Bathinda, November 18
All roads leading to the multipurpose stadium in Bathinda were blocked with the men in khakhi.

Screeching sirens with gun-toting security men trailed behind the vehicles of the VIPs and VVIPs in the city. All the streets in the residential areas around the stadium were kept out of the reach of the common man. No vehicle was allowed to be parked on the Chhabra palace road at Minocha Colony. Even the people living in the Minocha Colony had to park their vehicles at far off places.

A holiday was declared in all the schools in the vicinity of the stadium to avoid putting students at unease. Earlier, a holiday had been declared on November 1 during the opening ceremony of the Kabaddi World Cup held at the same venue.

All the streets around the stadium were converted into open parking spaces where the vehicles of the spectators were parked. In Khaddar Bhandar Wali Gali, a few youngsters were seen stealing fuel from the vehicles and the entire street was full of petrol fumes.

In the mayhem caused by the accident that took place on Thursday, the district police “forgot” to issue public information about the diversion of routes and traffic being stopped at various places in the city, causing inconvenience to the commuters.

Bathinda, November 18
Led by principal secretary, education, Hussan Lal, the teams of the Education Department, Chandigarh, today swooped on various government schools in the district to conduct surprise raids.

The teams have tagged Government Senior Secondary School at Paras Ram Nagar as the worst in cleanliness and management, followed by Government Senior Secondary School (Boys), Goniana, and Government High School, Kotda Kaura.

After the surprise raids, the team members and Hussan Lal conducted a meeting with the head of all the schools in the district.

Team members said the school at Paras Ram Nagar was named after a Kargil martyr but lacked discipline and cleanliness. There were no teachers in the classrooms. Students were given tests on the spot. Questions on maths and science evoked poor response from the students. The team members were unhappy with the poor quality of education being imparted at the school.

They pointed out that girls' toilets emitted stench despite the fact that special grants were being given under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) to keep the toilets clean. Also books in the school library appeared to have been lying untouched and undistributed.

Similarly, the school at Goniana was found in a complete state of mess. There was not even single teacher for classes VI, VII, VIII and X. Out of 31 students present in one of the classrooms, 24 were without notebooks.

School principal told the authorities that teachers concerned had gone to attend seminars, workshops and other duties.

Bathinda, November 18
Teachers from the government colleges of Punjab would court arrest on December 1 to protest against the policies of the Punjab Government.

In a press statement issued here today, the president of the Punjab Government College Teachers Association (PGCTA), Hardip Singh Tej and general secretary Jai Pal Singh, stated that the teachers are irked with the discriminatory attitude of the SAD-BJP Government.

They stated that the Department of Higher Education, Government of Punjab, was not making any sincere effort to pay attention to the demands of the college teachers in Punjab and due to this, the position of higher education in the department was in a complete mess.

Jai Pal Singh stated that the Punjab Government is adopting double standards on the payment of arrears of pay-scale revision and enhancement of retirement age.

On the issue of enhancing the retirement age, as per the notification of the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), the government says, “It will not isolate only government college teachers from other government employees.”

“While we retire at the age of 58 years, the teachers of universities and private colleges retire at the age of 60 years of age.

On the other hand, the state government has willfully isolated the government college teachers from other state government employees on the issue of arrears and pay-scale revision as it has paid the first installment of 40 per cent arrears in May to all other employees and has singled us out,”the teachers said.

They also condemned the government’s objections raised on the relaxation of refresher courses up to June 30, 2010 as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) orders and added that the advance increments to all the left out in M Phil and PhD degree holders are unnecessarily not being awarded.

The teachers threatened that if the government does not concede to their demands, after courting arrest on December 1, the teachers would resort to indefinite strike and the state government would be responsible for the loss of studies of students.

Bathinda, November 18
The family members of the two drivers, who lost their lives in Thursday's mishap on the Barnala road involving an Army truck and the bus carrying the Indian women kabaddi team, today accused the Punjab government of showing indifference.

The families condemned the decision to continue with the Kabaddi World Cup semi-finals and the lavish dinner hosted at Badal village last night despite the tragedy wherein the bus driver, 28-year-old Varinder Sharma and 38-year-old head constable Harjeet Singh lost their lives.

