Bathinda, December 8
The delay in completion of the Mansa district jail is adding to the problems of an overcrowded Bathinda Central Jail. Presently, the Bathinda jail has 1,791 inmates as against its capacity of housing 1,146 inmates. Of the total inmates, 780 relate to cases lodged at Mansa district. The Bathinda jail was designed to house 1,014 men and 132 women.

However, 1,683 men and 108 women are languishing in it at present.

According to the report of the Superintendent, Bathinda Jail, submitted to the Punjab Government, till October 19, there are 401 convicts and 610 undertrials from Bathinda district. Besides, there are 355 convicts and 425 undertrials from Mansa district.

The Mansa jail, a modern jail, has been built with a capacity of housing 450 inmates. Presently, the work on housing 433 inmates has been completed while other barracks are under construction.

"Against the built capacity of 450, at least 700 to 800 inmates could be transferred to the Mansa jail bringing much needed relief to the overpopulated Bathinda jail," said one of the officials at Bathinda jail.

It is learnt that District and Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal has taken up the matter with the Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court, highlighting the urgent need to shift inmates from Bathinda to Mansa.

Sources in the Bathinda jail said due to overcrowding, the inmates do not have enough space to sleep or rest. The jail's mess has been working round the clock to serve meal to such a large number of inmates.

Due to overcrowding, medical staff deputed in the jail ends up facing problem in treating inmates. Also, the place where jail inmates meet their relatives remains crowded. At times, the inmates enter into heated arguments on the issue of space and sometimes, it takes the shape of a quarrel.

The jail authorities added that at times, the jail also faces shortage of security personnel and it becomes difficult to keep a vigil on such a large number of inmates. Even at the time of checking inmates before their entry into the jail, some inmates succeed in taking restricted things inside.

Bathinda, December 8
Dharna by farmers at Jethuke village near Rampura for the past two days has derailed the economics of the railways at Bathinda. While railway officials fail to give details of the losses, sources said the Railways losses might run into lakhs as trains failed to reach Bathinda railway station and passengers were quite upset over the delay.

Sources in the Railways said many passengers had made written complaints following the cancellation of trains and issues pertaining to refund of the ticket fare.

During the past two days, 11 express and passenger trains had been cancelled on account of the dharna by farmers.

Bathinda station superintendent SN Rai and Assistant Area Traffic Manager SP Bhatia admitted that the dharna had led to passengers making frequent calls and visiting the railway station to enquire about the delayed trains.

The functioning of the Railways has virtually come to a standstill and has affected the business of shopkeepers and vendors in the railway station’s vicinity.

“The railway station remains buzzing with activity but things are different for the past two days,” said Sonu, an auto-rickshaw driver, outside the Bathinda railway station. Shopkeepers in the vicinity of the station also said the business of small shopkeepers and dhaba owners had got affected since yesterday.

The roadside vendors at the platforms said the number of passengers had been reduced by more than 80 per cent and “our sales too plummeted to a great extent”.

Railway officials, keeping a tab over the dharna by making enquiries at the police control room, and officials of the railway protection force said they were sitting with cross fingers. “We have no work to do and are now waiting for the dharna to be lifted,” said a senior railway official at Bathinda station.

Bathinda, December 8
For many they are just unemployed linemen, having matriculation qualification with two years’ ITI (Electrical wireman) certificate course along with two years’ apprenticeship, but it is not true completely as many of them possess higher academic qualifications, like B.A, MA, B.Ed., and PGDCA (Information Technology).

Despite holding such higher academic qualifications, they are moving from pillar to post to seek jobs for the past several years, but to no avail so far. Even the post of a lineman in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which is the only hope for them as a lineman, seems to be far away so far.

These unemployed linemen are among those large number of unemployed linemen, who have been staging a day and night protest dharna outside the Mini-secretariat here since December 5 last, seeking appointment of 4,000 linemen in the PSPCL as the counselling of about 4,000 linemen had reportedly already been done but they have not been issued orders for appointment so far.

An unemployed lineman Mandip Singh from Samrala said after his ITI certificate course and apprenticeship, he had done graduation, and then PGDCA in 2003. Despite this he had failed in getting any government job so far, he added.

Another unemployed lineman Amritpal Singh from Fatehgarh Churrian said he had passed MA in History in 1999 and MA in Punjabi in 2003 privately. Despite this, he could not get any job in any government department so far. He said he even failed in securing a job of a lineman during past 13 years as the government had not advertised posts of the lineman for such a long period.

Ashok Kumar from Abohar said he had passed his ITI course in 2004 and completed apprenticeship in 2007, besides doing B. Ed this year, he also failed in getting a government job, even of a lineman so far.

Jagdip Singh from Bathinda also holds degrees of MA (Punjabi) and B.Ed. He completed his apprenticeship in 2006, but could not get a job of a lineman.

Besides these four unemployed linemen there are many others, having higher academic qualifications, including Sukhraj Singh BA (Jalandhar), Ravinder Sharma BA (Bathinda), Avtar Singh BA, B. Ed (Sangrur), Ishar Singh BA (Faridkot), Kuljit Singh BA B.Ed (Gurdaspur), Kuldip Sharma MA B. Ed (Amritsar), Avtar Singh BA (Barnala), and Jeet Pal BA (Nahianwala, Bathinda).

