Bathinda, July 24
Three cases have been registered against different colonisers for illegally carving out residential colonies in village Gill Kalan and village Rampura under the Sadar Rampura police station.

Cases have been registered on the complaint of Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) officials who identified these colonies. The colonisers have been booked under Section 36 (1) of Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995 for building a colony without having any licence to do so.

“As per rules, the colonisers should have a due licence and permission from the BDA to develop colonies. These licence holders are governed by the rules and regulations of the BDA, which specifies the land usage, percentage of green belt and building bylaws for the residential areas,” said the BDA officials.

In all the three cases, none of the developers had any licence and in one of the cases the colony was being developed on the inherited land. In the first case, police have booked Gurcharan Singh, Hari Singh and Rajwinder Singh, all residents of village Gill Kalan, for illegally developing a colony over 1000 square yards of area. The area under dispute is of khasra number 131/14/1, 14/2/1 and 1.17/24/1 of village Gill Kalan.

In the second case, police booked Sumandeep Singh and Harvinder Singh, of Gill Kalan, who own 16 kanals and five marlas of land. Of this, more than 1,000 square meters of land had been converted into a colony and streets had also been chalked out. The disputed area falls under khasra number 107/10/311.1 and 108/6.15 of village Gill Kalan.

In yet another case, police booked Baljinder Singh and Jalaur Singh from Rampura area for selling off more than 1,000 square meters of area as plots of different dimensions in village Rampura, tehsil Phool. The disputed land lies under khasra number 142/17/2/24, 149-4-2, 148-6-3, 15-2-1, 15-2-2, 16-1-1, 142-13/2, 14/2, 148/3-2 and 8.1.3.

BDA officials said the accused would be punished after the challan is presented before the court.

“However, the buyers of plots in these areas, who feel they have been cheated, will have to file separate police complaints seeking refund of their money,” BDA officials said.

Warning people against investing in unapproved projects, the BDA officials said people should cross-check genuine projects with the local revenue officials such as the “patwari”, “tehsildar” or contact the BDA office in Bathinda.

The cases of illegal colonies are on the rise. The instances, wherein land markings, demarcations and sale deeds are apparent, are easy to detect. “Cases wherein there are no demarcations and no sale or purchase deeds create problems. In such cases, the land is sold off verbally and remains untouched for years together. It becomes difficult to detect and report such cases,” the BDA officials confided.

Bathinda, July 24
Opposing the evening courts being run in the district since July 17, the Bathinda Bar Association has decided to go on strike from July 25 to July 28.

As per a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law, the evening courts started working in Bathinda on July 17. However, disagreeing with the government, the lawyers did not attend these courts and most of the cases have remained pending.

At a meeting convened today, the Bathinda Bar Association members opposed the move and said evening courts cannot be successful in a city like Bathinda where municipal limits stretch from 60 to 65 kms comprising a large village population.

“Not all the villages have road or rail link with the city, which would make attending evening courts a difficult task for the lawyers, court employees as well as the litigants who would be coming from far off places as well,” said the president of the Bar Association, Ranjit Singh Jalal.

He pointed out that most of the cases in Bathinda have rivalries, family disputes or other quarrels at the core.

“Law and order situation in the region is not favourable for the general litigants who would face hardships and law and order problems,” the advocates reasoned.

The evening courts are held from 5 pm to 7 pm on all working days. Secretary of the District Bar Association, Gurwinder Singh Mann, said earlier only traffic challans were presented before the evening courts but now even the NI (Negotiable Instruments) Act cases under section 138 have been handed over to the evening courts. “Bathinda’s courts are the only ones where these cases have been transferred to the evening courts,” the advocates added.

The advocates said the evening courts may also get cases falling under the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT), which will pose a problem for the bank employees, insurance companies, government employees and others, who come from far off places.

The advocates aim at taking up the issue for discussion with the inspection judge from the Punjab and Haryana High Court who may visit on July 28.

Bathinda, July 24
Private hospitals in the city today allegedly shut their doors on the newborn twins, whose mother passed away five days after delivering them at a private hospital. While the baby girl has left for home with her grandmother, the baby boy is undergoing treatment for some infection.

Sandeep Kaur (23) had delivered a daughter and a son on July 16 at a private hospital located on the 100-feet road. She was transferred from the private hospital to the Max Super specialty Hospital where she died on Monday morning.

One of her relatives, Sarup Singh said the twins were taken to a private hospital in the morning for a general check-up.

