Bathinda, April 26
The samples of drinking water collected from Government Senior Secondary School at Bhokhra, Government High School and Government Primary School at Khyaliwala and a few other schools in the area have failed the purity test.

The samples were collected on April 16 by a team of the Civil Hospital, Goniana Mandi. Apart from the management of the schools, the results of the tests have been sent to the District Education Officers (Elementary and Secondary Education) Bathinda and the Civil Surgeon among others.

After the results showed that the purity levels of the drinking water available was below the permissible limits, the schools have been directed to stop giving the water to its students.

Speaking to Bathinda Tribune, principal of one of the schools said the school had written to the Education Department several times in the past regarding installation of reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment system in the school.

“We have been requesting the education department to release financial grant for the installation of a RO system in the school. We are currently using the supply from the water works. Not only 250 students, the teachers also drink the same water. We have asked the students to bring drinking water from home to ensure that they consume clean water,” said Maninder Kaur, the principal of the Government High School at Khyaliwala.

DEO (Secondary Education), Harkanwaljeet Kaur said the proceedings on the purity test report would begin on Monday. “Sometimes, schools also arrange for an alternative source of water at its own level. We will check the test reports and will send the same to the state government. The demand for grants for RO systems have already been sent by the schools,” she said.

“I am yet to check the reports of the samples which have failed the purity test. The severity of the situation can be gauged only after we know on what parameters did the samples fail,” said Bathinda Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni. 

Bathinda, April 26
The ongoing tussle between Medical Representatives and a Mumbai based pharma agency has intensified with the Whole sale Chemist Association (WSCA) and the Retail Chemist Association (RCA) announcing support for the medical representatives.

Arun Kumar, president WSCA, and Ashok Balianwali of RCA along with Rajinder Singla Secretary of the Medical representatives Association have warned a major agaitation if the police did not accept their demand of registering a case against the local officials of the pharmaceutical agency.

Rajinder Singla said the pharma agency had sacked two representatives from Bathinda, who were members of the Medical Representatives Assocation. The pharma agency did not want them to be the members of any association. However, when the Associaiton took up the matter with the officials of the agency, they were beaten up.

He alleged that to their dismay the local police registered a case against the medical representatives and no action was taken against the agency officials.

They have threatened to stage a massive dharna outside the police station if there demands were not met with. — TNS.

Bathinda, April 26
The Punjab Police was informed beforehand that the three undertrials were hardcore criminals and should be taken for court hearing with extra care.

Three undertrials accused of looting and murder escaped yesterday after killing a head constable and inflicting injuries upon another cop while returning from Panchkula courts.

The accused, Jaswinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, both brothers, and Nahar Singh, all residents of Jai Singhwala village, were to appear before the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Panchkula for a hearing in the case registered against them under Section 379 of the IPC and others on June 2, 2011, at Chandimandir.

Bathinda Central Jail officials, requesting anonymity, today said the police was intimated about the criminal background of the undertrials 24 hours before they were handed over to the cops.

A day before, three separate letters, signed by Jail Superintendent Rajmahinder Sidhu were dispatched to the SP (Headquarter), in-charge of the Police Lines, Bathinda, and munshi of the Police Lines intimating them about the court hearing of the criminals at Panchkula.

"It was clearly mentioned in the letter that the three inmates are hardcore criminals and extra vigil is necessary. We have even written that they had earlier fled from the Lambi police station," said a senior jail official.

The jail official said though the police provided a vehicle along with six cops, extra care should have been taken while taking the undertrials for court hearing.

He stated that it was also mentioned in 'bold letters' that more than 15 cases were registered against them and they require extra security.

The jail authorities stated that when the undertrials had fled from police custody last time, they had looted 10 petrol pumps on the Malout Road, the Dabwali road and in the Lambi area of Muktsar district within two hours of their escape.

They were arrested by the Bathinda police from near the Fish Market near the Power House Road a few months ago.

The jail officials said as per the guidelines, the policemen escorting the inmates were not supposed to halt at places like dhaba or shop.

Jail Superintendent Rajmahinder Dhaliwal said there was no laxity on the part of the jail authorities as they handed over the criminals as per the instructions and guidelines.

Terming the incident of cop's killing as the most unfortunate, Inspector General of Police, Bathinda zone, Nirmal Singh Dhillon said in-depth probe would be conducted to unravel the truth in the case and anyone found guilty would be punished accordingly. "Negligence in duty will not be tolerated," he added.

He said the three fugitives were likely to be arrested soon as their photographs have been flashed across the region through various modes of communication.

He said efforts would also be made to make the escorting of criminals more stringent from now onwards and modalities in this regard would be chalked out soon.

He said the entire police force was on the tenterhooks since last evening. "We are making every possible effort to trace the accused and have announced cash reward of Rs 3 lakh, Rs 1 lakh for each criminal.

Bathinda, April 26
A delegation of the Maths Teachers Association, Punjab, met the Director General of School Education (DGSE), Kahan Singh Pannu and discussed their demands with him. They also submitted their memorandum of demands with him.

The DGSE assured them that the next financial grant to be sent to the government schools will also include grant for construction of math laboratories. He also assured them that instead of conducting district and state-level quiz competitions for social science, science, English and maths together, separate contests will be held for the benefit of students.

