Bathinda, December 11
After five days, the hustle and bustle was witnessed at the Bathinda railway station on Sunday as all the 11 trains cancelled, in view of the farmers' protests, were back on tracks providing much-needed relief to the passengers as well as the rail officials.

The Railways had to cancel the trains after the farmers squatted on the rail tracks on December 6 near village Jethuke in support of their demands. The protesting farmers remained adamant for five days causing complete suspension of the train traffic on the Rajpura-Bathinda-Rajpura (RBR) rail section between Bathinda and Barnala.

Following the information about farmers leaving the tracks late on Saturday evening, the railways started preparations for resuming the services of all the cancelled trains. As per the railways officials, normalcy was restored at 23.10 hours or 11.10 pm on Saturday. However, the much-awaited change became visible on Sunday as the trains meant for the tracks on the RBR rail section started blowing their whistles.

As the news regarding the resumption of train traffic on the RBR section started spreading, the enquiry counter which had been witnessing a large number of harried passengers for the last five days, saw content on the faces of the passengers.

The ticket counters also sold tickets for Barnala, Rampura Phul and other stations en route.

The rail officials who had to face the wrath of the passengers, who had an unpleasant experience, appeared to be relieved. "The passengers were unnecessarily blaming the railways for their problems," a senior railway official said.

The official added that they could not be blamed as they too were inconvenienced and did not know the reason why the railway had to cancel the trains.

The rail officials also said that the situation was not pleasing for them as they had to do the work other than the routine one like mass cancellation and beefing up of the enquiry system etc.

The spurt in the cancellation of tickets, enquiry of trains and other 'unwanted work' not only kept the rail officials on their toes during the period but also hit the railway pocket besides affecting the normal work to some extent, said another senior official, on the condition of anonymity.

The return of normalcy brought cheers back on the faces of not only the passengers and rail men but hawkers, rickshaw pullers and auto drivers as well.

The people were particularly pleased with the resumption of train nos. 14711/14712 Sriganganagar-Haridwar which always run packed to their capacity. 

Bathinda, December 11
The torment of train passengers wishing to travel on the Rajpura-Bathinda-Rajpura (RBR) rail section came to and end after five consecutive days as one of the significant sections, connecting the Asia's second biggest railway junction — Bathinda — was badly affected during this period.

Notably, the Bathinda station is the Asia's second biggest junction as it sends and receives trains from six directions and currently, only five of its sections are witnessing normal train traffic.

Thousands of harried commuters, concentrating on each announcement, making enquiries in regular intervals had been a normal feature for the last five days as farmers had 'replaced' trains on tracks near village Jethuke in Bathinda, derailing traffic on the RBR section and causing cancellation of 11 important trains, including express trains.

The railway too had come up with steps to minimise the problems of the passengers. "All the railway men were instructed to help any passenger at the station with accurate information," said a senior railway official, adding that the deputy station superintendents had been asked specifically to help the passengers and address the complaint of each and every passenger.

"Passengers seeking cancellation and refund of tickets may contact the deputy station superintendents round-the-clock," said the official, adding that they had been told to provide special care to the passengers facing problems due to the cancellation of trains.

Railway sources said the facilities of waiting rooms and retiring rooms at the station had been put at the disposal of the passengers. The rail officials at the Bathinda station were also instructed to open an extra window for refunding the charges, if required.

The public announcement system was also beefed up. "The round-the-clock enquiry counter was updated as soon as the information was delivered to the railway concerned in the morning and afternoon," railway sources said.

The railway official had suggested that passengers wishing to travel on the RBR section should contact the railway enquiry before starting their journey.

Meanwhile, the railways had also diverted a few trains. Trains have been following the Jakhal-Delhi route instead of the Jakhal-Bathinda route

Besides, the passengers worst hit were those wishing to board train number 14712 that runs between Sriganganagar-Haridwar that had to be cancelled. "The intensity of the problems of passengers of the train could be understood by the fact that the train always runs packed to its capacity," said railway sources. 

Bathinda, December 11
There has been a rise in the number of accidents around the lakes of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), especially after the introduction of the shikaras and boating for entertainment purposes.

