Bathinda, August 17
The Deputy Commissioner and the Mayor have been summoned by the court of the Additional Civil Judge, Bathinda, to appear before it on August 28.

The court summon is in the context of an application put up by the residents of Lal Singh Basti alleging delay in the completion of the sewer project of the area.

Residents of the area, NK Jeet, Rajneesh Kumar Rana, Sweety Mehra, Guriqbal Singh Chahal, Satvir Singh Dhanoa, Narinder Pal Singh and Baljinder Singh, have moved the court requesting its interference in directing the district administration and the municipal corporation officials to discharge their duties in a responsible manner.

Lal Singh Basti, one of the thickly populated areas of the city, has seen sewer pipes being laid for the last one year.

"Even after the completion of a year, work is far from over. The delay has led to great public inconvenience as well as accidents," said NK Jeet, a resident of Lal Singh Basti.

The residents of the Basti have demanded that work on connecting the newly-laid sewer of ward number 31 and 38 with the disposal should be completed soon.

NK Jeet pointed out that the entire area is suffering due to the lack of vision on the part of the civic body that hurriedly conceived the project at the time of the election. Despite the many technical problems, the project was being implemented, he alleged.

During the last assembly elections, the municipal corporation and the state government formulated a scheme to augment the existing sewerage system in the area, at an approximate cost of Rs 50 crores. Under the scheme, sewerage pipes, 2.5 feet in diameter, were to be constructed at a depth of 17 to 20 feet replacing the existing sewerage pipes laid at a depth of 6-7 feet.

"Keeping in view the assembly elections, the project was started in a most haphazard and irresponsible manner, completely ignoring the technical and logistic requirements," Jeet said.

It was not decided with which disposal work the said sewer line was to be connected. As a result, work has now been abandoned at the T-point of Lal Singh Basti road and the road coming from Police Colony and there is no outlet for disposing the garbage collected in the sewer line.

While the sewer line is not connected with any disposal work, a large number of houses from the Aggarwal Peerkhana to Gurudwara Sahib on Lal Singh Basti road have been given new sewerage connections and connected with this sewer line, adding to the chaos.

Also, the garbage of Police Colony, which has about 400 residential quarters, was earlier discharged through a direct sewer line at a point near Dhillon's Mor. But now, this sewer line has been disconnected and the entire garbage of Police Colony is being dumped into the newly-laid sewer line, which has no connection with any disposal work.

"While earlier, this sewer line was connected with a disposal work through a pipe of 8 inch diameter, laid at a depth of 6 feet to 7 feet, the new sewer line is laid at a depth of 17 feet to 20 feet and has a 2.5 feet wide diameter.

Therefore, it is not technically possible to connect both these lines and the new sewer line requires to be extended to the disposal works. But the work has been abandoned midway," he added.

He also pointed out that technically, the work of laying a new sewer line, replacing the existing one, should have been started from the side of the disposal work so as to cause minimum dislocation and inconvenience.

But the government and the corporation, who were to technically supervise and direct the execution of the plan, started it from the opposite side for extraneous considerations, residents alleged.

Bathinda, August 17
Twelve passengers were injured as the mini-bus they were travelling in overturned near Bhagi Wandar village today in the morning. The mini-bus belonged to New Hardeep Bus Company and was packed with passengers.

Local residents said the bus was overcrowded in view of a religious function at Talwandi Sabo. The incident occurred at around 11 am. Eyewitnesses said the bus got overturned when it tried to give side to an approaching tractor-trailer on the busy road.

The bus ran over a dump of roadside manure and skidded off the road into the fields.

Local residents helped the injured passengers in alighting from the bus and admitted them to a nearby hospital. The condition of one of the passengers is said to be critical.

Police was informed about the incident and the statements of the injured were recorded.

Bathinda, August 17
Police have arrested a resident of Balla Ram Nagar for blackmarketing LPG cylinders. The accused, Sandeep Garg, was carrying nine cylinders of Hindustan Petroleum (HP) in a Maruti car and was intercepted by the police at a naka.

Civil Lines SHO Gurdev Bhalla said the accused had modified the car by removing its rear seat. The SHO said the accused admitted to purchasing these cylinders for Rs 420 each and then further selling it for Rs 650.