The family members waiting at the local Civil Hospital to get the bodies after the post-mortem said there was not even a single word of sympathy either from the Punjab government or the Badal family. "Leave aside meeting us or condoling the sudden demise of the two bread-winners of their families, none of us even got a single call informing us about the incident," said Inderjit Singh, the brother-in-law of head constable Harjeet Singh.

He added that despite two deaths and the narrow escape of over a dozen kabaddi players, the government went on to host a sumptuous late night dinner at the Badal village in Muktsar district.

Harjeet was driving the pilot Gypsy that collided with the Army truck on Thursday at Barnala road and died in the mishap. Harjeet is survived by a 10-year-old son, six-year-old daughter, wife and his ailing mother. The relatives said that Harjeet, hailing from Mullapur village near Payal in Ludhiana, was residing in government quarters at Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar in Ludhiana.

Harjeet's nephew Parminder Singh said the family members were not informed about his uncle’s death.

“There was no communiqué either from the district administration or the police. Nobody in the police department was informed about the death," said a wailing Parminder.

He rued that the family members and friends in Bathinda helped them get the details of the accident and offered their condolences. Harjeet’s kin said before driving the escort Gypsy of the kabaddi players, he had been deployed to drive the escort Gypsy of the Indo-Pak bus.

Kin of the bus driver Varinder Sharma, whose charred body was recovered from the vehicle, said they were not informed by anyone and reached Bathinda after learning about the death through media reports.

"Neither did anyone try to contact us or gave information about the mishap. Every information reaches us through the media and no officials have approached us," said Balkishan Sharma, the brother-in-law of Varinder Sharma. Varinder was residing at Delhi at his sister's house after divorcing his wife. The bodies of Varinder and Harjeet Singh were handed over to their family members this afternoon.

Bathinda, November 18
On November 17, head constable Harjeet Singh, the driver of the police Gypsy escorting the luxury bus of the Indian women’s kabaddi team was on cloud nine. Driving the police Gypsy at a break-neck speed, Harjeet Singh was asking everybody to get ready to reach Bathinda at the earliest to attend the dinner party hosted by the Badals.

“He kept referring to the dinner as marriage party. I told him that it’s not a marriage party but a welcome party for the kabaddi players to boost their morale. Harjeet had specially dressed up for the occasion,” said assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Bhupinder Kaur, who was accompanying the the kabaddi players of Uzbekistan.

Little did Harjeet know that this was going to be his last drive ever.

The ASI said Harjeet was driving the pilot Gypsy at a high speed and they entered Bathinda within two hours after leaving the hotel at Pakhowal road in Ludhiana. At normal speed, it takes more than two-and-half-hours to reach Bathinda from Ludhiana.

One of the team members said that while journeying for the earlier matches too, the driver had driven at a high speed. In an earlier incident, the pilot Gypsy was about to collide with a truck and the over-speeding led to the heating of its engine as well.

The Uzbekistan and Indian teams left in two luxury buses with pilot Gypsies to clear traffic, from Ludhiana to Bathinda. “Somebody sneezed and considering it to be a bad omen, like old women, we decided to wait for five minutes while the Indian team left. I also instructed the driver to reduce the speed so that we do not reach early and end up waiting unnecessarily,” said another cop in the Uzbekistan team.

The Uzbekistan players said they got a phone call from an unknown number informing them about the accident that the Indian team had met with. “We were aghast to see the bus of Indian team in flames,” said one of the players.

All hell broke loose when the bus caught fire. “People broke the window panes to take out the players, while we were consoling the injured players,” said sub- inspector Jasmine Kaur, who was caught in the bus that met with the accident.

The players received fractures and bruises on their hands, legs and back when they jumped off the bus after breaking the window panes.

Bathinda, November 18
Hypnosis has got great therapeutic value and is successfully used on cancer patients for palliative care as well as for gynaecological and gastric problems.

Aarzoo Gupta, a research scholar on hypnosis from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, stated this while delivering a lecture at the local Government Rajindra College today. Her lecture was a part of the World Hypnosis Day celebrations held by the Philosophy and Psychology Association of the college.

