Bathinda, January 20
The Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) has cancelled the allotment of two houses in the Model Town Phase-III on the issue of stores constructed in their backyard drawing ire of the area residents.

Besides cancelling the allotments, the BDA has also issued around 25 notices to other households terming the constructions at the back of the houses as illegal.

The owner of a house, whose allotment has been cancelled, while pleading anonymity, said the BDA adopted the pick and choose policy. "There are several other houses in Model Town Phases I and II that have constructed extra structures in their backyard for the last over 20 years," he pointed out, adding that he has now appealed in the court of the Chief Administrator, BDA, stating that action should be taken against him only after similar structures were also taken into account and action initiated against them.

People have been served notices and given seven days to respond. The notices were served after BDA employees conducted physical verification of the houses.

"Few days ago, a junior engineer from the BDA conducted physical verification of these houses. All those people have been issued notices, who have non-compoundable constructions, which cannot be penalised but have to be removed," said BDA officials.

The BDA officials said people were not allowed to have non-compoundable constructions like stores in the backyard. "Plot holders (BDA allottees) are not allowed to construct any room with lintel. One can construct a room with specified dimensions and may have a cement or tin sheet as roof," the official added.

Making permanent construction is illegal under Section 45 (1) of the Punjab Regional Town Planning and Development Act-1995. At the time when plots were being allotted, all the owners were directed that violation of this section would mean cancellation of the allotment.

"The violations are checked only when someone complains. The BDA officials should be strict and treat everyone as equal," said another allottee.

Navreet Grewal, the Assistant Development Officer, BDA, was not available for comments.

Bathinda, January 20
Despite creating awareness about people being trapped through fake e-mails, SMS and phone calls, residents continue to fall in the trap of the fraudsters.

Dreaming of greener pastures, the residents of Bathinda continue to offer money to the tune of lakhs to the impersonators.

Bathinda police today booked four people including two NRIs and a father-son duo for cheating and making false promises.

In his complaint to the police, Darshan Singh of Kothe Amarpura on Joganand road said he got an e-mail from an unidentified ID a few months ago. The unidentified person offered to provide visa, work permit and handsome salary in UK. He demanded Rs 1.07 lakh.

After many months of exchanging e-mails, the complainant failed to get the visa and lost contact with the unidentified person. A complaint was finally lodged with the police and detailed investigation conducted by ASP Vikrampal Bhatti.

Bhatti, while talking to TNS, admitted that people continue to be caught in the web of the fraudsters despite creating awareness. “It is quite difficult to recover the amount but we will try to trace the bank account in which the money has been credited,” Bhatti said.

He said the accused, pretending to be the recruiting manager of Gallary Hotels of the UK, took the money through a fake e-mail. A case under sections 66-D of the IT Act 2000 and 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC has been registered in this connection against Frank Moor Mumbai and Moris Clark, UK, both NRIs.

In another case, a father-son duo has been booked at the Diyalpura police station on the complaint of Jagrup Singh of Kaur Singh village. Jagrup alleged that Gurjant and his father, Amarjeet Singh Bhangu, residents of Hakam Singh Wala village, duped him. He said the duo pocketed Rs 14.60 lakh on the pretext of sending him to Italy around three years ago.

The case was settled by the village panchayat last year and the accused promised to return Rs 11 lakh failing which they would get a portion of their agricultural land registered in the name of complainant.

The accused later refused to return the money and get the land registered. Finally, a case was registered in this connection under sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC against the father and son. 

Bathinda, January 20
Under the revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP), two tuberculosis (TB) awareness programmes were organised near hutments in Vishal Nagar and Prajapat Colony, today.

Addressing the programmes, the RNTCP communication facilitator, Gagan Goyal, told the gatherings about the symptoms of TB and the precautions that can be taken against the disease.

He told the gatherings that one TB patient could infect 10 to 15 healthy persons in a year. He said if anyone felt s/he had symptoms of the disease, s/he should go for sputum test, which is conducted free of cost. Besides, the medicine for the disease is also given free of cost to the patients under the RNTCP for six to eight months.

Gagan Goyal asked the TB patients not to stop the treatment mid-way lest the diease could become incurable. TB health visitors Bikramjit Kaur and Sukhpal Kaur, and senior TB and HIV coordinator Manpreet Kaur were also present on the occasion.

When contacted, district TB officer (DTO), Dr Ashok Monga, said such programmes were being held by them every week, especially in the slum areas, where people required more awareness to protect themselves from the disease.

