Bathinda, May 1
The Bathinda parliamentary seat recorded 77.5 percentage of voters’ turnout, stumbling down by 1.25 per cent recorded during the 2009 general elections.

Rubbing shoulders with the male voters, the female voters recorded neck-to-neck turn out. While 77.6 per cent men came out to vote, women matched their pace with them at 77.5 per cent despite far lesser women enrolled as voters as compared to men. Bathinda rural and Bhucho were the two constituencies where the women outdid men. At Bathinda rural, 75.7 per cent women cast their vote as compared to 71.6 per cent males, while at Bhucho, 79.8 per cent women cast their votes as compared to males at 79.5 per cent.

Bathinda urban remained at the lowest index, but improved its performance from 66.52 per cent in 2009 to 70. 7 per cent recorded this year. Not only Bathinda urban but the Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal’s own constituency Lambi also witnessed lesser voter turnout that too in a retrogressive manner. Against 81.47 per cent voters’ turnout registered in 2009 from Lambi, it went to as low as 77.5 per cent affecting the overall polling percentage of constituency.

Bhucho seat maintained its pace with 79.14 per cent polling registered in 2009 and 79.6 per cent registered this year. Talwandi Sabo also proved to be a spoiler registering 80.29 per cent in 2009 and 74.4 per cent this year.

Budhlada and Maur voters seemed to be more enthusiastic buoying the turn out charts. In Budhlada, 88.21 per cent cast their vote this time as compared to 84.34 per cent registered last time. Mansa maintained its pace recording 78.4 per cent this year against 78.61 per cent recorded last year. Sardulgarh recorded 81.2 per cent this year and 83.25 per cent last year.

Bathinda, May 1
The future of 29 candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Bathinda seat lies sealed and stored at the strong rooms in Bathinda and Mansa district.

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) of Lambi, Talwandi Sabo, Maur, Bhucho, Bathinda rural and Bathinda urban are stored at the Pesco Training Institute. Similarly the EVMs of Mansa, Sardulgarh and Budhlada are stored in the Mansa district.

The work of sealing and storing the EVM was completed at 8 am today at the Pesco Training Institute and Institute of Hospitality Management (IHM) adjoining it with election staff, including Returning Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bathinda Gurpreet Bhullar and observers presiding over the procedure.

Till May 16, the EVMs will be guarded by paramilitary forces at the Pesco Institute where they would be opened on the D-day May 16 for counting.

The EVMs from the Lambi constituency were amongst the last to arrive at the Pesco Institute. The EVMs reached at 6 am. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Jasraj Singh Longia raised objections to late arrival of the EVMs and alleged that the ruling party was being favoured. Longia said that the ECI is being given a representation in this context.

However, the Returning Officer Kamal Kishore Yadav added that a tedious procedure is followed while sealing the EVMs as even one mistake can cause dear to the entire election staff. He added that due to tedious proceedings, Gurdaspur registered EVMs being submitted as late as in afternoon. He added that polling agents of all parties were present when the EVMs were submitted.

The EVMs that developed fault after certain numbers of votes have been cast into it have also been stored. However, the EVMs that developed snag before the onset of polling have been removed.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) initiatives to increase voter footfall at polling booths by the means of distributing appreciation certificates to the first time voters and welcoming voters at the super model booths increased the workload of already burdened election staff on polling day.

The presiding officers (PO) who have the largest chunk of responsibility amongst the polling staff present on booths were seen occupied in arranging for the appreciation certificates and ensuring that each new voter was pampered as per the ECI instruction.

A PO has to fill 29 kinds of different forms and send 16 SMSes from the time of arrival at the polling booth to leaving it, besides ensuring smooth polling procedure at respective booths.

All the members of polling parties, except women employees, have arrived at respective polling stations on April 29 afternoon and left late night on April 30 after completing the polling procedure.

“We have to complete hundreds of formalities before leaving the polling stations. Above all, the most time consuming procedure would be submitting the electronic voting machines (EVMs),” confided a presiding officer.

Due to round-the-clock work, the election staff largely remained deprived of their sleep. All senior election office functionaries did not sleep on April 30 night as the EVMs had to be deposited.

At the election control cell set up at the District Administrative Complex the election staff had left at 3 am on April 30 only to return by 5.30 am as the mock poll at various polling booths had started at 6 am. Unable to catch up with the sleep, employees seemed tired today.

Bathinda, May 1
Condemning the attack on the AAP candidate in Patiala by workers of the ruling SAD and alleging massive poll irregularities at numerous polling booths in the Bathinda parliamentary constituency, AAP candidate Jassi Jasraj declared yesterday as the worst day of the democratic set-up.

“The number of polling booths where polling was 100 per cent fair was quite less yesterday,” Jassi said.

