Bathinda, January 28
The Bathinda unit of Jamhuri Adhikar Sabha today released a seven-page fact-finding report about the illegal detention of a Dalit woman who was taken to the Kotfatta police station in December last year. Reports said she was allegedly tortured by a policeman on a false complaint.

The report, released by a retired principal, Bagga Singh, informed that the committee consisted of retired principal Ranjeet Singh, advocate NK Jeet, chief pharmacist Bhoj Raj Gupta and state committee member Praratipal Singh.

Bagga Singh said a woman, Amarjeet Kaur, a resident of Phoos Mandi village, was illegally taken to the police station at the behest of another villager on a 'false' police complaint. The woman was beaten up at the police station.

Reports said that the complainant, Surjeet Kaur, and the victim, Amarjeet, worked together as ASHA workers in the village. Surjeet, in a bid to stop Amarjeet from receiving promotion, had implicated her in a false case of theft.

The complainant Surjeet Kaur had lodged a complaint with the police about a suspected theft of Rs 10,000 cash and 8 tolas of gold . Amarjit was asked to reach the police station and was let off after questioning. She was, however, taken to the police station later where she was tortured. The woman was beaten up by an assistant SHO, Darshan Singh, without the women cops being present.

The fact-finding report stated that a case was registered against the then SHO Kabal Singh and assistant SHO Darshan Singh. The woman, however, is still under trauma and is undergoing treatment following her torture.

The members of the Sabha demanded stringent measures to be taken by the Punjab government and the police so that such incident do not occur again.

Bathinda, January 28
Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani today prescribed punctuality, politeness towards patients and maintaining hospital hygiene to the doctors and food and drug inspectors of Bathinda and Muktsar.

At a meeting convened with the Health Department officials today at the Civil Lines Club, Jyani asked the doctors to ensure that no malpractices are carried out at the respective health centres.

"Instead of getting information from media, we want the doctors to tell us about the problems they face or about any kind of unsavoury event of the day," said the Director, Health Services, Dr Karanjit Singh, who accompanied Jyani.

Jyani took details of the registration of food business operators under the Food Safety Act, food samples collected and the number of samples that have failed purity test.

He asked the Assistant Drug Controller, Punjab, Bhag Singh, to do away with the monthly targets allotted to each drug inspector. "Let's free the inspectors from the burden of monthly targets. At the end of the month, in order to meet the target, they may have to resort to wrong means," Jyani said talking about the targets drug inspectors are given to collect the number of samples.

Sounding a word of caution to the common malpractice of ASHA workers demanding money for issuing birth certificates with the child's name on it, Jyani said the applicant pays for all the formalities while filing for birth certificate. "Any ASHA worker found charging for issuing a second copy of the certificate will be taken to task," he said.

Jyani directed doctors to ensure that no medicine is prescribed out of the hospital pharmacy. Laying emphasis on the use of generic drugs, he added that if any hospital has a batch of unutilised drugs, the headquarters should be informed about it.

Health Director, Dr Karanjit Singh, directed the senior medical officers to send certificates mentioning that their hospitals do not have any expired medicines. "At Mansa and Pathankot, we have found batches of expired medicines which is embarrassing for the department. The additional drugs should be rationalised," he said.

The doctors were directed to create funds from the user charges that should be used for providing blood, transport and maintaining hygiene in the hospitals. He said the 108 ambulance service should not be used to drop the new mother and her child back home after delivery. Instead, the departmental ambulances should be used for it.

Jyani directed that the hospital furniture or equipment, which are out of order, should be sold off by February 28 this year. Such meetings would be conducted every three months.

Civil Surgeon, Bathinda, Dr Ajay Sahni, and Civil Surgeon, Muktsar, Dr Sukhpal Singh, were also present at the meeting.

Highlights of meeting Minister conducts a meeting of Health Department officials from Bathinda and Muktsar Directs them to be soft spoken, maintain hygiene, be punctual Asks them not to prescribe drugs other than those available at hospitals Tells ASHA workers not to charge while issuing birth certificate for the second time Says do away with target system for drug inspectors

Bathinda, January 28
Intensifying their protest against the state government, the guest faculty lecturers today burnt copies of their degrees as part of their protest outside the Government Rajindra College.

Shouting slogans against the state government, they derided the leaders for leaving the highly-qualified lecturers to take to the roads and stage protest.

The lecturers have been sitting on dharna since January 21 and have been boycotting lectures since then.

The lecturers have been asking that the government should keep its promise of giving them a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 per month and implement 10 per cent hike in their salary every year.

Meanwhile, president of the College Teachers' Association, Surjit Singh, extended full support to the protesting lecturers and stated that the association was with them. The association also derided the police action on the lecturers.

On Monday, the police had rounded up close to 50 lecturers to prevent them from blocking the GT Road. After the talks with Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal, failed to bear results, a state-level dharna and protest rally was organised in Bathinda by the lecturers on Monday.

Bathinda, January 28
Twelve-year-old Avtar, a resident of Sarawan Bodla village, Muktsar, had lost his left eye to quacks and was about to lose complete vision in his right eye too.

