Bathinda, August 3
The work on erecting shelters for the local bus services has begun. The construction of all the 30 shelters would be completed by the end of September and the PRTC even plans to introduce global positioning system (GPS) at each shelter, to enable passengers know about the movement of buses.

“With the introduction of GPS at local bus shelters, we will become the only state in north India to have this facility installed at bus shelters,” said the managing director, PRTC, DPS Kharbanda.

He added that besides helping the passengers, the GPS would be utilised for many other purposes such as tapping the buses on their routes covered, fuel used and revenue collected through the Integrated Depot Management System and Intelligent Vehicle Tracking System.

Since the local bus service is a joint venture of the PRTC and the Municipal Corporation Bathinda, the agency for procuring GPS devices is yet to be finalised.

Of the 30 bus shelters to be constructed within the municipal limits, three have already been erected and work on the fourth one, near the Mini-secretariat, is going on.

The shelters have been given to private companies for advertisement purposes. While the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) is earmarking the sites, it is the private companies that are developing them.

MCB officials said at some places, they were facing resentment from the shopkeepers. The shopkeepers are unhappy over the fact that the bus shelters are to be constructed in front of their shops. “We are applealing to them and trying to convince people not to throw a spanner in the plans,” said an MCB official.

All shelters are being constructed following the same pattern and design that was finalised after evaluating the entries submitted.

Assistant commissioner, MCB, Kamal Kant, said the private companies have been given rights to own the shelters for around seven-eight years. “`3.5-4 lakh is being spent on every shelter. The arrival and departure timings of all the buses will be listed in a time-table at all the bus shelters,” he added.

Bathinda, August 3
Aiming to ensure that the doctors and other employees reach the Civil Hospital and his office at 8 am in the morning, the Civil Surgeon (CS) Dr Ajay Sahni today conducted a surprise checking at the Civil Hospital.

Later, he also checked the attendance of the employees at his office, located on the campus of the Civil Hospital. During the checking of his own office, he found two employees absent from duty.

In a press note released by the Civil Surgeon, it has been stated that during the checking of the hospital, Sahni found that three doctors were not present in their OPD rooms.

Later, he came to know that the three doctors were attending a meeting, convened by the senior medical officer (SMO), in his room. On this, he asked the SMO to ensure that during OPD hours, the patients did not suffer in any way.

The civil surgeon also asked the SMO to set up a special “May I help you” counter near the registration counter in the OPD building so that patients are not faced with any kind of inconvenience. He also directed the SMO to prepare the roster of the doctors and ensure that all the doctors arrive on time.

After checking the civil hospital, the civil surgeon proceeded to his office to check the attendance of his staff. During the checking, it was found that two employees were absent from duty.

Taking a serious note of this, he directed the entire staff to come to the office by 8 am so that those visiting his office are not kept waiting.

Sources in the hospital said the civil surgeon conducted the surprise checking to ensure the attendance of the doctors and other staff members at the out-patient department and other wings of the hospital as the hospital had been checked by the senior officials and political functionaries several times in the past.

Fact file

* Doctors, other employees have been directed to reach by 8 am.

* Senior Medical Offier directed to ensure that the patients don’t suffer in any which way.

* SMO asked to set up a “May I help you counter” in the OPD building.

* SMO also asked to prepare a roster of doctors on duty.

Bathinda, August 3
The households found using illegal water and sewer connections will soon face the music. Not only will the facilities be disconnected, an arrear for three years will also be slapped on them.

Municipal Corporation Bathinda has decided to go ahead with its plans as after holding camps regularly and appealing to people to get their illegal connections authorised, not even 10 per cent turned up voluntarily.

From July 16 to July 31, the corporation organised camps at 15 different places, covering all 50 wards. Three to four wards were clubbed together for each camp. The camps aimed at voluntary regularisation of illegal water and sewer connections.

“We had expected around 5,000 people to turn up for regularisation of the illegal connections. But only 1,600 turned up and we are not satisfied,” said the municipal commissioner, Uma Shankar Gupta.

There are 60,000 households under the municipal corporation. Of the 60,000, as many as 25,000 have legal sewer and water supply connections. Of these, around 9,000 houses are below 125 square yards (105 square metre) area.

As per the Punjab Government’s rule, houses below 125 square yards are exempted from paying for the water and sewer connections.

“In pure financial terms, only the remaining 16,000 houses pay us the water and sewer bills, which are not enough to meet with the expenses of the corporation. The charges for these two facilities are anyway quite low,” added a senior corporation official.

Of the remaining 35,000 households, the corporation had expected at least 5,000 would get their connections authorised.

“Our teams went door-to-door. We spoke to people and appealed to them to get their illegal connections regularised. But it seems all pleas fell on deaf ears,” he added.

Monday onwards, two teams will conduct surprise checking in different localities. The illegal connections would either be disconnected or people would be asked to pay last three years’ arrear.

“Before starting the camps, we had widely advertised that three years’ arrear would not be levied on those who will get the connections authorised at these camps. We had also said those who didn’t do so would have to bear the arrear to continue availing the facility,” he added.

Fact file

* Total households: 60,000

* Legal connections: 25,000 including 9,000 houses with below 125 square yards of area. These are exempted from sewer, water supply charges

* Around 35,000 illegal connections including 10,000 houses with below 125 square yards of area.

* Only 1,600 voluntarily converted illegal connections into authorised ones.

