Bathinda, June 16
High drama was witnessed today near the Rose Garden Chowk when a section of the local leaders associated with some political party tried to block traffic to protest the intensive drive launched by the traffic police against the violators of traffic rules.

City traffic in-charge Ranjit Singh said the agitators were upset over issuing of a challan to a tempo owner. They blocked the road for over half an hour after which they were taken to the Cantonment police station.

"The agitators accused the traffic police of intensifying drive against the violators in the city. They also accused us of pocketing money from a wrongdoer," the in-charge said. He, however, added that the traffic policemen had handed over the receipt to the violator before taking the money.

ASP City-II Kuldip Chagall reached the place and enquired into the matter. He ordered that the agitators be taken to the Cantonment police station for disrupting traffic on the busy intersection near the Rose Garden.

The ASP, later talking to TNS, said around 15 youngsters had blocked the traffic in protest against the police drive against the traffic rule violators.

The protesters were later released after they realized their mistake and assured that they would not indulge in any unlawful activity in future, the ASP said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the traffic police have become quite active for the past few days and the cops have been actively issuing challis to a large number of violator's everyday. Local residents, shopkeepers and members of various NGOs have appreciated the efforts of the traffic police for their drive against the violators. They added that the citizens should extend their cooperation for launching special drives against the violators. They said the police still needs to pull up its socks so that stringent action could be initiated against those creating nuisance on city roads.

District press secretary of the BJP, Umesh Sharma, while talking to TNS, accused the city traffic police of harassing the commuters. He said a section of the local residents along with his party members met ASP City-II Kuldip Chahal yesterday. They brought to his notice gambling at a public place by some unscrupulous elements. "After complaining about the gambling, we also urged the ASP to end the harassment of youngsters on roads, especially the school or college-goers as they are issued challans by the traffic cops. The ASP refused to entertain our request and instead said youngsters would now have to wear helmet and should follow the traffic rules more strictly," said the press secretary.

He pointed out that members of his party got a phone call from a tempo driver today in the afternoon accusing the traffic cops of demanding Rs 500 as entry fees near the Rose Garden Chowk.

The cops then reduced the fine to Rs 300 and after taking the money, gave him a receipt on which only the amount paid and the number of the vehicle was written. "When we questioned about the violation by the driver, the cops failed to give a satisfactory reply and we decided to block traffic", he said.

He said the cops forcefully took the workers to the Cantonment police station despite the fact that the place where the incident took place was under the jurisdiction of the Thermal police station.

"Seven of us were arrested by the police for raising the issue of harassment of commuters and unnecessary minting of money in the name of strictness imposed on traffic violators," he said.

He added that the police released them after 5 pm.

The BJP leader said strictness should also be imposed on those traffic policemen who unnecessarily harass the commuters and threaten to issue challans with the aim of pocketing money.

Bathinda, June 16
To make available pure drinking water to the visiting patients and their attendants at the nine community health centres (CHCs) of the district, Member of Parliament (MP) from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, has given approval for installing reverse osmosis (RO) systems along with water storage reservoirs at these CHCs from her MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development) funds.

The nine CHCs of the Bathinda district, namely, Goniana, Sangat, Talwandi Sabo, Ballianwali, Bhucho, Raman, Maur, Ghudda and Nathana, are part of the Bathinda parliamentary constituency.

Sources said the district health authorities had made a request to the MP at a recently held meeting of the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, presided over by the MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, to make the funds available for installing ROs at the CHCs as the patients and their attendants, when they visit the CHCs, face problems in getting pure drinking water due to its shortage.

Sources further said the MP asked the district health authorities to prepare estimates of the expenditure, to be incurred on the installation of the ROs at the CHCs, falling in her constituency. She also said that after getting the estimates, she would give grant from her MPLAD funds to supply pure drinking water to the people.

According to information available, the district health authorities asked the engineering wing of the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) to prepare the estimates to install the ROs along with water storage reservoirs. As per the rough estimates, an amount of Rs 60,000 will be spent on the installation of each RO system.

