Bathinda, April 14
The low-floor and exceptionally long red buses have heralded a new era for the public transport in Bathinda, a city where the monopoly of autos and rickshawallas rule the roost.

The first fleet of ten buses, launched under the city bus service, aims at giving the much-needed relief from the traffic congestion and offer to commuters an affordable and safe mode of public transport in an ever-expanding city with 50 wards presently.

Tribune News Service took a tour on the first day of the city bus service on the bus stand-railway station-Veer Colony-Barnala road route and back.

As we hop on to the red beauty snaking out of the busy bus stand, we realise that the low floor bus welcomes us inside without a thud or jerk, characteristic of other PRTC buses.

Once inside, the new interiors, comfortable seats and clean handles add to the beauty. The spacious and smartly-designed city bus is a far cry from its poor cousin, mini buses, that are often over-crowded. College students, sitting on the elevated back portion of the bus, travelling with us have every reason to smile.

“The rear portion of the bus is higher than the front because the engine is at the back. Just as it is in the case of buses of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU),” explains the driver Ganga Singh, from village Maluka.

As the bus moves out of the bus stand, more people board it and by the time the bus reaches Fauji Chowk, it is full. “It seems our city too has developed like Chandigarh. Now, I can tell my cousins abroad that I too sit in such swanky buses,” boasts Ramesh Kumar, a student of Government Rajindra College (GRC), from Raman Mandi, while talking to his friends. For students like Ramesh, `5 fare per 5 kms is pocket-friendly.

Ramesh’s friend Jaswinder explains that not only the fares are low, the bus would also provide the travellers the much-needed respite from the polluted city, especially in the summers. “More the people use public transport, more they would save fuel and environment,” chips in another student.

Apart from the students, the traders and businessmen visiting city say that the service was long-awaited. The passenger on our left, 29-year-old businessman, Deepak Singla from the Dabwali area, has been coming to Bathinda for the last many years and this time he was relieved to find the local bus service.

“Every summer I used to avoid coming to Bathinda. The autos and rickshawallahs had started charging exorbitant fares. Although teh fares are in sync with the inflation, but still they hit our pockets,” he said. Deepak is now looking forward to coming to the city again and travel in the local buses.

Soon, the bus reaches the AC market and moves towards the railway station. At the railway station, impatient passengers thump on the doors, asking the driver to open the gates. While negotiating the right turn towards Maal Godam road, Ganga Singh pateintly explains to them, “There is no place to get off, please be patient till we find a safe place.”

Here, it takes more than 10 minutes for the long body of the bus to take a turn and it leaves behind a trail of traffic chaos. “This is just one bus. Imagine ten buses stopping here twice daily. The police or administration should chip in and declare this as one-way road. Even the encroachments should be taken to task,” pitches in another passenger, Bhupinder Singh.

As the bus moves forward, it gets caught up between the two iron bars installed on the right turn towards Veer Colony. Conductor Harbans Singh, from Lehra Mohabbat, helps the driver navigate the bus through the bars only to be caught up two more iron bars on Amrik Singh Road.

On reaching Teenkoni, the bus begins to fill again and as it reaches the Rose Garden chowk, a few cops on duty wave at the driver of the bus to stop it.

Four youngsters hop on and while paying fare to the conductor say, “We have been waiting for this bus and refused to ride on rickshaws and autos. We wanted to enjoy the first ride on the red beauty on wheels.”

A little ahead, near Hazura Kapura, join in two women, Paramjit Kaur and Amarjit Kaur. Both are on their way to the bus stand and are happy to know that the local bus service also takes them to the shopping destination, Dhobi Bazar. “Now, we will not have to shell out `40 to the rickshawallahs and travel in the blazing sun,” they say.

Soon, the bus moves ahead on the Bibiwala road, to 100 feet road, to the Power House road before entering the bus stand.

Though the passenger footfall has been less today, the PRTC officials feel service would get a tremendous response and soon new buses may be added to the fleet.

Bathinda, April 14
Under the first phase of the project, a fleet of ten buses has been launched for the city. These would not cater to the people living in the trans-railway lines area. Areas of railway colony, Paras Ram Nagar, Amarpura Basti, Lal Singh Basti ect would not benefit from the facility.

“We had earlier planned to utilise the railway over bridge near Paras Ram Nagar for the movement of buses. But the structure does not allow it and also, we did not got the permit for this route,” said the PRTC officials.

MC, Jagrup Singh Gill, said the local bus service can be helpful for the students, especially girl students, coming from trans-railway line area to study in the city. He demanded that the bus service be launched in these pockets also. — TNS

Bathinda, April 14
An ace cartographer that National Geographic Society, Washington, swears by, a novelist, a storyteller and one of the first writers of children’s book on adventure, painter Manmohan Singh Bawa is many personalities rolled into one.

In Bathinda to deliver a talk at a programme hosted by the local trekking group, Aarohan, Bawa talked extensively about the fine intricacies of adventure and trekking.

