Bathinda, August 4
The Senior Medical Officer, Goniana Mandi, Dr Avtar Singh Dhillon, at whose residence in Bathinda a 'kundi' connection was detected on Friday, today claimed that he was being framed.

Talking to TNS here today, Dr Dhillon said the house from where the alleged 'kundi' connection was detected belonged to his father-in-law and the meter connection was in the name of his wife.

"There are certain elements in the hospital who are unhappy with my performance. There is a medico who wants to wrest control over the working of the entire Community Health Centre (CHC) at Goniana, which I do not allow," he alleged.

Dr Dhillon claimed that the doctor connived with officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and implicated him. He claimed that the monthly bill of the house was Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 per month. "Had we been using an illegal connection, the bills would not be so high," he said. Dr Dhillon said the domestic power connection was provided in 1993. Every two months, PSPCL employees get meter readings. Had the connection been used as commercial, they too would have reported it, he added.

Dr Dhillon claimed that around a year ago, the hospital staff had given in writing to the Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, that the erring doctor had been allegedly harassing them. "A few months ago, another employee in his complaint to the Civil Surgeon accused the doctor of harassment. The complaints are being investigated by the district health officer," he added.

There are certain elements in the hospital who are unhappy with my performance. There is a medico who wants to wrest control over the working of the entire Community Health Centre (CHC) at Goniana, which I do not allow.~ @@— Dr Avtar Singh Dhillon, 
—Senior medical officer, Goniana

Bathinda, August 4
The Punjab Technical University’s (PTU) constituent institute Giani Zail Singh Institute of Engineering and Technology seems to have different policies for suspending and reinstating employees.

A professor suspended for “indiscipline” has been charge sheeted while the one suspended for dereliction of duty has been reinstated within four days of suspension.

The director of the institute, Jasbir Singh Hundal, had suspended Prof RK Bansal of the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering on May 2 on the charge of indiscipline by giving wrong impression to the auditor visiting the campus to audit Rs 10-crore World Bank-sponsored Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP).

Interestingly, Bansal was suspended on the orders of the Vice-chancellor of the PTU (recommended by the director of the institute) while as per the rules, the director of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the university should have ordered the suspension.

However, in another case, the deputy registrar, Gurdip Singh, was suspended on the orders of the Deputy Commissioner on July 6 as he was found canvassing for his wife, a candidate for the post of sarpanch from Dhunewala village, instead of being present at Maur for the election duty assigned to him.

Interestingly, Gurdip Singh was reinstated within four days of suspension with an inquiry pending against him and has been discharging administrative duties.

The director of the institute, Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal, who is presently on a visit to Calicut, said RK Bansal and Gurdip Singh were suspended on different grounds and hence, their cases were being treated in a different manner.

“Bansal’s action has harmed the college interest but Gurdip’s act was found unfavourable by the district administration and not by the college. Gurdip too will be served charge sheet soon as has been done in the case of Bansal,” he said.

RK Bansal and Gurdip Singh were suspended on different grounds and hence, their cases were being treated in a different manner. Bansal’s action has harmed the college interest but Gurdip’s act was found unfavourable by the district administration and not by the college. Gurdip too will be served chargesheet soon as has been done in the case of Bansal.
— Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal, director, PTUGZS Campus

Bathinda, August 4
Members of the PWD Water Supply and Sanitation Staff Association and the Punjab Field and Workshop Union criticised the chief engineer of water supply and sanitation (north) for transferring state general secretary Harbhajan Singh Khunger from Fazilka to Tarn Taran.

In a press statement issued here, the president of the Water Supply and Sanitation Ministerial Staff Association, Kulwant Kaur, stated that the transfer was a part of the vendetta politics being played in the department.

Office-bearers Mahinder Singh, Pawan Kumar, Man Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Onkar Singh also condemned the transfer.

They said for a long time now, members of the union have been agitating for their several pending demands. The demands include promoting superintendents on 50 posts of senior assistant, dividing clerk cadre into 50:50 ratio for pay-scale as per the government rules, installing Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants to provide safe drinking water and coolers for the staff working in constituency and divisional levels, filling 650 posts of clerk and 50 posts of stenotypist which are lying vacant.

The union threatened that if the transfer is not cancelled immediately, it will hold a massive dharna and gherao the main office of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department on August 8.

Bathinda, August 4
Member of Parliament from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, today held sangat darshan programmes at villages Bibiwala, Gobindpura, Sema Kalan, Poohli, Bhucho Kalan and Burj Kahan Singh Wala in the district. The MP interacted with the villagers and listened to their problems.

