Bathinda, June 7
The merit list for the Punjab School Education Board senior secondary examination (Class XII) sprung a surprise for Bathinda district and the surprise was not a pleasant one.

The PSEB merit list has enlisted 306 students out of which only students belong to Bathinda. Anju Bala Goyal, a science (medical) student of Dashmesh Public Senior Secondary School, Bathinda, has secured rank 79 with 913 marks (91.3 per cent).

Akhil Jindal, a commerce student of Baba Farid Senior Secondary School, has secured rank 248 with 897 marks (89.7 per cent). Gurpreet Kaur, a humanities student of the Government Senior Secondary School, Kotshamir has got rank 269 by scoring 896 marks (89.6 per cent).

While the pass percentage for the entire state is 73.23 per cent, the pass percentage for Bathinda district is 64.59 per cent. District Tarn Taran has earned the distinction of having the highest pass percentage of 94.16.

Shockingly though, not even a single student from Tarn Taran features in the merit list. Even Kapurthala does not have any student in the merit list. Amritsar and Gurdaspur follow Tarn Taran with pass percentages 86.58 and 85.33, respectively.

Another surprise sprung by this year’s results is the fact that the overall pass percentage for the students from the rural areas is higher than those from the urban areas.

While the pass percentage of students from the rural areas is 74.8 per cent, the students belonging to the urban areas have lagged behind with a pass percentage of 73.54 per cent.

Another conclusion deduced from the results is the fact, which is no more alarming, that girls have outshined boys once again. This is the third consecutive year when the pass percentage of girl students (78.7 per cent) is higher than that of the boy students (68.36 per cent).

Parul Gupta from Ludhiana district has topped the merit list with 94.5 per cent marks. Parul is a science student.

The results for the senior secondary examination will be available on PSEB’s official website starting 8 am on Friday. 

Bathinda, June 7
After the death of its two dogs — Hawk and Rajan — Bathinda police is now trying to get another pair of sniffer dogs from the dog breeding-cum-training center, in Phillaur, Jalandhar.

Senior police functionaries, demanding another pair of dogs, have written to the higher officials. Police is hopeful of getting another pair of dogs for better policing within the next few months.

Hawk and Rajan had died recently. These dogs were trained for VIP duties and detect explosives. To get clues in cases of murders and thefts, the dogs were taken to the crime scenes as well.

Police officials, imparting training to these dogs at the Police Lines, said a well-trained dog was the most efficient component of VIP security and also helped in getting clues from places where criminal activities took place.

ASI Kewal Singh, deployed to look after the dogs at Police Lines said two head constables and a class IV employee had been assigned the task of training and taking care of the dogs.

Apart from taking care of the dogs, Singh is also sent on police duty to nearby places. “The schedule of diet, training and exercise of these dogs is fixed but at times lack of basic infrastructure, manpower and professional skills causes problems,” he said.

The trainers take out these dogs for walk during morning and evening hours to keep them fit, Singh said.

At present two dogs — Abdul and Julie — both six and half years old, are being trained at the Police Lines. They were brought from the Police Academy, Phillaur and were groomed to help in the investigations of various criminal cases.

Policemen said they were waiting to fill the sanctioned strength of four dogs at the Police Lines with the arrival of two more dogs.

Bathinda SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill said the dogs were quite helpful for conducting special checking at bus stands, railway stations, during the VIP duties and to trace clues in murder and theft cases.

Bathinda, June 7
To hone the theatre skills of children in the age group 6- 14 years, the local Public Library, in association with Natkhat’ (Children Art Academy) today started a free 11-day-long theatre workshop, ‘Khedan De Din Char’, on the premises of the library.

The workshop is being conducted under the direction of renowned Punjabi theatre director Tony Batish from Bathinda. On the inaugural day, today, more than 50 children from the city attended the workshop.

While imparting training to the children, Batish asked them to enact the poem being recited by him. The poem was “Bhare bhare baste, lambe lambe raste, uncle ji namstey, ladoo perre saste, khane hain to khao, nahin pao apne raste”.

Batish also asked the children to give their introduction with actions. Batish, through the activities, helped the children get rid of their hesitation.

Later, Batish sang a song with children, “Nanni teri morni...” He enacted the song while children followed his actions. Tony Batish said, so far, he had provided opportunity to about 12,000 children to perform on stage.

The workshop was inaugurated by RP Garg, who has been working as the cashier of the library for the past about 50 years.

Besides parents of some children, others who were present on the occasion included president of the Public Library Dr HS Dhaliwal, senior vice president PD Goyal, vice president Jatinder Kumar Pumpy, general secretary Kuldip Dhingra, an executive member Sandeep Parchanda and manager of the library Parveen Garg. 

