Bathinda, April 24
The state education department has sought data for the installation of reverse osmosis (RO) systems in government schools. The heads of all the schools have been directed to send details pertaining to the current source of drinking water available, the number of students and to indicate if the school already has an RO and a water cooler.

The heads of the schools have been directed to provide the information at the earliest possible. Keeping in view the poor quality of drinking water available in government schools, the state government has sought details from the education department to earmark funds for the installation of RO systems in schools.

“Certain funds are available under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA), which are to be allocated for the purpose,” said the sources in the office of the Director General of School Education (DGSE).

While the government is seeking details for installing new ROs, it has forgotten the RO systems that were installed three years ago. Three years ago, many government schools in the district had installed RO systems from their own funds.

“At that time, a team from the health department had been collecting water samples from government schools and pointing out the ones that served drinking water of poor quality to the children. To save ourselves from the wrath of the health authorities, we used certain contingency funds, PTA funds and also got the panchayat to donate for installing an RO system for our 350 students,” said a teacher from a government senior secondary school in Bathinda block.

Following the checks conducted by the health department, many other government schools too got donations from the banks such as the State Bank of India (SBI) and installed ROs. “Since RO is a one-time investment and that too with assistance, it did not pinch the school funds. But an RO needs annual maintenance and in the case of schools with 350 children, the membranes and candles do not last beyond eight months,” added another teacher.

The education department has never issued any grant for the maintenance of these devices. The RMSA component workers said the government should also seek a review of the schools where ROs have become defunct due to lack of maintenance.

Meanwhile, Deputy District Education Officer, Amarjit Kaur Kotfatta, said there are hardly 50 RO systems in the district. “We haven’t got letter from any of the school heads informing that the ROs installed need maintenance. We are collecting data and will keep this need in mind,” she asserted.

Bathinda, April 24
Aiming to ensure the all-round development of the students, the schools under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan would now organise Bal Sabhas for the students. These Bal Sabhas will focus on co-curricular activities and would be organised every Saturday, after the recess.

In a statement released by the Director General of School Education (DGSE), Punjab, it has been emphasised that co-curricular activities are as important as academic excellence.

The schools have been directed to make proper arrangements for organising these Bal Sabhas in a planned manner.

During these Bal Sabhas, various competitions would be organised keeping in mind the inclination and interests of the students.

These would include drawing, handwriting, maths tables, quiz, poem recitation, reading skills, cleanliness, clay modelling, sports, general knowledge competitions among other activities.

The teachers would have a week to plan the activities for the next Bal Sabha and prepare the material and a plan of action for the same.

The teachers have also been directed to maintain a record of the performance of the students at these Bal Sabhas. It has been recommended that the teachers record the performance of the students in their annual progress report under the sub-head ‘Co-Curricular Activities’.

While it is mandatory for the students to attend these Bal Sabhas to be held in their schools, it has also been suggested that at least once a month, the competitions be organised at the block level to gauge the students’ interest, involvement and progress in comparison with the students from the other blocks.

The District Education Officer (DEO) and the district coordinator of Parho Punjab are among those who have been entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the orders at the schools and also to make sure that the activities are held in the schools regularly and that the teachers and students participate in it with enthusiasm.

Bathinda, April 23
The local Self-Employment Training Centre (Girls), being run by Pyare Lal Karnail Singh Memorial Charitable Trust (Regd), at the rear of the Purana Thana here, has been proving to be a boon for the girls by helping them stand on their own feet.

For more than four years, the girls are being trained at the centre in painting, handwork (embroidery), stitching, computers, typing, beautician, mehndi and English speaking courses. All these courses are of 90 days each.

The girls are being trained by eight teachers, who don’t get any salary from the trust. However, honorarium is being paid to them by the trust as they are serving society for a noble cause.

At present, there are about 90 girls at the centre, being trained in two batches (morning and afternoon), in different courses.

Apart from Bathinda, the girls from many nearby villages, including Rampura Bhunder, Kotshameer, Chughe Kalan, Deon, Beer Talab, Kotbhara, Bhokhra, Seerwali, Bibiwala and Jhumba, also come to the centre for training,

Amanpreet Kaur, a student of computer course, said during the last 15 days, she had learnt a lot about the computers as the method of imparting training to them was good. Thanks to the training, she now knew enough about the basics of the computer.

