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Buses enter, cops exit Gobindpura
Traces
of uranium in hair
Influential Mansa transporters dodge tax arrears
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State scheme pushes up number of deliveries at govt hospital
Web surfing made easier for those alien to English language
Police
recruitment rally
Water level starts receding in flooded Fazilka villages
Teachers’ Day
Cotton purchase begins at Abohar
Police post comes up on hospital campus
Youth, sister among three axed to death
Narrow escape for Powercom staff
PHG jawan’s widow gets Rs 3 lakh
2 held for stealing household goods
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Buses enter, cops exit Gobindpura
Gobindpura (Mansa), September 3 Farmers had been agitating against the acquisition of agricultural land to set up a thermal power plant in the private sector. The police had laid nakas at nearby Sirsiwala road, Dharampura road, Jalvehra road and Phulowala road. Cops in large numbers had been camping in the temporary camps near these nakas in the light of the agitation by farmers. Now, only a handful of policemen are deployed in and around the village. Mansa SSP SPS Parmar said nearly 50 per cent of the police strength around the village had been
withdrawn. Villagers said the two buses were pressed into service to ferry cops from one naka to another few days after the agitation began. “While the police engaged the two buses to ferry cops, villagers had to walk at least five km to board a bus to reach nearby villages or towns,” said Gurmeet Singh Moni, a village resident. He said school children and elderly were at the receiving end, who failed to come out of the village, due to heavy police force and lack of transportation facility. Even the school vans were not allowed to enter the village. Villagers said the two buses take passengers from Gobindpura village to nearby Bareta and Budhladha towns after every two hours between 9 am and 6 pm. Meanwhile, district president of the BKU (Ugraha) Ram Singh Bhainibagha alleged that over 30 labourers, who were wielding sticks and claimed to be the workers deployed in the acquired land, entered in heated arguments with the villagers this afternoon. “The matter was brought to the notice of senior police functionaries who asked the workers not to enter the agricultural fields or residential area in the village,” he said.
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Traces
of uranium in hair
Faridkot, September 3 The UK-based Roko Cancer Trust has today donated equipment for hydrotherapy and naturotherapy to the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children at Faridkot, which helps in preventing the adverse impacts of cancer. The children came to limelight two years back when laboratory tests found traces of depleted uranium in the hair of 113 special children of the centre. South African toxicologist Dr Carin Smit collected hair and urine samples of 149 special children, which were sent to a German laboratory for clinical tests. Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, ambassador of the Trust, while inaugurating the 'treatment' centre said hydrotherapy is used in physical rehabilitation and exercise. "When performed in water, exercises can cause less strain on the bones and joints. The water also offers resistance to movement, which helps build muscle strength and reduce dehydration," he said. Adding that this is the first centre in the North-India to have hydrotherapy and naturotherapy equipment for special children and cancer victims, Dhaliwal said the Roko Cancer is committed to the welfare of cancer patients. "We have organised over 1,300 camps to detect cancer in the Malwa belt of the state," he added. Dr Pritpal Singh, who runs the centre, said the number of children affected by the pollution had risen dramatically during the last decade in Punjab. "The victims in the centre had many inborn complications," he said. Dhaliwal further said, "The main focus of the Roko Cancer is to create awareness about breast cancer and detection. We have covered nine districts in Punjab and performed mammography of 1.32 lakh women of the state."
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Influential Mansa transporters dodge tax arrears
Mansa, September 3 Although the administration collected 44 per cent more tax under the motor vehicle tax as compared to last year, a former District Transport Officer, pleading anonymity, revealed that crores of rupees are yet to be recovered from transporters in almost all districts of Punjab. There are in all 59 private transporters in Mansa district and 27 of them are defaulters. They owe money running into several lakhs to the Transport Department. At least seven of them are major transporters with a fleet of more than 20 buses. They enjoy patronage of one political party or the other. Though there is a provision of imposing fine, impounding buses and even auctioning defunct buses, the Transport Department has initiated no such punitive measures so far. Other transporters who pay their taxes regularly are not pleased. The trasorters complain of unfair competition.They pointed out that these influential transporters had been allotted prime routes and prime time. “Some DTOs had even excused them from paying the dues but this was objected to by the audit department. As per the Motor Vehicle Act, the DTOs have no authority to exempt charges”, he said. Additional State Transport Commissioner Harmel Singh said efforts were afoot to recover the pending dues. “There are a few districts where transporters have suffered losses due to rising rising diesel/petrol prices. Howerver, many transporters continue to pay the tax well in time,” he added.
