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Polling parties to keep EC posted through SMs
Five bodies recovered in a day
Thaw in chill as mercury climbs up
Playing the development card
Punjab Mail behind ‘Via Bathinda ji’?
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Polling staff gets hands-on demo on EVMs
St. Kabir School celebrates R-Day
On National Voter’s Day, stress on voting
Students listen to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Dr SY Qureshi’s message on National Voter’s Day at the SSD College for Girls in Bathinda on Wednesday. The day was observed to encourage young voters to register and participate more in the election process, especially as Punjab goes to polls on January 30. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma
School to celebrate Basant Panchami to attune students to Indian culture
SBoP shifts its Grain Market branch
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Polling parties to keep EC posted through SMs
Bathinda, January 25 The returning officers, assistant returning officers and 90 sector officers have been given training pertaining to sending these SMSes that would replace phone calls that presiding officers at the booths earlier used to make to the sector supervisors. The District Election Officer KK Yadav said that earlier, the presiding officer used to call up the sector supervisor who further called up the respective RO to inform about the development. District Information Officer Sanjiv Gupta said that under the Punjab Poll Day Monitoring System (PPMS), special software has been installed and all the SMSes would be routed through this. The presiding officers will send their SMSes on 9212136521 informing about right from the time the polling party arrives at the polling stations (a day before the polls) to the time the EVMs are sealed and submitted at the headquarters (late at night on the polling day). The presiding officers would be sending a total of 13 SMSes. On the day of polling, SMSes would be sent at a regular interval of every two hours at 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, after the final votes are polled and the polling party depositing the EVMs. A final SMS would be sent at last to check the status of the SMSes sent at the given number. It is mandatory for the presiding officers to send SMSes after every two hours and if he or she is unable to do it, then the sector officer would send the same. As part of training, five master trainers each were trained from the six assembly constituencies. These master trainers then trained the employees, presiding officers and assistant presiding officers during the rehearsals conducted by the election office. The format
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PA - Polling party arrived on Jan 29 evening.
n AN (no of votes) - total agent present on Jan 30 before conducting mock polls
n MP - Mock poll done - After conducting mock poll
n PS - polling started - to be sent when polling process starts
n VP time votes polled - count of votes polled at 9 am (This SMS to be sent at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm)
n PC - polling completed - when polling process is completed after all the people standing in queue at 5pm have casted their votes.
n VF M (no of male votes polled) F (no of female votes polled)
n PD - Polling parts departed from polling booth
n ED - EVM deposited at headquarter Some tips while sending SMS at 9212136521
n PO’s mobile number is already sent by department to election authorities. Employees will be able to send SMS from that mobile number only; SMS format is not case sensitive;
n PO will get acknowledgement reply of each SMS sent.
n All SMS events should be sent in this sequence only. Otherwise an appropriate/error reply will revert.
n Either of PRO/APRO/PO can send SMS, as their mobile numbers will be automatically registered for a particular booth. But in case of multiple SMS sent from a particular booth for same activity, one will be sent a message that SMS already received.
n If sent SMS is not in proper format, one will receive a reply wrong format.
