Bathinda, October 17
As part of the confidence building measures among the residents ahead of Diwali, the police today conducted a flag march in the city.

Being the first in the flag march, more than 100 police personnel, led by Superintendent of Police (City) Narinderpal Singh and DSP (City) Gurjit Singh Romana started the march from the bus stand area. They marched through power House Road, Ajit Road, Mall Road, Dhobi bazaar, Post Office bazaar and culminated it at the Kotwali police station.Large numbers of police personnel were riding on their PCR motorcycles during the march. The idea was to enhance the confidence level of residents, so that they can come out and shop freely during the festive season.

The security has beefed up in and around the town and its surrounding areas ahead of the festive season. Anti-sabotage teams have been constituted to enhance vigil at the major places in the city.

Special security arrangements have been made to nail the culprits if any untoward incident takes place. Some roads in the city have been identified from where activities of unscrupulous elements are generally reported. Extra security forces have been deployed at these roads.

The police have stepped up night vigil, installed special checkpoints and intensified patrolling throughout the city. The police, along with the Fire Department and health officials, have been asked to remain on their toes till the end of the festive season.The SHO's have been directed to enhance vigil in and around religious places, educational institutes and busy markets.

Keeping in view the increase in the number of anti-social activities during the festival season over the last few years, police personnel have been deployed in large numbers in and around major places. While the deployment of security force has been appreciated, residents also expect from the police to take some steps to tackle the traffic problem. 

Bathinda, October 17
Five out of 11 Congress backed candidates in Gobindpura village today won the cooperative societies elections which were held in the village after 10 years.

SAD backed six members in the society during the previous term and Congress had backed three members. The members during the previous term were elected unanimously. This time, the voters decided to cast votes. Now Congress, including one member from the PPP, has five members and SAD has four members.

Two supporters of SAD lost the membership in today's elections. Out of the total 269 votes, 257 were polled today.

Interestingly out of 808 members only 269 managed to become eligible voters to cast their votes during today's elections while the others were barred after a hectic session of scrutiny.

Heavy police force was deployed in the village in view of the elections which were concluded peacefully.

"Those who conducted two transactions in a year and are not defaulter of payment were eligible to vote while others were barred," said the Assistant Registrar (AR) of the Cooperative Societies.

Village sarpanch Jaspal Kaur said, "Though the members do not fight elections for the societies on political party's symbols but voters and members of the managing committee members are always associated with one political party or the other."

The SAD supporters who are elected members of the Gobindpura Multi-purpose Agricultural Cooperative Society Limited are Gamdur Singh, Manjinder Singh, Gurjant Singh, Bheem Singh. Those who lost the membership today from SAD are Babu Singh and Sukhmandar Singh.

A supporter of PPP, Sohan Singh, and Congress supporters, Balwinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Sukhpal Singh and Ranjit Singh, become the members of society.

Similar elections were also held in Gidder village. Elections for members of the Gidder Multi-purpose Agricultural Cooperative Society were held today. Six supporters of the SAD and three from the Congress became the members. 

Bathinda, October 17
An RTI query filed by a Congress worker against a female ration depot holder has landed the Congress party in the line of fire of the district police department. While a mutual compromise was reached between the RTI applicant and he depot holder, Bathinda District Congress Committee president Mohan Lal Jhumba has taken the fight personally and has landed him on a hospital bed.

After Jhumba refused to undergo a medical examination by a team of doctors which had visited him at the dharna site outside the Canal Colony police station on Thursday afternoon, the leader was forcibly taken by the police personnel to the hospital in a late night action on Thursday.

SHO Mahesh Saini, who was part of the police team which took Jhumba to hospital, stated that the leader had problems related to blood pressure and considering that he was observing fast-unto-death, there were chances that his health condition could deteriorate. He added that since the leader had refused to undergo medical examination on the afternoon, he was taken to the hospital.

Lying on the hospital bed and being administered glucose through an intravenous drip, Jhumbaclaimed that he was still on fast-unto-death since he had not consumed anything solid and was just sipping water. He also vowed to intensify the stir against the police department and the District Administration.

