Mansa, December 4
Members of the Union of Handicap Persons staged a dharna in Mansa yesterday. They threatened the state government that they would stage an agitation at the sports stadium in Mansa on December 10 during the matches of the World Cup Kabaddi if their demands were not met.

Organisers of the 4th World Cup Kabaddi will have to be on their toes to avoid any untoward incident during kabaddi matches.

On December 10, matches will be held at the multi-purpose sports stadium of the Nehru Memorial College in Mansa. As many as four matches - Argentina vs USA (men), Canada vs England (men), Mexico vs Pakistan (women) and India vs Iran (men) will be held in Mansa.

The union members said, "The government has been saying that it doesn't have enough funds to fulfill the demands of employees but they are spending a huge amount in organising the 4th World Cup Kabaddi tournament in the state."

In a show of strength of the union, the members blocked the traffic as they sat on a dharna on Court Road and raised slogans against the government.

Avinash Sharma, state vice-president of the union, said that in a small state like Goa, the physically handicapped persons were being given Rs 3,500 per month as pension while Punjab was making a fool of the physically handicap residents by giving them Rs 250 per month.

The union also pointed out that most of the Indian states allow the physically handicap persons to travel for free in their road transport system. The association demanded that Punjab should also exempt its physically handicap persons from paying fare for travelling in its government, private, air-conditioned and deluxe buses.

They also demanded interest free loans. Their other demands include Rs 21,000 as 'shagun' on the marriage of a physically handicap person, allowing 400 units of free electricity and offering jobs in government and private sector to educated physically handicapped persons.

Bathinda, December 4
Roundabout on the Bathinda-Badal road is being named Nanhi Chhaan, after the initiative of MP Bathinda Harsimrat Badal dissuading female feticide and promoting greenery. The Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, Phulokhari, will pay Rs 35 lakh for the same.

Work on the roundabout on the Bathinda-Badal road is under way. A Tribune photograph

The project is a part of the beautification drive which the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) has undertaken. Under this project all the city roundabouts are being given facelift. With financial aid flowing in from the industrial houses, these roundabouts are being developed. Last year, the BDA had held an open national competition wherein entries for designing roundabouts of city were invited from all over the country. The winners of various categories were also honoured with cash prizes.

The roundabouts of Bibiwala Chowk, Rose Garden Chowk, Bhai Kanhaiya Chowk, ITI Chowk, Fauji Chowk, Badal Chowk and Jassi Pau Wali Chowk will be developed under this scheme. Under this competition, the entry having design on female feticide has been chosen for the Bathinda-Badal road roundabout.

"The beautification of Fauji Chowk, having statue of Subedar Nand Singh, will have a bofors gun installed besides the statue. Similarly, the roundabout under Mansa overbridge may be installed with a MIG plane. The BDA has written to the army officials to get a defunct bofors guns and MIG and the same request has been forwarded to the Ministry of Defence," said the BDA officials.

At Badal chowk, a huge statue will be erected in the middle of the chowk on the theme of female feticide. The life size statue will be of a mother and child. While the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery is funding this project, it will also be responsible for its maintenance after the completion of the project.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of this year and may be inaugurated in the first week of January 2014.

Bathinda, December 4
The state is heading towards more power scarcity with 28.80 lacs units being lost daily ever since December 1 after the unit number 3 of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant at Bathinda tripped.

The power management has not been able to restore the 120 MW unit due to the ongoing strike of the power engineers.

The unit number 3 of thermal plant tripped at 6:10 pm on the December 1 due to boiler flame failure. To find out the cause of tripping and restart the unit maintenance, engineers did not reach plant as they are on strike and have decided to work from 9 am to 5 pm only and not work beyond these hours. The engineers have been protesting against the action taken against six engineers of plant in case of the oil turbine starvation of unit umber 3.

The GNDTP engineers are observing work-to-rule during this agitation. Because of the ongoing agitation no maintenance engineer reached the plant during off duty hours. The chief engineer deployed two senior officers to reach the plant and ordered them to start the unit. The unit was lightened-up and rolling was started under the supervision of these officers in absence of the maintenance engineers.

"Some parameters (differential temperatures) of turbine were out of normal working range but still turbine speed was raised to 1,200 rpm resulting in very high vibrations and eccentricity," said the sources.

The GNDTP authorities again tried to start the unit on December 3 night but in the morning at around 6 am today turbine vibrations were again registered high. It is apprehended that some internal fault has developed in the turbine.

The PSPCL is suffering a daily generation loss of 28.80 LUs. It is a huge revenue loss for the PSPCL which is already passing through a cfinancial crunch. Already more than 72 hours have passed and still synchronisation of unit is not in sight.

The unit number 4 has been lying closed for renovation and maintenance since November 5, 2011. This unit was to be commissioned within nine months but has jumped the deadline.

Bathinda, December 4
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on his birthday will be laying the foundation stone of a special school for meritorious students of the state on the premises of the Gaini Zail Singh Punjab Technical University on December 8.

"After laying the foundation stone of the school, the CM will inauguration a thermal power plant in Rajpura," said the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Kamal Kishore Yadav.

Since, the project is the CM's brainchild, work on the same is being done without delay. The CM announced the project in July, and in September , 10 acres of land on the premises of the Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical University campus in Bathinda was earmarked for the school.

