Bathinda, June 9
Illegal transplantation of paddy is going on in the district even as the Punjab government has imposed a ban on transplanting paddy before June 10. But many farmers are violating the instructions of the state government and have started planting paddy prior to the date announced by the government.

It is pertinent to mention that on the recommendation of several agricultural bodies, including the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), the Punjab Farmers’ Commission and the Agriculture Department, the state government revised the schedule for the transplantation of paddy in the state.

Under the revised schedule, the government had notified that no farmer in the state will be allowed to transplant paddy before June 10. Earlier, transplantation of paddy used to begin on June 1. This year, the decision to delay the start of paddy transplantation was taken to check the declining water table in the state, reduce the burden of subsidy and improve the quality of basmati.

The farmers claimed that the reason behind the early transplantation of paddy was shortage of labour as the number of migrant labourers from Bihar, UP and other states, who used to come to Punjab during the paddy season, declined drastically last season. They are of the view that farmers will face an acute shortage of labour this season too.

Gurmail Singh of Gobindpura village said he had started paddy transplantation before the date announced by the state government because after June 10, there will be an acute shortage of labour and wages will rise. Since there will be a huge rush for transplanting paddy, it will be hard to find labour. So, it was better to do it now, he said.

He also stated that the demands of farmers have risen as earlier, the labourers used to work at the rate of Rs 1,800-Rs 2,000 per acre. But this season, the labourers are asking for and getting a rate of Rs 2,500 per acre. This is besides the three meals a day that farmers are providing free of cost. Facing an extreme shortage of farm help, farmers are resorting to constructing small rooms in the fields to provide accommodation to the labourers, complete with fans and cots.

When the officials of the Agriculture Department were contacted, they said it had come to their notice that early transplantation of paddy was going on in some villages and that they would take action soon.

Bathinda, June 9
Power failure may have caused a clerical error leading to the swapping of the poll results of Giddar village during the Panchayat Elections-2013 wherein the loser was shown as the winner. This is the statement recorded by the presiding officer in the ongoing case of ‘swapping of election results’ pending at the District Election Tribunal (DET), Bathinda, presided over by the Deputy Commissioner.

Various statements are being recorded in the case which is pending at the Tribunal since July 31, 2013.

As per the complainant, Buta Singh, the results were swapped and the presiding officer, in his statement, recorded during previous hearings, has termed it as a clerical error.

In view of the losing candidate’s demand for re-polling, the presiding officer further recorded that there is no harm in re-polling in view of such anomalies’.

In view of the opposition to re-polling by the winning candidate, the Tribunal headed by Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg, today fixed the next date of hearing on June 12.

The panchayat elections in Giddar village, like all the other villages in Punjab, were held on July 3, 2013.

Buta Singh, after losing elections in ward number 8 of the village, had lodged a petition in the Tribunal, with allegations of swapping of results.

As per the declared results, Buta of the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal (SAD-B) got 88 votes and his rival Jarnail Singh of Congress got 99 votes in the elections.

Immediately after the elections, the loser raised a hue and cry and demanded re-polling. In view of the hullabaloo, the authorities neither called the winning candidate to the oath-taking ceremony nor gave him the identity card.

The winner, however, knocked at the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which directed the then DC to look into the grievance and address it within a week. The authorities then gave the identity card and administered the oath to the winner.

The loser then moved a petition in the Election Tribunal seeking re-polling. The winner, however, vehemently opposed the re-polling with allegations of foul play and political pressure by the ruling SAD-BJP alliance. Ajmer Singh, a Social Science (SS) teacher, was the presiding officer and Daljit Singh, Divisional Manager of Forest Department was the Returning Officer (RO) in the case.

Countering the statement of the presiding officer, the winning candidate stated that it is not him (presiding officer) but the RO who was responsible for the smooth and fair conduct of the panchayat elections. The statement of the presiding officer holds no significance as compared to the RO, the winning candidate said.

The former DC Kamal Kishore Yadav during the earlier hearing of the case had announced re-polling at 11 am on June 4, 2014.

