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Centre to treat IntraVenous drug users opened
MCB ‘forgets’ to renew its web domain
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High drama outside Mittal’s Mall
PSEB rectifies errors in class VIII Pbi textbook at fag end of session
Yes minister, go for fare hike but roll out quality services too
Induction training for school teachers
Save earth for posterity is Green Tech Fest’s leitmotif
Oxford don asks GNDTP officials to strive for excellence, root out graft
Over 500 fill eye donation forms
Bodies found near Multania overbridge, Amarpura
Radcliffe sports meet held
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Centre to treat IntraVenous drug users opened
Bathinda, February 15 Under the project, five centres have been set up in the country, namely Bathinda and Kapurthala in Punjab, New Delhi, Mumbai and Imphal. The project is being funded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, New Delhi. According to the studies conducted in various parts of the world, methadone is effective in controlling, craving and reducing the risk of relapse in drug users, especially the intravenous drug users. It is also effective in reducing the use of drugs, risk of HIV infection, and improvement in the quality of life of drug addicts. The centre authorities here have identified about 50 drug addicts, who are intravenous drug users (administer drugs with injections), for treatment. Since the doses of methadone will be administered to the patients orally, so there will be no risk of HIV infection. The drug users are local residents, who have been identified for treatment with the consent of their families and a promise that they will send them to the centre daily to get the methadone dose for one year, without any break. The patients will be examined after every three months so as to record the effect of the medicine on them. The centre was inaugurated today by additional deputy commissioner (Development) Dr Abhinav Trikha in the presence of assistant civil surgeon Dr Sat Pal, District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa, deputy medical commissioner Dr Vinod Garg, Dr BS Gill, Dr Satish Goyal, Dr Ashok Monga, the Methadone project's in-charge Dr Nidhi Gupta and secretary of the District Red Cross Society JR Goyal. The in-charge of the project and the Drug De-addiction Centre Dr Nidhi Gupta said today, the doses of 'methadone hydrochloride oral concentrate' from 2.5 to 3.5 ml were administered to five intravenous drug users. She said, however, they would cover all the 50 addicts in three months. The medicine was given to them with a methadone dispensing unit after mixing it in the water. The dose would be increased and adjusted till their craving for drugs ends. Dr Gupta said after taking methadone, the drug user would not need administration of injection. She also said that after few months, the results of the treatment would come to the fore. She added that the names and addresses of the drug users under treatment would be kept confidential. She said the staff that would run the centre had been trained at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. She said besides her, the training had been received by Roop Singh Mann, research assistant at the centre-cum-project coordinator of the Drug De-addiction Centre, Ramandeep Kaur and Gurmeet Kaur, both staff nurses.
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MCB ‘forgets’ to renew its web domain
Bathinda, February 15 The home page of www.mcbathinda.in is lying inoperative due to its expired domain name. Since February 11, the domain name of this website has expired, but the MC authorities are least concerned about it. Even after four days have passed, the MC authorities are yet to mull over a plan to update it. Updating the domain name costs merely Rs 5,000 per annum. The budget is not a problem for the MCB. “Time and priority are the issues,” said one of the officials. The previous PA to the MCB commissioner and the data entry operator, who was looking after the website work, was shifted to Patiala during elections. Since then, no specific official has been given the job of maintaining the website. “The website did not have any monetary transaction but the usual information about the corporation and its working. Perhaps, this is the reason why the website remained overlooked,” said another official. Meanwhile, assistant commissioner Kamal Kant said the entire staff was busy with elections and hence, could not pay attention towards upgradation. “We will soon renew the domain name,” he added.
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High drama outside Mittal’s Mall
Bathinda, February 15
The youths involved in the brawl sought help from their friends using cell phones and within a few minutes, more vehicles carrying youngsters with sticks and batons arrived. They beat up a boy and took him inside the mall where police officials were also called. As per the security guards of the mall, some visitors had a brawl in the mall around 10 days back while exiting one of the elevators. They were pacified after the intervention of a security guard. The same youths again came today and entered into a brawl with the security guard with whom they earlier had a tiff over the elevator. Both the groups fought with each other and one of the boys who was using abusive language and threatening the other group with dire consequences was dragged away. He was given a sound thrashing and his clothes were torn. The matter was brought to the notice of the Kotwali SHO, Jagdish Lal, who arrived at the mall within a few minutes of the incident. Later, talking to TNS, the SHO said “I had left the mall just 10 minutes before the quarrel and returned after getting information about the brawl. The place outside the mall has now become a nuisance, especially at night and we remain vigilant during the evening hours.” The matter was resolved as the parents of youths in both the groups too reached the place. Both the parties are believed to have reached a compromise and no action has been initiated in this regard so far, the SHO said. |
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PSEB rectifies errors in class VIII Pbi textbook at fag end of session
Bathinda, February 15 In a letter issued by the office of the director, academics, PSEB, all the district education officers have been asked to direct the schools under them to rectify the date of marriage of Rabindranath Tagore and the name of month that begins on the next day to Lohri. The change is to be made in the books wherein Punjabi is being taught as the first language. The lesson number 16 (page 71) on Rabindranath Tagore mentions the year of his marriage as 1833, whereas it should have been 1883. Similarly, the lesson number 19 titled Lohri (page 85) mentions that Poh (Indian calendar month) starts right after Lohri, whereas it should be Magh. “It seems to be quite absurd for the PSEB to realise its mistake so late. From the first week of March, students would be appearing for their second semester examinations. Introducing changes just 14 days ahead of the examination is not justified,” said one of the Punjabi teachers. However, some of the teachers, who were aware of the mistakes, had already taught their students the right answers. “I had come across the mistakes earlier and got it duly rectified. My students did not have to learn the wrong answers and mug up the right ones now,” said a Punjabi teacher, who had come to attend the monthly meeting of teachers in the district, held at the Teachers’ Home on February 14. It was the last monthly meeting of this academic year.
