Bathinda, May 27
"What is taught in schools cannot be taught in any tuition classes," said Ashish Lehri, who scored 95.4 per cent marks in the commerce stream.

A student of the St Xavier's School, Ashish added, "A lot of emphasis is laid on coaching classes but one should be attentive and regular at one's school."

He said he didn't have to look anywhere for inspiration when it came to choosing commerce. "My father is an excise and taxation officer and my elder sister was also a commerce student. They were the reasons I took up commerce," he said. He surely is not repenting his decision.

Talking about his future plans, Ashish said, "I have kept my options open. I want to pursue B.Com (Honours) or Economics (H) from a good college in the Delhi University. If that doesn't happen, I may appear for the entrance examination for the company secretary (CS) or chartered accountancy (CA) course. I also want to pursue MBA from a good institute."

He scored 98 marks in accountancy, 95 each in economics, business studies and mathematics and 94 marks in English.

Maintaining that he studied for only three-four hours during school days and for five-six hours during examinations, he said he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the result. "I knew I had done well in the papers. I was expecting to score between 90 and 92 per cent marks. I was surprised to see I had scored 95.4 per cent marks," he said.

Bathinda, May 27
Jatin Chopra was not surprised to know that he scored 97 per cent marks in the non-medical stream of the Class XII examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

“I had been preparing hard and knew that I had done well in all the papers. I was expecting to score anywhere between 97 and 98 per cent marks. I am happy that the result met my expectation,” he said while speaking to Bathinda Tribune.

Jatin, who studied at the St Joseph Convent School till Class X, shifted to the Sudesh Vatika School in Bhagi Bander village and began taking classes at the Vidyamandir Coaching Centre.

“I used to study for an average of eight to 10 hours a day. I also made sure that while I prepared for the engineering entrance examinations, I also paid attention to the CBSE syllabus,” he added.

Jatin also scored 295 marks out of a total of 360 in the JEE (Main) examination. He wants to secure a seat in an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and then go on to become an IAS officer.

“I am interested in taking up electronics and computer science engineering and then pursue my dream of becoming an IAS officer. I want to get into civil services because I wish to serve the society as much as I can,” he said.

While Jatin’s mother is a housewife, his father RK Chopra is the head of the department of computer science at the Government Polytechnic College, Bathinda.

Giving a tip or two to his juniors, a confident Jatin said, “The key to success lies in time management while studying and also while attempting the paper. One should know how much time to spend on which question. The students should always peruse the question papers of the past years to acquaint themselves with important questions or topics.”

Bathinda, May 27
Around 350 garbage collectors working under the JITF Urban Waste Management, a private company, have gone on strike in protest against the company for not paying their dues. The protesters accused the company of forcing them to work in inhumane conditions.

The agitating employees gathered on the premises of the Blue Fox near the Rose Garden here and raised slogans against the JITF Urban Waste Management.

The garbage collectors had gone on an indefinite strike yesterday.

The president of the Balmiki Samaj, Sanjay Kumar, who is leading the protesters, said the workers had decided to go on strike for an indefinite period. “Time and again, we have raised our problems against the company but to no avail. This time, we have decided not to resume the work unless our demands are met completely,” he said.

Of the 350 workers on strike, 125 collect garbage from home to home, 125 are drivers of the vehicles that carry garbage and the remaining work at second garbage collection points, which include the decanter bins kept by the roadsides.

Protesting workers said for the past a year and a half, a sum of Rs 700 was being deducted as Provident Fund (PF) contribution from their salary, which was Rs 4,500 per month. Apart from this, Rs 125 per month was being deducted as medical allowance.

“We have repeatedly asked the company officials to tell us the status of our PF accounts. But whenever an employee asks for it, he is shown the door. Similarly, whenever any one of us suffers an injury, we are not given any medical or financial aid for treatment,” added Sanjay.

The protesters alleged that they had been paying for the maintenance of garbage-collecting vehicles also.

