Bathinda, February 10
Alleging misbehaviour by the faculty of the Adesh College of Nursing, situated on the Barnala road, around 100 students blocked the Bathinda-Barnala road for over three hours this evening. They also raised slogans against the college authorities.

The blockade led to long queues of vehicles on the national highway. Traffic had to be diverted from the Laveri Sar Gurudwara in Bhucho Khurd village and through surrounding villages. The traffic remained disrupted for over three hours as the students refused to lift the dharna and demanded justice.

It is learnt that the students are pursuing a three-year course of GNM (General Nursing Midwifery) at the college. They alleged that two of the students were suspended following false allegations of misbehaviour.

"Instead, we were mistreated by the teaching staff who suspended us by levelling false charges," alleged one of the suspended students Jaswinder Singh, adding that some teaching staff used derogatory language against girl students.

The girls also extended their support in today's dharna and the agitation would be intensified if their demands were not met soon, the protesting students said.

The protest was suspended after around three hours and a half following the intervention of senior police functionaries and officials of the district administration, including tehsildar Avtar Singh Makkar.

The officials said a five-member committee had been formed to look into the allegations levelled by the students and the faculty members. The suspended students would be reinstated in case they were found innocent, the officials said.

No member of the teaching faculty was available for comments.

The senior manager of the department of public relations of the college, Harpreet Singh Badal, said the students had been strictly told that during the study hours, they must not wear any jewellery or anything else except for their uniforms. Some students, however, were seen wearing ornaments and were told to remove the same. The boys refused to do so and were suspended by the teaching faculty.

Bathinda, February 10
The recent incident of a student killing his teacher in Chennai has brought to the fore the deteriorating teacher-taught relation.

With the introduction of Right to Education (RTE) Act, which makes education up till class VIII the right of every child, teachers have no choice but to pass the students irrespective of their academic performance.

The government teachers have been asked to strictly adhere to the directives of the RTE that states that failing a student before class VIII would be de-motivation for him or her.

"Added to this, the corporal punishment has become a punishable offence. We cannot even wield stick to reform a child. The government is turning us into mere service providers instead of enabling us to instill confidence in children or reform them," rued a teacher of Government Girls Senior Secondary School.

The educationists reasoned that most of the couples follow one-child norm these days. Being the only offspring, children are often given liberty beyond limit, which turns them into attention-seeking individuals.

"Such children consider following teacher's instruction as an offence. Even parents do not correct the child and instead follow his or her suit, which is detrimental to the child's future," added Jaswinder Kaur, a teacher at a private school near stadium.

Citing an instance of disintegrating moral fabric, another teacher added that recently, an objectionable MMS of some school students had been doing rounds on a website.

However, SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill said though he was aware of the said MMS, no complaint had been received in that regard. “It is not sure whether the MMS relates to Bathinda students or not. It is a mere rumour,” he said.

Bathinda, February 10
It's time to wake up for the parents and school authorities and take note of the dilapidating school buses and vans carrying children. Stating this today, the traffic policemen said it was high time a step was taken in this direction. The poor condition of the school buses may take its toll on the kids.

There was every possibility of such buses meeting an accident apart from the routine problems faced by the children due to poor condition of the vehicles, said ASI Natha Singh, who has recently been appointed as city traffic in-charge.

He said the documents and the condition of 60 buses of two private schools were examined today. It was found that most of these buses did not have valid documents. There are buses, which are more than 15 years old. Many buses do not comply with the traffic rules. “We have issued two challans today and many other school vans have been let off after stringent warnings,” the ASI said.

He pointed out that it was quite difficult to check the documents and other papers pertaining to these school vans as school children are ferried in these buses. “The school buses could not be stopped when driven on road with children and we fail to trace its drivers when parked outside the schools or other places,” rued traffic cops.

The traffic officials today met school authorities and apprised them of the consequences of carrying school children in such buses. The cops pointed out that there are also incidences of overloading of the school children in modified vehicles.

The death of school children in a road accident in Ambala recently had brought to the fore the issue of safety of school children and the norms followed by the school-bus operators.