Addressing problems like lack of city bus service in Bibiwala village, Harsimrat said that the PRTC depot in Bathinda was soon going to launch a fleet of 10 buses that will especially cater to the needs of the people in the villages. She also inaugurated the newly opened grain market at village Sema.

Earlier, at village Poohli, the MP said that the NDA will oppose the anti-people bills that would be tabled during the monsoon session of parliament. She alleged that in the name of food security, the UPA government is playing dirty politics. "Though the UPA government is imposing tax on all the states, grants are being given only to those states where the government belongs to the Congress or its alliance partner," she added. Harsimrat also sought to awaken the people against the social evils like dowry and female foeticide.

Prominent among those present on the occasion were Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav, SSP Ravcharan Singh Brar, ADC (Development) Mohammad Tayyab, SDM Damanjit Singh Mann, District Development and Panchayat Officer Rajidnra Batra and SAD press secretary Dr Om Prakash Sharma, among others.

Bathinda, August 4
Former Punjab Finance Minister and president of the People's Party of Punjab (PPP), Manpreet Badal on Saturday said that development in Punjab is quite a distance away. Manpreet was in Bathinda yesterday and visited the District Courts where he interacted with a section of the lawyers.

Taking a dig at the SAD-BJP government, the PPP chief said it has miserably failed in converting Bathinda into Paris but has surely made it a place which is no less than a nightmare. Whenever it rains, all the areas in the city choke and the city is turned into a virtual pool, said the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Over the alliance with the Congress party, Manpreet said so far, nothing has been decided and it is too early to say anything. He said the Bathinda parliamentary seat is very important and a good candidate would be fielded by his party during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

About the development claims of the Punjab Government that it has built drains, streets and roads, he said it is not the real development.

Real development would come when the youth are weaned away from drugs and a healthy atmosphere is built among the political parties, said Manpreet.

Bathinda, August 4
Nine persons were injured in separate road accidents in the city today. One of them was seriously injured and was referred to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, for treatment.

The mishap took place when a canter on the Bathinda-Muktsar road overturned after a snake wrapped itself around the shoulder of the driver who then lost control over the vehicle.

Volunteers of the NGO Sahara Jan Sewa reached the site of the mishap and took the injured to the Civil Hospital where they were admitted to the emergency ward.

Some villagers were in the vehicle and were travelling to Jagran village from Bir Talab. The mishap occurred near Deon village. The injured have been identified as Sukhminder Singh, Sukhpal Singh, Pal Singh and Gurmeet Singh. Volunteers of the NGO said the injured are in the age-group of 19 to 21 years and are residents of Bir Talab village.

The injured suspect that the snake entered their vehicle after falling from a tree and curled itself around the shoulder of the driver. The driver panicked resulting in the accident.

In another mishap, two cars collided head on at Badal road near Naruana village in which four persons received injuries. The injured were identified as Sukhmandar Singh and his wife Sandeep Kaur. They have been admitted to the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital by the volunteers of the NGO Sahara Jan Sewa.

A rickshaw and motorcycle collided near Government Rajindra College in which a man and his daughter were injured. The injured have been identified as Rakesh Kumar and Anjali. They were admitted to the hospital by the volunteers of the NGO.

Meanwhile, police has booked the driver of a Dabwali Transport Company's bus for rash driving resulting in serious injuries to a resident of Rureke Kalan.

The complainant in the case, Gurdev Singh, said the bus was being driven at a break-neck speed and it first hit a Mahindra pick-up jeep from the rear and then hit another carrier.

The complainant said they were on their way back to Rureke Kalan village in a vehicle that was transporting cattle. The complainant said his son Darshan Singh received serious injuries and was shifted to the PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Police arrested the accused bus driver who was released after furnishing a bail bond. A case under sections 279, 337 and 427 of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Rampura Sadar police station.

Bathinda, August 4
Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday laid the foundation stone of a 66 KV grid sub-station at Mansa which will go a long way in solving the power distribution network of the city.

Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal was also present on the occasion along with PSPCL chief KD Chaudhary. The station is coming up under the RAPDRP scheme at a cost of 27. 96 crore and once completed, will put an end to the power fluctuation in areas served by the grid.

The station will also result in the addition of six new feeders that will cater to various areas of the city. The station will cater to almost 25,000 customers of the public utility.

Officials said that it was not possible to create new feeders from the old station since overhead wires could not be drawn across the railway line in the old part of the city which was densely populated. Hence, the need for a new station at the grain market on the other side of the city, they added.