Bathinda, May 22
Following the directions issued by the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, recently, the Bathinda police has decided to strengthen the security arrangements to act tough with the mischievous elements in the city and to maintain better law and order situation in the city.

For this purpose, the Bathinda police has formed a squad of 100 cops, who will patrol the city roads on 25 PCR motorcycles round the clock, in two shifts of 12 hours each, under a fresh beat system prepared for the city.

SSP, Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, said as the department had overcome the problem of staff shortage, a fresh beat system had been prepared for the PCR cops to patrol their respective areas, riding the newly-painted 25 motorbikes. Besides, five SUVs, belonging to the PCR, would also patrol the roads.

“These motorcycles will be stationed at particular points (beats), as decided under the fresh plan and would reach the scene of crime anywhere between the Municipal limits within 7-8 minutes. Two cops will be riding one motorcycle and three cops will travel in each Tavera,” said the SSP.

He, however, accepted that there were some loopholes in the existing system and most of the cops were irregular in performing their duties.

Bathinda, May 22
Bathinda police today claimed to have solved a case of kidnapping in which the abductors had demanded a ransom of `2 lakh from the victim’s family on May 20.

A labourer, Roop Singh, of Sherpur village in Sangrur district, had lodged a complaint with the Nehianwala police yesterday, alleging that four persons, in connivance with the driver of the Bolero vehicle, in which he, along with his wife, sister and three other women known to him were travelling, kidnapped his wife after blocking their way with an Accent car on the Muktsar-Bathinda road.

They were returning from Muktsar after paying obeisance at a historic Gurdwara there.

The complainant said the accused, known to him, blocked their way at around 5:30 pm, forcibly snatched `35,000 and assaulted them with iron rods.

Scared, they started running towards the fields located nearby. The accused took away the money and ran away after kidnapping his wife, Parkash Kaur.

He also alleged that the accused had planned to commit the crime with the help of the driver of the Bolero (which belonged to his sister), as the driver also sped away in the car.

“The driver called up Roop Singh’s daughter, Reeta, after the kidnapping and asked them to pay the ransom amount of `2 lakh at the Bajakhana bus stand,” said Sukhchain Singh Gill, SSP Bathinda, while quoting Roop Singh.

Meanwhile, Roop Singh lodged a complaint at the Nehianwala police station. Acting upon the report, the police party arrested three persons, including the driver of the vehicle.

The arrested accused have been identified as Jagtaran Singh alias Nikka of Barnala, Gurtej Singh of village Chak Fatehsinghwala in Bathinda district and the driver, Jagraj Singh alias Raju of village Sanghera in Barnala district.

The SSP said a hunt was on to nab the remaining two accused who were still at large. The two accused were identified as Satinder Singh alias Babbu and Billa, both residents of Barnala.

The kidnapped woman has been released and the amount of `35,000, along with the Bolero vehicle, has been recovered.

Bathinda, May 22
All new and existing vehicles in the district will have to be fitted with the high security registration plates (HSRP), after the district transport office implemented the scheme today.

The district transport office has assigned the job to fit the plates to the Agro Implex Private Limited company.

BM Singh, DTO Bathinda, held a meeting with the auto dealers today, in which he said the installation of these plates would be made mandatory for all the vehicles plying on the roads.

“While the new vehicles would be fitted with these high security registration plates at the time of registration of the vehicle, all existing vehicles would be covered within two years. The owners of existing vehicles will have to fill a form to install these plates on their vehicles,” said the DTO.

The officials concerned also gave a demonstration of the process today.

“The plate, which has a retro-reflective sheet, a chromium-based hologram is put and ‘IND’ in blue is inscribed using the hot stamping foil. A unique laser code is also given to each plate. The registration number is embossed using a machine and a black foil is placed over the number, which has IND written. This makes duplication impossible,” said the DTO.

He said this would help the officials to keep a check on the increasing number of vehicle thefts, as once the plate is damaged, no one except the authorised company would be able to fix it.

