Bathinda, June 2
The rising mercury has started taking its toll on the city residents.

So far, three persons reportedly died due to heat wave conditions in the city. Besides, around 25 persons, including bus and train passengers, were offered treatment by volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa, an NGO.

All the three persons killed were above 50 years of age and used to sleep by the Malgodam Road.

People venture out of their homes with their heads covered as temperature has once again started heading north in Bathinda. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

After dipping by a few notches a few days ago, the temperature is heading north once again.

Traditional market places wear a deserted look during the daytime as people prefer visiting malls equipped with centralised air-conditioning facility.

The maximum temperature on Sunday was recorded at 44.6 degree Celsius while the minimum was recorded at 27.0 degree Celsius.

Weather experts said the last three days saw an increase in the night temperature.

If the weather experts of the PAU Regional Station are to be believed, the heat wave will continue to lash the region for the next one month and the temperature will be on the rise.

On May 24, the maximum temperature was recorded at 47.2 degree Celsius and it came down to 43.0 on May 26 and is oscillating between 43 and 44 since then. It is likely to increase in the coming days, the weather experts said.

The president of the Sahara Jan Sewa, Vijay Goyal, said apart from passengers, poor people putting up on the roadside, they had also hospitalised three drug addicts during the last few days.

The volunteers of the NGO said they not only offer cold water to general public at different places in the city but also provide free medical aid and ambulance facility to needy persons.

Beat the heat

Health experts advise that one should drink a lot of water; should spend some time under the fan instead of putting on air-conditioner on arriving from outside; eat a lot of fibre-rich foods, fruits for a healthy digestive system; and wear sunglasses and loose-fit clothes while venturing out in the sun.

Fact file

• Three persons reportedly died due to heat wave conditions in the city. Besides, around 25 persons, including bus and train passengers, were offered treatment by volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa, a non-governmental organisation.
• After dipping by a few notches a few days ago, the temperature is again heading north.
• If the weather experts of the PAU Regional Station are to be believed, the heat wave will continue to lash the region for the next one month and the temperature will be on the rise.

Bathinda, June 2
Close to 600 candidates appeared for the advanced stage of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in Bathinda district today.

Parents waiting outside the examination centre. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

There were only two examination centres in Bathinda, RBDAV Senior Secondary School and Army Public School. Students from not only Bathinda and its adjoining areas but also from parts of Haryana and Rajasthan chose Bathinda as their preferred choice of examination centre.

Two papers covering topics from the subjects of physics, chemistry and mathematics were held from 9 am to 12 noon and from 2 to 5 pm.

As many as 1,50,000 aspirants sat for the examination across India.

Earlier, the candidates had appeared in the JEE (Mains) examination on April 7. Then, as many as 11,223 students had appeared for the examination across 21 centres in Bathinda.

This is the first year of the change in pattern of the exam for entrance to some of the country’s most-coveted engineering colleges.

According to the new pattern, two exams are conducted - the JEE (Main) followed by the JEE (Advanced). The JEE (Main) is equivalent to the AIEEE and conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission to colleges other than Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

The JEE (Advanced) is conducted by the IIT for admission to 15 IITs, the IIT (Banaras Hindu University) and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. The exam replaced the IITJEE, which was conducted earlier for admission to IITs across the country.

Admission to these institutes will be based on the rank in the JEE (Advanced) examination. Only the top 1,50,000 candidates, including all categories, of the JEE (Main) qualify to appear in the JEE (Advanced) examination across the country. However, only students who are among the top 20 per cent in their respective boards will be considered eligible.

Bathinda, June 2
“I have signed the third film of the Vikram Bhatt’s ‘1920’ series. I will be seen in ‘1920: London’,” said TV actor Vishal Karwal, who was in the city for auditions of an acting-based reality show, Big Fame Star. He would be seen hosting the show.

“The shooting for the film will start soon. Apart from Vikram Bhatt’s film, I have signed two more Punjabi films, the shooting for which will also start in a couple of months,” he added. Vishal was last seen in a Punjabi film, ‘Aappan Pher Milange’.

The actor has participated in reality shows like ‘Roadies’, ‘Splitsville’ and Bigg Boss’, a fiction show ‘Bhgyavidhata’ and a mythological show ‘Dwarakadhish’. He said his family was always supportive of his choice of career.

“My father told me that we get only one life and asked me to live it the way I wanted to. He also supported me when I expressed my desire to join the showbiz and said if I failed, I could always come back and join the family’s jewellery business,” he said.