Born and brought up in a humble family, in 1948, Bawa fled away from his home in Delhi with just Rs 25 in his pocket to study painting and arts at the JJ Arts College, Mumbai. “That was the onset of cartography and the years to come,” he reminisced.

His German and London-based firms swear by the maps he draws — all without computer aid. Former commercial artist with the American Center in New Delhi, Bawa frequently visited the Survey India office in Dehradun where he studied the importance of accuracy and precision in map-making.

“It is not that I have always been to the places that I chart out or draw. The firms I deal with in Germany used to send back the maps pointing out that the lengths of peaks should be checked again. To ascertain that, I would crosscheck with multiple referral books and my studio remained the most unkempt place,” he added.

Bawa has deep interest in archaeology and anthropology and has penned several books on Himalayas such as ‘The Indian Himalaya’, tourist and trekking guide to Ladakh and Zanskar and ‘Adventure In The Snows’, which till date remains the most important work of information about the Great Himalayas.

Presently settled in Dalhousie, Bawa feels Punjabi youth do not have the kind of interest youngsters from other states have for knowing about the Himlayas. “Living in Dalhousie, I have seldom seen youth from Punjab coming to Dalhousie for expeditions and trekking,” he added.

Apart from being a renowned cartographer, Manmohan Singh Bawa is also a renowned figure in literary circle for his writings. Elder brother of legendary painter, the Late Manjit Singh Bawa, Manmohan has to his credit three collections of short stories, three novels, three adventure travelling collections and three collections of adventure stories for children.

Bathinda, April 14
An Excise and Taxation Officer of the Excise Department was found absent while an inspector of the department was found drunk today during a surprise checking at the Doomwali barrier on the boundary of Punjab and Haryana.

The checking was conducted by Sarup Chand Singla, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Excise and Taxation). Singla also conducted checking at the Seeto-Gunno barrier in Muktsar, situated on the boundary of Punjab and Rajasthan.

Singla found an ETO absent and an inspector drunk at the Seeto-Gunno barrier in Muktsar. Singla ordered departmental inquiry against the ETO, Inderjit Sharma, while the inspector was let off with a warning following his assurance of not committing the mistake again.

Singla later lent an ear to the problems of the truck operators standing in queues at the Doomwali barrier and promised to provide them all the basic facilities and to find a solution to other problems raised by them during the interaction.

The truckers informed Singla that they are forced to get the entry and exit tickets from people sitting in the temporary sheds by the roadside. They rued that it was quite difficult for them to get the tickets from the people sitting in the sheds and instead the department officials should issue them the tickets.

Singla later said the reason behind the surprise checking of the barrier was regular complaints of corruption pouring in from the entry and exit barriers.

Singla said such surprise checking would continue and no government functionary would be spared if found guilty of not executing his duties honestly.

Bathinda, April 14
Two people lost their lives while one suffered serious injuries in separate road accidents.

A resident of Behman Diwana village was killed in an accident that took place on the Bathinda-Behman road. The deceased has been identified as 50-year-old Kartar Singh of Behman Diwana village. Volunteers of an NGO said Kartar was a farmer and owned agricultural land in the village. They said Kartar had lost his life by the time they reached the spot. The matter was brought to the notice of the Canal police station.

An unidentified man, estimated to be 50-year-old, lost his life on the Bathinda-Gidderbaha road after being hit by a speeding vehicle. He was rushed to the hospital by the volunteers of the Rahat Foundation and Sahara Jan Sewa. He was declared dead on arrival at the local Civil Hospital.

Volunteers said the residents of the area said the deceased had been roaming around in the market places for the past few months and nobody knew of his identity. Police officials were informed and they are trying to establish his identity.

In another accident, a motorcyclist was seriously injured while he was riding the bike near Naruana village. The injured was taken to the hospital by the volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa. The injured, identified as Balwinder Singh of Nandgarh village, was admitted to the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital.

Bathinda, April 14
Despite the tall claims of the authorities and the traffic policemen, utter chaos prevails on the roads in the city. The absence of sound road sense and reluctance of the traffic policemen to act strictly against those violating the laws has added to the problems.

Despite the fact that the number of fatal accidents are on the rise in the city, there seems to be no initiative taken by the authorities concerned in this regard. A section of the traffic policemen, deployed at various intersections, while talking to TNS, expressed their helplessness in curbing the chaos.

"Just have a look at the haphazard parking in front of the banks and hospitals on way to the bus stand from Fauji Chowk and vice-versa. Hardly anyone is concerned with the traffic rules here," said a traffic cop deployed at the Fauji Chowk.

He said people are awarded fines umpteen times for wrong parking and taking a wrong turn from the Ajit Road side to cross the Fauji Chowk, but to no avail.

There are certain engineering faults in road planning which have lead to more chaos and awarding challans is no solution, the traffic cop added.

