Bathinda, March 26
Women government employees would be exempted from staying overnight at the polling stations for poll duty on April 30 during the Lok Sabha elections. Also, the officers of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Mandi Board, district food supplies office and technical staff of the Powercom would be exempted from the election duty in view of forthcoming procurement season.

District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav has written to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab, requesting that the decision has been taken in larger interest of the women staff.

“Around 2,500 women employees will be put on the poll duty. Due to their considerable number, we cannot exempt them from poll duty. However, to facilitate them, we have decided that they should not be asked to reach destined polling stations a night before. Only men will spend night at the polling stations,” he said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the District Election Office to manually randomise list of women employees who are being allotted poll duties. The ECI had sought details on the residence and place of posting of the women employees as well. However, the Bathinda Election Office reasoned that it is not technically possible to make a manual list and that the computerised lists would be crafted.

The Bathinda Election Office reasoned that since all the polling stations were connected with road network, the women employees could be asked to come at 5 am as the polling will held from 7 am to 6 pm, with mock poll being conducted at 6 am.

“Since most of the women are working within 40 to 45 kms of their homes, it would not be difficult for them to report at 5 am on the day of polling,” Yadav reasoned.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2012, the observers had agreed to women not staying overnight at the polling stations.

The Election Office has identified 10,000 government employees for the election duty of which, around 2,500 would be posted as micro-observers and Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The officials of the FCI, Mandi Board, the DFSC and technical officers of Powercom would be spared from election duty due to forthcoming wheat procurement season.

The remaining employees would be trained during the election rehearsals to be held on April 6 and April 16. Before the second rehearsal, they would be allocated assembly constituencies and will report to respective Assistant Returning Officers (AROs). 

Bathinda, March 26
Cavalcade of the Congress-PPP joint candidate for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, Manpreet Badal, piques interest of the shopkeepers and the bystanders as it turns into as narrow bylane into Kotshamir village. A motley mix of sedans and SUVs mostly white, instantly become the centre of attraction for the children.

As he alighted from the car, which he had been driving himself, everyone tried to have a better look at him. With folded hands, he greeted the gathering and left the chairs empty to sit down on the green carpet on the small platform which was being used as a stage.

With a generous dollop of humour and poetry, he began by making fun of his own height. “Wherever I go, they have to arrange the mike to suit my height. I think, I will have to soon start carrying one with me,” he joked and the gathering warmed up to him.

Lest he should forget mentioning the names of some of his prominent supporters, he asked for their forgiveness at the start, but remembered to mention that the Congress leader Ranjit Grewal was his sports coach decades ago and used to make him work hard in Badal village.

Sensing that the gathering consists largely of youngsters, he began by taking about Martyrs’ Day and recited a couple by Rajguru. “Hum bhi zindagi guzar sakte they chup rehkar, humein bhi maa-baap ne paala tha dukh seh kar (we could have also lived happily with our mouth shut, our parents also did a lot to bring us up),” he said and added, “The martyrs laid their down lives to win freedom for us and gift a democratic country. Firstly, we should make sure that we vote and then we should see to it that we don’t waste our votes by choosing a wrong leader.”

“Those who fly by helicopter are unable to see the ground realities and can’t see the tears in the eyes of a common man. Once, at a rally, a man told me, ‘Je raaj di kaya badalni hai, te sabto pehlaan taya badal (if you want to change the state, begin by changing your uncle),” he said and had everyone in splits as he took a dig at Badals for using a helicopter to travel within the state.

Adding more mirth, he said, “During the assembly elections, the Congress and the PPP applied over the accelerator separately. Iss vaari assi katthe race de rahe ne, tussi saare vi katthe hi clutch chhaddiyo te Punjab di gaddi chal niklugi (the Congress and the PPP are applying the accelerator together this time, you also release the clutch collectively, so that the state’s car gets going).”

Without taking any names, he asked the villagers to vote out poverty, unemployment, drugs and other problems that the state is facing. Oblivious to what the leader’s speech meant, happy to be part of such a huge gathering, two young girls played with each others’ hair as the elderly women sitting with them laugh at their own jokes.

Bathinda, March 26
District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav has asked the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of the Bathinda parliamentary constituencies to identify pockets in the respective constituencies wherein cash or liquor can exchange hands for votes.

