Bathinda, July 24
In a novel initiative to keep heavy traffic away from plying on the narrow Bhagu Road and in front of St. Joseph's Convent School, the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) is planning to carve out an 'inner ring road'. If the plan is executed, the much awaited promise of bringing relief to the motorists and residents on Bhagu road will become a reality.

With the construction of a new jail on the outskirts of the city, the old jail building will be demolished and the area will be utilised to construct a new 100-feet road, which will connect the existing 100-feet road with Mansa Road.

"We plan to cut the flow of heavy traffic on Bhagu Road with a diversion near the boundary wall of the Police Lines," said Chief Administrator, BDA, Varinder Sharma.

Sharma said that at present, a vehicle on way to Mansa from the Bathinda bus stand, takes a turn on the 30-feet road alongside the boundary wall to reach the main entrance of the jail.

"We plan to take a 60-foot area from the jail premises to make it a 100-feet road, up to the jail's main entrance. The entire 100-feet area for the road will also be taken from the jail premises itself," Sharma added.

In this way, vehicles coming from the 100-feet road or Power House road traffic lights will reach Mansa road, near the entrance of the Police Lines, without taking any turns.

"At present, there is a narrow intersection which joins Bhagu Road with the 100 feet Road. It has become quite hazardous in view of the flat-bed carriages and trucks leading to long traffic jams. The situation worsens during the evening when small vehicles or two-wheelers are sandwiched between the heavy vehicles. Even the pedestrians fail to find space to move ahead," said the BDA Administrator.

He added that there are nine houses and 7 to 8 shops, which will have to make way for the road project. "But this will be done only after the consent of the house owners," he said. Sharma claimed that the initial talks with the owners of house and shops ended on a positive note.

Residents of Bhagu road and other areas have raised this issue by blocking traffic and staging protests on many occasions. Residents said the flow of traffic has increased due to the coming up of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery and other industrial units.

BDA authorities said the construction of the new 'inner ring road' will take some time, but if it materialises, the motorists will surely get a major relief while travelling on city roads.

Bathinda, July 24
It seems the Municipal Corporation is more convinced about the delay in the arrival of monsoon than anyone as it has initiated the work on laying of new roads. Apart from laying new roads and carrying out the repair, re-carpeting too is being done on roads in the city.

Besides the street that joins Bhagu road with the 100-feet road, the pot-holed roads of Model Town Phase-III, Model Town Phase-II and Model Town Phase-1 too are being relaid.

Some of the roads in the city are also being laid by the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA). The BDA authorities earlier stated that they had delayed the laying of roads in view of the arrival of monsoon, yet they have now begun the work in the middle of the rainy season.

Expressing concern over the sheer wastage of public money by relaying the roads in the middle of the rainy season, a section of the residents said the roads are going to get damaged again once it rains.

"It is surprising to see the roads being relaid in the month of July," said Jagatpreet Sekhon, a resident of Ajit Road.

He said the roads in Parasram Nagar too were laid recently and just one spell of rain has damaged a major chunk of the recently constructed road.

Tarwinder Dhillon, a resident of Aggarwal Colony, said a small intersection joining Bhatti road with another road leading to the stadium, developed deep potholes and needs urgent attention.

Sources said the BDA authorities got funds to the tune of Rs 3.5 lakh for the repair and Rs 19 lakh for the relaying of roads.

Municipal Commissioner Dalwinderjit Singh, when contacted, said the work on relaying of roads was started much earlier. "These are ongoing projects and will take some time for completion," he said.

BDA's Chief Administrator Varinder Sharma said he would look into the issue of roads getting damaged due to rains.

Bathinda: July 24
Employees of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) Workers’ Union (Azad) today protested and demanded the fulfillment of their long-pending demands and raised slogans against the PRTC management and the state government.

The protestors demanded the reinstatement of employees expelled by the management in Bathinda and Faridkot.

Six contractual employees were expelled from the job ‘without any reason’. Avtar Singh (PCB-215) and conductor Balvir Singh (CH-105) were amongst them. The employees threatened to gherao buses belonging to the ruling family if their demands were not met.

The employees have been demanding that buses running under the kilometer scheme should be stopped as the owners of these buses in connivance with the managers are causing losses to the PRTC of around Rs 7 crore every month. They alleged that the drivers of these buses are pilfering 20 litres of diesel daily.

