Bathinda, June 4
The rural veterinary hospitals in the district are ailing for want of funds. With no arrangement for potable water, dilapidated buildings, no fridge to store vaccines and no provision for necessary infrastructure, these hospitals have become a picture of neglect.

Rural veterinary officers (RVO) are of the opinion that the problems of the hospitals began when in 2006, more than 500 hospitals in the state were transferred to the Zila Parishads from the control of the Department of Animal Husbandry.

Ever since, not even a single penny has been released by the government either for the maintenance of the hospitals or for providing basic facilities to the doctors and officers, the RVOs said.

The most important necessity - a fridge to store medicines and vaccines --- is missing from almost 90 per cent of the hospitals.

While some of the doctors store their stock of medicines in the fridge available in some other hospital in their block, others have spent on ice boxes and carry some of the most used vaccines and medicines with them.

While the government went into overdrive to install ROs in residential colonies, it paid no attention to these hospitals.

In the absence of any arrangement for potable water at these hospitals, doctors, pharmacists and class IV employees have no option but to either rely on the local water supply or carry water from home.

A member of the Rural Veterinary Officers Association, Punjab, said, “We have submitted memorandums to the Zila Parishad officials but nothing has been done so far. The government is yet to release funds for the maintenance of these hospitals.”

The revenue generated at the cattle fair organised in Muktsar, Maur, Killianwali and other places in the state should be allocated to these hospitals, as per a clause put in place by the government, he added.

Bathinda, June 4
The heat wave continued to lash the district and its adjoining areas today with the mercury crossing the 45 degree Celsius mark.

Hot winds, blowing at a speed of 2 km per hour, forced the residents to stay indoors. Market places wore a deserted look during the daytime and those who stepped out did so with their faces covered to protect themselves from sunburns.

While the maximum temperature recorded today was 45.4 degree Celsius, the minimum temperature, however, dropped a little to 25.4 degree Celsius as compared to the previous day.

As per the Weather Department, the hot and dry weather is here to stay as the days are turning increasingly dry with the humidity being recorded at around 75 per cent in the morning and oscillating between 13-15 per cent in the daytime.

As per the latest weather forecast released by the Agriculture-Meteorological Department of the PAU regional station, Bathinda, there seems to be no respite in sight from the intense heat wave across Northern India.

According to the information gathered from the station, even the usual weather spoiler, the Western Disturbance (WD), is not expected to bring about any change in the weather conditions.

It is pertinent to mention that the WD had caused a few showers and downpours two weeks back, making the residents of the area hope for a less scorching summer.

With the increase in temperature, the demand for electricity has also increased manifold. More than the heftier power bills, it is the long power outages in several areas across the city that has left the residents sweating.

Sources in the Electricity Department claimed that in most of the older constructions, more power was being consumed than the sanctioned load, which led to frequent load shedding instances and faults in the transformers.

Bathinda, June 4
The Vigilance Department officials today caught an Assistant Junior Engineer (AJE) red handed demanding bribe for the installation of an irrigation electricity connection.

Darshan Singh(AJE) had demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Karnail Singh, who was allotted a connection in August 2013 after paying Rs 87,906.

The accused AJE, however, demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 but the complainant made a settlement at Rs 40,000 and later filed a complaint with the Vigilance Department.

“We caught the accused, AJE Darshan Singh, with a bribe of Rs 40,000. A case has been registered under Sections 7, 13(2) and 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.” said Sukhdev Singh Chahal, SSP Vigilance.

Bathinda, June 4
Danger of the ‘killer dengue’ is looming again in the district. Balwinder Singh, a local resident caught in the net of this deadly disease, died yesterday at a private hospital in Ludhiana.

The district health authorities, however, have started a door-to-door campaign in the city and started spraying medicine to kill mosquitoes, besides creating awareness among the masses.

Since January this year, the district has witnessed two dengue cases, out of which one patient lost his life.

A number of dengue cases were witnessed last year both in Bathinda and Mansa districts. They were said to be an outcome of the failure of district health authorities to make people aware and counter the countless swarms of dengue mosquitoes that resulted in around 87 cases of dengue in the Mansa district and 177 cases in Bathinda in 2013.

The number of dengue cases in 2011 was around 1,000 in the Bathinda district alone.