Polling agents of the ruling parties were seen influencing the voters by offering tea, snacks and vehicles, and putting up huge stalls against the norms, he added.

“The most astonishing thing was to allow voters to cast their vote without verifying their photographs on the voter slips or voter cards,” Jassi said.

He alleged that the influential political parties used money to collect voter slips and hired their own men to cast votes in their favour.

He accused the authorities of not deploying paramilitary forces on roads to check suspected vehicles carrying huge cash and instead, a handful of Punjab Police jawans were deployed at the polling booths.

Jassi alleged that even the credentials of voters were not verified after 4 pm.

Despite lodging written complaints and informing the authorities and officers concerned, no action was taken in this regard, he said.

Jassi lamented that martyrs laid their lives to fight for the right to vote for a democratic set-up, but yesterday’s hooliganism was a big shame for democracy.

The AAP candidate said apart from writing to the top election officials of India, he would soon chalk out a strategy to launch a massive protest and also knock the doors of the court for justice.

“In remote areas, our party workers and polling agents were driven out of the polling booths and were threatened that false cases would be registered against them. They were also threatened to death by party workers of other influential parties,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that similar accusations were made by the Congress candidate from Bathinda, Manpreet Badal’s wife, Veenu Badal. Veenu demanded re-polling at some booths where allegations of irregularities were made.

The officials on the election duty have already denied the allegations leveled by the AAP candidate and said they would look into such complaints and appropriate action would be initiated.

The Bathinda MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sarup Chand Singla, labeled the allegations as “Making a mountain out of a molehill.”

Bathinda, May 1
The police today booked 10 persons for beating up a bus conductor, Gurjant Singh, a resident of Ruldu Singhwala village. Gurjant said that he works as a bus conductor at Bahia Transport. On April 29, he was working when some passengers argued with him over the issue of releasing the bus ticket for a ride to a section of passengers. The incident occurred at Jiwan Singhwala village where two persons, identified as Yaddu Singh, Kaka Singh and seven to eight unidentified persons attacked him.

The bus conductor alleged that the assailants also tried to take his bag of cash away in the melee. He said the attackers inflicted injuries upon him and fled from the scene after the incident.

The matter was brought to the notice of the police and a case was registered. The policemen at the Talwandi Sabo police station said that a case under Sections 382, 511, 323,324, 148 and 149 of the IPC had been registered and efforts are on to nab the assailants. 

Bathinda, May 1
Twenty two-year-old Pallavi Sharma, a resident of Multania Road, has developed a kitchen garden on her rooftop showing Bathinda a greener and healthier way to life.

For the last one year, Pallavi has been working on this kitchen garden with her friends Harpreet Kaur and Charanjit Singh-all students of BSc (Biotechnology) at Government Rajindra College.

Using every little space available at her roof, Pallavi has grown brinjals, tomatoes, capsicum, mint and vegetables grown as creepers such as bottle gourd. She also has a separate tray where she creates vermin compost-compost created using earthworms.

“Since my school days, I always wanted to do something for the environment.

Last year, I came in contact with members of an NGO Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM) through a social networking site. I learned that eating healthy formed the first step of caring for your environment. Basically, I am frugal at spending, which reflects in my style of farming,” she says.

Pallavi has not only utilised her terrace strategically, she also recycles the waste plastic canisters and water bottles for growing plants with her frugal approach. The saplings are grown in these plastic containers and transferred to the beds laid. The bigger water bottles double up as pots too, while the smaller ones are slit horizontally to crate boat like structures wherein flowering creepers are grown. Even the kitchen waste, excluding dairy product and tea leaves, are not thrown but dried and added as manure to the beds.

“We have now run out of bottles and end up asking for plastic bottles from our neighbors,” laughs Pallavi. All the plastic transparent bottles are painted with acrylic paint to decrease heat absorption and damage caused to the plastic. For those, who don’t want to spend on acrylic paints, Pallavi suggests wrapping old cloth around the bottles would also work.

Instead of spraying chemicals to remove aphids, she has prepared an organic solution that contains lemon juice and turmeric powder added to a liter of water.

Allaying the common fear of rooftops getting soaked due to plant-water moisture, she said instead of flooding the beds, these should be moistened. A mixture of fallen leaves could be used to ensure that plant’s moisture gets locked. “Being a water rich state, we are accustomed to flooding our plants. We should add just enough water to make the soil moist. In events like rain, holes could be pierced in bed, which has a layer of plastic laid below the thick layer of soil,” she added.

Bathinda, May 1
Development claims of the state government do not seem to be going well as residents of the city still lack basic amenities.

As both under-bridge and over-bridge connecting area across the railway lines with the city cries for the attention and is in dire need of repair. Such a worst condition of the bridges has started affecting the commuters who pass by these bridges number of times in a day.