* Aimed at voluntary regularisation of illegal water and sewer connections, the municipal corporation held camps at 15 different places, covering all 50 wards, from July 16 to July 31.

Bathinda, August 3
Teacher unions under the flagship of the Sarkari School Sikhya Bachao Manch will be holding a meeting at Teachers’ Home tomorrow where representatives of all sections of the society have been invited to raise their voice against the selling of land of Government Elementary School located on Mall Road.

During a meeting held today, teachers protested against government’s move. They argued that this was the beginning of the trend of selling off educational institutes’ land in the state for commercial purposes.

The protesting teachers also called this a conspiracy to put an end to the government schools and the education provided by them.

Lachhman Maluka from Govt School Teachers’ Union, Darshan Maur from Democratic Teachers’ Front, Rajesh Monga from Maths Teachers’ Association, Sukhdev Mittal from Master Cadre Union, Gurmeet Singh from ETT Teachers’ Union, Jagmohan Kaushan, chairman of Teachers’ Home, and others were also present at the meeting.

Bathinda, August 3
To get the provisions of the Tobacco Control Act implemented in letter and spirit, a team of the health department officials, led by assistant nodal officer Dr Ashok Monga, issued challans to 11 persons for violating the law by smoking openly at public places yesterday. The team members also imposed a fine on them.

Dr Monga said they visited the cinema houses on the directions of the Civil Surgeon as there were reports that people smoked there in the public area. The team visited five cinema halls, four the previous day on GT road and one on Amrik Singh road, and caught 11 persons smoking in public.

Barring one cinema hall, proper boards indicating 'No smoking zone' were not found at the remaining four cinema houses.

There were either no boards or the boards were not displayed at proper places, or were not of proper size, he said.

Dr Monga said the managers and employees had been instructed to put up the boards in 48 hours. He said the managers and the staff had assured they would take all steps to control smoking in public at their cinema houses.

Dr Monga said the team had issued challans to 11 persons the previous day but imposed a fine Rs 20 each though they were authorised to impose a fine of Rs 200 each.

He also informed people at those places that the team had visited about the Tobacco Control Act. 

Bathinda, August 3
Around 90 men and women from the city and adjoining villages today gathered at the new OPD building of the Civil Hospital here to receive the denture sets free of cost.

The beneficiaries had earlier been identified by Dr Shashi Jain and Dr Naresh Singla during the dental fortnight that concluded on July 30.

The beneficiaries started arriving from 9 am to collect the dentures though the distribution was slated to take place around 11 am, for which the authorities had invited Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla as the chief guest at the function.

However, as per information, Singla could not attend the function due to some engagements and his wife Urmila Singla graced the function his absence.

Many of the beneficiaries later waited near the dental OPD to get themselves examined by the doctors and learn the method of handling the denture.

The dentures were provided to 50 women and 40 men at the function. Among theses, some were in their seventies or eighties, including Sukhdev Kaur of Mehta village (80), Gurdial Singh of Bibiwala village (80), Basant Kaur of Gehri Butter (78), and Gurdip Kaur of Mehta village (75).

The dental health authorities also organised an exhibition on the occasion to inform people what to eat or not to eat to protect the teeth from various diseases.

Addressing the gathering, District Dental Health Officer Dr Shashi Jain asked the people to care for their teeth since childhood.

Dr Jain said toffees damaged the teeth if consumed again and again. District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa also expressed his views about dental health.

Urmila Singla handed over the denture sets to the beneficiaries.

Among others who were present on the occasion included Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni, Deputy Medical Commissioner (DMC) Dr Vinod Garg, Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the Civil Hospital Dr Satish Goyal and District TB Officer Dr Ashok Monga. 

Bathinda, August 3
Police have booked unidentified persons for intimidating a woman living in Partap Nagar by firing gunshots outside her residence. In her complaint to the police, Pooja Sharma said her husband is undergoing imprisonment in a murder case and her sister-in-law and her daughter have accused Vikas Mota, Vicky and others of rape. The complainant said she has nothing to do with the rape case. She said some unidentified persons fired shots in the air while she was standing outside her residence at 10.40 pm on Wednesday. Police have registered a case under sections 336 and 34 of the IPC at the Canal Colony police station.

One arrested with 4 kilogram poppy husk
Police have arrested a resident of Peerkot for possessing 4 kg of poppy husk. The accused, identified as Balkar Singh, was caught carrying the contraband near Peerkot village. He was brought to the police station for investigation where he admitted to having smuggled the contraband to make fast bucks. A case under sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at the Rampura Sadar police station.

Five booked for beating
Police have booked five persons for beating up a resident of Kotha Guruka village. The complainant in the case, Gagandeep Singh, alleged that the accused attacked and injured him as he tried to stop some villagers from selling drugs to the youths in the village.

He said that the accused, Naib Singh, Sona Singh, Resham Singh, Nachhattar Singh and Baljeet Kaur, all residents of Kotha Guruka, inflicted injuries upon him. The injured was rushed to a nearby hospital and a case under sections 324, 323, 148 and 149 of the IPC was registered at the Diyalpura police station.

Four booked for damaging crop
Police have booked four villagers for destroying standing cotton crop in Kotbakhtu village. In a complaint to the police, Baghel Singh said Buta Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Harjeet Singh and Kulwinder Kaur destroyed his standing crop with a tractor.

Police have registered a case against the accused, including the woman, under sections 447, 427 and 34 of the IPC at Raman police station. No arrests have been made so far. Further investigation is on.