They added that many a times, they had reported the matter to the municipal commissioner.

“On various occasions, the commissioner rebuked the JITF officials to fall in line and give us our dues, but in vain,” Sanjay said.

When contacted, municipal commissioner, Uma Shankar Gupta, said the deadlock was between the JITF management and the workers. He said the PF cannot be withdrawn before the lock-in period of five years. "The JITF has given us receipts of all the PF deposited so far. The workers' reasonable demands will be accepted. But they should not go on strike and resume their working," Gupta said.

Despite repeated attempts, Bathinda cluster in-charge of the JITF could not be contacted as his phone remained switched off.

Bathinda, May 27
Having failed to auction sewer water running in sullage water carrier in the last three years, the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) has now decided to give away each 63 water siphons at Rs 4,500.

The proposal will be tendered before the general house meeting of the MCB scheduled for May 30. The last contract for the sullage carrier expired on December 21, 2010. The MCB put it up for auction four times at different reserve prices, but no one turned up.

These dates included December 23, 2010, January 10, 2011, February 7, 2011 and April 26, 2011. The reserve price was fixed at Rs 3.5 lakh. However, no one turned up for the auction even when the reserve price was slashed to Rs 2 lakh.

A sub-committee was formed to look into the issue. The members visited the sullage carrier drain and 63 siphons were identified. It was decided that each siphon be given for Rs 4,500 to the farmers from where they can take the water for irrigation purposes.

"Earlier, we used to give untreated sewage water, which was legally and scientifically unfit for irrigation. Now, since we have installed the sewer treatment plant (STP) at Mansa Road, the water released is clean and fit for irrigation," said assistant municipal commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal. With the giving of these siphons at the rate of Rs 4,500 each, the MCB aims at collecting Rs 2.83 lakh.

Besides, the list of 14 developmental works would be put up before the MCB House for consideration. One of the main issues is of laying a 10-feet wide bituminous macadam (BM) road on the Gurukul Road keeping in view the heavy volume of traffic that passes over it. For this, the estimate needs to be revised, which will be produced before the House.

The agenda would be floated on outsourcing 48 people, including data entry operators, drivers, gardeners, beldar, sewer men, sweepers, security guards and masons.

Bathinda, May 27
While the parking of trucks under the Bathinda Truck Union has been shifted from near the multi-purpose sports stadium to the Transport Nagar, the complete shifting of the facility is likely to take place by June 30.

The shifting of the entire facility would give much-needed relief from the traffic congestion in the heart of the city. Though truck operators had started parking their trucks in the Transport Nagar around two years ago, absence of the booking office facility there made them pay frequent visits to the union’s stand near the multi-purpose stadium.

“We were not provided with a booking office at the Transport Nagar. Since every driver and cleaner has to work according to the roster, they had to visit the office of the truck union along with their vehicles,” said the president of the Bathinda Truck Union, Deepinder Singh Kala, while explaining the reason behind the trucks still found parked near the stadium thereby adding to the chaos, especially when the schools nearby get over for the day.

In addition, there are trucks that come to the city for loading and unloading purposes. He said the parking facility at the Transport Nagar also needs to be developed properly for the 250 members of the union.

Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav said tenders had been floated for erecting sheds. The booking office could be shifted there. “The work will begin soon and will be completed within 15 days. We aim at shifting the entire truck union by June 30,” he said.

However, the future of around 2.5 acres of land under the Bathinda Truck Union will be decided by the Waqf Board, which had leased out the land to the union. “It is up to the Waqf Board to take the call on the future of the site. The district administration cannot interfere in it,” said Yadav.

Meanwhile, officials at the Improvement Trust, Bathinda, confided that the delay in shifting of the truck union to the Transport Nagar area had also caused a setback to its projects in the area. “The Transport Nagar has many good projects like dairy, besides commercial and residential projects. Once the truck union is shifted out completely, our other projects will also get an impetus,” said one of the officials of the Improvement Trust.