The commuters have become the victims of accidents in view of the distraction caused by the boats. Admitting the rise in the number of accidents, Satnam Singh, the driver of an ambulance of the Waheguru Welfare Society said that the commuters indeed get distracted while driving on the road adjoining the lakes.

"Commuters watch the shikaras and boats while driving on the road and their vehicles either collide with the divider or with the other vehicles. Last evening, two people received serious injuries as their car collided with the divider of the road. Earlier too, some accidents were reported," Satnam said. He pointed out that one of the boats, which create immense noise, distracts the people on two-wheelers.

President of the Sahara Welfare Society, Vijay Goyal said that colourful lights installed on the lake too divert the attention of the motorists during the night and is also one of the reason behind the rise in the number of accidents on the Goniana road.

"Though accidents were reported in the past as well but its number has now increased with the introduction of boating at the lakes. When we enquire about the reason behind the accident, the victims tell us that they got distracted or the lights blinded them for a moment," Goyal said.

The NGOs have deployed free ambulance services on the Goniana road, which help in shifting accident victims to the nearby hospitals. The drivers of these ambulances said that there has been an overall increase in the number of accidents on the Goniana road and many accidents have been reported around the lakes. "The eating joints on the road too prove to be instrumental in adding to the number of road accidents in the area," said the volunteers of NGOs.

They pointed out that the parking of vehicles of the visitors at the lake outside too adds to the chaos. Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said he would look into the matter.

Bathinda, December 11
The recently-launched investment option under the small savings category — the 10-year National Saving Certificate (NSC IX issue) by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has apparently failed to enthuse the investors in Bathinda and its adjoining areas.

Even after ten days of the launch, the scheme was yet to find its first investor here till Saturday evening, as per the sources in the head post office, Bathinda.

Notably, the National Savinga Certificate schemes are sold by the post offices across the country. Sources, however, also said that it might be due to the lack of awareness about the scheme in the region.

Though lack of awareness may be one of the reasons for the almost ‘nil’ response shown so far by the investors as official advertisement to popularise the scheme is yet to be launched, an out-right thumbs down from the financial experts is also eluding unlike the 'similar' saving option, famous as NSC, as the maturity period of the scheme is ‘too’ long and it could be used as a tax-rebate tool only once in ten years.

Sources in the Bathinda postal department also said that the enquiry about the scheme might have come during the last ten days as the financial advisors must be aware about the introduction of the new scheme.

The other reason for the ‘poor’ response may be due to the fact the prospective investors might be in a defensive mode because of the unavailability of printed certificates which is yet to be delivered by the government press to the post offices here.

"But it does not matter as the post office will give the preliminary receipts to the investors and would issue the certificates from the back date or on the date of acceptance of the payment," sources said.

Senior postal officials expressed the hope that the scheme would be sold in coming days. “The National Savinga Certificate is used as a tool for saving taxes so from January onwards particularly near March, the scheme would be able to draw investors,” the official said.

As far as the amount drawn by the investors at the time of maturity is concerned, sources said that if someone invests Rs 1,000, he/she would get Rs 2,340 after 10 years.

Comparing the new scheme with the five-year NSC, financial experts believe that the 'too' long period might dampen the spirit of the investors.

The financial experts also opined that if someone goes for a five-year National Savinga Certificate twice in ten years instead of going for a 10-year National Savings Certificate, he/she would be getting more benefits in terms of tax rebate twice in 10 years while in case of 10 years, one could get claim for tax rebate only once in ten years.

Besides, the payment would also be made to the investors after 10 years while with the five-year National Savings Certificate, one could get payment in five years and would be in a position to consider other investment option.

December, December 11
The growing electronic waste produced in different sectors of the city has become a matter of concern for the residents of the city.

With no solution in sight to this by-product of the every growing herd of obsolete technology, the city is sitting on a heap of electronic waste waiting to be lifted.

With the coming up of the proposed solid waste treatment plant for Bathinda and the 17 urban bodies nearby, the problem of solid waste would be resolved but the largest fifth municipal corporation of Punjab is yet to find a solution for the disposal of e-waste.

With thousands of computer terminals, mobile phones and associated accessories flooding the market daily, these things are being discarded and dealt with by the untrained people.

In the past five years, most of the old keyboards have been replaced by soft touch ones, while the optical mouse has taken the place of track ball mouse. Similarly, the large bulky monitors are being replaced with TFT (thin film transistor) and LCD screens, while most of the computer users have already bid farewell to the black and white monitors.

