Bathinda, May 23
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) will start a 'jail bharo andolan' from June 1 in the state to highlight the ‘misdeeds of the most-corrupt' government in the country since Independence.

Addressing mediapersons, the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Punjab chief, Mohit Gupta, said the state BJP chief, Kamal Sharma, had given a call to mobilise the workers and the people to come out on the streets and court arrest to voice their concern against the rampant loot not only in key ministries but also at the level of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Gupta was accompanied by Parminder Goyal and Gurvinder Brar Bhagta, BJP urban and rural chiefs, Sunil Singla, state convenor, Media Cell, and Vikram Lucky, BJYM urban chief.

Gupta, who was appointed to the post a few days ago, said the UPA Government was subverting the institutional framework of the country with its single point agenda of 'looting public money'.

On June 1, party cadres would be holding protest dharnas at all district headquarters in the state, he added. “The government, under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, has become a drag for overall development of the nation. The PM has lost the moral right to be at the helm of affairs and he must resign to restore the common man’s faith in the democratic institutions," he added.

"A significant number of Cabinet ministers in this government have been tainted. And now, all the evidences available on the record clearly indicates that the PM has willingly allowed this loot to happen. The mother of all scams — the Coal gate — happened when the ministry was with the PM," Gupta said.

It came out in the public that the PMO directly intervened in the investigation of the Coal scam and the Law Minister tried to tamper with the report at the behest of the Prime Minister, he alleged.

Bathinda, May 23
Municipal commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta will appear before a division bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) tomorrow for a hearing related to the solid waste management and treatment plant at the designated place on the Mansa road.

The case is under consideration before the Tribunal after area residents challenged the environmental approval the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) granted to the waste management plant.

The municipal commissioner has been summoned and asked to 
present an affidavit before the Tribunal that mentions the measures taken to 
mitigate the pollution emanating from the dumping ground.

Measures being taken

The Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB), has decided to construct around 10-foot high wall between the dumping ground and the water body (a tributary of the Sirhind canal) that flows nearby. For this, MCB officials are coordinating with the XEN of the Canal and Irrigation Department.

The entire piece of land is being enclosed with barbed wires at the places where it was left open. While the construction work of the wall will take around a week, the work on installing barbed wires is near completion.

MCB officials said the garbage was being scrapped. After the entire scrapping is done, earth will be spread on it.

A pathway along the boundary wall will be cleared, which will take around a month. The pathway will allow mobilisation of vehicles dumping garbage at the site.

Also, plantation will be undertaken on the land in the first week of June so that it is in tandem with the monsoon season.

The Municipal Corporation is also carrying out fogging in the area using a methyl-based solution.

All these measures have been documented in the affidavit that will be submitted before the National Green Tribunal tomorrow.

Bathinda, May 23
The Sarkari School Sikhya Bachao Manch is up in arms against the revised rationalisation policy-2013.

Teachers said earlier, the Education Department had announced that the rationalisation would be held on the basis of the students-teacher ratio. However, the revised policy was taking cognisance of the number of rooms available in a school.

Sukhdev Mittal, the press secretary of the manch, said, "The revised policy says that the number of sections in a school should commensurate with the number of rooms available and no child should be made to sit in the open. Since many of the government schools are short of rooms and have a large number of students, they will be forced to adjust more students in one room. This will show that the number of teachers in a school was more."

Rajesh Monga, the secretary of the manch, added that the rationalisation policy had been drafted to teachers' disadvantage. He pointed out that while the Right To Education (RTE) Act states that the teacher-student ratio should be 1:30 in middle schools, the earlier rationalisation policy went against the Act and stated that it should be 1:35. In high schools, the ratio should be 1:40 and in senior secondary classes, it should be 1:50.

"Now, the new policy is will show teachers of almost all the subjects in the schools in surplus. Where two teachers would have taught two classes with 30 students each, now one teachers is required to teacher a class of 60 students," he elaborated.

The manch had earlier pointed out that as per the policy, in case the number of science and commerce students was less in a school, they be shifted to another school while the teachers can stay on in the same school and teach students of the middle classes.

"This implies that the lecturers will have the responsibilities of a master cadre teacher. When some lecturers were made in-charge principals, the Supreme Court had ruled that they be paid extra for higher responsibility. Now, that they would work as master cadre teachers, will they be paid less," the Manch questioned.

Bathinda, May 23
Nearly a month has passed since the Director General of School Education (DGSE) asked schools to submit the list of unsafe rooms and buildings, and close to 10 days have passed since the schools were reminded to demolish the same, but it seems the school authorities are in no hurry to follow the instructions.

On April 27, the DGSE had asked the school heads to compile a list of the rooms and buildings on the premises of their schools which were declared unsafe by the Buildings & Roads (B&R) Department. On May 6, the DGSE released another notification reminding the defualting schools to send in the details by May 7.

