Bathinda, June 29
The sewerage project review meeting held today drew an unsatisfactory response from the district administration as well as officials of the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB), who were present at the meeting.

The Sewerage Board presented its plan on preparedness for monsoon, de-silting sewer system in the city and an alternate disposal for Sanjay Basti sewer pond.

However, neither the Deputy Commissioner, Kamal Kishore Yadav, nor the municipal commissioner, Uma Shankar Gupta, were satisfied with the plan presented.

The meeting was meant to review the proceedings of a meeting held on June 22 wherein the Sewerage Board was directed to iron out the issues mentioned on priority basis.

Not satisfied with the review, the administration directed the Sewerage Board officials to go around the city with the MC officials and work out a plan to ease the prevailing sewer clogging crisis. The teams visited different pumping stations in the city during evening hours.

At the meeting, the board officials claimed that 70 per cent of sewers in the city had been de-silted and efforts were being made to de-silt the entire city before July 10.

Unable to provide an alternative land for disposal of the sewage in the Sanjay Basti pond, the board officials said water could be pumped out into a sullage carrier through the last manhole.

“For this, the capacity of the pumping motor will have to be increased and directions have been issued,” the DC said.

Sewerage Board officials were also taken to task for being unable to clear up the clogged sewer near the city bus stand, which has led to the sewer system of the entire area going out of order.

Sewer water was not passing from around 300 feet wide area near bus stand leading to choking of sewers in many parts of the city.

Bathinda, June 29
The district education department cancelled the transfers of around 40 teachers posted under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

A file photo of teachers staging protest. The transfer orders of 40 teachers have been cancelled as they were not according to the established norms.

Transfers were rolled back within two days of the issuing the letters to this effect. Sources in the education department said the outgoing District Education Officer (Secondary) had transferred these teachers who do not fall under his office.

"The SSA, RMSA and ICT staff members fall under the Director General of School Education (DGSE), while the DEO has no role to play in the transfer of these employees. The DEO violated the established norms and drew flak from the Education Minister for which he has been transferred out," the sources said.

The principal of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) Hardeep Singh has now replaced DEO Balwinder Singh Aulakh.

Confirming that norms were not being followed in the transfers, Hardeep Singh said that due to some policy matters, around 40 teachers have been directed to report back to their parent institutes.

"The department will again consider these cases for transfer," he added.

Meanwhile, the move has drawn flak from the teachers whose transfers have been stalled. The teachers alleged that in a few cases, teachers were transferred from the rural pockets to the city.

"When one is transferred from a rural area to the city, the salary of a lecturer increases by Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 per month. Added to it is the advantage of staying closer to the workplace in the city thereby minimizing the time spent in commuting to the villages," said one of the subject teachers from Nathana block.

She added that it is anybody's guess that corruption had prevailed in these transfers and that the education department should conduct a thorough probe into the transfers done.

Bathinda, June 29
The traffic police today towed away BMW car on the Mall Road damaging its bumper, fog lamps and axle as well as leaving behind number of scratches.

The owner of the vehicle, Dr Gurpreet Singh Gill, son of the owner of Adesh Group of Institutes, had parked the vehicle opposite Dr Nagpal's Hospital on the Mall Road and had gone to run an errand in a nearby hospital.

Seeing the vehicle wrongly parked, the traffic police’s towing vehicle started towing away the vehicle from its front. Since the rear wheels of the BMW car were static, the rear bumper of vehicle could not bear its weight and got snapped off.

“One of the passersby, who was my relative, happened to be at the scene and called me up. Before I could reach, the damage had already been done," said Dr Gill.

Accepting his mistake of not parking the vehicle properly, he said that there was no place to park. "For almost 20 minutes, I hunted for a place to park the vehicle behind the Nova Heart Center and later, in the parking area of the Rekhi Hotel. When I could find none, I parked the vehicle opposite the Nagpal Hospital,” he said.

Following the damage, the owner and the police officials entered into a heated argument.

Traffic in-charge Ranjit Singh assured Dr Gill that the company given the contract to tow vehicles would compensate for the loss. Earlier too, there have been reports of vehicles getting damaged while they were being towed away.

Dr Gill said the car would be repaired either from areas near Chandigarh or from Delhi. “I guess the damages were worth nearly Rs 2 lakh. However, the picture would be clear when a mechanic assesses the damage,” said Dr Gill, who bought the BMW around two years ago.

