Bathinda, August 8
The Bathinda Cantonment area on the Bathinda-Baranala road was swarmed by over 8,400 aspirants from the district who wished to participate in the Army recruitment drive. This was the largest footfall seen in the last four days since the drive began.

1 Candidates participate in drills to showcase strength.  2 The Police use canes to keep the aspirants from blocking the Bathinda-Barnala road during the Army recruitment drive at the Bathinda Cantonment on Friday. photos: Pawan sharma

Not leaving anything to chance, the youngsters reached the entrance of the Army ground on the Bathinda-Barnala road in the early morning hours and relaxed and slept by the roadside. As soon as the registrations opened, the aspirants swarmed the ground and the police personnel and commandoes had a tough time managing the youngsters and keeping them away from the main road to avoid chances of traffic snarls.

"Thousands of youngsters crowded the main road in the early morning hours as they waited for the gates to open. The traffic on the road came to a crawl as the youngsters who were not selected for the next level of examinations thronged the main road to catch buses or other modes of conveyance to go back," said Kulwant Singh Sidhu, a government schoolteacher.

One of the commandoes on duty said it proved quite difficult to manage such an unexpected high number of candidates turning up at the cantonment ground. While aspirants from Ferozepur appeared for the physical examination on August 6, those from Faridkot and Muktsar appeared for the same on August 7, and those from Bathinda appeared for the test today and aspirants from Fazilka will appear for the examination on August 9.

Over 1,000 selected

Bathinda youth failed to show their physical prowess in the Army recruitment drive. After the initial screening of their height and documents at the entry, as many as 7,600 aspirants participated in the 1,600 m race. Out of these only a little more than 1,000 aspirants could complete the race within the stipulated time on six minutes.

While the rest were asked to leave the grounds, the selected candidates appeared for the next level of physical endurance, agility and strength examination which included chin-ups, nine-foot ditch and a zig-zag balance. Post the examination, the candidates appeared for the examination during which their physical statistics were recorded.

While speaking to Bathinda Tribune, in-charge of the recruitment drive, Colonel Bhushan Kuncheria, said, "We try and select as many as possible candidates to take them to the next level. The candidates selected during the recruitment drive will now appear for a common entrance examination to be conducted on August 31. The written examination will test the general aptitude, general knowledge, mathematics and general science knowledge of the aspirants."

Certificate verification wing constituted

To rule out the possibility of the aspirants faking their age by submitting forged educational qualification certificates, the Army has constituted a certificate verification wing. Elaborating on the wing, Colonel Bhushan said, "The unemployment rate in the country is so high that even if the aspirants have crossed the age limit for a particular category in the Army, they submit forged documents to get selected. To weed out such aspirants, the wing works toward verification of documents."

"The candidates selected in the written examination are asked to submit their original certificates which are scrutinized by the wing and sent to the educational institutions for authentication. After verification of the documents from the educational institutions, the selected candidates are dispatched for the training camps," he said. 

Bathinda: August 8
Ten more members of the PRTC Worker Union Azad, who were brutally lathicharged by the police at the Talwandi Sabo constituency on Thursday, have been arrested by police under different Sections of the IPC. Following this, the protestors have claimed to intensify their agitation.

On Thursday, the protestors of PRTC union after holding a fruitless meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal were lathicharged by the police leaving over five people injured. The police termed the incident as a clash and alleged that the protestors broke the police barricade and pelted stones them leaving three police officials injured.

Among the 50 booked protestors, the police have managed to arrest around 15 protestors till Friday evening under Sections 30, 332, 353, 186, 148, and 149 of the Indian Penal Code.

The employees are on indefinite strike from last one week and since Wednesday they had been trying to meet the deputy chief minister. The protestors had an unsuccessful meet on Thursday with the deputy chief minister in Gurudwara Talwandi Sabo following which they decided to carry a peaceful protest march in the city but the police lathicharged them.

The employees of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) Worker Azad Union raised slogans against the PRTC management and state government demanding that buses running under the kilometer scheme should be stopped as the owners of these buses are making losses of around Rs 7 crore every month to the PRTC.

The employees alleged that the drivers of these buses running under kilometer scheme are pilfering daily 20 liters of diesel and making loss to the PRTC in connivance with management.

