Bathinda, July 2
Around 170 encroachments were removed from the GT Road near Alankar Cinema today, thereby vacating a patch of 100 feet wide proposed road that will connect the GT Road with the Barnala road.

The exercise began in the morning and ended late in the evening. With the removal of the encroachments, the Municipal Corporation Bathinda has vacated the area lying under Town Planning scheme 9, Part 1.

Most of the encroachers were “jhuggi” dwellers who were living here for the past 20 years. Some houses had permanent establishments and were made “pucca”. Most of the houses razed today had all kinds of facilities, including television, fridge, cupboards, furniture and two-wheelers such as motorcycles and scooters.

When the MCB started removing the encroachments, people objected to it and began raising slogans against the officials. The demolition squad had police security as a preventive measure. Police had to resort to mild force to disperse the protesters.

However, most of the encroachers were prepared for the displacement and agreed after the officials and police counselled them.

Later, the MCB officials provided six tractor-trolleys to help people shift their belongings to Kheta Singh Basti, where they have been provided alternate land. Each displaced family has been given 25 square yards of land. People have been provided open spaces where they can construct their tenements.

As of today, most of the families had to sit in the open, under the harsh sun.

Municipal Commissioner, Uma Shankar Gupta, said while most of the area had been vacated, the rest of the encroachers had stay orders from the court. “We will try to pursuade them to leave. We hope they agree,” he said.

Gupta added that the corporation had not provided alternate land to people in Kheta Singh Basti. “Some private people, who own land near Alankar Cinema, have offered the land. We are not responsible for any kind of rehabilitation,” he added.

Bathinda, July 2
Panic gripped Sirki Bazar this afternoon when a jeweller was attacked by a dozen youngsters in broad-daylight. The assailants entered the Pal Jewellers and beat up the owner with sharp-edged weapons.

The injured jeweller, Jaspal Singh, was rushed to the Civil Hospital where he is being treated for serious head injuries.

According to the policemen who reached the spot, the accused had entered the shop on the pretext of purchasing jewellery.

The jeweller initially fought back and beat up the assailants but he was knocked down by them and received head injuries, caused by a sharp-edged weapon.

Local residents and shopkeepers of the market gathered around the shop after hearing the noise. The assailants fled after they noticed that people had started gathering outside the shop.

Volunteers of the Naujawan Welfare Society were informed by the eyewitnesses. The volunteers reached the spot and helped in shifting the injured to the local Civil Hospital.

The victim informed the police that Tejinder alias Prince, Jagdeep alias Deepa, Kuldeep, Meeta and Vijay had attacked him because of an old rivalry.

Police has noted down the names of the accused and said that a case would be registered against them after recording the statements of the eyewitnesses and the injured jeweller.

It is pertinent to mention here that last year too, Jaspal Singh was attacked in a similar manner.

At that time, the jeweller had used his licensed revolver to scare the assailants and got one of them arrested by the police with the help of the local residents.

Close relatives of the jeweller said his revolver was with the police and had not been released. The realtives asserted that if he had the weapon, he could have scared the assailants again.

Police affirmed that the assailants beat up Jaspal Singh as they harboured a grudge against him due to an old dispute.

In another case, miscreants attacked a painter near the Patiala railway crossing last night and took away `1,700 from him.

The injured, Babbu, a resident of Thandi Sarak, was admitted to the localivil hospital with the help of some passersby.

Babbu received serious head injuries and is undergoing treatment at the civil hospital.

Bathinda, July 2
Days after a section of the local BJP leaders accused the city traffic police of harassing residents in the name of intensifying the drive against traffic rule violations, a resident of Nai Basti made a smilar allegation against the traffic police today.

In his complaint lodged at the office of Bathinda SSP, Ranjiv Bansal has accused the city traffic police of minting money in the name of issuing challans.

He has also demanded stringent action against the erring traffic policemen and demanded that the amount of `500, charged from him, be refunded by the policemen.

The complainant has accused the traffic policemen of charging `500 from him as towing charges without actually towing his vehicle away. Narrating the incident, Ranjiv said he had failed to find a space to park his scooter in Kikkar Bazar on Sunday and parked it outside the yellow line. “The traffic policemen came and asked me to give `100 for wrong parking. After explaining to them that there was no space to park the vehicle, I gave them `100 and they gave me a reciept for the same,” said Ranjiv.

