Bathinda, June 4
Commuters plying on the Bathinda-Barnala road had a harrowing time today as the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualified unemployed teachers’ protest against the state government entered its second day today.

Twenty-one teachers, including eight females, had climbed atop a water tank in Lehra Dhoorkut village yesterday and refused to come down. The teachers spent entire night atop the water tank and did not relent despite repeated pleas oby the district administration and the police.

The protesters have been asking the state government to fulfil its promise and issue their appointment letters.

A large number of colleagues of the teachers sitting atop the water tank also blocked the Bathinda-Barnala road today.

Numerous rounds of talks between senior government functionaries 
and the teachers failed to bear any fruit and the dharna continued till late evening today.

Although the police tried its best to control the traffic and diverted the route of the vehicles passing through the area, commuters complained that they were put through unbearable inconvenience.

Commuters opined that it was the failure of the state government and the local government servants to find a solution to such dharnas.

Bathinda SSP, Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, claimed that the matter would be resolved by today evening.

The teachers however said they would not come down until they get the appointment letters.

Those sitting atop the water tank reiterated that they would not tolerate harassment of the teachers sitting below. They also threatened to jump off the tank and turn the area into a graveyard in case any of their comrades was manhandled.

Police force from five police stations, along with tehsildar Gurmel Singh, SDM Bhupinder Singh, DSP Phul and DSP Maur remained on tenterhooks till late evening while trying to allure the teachers to come down.

They also offered to facilitate a telephonic conversation and a meeting with the education minister, but to no avail.

Leaders of the teachers’ union Surinder Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Baljinder Singh Mansa, Ishpal Singh Sidhu, Harinderjit Patiala said all the protesting teachers had cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test and also the counselling but the government was yet to give them the appointment letters.

The protest continued till the filing of this report.

Bathinda, June 4
A 27-year-old resident of Nai Basti was beaten up by a group of around 10 boys just outside the main entrance of the Mittal Mall in the city last night. The boy was beaten up in full public view.

The boys, armed with iron rods, hockey sticks and bats, beat up the boy while the crowd and the security personnel of the Mall looked on.

The volunteers of a city-based NGO took the injured boy to the local Civil Hospital where he was treated for broken arms and a fractured leg.

When contacted by Tribune News Service, the Kotwali SHO Jaspal Singh said, “It is the moral duty of the security personnel and the onlookers to intervene and deter miscreants during such incidents.”

He said the boy was beaten up by family members of his in-laws as he had married a girl out of his caste. The girl’s relatives attacked him when they came to know that he had come to watch a film at the mall.

As per the orders of the court, the boy had also been given a security cover for a few months after the marriage. The boy owns a dairy farm and is the father of a six-month-old baby.

The SHO said the doctors treating the victim declared him unfit for recording any statement and a case was yet to be registered.

Residents said miscreants, who had beaten up the boy, were seen roaming in the area wearing the blood-stained clothes.

The case has once again brought back the limelight to the fact that the incidents of theft, snatching, eve-teasing, beating and quarrels outside the Mittal Mall have increased manifold in the recent past.

A large number of people visiting the Mall, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings has, in fact, given rise to the number of criminal activities in the area.

Area residents, security personnel and parking lot contractors confirmed that heated arguments over petty issues, personal enmities and eve teasing have become a common sight outside the Mall.

Though the security personnel make sure that no such activity takes place inside the Mall, the same goes unchecked outside the mall, they said.

“Incidents of quarrel, vehicle lifting and eve teasing are reported every week outside the mall. The police needs to pull up its socks by intensifying patrolling in the area,” said one of the security personnel working at the Mall, while talking to TNS.

He added that since the footfall at the Mall had increased manifold over the past few months, sometimes it became quite difficult for them to handle the large number of visitors and the vehicles parked outside the Mall.

Singh, while admitting that there has been a rise in the number of criminal activities reported from outside the Mall, said, “Among those who create the most trouble are youngsters or drug-addicts. They either indulge in eve-teasing or lift vehicles,” he added.

Assuring that the police was in the process of taking requisite steps to handle the situation, he said, “The increasing criminal activities outside the Mall will be tackled by intensifying patrolling in the area. We have already increased the rounds of patrolling vehicles in the area.”

Despite repeated attempts, mall owner, Rajinder Mittal, could not be contacted for comments. 

Bathinda, June 4
In the presence of the Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sarup Chand Singla, seven persons, reportedly belonging to the Congress party, joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) at a marriage palace here this evening.

Among those who joined SAD were Gurpreet Singh, Inderjit Singh, Daljit Singh, Gurdarshan Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Baljit Singh.

Sarup Singla took them into the SAD fold by presenting them ‘siropas’.

Welcoming them, Singla said keeping in view the pro-people policies of the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, and the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, these Congressmen had joined the SAD by quitting the Congress party. He said he their entry into the SAD was welcome.

He added that due to the wrong policies of the Congress party its condition in Punjab was deteriorating with every passing day. He also assured them that the SAD would keep them with it and would try to provide them good status in the party.