Bathinda, July 15
Despite protests, laying of gas pipeline from Mehsana in Gujarat to Bathinda has been expedited ever since the new Central government has come to power.

Officials of the Gandhinagar-based GSPL India Gasnet Limited are working in tandem to expedite the process of laying the pipeline which will provide natural gas to the National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) and Guru Gobind Singh Refinery.

The authorities said that the files pertaining to the project was gathering dust but itis now gaining momentum for the last couple of weeks. “Since we seek clearance from the forest, railways, drainage, private and various other departments, a lot of paper work, coordination and links are required. The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year,” said a senior revenue department official.

Farmers are protesting against the laying of the pipeline as they have been told not to construct houses on the already-surveyed and demarcated area on paper and also not to dig bore wells.

“We are pleading to divert the route of the pipeline as there are houses situated close to the pipeline and the families want the gas pipeline away from their houses,” said Sardul Singh of Gobindpura village.

His wife Jaspal Kaur, the village sarpanch, said there are around 35 to 40 farmers who have been affected due to the pipeline. “Farmers fear that they will be grounded due to the pipeline which will lead to more chaos,” the sarpanch said. She added that her relatives in the nearby villages are already feeling the heat of an underground pipeline, laid sometime ago. Now, there are some farmers from whose land a pipeline has already been laid and this is the second one.

The authorities said at least 60 days will be required to lay the pipeline in the area and during this time, the agricultural land can not be used by the affected farmers.

The District Revenue Office (DRO) has cleared around 400 cases of claims and objections of five villages under Section 3 (1)—Publication of notification for acquisition—of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipeline Act 1962. These cases came up for hearing during the past six months and its last phase concluded today.

The clearing of paperwork is on for the past two years. To lay nearly 450 km of gas pipeline (55 kms in Bathinda), the officials from Mehsana (Gujarat) today met the DRO.

The department will now send notices under Section 6 (1)—declaration of acquisition to right for users. The authorities said that agricultural land is being used for the purpose of laying of the gas pipe which has one feet of width but an area of 60 feet of width is required for the purpose. In the next phase, the farmers would be informed that their land is being acquired for the purpose and then under Sections 10 and 11, they will be compensated accordingly.

While some villagers turned up on their own, some sent their advocates at the office of the DRO to raise concerns and objections. The affected villagers who turned up today were from Gobindpura, Nehianwala, Bhokra, Sivia and Lehra Bega.

District Revenue Officer Harsharanjit Singh said that so far no household has come in the way of the pipeline and the entire agricultural land. He added that the farmers would be compensated accordingly and there will be no problems for any of the affected families.

Bathinda, July 15
Pedestrians appear to be facing many problems while crossing the main road in the city due to heavy traffic. The administration has marked the zebra crossing sign on the roads for helping the pedestrians cross the roads but commuters in cars or on two-wheelers stop at red light while crossing the zebra crossing mark, leaving no space for the pedestrians to cross the stretch.

The slip roads on the sides are mostly occupied by the vehicles of colleges, schools and shoppers, leaving no space for the commuters to walk.

Most of the slip roads are encroached upon. Outside the bus stand, auto-rickshaws and vehicles parked outside Government Rajindra College have encroached upon the lane as most students or staff members park their vehicle outside the college on these slip roads.

It is worth mentioning that the city does not even have any overbridge for pedestrians due to which the people have to wait for the flow of traffic to reduce. Many another cities in Punjab have these overbridge for the walkers to cross the road.

Harjit Singh, a resident, said it is strange that the traffic police should remain a mute spectator as they do not ever ask the people to stop their vehicle at red light before the zebra crossing mark.

Seema Gupta, a city resident, said the flow of traffic is high in the city and sometimes it becomes difficult to cross the road near Fauji Chowk and Ghode Wala Chowk as there are no red lights.

Traffic officials said cops and marshals have been deployed at the main roundabouts to make sure vehicles stop before the zebra crossing and that people crossing the road do not to suffer.