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State scheme pushes up number of deliveries at govt hospital
Bathinda, September 3 The scheme was launched in June last to promote deliveries in the government hospitals and curb the maternal and infant mortality rates. Under the scheme, an expecting mother is paid Rs 1,000 at the time of delivery. Besides, Rs 200 is given to her as referral transport money. Further, an expecting mother from a below poverty line (BPL) family or the Scheduled Caste community gets Rs 600 in urban areas and Rs 700 in rural areas under the Janani Suraksha Yojna. Talking to TNS here today, the senior medical officer of the Women and Children Hospital, Dr BS Gill, said the scheme had encouraged the expecting mothers to deliver babies in the government hospital in a big way. He said in June last when the scheme was launched, 214 women had delivered babies in the hospital here as compared to 180 in May, 154 in April, 161 in March, 160 in February and 178 in January. However, 275 and 381deliveries were performed in July and August, respectively, he added. During 2010, the maximum number of deliveries conducted here was 222 in September while in 2009, it was 178 in December. In 2008, the maximum number of 143 deliveries was conducted in December. Due to rise in number of deliveries, the hospital needed at least two more gynaecologists and six more staff nurses, said staff of the hospital, adding that there were only three gynaecologists, a medical officer and about 20 staff nurses at present. |
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Web surfing made easier for those alien to English language
Bathinda, September 3 The website, www.atoall.com, is developed by a Bathinda-based company, the Atoall Cyber Research Company Limited. “One can read all the information related with web, science, mathematics, history, entertainment, jobs, news, health, computer and agriculture besides general information about any language,” said Sanjeev Kumar, the director of the company. He informed that one had to go to the address bar and press twice any three keys placed diagonally on the keyboard. Then, press the control and the enter keys together i.e. 55ttgg and then control+enter. Following this, a new page would be opened and one could select the language one was familiar with, he added. It took three years for his company to prepare the website and still there were lot of changes yet to be made to meet the requirements of the users, he said. “Efforts are being made to popularise this website among school children, especially students of government schools in rural areas,” Sanjeev said, adding that his company was trying to take up the matter with the Education Minister, the Chief Minister or the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab in this regard. He said the website was launched in 2007 and since then, it was being upgraded. Efforts were being made to add more words of every language, he added. |
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Police
recruitment rally
Bathinda, September 3 The four-day recruitment rally began on September 1 wherein candidates from seven districts took part. Constables, who were recruited in the Punjab Police recently, were among those who appeared for the test. A mathematics teacher working at a government school in Amritsar also appeared for the physical test here. DIG (Ropar Range) Naresh Kumar Arora said besides 120 posts of sub-inspector for male candidates, 30 female candidates would also be recruited. The physical test of female candidates would be held at Ludhiana. The DIG said the candidates were enthusiastic about their selections even as only few had prepared for the physical tests. The candidates have to perform 1600-metre race, long jump and high jump during the physical tests. The candidates who would be declared successful in the physical test would appear for written examination and interview before the final selection. |
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Water level starts receding in flooded Fazilka villages
Fazilka, September 3 Decrease of around two to three feet of water has raised hopes of the farmers of the area and they feel that they may be able to retrieve some of their standing crop. Around 90 per cent area under cultivation in these villages is of Basmati Paddy. “We wake additional spray of necessary pesticides and fertilisers,” said former Sarpanch of Dholla Bhaini village Kundan Singh. “The Agriculture Department and the Punjab Government should come forward to help us in retrieving our crops by making on the spot survey and to assess the loss to prepare the report for adequate compensation,” demanded the flood-affected farmers. According to sources, “So far, a paltry sum of about Rs 6 lakh has been received by the administration to deal with the floods.” On the other hand, Chief Managing Director (CMD) of Powercom Engineer KD Chaudhary visited the flood-affected villages in Fazilka on Friday and directed the officials to ensure round-the-clock power supply to the affected villages. Former Punjab Cabinet Minister Hans Raj Josan, after visiting the flood-affected areas, has demanded that recovery of loans from the farmers should be put on hold at least till the next crop. He has demanded a compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre for the farmers whose crop has been completely washed away, aid of Rs 1 lakh for damaged pakka houses and Rs 50,000 for the collapsed kucha houses in the floods. “Since the green fodder has been destroyed, there is an acute shortage of fodder for the cattle. The government should arrange green fodder from other areas to prevent starvation of the cattle on priority basis,” he added. |
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Teachers’ Day