The association pointed out that while in middle schools, there were nine periods for drawing, 12 periods for Hindi, nine for physical education, 18 periods for science and 24 for mathematics, it was surprising that there were no posts for maths teacher in middle schools. The delegation also pointed out that the students were lagging behind in maths as science teachers have an additional burden of taking math classes as well.

The DGSE assured them that while the posts of maths teacher were being opened under the SSA and the RMSA, the same would be planned for all schools.

The teachers also demanded that there should be a post for District Maths Supervisor on the pattern of the District Science Supervisor. They requested the DGSE that the math teachers should also have a representation in the SSA team, which decides contents for various math-related publications.

The DGSE also assured the teachers that unlike in the past, the camps and seminars for the teachers would be organised in April and May this year as the strength of students in the schools during these months was minimum.

In their memorandum, the maths teachers had pointed out that the schedule of camps and seminars was erratic to an extent that sometimes these were held in January and February when the exams were round the corner.

The association also suggested that maths teachers from across the state be asked to prepare CDs of their activities and projects, and submit the same with the Edusat so that students get information on various projects.

Bathinda, April 26
The two-day pension adalat, organised for the ex-servicemen at the Army Cantonment area, concluded today. A large number of ex-servicemen, their dependents and war widows attended the adalat for the resolution of their pension-related problems. The event was also attended by senior service officers from the Army and the Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA).

The pension adalat was inaugurated by SL Singla, Additional CGDA.

The adalat was organised for the benefit of the veterans residing in Bathinda, Manda and adjoining areas.

As many as 750 veterans were able to seek resolution of their pension-related issues. Financial assistance to the tune of Rs 1 lakh was distributed among the needy ex-servicemen and widows by Major-General AK Mudholkar and Major- General Kamal Chauhan, GOC Sub Area.

On day one, the adalat was attended by the senior officers of the CDA staff, IDAS Additional CGDA SL Singla, IDAS Principal CDA (Pension) Ajay Mishra. 

Bathinda, April 26
Aiming to improve the manner in which practical examinations for maths, science, physical education and computer science are being conducted for class X students, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) announced a new policy.

Apart from many other changes, it has been announced that the remuneration given to examiners for conduct practical examination will be increased.

However, the Physical Education Teachers' Association, Bathinda, pointed out that the examiners conducting practical examination of physical education subject had not been paid any amount for the past two years.

Speaking to The Tribune, the president of the association, Ramandeep Singh, said, "Earlier, the teachers were paid Rs 5 for every answer sheet of physical education theory examination and Rs 4 per student for conducting the practical examination but the remuneration stopped two years ago."

"The board should first restart the remuneration and then announce increase in it," he added. The association also pointed out that the practical examination of physical education subject was four-hour long, which included track and field events.

The association said if the PSEB was charging fee from the students, then it should also pay remuneration to the examiners. 

Bathinda, April 26
The Technical Services Union today criticised the state government for not fulfilling the demands of the unemployed linesmen. The linesmen are demanding employment from the government and are protesting for the acceptance their demands.

Satwinder Singh, president of the Technical Services Union, Bathinda, said all the 4,000 linesmen should be given jobs by the state government and for this purpose all unions must join for the cause. “The police has been torturing the arrested linesmen inside the Bathinda jail,” alleged Satwinder. He further said that the state government was trying to hand over all the departments, running in profit, to private players. —TNS 

Bathinda, April 26
Bathinda and Abohar branches registered a total of 75 per cent voting on the first two days of the railway union elections. Out of the total 2,371 votes, as many as 664 votes were cast on Day 2 while 1,179 were cast on Day 1. The last day for polling is April 27.

As many as 240 cast their votes at the Railway Institute polling booth while 220 votes were cast at the polling booth, set up in the office of the assistant executive engineer. About 93 votes were cast at Barnala polling booth and 111 votes were cast at the Abohar polling station.

While members of all the six unions - Northern Railway Men’s Union (NRMU), Uttar Railway Mazdoor Union (URMU), Northern Railway Employees Congress (NREC), Northern Railways Employees Union (NREU), Railway Mazdoor Union (RMU) and Uttar Railway Karamchari Union (URKU) - claimed victory, sources said the URMU was all set to give a strong fight to the NRMU.

Peaceful polling was reported from all the polling centres as the personnel of the Railway Protection Force, the General Railway Police and the Punjab police kept a close watch on the activities. 

Bathinda, April 26
The 49th Punjab State Sub-Junior Basketball Championship began at Police Public School today. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla was the chief guest on the occasion.

Addressing the students, Singla said the state government had been making efforts to give an impetus to sports. He also praised the government for constructing a multi-purpose stadium in Bathinda besides setting up a sports school in Ghudda. He gave credit to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Cief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal for development in the field of sports in the past five years in the state.

He said the suggestions made by the Basketball Association, Punjab, for promoting sports in the state would be discussed with the Punjab Sports Department.

He added that the state government was making all possible efforts to wean the state’s youth away from drug addiction and other anti-social activities. He added that active participation in sports was one of the ways to give a proper direction to the lives of the youth.

He also announced a grant of Rs 50,000 on the association.

Surjit Singh Boparai, district president of the association, Jasvir Singh, chairman of the Central Co-Orperative Bank, were also present on the occasion.

Team from 16 districts of the state are participating in the tournament. On day 2 of the tournament, MLA Bathinda (rural) Darshan Singh Kotfatta will be the chief guest. Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka will be present as the chief guest as on the closing ceremony of the tournament on Sunday.