A visit to the local traffic police office revealed that the policemen there are upset due to the shortage of staff, lack of equipment, vehicles for traffic policemen and the absence of basic infrastructure.

"We do not have cranes to put aside the vehicles involved in accidents, we lack alcometers to check the level of alcohol in drivers, torches and many other basic equipment and gadgets," said a cop there on duty. The traffic cops pointed out that an officer took it upon himself and conducted a survey of the reasons behind the rising accidents and its solutions. "The measures taken following the report are too little and too late. The report suggests marking of zebra crossings, installing traffic lights, road signs, cutting of bushes and trees at sharp turns, check on overspeeding, drunken driving and taking wrong turns, especially by the two-wheelers.

The report, a copy of which was provided to the Bathinda Tribune, has details of a number of accidents that took place at particular points and the number of fatal deaths. Some of the accident points mentioned in the report were Fauji Chowk, Liberty Chowk, Goniana road near Thermal lakes, the road near the Cantonment police station on the Barnala road, Rose Garden chowk and Dabwali road.

City traffic police in-charge Ranjeet Singh said they have asked for a crane to remove the vehicles involved in the accidents. "We award challans and give stringent warnings to the violators of traffic rules. We also do not have alcometers and only a few are there for use by the highway patrolling," said Ranjeet Singh.

Highway patrolling in-charge Shiv Dayal said they have five Tavera vehicles and 25 motorbikes which are used to check the traffic rule violators. The traffic in-charge claimed they are using the Alco meters during the special nakas laid at various entry and exit points of the city.

Bathinda, April 14
The District Tax Bar Association, Bathinda, organised a study seminar today on the topic "Service tax and various amendments proposed through Finance Bill 2012. The key speaker was Vishal Garg, CA.

Welcoming the keynote speaker and the members of the association, advocate PP Maheshwary, president, described the year 2011-12 as the second consecutive year of landmark achievements in the history of District Tax Bar Association. He said the year was one of study seminars as five well organized seminars were held during the year covering topics like income tax, VAT, wealth tax and service tax for the first time.

An entertainment programme, Mastani Sham Season-II, was also organized.Four senior and active members were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributionto Bar activities.

A question and answer session was also organized at the end in which the lead speaker responded to various queries. Later, the District Tax Bar Association, through its senior members, released the souvenir-cum-directory of new members for the year 2011-12 and the Bar Constitution.

The executive for the year 2011-12 was also dissolved on the occasion and it was announced that election for 2012-13 shall be held on April 21. Advocate Amit Dixit conducted the proceedings. He was supported by Nitish Garg, Jimy Mittal, Ashwani Juneja, PK Singla, AP Gupta, Prem Gupta, Vijay Garg, Ravinder Garg, Sushil Jindal, Shanoo Goyal, Vijay Jindal, Ashok Singla, RC Gupta, Narinder Garg, Sanjeev Bansal, Rajeev Goyal, Rohit Singla and Rajnish Bansal. 

Bathinda, April 14
The body of a man was found lying near the bridge of the Bathinda railway station. The deceased appeared to be around 40 to 45 years old. Nothing could be recovered to help in identifying him.

Volunteers of a non-government organisation (NGO), Sahara Jan Sewa, said they got a phone call from the railway station about the dead body. They said the matter was brought to the notice of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the body was taken to the Civil Hospital. President of the NGO Vijay Goyal said the number of dead bodies kept in the Civil Hospital has increased to five.

Police officials said inquest proceedings in this connection would be initiated and efforts would be made to identify the deceased. The reason behind the death of the man could not be ascertained. 

Bathinda, April 14
The 121st birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar was observed today by various NGOs and residents of the city. The function was organized by Dr BR Ambedkar Mission Society at the local Ambedkar Bhawan.

Bathinda rural MLA Darshan Singh Kotfatta was the chief guest on the occasion. The function was attended by several prominent people of the city.

Speakers at the function threw light on the achievements and contribution of Dr Ambedkar who was instrumental in drafting the Indian Constitution.

The speakers also exhorted the people to follow the path shown by the great visionary.

Bathinda, April 14
A train passenger was found lying in a serious condition beside the railway lines adjoining the Parasram Nagar flyover.

A passerby brought the matter to the notice of the volunteers of Sahara Jan Sewa who picked up the injured and rushed him to the local Civil Hospital. Volunteers said the man received serious head injuries.

Rs 1,000 in cash and a ticket from Nizamuddin to Bathinda were recovered from his possession.

The injured has been identified as Shamu Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh.

It is learnt that he might have been thrown out of a moving train by someone following an altercation.

The passenger reportedly told the volunteers of a non-governmental organisation that he was standing beside the entrance along with some other youths and could not recall how he fell from the train.

While volunteers of the NGO got medical tests of the injured conducted, doctors said his condition is critical. The matter has been brought to the notice of the police and further investigation into the incident is on.