An official in the health department told this reporter that on the basis of the estimates, they would now demand funds from the MP for releasing it so that the ROs could be installed at the earliest.

It may be mentioned here that due to the shortage of pure drinking water in the villages, the state government has already set up RO plants in many villages, from where the people get potable water at cheap rates. This scheme of the state government has benefited the common masses, who can't install RO systems on their own in their houses, in a big way.

• The nine CHCs in the district are at Goniana, Sangat, Talwandi Sabo, Ballianwali, Bhucho, Raman, Maur, Ghudda and Nathana.
• The district health authorities had made a request to the MP at a recently held meeting of the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee. They requested for making the funds available for installing ROs at the CHCs as the patients and their attendants do not get pure drinking water.

Bathinda, June 16
Around 23,000 trees of neem, sheesham, kikar, eucalyptus, Sukhchain, Amaltas and other varieties doting the over 200 km long Bathinda-Chandigarh highway would be axed to pave the way for the four-laning of this busy stretch.

Already struggling against ailments like cancer, the district would lose its green canopy in the name of development.

Added to this, the increased number of vehicles running on this stretch would only add to higher levels of pollution thus aggravating the problem.

"Development always comes at a cost. People die due to road mishaps on this stretch and at many places, the railway overbridges, underpasses, wider bridges over canals such as the Bhakra Main Line (BML) in Patiala, need urgent widening and this project will address all such issues," said the officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

The trees, some as old as 60 years, would be axed down. As per the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) S. Kannan, a few trees of sheesham have a girth of 200 cm (diameter of the tree trunk).

The trees of Brahma Dek with 200 cm girth are around 15 to 20 years old.

The entire stretch falls under the Bathinda, Sangrur and Patiala forest divisions. No objection certificate (NOC) from the forest department lies pending with the Government of India, the DFO informed.

At some places in Punjab, like Ropar, the forest department had taken over the transplantation of mature trees from the place of their origin to the place they were to be planted.

This not only helped in preserving mature plants but also helped in maintaining greenery. However, the desired success rate was not achieved.

"In the Bathinda region, transplantation of trees is impossible.

“Transplanted trees cannot bear extreme temperatures and humidity that our area witnesses.

“Moreover, the cost involved in transplanting trees is so high that the money spent on transplantation could be used to plant three to four times more new saplings," the officials informed.

The project would have three four-lane railway overbridges.

The first overbridge would be located at Rampura railway crossing, the second one at the Rajpura bypass in Patiala and the third near the Sangrur bypass.

Besides, there would be 12 flyovers to ease traffic bottlenecks at places where the road enters into the cities.

The letter of allotment for the project had been allotted to IVRCL, Hyderabad, which would complete the project by April 2015.

The Rs 2007 crore project is being given on DBFOT (design, build, finance, operate and transfer) basis.

Bathinda, June 16
Police has booked a woman and his son after a girl eloped with the latter. A complaint was made to the police by a resident of Pakka Kalan village.

The complainant alleged that the accused Jagjit Singh and his mother exploited her on the pretext of marrying Jagjit.

A case under Sections 363, 366-A, 376, 506 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered in this connection against the accused at Nehianwala police station.

Three booked for beating

Police has booked three persons for beating up a resident of Mohalla Bhaika. The complainant Rajnish Kumar alleged that he was beaten up by Sonu, Monu and Sonu's father Babbal while he was returning to his house in the evening on May 28.

The injured Rajnish was rushed to a nearby hospital with the help of area residents and his relatives.

A case was registered after recording the statements of the injured and the eyewitnesses.

Police has booked eight persons including Jasvir Singh, Gursharan Singh, Amandeep, Gurpal, Manjit Kaur, Jagjit Kaur, Harjit Kaur and Jagtar Singh.

Police has booked five persons for trying to encroach upon a piece of land in Bhagta Bhaika village. Complainant Sukhdev Kumar said that the accused razed the green fodder grown in his agricultural land grown on his fields and threatened him of dire consequences. A case against Darshan Singh, Pargat Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Balwant Singh has been registered at Diyalpura police station.