He said the fight was no more his fight against the alleged bad conduct of the SHO of the Canal Colony police station, but had turned into a bigger fight for the interest of the people. "If the district administration and police department are not heeding the demands being raised by members of a political party, imagine how they must be neglecting the complaints of the common man," he said.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and former MLA Harmander Singh Jassi added that the party high command had extended its support to the protest. Meanwhile, Dr Ramandeep Goyal, who was handling Jhumba's case at the hospital said his condition was stable. 

Bathinda, October 17
The Buildings & Roads Department and Municipal Corporation of Bathinda are busy playing passing the buck while the overbridge and underbridge connecting Parasram Nagar with the rest of the city are crying for upkeep. With gaping potholes, which have developed both on the overbridge and the underbridge, the daily commuters are a harried lot.

While reasons for the potholes on the bridges may range from use of sub-standard material for laying the roads, frequent plying of heavy vehicles or accumulation of water during the monsoon season, the commuters believe that the departments concerned have turned a blind eye to upkeep of the bridges. The situation becomes even more troublesome during the monsoon season as underbridge is waterlogged and adds to the woes.

Negating that the upkeep of the bridges was a responsibility of the B&R Department, SDO Mander Singh said, "The B&R Department is responsible for maintenance of the roads only till the time the roads are being laid or have not been transferred to the other departments. While the overbridge is more than 11 years old, the underbridge is also more than five years old and in all these years, the B&R Department never conducted any repair work on these bridges since both had been handed over to the Municipal Corporation of Bathinda."

Oblivious of the fact that the two bridges are lifelines for the residents of people saying across the railway lines, the government departments looking the other way while the bridges are suffering from a lack of maintenance. Travelling through the underbridge becomes dangerous during the monsoon season as one has to be extra cautious of the potholes on the water-logged underbridge — Gurpreet Singh, student

The two bridges serve the residents of the areas across the railway lines and should be paid attention to by the government. The potholes are a menace for the commuters who use two-wheelers as their mode of conveyance. The potholes on the underbridge have caused several accidents as while one driver tries to save the vehicle from the pits on the road, he risks being hit by the vehicles coming behind him — Sandeep Kumar, shopkeeper 

The uneven roads and pits on the roads of the over and underbridges vouch for the fact that the government forgets all about projects after completing them. While its leaders claim that Bathinda will be turned into a world-class city, the city's two major bridges are suffering. The underbridge is more dangerous since it is dimply-lit or not lit at all in the nighttime and the commuters fail to see the uneven patches their vehicles hit — Rajesh Kumar, contractor

The roads are repaired only days before Lok Sabha or assembly elections are approaching. At all the other times, the departments don't heed several demands raised by the residents of the backward partsof the city. Before the Lok Sabha elections, several leaders visited the areas across railway lines, but no showed his face after the results were out. The other route, which connects the area to Thandi Sadak is also utterly neglected — Dishok Kumar, shopkeeper

Bathinda, October 17
A large numbers of vehicles in the city are plying illegally on the road without proper number plates. Many of the youngsters in the city are running motorcycles and cars with defective or fancy numbers plates violating traffic norms in the city.

This illegal driving has raised a serious question mark on the credibility of the Transport Department and the police as despite large barricading and police patrolling in the city this is going on unabated.

These vehicles without proper number plates are the biggest threat to the law and order in the city. If any of these vehicles is used in crimes it would be difficult for the police to trace them.

As per the law, all motorised road vehicles are tagged with a registration or license number. The license number (commonly known as number plate) number is issued by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) of the respective states - the main authority on road matters. It is mandatory to place the license plates in the front and back of the vehicle.

Even high numbers of vehicles are also running without high security registration plates in the city as per the law passed by the government of India in 2005 stating that all the new should be given without high security registration plates and within two years all the existing cars should install these plates, otherwise a challan of more than Rs 2,000 will be issued for not adhering to the laws.

As working on installing high security registration plates is going on from last 4-5 years but yet high number of vehicles is yet to install it.

Raj Kumar, a resident said police should keep a strict vigil on such vehicles, as these vehicles are only used for thefts or for criminal activities to escape easily.

Traffic police official said it is illegal if anyone is using vehicle without number plates and during barricading if we found we straight away challan or even compound the vehicle.