Bathinda, July 15
Holding it responsible for the present power crisis in state, the PSEB Engineers’ Association has said that the power crisis is due the “colossal failure” of the PSPCL management and the lop-sided policy of the state government. Besides, the association has criticised the state for totally relying on private power plants in the state.

The engineers said that the new private power plants at Goindwal Sahib, Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo with a total installed capacity of 3,920 MW are not producing even 500 MW of power due to one reason or the other, the most important being that these private power producers have just failed to make arrangements for coal supply for their own plants.

The association and power sector experts, including renowned economists of the state, had been advocating that at least one of these plants should be executed under the state sector to keep a balance between state and private generation for optimum grid operation and better reliability.

Had the authorities listened to the suggestion of the engineers and experts, the situation would have been quite different today simply because Punjab has its own captive coal mines at Pachhwara in Jharkhand and Deocha in West Bengal which have adequate quantity of coal to produce electricity for the state’s needs and Punjab need not be dependent on others.

Moreover, the cost of power from these new private plants shall be as costly as Rs 5 per unit due to the use of imported coal which shall adversely burden the consumers of the state in the coming years. Haryana during the last five years has added three new thermal plants at Yamunanagar (600 MW), Hisar (1,200 MW) in the state sector and the Jhajjar (1,500 MW) joint venture with NTPC and Jhajjar (1,320 MW) CLP in the private sector. Further, Haryana is planning a 660 MW power plant at Yamunanagar and 660 MW plant at Panipat apart from a nuclear power plant in central sector near Fatehabad.

While the Punjab government has approved the setting up of a thermal project under the state sector at Mukerian, the PSPCL management has virtually done nothing to kickstart the project for the last three years which shall prove to be disastrous for the state in the coming years.

There is sluggishness in bringing down losses and improving consumer services. There is an acute shortage of staff in the field both in the PSPCL and the PSTCL and the management is least bothered about the deteriorating consumer services on account of the above. Instead of in- house reform initiatives, unscrupulous middlemen are being invited through reckless outsourcing, which is being considered as the panacea for all the ills.

The association had also suggested working out low cost models to check distribution losses which not only affect the company’s revenue but also crippled the quality of supply to the honest consumers. But the PSPCL management has failed to implement the suggested schemes in a time-bound manner which has also contributed to the present crisis.

All these schemes have been sanctioned by the Government of India and funds have remained unutilised for the last three years, the blame for which lies squarely with the PSPCL management.

Baldev Singh Sran, president and Sanjeev Sood, general secretary of the PSEB Engineers’ Association, said, “The PSPCL management created a mess which lead to the non- supply of coal from its own captive mines by PANEM to the state-owned thermal power plants. Three consumer services are in total disarray especially in the rural areas due to an acute shortage of staff and the management has no concrete plan or vision to address this problem. The suggested remedies by the association to improve the consumer services about which the management had even assured the CM and the PSERC that they would be implemented in a time- bound manner have been given a quiet burial by the management.”

“The association thus appeals to the Punjab government to instruct the management of the PSPCL to implement the suggested measures in the long term interests of the power sector of Punjab. Otherwise, the gap between the demand and supply shall continue to cripple the state and the consumers will suffer heavily due to policy lapses of the PSPCL management.”

Bathinda, July 15
Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg will be answering questions from the audience regarding the status of implementation of various development schemes launched by Central and state governments on the FM radio station on July 16.

The suggestions and grievances of the audience will be broadcast as part of the new series ‘Changge Dina Di Dastak’ on the FM station of the local All-India Radio (AIR) station which will be available on FM Band 101.1 MHz. The series starts from July 16 at 4 pm. — TNS

Bathinda, July 15
Members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Dkaunda, along with a large number of farmers, staged a protest in front of the office of executive engineer in Mansa to demand eight hour power supply to irrigate their fields.

The farmers said the state government had distributed motor connections before general elections but did not provide power to run the motors.

