Bathinda, July 27
The state government’s much-hyped Reverse Osmosis (RO) water system in many villages of Bathinda and Mansa has fallen flat in view of the failure of the RO plants to provide drinking water.

The state government has collaborated with four private companies to install RO systems, maintain it for seven years and run them on the basis of user charges collected to provide clean drinking water.

After the completion of seven years, these plants were to be handed over to the respective village panchayats to run.

“The RO system in our village was installed with much fanfare in 2009. But after providing services for one year, it was discontinued a year ago,” said former sarpanch of Behman Diwana village.

Behman Diwana is among villages where people now fail to draw water in view of the discontinued services from RO plants.

The former sarpanch said since the company officials had failed to pay the electricity bills of nearly Rs 35,000 in 2013, the services of the plants could not be continued. Now, the residents of Behman Diwana go all the way to nearby Bir Behman—village of former mayor Baljeet Singh Beerbehman—to get RO water.

As compared to the official figures—27 per cent people enrolled in Bathinda and 34 per cent in Mansa district—the actual number of people drawing RO water is even less.

The state government has provided the RO systems in view of the rising cancer disease and in a bid to provide clean drinking water, these RO plants were installed.

“There are numerous reasons, which have lead to the discontinuation of the scheme. One of the chief reasons is that people prefer canal water as compared to the ground water cleaned by the RO system,” said Avtar Manchanda, a city resident, while encouraging people to drink canal water instead of relying on the groundwater.

In a bid to clean the water using the RO system, many natural ingredients are lost and moreover, the groundwater is unfit, he added. The groundwater is recycled in the RO plants and is then provided to the people.

Apart from those installed under urban local bodies, as many as 506 RO systems were installed in Bathinda and Mansa districts.

While the villagers accuse the company officials of not providing them with water as per the fixed time schedule, the officials accuse the villagers of not paying them on time. An employee deployed at the RO plant stated that out of the total number of enrolled people, hardly 2 to 3 per cent would turn out to fetch water or pay.

Most of the villages have population that completely depend upon the old age pension of Rs 250 a month and cannot pay Rs 60 per month to pay the monthly bill or contribute money to transport water cans.

There are numerous reasons, which have lead to the discontinuation of the scheme. One of the chief reasons is that people prefer canal water as compared to the groundwater cleaned by the RO systems.
Avtar Manchanda, a resident

Bathinda, July 27
A jail inmate, facing life imprisonment in a murder case, was allegedly beaten up by three other inmates inside the Bathinda Central Jail on July 22. The inmate was seriously injured. He was first treated at Central Jail but in view of his serious condition, was later taken to Civil Hospital.

Investigating Officer constable Tarlochan Singh said Sukhmeet Singh, a resident of Amarpura Basti, was facing life term in a murder case registered on April 20, 2012 at the Sangat police station.

As an old jail inmate, he was put in charge of other inmates. His job was to count the number of prisoners who were being taken out of the barracks or to make the jail inmate remember their date in courts.

On July 22, other inmates of the Central Jail, Avtar Singh alias Tango, Hardeep Singh and Manpreet Singh, jointly attacked Sukhmeet Singh outside the gate of barrack No. 1, in which he received internal injuries in the nose. The injury was said to be serious.

Tarcholan Singh stated that as per the statement of the victim, the accused jail inmates started beating him up as they were not informed about their date in court by Sukhmeet Singh.

The Investigating Officer stated that on the basis of the victim's statement, a case has been registered against the three accused under sections 325 and 34 of the IPC at the Civil Lines police station. Investigation in the case is on.

It is pertinent to mention here that some days back, two inmates of the Central Jail had a fight over switching on the tube light in which one of inmate was seriously injured in the eye. In another incident, two rival groups had clashed inside the Central Jail, in which more than half a dozen inmates were injured.

Bathinda, July 27
For the second time in just one month, Government Rajindra College has faced the problem of water shortage. The motor installed at the water works plant near the boys’ hostel on the college campus developed a fault four–five days ago. Even after the college authorities complained to the Public Health Department, a repaired motor is yet to be installed.

College principal, Vijay Kumar Goyal, stated that for the last couple of days, the college was completely dependent on the tube well water which was feeding the newly-installed RO plant in the college.

“Since the motor installed to draw the water is not working, we are dependent on the tube well water. The tube well water can feed only the RO plant which provides potable water for the consumption of students and staff members of the college,” he said.

Owing to the shortage of water on the campus, the water supply to the washrooms has also been disrupted because of which the college is facing sanitation problems as well.