Whereas, Paras Ram Nagar over-bridge had developed potholes. While the under-bridge has no lights and uneven roads, that has led to many accidents.

Residents of the area in the past have protested against the district administration for not providing them with basic amenities many a time.

Residents of the area also question the claims made by the Badal family to convert Bathinda into California, stating that they should focus on Bathinda only and provide facilities to residents.

Vijay Kumar, a resident of Paras Ram Nagar, while talking to the Bathinda Tribune said many accidents occur due to bad condition of the roads.

The accidents have also spinal injuries and bone dislocations. But so far, no attention had been paid to this problem.

While just before the voting last week, many new roads were laid and repaired violating the election code of conduct, but residents alleged that just before the voting to lure voters hurriedly new roads were being laid with sub-standard material.

It is also worth mentioning that many cases of snatching and theft have also been reporting in the past during night time while commuting from railway under-bridge of the Paras Ram Nagar area due to absence of lights.

However, Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said the city roads are already being laid, for which tender was given before the enforcement of election code of conduct. Soon, this area will also be covered. 

Bathinda, May 1
As many as 43 students of Baba Farid Group of Institutes (BFGI) have been selected for the international internship programme through AIESEC (Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales). Last year, nine students of BFGI had gone to several countries for their global internships.

Vice-president, AIESEC, Sherman, said, “Global internship polishes students so well that they become multi-talented. The students will be given three certificates after successful completion of their course. One certificate will be from the country from where they do their internship and the other two from India.”

“Through international internships students come to know about working cultures and ethics of various countries, get international practical exposure, come to know about different traditions and cultures, compete with international students and get to know where they stand in real time and what all things they need to improve in themselves to become the best,” he said.

Chairman, BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, congratulated the selected students and wished them success. He said, “I assure the future students of BFGI of equal opportunities in getting global internships.”

He said, “I am sure that all these talented students will make AIESEC and their parents proud.”

Directors, deputy directors, deans and principals congratulated and wished success to the selected students. — TNS

Bathinda, May 1
DS Ahuja today took over the charge of General Manager in-charge of the NFL Bathinda unit.

Earlier, Ahuja served as general manager (Operations and Maintenance) at the unit. An engineering graduate with honours in chemical discipline from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Panjab University Chandigarh, Ahuja has been associated with fertilizer industry and NFL for the last over thirty-four years.

Apart from the Bathinda unit, he has also served as head of the Production Department at NFL Panipat.

Ahuja has experience in commissioning of plants, operation, maintenance, technical services, contracts, general administration and projects. He also has successfully commissioned ammonia plants in People's Republic of China. — TNS

Bathinda, May 1
Students of computer science and engineering of Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical University campus looked after the webcasting of 20 sensitive booths in the Bathinda district during the Lok Sabha polls.

They closely monitored the polling process and transmitted live video data through webcams, laptops and internet to the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

Total 30 students, including 10 girls, were selected to perform this duty. Out of the 30 students, 15 boys and 5 girls were deputed at

20 booths and 10 were kept in reserve.

Six routes were covered for webcasting. A faculty member of the CSE Department accompanied the students on each route.

Also, more than 20 students of the campus were deputed for assistance at super model booths for facilitating the voters, especially the old-aged and differently abled persons.

A faculty member of the CSE Department and the coordinator of webcasting team, Dr Paramjeet Singh, said the youth was the future of the nation and through this process they felt themselves to be a part of the election process.

Campus director and nodal officer of the webcasting team, Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal, said these types of activities would develop their personality. He appreciated the webcasting team and students who worked day and night and put their efforts for the successful completion of this work.

Bathinda, May 1
Malwa College’s management and Computer Science Department hosted a farewell party ‘Ruksat-2014’ for its passing out students.

Students performed solo dance, group dance, bhangra and modeling and organised many fun games at the party.

The highlight of the party was the ‘Mr and Miss Farewell’ contest. Students in the audience had fun cheering the contestants.

Jaswant Singh, a final year student of MCA was adjudged as Mr Farewell while an MSE final year student was chosen as Miss Farewell.

Director of the college, Dr Shardev Singh Gill and Dean NK Gosian wished good luck to the passing out students. 

Bathinda, May 1
The Punjab Medical Representative Association (PMRA) observed Labour Day today at its office. The PMRA held a flag hoisting ceremony wherein martyrs of Chicago were remembered.

President of the unit, Rajinder Gadgill and secretary, Arvinder Singh, said the capitalist forces and managements of various pharmaceutical companies were exploiting their field staff since long. They pledged to fight against such managements.

Harmeet Singh, Rajmeet Madaan, Shamsher Singh, Madho Sharma and Rajinder Singla were also present on the occasion.