Ludhiana, February 22
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said today that if Independent MLA Simarjit Singh Bains wanted to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from Ludhiana, then he could do so as in a democracy, any person can contest elections. He was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function here today.

Reacting to Sukhbir’s remarks, Bains, Atam Nagar MLA, said: “I thank him (Sukhbir Singh Badal) for his best wishes. I have worked under his guidance for a long time”.

The political scene in city has heated up with speculation rife that Bains might contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent. The Bains brothers, Simarjit Singh Bains and his elder brother Balwinder Singh Bains, both independent MLAs from the Atam Nagar and Ludhiana (South) constituencies, respectively, have always been at loggerheads with the Akali leadership.

They did not attend an election meeting organised by Manpreet Singh Ayali, Dakha MLA and SAD-BJP candidate from Ludhiana. State PWD Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon had held a closed-door meeting with the Bains brothers at their house on Thursday evening.

“We have attained this position only due to the common man and now the next course of action will also be decided after taking him into confidence. If the public feels we should contest the elections, then we certainly will. It’s entirely up to the public to decide as we are their ‘sewaks’,” said Simarjit Singh Bains while speaking to The Tribune.

During the last Vidhan Sabha elections, Simarjit had defeated Akali Minister Hira Singh Gabria by a margin of 28,000 votes while Balwinder Singh Bains had defeated Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura by a margin of 32,000 votes.

Ludhiana, February 22
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today dedicated 108 Saanjh Kendras (3 constructed at the subdivisional level and 105 at the police station level) by symbolically inaugurating one such centre at Model Town. These centres have been built at a cost of Rs 15.5 crore.

Presiding over a state-level function at Nehru Sidhant Kendra here, Sukhbir said these Saanjh Kendras had been built with the aim of providing various police-related services to the public within a time frame.

Terming the Saanjh Kendras as the biggest success of the SAD-BJP government, the Deputy Chief Minister said Pakistan and the Indian Union Government were following the Punjab pattern. A team from Pakistan is coming here to study the functioning of these centres while the Indian Union Government has decided to include the concept in its planning, he added.

At the Saanjh Kendras, the public will get 27 police-related services, of which 22 are provided under the Right to Service Act, 2011. To date, more than 25 lakh applications for various services have been received. About 99.63% applications have been disposed of within the prescribed time frame.

Promising paperless administrative working by year-end, Punjab would be the first state to have the “online” service delivery system. Process has been started for implementing the E-District projects across Punjab from Mansa to Mohali.

He said: “Some people talk about the Lok Pal to eliminate corruption but I think the Lok Pal alone will not be able to cure this disease and we have to digitise the whole system”. “Corruption happens when the common man contacts government officials. But if the governments can provide all services online, then there will be no direct contact between people and government officials, hence no corruption”.

The Deputy Chief Minister honoured seven officials who had played a major role in making the Saanjh Kendras a success. They are Kuldeep Singh, Paramjit Singh Gill, Harsh Bansal, Darbara Singh, Pritpal Singh, Harwinder Singh and Daljeet Singh.

Ludhiana, February 22
“Weave a positive aura around your patients and see the miracle happening,” said BK Shivani, a Brahma Kumari and rajyoga meditation teacher, while delivering a lecture at the Annual Conference of the Association of Physicians of India (APICON) 2014.

She has been studying spiritualism and practising the ancient technique of rajyoga meditation, as taught by Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, for 12 years. She conducts motivational courses through seminars and television programmes.

“Never tell a patient to take medicine and see him or her after a while. You should be determined enough to tell your patient that he will be cured and there will be no need to visit you again. After hearing these words from a doctor, a patient recovers 50 per cent and the remaining 50 per cent is cured by medicines as the patient receives positive vibes,” she said.

She said in the present time everybody was carrying a baggage in their brains. If you have a conflict with some person then all incidents which had occurred even 10 years ago will come alive in your memory and you will vent your anger on that person.

“We should not carry forward our past into our future and should try to live in the present, without thinking about the past and worrying about the future,” she said.

Jagraon, February 22
Some poor children were allegedly seen doing labour at local Sugar Mills grounds, the venue for BJP leader Narendra Modi’s Fateh Rally, today. The rally will be held tomorrow.

The children were allegedly draining out the rainwater accumulated at the venue after it rained last night. Sources said the administration forcibly brought some children from nearby slums to work at the venue. “The organisers forced the children to drain out the rainwater from the venue,” alleged sources.

The children said they were not even paid for the work. “Some people accompanied by the police brought us here today morning. They forced us to clean the ground. We have not even been paid,” said a child after working at the venue.

CPI (M) leader Sukhminder Singh Sekhon condemned the incident and said child labour was illegal and forcing children under the age of 14 to do labour was a crime. “Instead of trying to prevent child labour, the government seems to be promoting it. This is intolerable,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana Rajat Aggarwal said, “One can get many volunteers to do such kind of work. However, I will look into the matter and take appropriate action if these reports are found to be true.”