State president of the Unemployed Linemen Union Punjab Pirmal Singh flayed the government for mushrooming growth of the privately managed educational institutions in Punjab, saying that it has been giving approval and recognition to such institutions.

He said many of such institutions were being run by the influential persons who collected huge amounts from the students. On the other hand, the government was not providing jobs, rather unemployed youths were being beaten up by the police if they demanded jobs.

Bathinda, December 8
The tehsildar (Election), posted at the District Election Office here, has been observing the pen down strike since yesterday as the entire staff (regular as well as contractual) of his office is also observing pen down strike till tomorrow in support of their demands.

Their main grudge against the government is that while revising the pay -scales the officials and employees of the Election Department had been ignored by the state government.

They are demanding increased pay-scales for all categories, including Rs 25,110-39,100 with a grade pay of Rs 8,800 for tehsildar, Rs 15,600-39,100 with a grade pay of Rs 6,600 for the Election kanoongo, besides creation of post of the naib tehsildar (Election) in every district, regularisation of services of the contractual employees, such as computer professionals, proof readers and clerks.

Tehsildar Harphool Singh revealed to the reporter today that they would continue their agitation to get their demands accepted.

A Kanoongo (Election) Gurbachan Singh said that in his long service of about two decades, this was the first time that the employees of the District Election Office had gone on pen down strike or participated in any agitation.

Gurcharan said all the 15 regular and contractual employees, tehsildar, kanoongo, proof reader, clerk, data operator, programmer and peon, had been observing pen down strike since yesterday.

He said they would also observe pen down strike tomorrow as the Election Employees Association Punjab had given a call for three days from 
December 7-9.

The agitating employees today staged dharna outside the District Election Office here and raised slogans against the Punjab Government and in favour of their demands. They urged the government to accept their demands at the earliest as they were suffering a lot for the last several years.

Among others who were present at the dharna included Tehsildar Harphool Singh, Kanoongos Gurcharan Singh, Sohan Singh and Harjinder Kaur, programmer Iqbal Singh and data operator Balwant Singh.

Bathinda, December 8
Discontentment prevails among thousands of nambardars as despite the hike in their monthly honorarium in the last week of September this year and implemented from October 1, they have not been paid the increased honorarium so far.

The honorarium was hiked by the state government from Rs 500 per month to Rs 1,000 per month.

After participating in a meeting of the district unit of the Punjab Nambardar Union here today, state general secretary of the union Mohinder Singh Jahangir said there are over 30,000 nambardars in the state, who have been awaiting their hiked honorarium for the months of October and November so far.

He urged the government to implement its decision by releasing the increased honorarium of Rs 1,000 per month to the nambardars.

He said at the meeting that it was also demanded that the hereditary claim of the son of a nambardar to make him nambardar on a priority basis should be implemented in letter and spirit by the government.

Jahangir further said the meeting also demanded hike in the allowance of the nambardar from three percent to 10 per cent for collecting money from cultivators on account of water rates.

He said the state government had issued a letter, exempting the nambardars from paying parking fee at the cycles stands, located at the district administrative complexes and sub-divisional administrative complexes, but the letter has not been implemented so far.

Jahangir stated that the government should ensure the implementation of this letter.

State president of the union Gurpal Singh Samra also said that though the state government had issued notification, with regard to their demand about the increased honorarium, but the same could not be implemented so far. He said the government should initiate steps in this regard.

The meeting was held under the presidentship of Bathinda district president of the union Harbhajan Singh Khan here.

In the meeting, state president of the union Gurpal Singh Samra, senior vice president Surjit Singh Nanherra, secretary Kuldip Singh Belewal, and press secretary Shingara Singh Samra also took part.

Bathinda, December 8
The Central University of Punjab (CUP) organised a lecture commemorating the Human Rights Day. A special lecture was organised to commemorate declaration of the Universal Human Rights on December 10 1948.

On the occasion, eminent scholar Prof Harish Puri, former head, Department of Political Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, (Amritsar) delivered the lecture.

Giving specific examples, Prof Puri asserted that in the contemporary world, the issue of human rights has become a domain of hypocrisy. “Those who talk about human rights do not seem to believe in them,” he stated. On the one hand, we have rhetoric of human rights and on the other, a blatant and barbarous denial of minimal human dignity and right to life to a large section of the population,” he said.

Tracing the history of invasion of Iraq and Vietnam, Dr Puri stressed upon the lies, arrogance and hypocrisy of the expansionist nations. He highlighted their callous disregard of public opinion and human values in their violent and aggressive attitude towards the nations and governments that dare to disagree with their designs and policies.

He asserted that though the state is the offender in most violations

of human rights, society itself cannot escape blame for many other instances of denigration of human rights. The family and society at local level trample on human dignity of certain sections of society.

He concluded by asserting that when millions die of hunger, civil and political rights lose their meaning. These civil rights can prosper only when there 
is freedom from hunger and when there is economic, social and cultural equality.