She said for therapeutic purpose, one should refrain from undergoing hypnosis by magicians and untrained persons. Gupta said hypnosis had got a wide range of applications that promotes positive communication, triggers creativity and enhances concentration among the students. "Hypnosis plays an important role for a student. In cases of disorientation or poor academic performances, it helps to find the root cause and treat it," she said.

Talking about the Indian system of communication, she said, "Our system propagates more of negative communication wherein we end up hindering each others' growth. Unfortunately, most of the times, we ask our children not to do certain set of things rather than telling them what they can do. With continuous "do-not-do" list, we end up making our children disoriented in studies."

Gupta also gave an on-the-spot demonstration. She invited a teacher and six students from the college to undergo a hypnotic session, during which they went into deep slumber. Through her lecture, she tried to clarify myths related to hypnosis.

Dr Surinder Kaur from Governemnt College for Girls, Patiala, spoke on the relevance of moral values in the present times. She said moral values were significant today when youths were facing cultural transitions. The students were reminded about the essence of moral values given in the scriptures of Bhagwad Gita, Bhudhism, Jainism and Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

Principal Vijay Goyal thanked the speakers. Gurjit Singh Mann, head, Department of Philosophy, and Seema Gupta, head, Department of Psychology, conducted the function.

Bathinda, November 18
Five players of the Indian women’s kabaddi team, participating in the on-going Kabaddi World Cup, a coach, and the liaison officer of the team, today arrived at the emergency wing of the Civil Hospital here to get themselves examined for the internal injuries, sustained by them in a major road accident that had taken place near the Army's Chetak Park on the Bathinda-Barnala road, yesterday.

The names of the five injured players are: Simarjit Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Jasbir Kaur, Kulwinder Kaur and Anu Rani, besides the coach Jaskaran Kaur and the liaison officer sub-inspector Jasmine Kaur. However, the player Simarjit Kaur has been declared unfit by the orthopaedic surgeon. Besides, Simarjit and Jasmine Kaur have been advised rest for three weeks.

An orthopaedic surgeon at the Civil Hospital here, Dr Ajay Gupta, who examined the players, the coach and the liaison officer, revealed to the TNS that the coach Jaskaran Kaur had suffered from cervical strain while the liaison officer Jasmine had soft tissue injuries on the chest and foot. He said Mandeep Kaur had also minor soft tissue injury on the right thigh.

Dr Gupta said Kulwinder Kaur had sustained soft tissue injury on the right shoulder while Anu Rani had suffered nasal injury. He said Simarjit Kaur, who had been declared unfit to play and advised rest for the next three weeks, had suffered ligament injury of the right ankle and foot. Jasbir Kaur had minor soft tissue injuries on both the knees.

Dr Gupta said all of them had been given treatment, crepe bandage and medication for pain and swelling. He said except for Simarjit Kaur, all the remaining injured players were found to be fit for playing their kabaddi match.

Jaskaran Kaur, the coach of the team, said all the players had lost their educational and sports certificates in the accident the previous day. Besides, some of them had also lost their voter cards, ration cards or diaries. She made an appeal to the authorities concerned that in view of the mishap, they should prepare their requisite certificates at the earliest so that they do not face any problems in the days to come.

To a question as to whether they had participated in the reported dinner hosted by the chief minister at his residence in Badal village yesterday, an angry woman official replied in the negative.

She expressed resentment saying they had not gone to the Badal village as despite such a major mishap, the CM had not visited them to enquire about their well-being. However, she appreciated Sikandar Singh Maluka, a senior SAD leader and the senior functionary of the Kabaddi World Cup for the care and attention, shown towards them after the accident. 

Bathinda, November 18
The four-day-old chain hunger strike by the members of the district unit of the class IV Government Employees Union (Punjab) ended outside the Mini-secretariat here today. They had been observing a 24-hour-long chain hunger strike since November 15 in support of their demands here under the presidentship of the district president Manjit Singh.

The five members of the union, comprising Bhola Ram Yadav, Raj Kumar, Om Parkash Chambha, Raj Kumar Teona and Balram Singh were offered juice this afternoon by the chairman of the Control Committee (Punjab) Daler Singh to end the hunger strike.

On the occasion, the employees also raised slogans in support of their demands and against the state government.

On the occasion, the protesters also held a rally.