Bathinda, May 27
Rs 70,000 in cash and other material were stolen from a house in Partap Nagar.

One Balwant Singh said unidentified persons entered his house and took away the cash and important bank documents besides other things from his house in Partap Nagar.

Following Balwant’s complaint, a case under Sections 454 and 380 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons at Canal Colony police station.

Bathinda, May 27
Incidents of disputes over sharing of agricultural land and ancestral property is on the rise in Bathinda. Eight persons received serious injuries while one lost his life during the past three days in Bathinda over such disputes.

Most of the incidents took place between close relatives who fought over their share in the ancestral property. People involved in property disputes said due to lack of a set pattern in dealing with property related issues, such incidents are on the rise. The victims of such cases said neither has a way out been provided by the state government and the police nor by the civil courts.

Police and officials of the district administration said the disputes are arising due to the skyrocketing price of land and property which has increased manifold during the past few years.

A case under various sections of the IPC has been registered against 14 persons of various villages at Sadar police station for their bid to encroach upon a piece of land in Bhisiana. The complainant Dheer Singh said the accused razed the cotton crop that had been sown on the land and also beat him up.

Fighting over land in nearby Sivian village, two villagers fired gun shots and injured each other, creating panic in the village on Sunday morning.

Avtar Singh (65) was beaten to death by his own brother in Kotfatta village on Saturday morning. Avtar's brother, Hardyal, became upset after Avtar gave away his entire share, four kanals of agricultural land to one of the three children of his brother.

Residents of Kotfatta said though the area of the land was much less, but if sold, it may fetch up to Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakhs.

While Hardyal had three sons, all married, Avtar was a bachelor and had decided to give his share of land to one of the three sons of his brother whom he liked the most.

Similar incidents are regularly being reported from various rural and urban areas of the district and four persons, including two women, were admitted to the Civil Hospital today.

Ajmer Singh, a Maur resident, was injured in a scuffle with his father and brother. He said that he had given money to the tune of over Rs 5 lakhs to his brother during the past four years.

"I spent money on the marriage of the two children of my brother and when it came to the division of ancestral property, my brother refused to give me my due share and instigated father against me," Ajmer said. He added that the intervention of the panchayat, reputed people of the area and the relatives failed to yield results and the situation worsened with the passage of time.

Police said most disputes are taking place between relatives and close relatives. Villagers said that collective efforts by the revenue department and the police may bring some respite from such disputes but the officials fail to initiate action in property disputes.

Bathinda, May 27
As many as 22,441 beneficiaries of different government schemes have been disbursed Rs 65 crore through the online payment mode.

In a press statement issued here today, Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav stated that under the Integrated Financial Management System, the beneficiaries are being offered online money transfer facility so that they don't have to run from pillar to post to get benefits.

He added that the scheme was useful for the beneficiaries as it gave them an easy way to track their money and accounts and saved them from hassles that they faced in physically getting the work done.

Bathinda, May 27
As many as nine students of Master of Business Administration (MBA) of Punjabi University Campus, Maur, have been selected for State Bank of India's 8-10 weeks summer internship programme with a monthly stipend of Rs 8,000.

The programme will provide an outstanding start to the careers of the students and will focus on developing new skills and gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts through hands-on application of the knowledge that the students learn in the class.

Bathinda, May 27
Police has arrested Amar Singh, a resident of Sangrur with 7 kg poppy husk. The accused was found carrying the narcotics near Sidhana village. Investigating officer Sukhdev Singh said Amar Singh was taken to the police station where he admitted that he used to sell the poppy husk to drug peddlers and addicts. Police said that further questioning of the accused would be done to extract more details about the sale and purchase of the banned contraband.

A case under sections 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at Phul police station.

In another similar incident, Canal Colony police has arrested Gurpreet Singh of Bangi Nagar with 5.5 kg poppy husk. The accused was arrested from near Ganpati Enclave on Dabwali road. The accused was taken to the police station where a case under sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act was registered against him.