Bathinda, August 25
Bathinda today experienced one of the longest spells of rain this season bringing much needed relief from the humid weather. But the downpour led to the flooding of the city with sewer water entering the houses in some areas.

Lightning fell on a house in street number 1-B in Hazura Kapura. The lightning damaged the house of Naresh Kumar, an insurance agent, who had a providential escape when the rear portion of his house suddenly collapsed. Kumar was at that time present in another part of his house. The volunteers of an NGO, Waheguru Society, who reached the spot, said the house was built around 25 years ago. No one was hurt in the incident.

Bathinda, August 25
Admitting that treatment at the local Max Super Speciality Hospital was costly, Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka today said efforts would be made to provide economic relief to the cancer patients of the area, especially those from a rural background.

Addressing media persons after inaugurating a blood bank in the hospital, Maluka said the SAD-BJP government has initiated steps to combat the deadly disease and is helping set up cancer hospitals in the state.

Expressing concern over the sorry state of affairs in the field of education, especially at the school level, the minister said astounding facts came to light during his surprise checking at various schools in the state.

"The situation in the rural and remote areas of Punjab is quite disturbing. I was surprised to learn that students of classes XI and XII in a school were harassing their young female teachers. In another school, students were creating a scene after consuming liquor and a teacher had withdrawn the salary of his wife, also a teacher, who was on leave for two years," Maluka said. He added that a visit to a school revealed that there were only 168 out of 1368 students were present and the school authorities failed to give a satisfactory reply about the missing students.

He added that efforts were on to streamline the entire system but it was a herculean task. He claimed that 5000 more teachers are likely to be deployed in government schools of Punjab soon and they would not be transferred for the next three years. He claimed that orders to deploy 4000 teachers have already been given.

On putting the onus for the security of girl students on the teachers, the minister said this has been done in view of the rising incidents of eve teasing. Fuming at the allegation that he got the VIP number 001 at a throwaway price from the local District Transport Office, Maluka said there was no bidder and only a handful of people including him had applied.

On the sale of school land on Mall Road, he said he was in favour of creating parking space because of inadequate parking facilities in the city at present.

Bathinda, August 25
The government teachers have been asked to ensure the safety of girl students. Keeping in view the spurt in incidents of schoolgirls being teased outside the school, the Director General of School Education (DGSE) has also requested the secretary, School Education, Punjab, to take up the issue of girl students' security with the Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab.

Teachers as well as principals of different schools, including co-education, high, senior secondary and girls' schools, have been directed to remain present at the school gate at least 15 minutes before the students start arriving to keep a check on anti-social elements outside.

Teachers have also been directed to let the girl students leave the school 10 minutes before boys.

"This is a practice that we had been following much before the DGSE's orders came in. But it is not justified to ask teachers to be presented 15 minutes before the school begins. Teachers have got their own limitations. Many of us come from far-off places," said a teacher from Rampura Phul area.

School principals have been asked to take help of the police control room (PCR) if they suspect or notice miscreants hanging around the school and disturbing girls.

All the deputy commissioners in the state have also been asked to pledge every possible support for ensuring the safety of girl students.

Bathinda, August 25
The doctors at the local Max Super Specialty Hospital today said early detection of cancer had been reported in only 10 per cent of the total cases while other patients approach the hospital only when the disease is in its third or fourth stage. Then, it becomes quite difficult to treat the disease.

More than 70 per cent of the patients reporting for diagnostic and treatment services were in the advanced stage of the disease, which results in poor chances of survival and high mortality rate among patients, the doctors said.

Dr Harit Chaturvedi, director of surgical oncology at the hospital, said nearly 150 patients had been treated at the hospital and at present, around 40 were undergoing treatment.

Unfortunately, there have been cases where patients try to escape medication even after being diagnosed with the disease.

"The symptoms of this disease are common like boils in mouth, blood in rectum, prolonged fever for more than three weeks or lumps in breast," Chaturvedi said.

Radiation oncologist Dr Manjinder said 70 patients out of 100 come in the third stage of the disease due to lack of awareness and reluctance for treatment.

