Bathinda, August 14
Bathinda police have failed to trace the major theft cases held in the city in the recent past. This has been predominantly because the police force has been busy keeping the protesters at bay.

Thieves struck at a cloth shop situated on Court Road on the night of July 27 and stole material and cash to the tune of Rs 9 lakh. As per the information available, thieves broke into Grover Silk Store and stole expensive suits and Rs 15,000 in cash. But the police are clueless till date as to who committed the theft.

On July 16, thieves had struck at Friend's Medical Store in Hospital Bazaar. They tried to set the shop on fire and when they failed to do so, stole Rs 5,000 from the shop. The police started the investigations immediately but failed to nab the culprits.

In another incident on July 10, thieves decamped with watches worth Rs 2.5 lakh from a shop near the Kotwali police station. Around 60 expensive watches were stolen from the shop. The police have no information about the thieves so far.

On July 3, thieves struck at a readymade garments shop on Mall Road and stole material worth more than Rs 2.5 lakh. But the police failed to achieve any breakthrough in the case.

On May 22, thefts were reported at three shops in Hospital Bazaar. Goods worth lakhs were stolen. However, even after two months, the police are clueless about the thieves.

Similarly, furniture and other items worth lakhs were stolen from two government schools at Gehri Buttar village on July 3. But the police are still groping in the dark.

Meanwhile, several residents have expressed concern over the rising incidents of theft. They said the police should identify and arrest the accused as soon as possible. They alleged that a majority of the theft cases remained unsolved and the role of the police was limited only to registering FIRs.

Bathinda, August 14
Continuing their strike, the PRTC workers who have been protesting for around two weeks in Talwandi Sabo, claim that they will gherao the Deputy Chief Minister on Independence Day, in case the latter again fails to meet them.

A number of protestors in a last few days have been arrested by the police under different sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The protesting activists of the PRTC Workers’ Union Azad had even gave a call to distribute the pamphlets village-to-village carrying information about the failure of the state government to meet their demands.

It is noteworthy that the employees are on an indefinite strike for more than one week and since last Wednesday, they had been trying to meet the Deputy Chief Minister in Talwandi Sabo where the bypoll would be held on August 21.

On August 7, the protestors of the PRTC union, after holding a fruitless meeting with the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, were cane-charged by the police leaving around five people injured. Claiming that the protestors had pelted stones at the police and attempted to commit suicide, the police had then booked around 200 unidentified protestors and arrested around 50 identified persons under Sections 309, 332, 353, 186, 148, and 149 of the Indian Penal Code.

On strike, the employees of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) Workers’ Azad Union are raising slogans against the PRTC management and the state government demanding that buses running under the kilometer scheme should be stopped as the owners of these buses, in connivance with private operators are causing losses to the PRTC, of around Rs 7 crore every month.

The employees alleged that the drivers of these buses, running under the kilometer scheme, are pilfering 20 litres of diesel daily resulting in loss to the PRTC in connivance with the management. Workers are demanding that the contract system should be abolished and they should be regularised, overtime should be given, suspended employees should be reinstated, pay grade of the workshop employees should be revised, the deserving should be given promotions and pay and pensions should be given on time.

President of the PRTC Workers’ Azad Union, Bathinda, Harbans Bhola, said, “Today, the police arrested none of our protestors. But yesterday, it had arrested 10 of our protestors who were sitting peacefully inside a gurdwara. We would now make our last attempt to meet the Deputy Chief Minister today and if he fails to meet us and fulfill our demands, then we would gherao him on Independence Day.”

Bathinda, August 14
For the last two days, the farmers in the district have been facing a power shortage of one more hour in the scheduled six-hour supply. Faults in thermal plants are known to be the reasons behind the outage.

The urban areas, too, witnessed 10 hours of power cut two days ago. But now, there have been no officially ordered power cuts. However, the farmers, who were promised by the state government the supply of full eight-hour supply for motor connections to irrigate their fields, have no relief. During the summer, the state has given only six-hour supply to farmers in Punjab while for the last two days, the supply has been cut short to five hours in the state, revealed sources.

