Bathinda, June 18
A short stay home will come up in the city to cater to the needs of the cancer patients and their attendants from the Malwa belt. The home will accommodate the patients and their attendants who are here for a short stay to undergo treatment for cancer at the local hospitals, or to board trains for Bikaner or other stations where they can receive treatment for the disease.

The Short Stay Home, which will come up on a vacant piece of land, measuring four kanals, near the local Civil Hospital, will be complete by next year.

The foundation stone of the Short Stay Home was laid by the Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal, during his previous term, on December 20, 2011.

The project is a joint venture of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) and the District Red Cross Society (DRCS). As per the available information, after constructing the building, the BDA will hand it over to the DRCS to manage its affairs and run it in a smooth manner.

The proposed Short Stay Home will accommodate as many as 100 persons, including patients and their attendants. It will have 27 rooms with attached bathrooms, besides 14 dormitories.

Talking to Tribune News Service, the Chief Administrator of the BDA, Uma Shanker Gupta, said before the laying of the foundation stone, the project had been approved by the Chief Minister. He said construction work had been delayed due to various reasons, including Assembly elections in the state.

Gupta said the Home would be constructed at a cost of `3.15 crore and the entire amount would be spent by the BDA. He said the BDA had issued a tender for allotting the work. The tender would be opened in the last week of June. After that, work would be allotted to the contractor within seven days, he added.

Gupta further said the construction is likely to start by the second week of July. He expressed the hope that the construction would be completed within 15 months. He said the BDA would ensure the completion of the building of the Short Stay Home within the stipulated period.

It may be mentioned here that at present, there is no place in the city where the cancer patients and their attendants can stay for a short period of time during their visit to Bathinda. Due to this, they face difficulties before going to the medical college in Faridkot or boarding a train for Bikaner in the evening.

Bathinda, June 18
Congress workers today staged a dharna and observed hunger strike near the District Administrative Complex. They were protesting against Bathinda police’s inaction following the alleged beating of one of their workers during the recently concluded Municipal Corporation by-election for Ward Number 6.

The workers alleged that the district president Ashok Kumar and party worker Balwant Rai Nath were manhandled by some Akali workers and a written complaint in this regard was submitted at the Cantt police station but no action had been initiated in this regard.

Former Bathinda MLA, Harminder Jassi, said the hunger strike would continue for the next five days and the workers would intensify agitation if police failed to pacify the agitating workers.

Press secretary Rupinder Bindra said the workers would highlight the issue by blocking the city roads if the police failed to lodge an FIR against the accused. He accused the workers of the ruling party of high-headedness and said 101 party workers would sit on hunger strike everyday for the next five days.

Addressing the workers Jassi highlighted various state and district-level issues. He said the ruling party had left no stone unturned to harass the congress workers.

“Apart from the party workers, the government is using all tactics to suppress the common man’s voice,” he said. He added that the government had suppressed the voice of teachers protesting in the village of the Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka.

He held the state government and the Mansa district administration responsible for the cow slaughtering. He pointed out that the government officials responsible were yet to be punished.

Bathinda, June 18
The hotel management course that was to be started at the Government Rajindra College here beginning this academic session is stuck in a limbo even as the admission season is about to start.

The college authorities had planned to begin the admission procedure for a diploma course in food and beverage service and another diploma course in food production. The initial plan was to invite application for these year-and-a-half-long courses along with admission for other courses.

However, the project has got stuck and is facing many roadblocks in its final stages. To begin with, the Public Works Department (PWD) is yet to hand over the building, where these courses were to be started, to the college authorities.

The building, which is being constructed next to the boys’ hostel on the premises of the college, is yet to be finished. “The last payment for the completion of work on the building was made to the department on November 4 last year. The department has told us that 10 per cent work is still left to be completed,” said Dr GS Brar from the Department of Physics at the Rajindra College, who is taking care of the project.

Apart from the incomplete building, the project is also stuck in red-tape. The college authorities are yet to procure equipment required to start the courses. “The cost of the equipment needed to begin the courses is around `50 lakh. The Directorate of Public Instructions (Colleges) (DPI), Punjab, is asking the college authorities to spend the amount on the purchase of the equipment till the funds are released,” said Dr Brar.

“`50 lakh is no small change. The college doesn’t have funds to buy the equipment first and then claim the money from the DPI. The DPI could at least release half the money to either the college or the two companies it had short-listed,” he added.

If the incomplete building and the delay in the purchase of equipment was not enough, faculty for the courses is also yet to be recruited. “The recruitment procedure is a centralised one and will start only after the DPI issues a letter. On May 30, I had met the DPI and I was assured that the letter to this effect would be released soon. The college is yet to receive the letter,” said Dr Brar.

