Meet youngest voter of Badal clan

Muktsar: Gurleen Badal, 19, has become the youngest voter of the Badal clan. Daughter of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Gurleen would cast her vote for the first time in the upcoming panchayat or parliamentary elections. Earlier, her elder sister Harkirat Badal had cast her vote in the 2014 parliamentary elections for the first time when her mother Harsimrat had defeated Manpreet Singh Badal. Gurleen, presently studying in Delhi, was recently enrolled as a voter at her native Badal village. Parkash Singh Badal, 91, is the oldest voter of the Badal clan. Till the Assembly elections in 2017, Badal’s aunt (chachi) Harbans Kaur, wife of late former MP Gurraj Singh Dhillon, was the oldest voter in the family. She passed away in July. 

After Majithia, Sukhbir has a fall at dharna

Jalandhar: When former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia had a fall while stepping down the stage during a dharna in Jalandhar three weeks ago, his brother-in-law and SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had a good laugh. This Wednesday, his brother-in-law Sukhbir Badal lost his balance while getting up at a dharna site in Bhogpur. Since it was a dharna in favour of farmers against sugarmill owners, Sukhbir chose to sit on a mattress for the dharna. As he was getting up to make it on the stage, he could not balance himself and had a fall. His security men and Akali leaders around him came to support him. This time, however, Majithia was not there to have a laugh. 

Govt schools set for a revamp

Bathinda: Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal seems to be replicating the AAP model of governance when it comes to the education sector in his Bathinda Urban constituency. The minister has initiated efforts to modernise government schools located in slum areas of the city. The project was recently kicked off from a government school located at Dhobiana Basti. A blueprint has been prepared to upgrade the school up to secondary level with a four-storey building and smart classrooms. Besides, a six-lane swimming pool will be constructed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh. A total of Rs 1.25 crore would be spent on refurbishing the school. The tenders for the project have already been floated. As a part of the plan, the schools in Sanjay Nagar and Paras Ram Nagar would be the next to be revamped. TNS

Holy town on road to development

Fatehgarh Sahib: Local MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra is being called “sarkan (roads) wala” MLA by local residents as he got special approval from Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for repair, construction and widening of almost all roads in rural and urban areas of his constituency. Most roads have never been repaired. At present, the work of more than 20 roads is in progress. The MLA says in spite of the CM nod, one has to pay special attention and personally take the file from one office to other to get the project cleared and funds released.

Connecting through social media 

Chandigarh: The Education Department has asked parents, teachers and education officers all over the state to connect with certain social networking sites on school education. The move is aimed at getting the daily school activity in public domain using Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The circular gains importance in the context that certain efforts by the department, recently, have elicited a mentionable response from overseas as well.

Not a stray issue this, but none cares

Abohar: Even as AAP activists have been on a dharna outside Nehru Park in the town for about two weeks over the administration’s failure in tackling stray cattle menace, nobody in the corridors of power seems to be bothered about it. Several lives have been lost due to the menace in the past few years. Barring a customary meeting held with some social activists, the administrative officials have failed to do anything. They could not come up with a viable proposal to accommodate about 5,000 stray bulls that villagers had pushed into urban areas. Stray bulls indulge in fight with each other almost each day. Recently, they damaged the boundary wall of a house located near Maharana Pratap Market in Nai Abadi.