It’s noteworthy that against the demand for 10,500 MW daily, the state is supplying only 8,800 MW. The Punjab government is capable of providing only 3,300 MW from its own hydel and thermal power plants and is purchasing 5,300 MW from outside at Rs 4.5 per unit average.

The three state-owned three thermal plants are generating power of around 2,300 MW daily out of 2,640 MW installed capacity. The Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda, having a capacity of 460 MW, is producing 420 MW, the Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat, (920 MW) is generating 710 MW and the Ropar Thermal Plant (1260 MW) is producing 1,220 MW daily.

Jhanda Singh, a farmer from Bhainibaga village, said, “We have been facing power shortage and our expenses on irrigation have increased due to the use of diesel. Earlier, the government promised us eight-hours of power supply, but it cut it short to six-hour and now, for the last two days, we are not even getting six-hour supply.

One more hour has been reduced whereas sometimes, only four hours of supply is given. If the state cannot meet the demand for power, then it should guide the farmers according as per the situation so that we can sow some other crop instead of paddy.

“Our woes are endless as after ripening, we would again face the problem of procurement. These are the reasons why farmers commit suicide as the state increases expenses on agriculture and provides no compensation,” said a farmer. The farmers should have been compensated for bad monsoon this time that has made the farmers hit back. The SAD (B) should focus on the issue and force the BJP government at the Centre to increase the MSP and provide compensation to the farmers for the poor monsoon in Punjab that witnessed less rainfall, he added.

Bathinda, August 14
The police foiled a protest bid by the activists of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) to burn the effigy of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at Jeewan Singhwala village today.

The activist of the TET union gathered at the water tank at Jiwan Singhwala village where their associates had climbed atop yesterday and are still protesting demanding that appointment letters be issued and issuing suicide threats.

Union members had planned to burnt the effigy of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at the venue, but they were not allowed by the police.

A large number of union numbers shouted slogans against the state government for not fulfilling their demands. They also stated that the state government was least interested in the condition of the people and was busy in making money for themselves.

Later, the tehsildar and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) reached the spot and tried to pacify the protestors.

A meeting was also held between the union leaders and the district administration. But no decision was reached till the filing of the report.

However, union leaders said the administration had assured them of a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, but it was not clear when and where it will be held.

Kulwinder Singh of Patiala, who had climbed the tank, said, “The state government had advertised 4,901 posts of teachers in Zila Parishad schools in February. In June, a list of 2,600 qualified candidates was put on the website, but nobody has been given an appointment letter yet.”

Sources said the appointments were being delayed since the government was thinking of merging the schools under Zila Parishads with other schools.

It is pertinent to mention that the political leaders are leaving no stone unturned to derive political mileage ahead of the Talwandi Sabo bypoll, as both Harminder Singh Jassi, the Congress candidate and Baljinder Kaur, candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), visited the site and talked to the agitating candidates immediately after receiving the information that the protestors had climbed atop the water tank.

Bathinda, August 14
The police have arrested Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Phul with an illegal weapon. The police have recovered a .315 bore pistol and one live cartridge from him.

Bathinda, August 14
The dream of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to gift the city an international level state-of-the-art astroturf hockey stadium is still to materialise, as the work is far from completion due to financial constraints.

The condition of the astroturf hockey stadium has started deteriorating before being taken over by the Sports Department.

The DMR Builders, who took the contract for the stadium, are taking care of the stadium.

The Sports Department had refused to take over the work from the company due to its ailing condition and defaults.

The bills amounting to Rs 15 lakh of the contractor are still pending with the government.

The builders took the contract for the audition gallery and the pavilion of the stadium claiming to have completed the job and wanted to hand over the ground to the Sports Department.

However, the Sports Department has refused to take over the ground saying it was not complete.

Earlier, an XEN of the Sports Department visited the stadium and found 37 defaults in the building.

The officials have mentioned there is no proper boundary wall adjoining the Rajindra College, due to which students enter the stadium unnecessary during the day.

The astroturf has started getting damaged as the water sprinklers have failed to water the astroturf. The dust is also affecting the layer of the astroturf. There is no astroturf dust cleaner. The staff has made repeated requests to the Sports Department to provide it with the same.

