Bathinda, July 23
Members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) today blocked the Bathinda-Mansa road for over five hours, protesting against the death of a woman, who had delivered twins at Preet Hospital, located on the 100-feet road, on July 16.

While the police personnel and district officials managed to get the dharna lifted only by 7.30 pm, the commuters on the busy road remained at the receiving end.

The woman’s family members and the BKU demanded the registration of a case against the doctors of Preet Hospital for referring the woman, Sandeep Kaur (23), hurriedly to Max Hospital and not taking care of her immediately after the delivery.

A day after Sandeep delivered twins — a boy and a girl — she was referred to Max Hospital by the doctors of the Preet Hospital. She died in the wee hours today.

One of the doctors at Preet Hospital, Dr MS Sidhu, refuted the allegations and said the woman was admitted to Max Hospital for five days. She was referred to Max Hospital only after her condition got better after post-delivery, he added.

“Moreover, before being admitted to our hospital, the woman was referred to Patiala and Medical College in Faridkot by the doctors of Civil Hospital, in view of her critical condition. We took the risk of treating the woman after repeated pleas by her family members,” Dr Sidhu said. He added that had the woman been taken to Patiala, she would have died on the way owing to her critical condition.

“After the delivery, we asked the family members to shift the woman to Max Hospital as she required better treatment,” he said.

He also gave a copy of the Referral-cum-Feedback Card of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation of Civil Hospital as a proof that the Civil Hospital doctors had expressed their helplessness over treating the patient.

BKU district general secretary, Sarup Singh, said Sandeep was the daughter of his aunt. He alleged that a day after she delivered the babies, she was not attended to for over five hours.

“Family members pleaded with the doctors at Preet Hospital to attend to Sandeep as she was developing problems but the doctors failed to heed the requests,” Sarup alleged. He said the family members were also asked to take away the newborn babies.

“They were forced to sign some papers and were told to deposit the fees but they refused to do so,” he said. He also pointed out that the matter was brought to the notice of the police a day after the babies were delivered.

“We have given a written complaint in this regard at the Cantonment police station,” Sarup said. He added that they would not lift the dharna until the police registered a case against the erring doctors of the private hospital.

Civil Lines SHO Gurdev Bhalla, expressing his helplessness, said there were around 150 people blocking the road and police personnel were deployed to monitor their movements.

Earlier, during the day, DSP Gurmeet Singh said the police and administration were in touch with the protesters and would soon get the dharna lifted after initiating inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPc.

Meanwhile, Indian Medical Association’s state president, Dr Shiv Dutt Gupta, said he was aware of the incident and was in touch with the doctors at Preet Hospital.

“I salute the doctors for their daring act of admitting a patient with so many complications. The doctors tried their best to save the patient but failed due to the complications,” said the IMA president.

He added that the police could not register a case against doctors until a board of doctors prepared a report pointing out the mistakes committed by the doctors. He also demanded action against the protesters.

After the DSP convinced the protesters that the matter would be handled systematically, the protesters agreed to lift the dharna and abide by the report of the board of doctors.

Fact file

* Sandeep Kaur, expecting twins, was referred to Patiala or the medical college in Faridkot by the doctors of Civil Hospital in Bathinda.

* Admitted to a private hospital, Preet Hospital, she delivered twins - a boy and a girl - on July 16.

* In view of her critical condition, doctors at Preet Hospital asked the family members to shift her to Max Hospital.

* Admitted to Max Hospital for five days, she died in the wee hours of Monday.

* Family members accused doctors at Preet Hospital of negligence and not attending to her for five hours after the birth of twins. Demanded that a case be registered against the doctors.

Bathinda, July 23
Malwa, already notorious for female foeticide and gender disparity, has also started being in the news for witnessing increasing bitterness between parents and sons over property issues.

Malkit Singh’s arrest, for plotting and executing the murder of his parents, Mahinder Singh (67) and Gurmeet Kaur (64), over property has come as a wake-up call for society where increasing distance between children, especially sons and parents, are leading to tense situations.

Mahinder and Gurmeet were residing, along with their son, daughter-in-law Jaswinder Kaur and grandson, in a big house in Maur Kalan. The sprawling house was built over nearly 11.5 acres of land.

Malkit confessed that increasing interference by his two married sisters and their husbands made him insecure. He felt that his father might give the entire property, worth crores, to his sisters.

He also suspected his father of giving money to a woman in the village, with whom his father allegedly had an illicit relationship. The father had recently sold a buffalo, but refused to give the amount of `20,000 Malkit. This also irked Malkit.

Maur Mandi SHO, Jaswinderpal, said money was the bone of contention. “Jaswinder kept nagging Malkit over the misuse of money by his father. Although Mahinder had declared Malkit as the heir to all the property, he would often threaten Malkit that he would will all his property to his two daughters,” the SHO said.

Police arrested Malkit Singh and four others including his wife, her cousin, and Dharminder and Sikandar, who had been hired to murder Malkit’s parents.