They are also demanding that the contract system should be abolished and they be made regular employees. Overtime should be given, suspended employees should be reinstated, pay grade of workshop employees, deserving categorically promotions, and in-time pay and pensions be fulfilled immediately

PRTC Worker Azad Union Punjab general secretary Rupinder Singh said, "The police today rounded up more than two hundred protestors from the Gurudwara Sahib who were all sitting peacefully. They have falsely implicated us under different sections of the IPC as they have turned a puppet in hands of the state government. We should be punished if we violate laws or create any hurdle in law and order but to protest peacefully is our democratic right. Many of the arrested protestors are badly injured with head injuries but they are denied treatment and sent to jails. The state government had totally turned tyrant but we will intensify our agitation until our demands are met."

Station House Officer Talwandi Sabo said, "We have arrested more than 10 protestors of the PRTC who were booked yesterday for clashing with the police."

Bathinda, August 8
The secret behind the tunnel found on the campus of Government Rajindra College will now, it seems, will remain a secret. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI )team, which had visited the college campus last month to investigate and access the importance of the tunnel vis-à-vis the history of the city, will not be following up with the digging of the tunnel further as the state government had refused to release the funds required to go ahead with the plan.

To maintain the historical importance of a place under scrutiny of the Archeological Survey of India, not only digging but careful excavation is carried out to make sure that none of the important pieces of pottery or other articles are destroyed.

As per the information, the excavation work on the college campus was to last for at least two months and would have incurred an expense of Rs 2.5 lakh. In the face of the state government refusing to release the funds, the ASI team has shunned the idea of going on with the digging. In the meantime, the mouth of the tunnel on the college campus has also been closed by stuffing mud.

A special team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chandigarh, had visited the Government Rajindra College on July 10 and inspected the mysterious tunnel found in the college ground. During the inspection, the ASI team found some pieces of ancient utensils, which seemed nearly 2,200-year-old as per the team members. The tunnel was being linked with the historic old fort of the city.

The team head Rajinder Singh Bath said the utensils seemed to be belonging to the Buddhist era. They had also collected samples of the mud inside and outside the tunnel. A member of the team had said that it seemed that the site was not a tunnel but a place of bathing in the ancient times or a big place for the collection of water. They also found a big pothole.

They said the pothole was a place for the collection of water, which was of the Buddhist era.

Dr Bath said since the digging was to be done as per the rules of excavation, it would take almost two months to complete the task and lay bare the secret of the tunnel. He said the department had sent a request to the finance department asking for the funds to be released but in vain. He said, " The excavation work has been stalled for now and will be taken up only after the requisite funds are released."

Bathinda, August 8
There seems to be no end to the peoples' woe on garbage disposal as the ongoing strike of the safai karamcharis entered fifth day today. The Municipal Corporation of Bathinda (MCB) is facing serious problems in lifting the garbage that has been piling up in the localities.

They are demanding regularization of services. In the absence of sweepers, the city residents are dumping garbage at every vacant space available be it any vacant plots or the spaces on the roadsides.All the city roads have been converted into garbage dumping areas.

Condition in various colonies was found to be deplorable as the dustbins were overflowing with garbage and stray animals adding to the trouble by scattering the garbage.

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Bathinda, August 8
Delay in the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) elections for the past more than one year has been affecting developmental works, which are either lying pending or are not properly carried out within a stipulated time-frame.

While the leaders of the Opposition are blaming the ruling SAD-BJP government for not initiating the process of elections, the ruling party leaders claim that the delay is due to the extending of the limit of the Municipal Corporation.

“With the spreading of various areas on Barnala Road, Mansa Road, Goniana Road and Dabwali Road, new areas are being added to the corporation. The process of bringing more areas under the wings of the corporation is a long one, which takes considerable time,” said former corporation mayor and SAD leader, Baljeet Singh Beerbehman.

He said the process was likely to be completed in the next two months or so and the corporation elections may be announced in November.

The previous Municipal Corporation completed its term in July 2013 after which the powers to execute works were allocated to the Municipal Commissioner and other officials of the corporation.

“The government is supposed to conduct the elections within 6 months of the completion of the corporation term. The time consumed in the process of adding new areas under the corporation does not take more than two to three months,” said former municipal councillor Jagroop Gill of the Congress party.