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Yes minister, go for fare hike but roll out quality services too
The maxim – ‘value of money’ is no longer true, now we have ‘money for value’ – this seems to be the message the Malwaites want to convey to the Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, who will table the budget proposal before the Parliament on March 14. “Rise in rail fare may not raise eyebrows, at least in Malwa, provided that services will be rolled out accordingly,” said Hanuman Dass Goel, general secretary of the Railway Passengers Welfare Association (RPWA), Bathinda. “People of this region will not mind giving more money,” Goel, said, adding, “In fact, we are willing to pay if we are given more services, facilities, security, safety etc.” Goel said the services and facilities were yet to be up to the mark. “Be it catering services, cleanliness, basic amenities and others,” Goel said. Safety and security in the trains were also matter of concerned, he added. Emphasising the need for more trains for Malwa, Goel said the region, hitherto, had been failing to find a place in the plan of the Railway Ministry, for reasons known by everyone. But it was high time for the railway to increase the connectivity in Malwa by increasing the number of trains for the convenience of passengers in particular and socio-economic development in general. Goel said there was no need of presenting populist budget nowadays as people were fed up with these “tools”. Expressing his willingness to pay for value, president of Passengers Welfare Association, Jasvir Singh, said that now services were important as the ‘living standard’ of the people had been increased and people were now used to better services and for that they were ready to pay. Jasvir said the railway may hike the fare but the department should provide facilities accordingly. “We want trains, security and safety and we know these things are not freebies,” Jasvir said. Jasvir suggested that for not increasing the burden on common people and the people of economically backward strata in the era of ever-increasing inflation, the railway must not hike the fare of second and general class, but first class and AC fare may be increased a bit. “But there should be increase in services, like punctuality, amenities, as well,” he added. Convenor of the Joint Action Committee, MM Behal endorsed the viewpoints of Goel and Jasvir. He said with the increase in purchasing power, people may not hesitate to pay more but the increase must be justified by the railways. Behal, in fact, was of the view that even the fare for general class may be hiked but there must be increase in facilities also. He said there must be increase in the number of general coaches in every train as the theory of two general coaches was proving insufficient considering the increase in number of passengers with each passing days. “The seating arrangements should be enhanced in the general coaches,” Behal demanded. |
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Induction training for school teachers
Bathinda, February 15 With teachers going on training, studies of the students would take a backseat. "Most of the teachers are in a rush to complete their syllabus or revise the syllabus already completed. The teachers are not amateurs and have been appointed on the basis of their job experience. If the government wanted to conduct a training programme, it should have been after the final exams to be conducted in May," reasoned a senior teaching faculty. For training these teachers, a batch of 15 resource persons will be trained at the Government In-service Training Centre to be held tomorrow. The Director General for School Education (DGSE) has directed that the teachers on induction training should not be appointed for examination duties. "Following this dictum, we might end up assigning teachers who are left behind, examination centres that are far off from their parent schools," said officials at the district education office, who are assigned rosters to allot duties to the teachers. As many as thirty-five teachers from Bathinda and seven teachers from Sangat block will be trained during the induction programme. Eighteen teachers from Nathana and nine from Mandi Phool east would be trained. Similarly, 28 teachers from Talwandi Sabo and 12 from Sangat would be trained while 25 teachers from Mandi Phool west and ten from Mandi Phool east would be trained.
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Save earth for posterity is Green Tech Fest’s leitmotif
Bathinda, February 15 Managing Director of BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal welcomed to chief guest at the opening ceremony, Lieutenant General Anil Verma, Chief of Staff HQ, 10 Corps. Lieutenant General Anil Verma articulated his worry on global warming and said this is a unique and great effort on the part of the BFGI to take better care of earth. Dhaliwal thanked to Indian Army and the Air Force for putting up their stalls for the first time out of the cantonment area for the common people. Around 1500 students participated in the fest to show their talent. For entertaining the crowd, various games, cultural activities and entertainment programmes were organized. Some live models like eco-friendly refrigerator, wind saver demo models, water purifier live models etc gave useful information to the visitors by dwelling on the ways in which waste material could be used usefully. Live and demo models depicting various themes were displayed by Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), Chevrolet, Eco Gas Dispensing and many others. Various competitions like painting, model making and best out of waste based on the concept of live green were also organized at the fest. Director, Administration, Paramjeet Kaur Dhaliwal, Director, Finance, Paramjeet Kaur Gill, vice- president Dr Sardool Singh, Director Academics, Dr (Col) Rakesh Sharma, chairperson KV-3 Sonali Gaur, principal, Army School Dr Anu Gupta, Dr Priya Vashisht from New Delhi, principal, Kendriya Vidalya 5 AK Upadhaya, principal, KV 1 Dr AK Upadhaya, principal, Delhi Public School, Dr Arun Jee, staff officer to the chairman, Army Public School, Col. Bali, administration officer, DPS, Squadron Leader Maluk Singh, CEO, ammunition department, Head Quarters, Major Vashisht were also present on the occasion.
