust (named after his father) since 1991, which has adopted all the girls of the villages to provide them free education, medical care and provides financial help for their marriages. His trust now plans to raise money for cancer patients of the Malwa belt in Punjab.

Dhaliwal said the NRIs settled in the UK, US, Canada and other developed nations could do a lot for their country but it is regrettable that they were not using their potential to contribute to such causes. 

Sriganganagar, May 19
Social activists have urged the Global Cancer Concern India, an NGO, to organise cancer detection camp in the border district also since contaminated water flowing from the Malwa region of Punjab through the Rajasthan Feeder and Gang canal had affected people of this region as well.

Notably, hundreds of people including some legislators and former MLAs had also participated in the stir to block Kala Sanghia drain near Jalandhar yesterday to protest over the supply of contaminated water.

During a function held in Padampur segment today, the students of Shivalik Children Academy gifted Rs 35,165 out of their pockets to the Global Cancer Concern India that has been organising cancer detection camps nationwide to reduce the cancer cases. Dr Seema of the NGO lauded the students’ effort.

Ferozepur, May 19
A criminal case was registered against 23 persons including seven women and 40-50 unidentified residents of five villages, falling in Dona Telu Mal (DT Mal) enclave, for their alleged involvement in attacking the cops with sharp-edged weapons and firearms, yesterday.

The case was registered under Sections 307, 336, 341, 353, 186, 323, 148 and 149 of the IPC against the residents at the Mamdot police station following the clash that took place among the residents of the DT Mal enclave and cops, yesterday, which left four cops and three dozens of residents injured.

On the one hand, the residents (a majority of whom belonged to Scheduled Caste community) alleged that the cops resorted to lathicharge without any provocation, and on the other, the civil and police functionaries, who were present on the spot, said the lathicharge was resorted when the residents started pelting stones at them from the rooftops of their dwellings.

SSP Kaustabh Sharma said he had asked Harjit Singh Pannu, SP (D) to conduct an inquiry into the role of cops in yesterday’s incident. He said he had seen the video of the whole event and residents making attack on the cops was clearly visible.

Yesterday, some residents blocked the common passage leading towards the lands, situated across the fencing in DT Mal enclave. Some of the agricultural lands were owned by private persons while other pieces of lands were in possession of people, who were shown as cultivators as per the revenue record. When Gurjeet Singh, SDM, Ferozepur and Gobinder Singh, SHO, police station, Mamdot, tried to persuade them to vacate the passage, the residents allegedly started attacking the cops.

SHO Gobinder Singh said so far, no arrest had been made in this connection. Meanwhile, some of the labour unions had approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for taking necessary steps to punish the cops, who resorted to lathicharge the members of the SC Community without any reason.

DC KK Yadav, when asked whether he had begun an inquiry into the incident, said there was no need for an inquiry as nobody could stop the owners of land from entering it. 

Bathinda, May 19
A 58-year-old man was killed in a road accident involving collision between a truck and a scooter at the Bibi Wala road, opposite Hotel Krishna Continental, this morning.

The deceased was identified as Tarsem Chand of Bharat Nagar. He had reportedly retired from the post of reader in the food and supply department on March 31.

Workers of an NGO, Naujwan Welfare Society, said that soon after receiving the information about the accident, they reached the spot and found that the truck (PB03T7515) had crushed the scooter and dragged it for a few meters.

Before the crowd could nab the truck driver, he fled from the spot leaving the truck there. The body was taken to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. Police took the truck in custody and initiated proceedings to nab the accused. — TNS

Bathinda, May 19
A workshop on self-development was organised here today by the Pyare Lal Karnail Singh Charitable Trust. SK Palhan, advisor, Centre for Joint Warfare (CENJOWS), Ministry of Defence, threw light on many aspects of self-development. Palhan said a keen sense of learning was of utmost importance.

In the first session, the need for self-effectiveness was emphasised upon. The participants were asked to analyse if they were only good in what they were doing or were they effective also.

One should always strive to take up challenges in accordance with one's skills. This way, people also hone their skills. The third factor, according to him was perseverance, which enables a people to reach one's goal.

Palhan also laid stress on the importance of meditation as it helps get rid of past worries and future anxieties and helps improve the qualities of life. Giving examples, he said Bill Gates and Sachin Tendulkar were examples of staying focused and at the same time, following vocations that they found to be interesting. — TNS

Bathinda, May 19
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has decided to replace some old components of all the four units of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) to avoid their tripping or shutdown due to snags during the peak demand for power in the coming paddy season.

