Bathinda, September 3
Only 18 per cent of the marriage palaces in the city are legal while the rest are working illegally right under the nose of the government.

The Punjab Housing and Urban Development Board has sought these details from the district administration after a Patiala-based man filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court objecting to marriage palaces being run in complete violation of norms across the state.

The figures have been forwarded to the office of the additional advocate general of Punjab.

The district administration directed all civic bodies in the district as well as the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) to furnish the data. While marriage palaces inside the MC limits are under the corporation, those situated outside the MC limits lie under the BDA.

Of the 79 marriage palaces in the districts, just 14 have paid the change of land usage (CLUs) charges and obtained NOCs, while a whopping 65 do not have the no-objection certificate from one department or the other. The marriage palace owners are hoodwinking the government by not paying the CLU charges, which means a lot of revenue wasted for the empty coffers of the government.

"We have repeatedly issued notices to the erring marriage palace owners but all the requests and notices have fallen on deaf ears. While some of these palaces are owned by politicians, others have political patronage. Our hands are tied as we cannot do anything apart from serving notices," said senior BDA officials.

Besides the CLU, these palaces have also not paid the extension development charges (EDC). Within the MC limits, the EDC is Rs 11 lakhs with a licence fees of Rs 2 lakhs and outside the municipal limits, it is Rs 6.5 lakhs with a licence fees of Rs 1 lakh.

Also, the marriage palaces should have no-objection certificates from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), fire safety and building safety certificates and adequate fire-fighting instruments. Most of the marriage palaces lack this facility.

At a time when Bathinda's civic body is finding ways to construct a multi-level parking to solve traffic woes in the city, these marriage palaces thumb their nose at the rulebook.

As per the rules of the town planning department, marriage palaces situated outside the MC limits should have 50 per cent area (of the total area of marriage palace) for parking. However, of the 79 palaces, only 36 have adequate area for parking. "Most of the marriage palaces, especially those located inside the MC limits, utilise the roads and adjacent streets for parking. While minting money, they put the common man at ease as the officials concerned prefer to look the other way," said the municipal corporation officials.

Bathinda, September 3
Police have booked eight persons involved in raising slogans against the state government and for blocking the Bathinda-Mansa road and digging potholes on the passage adjoining a water channel near Harbans Nagar last night. The residents were protesting against the dumping of animal carcass in the vicinity of their locality.

The residents were opposing the setting up of the solid waste management plant near the residential areas adjoining Harbans Nagar. They were upset last evening after noticing someone throwing the chicken and fish remnants near the water channel adjoining Harbans Nagar. They caught those throwing the animal waste, handed them over to the police and raised slogans against the setting up of the plant. Later, a group of people came out on the road and raised slogans against the authorities.

Police today registered a case against Captain Mal Singh of Bhai Mati Das Nagar, Gurdeep Singh, Rupinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Prem Chakkiwala, Malkit Singh and Mana Singh, all residents of Harbans Nagar.

One of the agitators from Bhai Mati Das Nagar, Gurcharan Singh Sidhu, while talking to TNS, said the residents of the area today met Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav. Municipal Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta was also present there.

"The DC said the residents had never informed him about the problem and this was the first time that they had brought the problem to his notice. We replied that a letter was sent to his office opposing the plant when its construction had been commenced," Sidhu said.

At that time, the residents were pacified by the local political leaders because the elections were near, Sidhu added. He pointed out that the residents of the area will continue to oppose the setting up of the solid waste management plant as it emits a foul stench and people residing nearby found it difficult to put up with it.

The residents said most of the garbage and other items emitting a foul smell went into the water channel passing through the area.

Those who met the authorities today suggested finding an alternative place to set up the plant failing which they would have to intensify their stir in this connection.

No official was available for comment as they were all busy with the visit of Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal to the city.

