Bathinda, November 25
The city will play host to the inaugural ceremony of the third edition of the World Cup Kabaddi.

Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav today convened a meeting to review the arrangements for the gala ceremony at the multipurpose Sports Stadium on December 1.

ADC (Development) Mohammad Tayyab, ADC Rajeev Prashar, municipal commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta, District Transport Officer BM Singh, AETC Pawan Garg, District Development and Panchayat Officer Rajinder Batra and others were present at the meeting.

Yadav said the inaugural ceremony would be witnessed by a large number of VVIPs, players and sports lovers.

Committees have been set up to deal with the issues of setting up a stage, barricading, lodging, transport, drinking water, medical aide, safety, traffic plan and invitations among other things.

In the meeting convened today, Yadav talked to the members of committees, including reception and protocol, refreshment, venue, transport, media, accommodation, barricading, finance and others.

Bathinda, November 25
With a coveted event of the Punjab Government, World Cup Kabaddi, just a week away, the hoteliers in the city are shying away from extending their "services" and "cooperating" with the Bathinda administration in making the event a success.

Bills of the hotels, whose services were taken last year, were cleared after a struggle of nine months. Following the adage "once bitten, twice shy", many hoteliers are contemplating to stay away from the event this year.

While the payments pertaining to the second World Cup were cleared after nine months, the payments against the first world cup too did not come before passing of seven to eight months. "Last time, the SAD-BJP government was to contest Assembly elections and did not want a bad name or bad propaganda. The former director, sports, Pargat Singh, who is now MLA, played a pivotal role in getting the payments cleared. But this time, we don't have any such person to bank upon," confided one of the hoteliers in the city.

The hoteliers, who purportedly have an inclination towards the Congress, have already expressed their inability in rendering their services for the event. "This time, we very politely opted out of playing the host. Last year, the new government was to be formed and hence, the payments were cleared. This year, we are apprehensive," added another hotelier.

Last year, the hotel association had to take the path of agitation and repeated dharnas in order to get their dues cleared. Payments of Rs 1.40 crore of around 15 prominent hotels had been pending. "Payments of some of the hoteliers in Ludhiana, which hosted the closing ceremony of the games, are still pending," claimed another hotelier.

The district administration would convene a meeting of the city's hoteliers next week to discuss the lodging and boarding arrangements of the teams and other guests visiting the city for the international event. Many hoteliers are expected to either give a miss to the meeting or send their subordinates.

The president of the Hotels, Restaurants and Resorts Association, Satish Arora, said this time, the district administration had promised timely payments.

"The Deputy Commissioner has assured that enough funds are available for the event. He even asked us to taken payments in advance," he claimed.

Bathinda, November 25
The Punjab Government's Rs 180-crore project, a bus terminal-cum-commercial complex at Bathinda, has now run into rough weather.

Since the multi-storey complex is proposed to come up adjacent to the Bathinda cantonment, the defence authorities believe it could pose a security threat to the cantonment.

The state government had entrusted the mega project to the Punjab Industrial Development Board (PIDB). The complex was to be developed on 10.03 acres, which included three acres for a workshop.

The PIDB floated tenders for the project but before any construction work could initiate, the defence authorities raised an objection saying as this multi-story structure was planned in the area adjacent to the cantonment, so it has threat perceptions.

The location of the proposed bus terminal was in the vicinity of the Bibi Wala Chowk. Two sides of the proposed bus terminal were adjacent to the cantonment while on the other side were Patel Nagar, Bharat Nagar and Green Avenue. The 323-metre frontage of the terminal was to open towards the Bathinda Ring Road.

"After the objections by the Army, the work on the project has been suspended for the time being," said MS Hundal, general manager, PRTC, Bathinda, adding, "We are hopeful of solving this tangle in the coming days."

As the present bus stand in Bathinda is in a shambles for the last many years, promising a fully air-conditioned bus terminal to the city residents, the SAD (B) leaders harped heavily on this project to get votes in the last Lok Sabha elections when Harsimrat Kaur Badal was in the fray from the constituency. But now, when the next general elections are round-the-corner, the project seems to have lost the steam.

Besides being fully air-conditioned, the bus terminal-cum-commercial complex was designed to have shopping malls, multiplexes, hotel, restaurants, retail showrooms for consumer goods, banks and bank ATMs, office space for commercial organisations, a waiting hall with 100 seats, a family waiting hall with 40 seats, a separate waiting hall for females and a cloak room. Besides, there was a proposal to build a diesel fuelling station there.

Earlier, the project was planned to come up at the site where the present bus stand is situated. In July 2008, the process of pre-bidding to develop the bus terminal on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model was allotted to the Akruti City Limited, a Mumbai-based construction company.

However, in April 2009, the Akruti City Limited withdrew from the project and the PIDB forfeited its bank guarantee of Rs 50 lakh. For the next three years, the project kept hanging in balance.

Owing to huge commercial potential at the site of the present bus stand, the bus terminal site was shifted to near the Bibi Wala Chowk last year.

Besides the high price of the land at the present site, another reason for shifting the bus terminal to a new site was that a portion of the present bus stand is mortgaged with the State Bank of Patiala after the PRTC raised a loan from the bank.

Bathinda, November 25
Manejo 2012 — the annual function of the department of management — was held at the Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh (PTUGZS) campus.

The event marked the inauguration of the management students' Society of Innovative Managers (SIM). Four competitive events were held on the occasion including poster making, group discussion, management quiz and waste management.

In poster making contest, Megha Bansal was declared the winner. Amit and Nishant were declared the winners in group discussion, Sahil and Gaurav were declared the winners in management quiz and Naresh Kumar was declared the winner in waste management.

The chief guest on the occasion was the professor at the regional campus of the Punjabi University, Patiala, RK Mahajan. Mahajan deliberated on the theories of management based on the principles of Swami Vivekananda. He termed the Indian management theory as holistic, based on mind (intellect and wisdom) and heart (spiritual and philosophical).

The head of the department, humanities and management, Veerpal Kaur Mann delivered the welcome speech. The guest of honour was the principal-director of the institute, Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal.

Bathinda, November 25
Police today arrested two of a five-member gang of thieves and recovered a looted car from their possession.

The accused also lifted cars and further sold it off by changing the registration number of the vehicles. Police got a clue that the miscreants were roaming in a white Maruti Alto car which was looted from the Lambi area in Muktsar in October. The car owner got a case registered in this regard under sections 382, 148 and 149 of the IPC at Lambi police station.

Police sources said the accused were using the car with a fake registration number. The car was intercepted and two persons were arrested. The accused have been identified as Jagtar Singh of Rori in Haryana and Naresh Kumar of Kheuwali in Haryana.