Bathinda, July 26
The Vigilance Bureau officials arrested an accountant with the office of the District Education Officer (Primary) on the charge of receiving illegal gratification. Vigilance SSP Sukhdev Chahal said the accountant, Ravi Kumar, was arrested after he was caught red-handed by a team of vigilance officials led by DSP Janak Singh at a hotel near the bus stand this afternoon.

The accused, who was arrested by a Vigilance Bureau team, led by DSP Janak Singh (right), at the Vigilance police station in Bathinda on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Ravi, who has been working in the DEO office for the past around 10 years, was arrested on the complaint of the Block Education Officer (Primary), Darshan Singh.

The accused had sought bribe to clear a file pertaining to issuance of grant of Rs 1.5 lakh to a government school on the Parinda Road in the city. The school is run under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for poor children in the age group of 8 to 14 years. It is the only residential school in Bathinda district where children belonging to poor families study and reside. The expenditure on food, education and clothing of around 50 children in the school is borne by the government.

Last year, then government had released a grant of Rs 7.5 lakh while Rs 1.5 lakh sought by the BEO (Primary) was released around four months ago.

However, the accountant delayed issuing the grant over the pretext of incomplete paper work, not maintaining food quality meant for children, incomplete bills, lack of teachers and other objections. Despite pleading before him that the school was for poor children and the BEO had no personal interest in it, the file was not cleared.

The BEO claimed that the accountant sought Rs 10,000 to clear the file but the deal was settled at Rs 8,000. The accountant asked the BEO to meet at a hotel near the bus stand with the money.

Meanwhile, the BEO informed the vigilance officials. A vigilance team led by DSP Janak Singh arrested the accountant in the presence of shadow witness and two government witnesses, including an SDO and a clerk of the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda.

It is learnt that the vigilance officials also visited Ravi Kumar's house in Maur Mandi.

A case under Sections 7 and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accountant at the Vigilance police station, Bathinda.

Bathinda, July 26
"I request the Vice-chancellor of the Punjab Technical University, Dr Rajneesh Arora, to prepare a case in favour of turning the Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh (PTUGZS) Campus into a university and I promise to take up the issue during the monsoon session of the Cabinet," said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his visit to the campus here today to lay the foundation stones of two new facilities.

The CM laid the stones for a students' centre and a boys' hostel.

Besides showing interest in establishing the PTUGZS Campus as a university, he also shared his plan to improve the infrastructure of schools in villages.

"The government has decided that the students of government schools who secure 80 per cent or above marks in Class X examination will be given Rs 30,000 per annum under the Shri Hargobind Khurana Scholarship scheme. Rs 2,500 will be transferred to their accounts every month," he said.

The VC said, "The GZS College of Engineering and Technology was made as a PTU campus in 2011 with the aim to put emphasis on post-graduate studies and doctoral research. Since then, there has been a tremendous increase in the demand for all courses here. Recently, the campus was given a grant of Rs 10 crore by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the TEQIP-II project. There has been an increase in the income of the institution from Rs 14 crore to Rs 26 crore this year."

The students' centre will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 6 crore with 30,000 sq feet of covered area. It will have an open air theatre with a seating capacity of 500, a restaurant, a hobby club with meditation room, a cultural-cum-practice room and indoor sports area besides NSS and NCC offices. It has been designed by Ripudaman Singh and Jatinder Kaur of the Department of Architecture of the campus and structurally designed by Prof Rakesh Singla of the Department of Civil Engineering.

As far as the boys' hostel is concerned, it will come up on 1.8 acres with covered area of 85,000 sq feet. It will have 149 rooms out of which 40 rooms will be air-conditioned. The hostel will provide accommodation facility to 435 under-graduate and post-graduate students. It has been designed by Bhupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet Kaur and structurally designed by Prof Rajesh Kumar.

Fact file

* The Chief Minister laid the foundation stones for a students' centre and a boys' hostel at the PTU Giani Zail Singh Campus.

* The students' centre will be constructed at an estimated cost of ~6 crore with 30,000 sq feet of covered area.

* The boys' hostel will come up on 1.8 acres with covered area of 85,000 sq feet. It will have 149 rooms out of which 40 rooms will be air-conditioned. The hostel will provide accommodation facility to 435 under-graduate and post-graduate students. 

Bathinda, July 26
The Director of Public Instructions (Secondary Education), Punjab, visited the city today and inspected the mid-day meal being served at two government schools here. He also visited the offices of the District Education Officers (elementary and secondary).

The DPI (SE), Kamal Garg, inspected the food being served to the students of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, and found it to be satisfactory. He also tasted the meal cooked for the students at the Desraj School.

He instructed the cooks to make sure that they cover the chapattis with a clean cloth to maintain hygiene. He also directed them to make sure that they use ISI-brand spices and oil for preparing the meal.

