B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

PMET Results: Two Bathinda students among co-toppers
For Malwa, double delight at midnight
Faridkot, May 21
Students from the Malwa region again scored got top positions in the Punjab Pre-Medical Entrance Test (PMET), the result of which was declared late on Monday evening.

Arshdeep Kaur (left) who is the co-topper in PMET-2012 with her parents in Bathinda on Monday night. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

Good governance showing results but long road ahead
Bathinda, May 21
The good governance policy of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has started showing positive results in the Malwa region of Punjab that had earlier earned the disrepute of government officials skipping their offices and putting the common people to difficulty.

Undertrial escapes from police custody
Bathinda, May 21
An undertrial who was brought to Bathinda in a train from Rajasthan, today escaped from police custody. The undertrial was undergoing imprisonment under the NDPS Act and was being brought from a court in Jalaur in Rajasthan.

Vigilance team raids Abohar Civil Hospital
Abohar, May 21
Responding to the directions given by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to restore order in the Health Department, about two dozen members of the Vigilance Department, led by an SP rank official, Upinderjit Singh Ghumman, stormed the Nehru Memorial Civil hospital here past midnight.

Vigilance officials carrying out search operations at the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital at Abohar on Sunday night. A Tribune photograph

MPs join hands to demand Shatabdi Express
Faridkot, May 21
About ten years after the Bathinda-Delhi Shatabdi Express was stopped as it got below 15 per cent occupancy, the chorus for starting this train again is getting louder.

Water supply restored on May 7
Potable water still eludes consumers
Abohar, May 21
Though supply of water in the Gang (Bikaner) canal and the Indira Gandhi canal in the neighbouring Sriganganagar region was restored after 30 and 27 days, respectively on May 7, the rural water works in most of the segments have not been able to meet the requirements of the people so far.

Shortage of potable drinking water has gripped Sriganganagar region even as canal water supply was restored a fortnight back. Photo by writer

PMET Results: Two Bathinda students among co-toppers
For Malwa, double delight at midnight
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Anish Jindal who shared the top slot is offered sweets by his grandmother in Bathinda on Monday night. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

Faridkot, May 21
Students from the Malwa region again scored got top positions in the Punjab Pre-Medical Entrance Test (PMET), the result of which was declared late on Monday evening.

The first position in the PMET, in the general category, has been shared by three students, including a girl. Two of these students are from the Bathinda city.

The first rank holders, who scored 732 out of a total of 800 marks, include Dinesh Walia of Pathankot (roll number 805022), Arshdeep Kaur of Bathinda (roll number 805423) and Anish Jindal of Bathinda (roll number 805655), have shared the first position in the PMET-2012.

The second rank among the general category students has been bagged by Aneet Kaur (roll number 805042) of Hoshiarpur who got 728 marks.

In the SC category, Tarwinder Singh of Patiala (roll number 811727) got the first position by scoring 704 marks, followed by Manmeet Kaur of Faridkot (roll number 805588) who got the second position, scoring 668 marks.

In the BC category, Harnoor of Sangrur (roll number 810982) got the first position, scoring 700 marks.

Dr SS Gill, vice-chancellor, BFUHS, told The Tribune that in case of three students getting equal marks in the PMET, their score in the science subjects in class XII results will also be given weightage at the time of their admission in the medical colleges.

After the declaration of PMET results on Monday, the process for admission of new students in ten medical colleges, 15 dental colleges and 12 Ayurvedic and homeopathic colleges in the state will start.

As the university was highly cautious of any cheating, impersonation and wrongdoing in the PMET this year, so three sets of question papers of similar standard were used in the test and the toppers in the exam were among the students who used different set of question papers, said Dr SS Gill.

Good governance showing results but long road ahead
SP Sharma
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 21
The good governance policy of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has started showing positive results in the Malwa region of Punjab that had earlier earned the disrepute of government officials skipping their offices and putting the common people to difficulty.

Sukhbir, during a recent meeting, laid stress on good governance and ordered the deputy commissioners, top officials of the police and others to be punctual in their offices. The DCs and SSPs have resorted to surprise checking in the offices in Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Muktsar, Moga, Mansa, Barnala and also in the sub-divisions to ensure the presence of officials.

Teachers and doctors in government institutions at many places have during these raids been found to be the habitual offenders.

As many as ten teachers were recently placed under suspension and 220 issued show-cause notices for being absent in the Fazilka district.

Special teams from the office of the Director General of School Education, Chandigarh, on Saturday, raided many schools in the Moga district and found as many as 85 teachers absent from duty in the morning hours but no action has so far been taken against them.

Reports gathered from various districts of the Malwa region indicated that the DCs and SSPs were now shy of functioning from the camp offices attached to their official residence and were regularly sitting in the Mini-secretariat in their respective district headquarters. They had so far defied the repeated orders of the government to stop the practice of operating from their camp offices.

However, a report from Moga pointed out that neither the District Magistrate Arshdeep Singh Thind nor the SSP Surjit Singh Grewal, besides most of the officials came to their offices at 9 am on Monday as per the work time schedule.

The offices of the SDM, DPRO, Deputy Director Animal Husbandry, DFSC, DDPO, Chief Agriculture Officer and most of his subordinates, besides, the DTO in Moga were lying vacant.

None of these officials were present on time in their offices.

More than 90 officials were found absent when the SDM raided some offices in Bathinda last week. The absentees were warned and asked to be punctual in future.

Most of the biometric attendance machines installed in government offices in the Faridkot district two years ago were lying “faulty”. There were complaints that some employees had engineered fault in these machines to have their own way. Only two biometric machines were functional in the office of the DC at Faridkot, while seven in various health institutions were faulty.