Bhalla said a case under section 420 of the IPC has been registered in this connection at the Civil Lines police station and further investigation is on to enquire into the incident. He added that the role of the gas agencies and vendors selling the cylinders would also be enquired into.

It may be mentioned that even as consumers keep complaining about not getting their LPG refill on time, blackmarketing of the cylinders, especially for commercial purposes goes on. The cost of the cylinder for commercial use is much higher and the nexus between the vendors and agents has always remained under the scanner. 

Bathinda, August 17
The education department has directed that teachers should not be engaged in non-teaching work during the schools hours as it affects the studies of children. However, at the same time, the district education officers have been directed to engage teachers in non-academic work only during the "after school hours".

"This implies that teachers have to put in extra work after the regular working hours for all kinds of non academic work. The worst part is that none of the non-academic works is a sitting job. Teachers are given all kinds of odd jobs that no other department does and it involves a lot of travel at one's own expenses," said the district president of the Government Lecturers Union, Iqbal Singh.

The orders of the Director General of School Education (DGSE) have invited flak from different teacher unions who advocate that teachers should not be given any kind of non-academic work.

It may be mentioned that teachers are appointed as booth level officers (BLO) for preparing voters' lists and other election related work. Currently, the work on revising the voters' list for the Lok Sabha elections is going on. Most of the BLOs appointed are teachers from various schools who have been put on the job much against their wishes. "The role of the BLO is not limited to upgrading the lists manually. We have to visit every household and locate the voters. In the case of villages where voters have shifted their homes, we have to go all the way to the village outskirts to delete or include the names of the voters. It is tiring and confusing to work in bigger villages like Mehraj and Bhai Rupa," confessed a BLO from the Bhucho Mandi area.

Besides these non-academic works, teachers are also supposed to perform other tasks that are bracketed as academic but have nothing to do with studies.

Teachers are supposed to maintain the accounts of the mid-day meal scheme, open bank accounts of students for stipend, disburse and maintain the records of stipend distributed and maintain the registers for continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE).

"This leaves us with little work for planning lessons to be taught the next day. When the government has bound us to deliver excellent results under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, it should also ensure that we get the right kind of atmosphere to teach the children," added the district president of the Democratic Teachers' Front (DTF) Paramjit Singh Jeeda.

While there is much din over assigning non-academic duties during the school hours, the DGSE's orders are being disobeyed openly. During his recent visit to Bathinda and subsequent meeting with heads of district schools in Bathinda on June 16, DGSE Kahan Singh Pannu raised serious objections to teachers (designated as BLOs) missing from their school at village Gehri Devi. The BLOs had gone to submit "daak" (documents to be sent by post) during the school hours. — TNS

Bathinda, August 17
The auction for the entry gates to the city is finding it difficult to attract bidders. The hesitation on the part of the bidders is because of the future plans of the Municipal Corporation.

For instance, the bidders at the auction for the entry gate to the Corporation area on Bhucho road chose not to take the project owing to the proposed widening of the Bathinda-Chandigarh road.

Similarly, during the auction process on Thursday for the entry gate near Bibiwala Chowk, the bidders for the project stayed away. They reasoned that the road is to be widened which meant that the entry gate too will have to be dismantled and widened.

"It is not feasible to bid for this project till the road's widening is done as the expense of widening the structure in tandem with the new road's width will have to be borne," they said. At the same time, the corporation has planned the construction of a backlit tower and four new entry gates to the city. It is meant for the beautification of the city as well as to collect revenue.

The Sadbhavna Chowk in Dhobi Bazaar area would be developed as a backlit tower. Now in a bad shape, the roundabout is expected to get a facelift soon after the corporation advertises auction for the same. Four new gate entries are being planned on Mansa road, Malout road, Goniana Road and Dabwali Road on build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis.

The corporation also auctioned 14 sites for traffic umbrellas, five sites for beat boxes in city and three sites for police Gypsy centres. Four bidders turned up for the auction of which Uday Advertisers pledged to maintain these structures for a minimum time period of two years and three months.

While the corporation is adding new projects for the generation of revenue through advertisements, it has failed to auction 22 unipoles in the city.

On August 14, the corporation cancelled auction for the third time. In the ad issued, the corporation mentioned that the reserve price for the unipoles is to be paid through demand draft, whereas the bidders came with money in cash.

Bathinda, August 17
The body of an eight-year-old boy, who was reported missing since last night, was fished out of the NFL lake this afternoon.

