Bathinda, July 14
The delay in the arrival of monsoon has taken a toll on the farmers as it has led to an increase in the cost of agricultural inputs for them. The farmers feel that with a low MSP, the prevailing conditions would hit them hard.

The cotton farmers in the region are a worried lot as they are busy saving their crop from the mealy bug attack due to the heat wave. They generally spray pesticides to tackle para wilt in monsoon.

Mealy bug is an insect that affects the crop during the warm conditions. It is a small oval-shaped insect with a wax-like coating over its body. The insect sucks sap from the stem, leaves, flower buds and young bolls, resulting in the retarded growth of a plant.

Para wilt is a physiological disorder found in Bt cotton fields due to the excessive rain and heavy irrigation. If cobalt chloride is not sprayed in the fields within 24 hours of the attack, the cotton plant wilts permanently.

Meanwhile, the delay in monsoon has forced the paddy growers to use generators for irrigation, resulting in the rise of input cost. In both the crops, the input cost has increased and the farmers claimed they had not been given a fair price for their crops.

Joginder Singh, a farmer, said he had transplanted paddy in 10 acres but due to the delay in monsoon, his input cost had gone up. He regretted that the government had increased the price of paddy only by Rs 50 per quintal, which was hit them hard.

“The cotton crop in the region has been hit by the delay in monsoon and mealy bug. Spraying of more pesticides this season would lead to losses,” said Angrej Singh, a farmer of Bokra village.

Bathinda, July 14
The municipal corporation is still waiting for funds to prepare the prototype of mini-buses for the areas beyond the railway lines, including Parasram Nagar and Partap Nagar.

A proposal to introduce mini-buses is one of the long-pending demands of the residents. The railway lines passing through the city have divided the Bathinda into two. The residential areas beyond these lines are yet to get the most economical mode of transportation.

The Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) to launch a bus service in the area. A proposal to purchase 20 buses is in the offing.

Municipal Commissioner Dalwinder Singh said, “A team of officials from the the MC and the Transport Department will visit to have a look at the prototype of the bus as per the requirements of the area.”

“An amount of Rs 1.25 crore is expected to reach us, which would be used for the maurfacturing of the prototype and after making the changes, final touches will be given to it,” Dalwinder added.

Corporation officials said at present, the low-floor long buses were in use.

“But the problem with these buses is many, especially on narrow roads with high volume of traffic. These buses lead to traffic jams near railway station, Mall Road, Hanuman Chowk, traffic lights and other congested areas,” said Veerpal Kaur, a commuter. 

Bathinda, July 14
Heaps of garbage are lying close to the boundary wall of the District Consumer Forum building and stray animals can be seen roaming inside the building. With no financial aid from the state government, the forum is operating from a residential building.

The building was offered to the forum about nine years back and since then, hardly any maintenance has been done. “A stranger hardly gets an idea of the building as it is situated close to the residents of government officials,” said Amolak Singh, a visitor to the forum building.

Harbhajan Singh from Talwandi Sabo said he had come to submit a complaint on behalf of his nephew and failed to find a place worth sitting in the building. “Despite the unbearable heat, the complainants are either forced to stand outside or make do with a few chairs. Though there is ample space for the parking of vehicles inside the boundary wall of the building, the pavement is bumpy and it becomes difficult to park four-wheelers,” said another visitor Gurwinder Singh.

Officials also admitted that they were not happy with the old dilapidated building. “The situation worsens during the rainy season as water enters the rooms of the building,” said an official.

He said the repair of the building was carried out only once in the past nine years. Many lawyers said there were no proper washrooms and people urinate in the open. They added that a corner of the building was occupied by old vehicles.

Superintendent Gursewak Singh said the authorities were apprised of the problem and a request for the repair of the building was sent to the Deputy Commissioner, but to no avail. “The senior officials have also demanded the shifting of the office to the court complex,” he said. 

Bathinda, July 14
Patients at the Bathinda Civil Hospital protested the transfer of a psychiatrist of the hospital to Ghudda village today.