Bathinda, September 3
The 150 odd students of the primary branch of Government Desraj Elementary School, situated on Mini-secretariat road in Pujjan Wala Mohalla, are studying under the constant threat posed by a low-hanging transformer installed right outside the school's main gate.

Apart from having around 91 students in the primary classes, the school premises houses two units of Aanganwaris and 21 students with special needs who study here.

"The transformer has been here since long. When the children come and leave the school, we have to take special care in ensuring that they don't go near the transformer. Even during the recess, we do not allow the children to leave the school premises," said a teacher.

Special attention has to be paid towards the 21 physically challenged children that attend the special school in the building as well as the toddlers who visit the two Aanganwari centres.

Suffering from diseases like cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, slow physical and mental development, these children have to be taken special care of. "While normal students understand it is not advisable to loiter near the transformer, the special students and the toddlers cannot be left unguarded even for a moment," said the teachers.

It is learnt that six months ago, the school authorities wrote to the Block Education Officer (BEO) requesting that the transformer be shifted from this place. As per the protocol, the BEO office is supposed to report the matter to the District Education Officer (Elementary), who is to further take up matter with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

However, XEN, PSPCL Haricharan Dass Goyal said his office has not received any such written request. "We will visit the spot tomorrow and do the needful. The security of the children will be our prime motive," he added.

Bathinda, September 3
Continuing the probe further after the arrest of a distant relative of the suspended XEN of PWD (B&R), Joginder Singh, the police today recovered Rs 31.87 lakh from two separate bank accounts of the XEN's relatives.

Police recovered Rs 15 lakh and Rs 16. 87 lakhs from two bank accounts. These bank accounts were in the name of Bhupinder Singh and his mother. Meanwhile, the police remand of the duo was extended by a local court till September 7 today.

XEN Joginder Singh is likely to be brought to the Kotwali police station for further questioning. Kotwali SHO Jaspal Singh said preliminary investigation revealed that the XEN had Rs 5 crores, which he had given to some relatives and friends. He appropriated the money by not releasing the payment to contractors in two separate projects (Rs 2.5 crores each) even though the XEN had got the Letter of Credit, which is released by the chief engineer of the department after getting clearance from the finance department. But after crediting the money in his account, the XEN did not release it further to the contractors.

"We managed to recover nearly Rs 2 crores in terms of 4 kg gold, around 53 lakhs in cash and other recovery made from his relative," the SHO said. He added that the XEN would be probed about the remaining Rs 3 crores. More arrests are likely after sustained investigations.

Bathinda, September 3
The teacher unions have joined hands against the education department's policy of rationalization and have decided to hold protest against it on September 4 during a meeting convened at Teachers' Home here.

The organizations that have come together include Sukhya Bachao Manch, Democratic Teachers' Front, Master Cadre Union, SSA/RMSA Union, ETT Teachers Union, 7654 teachers union, EGS Teachers Union, AI Union and TET qualified Teachers Union, among others.

The teachers stated that the policy is against the spirit of the Right to Education (RTE) Act and demanded that the policy be cancelled.

Bathinda, September 3
The water table that has receded from 80 to 100 feet during the last one decade has made the solar panels useless in many villages of Bathinda district. The solar panels were installed by the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) to pump out water for irrigation by giving subsidy to the farmers.

Since the panels are able to pump out water from a depth of 30 to 35 feet, they are ineffective now for the purpose of drawing groundwater. These solar panels are drawing out water only in those areas where the water level has not receded to a great extent.

Farmers said the project proved useful for them for a couple of years after which the water table went down. "Apart from the depleting water table, lack of maintenance too proved instrumental in making the panels obsolete," they said.

There were nearly 15 solar panels installed in Mehma Sarja and Nehianwala villages and more than 800 panels were installed in various districts of Punjab.

A progressive farmer from Mehma Sarja village, Jagtar Singh Brar, said the solar panels were attached with centrifugal pumps which fail to draw water from a depth of more than 30 to 35 feet. "Farmers should be given submersible pumps which are able to draw water even from a depth of 100 feet," Brar said.