She expressed the hope that after the completion of the course at the centre, she would certainly be able to become self-reliant.

Pratibha, a student of painting and stitching, said she had been attending classes for the last few months to get more experience in painting and stitching so that she could earn more money by starting her own ventures.

When contacted, the honorary director of the centre, Narinder Kumar Bassi, said the self-employment training centre had been started by the trust in August 2007.

Since then, a large number of girls have undergone training in different courses. After training, many of them had either started their own ventures or joined jobs.

Bassi said except for the one-time registration fee of `50, nothing was charged from the girls for training. After training, a certificate was also given to every student by the trust, he added.

In-charge of the centre, Amrit Kaur, said the main aim of the centre was to make the girls self-reliant as the trust believed in women empowerment.

The centre in-charge said not only unmarried but married girls were also among their students.

She said after the completion of their courses at the centre, the girls enrolled there would be able to either run their own ventures or earn money by working somewhere.

Bathinda, April 24
Two suspected swine flu cases from Muktsar and Abohar areas have tested negative by the PGI, Chandigarh. These patients were under treatment at a private hospital in Bathinda and at the Adesh Hospital, Bhucho.

The throat swab of these two patients, Ganga Singh (66) from Kangna Kherra village in Muktsar district and Bimla (20) from Kandhwala village in Abohar Tehsil had been sent for tests to the PGI, Chandigarh on Sunday by the district health authorities.

Talking to TNS here today, district health officer (DHO), Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa, said Ganga Singh was under treatment in a local private hospital while Bimla was under treatment at the Adesh Hospital, Bhucho.

After the doctors suspected that they might be cases of swine flu, the samples of their throat swab were taken on Saturday and sent to the PGI, Chandigarh on Sunday.

The DHO further said he had received the report of the results of both the samples from the state programme officer of integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP), Dr Deepak Bhatia, the previous day.

As per the report, both the patients had tested negative for the swine flu disease, he added.

Dr Randhawa said both the hospitals had been informed about the report of the tests of their patients.

Earlier, a TB patient, from Sirsa in Haryana, admitted in a local private hospital some weeks ago, had also tested negative for swine flu. Thus, since April 2011, no swine flu positive case had been detected in the district, he added.

He said as the swine flu virus was air-borne, the persons above 65 years of age, suffering from diabetes, AIDS, TB and cancer, and the children below five years, who are weak otherwise, were more vulnerable to the disease.

The district health authorities had already initiated measures to check the spread of swine flu in the district by way of constituting rapid response teams in the district and arranging requisite medicine.

Besides, a special room had also been identified for OPD at the local civil hospital. An isolation ward had also been made there for the purpose, he added.

Bathinda, April 24
With his cool dude looks, complete with pierced ears and spiked hair, Karanvir Kataria would pass as any other college student. What sets this B.Tech student, hailing from Kotkapura, apart is the fact that at the age of just 22 years, he has penned his first book, ‘Fate Illustrated’.

Relating his journey of turning into an author from a small-time contributor to newspapers and magazines, Karanvir, a student at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, says although he is studying B.Tech, he was always interested in writing.

“I write on my blog with great interest and enthusiasm. I also used to contribute articles to newspapers and magazines to earn pocket money. I used to write on love, devotion, relationships and women. While writing on these themes, I decided to create a work of fiction and describe fate. And that is when the idea of writing a book germinated,” he says.

The story of Karanvir’s book revolves around Samarvir Joshi. Samar, who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, has everything and everyone that he loves. But a twist of fate takes away all the material wealth and the wealth of relationships from him.

Ask Karanvir if the story is inspired by his own life, and pat comes the reply, “I wouldn’t like to say that it is a semi-biographical work. I would rather say that the story says what I learnt through my own experiences in life. Like me, the lead protagonist also feels that all that one needs to turn sorrow into happiness is an ultra-positive perspective.”

