Bathinda, April 10
A team of officials from the Patiala House court, Delhi, today swooped down in Bathinda and confiscated fake Garnier products being openly sold in the markets in Bathinda.

Accompanying the team was a party of Bathinda police under SI Harjinder Kaur. The Bathinda police officials said cosmetic giant L’Oreal had filed a writ petition in Patiala House, Delhi, stating that fake products, of its company Garnier, were being openly sold in Bathinda.

The company also said the fake products were denting L’Oreal’s income as well as bringing a bad name to the company.

The writ petition was filed in the court of additional district judge, Ina Malhotra. Acting on the writ filed, the judge directed that a team be constituted and various cosmetic shops in Bathinda be raided so that the products could be confiscated as well as names of the offenders be brought to notice.

Consequently, a team, comprising a lawyer representing L’Oreal, local duty officer Ajay Sharma and the local police team, conducted these raids.

The local duty officer is a court-appointed local person who is supposed to coordinate with the team coming from the other state as well as oversee the entire raiding procedure.

Ravindra general store and Happy general store at Mehna Chowk were raided. SI Harjinder Kaur said both the stores did not have any bills or records of the Garnier products purchased.

Products worth `2,500 were confiscated from both the shops and samples were collected to be presented before the court. A shop was also raided in the Kikar Bazaar but the shop owner produced all the documents showing purchase of the entire stock.

The L’Oreal’s writ and subsequent raids have earned a dubious distinction for Bathinda, for being a major dealer in fake products. These fake products are being openly sold in the market as genuine ones, fleecing the customers as well as the company concerned. Similarly, last year, a shop in Dhobi Bazar was raided which sold CSD products in the open market.

Bathinda, April 10
Remedial classes for the students of class IV and V of government schools in the district would be conducted under Parho Punjab project, which is being run in all the primary schools with the aim to improve the quality of education.

“For instance, usually it is seen that some students of class IV of government school are unable to read from books. Such children are known to miss the targets their peers have attained and are identified during the final exams. It is these children that would undergo remedial classes,” said the Parho Punjab officials.

The remedial classes would be conducted over a period of two months in the months of April and May. Teachers deputed for the task would then be asked to share their experience of remedial measures in the teacher training programme to be held in July.

A kind of intervention mechanism – the remedial classes – are important for students of class IV and V as the education department has now introduced syllabus system in these two classes from this year onwards.

“Earlier, the students were taught and their exams were taken. But from this year onwards, emphasis would be laid on attaining higher competency and new tools have been developed for the same. Children would now be adjudged on their power to compose sentences, intelligence and sensitivity as well,” said the district coordinator of Parho Punjab, Harpal Singh.

Emphasis would also be laid on improving handwriting, dictation, reading, thinking and writing. The schools have been directed that even those children, who have attained targets, would be made to practice more and attain higher goals.

Harpal said the remedial classes would be run for students of classes I, II and III as well. The class I students would be taught self introduction, two rhymes, parts of body and activities in the months of April and May.

Bathinda, April 10
The road divider, without any light reflector, near the thermal plant railway crossing on the ever-busy Malout-Bathinda highway has become a death trap for the commuters, courtesy the local police turning a blind eye towards this ‘killer’ obstacle.

A number of people have sustained injuries so far at this particular point and the divider made to control the traffic congestion has become a killer stretch.

Speeding vehicles coming from Malout often ram into the divider, but neither the city traffic police nor the Thermal police station, which is barely 100 metres away from the divider, has so far installed any light reflector or any board to caution the commuters to ‘drive slow’.

Almost a major accident takes place here daily, which not only causes loss to the commuters, but also results in long traffic jams and sometimes even leads to skirmishes.

The officials at the Thermal police station accepted the fact that they received at least one report of a vehicle ramming into the divider. They simply shrugged the matter off saying nobody lodged complaints with them in the regard.

When contacted, Jagdish Lal, SHO, Thermal police station, said, “Most of the accidents take place due to rash and negligent driving. People drive fast and often ram their vehicles into the divider. The road is narrow and the traffic flow is quite heavy.”

He added, “As you have brought the matter to my notice regarding the need of a light reflector, I will soon install a few reflectors and boards saying ‘Road divider ahead, drive slow’.”

On the other hand, Ranjit Singh, in-charge, city traffic police, tried to parry the query, saying, “The area comes under the jurisdiction of the Thermal police station and only they can find out a solution to this problem.”

When asked whether the traffic police had prepared any report of reasons behind such a large number of accidents taking place at the site concerned, he said, “No, as of now, there is no report prepared to keep a track of the number of accidents taking place on this particular stretch, near the thermal railway crossing.”

Bathinda, April 10
The traffic routes in Bathinda have been diverted from April 11 to April 14 keeping in view Baisakhi celebrations being held at Talwandi Sabo. Routes have been diverted for vehicles that are bound for places other than Talwandi Sabo.

DSP Talwandi Sabo, Parminder Singh Bhandal, said traffic coming from the village Rori side would be diverted near village Jaga Ram Tirath.

Similarly, traffic coming from Maur side would be diverted near village Sekhpura, while traffic coming from Raman Mandi would be diverted near village Jajjal. Traffic moving from Bathinda city would be diverted near Kotshamir.

SDM Talwandi Sabo said as per planned diversions, traffic moving from Bathinda to Sardulgarh, Rori and Sirsa would move from Kotshamir via Maur.

Similarly, Sardulgarh, Rori and Sirsa to Bathinda traffic would be diverted near village Nawan. Vehicles moving from Bathinda to Kalianwali would be diverted from Bhagi Wander via Raman and Raman to Maur moving traffic would be diverted from Malkana via Behman, Gurusar, Nawan Pind and Sheikhpura.