He added that the spare parts of the solar panels and battery too are not easily available or are very costly. The farmer said the panels could be used for domestic purposes but they are very expensive to convert. He said it would cost more than Rs 70,000 to utilise the solar panels for domestic use.

Sukhwinder Singh, senior manager of PEDA in Bathinda, accepted the problem and said now the government has lifted subsidy from most of the gadgets run on solar energy. "The charging of 5.5 per cent VAT by the state has made the gadgets costlier which fail to attract customers," Sukhwinder Singh said.

He said the farmers may approach him to upgrade or repair the defunct solar panels lying in the villages and the officials of the company making the solar panels may be reached to find a solution to the problem. He pointed out that the solar panels could be shifted or used for other purposes with due permission from the senior PEDA officials.

Bathinda, September 3
The online submission of pay and other bills that began in government departments in the state from the current financial year is yet to strike the right chord with its users. Employees from various departments including teaching, health, treasury office and others are not getting their salaries on time. Neither is the bill being cleared timely owing to the heavy rush witnessed on the server.

A revenue department official said the cash-starved Punjab government has found a handy way to block the payments to its own employees by installing a 'poor' server for the online submission of the pay and other bills of its serving and retired employees.

The government had made tall claims of ushering in efficiency and transparency in the working of the treasuries with the online submission of bills but it has only ended in delaying the payments. Teachers have not been paid the salaries for June, July and August. Similarly, doctors too have not yet got the salary for the month of August.

As of now, the online submission of bills is mandatory only for those dealing with the district treasuries and not with the sub-treasuries. The server will add to the woes of the government employees when all the bills, including those of the sub-treasuries, would be punched online.

"Earlier, the government used to delay payments to its employees by issuing verbal orders to the District Treasury Officers, by stopping the release of budget to the departments or by not renewing the powers of Drawing and Disbursing Officers. But now, the 'pay-bill server' comes handy for keeping the money in state government coffers," quipped another treasury official.

The DDOs at the government schools said connectivity and the speed of master server is so slow that it takes almost three-four hours for the log-in to be completed. "After one has successfully logged in, the details of the bills are to be punched in but the server does not let them save the bills online. As per the format given to the DDOs, the bills have to be punched online, then saved, approved and submitted to the treasury offices online, but one can never be sure when the server is going to display an error," added another teacher.

Another DDO working in the education department said doubting the efficiency of the internet connection and the computer available in her office, she tried logging on to the server even on Sunday evening using her latest (i-7, 4GB-RAM) computer at home, but the server was busy.

"Even daily wagers refuse to work on Sunday evenings but the bill server was busy. Either the desperate employees keep trying or the bandwidth of the server has been kept deliberately low," she regretted.

As per the rules, if the bills are not submitted online and a hard copy of the printout taken from the master server is not presented to them along with the detailed bill, it cannot be cleared.

Bathinda, September 3
The office staff working under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) today staged protest against the government and wore black badges at their workplace.

In a press statement issued here, a spokesperson for the employees demanded that a uniform policy be implemented for the teaching and non-teaching staff working under the SSA and RMSA schemes.

The spokesperson said the non-teaching staff under these two schemes is poorly paid. The Punjab government has regularized the teaching staff but the non-teaching staff has been left to fend for itself.

The non-teaching staff from all over the state will hold a massive dharna on Teachers' Day at Chandigarh. The leaders of the SSA/RMSA employees appealed to all the unions to take part in the agitation. Union leaders Ravi Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Amandeep, Beant Kaur, Baljit Kaur, Manjit Kaur, Deepika, Kulwinder Singh, Rajni Rani and Nanpal, demanded that the government look into the issues.

Bathinda, September 3
Five students of the Government Polytechnic College have been placed with the Gurgaon-based Krishna Group. Principal Yadwinder Singh said five students, namely Harpreet Singh, Gurdev Singh, Rahul Puri, Lalit Sharma and Hakam Singh have been selected. The students will be paid Rs 1.20 lakh per annum for the first year.