Hectic activity in the field of education, communication and industrial growth in the city has resulted in more number of computers and allied facilities being used to run these components.

"While many people sell the keyboards and mouse, I prefer to throw them away. I discard them at the market bin," said the owner of a cyber café, Manu Gupta.

The junk dealers too buy the old worn out computer parts but at a paltry sum. For instance, a monitor is sold off for a mere Rs 100 or Rs 150, while two or three keyboards together fetch the same price.

"Customers get their faulty mobile phones repaired. When we tell them that the apparatus is dead, they refuse to collect their phones. We don't know what to do with such a large number of old mobile phones and re-chargeable batteries that lie in a heap in our shop's attic," said a mobile distributor at the Gole Diggi market.

The untreated e-waste lies not only in the attics and basements of shops. In one such case, an LG dealer has the second floor of his shop full with the discarded material. "These TVs and other electronic items cannot even be re-used. I have started selling them to the junk dealers slowly and steadily," said the shop owner.

Meanwhile, the XEN, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Nazar Singh

Manshahia said that e-waste disposal has indeed become a complex problem to handle. "The PPCB has invited expressions of interest (EoI) to open collection and segregation centres for e-waste in Punjab," he said.

Pradeep Gupta, the engineer from the PPCB headquarters at Patiala said that e-waste disposal norms would come into effect from May 2012 onwards.

"We got three to four EoI and a company named Sembramky was the only one found to be competent. We have again invited EoI at the national level to have more companies in the field," he said.

Gupta said that since re-cycling e-waste is a highly technical job, the PPCB will lay emphasis on opening collection and segregation centres and the waste collected could later be exported. He added that there was no data on e-waste produced in Punjab.

An aerial view of the Fauji Chowk which witnessed traffic chaos in Bathinda on Sunday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Bathinda, December 11
Traffic moved at a snail’s pace in the city in view of the exams of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection and Agriculture Cooperative Banks organised, today.

The traffic was also disrupted due to a political rally on the Amrik Singh road wherein the Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal, his daughter-in-law and also Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal visited.

Various private and government schools were the centers of exams for the candidates in the city, who came from different parts of Abohar, Fazilka, Muktsar, Mansa and other nearby areas.

Mall road, Amrik Singh road, Gole Diggi, Dhobi Bazar, Tinkoni, railway road and other areas of the city were choked with traffic in view of unprecedented rush due to the exams and rally. Notably, the traffic remain disrupted for over two hours in the afternoon on the Amrik Singh road due to the visit of the Chief Minister. Besides, other areas too witnessed an irritatingly slow traffic.

With the entire police force and traffic cops deployed around the venue of the Chief Minister, the commuters had a tough time driving vehicles in other parts of the city, where the traffic was not navigated.

“There is hardly any traffic on Sundays but today there was chaos on the city roads due to rise in the traffic volume and lack of traffic policemen,” said Santosh, a shopkeeper.

Tarsem Chand, another shopkeeper near Ghore Wala Chowk said that it took more than half an hour to reach Dhobi Bazaar from Ghore Wala Chowk today in view of the traffic snarls.

People said that since both - the rally as well as exams - were scheduled events the district police should have made prior arrangements to deal with such high number of footfall in the city.

Bathinda, December 11
Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal has reportedly assured to look into the demands of the 7654 Teachers’ Union, who have been agitating since long demanding regularisation and revised pay-scales.

A delegation of the three teachers, including Gurdeep Singh Mann, Ranjodh Singh and Jasvir Singh met the CM at helipad at the Thermal Colony today in the afternoon. “We briefed the Chief M inister about our demands and persuaded that all the demands be met with. We hope the government would find out a solution soon. We have also forwarded a copy of our demands to the Mayor Baljit Singh Beerbehman, who accompanied the CM on his way back,” Gurdeep Singh Mann said.

The union members have decided to wait for government’s response for another three days. “If we do not get any response from the government, we would chart out next strategy of action,” Ranjodh Singh.

The agitating teachers mainly demand that they be brought under the preview of declaration made under the Civil Services Act declared on April 5, this year, that provides the basic pay and allowance to all the government employees.