He, however, alleged that he was asked to pay `500 more as towing charges. “When I asked them why they were charging `500 without even towing away my scooter, they said they would tow it away if I raised the issue. They added that if they towed the vehicle away, I would have to go to Police Lines to claim it. It would mean more harassment then,” Ranjiv added.

He alleged that the policemen, to earn money from the towing vehicles, had been issuing challans to the people for minor faults.He added that he would further send the complaint to the DGP Punjab, the Chief Minister’s office and bring the matter to the notice of senior politicians as well.

None of the senior police functionaries were available for comments.

Bathinda, July 2
Aiming to develop comradeship, discipline, leadership qualities, secular outlook, spirit of adventure and ideals of selfless service among the youth of the country, the 20 Punjab BN NCC, Bathinda, is conducting a combined annual training camp at the PTU Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology. The 10-day-long camp began on June 25 and will go on till July 4.

As many as 340 NCC cadets, including 60 girls, are attending the camp. These cadets belong to the Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala and Muktsar districts of the state.

Special attention has been paid to make sure that the cadets get the experience of a military training schedule.

The gruelling camp begins with physical training (PT) in the morning which is followed by a drill, weapon training and shooting in the scorching heat.

In the evening, the cadets are trained in public speaking and special lectures are delivered to make them aware about traffic management, first aid, HIV/AIDS, etc.

A lecture demonstration on casualty evacuation from buildings during earthquake was conducted by the NDRF team of the 7th Battalion of the ITBP.

Bathinda, July 2
“Only two to three per cent of the total number of cyber crime cases are reported in India. Till date, Adnan Patrawala’s case is the only reported case of abduction through a social networking site while there have been many more cases of crime through social networking sites,” said Rahul Mishra, VP (Marketing), of Data64 Techno Solutions Private Limited.

Data64 is the company that assisted the Government of India in framing the draft rules and regulations under the Information Technology Act and drafting model rules for the functioning of Cyber Cafes and drafting the Information Age Crimes Act.

Rahul Mishra was at the Baba Farid Group of Institutions in Bathinda for the launch of the Centre of excellence by Data64 Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd., incubated by STEP, (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park) promoted by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

Elaborating on his observation, Rahul said, “The percentage of the cyber crimes reported in India is directly proportional to the knowledge about the cyber laws and the IT penetration in the country. To add to all this, there is a lot of social stigma attached to cyber crime cases, especially to cases in which photographs of a female have been morphed and uploaded on various websites. And this stigma persists despite the fact that Indian cyber crime laws are as strong and effective as that of any other country.”

While the percentage of cyber crimes in the metropolitan and Tier-I cities is increasing at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent, Indians are fairly ignorant about cyber laws, said Rahul. “How many of us know that even a single SMS, chat session and email that we exchange with our friends or colleagues, with indecent/malicious content, may land us in jail for a minimum of three years? The punishment may differ with the intensity and the nature of the crime committed. Even an attempt to hack is punishable,” he added.

Talking about an increase in number of cases wherein youngsters get caught in the web of social networking sites when their photographs and personal information are copied and misused, Rahul insisted that precaution and prevention is the only way out.

“Two months back, we gave a presentation to the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while toying with the idea of promoting knowledge of cyber laws in Haryana. He raised the issue of his fake profiles on a social networking site. We suggested that he can first lodge an FIR and then write to the nodal officer of Facebook to remove the fake profiles. But we also told him that there is no guarantee that it will not happen again,” he said.

“To begin with, youngsters don’t really bother about the privacy policies of the social networking sites. And even if one is careful about hiding one’s information from strangers, what if one of your friends has ulterior motives? We insist on not uploading private photographs and personal information on these sites. If something happens to you, don’t blame these sites,” he added.

“We regularly handle cases of Nigerian lottery scams. Even downloading songs and films for free from the internet is not safe as many of these websites have Trojans (see box). Downloading injudiciously from the internet may have serious repercussions. One should also be cautious while using internet at a public place like a cyber café. We suggest not engaging in internet banking or credit card billing while using internet at a cyber café as practically every cyber café has a password tracker installed. Whatever we type is recorded on a word document and can be misused by the owner later,” he said. 