In addition to the faculty and the students of the university, many eminent citizen, human rights activist and press correspondents attended the lecture.

The All India Radio Bathinda broadcast the lecture live. The Central University of Punjab has been conducting seminars and extension lectures by inviting scholars and intellectuals of great repute to its campus. The lecture was a part of that series.

Bathinda, December 8
Under the banner of the Punjab Draughtsmen Association, the members of the Bathinda unit (Bathinda and Mansa) of the association, led by president of the unit Baljit Singh Virk, staged a dharna inside the Mini-secretariat here today.

These draughtsmen are on mass casual leave for three days from December 7 - 9 in support of their demands.

After the hike in the grade pay of junior engineer from Rs 3,800 to Rs 4,800 recently by the Punjab Government, there is a great resentment among the draughtsmen against the state government as it has broken the parity between the grade pay of draughtsman and junior engineer as both were earlier getting a pay-scale of Rs 10,300-34,800 with grade pay of Rs 3,800.

The draughtsmen are now demanding that their pay parity should be revived by increasing their grade pay. Besides, they should also be given a pay-scale of Rs 15,600-39,100 with a grade pay of Rs 5,400 after 10 years of service on the pattern of junior engineer to maintain the pay parity.

Their other pending demands include revival of three per cent SDO quota for circle head draughtsman, conveyance allowance, and special allowance.

Virk said the draughtsmen would gherao the residence of a member of the Cabinet sub-committee Tikshan Sood at Hoshiarpur tomorrow to compel him to provide them with the pay parity in par with the junior engineers.

Bathinda, December 8
The 7654 United Teachers Front would hold a state level dharna on December 10 at Bathinda near the Rose Garden Chowk.

In a press statement issued here today, the member of front Gurdeep Singh said that in September 2009, the Punjab government had started procedure of recruiting 7654 teaching and non-teaching staff members in the education department.

The lecturers, vocational masters, masters, art and craft teachers and non-teaching staff members are being paid Rs 6400, Rs 5800, Rs 5400, Rs 4200 and Rs 3100 respectively. Agitating teachers said that the pay package fixed is less than even the annual earnings of an unskilled labour who starts working at the age of 14 years.

While the class four employees in government schools are earning Rs 16000 to Rs 17000 per month, the teachers are lowly paid. These teachers have not got salary for the last seven months, while people working on same post are drawing salaries that are six times more than the salary of 7654 teachers.

Bathinda, December 8
The bayonet that went missing from the gun of a statue of the Victoria Cross winner Jamadar (naib subedar) Nand Singh at the Fauji Chowk, has been 'restored'.

On December 1, the Bathinda Tribune had highlighted the desecration of the statue of the highest decorated Indian soldier during the World War II. The bayonet (a knife fixed on the front portion of a gun) was found missing.

According to the rules, a report of the missing bayonet should have been lodged with the local police. However, no such report was lodged. Even the bayonet installed seems to be temporary as it has been tied loosely using an iron string.

Deputy director of the Sainik Welfare Board Colonel SS Mann (retd) said the permanent restoration work would soon be done. "We would meet Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav and apprise him of the statue as well as the roundabout being damaged repeatedly," he said.

Earlier too, despite strict instructions of the district administration, people do not hesitate from cluttering the rotary with publicity material of both social and political as well as festoons.

The ex-servicemen had objected to the kind of treatment meted out to the martyr's statue.

Bathinda, December 8
The Virasat Mela, held every year in the city, has been postponed owing to the death of the son of the main sponsor of the event.

Confirming this, chairman of the Malwa Heritage Foundation Harvinder Singh Khalsa said December 23 to December 25 were the tentative dates of event. "However, the final dates are yet to be decided," he said.

Nirmal Singh Bhangu from the Pearls Group has been sponsoring the annual event ever since its inception eight years ago. Bhangu's son passed away two days ago and his cremation was held on Wednesday due to which the annual fair has been postponed.

The Malwa Heritage Foundation has been holding the Virasat Mela at Jaipalgarh village in the city.

This year, the fair is being held in the memory of legendary singer Kuldeep Manak.

Bathinda, December 8
Gurlal Singh, a student of BA final year of Government Rajindra College, was felicitated today for being declared bets athlete during the inter-college athletic meet held at Punjabi University Patiala from December 3 to December 5 wherein 71 colleges under varsity participated.

Principal of the college Surjit Singh said that Gurlal Singh secured gold medal in 100 m and 200 m races. The college awarded him with a canister of desi ghee.

Besides Gurlal, Santokh Singh from won silver medal in shot put at the same meet. Amandeep from BA final, Gurlal from BA final, Sukhwinder from BA II and Paramjit from BA II won silver medal in relay races.

Bathinda, December 8
The Harbhajan Institute of Competitions is going to organise a mock test for class tenth on January 8 and February 12.

In a press statement issued here on Thursdayday, the Managing Director of institute Harbhajan Singh said that students from different cities are going to part in this test. "The motive of test is to search talented students and give them scholarship.

The extraordinary students securing 100 marks would be placed first, with 75 per cent marks would be placed second and with 50 per cent marks would be placed third," he said. — TNS