He added that out of a total of 94 lakh TB cases reported across the world every year, one-fifth (as many as 20 lakh) were in India. 

Bathinda, January 20
The deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer (DEO) today recommended to the Principal Secretary, Education Department, Punjab, the transfer of a teacher out of the Bathinda district.

The transfer has been recommended in the light of a complaint, made against the teacher Harinder Balli, by the Congress candidate from Rampura Phul, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, that Balli, a Hindi teacher in a Senior Secondary School in Rampura Phul, has been handling media for the SAD candidate from the area.

In the letter written to the Principal Secretary, Education Department, the deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer has stated that there is a complaint against the employee that he has been working as media in-charge for the SAD candidate Sikendar Singh Maluka.

He also stated that the teacher was on an un-authorised leave and was not cooperating with the authorities in the investigation of the complaint, made against him. Hence, it was recommended that he should be transferred out of the Bathinda district.

The deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer has sent the copies of the reports by the Returning Officer, Rampura Phul, and the District Education Officer, along with a copy of the complaint, to the Principal Secretary, Education Department.

Bathinda, January 20
On the nationwide call of the United Forum of the BSNL Executives’ Associations, members of the Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association (SNEA), the All India BSNL Executives’ Association (AIBSNLEA) and All India Graduate Engineer & Telecom Officers Association (AIGETOA), Bathinda, held a demonstration today in front of office of the General Manager Telecom, Bharat Nagar.

They were staging a protest in support of their demands, including no outside recruitment of senior general manager, joint deputy general manager, no diversion of DGM posts, and standard E2 and E3 pay scale for junior telecom offiders and senior divisional engineers, respectively.

BSNL officers alleged that the move of the management was intended merely to “rehabilitate ITS (Indian Telecom Service)” personnel rather than addressing the issue of growth by introducing homogeneous management structure.

They also alleged that the so-called RR (Rehabilitation Rules) were only meant to appease the ITS and not build a management structure where primary stakeholders of the company should be given core managerial responsibility to grow the company.

Leaders of the forum threatened to intensify their agitation, if the “legitimate” demands of the executives were not fulfilled on time.

District secretary of SNEA, Tata Singh, Gyan Chand Aggarwal of SNEA, SP Bansal of AIBSNLEA & Suresh Grover of AIGETOA and others addressed the protestors.

Bathinda, January 20
Following in the footsteps of the non-government organisations of Bathinda, the NGOs of Bhucho Mandi got together to organise a candle light march in their town.

The members of Sahara Awareness Club, Bhartiya Mahavir Dal, Alliance Club and other NGOs, along with the members of the NGOs of Bathinda, urged the residents of the town to not give in to money, drugs or liquor offered by the candidates or the political parties to get their votes.

The march started from railway station and culminated at the Clock Tower Chowk. Crowd raised slogans like ‘Naa Nashe Se Naa Note Se, Desh Badlega Vote Se’. Braving the chill, the crowd pledged to use their discretion while deciding who to vote for.

Starting Monday, the campaign will go to the schools of the town. Painting competitions on the theme of voter awareness will be organised for the senior secondary students.

The campaign will be organised in the town again next week. Also, similar campaigns will be organised in Rampura Phul and Goniana next week.

Bathinda, January 20
Celebrating January-2012 as safety month, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., in collaboration with the district centre of St John Ambulance Association, organized a training programme on first aid in AFC project at the NFL unit premises.

Lectures on various topics like choking, artificial respiration, burns and scalds, etc, were delivered by Naresh Pathania, first aid trainer from St John Ambulance.

Abhijit Pan, in-charge of the project, said the purpose of the first aid training programme was to provide some basic knowledge to the employees to ensure that when an accident takes place, there is someone who knows what to do until the experts arrive.

Pathania said that staying calm, reassuring the injured and administering first aid was of utmost importance. Various methods of carrying the injured were also demonstrated.

Provisional certificates to the trainees were given away by JR Goyal, secretary of the St John Centre.

Bathinda, January 20
A career-guidance seminar was held at Guru Ram Dass Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRDIET), Lehra Bega, Bathinda. As many as 300 students participated in the seminar and received guidance in career building, personality development, stress, presentation skills and tension management.

Inaugurating the seminar, principal HS Sandhu highlighted the importance of career guidance.

The chairman of the institute, Harbhajan Singh, said a special placement and gidance career counselling cell had been set up. He also lauded the efforts made by the faculty for organizing the seminar.