Also traffic moving from Maur to Raman would be diverted near village Sheikhpura and would run through villages of Nawan Pind, Gurusar, Behman and Malkana.

Bhandal added that in order to ensure a congestion-free mela, eleven vehicle parking spaces have been identified. All the parking lots have been identified on roads coming towards Talwandi Sabo from various directions.

These include Raman Road, Jajjal Road, Bathinda Road, Natt Road, Kothi Wala Road, Lelewala road, Maur road, Rori road, Gurusar-Jaga road, Sangat Khurd road and Malkana road.

Bathinda, April 10
As many as 62 twins were born in the year 2011-12 at the local Government Women and Children Hospital while 32 twins, and one triplet, had were born at the hospital during the year 2010-11.

However, in the year 2011-12, as many as 3,366 women delivered babies at the hospital while in the year 2010-11, as many as 2,154 deliveries were conducted.

Dr Dheera Gupta, a gynaecologist at the Women and Children Hospital here, said out of 62 twins, 70 per cent were born during normal deliveries while the remaining were born through caesarean section due to the complications faced by these expectant women. In these 62 twins, the number of boys and girls was almost the same.

Dr Dheera also said 
most of the time, two major causes remained behind the birth of twins, use of drugs by the women because of increasing prevalence of infertility (not being able to conceive for more than two years) and the family history.

She said when the women did not concieve due to non-pregnancy (infertility for more than two years), they started taking medicines, leading to multiple pregnancies, including twins.

She said there were many reasons for infertility due to which the women did not conceive for more than two years. These included pesticides, pelvic TB, late marriage, stress, use of contraceptive measures immediately after marriage and food adulteration.

Dr Gupta explained that twins were of two types. In the first type, twins take birth due to fertilization of two eggs (ovum) at a time while in the second type, one egg is fertilized but is divided into two due to which identical twins are born.

However, the women face several problems in bringing up the twins, especially when one baby takes birth with low weight.

A child specialist at the Women and Children Hospital here, Dr Satish Jindal said in the case of twins, the women faced many complications during pregnancy, including pre-mature delivery, babies with low birth weight, increased risk of birth asphyxia especially in the second twin, transfusion of blood from one baby to another baby in identical twins resulting in anemia in one of the babies.

Busting the myth that in the case of twins the breast feed remained insufficient, Dr Jindal said the breast feed for twins remained sufficient. He also said the baby with low birth weight should be breast-fed more.

Meanwhile, two women have given birth to twins at the Women and Children Hospital here in the current month so far.

One of the women, from Gehri Bhagi village, was still in the hospital as she had given birth to twins through C-section on April 3. She was blessed with a son and a daughter.

Some causes of infertility for more than two years:

• Late marriage
• Use of pesticides in eatables
• Stress
• Pelvic TB
• Food adulteration
• Prolonged use of contraceptive measures

Bathinda, April 10
The unaided staff of the Mahatma Hans Raj (MHR) Senior Secondary School went on strike in protest against the school management accusing it of high-handedness.

The agitating staff members raised slogans against the school management.

The protesting staff members said that peon Narinder Kumar, who was working for the last 17 years, was ousted from the school a few days ago.

"The management alleged that the peon Narinder Kumar has misbehaved with a member of the management, whereas for the last 17 years, Narinder had been doing school work as well as working at the houses of the school principal and members of the management," the agitating employees said.

They added that the unaided staff is being paid a measly sum of Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000, whereas the aided staff gets salaries at full government scale.

The unaided employees are given a mere five holidays in a year, while it was 20 five years ago. The staff members also said that the unaided staff is made to do more work than the aided ones and there is no time-table set for them.

Meanwhile, the manager of the school, Dr JS Anand said he would visit the school tomorrow and speak to the agitating employees to sort out the issue.

Bathinda, April 10
The BSNL is not maintaining its log book, meant to keep a record of the taxis running daily, alleged a transporter, Surinder Kumar Bansal, who lends taxis to the department.

The officials from the office of the DGM (Finance) said it was mandatory to fill the record daily. But contrary to this, the log book is left blank and filled later. "Not filling the specified columns daily means that the entries made later are fudged," said Bansal, showing an attested copy of the log book for the March 7 date.

Bansal alleged that the officials make entries at their own whims and fancies, thereby not only violating the rules but also corrupting the system.

He added that even on national holidays such as January 26, the drivers of the vehicles have been marked as absent instead of mentioning that it was a holiday.

The practice was prevalent in other departments too that use hired taxis such as the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB), Excise Department, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Railways. Meanwhile, GM, BSN, Vinod Kumar was not available for his comments.

Bathinda, April 10
A large number of activists of the Special Trainer Teachers’ Union today took out a demonstration.

The march began from the Teachers' Home to the main bus stand and blocked the road demanding permanent jobs in government schools.

They also burnt the effigy of the state government and moved towards the Mini- secretariat where they raised anti-government slogans in support of their demand. — TNS

Bathinda, April 10
The Bathinda police have recovered medicines abused as drugs. The Balia Wali police have registered two cases. In the first case, Mahavir Garg from Balia Wali has been arrested with three bottles of cough syrup and five bottles of lomotil tablets (each bottle had 100 tablets).

The accused was arrested from village Mandi Khurd.

In another incident, Malkit Singh from village Khokhar was arrested with seven bottles of cough syrup and 38 strips of tablet Carisol. The accused was arrested from the village itself.