The DC also ordered to constitute a team comprising a tehsildar, superintendent and a senior assistant for the re-polling. The winner candidate, however, opposed the re-counting and the case was adjourned for June 9 (today). The wining candidate today submitted an application in the Tribunal stating that a revision petition is pending in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the case may be adjourned. The Deputy Commissioner fixed the next date of hearing for June 12. The next date of hearing of the case in High Court is July 8, 2014.

Bathinda, June 9
The power crisis in the city is set to deepen with paddy transplantation set to begin in the region tomorrow.

With this, the demand for power is set to go up as electricity will be required for motors to draw underground water for irrigating the crop. The farm sector is supplied a minimum of eight hours of power daily. The demand for power during the summer in Punjab goes up by 20-25 per cent, to more than 9000 MW, leading to severe power shortage in the state.

With the city already facing a power crisis with long unscheduled power cuts becoming a routine, it is to be seen what impact the impending paddy season has on the lives of the residents. It will be interesting to see how the electricity department will manage the supply of eight hours to the farmers for transplanting paddy.

Sources in the department claimed that the demand for electricity has increased but the production is not adequate. To fulfill this gap, cuts have been imposed. The duration of power cuts might be increased in the coming days.

Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Power House Road, said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had been claiming that Punjab will become power surplus but the state was actually going down in terms of power production and distribution.

Himani Gupta, a housewife, said the power crisis had affected their lives and their routine had been disturbed."It is difficult to complete urgent daily work due to these power cuts," she said.

PSPCL officials claim that with the start of the paddy season, their will be some effect on the supply of power in the urbans areas, as the demand is already high and supply is less. In the days ahead, with the demand for power soaring, there is bound to be more gap in demand and supply.

Bathinda, June 9
Demanding regularisation of their jobs, the teachers recruited under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) today met the Education Minister of Punjab, Sikander Singh Maluka, and handed over a memorandum of demands to him.

The teachers argued that while they were recruited under the policy which stated that their jobs will be regularised after three years of service, the state government had failed to do so even after the teachers had spent six years working on contract basis. Headed by the state president of the union, the teachers demanded that the Education Minister should raise the issue of regularisation of jobs of the SSA and the RMSA teachers during the state cabinet meeting to be held on June 11.

While speaking to Maluka, the teachers pointed out that as many as 14,000 teachers recruited under the SSA and the RMSA schemes of the Central government have been teaching in the government schools of Punjab for the last six years. They also stated that a majority of these teachers have the qualification prerequisite for being recruited as a regular employee and all the rules and regulations were followed when they were recruited on contract basis. Yet they are bereft of the benefits extended to the regular employees of the government.

Pointing out that the Centre has given full discretion to the Punjab government to regularise the jobs of the teachers employed under the two schemes and has also assured that the funds that it sends for the two schemes will continue, the teachers questioned why was the state government stepping back from the task despite the fact that it will not have to shoulder any extra burden after regularisation of the teachers.

The teachers also demanded that the maternity leave for the teachers be increased from three to six months and make sure that the expectant women teachers are not transferred to schools which are at a great distance from their residence.

Bathinda, June 9
Farmers demanding the release of their leaders and workers continued their stir as 207 workers of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta Ugrahan were again detained today when hey came here to protest outside the Inspector General of Police IGP Bathinda Zone Paramraj Singh Umranagal’s office-cum-residence in Bathinda.

It is worth mentioning that for the last many days, these farmers gather outside the IGP’s office but are not allowed to stage a protest by the police force deployed there.

It is worth mentioning that the BKU Ekta Ugrahan leaders had given a call that each day their worker will protest outside the IGP’s office and court arrest until their leaders and workers are released by the police.

However, the protesters are detained and released in the evening everyday by the police. — TNS

Bathinda, June 9
Members of the Bharat Naujawan Sabha have launched a drive against the drug menace in the state. As a precursor to the drive, a meeting was convened at Teachers’ Home in Bathinda to make the youth aware about the ill effects of drug addiction and request them to steer clear of the menace.

Addressing the gathering, the leaders of Bharat Naujawan Sabha stated that as part of the drive, meetings will be held in villages to spread the message of shunning drugs and developing a healthy lifestyle. Youngsters from places as far as Sunam, Lambi, Nihal Singh Wala and Ludhiana had come to attend the meeting.

