Bathinda, November 6
The Bathinda police today claimed to have solved the mystery behind the death of a woman on the night of Karva Chauth four days ago.

The deceased, Santosh Rani, a resident of Patel Nagar, was among many other women sitting on the rooftop of a hotel, BR Inn, celebrating Karva Chauth. She fell off after a bullet ricocheted into her head after hitting an eight feet tall concrete wall of the hotel.

Bathinda SSP Ravcharan Brar said solving the mystery behind the blind case was like searching a needle in a haystack.

"But our efforts bore fruits. The man who fired the gunshot is now behind the bars," Brar said.

The accused has been identified as Shaganpreet Singh (25), a resident of Gagan Nagar, situated behind the Green Palace near the BR Inn.

The police had concluded on the very night of the accident that the bullet was of .315 bore rifle and had been fired from a new gun.

"Since the bullet had grooves which are formed due to spinning, the experts opined that somebody must have purchased a new gun to fire the shot," the SSP said.

He said the team studied the X-ray report of the deceased, got the scene recreated by enacting the party at same time yesterday and also got the help from ballistic experts and Google Earth to trace the case.

Brar said details of the arms licence holders in the district having .315 bore rifles were taken into account and people having the guns residing in the vicinity of the hotel where the incident took place, were checked. During the scrutiny of the records, the special team formed to crack the case learnt that a youth had purchased a .315 bore rifle just a few days ago.

The accused had purchased the gun and 25 cartridges from a gun house near the bus stand. He had fired 20 rounds by standing at the rooftop of his house and a few rounds were fired near his cousin's residence in Bhucho Mandi.

He pointed out that the .315 bore rifle is a single-shot arm and required to be reloaded after every shot.

The SSP said it would be investigated how and why the accused got the arms licence.

A case under Sections 304 and 336 of the IPC and Sections 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against the accused at the Thermal police station.

Bathinda, November 6
Bathinda will host the zonal level legal literacy youth festival on November 17.

The district and sessions judge Jaspal Singh convened a meeting to oversee the arrangements for the event that will see the participation of the winners of the district youth festivals.

Jaspal Singh said winners from seven districts including Bathinda, Faridkot, Mansa, Muktsar, Moga, Ferozepur and Fazilka will be participating in the event.

The winners of the zonal-level youth fest will be participating in the state-level fest to be held at Ludhiana on November 24.

The festival will have events of skit, documentary, poetical recitation, declamation, poster making, slogan writing, power point presentation and photography related contests that will cover social ills like female foeticide, crime against women, women's rights, corruption, anti-ragging, environmental protection, child labour and others.

Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Bathinda, Kawaljit Singh, chief judicial magistrate, Bathinda, Harjit Singh, secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Faridkot, Rakesh Kumar Mittal and secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Muktsar, Daljit Singh were also present on the occasion.

Bathinda, November 6
A door-to-door campaign to spread awareness about cancer and for symptom-based early detection of the disease will start in Bathinda district from December 1.

Bathinda Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni said during the state-level campaign, various health workers, including ASHA workers, auxiliary nursing mid-wives (ANMs), multi-purpose health workers (males) and supervisors (male/female) would be participating. He added that that the exercise would be completed within a month.

District Health Officer Dr RS Randhawa said around 80 multi-purpose health workers, 300 ANMs, 250 ASHA workers and volunteers have been roped in for the purpose. In urban areas, students of medical and nursing colleges will be chipped in to conduct the extensive survey. Medical officers will be deputed as supervisors and will be headed by senior medical officers. Nodal officers will be the in-charges at district-level programmes.

During the campaign, information about 12 main symptoms of cancer will be imparted. Also, people will be sensitised to the carcinogenic agents. Follow up for the cancer symptomatic cases and general awareness will also be given.

Some of the factors that cause cancer are not feeding breast milk to children, consuming tobacco products such as 'beedi' and cigarettes, using smokeless tobacco products such as gutka, pan masala etc, consuming alcohol, taking contraceptive pills beyond the age of 45 years and hereditary factors.

Alarmed over abysmally high number of cancer cases reported from parts of Punjab, the state government has undertaken the state awareness campaign. Earlier, a pilot project was run in Faridkot district.

In June 2005, the Health Department, Punjab, had conducted a survey in four districts of Muktsar, Bathinda, Faridkot and Mansa to ascertain the number of cancer patients in the districts. The number of cancer patients was 453, 711, 164 and 420, respectively, with a rate of 54.7, 59.2, 28.0 and 57.4 per lakh population, in that order.

Another survey was conducted by the department in 2009 in which 7,738 cases of cancer were identified.

Alarmed over the figures, the state government undertook the door-to-door campaign.

Bathinda, November 6
Organ donation needs to be promoted urgently to meet with an increasing demand for human body organs.

People with dead brains but hearts pumping, are potential organ donors and can save productive lives.

The president of the Gift of Life Organ Donation Awareness Society (GLODAS), Dr BS Aulakh from Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Ludhiana, who has conducted over 1,000 kidney transplants, said around two per cent of accident victims were brain dead and their organs could be used to give new life to those requiring such organs.

"These two per cent victims are those who do not die on the spot, but are brain dead. We are promoting awareness in people to pledge their organs and also to convince people to donate organs of their near and dear ones whose brain has stopped functioning," he said.