The workers accused the PRTC officials at the Bathinda bus stand of causing losses by changing the time-table of buses and routes to fit in private buses. They also argued that the issue had been brought to the notice of the PRTC General Manager at Bathinda but he had failed to take up the matter with the former duty inspector and time-table in-charge.

Harbans Singh Bhola, president of the Bathinda Workers’ Union (Azad) said, “Workers demanded that the contract system should be abolished and they should be made regular employees. The demands include payment of overtime, reinstatement of employees, increase in pay grade of workshop employees, promotions, and pay and pensions should be given on time.”

“The buses running under the kilometer scheme in the state are being run in connivance with the PRTC management resulting in losses to the organisatin every month. The owners of these buses are paying the PRTC management for this.” he alleged.

Bathinda, July 24
Bathinda police today foiled the plan of the elementary trained teachers (ETT) to take out a protest march from the Teachers’ Home to the District Administrative Complex and submit a charter of demands to the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Basant Garg. The teachers have been demanding that the 5,752 schools under the Zila Parishad across the state be brought back under the state Education Department.

As many as 100 teachers, including women teachers, assembled at the Teachers’ Home around 3 pm to discuss their demands and took out a protest march against the state government. Just when the teachers got up to take out the march, the doors of Teachers’ Home were shut by the police personnel to prevent the teachers from stepping out.

As soon as the gates were closed, the teachers began raising slogans against the state government, district administration and the Education Department condemning them for taking away the democratic right of the citizens of the country to raise their voice and express their opinion.

DSP Gurjit Singh Romana, accompanied by DSP Palwinder Cheema, SHOs of the Kotwali and Civil Lines police stations reached the spot and held discussions with the agitating teachers trying to convince them in vain to form a deputation of three to four teachers to visit to the DC’s office.

After the discussion turned into a heated argument, the police allowed the teachers to take out a peaceful protest till the barricading at the end of the Mehna Chowk road. The teachers, once freed from the confines of Teachers’ Home, regained their composure and raised slogans against the state government.

The tehsildar then reached the spot and received a memorandum of demands from the teachers and assured them that it will be submitted to the DC.

“We condemn the state government for suppressing our fundamental right to expression by directing the police to keep the protestors under lock and key. Instead of holding talks and heeding our demands, the government is devising ways of crushing our identity and our protests. We just wanted to take out a peaceful protest to let the people of the city know about the anti-people policies of the government but were not allowed to do so,” said Swaranjit Singh, state senior vice-president.

He also added that the attitude of the police and the district administration had not gone down well with the teachers and a meeting of all the senior leaders of the union will be held in Mohali on Friday during which the future plan of action will be chalked out.

y Pointing out the difference between the 5,752 schools under Zila Parishads and city councils in the state and the schools under the Education Department, the teachers stated that the future of the teachers working in the schools and the 6 lakh students was in the dark.

y They also stated that unlike the other schools, competitions related to academic and extra-curricular fields and even the end-of-term papers are not conducted in the schools under the Zila Parishad.

y They argued that the future of all elementary teachers in these schools was in jeopardy as there was no scope for promotions.

Bathinda, July 24
Highlighting the poor facilities being provided by the district sports department to the sportspersons, budding boxers today raised slogans against the department while squatting outside the locked door which provides access to the boxing arena at the Multipurpose Sports Stadium here today.

Pointing to the apathy of the department towards nurturing young talent, Sandeep Singh, one of the boxers, stated that for the last two-three months, the door to the boxing ring had been kept under lock and key and the players had no option but to practice in the open.

"It seems the state government is interested in promoting kabaddi since it can mint money by hosting tournaments. On the one hand, the political leaders urge the youth to take up sports to lead a healthy life and bring laurels in the sporting arena, and on the other, they do not care about the facilities required to nurture talent," said one of the students.

District Sports Officer (DSO) Darshan Singh Bhullar remained unavailable for his comments despite repeated calls. The players argued that they had tried to bring the matter to the notice of several officials but to no avail. They also argued that they didn't belong to financially strong families and could not afford to practice at the privately-owned rings.

A closer look at the boxing ring revealed the complete negligence with which it had been treated. Thick layers of dust settled on the boxing ring and the rusting gym equipment lying strewn all around on the floor pointed to the fact that the arena had not be taken care of by the department.