Gill pointed out that he would soon take up the matter of delay in the election process with the Election Commission of Punjab soon.

The possibility of delaying the process of elections due to low voter turnout in the general elections cannot be ruled out, Gill said.

Former Mayor, Baljeet Beerbehman however refuted Gill’s allegation.

Former municipal councillor, Master Harmandar Singh, said there are 50 wards under the Bathinda Municipal Corporation and the pending developmental works were not taken up through the elected representatives.

“There is a world of difference between getting the work through the unanimous decision taken by the councillors in meetings and by the officials,” he said. 

Bathinda, August 8
A woman resident of Parasram Nagar today accused the city police of inaction. In her complaint submitted to senior police officials, including the DGP, DIG and SSP, Kiran Devi stated that her minor daughter was kidnapped by a city resident and the police refused to trace her.

The complainant stated that initially, the police had refused to lodge an FIR in this regard and after running from pillar to post, a case was registered against Sita Ram Pujari.

The woman said the accused took advantage of her ailing husband who was admitted to a hospital in Patiala. “My minor daughter was allured by the accused by offering good cloths and food. She was enticed to marry an old man,” the woman said.

She said her husband was washing cars at a service station in the city and was injured after he fell down while doing work.

The complainant demanded strict action against the erring policemen of the Thermal police station who failed to act on her complaint.

Bathinda, August 8
Residents of Rampura Phul are upset over wrong signboards installed at various link and main roads in the city. They said apart from spelling mistakes, there are some signboards which are installed at wrong places.

“Despite spending lakhs of rupees on installing these boards, they have proved to be of little help to the commuters. On the contrary, people get confused and fail to reach their desired destinations,” said Rajnish Kumar, a city resident.

He rued that the names of villages, towns and distance were inaccurate on these signages. The wrong names of villages could be seen on boards at the Rampura-Maur Road, he said.

Residents said that a board installed 3 kilometers ahead on the Maur Road, which goes to Rampura village — shows that Mansa is 42 km away while Bathinda is 54 km. “But in reality, Bathinda is just 33 km away from the place,” said Darshan Singh of Rampura village.

The new signboard shows that Maur Mandi is 20 km away while another signage shows it to be 18 km.

Residents said since the contractor who was assigned the work of installing these boards was from Amritsar, he was not very well aware of the area.

Villagers demanded that the boards should be replaced immediately for the benefit of people.

Bathinda, August 8
An orientation programme to welcome the new students admitted to various courses for session 2014-15 was organised at Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo. The programme was conducted in the auditorium on the GKU campus.

Vice-Chancellor Dr NS Malhi explained many points, which will help the students during the course of their studies. He laid emphasis on the research aspect under higher education, which is possible only because of the highly qualified faculty and the infrastructure available on the campus.

Managing director Sukhraj Singh Sidhu motivated the students and congratulated the staff members. — TNS

Bathinda, August 8
Niharika Chawla, a middle-aged woman from a middle class family, is finding it difficult to manage her household with rising prices of fruit. Her husband has lately recovered from tuberculosis and the doctor has recommended him to have apples and kiwis.

But the rising prices of fruit have hit her home budget with no hope of inflation going down in future. Endless consumers like her are facing the same problem.

Prices of fruit have gone up by 20 per cent only in a week. The prices of pomegranate, however, have not increased while the apple has crossed Rs 220 per kg.

Shopkeepers and hawkers are too finding it difficult to sell fruit with high profit margins. With such a hike in prices, it seems consumers have now given up hope that inflation may come down.

“The doctor has recommended apple and a kiwi fruit to my husband for sooner recovery but the cost of apples has touched Rs 230 whereas around ten days ago it was Rs 180 per kilogram,” NIharika Chawla said.

A large bargaining over the prices of fruit is now a daily routine for consumers and shopkeepers too find it difficult to reap high profits.

“Apples, pears and mangoes were in great demand a few days back but now after a steep rise in prices, mostly of apples, the demand has gone down. The cost of apples is Rs 220 per kg, pears — Rs 80, mangoes — Rs 60, pomegranate — Rs 120 and Kiwi is — Rs 35 per piece,” said Surinder Singh, a shopkeeper.