Bathinda, September 2
After 13 years, the Shatabdi Express is all set to roll again on the railway track between Bathinda and New Delhi this month. The Railway Board has finalised the timings to start the bi-weekly Shatabdi train, but still, a date to start the train has not yet been finalised. But it has been claimed that the train will start month only.

With the resumption of this train, the Bathinda-Delhi route will be covered in 4 hours and 45 minutes. The train will leave from New Delhi to Bathinda at 9 am in the morning and reach Bathinda at 1.45 pm. The same train will leave for Delhi from Bathinda at 4.15 pm in the evening and reach Delhi railway station at 9 pm in the night.

As per railway officials, all the preparations regarding the running of the train has been completed. The Shatabdi train number which will run from here is 12047 Up and 12048 Down.

The Shatabdi Express between Bathinda and Delhi was announced by the Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gauda in his maiden rail budget speech earlier this year Till then, residents of areas in and around the city are eagerly waiting for the Shatabdi Express to start from here.

It is worth mentioning that in 2002, the Shatabdi Express was started from Bathinda to Delhi by the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar. It used to run five days a week but due to less number of passengers, it was discontinued within a month. Later, with the opening of national projects in the city, the rail connectivity to Delhi became a major requirement. The residents had been demanding a Shatabdi between Delhi and Bathinda for the last many years.

Superintendent, Railway Station, Pardip Sharma, said the timing of the trains has been announced while there is no confirmation yet as to when the train would be started. Due to this, they have not been able to give the exact information regarding this train to the passengers.

Railway officials expect that they would receive the information one week before the train starts its journey.

Bathinda, September 2
The Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) seems to have been waiting for some untoward incident to happen at the Gol Diggi where encroachments on a large scale have blocked various entrances.

In view of the coming festive season and the recent incidents of fire in the city, Gol Diggi appears to be vulnerable in view of the haphazard blockade on pavements adjoining the inflammable material.

The shopkeepers said they have pointed out the issue umpteen times and urged the ‘erring’ shopkeepers to remove the inflammable material but to no avail.

A visit to the market revealed that the shopkeepers have kept heavy goods in the middle of the pathways leaving little or no room for anyone to move on different floors of the building.

On the first floor, a set of wooden planks have blocked the entire circled pathway from where no one may move during an emergency. In view of just two entry and exit points, the situation has become more piquant during an emergency and blockade by such material makes the visitors press the panic button. Each of the five floors of the building has 32 shops and almost all the shops are occupied.

“We are quite concerned about the blockade of the pathways by a section of the shopkeepers, especially on the first floor,” said the president of the Gol Diggi Market Association, Gurdas Garg.

He pointed out that wooden blocks kept outside a shop have completely blocked the path. The wooden material is lying just close to a generator set and even a small spark can lead to a major fire anytime, he said.

The shopkeepers said in view of the rising incidents of fire in the city they are quite concerned and fear that the blockade of the pathways may lead to grave problem.

“Since this is the festive season, we need to take extra precautions and we all take collective steps to adopt a pro-active approach,” said Gogi, a shop owner. He stated that there is hardly any room left for someone to pass through in view of the goods lying outside the shops in a haphazard manner.

The corporation authorities had, earlier, initiated an action in this regard by issuing warning and confiscating the material lying outside the shops but this time, the officials concerned seem to be in deep slumber.

The Gol Diggi Market was renovated at an expenditure of nearly Rs 1 crore, six years ago wherein the foundation and the walls of the ground floor were repaired and water proofing was also done.

The market came into being three decades ago and has many eating joints, photo studios, printing press, stationary and computer shops, among others.

Bathinda, September 2
Following a discussion over whether the Central government is putting pressure on the teachers of all the schools to ensure that the speech to be delivered by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, reaches the schoolchildren, several teachers of the district got together to raise their voice against the order. They also announced that they would burn copies of the order at a convention at Teachers’ Home here on September 4.

A deputation of teachers of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, the ETT Adhyapak Union and the SSA-RMSA-CSS Teachers’ Union met Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg and demanded that the order be changed from binding to optional.

Elaborating on the displeasure being expressed against the order, district president of the DTF, Paramjit Singh, secretary Baljinder Singh and a member of the district committee, Resham Singh, stated that instead of imposing the speech on the schools and students, the government should make it optional.

They also attacked the BJP-led Central government for not paying heed to the problems of the teachers in Punjab and the way they are forced to fight for their rights. They added that if the PM wants the students to respect the teachers seriously, he should direct the state government to regularise the jobs of all the teachers of government schools and give them salaries as per their full pay grade.

They further stated that the government should end privatisation in the education sector, stop burdening students with non-academic work so that they have time to dedicate to students and end the system of handing over the functioning of government schools to private firms to make quick money.

Talking about technical glitches in screening the live telecast for a large number of students, the teachers pointed out that big schools were facing a huge problem. They added that since the students of primary classes will not be able to comprehend the PM’s speech, they should be exempted from sitting through it.

Bathinda, September 2
Dr Satwant Kaur Bhullar, principal of RBDAV Public School, Bathinda, has been chosen by the Central Board of Secondary Education for its prestigious National Teachers’ Award, 2013. The award acknowledges and appreciates the role played by teachers and principals.