In yet another case, a city-based doctor started residing separately from his parents just a couple of months after he got married. He is the only son of his parents and has a sister who is married.

Like in Malkit’s case, the doctor said the increasing interference by his sister and brother-in-law created a vacuum in their house leading to bitterness.

“I got separated from my family without getting any of the family property transferred in my name. I just wanted to get rid of the everyday quarrels over trivial issues,” the doctor told Bathinda Tribune.

A senior professor of psychology, Gurjeet Singh Mann, said differences arose in families due to various reasons, materialistic approach of the members being the primary reason. He opined that better modes of communication and increasing insecurity due to rising property prices had also proved instrumental in causing differences between family members.

He added that most parents wanted their children to abide by all of their decisions and became over-possessive and also threw their weight around for being the owners of the family property. The children often felt insecure that their parents might hand over the property to someone else. It was financial insecurity that was leading to the breaking-up of family set-ups, he said

Seema Gupta, another senior lecturer of psychology, said, “Today, people crave for financial independence more than anything else. Personal relationships are not given much importance. While children want financial autonomy, parents do not give money to their children when they need it the most. At the time of committing a crime, the criminal forgets his relations with the victim.”

Expert speak

* Differences arise in families due to various reasons, materialistic approach of the members being the primary reason. Better modes of communication and increasing insecurities due to rising property prices have also proved instrumental in causing differences between family members.

* Most parents want their children to abide by all of their decisions and become over-possessive and also throw their weight around for being the owners of the family property. The children often feel insecure that their parents might hand over the property to someone else.

* Money is given importance over personal relations. While children want financial autonomy, parents do not give money to their children when they need it the most.

Bathinda, July 23
The rainfall, which has been playing truant in North India this monsoon season, has not only raised the temperature by several notches, but is also making the households set aside more money for their kitchen budgets.

With the annual rainfall having been declared deficit in North India, the prices of vegetables are making everyone sweat. Vegetable sellers in the market opine that the prices of vegetables, which have been rising by Rs 2-3 every week, are expected to rise more sharply in the coming days.

While tomatoes were being sold at Rs 20 per kg till last week, were priced at Rs 30 on Monday. Sources at the city’s wholesale market revealed that onions, which are usually cheaper during summers, are expected to follow in the footsteps of tomatoes. The price of onions is expected to rise from last week’s Rs 15 per kg to Rs 25 this week.

Cutting onions this season will not only make you cry, it will also burn a bigger hole in your pocket. “The deficit rainfall has resulted in prolonged summer and high temperature. This has led to partial ruining of the standing crops of vegetables, especially of tomatoes and onions. This is, in turn, leading to an increase in the price of vegetables,” said a vegetable retailer in the city.

The sources also added that the retail price of vegetables at various markets in the city had little correlation with the increase or decrease in the wholesale rate of vegetables.

If the wholesale price of a vegetable increases by Rs 1, its retail price shoots up by Rs 5-6. And the retail price rarely comes down even if the wholesale price tumbles, they said.

Even vegetables like bottle gourd (ghiya) and ridge gourd (tori) have been acting pricey at Rs 40 per kg this week. The constant demand for the out-of-season green peas has resulted in setting the vegetable’s price at no less than Rs 100 per kg.

While Colocasia roots (arbi) is priced at Rs 40 per kg, French beans are being sold at Rs 60 per kg. The retail prices of lady finger (bhindi) and bitter gourd has also been hovering between Rs 40 and Rs 50 per kg. 

Bathinda, July 23
Members of the Punjab Pradesh Vyapar Mandal (Kapoor) today convened a meeting where they asked the government to roll back the hike in power tariff and the cess levied on sugar. They also demanded that the government's plan to introduce professional tax and property tax should not see the light of the day.

Chairman Kartar Singh Jaura said traders were under a lot of pressure to pay various kinds of taxes. "And despite the fact that a large part of our revenue goes towards the payment of these taxes, the state government doesn't offer any kind of help to the community," Jaura said.

Talking about the way jewellers had come together to protest against the increased taxes and duties levied on gold, he said the community finally managed to get the central government to roll back the unnecessary duties that it had announced during the Budget 2012-13.

The jewellers had been united in their struggle at an all-India level and this forced the government to take their views into consideration, Jaura said.

President of the Vyapar Mandal Madan Lal Kapoor implored all the traders to come together once again and protest against the government's decision to hike the power tariff with effect from April 2012.

Kapoor said the traders and businessmen should not tolerate "the excesses being committed by the government or by any particular officer." They should protest, he added.

Bathinda, July 23
Police have arrested two persons for trying to encroach upon a piece of land at gunpoint. In a complaint to the police, Manjit Singh, a resident of Bhagu road, said he possessed a piece of land since 1997 and two persons had tried to encroach upon it by damaging the walls and taking away the construction material lying there. The matter was brought to the notice of the police.