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Oxford don asks GNDTP officials to strive for excellence, root out graft
Bathinda, February 15 Prof Kumar asked them to strive for excellent operational parameters on sound commercial principles as it is the need of the hour for an organization to achieve excellence in performance standards by setting new benchmarks. He emphasized that they must win the confidence of the public and that trustworthiness — not only of the customers but also of the officials and staff is required to make PSPCL vibrant entity. He regretted that corruption is eating into the vitals of the organization and they must strive to break the chain of corruption and take initiative in this regard. Earlier, deputy chief engineer, headquarters, of the West Zone, VK Garg inaugurated the seminar. Prominent among others present at the seminar included deputy chief engineer, Bathinda circle, Inderjit Garg, Prof Swati Singh, senior XEN (training cell) SS Sohal, deputy secretary, West Zone, MP Jain and RK Singla.
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Over 500 fill eye donation forms
Bathinda, February 15 The week was observed by the NGO to disseminate the message regarding eye donation among the people in a big way. President of the NGO Rakesh Narula said today that the persons, who had filled the eye donation pledge forms, had done a great job to humanity so that the visually impaired could see the world with their eyes after their (donor’s) death. He also appealed to the people to help the Manch in continuing its campaign by inspiring a large number of persons to fill the eye donation pledge forms. Narula further said the Manch had been running the eye donation awareness campaign for the past 15 years so that the message could reach to every one in every corner of the city. He said during the week, about 15 visually impaired persons were also examined by the Manch for getting the cornea transplantatin. He also said the Bathinda Vikas Manch would organise a special programme on February 26 for honouring the families of eye donors and the volunteers of the Manch. Engineer DK Garg, an active member of the Manch, also appealed to the people that if anyone wanted to fill the eye donation pledge form in future, then they might contact the members of the Manch for getting the needful done.
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Bodies found near Multania overbridge, Amarpura
Bathinda, February 15 In a press release issued here today, Vijay Goyal, president of Sahara Jan Sewa said the volunteers received a phone call in the morning from someone who noticed a body floating in the polluted waters at Amarpura Basti. The volunteers, including Jagga Singh, Akash and Tek Chand rushed to the spot and fished out the body. It was taken to the mortuary of the Civil Hospital with the help of the highway ambulance. SHO of the Canal police station, Gurjeet Singh Romana too reached the place and enquired into the reason behind the death of the man. Police said the identity of the deceased was ascertained with the help of the local residents. They said that the deceased was later identified as Sher Singh, a resident of Amarpura Basti. The possibility of his have gone near the polluted pond to attend nature’s call and slipping into the water is being touted as a possibility behind the mishap. The relatives of the deceased were informed about the death of Sher Singh. A case in this connection was being registered by the police at the Canal police station. In another similar incident, the body of an unidentified man was found adjoining the Multania overbridge near the Sirki Bazar. Volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa who rushed to the spot said the deceased seemed to be 50 years old but no document was available in his clothes to help ascertain his identity. An amount of Rs 30 was recovered from the possession of the deceased. Station House Officer of the Kotwali police station, Jagdish Lal, rushed to the spot and tried to locate the address of the deceased. Police said a case in this connection would be registered and efforts are on to find the address and the reason behind the death. The body has been kept in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital. Four injured in separate mishaps Five people received injuries in separate accident in Bathinda. A scooterist was hit by a speeding car near the bus stand who was denitrified as Pawan Kumar of Aggarwal Colony. He was rushed to the emergency ward of the civil hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Another biker received serious injuries after being hit by a car on the 100 feet road. The injured has been identified as Sarwan Bansal. He was rushed to the hospital by volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa where he is being treated in the emergency ward. Three people including two females received injuries when the scooter they were riding on slipped near the Goniana road. Volunteers of Naujawan Welfare Soceity helped shifting the injured to the Civil Hospital in the NGO's ambulance. The injured have been identified as Ram Krishan, Priti and Nina, residents of Partap Nagar.
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Bathinda, February 15 The event was highlighted with exciting activities including book balancing race, duck walk and sack race. A unique ‘banana-eating’ contest was held for the teachers of the school. The award for best march past was given to Corbett House. — TNS
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High drama prevailed outside at the Mittal’s Mall here today in the evening where some youths entered into a brawl using sticks and batons in full public view.
The brawl led to traffic jam and commuters, in panic, were seen taking alternate routes. The incident took place at around 7.30 pm.
A group of youths was seen dragging another youth just outside the mall.
Bathinda, February 15
Bathinda, February 15