Sarwan Brar, a father of two children studying in a private school, said he had lodged several complaints with the school authorities about school bus drivers resorting to rash driving and overloading school children, but to no avail.

“Now, I have discontinued sending my children in a school bus and instead drop them at school myself. But all the parents could not afford the time and money to do the same,” Sarwan said.

Worst, children could be seen coming out of school buses and crossing busy roads outside their schools on their own thereby risking their lives, he added.

“The children get impatient in buses and usually come out of it in a hurry. In such a situation, there is a risk of their getting hit by some speeding vehicle. But nothing has been done in this regard by any of the schools in the city,” said Rippie Sandhu, the father of a four-year-old.

Children make hue and cry once they get inside the bus and it distracts the bus driver. To get rid of such a problem, there should be at least one person who should take care of children, he said.

The traffic policemen said they had organised parents' meeting at some prominent schools of the city to sensitise them to the significant issue.

Apart from creating awareness, a campaign has also been launched to issue challans to those school buses that fail to produce valid documents and maintain their vehicles properly.

Bathinda, February 10
The Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh (PTUGZS) campus is all set to start MTech (geo-informatics) course in technical collaboration with the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), Ludhiana.

After the IIT, Roorkee, and the Guru Jambheshwar University, the PTUGZS is the third institute in the north India to introduce the course. PTU vice-chancellor Dr Rajnish Arora and PSRC director Dr Brijendra Pateriya today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-chancellor said 30 seats would be offered from this very academic session. The degree holders in civil engineering, architectural engineering, MSc (geology) and MSc (geography) could apply for the seats.

The nodal officer from the PTUGZS campus would be Dr Manjeet Bansal while the one from the PRSC would be Dr Ajay Mathur. The varsity has also decided in principle to start courses in MBA Finance and HR; regular MSc in physics, chemistry and mathematics; and MCA on the PTUGZS campus.

The PTU, which does not have its own academic session, has declared Giani Zail Singh Engineering College as its campus. Consequently, the PTUGZS campus has now been conferred with the rights to start its own courses, set question papers and get them checked on the campus itself. Also, whole new departments have been carved out. The departments of applied sciences, applied chemistry and management studies would be functioning in an independent manner.

"We may start MPhil and PhD programmes in the next two to three years," said principal of the PTUGZS campus Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal.

Bathinda, February 10
Ramesh Kumar (38), an employee of a de-addiction centre at the Teachers' Colony here, committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan hook.

A native of Abohar, Ramesh was living in a rented accommodation near Kheta Basti. He came back from work on Thursday evening and took the extreme step.

The incident came to light when his landlord tried to open the door of the house. Finding the door locked from inside, he peeped from the window and found Ramesh's body hanging.

He informed the police. Police officials broke open the door to get inside and brought down the body.

The police has initiated inquest proceedings under Section of the 174 CrPC on the statements of the deceased's wife Seema Devi and elder brother Rajesh Kumar.

The body was handed over to the relatives after conducting the post-mortem examination.

Bathinda, February 10
The People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) supremo, Manpreet Singh Badal, today visited the residence of PPP candidate from Bathinda (Urban) Assembly constituency, Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder, and shared grief with the Bhinder family over the demise of Bhinder’s father Pritpal Singh Bhinder.

Manpreet’s father, Gurdas Singh Badal, today also visited the family. They met the family members, including three brothers, sister and wife of Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder. Gurdas Badal also shared with the family views about his long association with the deceased Pritpal Singh Bhinder.

Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder, who is also a former Senior Additional Advocate General Punjab, said Gurdas Badal and Manpreet Badal would also attend the bhog ceremony of his father to be held on Sunday in Bathinda. He said besides them, other leaders of the ‘Sanjha Morcha’ would also attend the bhog ceremony.

Bhinder added that his family had a long association with Gurdas Badal and Manpreet Badal as the former and his deceased father had close family ties and Manpreet had visited their family several times during his childhood.

Gurdas also talked to the party workers about the elections and enquired about the party’s performance in the elections.

Later, Manpreet also visited a senior leader of the PPP, Kattar Singh Jeeda, who has been suffering from a lever ailment, here. Manpreet stayed with Jeeda for sometime. He also appreciated the services, rendered by Jeeda to the PPP during the past several months as Jeeda was at the forefront in organising PPP activities in Bathinda.