They seemed confused when they reached the office of the CMO, Bathinda, and then suddenly started raising anti-government slogans. "Our doctor should remain at the Civil Hospital as we cannot afford the doctors at far away places. If he is transferred, we would suffer. There is already a shortage of doctors,” said a 40-year-old patient from Bathinda city.

Notably, Dr Indiver Kalra has been transferred to Ghudda village. Ghudda is the ancestral village of Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal.

On Monday, when Dr Indiver Kalra left for the CMO office, a large number of patients requested the doctor to treat them first before leaving his room following which an employee of the Health Department told one of the patients that he had been transferred.

Notably, there are two psychiatrists at the Bathinda hospital. The other psychiatrist is Dr Nidhi Gupta. Besides, both the doctors are serving at the 25-bed drug de-addiction centre in the city. The Chief Minister had promised to provide more facilities and free treatment to drug addicts at the centre recently. Both the doctors attend to 300 drug addicts everyday.

Ramandeep (20), a drug addict who is receiving treatment from Dr Kalra, said he was not willing to tell his story to another doctor again. There are a number of other patients who do not want to discuss their problems to other doctors.

Ramandeep said, "I am coming here for the past four months and the doctor had given me a new life. I used to consume 5 gms of opium every day. But, now I am taking medicines and doing exercises as per the doctor's instructions. I would suffer if the doctor is transferred. I cannot tell my story to another doctor again. This is being done to help private psychiatrists."

Dr Nidhi Gupta said, "We had requested to Chief Medical Officer to look into the matter as the rush of patients is too much. The CMO has assured to look into the issue." 

Jalandhar, July 14
Angered at not getting their salaries for the past 18 months , the NCLP staff today began an indefinite strike outside the DC office in Jalandhar.

The 70 members of the 27 NCLP staff from various parts of the district have been devoid of their salaries for over one year now even though the department has resumed sending stipends to the students, the salaries of NCLP staff haven’t started arriving.

While holding the demonstration, the staff said the strike would continue till their demands are met.

Notably, irked by the problem, on the occasion of National Child Labour Day on June 12, all the 14 NGOs running the 27 schools signed a letter addressed to Union Minister for Labour and Employment Narendra Singh Tomar, requesting the release of the salaries of their staff working in NCLP schools.

Prof Anup Vats, who runs schools under his NGO Citizens Welfare and Protection Council, said, “We had posted the letter the very next day after it was written and we have received communication from the NCLP project officer just this afternoon that salaries have arrived. The first instalment of the pending salaries have come and staff shall be receiving them tomorrow.”

Project Director NCLP Inderjit Singh said, “The salaries have arrived and they will be received by them soon. Salaries of first six months shall be paid tomorrow and we have been told the remaining shall be paid by the first week of October.”

Bathinda, July 14
Following the decision of the government to withdraw the fee concession extended to the students belonging to the SC category, representatives of various sections of society staged a protest today.

Members of the Punjab Students’ Union (Shaheed Randhawa) today gathered outside Government Rajindra College and took out a rally. They also raised slogans against the state government and demanded a rollback of the decision.

They said that Punjabi University, Patiala, should rollback the hike in fee and the management of Government Rajindra College should rollback its decision of increasing the contribution to the PTA fund.

Addressing the rally, the state convenor of the union, Sarabjit Singh, state committee member Sumit said after the withdrawal of the fee concession, a large number of SC students would fail to secure admission in colleges.

They said, earlier, the SC students were required to pay only a few hundred as fee but now they would have to pay more than Rs 7,500 for admission to the BA course.

They accused the university of burdening the students with the hike in the fee. They said the university had increased tuition fee by Rs 350, certificate verification fee by Rs 200, continuity fee by Rs 100, registration fee by Rs 200, university practical fee by Rs 200 and other university funds by Rs 350.

Bathinda, July 14
The district administration has started using the electronic biometric transfer (EBT) for disbursement of pensions to retired employees, widows, homeless children and physically challenged persons.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Basant Garg started the procedure of using the EBT system today at Harnam Singh Wala village.

The DC said the EBT system would prove to be beneficial for the pensioners and beneficiaries of different welfare schemes as it was a very simple technique.