n If you do not send SMS at all, then an alert will be issued to your RO. RO may call you up to send SMS. |
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Five bodies recovered in a day
Bathinda, January 25 President of the NGO Vijay Goyal said a phone call was received from a passerby near Dhobiana last night. Though the deceased could not be identified, he is said to be a ragpicker who was found dead at around 9 pm last night. The body was kept in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital with the help of police officials from the Cantonment police station. A 50-year-old, suffering from a chronic disease, was falso ound dead today on the Malgodam road. Goel said the patient had been treated with the help of the volunteers of Sahara. He was given medication for the past six months. The deceased hailed from Sabarmati in Gujarat and had come to Bathinda after his family members left him alone. He was treated at the local Civil Hospital. Goyal said the deceased never told them about his residential address or whereabouts of his family members. He was called Ashok Bawa. His body has been kept in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital for In another incident a resident of Anoop Nagar, identified as Ismail Khan, collided with a speeding train near the Sirsa railway crossing today in the morning. He was taken to the Civil Hospital by the volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa but he could not survive due to serious head injuries. Sahara volunteers said the deceased was trying to cross the railway track when he was hit by the speeding train. A case in this connection has been registered by the Government Railway Police (GRP). The body has been sent to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. In another instance, a resident of Jogi Nagar, who was left alone by his family members due to his addiction to drugs, died today in the morning. He has been identified as 30 years old Bobby. Volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa, who took his body to the Civil Hospital, said that Bobby was helped by his sister a few months ago but she too stopped attending to him due to his addiction to drugs. He was taken to a private hospital where he was declared dead. In yet another incident, a beggar died today on platform number five at the Bathinda railway station. The reason behind the death could not be ascertained. The shopkeepers and railway authorities said the deceased had been camping at the railway station for the past many days and might have died due to the severe cold. |
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Thaw in chill as mercury climbs up
Bathinda, January 25 The days of frost, fog and severe cold wave condition are likely to be over soon in the region as mercury apparently, leaving its downslide, has adopted the northward path bringing the much-awaited respite here. For the first time after a long period, mercury recorded 20.2 degree Celsius mark in the afternoon, as per the agri-met department of the regional centre of the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Bathinda. The maximum temperature on Tuesday was also above the 15 degree mark at 18.8 degree Celsius. The day's low was 8.2 degree Celsius, nearly 3 degree higher than yesterday. Meanwhile, the information emanating from the weather room suggested on Tuesday that the weather is likely to remain dry in the next two to three days with the possibility of a fall in the night temperature. There are also chances of ground frost during this period, said the weathermen.
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Playing the development card
Bathinda, January 25
The candidates of the Congress party (Harminder Singh Jassi), the Shiromani Akali Dal (Sarup Chand Singla) and the People’s Party of Punjab (Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder) have been going door-to-door in the city to have a personal touch with the voters, besides holding meetings in the localities. During their campaigns, the candidates have been making numerous promises to the public, including over-all development of the Bathinda city, strengthen the law and order situation, potable water across the city, laying of sewer lines in the outer bastis. Interestingly, not only the candidates but their family members, including their wives, children, brothers, sisters, nephew, niece, etc, have also been taking active part in the poll campaigning. The Bathinda MLA Harminder Singh Jassi is promising the public that if he wins and Congress comes to power in the state, he will change the face of the city by making it number one city of the state. He has also been telling the voters that he will strengthen the law and order situation in the city by minimising crimes. SAD candidate Sarup Chand Singla has been telling the voters that despite suffering defeat in the elections last time he got done a lot of development work, including setting up of reverse osmosis (RO) plants in the wards of the city, construction of railway over and under bridges, in the city during the past five years. He has been promising them that if he wins this time then he will further develop the city. The PPP candidate Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder has also been promising improvement in the law and order situation in the city. He has also been emphasising improving quality of education, strengthening of health services, improvement in the sanitation conditions, etc. The Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, Ranjeet Ram, and the Lok Janshakti Party candidate, Jasvir Singh, have been campaigning with their limited resources. They have been emphasising upliftment of the weaker sections of the society. Although every candidate is hoping to win, only time will tell who has managed to impress the voters with his promises.
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Punjab Mail behind ‘Via Bathinda ji’?