The PSPCL took the decision when it faced problems on account of its failure to make arrangements for replacing generating transformers (GTs) of its unit number I and II, which was damaged recently.

Interestingly, the GTs of unit number I and II were not replaced when their renovation was carried out four years ago. The renovation had cost crores.

Both units, I and II, have not been generating power as they have been shut for the replacement of GTs. The unit number III of the GNDTP was shut down for its renovation and modernisation last year.

Only unit number IV has been producing power but it has been running at a capacity of 90 MW only against its installed capacity of 110 MW. The PSPCL has been suffering losses to the tune of crores daily on account of loss of power production by units I one and II of the GNDTP.

It was learnt that the PSPCL authorities were of the view that though enough power had been arranged from other sources to meet the increasing demands from agriculture, industrial and domestic sectors in the coming days, the state could plunge into severe power crisis if its own thermal plants did not generate power according to their capacities.

GS Chabra, Director, Generation, PSPCL, said that unit number I and II of GNDTP had developed snags as their GTs were not replaced when their renovation and modernisation was carried out. He added that only partial renovation and modernisation of these units was done at that time. The PSPCL had now made arrangements for various components and parts of machineries of different units of GNDTP. These additional components and parts could be used to replace the damaged components and parts, if it happened at any point of time, without any delay to keep the units running, he added.

Chabra said that as per his information, unit number II of GNDTP would start generating power on May 21 while unit number I would become operational on May 25.

He said that one of the units of the 250-MW capacity Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP), Lehra Mohabbat, which was closed till May 31 for annual maintenance, was expected to start generating power by May 25. 

Chak Saido Ke (Ferozepur), May 19
Three staff members including the headmaster of the local Government Senior Secondary School, which witnessed a dharna recently, were transferred by the district education authorities today.

The teachers, who were transferred by the district education officer Naresh Kumari today included Mandeep Kaur and Dilbagh Singh.

Brij Mohan Singh, Mandeep and Dilbagh had been levelling allegations and counter allegations against each other for the last few months.

The transfers of the teachers had been done on a temporary basis by the DEO after informing the DPI (Secondary), Punjab, Director General of Schools and DC, Ferozepur.

The DEO had also sent copies of report of the inquiry. Mandeep and Dilbagh had been posted at the Government Senior Secondary School for Girls and Boys, Guru Harsahai, respectively, while Brij Mohan Singh had been posted at the Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, Fazilka. Three new teachers would be posted in the school after the summer vacations, sources added.

Brij Mohan Singh said though he had not received a copy of the order of his transfer, he had been made to suffer without any fault. Mandeep and Dilbagh could not be contacted for their comments. 

Ferozepur, May 19
The court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Jalalabad, today acquitted Vardev Singh Mann, member, SGPC, (son of former MP Zora Singh Mann) along with his brother Nardev Singh Mann, Jagnandan Singh Mann (uncle) besides 12 other accused in a case registered against them in 2002.

A case was registered against Zora Singh Mann (MP), his two sons and others under Sections 379/326/324/325/148 and 149 on 13 June, 2002 in connection with a motor theft at Sadar police station, Jalalabad. Earlier, Zora Singh Mann was discharged in the case at the time of the framing of the charges. — OC

Abohar, May 19
Even when May 20 was suggested as the last day by agricultural scientists for ideal sowing of Bt cotton, non-availability of certified seed besides canal water has left hundreds of farmers in a quandary.

Scores of affected farmers at village Bazidpura said while laying the foundation stone for Bazidpura Link Channel Renovation Project on January 25, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had assured them that the work would be completed well before the beginning of the cotton sowing season. However, the Irrigation Department missed the target even when the complete canal system linked with the Sirhind feeder remained closed for a fortnight to expedite desilting and repair work, last month. Most of the farmers have not been able to arrange the Bt cotton seed so far and water too was not available to the villages dependent on the Bazidpura link channel.

The poor water management had affected orchards besides green fodder crop. Sub-divisional agricultural officer Ranveer Singh Yadav said farmers were advised to finish sowing of the Bt cotton by May 20 since soaring mercury could harm the plants that grow up later. He said 70 per cent sowing has so far been done while the target was fixed for covering 55000 hectares of land in the area. — OC