Bathinda, May 22
The Congress today announced Iqbal Singh Dhillon ‘Babli’ as its candidate for the by-elections of Ward 6 of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) to be held on June 7.

The seat of this ward had been lying vacant since the death of corporator, Purshottam Gargi, who died of a severe paralysis attack on June 22 last year.

No Congressmen had applied for the ticket and the party finally allotted the ticket to contest the elections to Babli, righthand man of ex-MLA Harminder Singh Jassi

After getting the ticket, an elated Babli said the party had showed its faith in him and he would try his best to win the elections.

“I am a resident of this ward and am also well aware of the problems of its denizens. The residents here face severe shortage of water supply and if the residents elect me as their representative, I will try my best to fulfill their demand of regular water supply,” Babli said.

Meanwhile, the BJP was still holding its state level meeting at Amritsar to decide the name of its candidate for the by-elections.

Five persons have applied for the BJP’s ticket, which include Madhu Gargi (wife of Purshottam Gargi), Kulwant Singh Poohla, Surinder Goyal, Balwant Bahia and Sriram Gothwal.

Talking over the phone to Tribune News Service, around 9 pm, Neeraj Tayal, in-charge of the district BJP affairs, said, “The name of the BJP candidate will be announced shortly. The meeting is still going on.”

Meanwhile, no candidate filed his/her nominations for the by-polls.

Bathinda, May 22
A knee replacement surgery was performed for the first time at the Civil Hospital in Bathinda a couple of days ago.

The surgery was performed on a 55-year-old labourer, Darshan Singh, who hails from Gobindpura village, about 10 km away from here. For the past three years, he had been suffering from severe knee joint pain due to rheumatoid arthritis with severe degeneration of left knee.

Talking to Tribune News Service here today, Dr Ajay Gupta, an orthopeadician at the Civil Hospital, who had performed the knee replacement surgery, said the patient was virtually disabled due to continuous pain and was limping when he had come to him.

He further added that the total knee replacement surgery had been performed on May 20. The patient performed exercises on his bed today, but from tomorrow, he would be able to stand and walk with support. After about two weeks, he would be relieved of all pain and would not require to take any medication for the surgery for the next 15 years, he added.

Dr Gupta said as compared to the expenditure Darshan Singh would have incurred to get the surgery done at a private hospital, he spent only half of the money on his treatment at the Civil Hospital.

He said the best and the latest prosthesis had been implanted in Darshan’s body. The total expenditure on his knee replacement surgery had amounted to about `80,000, he added.

Dr Gupta said it was the first total knee replacement surgery done by him at the Civil Hospital here though he had earlier performed 15 to 20 such surgeries at the Civil Hospital, Mansa.

He also said apart from this, he was also performing minimally invasive surgeries of joints, namely arthroscopic surgery, at the Civil Hospital. This technique was useful for treating sports injuries and also problems of general population. He said he had got specialised training in this technique during his fellowship at Konkuk University, Seoul (South Korea).

When contacted, the senior medical officer (SMO) of the local Civil Hospital, Dr Satish Goyal, confirmed that it was the first knee replacement surgery done at the hospital. He expressed the hope that after seeing the success of this knee replacement surgery, more such patients would come to the hospital.

Bathinda, May 22
Under the banner of the Rural Health Pharmacist Action Committee Punjab, the rural health pharmacists from the district today observed mass casual leave to compel the state government to accept their long standing demands, including regularisation of their services.

There are 59 rural health dispensaries in the district. Due to mass casual leave by the pharmacists, normal functioning in many dispensaries were affected.

The pharmacists along with class IV employees, working in the rural health dispensaries, today gathered at the office of the Zila Parishad here and met the additional deputy commissioner (Development) Mohammad Tayyab in his office. They also submitted a memorandum to the ADC (D) to forward the same to the Chief Minister, Punjab.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, district president of the action committee Sunil Garg said they would wait for the decision of the government over their demands for four to five days. In case the government did not initiate any step in this direction, then they would not hesitate even to paralyse the functioning of the dispensaries. Besides, they would also chalk out a state-level action programme, he added.