SDO, Public Health Department, who is looking into the matter, Jaspreet Mann, stated that since the demand of the college campus was huge, the motors installed in the college were being used a lot and hence developed faults.

“Actually, the underground water is such that it corrodes the motor and then it develops faults. Earlier, the college had two 7.5 horsepower motors. We had recently installed a 10 hp motor on the college campus and that also developed a fault. We have directed the contractor to look what was wrong with the motor,” said the SDO.

She further added that tender had been allotted for installing a 15 hp motor in the college. It will be installed soon and hopefully the problem will be sorted, she added.

It is pertinent to note here that the college had faced water shortage for close to two weeks in the beginning of July. The college has close to 4,500 students and around 80 staff members. Considering the large number of students and staff members, unavailability of waterworks supply poses a huge problem.

Bathinda, July 27
Imposition of the model code of conduct due to the by-elections to be held for the assembly seats of Talwandi Sabo and Patiala may dampen the chances of the rollback of transfer orders of the ETT teachers, said chairman of the Zila Parishad, Gurpreet Singh Maluka.

Members of the ETT Teachers’ Union had protested in Bathinda on Friday demanding that the transfer of as many as 14 teachers be rolled back. They had argued that the transfers were not as per the rules of the Zila Parishad. They stated that out of 14, the transfer of 12 teachers went against the rules in some cases. The remaining two teachers had been transferred too far away from their residences.

Union leader Jagsir Singh Sahota stated that as per the rules in some cases, partners are to be posted either in the same school or nearby schools keeping their convenience in mind. He added that six couples had been handed out transfer orders sending the partners to schools which were located far from one another.

He further stated that one Kulwinder Kaur, a resident of Bathinda, had been transferred from Jaga Ram Teerth to Joge Wala, another teacher Narinder Singla had been transferred from Aalike to Kalalwala. The union argued that the teachers had been transferred to schools which were more than 50 kms away from their homes.

While the teachers stated that they had been assured by the Zila Pariash chairman during a meeting held on Friday that the transfers will be rolled back, ZP chairman Gurpreet Singh Maluka stated that the chances of rollback of the transfer orders were slim since the model code of conduct had been implemented.

Elaborating on the transfer orders, he stated that the teachers had been relieved from their earlier schools and will have to join at their new places of posting. He added that in some cases, it had been noted that the teachers were taking leaves together thereby affecting the smooth functioning of the academic session in the schools concerned.

He also added that in cases wherein one of the partners was the in-charge of the school and the other was also working at the same school, it had been noticed that fake attendance was being marked and to rule out possibility of such acts, the partners had been transferred.

Maluka also added that a meeting will be held on Monday during which some of the cases will be considered. He also clarified that he had not assured the teachers that the transfers will be rolled back.

Bathinda, July 27
The second spell of rains has brought teething troubles for the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) and the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB), which have constructed the rainwater harvesting system and re-laid roads recently.

The authorities though claim to have benefitted from the rainwater harvesting system in Model Town Phase-III—to some extent—in draining out rain water underground. The corporation, which recarpeted some roads in the city faces flak from residents for carrying out repair work in the monsoon season.

To avoid waterlogging at particular stretches, the BDA has constructed rainwater harvesting system at seven different places in Model Town Phase-III at an expenditure Rs 35 lakh. The work was carried out under the supervision of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA).

The system helps in transporting rainwater through drains, filtration and then draining out the rain water underground for recharging the groundwater. Though the system proves quite beneficial at 60-Feet Road, the water remains stagnant on the 80 feet road.

Executive Engineer of the BDA, Vasudev Anand, said five layers are made in the system which helps in seeping the water underground during rains. The lack of cleaning though leads to blockade and disallows seeping of water into the ground.

“This is called the filter media, which keeps the dust particles away from the water and helps in recharging the groundwater level only with the water. There is a possibility of choking when mud or soil also goes along with water,” Vasdev said.

He, however, claimed that the expenditure of money proved fruitful, which has helped in draining out water from the 80-Feet Road and 60-Feet Roads of locality.

The road passing beside the Dadi-Poti Park and the Civil Lines police station used to get flooded every time it rained. “But this time, most of the water went down with the introduction of the rainwater harvesting system,” he said.

BDA’s Chief Administrator, Varinder Sharma, said the catchment areas for laying the system was identified in such a manner that waterlogging could be resolved in an efficient manner. The problem of the water will be removed completely in the area soon, he added.

“The surface area directly received the rainfall in a smooth manner in view of recent cleaning of the system,” he said, adding that this is the second spell of rain and the department taking precautionary measures had already finish the cleaning of the system after the first spell to prevent the passage of debris or sand into groundwater.