As per the norms, after a patient is confirmed with dengue, the health teams have to immediately visit the house of the patient to do fogging inside the house of patient and surrounding houses, besides creating awareness among them.

According to reports, around 60-year-old Balwinder Singh was a resident of Beer Talab in Bathinda and had caught dengue fever a few days ago, following which he was admitted to CMC Ludhiana.

“We had strictly given instructions for spraying medicine and creating awareness. We will also send workers for spraying medicine in and around of the patients’ home. We have been informed only about the death while other details of Balwinder Kumar are yet to reach.” said Dr RS Randhawa, a district health official.

However, locals are complaining that neither fogging was done nor any team of officials visited to create awareness. Mandeep Singh, a local resident, said, “None of the official had reached for any awareness in our locality in Model Town and it is the same with Beer Talab and Mata GB Nagar.”

Fact file The district health authorities, however, have started a door-to-door campaign in the city and started spraying medicines to kill mosquitoes, besides creating awareness among the masses. As per the norms, after a patient is confirmed with dengue, the health teams have to immediately visit the house of the patient to do fogging inside the house of patient and in surrounding houses

Bathinda, June 4
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today annouced that Baba Farid University of Health Sciences would take over the 25-bedded drug de-addiction centre set up at the Civil Hospital.

The Chief Minister visited the centre and interacted with the drug-addicts. He took stock of the services being provided to the drug-addicts.

The centre has been witnessing a huge rush of patients, more than it can actual accommodate, these days.

As compared to February this year, when around 80 patients used to visit the OPD each day, the number has now crossed 300 per day.

The centre has 25 beds that are totally occupied and there is a waiting list going on these days.

This centre does not receive any aid from the state government and runs totally on the funds provided by Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, Talwandi Sabo.

Sources claimed that the funds given by refinery funds are going to be absorbed in the next 2-3 months.

Ranjit Singh, a 25-year-old drug-addict from Jagraon, said he started taking drugs at the age of 20 and a few days earlier, he started taking five injections of heroine daily.

While talking to Bathinda Tribune, he said earlier, drugs were easy available round the clock on phone but now the police had arrested most of the suppliers, due to which he was admitted here.

He said he saw drugs for the first time when he went to jail in 2007, where at least 100 persons take drugs with one injection. He started taking drugs there and then continued it after coming out.

Another patient, Jagminder Singh, a resident of Malout, got addicted to drugs during his college days in Patiala.

He said his seniors made him take drugs and later he increased his intake while practicing for boxing. Now, he regrets taking drugs and feels that he was a good boxer in college days but drugs had ruined his boxing career.

Bathinda only has two drug de-addiction centres - one running at the Civil Hospital and other run by Red Cross Society at Goniana Road.

The centre at the Civil Hospital is overflowing with a high number of patients these days.

While the other de-addiction centre at Goniana Road is crying for the attention. It was the first de-addiction centre set up by the state government in the Malwa region. This centre was started in February 22, 1992. The centre has 15 beds in it.

Dr Nidhi Gupta, in-charge of the drug de-addiction center at the Civil Hospital, said there had been tremendous increase in the number of patients these days.

She said people from all age groups had taken to drugs, with old-aged addicted to poppy husk and opium and youth addicted to heroin and smack.

The centre has full staff and medicines are given to the patients free of cost.

There are also some private de-addiction centres opened by some local NGO'S, but they do not see any de-addicts coming as they charge big amounts and are being run without proper guidance.

Bathinda, June 4
Twenty-five-year-old Kanwal Wadhwa has a unique hobby of collecting old coins and currency.

He has collected currency of more than 150 countries. His collection of coins includes coins released by the Muslim Rulers (1616 ) and coins with the 768 inscription. Besides coins of the Marathas, coins of the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Queen Victoria, Rajasthan’s Sewai Man Singh, Napoleon, Nizam of Hyderabad, Guru Nanak and other states of the pre-independence era that are made of gold, silver and bronze.

He has also collected 786 number notes of all the series and notes with the lucky number 1000000, 666666, 999999, 000002 etc besides old note of 10,100 and 1000 after independence. Wadhwa said for his collection, he had to travel across the country. He said though it was expensive, his father put up with it and encouraged him to continue with his hobby. He said at any cost, he would not sell his precious collection.