Surprisingly, Karanvir reveals that he told his family about his venture only a day before the book was to be launched. “When I, along with my childhood friend Rahul Bhardwaj, started writing the book, I wasn’t sure if it would come out good enough to be printed. Add to it the fact that the publishing industry does not welcome new authors with open arms.”

“I had to arrange for Rs 45,000 for publishing the book. My parents are already spending a lot on my education in a private university and I didn’t want them to feel the pressure. I took up part-time jobs at drive-through restaurants and petrol pumps. It took me some time to arrange for the money and after the paperwork was done and the launch was finalised, I decided to tell my parents,” he says.

This is not the first time a college student has written a novel. Chetan Bhagat (Five Point Someone, One Night at A Call Centre, 2 States, Revolution 20-20), Tushar Raheja (Anything For You Ma’am), Neeraj Chibba (Zero Percantile: Missed IIT, Kissed Russia), Amitabha Bagchi (Above Average), Suman Hossain (A Guy Thing...A Magical Love Story of an IITian) and Saumil Shrivastava (A Roller Coaster Ride — When An IITian Met a Bitsian Girl), have all penned books and the list gets longer.

Karanvir says although Chetan Bhagat is very popular, he doesn’t have any message or inspiration to offer to the readers. “I admire the fact that Chetan Bhagat has become popular because of his writings, but I’m not inspired by him. My work is not just another ‘love, break-up, patch-up’ story. Although it is fiction, it may also be called a self-help book,” says the young author.

He not only plans to continue writing in the future as well, he is also sure about what he wants to do after he passes out of college. “I am working on two more books. While the theme of the first one is love and devotion, the second one focuses on how every girl looks for her father in her spouse. With a B.Tech degree in hand, I may get a job but what is the point of staying miles away from the family, working for nine hours everyday and earn only `25-30,000? I want to earn a lot of money and will join my father’s business,” he says.

“Wanting and having material wealth is one thing, but feeling happy despite anything and everything that happens to you in life is above everything,” he signs off.

Bathinda, April 24
Under two national programmes, ‘National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardio Vascular Diseases, and Stroke’ and ‘National Programme for Health Care of Elderly’, District NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) clinic is being set up at the Civil Hospital here.

The NCD clinic is being established in the old emergency wing of the Civil Hospital. The wing is being renovated as per the requirements of the clinic. Apart from four rooms for the doctors, four common wards for the elderly patients, daycare unit for cancer patients, and a critical care unit etc are also being set up there. As per the information, the NCD clinic is likely to start functioning by the end of May. However, the physiotherapy unit, a part of the NCD clinic, has already started functioning in the new OPD block here.

In the critical care unit, there will be a ventilator, centralised oxygen supply, monitoring of cardiac patients with pulse oximeter, and 24-hour nursing care. In the NCD clinic, investigations regarding cancer (cytopathology) and x-ray will also be done. Besides, counselling of the patients, regarding taking of precautions against the lifestyle diseases, will also be done.

The NCD clinic will function as a referral unit catering to patients in the villages who will be identified by the ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) and sent through community health centres (CHCs) to the district hospital, if they could not be diagnosed and treated at the CHCs.

Sources told this reporter the selection of the staff for the district NCD clinic had already been made by the state health authorities, but the result was yet to be made public. They also said that it was a multi-crore project. But its actual cost could not be ascertained at this stage as it would take some time.

When contacted, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said at the district non-communicable diseases clinic, a pathologist, an oncologist, a cardiologist/medical officer, a surgeon and a district programme manager along with a counsellor and staff nurses would be posted while at each community health centre , one medical officer, two staff nurses, a counsellor and a data entry operator would be posted.

Bathinda, April 24
The Civil Lines police has booked four persons for appearing as fake witnesses in a court. The accused have been booked on the orders of additional sessions judge, Dilbagh Singh.

The accused, include Gurdeep Singh, Mangat Raj, Gurmeet Singh and Surinder Pal Singh, who have been appearing as fake witnesses in court cases.

One held with medicines abused as drugs

The Rampura city police arrested one person with medicines were abused as drugs. Police arrested Manjinder Singh, a resident of Gandhi Nagar, and recovered one kg of intoxicating powder, 1500 capsules and 2400 tablets.