“However, the doctor there refused to attend to the children saying it was a controversial case and that the matter was pending with the police. We requested him to at least examine the children and give them some medicines, but he flatly refused,” Sarup said.

Later, the children were taken to another private hospital where the doctor examined the children but refused to admit them. The doctor diagnosed that the baby boy was suffering from a mild infection, while the baby girl was fine. The children’s grandmother took the girl away with her to Gidderbaha, while the baby boy is undergoing treatment here.

Sources said fearing a backlash from the relatives, doctors refused to admit or examine the newborn babies. “No one wants to attract controversy. The doctors might not have admitted children for the same reason. However, had the children been in a life-threatening situation, they should have been taken to a government hospital, in case the private hospitals refused to admit them,” reasoned a private doctor, on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, a board of doctors today conducted a postmortem of the deceased. The entire procedure was videographed. Viscera sample from the body has been sent for chemical examination. The doctors are yet to submit their report to the police. DSP City I Gurmeet Singh said no case has been registered. “We are waiting for the postmortem report to register a case,” he added.

Bathinda, July 24
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will shortly introduce a change in the format of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). The change in format will be introduced in January-February 2013.

According to a proposal made during the CBSE’s governing meet, held in June this year, it was suggested that one of the four Formative Assessment (FA) tests will be replaced by the Problem Solving Assessment (PSA) test. The PSA tests will be introduced for classes IX and XI.

Four FA exams are held by schools under the CCE format. The FAs evaluate and grade class work, homework, assignment and project work. Two evaluations each are held in the first and second terms and each evaluation carries 10 marks.

The already existing paper-pen test (evaluation through activities) in FA will be replaced by the PSA. The only difference between the two is that the PSA will be conducted in schools by CBSE and Board will also do the assessment.

Although the schools need not hold additional classes to prepare the students for PSA, the teachers are questioning the need to introduce changes in a system which was introduced only a few years back. The 90-minute-long test will have a passage from English contemporary fiction or old essays and questions on mathematics. There will be no questions from the textbooks.

“Students are still in the process of understanding the CCE. CBSE need not introduce changes in the format at this stage. Although we are yet to get any kind of intimation about this change from CBSE, the change will only add to the confusion,” said principal of a CBSE-affiliated school in Bathinda.

Teachers at many other CBSE-affiliated schools in the city also revealed that they were yet to be informed about the introduction of such a change.

Bathinda, July 24
Though no positive case of swine flu has come to light during the current calendar year from any part of the district so far, the district health authorities have prepared themselves to tackle any case of the H1N1 virus, if it comes to their notice.

Five suspected swine flu cases had been brought to the notice of district health authorities in the months of March, April and May this year. All of them tested negative after the throat swab examination of the patients. One case was reported by the local Civil Hospital while four cases were reported by private doctors.

The district immunisation officer (DIO) Dr Manpreet Kaur Rupal said after receiving the throat swab samples of the five suspected swine flu cases, they sent the same to the PGI, Chandigarh for tests and all were found negative. These suspected patients were from Sirsa (Haryana), Fazilka, Muktsar and Ferozabad (UP) who were getting treatment in the city, she added.

To keep the swine flu cases in isolation, the local civil hospital authorities have earmarked two special rooms, in which ventilators, oxygen cylinder, intravenous fluid stand, emergency drugs and suction machine etc have been kept. Besides, a room has been allotted to collect the samples of throat swab of the suspected swine flu cases in the medical ward.

As many as 10 rapid response teams (RRT) have been formed by the district health authorities. One RRD has been formed at the district headquarter under the leadership of district health officer (DHO) while six teams have been constituted at the block levels under the leadership of senior medical officers (SMO). Three teams have been formed for urban areas, Maur, Raman and Rampura.

The swine flu medicine is also available with the health authorities here. As per information, 12,200 Tamiflu tablets of 75 mg, 890 tablets of 45 mg and 950 tablets of 30 mg have been stocked by the health authorities.

Besides, the health authorities also have 43 sample collection kits in their possession. The kit includes mask, body suit, eye-wear, gloves, footwear and headgear.

During the year 2011, three positive cases of swine flu had come to light. While Chameli Devi of Parasram Nagar fully recovered from the disease, Urmila Rani of Chak Ruldu Singh Wala (Sangat) and Mandip Singh from Sekhu village (Sangat) died at a hospital at Ludhiana in March last year.