Fazilka, September 3 Local MLA and Transport Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani would be the chief guest. Fazilka DC Dr Basant Garg, Additional DC Charandev Singh Mann, SSP RK Sharda would be the special guests of the programme,” said Rakesh Nagpal, president of the Society. Nagpal said the Society has already honoured over 150 teachers from Fazilka, Jalalabad and nearby areas for their meritorious services. Besides, the Society has also honoured hundreds of parents of the girl child on their first Lohri in an attempt to curb female foeticide. A special programme to honour the girl child is organised on Lohri every year, added
Nagpal. |
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Cotton purchase begins at Abohar
Abohar, September 3 Arhtia Association president Pramil Kalani said the arrival on the opening day was about 500 quintal. Desi cotton fetched Rs 3,851 for a quintal. Even when the traders were reluctant over speculative marketing trends, they feared post monsoon rains may affect the quality as well as prices. Estimates over the yield this year also vary, they observed. No state or Central Governemnt agency has so far finalised the date for entering the market. The Cotton Corporation of India has initiated the process for filling 75 vacancies of junior cotton purchasers, having minimum BSc (Agriculture) qualification. The recruitment is likely to be finalised by the month end. It is widely believed that the agency would think over entering the markets after that. Arrival of cotton may also take time to pick up owing to moisture content in the balls. |
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Police post comes up on hospital campus
Ferozepur, September 3 Sources in the Police Department revealed that besides setting up the police post with one ASI and eight constables on duty here, additional force has also been deployed at vulnerable points around hospital under “city security planning”. Besides, SP Detective has been assigned the responsibility to tighten the noose against unscrupulous elements. Dr Harsh Bhola, president and Dr Kamal Arora secretary, PCMS Doctors Association, said the police post was required in the hospital to check violence. SSP Surjit Singh said stringent action was being taken against the culprits. He added that two persons Kikkar and Pippal Sahota were taken into custody and two rifles besides a vehicle have been recovered from them. About the recent incident of firing, the SSP said, “A case under various Sections of the IPC has been registered against three persons indentified as Billa, Emanuel and Vicky. Two accused had been arrested while another accused Vicky is likely to be nabbed soon.” he added. |
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Youth, sister among three axed to death
Sriganganagar, September 3 An IPS officer SN Kheechi, who visited the village, said a heavy police force has been deployed since the protesting villagers had refused to cremate the victims and launched stir. While citing old enmity as reason reason behind crime, he said a dozen persons wielding axes and iron rods targeted the victims at the house of Megh Raj Jat in Swamion Ki Dhaani at village Baijwa last night. They attacked Pawan Kumar (22) and his friend Sardar Singh (24) of village Jatwali, who was also sleeping on the rooftop of the house. As Pawan’s sister Kamla (25) and father Megh Raj woke up and tried to rescue Pawan, the miscreants attacked them as well. Meanwhile Pawan tried to escape by jumping in the house of one Nopa Ram, the miscreants chased and killed him on the spot. Megh Raj sustained injuries while Pawan, Kamla and Sardar Singh were declared as brought dead by the doctors. The police have registered a case under Section 302, 307 of the IPC against Pawan Kumhar, Krishan Lal Meghwal and 10 others on Kitab Devi’s statement, wife of Megh Raj Jat. |
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Narrow escape for Powercom staff
Bathinda, September 3 The incident took place near the Government Rajindra College where three electricity poles were installed yesterday. The employees reached the site this morning and found that one of the poles was dislocated. While one of the seven employees lifted the pole, others pulled it with a rope to erect it back. Hardeep Singh, JE, said Gopi Ram, who lifted the pole, suffered an electric shock after the electricity pole came in contact with live wires above. He was rushed to a hospital nearby and his condition was stated to be normal, the JE
added. — TNS |
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PHG jawan’s widow gets Rs 3 lakh
Ferozepur, September 3 Commandant RK Awasthi said Damodar was deployed with the fifth Battalion, PHG, at Ferozepur. Awasthi said all PHG jawans are insured against an amount of Rs 6 lakh. In case of natural death, their legal heir is paid an amount of Rs 3 lakh. However, in case of death on duty, a sum of Rs 6 lakh is paid. He added that he has also written to the government to provide job to a member of the deceased’s family. |
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2 held for stealing household goods
Bathinda, September 3 In his complaint to the police, Raja Ram stated that he was away from his home for two days. When he returned on Saturday, he found that his house was ransacked. Further, he noticed that a mobile phone, LPG cylinder, gold earrings, a suitcase containing household goods and Rs 5,000 cash were missing. The cost of stolen material was estimated to be Rs 30,000. The complainant told the police that he suspected the role of two persons in the incident. The duo was brought to the police station for questioning and later, they admitted to the crime. The accused have been identified as Nand Kishore and Ajay, both residents of Shant Nagar locality. A case in this connection was registered against the accused who have been sent to police remand after they were produced before a magistrate in Bathinda courts. |
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