Bathinda, October 19
A seven-year-old boy drowned in a tank of the water works near the Rose Garden today. The incident occurred when the victim went to pick a cricket ball from the side of the tank and slipped into it and died.

The victim was fished out by the volunteers of a local NGO and National Disasters Response Force (NDRF) swimmers after three hours. He was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

Investigative officer, ASI, Karam Chand, said today afternoon, Navdeep, alias Navi, son of Gurdip Singh, a resident of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar, was playing cricket with his friends behind the Rose Garden near the newly built water works tanks. While they were playing, the cricket ball went on the side of the water tank. Navdeep went to pick it and suddenly, he slipped from and fell into the water tank.

Karam also stated that family members of the deceased had taken a permission from the SDM that postmortem should not be conducted on the body stating it as natural death. After that the body was handed over to the family members without conducting a postmortem.

Students and staff of the Akalia Group of Institutions take out an anti-cracker rally in Bathinda on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Model Town Phase I, said this is good move by the people and it shows that they are serious about the environment. But he reminds that this is just the start and green Diwali has to become a movement and not just an activity observed by some families.

How to keep it green?

• Lamps over lights: Choose earthen lambs or diyas over electric lights to illuminate your homes. Apart from looking prettier than the lights, the flickering diyas will cut down your power bill.
• Say no to crackers: Try to cut down on the money you’ve set aside for crackers this Diwali. If that’s hard to do, settle for the eco-friendly crackers which have swarmed the market this season.
• Opt for natural colours: Instead of using artificial colours to make rangolis to decorate your house, add colours to the design with spices and other food items.
• Recycle: If you are fond of gifting greeting cards to your loved ones to wish them on the festival, add a personal touch by making the cards yourself. Use recycled paper to prepare the cards and natural colours and waste items to add zing to the cards.
• Gift green: Be a torch-bearer and change the trend of gifting sweets, crockery or chocolates and surprise your hosts by gifting them plants.
• Teach them young: Teach your children about the importance of celebrating a green Diwali and how bursting crackers adds to noise and air pollution. Share with them that by saying no to crackers, they will be helping the poor kids who are engaged in dangerous cracker factories as labour.

Bathinda, October 19
With an aim to give a message to the people that they should not completely rely upon the government, Residents’ Welfare Society in Bharat Nagar today hired private safai workers to clean their surroundings.

Upset over the rising garbage menace and turning a blind eye by the officials of the Municipal Corporation over the issue, the Residents’ Welfare Society today had their locality cleaned by a privately hired workforce of seven safai workers.

The society engaged the safai workers at a cost of Rs 300 per worker to clean the roads and streets in Bharat Nagar. “Initially, we had decided to clean the areas at least once a week,” said society president, Dharam Pal Bansal. He stated that the workers swept the heaps of garbage lying by the roadside, in the parks and outside the houses.

“Though everyone expresses a desire to clean his surroundings, hardly anyone comes forward with a broom. Even those who talk about cleanliness look otherwise when monetary contribution is sought from them to clean the surroundings,” said Harbans Lal Garg, vice-president of the society.

He added that even a paltry sum of Rs 50 to Rs 200 is not released by most of the area residents and there are only a handful of people who have the ‘courage’ to give such an amount to clean their surroundings.

Even at times, those who organise religious or marriage functions refuse to pay Rs 20 or Rs 50 to collect the leftover material lying on the roads, the members said.

“We have been discussing about the garbage piling up in our locality and roadside for the past few days and instead of making rounds of the Municipal Corporation and pleading before the government servants, we decided to collect Rs 300 each from the like-minded people to clean the area,” said general secretary of the society, GP Chhabra.

Bathinda, October 19
The doctors attending to Mohan Lal Jhumba, president of the Bathinda District Congress Committee, went into a frenzy today after they recorded a fall in his blood pressure level. Leaving nothing to chance, they shifted him to the emergency ward and administered medication to him.

Dr Ramesh Maheshwari shared that his blood pressure had fallen a little but his vital stats were stable. “His condition is stable and there’s nothing to worry about. We suggest that the patient should begin consuming food lest his health condition begins to worsen in the coming days. We are administering him glucose,” he said.

State president of the farmers’ cell of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Inderjeet Singh Jira also visited Jhumba in the hospital. After meeting the leader, Singh shared that they would stage a dharna in Badal village and demand the transfer of the SHO, Canal Colony police station, Gurpreet Singh.

