Fact file

Doctors say that people should switch back to the Indian way of greeting each other with a ‘Namaskar’ to avoid physical contact. “You never know which patient may be the carrier of swine flu. It is best to refrain from handshake for at least one more month and greet each other with folded hands,” said the doctors at Civil Hospital.

Swine flu is a misnomer for H1N1 virus. The term, swine, means pigs, but the H1N1 virus has nothing to do with pigs. It was first reported in Mexico region where pig farming was a major occupation and hence, the name ‘swine flu’ stuck.

Bathinda, January 29
The number of registered leprosy patients in Bathinda district has reduced to one-third, from 24 in 2011 to only eight in 2012, as reported by the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP).

Out of the eight leprosy cases, six cases are at paucibacillary (mild) stage and two are at multibacillary (severe) stage. In the former case, the patient has to take medicines for six months. In the latter one, the treatment continues for one year.

All the eight registered patients are those who migrated to the state from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, etc.

Dr BS Gill, district leprosy officer, said, "For the last seven-eight years, I have not seen even a single leprosy patient who belongs to Punjab. Those who come to us with the disease are from other states where the weather is hot and humid."

Talking about the disease he said, "Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. The main symptoms are white spots on skin, sensitivity loss and no sweating in that area, loss of hair from eyebrows and deformity of limbs. It mainly affects skin and nerves."

Dr Gill further added that it is a 100 per cent curable disease. He said, “Leprosy does not spread by talking to or touching a patient. It spreads when a person has very low immunity and he/she remains in contact with a leprosy patient for a long time."

At the Civil Hospital in Bathinda, the treatment and medication of leprosy patients is done free-of-cost. Dr Gill said, “We make sure that the leprosy patients from poor financial background also gets good treatment. The treatment is free-of-cost and in severe cases, in which operation is required, the expense is borne by the government.”

Bathinda, january 29
"The times have changed and today, it is safe to take up photography as a fulltime profession. The photographers have many avenues now,” says Nirlep Singh, an engineer by profession and a photographer by vocation.

Nirlep Singh, working with the National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) in Bathinda, has been behind the camera and clicking landscapes and people since 1992. He recalls, "In 1992, some of the NFL employees and our friends formed a group called Aarohan and we started undertaking trekking expeditions. On our first trip, to Ladakh, I took along my cousin's SLR camera."

The photographs clicked during the trip inspired Singh to pursue photography further and bring together people with an interest in the field and open the Kaleidoscope club. "For a few years, we held small exhibitions. Last year, we took the big leap of organising a first-of-its-kind photo walk in the city. We took along 50 amateur photographers with us and went round the city for four hours and clicked whatever we liked on our way. We covered Old Bathinda, Railway Road, and other areas before culminating the walk at the Old Church in Railway Colony," he says.

Singh, who had joined NFL after completing his engineering in 1983, says that many times he pondered over quitting his job and taking up photography as a profession. "But those were nascent days for photography and a photographer didn't have many avenues open to him. Somehow, I remained with the job while pursuing my passion," he says.

Although Singh's passion became his vocation, he is making sure that his younger son's passion for photography turns into his profession. "My younger son, Nirvair Singh, wanted to take up photography after completing his schooling. We encouraged him and today, he is pursuing a three-year degree course in photography from Pathshala South Asian Media Academy in Dhaka."

Singh has no complaints and he is happy with what he's got a professional camera in his hands and a creative instinct. "Although my forte is clicking landscapes, I also like making human beings the subject of my photographs," he says.

Bathinda, January 29
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) Engineers' Association has demanded the rationalisation of workload norms and span control of engineers for improving the supervisory control as well as the performance of the company.

In a letter addressed to the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), PSPCL, the Association has expressed its resentment and sought an emergency meeting to discuss the issue in detail.

The Association said the engineers are working under great stress and rationalisation of workload norms and span control is urgently required for the "growth of the organisation and to meet the prime purpose of ensuring quality and reliable power supply to the consumers of Punjab".