The doctors said over 8 lakh new cases of cancer and 5.5 lakh deaths were reported in India every year. In Bathinda, more than 1,000 people have lost their lives in the past three years. The region is fast becoming the epicentre of cancer in India due to intensive use of urea and other chemical fertilisers contaminating the soil and groundwater.

The hospital is observing a Cancer Azadi month and has set up a Cancer Tumour Board for early detection of the disease.

The doctors said that people might avail of special screening and treatment packages which consist of 50 per cent discount on OPD oncologist consultations with free consultation to cancer patients on every Monday, 15 per cent discount on cancer screening packages, 15 per cent discount on chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical procedures up to September 15.

Bathinda, August 25
The Thermal police has arrested a man on the charge of killing his seven-year-old son, whose body was found floating in the NFL lake on August 17.

It is alleged that Chamkaur Singh doubted that Kamalpreet Singh was his biological son and threw him into the lake.

The investigating officer in the case, Kashmir Singh, said an in-depth investigation and sustained interrogation of the family members and area residents helped in cracking the case.

He said the boy's father had earlier told the police that he does not wish to carry on the investigations as he does not suspect anyone for his son's death.

The couple hailing from a village near Sirsa in Haryana was residing along with the seven-year-old in the NFL servant quarters of a senior officer.

The relatives informed the police that the couple had entered the wedlock in a court in Bathinda in 2004 against the wishes of the family members residing in the village at Sirsa.

The woman allegedly carried the baby even before the marriage was solemnised. The relatives told the police that Chamkaur was usually teased by villagers and friends for upbringing a child who was allegedly not his own.

When cops learnt about the fact, they brought Chamkaur Singh to the police station for questioning. Chamkaur claimed that he was with his brother on the night when the child was reported missing. The brother, however, denied the claim.

During interrogation, the cops suspected that Chamkaur was lying and misguiding them as he failed to give satisfactory replies to their queries. When the cops warned him against pulling wool over their eyes, he come out with the truth and confessed to have taken the child to the lake from the NFL park where he was playing in the evening. He stated that he took the child to the lake over the pretext of offering food to fish in the lake. He, however, threw him into the water.

Earlier, Chamkaur had informed the police that his child was mischievous and could have fallen into the lake.

The area residents corroborated his claims and said the child used to go out even during late night hours and many a times, his parents were seen searching for him.

The neighbours, however, believed that no child would ever dare to enter the lakes in the dead of the night and the police should investigate the matter.

The deceased's mother, meanwhile, refused to give statement against her 
husband fearing that her child was already gone and her statement would only take her husband away to the jail.

The police, however, registered a case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the complaint of Gurdev Singh, a resident of Adarsh Nagar and a relative of the family.

The accused has been sent to two days of police remand.

Bathinda, August 25
As many as 531 cases were settled amicably and compensation to the tune of Rs 1,17,96,000 was awarded during a Lok Adalat held at district courts here today.

A total of 698 cases had come up for hearing.

District and Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal said Lok Adalats were held at Bathinda, Talwandi Sabo and Phul division on the last Saturday every month, and at labour court on the last Friday. He said in today's Lok Adalat, traffic challans pending in the courts till September 15 were cleared. Special Adalats would be held every Saturday where traffic challan cases would be cleared for the convenience of people.

Meanwhile, the advocates have boycotted the Lok Adalat as part of their ongoing protest where they have decided to observe strike every Saturday. In all the three courts, none of the lawyers appeared before the Lok Adalat.

Terming Lok Adalats as nothing but an empty show, the general secretary of the Bathinda Bar Association, Gurwinder Singh Mann, said, "Even those cases wherein parties reach an amicable decision in the court, are pushed to Lok Adalat. We have to wait for 25 to 30 days for the Lok Adalat to happen so that our cases are officially declared as settled." He added that the cases were purposely pushed to Lok Adalat to discredit the lawyers. The matter was also discussed at the state-level meeting of lawyers convened at Moga.