Bathinda, June 23
Law seems to be catching up fast with the traffic rule violators in the city as the number of challans issued to the violators is increasing every month.

As many as 900 challans were issued to the traffic rule violators in the month of April, 2,662 challans were issued in May, and now 2,900 challans have been issued this month so far.

The drive, launched to ensure drivers follow traffic rules and to minimise the number of accidents on the city roads, has evoked a mixed response from the residents of the city.

Bathinda Tribune interacted with the authorities implementing traffic rules as well as some of city residents, students and a few who had to pay the challan to know their views on the issue.

There are people who appreciate the traffic police deployment at every nook and corner and then there are those who wish for more reforms. Residents opine that ever since the drive has been launched in the city, there has been some respite from the perpetual traffic jams on city roads.

Manmohan Kukku, district president of the Swarnkar Sangh, and a member of the police advisory committee, appreciated the move. He, however, said more needs to be done to reduce the chaos on city roads.

“The police needs to pull up its socks as it fails to constantly check the movement of traffic. After issuing challans, the cops leave and chaos returns to the roads,” he said. “The police should patrol city’s markets like Dhobi Bazaar, Post Office market, Hospital Bazaar, Mall Road, Amrik Singh Road and the area near the railway station. Not only is the police to be blamed, the officials of the Municipal Corporation have also failed in removing the encroachments from the pavements, he added.

“People do not have place to walk as pavements remain occupied by the roadside vendors, shopkeepers and others,” Kukku said.

Sonu Singla, a young shopkeeper at Ajit road, who was issued a challan on Thursday for driving a two-wheeler without a driving licence, said, instead of targetting the youngsters for not carrying all the requisite documents, the police should penalise the “actual offenders”.

“Actual offenders are those who jump traffic lights, use mobile phones while driving, do not wear helmet or seat belt, drive at high speed and mix driving with drinking,” Singla said. Police should not only concentrate on checking the documents of every vehicle but also intensify patrolling to nab such offenders. “Most of the actual offenders escape the police naka and the police fails to chase them on the road,” he said.

He also pointed out that instead of increasing the number of challans, the police should impose a hefty fine on those involved in major traffic violations.

Balkar Singh, another student, said there is little or no parking facility for the commuters in city markets and by the main roads. There is no place earmarked for parking vehicles near the bus stand, Mall road, Dhobi Bazaar, Amrik Singh road and Ajit Road. There is utter chaos outside the Bathinda railway station as the parking inside the railway station remains full.

ASP City -II, Kuldip Chahal said the traffic police is clamping down on traffice rules violators and apart from increasing the number of traffic policemen to 98, two towing vehicles have also been added to the wing. He said more than 6,400 on-the-spot and court challans had been issued to the violators in the city during the last three months.

He added that while 900 challans were issued in April and 2,662 challans were issued in May, as many as 2,900 challans have already been issued in the month of June so far. He pointed out that the traffic police will leave no stone unturned to nab the traffic rule violators. 

Apart from increasing the number of traffic policemen to 98, two towing vehicles have also been added to the wing. More than 6,400 on-the-spot and court challans have been issued in the last three months. While 900 challans were issued in the month of April and 2,662 challans were issued in May, as many as 2,900 challans have been issued in the month of June so far.

— Kuldip Chahal, ASP City-II

Bathinda, June 23
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM) has accused the Punjab government of misleading the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of giving a false undertaking that it had banned some of hazardous pesticides causing cancer.

"When we inquired about the banned pesticides, we were told that there is no such ban nor do ban orders exist anywhere in Punjab,” said KVM executive director Umendra Dutt.

Taking a suo motu notice of media reports about high prevalence of cancer in Malwa region of Punjab and reason for the spread of cancer being the excessive and unregulated use of carcinogenic and hazardous pesticides and chemical fertilizers, on August 18, 2011, the NHRC issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, Punjab, to submit a detailed report in the matter.