BJP Ludhiana (rural) president Dr Shirshti Garg rubbished the allegations. “We did not force any child to clean the grounds as we have plenty of sweepers and cleaners at our disposal,” he added.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, Feb 22
The Sangrur district police opened a ‘Police Outreach Centre’ at the local police station to pave the way for a more civilised and crime-free society and to provide better services to the people near their native places.

Legislator Iqbal Singh Jhoondan inaugurated the centre and Superintendent of Police Jaswinder Singh presided over the inaugural function.

Reiterating the state government’s stand to implement the Punjab Service Act in letter and spirit, the legislator claimed that the establishment of the centre would save the residents from harassment and exploitation they had been suffering by shuttling between Sangrur, Malerkotla and their residences earlier. “As fee and deadline for every service has already been made public, the employees concerned cannot misguide innocent people applying for issuance of various documents and certificates,” said Jhoondan.

SP Jaswinder Singh and DSP, Amargarh, Gurmeet Singh directed the staff led by in charge of the centre, Amar Nath, to ensure that no inconvenience and harassment was caused to applicants visiting the centre.

City SHO HP Singh and Jaswinder Singh, additional in-charge, briefed the visitors about various services being provided by the centre.

Ludhiana, February 22
Diabetes proves harsher for women than male patients. This was stated by Dr A Muruganathan from Tirupur, while speaking at a symposium on “diabetes in women” on the third day of the ongoing conference of the Association of Physicians of India (APICON 2014) here today.

The expert said the burden of diabetes on women was unique because the disease affected both the mother and her unborn children. He said diabetes caused difficulties during pregnancy, such as miscarriage. It can also lead to the birth of a baby with defects, he said. Also, women suffering from diabetes are more likely to have a heart attack at a younger age than women without the disease, said Dr Muruganathan.

The four-day conference today also saw scientific deliberations on other topics related to alcoholic hepatitis environment and health, future trends in cardiology, obesity and effect of technological advancements on health.

Dr Satish Garg from the USA delivered the Novo Nordisk Oration on the future insulins, technologies and diabetes outcomes.

Dr Brinder Vij from Cleveland Clinic, USA, spoke on “Headache: clinical approach”. He said most of the diagnostic and treatment modalities in management of headache were at best a generalised approach and each individual patient would present a different experience. However, a good clinical step-by-step protocol, as for management of healthcare problems, helped the physician to reach a reasonably good diagnosis, said Dr Vij.

Speaking on the issue of alcoholic hepatitis, Dr Rajesh Upadhyay from Delhi said patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) comprised a huge population.

“Almost 70 per cent of patients with liver disease and 15 per cent with liver cancer have ALD. This is congruent to the worldwide data that confirms that ALD accounts for 40 per cent deaths from cirrhosis and 30 per cent from liver cancer,” he added.

Other scientific lectures held during the day were on creating cost effective high quality healthcare by Dr Rohit Gulati from the USA, environment and health by Dr Onkar Sahota from the UK, and future trends in cardiology by Dr Ashok Seth from Delhi.

Ludhiana, February 22
Finally, giving heed to the repeated requests made by residents of the area, the civic body has started the work of laying a storm sewer in the L-Block of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar here.

The work, which started around three days back, is expected to be completed soon. A Municipal Corporation official said for past four to five years, water used to get accumulated in the area as there was no sewer.

"The total cost of laying the storm sewer is around Rs 25 lakh. It will take about a month for the work to be completed. The residents will finally give a sigh of relief,” said the official.

Residents have been facing a lot of inconvenience every time it rains as water gets accumulated in the area and takes a long time to drain out. Even a light rain leads to waterlogged streets.

Jaspinder Singh, a resident, said: "We have faced a lot of problems due to the accumulation of water. We had approached the area councillor and requested the authorities to set up a storm sewer. Once the project is completed, the water, which takes two to three hours to drain out, will be removed quickly.”

Ludhiana, February 22
Gopal Krishan Sahotra, a member of National Commission of Safai Karamcharis, has expressed ‘dissatisfaction’ over the way safai karamcharis were being treated in Punjab.

During a meeting with safai karamcharis and officials from the District Administration and MC, Sahotra said the state government was not in favour of safai karamcharis as no basic facilities were provided to them. At the same time, Municipal Karamchari Dal here said Sahotra had half-baked information as at a recent meeting with the authorities, several measures were taken for the welfare of safai karamcharis.

Talking to The Tribune, Sahotra said no safety kits were provided to the workers by the authorities here. Besides, they were not given the salaries on time. “The Centre has initiated several welfare schemes for them but the safai sewaks are not being given any benefit. The sewer men should be given an insurance cover of Rs 20 lakh (each). There is unrest among the safai karamcharis here,” he said.