Bathinda, May 20
A roadside golgappa vendor was killed after a PCR vehicle, Tavera, rammed into his kiosk on the Multania road. The vendor died on the spot whereas two other persons were injured in the incident.

The mishap occurred on the Bathinda-Multania Road near Virat Green Society, when a golpappa vender was running his business as usual. Two persons stopped at his vend to eat golgappas. All of a sudden, a police PCR No. 3 bearing PB 03 W 5967 came out of nowhere and rammed into them. The PCR vehicle also dragged the victims into the fields.

The vendor received serious injuries and died on the spot, whereas the injured were rushed to the hospital. Sources added that constable Lakhvir Singh was driving the SUV, while constables Gurpanth Singh and Deepak Kumar were sitting in the police vehicle at the time of the accident.

The deceased has not been identified yet, but the other two persons who received injuries were identified as Bhalwinder Singh and Sira Singh, a resident of Bir Talab village. Bhalwinder suffered spinal injuries and his condition is stated to be critical.

DSP City Gurjit Singh Romana reached the spot and took stock of the situation. Later, the driver of the SUV was arrested.

The DSP stated that constable Lakhvir Singh has been arrested under Sections 304-A and 279 of the IPC. He also added that further investigation in the case was on.

Bathinda, May 21
Students of final semester BSc, Punjabi University, Patiala, are in a fix as the dates of two of their final examinations have clashed with the dates of the entrance exams to be conducted for MSc courses by the other universities.

The students are scheduled to take mathematics number theory examination on June 17. On the same day, Delhi University will be conducting the entrance exam for MSc Physics. As per the schedule of Punjabi University, the students have to appear for the examination of nuclear physics on June 13. The same day, Panjab University will be conducting entrance exam for MSc physics.

While speaking to the Bathinda Tribune, the students stated that they were growing livid with every passing day. “We brought the notice to the attention of the university authorities. We wrote a letter and after getting it signed by the principal of the college, Vijay Goyal, sent it to the Controller of Examinations at the university and other senior officials,” said Sheenum, a student of Government Rajindra College.

Other students added that the university had earlier announced that the examination will begin on May 5, but later rescheduled the date sheet and the examination finally began on May 13. “After the university restructured the date sheet, it should have taken into consideration the dates announced by some of the major universities for their entrance examinations,” the students said.

With only 10 days to go for the examinations, the students argued that Punjabi University, Patiala, should postpone the two examinations.

Controller of Examination, Punjabi University, Patiala, Pawan Singla, said, “The issue has been brought to my notice. We are in the process of postponing the examinations that are clashing with the dates of entrance examinations to be conducted by the other universities. The students have no reason to worry,” he said.

Bathinda, May 21
Chairman Dr Naresh Pruthi, academic dean Dr Ravinder Bharadwaj, Prof Lavnish Pruthi and a deputation of students of the Saint Sahara Ayurvedic Medical College, Kotshamir, have been called by the SDM Damanjeet Singh Mann for a meeting tomorrow.

A notice was issued after a deputation of students of the college met the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Kamal Kishore Yadav today and also SDM Damanjeet Singh Mann regarding their demands.

The DC directed the SDM to call a meeting of the college authorities and the students’ delegation and enquire into the matter and take action accordingly.

The students of the second professional course at the college have been protesting outside their college alleging that the authorities had kept them in the dark over the issue of affiliation of the college. Adding that the college authorities didn’t heed their demands of furnishing documentary proof of affiliation of the college to Guru Ravidass Ayurvedic University, release their registration cards, their detailed marks certificates and declare the results of the examinations they had appeared for in December 2013.

The students, while speaking to the Bathinda Tribune stated that since the college authorities were not serious towards their demands, they decided to take up the matter with the DC.

Bathinda, May 21
Looking pretty in a bright salwar-suit actress Simran Kaur Mundi stated that she always thought that she was the girl-next-door and had never expected that she would go on to win the Miss India beauty pageant. The actress was in the city to promote her upcoming Punjabi film, ‘Mundeyan Toh Bach Ke Rahin’. She was accompanied by actors Roshan Prince and Jassi Gill.

