Bathinda, September 23
The mega medical and dental check-up camp, being held in Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal's village Badal in Muktsar district, has left the medical officers on duty in a piquant situation.

Around 35 medical officials from Moga, Mansa, Sangrur, Muktsar and Ferozepur, who were directed to put up in Bathinda district, have got no place to stay.

Talking to TNS, one of the doctors said, "As directed by the government, we were asked to report at Bathinda on September 22 at 11 am. Till 2 pm, there was not a word about the place where we were supposed to stay." Most of the doctors spent the night at the homes of their relatives or rented rooms in local hotels.

Thereafter, today in the morning, a few doctors met the Principal Secretary Vinni Mahajan to inform her about the problem. Mahajan then directed the office of the Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, to ensure that the doctors are given adequate facility and rooms to stay.

Acting on the directions, the doctors were asked to put up at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Centre. "Eight doctors were asked to put up in the ICU unit that has six beds. Unable to sleep on the beds, we decided to leave the place," added another doctor, who chose to put up elsewhere.

The doctors complained against the health officials saying while the super specialists from the PGIMER, Chandigarh, as well as leading hospitals from Ludhiana were given rooms in five-star hotels in the city, the government doctors were left to fend for themselves.

At the camp too, these doctors were entrusted with the task of registering the patients. "Registration can be done by any educated person. The government should have taken medical work from us instead of making us sit at the front offices," rued another doctor.

Meanwhile, Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni said efforts were being made to provide doctors with suitable places to stay at. "The confusion has been caused due to the old lists (of doctors visiting Bathinda for camp) we were sent. Also, there was lack of communication and planning has not been done properly. But we are working out a solution in the best possible way," he asserted.

Fact file
Around 35 medical officials from Moga, Mansa, Sangrur, Muktsar and Ferozepur, who were directed to put up in Bathinda district, have got no place to stay.
The doctors were then put up at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the NCD Centre. Unable to sleep on the beds, they decided to leave.

Official Speak
Efforts are being made to provide doctors with suitable places to stay at. The confusion has been caused due to the old lists of doctors visiting Bathinda for the camp that we were sent. Also, there was lack of communication and planning was not done properly. But we are working out a solution in the best possible way.

—dr ajay sahni, civil surgeon, bathinda

Bathinda, September 23
The fate of candidates who threw their hat in the poll ring from the graduates constituency for the Panjab University (PU) senate elections was sealed during the elections held at the MSD Senior Secondary School and Government Rajindra College in the city today.

Two polling booths each had been formed at these two centres. Of the 702 voters registered at the Government Rajindra College, 262 (around 45 per cent) voters cast their votes. Similarly, at the MSD School booths, 927 voters were registered of which 293 (around 30 per cent) cast their votes.

Last week had seen hectic campaigning by the supporters of candidates from the graduates constituency in one form or the other. Taking an e-route, many candidates had canvassed by sending messages on mobile phones or by putting appeals on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Today, tents were put up by the supporters of candidates near the polling booths. The registered voters from this constituency included passouts from the Panjab University who have done their graduation or post-graduation from the varsity.

Elections for the senate are held every four years from where the elected candidates make it to the senate - one of the most powerful single committee of the varsity that is known to have heralded many changes over the years. Bathinda saw three main contestants jostling for votes that included Amarbir Singh, Dr Deepak Manmohan and Suresh Kumar Arora.

Amarbir Singh is the assistant state project director (ASPD) science cell. He is posted in the office of the Director General of School Education (DGSE) and was backed by the Government School Lecturers Union (GCTU).

Similarly, Dr Deepak Manmohan, a former senator, was supported by the General Category Welfare Federation (GCWF). He had promised to raise issues like discrimination in the fees of students and cross subsidy when elected.

Bathinda, September 23
MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today inaugurated some projects in the city and interacted with residents. She inaugurated dharamshalas at Lal Singh Basti and Partap Nagar. The dharamshalas were a long-pending demand of the residents as they will also serve the purposed of a community hall.

Addressing people, she accused the UPA Government of not taking care of the interests of the common man. She alleged that the anti-people policies of the Central Government were taking its toll on the people of Punjab.

She came down heavily on the limiting the number of subsidised LPG cylinders per household. "Instead of bringing reforms and taking the route of austerity, the government has chosen to burden people with hiking the fuel prices and capping the LPG cylinder supply," she added.

On the UPA Government allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India, Harsimrat said the move would sound a death knell for small traders and businessmen. She added that the Congress-led UPA Government was least concerned about 'aam aadmi', whose patron it claimed to be.

Accompanied by Bathinda MLA Sarup Chand Singla, Mayor Baljit Singh Beerbehman and other local leaders, she interacted with city residents and enquired about their well being. She said the senior party leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal would continue meeting the common man to enquire and resolve their problems.