On January 23, the NHRC gave directions to the state health department for an overall comprehensive action including banning carcinogenic pesticides, control use of less hazardous pesticides, education of farmers for the use of pesticides, regular health check-ups of the farmers in the area and conducting a survey in the area to assess the problem.

On February 27, principal secretary, Government of Punjab, department of health and family welfare, in his report to the NHRC, accepted that consumption of pesticides was on the higher side in the Malwa region on account of growing of cotton crop.

Farmers are being trained on judicious use of pesticides even as some dangerous pesticides have been banned or their use has been restricted, claimed principal secretary in reply to NHRC.

"But in reality, the health department failed to inform the state agriculture department about the NHRC directions to stop the use of carcinogenic pesticides,” Dutt said. After the principal secretary's report, the NHRC issued a press release on April 20, which stated that the government has banned the manufacturing, import and use of pesticides that are very injurious to health. It has also withdrawn registration of some such pesticides in addition to restricting the use of some other dangerous pesticides, it was stated, adding the government had made arrangements for educating farmers on judicious use of pesticides and their healthcare.

"But in reality, neither the health department nor the agriculture department took any step to implement the NHRC orders. It has become more significant particularly after the recent visit of the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, which has paid a visit to know the impact of pesticides and agrochemicals," Dutt said.

He alleged that during the meeting with the committee, the health and agriculture departments were in a mood to understate the impact of toxicity caused by the agro-chemicals. This is in contradiction of what the health department has submitted to the NHRC.

The KVM has demanded an inquiry and said the government should come up with time-bound plan to implement the NHRC orders and its own submission.

Bathinda, June 23
TET (Teachers Eligibility Test) qualified unemployed teachers today decided to launch fresh agitations against the state government as their meeting with the Punjab Education Minister at Rampura today failed to bear any fruits.

Earlier, the teachers had staged a dharna and disrupted traffic for over a week on the Barnala-Bathinda road near Lehra Dhoorkut village. The teachers had also climbed atop a water tank of the village from where they threatened to jump down if their demands were not met.

The district administration, police and the Punjab government had requested the teachers to withdraw the dharna and had offered to fulfill their demands.

Raghubir Singh Bhawanigarh, general secretary of the Teachers Eligibility Test Pass unemployed union, Punjab, said the union members today held a meeting with education minister in Maluka village on the call of the district administration and the government. He said the teachers had withdrawn their dharna from Lehra Dhoorkut village as the government had assured them to do needful once the education secretary returned from a foreign trip.

He claimed that the minister failed to pacify the teachers today during the meeting and stated that the matter was pending on the part of the chief minister.

He alleged that the minister was delaying the matter over the pretext of the ongoing Vidhan Sabha session. Now the teachers would launch protest rallies across the state on June 25 after which a massive protest would be launched, he said.

“The massive protest will be kept a secret this time and the date and time of this protest would not be revealed,” he said.

Despite many attempts, education minister could not be contacted as he was busy interacting with the people of his constituency.

Bathinda, June 23
The tourism department has mulled plans to put Bathinda on state tourism map. As a part of the strategy, the in-charge statistics department, Punjab Tourism department, Urmila Khosa today convened a meeting with the members of the Hotel, Restaurant and Resort Association, Bathinda.

At the meeting, president of the association, Satish Arora said the proposed Hotel and Tourism Act should be in sync with the larger interests of the hotel industry.

Khosa said the department was collecting figures to ascertain the number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting the state. For this, hotel owners were given forms that would collect data on all kinds of information regarding the tourism industry.

“Data collected would be used for making projections at the national level for putting Punjab on the tourism map,” Khosa said.

Responding to the demand of the association, Khosa said the information on tourist attractions in the state was being compiled in the form of a brochure, which would be made available at all the hotels.

She said there were plans to utilise Bathinda railway station to promote tourism in the state. “Bathinda railway station has a number of trains crossing it while on their way to Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu.”

