Bathinda, October 18
Water samples of nine government schools and two private schools have been found unfit for human consumption. Exposing students to the unknown dangers of consuming contaminated water, these schools continue to sit over the orders of the health department of providing pure drinking water to its students.

According to data collected from district health department, there are seven such private and government schools in Bathinda district whose water samples have failed the bacteriological test twice during testing since March 2011.

These samples were collected from seven schools' water sources including taps supplying water from the storage tanks of the public health department, submersible pump and hand pumps and were tested at the State Public Health Laboratory, Chandigarh

The seven schools, whose water samples failed purity tests, include The Millennium School, Kotshamir (Bathinda), Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Sabo, Government High School, Bhucho Khurd (Nathana), Government Senior Secondary School, Chughe Kalan (Goniana), Government Senior Secondary School, Sema (Nathana), Government Elementary School, Gurusar Sehnewala and Government Elementary School, Harbans Nagar, Bathinda.

Besides, these seven schools, the water samples of four other schools too failed during the first bacteriological tests conducted at the State Public Health laboratory, Chandigarh.

"We collected these samples between May to August this year from the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Teona (Talwandi Sabo), Government Elementary School, Doomwali (Sangat), Government Elementary School, Dulewala (Bhagta) and Government Primary School, Rajgarh (Bhagta)," said the health department officials.

Following the protocol and the laid set of guidelines, the health department, after the failure of the first water sample, issued notice to the school authorities to improve water quality.

Then after a period of two-three months, the health authorities again collected water samples for testing. "If this sample again fails the test, a strict warning is issued to the school authorities to improve water quality. They are clearly told that if any waterborne disease spreads in the school, then the entire responsibility would lie with the school," added the health department officials.

Bathinda, October 18
With the drinking water samples of 11 government schools and a private school near Kotshamir failing the purity tests, students of these schools are exposed to the dangers of consuming water found to be unfit for human consumption.

While the government schools claim that the paucity of funds is at the root of the problem, the principal of the private school — The Millennium School — vehemently denied the claims of health department and said the school water was among the "best".

Most of these schools have different sources of water, which is made available to the students through the taps installed at various places in the school premises.

Principal of The Millennium School at Kotshamir Beena Rao claimed, "We have no information about any such negative report. The school has got the best RO system and the total dissolved solid (TDS) levels in the water are being regularly checked."

The school has 450 students enrolled and is one of the highest fees charging schools of Bathinda.

However, the health department authorities insisted that they have been issuing notices to the schools, asking them to improve the quality of water failing which their source of water could be sealed.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer (Secondary) HS Sandhu defended the department saying that dearth of funds has left its officials paralyzed in economic terms.

"We have already written to the government pleading that we lack the basic infrastructure. There are no funds to spare for ‘these things’,” he said.

He rued that in the absence of adequate money, the department has no alternative but to shoot off letters and start an unending round of correspondence with various departments.

Sandhu said that the education department has directed the school authorities to fetch water from the public RO systems installed in the villages. "We have asked the school authorities to take the help of the local villagers to ensure that the children get RO purified water only. But not many pay heed to the request," he added.

District Education Officer (Elementary) Malkiat Kaur added that in the absence of funds, in some schools, the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery officials have donated RO water purifiers.

"Water contamination can directly affect the health of the children and is a matter of concern," she said.

Bathinda, October 18
Overcrowded vehicles ferrying schoolchildren pose threat to the safety of children travelling in it. Because of the lenient attitude of both the school authorities as well as the traffic police, the drivers of these vehicles throw norms to the wind, wildly violating the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Schoolchildren are packed like sardines in the auto-rickshaws, vans and Toyota vehicles. Jostling for space everyday, many children traverse a long distance from their home to school and vice-versa in insecure vehicles.

In many cases, the owners of three-wheelers have made extended platforms at the rear or parallel to the driver's seat in order to accommodate children more than the vehicle's capacity.

"You can always see the children standing along side the driver and at times even two or three children together share a cramped space," rued a parent.

The auto drivers have improvised their vehicles wherein the school bags are either perched atop the autos or hung in front of it on a specially designed hook. Such improvisations, however, fail when it rains.

Despite the fact that the plying of an auto with passengers beyond its carrying capacity is illegal, the drivers of these vehicles continue to do so. As per the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, it is unlawful for autos to carry more than three adults or four minors.

The violators could be punished under Section 192 (A) of the Motor Vehicles Act. As per the data available with the traffic police, from January 1 to October 2 this year, a total of 74 challans have been awarded.

These include eight challans awarded to Toyota vehicles, 22 to three-wheelers and four to school vans. Besides, 40 three-wheelers have been awarded on-the-spot cash challans wherein the offenders are penalized on the spot.

"It is very easy to give the police a slip. Either we grease their palms or take the plea of children getting late for their destinations," chuckled Ruldu Ram, who ferries schoolchildren and stays at Amarpura Basti.

The cops too agreed that they take a lenient view of the vehicles that are packed with children.

"We understand that children are exposed to many dangers while travelling like this. But as the school closes for the day, the children become restless and are eager to reach home. Especially, during the summer, we feel sympathy for the children and let the offender go with a mere warning," said a traffic cop posted at the Hanuman Chowk, pleading anonymity.

Besides the motorized vehicles, even cycle-rickshaws blatantly violate the norms and ply on city roads carrying a number of children.

At times, a rickety cycle-rickshaw carries more than ten schoolchildren, oblivious of the danger of the contraption toppling over at any sharp turn, thus putting the lives in danger.

• From January 1 to October 2, the challans issued include — Toyota vehicles: 8; three-wheelers: 22; vans: 4 ;three-wheelers' on-the-spot cash challan:40.