Bathinda, June 29
As the paddy sowing reaches its peak, farmers at the tail-end villages are fighting with farmers of villages located at the beginning of canals as they were not receiving an adequate supply of canal water to irrigate their fields.

Farmers (lefte) desilting the canal to facilitate the smooth flow of water so that it reaches the tail-end villages, near Dyalpura village; the water pipes (right) that were used to pilfer water through a water channel and seized by farmers. Tribune photographs

Perturbed over the irrigation department's lackadaisical attitude, farmers of Dhelman, Nathana, Nathpura, Ganga and Gidder villages detected water theft on their own and recovered as many as nine water pipes that were used to pilfer water from the Dhapali canal near Dyalpura village of Bathinda district.

The villagers brought the matter into the notice of senior functionaries of the irrigation department and accused the lower-rung officials of not initiating an action the miscreants in order to check the unabated pilferage of canal water.

An SDO (sub-divisional officer) and JE (junior engineer) met these villagers and tried to pacify them. The officials informed the villagers that they will propose registration of cases against farmers pilfering or blocking the water.

Lower-rung officials told villagers, the SDO and the JE that there was a staff shortage in the department due to which they fail to check the pilferage in their respective areas.

The lower-rung officials said instead of nine beldar's, there were only two beldars posted on the canal side to check pilferage and ensure cleanliness of the canal besides addressing other problems, if any.

Gurtej Singh, a former village panchayat member, said the villagers detected five breaches at various places wherein farmers had illegally made openings at the canal to pilfer water. He said farmers had also dropped sand bags to reduce the flow of water for the tail-end villages.

The villagers informed the irrigation department officials that the farmers of Kalyan Gajjuana, Diyalpura and Selbrah villages block the flow of water and use water pipes to pilfer water. The water fails to reach the tail-end villages where farmers have to shell out extra money to pump out groundwater using pumps run on diesel.

The villagers said the water channel come from Tallewal and Sehna villages in Barnala and water reach their village after covering 40 km.

Irrigation department officials, including Sehna SDO Hari Krishan Garg, and Sehna, Dhapali JE, Baldev Singh, said they had written to the Bhagta and Nathana police stations for registering cases against six farmers for pilferage of water.

JE Baldev Singh, while talking to TNS, said they had detected water theft at nine places and found that six farmers whose agricultural land was situated nearby were involved in pilfering water.

Bathinda, June 29
The local unit of the Congress has decided to oppose the selling off of the land of the office of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) and its shifting to some other place.

In a press statement issued here today, the former MLA, Harminder Singh Jassi said the SAD-BJP has been long running the city by selling off or mortgaging its property in different hands.

"The government is now set to sell off the land of its most important component, municipal corporation, which is most closely associated with the common man," he said. He said if the government tries to auction the land, Congress workers will gherao the area and not allow any such auction to take place.

He added that instead of providing relief to the residents before the onset of monsoon, the government is indulging in irresponsible behaviour by selling its prime properties to fill its treasury.

Jassi said the monsoon would be a difficult period for the residents of the low-lying areas where no arrangements have been made to ensure that the rainwater does not accumulate. He demanded measures to alleviate the problems of the area.

Bathinda, June 29
An unidentified person was hit by a speeding vehicle near the Behman Diwana bus stand. The injured was rushed to the Civil Hospital by volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa. The identity of the injured could not be ascertained. Sahara workers said the injured appeared to be waiting for a bus at the bus stand and was hit by the rashly driven vehicle. The vehicle driver did not stop and fled. 

Officials from the Sadar police station reached the spot and recorded the statements of the onlookers. One of the persons who witnessed the accident, agreed to lodge a complaint against the driver who had injured the pedestrian. 

A case has been registered under sections 279 and 337 of the IPC at the Sadar police station on the complaint of Munish Kumar of street number one, Nai Basti, Bathinda. Efforts are being made by the police to nab the culprits.

Policemen said hit and run cases have increased manifold on the main roads of the city during the last few days. CCTV cameras prove instrumental in investigating hit-and-run cases. However, there is no such move by the government to install such cameras to ascertain the identity of the people involved in such crimes, the cops regretted.