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Complaint against ‘killing’ nilgai
Police round up guest faculty lecturers for blocking traffic
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Govt should take health schemes seriously, says Padma Vibhushan recipient
Better bathinda Sewerage system
TASTE BUDS
Sikhya providers to distribute CDs on Feb 2
Sukhbir inaugurates girls’ hostel
Veterinarian found absent during checking
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Complaint against ‘killing’ nilgai
Bandi (Bathinda), January 27 Gursewak Singh, a resident of Bahadurgarh Jandian village, near Gidderbaha Mandi, said he received contract for farming on 70 acres of land at Bandi village last year. “I came across the shooting of animals and despite making a hue and cry, my voice was suppressed,” Gursewak said. He pointed out that the shooter took away the body of a nilgai, injuring another one and buried the third one. Gursewak rang up the police control room and reported the incident on the police helpline 181. The Forest Department officials, and cops from the Sangat police station reached the village to enquire about the incident. In his complaint to the police, Gursewak demanded registration of a case under the Wildlife Act against unidentified persons for firing shots and killing the animals. Villagers allege that they were being pressurised by the police and some influential people not to raise the issue and withdraw their complaint in this regard. Harmander Singh, a resident of Bandi village, said the killing of animals has been going on for a long time. But nobody has raised the issue out of fear. Makhan Singh, a former panchayat member of Bahadurgarh Jandian village, said the shooters took away the animal. Forest guard Kamaljeet Singh said they have taken the carcass into their possession while the injured nilgai was taken to the veterinary hospital for treatment. “The postmortem examination of the dead animal would be conducted after which we will reach a conclusion,” he said. Sangat SHO Avtar Singh said a case would be registered after the postmortem report of the carcass and expert’s comments on the injuries of the injured animal is received. Village sarpanch, Gurtej Sidhu, while demanding probe into the incident, said a case should be registered and the weapons of the suspects should be inspected to reveal the truth. Divisional Forest Officer, Bathinda, Sanjeev Tiwari said an in-depth probe has been initiated in this regard and if the animals are found to have been killed with their fire-arms, then a case would be registered in this regard. “There were also reports of stray dogs attacking nilgai this winter. Three to four such incidents have come to light and the injured nilgais were rescued by the Forest Department with the help of villagers,” Tiwari said. |
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Police round up guest faculty lecturers for blocking traffic
Bathinda, January 27 The lecturers, however, claimed that they were being wrongfully detained as they were not blocking the road but were “merely dispersing”. Close to 800 lecturers, teaching at 52 government degree colleges across the state, today assembled in Bathinda to hold a state-level dharna against the state government. The lecturers gathered near the Ambedkar Chowk and shouted slogans against the state government while various district presidents addressed the gathering. “The lecturers had been protesting since morning and the police personnel were deployed at the dharna site. But the police didn’t take any action till the time the protest remained peaceful. Around 3.30 pm, the lecturers suddenly started running towards the road, clearly planning to block it. We couldn’t have let them hold the commuters at ransom and hence, had to resort to rounding them up,” said DSP (City) Gurmeet Singh Kingra, who was present there. “We also tried to convince them to curtail their protest and promised them that a meeting with the Chief Minister of Punjab and a panel of senior officials from the Education Department will be fixed for them. But the protestors didn’t heed our requests and started blocking the road,” he added. However, the protestors held a completely different view. “After taking out a peaceful protest march around the city, we reached the GT Road and were planning to disperse when the police personnel suddenly started arresting the lecturers and packing them into their vans and buses. This is a clear violation of our constitutional rights,” said Ritu Aggarwal, a guest faculty lecturer at the Government Rajindra
College, Bathinda. It is pertinent to mention here that a deputation of the lecturers today met Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal during his Sangat Darshan programme at Bhokhra village. “The meeting failed to bear any fruits. We voiced our concerns and demands in front of the Deputy CM and all he did was to keep a memorandum of our demands with him. He didn’t make any promise of solving the problem. It was highly disappointing,” said Harmandar Singh, state president of the lecturers’ union. Singh added that the government is refraining from keeping its promise since it would mean that it will have to shell out money for paying the guest faculty lecturers. “In December 2011, the state government had announced that the guest faculty lecturers will be paid Rs 10,000 per month and will also be given an annual increment of 10 per cent. The government had also agreed that the salaries of the guest faculty lecturers will be paid from the state treasury and that the PTA funds of the colleges will not be used to pay the lecturers,” Singh added. Case registered