Experts who laid the turf had instructed the officials of the Sports Department to sprinkle water on it thrice a day to keep the dust away and prevent it from getting hot.

Sukhbir Badal had made the sports department authorities initiate the multi-crore astroturf hockey stadium in 2012. The project was to be completed by January, 2013, but after a delay of more than one-and-a-half years, there are many things that are still left incomplete.

As per the architectural drawing of the state-of-the-art hockey stadium along with the parking lot, a mini astroturf ground for warm up and practice was also to come up, which is nowhere in the stadium at present.

Sources in the administration said it has been noticed that at first the government had fixed Rs 11 crore as the budget for the hockey stadium, which is now falling short and Rs 3 crore more is required for the completion of the stadium.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Rajwant Singh, coach of the hockey stadium, admitted that a lot of work is to be done.

Bathinda, August 14
A deputation of Maths Teachers Association, Punjab, met the Director General of School Education (DGSE) VK Singh.

The meeting was called by the DGSE after the maths teachers employed in government schools in the state raised their voice against the absence of any post for maths teachers in middle schools of the state.

Apart from requesting the Director General of School Education to look into the issue of opening posts of mathematics teachers in the government middle schools to raise the interest of the students and standard of teaching in the subject, the deputation also discussed issues related to release of funds for construction of separate rooms for maths lab in schools, funds for installing green boards in the classrooms of government schools and optimum utilisation of the EduSat technology, among others.

The union pointed out that in government middle schools, there are nine periods for physical education, nine for drawing, 12 for Hindi and 18 for Punjabi in a week.

While teachers for almost all the subjects are present in the schools, no mathematics teacher is present, despite the fact that there are 24 periods of the subject in a week.

While discussing the rationalisation policy, the teachers demanded that the maths and science teachers conducting classes for the non-medical streams be considered for only non-medical streams in other schools while preparing the transfer orders.

The teachers also asked that the number of periods given to the subject for classes IX and X in the schools be increased to aid the students and teachers and practicing the subject better.

After listening to the demands of the teachers, the DGSE assured that their demands would be considered and all possible efforts would be done to heed the same.

He assured that the State Education Department would discuss the demands like opening posts of maths teachers in the government middle schools.

Rajesh Monga, Gurbachan Singh, Sukhdev Mittal, Jaswinder Singh, Gurbir Singh, Dalbir Singh, Kamaldeep Singh were part of the deputation that met the Director General of School Education.

Bathinda, August 14
The Bathinda unit of the Democratic Rights Sabha, Punjab, today condemned the police action against the various unions and organisations protesting against the state government for not fulfilling their demands.

The sabha demanded that the right to protest is democratic and should be restored.

District president of the sabha Bagga Singh, general secretary Randhir Gillpati and Prithpal Singh stated that on the orders of the state government, the police cane-charged the TET pass ETT teachers at the Jiwan Singhwala village in Talwandi Sabo area. They also termed the police action as undemocratic and unconstitutional.

They stated that the police did not even spare the villagers who served water to the protesters.

The sabha leaders condemn the politicians, who reached the protest venue to derive political mileage. These leaders have not said anything against the bill passed by the government suppressing the right to protest, and the ban on the protest in Bathinda since last year. 

Bathinda, August 14
University College of Basic Sciences and Humanities of Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, celebrated the Independence Day on its campus.

Dr NS Malhi, Vice-Chancellor, exhorted the students to work hard to achieve academic success. Dr Baljinder Singh,Dr Deepti Aggarwal, Prof Rajbeer Kaur and Prof Kanwaljeet Singh were also present during the function.

Independence Day celebrations were also held at several play schools including Kids Care School, Blooming Buds School and Daddy’s Teddy. Students of the schools dressed as Bharat Mata, Bhagat Singh, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Armymen, Subhash Chandra Bose and other personalities who took part in the Indian freedom struggle.

Bathinda, August 14
Simranpreet Kaur, a student of Baba Farid Group of Institutions, won the gold in the Senior State Power Lifting Championship held at Rank Hall in Patiala.

Simranpreet lifted 297.5 kg in 84 kg category. She is now preparing for the nationals and inter-varsity championships.

Chairman, BFGI, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal congratulated Simranpreet on her achievement.