Simran, who was crowned Miss India Universe in 2008, added that it was her mother who dreamt big for her. “When Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai won the beauty pageant in 1994, my mother exclaimed that she wanted to see me on the same platform. I always thought that I was average looking, but my mother had faith in me. Even when I participated in the pageant, I never knew that I could win. And when I won, I realised that in such competitions, it’s not only beauty that matters but also one’s overall personality,” she said.

With a Telugu film, two Hindi and two Punjabi films in her kitty, Simran rued that it was unfair to pinpoint models-turned-actresses for their poor performance in films. “Although the models have the advantage of having faced the camera earlier as well, it is unfair to single them out if their films don’t do well. Hits and flops are a part of every profession and anyone can go through the cycle,” she said, adding that for her, the transition from the world of modelling to film industry was an easy one since her modelling days had given her confidence.

When asked which of the two — modelling or acting — she preferred, Simran said, “I prefer acting over modelling since the latter gets monotonous after a while, but that’s not the case with acting. While shooting for films, one gets to meet new people on every project, do something different, improvise and do several other things which keep the profession from getting repetitive.”

Bathinda, May 21
As the news flowed in from Delhi regarding the arrest of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal after he refused to furnish a bail bond in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, AAP supporters staged a silent protest at Fire Brigade Chowk in the city late this evening.

The AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister was sent to Tihar Jail under judicial custody for repeatedly refusing to furnish a personal bail bond of Rs 10,000 and a surety of the like amount.

The leader was summoned as an accused by a Delhi court in the defamation complaint in which Nitin Gadkari had accused the former of defaming him by including his name in the list of ‘India's most corrupt’, a list which was issued by AAP leader before the implementation of the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.

Local AAP supporter Bhupinder Bansal, who was also a part of the silent protest, said, “This is not the first time that Arvind Kejriwal has been named in a defamation case. In the earlier three cases, he was not asked to furnish personal bonds, then why has the same been done in the case involving senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.”

He said the leader had been arrested under duress from the party that had come to power at the Centre.

The supporters and workers of the party refused to accept the ruling handed out by a Delhi court and demanded that a higher court should look into the matter and give a fair ruling.

AAP workers said they would keenly follow the matter and would chalk out a future plan of action according to the progress in the case.

Bathinda, May 21
Officials of the Agriculture Department, working under the orders issued by the Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO)-cum-project director ATMA, Dr Rajinder Singh Brar, collected 432 samples of soil and 50 samples of water from the fields of Joganand village in Nathana.

ATMA’s deputy project director Dr Narinder Singh and Dr Harpreet Sharma divided the entire region into five blocks and teams were constituted for each block. The teams accompanied by farmers collected samples of soil and water from the fields.

The CAO advised the farmers to get the water and soil tested regularly and use fertilisers accordingly. He added that the injudicious use of fertilisers caused monetary loses to the farmers and had ill effect on the environment. Those involved in collecting the samples included Dr Sukhmander Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Harjeet Singh, Bikker Singh and Sukhmander Singh. — TNS

Bathinda, May 21
The objective of the Police Department to provide special security to women through Women Armed Special Protection Squad (WASPS), formed after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi, seems to be going off the track these days.

No WASPS members are seen near schools and colleges and many times they are seen busy on their mobile phones during duty hours or gossiping with other colleagues instead of keeping a vigil on eve-teasers.

WASPS members are armed with latest weapons and gadgets. They have undergone special security training in Bathinda and Kapurthala centres.

They have been given specially modified Honda Activa scooters for patrolling. All the members of WASPS are women, who have to immediately inform the women control room in case of any incident.

Around 2-3 incidents have been reported in the past in which police officials were called to protect WASPS members.

Another initiative taken by the police was to install women complaint boxes in schools and colleges, but this initiative has also failed as no complaint has been received by the Police Department from these complaint boxes so far.

Senior police officials held a meeting with school and college managements and directed them to install these complaint boxes in the beginning of the last year.

The dean of a local college said these complaint boxes put up by the police are merely show pieces. He asked why would a victim first deposit a complaint in the box and then wait for 2-3 days for the police to take action.

He said girls preferred to complain directly to the principal if there were any untoward incident.