It is an irony that while the state budget earmarked a sum of Rs 6.48 crore for laying a synthetic track at the Multipurpose Sports Stadium, the existing facilities at the stadium are lying defunct for lack of interest on the part of the sports department officials.

Bathinda, July 24
Counselling for admission to the special Residential School for Meritorious Students has been extended by a day by the Education Department. Earlier, counselling was to be held only on two days - July 23 and July 24. But it will now also be held on July 25. Information regarding this was uploaded by the department on the website of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) today.

The move has been made considering the fact that as many as 47 students belonging to the district who had given their first preference for admission to the school in Bathinda, didn't come for the counselling session over the two days despite that fact that their names were mentioned in the merit list.

On Thursday, 211 students including 43 boys and 168 girls, attended the counselling session held for admission to the non-medical stream. On the first day of counselling, 63 students attended the session. Of these, while 22 students sought admission to the commerce stream, 41 came for admission to the medical stream.

The Education Department had received a list of 262 meritorious students belonging to Bathinda who were expected to attend the counselling session. Of these, 215 students have attended the session.

"We are expecting that the remaining students who could not attend the counselling sessions on the two days would come on Friday. We wish to give all of them a fair chance and hence, the department extended counselling by a day," said District Education Officer (Secondary) Dr Amarjit Kaur Kotfatta, who is a part of the counselling session.

Despite the fact that the meritorious school is the pet project of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, it has not been able to garner the desired response. As per records, while as many as 334 students of government schools of the district had secured 80 per cent or more marks in class X examination, the prerequisite for seeking admission to the school, 262 students from the district applied for admission to the school.

Considering the tepid response to the admission procedure, the Education Department was forced to extend the last date for submission of admission forms, not once, but thrice.

However, the school in Bathinda seems to be quite popular among the students from across the state since students from other districts have also applied for the school in Bathinda as their first preference for admission. The Education Department had received a list of 809 students who had opted for the Bathinda school as their first preference.

Bathinda, July 24
Chairperson of the Red Cross Hospital Welfare Branch, Bathinda, Venus Garg, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda Dr Basant Garg, today visited the Mahant Gurbanta Dass School for Deaf and Dumb children.

During her visit, she inspected the campus of the school, facilities being provided to the students of the school and interacted with the students. Praveen Sharma and Dr Jasmine Mann also accompanied her.

School principal Maninder Kaur Bhalla told the guests that the students were taught till Class X in the school and the students could also avail the hostel facility. She added that as many as 178 students, including 75 girls, were currently studying in the school which is affiliated to the Punjab Board School Education (PSEB). She stated that 86 students staying in the hostel.

The principal also added that aiming to make the students self-reliant, the school also offered courses in sewing and embroidery, screen printing, art and craft etc.

The guests also visited the facility offered by the Red Cross Society for the welfare of the orphan children who are left at the panghura placed outside the gate of the school. The attendant shared the details of all the 23 children who have been left at the panghura till date.

Expressing her satisfaction with the way the students with special needs were being taken care of, she also directed the principal of the school to ensure that medical examination of the students of Mahant Gurbanta Dass School for Deaf and Dumb tudents is conducted at regular intervals.

Bathinda, July 24
Baba Farid College of Management and Technology (BFCMT) published a book on ‘Latest Trends in Management, Commerce and Economics’, a collection of research papers. For this purpose, articles, review papers, research papers from the researchers on the theme had been invited.

As many as 76 papers were received of which the edited 44 papers have been published in the book. The book has been edited by Dr Manish Bansal, director principal, BFCMT and Babita Singla, dean (research & development).

The book was released during a function by the chairman of the Baba Farid Group of Institutions, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal. He congratulated the two editors for achieving the feat. In his note of thanks, Dr Bansal said that research on various issues of management is the need of the hour.

Bathinda, July 24
A resident of Ghudda village has been booked by the police for morphing a photograph of Sirsa Dera head and sending it to someone using a mobile application WhatsApp.

The complainant Gurtej Ram said Ajaypal Singh of Ghudda village uploaded a morphed picture of the dera head. The police said a case under Sections 295-A, 298 of the IPC and 66, 67 of the IT Act has been registered against the accused. No arrests have been made so far. — TNS