He added that a student, Yadwinder Singh from the electrical engineering wing, has been selected by the Maruti Suzuki Company at Gurgaon.

The training and placement officer, Manjit Singh Bhullar, officer in-charge (electrical) Jasvir Singh Gill, college faculty Sanjiv Goyal and Darshan Singh were also present at the appointment letter distribution ceremony.

Bathinda, September 3
The department of training and placement of the Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI) has taken an initiative by inviting IBM on the campus premises for conducting a three-day workshop for the students of engineering of the CSE and IT stream by offering them certification worth $200 absolutely free.

The workshop will provide the students with an expanded perspective about the technical upgradation and will be followed by further training them to improve their capabilities in software development and application identified during the workshop.

Through this workshop, it would become easier for the students to become IBM certified academic associate for DB2.

12 students of the 2013 batch of engineering courses of BFGI have already got on campus placements. The placement session for engineering graduates at the BFGI started with Data 64 Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a company operating in making cyber laws. The company hired two students of B.Tech. at an attractive package.

After that, Mismo Infra, an IT product development company, visited the campus and hired four students of the BFGI.

Revenue Technologies Services hired three students of the BFGI. These selections were based on key technical skills as well as communication skills. Three students also got selected in a placement drive organized by Prosix Softron Pvt Ltd. — TNS

Bathinda, September 3
The Little Millenniumites celebrated the Grand Parents Day to commemorate the presence of grandparents in their lives of children. It provided an opportunity for the grandparents to spend some golden moments with their beloved ones on school premises.

The grandparents were welcomed and they relived their childhood by involving themselves in games, colouring activities, hasya kavi sammelan and talent hunt show to cherish their memories.

Head mistress Barninder Paul Sekhon made efforts to inculcate respect and love for the elders among the kids. — TNS

Bathinda, September 3
Civil Lines police have arrested a resident of Nai Basti for selling habit- forming drugs. Civil Lines SHO Gurdev Bhalla said the accused was running a chemist shop near the Rose Garden but he failed to attract customers and turned to illegal ways to make a fast buck. He started selling capsules and other drugs to the addicts. The SHO said 15,600 capsules were recovered from the possession of the accused. He has been booked under section 420 of the IPC and section 15 of the Indian Medical Act. Police said the accused was arrested from near Shiv Colony. During the preliminary investigation, the accused revealed that he had been selling the drugs for over a year.

Four booked for assault

Police have booked four persons for beating up a resident of Bhairupa village. In a complaint to the police, Krishna, wife of Raj Kumar, said that Sukhdev Singh, Tara Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Baljeet Singh beat her up and injured her seriously. She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent treatment for a few days. After recording the statements of the woman, the police have registered a case under sections 452, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC at the Phul police station. Policemen said during the investigation, it was found that the woman and the accused entered into heated arguments after the children of both the parties, in the age-group of four to five years, fought with each other while playing.

One arrested with smack

Police have arrested Surinder Kumar of Talwandi Sabo with 20 grams of smack, 100 grams of intoxicating powder and two litres of intoxicating material in a liquid form.

The accused has been identified as Surinder Kumar who was arrested during a special checking near Talwandi Sabo.

A case under the NDPS Act has been registered at the Talwandi Sabo police station.

Bathinda, September 3
Police have arrested a resident of Gurusar Sehnewala village with 10 kg of poppy husk. The accused has been identified as Gurtej Singh who was found carrying the contraband near Pakka Kalan village. A case under sections 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at the Rama police station.

Meanwhile, in another incident, police have arrested two persons with drugs without having any valid doctors' prescription. The accused has been identified as Baljinder Singh and Bhola Singh. Police have recovered 300 grams of intoxicating powder and 61 vials from his possession. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered at the Rama police station. — TNS