Bathinda, October 19
Local leaders and workers of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) were seen in a jubilant mood today as the party has swept the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls.

The trends that came out in the morning showed the BJP going ahead of all the parties and forming government on its own in Haryana and putting up an impressive show in Maharastra.

Party workers started gathering on the roads and in the afternoon, they converged at the Fire Bridge Chowk with the posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their hands.

They distributed ladoos and set off firecrackers to celebrate their victory.

Amid shouting slogans such as “Narendra Modi Zindabad”, the party workers danced to the beats of dhol nagadas to celebrate the end of the Congress’ rule in the two states.

BJP Bathinda Urban president Parminder Goyal said all the credit for the win went to Narendra Modi and the people of the two states who have voted for development and the work done by the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

He said the victory had boosted the morale of the BJP workers.

It is worth mentioning that with this victory, BJP local leaders are also upbeat as the Municipal Corporation of Bathinda (MCB) elections are also round the corner and they feel that this time they have a good chance to cash in on the Modi wave.

Bathinda, October 19
A resident of Nathana village has allegedly been duped by three persons of Rs 4.55 lakh on the pretext of providing his son permanent residency (PR) abroad. In a complaint to the police, Karamjit Singh Nambadar, resident of Chak Fateh Singhwala village has stated that he had given Rs 4.55 lakh to accused, Bhupinder Singh, Hardev Kaur and Yashpal Matharo, resident of Chandigarh and in return they had to provide permanent residency (PR) abroad for his son Bhupinder Singh, alias Bagga. But later, the accused failed to provide the PR and did not even return the money.

The police official stated that they have registered a case under Sections 420, 34 of the IPC against the three accused and they have started investigations into the matter. So far, no arrests have been made by the police in this case.

Bathinda, October 19
Member of Parliament from the Jamui constituency in Bihar, Chirag Paswan, while interacting with mediapersons here today said Jan Lokshakti Party (JLP) is committed to fight for bridging the gap between the rich and poor, which was increasing with each passing day and rising above the lines of caste, creed or religion.

The statement is important in the context that the JLP is largely perceived as a party of the dalits in Bihar. Even today’s function was organised in collaboration with Dalit Sena.

Son of the Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag said, “A large number of families of the so called affluent classes were passing through a very tough time in meeting their daily requirements. In a changed socio-ecomonic scenario, our party is committed to stand by all those needing our support so that their voices are heard.”

“We have tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after detailed in-house discussions. We did not contest in the assembly elections of Haryana and Maharashtra, independently. We, instead, chose to support the party, which was aptly reflecting the mood of the nation,” he said.

When questioned about the possibility of a return to Bollywood, Chirag said “Politics is a very serious subject. I do not want to confuse my role of a voice of the problems of the people with a face under glamour lights. Doing films was my hobby as a youngster. However, politics is my passion at the moment.”

Chirag featured in ‘Miley Naa Miley Hum’ opposite Kangana Ranaut, Neeru Bajwa and Sagarika Ghatge, which failed at the box office.

Bathinda, October 19
Zila Parishad chairman Gurpreet Maluka, sent a report to the director of Animal Husbandry about Dr Tejinder Singh yesterday, who was found missing from his duty at the veterinary centre at Zida village. The chairman office said around 9.55 am, when the Zila Parishad chairman went on a surprise visit to the premises, only the pharmacist and the class IV employees were present.

An official press release said when the doctor was contacted over phone, he said he was at the office of the SDO getting clearances for the hospital building.

The SDO, however, confirmed to the chairman that the doctor had never met him, following which Maluka sent an official communication to the director seeking serious action. —TNS

Bathinda, October 19
Faridkot and Ferozepur Divisional Commissioner VK Sharma today visited the grain markets of Goniana and Bathinda reviewing the arrangements made for paddy procurement. He also conducted checking of the polling booths during the special voters’ campaign being run for the enrollment of voters.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Dr Sumit Jarangal said so far 1,30,646 tonnes of paddy arrival has been recorded and 1,17,628 tonnes has been procured.

He interacted with the farmers in the grain markets and passed instructions to the officers asking them to ensure that farmers do not face any problem in the grain markets. He appealed the district’s farmers to bring proper dried produce to market so that they do not face any problem in procurement. He directed that the procured paddy should be properly lifted from market in time to create space for more produce.