"Although I found the food satisfactory, I directed the cooks to improve on the hygiene and quality of condiments being used for preparing the food," Garg said. He also checked the attendance of teachers at both the schools and interacted with the students.

After inspecting the schools, he went to the offices of the DEOs. "I checked the records of attendance of the staff at the DEO offices, cleared and pending medical bills, employee-benefit schemes and several other details. The work of both the offices was found to be satisfactory."

The DPI (SE) told Bathinda Tribune that he also instructed the DEOs to expedite the work for enlisting the beneficiaries of the Hargobind Khurana Scholarship for meritorious students.

"The data of the students of government schools who scored 80 per cent or more marks in their Class X examinations this year will benefit under the scheme. The details of these students in Bathinda district were collected when a counselling session was held for them in Bathinda. The DEO office is responsible for opening bank accounts in the names of these students since the money under the scholarship will reach them through e-transfer every month," he added.

Bathinda, July 26
Four persons, including the complainant in a case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) pertaining to the garbage dumping site of the solid waste treatment plant, have been booked for interfering with the work going on at the dumping site on the Mansa road.

The Canal Colony police booked Captain Mal Singh (retd), Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmail Singh and Nagor Singh, all residents of Harbans Nagar, on the complaint of assistant municipal commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal. The accused had tried to stop a JCB machine operator from clearing the approach road to the dumping site.

A case has been registered against them under Sections 353 and 186 of the Indian Penal Code at the Canal Colony police station.

Meanwhile, there was uproar at the site when some residents of Harbans Nagar area tried to stop work.

Municipal commissioner Uma Shankar Gupta said as people tried to stop the work, the police was called in to bring the situation under control.

Fact file

The Canal Colony police booked Captain Mal Singh (retd), Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmail Singh and Nagor Singh, all residents of Harbans Nagar, on the complaint of assistant municipal commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal. The accused tried to stop a JCB machine operator from clearing the approach road to the dumping site.

Bathinda, July 26
The man-river relation should be made a part of the school and college curriculum to save the future, which is not very rosy with respect to the quality and availability of water, said the waterman of India and Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient Rajendra Singh.

While talking to TNS on sidelights of the ongoing Kheti Virasat Mission’s natural farming and environment fest, Rajendra Singh said 70 per cent of the rivers in the country have dried up, are dying or are already dead while the remaining 30 per cent have been reduced to mere drains and are highly polluted.

“No city can today claim to have a river. Whether it is the Buddha Nullah of Ludhiana or Yamuna Nullah of Delhi, the pristine water bodies carry toxicity,” he said.

Calling upon the need to inculcate respect and sensitisation towards the rivers of country, he raised the demand of introducing chapters on man-river relationship in different classes. “Polluted rivers will yield polluted food products only. How can you expect nutritious food irrigated with polluted waters,” he questioned.

He added that the presence of heavy metals in the river waters clearly indicate the path of disaster that “we have trudged upon”. “The priority of the government is economic development. Sadly enough, the development indicators have not been associated with index of health of the country’s citizens,” he added.

Warning the Punjabis on impending environmental disaster, he said farmers should soon shift to organic farming and the government should draft a policy to rejuvenate the dying rivers as well as arrest the depleting water aquifers.

“In Punjab, more than 50 per cent aquifers are overdrawn. In addition, the industrial pollution has choked the aqua life in the land of five rivers, where safe drinking water has to be purchased,” he said.

Earlier, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the fest, he requested Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take up a project as the River Rejuvenation Policy. The Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient extended his help in cleansing the rivers of Punjab.

“I come from a state that nature gives least water in the whole country. We have rejuvenated seven rivers of the north India and we will be more than happy to assist Punjab in regaining what is being lost everyday,” he said.

Bathinda, July 26
The team of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) yesterday intensified its campaign against dairies in the city that dump cattle waste into the main sewer. Led by Chief Sanitary Inspector Ranbir Singh, the team inspected eight dairies and cut off sewer connections of three of them.

The team visited dairies at Hari Nagar, Naruana road, Pratap Dhillon Basti, Amarpura Basti and Hargobind Nagar. The sewer connections of dairies owned by Amarjit Singh and Shiv Kumar on the Naruana Road as well as that of Tejinder Singh from Amarpura Basti were cut off.

Amarjit Singh promised the MCB team to build a septic tank within three days.

Ranbir Singh said the dairy owners were supposed to collect animal waste in a septic tank that had three chambers.

“The first chamber should be 3-ft deep, while the second chamber little less than 3 ft and the third one even lesser in depth. From the last chamber, water has to be siphoned off into the main sewer,” he said.

Taking advantage of the sedimentation, the first chamber has the maximum heavy particles settled at the bottom, while the second and third chambers have lesser. Dairy owners are supposed to clean the septic tank daily and remove the muck settled at the bottom.

