Bathinda, January 7
Under the solid waste management project, 12 per cent of the households in the city have been covered with bins distributed to them.

Around 7,000 households of the total 60,000 in all the 50 wards of the city have been covered under the procedure. The employees of the Urban Waste Management Limited, Bathinda, an initiative of the Jindal ITF Ecopolis, today informed the city residents about the dustbins being distributed and the ways to use them. The blue bins are meant for wet waste while green bins are meant for dry waste.

Sweepers deputed with mohalla safai committees have been absorbed by the company and have been trained on collecting the segregated garbage. Besides, they would be provided with uniforms and implements to collect and transport the waste. Permanent sweepers, who have been collecting the waste so far, would now be sweeping streets and drains and would not deal with garbage collection.

Municipal Corporation, Bathinda, (MCB) officials said as per the set schedule, the work would be completed by January 31. Not only all the wards under the corporation would be covered, even nearby 17 urban local bodies would be covered under this exercise.

The facility was inaugurated on December 9 when Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the garbage collection in the local Ganesha Nagar area.

In Bathinda, the collected waste would be dumped on 26 acres at the backside of Roshan Lal Oil Mills on the Mansa road where a processing plant is proposed to come up.

At the other 17 urban local bodies, the garbage collected would be dumped at the places where it is already being dumped.

MCB officials said the company was also working on Jalandhar and Ferozepur clusters.

“Gradually, the company may come up with a power generation plant based on the biomass collected from different clusters,” the officials said.

The 18 urban bodies include Bathinda Abohar, Bareta, Bhikhi, Bhuchho Mandi, Budhlada, Gidderbaha, Goniana, Kotfatta, Malout, Mansa, Maur, Raman, Rampura Phul, Sangat, Sardulgarh, Talwandi Sabo and Tapa.

Bathinda, January 7
Harminder Singh Jassi, the Congress candidate from Bathinda (Urban) assembly constituency, today launched his election campaign after paying obeisance at places of worship of different faiths, in the city.

Jassi, who is the sitting Congress MLA from Bathinda, paid obeisance at Gurdwara Qila Mubarak here where he was honoured with a ‘Siropa’ (robe of honour). Later, he paid obeisance at a temple situated in the Post Office Bazar. He also visited the Hazi Rattan mosque. He also paid obeisance at the church situated trans-railway lines.

Later, Jassi addressed meeting of workers at the District Congress Committee office here and assigned duties to them to be performed during the election days. He thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh for allotting him the party ticket from Bathinda.

Jassi said he had been allotted the party ticket again due to the support of party workers. He claimed that the Congress party would win the Bathinda seat with a record margin.

The Bathinda MLA said that he had raised as many as 27 issues relating to Bathinda and other matters in the Punjab Assembly, but the government could not give any proper reply to his questions.

Former minister Chiranji Lal Garg, who recently joined the Congress, district president of the Congress Ashok Kumar, senior Congress leaders KK Aggarwal and Inder Singh Sahni also thanked the Congress high-command for re-nominating Jassi for the Bathinda seat.

Among others who were present on the occasion included Lala Jeet Mal, Kuljit Singh Gogi, Rupinder Singh Bindra, Mohinder Kaur Rani, Rajan Garg, JR Khattar, Mohan Lal Jhumba, Suresh Bansal, Babli Dhillon and Rajinder Goldi.

Bathinda, January 7
A MBBS final-year student of the Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (AIMSR), Varun Gupta, will become the first student to present a paper meant to study the knowledge, attitudes and current practices of detection and management of gestational diabetes mellitus by physicians and obstetricians in Punjab.

He would present the paper at the 67th annual conference of the Association of Physicians of India (APICON) to be held at Kolkata from January 12.

Principal investigator for this research paper is assistant professor of the AIMSR Dr Vitull K Gupta and is co-authored by Dr Ashwani Maheshwari, Dr Sonia Arora, Dr Arun Maria, Dr Rakendra Singh, Dr Jagjit Singh Bahia and Dr Shelza.

Bathinda, January 7
The complaint centre set by the Election Commission has received only 31 phone calls complaining about various election-related irregularities taking place in the area. However, officials said 90 per cent of the callers had made frivolous complaints about election material defacing the walls of houses, posters and hoardings, flags and other publicity material hung in the market.

“Few desperate callers call up regularly reporting that some election-related programmes are being shown on different channels,” said one of the employees at the District Election Office.

Complaints are reported to the respective returning officers of various constituencies. These returning officers verify the complaints and submit their report to the District Election Office. The complaints received daily are compiled at 10 pm and reported to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab.

The complaint on the basis of which SAD district president Sikandar Singh Maluka was issued notice was also received at the complaint centre.

“Complaints regarding violation of the election code of conduct are seriously looked into,” the officials said.

Apart from elections, the centre has also got a call regarding tussle between two factions in the city.

“In such cases, we tell the callers that they should contact the nearest police station and not the election complaint centre,” added district revenue officer Amandeep Singh Bhatti.

Bathinda, January 7
Two foetuses found in the city in the past four days have raised many eyebrows.

President of Sahara Jan Sewa Vijay Goyal said the foetus was recovered from near Nachhattar Nagar here today, adding that earlier, a foetus was found near Bathinda Railway Station three days ago. He said though the police registers cases in this regard, nothing concrete had been done to arrest or identify the culprits behind the crime.

“The foetus found today seems to be four months old and it weighs less than a kg. The foetus recovered three days ago was bit weighty than this one and seemed to be six months old,” he said.

Volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa reached the place after receiving a phone call from a passerby at 7:30 am.

The foetus was found wrapped in a piece of cloth and was kept clandestinely on the roadside.

Police officials from the Vardhman police post, who reached the spot, said that a case under Section 315 of the IPC would be registered in this regard.

Vardhman police post in-charge Harjeet Singh said it was the first foetus recovered under the jurisdiction of the Vardhman police post this year. No foetus was recovered last year, he added. He said midwives and sources surrounding the locality were being enquired to ascertain the names of the persons behind the killing. The guilty may have to undergo punishment for 10 years, he added.

Meanwhile, local residents and volunteers of the NGO said even as the government and NGOs had been creating awareness against foeticide, there seemed to be little change in the mindset of general public.

Pre-natal sex selection and post-natal gender discrimination continue to thrive in the city despite a ban imposed by the government as wells as strict vigil as claimed by the health authorities and the police.

Chief Medical Officer Iqbal Singh, when contacted to enquire into today’s incident, said it was the policemen who need to look into the matter.

Bathinda, January 7
With the onset of winters, the number of patients visiting the OPDs in the local Civil Hospital has come down to a great extent on account of one reason or the other. As compared to the past several months, the number of patients visiting the hospital these days is almost half.

During earlier months, the number of patients visiting the hospital in a week was around 6,000 (on an average basis about 900 a day) whereas at present, the number of patients visiting the hospital’s OPDs is around 3,300 per week.

Sources in the Civil Hospital told this reporter that the number of patients comes down in the OPDs of the hospital due to change in weather as well as due to the sowing and harvesting seasons.

On a visit to the registration counters from where the OPD slips are issued to the patients, TNS today found that it was not crowded and the patients or their attendants were getting the slips without any difficulty or inconvenience.

As per information available, around 400 patients got OPD slips from the registration counters at the hospital today. Yesterday, the number was more than 500 and on January 5 it was around 400. However, on January 4, the number of registration slips issued was about 580 and on January 3, it was about 690.

According to doctors, a large number of patients visiting them nowadays suffer from ailments like asthma, joint problems, light fever, ENT-related diseases and chest diseases besides trauma, cold and cough cases. Besides, people suffering from blood pressure and diabetes have also been coming as during winters, patients find it hard to resist sweetened food stuff.

When contacted, senior medical officer of the Civil Hospital Dr Satish Goyal said there were several factors due to which patients visiting the hospital goes down during cold weather. He said during winters, lesser number of eye and skin disease patients, planned surgery cases, orthopaedic cases and diarrhoea cases visit the hospital in comparison with the summer season.

Goyal said besides, the movement of patients from their villages in winter also gets restricted.

He said buses passing through the villages have fixed arrival time. However, many a times people could not reach the bus stops on time due to cold weather and resultantly, missed their visits to the hospital, Goyal added.

Bathinda, January 7
With fog and severe cold wave conditions refusing to relent, the city continued to reel under the bad weather conditions for the second consecutive day on Saturday.

Though drizzle was not reported in many parts of the area today, the affect of the hail-storm experienced in the city and its adjoining areas last night worsened the cold conditions.

The signs of improvement on the part of weather that appeared last evening proved short-lived at night when the city witnessed hail-storm for the first time this winter.

Moreover, the city again got up to a blind start today when a dense fog enveloped the city and its adjoining areas causing poor to nil visibility in the morning hours.

The sun, though sighted in a few parts of the areas today, was feeble and proved insufficient to give respite to the residents from the biting chill.

Mercury dipped a bit since yesterday to record 8.8 degrees Celsius, as per the Agri-met Department of the PAU regional station, Bathinda. The day's high was 12.4 degrees Celsius.

The last two days proved to be the coldest days of this winter so far as maximum temperature hovered around 11 degrees Celsius during the period.

If weathermen are to be believed, respite from bad weather may come from Sunday.

Bathinda, January 7
Even on the third consecutive day of filing of nomination papers for the Assembly elections, no candidate filed his or her nomination papers in any of the six Assembly constituencies of the district.

No nomination paper has been filed by any candidate in the district so far.

DC-cum-District Election Officer KK Yadav said the nomination papers can be filed up to January 12 (except December 8).

There are six Assembly constituencies in the district, Bathinda (Rural), Bathinda (Urban), Maur, Talwandi Sabo, Rampura Phul and Bhucho. — TNS

Bathinda, January 7
Three residents of Kothe Natha Singh Wale, Dan Singh Wale and Kothe Kame Wale, have been booked after the death of a farmer, who had allegedly consumed some poisonous substance to end his life.

In his complaint to the police, Jagtar Singh of Kothe Sandhura Singh Wale alleged that the three accused, Dalbir Singh, Hakam Singh and Jalandhar Singh got 86 canal 5 marla transferred in their land without paying any amount.

Despite getting a stay order from the court, the accused threaten to encroach upon the land, fearing which, his brother Hoshiar Singh consumed some poisonous substance and died.

A case under Sections 306, 506 and 34 of the IPC has been registered in this connection against the accused at the Nehianwala Police Station.

No arrests have been made so far.

Bathinda, January 7
Two residents of Gurdaspur and one of Delhi have been booked for poisoning a man near Phulo Khari village. The complainant Lekhraj, a resident of Gurdaspur, alleged that the accused Kuldeep Singh, Tarlok Saini and Ashok Kumar poisoned his son Suresh Kumar over transaction of some money near Phulo Khari.

A case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC has been registered at the Rama police station. No arrests have been made so far.