The Bathinda police today registered a case against more than two dozens of guest faculty lecturers, including women for blocking traffic in the city during their protest. DSP Gurmeet Kingra said the exact number of protesters who will be booked for creating chaos and blocking traffic would be ascertained late in the evening. |
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Patriotic spirit marks R-Day celebrations
Bathinda, January 27 Different departments presented 14 tableaux representing a wide spectrum of development in the state. Addressing the audience, Sukhbir Badal listed the achievements of the state government and said that the government was committed to providing civic amenities and better infrastructure to the residents. Dance on “Rangla Punjab” by special children, students of Red Cross's Mahant Gurbanta Dass School for Deaf, Dumb and Blind, drew a special applause from the audience. Sukhbir announced a grant of Rs 2 lakh for the school students. The Markfed showcased its products in its tableaux, while the agriculture department had flex boards laying emphasis on crop diversification. The tableau of the Health Department focused on Balri Rakshak Yojana, the Animal Husbandry Department presented pisciculture practices and dairy farming while the Forest Department promoted its nursery of different plants. The Suwidha Centre, Bathinda, too presented its tableau while the district police-run Saanjh Kendras presented the time-bound services awarded under the Right to Service (RTS) Act. Students of Mahant Gurbanta Dass School depicted the rich cultural heritage of Punjab through the tableau. Besides, Verka Milk Plant presented its products. The Education Department depcited literacy imparted under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), the District Election Office spread awareness on the importance of enrolling as voter and casting vote and the Horticulture Department presented the net farming scheme. All the participating schools were awarded for participating in the event. Students of DAV Police Public School drew a thunderous applause for gymnastics. Apart from this, the best performers from the various departments were honoured for their services. Prominent among those present on the occasion included chairman of Zila Parishad Gurpreet Singh Maluka, assistant media advisor to Deputy CM Harjinder Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishor Yadav, IG Paramraj Singh Umranangal, IG Intelligence Jitender Jain, SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar and BJP leader Dyal Sodhi.
— TNS |
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Protesters use Punjabi boliyaan, target govt
Nikhila Pant Dhawan Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 27 Members of the Unaided staff (Contractual) of Aided Schools Front, Punjab, chose such 'boliyaan' as part of a unique way to protest against the state government and commanding attention of the public towards their plight and the apathy of the government at a number of places in the city today as the Deputy CM was in the city today for holding a Sangat Darshan and to attend a function at an engineering college. Performing Malwai giddha, bhangra and reciting boliyaan are undoubtedly part of the Punjabi culture and students can often be seen performing these at functions. But students and un-aided staff members of the aided schools of the district today chose those as a medium of protest. From accusing the Badal family of planning to sell/shut down the schools to the students asking for free uniforms, the boliyaan recited by the protestors attacked the state government from all quarters. Nearly 50 members and 10 students performed Malwai giddha, bhangra and used boliyaan to shame the government make the public aware of the present condition of the unaided staff members and the students of the aided schools in the state. The protestors chose three of the busiest places in the city-outside the District Administrative Complex, near SSD Senior Secondary School and Sirki Bazar-to perform to a huge gathering. State adviser of the front, Jagnam Singh, said, “We chose a different way of protesting against the government to make our voice heard and make fun of the government for not keeping its promise. We have been protesting for a long time now, but decided that we needed to do something new to stand out of the crowd.” Stating their demands, the front members said the government should regularise the jobs of the unaided staff members. They also demanded that the govt should resume extending facilities like free books, uniform and scholarships to the students of the aided schools.