The child, Kamalpreet, was the son of a servant working for a senior NFL official and was missing under mysterious circumstances. He lived with his family in the servant quarters of the NFL official.

Volunteers of the Naujawan Welfare Society, an NGO, retrieved the body from the lake.

The president of the NGO, Sonu Maheshwari, said Kamalpreet was reported missing since 8 o' clock last night. Initially, the family members thought that the child could have gone to purchase something from a shop nearby but when he did not return, the family members got panicked.

Senior police functionaries, including ASP City-II Kuldeep Chahal, and the Thermal police rushed to the spot after the body was found in the lake.

Chahal, while talking to TNS, said the police was exploring all the angles into the incident, including that of accidental death. He said initial reports did not suspect any foul play but still they were probing the incident.

The police is awaiting the post-mortem examination report before taking any further action.

The local residents said the lake was guarded by security officials during night and it was quite difficult for a child even to get close to the lake after dark.

A case in this connection has been registered at the Thermal police station.

Bathinda, August 17
The Youth Congress, Punjab, is all geared up to highlight the achievements of the Congress. For the purpose, it will hold workshops to impart training to its office-bearers.

This was stated by the general secretary of the Youth Congress, Punjab, and the party in-charge of the Lok Sabha constituency, Deepinder Singh Randhawa, and a party leader, Khushbaz Singh Jatana, during a press conference held here today.

The youth leaders claimed that they were geared up and united even at the booth level to highlight the achievements of their party and the flaws of their opponents.

The leaders said a two-day workshop was organised on August 16 and 17 to impart training to the office-bearers of the party to publicise the achievements of the Central Government among the masses. Out of 46 office-bearers, 35 underwent training and they would further train the booth-level party workers.

Meanwhile, Jatana said a show-cause notice had been issued to a Youth Congress (Urban) leader of the Bathinda constituency, who had been inactive in connection with the party affairs. Suitable action would be initiated against him, he added.

Party presidents of nine Vidhan Sabha constituencies, secretaries and vice-presidents were present at the press meet.

Bathinda, August 17
Bathinda SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill laid emphasis on educating special children, especially the girls.

He said education played a vital role in shaping the future of a person. Deploring the practice of giving dowry during the marriage of a girl, the SSP urged people to provide higher education to their daughters.

Gill was addressing a gathering during a cultural programme organised at the MGD Deaf and Dumb School by the Bathinda Brotherhood Club.

The SSP stated that he saw an endless spirit among the special children, who presented dance and other performances.

Students of the Bachpan Playway School, the Police Public School and a few other private schools participated in the programme.

The SSP along with Mayor Baljeet Singh Beerbehman and other prominent residents of the city spent more than three hours watching the programme and remained seated despite power failure for more than an hour.

Sharing his views on social evils, SSP Gill said that these days, the most common problem being faced by the society was that of family disputes and drug addiction.

Speaking on the occasion, the president of Bathinda Brotherhood Club said the cultural programme was organised to infuse a sense of confidence among the special children.

Bathinda, August 17
A team of the 11 Sappers, led by Captain Binu VS, successfully completed the trekking expedition to general area Dharamshala.

The expedition covered a total of 120 kms trekking treacherous and challenging route crossing various peaks in Himachal Pradesh over a period of 10 days. The trekking team scaled the height of 11,000 feet.

Army spokesperson said the trek was made more difficult by incessant and heavy rains, which drenched the members of the expedition but failed to dampen their spirits.

The expedition was flagged in by Brigadier Rajeev Chaudhry, Commander, Sarvada Agrani, in a ceremony in the presence of other military dignitaries.

Bathinda, August 17
The Vigilance Bureau booked a private agent for cheating.

The accused, Charanjit Singh of Maisarkhana, did not deposit the tax of school buses of Sri Guru Harkrishan School. The total amount of tax was reportedly nearly Rs 2.21 lakh.

After a detailed investigation by the Economic Offences' Wing of the Bathinda Police, a case has been registered at the Civil Line Police Station.

A complaint in this regard was forwarded through the Chief Director of the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab.

It was stated in the complaint that Charanjit Singh did not deposit the tax in the state's treasury causing a loss of Rs 2,09,840 to the exchequer. It was also found that the registration copy of the school buses was manipulated by overwriting.