Some residents had pointed out that when they feel harassed due to the work of laying pipelines to construct the system in front of their houses but now are happy to see no waterlogging outside their homes.

“Similar situation used to prevail on the 80-Feet Road where it becomes quite difficult to wade through whenever it rains, but this time the water logging reduced to some extent,” said Manminder Singh, a resident of Jujhar Singh Nagar.

He, however, added that the recently laid roads in the area by the BDA and the Municipal Corporation Bathinda worn out due to the rain. The authorities should have laid the roads only after the monsoon season.

Bathinda, July 27
The claims of the Punjab Government to make the state power surplus seem rather insubstantial as residents and farmers have been suffering due to shortage of power. State’s own power plants are facing inadequate supply of coal and the private power plants have yet to contribute their share to the state’s pool.

Less supply of coal

Out of 2,640 MW capacity of the three state-owned power plants, their actual output is 2,300 MW. Since July 6, the 220 MW unit of Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat, in the Bathinda district has been shut down following a snag in generator.

The availability of coal stock at the GNDTP Bathinda Power Plant, GGSTP Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant and Ropar Thermal Plant is too less. Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda, having a capacity of 460 MW is producing 420 MW, Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant Lehra Mohabbat (920 MW) is generating 710 MW and Ropar Thermal Plant (1,260 MW) is producing 1,130 MW at present.

Mukerian plant yet to start

The Punjab Government had approved setting up of a thermal project under the public sector at Mukerian in November 2011. While it got the allocation of captive coal mines in 2013 from the Central government, the PSPCL management has done nothing to kick-start the project in the last three years.

Private power plants

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 due to one reason or the other. The major reason is that these private power producers have failed to make arrangements for coal for their plants.

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

The cost of power from these new private plants will be around Rs 5 per unit due to use of imported coal, which will put additional burden on the consumers in the coming years.

In comparison to this, the neighbouring state of Haryana has added three new thermal plants during the last 5 years at Yamunanagar (600 MW), Hissar (1,200 MW) in state sector and Jhajjar (1,500 MW) joint venture with NTPC and Jhajjar (1,320 MW) CLP in private sector.

Further, Haryana is planning 660 MW plant at Yamunanagar and 660 MW plant at Panipat, apart from nuclear plant near Fatehabad.

1,980 MW Talwandi Sabo power plant

Inaugurated in November 25, 2013, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) is yet to receive the linked coal, adding to woes of the state exchequer.

TSPL had supplied 80 million units with its one lakh MT of coal that it got for commissioning. Now facing shortage, the TSPL has been shut down for more than ten days and is waiting to get supply of its 7 MMT of linked coal under agreement from Mahanadi coalfields. Sources said linked coal would not be supplied at least for one month.

Gobindpura plant still on paper

The 1,320 MW Gobindpura thermal plant in the Mansa district that witnessed farmers bloodshed during its land acquisition process in August 2011, has been awaiting the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state government to begin its construction. The plant is owned by Poena Power Limited, a subsidiary of India Bulls.

It’s noteworthy that besides PPA, the mutation and de-notification of the land for Poena plant has not been done by the district administration. The company cannot apply for change of land use (CLU) certificate to begin the construction till the land is de-notified.

The state government, through bidding in July 2013, had granted India Bulls two solar power plants of 30 mw and 4 mw to be set up on 175 acres out of a total of 880 acres acquired for thermal power plant in 2011 in the Mansa district.

Staff shortage

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

“We had suggested the PSPCL Management that working through low cost models to check distribution losses would not only affect company’s revenue but also cripple the quality of supply to the consumers. But, the PSPCL management 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,” said Baldev Singh Sran, president, PSEB Engineers’ Association.

Costly purchase

Against the demand of 10,500 MW daily, the state is supplying 8,800 MW to consumers. The government is purchasing power to the tune of Rs 49 crore daily from outside sources at Rs 4.5 per unit while power costing Rs 4 crore is purchased from private plants in Punjab at around Rs 5.50 per unit.

The Punjab Government is purchasing power at Rs 5.50 per unit against the claim of Rs 2.89 per unit from Rajpura. In February 2014, the government purchased 1,353 lakh units at Rs 5.17, in March 1,790 lakh units at Rs 5.62, in April 2,840 lakh units at Rs 4.54, and in May 1,422 lakh units at Rs 5.67 per unit.

