Bathinda, June 24
High-voltage drama was witnessed today during a demolition drive at the Prajapat Colony, situated on the Bathinda-Goniana road.

Police personnel had to resort to the use of lathis to rein in the unruly crowd as the demolition drive started in the Prajapat Colony in Bathinda on Sunday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

As the demolition drive started, the occupants of the houses started shifting their belongings out of their houses. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Although the Corporation decided to remove the houses to pave way for a 100-feet road to connect Barnala road with the Bathinda-Goniana road, the residents of the colony stated that the drive was aimed to dislocate them at the behest of some influential people.

More than 150 families had been living in hutments of the colony for past many years. They also alleged that the aim of the drive was to propel a hike in the property prices in the area after the demolishion of their hutments.

The residents also claimed that they were caught off guard by the police sirens and noise of heavy vehicles at around 3 pm when most of them were taking a nap.

The residents rushed to save their kids and household goods. “My one-and-half-year-old daughter was sleeping when the police started throwing us out of the hutments. Men, women and children were manhandled by the policemen during the drive,” said 28-year-old Ritu, who claimed that she had been residing in the colony for the past 15 years.

She also said most of the residents had voter ID cards and ration cards with permanent address of the colony. She said the politicians who had made rounds of their colony and had promised them that they would not be dislocated, were nowhere to be seen today.

Earlier, police personnel, carrying batons, and corporation officials instructing the bulldozers and cranes reached the Rose Garden and then proceeded towards the colony. The cops razed more than a dozen hutments and dispersed the residents amidst scorching heat.

The police was however, forced to backtrack in view of strong protests in the evening. Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Uma Shankar Gupta, who headed the drive, said two days’ time had been given to the colony residents to pack their belongs and vacate the place. He also clarified that the residents had been offered 30-yard plots in Kheta Singh Basti where they may shift within the next two days.

Lal Chand and Ajay Kumar, residents of the colony, said the government was targeting the poor and sparing the influential people. They said a 400-yard plot near the colony was encroached upon by some influential person but the administration failed to get the encroachment removed.

Municipal Councillor of Ward Number 36, Raju Mittal of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), held a talk with the officials and helped the residents get two days’ time.

He said the residents would be extended every possible help by the administration and the corporation. “We will look into the allegations of encroachment by influential people,” he added.

Bathinda, June 24
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab, is observing a strike on Monday in protest against the indifferent attitude of the Central Government towards its demands.

The local unit of the IMA has said the NCHRH Bill is against the interests of doctors, medical profession and the medical fraternity as a whole.

The IMA feels that the NCHRH Bill centralises all the powers and demolishes all democratically-elected pillars of medical education, by imposing a ban on the doctors opting for other occupation and threatening to cancel their registration.

The Bill also points out that a doctor has to fulfil a bond if he desires to go abroad and that the doctors can not go to the court against the decision of the commission.

State president of the IMA, Dr Shiv Dutt Gupta has visited all the branches and sensitised the doctors regarding the Bill .

All the branches of the IMA Punjab have assured the state president that there will be total medical strike on June 25.

The doctors will assemble at one place and organise a dharna and hand over a memorandum to the administration. The IMA also wants the Medical Council of India to be restored in its original form.

Bathinda, June 24
Sarpanch of the Bhunder village has been booked for cheating and altering government records to increase the contract term of the village fishpond from five years to ten years. The case was registered after a detailed investigation was done by the Block Development Panchayat Officer (BDPO).

The pond was given on a contract for `50,000 per year in 2005 for five years and the contract was to be renewed after five years, in the year 2010.

Sarpanch Manjeet Singh, of Congress Party, and panchayat secretary Jasmel Singh of Kotbhai village have been booked under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC at Balianwali police station.

Investigating officer Jarnail Singh said the matter was investigated by the BDPO, who handed over the altered official record and other supporting documents and statements of the former sarpanch and panchayat members to the police, to get a case registered against the accused.

Block Development Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Bhupinder Singh said the matter was brought to his notice by a village resident who wished to get the contract for the pond.

The applicant informed the BDPO that the pond had been given on contract in 2005 and that the contract was due for renewal in 2010.

The BDPO was also informed that despite the contract getting over, it was yet to be suspended by the village sarpanch.

The BDPO said the complainant wished to get the contract of the village pond and approached his office to get the contract. The panchayat secretary of the village was told to produce the record of the pond before him.

The secretary, however, delayed the matter over the pretext of unavailability of the sarpanch. When he was pressurised to bring the records, he produced a carbon copy of an official document wherein it was stated that the contract of the pond was given in 2005 for ten years.

It was later found that the official document was distorted and the duration of the contract was increased from five to ten years. The BDPO recorded the statements of the former panchayat and sarpanch to ascertain the reality and it was found that the present sarpanch and panchayat secretary had altered the records for monetary benefits.

He added that `1 lakh, at the rate of `50,000 per year, extra is taken by the sarpanch and the secretary from the person owning the contract, as the contract of the village pond got over two years ago.

He also pointed out that though the money was spent on the welfare of the village, it was yet to be ascertained weather the accused took extra money-apart from the `50,000 per year to convert the five-year contract into a ten-year contract.