Bathinda, September 23
On a spree to detect illegal water and sewerage connections and penalise the erring consumers, the local Municipal Corporation (MCB) has slapped notices on 65 shops of the Improvement Trust, Bathinda, directing them to get their connections regularised.

The shop owners have been allowed a stipulated time-frame to get their connections regularised or else the facility would be disconnected.

Superintendent Pardeep Kumar said of the total 65 shops in the Improvement Trust market on the GT Road, only 5 to 7 have legal connections.

Municipal Commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta added that initially, the commercial connections were being targeted. "In a week, our teams will start visiting residential areas too," he said.

Since September 16, only 10 to 12 illegal connections have been disconnected while all others have preferred to pay penalty and get their connections regularised on the spot.

Hotels, restaurants, shops, eateries and other commercial establishments are under the scanner. On an average, the MCB is collecting Rs 5 lakh per day as penalty for illegal connections. A shopping centre in the city was imposed the highest penalty of Rs 4.5 lakh.

A sum of Rs 12 crore is to be recovered from the owners of the units having illegal sewer and water connections.

Earlier, in the month of August, the MCB had started a special drive to motivate consumers towards surrendering their illegal connections. The drive did not yield desired results and MCB officials had to resort to using pressure tactics.

"The MCB teams are visiting different consumers with illegal connections. We had no other way out. If people want to be better served and wish to see their city clean, they should pay for the services they avail of," added another MC official.

Bathinda, September 23
My Career Experts formally launched its exclusive programme for IIM aspirants Catch 22 today. As part of the programme, 11 IIMs alumni visited Bathinda today to guide and to inspire the young minds to realize their potential and achieve their dream of getting into the IIMs.

More than 500 students appeared for the free online test conducted on September 9 across many centres in the region for the stage I of the coveted batch, named catch 22 after the Super-3o initiative.

After a one-year training, 22 students will finally be selected in the Catch 22 batch.

Today, the candidates who cleared the stage I were mentored by a group of 11 IIM alumni who are presently working with companies of national and international repute.

Among the IIM alumni present were Harpreet Singh, Varun Arya, BB Verma, Sony Goyal, Nitin Kumar, Vinayak Parashar, Sameer Nigam, and Shruti Parashar of the ISB.

The speakers shared their valuable experience apart from motivating and making CAT aspirants more confident to take on the challenges. The main focus of the speakers was to instill in the aspirants the confidence that they will make it to the IIMs.

They focused on the fact that right attitude and hard work are the key components of any success story.

Each one of the mentors will visit Bathinda in future also to keep the momentum going and help the students.

Sony Goyal, Director, My Career Experts, shared his desire to make Bathinda the hub of quality management education. He also thanked the mentors and wished the students success.

Bathinda, September 23
The thermal lakes, which have been developed as a tourist spot, are these days proving to be a safe haven for the Bacchus lovers. Courtesy:

The project of developing the lakes as a tourist spot was a brainchild of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. But drunkards making merry after dark hours have forced the commoners to stay away from enjoying the view of the illuminated lakes.

Even as the menace has left many city residents fuming, the police is yet to sit up and take notice of it.

The number of cops deployed at the intersection near these lakes is not enough to deter the miscreants from drinking in public.

TNS visited lakes on Saturday and found the Bacchus lovers sitting on the roadside and consuming alcohol with impunity.

A senior citizen, Krishan Garg, said, "Wishing to admire the beauty of the lakes at night, I once went to the lake along with my grandchildren and wife. I was shocked to see some youngsters sitting on the roadside and having beer. We left the place immediately and never went there again."

A businessman, Atul Khanna, said, "My wife and I went to the lakeside one day and found shoddy youngsters consuming liquor. Since that day, we never visited the place after dark. The place is enjoyable in morning hours only."

The residents accused the police of turning a blind eye to the nuisance. It is stated that earlier, the roadside boozers camped along the Sirhind Canal.

Bathinda, September 23
The police has booked two workers of a private firm roped in by the government to install high-security number plates at the District Transport Office, Bathinda.

The accused, Gurdeep Singh and Amandeep Singh, both residents of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar, have been booked under Section 409 of the IPC at the Civil Lines police station following a complaint by one Sandeep Kumar.

The complainant stated that as a supervisor, he had to oversee the installation of high-security number plates on vehicles. He said number plates, which got damaged while being installed, were packed in two bags and kept in a room in the basement of the District Transport Office. He said the accused were given the keys of the basement.

The plates were, however, found missing the next day.

The complainant alleged that the plates were sold by the accused as scrap.