Bathinda, August 6
Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Excise and Taxation) Sarup Chand Singla today conducted surprise checkings at two government offices, the Tehsil office and the Excise and Taxation office, situated on the premises of the Mini-secretariat here.

During the checking, he found the Tehsildar and the Naib Tehsildar absent. Later, while talking to mediapersons, Singla said he had been told that the Naib Tehsildar was on leave. The Tehsildar told him that he was coming to his office soon, but he could not give any proper reply about his absence.

Singla said in the Tehsildar’s case, an inquiry would be conducted and action would be initiated on the basis of the inquiry report. During his visit to the Tehsil office, some people complained about corruption in the office.

At the Excise and Taxation office, Singla examined some records of the office. Singla said he had come to the Excise and Taxation office as he was supervising the department. He said he had directed the excise officials to remove the discrepancies found during the checking so that people do not face any problems.

Singla said the SAD-BJP Government was working round-the-clock to implement the reforms, which it had initiated.

He said surprise checkings would continue as the government aimed at providing speedy justice to the people of Punjab. He also said though an improvement in the functioning of the offices had been noticed, it was not satisfactory.

Bathinda, August 6
A change in policy for admission in polytechnic colleges has led to gain for private colleges at the cost of government institutions even as the latter are endowed with better infrastructure and staff.

At the end of the second counselling, only 50 per cent seats have been filled in government institutes, which is less than the last year.

At the Government Polytechnic College, Bathinda, only 180 seats have been filled out of the total 360. Similarly, at Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCET) Polytechnic, only 124 seats out of the total 300 have been filled.

"Both these institutes admitted at least 10 students less than the last year. This year, the department of technical education handed over database of all the students appearing for the Joint Entrance Test (JET) to private colleges. Consequently, each candidate has seven to eight institutes lined up for admission. Private colleges are offering all kinds of temptations such as rebate on fees etc which is why a less number of students are opting for government colleges," revealed a senior functionary of the technical education department.

With the handing over of the database, most of the private colleges have already admitted students under the management quota. "In the online counselling, each private college of the district has registered not more than five candidates, which is quite low. All these colleges are now waiting for the third counseling, which is scheduled for August 10 to August 16, to end," revealed the officials.

Bathinda has the highest number of polytechnic colleges in Punjab. The district has 15 colleges and thus, the maximum competition.

The staff members of the Government Polytechnic College opined that lack of awareness on technical education is largely responsible for the problem. During the tenure of Suresh Kumar, principal secretary, technical education, several efforts were made to popularise technical education. Even incentives were awarded to government employees for motivating students to pursue technical education.

Polytechnic colleges in Bathinda district

Aklia Polytechnic College, Goniana Mandi

BR Mahendra Polytechnic, Raman Mandi

Bhai Mani Singh Polytechnic College, Dayalpura, Bhaike

Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology Polytechnic, Bathinda

Global Poly College, Chak Ruldu Singh Wala

Government Polytechnic College, Bathinda

Guru Gobind Singh Polytechnic College, Talwandi Sabo

Guru Gobind Singh Polytechnic College, Nathana

Guru Hargobind Polytechnic College, Gill Kalan Rampura Phul

Guru Ram Dass Polytechnic College, Talwandi Sabo

Gyan Gunn Sagar Polytechnic College, Maur Mandi

Hi-tech Polytechnic College, Jai Singh Wala

New Punjab Polytechnic College, Nangla

Regional Polytechnic College, Behman Diwana

Sarswati Polytechnic College, Balluana

Bir Talab (Bathinda), August 6
Gurmel Khalsa, a Nihang of Bir Talab village, is doing things that the district administration is expected to do. He is providing clean drinking water to the residents of his village and has got removed the encroachments in the village to pave way for a bus service.

The 33-year-old Nihang purchased a tractor and a water tank by spending Rs 4 lakh from his pocket to provide free drinking water to villagers as the water supplied by the government water works is not potable.

Further, he removed more than 20 encroachments in the village to ensure resumption of the bus service that was stopped 10 years ago. The bus service now caters to six Bastis of the village.

Villagers said it was the first day of the bus service in their village today. Now, villagers do not have to travel more than three kms to catch a bus.

Due to large-scale encroachments by villagers, the bus service on the road passing through the village was stalled.

Bus operators refused to pass through their village.

“The operators said the buses fail to find space on the road and they got late in picking passengers from six Bastis in the village on the road connecting the Bathinda city with the Bir Talab zoo,” said Baljinder Singh.

“Khalsa gathered all the villagers and announced the removal of encroachments at his own expense using his newly bought tractor. Since it was for the betterment of the villagers, nobody opposed,” said village sarpanch Manjit Kaur.

Jagir Singh, a resident of the village, said Khalsa made three to five rounds of the city to bring potable water from the city's water tank near the Gol Diggi for villagers.

Showing the polluted water released by the waterworks, Jaswant Singh said the water released by the waterworks got mixed with the polluted water due to defective water pipes.

Khalsa said he bought the tractor for Rs 2.95 lakh. He took a loan after mortgaging a piece of land in the name of his wife. He bought the water tank from Malout by spending his entire savings of Rs 98,650.

“The path of serving the society, especially water, is shown by Sikh gurus. I was quite upset due to the release of polluted water supply and lack of the bus service. For the support extended by the area residents, we could overcome the problems,” Khalsa said.

Accusing the district administration and the state government of making false claims of development, he said the local leaders and senior government servants did not pay heed to the problems faced by villagers and had delayed the issue of resolving the matter over one pretext or the other.

Khalsa said he tried to remove encroachments five years ago as well but failed due to the non-cooperation by the villagers.