"Electricity being a service industry, engineers have to perform under modern day business requirements of standards of performance, Right to Service Act, Right to Information Act etc and meet the expectations of the management. Officers of the level of superintending engineers (SEs) personally supervise breakdowns and faults," said the general secretary of the Association, Sanjeev Sood.

Keeping the above requirements in view, it was realized that the existing organisational structure and workload norms of the engineers need to be rationalized and the PSPCL even formed a committee for this purpose last year. The committee submitted its recommendations regarding the various components of the PSPCL after deliberations with all concerned, including the directors and the chief engineers.

A report was then sent to the board of directors for its consideration. "The board, instead of considering the proposals on the basis of logic, decided that re-organising of the existing structure can be carried out through conversions or diversions of posts of equivalent rank. The procedure is to be done without increasing the overall numeric strength of category," Sood added.

The board of directors also decided that any creation of posts shall only be with the prior approval of Punjab government. The engineers alleged that it was evident that the matter had been casually disposed of without outlining the ways and means to achieve the real purpose of re-organisation.

The Association said that the decision has even defeated the fundamental principle of autonomy of the PSPCL wherein the government and its views are duly represented by the two directors. It is also against the business ethics of progressive service industry where the executive is answerable for providing quality supply but has no say in decision making, the Association added.

"This is bound to diminish the credibility of the organisation as excellence in performance standards cannot be achieved with such illogical decisions," the engineers reasoned.

The Association condemned this approach of the management for not providing the means to achieve set goals and benchmarks.

Bathinda, January 29
Assistant Deputy Commissioner (Development), Mohammad Tayyab, today inaugurated the photography exhibition held at the Government Rajindra College. The exhibition has been organised by the Kaleidoscope Club of Bathinda in association with Aarohan, a club of trekkers.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner, Kamal Kishore Yadav was scheduled to inaugurate the exhibition. As the DC had to leave for Chandigarh in connection with some work, the ADC (D) filled in for him. Tayyab appreciated the works on display.

The photographs on display were a few of the chosen entries that the club received for the contest 'Landscapes with human presence'. The photographers, vying for the title, were briefed that their pictures should have a sense of the place and local flavour. To maintain objectivity, the members of the Kaleidoscope Club didn't participate in the contest. The club chose Ganesh H Shankar, Dhritiman Mukherjee and Nilanjan Das to judge the contest. The judges received as many as 250 entries from photographers from as many as 22 states. The photographs that got the first, second and third positions were rewarded with Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000, respectively.

The photographs will be on display till February 2.

The exhibition is also open to the general public from 3 pm to 6 pm.

Bathinda, January 29
Jazim Sharma, a resident of Bathinda, who was one of the top five contestants on the rescently-concluded season of the Zee TV's music reality show, SaReGaMaPa, today got a warm welcome on his return to the city.

V for victory: Jazim Sharma, one of the top five contestants on the music reality show SaReGaMaPa, during a procession taken out to honour him in Bathinda on Tuesday. photo: bhupinder dhillon

A procession was taken out in honour of Jazim, whose real name is Jaspreet. The procession of cars started from the Bibiwala Chowk and covered the 100-feet Road, Fauji Chowk, Hanuman Chowk, Arya Samaj Chowk, and culminated at the Qila Mubarak.

Jazim expressed his gratitude towards the residents of Bathinda and those who voted for him and helped him be one of the top five contestants on the show. He also thanked the youngsters for liking his style of singing ghazals.

The 22-year-old singing sensation won over the panel of judges and the guest judges on the show with his expertise in singing ghazals. After he sang one of Jagjit Singh's most popular ghazals, he was felicitated with the title of 'Shahzada-e-Ghazal' by the mentors of the show.

Jazim is currently pursuing MA (Music) from the University of Mumbai and has been staying in Mumbai for over a year. His family stays near the Bathinda Fort. While his father is employed with the health department in Goniana Mandi, his mother is a housewife.

Bathinda, January 29
A car, Maruti DL 2CN 6620, was stolen from the Mall road. In his complaint lodged with the Kotwali police, Gurcharan Singh, a resident of village Jhumba, said that on January 25, he had come to take medicine at Dr Mohan Lal Garg's hospital on Mall road.