Among others who came to share Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder’s grief included two members of Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Rajiv Kaswan and Vajinder Ahlawat, district secretary of the CPI, Jagjit Singh Joga, district secretary of the CPM, Sat Pal Bharti and former president of District Bar Association, Chaudhary Gopal Singh.

Bathinda, February 10
Another week-end may fall pray to the harsh weather as there is a possibility of continuation of the cold wave condition, cloudiness and light rain in isolated parts of the region in the next two to three days.

Meanwhile, the region continued to reel under the revived cold wave conditions on Friday as mercury plummeted to remain below the normal temperature.

Though mercury climbed a bit today, its northward swing proved insufficient to provide respite to the residents from the cold wave conditions.

The minimum temperature recorded at 7.30 in the morning was three degree Celsius, as per the agri-met department of the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), regional station, Bathinda.

It may be recalled that on Thursday morning, the minimum temperature was below the freezing point and it had even caused frost in isolated parts of the region.

The day’s maximum temperature was recorded at 19.4 degree Celsius, nearly three degrees higher than that on Thursday.

Although the bright sun brought a ray of hope for the residents, worsening the biting cold was the wind which blew at the speed of 4.5 km per hour.

Moreover, the weathermen indicated that the city’s tryst with harsh weather is likely to continue in the coming days.

The forecast made by the weathermen on Friday said the respite from chill is unlikely in the next 24 hours as cold wave conditions may continue during the period.

The weathermen also predicted a possibility of cloudiness to partial cloudiness which may be accompanied by light rain and thundershower in isolated places of the region in the next 48 hours.

Night temperature, however, is likely to increase during the period, the weathermen said.

Bathinda, February 10
An inter-school Kala Mela was inaugurated today at Malwa College by the chief guest Prof (Dr) Satnam Singh Jassal of Punjabi University Regional Centre, Bathinda. Kamaljeet Singh Sidhu, Assistant Director, Youth Services Bathinda was the guest of honour.

Others present on the occasion included college chairman Sewak Ram Singla; principal Dr CL Singla; dean Prof NK Gosain; Darshan Singh and RC Sharma, principal and dean of Malwa College of Physical Education respectively. Principals of many city schools were also present.

Poem recitation, elocution, kavishri, on-the-spot painting and poster making competitions were held.

While Kiranjot Kaur grabbed the first position in the poem recitation competion, Gagandeep Kaur was adjudged the winner of elocution, Navjot Jyoti, Gurman Kaur and Gagandeep Kaur together won the Kavishri competion. Jaspreet Kaur won the on-the-spot paiting competition and Amandeep Kaur won the poster making contest.

Quiz, fancy dress, rangoli and traditional lok geet competitions will be held on Saturday and the winners of all the competitions will be honoured.

Bathinda, February 10
Baba Farid Group of institutions organised a motivational lecture for its BTech students her today. Himeesh Madaan, known as India’s youngest motivational speaker, gave the lecture.

Madaan’s lecture covered myriad topics including developing positive attitude, goal setting, stress management, anger management, self confidence, communication skills and time management.

To make sure that students actively participated in the lecture, he involved the students in different activities.

Managing Director of BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal expressed his sincere gratitude to the efforts of the Department of Training & Placement.

Bathinda, February 10
The Central University of Punjab organised a lecture on ‘Indian Knowledge Traditions’ by Prof Jagbir Singh, former head, Department of Punjabi, Delhi University today.

Prof Singh highlighted the rich heritage of Indian philosophical and spiritual tradition and suggested that the Indians have become rootless and confused in their pursuit of Western ideals of Kama and Artha.

He said the greatest Indian spiritual goals of Dharma and Moksha have long been forgotten. The West, on the other hand, is searching for its spiritual answers in Indian philosophical heritage.

He argued for a need to look back on our own cultural treasure to find peace and tranquillity in this world of materialism and competition.

After the lecture, the faculty and the students interacted with the speaker in a healthy discussion. Prof P Ramarao proposed a vote of thanks after the discussion.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Jai Rup Singh was also present during the lecture.