There are around 175 dairies in the city, which have over two cattle heads. The MCB teams will keep on visiting the diaries to check the issue.

The team directed dairy owners to complete the construction of septic tanks within the shortest possible time.

Dairy owner Shiv Kumar from the Naruana Road area gave in writing to the authorities to construct tanks by Sunday.

Dumping dairy waste into sewer is a violation of Section 203 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.

Adding waste to sewer clogs it, which is again a violation of Section 323 and 324 of the Act.

Bathinda, July 26
DAV College has got the nod from Punjabi University, Patiala, to introduce MA Punjabi and MA political science and BSc in computer, statistics and mathematics beginning this academic session.

Dr JS Anand, Principal of the college, thanked the university authorities for granting permission to start these courses which would expand the academic network of the college.

With more people interested in the study of subjects of humanities stream, these courses would attract the youth in a big way, he said.

“The main thrust of the institution is not only to provide diversity of courses, but also intensive teaching,” he added.

He further said the college had also instituted a special scheme to provide subsidised education to meritorious students from rural areas.

This decision has been taken in view of the call of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to extend quality education to meritorious students hailing from rural areas who lack the wherewithal to pay for their education.

Bathinda, July 26
Punjab farmers urgently need to repair their 'near-dead' soil or else a catastrophe is awaiting to hit Punjab in next 15 years, said Lakshman Singh from Laporia village in Rajasthan, who was awarded the Rashtriya Bhoomi Jal Samvardhan Puraskar-2007 by the President of India.

Lakshman Singh developed dykes or chauks, kinds of compartments, to conserve water thereby turning 50 villages into drought-free areas. He used an indigenous method of rainwater harvesting using dykes.

In the city to participate in the Kheti Virasat Mission's (KVM) natural farming and environment festival, Lakshman Singh said, "I could not study beyond Class X as there were no means to continue my education. I knew that the key to prosperity of my village was water, which was scarce in the state that receives the least quantum of rainfall in the country. It was then that the idea of developing dykes struck me," said a humble Lakshman Singh.

Lakshman Singh developed dykes wherein water is stored round the year and crops such as mustard and gram are grown using the moisture and dewdrops drawn from the atmosphere. "The water we stored was not only used for irrigation, but helped us develop pastures as well. In these pastures, we breed cows and have a number of other animals and birds. In a way, the entire ecosystem has been changed," he added.

The 'chauks' converted a desert village Laporia into an oasis. Today, Lakshman Singh's village along with 50 other villages he has developed with the support from 8,000 volunteers of his NGO, the Gram Vikas Navyuvak Mandal Laporiya (GVNML), is proud of the variety of birds and animals visiting the fields there. "Birds and animals are indicators of a healthy farm and soil. No farm can bloom till the birds are not around," he said.

Laying emphasis on the need to do away with the habit of "excess", he suggested the Punjab farmers to tread a conservationist path in terms of usage of natural resources to grow food. "Punjab has paid a high price for feeding the nation. But the farmers here will have to understand that excess of anything is always wrong," he explained. He exhorted urban dwellers to spare a thought for the environment. 

Laxman Singh’s guide on rejuvenating dead soil

Sprinkle some jaggery (gud), grains for birds and wheat flour for ants in the field. Take mud (up to 6 inches deep) from around a banyan tree, mix it with jaggery and scatter it in the field. Then, sow seeds in the field and repeat the exercise every year. It will add organisms even in dead soil.

Bathinda, July 26
Former Bathinda MLA Harminder Jassi said today that a meeting of Congress workers was being called tomorrow to chalk out a strategy to oppose property tax imposed by the state government. The meeting would be held at the Congress Bhawan in Bathinda.

In a press release, Jassi said apart from property tax, a ward-wise list of unemployed youth would be made. Party workers would be made aware of the Social Security Bill and they would also be geared up for the corporation and Lok Sabha elections.

Bathinda, July 26
A digitised library for lawyers at the District Court Complex, Bathinda, is likely to be inaugurated by Justice Jitendra Chauhan of the Punjab & Haryana High Court tomorrow. The library is equipped with nearly 7,000 books and most of them in digitised form in five computers would be open tomorrow. 

Bar Association president, Mohinder Sidhu said the Bar room was a part of the library, which is now separated. Besides the inauguration of the library, the courts would also be inspected by Justice Chauhan. A lok adalat is also being organised at the District Courts on Saturday. — TNS

Bathinda, July 26
The police has arrested four persons for possessing opium and intoxicating powder from opposite the local Harchand Cinema. SI Sikandar Singh, the investigating officer, said Harvinder Singh, Hardev Singh, Jaswant Singh and Gurdeep Singh, all residents of Joganand, were arrested for possessing 220 gm of opium and 250 gm of intoxicating powder.

A case under Sections 18, 22, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act was registered against them. — TNS