Orders come in wake of Bathinda seat figuring among five sensitive seats of the state on basis of election expenditure. To avoid any influence on voters in cash or kind, the AROs have been directed to prepare these lists. Once identified, these pockets will figure on the list of sensitive, super-sensitive and critical polling booths which would be submitted to the observers that the Election Commission of India (ECI) would appoint for Bathinda.

Giving yardsticks for declaring pockets as sensitive, the AROs have been asked given yardstick of considering the past incidents of violence or incidents of votes being sought in exchange of something valuable.

The AROs have now further deputed the field staff to conduct a recce and identify the pockets. Once the report is compiled, same would be forwarded to the District Election Office by the end of this week.

ADC Sonali Giri said the police help will also be taken while identifying these pockets. She added that the yardsticks are not definitive ones. “More emphasis would be on past experiences with the area, its demography and kind of people living there,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Bathinda election office today remained busy attending calls from the army personnel who inquired about the latest directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI) allowing the defence personnel to vote as general voters.

There are 6,451 service voters in the Bathinda parliamentary constituency.

The ECI has allowed defence voters, who have yet not made declaration till now to cast vote through postal ballot, to register themselves as the general voters at the place they are posted in.

Most of the defence personnel calling Assistant Returning Officers and the Election Office, inquired about the day till when they can register themselves as general voters. “We also got queries from the defence personnel asking that some of the units are on army exercise and that will they be able to get postal ballot. In such conditions, the respective army unit will send en route postal ballots to the places where voters are posted for exercise,” said an election official.

District Development and Panchayat Officer Rajinder Batra, who is nodal in-charge of election cell, said people can enroll themselves as new voters till April 2 before the nomination starts.

Bathinda, March 26
The farmer unions have decided to support the CPI-ML in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing mediapersons here today, members of the Punjab Kisan Union announced to extend their support to the CPI-ML.

State president Ruldu Singh Mansa and state leader Gurnam Singh Bhikhi said the union will support the CPI-ML candidate comrade Bhagwant Singh Samao.

They added that the Congress and the BJP were two faces of the same coin that had no concern for the common man.

They said while the SAD-BJP candidate Member of Parliament from Bathinda Harsimrat Badal had miserably failed to take up the cause of Punjab, especially of Malwa’s farmers, the PPP-Congress candidate Manpreet Badal has done nothing more than a lip service for the farmers. 

Bathinda, March 26
President of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked people to vote for performance and not for facets. Sukhbir campaigned in Bathinda urban and Bhucho Mandi Vidhan Sabha constituencies.

Interacting with media, while campaigning for the SAD-BJP candidate from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal said people now vote for performance rather than facets but the Congress party had not learnt that lesson even after repeated defeats.

“Electorates would wipe out the Congress-led UPA government for its decade-long misdoings. Manpreet Badal, who has now joined hands with the Congress, has committed a political blunder quitting the SAD at the beck of some Congress leaders,” he added while talking about his cousin who is the PPP-Congress candidate from Bathinda parliamentary seat.

Seeking votes for the SAD-BJP alliance to ensure speedy development of Punjab and area, Badal said alliance has initiated sewerage programme worth Rs 9,200 crore for all towns and cities of the state and has started linking all cities of state with 4-6 lane road at the cost of Rs 12,000 crore. 

Bathinda, March 26
Hi-Tech Polytechnic College, Jai Singh Wala, Bathinda, organised farewell party ‘Wave’ for the 2011 batch students. Popular Punjabi singers such as Deepak Dhilion, Harinder Sandhu, Veer Davinder, Gaganpreet Kaur and Voice of Punjab Pardeep Sra were the star attractions during the function.

Principal of Fulwari College, Bathinda, patron of Punjab Associated Schools Association and chairman of Freedom Fighter and Families Welfare Society, Jagdish Singh Ghai, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Shiv Shambhu Singh and Ravinder Singh were the guests of honour. The college management honoured the outstanding students and the staff members for their contribution towards the college.

College chairman Charanjeet Singh Brar appreciated the students and the staff for organising a wonderful function. — TNS

Bathinda, March 26
Students of Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, observed the 83rd Martyrdom Day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev by organising a patriotic programme on the premises.

The initiative of students to commemorate the Martyrs Day and remember the real heroes, who selflessly fought for India’s struggle for independence, was appreciable.

