Bathinda, October 28
With a newly married woman ending her life by jumping into a lake of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), the number of deaths reported this year in the lakes rose to 10. The last year’s figure was 12.

Even as the lakes are potential suicide points, the authorities have failed to wake up from their deep slumber to take some measures preventing people from ending life by jumping into lakes.

“Many precious lives could have been saved had the authorities fenced the lakes with a single barbed wire. The urge to end life is momentary. Fencing would restrict the easy accessibility to the lakes and could play a major role in preventing such unfortunate incidents,” said Thermal police station in-charge Inspector Harpreet Singh. He lamented that numerous letters have been written to the Powercom officials in this regard but to no avail.

The authorities had, however, deployed watchmen to maintain vigil around the lakes during the night hours. It did help in preventing young boys and girls taking advantage of darkness at secluded spots around the lakes to indulge in "immoral activities", he said.

Endorsing the SHO’s view, president of Sahara Jan Sewa Vijay Goyal said though the SAD-BJP-run state government claimed to have brought numerous public-friendly schemes and kept announcing grants to the tune of crores of rupees, there were certain issues that required immediate attention. “Just a few lakhs of rupees released from the MLA fund of local legislator Sarup Chand Singla could have helped in dealing with the issue to a great extent but nobody is ready to take an initiative,” Goyal said.

While 22 deaths have been reported in the lakes during the past two years, only one woman was recovered alive by the divers of the boating club a few months ago, Goyal added.

Earlier, a man and his two sons of an influential family residing near a private colony adjoining the lakes had committed suicide by jumping into the lake waters. The body of a young missing child was recovered two months ago. A retired vice-principal had also ended his life by jumping into one of the lakes.

Bathinda, October 28
In yet another incident of snatching near Mittal Mall, a student was thrashed and unidentified miscreants took away his cell phone worth Rs 6,000.

The incident took place at around 5 pm when the student, identified as Shubham, was coming towards GT Road from his residence in Panchvati Nagar.

"I had just received a call from my friend while walking towards the main entrance of the Mall when all of sudden, the snatchers came on a Bajaj Platina motorcycle, slapped me and took away the cell phone," Shubham said.

They fled from the spot in a jiffy, the victim said.

He added that one of the boys was in blue shirt and grey formal trouser and was wearing spectacles.

They seemed to be from a middle class family.

The Police Control Room was informed about the incident and a police party examined the CCTV footage installed around the Mittal Mall. The police said vital lead had been obtained and the snatcher would soon be arrested.

Kotwali SHO Karamjit Singh along with the investigating officer in the case and other policemen reached the spot and an alert was sounded in the city.

It is pertinent to mention here that just a few months ago, miscreants had snatched a gold chain of a man from near the Mall.

Meanwhile, a worker at the Mall said his mobile phone too was snatched in a similar manner around a month ago. "Two young boys came, thrashed me and took away my cell phone from near the Mall," he said.

Interestingly, DGP Sumedh Saini, who visited Bathinda last week, had claimed to bring down the number of snatching incidents to a great extent.

Prominent persons residing in Panchvati Nagar, including Amit Setia and Tanu, demanded police patrolling in the areas around the Mittal Mall, particularly during the evening hours.

"There are just two or three secluded streets where snatchers take advantage of darkness during evening hours. Besides snatching, they may also commit heinous crimes in view of the lack of police patrolling in the area," they said.

Bathinda, October 28
Members of the Bathinda District Congress (Urban) today staged a dharna under the guidance of Harminder Singh Jassi, general secretary of the Punjab State Congress Committee and a former local MLA.

Addressing the protesters, Jassi derided the working of the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda (MCB), and the SAD-BJP government in the state.

He accused the government of putting financial pressure on residents of the state by taking anti-people steps, including introduction of property tax, change in land use (CLU) and regularisation policy.

Jassi also claimed that the accounts of the MCB had not been audited for the past 15 years and the corporation officials had allegedly been trying to keep embezzlement of funds under wraps. The former MLA accused the corporation of failing in serving its purpose of making basic necessitates like potable water, sewerage, roads, street light etc available to residents of the city.

He alleged that corruption was rampant in the corporation and that the leaders of the ruling government were fleecing people to fill their own pockets. The rules and regulations of the corporation were only applicable on the common man, he added.

He claimed that the SAD-BJP government was postponing the MCB elections as it was allegedly devising ways of influencing the voters and voting pattern like they had done during the last elections.