Taking a note of the fact that the schools were yet to begin razing the unsafe buildings, the DGSE sent another notification on May 7 asking the schools to fall in line and initiate the process of demolition so that new rooms could be built before the onset of monsoon season.

As per the information available, a total of 182 rooms in government primary and senior secondary schools in the district have been listed as unsafe. Of these, while 125 rooms are located on the premises of nearly 30 secondary schools, the remaining 57 rooms are located on the premises of primary schools.

Mandeep Kaur, the principal of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, Bathinda, when asked if the process of demolition of the unsafe rooms had begun, she said, “There are 15 rooms in our school that have been declared unsafe by the B&R Department. I have sent a request to the department to demolish the rooms. I don’t have the authority to do it on my own.”

“The building is very old and has high ceilings. It would be better if the B&R Department either demolishes the rooms itself or gives me the authority to do the same. Anyway, the unsafe rooms are not being used as classrooms,” she added.

Surinderpal Kaur, the principal of the Government Elementary School, Mall Road, stated that since the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB), had planned that the school would be merged with the Government Senior Secondary School and the place would be used to build an underground parking, the school authorities have not begun the work of demolishing the unsafe rooms.

“We don’t know when we will be asked to shift. A new building is being built for our children in the other school. Since the building of the elementary school will anyway be demolished after we shift out, we haven’t initiated the process of demolition of the unsafe rooms,” she said.

Bathinda, May 23
A pitch and ground will be developed at the international cricket stadium on Dabwali Road addressing the concerns of cricket players who had no place to practice after a hockey astro-turf came up at Government Rajindra College grounds.

This was decided at a meeting of the district administration held today to discuss development works in the district. The district administration has received a grant of Rs 15 lakh for the purpose. "We will complete the pitch and playground by the end of June so that players have enough space," said Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav.

The fate of shifting the bus stand in the city to an area near Bibiwala Road on Barnala bypass was also discussed. Instead of Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), the Bathinda Improvement Trust will now look after the construction and development of the bus stand.

The PIDB has twice floated tenders for the same, which did not draw any response. The administration then decided to exclude PIDB from the project and hand it over to the Improvement Trust. Issues of security, as raised by the military station authorities, were also dealt with. "Keeping in view the security concerns that the military personnel have raised, we will leave 100 meter of the area falling in the radius of cantonment as no-construction zone," Yadav added.

Nod was given to the DAV Toba (pond) Scheme where the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) has planned the prestigious city center project with the Improvement Trust. Drawings and plans for the project have been sanctioned and further modalities are being worked out. Occupied by decades-old pond, the entire 11.78 acres of land would be utilised for collecting the pond water and will have a string of public utility projects. It would have parking lots, home for the elderly and an auditorium.

Taking stock of the new jail project coming up near village Gobindpura, Yadav said the land for the new jail has been transferred in the name of the department and tenders have been floated. The existing jail in the heart of the city will be demolished. BDA will develop commercial and residential pockets replacing the old jail premises.

Besides, issues like renovation of the guest-house at thermal lake, jogging track, sewerage works in the town, sewage treatment plants at Raman and Maur, ring road phase I and II were also discussed at the meeting.

Bathinda, May 23
The Bali Boy Company, which has been given the task of de-silting heavily silted trunk sewer pipes, today showed the cleaned portion from Balmiki Chowk to Haji Rattan on CCTV camera.

(Left) A CCTV image of the cleaned sewer; MCB officials including Mayor Baljit Singh Birbehman (in blue turban) at the meeting held to review the work of de-silting sewer lines in Bathinda on Thursday. Photos: Bhupinder Dhillon

Bathinda, May 23
DAV College, Bathinda, organised a felicitation ceremony to honour the students of class XII for their extraordinary performance in the recently declared class XII results of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB).

The students who were honoured at the special ceremony, attended by principal Dr JS Anand and coordinator of the collegiate school, Dr Parveen Bala, were Pooja Rani who scored 88 per cent marks, Amandeep Singh who scored 82 per cent marks and Navneet Kaur, who scored 78 per cent marks. All of them were from the science stream.

In the commerce stream, Amandeep Mittal with 84 per cent marks, Sukhbir Singh with 82 per cent marks and Shiva Jindal with 80 per cent marks were honoured.

Gurlabh Singh with 81 per cent marks, Gurmeet Singh with 79 per cent marks and Chamkaur Singh with 76 per cent marks were the students from the humanities who were honoured during the ceremony.

The students were also offered scholarships to carry on their studies in the college. The principal appreciated the staff of the Collegiate School for their hard work and also congratulated the students and their parents for the meritorious performance.

Bathinda, May 23
It seems the education department is all set to dissuade the school students from consuming any kind of habit-forming substances. Aimed at keeping the youth of the state away from addiction, the Director General of School Education (DGSE) has directed all the school heads to celebrate May 31 as 'Anti-Smoke Pledge Day'.

On this day, the students will take a pledge to stay away from tobacco products. They will also pledge to dissuade others from consuming such products. — TNS