Punjabi singers-cum-actors Jazzy B and Garry Sandhu address a press conference

Bathinda, May 9
Residents of Model Town Phase III, headed by the members of the Residents' Welfare Association of the area, today rallied together to prevent a live concert by singer-turned actors, Jazzy B and Garry Sandhu. After much discussions and giving into the power of the public, the organisers got permission and the two and a half hour concert was reduced to a only half-an-hour show.

The duo was to perform at the ground adjacent to the Dadi Poti Park as part of their promotional campaign for their upcoming film, 'Romeo Ranjha'. The concert was scheduled to start at 6.30pm.

Residents argued that a concert should not be held in a residential area as it creates problem of law and order apart from creating noise pollution. One of the residents Swaran Singh argued that the organisers did not have all the requisite permissions and hence, should not be allowed to hold the concert. He also stated that since the land belonged to the Oriental Bank of Commerce, the organisers should have sought their permission.

Till 8 pm, the organisers had sounded hopeful of having their way claiming that they had all the permissions and were working their way out of the problem. Meanwhile, one of the bouncers entered into a heated argument with the police personnel and was beaten up by the police.

Speaking to the Bathinda Tribune, SDM Damanjeet Singh Mann said, "We had sent Naib Tehseildar Preetpal Singh and DSP Gurjeet Singh Romana to the spot and the organisers furnished the permissions they had sought from the police department and for using the land from the Bathinda Development Authority. They, however, did not furnish the permission sought for using loudspeakers."

Bathinda, May 9
The unavailability of free medicines for cancer patients being treated at (Non-Communicable Diseases) the NCD clinic, a center-state project, had put the poor patients in the lurch with paying of high cost for their treatment. The state government appeared to have failed to provide the medicines meant free for patients of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at the clinic in Bathinda.

In last two years, since the project coming into existence, more than 1,200 cancer patients have undergone treatment out of which 700 had undergone chemotherapy, but they had to get treatment on their own expenses as the medicines meant free for them is not available here since beginning. The patients, being treated here under the NCD clinics, cannot get any benefit under the Mukhmantri Rahat Kosh Cancer Scheme (MRKCS) launched by state government whereas a number of these patients are those whose file for the MRKCS are either rejected or still in line of wait to be cleared from years.

It's pertinent to note that cancer patients are supposed to get free medicines for the treatment at the Cancer Control Unit which has been established with a mission to detect cancer at an early stage and help patients get out of the rut of the disease if possible. The facility was established vide a Central government project on prevention and control of cancer under the National Program for Control of Cancer, Diabetics and Cardio-Vascular Strokes (NPCDCS). The centre and the state are sharing expenditure in the ratio of 75:25.

A non-communicable Diseases centre (NCD) to detect the symptoms of cancer among the patients that includes a staff nurse, a laboratory technician, a counsellor and a health educator besides oncologist.

Dr Vandana Middha, an oncologist at the NCD clinic, Bathinda said, "For the last two years, around 1,200 patients have been treated or under treatment, but no medicine is available at the clinic and the patients have to purchase it from outside. The medicine cost for chemotherapy patient is from 2,000 to 6,000 for one-time treatment dose while the patient had to undergo six times treatment dose. The medicines for cancer patients are supposed to be given free at the NCD clinics, but it never reached here. Even there, no medicines are available for diabetes and cardiovascular patients that are meant free for them."

A cancer patient Gurdev Singh said, "My two out of three-acre land is sold. I live in Bhagta Bhaika village of the Bathinda district. Medicines are costly and clearance to my file for cancer is still pending with the Deputy Commissioner for the State Cancer Scheme. My son is a labourer and we don't have enough earning to get the treatment."

Bathinda Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar said, "The funds for the medicine have not reached yet. It's a centre-state project, but without funds, no medicine can reach. Though the cancer patients are being provided treatment at various hospitals in Punjab approved by the government under the Chief Minister Cancer Relief Scheme that is also cashless."

Bathinda, May 9
Teachers recruited under the Special Training Resource persons scheme (STR), the Employment Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and the Innovative Education (AIE) schemes today came back on the path of protest agitating against the order passed by state education department directing them to teach out-of school and dropout children before or after the school hours.

Police personnel outside the Teachers’ Home in Bathinda on Friday. Tribune photos: Pawan Sharma

Through the letter, issued by the Principal Secretary, Punjab, the Education Department, Anjali Bhawra, the teachers have been directed to identify and then teach such children at the EGS centres in villages. In case, the centres are not available, building of the government school in the village may be used before 8 am and after 2 pm by the teachers.