He said that so far they had not started issuing challan over the high security plates as process of installation is going on quite slow. 

Bathinda, October 17
District Magistrate (DM)-cum-Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg today passed orders to appoint lambardar of ward number 10 of Lalewala village in Talwandi Sabo. The case was lying pending in the court of DM for the past over six months.

The new appointee Gurjant Singh had moved an application in the office of Talwandi Sabo Tehsildar in May this year. He accused the then lambardar of being a defaulter of Rs 36,000 of the cooperative societies.

Complainant's lawyer in the case, Harjinder Singh said that the post of lambardar was challenged over the default of payment by their opponents in the Cooperative Societies.

The lawyer stated that the opponent was enjoying the post of lambardar for the past two generation as his father and grandfathers too were lambardar. The number of complaints against existing lambardar is on the rise as the posts are not been revised by the state government for the past many years.

The complainant said that he initially moved the application in the office of area tehsildar from where it was forwarded to SDM and final order was passed by the Deputy Commissioner.

He said that anyone found facing criminal case or declared a defaulter cannot continue as village lambardar. A lambardar, who gets a paltry sum from the government, is responsible for the identification of the live and dead people in the village and is suppose to become witness in civil and criminal court cases. 

Bathinda, October 17
The state government today nominated new chairman and members for the market committee of Bhagta.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has cleared a file in this regard and formal orders regarding the nomination of the chairman and members of market committee Bhagta in Bathinda would be issued shortly.

As per the orders, Gagandeep Singh Grewal has been nominated as the chairman of Bhagta Market Committee whereas Sukhmandar Singh, Nachatar Singh, Gurpreet Singh Mangat, Partap Singh, Jagroop Singh, Darshan Singh, Najar Singh Narang, Manjeet Kaur, Sukhdeep Kaur, Gulzar Singh, Mahesh Kumar Maheshwari, Jaskaran Singh and Jagtar Singh besides the BDPO concerned have been nominated as the members of the committee.—TNS

Bathinda, October 17
In an effort to reduce the infant mortality rate and death of newborn, a paediatrician on the instructions of the Health Department, is training ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Midwifes) in Bathinda Civil Hospital during a two-day workshop.

The workshop is being held under the Navjat Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram.

“Over 9 lakh deaths of infants are reported in India every year that counts about 30 percent of infants' population in country. The death below five years of age and neo-natal age can be reduced with efforts and the awareness among the masses. The government is running a number of programs to control the death rate among the infants and reduce infant mortality rate," said the pediatrician.

Bathinda, October 17
The Bathinda District Magistrate, Dr Basant Garg, today imposed a ban on unauthorised storage, transportation, usage and sale of cattle semen in the district.

In his orders released here today, the DM mentioned that incidents of fake, sub-standard and unauthorised cattle semen was being bought and sold openly in the market.

He said the usage of such unauthorised semen is against the state's animal breeding policy as it could lead to the problem of unknown and unproductive or low productive breeds of animals taking birth.

Since pedigree of such animals is not known, it is not advisable to use unauthorised semen, he suggested to the animal breeders. He said the direct consequences of using such progeny (with low or no productivity) are known only in the long run and there might not be any direct results. It could also interfere with the existing better quality improving breeding program of the animal husbandry department which is being run for the past many years in the state.

Keeping this in view, the district magistrate had imposed a ban of unauthorized storage, transportation, usage and sale of semen in the district. The ban will remain in effect from October 17 to December 16, 2014.

However, the ban is not applicable on Animal Husbandry Department, all veterinary hospitals, dispensaries and polyclinics located in the district. It is also not applicable on dispensaries under rural development and panchayat that are using semen provided by the Animal Husbandry Department.

Bathinda, October 17
The police have booked a man for killing his wife at Rama Mandi.

In a complaint filed by the father of the deceased, Balwinder Singh, a resident of Mansa, he has stated that his daughter Rajvir Kaur was married to the accused Avtar Singh, a resident of Gatwali village for the last six years.

He said on October 16 at around 6 pm, the accused attacked his wife with sharp edged weapon, due to which she died on the spot. The accused killed her suspecting having illicit relationship.

The police official said on the statement of the father of the deceased they have registered a case against the accused under Section 302 of IPC.

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