“In the beginning, he could not understand ‘Roadies’ and ‘Splitsville’, the reality shows that I did in the beginning of my career. But he was happy when I played Lord Krishna in ‘Dwarkadhish’. He has a huge poster of mine in that getup in his jewellery showroom,” Vishal added.

When asked which role or show was the closest to his heart as an actor, he said, “Playing Lord Krishna has been the closest. And if you ask me what do I prefer between films and TV shows, I would say I prefer films since every film is different and offers an opportunity to the actor to portray different roles.”

“As an actor, I also find fictional shows a little boring. An actor can enjoy his/her role during the initial three-four months. After that, the role becomes monotonous,” he added.

Talking about the kind of talent that he found during the auditions, the Roadies star said, “Bathinda has tremendous talent. Earlier, there used to be more singers than actors in Punjab. But during the auditions for the reality show, we realised that there are many good and aspiring actors as well. This is a welcome change.”

Bathinda, June 2
The residents of Paras Ram Nagar held a demonstration today to protest against the rising prices.

Leading the pack was former municipal councillor Vijay Kumar. The protesters wore garland of lemons saying that the only source of energy for the common man has now reached the rate of Rs 120 per kg. "How do we expect the common man to remain healthy in such scorching heat? Lemon was the poor man's squash and that too has been priced at Rs 120 per kg by the Central Government," said Vijay Kumar.

In a mock act, the agitationists resorted to highlighting the sorry economic state that the common man was grappling with. They said with the hike in diesel and petrol prices, the common man has no option but to beg for money.

Residents of the area like Baldev Kumar, Bhupinder Singh, Bikramjit Singh, Satnam Singh, Madan Mohan Sahni, Suresh Kataria, Azam Khan, Anil Bakshi and others also participated in the protest.

Bathinda, June 2
Police has booked one Raj Kumar of Basant Vihar, his wife and son besides 10 to 15 unidentified persons for stealing Rs 2 lakh in cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs 50, 000. The complainant in the case, Gurcharan Singh, said the accused entered his house with his wife and son, whose names are yet to be ascertained.

The complainant said the accused inflicted injuries upon him and took away the cash and jewellery from his house. The police was informed about the incident and a case under sections 452, 323, 380, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused in this connection at the Civil Lines police station. No arrests have been made so far.

A woman was rescued from the Thermal lake after an alleged suicide bid. She had to be rushed to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda for treatment. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Bathinda, June 2
Police has arrested Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Baba Deep Singh Nagar, with nine bottles of illicit liquor. The accused was found carrying the bottles near the entrance of the local bus stand. Police said the cops on duty at the bus stand police post found Sanjeev carrying the bottles.

The accused failed to produce any valid document to prove the genuineness of the liquor bottles.

Bathinda, June 2
Deepak Batra of Sangrur and Inderpreet Kaur of Moga scored the perfect 5/5 to win the Punjab State Chess Championship (U-19) in the boys' and girls' categories.

In the boys' category, Deepak Batra was followed by Ankit Kundra from Amritsar, Ishaan Bansal from Ludhiana and Ashish Goyal from Amritsar, who grabbed the second, third and fourth places, respectively.

(Above) Punjab State Chess Championship in progress at Teachers’ Home on Sunday; and (below) winners of the championship pose with their certificates on the concluding day of the tourney. The eight winners have been selected for the national-level championship. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

In the girls' category, the second, third and fourth places went to Amarjeet Kaur from Bathinda, Kajal from Moga and Rhytham Bhatia from Amritsar, respectively.

As many as 116 players from across the state, including places like Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Moga and Sangrur, had entered the fray for selection to the state team for the national-level chess championship.

Four participants each from the boys' and girls' category were selected to compete at the national level championship.

While Vishal Goyal, vice-president of Bathinda District Chess Association, was the chief guest at the opening ceremony held on June 1. The two-day event was organised by the Bathinda District Chess Association, at Teacher's Home.

Davinder Singh Jaura, president of Bathinda District Chess Association, was the chief guest at the closing ceremony on Sunday. He impressed upon the necessity to engage the younger generation in games and improvement of infrastructure.

Jaura also gave away prizes to the winners and appreciated the 'catch 'em young' policy of the Association. Also present on the occasion were the general secretary of the association, Pankaj Sharma, chief arbiter Rohan, assistant arbiters Mohit Bansal and Sukhjeet Singh Sivia, arbiter Sahil Garg, treasurer Dinesh Goyal and others.