Non-recovery of damages

As per the power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with private thermals, in case any unit is not commissioned by its scheduled date (COD), then Private thermals plants will have to pay the Liquidated Damages (LD) to the PSPCL. Out of the 7 private thermal units of total 3,920 MW capacity at present, only one unit of Rajpura (700 MW) has been commissioned. Although Punjab is forced to purchase costly power from other states due to unwarranted delay in commissioning of private thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib, the state government has not recovered the penalty worth Rs 1,090 crore.

The first unit of 3x660 MW Talwandi Sabo thermal plant was to be commissioned by August 31, 2013, the second unit by December 31, 2013, and the third unit was supposed to be commissioned by April 30, 2014. The recovery of Rs 317 crore as Liquidated Damages (LD) on Sterlite Group for Unit 1, due on September 10, 2013 and LD of Rs 317 crore for unit 2 due on January 10, 2014 and Rs 317 crore for third unit due on May 10, 2014 (total Rs 951 crore) has not been done.

Similarly, the first unit of 2x270 MW Goindwal Sahib thermal plant was to be commissioned by May 20, 2013 and the second unit by November 20, 2013, but the GVK has failed to commission the units so far and liquidated damages amounting 139.7 crore have not been recovered by the PSPCL.

Blame game

The PSEB (Punjab State Electricity Board) Engineers’ Association has been accusing KD Chaudhri, chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of PSPCL for adding to the miseries of the people and tarnishing the image of the state government.

The association claimed that the PSPCL management, instead of owning up its grave failures, was now shirking the responsibility by rolling out big advertisements in newspapers on public expense and spreading false propaganda by providing false data to the people.

Besides highlighting the need for establishing more government-run power plants and reduce the state’s dependency on private thermal plants, the PSEB Engineers Association has pointed out the problem of availability of coal for running state owned thermal plants.

Farmer Jugraj Singh of Makha Chehlan village of Mansa said, “The government promised us a regular eight-hour supply for irrigation. I have ploughed my paddy fields due to poor monsoon and no power supply.”

A resident of Goniana town of the Bathinda district, Jagjeet Singh said, “Long power cuts have turned our life into hell. We are suffering due to shortage of electricity here despite the district has two state-run thermal plants. The government acquires land of farmers at cheap rates but gives nothing in return.”

CSR Vishal Kumar of TSPL said, “Linked coal is yet to reach here and it’s expected to reach by August 5. The plant is shut down due to unavailability of coal.”

Fact file Out of 2,640 MW capacity of the three state-owned power plants, their actual output is 2,300 MW 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 due to one reason or the other The 1,320 MW Gobindpura thermal plant in the Mansa district that witnessed farmers bloodshed during the land acquisition process in August 2011, has been awaiting the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state government to begin its construction Against the demand of 10,500 MW daily, the state is supplying 8,800 MW to consumers. The government is purchasing power to the tune of Rs 49 crore daily from outside sources at Rs 4.5 per unit

Bathinda, July 27
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Contract Employees Union today staged a protest at children’s park here against the Central government regarding the delay in releasing their salaries.

The union members said they did not get their salaries on time and due to which they had to face many problems.

“As per rules, we should get our salary in the first ten days of every month. The current situation is that 27 days have passed but we have not got our salaries yet. We also met senior officials on July 17 and they assured that we would get our salaries that within two days, but we are still waiting,” they said.

They said they were unable to deposit the depositing school fees of the wards in time. They demanded that their salaries should be released in the first week of every month.

They threatened to come out on roads and intensify their agitation against the Central government if their salaries were not released.

Bathinda, July 27
A brief spell of monsoon showers exposed the ill-preparedness of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) as several areas of the city were inundated with rainwater.

The city witnessed rainfall for about 30 minutes this afternoon. It led to water-logging in all the low lying areas. Commuters on Mall Road, Amrik Singh Road, Power House Road, Parasram Nagar, Balla Ram Nagar, Kamla Nehru Colony, Namdev Marg, Prajapat Colony, Green Avenue, Nai Basti, Kothe Amarpura, Sirki Bazar and Dhobi Bazar and other low lying areas had to face problems due to waterlogging.

The forecast made by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) regarding heavy rainfall in the city for the next two days prove right.

The residents got some respite from heat. The city was waiting for downpour from quite long.

The day started on a sunny note but at noon, the weather changed and the city witnessed light rain around 1 pm.

Farmers were facing problems due to prolonged dry spell. A drought like situation prevails in various parts of the region. But the rain failed to bring smile on the faces of farmers as they think it to be insufficient for paddy or cotton crop.

Balkar Singh, a farmer, said heavy rainfall for two-three days continuously was required to save the crops.