Garg said they were working for the last six years in the dispensaries on meagre salaries. At present, they were getting just Rs 7,000 each (per month) while the Class IV employees were getting just Rs 3,000 each. He asked how in this era of rising prices, how could one meet the domestic requirements of one’s family?

Garg said the state government should initiate steps to regularise the services of all those pharmacists and Class IV employees, who fulfill the norms. He said their services should be regularised on the pattern of the rural medical officers. He said the pharmacists should be given the pay scale of Rs 10,300-34,800 plus Rs 4,200 as grade pay.

The action committee also warned the state government that if the notification, relating to regularisation of their services, was not issued soon, then they might decide to even boycott the dispensaries for participating in the state level stir.

Bathinda, May 22
The teachers employed under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA), who were supposed to meet the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, in connection with their long-pending demands, could not do the same as the meeting was cancelled.

Talking to Tribune News Service, district president of the union, Beant Singh Phulewala said, “A deputation of the teachers employed under the SSA and RMSA schemes were to meet the Punjab CM today but the meeting was called off in view of the approaching Municipal Council elections.”

Expressing the union's helplessness, he added, “We have been told that the meeting will not take place before the elections. There is little that we can do in this situation. However, a state committee meeting of the teachers will be held in Jalandhar on May 25. The future plan of action will be decided during that 
meeting.”

Interestingly, at a meeting held in Bathinda a few days back, the teachers had announced that if the meeting with the CM would not bear any fruit, they would gherao the house of the Punjab Education Minister, Sikander Singh Maluka.

When asked if the union would stick to its announcement and go ahead with their plan, Phulewala said, “Right now, the plan to gherao Maluka's house stands. This plan will also be discussed during the state committee meeting.”

The SSA and the RMSA teachers have been demanding a hike in their pay scale and regularisation of their jobs. Accusing the government of backtracking from its promise to regularise their jobs, the union said following the delay on the part of the state government to notify the regular scale, the Central Government had stalled all the funds for their salaries.

While 65 per cent of the salaries of the teachers recruited under the SSA and the RMSA is paid by the Centre, the remaining 35 per cent is the state government's share.

The teachers have been alleging that since the state government is not contributing its share in their pay, they have not been paid properly for the last two years. 

Bathinda, May 22
Three students of the passing out batch of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh (PTUGZS) campus have been selected for placement as graduate engineer trainees by the International Tractors Limited, Hoshiarpur.

International Tractors Limited is the manufacturer of the famous Sonalika brand of tractors.

The selected students are Ayush Walia, Mohit Garg and Manjot Singh. These students were selected after a competition among the students from the leading engineering colleges of the state during a special recruitment drive held at PTU Jalandhar on May 9. — TNS

Bathinda, May 22
Shiv Sena Hindustan has decided to protest against the rampant illegal constructions and encroachments taking place in the city.

In a press statement released here today, the district head of Shiv Sena Hindustan, Sushil Jindal, said that people had encroached upon government land in areas like Model Town by erecting boundary walls on the space earmarked for footpaths.

He added that during the last few months, a few persons, while building their houses in Dhobiana Basti, had encroached upon the government land.

Jindal said he had approached the Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, Kamal Kishore Yadav on April 18, and apprised him of the situation and also requested him to take strict action against the wrongdoers.

Drawing the attention of the administration towards the Danga Pidit Colony in Model Town Phase 1, he said although many years have passed since the construction of this colony, many of the flats were yet to be allotted to the needy.

He added that as a result of the late allotment of these flats, many anti-social elements had not only encroached upon the flats but also vandalised the same.

He threatened that if the PUDA officials fail to take swift action against the encroachments, members of the Shiv Sena Hindustan would not only gherao the officials but also sit on a dharna outside their houses.