Expressing their anger over the fresh directions, the STR/EGS/AIE teachers burnt copies of the letter outside Teachers’ Home in the city while raising slogans against the Punjab government. The teachers accused the state government of giving them jobs only to pacify them till the elections to make sure that the large teacher fraternity didn’t go against it.

“The STR/EGS/AIE scheme was revived by the government for only two years and within a few months of giving us our jobs back, the state government has started playing foul. We got our jobs back in February and were given the task of teaching students of government primary schools. Now, we have been asked to go back to teaching dropout or out-of-school children and that too before or after school hours,” argued Devinder Singh, state president of the STR Teachers’ Union.

The teachers demanded that either the letter be recalled or a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. “The district administration was offering us a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, but we want to meet the CM since only he can solve the problem,” the teachers said.

Tussle with police

As the teachers proceeded to step out of the Teachers’ Home to burn the copies of the orders, they were intercepted by a posse of policemen, including WASPS personnel. In their attempt to close the gates of the Teachers’ Home, the police personnel got into a tussle with the teachers.

SDM Damanjeet Singh Mann reached the spot and convened a meeting with the union leaders. During the meeting, he assured the teachers that a meeting with the senior officials of the government will be fixed very soon. He also convinced the teachers to carry out their protest peacefully.

Not paid salaries

The teachers also accused the state government of cheating them in the name of giving them jobs. They said the government had not released any budget for the salaries of the teachers. The teachers, who had resumed the services with effect from February 24, are still waiting to get their salaries for the two and a half months.

Bathinda, May 9
The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has failed to launch its ambitious e-books project under which potable document format (PDF) files of as many as 68 books were to be uploaded on its official website in the beginning. While a month has already passed by since the new academic session, the PSEB officials said the books will be uploaded within a month.

Speaking to the Bathinda Tribune, chairperson of the PSEB, Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal said, “Earlier, we had planned to launch the project by the end of February, but the project got stuck in some technicalities. Now, the software is back on track and we will be able to launch the books soon. A couple of books have been reviewed and the PDF files of those books will be uploaded soon.”

The PSEB officials also added that while the board will begin with books for Class XII, it will gradually proceed towards turning books of all classes into the PDF files and uploading them to make it easier for the staff members and the students of the government schools to have access to the syllabus.

The board had conceptualised the plan for the academic session 2013-14 but it couldn’t materialise since the board didn’t get approval for doing so in time and uploading books mid-session would have made little sense.

Bathinda, May 9
Members of the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Services Employees Union today had a showdown with a senior official within the complex of the Cooperative Bank in Bathinda. They alleged that Additional Registrar, Cooperative Societies Punjab, Tajinder Singh Virdi, went back on his word of meeting them during his visit to the bank.

Virdi was here to meet the officials at the bank and discuss the causes of the failure of the cooperative societies and to look into possible solutions to revive the societies.

The union members had requested him to meet them so that they could share the root cause of the problem with him.

They said they knew the details of the issue better than anyone else as they were working with the societies.

They were infuriated to know that Virdi was preparing to leave without meeting them.

After closing the gates of the complex to prevent him from leaving, they raised slogans against the state government claiming that the government was not willing to infuse life into the cooperative societies and its senior officials were not inclined towards finding out the real causes behind the societies running into losses.

Deputy Registrar, Gurbachan Singh, however, claimed that the union members were called for a meeting with the additional registrar but they refused to do so and went ahead and closed the gates.

After much deliberation, the union members agreed to speak to the additional registrar. District president of the union, Jaskaran Singh Kotshamir, said the biggest problem was the difference in the rate of interest charged by the cooperative banks and the cooperative societies.

He said the One Time Settlement (OTS) arrears were due since 2011 and that was causing major losses to the societies. He also pointed out that the Markfed products offered by the societies were available in the open market at lower rates.

He added that while a bag of DAP fertiliser was being sold by the cooperative societies at Rs 1,107, it was available for Rs 1,060 in the open market.

He said while they sold a bag of cotton seeds for Rs 925, it was available in the market for Rs 800.

Bathinda, May 9
Aklia College of Education for Women today distributed scholarships worth Rs 1,10,000 to poor and needy students.

Under the scholarship scheme, the students with financially weak background, those who are orphans or needy were divided into three categories A, B and C. The scholarship was given to eight students of B Ed College.