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Govt should take health schemes seriously, says Padma Vibhushan recipient
Dr Verma was honoured for his work at the Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi. Talking to Bathinda Tribune over the phone today after receiving the award, he said his team at the college, which had worked round-the-clock in lifting it to university level, also deserves kudos. The eldest of four children — three brothers and a sister — Dr Verma lost his mother at the age of 16 in 1975. It was his father, a superintendent with the railways in Bathinda, who brought up the family. He also passed away in the year 2005. “I moved from a village in Himachal Pradesh, where I lived with my father’s younger brother who was a doctor, to Bathinda. Moving from
a village that did not have power, roads or drinking water, to a city was a kind of shock for me,” Dr Verma reminisced. He then did his BDS from a Trivandrum college topping the class in the final year. National president of the Indian Dental Association, Dr Verma, wants the Central and State Government to take oral
health schemes as seriously as the other schemes. “Since the health is not life
threatening, the government does not have a dedicated scheme for it. It should be realised that an oral ailment leads to a gamut of diseases that could become difficult to control,” he said. He stressed upon the need for a comprehensive national oral health care programme. He said instead of focusing on curative dentistry, the dentists should aim at prevention and interception. Every year, 25,000 dentistry graduates pass out in the country, but do not find enough job opportunities. “If some of them are used to provide health care under the health programmes, we can have enough employment and better health care,” said Dr Verma. |
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Better bathinda Sewerage system A large area of the city lies beyond the railway tracks. While the locality has become populated with the passage of time, civic amenities have not kept pace with this growth causing strain on the existing sewerage system. Part I of the series takes a look at the problem Megha Mann Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 27 Though the population has increased by leaps and bounds, the civic amenities in these areas have not kept pace. The foremost problem has been that of the sewerage system, which like all other sewer systems in the country, also carries the rain water. However, the rocky terrain compounds this problem as the earth is unable to absorb this water that ends up swirling on roads and in the streets. The area
The city has a population of around 2.75 lakhs of which around 70,000 people live in the trans-railway line areas comprising Gopal Nagar, Paras Ram Nagar, Pratap Nagar, Railway Colony, Lal Singh Basti, Amarpura Basti, Sanguana Basti, Sanjay Basti and others. These areas are located in ward numbers 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 31, 31, 33 and 34 Only 25 per cent population in these areas has sewerage facilities. All others either drain their waste into open plots or have septic tanks. Two sewer pipes empty their contents into ash dykes located across the Sirhind canal near the thermal plant. The Alam Basti pipe was laid with the aim of carrying only rain water. However, the civic authorities connected the area's sewer, too into it leading to the frequent problem of overflowing and flooding. The residents of Sanjay Nagar, Sanguana Basti and Amarpura Basti battle their own problem of co-habiting with huge ponds in their neighbourhood. The three railway crossings that fall under the project which provide sewer in these areas include: — Bathinda-Bikaner rail line — Bathinda-Delhi rail line — Bathinda-Hisar rail line. Problems
Residents of the area frequently complain of inadequate sewer system and allege that it is not properly cleaned and de-silted. The workers and officials of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) feel that people too are equally responsible for the sorry state of affairs. A number of dairies in these areas dump animal waste into the sewer, which is meant just to cater to the human waste. Even campaigns run to check the proper disposal of waste by these dairies have done little to deter them from dumping waste into the sewers directly. Though as per the master plan, the city’s dairies should have been moved out to the Transport Nagar area, lack of political will has stalled this project. “People throw clothes, bottles and plastic bags into the sewer. They should understand their responsibility and not clog the already insufficient sewer system. Maintaining the sewer is not only the onus of the MCB, but also of its users,” feels an MCB worker strongly. At the Naruana Road, people are already at loggerheads with the MCB over laying of 16-inch sewer pipe in the area. Based on the increasing population and hence, increased pressure on the sewer pipelines, the residents are demanding laying of 32-inch sewer pipelines. The matter has reached the Deputy Commissioner who has asked the Thapar University’s civil engineering wing to see what kind of sewer system is required, after the residents trashed reports of the civil engineering wing of the Giani Zail Singh Engineering College. Every monsoon, sees a spate of protests and traffic jams by people over stagnant rainwater on the roads and streets. Last year, irate residents of Paras Ram Nagar had even resorted to stopping the vehicle of Municipal Commissioner Vipul Ujwal and informed him of the problem. Similarly, the MCB started the project of laying sewer system in the trans-railway line colonies without deciding on the disposal site. Currently, sewer has been laid from Paras Ram Nagar to Pratap Nagar, Bachan Colony, Surkhpeer Road till the Police Colony and from Amarpura Basti to Sangauna Basti and on to Lal Singh Basti. Further, the area from Lal Singh Basti to Police Colony till the disposal, which is around 2,400 feet, is going on. Though the sewer has been laid, the same could not be made functional due to the absence of a disposal system. The residents of Lal Singh Basti have already filed a case in a local court pulling up the government for starting the sewer work without finalising the disposal of sewage. Former president of the municipal council, Jagroop Singh Gill, says that the entire system is faulty as the sewer’s disposal has been constructed at a site that defies gravity. “As per the rules, a sewer should have been at the side where there is a natural slope. In Bathinda, it is on the side which is rising higher. This is the bane of all problems,” he said. Temporary methods