Bathinda, July 2
The anti-narcotic cell of the Bathinda police today claimed to have arrested three persons with nearly three quintals of poppy husk.

Bathinda, July 2
To mark the Doctors' Day, the Bathinda Ophthalmological Society organised a function here last evening. On the occasion, more than 35 eye surgeons took oath to discourage quackery and uphold the dignity of the profession.

The Doctors' Day is observed in the country on July 1 every year to commemorate the birth and death anniversary of Dr BC Roy, the second Chief Minister of West Bengal for 14 years, and a Bharat Ratna awardee, who had donated his house to run a free hospital in Kolkata.

Speaking about the importance of the day, a former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab, Dr Amrit Sethi urged the doctors to disseminate the message in every corner of society to maintain the dignity of the profession.

Besides, they should also create awareness among the masses not to visit the quacks, he added.

A scientific session was also organized on two topics, 'Difficult cases of cataract' and 'Post operative endophthalmitis'. Dr Rohit Om Parkash and Dr Rajan Bhatia of Dr Om Parkash Eye Institute, Amritsar, shared their knowledge in managing difficult cataract cases by phaco-emulcification and famto-second lasers.

Dr Rohit Om Parkash also said the famto-second lasers had got the approval of the Federal Drug Authority (FDA). After that, more surgeons were using this costly equipment in three cities of the state for better results. Dr Rajan Bhatia said to avoid endophthalmitis, one should take all precautions in sterilisation of instruments, besides the proper use of antibiotics.

The topic, relating to post-operative endophthalmitis was discussed in detail.

The meeting was sponsored by the members of the society -Dr MS Brar and Dr Anand Gawri. 

Bathinda, July 2
The Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI) joined hands with Data64 Techno Solutions Private Limited and launched the Centre for Excellence by Data64 Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd., incubated by Science & Technology Park (STEP), promoted by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

Rahul Mishra, VP (Marketing), Data64 Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd., visited the campus on the occasion and interacted with the engineering students and answered their queries. "While we had applications from various colleges for the project, we chose BFGI to launch the centre of excellence. With this, BFGI is among the total six centres in India," he said.

The centre will help the BFGI students and those from the other institutes to get training with Data64. The students may get a package of Rs 10 lakh after they get through the selection process of the company soon after the completion of their degrees.

Talking about the qualities that Data64 looks for in candidates while hiring them, Rahul Mishra said, "First and foremost, we look for phenomenal communication skills. Ours is a lean organisation and we are into cyber crime investigation, computer and cell phone forensics.

The company professionals interact with senior level professionals and officials for various cases. Almost 85 per cent of the aspirants are rejected after the group discussion session. And we choose from the remaining 15 per cent. Prior knowledge of cyber crime and laws is not imperative as that is something that we can train the new recruits in," he said.

Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, chairman, BFGI, thanked Data64 for joining hands with BFGI and also encouraged the students to study with dedication and zeal.

Bathinda, July 2
The two-week short-term course on "Sustainable development: Issues and latest developments", organized jointly by the Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh Campus, Bathinda, and the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh, started today at the department of civil engineering, PTUGZS campus here.

Professor and head of the department of chemistry, Dr Gursharan Singh and course coordinator Amit Goyal from the NITTTR, Chandigarh, inaugurated the course.

Giving details, local course coordinator Dr Manjeet Bansal said more than 60 faculty members from various institutions are participating in it.

Experts from various institutes will deliver their lectures and will update the participants about the latest developments in various fields of environment.

Assistant professor in environment sciences from the Central University of Punjab (CUP), Dr Sunil Mittal, delivered the inaugural lecture.

Dr Mittal delivered his talk on various environmental challenges faced by people and the role of an individual in saving the environment. The lectures were followed by a documentary on global warming and its consequences on environment.

Both the course coordinators, Amit Goyal and Dr Manjeet Bansal, expressed the hope that the short-term course will be of immense benefit to the participants in gaining more knowledge about environment and sustainable development.

Registrar GS Bath and the principal, polytechnic wing, PTUGZS campus, DS Sidhu were among the dignitaries present during the inaugural session.