Operated for shrivelled and rolled up retina by a Bathinda doctor, Dr JS Sra, Avtar’s right eye has started responding to light and very soon, he would be able to see the colours of the world.

"Avtar started losing vision at the age of five. His school teachers were the first to set off alarm ringing. They told us that at times, he suddenly went blind in the school," said his mother Kailash. In the next seven years, the family sold its assets and investments to raise funds for Avtar’s treatrment.

They visited all kinds of quacks and godmen only to end up losing vision in the left eye permanently and damaging the right eye severely. Avtar was also taken to eye specialists who could not diagnose the exact problem. One of the doctors even operated upon his left eye putting a lens into it instead of fixing the damaged retina.

Dr Sra said Avtar suffered from a problem of shrivelled retina that got detached from the nerves leading in loss of vision. “Had he been taken to a trained doctor earlier and the problem been diagnosed, his vision could have been saved,” he added.

Avtar was brought to Dr Sra on January 22 where he underwent an operation. He has started perceiving light and will soon be able to read and write.

Bathinda, January 28
The Red Ribbon Club of SSD Women's Institute of Technology, Bathinda, organised a programme to spread awareness about drug addiction, HIV/AIDS and blood donation.

Students of the college participated in slogan writing and quiz competitions. The students also staged a play which focussed on the ill-effects of drug addiction. The play was performed under the guidance of nodal officers, Preetima, Navdeep and Shweta.

In the slogan writing competition, Bhawna, Nikita and Sonika bagged the first, second and third positions, respectively. In the quiz competition, the first position was grabbed by Megha, Staffy and Ritika while the second prize was won by Geetika, Sarita and Diksha.

A cluster-level speech competition was also organised as part of the activities of the Red Ribbon Club at Mata Sahib Kaur Girls College, Talwandi Sabo. Students from various colleges of the cluster spoke on topics like blood donation, AIDS awareness and drug addiction.

Dr MP Singh, principal of the Guru Kashi College, Talwandi Sabo, was the chief guest on the occasion. Manju Rani of Guru Gobind Singh College of Education, Gurpreet Kaur of GGSCET and Gurpreet Singh of Guru Gobind Singh Polytechnic College won the first, second and third places, respectively.

Bathinda, January 28
Members of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) Employees Union staged a dharna against Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani during the latter’s visit to the city today. The union members later met Jyani at the Civil Lines Club.

District president of the union, Parminderpal Brar, apprised the Health Minister of their demands. The members reminded him of the promises made to them at a meeting on December 18 last year at Mohali.

The protesting members demanded regularisation of their services and other benefits that are being given to the employees in the same category.

The Health Minister assured them of looking into the issue.

Bathinda, January 28
Annual cultural festival, Vibgyor-2014, of the Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI) will have Pakistani tadka to it this year. A renowned Pakistani folk singer, Arif Lohar, will regale the audience with his voice. Apart from Lohar, Punjabi singer Harbhajan Mann and Sufi singer Kanwar Grewal will also entertain the audience during the festival.

The festival will be inaugurated by the rural development and Punchayat Minister, Surjit Singh Rakhra and the chief guest for the closing ceremony will be Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal while the Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka will give away the prizes. The information was given by the managing director of BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, here today. As part of Technoworld, competitions like robot empire, clash of robos, robo soccer, extreme warrior, sumo warrior, line follower, bursting throttle, pole escalator, project mania and others will be organised. Magnet will have non-technical competitions like biz-quiz, biz craft, head scratch, Admad the crazy show and fashionista. Adventure sports like zorbing, inflatable rock wall, spider web, monkey crawl, crawl net, tug of war, zip line, air rifle shooting and hot air balloon will be organised. — TNS

Bathinda, January 28
The sewerage system in the city is not in sync with its topography. Instead of flowing on the slope, the sewage flows towards the other side causing water to stagnate. I had repeatedly proposed that the local bodies should take over 95 acres of government land, which has been encroached in the Bir Talab area. This was a place that the British had marked for escape, an area that serves to hold water in case the Sirhind canal spills over. Since Bir Talab is in sync with the gravitational pull, it could be used as a dumping site and even for setting up a sewage treatment plant (STP). It will serve the civic needs of the population easily for at least 100 years to come and will even free the government land from encroachments. Despite repeated efforts, the proposal found no takers.

Bathinda, January 28
Officials of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery will distribute woollens and shoes to 3,000 students of 15 schools in eight surrounding villages. The campaign started today with uniforms, shoes and socks being donated to 550 students in schools of Phulokhari and Raman villages.

At Phulokhari village, sarpanch Makhan Singh and panchayat members donated clothes while at Raman village, the president of the parent-teacher association of the school, members and Nagar Council members distributed the items. Refinery officials Vikrant Suri and Waheguru Pal Singh said in the next three days, all the 15 schools in the vicinity would be covered. The refinery also conducted an eye check-up camp at Phulokhari village where free medicines and spectacles were distributed to the needy.