“On June 27, all district associations will convene a meeting with the chief minister where this issue would be taken up,” she added.

Apprising Khosa of the problems of the hotel industry, Satish Arora said before drafting Hotel and Tourism Act, government should consider interests of the hotel industry, which is already overburdened with different kinds of taxes.

“We are paying heavy value added taxes, four per cent luxury tax as well as `5.18 service tax. We pay liquor permit fees of `20,000 per year to the excise department. Besides this, for hosting every party, where liquor is served, we pay the fees as per directions. We should be exempted from this second fee structure,” he demanded.

He added that as per the Food Safety Act 2006, the hotels have been directed to set up a solid waste treatment plant, which is impossible.

“We are being told to increase the length of our chimneys to minimise air pollution and on the contrary the thermal power chimneys spew toxic gases with no check on them,” he reasoned. Hoteliers demanded that they be spared from making rounds of sewerage and water supply department while applying to construct a new hotel building.

New law states that any hotel situated outside the municipal limits should be located in minimum 5,000 square yards of area.

“Land prices are soaring and it is impossible to buy such large area for setting up banquet halls. Government should relax the laws,” he added.

Bathinda, June 23
Aiming to provide an array of job opportunities to its students as well as the aspirants of the Malwa region, the Baba Farid Group of Institutions’ department of training and placement organised this year's second mega job fair at its campus here today.

As many as 2,968 aspirants arrived to be a part of the job fair and try their luck and scoop up a job with one of the 50 companies that were participating in the fair.

Representatives of companies like NDTV India, Havells, Café Coffee Day, Hyper City India, Vodafone, Bharti Retail, Future Group, Rallis Group and many others came to the job fair to hire suitable candidates.

Students and job aspirants not only from the BFGI but also from different colleges and universities such as Lovely Professional University, Punjabi University, Punjab University, Delhi University and Guru Nanak Dev University also visited the campus.

Many companies offered pay packages starting from 2.5 lakh per annum to 3.5 lakh per annum.

Company representatives were pleased to see such a large number of walk-ins.

After the initial rounds of group discussions and interviews, the number of candidates short-listed crossed the figure of 600.

Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, managing director, the BFGI, applauded the efforts of the department. He also expressed his gratitude to the company officials for visiting the campus and providing job opportunities to the candidates.

Bathinda, June 23
In view of the approaching monsoon season, chief parliamentary secretary Sarup Chand Singla today conducted a surprise checking of government dispensaries in the city.

Singla first visited the government dispensary at Janta Nagar and spoke to the staff members.

There was no doctor at the dispensary. The pharmacist and other staff members were running the dispensary. The OPD register of patients was checked and Singla also talked to the staff members about the problems they were facing in running the dispensary.

He also visited Lal Singh Basti where only pharmacist and other staff members were present.

The doctor on duty is deployed at the Civil Hospital and seldom visits the dispensary.

He also visited dispensary at Dhobiana Basti where the entire staff was found present. All the registers were checked and found to be in order.

They were directed to ensure that potable drinking water is available round-the-clock and areas around are kept clean.

The advisor of the district health advisory committee Dr Om Prakash Sharma also accompanied him. Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni was directed to put things in order.

Bathinda, June 23
Aiming at making young girls aware about the importance of donating blood, a blood donation camp was organised at the summer camp being held at the Government Girls School, situated on the Mall Road here today.

At the camp, blood groups of as many as 50 girls were also determined.

Rakesh Narula of the NGO Bathinda Vikas Manch addressed the girls and told them about the importance of donating blood. Girls' queries regarding blood donation were also addressed. Also present at the camp were DK Garg and members of the city's other NGOs.

Bathinda, June 23
Mother of the state president of BKU (Krantikari), Surjeet Singh, has passed away. The cremation was attended by leaders of the 17 kisan unions. The condolence meeting was attended by various kisan unions in Phul town near Rampura. The bhog ceremony would be held at Phul. — TNS