Bathinda, October 20
Teachers of the aided schools of the district, under the banner of the Unaided Staff (Aided Schools) Front Punjab, today held a motorcycle rally to create awareness among the people pertaining to their long pending demands and to lodge their protest with the government as well.

The march started near Government Rajindra College wherein the agitating teachers raised slogans against the government. The teachers also raised slogans like "Lok Jagao, Aided School Bachao".

They threatened not to support the ruling combine in the forthcoming elections for the Lok Sabha if their demands were not fulfilled.

They added that wherever Member of Parliament from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal holds a public meeting, the members of the union will take out rallies informing the people against the alleged step-motherly treatment meted out to them.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, state president of the union Jaspal Singh Gill said that before the 2012 assembly elections, the SAD-BJP coalition had promised to regularise the services of the entire staff working in the aided schools. But now, after nearly two years of coming to power, the government has forgotten its promise.

State advisor Jagnam Singh Dhaliwal said the government wanted the aided schools to close down in order to lessen its financial liability.

"The government is not providing any stipend to the students studying in these schools. The students are bereft of other facilities also," he said.

District president of the union Gurpreet Singh said while the government theoretically talks of appointing one teacher for every 30 students, but for the past many years, these teachers have been teaching 80 to 90 students in a class. "We are taking more classes per day than prescribed by the government," he said.aProminent among others present at the gathering of aided teachers included Varinder, Didar Singh, Multan Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Iqbal Singh, Baldeep Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Chandarkanta and Preeti, among others.

Bathinda, October 20
Theatre lovers have a treat in store for them with Natyam — a theatre group from Jaito (Faridkot) — deciding to hold a six-day theatre fest in the city dedicated to 100 years of Ghadar movement.

Addressing media persons here today at the heritage village Jaipalgarh, Natyam director Kirti Kirpal and president of the Punjab Lalit Kala Academy, Harvinder Singh Khalsa said the fest will include street plays (nukkad natak) as well as the stage plays.

The fest will start on October 22 with street plays. Two street plays will be presented in different corners of the city and educational institutes, including "Samajhdar Log" (Wise People), penned by Surinder Sharma from Chandigarh and "Mehengai" (Inflation). The Natyam group will present both the street plays on October 22 and 23.

Starting from October 24, stage plays will be held at the Balwant Gargi Open Air theatre in the Rose Garden. On the inaugural day, the stage play "Te Leher Nayak Sirj Di Hai" will be presented, which is exclusively dedicated to the Ghadar movement. On the second day, Natrang Theatre Group from Abohar will present "Kuch Te Karo Yaar" written by Pali Bhupinder.

On the third day of stage plays, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Kala Kendra, Boha, will present the play "Khudkushi De Mod Te". On the concluding day, Lok Rang Manch, Faridkot, will present the play "Swami" directed by Gagandeep Singh. All the plays will start at 6:50 pm.

The fest will have prominent figures from the world of art and theatre participating in it. These would include the chairperson of the Art Council, Chandigarh, Bibi Harjinder Kaur, president, Punjab Sangeet Natak Academy, Kewal Dhaliwal, playwright Ajmer Singh Aulakh, film maker and playwright Pali Bhupinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda, KK Yadav, Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Rampura Phul, Tehsildar, Rampura Phul, among others.

Bathinda, October 20
The district administration has finalised four places for the sale of crackers in the city. Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav said the grounds of the multi-purpose sports stadium, Thermal ground, NFL ground and railway ground have been finalised for the sale of crackers and fireworks.

No sale of crackers and fireworks in wholesale and retail will be allowed at places other than the designated ones, the Deputy Commissioner said, adding that from Monday onwards, applicants can submit their applications at the office of the Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM), Bathinda.

The sale of explosive substances has been allowed at these four sites only till the festival of Diwali.

The Bathinda district administration will issue a notification pertaining to this by Monday.

Bathinda, October 20
The traditional Punjabi Phulkari patterns on scarves have edged out the black and maroon flowing robes as the convocation attire of the Punjab Technical University (PTU) colleges, making it the first in the state to introduce its own dress code for the ceremony.

Colourful Phulkari scarves and the new dress will be seen at the convocation of Giani Zail Singh PTU campus Bathinda, which is scheduled around January. Director principal of the PTU GZS campus Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal said the newly introduced scarves, which were first presented on the PTU campus during the 11th convocation ceremony held at Jalandhar, will be used on the GZS campus too.

"These scarves have Indian imprints and a rich heritage. We are to hold the convocation for the first time during my tenure at the GZS campus. The ceremony will be held either in late December or in early January. We will stick to the new introduced dress code for all the 400 students passing out," said Dr Hundal.

The academia procession will be given maroon coloured scarves, while the students will be given black coloured scarves replacing the maroon robes and black robes, respectively.

The dress code for the male students will be black pant, white shirt, black Phulkari scarf, khadi jacket, off white coloured shirt and a maroon turban (in case of Sikh students). For the female students, the dress code will be a salwar 
suit of off white colour, khadi jacket and a black scarf. Those wearing sarees will have to go for off white colour with a maroon border.

The Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, will soon be sending letters to its affiliated colleges seeking consultation for the new dress code. "We are not going to recommend the new dress. We wish to get better and improvised versions of Phulkari designs and ensemble from different colleges," said a PTU spokesperson.