"Death comes in two ways; one is the death of heart that stops the supply of oxygen to the entire body while another is the death or brain that shuts down brain only. The brain dead persons are legally, socially and medically considered as dead," he added.

Dr Aulakh said a large number of brain dead people were lying in intensive care units of hospitals and were being kept alive on machines or through other artificial means.

He added that every year, 1.5 lakh people in India suffer kidney failure and only 3,000 to 4,000 were lucky enough to undergo transplants.

"High cost of surgery, medicines and non-availability of kidney donors are the reasons why only a handful of people manage to save their lives," he said.

He said one man can give new life to eight persons by donating liver, two kidneys, heart and two lungs. At the same time, he could also donate cornea, ear ossicles, heart valves, ligaments and tissues.

In Punjab, there were a handful of medical institutes, including the DMCH, the PGIMER at Chandigarh and private institutes in Mohali and Jalandhar that are allowed to carry out organ transplant under the Organ Transplantation Act 1994.

The GLODAS will be holding a state-level function to promote organ donation at the Government Rajindra College tomorrow.

The store where organic farmers would soon be selling their produce, on Dr Mela Ram Street in Bathinda. A Tribune photograph

Fact file

• The Kheti Virasat Mission, an NGO, too had started selling organic vegetables on the Amrik Singh Road on weekly basis. Holding market every week, however, could not be sustained and was eventually discontinued.
• The executive director of the KVM, Umendra Dutt, said the unseasonal vegetables were the biggest challenge the market faced. "Organic farming means making only seasonal vegetables available. Since the chemical farming uses hormones, fungicides and synthetic growth promoters to grow unseasonal vegetables, these are flooded in the market and spoil it by offering choices to consumers. In organic farming, we cannot provide any such thing. We are trying to revive our market," he added.

Bathinda, November 6
Despite being not allowed to hold protests by the government, the protest by the special trainer teachers is still on.

The members of their union alleged that the government was making false promises. The teachers said that the officials, on October 27, had stated in writing that a meeting would be held with the Chief Minister but nothing has been done in this regard so far. The special trainer teachers said they have brought the matter to the notice of the district administration many times but to no avail. The teachers accused the police of dispersing their peaceful dharna on November 4 and manhandling them.

Bathinda, November 6
Students seeking admission to various courses being run on the Punjabi University Campus, Maur, have something to cheer about. While earlier the campus was offering seven courses, namely MBA (Integrated), BCom (Professional), BCA, PGDCA, M Sc (IT), MCA and MBA, now the university has been given permission to start BA course for girls.

Dr Jaspal Singh, vice-chancellor of the university has given the approval in this regard. Dr DK Madaan, principal of the Maur campus, said there was a great need for BA course for girls in Maur Mandi, as it was difficult for them travel to distant place to do the course.

Admission forms can be purchased from the campus for Rs 50. The last date for receipt of admission forms is November 12 at 10 am and the interview will be held on the same day at 11:30 am.

Bathinda, November 6
The fourth book exhibition is being organized at the Central University of Punjab (CIP) here on November 7.

Renowned economist and the first chancellor of the university, Dr SS Johl, will inaugurate the book exhibition.

A spokesperson for the university said more than 30 publishers, distributers and suppliers are participating in the book exhibition. Books on almost all the subjects including biosciences, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences, comparative literature, computational sciences, environmental science and technology, genetic diseases and molecular medicine, social studies, south and Central Asian studies, computer science and technology, environmental law, Sikh studies, language, linguistics, history, political science, engineering, fine arts and psychology are being exhibited in the at more than 50 stalls in the exhibition hall.

Around 30,000 books will be put on exhibition for the visitors. The exhibition will be open for general public from 10 am to 4 pm.

The exhibition is aimed at promoting reading habits among the general public, students in schools and colleges and also for researchers, teachers and scholars of all fields.

Bathinda, November 6
The quarter-final matches for boys in the handball event were held today at Khalsa Senior Secondary School at the ongoing 58th Punjab School Games.

In the under-17 category, Barnala defeated Patiala 15-1, Tarn Taran defeated Ludhiana 15-1, Muktsar defeated Faridkot 14-5 and Mansa defeated Bathinda 12-9. Now teams from Barnala, Tarn Taran, Muktsar and Mansa have reached the super league.

Similarly, in the under-19 category for boys, Bathinda defeated Muktsar 18-6 and Barnala defeated Gurdaspur 10-2.

In the Tarn Taran vs Jalandhar match, the Jalandhar team did not turn up, giving a walkover to Tarn Taran.

Similarly, in the Mansa vs Amritsar match, the Amritsar team did not turn up giving a walkover to the Mansa team. Now, teams from Bathinda, Barnala, Tarn Taran and Mansa have reached the super league.

League matches for girls will begin from tomorrow.

The matches were held under the supervision of District Education Officer (Secondary) Hardeep Singh Taggar and Assistant Education Officer (Sports) Pavittar Kaur.

Besides, Harmandar Singh, Harcharan Singh, Nirbhai Singh, Balraj Singh, Kuljinder Singh, Parminder Singh, Prem Mittal and Karamjit Singh were involved in making the necessary arrangements for organizing the matches.

The 58th Punjab School Games was inaugurated yesterday by the MLA from Bathinda (Rural) Darshan Singh Kotfatta.

The president of the Khalsa School management committee, Rajinder Singh Sidhu, was also present on the occasion.