The programme began with a guest lecture by Prof Chaman Lal, who extensively wrote on Bhagat Singh, throughout his life. He said Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev sacrificed their lives to secure freedom for India and this would always be remembered by the nation.

During the lecture, he showed pictures of Bhagat Singh, his family, his comrades and monuments built in India and abroad in his memory. He dwelt on the martyr’s personality as a socialist revolutionary, who believed in revamping the society from the feudal-capitalist mode to a socialist society.

After the lecture, university students staged a play “Butt Bol Paya”. This was followed by presentations of patriotic songs by Mandeep Singh and Manmeet Singh, which won the singers a huge round of applause.

RG Saini was the chief guest on the occasion. —TNS

Bathinda, March 26
The BBA students of Baba Farid College (BFC) won laurels for the institution by performing exceptionally well in the first, third and fifth semester examinations, the results of which were declared by Punjabi University, Patiala, recently.

In the first semester examinations, Ridhima Narang, Manpreet Singh and Arshdeep Singh secured 84 per cent, 81.2 per cent and 81 per cent marks, respectively and bagged the first, second and third positions.

Gagandeep Kaur of the fourth semester secured 89 per cent marks and bagged the first position in the college. Jainty Teria, who secured 86.6 per cent, got the second position and Kuldeep Kaur Brar bagged the third position with 86.2 per cent marks in the third semester examinations.

Rajni Garg of the sixth semester topped the merit list of the college with 85.8 per cent marks and bagged the first position succeeded by Sukhanjot Kaur, who scored 85.4 per cent marks and secured the second position and Parul Bansal secured 84.8 per cent marks and bagged the third position.

Deputy director academics, BFGI, Dr Manish Bansal, congratulated the students for their hardwork. Managing director of Baba Farid Group of Institutions, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, appreciated the achievements of the students.

Bathinda, March 26
Trend of murders due to illicit relations seems to have been achieving alarming proportions as 554 murders following such relations have been reported in various districts of Punjab in the last five years.

Among all the districts, Ludhiana with 62 and Amritsar with 63 witness highest number of murders followed by 53 murders in Ferozepur, due to illicit relationships.

The police said that extra-marital relations, deteriorating relations of couples, especially the newly married are the basic reasons of murders in such cases.

A district-wise list of murders following illicit relations was procured under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by advocate Shahbharat Sidhu.

“In most of the cases, family member or a partner led to the murder of another following illicit relations developed by either of the couple,” said, Ravcharan Brar, a senior Punjab Police officer.

The police said it was observed that the cell phones prove instrumental in passing on information to pen up emotions or anger to take revenge. Apart from long conversations, the call-history of the cell phones, too, becomes bone of contention between couples and led to the suspicion of infidelity.

“Baseless or false allegations, mostly in love-marriage cases, too, have become a bone of contention in a couple or family, which has led to the murder,” said Bathinda SSP Gurpreet Bhullar.

The policem at Bathinda and Mansa said numerous applications were received by couples and family members with allegations of illicit relations and infidelity.

“In some cases, it is seen that a close relatives instigates a partner of suspecting behavior of spouse, which further mounts tension in the family,” said advocate Shahbharat Sidhu, who also deals in matrimonial disputes.

Sidhu said the accuracy of data of murders following illicit relations could not be relied as many cases go unreported due to social stigma after murder of a family member. Sidhu felt that various factors, including the changing social values, extramarital affairs, unemployment, communication gap, use of cell phones to disseminate information are among other reasons, which create differences among the couples.

The investigation of murders due to illicit relations is also done in a different manner. “If we find mutilated, unidentified bodies between 25 to 45 age groups, we assume it as a case of illicit relationship, especially when the body is found in an isolated place”, said Vijay Goyal, president of NGO Sahara Jan Sewa.

Bathinda, March 26
The victim of the firing incident that had occurred in Balla Ram Nagar on March 11 today alleged that the police was doing nothing to nab the main accused in the case.

Ravinder Singh, a resident of Balla Ram Nagar, who is admitted to a local private hospital, said on March 11, four people had opened fire on him. The police registered a case and nabbed the accused Gagna, Dharma and Dharampal. “However, main accused Avijit Singh is still at large. No action is being taken against him and no efforts are being done to nab him,” said Ravinder. Meanwhile, the police officials said necessary efforts were being made to arrest Avijit Singh.

The alleged accused fired at Ravinder Singh over an old feud. He did not sustain any major injury.