Praising the Central Government of introducing pro-people policies, the PPCC general secretary stated that the state government was trying its best to turn the residents of the state against the Central Government and not letting the Centre's policies to succeed in the state.

He claimed that people of Punjab had by now seen the true colours of the SAD-BJP government and the state's empty coffers were a proof how the state government was being run for vested interests.

Expressing his trust in the party workers and voters, Jassi said the party would register a thumping victory in the state during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and would continue to remain at the helm of Indian politics.

Bathinda, October 28
Owing to poor response, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB)-authorised centres for collection of e-waste in Mansa and Patiala are on the verge of closure.

To deal with e-waste produced from mobile phones, computers and its accessories, the PPCB had floated a scheme authorising certain centres to collect the waste.

The PPCB had authorised five such collection centres in the state. The main tasks of the centres were to collect e-waste and send it to the cities having e-waste processing plants.

The collection centres were approved at Patiala, Mansa, Amritsar and two at Ludhiana, the hub of e-waste. While both the facilities at Ludhiana have been functioning well along with the one in Amritsar, the centres at Patiala and Mansa are facing shut down. The latter two centres were supposed to cover the entire Malwa region but they failed to function.

The Singh Bros Mobility Solutions, a Delhi-based company, was to run the e-waste collection centres.

The PPCB authorities at Patiala said, "The company arranged the entire paraphernalia required to run the centres and took authorisation from the board. However, it did not work. Notices have been issued to the Singh Bros Mobility Solutions asking it to appear before the board for hearing. But orders have not been complied with yet."

Meanwhile, Bharat Bhushan from the Singh Bros Mobility Solutions, who was assigned the centres in Punjab, said the centres were facing closure due to poor response from public. "We haven't got enough queries to work on. Since we could not continue with any work, we decided to close these centres," he said.

The PPCB had been emphasising against splurging on gadgets and equipment.

"One should try to upgrade technology but not just discard the obsolete one. People will have to realise that recycling is the mantra to have lesser garbage around," said PPCB officials.

Bathinda, October 28
Following a call by the PSEB Engineers' Association of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), the engineers today held a gate rally outside the Thermal plant protesting against the disciplinary action being taken against GNDTP officials in case of a technical snag on June 13. Holding the turbine manufacturing company and not the Thermal employees responsible for the incident of oil starvation of turbine unit III on June 13, the Association said engineers were being made the scapegoats.

Engineers wore black badges last week. The agitation will be further intensified if the PSPCL management does not withdraw the proposed action against the GNDTP officials.

The Association said the action was taken hastily without going through the reply submitted by the officers and without considering the facts. They reasoned that the incident had occurred due to design failure and the casual approach of the turbine manufacturing company in executing the project.

“GNDTP engineers were forced to synchronise the unit despite the fact that there were serious discrepancies in view of the requirement of power. Both BHEL and the PSPCL management were aware of the critical punch points. The PSPCL management is also responsible for the above incident as no separate construction wing was created for carrying out the renovation and modernisation (R&M) activities of the units," said Devinder Goyal, regional secretary.

Executive member of the association, Manjit Singh said R&M of the units is a more difficult task as compared to the construction of green field power projects. GNDTP engineers had to carry out R&M activities along with the operation and maintenance of the other units with inadequate staff strength.

Executive members of the Association, Rajinder Singla and Ashok Arora, said despite an acute shortage of staff, officers or staff members are transferred from the GNDTP without any substitute. In the past six months, six officials have been transferred from the GNDTP to the distribution wing.

The PSEB engineers' association had already cautioned the PSPCL management which totally ignored the facts, they said.

Bathinda, October 28
The five-day 59th Punjab State School Sports Tournament was inaugurated here today at a ceremony held at the Multipurpose Sports Stadium. The tournament was inaugurated by the chairman of the Zila Parishad, Gurpreet Singh Maluka. Assistant Director General, School Education, Parampal Kaur, was also present as a special guest.

Students of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School and other schools presented cultural items such as dance performances and songs during the inaugural ceremony. Maluka announced a grant of Rs 11,000 for the refreshments of the players.

While the District Education Officer (Secondary) Harkanwaljeet Kaur welcomed the guests and the players, Assistant Education Officer (Sports) Pavittar Kaur stated that during the tournament, national style kabaddi and netball competitions will be held for both boys and girls in the Under-19 category while the handball competitions will be held for both boys and girls in the Under-14 category.

She added that as many as 1,800 players from 22 districts of the state will be participating in the competitions. While the kabaddi competitions for boys will be held at the DAV College. For girls, it will be held at the Government Senior Secondary School. Netball and handball competitions will be held at St Xavier's School.