Dr Bhullar joined the organisation in 1987 as a teacher in DAV, Jalalabad. She was appointed the principal of the same institution in 2000. She was further transferred to DAV School, Bathinda, in 2007 as the principal. She is the city co-ordinator and has undertaken main examinations such as JEEE (mains), AIPMT, on-the spot evaluation, CTET, etc.

She will be conferred the award at Manikshah Centre, New Delhi, on September 4 at 4 pm. The award will be given away by the Union Education Minister (HRD) Smriti Irani.

Expressing her happiness over being chosen as a recipient of the award, Dr Bhullar said, “I strongly believe in the hard work and dedication of the entire team. The team in the school has strived hard to provide excellent academic ambience coupled with essential activities having an all round harmonious development to the students.”

Bathinda, September 2
Tension prevailed at Guru Nanak Dev Public Secondary School in Kamla Nehru Colony here today after members of the school management committee reached the school before it began functioning for the day and issued letters pertaining to the termination of the services of the principal and one of the staff members.

While the committee members took over the office of the principal, Sarabjeet Kaur Sra, before she reached the school, the principal and teacher Veerpal Kaur had no option but to express their dissent against the school management committee outside the office of the principal.

Stating that the committee would soon advertise to fill the vacant post of the principal, the committee had selected one of the senior teachers of the school as the officiating principal. The principal of the school, accompanied by a couple of teachers, also met Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg, demanding the intervention of the district administration. The DC assured them that an inquiry would be conducted into the issue. The president of the school management committee, Paramjeet Singh Sekhon, and general secretary Gurdev Singh said that the committee members were left with no option but to visit the school themselves to terminate the services of the principal and the teacher. They added that their services were being terminated because of their misbehaviour and for disturbing the atmosphere of the school by involving the students in their protest.

They accused the principal of being unwilling to work according to the rules and regulations laid down by the committee since she was a relative of some members of the old school management committee. They added that the committee had decided to appoint Parminder Kaur as the officiating principal as she had been working with the school for a long time.

Refuting the allegation, Sra said the new committee had adopted an adamant attitude while dealing with the matters concerning the school. She added that with an aim to ensure a fair inquiry into the matter, she e-mailed a letter of request to Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

She said if the management committee continued to function as per its whims and fancies, she and other teachers of the school would intensify their stir.

Meanwhile, the president of the previous school management committee, Manohar Singh, regretted that the tussle between the school committee and the teachers was taking a toll on the study of the students. Defending the appointment of Sra as the officiating principal, Singh added that the appointment was done in a fair manner by the committee and none of the members of the previous committee was related to Sra.

Singh said the new committee wanted to run the school as per its own rules and were terminating the services of those who had dared to raise their voice against it.

Bathinda, September 2
Under the banner of the Punjab Student Union (PSU) Shaheed Randhawa, BEd students staged a protest against Punjabi University, Patiala, over the distribution of syllabus at its regional centre in the city.

While addressing the protesters, the convener of the union, Sarabjit Maur, said Punjabi University had fully ignored the interests of the students and had tried to favour private colleges.

They said the syllabus could not be covered in a semester alone. He said the university had not kept physical education and sports subjects in the BEd course.

The union leaders said with the present distribution of syllabus, the students would face problems in completing the syllabus. “This kind of syllabus will benefit private colleges. They will now be able to run the college with less staff as services of physical education teachers would be terminated in private colleges. It will also lead to unemployment,” they said.

They demanded that the syllabus should be redistributed again and physical education should be included as a subject. 

Bathinda, September 2
Two unknown persons duped an employee of Arora Sports shop of Rs 40,000 today. The SHO of the Kotwali police station, Mahesh Saini, said the victim had gone to Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) to encash a cheque for Rs 40,000. The two unidentified persons told him to deposit Rs 2 lakh in another bank and promised to give him Rs 20,000 in lieu of this.

Harpreet Singh, the victim, said when he was going to take a token from a counter in the bank, two unidentified persons came to him and gave him a bag, supposed to be carrying Rs 2 lakh, and told him to go to another bank and deposit it. Meanwhile, they promised to encash the cheque for him. So, to earn Rs 20,000, he took up the job. Later, when he opened the bag, he saw chits instead of cash.

The police had registered a case against the unidentified persons and had started an investigation into the incident. The police is also trying to identify the culprits through the CCTV footage. 

Bathinda, September 2
The CPI, CPI(M), CPM, Punjab, and the CPI(ML) Liberation held a protest march against the Centre and the state government and demanded immediate withdrawal of the draconian Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Bill-2014, passed by the Punjab Assembly.

Later, Left leaders also submitted a charter of demands to Deputy Commissioner Basant Garg.

Former MLA and state council member of the CPI Hardev Arshi said that the Modi-led NDA government was pursuing anti-people and pro-MNCs policies initiated by the UPA government. The speakers said the SAD in Punjab was a partner of the Central government and was pursuing the same policies.

They condemned the alleged anti-people policies of the Punjab Government, which, according to them, have resulted in price rise and unemployment. “The mafia aided and abetted by the government is controlling the transport sector, cable TV, sand and gravel in the state. The leaders of the ruling coalition are grabbing public land,” they said.

They also demanded minimum of Rs 3,000 as the old-age and widow pension, Rs 15,000 as wages for unskilled workers, implementation of the Swaminathan panel recommendations, unemployment allowance, removal of toll plazas, cheap education and health services for the common people. They also expressed concern over crime against women and the Dalits in the state.