Bathinda, June 24
The Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Kamal Kishore Yadav, today convened a meeting with a deputation of the members of the Bathinda Association of NGOs (BANGO). The meeting was held to address the problems being faced by the blood donors, city-based NGOs and the Blood Bank located on the premises of the Civil Hospital here.

The NGOs had been alleging that the attitude of the Blood Bank employees was not appreciable and also that the Blood Bank lacked basic facilities like generator to ensure the smooth working of machines during the blood donation camps. They had also been complaining against the absence of potable water for the blood donors.

Making evident their impatience with the Blood Bank in Bathinda, the NGOs had called the team from the Dayanand Medical College (DMC), Ludhiana, when they had organised a mass blood donation camp on the occasion of International Blood Donors’ day recently.

At the meeting, the DC assured that all the problems, being faced by the Blood Bank staff as well as those coming to either donate blood or in need of blood, would be sorted out soon.

It has been decided that those persons who donate blood after every three months would now be issued a Star Donor Card to make sure that they get blood from the Blood Bank easily in case of a medical emergency.

To make sure that the blood donation drives are not affected by the frequent power outages in the city, a 30 KV generator will be set up at the Blood Bank.

The Blood Bank would now issue 25 slips per 100 units of blood donated. Earlier, it used to issue only 15 slips per 100 units of blood collected. These slips can be used by those in need of blood in case of an emergency.

According to rules, a person is required to replace the blood taken from the blood bank with blood of the same group. These slips prove to be instrumental in cases where blood of a particular group can not be arranged in a short period of time to be submitted at the Blood Bank for replacement.

A person carrying these slips would be allowed to replace the blood taken from the blood bank with blood of either the same or any other blood group.

The problems of parking of vehicles, potable water and a 24-hour helpline number at the Blood Bank were also discussed at the meeting.

Bathinda, June 24
Three people lost their lives in separate incidents in Bathinda today.

The deceased were rushed to the Civil Hospital by volunteers of the city-based NGO, Sahara Jan Sewa.

In a press statement issued by the NGO, it was stated that the body of an unidentified person was found lying under a water tank near Gol Diggi. A passerby brought the matter to the notice of Sahara workers at around 6 am.

The NGO then alerted the police and the dead body was taken to the local Civil Hospital. No documents could be recovered from the body to ascertain the identity of the deceased.

Shopkeepers of nearby areas said the victim was a beggar and used to sleep in the open. He may have died due to excessive heat, said the shopkeepers.

In another incident, body of a 28-year-old man was found lying near a taxi stand. Sahara workers said a packet of celphos tablets were found lying near the dead body.

Officials at the Kotwali police station were informed about the incident and the deceased was been identified as Gurpreet Singh of Harbans Nagar.

A suicide note found near the dead body read that he is committing suicide due to some psychological disorder.

Body of a 55-year-old man was found lying on the Bathinda-Patiala railway line. NGO volunteers said the face of the body had been eaten by stray dogs. Police and Sahara workers were trying to ascertain the identity of the deceased.

Bathinda, June 24
The collectors' rate of land within the municipal limits now stands revised at a whopping 191 per cent in the areas that are less sought after by the general public.

Though the Punjab government revised the rates from April 9 this year, increasing them by 15 to 20 per cent, but the rate list of the DC office has changes wherein the land rates have been revised by 191 per cent. Since property is always sold above the collectors' rate, the revision has hit the common man hard, thereby crippling the business in real estate. Captain Amarinder Singh Nagar, situated at the rear of Transport Nagar, has registered the highest hike of 191 per cent.

Last year, property was available at Rs 1,890 per square yard which has now been revised to Rs 5,500 per square yard.

Following this are the areas lying from the Government Rajindra College to the Delhi railway crossing wherein the rates have been revised by 185 per cent.

These revised rates are in effect from May and since then, the number of land registries registered at the revenue office has stumbled down to a mere 2 to 3 registries per day.

"Earlier, more than six registries were registered in a day. Business has fallen and the genuine customers are feeling the heat," said Sunil Singla, the press secretary of the Bathinda Property Agents Association, that submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner apprising him of the arbitrary revision of rates.

A delegation of the association met the Deputy Commissioner under its president Sukhdev Singh Mahnikhera raising objections against the increase, which should be a mere 15 to 20 per cent as per the government notification.

Property dealers proposed that the local area sub-committee comprising property dealers, stamp vendors and revenue officials be constituted while revising the rates.

"Involving local people would help better in deciding the hike," he added.

The agriculture rates have been raised to Rs 5.60 lakh per acre for non-irrigated land from Rs 4.72 lakh per acre.

Similarly, canal irrigated land rates have been revised from Rs 6.30 lakh per acre to Rs 7.52 lakh per acre. The rates of the agricultural land situated by the roads have also been revised.

Earlier, the collector rate of such land was Rs 4512, which has now been revised to Rs 5,400.

Bathinda, June 24
Police has arrested one person with five litres of illicit liquor. The accused, Sandeep Kumar of Sirki Bazar, was arrested by the police with liquor during a naka laid by the policemen from the Kotwali police station. A case under sections 61, 1, 14 of the Excise Act has been registered against the accused at the Kotwali police station. The accused was later released on bail.