Bathinda, January 25 For many, the prefix to the adage, ‘via’, in fact has its genesis in this train only. When the news that the Punjab Mail will be on a new track on Republic Day, started spreading, it was only natural for the city to turn nostalgic. As you pore through these columns, the pride of Malwa will also be chugging off in front of you on your TV screen at the Rajpath in New Delhi. It would make it difficult for you not to go down the memory lane and find out – why this ‘via Bathinda ji’. The reasons may be different for combining these two words, according to the residents, but somewhere they connect these words with the Punjab Mail – the lifeline in those times. A former lecturer of English, Jagdeep Singh, a septuagenarian, does consider the Punjab Mail the lifeline of those years of this part of the state and finds a connection between the train and the words ‘Via Bathinda’. “In those days, the Punjab University had a centre at Lahore and there were two trains between Bombay and Lahore,” said Jagdeep Singh, adding that the centre was running some courses like BA Honours in Urdu, Hindi etc. These courses were considered a bit different from the proper BA degrees. And of these two trains, the route of one was through Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar while the other, that is Punjab Mail, used to reach Lahore via Bathinda, Ferozepur and other stations. He further added that the route of the former train was considered straight and proper while the latter’s was considered as curved. He said people tried to compare those “degrees” with the routes of the trains as they found a lot of similarity between them. “One who got a proper BA degree meant he had reached his destination by travelling straight while those who had the other BA degree were deemed to have adopted the ‘via’ route,” said Jagdeep Singh. While a section of the residents in Bathinda believe that because people tended to avoid Bathinda as it was full of sand dunes in those days and coming here was not considered worthy, people preferred to go to Delhi and other places via Bathinda through the Punjab Mail, hence, giving rise to the adage, ‘Via Bathinda’. |
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Polling staff gets hands-on demo on EVMs
Bathinda, January 25
Entire staff was given a chance to operate EVMs and were taught ways to handle it. The staff present protested the new stricture of election commission that makes casting 100 mock polls mandatory before actually starting the voting procedure. They were, however, assured that it takes only 45 minutes to cast 100 mock polls. “We are afraid that the mock polls might delay the actual polling procedure,” said one of the employees. The employees also expressed apprehension on introduction of the SMS system wherein presiding officer or the assistant presiding officer would have to send an SMS to the Returning Officer every two hours informing about the status of polling. “Many polling booths are situated in remote villages. Not all the mobile service providers have penetration in the villages so we are unsure whether our mobiles would work there or not,” added another employee. Even the contractual staff has been put on election duty much to their disappointment. Sources said that a complaint was sent from Bathinda to the Election Commission pointing out that the contractual staff from education department has been put on duty. “Bathinda Deputy Commissioner was also marked inquiry. The DC sent a note to the district education officer asking for the total number of such teachers deployed on election duty. DEO reverted stating that 226 contractual teachers are on election duty,” sources said. Thereafter, DC wrote back to the Election Commission stating that the 226 employees have already attended two rehearsals and now it won’t be possible to replace them and hence they should be allowed to go ahead with the election duty. “Contractual employees are not covered under civil services rules (CSR) under which the government legally compensates the employees or their kin in view of some untoward incident. However, the contractual employees are not covered under this rule and hence there is no security,” the contractual employees reasoned.
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St. Kabir School celebrates R-Day
Bathinda, January 25 The programme included presentation of patriotic songs, poetry and dance. The principal of the school, Anju Dogra, congratulated the students on the occasion and urged them to take the country to dizzying heights through their achievements. The director of the school, ML Arora, also extended his greetings to the students on the occasion. — TNS |
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On National Voter’s Day, stress on voting
Bathinda, January 25 At the beginning of the programme, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi’s message to the voters was shown to all on a projector. This was followed by a skit presented by the students. The play gave the message of the importance of voting and also presented, in a lighter vein, the promises made by the candidates. Addressing the gathering, KK Yadav stressed on the importance of voting. “We need to understand the power of our vote and choose the right candidate. The district administration decided to celebrate the National Voter’s Day in a women’s college because we want to make sure that more and more women vote in the elections,” said Yadav. The winners of the various poster making, slogan writing and banner making competitions held in the schools across the district were also felicitated at the programme. Also present on the occasion were, election observers VL Kanta Rao, Dr Prem Singh and Shri Kant; expenditure observers KK Nath and Navin Gupta; ADC (Development) Dr Abhinav Trikha; IAS Kumar Amit, Election Tehsildar Harphool Singh Sohal; MGSIPA district project coordinator Mandeep Singh; Nehru Yuva Kendra programme coordinator Jagjeet Singh Mann and the principal Parminder Kaur Tanghi.
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School to celebrate Basant Panchami to attune students to Indian culture
Bathinda, January 25 Principal of the school, SK Jena, said in today’s world, driven by technology, children should be attuned to their rich cultural heritage. It is with this aim that Basant Panchami celebrations are being organized in the school, he added. — TNS
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SBoP shifts its Grain Market branch
Bathinda, January 25 The newly-shifted branch is equipped to offer all the modern banking services like internet banking, mobile banking, ATM services, core banking, all kinds of deposits etc. Deputy general manager of Bathinda zone, Vinod Kochhar, inaugurated the premises today. Regional head of the bank, SK Jain, other officials, traders and customers were also present during the opening ceremony. — TNS
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Bathinda, January 25
Bathinda, January 25