The school will provide all the facilities, including hostel and an environment conducive to the academic development of the students. 

Bathinda, December 4
Although Punjab managed to lift the overall trophy by gaining maximum positions in the 59th National School Games, the hosts' image suffered a blow after several teams levelled cheating charges against them.

The final hockey match in the U-17 boys' category, which was held on the concluding day, became the bone of contention during the closing ceremony on Tuesday.

The match which was full with instances of players hitting each other with hockey sticks was marred by a walkout staged by referee Ramesh Ojha, as he was angry with the decision given by the other referee JP Singh.

Although Punjab won the match, its team coach Gurinder Singh Sangha lashed out at the National School Games Federation of India for sending "incompetent" referees for the match. "None of the two referees could match the standard of the match that was played here today. It looked as if the National School Games Federation of India was short of hockey referees and it sent the only two it was left with," Sangha said.

Delhi's coach, Deepak, chose not to say much. "I don't want to pinpoint. It was for everyone to see how Punjab won the match. After all the hosts had an upper hand," he said minutes before the felicitation ceremony.

In the U-19 final match of girls' basketball tournament, Punjab beat Delhi 75-55 to bag the first spot. Delhi players, apparently unsatisfied with the results said that Punjab had taken "undue advantage of being the hosts".

Several teams, participating in the kabaddi tournament also complained that they were kept oblivious of the change in the weight category. They alleged that the authorities did not convey to the teams that the 70 kg category was changed to 'open weight category' to retain some Punjab players in the team.Coaches of other teams alleged that while they were asked to bring players weighing below or 70 kg, they got to know about the open weight category when they saw the Punjab and Haryana players who weighed much more than 70 kg. 

Bathinda, December 4
The passion to click pictures of every sunrise while exploring nearby villages on bicycles kept a group of young and retired city residents to pedal many kilometres to stay fit.

The group of cyclists comprise of persons from almost every profession. They would gather at a point in the city to explore the dusty paths of the surrounding areas where they also involve themselves in social work. Besides cycling, they interact with the villagers at common religious or educational places to address them to shun drugs and adopt the path of education and awareness.

"The aim of expedition is to make a habit to get up in the morning to pedal for fitness," said Rakesh Narula, a social activist and school teacher.

Dr Amrit Sethi said being associated with the medical fraternity; he along with other doctors tried to address medical problems of the people.

The cycling team has visited villages, including Multania, Barnala, Goniana, Dabwali, Badal and Mansa.

"We plan and discuss the routes a day before via SMS. If we have someone known in the village within 10 to 20 km range we also alert that person to gather people," said Dr Sethi. He said, "Villagers are made aware of various diseases like AIDS, cancer etc."

The cycling team on way discusses a variety of topics like social evils, rising road accidents, role of governments in providing basic infrastructure and political scenario amidst cheers and laughter.

"This is indeed a great way to explore city's historic, religious adventure and cultural destinations. The food, interaction with people at countryside and scintillating countryside is mesmerising," said another avid cyclist.

Bathinda, December 4
Members and leaders of the Sakhar Prerak Union convened a meeting at Children’s Park here today and followed it up with a protest march which was taken out from the park to the office of the Deputy Commissioner. The union members also met Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav and submitted a memorandum of their demands, addressed to Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal.

The union leaders said while on one hand the Punjab Government was spending extravagantly on organising the World Cup Kabaddi, on the other instead of generating jobs for the unemployed youth of the state, it was making policies to take away the jobs of the employed.

The union members added that while the state government should have devised ways of employing its youth for the development of the state, it was indulging in filling its prisons with the youth who are not left with any option but to stage protests against the government.

Arguing that despite the fact that a large chunk of the salaries of the Sakhar Preraks was paid by the Central government, the Punjab government relieved them from their services. The leaders demanded to take them back and also release their salaries for the past 13 months without any further delay. 

Bathinda, December 4
A deputation of the ETT teachers submitted a memorandum of their demands at the Zila Parishad office here today. The deputation was headed by district president of the union, Gurmukh Nathana. Before submitting the memorandum, the teachers gathered outside the Zila Parishad office and raised slogans against the state government, the education department and the Panchayati directorate.

They said during a meeting with the teachers on November 12, the Chief Minister had agreed that the DDO powers would be withdrawn from the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) and given back to the Block Development Project Officer. They added that instead of following the instructions, the powers were given to the newly-appointed block education officers as part of the Panchayati directorate.

The teachers threatened that if the state government and the education department didn’t accept their demand of the DD powers to be given back to the BDPO, they would be left with no option but to intensify their agitation.

Bathinda, December 4
Members of Senior Citizens' Pensioners Vikas Manch under the leadership of GL Goyal today demanded to fulfil their various long pending demands. A meeting in this regard was organised here to discuss issues pertaining to the pensioners.

Goyal said the dearness allowance gap between January 1 to June 30 should be removed immediately. Also the due dearness allowance at the rate of 10 per cent be released immediately, he said.

Exemption in the limit of income tax be increased to 3 lakh and for senior citizens it should be increased from 2.5 lakh to 4 lakh.

The Central government should arrange additional trains for Haridwar to ease rush of passengers and elderly. Also a concession of 50 per cent should be given to the senior citizens.