Bathinda, June 7
The Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) has issued list of 67 illegal colonies that have come up violating the Section 20 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act (PAPRA) 1995.

Colonisers have developed these colonies without obtaining the required licence and converted respective pieces of land into small plots and are developing illegal colonies, which is a criminal offence.

The BDA has termed such colonies unauthorised under Section 39 of the PAPRA Act and ordered demolition of colony within 15 days of issuance of notice on June 4.

The unauthorised colony covering largest area is Hazura Kapura on Barnala road and Vishwa Colony on Goniana Road, which are spread in 50 acres of land each. Following it, is Jujhar Singh Nagar spread in 30 acres, area beyond street number 10 of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar and Silver City on Mansa road covering 25 acres of land each.

"This list of colonies is mere eye wash. If these colonies are illegal, why has the municipal corporation provided them with water and sewerage connections as well as pucca roads. All the houses have power connections too and these are indicators of regularised colonies," said Congress municipal councilor Jagroop Singh Gill.

The other Congressmen added that this was a government motivated move wherein first scare of demolition is being created and later SAD-BJP leaders would act as saviors and bail out people from the crisis.

"It is impossible to raze so many concrete structures. How can one even imagine hammering down thickly populated areas of the Hazura Kapura and the Jujhar Singh Nagar?" pointed out Jagseer Singh from Hazura Kapura area.

It is expected that the BDA would allow regularisation of these colonies asking its dwellers to pay nominal penalty at the rate of Rs 300 per square yard.

"The government actually patronizes coming up of unauthorised structures. Why were the government officials sleeping when the very first houses started springing up in these areas? Why was not the construction stopped on the spot," questioned Inderpreet Singh from Jujhar Singh Nagar.

Most of the people are unaffected by the announcement of demolition as they know that politicians would save them.

When contacted, MLA Bathinda Sarup Chand Singla assured that no colony would be razed. "The developers have developed colonies and escaped. Why should poor people suffer when the developers are at mistake? We will ask the government to devise a mechanism that would check mushrooming of illegal colonies," he added.

Bathinda, June 7
The JITF Ecopolis, company entrusted with the job of solid waste management in city, has launched a campaign to educate people about the garbage collection and rates to be paid for the services.

Assistant manager of collection and transportation of garbage, JITF Ecopolis, Manoj Kumar said that around 50,000 pamphlets have been printed and are being distributed in the city to create awareness among the people.

The company has decided to re-run campaign every 45 days to keep on sensitising people on responsible solid waste management.

The JITF has also specified the rates to be paid for services in different areas. While people in slum areas are supposed to pay Rs 10 per month, there are separate rates fixed as per the area of houses.

Monthly charges of 60 sq yards houses are Rs 20, houses from 61 square yards to 180 square yards pay Rs 30 per month, houses of 181 square yards area and above pay Rs 50 per month.

Everyday garbage is being collected from 7 am to 2 pm in different localities. For garbage collection 230 safai mitra (cleanliness friends) have been deputed to cover more than 65,000 households in the city.

People have been appealed to use the two bins - green and blue - distributed two months back. While green bins are meant for biodegradable waste like refused vegetables, wood, paper etc, the blue bins are meant for non-biodegradable waste like glass, plastic, polythene etc.

People have been discouraged from heaping garbage in vacant plots, street sides, parks, drains and streets. They have also been appealed not to burn the waste, which is violation of Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules 2000.

For further queries people can call at toll free number 1800 180 2101.

Bathinda, June 7
Kotfatta police has booked ten persons for allegedly opening fire on a resident of Manakkhana village and inflicting injuries upon him.

In a complaint to the police, Sukhpreet Singh alleged that Bhupinder Singh, Harjinder Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Balkar Singh, Sarbjinder Singh, Sarabjit Singhand three or four unidentified persons attacked him with deadly weapons.

He said that he had gone to meet his friend Labhjeet Singh in village Dhan Singh Khana.

The complainant further said that he was beaten up by the accused over an old dispute.

The victim was rushed to the hospital by his friends and others.

Bathinda, June 7
The general health check-up of the students of government school would be conducted after the summer vacations under the School Health Programme.

Students would be screened for eyes, ears, oral health and anaemia and would be given treatment as per the requirement.

The District Education Officer (secondary) has directed all the school principals to coordinate with the medical teams that will be conducting medical check-up camps.

Students suffering from poor vision problems would be provided with spectacles free of cost from the nearest government hospital. Similarly, all children would be screened for oral health and those needing treatment would be referred to the government hospitals and dispensaries.

All the students would be given iron tablets to improve their haemoglobin content as well as treatment for de-worming. School principals and teachers have been directed to maintain record of all these students and the dosage of medicines they are given.