He added that all suggestions for upgrading the new dress and the Phulkari pattern will be invited and the selected ones will be incorporated accordingly thereby discarding the colonial gowns.

Amritsar, October 20
The Comprehensive Mobility Plan, conceptualised to bring to an end the parking woes of residents and persistent traffic snarls in the walled city, has yielded little on ground as the authorities concerned have failed to implement it to raise the requisite infrastructure, either for want of will power or funds.

While the state government has been contemplating to make Amritsar a world-class tourist destination and the Deputy CM mulling to introducing robotic parking here, most of the key localities here are still crying for basic parking facilities.

In the absence of any proper system in place, haphazard parking is witnessed in the entire walled city, especially the most frequented areas such as Mall Road, Lawrence Road, Crystal Chowk and Queen’s Road.

When the police department conceptualised the idea of engaging private players for towing away the wrongly parked vehicles a couple of months ago, the residents were a delighted lot.

Had this move been implemented in its spirit, it would have helped generating revenue, it would have helped teach the violators a lesson.

ACP (Traffic) Navjot Singh said, “I took over the charge recently. I am chalking out a phase-wise plan to streamline the parking scenario. Locations such as the Golden Temple, Lawrence Road and Crystal Chowk will be my priority. We just engaged a Jalandhar-based tow-away crane firm which would be pressed into service in key areas of city.”

Bathinda, October 20
Deputy Commissioner Bathinda Kamal Kishore Yadav will be a guest at the studio of All India Radio (AIR) FM Bathinda- 101.1 MHz- for the weekly programme ‘Bathinda city’s development and challenges’ tomorrow.

In this live phone-in programme, listeners can call and directly speak to the guest to register their grievances and suggestions relating to the development of the city. Station director Rajeev Arora will host the show. Listeners can tune in and can call between 4 pm to 5 pm at the studio phone number 0164-2240331 to participate in the programme.

Ludhiana, October 20
A total of 41 persons tested positive for dengue in the city today. Out of these, 26 are from Ludhiana.

The other patients are from Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Mansa and Barnala. Three patients are form from Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Haryana and Rajasthan.

With this, the number of dengue patients in city hospitals has reached 715, out of which 386 are from Ludhiana district, 232 from other districts and 97 from other states.

A team of the health department visited Ward Numbers 50, 60 and 2 and Jawaddi Kalan, Model Gram and Vikas Nagar. The team held 20 group meetings with residents.

Pyrethrum spray was also done in affected areas.

Bathinda, October 20
The Department of Mechanical Engineering of Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical University (PTU) campus, Bathinda, organised an expert lecture sponsored under TEQIP-II, a project of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government
of India, here today.

Professor Rajesh Kumar Kanda from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, delivered an expert lecture on‘classical approach to machine design’.

During the lecture Kumar discussed about the design of mechanical components in length from basics and took the students on a journey from conventional manufacturing to the modern techniques of machine design from 18th century till the 21st century.

Director of the PTU campus Dr Jasbir S Hundal appreciated the professional attitude of the students.

Prof Surinder Singh, Coordinator, MED welcomed Prof Kanda. Prof Rajesh Gupta on the other hand coordinated the expert talk.

Bathinda, October 20
The team of Bathinda lifted the 4th Punjab State Deaf T-20 Cricket Championship defeating Amritsar in the final match by 34 runs at the ground of Police Public School here today.

Bathinda team players also walked away with the titles of man of the match, man of the series, best batsman and best bowler. Jaspal was declared man of the match as well as the best batsman. Similarly, Navjot was awarded as the man of series as well as the best bowler.

While batting, Bathinda managed to score 106 runs in 20 overs at the loss of eight wickets. Jaspal scored 46 runs, while Hemant struck 15 runs.

In the bowling, Bathinda team’s Navjot took four wickets while Sanjeev took 3 wickets. The entire team of Amritsar was wiped out at 72 runs in 13.3 overs. From the Amritsar team Balraj, Arjun and Subhash took 2 wickets each.

General secretary of the Punjab Deaf and Dumb Sports Association, Patiala (PDDSA), Rinku Singhal said six teams participated in this championship, including Bathinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Ropar.

All the players were deaf and mute. The youngest player was 16-year-old, while the eldest one was 36-year-old.

Singhal said the state government should also come forward to help these deaf and mute players who are no less gifted than the normal people.

“These players have finer sense of discipline and are more eager to learn the game than the normal people,” Singhal said.

Government should encourage them by giving special incentives to play and raise quality infrastructure for them to play,” he said.

Bathinda, October 20
The Kotwali police has booked a resident of village Khiali Wala for using stamps of the District Transport Office made from a manufacturer using questionable means.

In his complaint to the Kotwali police, the stamp manufacturer, Sanjeev Goyal, a resident of Model Town phase I, stated that the accused Manjit Singh from Khiali Wala village, approached him 20 days ago claiming to be a motor vehicle inspector (MVI).

The accused Malkit Singh requested Sanjeev Goyal to make three stamps of the DTO office. The request was forwarded to Sanjeev on a letter pad of the MVI Malkit Singh. Goyal grew suspicious and enquired from the DTO office about the MVI named Malkit Singh. However, when he came to know that there was no MVI named Malkit Singh, he informed the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Bathinda. The SSP then ordered the registration of a case against Malkit, who is absconding.