Bathinda, November 5
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, an initiative taken by the Prime Minister of India and launched as a nationwide campaign on October 2 on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, seems to have been forgotten by the residents and safai workers of the city.

Within a month of the launch of the campaign with much fanfare in the city, heaps of garbage can be spotted adorning various spots.

Interestingly, when the campaign was launched in the city, several senior government officials had participated in the campaign but the same officials are daily walking into their offices located in the District Administrative Complex (DAC) after crossing heaps of garbage lying by its walls.

Trash dumps may also be seen by the roadside in various areas of the city. Although the safai workers, working on contract basis with the Municipal Corporation, are quite regular with door-to-door collection of garbage from residential areas, the street sweepers may be blamed for not doing their bit regularly to keep the city clean.

Empty plots are a sight unto themselves when it comes to being used as dumping grounds by the residents of the area. “Whenever the door-to-door garbage collection is stalled, the residents use empty plots in the area to dump the trash from their homes. We can’t keep blaming the authorities for not maintaining cleanliness in the city. We will have to take the initiative to change our habits and keep the city clean as we keep our homes clean,” said MM Behl, convener, Joint Action Committee.

While the officials of the Municipal Corporation stated that the MCB was trying its best to ensure regular collection of garbage from residential areas, the collectors often dumped the garbage in community bins and leave them there for a day or more. Apart from being eyesores and serving as stink tanks, these also attract stray cattle, the officials stated.

Bathinda, November 5
The three-day cultural extravaganza, Virasat Mela, organised by the Malwa Heritage and Sabhyacharak Foundation at Jaipalgarh village adjacent to the Multi-Purpose Sports Stadium in Bathinda, will begin on Friday.

Speaking about the mela this year, president of the foundation, Harwinder Singh Khalsa, stated that this year, the mela will be dedicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Komagata Maru. He stated that this year too, the three-day festival will start with a procession from Haji Rattan to Jaipalgarh village. He also added that the USP of the festival this year would be a dance performance by a group of female dancers from the Czech Republic.

As per the schedule of the festival, on the first day, apart from the procession, the visitors will be treated to gidda, malwai gidda, bhangra, skit, bhand and other performances. Plays ‘Singh Soormein’ and ‘Tu mera Ki Lagda’ will be staged at the village at 7 pm and 8 pm, respectively.

On the second day of the fair, folk singing competitions will be held starting at 11 am. Contestants who had earlier won the district-level competitions organised by the foundation, will also compete for the title of ‘Awaaz Malwe Di’. Starting at 4 pm, renowned singers from Bathinda will showcase their vocal skills at the fair. Lovers of Sufi music will also have something to be happy about as singer Sardar Ali is scheduled to perform from 8 to 10 pm.

On the third and the last day of the fair, Gatka, baaji and tug-of-war competitions will be held. Beginning late in the afternoon, items showcasing folk musical orchestra and traditional Haryanvi dance performance will be presented.

Winners of the singing competition will also perform on the third day and their performance will be followed by a performance by the female dancers from the Czech Republic.

Bathinda, November 5
The Kotwali police have booked eight persons, including three women, for duping Gurmit Singh, a resident of Bhodipur village, of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad.

The victim, in a complaint lodged with the police, stated that Amanpreet Kaur, Manpreet Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Gurjit Singh, Tarsem Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jasveer Singh and Master Sukhjinder Singh, residents of Moga district made duped him and took away of Rs 15 lakh from him on the pretext of sending him abroad.

After receiving the money, the accused started making excuses. Neither did they return the money nor did they send him abroad.

The police have booked the accused under Sections 419,420,465,467,468,471 and 120 of the IPC at Dayalpura police station. Police said they have registered a case on the statement of 
Gurmit Singh and started an investigation into the matter.

Bathinda, November 5
Farmers have been irked over the delay in payment by the government procurement agencies. As though the procurement of paddy is going on in full swing, but the commission agents and farmers are facing hardships due to non-payment of their dues in the local grain market.

The delay in the payment is creating the rift between the commission agents and farmers. As farmers need money to buy seeds, fertilisers for the next season. Even they had to give their installment of banks and other things. With the delay of the payment sowing of wheat crop might get delayed.

Commission agents of the local grain market, said they had been waiting for payments to be made for the past several days and owing to the delay they are forced to borrow money for their daily needs, they added.

A commission agent on anonymity said the farmers were being forced to wait for four to five days to sell their crop. He said the procurement agency had inordinately delayed their payments while they had to release payments to the farmers immediately.