“Then, I did not have the money for tractor or any other equipment required to remove the encroachments that had come up in the forms of pavements and trees,” he said.

After doing his graduation from Government Rajindra College, Khalsa also got a certificate in electric trade from the ITI (Industrial Training Institute), Bathinda.

He said the real spirit behind the social work was his mother, Gurdial Kaur.

Gurdial Kaur said she supported her son for the social cause he had taken up and asked him to help the villagers by using all means.

“We do not ask people to contribute money but whosoever gives money to refuel the tractor is welcomed. My son does not have any permanent source of income. He sells LIC policies to keep the hearth burning,” Gurdial said.

She added that her son always wished to initiate steps for the improvement of the people. “Now, he is treading the path shown by our gurus,” said Khalsa’s proud mother.

Bathinda, August 6
The District NCD (non-communicable diseases) Clinic, set up on the premises of the local Civil Hospital, has started functioning partially.

The clinic has been set up to implement two schemes of the Central Government-- National programme for prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke and the National programme for healthcare of elderly.

The new building has been readied after renovating the old emergency block. The new building has a cardiac care unit (CCU) with six beds, ventilator, an oxygen cylinder and ECG machine but it is yet to start functioning as the doctor for the unit is yet to be appointed.

Besides, three wards (one ward of 10 beds, one ward of five beds and another ward of one bed) have been prepared for the patients. One of these wards will also accommodate the daycare cancer patients. Four rooms have also been prepared for the doctors. Three nursing stations (one in the CCU and two in the wards) are also ready.

As far as the staff is concerned, an oncologist, six staff nurses, a finance officer, two data entry operators and a Class IV employee are working at present while the NCD Clinic is awaiting the posting of three doctors, a counsellor, programme manager, programme assistant and a cyto-technician.

Talking to this reporter here today, the oncologist, Dr Vandana Midha, said since July 27 last, she has examined 15 (six female and nine male) cancer patients from Mansa, Muktsar and Bathinda districts, at the NCD Clinic here.

Dr Midha said these patients were suffering from breast cancer, blood cancer, prostate cancer and liver cancer. Of these 15, she had referred three patients to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, for radiotherapy.

District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said the District NCD Clinic had been started with one oncologist while three doctors are yet to be appointed. He expressed the hope that the functioning of the entire NCD Clinic would start soon.

Bathinda, August 6
People need to be sensitized on diseases that spread due to accumulation of garbage and unclean environment, said ADC Mohammad Taiyyab at a workshop of the water supply and sanitation department held today.

The five-day workshop was meant for selected villages of Bathinda and Mansa. Taiyyab was the chief guest at the culminating day today.

Villagers were informed about the importance of keeping their environment and neighbourhood clean to keep the diseases at bay. Taiyyab said more such workshops would be held.

Joint director, Uttaranchal Academy of Administration, Vinod Kumar Mishra spoke about the role of community in sanitation programmes.

Bathinda, August 6
Miffed with the alleged delay in dispensing justice to her in a dowry case, a woman from Chandsar Basti has decided to sit on hunger strike in front of the women's police station in Bathinda.

The woman, Nisha Rani, is on dharna with her two-year-old child and mother demanding action against her husband and in-laws. She accused them of harassing her and demanding dowry from her family.

Nisha said she was married to Manoj Kumar of Parasram Nagar who started harassing her months after their marriage. She said the matter was brought to the notice of senior police functionaries and her family members also met Member of Parliament from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal over the issue but no action has been initiated against the accused so far.

Women's cell in-charge Jarnail Singh said a case has already been lodged on the complaint of the woman and the family members are now demanding the arrest of the accused. "We came from VIP duty at 5 pm today and have raided a few places where there is a possibility of the accused hiding. We will soon arrest those wanted in the case and the complainant would then be satisfied," Jarnail Singh said.

Bathinda, August 6
To protest against the delay in the payment of their salaries, the Democratic Teachers' Front (DTF) today held a rally in the city. The rally started from Teachers' Home and culminated near the Mini-secretariat.

The president of the Front, Paramjit Singh and secretary Baljinder Singh, said a large number of teachers have not been paid their salaries for the last few months. "This has made it difficult to run homes at a time when the government is burdening us with extra taxes," they said.

The union also demanded that primary teachers be promoted to the master cadre so that the administrative issues can be resolved at the school level. The teachers vehemently condemned the selling of the government elementary school land for commercial purposes saying it would set a bad precedent.

The teachers alleged that the needy students are not being given stipend on time. The department is giving Rs 400 for uniform and Rs 50 per child for utensils, which is not enough. "Neither a decent uniform can be bought for Rs 400 nor can utensils be bought for Rs 50. If the government has fixed this rate, it should purchase these items itself and send them to the children," the members of the union said.

They also protested against non-academic work assigned to the teachers, which affect the studies of the students. The representatives of the 7654 Teachers' Union, SSA Union and ETT Teachers' Union also took part.

Bathinda, August 6
A talk on the importance of breastfeeding children exclusively for the first six months of their lives was held at the "dharamshala" in ward number 37 today.

Dr Ranjit Kaur spoke on the importance of mother's milk while Dr Kundan Kumar Pal dwelt on family planning and vaccines to be administered to pregnant women and children. CDPO Usha Rani talked about supplementary nutrition that is introduced in diet after six months of birth and emphasized upon the need to administer vaccines timely to the children.

Supervisor Maninder Kaur, ANM Rupinder Kaur, Anganwari workers Jasvir Kaur, Reena Rani and women from ward numbers 36 to 40 participated in the function.