Bathinda, March 28
The Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association went on strike for four hours today demanding better security at the Civil Hospital following the slapping of a doctor yesterday. The doctors' strike hit the OPD services at the hospital while the emergency services continued as usual. The doctors and the paramedics staff sat on a dharna in the OPD building while the Bathinda chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) extended its support to the agitating doctors.

On March 27, a patient's attendant had slapped Dr Gurmail Singh. Meanwhile, it was a tough day for patients as they were unaware of the strike and had come from far off places. The agitating doctors said though they did not want to cause inconvenience to patients, they were forced to agitate as their security was at stake.

Dr Gurmail Singh said the Civil Hospital should get a dedicated police post, which should not be given any additional work. Earlier, a police post was set up at the hospital and the aim behind setting up the police post was to ensure that cops oversee law and order situation besides dealing with the paper work in medico-legal and accident cases.

"However, the cops stationed at the police post at the Civil Hospital also look after the law and order in Haji Rattan, Guru Ki Nagri, Dana Mandi areas, which means they are unavailable round the clock at the hospital," Dr Gurmail said.

Members of the PCMS Association said the hospital should have security on par with medical colleges. Notably, five security guards of the Punjab Ex-Serviceman Corporation look after the security of the OPD at the hospital.

The doctors demanded that the emergency ward of the hospital should have only one entry and exit point. They also demanded that a cop be stationed at the entry of the emergency ward so that he could restrict the entry of people other than patients and their attendants.

Meanwhile, a group of doctors met Civil Surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni, who assured them of taking action in the next two to three days. Dr Sahni said the matter was taken up with SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar. DSP Gurjit Singh Romana, too, visited the hospital. "We have requested the police to increase the number of cops during the evening and night hours so that such an incident could be avoided in future," he said.

Dr Sahni said instructions had been passed to block the way that leads to the surgical ward. 

Bathinda, March 28
The youth wields the power in Bathinda district as a majority of voters fall in the age group of 20 to 29 years and 30 to 39 years. In four constituencies of the Bathinda Lok Sabha segment, the maximum number of voters are in the age group of 20 to 29 years. The Bathidna (urban) is having 46,889 voters in the age group followed by Bhucho ( 41,710). Rampura, Maur, Bathinda (rural) and Talwandi Sabo have 37,613, 37,549, 36,816 and 34,778 voters respectively.

Similarly, in the age group of 30 to 39 years, Bathinda urban leads with 50,884 voters followed by Bhucho with 41,564 voters. There are 5,073 voters in the age group 18 to 19 years in Bhucho, while Bathinda city has the least number of first-time voters. There are 3,165 first-time voters in Bathinda city. Rampura has the second highest first-time voters (4,175) followed by Bathinda rural (4,125), Maur (4,147) and Talwandi Sabo (4,028).

To motivate the first-time voters, the authorities have taken a number of initiatives. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appointed campus ambassadors in various colleges to motivate youngsters to get themselves enrolled as voters. These campus ambassadors are being paid Rs 2,000 per year.

Similarly, the district election office has plans to issue appreciation certificates to the first-time voters on casting their votes. The first-time voters will be presented certificates at polling booths.

Moreover, 3, 245 octogenarians in the Bhucho constituency have enrolled themselves as voters. Their number in Bathinda urban stands at 2,007. Rampura follows Bhucho with 3,108 voters while Maur , Talwandi Sabo and Bathinda rural have 3098, 2740 and 2425 voters respectively. 

Bathinda, March 28
The Government School Lecturers Union, Punjab, honoured lecturers, who have been promoted as school principals.

In a press statement issued here today, president Iqbal Singh Bhairupa said the union honoured seniors at a function held at Teachers' Home. The union has been fighting for rights of school lecturers and for improving quality of education in the government schools. Recently, the union had succeeded in getting the promotion quota enhanced.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Ashok Kumar Bindra said he had been attached with the lecturers’ union for more than two decades. He said the lecturers were an important link in command and administration chain of the Education Department. “Despite the fact that we had been promoted as principals, we will continue to lend full support to the union,” they said.

Those principals who were honoured on the occasion included, Dr Jasbir Singh, Rajwinder Kaur, Thakur Singh, Dr Daljit Singh and Harnek Singh. Principal Pawan Kumar Jhumba could not attend the function due to prior engagements. Among those who attended the function included Gurpreet Singh, Vinod Kumar, Sikander Singh Dhillon, RP Singh, Gurdeep Gill, Sarabjit Gill, Davinder Kumar, Babu Singh, Harjit Kamal, Gurpreet Singh Maur, Naib Singh, Sunil Kumar, Manjit Singh, Mohinder Pal Singh, Jagwant Singh, Sanjiv Nagpal and Rajbir Singh Aulakh. 

Bathinda, March 28
Students of BSc Agriculture (integrated) fourth semester from Baba Farid College got meritorious positions in exams.Khushwant Singh and Sikanderpal Singh bagged top positions in the university's merit list by securing first and second position, respectively. Besides, BSc Agriculture (integrated) sixth semester Monika and Lovedeep Singh also stood first and second in the university.

Similarly, BSc( non-medical) second semester student Rupinder Kaur stood first in the college, scoring 86 per cent and Vinni Arora came second with 83.6 per cent. Sandeep stood third with 83 per cent. Sandeep Kaur at 81.2 per cent and Rajveer Kaur at 79.8 per cent stood fourth and fifth, respectively.

Students of BSc (computer science) second semester Navgeet Kaur Oberoi and Rubia Dhingra got first and second position in the university, respectively.

In BCA fifth semester, 81 students have scored more than 60 per cent, 13 scored more than 70 per cent and one scored above 80 per cent. Sofia, Manthan and Aakriti got first, second and third position, respectively.

Bathinda, March 28
Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav convened a meeting of district-level officials to discuss arrangements for the Baisakhi celebrations at Sri Dasmesh Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Sabo.

Yadav assigned duties to officials for the event to be held from April 12 to 15. He said ADC (G) Rajiv Prashar will be overall in-charge for the fair and District Development and Panchayat officer (DDPO) Rajinder Batra will assist him.

Properly parking and security arrangements have been made for the fair. Besides, arrangements have been made for clean drinking water, first aid, rescue camp, toilets, temporary bus shelters, inns, and uninterrupted power supply. Arrangements will also be made for ambulances, fire brigades, recovery vans and barricading. 

Jalandhar, March 28
The Director of the National Mission for Manuscripts, Dr Praful Kumar Mishra, exhorted the gathering at the manuscript exhibition to spare some serious thought for the written history, which holds proof of India’s scholarly texts, its golden era of supremacy. Speaking at the exhibition, organised by the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) at the local DAV College here on Thursday, Dr Mishra said the prime area of worry was the lack of intent and knowledge safeguarding manuscripts.

Dr Mishra has visited many countries like the UK, the USA and Canada for research on rare Indian manuscripts.

While quoting an instance, Dr Mishra said, “Someone in Vrindavan once told me that all our precious manuscripts had been stolen by the British .But ask me, I have seen their libraries. They are great at conservation. They value history. We are bad preservers. Unless we realise it and mend it, much more harm might be done.”

He said, “German students are being hired by Japan to curate manuscripts. In many countries their significance has benn understood. But India is certainly lagging behind. We have heard of families of scholars, who consider manuscripts a scrap. There have been instances where our team found manuscripts dumped in the waste. This is not paper, it is our history and the country, especially its youth, needs to understand how to conserve it.”

“I found manuscripts in Gurmukhi script at the St Petersberg Library catalogued under Vatsyayan’s Kama Sutra. Models fashioned on images from our texts sell like hot cakes. While we worked, the West claimed credit. We are in an ironic state where our own history needs recognition,” he added.

He also lamented the passing of the art of writing on palm leaves into oblivion.

He said, “While paper lasts 30 years, palm leaf manuscripts last 500 years. The material on which they have been written is the key for their survival.”

Speaking on the state of preservation of manuscripts in Punjab, he said, “While our teams came searching for manuscripts in the state, it’s for the first time we have held a seminar here. We do, however, have a mission conservation centre (MCC) in Hoshiarpur, which has as many as 30,000 manuscripts. The NMM has 57 MCCs and 50 mission repository centres (MRCs), which have lakhs of text.”

Dr Mishra said the NMM did not buy texts. It only conserved texts donated to it or gave training to people, who approached it for lessons in manuscript conservation.

“Workers go around areas and collect information on texts. It is very difficult to dig out this information. But once they have leads, private owners of manuscripts are approached and told on how to preserve texts. Manuscripts are only taken from those unwilling to keep them,” added Dr Mishra.

Speaking on the efforts needed to be made by students on conservation, he said, “It is important that students are being sensitised about manuscripts at the school level. Text books should have lessons on what are manuscripts and how they can be preserved.”

While discussing manuscripts in other countries Dr Mishra said, “Thousands of Indian manuscripts are lying in Canada, US and South Eastern countries like Java, Laos and Vietnam. We know about them, but right now we are not in a position to bring them back.”

He said NMM’s immediate plans were to identify the unpublished manuscripts and publish them at the earliest. 

Amritsar, March 28
The Virsa Vihar Society honoured artistes who excelled in the field of drama and theatre to mark world theatre day celebrations in the city.

With prominent names of theatre and entertainment industry being a part of the celebrations, honorary awards were conferred on city- based artistes, Jaswant Jas, Dr Jagjit Kaur and Sukhwinder Virk.

"We started the tradition of celebrating world theatre day back in the 1990s, when Punjabi theatre was in need of innovation and change. Today, theatre in the region has a formidable status with the best playwrights, actors and productions. Every year, we hold celebrations to honour those who excel in theatre and drama," said Kewal Dhaliwal, director of Virsa Vihar and a noted theatre person.

Dr Jagjit Kaur, a noted actor and director of the Youth Welfare Wing at GNDU, was honoured with Gursharan Singh Theatre Award for her commitment towards acting. 

Bathinda, March 28
Students of the polytechnic wing of Punjab Technical University Giani Zail Singh College brought laurels to the institute winning positions at the Punjab Technical Institutes' 43rd annual athletics meet. The meet was held at Shaheed Udham Singh College of Engineering and Technology. Thirty four colleges from all over the state participated in it.

Thirteen students of GZS-PTU campus, Bathinda, participated in various events. In the long jump for boys, Jalwinder Das won silver medal. He also won bronze medal in the triple jump competition.

Vicky Singh won bronze medal in 1,500 metre race. Ankit Yadav in 110 metre and 400 metre hurdles, Maninder Singh in shot put and Nitish Kumar in hammer throw bagged fourth positions.

Bathinda, March 28
A man killed his nephew after he was denied money by his nephew's family members to purchase liquor. The incident took place in the Parasram Nagar area of the city.

The police have arrested the accused. Balwinder Kaur, mother of the deceased, said last night her brother-in-law Mithi had gone to a community kitchen along with his son Sandeep Hira but Mithi returned alone. When asked about Sandeep, he refused to comment. — TNS

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