The district authorities in Faridkot have fixed a target of surprise visit to 100 
institutions every month to check absenteeism. These include schools and health institutions.

A report from Muktsar said that the officials there were now punctual in the offices. The DC, Parmajit Singh, recently conducted five surprise visits to various government offices during which show cause notice was served to 12 officials who include seven employees of the District Administrative Complex (DAC), two employees of the SC Corporation, one employee of the Welfare Department and one veterinary doctor.

In Ferozepur, during a visit to various offices today, all senior officials, including the DC, S Karuna Raju and ADC ( G) Gurmail Singh were in office well on time. In fact, the ADC reached his office at 8: 30 am. However, in the Food and Supplies, Transport and Excise departments, some officials were found coming late. The DC said he has constituted two teams to ensure attendance and punctuality in various government offices besides schools and hospitals. (With inputs from Sushil Goyal, Balwant Garg, Kulwinder Sandhu, Archit Watts, Anirudh Gupta, Praful Nagpal and Raj Sadosh).

Undertrial escapes from police custody
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 21
An undertrial who was brought to Bathinda in a train from Rajasthan, today escaped from police custody. The undertrial was undergoing imprisonment under the NDPS Act and was being brought from a court in Jalaur in Rajasthan. The two cops from the Patiala police claimed to have chased the prisoner but failed to catch him.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) has registered a case in this connection against the policemen for further investigations. The GRP officials said the undertrial, Om Parkash, was lodged in Patiala Central Jail and had appeared before the court in Rajasthan in a separate case.

GRP officials said head constable Lakhwinder Singh, Balkar Singh and Ishwar were escorting him. They said the accused managed to escape at around 7 am when the train was entering the Bathinda railway station.

The officials said the Patiala police has been informed about the incident.

Vigilance team raids Abohar Civil Hospital
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, May 21
Responding to the directions given by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to restore order in the Health Department, about two dozen members of the Vigilance Department, led by an SP rank official, Upinderjit Singh Ghumman, stormed the Nehru Memorial Civil hospital here past midnight.

As per the available information, the team stayed in the 150-bed hospital for about five hours and interacted with the indoor patients. The team enquired about the treatment offered to them, behaviour of the medicos and non-medicos and also examined the report cards.

The team checked the stocks to find out whether the expired medicines were stacked there. Some of the patients reportedly told the team they were asked to purchase medicines from private shops located outside the hospital.

The doctors explained that free medicines were made available only in case of emergencies as the department had limited supplies. One Jaswinder Singh complained that his relative, who sustained injuries, remained unattended for two hours.

The Vigilance team remained tight-lipped but was surprised to find the sanitation staff cleaning the floors at midnight. The air-conditioning equipment had also started working after their arrival. None of the staff members listed on duty chart was found absent, sources said.

SP Upinderjit Singh Ghumman said it was part of a statewide drive to streamline health services and a report would be submitted to the authorities concerned today.

Senior Medical Officer JC Takkar claimed everything was alright and nothing incriminating was found. The staff has been working with dedication and complying with the standard rules, he claimed.

MPs join hands to demand Shatabdi Express

Faridkot, May 21
About ten years after the Bathinda-Delhi Shatabdi Express was stopped as it got below 15 per cent occupancy, the chorus for starting this train again is getting louder.

First, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal had raised the issue. Now, two other MPs, from Ferozepur and Faridkot, have also asked the Chairman of the Railway Board to start the train again to ensure the further development of various projects in the Malwa region.

Sher Singh Ghubaya and Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, who are MPs from Ferozepur and Faridkot, along with Harsimrat Kaur Badal are making all efforts for restarting the Shatabdi Express from Ferozepur. —TNS

Water supply restored on May 7
Potable water still eludes consumers
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, May 21
Though supply of water in the Gang (Bikaner) canal and the Indira Gandhi canal in the neighbouring Sriganganagar region was restored after 30 and 27 days, respectively on May 7, the rural water works in most of the segments have not been able to meet the requirements of the people so far.

Subhash Sehgal, spokesperson, Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and former MLA Het Ram Beniwal said today that the closure of the canals spoke volumes of the negligence on the part of Punjab and Rajasthan irrigation officials as they failed to complete the process of finalizing tenders for the lining of the canals. Intriguingly, no major work could be carried even to repair the head works during the closure that was cut short from 40 days.

Consumers were found roaming in search of potable drinking water braving the temperature that hovered around 43 degree Celsius. Their problem was aggravated due to the high velocity dust storms that lashed the region, including Abohar, on Saturday and Sunday.

Shiv Sarda, a resident of Suratgarh said tankers were falling short of demand. XEN, Water Resources Department, Daleep Gaur, however, said dust storms had snapped the electricity supply resulting in suspension of supply to consumers from the water works.

In Raisinghnagar segment, Rani Mayal and Rajeshwari Jakhar, sarpanches of village Muklawa and Kikkarwali, said proposals to revive the abandoned wells are being vetted.

The water Resources Department has been requested to link the wells with rural water works to ensure the adequate supply of water for drinking. A survey indicated that wells in villages like Shyamgarh, Ganguwala, Lakha Hakam, Dabla besides Jaitsar are required to be cleaned on a priority basis by arranging for special funds.

In some villages including Sangeeta, filters in the rural water works have not been repaired for the last few years. Prithvi Raj and Duli Chand said groundwater used to get mixed with the canal water due as the floor bed also got choked.

Out of 700 families, about 200 have started getting water supply in plastic containers from Janakidaswala segment. The crisis has gripped Gharsana town also. BJP Yuva Morcha president Gurmeet Panwar said after a meeting that residents have to carry water in pitchers from the water works. The district administration should take steps to solve the problem, he said. The residents of village Dhaani Nand Ram, bordering Abohar, are also facing a similar crisis.