The system would be helpful in weeding out fake beneficiaries of the schemes, he said.

While Bhagta and Phul blocks were covered under the scheme to date, all the blocks of the district would be covered for starting the disbursement of the funds from the next month, he said.

The DC said under the system, the banks collect and register the fingerprints of the beneficiaries, open their accounts and issue smart cards to them.

An agent of the bank would go to villages, identify the beneficiaries on the basis of smart cards and pay the pension amount, he said, adding that one bank agent would be given the responsibility of disbursing the pension amount to 500-600 beneficiaries.

Deputy director, Social Security Department, Harpal Singh, said as per the guidelines of the state government, Rs 250 per month is paid to as many as 94,383 beneficiaries.

Till now, the pension amount was distributed in cash through the sarpanch of the village, he added.

Also present on the occasion were Rampura Phul SDM Sakattar Singh Bal, Phul BDPO Neeru Bansal, CDPO Bahadur Singh, ICICI bank officials and members of the village panchayat.

Bathinda, July 14
University College of Computer Application, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, started a short duration course on ‘Efficient and Effective Use of Computer’ for the university faculty and staff members.

Subject experts will make the participants aware about the latest versions of applications and softwares such as MS-word, MS-excel, MS-access, google drivers and e-mails, which are the essential tools of e-governance.

About 30 faculty members are participating in the course. Assistant Professor Harpal Singh, along with other members from the college, is coordinating the programme.

Ramanpreet Singh, HOD (Computer Applications), along with other experts, delivered lectures on various tools and techniques.

Vice Chancellor, Guru Kashi University, Dr NS Malhi, appreciated the efforts of Dean Dr RK Bansal and his team for organising such a productive exercise.

Managing director Sukhraj Singh Sidhu lauded the activity and said more courses and training camps should be organised to update the knowledge of working professionals.

Bathinda, July 14
After announcing the results of the fifth online entrance test held on June 28 on the city campus of Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, along with 11 nationwide centres, the university is now preparing for the final interviews to be held from July 16 onwards.

Out of about 700 students called for different programmes, a large number of candidates are expected to appear for the interviews. Thirty students have applied for more than one subject for admission to MA, M Ed, MSc, M Pharma, M Tech and LLM programmes.

The lists of the candidates called for the interview has already been posted on the university website www.cup.ac.in.

Prof RC Sharma, in-charge examinations, said, “CUP will hold expert panel interviews, which will continue for three days. The interviews will be based purely on evaluation.”

Sharma said the instructions for the interviews had already been issued and the candidates had been advised to read the instructions carefully given on the university website.

Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof P Ramarao, said the university had made all necessary arrangements for holding the interviews for the new academic session.

Bathinda, July 14
Heavy traffic flow on Bhagu Road poses a risk to the lives of commuters. The extra rush is due to the district administrations’ new move that has diverted the rush of heavy vehicles from the main GT Road towards this narrow road.

Residents of the colonies along the Bhagu Road — from St Joseph’s Convent Senior Secondary School towards the Cantonment area — have been suffering due to traffic mismanagement.

They have criticised the move and said it was wrong and unwise to use the narrow road meant to connect residential colonies to the city for the movement of heavy vehicles.

They said the administration could have diverted the traffic through the Dunes Club lane, which is rather wide, but that has not been done as the residences of the deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police (SSP) have been located on that road.

Many shops are located on Bhagu Road. Customers complain that due to the rush of heavy vehicles, they are left with no parking space. Many accidents have also taken place due to this.

Residents have staged protests many times and met the administration officers regarding the issue. Each time they got the assurance that the issue would be resolved soon but nothing has been done so far.

Gurlal Singh, a resident of Civil Lines area, said they didn’t understand why the administration had diverted the heavy traffic to this narrow road.

Another resident Anita said she was very apprehensive about her children going out as heavy vehicles had started plying on the road.

She demanded that administration should immediate act and stops the ply of heavy

vehicles on this road.

Heavy vehicles, including trucks and oil tankers, from Mansa Road have been diverted to this narrow road to avoid traffic jams and mishaps in the city.