Since the area does not have a dedicated sewer system, the corporation has installed five pumping stations that pump out the sewage and work almost round-the-clock during the monsoon throwing away the rainwater as well. These pumping stations are located at Alam Basti, Paras Ram Nagar, Sanguana Basti, Janta Nagar and Thandi Sarak. At Thandi Sarak, the MCB not only pumps out water of its own habitations but also that of the Railway Colony and railways offices. Even the huge ponds (tobba) located in Sanjay Nagar, Sanguana Basti and Amarpura Basti areas serve as basins holding large quantity of sewage and rain water. These ponds, which are in sync with the gravity slope, are earmarked strategically to collect the water. However, over the years these have been encroached upon, thereby reducing the area that holds water. Ambitious HUDCO loan project for 100% sewer
The MCB is executing an ambitious Rs 40 crore plan in the area as part of the government’s target of providing 100 per cent sewerage facility in this locality. Under this project, not only will the entire sewer be laid, but also the work at the disposal site in Canal Colony too is being expedited. The major bottlenecks have been taking the sewer from under the three railway tracks. As per the rules, the local body submits funds to the railways that execute the work. However, red-tape in the railways, lengthy procedures and lack of single window clearance has slowed down the pace of work. The total cost of laying the sewer underneath the railway lines is Rs 2.5 crore. The work under Bathinda-Bikaner and Bathinda-Hisar line has been completed while the Bathinda-Delhi line work is pending. Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kamal Kant Goyal says funds for Bathinda-Delhi rail line have been deposited with the railways and the work is expected to begin soon. The target of completing the project is May this year. The project, once completed is expected to provide great relief to the residents. |
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Pokhar Mal canteen offers tasty grub
Gurdeep Singh Mann Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 27 Famous for the katli, pakora and kalakand, the canteen's name still attracts people to pay a visit to have their choice of foodstuff. "The variety of edibles keeps on shifting with the change in weather and time. But the way the special items are prepared and offered to the customers remains the same," said Jagmohan. The rich taste of pakora, without any oil, is the most sought-after food in the canteen, which is prepared meticulously by its workers. Jagmohan said as compared to the quality and price of other eating joints in the city, the canteen offered the same at a little more economical rate. Situated at a place which was earlier less accessible for the trans-railway areas, the approach to the canteen has now become more easy with the construction of a flyover and an under bridge. "We offer special kalakand, which is prepared with a method adopted many years ago. We still purchase the quality food and get it tested before putting it on display for sale," Jagmohan said. With a workforce of four employees and help of family members, Jagmohan said people from all walks of life visit the canteen. As the time passes by more new items are also being offered as per the weather and customer's demands. At present, gajrela for Rs 280 per kg, gulab jamun for Rs 150 per kg, pakoras for Rs 120 per kg and katli is sold for Rs 200 per kg in the canteen. With the rising competition, there is hardly any difference in customers at the canteen due to its old approach of preparing the edibles and serving the same to the visitors.
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Sikhya providers to distribute CDs on Feb 2
Bathinda, January 27 Speaking to Bathinda Tribune, district president of the union, Gursewak Singh, said, "During a rally of the union, organised in May 2011, the then Education Minister of the state, Sewa Singh, had announced that the sikhya providers would be paid according to the revised pay scale starting April 2013. But the government retracted later. We have the former minister's statement on record and will distribute the CDs of the same to tell everyone how the government has cheated us." "The Central government had announced a hike of Rs 4,300 in our salaries starting April 2013, but the state is yet to pay us the same. We are barely making both ends meet," he added. He also said that if the union was not allowed to stage protests in the city, it would block the roads and jam traffic." |
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Sukhbir inaugurates girls’ hostel
Bathinda, January 27 He took time to voice his father Parkash Singh Badal’s dream of turning the GZS PTU campus into a university. He said the work for making the dream materialise was underway and soon the campus would boast of being a university. Keeping in view the increasing number of girls taking admission in the campus, the hostel has been constructed at a cost of Rs 5 crore which was funded by the Punjab Technical University,
Jalandhar. The hostel comprises 60 single rooms and 24 dormitories to accommodate 185 girls in total. The hostel rooms are fully furnished with modern furniture, wi-fi connectivity, independent mess and recreational room. Campus director Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal thanked Dr Rajneesh
Arora, Vice-Chancellor, PTU, Jalandhar, for extending financial support. He also extended his gratitude to the Deputy Chief Minister for his encouragement. |
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Veterinarian found absent during checking
Bathinda, January 27 He works at Harnam Singh Wala dispensary every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and at Selbrah dispensary every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Maluka first visited the Selbrah dispensary where Dr Jagdeep was not present. He then went to Harnam Singh Wala where also he was not present. "We called up Dr Jagdeep asking about his whereabouts. He claimed to be at someone's house in the village to treat his animal. However, when we called up that villager, he denied having any cattle," said Maluka. Action will be taken against Dr Jagdeep for being absent without a reason, Maluka said. The ADC (D) would be asked to take action against the veterinaria, he
added. |
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Bathinda, January 27