BKU leader Ram Singh Bhainibagha said, “Farmers are not getting regular power supply to irrigate the fields. Shortage Farmers in supply of power has caused losses and increased input costs. We demand that the government should provide at least Rs 10,000 per acre compensation to the farmers on account of deficient rains this year.”

“The claims of the state government to make Punjab a power surplus state and sell power to other states and countries have been proved to be baseless. The reality is that the government is unable to meet its own requirements. The Punjab Government should learn from Haryana, which has made itself a power surplus state and is not dependent on private thermal plants. The government has increased the tariff a number of times in the last few years,” he added.

Fact file

* Members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Dkaunda, along with a large number of farmers, staged a protest in front of the office of executive engineer in Mansa to demand eight hour power supply to irrigate their fields

* The farmers said the state government had distributed motor connections before general elections but did not provide power to run the motors

Bathinda, July 15
Videographers hired by the district administration to record the election process during the general election have not received their dues yet. They gathered to meet the deputy commissioner today.

The authorities had hired a large number of videographers and photographers who were attached with the election officials to record different engagements of political parties, leaders, their offices and movement of vehicles.

“We have already paid the amount to the workers, who had recorded all the procedure and movement of the political parties during the elections. But the authorities have not paid us yet,” said Lovely Ralhan, one of the affected photographers.

He said an amount of Rs 27,000 was due towards the administration. “It’s been more than two and a half months that they have been making rounds of the DC office but to no avail,” he said.

Videographers are apprehensive to offer their services in future, he said.

In the meeting with the deputy commissioner, the photographers were assured of clearing the dues before Friday.

There are many videographers whose bills exceed Rs 3 lakh and one bill amounted to Rs 13 lakh.

The photographers and videographers said they would soon launch an agitation if the authorities failed to release their payments.

Bathinda, July 15
Max Super Specialty Hospital (MSSH), Bathinda, has been awarded with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) accreditation. It is the first super specialty hospital in the Malwa region to be awarded with this certificate. NABH is regarded as the highest national recognition for quality patient care and safety.

MSSH began its journey in September 2011. The hospital underwent almost a year of rigorous screening process before getting the accreditation.

In a press conference held at MSSH here today, Haresh Dahyalal Trivedi, GM-Operations, MSSH, Bathinda, said the patients would be the biggest beneficiaries of this accreditation as getting NABH accreditation fully endorsed the fact that the hospital has a 360 degree approach towards patient care.

Medical Advisor at MSSH, Dr Manoj Majhi, said, “The NABH accreditation was a recognition of our commitment to provide service and medical excellence with an all round focus on patient care.”

NABH is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation and allied programmes for healthcare organisations.

The board is structured to cater to the needs of the consumers and to set benchmarks for the progress of health industry.

With a team of around 60 expert doctors and more than 520 total staff, Max Hospital also caters to the healthcare needs of Faridkot, Mansa, Barnala, Sirsa, Ganganagar, Dabwali, Hisar, Hanumangarh, Malout, Muktsar, Kotkapura and Abohar among other regions of Malwa.

Fact file

* NABH is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation and allied programmes for healthcare organisations.

* The board is structured to cater to the needs of the consumers and to set benchmarks for the progress of health industry

Bathinda, July 15
A 30-year-old man committed suicide by allegedly consuming some poisonous substance at Guru Nanakpura Chowk in the city last night. The deceased has been identified as Raju.

The victim was rushed to the Civil Hospital by the volunteers of the NGO Sahara Jan Sewa, where he died after sometime.

Investigation officer Surjit Singh said as per the statement of Darshan Singh, father of the deceased, his son was married and was a drug addict. He also said that last night, Raju had taken a high dose of drugs due to which his health started deteriorating and he was admitted to the Civil Hospital by the members of the NGO.

The police have taken action under Section 174 of the CrPC. The body of the deceased has been given to his family after conducting the postmortem. examination. Raju is survived by his wife and a three-year-old daughter. — TNS