A senior police official while talking to Bathinda Tribune said he would look into the matter and assured the residents would not be made to suffer.

Amritsar, July 14
The Police Department has finally taken notice of the deplorable conditions of various police stations falling under the jurisdiction of the city police here. It has sanctioned a grant of Rs 3 lakh to each police station for its repair, renovation and providing basic amenities.

Confirming the development, Kuljit Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP-headquarter), said the responsibility of supervision of the work has been given to the SHOs concerned so that the quality work done was maintained rather than depending upon construction contractors, who used inferior quality material leading to early damage most of times. The funds have been released from the police welfare funds, added the ADCP. Senior police officials, including Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh, have also been visiting police stations to take stock of the renovation work underway.

A number of police stations, including Sadar police station located on the Batala road, Verka police station at Verka, Mohkampura police station, Islamabad and Gate Hakima police stations have dilapidated structures. These police stations are being run from the make shift buildings or temporary sheds. Most of these police stations were police chowkis, which were upgraded to police stations after the implementation of the commissionerate system in the city.

The conditions of police chowkis is also deplorable. A number of these chowkis are functioning from tin sheds or temporary structures. — TNS

Jalandhar, July 14
Following the confirmation of hepatitis A and E cases in the Chauggitti area and various other water-borne diseases in other parts of the city, Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar, KK Yadav, has ordered an inquiry into the matter.

He has sought a detailed report from the Municipal Commissioner (MC) on his department’s alleged lapse to prevent the problem from spreading in the city. The DC has also directed the MC Commissioner to fix the responsibility on the erring officials of the areas where four people, including a four-year-old child, died last week likely due to water contamination in their area.

Meanwhile, the Health Department took two water samples from the Chauggitti and Nurpur areas on Monday. It has also collected 29 blood samples from different parts of the city.

“I have sought a detailed report from the MC Commissioner on the epidemic prevalence in the city. He has been told to take stern action against the officials who failed to take timely action to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases in their area,” said KK Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar. He also said that as the prevalent epidemic has an incubation period of 30 days and more, many more cases were expected to come from these areas in near future.

Residents of the Gandhi Camp area have, meanwhile, again complained of water contamination in their area on Monday. “We have again received contaminated water in our area. The water in the morning supply was pale in colour and even had a foul smell. I have informed the Health Department officials who have assured to get it checked again on Tuesday,” said Rajesh, a Labourer from the Gandhi Camp area.

In Chaugitti, teams from the Health Department and the MC visited the area and after locating the contamination point, disconnected the worn-out pipe from the main supply line. So far, around 11 people have been detected with jaundice. A six-month-old pregnant lady from the same area also reported at the Civil Hospital with high fever, but was later discharged. Also, out of the 10 people detected with hepatitis A and E last week, four are admitted to the Civil Hospital. The health department also took 2 water samples and also distributed around 6,000 chlorine tablets in the area. Meanwhile, six diarrhoea patients were also reported from Nurpur. The Health Department also took 13 blood samples from the Bhargo camp. 

Bathinda, July 14
The police have booked a woman on the charge of abetment to suicide. In a complaint to the police, a resident of Bangi Nihal Singhwala, Gulzar Singh, had stated his son Jagsir Singh was married to Gurmail Kaur, of Akalian Kalan village.

He said the accused started staying at her parents’ home.

Due to tension, Jagsir consumed poison on July 10, he added. The police have registered a case against Gurmail Kaur, her mother and her two relatives — TNS

Bathinda, July 14
The Bathinda police today held a 15-year-old boy, a resident of Ghuman Kalan village in Mansa district, for kidnapping a 13-year-old girl. The girl is a student of Class VII at Police Public School.

A complaint in this regard was filed by the victim’s mother Kuldip Kaur. She had alleged that on July 12, at around 3 pm, after the closing of the school, the accused took her daughter away on the pretext of marriage.

Investigation officer Krishan Singh said during the initial probe, it was learnt that the boy was in touch with the girl over the phone.

The boy has confessed that he used to threaten the girl. The juvenile took the victim to his village.
The police have registered a case under Sections 363, 366 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the juvenile at the Civil Lines police station. 

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