Bathinda, July 24
The Maur police today recovered a mobile phone, gold and Rs 10,000 in cash buried in the porch of the house of Mahinder Singh and Gurmeet Kaur from Maur Kalan village whose killing was plotted by their own son.

Taking along the accused Jaswinder Kaur, the daughter-in-law of the deceased couple, the police unearthed a few things from a pit dug up in the front portion of the house. "During the investigation, Jaswinder Kaur accepted having hidden the items, which she had mentioned as missing while filing the complaint with the Maur police, in the house itself," said SHO Jaswinderapal Singh.

Police recovered the mobile phone, using which the assailant Nirmal Singh was contacted and the plot was hatched.

Police recovered gold ear-rings that were snatched from the elderly Gurmeet Kaur on that fateful night and Rs 10,000 in cash that went missing from Mahinder Singh's box, which was kept locked. All the five accused were sent to judicial custody today.

Meanwhile, the couple was cremated on Monday evening at the village's cremation ground. The deceased Mahinder Singh's octogenarian father Bant Singh cremated his son and daughter-in-law. Mahinder's grandson, who is the son of Malkit Singh, an accused in the case, was not allowed to attend the cremation.

Enraged villagers asked the boy to leave saying he too was involved in the gruesome killings. The boy is currently staying with his mother's family and has been ostracized by the villagers of Maur Kalan.

Bathinda, July 24
The vigilance teams of the Local Bodies Department today conducted surprise checking at the offices of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) and the Bathinda Improvement Trust. The team was headed by the chief vigilance officer (CVO), Anil Kansal.

At the Improvement Trust, two of the trustees had complained to the Minister for Local Bodies, Punjab, Bhagat Chunni Lal, stating that the amount sanctioned for constructing flats in the Transport Nagar area was wrongly approved.

Trustees, Madan Lal and Ram Lal, had complained that the rough estimate of constructing the flats was enhanced from Rs 7 crore to Rs 10 crore and alleged that their signatures were falsely taken for the project.

Similarly, a local advertising agency, Lakshya Outdoor Media Solution, had complained against the municipal corporation stating that the corporation is not allowing him to install ads on private properties despite having paid charges for the same.

In its complaint to the minister, the owner of the agency said he wanted to install three advertisement boards in Bathinda on private buildings. On June 27, he wrote to the corporation mentioning those sites and sought permission for installing ads.

"I am ready to pay but was not granted permission. On the other hand, there are many ads on private properties for which the corporation has not been paid even a single penny," he said.

Sources said the team also probed into other complaints lodged against the officials of the corporation. — TNS

Bathinda, July 24
The counter intelligence department of the police has arrested an inter-state smuggler, Gamdoor Singh.

In a press statement issued here today, the assistant inspector general of police, counter intelligence, Rakesh Kumar said a team comprising ASI Makhan Singh, ASI Paramjit Singh and ASI Gurinder Singh had set up naka near the drain in village Kehar Singh Wala along with the SHO Dyalpura.

The team intercepted a scooterist and conducted a checking. He was discovered to be inter-state smuggler Gamdoor Singh, a resident of Bhodipura village. Police confiscated his Bajaj Chetak scooter, PB 04 H9383, and recovered a bag of poppy husk. Later, the police recovered another four bags of poppy husk taking the quantity of the seized poppy husk to 175.5 kg. A case was registered under the NDPS Act at the Dyalpura police station. 

Bathinda, July 24
Five people, including two women, have been booked for attacking a police personnel, Ranjit Singh, a resident of Jangeer Fauji Wali Gali, in Bathinda.

In his complaint to the Kotwali police, Ranjit Singh stated that on the night of July 22, he was returning home after duty. When he reached near his house, five people attacked him with batons. The accused have been identified as Vijay Kumar, Ravi, Geeta Rani,

Bathinda, July 24
The 13-day food processing training programme for 30 women, organised by the Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (RCED), Chandigarh, and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), concluded at the Bir Talab village near here today.

All the 30 women, who participated in the training programme, were members of five self-help groups. The women were imparted training for manufacturing pickles and other items like "papar" and "barrian". For the training programme, the financial assistance was provided by the NABARD.

Project Officer, RCED, Ritu Garg said of the 30 trained women, 23 wanted to take loan for starting their own ventures. She said bank loans would be arranged for them at the rate of four per cent interest. Assistant general manager (AGM), NABARD, Rajiv Aggarwal, who was present at the concluding function, gave away the certificates. — TNS