On Day I of the tournament, in the kabaddi competition for boys, Gurdaspur beat Ludhiana 54-17, Muktsar beat Jalandar 50-22, Ropar beat Kapurthala 26-23 and Mohali beat SBS Nagar 46-30. In the kabaddi competition for girls, Bathinda beat Barnala 63-55.

In the Under-19 category for girls in netball, Moga beat Jalandar 7-0, Mansa beat Ludhiana 15-11, Tarn Taran beat Patiala 3-1, Bathinda beat Jalandar 13-0, Mansa beat Sangrur 13-3, Barnala beat Gurdaspur 12-9 and Muktsar beat Patiala 12-1.

In the Under-14 category for boys in handball event, Muktsar beat Jalandhar 18-12, Moga beat Amritsar 13-11, Patiala beat Ropar 11-1 and Amritsar beat Mansa 19-12.

Bathinda, October 28
In a novel attempt to spread awareness about the need to conserve the environment, the NCC wing of the Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical University Bathinda Campus, led by ANO (20 Punjab BN) Lt (Dr) Rajeev Varshney and CTO (2 Punjab R&V) Vivek Kaundal organised a waste management and environment awareness programme.

The campaign began with a bicycle rally headed by Jagdeep Singh, JUO Prabhat Dixit and CPL Gurmeet Singh. As many as 120 NCC cadets of 20 Pb BN and 2 PB R&V Sqn participated in it.

Campus director Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal flagged off the rally. He appreciated the initiative taken by the NCC units of the campus. He distributed among the cadets T-shirts printed with environment-related designs and slogans on the occasion.

In his address, he expressed a serious concern over environmental degradation and laid stress on running such public awareness campaigns which can alert the masses against the dangers of the degrading environment. He indicated the three interwoven factors influencing environmental protection which are legislation, ethics and education.

He stated that the first step towards saving the environment is to educate and sensitise the people towards the immediate need for conservation to save the environment for the future generations.

The cadets, who began their rally from the campus, cycled their way to the Dunes Club where an oath-taking ceremony was conducted in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Kamal Kishore Yadav.

The DC reminisced about his student life when he was also a part of NCC unit and stated that he felt good to see the cadets taking part in such initiatives. He stated that if the cadets went around in uniform spreading the message of preserving the environment, the people will take a serious note of it.

The DC also asked the students to practice what they preach and make sure that they themselves, their family members and their acquaintances help the district administration in its waste management programme and in keeping the city clean and green.

The rally then headed for the prominent locations of the city where students distributed pamphlets pertaining to the importance of waste management.

Later during the day, the students attended a lecture on waste management delivered by Dr Sunil Mittal of the Central University of Punjab which was coordinated by Sgt. Sandeep Dhaka, Sgt. Anuj Rana, CPL Sugan Singh and CPL Jasmeet Singh.

The students then went to Bathinda Ceramic Limited, Jodhpur Romana, where cadets learnt the technology of power generation through biogas. The children of the faculty and staff members were also made the part of the campaign.

Bathinda, October 28
Illicitly brewed liquor was confiscated from different parts of the district. The Rampura Sadar police arrested a woman, Shinder Kaur from village Gill Kalan, with eight bottles of illicit liquor. She was later released on bail.

Bathinda, October 28
The accused in case of the seizure of 60 kg of suspected spurious khoya was sent to judicial remand today.

Late on Sunday evening, the officials in Rampura Phul had conducted a surprise raid on Makhan Sweets Shop and confiscated 60 kg of khoya, suspected to be spurious. Police arrested the owner Naresh Kumar and registered a case against one of his workers too.

The Health Department was supposed to collect samples of spurious khoya today also. District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said that while on way to Chandigarh, he had gone to the Rampura Phul police station to collect the samples of the khoya seized. "However, the SHO was not available and I had to rush to Chandigarh. I will collect the sample on my way back to Bathinda in the evening," he said.

Meanwhile, the police has sent the accused to judicial remand for 15 days.

Bathinda, October 28
Police today claimed to have arrested three persons with opium and poppy husk. SP (D) Naveen Singla said the accused Gian Khan has been arrested with 1.45 quintals of poppy husk near the canal bridge of Gobindpura village.

In another incident, two persons, identified as Pawan Kumar and Samundar Singh, were arrested with over 3 kg of poppy husk.

Singla said efforts are on to arrest the other co-accused in the case and more arrests are likely in this regard soon. — TNS