• District Transport Officer Bhupinder Singh said that the drive to check the overcrowding of vehicles needs to be looked into. "We will soon start the drive again," he assured.

Bathinda, October 18
The district language committee, meant for the promotion of Punjabi as the official language and to ensure its usage in government offices, has failed to hold its meeting yet another time on October 17 after the term of its chairman expired.

The committee has proved to be a mere paper tiger. It hasn't held its meet in the last one year mainly due to the absence of senior government functionaries. As per the government rules, the language committee should hold bimonthly meetings.

The meeting scheduled for October 17 was cancelled as the one-year term of its chairperson, Harminder Singh Jassi, MLA, as well as that of all its non-official members had expired.

DC KK Yadav said that the new list of nominated members has been sent to the government and soon, the body would be reconstituted.

Earlier, the meeting convened on February 9, May 5 and August 3 too was called off due to one reason or the other. The meeting on August 3 was called off as the present Deputy Commission KK Yadav had just taken charge as the Bathinda DC. Earlier, the former deputy commissioner Dr S. Karuna Raju had not attended the meeting, while the committee members insisted on his presence.

These committees were formed to implement the Punjab State Language (Amended) Act, 2008, constituted to ensure the wide usage and promotion of the language. The then Minister for Education and Languages, Punjab, Upinderjit Kaur especially directed all the departments, boards/corporations, subordinate courts and educational institutions to make the official use of Punjabi in right earnest.

The proposed ordinance on the implementation of Punjabi language had been made legally watertight by incorporating punitive measures for the erring officials.

But there are no provisions for action against those officials who do not attend the meetings regularly or who have been out of action in these meetings.

• The government had directed that officials would have to replace their nameplates, notice boards, applications, forms and other documents in Punjabi and use Punjabi as an official language in their day to day functions.

Bathinda, October 18
Outside and on the premises of the local Mini-secretariat on the Mahila police station side, vehicles are parked in a haphazard manner resulting in congestion as well as hindrance to those who wish to park their vehicles there. The reason behind the disorder is that the contract for the parking lot has not been awarded to anyone. More precisely, no one is ready to take the contract.

Sometimes, even higher officials also face problems in getting their cars parked there. At times, drivers of these officials or common persons have to arrange or remove the wrongly parked two-wheelers etc so as to clear the way for their vehicles to enter or exit the Mini-secretariat premises.

It is learnt that there is no one to manage the parking of vehicles there. During the financial year 2010-11, the contract for the parking lot could not be given as at that time, the construction of the new extension block of the Mini-secretariat was on. However, the advertisements for allotting the contract for the parking lots for the financial year 2011-12 were inserted in the print media, but no contactor has evinced interest so far.

For the purpose, the administration gave the first advertisement in March 2011, second in September and third in October, but no one reportedly turned up to take part in the auction process or submit quotation.

An official disclosed that during the financial year 2009-10, the reserve price for the parking lot had been fixed at Rs 60,000 but the bidders refused to buy the contract saying that they could not pay such a big amount.

Another advertisement was given in June 2009. Then, the contract was awarded for Rs 77,500 for the period from July 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010. However, the contractor turned defaulter of thousands of rupees.

Another official said no contractor wanted to come forward to take the contract as it is not considered to be profitable. Moreover, the contractors were of the view that the majority of people did not pay parking fee and some of them even quarrelled with their employees over the payment of parking fee, he added.

As there is no one to manage the parking of vehicles for the past an year and a half, the parking is available for free but unorganised.

Bathinda, October 18
Members of the Punjab Nirman Mazdoor Union held a dharna here today. They demanded that their long-pending issues be resolved at the earliest.

General secretary of the union Harinder Singh Randhawa said the construction labourers should be given benefits after they were registered under the Employment and Condition of Service Act, 1996. He said there are over 10 lakh labourers in Punjab but only 26,090 were registered till March 31, 2011. He added that labourers were unable to get compensation and other benefits as they were not registered.

Others who spoke were Bahadur Singh, Gursewak Singh and Manjit Singh.

Bathinda, October 18
As many as 38 patients tested positive for the dengue fever during the Mac Elisa test, conducted at the Blood Bank of the Civil Hospital here today. These tests were conducted on 141 blood samples of suspected dengue patients. It means that out of the 141 cases, only 27 per cent cases have been suffering from dengue while the remaining cases belong to other categories of fever.

An official of the Health Department said that till now, 339 patients, suffering from dengue fever, had been detected in the district. Of these, 288 were from the Bathinda city alone, he added.

The official also said that since October 10, a door-to-door survey was being conducted by the survey teams in the city. These teams had surveyed more than 14,000 houses and detected 282 fever cases so far. Besides, the teams had also destroyed larva, causing dengue, in 92 houses, he added. — TNS

Bathinda, October 18
The Bathinda police has booked two persons for gambling under various sections of the Gambling Act at two different police stations.

The accused have been identified as Rakesh Kumar of Bangi Nagar here and Ram Charan of Balraj Nagar. While Rakesh was found gambling near Ganpati Enclave on the Dabwali road, Ram Charan was arrested from Udham Singh Nagar.

They both have been booked under Sections 13A, 3, 67 of the Gambling Act.

Bathinda, October 18
A foetus was found near 25-yards quarters close to Dhobiana Basti here. Unidentified persons have been booked on the complaint lodged by one Manik Garg.

The matter was brought into the notice of the police by the Naujawan Society brought the matter matter was brought into the notice of police by the Naujawan Society. A case under the IPC has been registered at Cantonment police station.