When contacted, the officiating DPI, Jasbir Singh, agreed that the letter was yet to be dispatched. He also preferred to call it a “procedural delay”. “Yes, the DPI was to release the letter for the courses to begin at the Government Rajindra College in Bathinda but there has been some procedural delay. The letter will be dispatched in a day or two,” he said.

Interestingly, this is not the first time the project has got delayed. The project started in the year 2008 and a letter was sent to the DPI on June 22, 2009. However, with changes in the administration of the college, the project lost steam over the years.

The project was taken up again after the Punjabi University, Patiala, to which the college is affiliated, asked the college authorities to begin the courses starting the academic session 2012-13.

“Only after all these bottlenecks are cleared, will the college take up the process of advertising for the course. Forty seats each will be available in both the courses,” said Dr Brar.

Bathinda, June 18
District president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Diyal Sodhi today said the party workers would launch a massive "jail bharo andolan against the central government's decision against the fuel price hike.

Sodhi said this after a meeting of the party workers at the Circuit House. He said the workers would get themselves arrested in front of the district administrative complex from 11 am to 1 pm on June 22.

Sodhi added that nearly 2000 party workers, including women, are expected to reach in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and would go to jail in protest against the fuel price hike.

To make the "jail bharo" programme a success, the Bathinda district has been divided into five parts which will be supervised by especially appointed secretaries. If the Central Government failed to withdraw the decision of the fuel price hike, then the party would further resort to intensifying the agitation to force the rollback, Sodhi said. 

Bathinda, June 18
The Democratic Rights Front, an NGO headed by renowned playwright Ajmer Singh Aulakh, today stated that those who set the houses of the accused in the cow slaughter case at Joga on fire, should be booked.

The Front conducted an impartial inquiry into the incident and reached the conclusion that taking advantage of the volatile situation, some NGOs, claiming themselves to be the saviour of cows, infused anger and provoked the angry mob to set the houses of the accused on fire.

"Even political parties made hay while the sun shone. Instead of acting wisely, the parties parleyed in the streets of Mansa, raising slogans and creating ugly scenes like setting motorcycles ablaze," the report observes.

It has also held the district administration responsible for being unable to control the mayhem that followed.

Emphasizing upon the need to frame a policy for stray cattle menace, the Front suggested that animal registration be effected.

"Under pressure from various quarters, police have registered a case against the accused. But it needs to be ensured that investigations do not face any laxity and in no way should the accused go scot-free," said Prof Aulakh.

He said the fact-finding committee came across the illegal exercise of cattle being mercilessly slaughtered and sold off for beef and meat.

In the garb of bone grinding, such illegal activities were going on right under the nose of the police and the administration. While the Joga tehsil office is situated just 1.5 km away from the factory, Joga police station is a mere 2 kms away from the aforesaid factory, it was pointed out.

Bathinda, June 18
Suresh Goyal, national president of the General Samaj Party (GSP), today demanded a CBI probe into the incident of cow slaughter in Joga village of Mansa.

In a press release issued today, Goyal said apart from strengthening the law, the state government should take stringent action against those behind the cow slaughter. He said that exemplary punishment should be given to the guilty so that nobody should ever dare to do such act again.

Bathinda, June 18
Three incidents of thefts -- under the Cantonment and the Civil Lines police stations -- have been reported in the city. Rajeev Kumar, a resident of Power House road said some unidentified persons had stolen his bike, which was worth more than Rs 28,000.

The bike was stolen on June 14 and the matter was brought to the notice of the Civil Lines police station. Police failed to trace the bike or the thieves. Rajeev said he had parked his bike near the children's park. A case under section 379 of the IPC has been registered in this connection at the Civil Lines police station.

Pinderpal Singh of Patel Nagar complained that his bike, which was worth nearly Rs 25,000, was stolen from outside the Mini-secretariat. The bike was stolen on May 27 and since then, there has been no clue of the stolen bike or the thieves. A case under section 379 of the IPC has been registered against unidentified thieves at the Civil Lines police station.

In another incident of theft at a house in Preet Nagar, the owner of the house Kuldeep Singh complained that some thieves scaled the boundary wall of his house and took away costly things.

He said the stolen material include Rs 10,000 in cash and gold jewellery. The total cost of the stolen material is nearly Rs 85,000.

Bathinda, june 18
The SAD-BJP alliance’s second term budget would be presented on June 20. The common man as well as the industry is looking forward to relief in the form of no new taxes and burden shedding.

Tribune News Service spoke to a cross-section of people in city about their aspirations from this budget: