Bathinda, April 4
Gone are the days when students would dig in their heels and refuse to go to school. Yes, you heard it right. Schools in the city are making sure that it is the parents’ turn to be a harried lot. Standing in long queues to pay admission fee and other “miscellaneous charges”, parents have no option but to burn a hole in their pockets for the future of their wards.

From levying charges for sending SMS alerts to forcing them to buy even the monogrammed bags from schools, the schools are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to swindling the parents and adding to their coffers.

Swapan Kumar Das, whose daughter is studying in Class X at St Joseph’s Convent Senior Secondary School, said, “As per the school’s rule, the parents are asked to buy books from the stationary section of the school on the day the results are declared. Stationary sets, which include not only books but notebooks, binding papers and other several things, are available for every class. This year, I had to shell out Rs 4,189 on buying the books for my daughter.”

He added that the school also makes the students pay for four sets of uniforms (two for summer and two for winter) once every two years apart from charging for SMS alerts which the school sends to the parents regarding various activities or absence of their ward from the school.

He disclosed that he paid a total of Rs 15,580 at the time of admission of his daughter into class X. This included development charges (Rs 1,500), annual fee (Rs 4,000), tuition fee for April, May and June (Rs 6,150), science fee (Rs 600), child welfare and sports fund (Rs 130), smart class and SMS charges (Rs 2,240) and computer fee (Rs 960).

BB Singh, whose both daughters study in St Kabir School, said, “Are the teachers not expected to write the details about activities, homework or absence of the student in the school diary? Then what is the need for SMS alerts and making the parents pay for it when they are already paying a lot on admission fee and stationary?”

A resident of Bathinda, whose daughter is a Class X student at the St Xavier’s School, stated that while earlier, the school was selling books from a store on the school premises, a couple of days ago, it locked the store and the same day a house opposite the school started selling the same.

Bathinda, April 4
We all know of autumn-winter and spring-summer discounts on apparels and festival discounts on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and also about the new democracy discounts to be availed around Independence Day and Republic Day, but this election season, you may get to hear of Election Discount.

Bathinda, April 4
With an aim to attract youngsters, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today opened its election office on the most sought-after place of students — Ajit Road.

The AAP candidate for the Bathinda parliamentary constituency Jassi Jasraj and party workers interacted with the youth before formally announcing the party office.

Though some party workers earlier too, had announced to open a party office on 100 Feet Road but failed to materialise it.

“Our aim is not to capture only the youth but people from all walks of life. Since the road is the most travelled ones, we decided to open office here with the consent of all the local party leaders,” said Jassi.

Denying any issue of fissures in the party over his ‘paragliding’, Jassi pointed out that the entire district party leadership is united to fight corruption, dynastic politics and the drug menace.

Jassi claimed that that his songs and lyrics have sent a loud and clear message to the people and electorate and he is getting immense response from the people of Bathinda.

He pointed out that he is now looking for a suitable accommodation in the city and will start aggressive campaign in the remote areas from tomorrow.

He met with people and administration officials in the District Administration Complex to get the nomination forms and enquire into all the basic formalities to be furnished while filing nomination papers.

He lamented that there was still a long way to go in the name of development and overall improvement of the area.

“Despite tall claims of development, there are still numerous problems in and around the city, including lack of basic facilities. People share engineering faults on roads, stray cattle menace, corruption and various other problems with us,” he said.

Jassi was seen interacting with the youngsters on the Ajit Road adjoining street number 26, where youngsters and city residents usually gather for chit-chat on a wooden platform.

An active party worker Harmilap Grewal said Jassi spent his day in the city today and will move out to Talwandi Sabo tomorrow.

The party workers said a convener and co-convener is formed today besides a 10-member coordination committee.

Workers from Sardulgarh, Mansa, Bhikhi, Sangat, and Baretta met Jassi today and they all pledged not to distribute drugs or money.

Meanwhile, the party workers condemned today’s attack on party’s national leader Arvind Kejriwal.

Bathinda, April 4
Employees of the Civil Hospital today protested against the delay in their salaries for over two months.

Apart from the doctors, the employees of various departments have also joined the protest.

The protesters said they were facing acute financial crisis in view of the delay in release of their salaries.

Speaking during the occasion, Dr Gurmel Singh and Dr Beant Singh said they would intensify their agitation if the authorities fail to release their salaries soon.

Pharmacists, paramedical staff, lab technicians and others were also present during the protest. 

Bathinda, April 4
In a case of speedy judgments, the Special Court of Jasjit Singh Bhinder today awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment to a man for firing shots with an intention to kill his wife and son.

The mother-son duo received serious injuries and survived after timely medical intervention in the incident that occurred around a year ago.

As per the statements recorded by the victim, the accused (husband) had been suspecting his wife’s character and usually picked up a quarrel with her.

The court announced a verdict against Balbir Singh after hearing arguments and counter arguments of both the parties.

As per the brief facts of the prosecution, a telephonic message was received at the Talwandi Sabo police station with reports of injuries to a woman and her son.

The policemen rushed to the Civil Hospital after obtaining medico-legal-report and recorded the statements of both the injured when they were declared fit by the 
doctors.

The injured woman Kiranjit Kaur stated that she was married to Balbir Singh of Jajjal village, 22 years ago. She has two sons of 18 and 20 years of age.

Her husband is an agriculturalist and they all live together at Jajjal village. The woman informed that she was sitting in one of the rooms when her husband entered with two pistols hands with an intention to kill her. The first bullet fired by him, hit her in the neck while another bullet hit her right shoulder.

After hearing the gun shots, their younger son rushed to save her. When the son tried to persuade his father not to fire, a bullet hit his arm.

In the meantime, neighbours came over and rushed the victims to the local Civil Hospital.

After recording their statements, the police held the accused guilty under Sections 307 of the IPC and 25 of the Arms Act.

During the investigation, the police found that the accused had fired gun shots using his country- made .315 bore pistol.

Observing the serious nature of the crime and arguments, the court sentenced the accused to five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder), slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 and three years of rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act along with a fine of Rs 5,000.

In case of default of payment, the accused would further undergo imprisonment for six more months. Both the sentences shall run concurrently, the court ordered. 

Bathinda, April 4
A-list kabaddi players, who were part of the Indian kabaddi team that had participated in the World Cup Kabaddi-2013, were conspicuous by their absence during the trails conducted for the Lahore International Sports Festival today at the Multipurpose Sports Stadium.

Coach of the Indian kabaddi team Harpreet Baba who was part of the selection panel stated that the Indian team players could not appear for the trial as many of them were not in India as they were in New Zealand to participate in a kabaddi tournament.

Sources, however, stated that the Lahore International Sports Festival, to be held from April 12-19, was not exciting enough for the players as the organisers are yet to announce the prize money.

“When their team comes here, it plays to win a prize money of Rs 1 crore. But they are yet to announce the prize money and are also asking the Punjab Kabaddi Association to send the players on its own money while it is paying for the tickets of the Canada and England teams,” the source said.

“We are still discussing with the organisers regarding the prize money but are yet to get a final word on that. In case, there is no prize money, chairman of the Punjab Kabaddi Association, Sikander Singh Maluka, will take a call on whether the team will be sent for the festival or not,” said Baba.