He also said the condition of the payment is this season that there is no payment from the government at all. Near about Rs 4 crore is pending against the state government and still there is no assurance that when we will get it. Whereas, farmers are urging us to give them their money.

Balraj Singh, a farmer, said the state government always claims that it has done a lot for the farmers. But if we have to face a lot of hardships in selling our produce, what else we can expect. Earlier, they only had to face the problem of the tardy purchase and lifting, but this season they had to face another problem of delay in payment as well.

Another farmer, Sukhdev Singh, said we need money to give out installment and to buy new seeds, fertilisers and other material to sow new crop but due to delay in payment we are not able to do so. He also said we are facing a lot of problems, it high time government should release their payment as soon as possible. Otherwise, this season has already hit them hard due to high input cost and now with delay the more interest on their loan would also affect them.

Ashok Dhunike, a commission agent, and president, Punjab Beopar Mandal, said delay in the payment is creating dispute between farmers and commission agent. As he had to buy seed, fertiliser for next season. But he is not getting money as we are also not giving anymore money to them as we have to take from government.

The Market committee official said the purchase in the grain market was going on smoothly and payments are expected to be released soon.

Bathinda, November 5
On the final day of the founder’s day function the 14th annual sports and athletics meet was held at the Silver Oaks School. The chief guest on the occasion was Brig SS Mohite, commander of 25 Infantry Bridage.

The meet started off with hoisting of the school flag followed by a march past by the contingents of Azad, Bhagat, Subhash and Udham House. Then started a sequence of the track events like 80 mt, 100 mt, 400 mt, 800 mt and 4x100 mt relay race in both junior and senior category.

The chief guest gave away the prizes to the best athletes (junior and senior). The chief guest while addressing encouraged the students to participate more and more in the sports events and inculcate values of sportsmanship in all. Vote of thanks was given by the principal Neelam Verma.

Mansa, November 5
Two computer operators were injured after a security guard at Suwidha Centre opened fire on them. The police, however, claim that both the victims and a security guard were making prank with each other following which a bullet got fired from the .38 bore revolver of the security guard.

The bullet pierced through the arm of Raj Kumar and then hit stomach of another person Harjinder Singh.

“Both the injured are being treated at the Civil Hospital, Mansa, while the have registered a case under Section 336 (Causing grievous hurt endangering life) of the Indian Penal Code against the 23-year-old security guard, Surinder Singh,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mansa, Harmeet Singh Deol.

Bathinda, November 5
The Tobacco Control Act is being implemented effectively in the district. As many as 513 people have been penalised for the violation of the Act and Rs 34,020 fine has been collected till September, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Sonali Giri said while presiding over a meeting of government officials on Tuesday.

She added that to implement the Act effectively nodal officers had been appointed in different government departments. The Act aimed at the mitigation of public smoking and the consumption of tobacco by children below 18 years of age.

The ADC, who is the nominated chairman of the tobacco control task force, today directed the nodal officers to ensure that every official issued at least 10 challans every month. She urged people to stay away from tobacco and save themselves from its disastrous side-effects.

Directing the Health Department to educate schoolchildren about ill-effects of tobacco, she said they were the future of India.

The ADC added that if any shopkeeper or vendor was found operating within 100 m radius of an educational institute, a complaint should be lodged with the nodal officer concerned so that action could be taken against the violator.

The district nodal officer and Assistant Civil Surgeon, Dr SK Raj Kumar, said a special training was being imparted to schoolchildren over the subject. He added teachers and students were being told about the harmful effects of tobacco through slide shows and presentations.

Bathinda, November 5
The Chief Judicial Magistrate and the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Jasbir Kaur, on Tuesday urged the bankers to bring the cases pertaining to cheque bounce and other disputes before the national lok adalat on December 6.

Except criminal cases, all other cases will be taken up for consideration during the lok adalat. Jasbir Kaur added that during the last national lok adalat in April this year, 4,164 cases were taken up and 3,225 were disposed of while claims worth Rs 8.51 crore were settled.

“The lok adalats are an effort to reduce the pendency of cases besides ensuring speedy and easy justice to the litigants,” she said.

Elaborating on the benefits of the lok adalat, the CJM said a complaint could be directly filed with the lok adalat without filing it before any other court. “The is no need to pay any court fee for this,” she added.

“The cases decided in the lok adalat cannot be challenged in any other court. It is easier to implement the judgments of the lok adalats as these are decided by mutual consent,” she added.