He visited the polling booths at Government Senior Secondary School, Bhokhra, and Government Senior Seconday School, Gillpatti, to monitor the work going on under special voters’ campaign. While reviewing the work of concerned staff he said that any kind of lackadaisical approach in dealing with the voters’ list work would not be tolerated and would be dealt with strictly.

He took the report from booth-level officers and directed them not leave any section of form blank. He said the voters who would attain age of 18 years on January 1, 2015 can file their claims and objections with the respective election registration officers or booth level officers till November 10.

He added that the special voters’ campaign would also be run on November 2 during which the BLOs will receive forms at respective booths. He said that on the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to include names of voters in the lists from October 15 to November 10 the names can be added, deleted, changed or addresses changed in the voters list.

For including one’s name in the voters’ list, form 6 will have to be filled with a coloured photograph. The NRIs will have to fill form 6A for getting their names included. For getting one’s name deleted from the list, form 7 will have to be filled, for making corrections in name, form 8 will have to be filled and for making corrections in residential address, form 8 A will have to be filled. — TNS

Bathinda, October 19
Rejecting a claim of Rs 1.59 lakh of a city resident cost dear to the ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited, The Mall, as the company has been directed by the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum to pay the entire claim, besides a fine of Rs 15,000.

In case of failure to pay the compensation and fine within 45 days, an interest of 9 per cent per annum till the realisation of the sum will have to be paid.

A complaint in this regard was lodged by Kanchan Singla, a resident of Shakti Nagar. Her counsel in the forum, advocate Naresh Garg said the insurance company repudiated the genuine claim of his client over frivolous grounds.

He said his client had purchased an insurance policy for a sum of Rs 3 lakh from the insurance company for death benefit and critical illness benefit.

His client paid an annual premium of Rs 7,265 for the policy, which had a cessation date up to February 19, 2019. The policy was purchased on February 19, 2009.

However, in 2013, the insurance firm again approached the complainant and apprised her of a new insurance product in the name of ICICI Pru Health Saver and told her that the previous policy was for 10 years and the new policy would cover her till the age of 75 years that is 22 years.

On the assurance of the firm, the complainant discontinued her previous policy and purchased the new policy with effect from March 20, 2013. The complainant paid a premium of Rs 22,000 for the sum assured of Rs 3 lakh.

The firm sent the insurance policy to the complainant, which covered her risk and major medical illness, including a claim of one knee or one hip joint treatment.

The woman complained of severe pain in her left knee in November-2013 and was rushed to Max Hospital, Bathinda, where doctors diagnosed her of osteoarthritis.

The doctors advised her knee replacement and wrote in the medical history that the complainant was witnessing pain in both her knees for the last 5 to 6 years.

The firm took the plea that the complainant was suffering from severe pain for the last more than 5 years and hence she concealed the facts from the insurance company and she could not claim the benefit from the company.

They also pointed out that under particular clauses, the claim could not be given during the first two years of the policy.

The complainant, however, pleaded that though she was suffering from a mild pain in knees due to old age, the problem was never severe. Moreover, she did not have any previous history of treatment or admission in any hospital for the treatment of knees, except Max Hospital.

After hearing the arguments and claims of both the parties, the forum reached at the conclusion that there is a deficiency in service on the part of the firm in repudiating the claim of the complainant on flimsy grounds, whereas claim for up to one knee or one hip treatment is covered in a policy year, and thus the complainant is entitled for the same.

The firm has been directed to pay a sum of Rs 1,59,734 and another sum of Rs 15,000 as fine.

Bathinda, October 19
The minor daughter of a migrant labourer was allegedly abducted from her house at Kotshamir village on the night of October 14.

In a complaint filed by Suresh Kumar, father of the girl who came from Uttar Pradesh a long time ago, has stated that his 17-year-old daughter was sleeping in the house when the accused Sewak Singh abducted her from his house at night. Till date, they have got no clue of their daughter was, he said.

He has stated that he was staying at Kotshamir village from the last 20 years and works as a gardener. He said the accused was their acquaintance and used to come to his home regularly.

Investigating officer ASI Jagdeep Singh said on the statement of the father, the police had registered a case under Section 363 of the IPC against the accused and had started investigation into the matter. — TNS