State president of the union, Pavel Kussa, accused the SAD-BJP government of launching a fake campaign against drug peddlers and called it a ‘drama’. He pointed out that in the name of cleaning up the system, the government was making the lower officials and small players a scapegoat, all the while shielding the big fish and handing out a clean chit to the ministers and other big offenders responsible for running the drug trade in the state.

They also argued that the state was reeling under a grave drug problem since it had the patronage of not only a handful of officials, but the entire state government. Alleging that the ministers were minting money from the drug trade, they demanded that the ministers named in the drug trafficking cases be made to put in their papers till the time the inquiry is on.

Bathinda, June 9
Students of the MBA at the Baba Farid College of Management & Technology of batch 2013-15 have been shortlisted as summer interns by leading corporate houses of India with some leading media brands. The students would be put under various projects involving primary survey, marketing strategy formulation and research etc. Companies which have offered summer internship opportunities on the campus include Tata Teleservices Limited, Anand Rathi Securities, Future Value Retail, Kapsons, Shopping Mantra, Food Corporation of India, to mention a few.

The selected students would also be given stipends on the successful completion of their internship. In addition to this, four students have been shortlisted under the flagship programme known as “Global Internship Programme” in collaboration with the AIESEC wherein they would be undertaking projects in other countries like Egypt, China, Vietnam, Cambodia etc.

Dr Manish Bansal, director principal, BFCMT, said, “Summer internships play a pivotal role in the learning process and facilitate the flow of theoretical concepts towards application in real life situations. The projects undertaken by the students under summer internships really pay in the long term as they get an opportunity to gain firsthand experience by actually working in the organization. Moreover, it helps the students while appearing for their final placement interviews as in most of the cases, they are asked project-specific questions.”

Managing Director of Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI), Gurmeet Dhaliwal said, “Getting entry into a reputed organisation and working for the same has never been an easy job but through the summer internship projects, the students will get an opportunity to work on research projects. It provides a platform to the students to get Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) where the dedicated students can get placement offers and can join immediately after completing their MBA.” He also heaped praise on the training and placements team of the BFGI. 

Bathinda, June 9
Punjab Technical University organised a joint campus placement drive of Paxcel Technologies Pvt Ltd on its Giani Zail Singh PTU Campus, Bathinda. PTU placement officer Navdeepak Sandhu stated that Paxcel Company evaluated more than 800 students who had come to the campus from across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh having BTech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Computer Science Engineering and Information Technology.

As a selection process, company conducted online aptitude test, followed by an online programming test whereas final interview will be conducted at PTU Mohali Campus at a later date. Selected students will be paid a starting package of Rs 3.6 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per annum.

Sandhu said more than 12,000 PTU students, who passed out in May 2014, have already been placed and many more placement events are finalised for the month of June. The details of these events have been uploaded on the PTU website.

Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal, director GZS-PTU campus, Bathinda, said such events are the need of the hour as talented and deserving students are given the opportunities to prove their intellect and technical ability. He appreciated the efforts of the PTU in organising the drive.

He said, “More placement events will be organised to provide better employment opportunities for students in the days to come.” He added that it was the vision of Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor of the PTU to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

The placement event was coordinated by Dr Ashok K Goel, head of the training & placement department, Giani Zail Singh PTU Campus, Bathinda, and MS Bedi, assistant placement officer, PTU, Jalandhar. Dr Goel lauded the efforts of PTU, placement team of GZS-PTU Campus, Bathinda and its faculty, staff and students for working hard to make the event a grand success.

Bathinda, June 9
Five students of Malwa College, Bathinda, have succeeded in getting a slot in the merit list released by the Punjabi University, Patiala, for the examinations held for MCA final year in May 2013.

Geetanjali, with 87.74 per cent, Tarun Gupta with 85.88 per cent, Surinder Kaur with 84.82 per cent marks, Sanjana Nagpal with 84.59 per cent marks and Ramandeep Kaur with 84.35 per cent marks bagged second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh position in the university merit list, respectively.

Director Dr Shardev Singh Gill and college Dean Prof NK Gosain congratulated the students on their achievement. They attributed this success to the hard work of the students and able guidance of the staff and hoped that other students shall emulate these brilliant students and bring laurels to the institution and their parents. College management felicitated the principal, staff and students on this occasion. — TNS