Amritsar, January 15
While the Municipal Corporation does not spare a single moment while taking action against a common man if he has encroached upon the public land, but the same action is rarely shown against the influential political leaders who not only encroach upon the public parks permanently but also steal power through illegal connections for their security men.

One such situation prevails at Basant Avenue Colony, where a sitting MLA has encroached upon the public park and made “pucca” accommodation for his security men. For their convenience, the leader did not bother about norms and has got the electricity directly from the transformer. Besides this, another “kundi connection” have been made from the nearby street pole.

The residents living in the locality have complained that these security guards do their daily chores in the open. “It has become difficult for us to walk in the park, especially for the women. It is a great inconvenience,” a resident of the locality said.

“Obviously, it is a great nuisance when you find them standing in the park all the time and they do all their chores in the open.” The residents said many a time the matter had been brought to the notice of the authorities but in vain.

“These leaders have been committing power theft openly, but who cares. The city administration’s retaliation seem to be of double standards. For common man, every law is there, but when it comes about some influential person, they do not even bother to take notice,” rued the residents.

The residents disclosed that earlier this leader had encroached upon the park by getting the tents pitched in but now for quite sometime, concrete accommodation had been constructed for the security men.

Amritsar, January 15
Despite the directions of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation and Secretary Medical Education and Research, the district medical authorities have not earmarked space for fair price medicine (Jan Aushadi) store in the Government Medical College, adjoining Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) and Sri Guru Teg Bahadur (SGTB) Hospital.

However, there been auctions of medicine shops for private parties.

Satish Chandra, Secretary, Medical Education and Research, in a communiqué to Medical Superintendent of SGTB Hospital and Principal, Government Medical College, in May 2009, said they must earmark space ideally suited for starting a Jan Aushadhi shop.

He said, “There is no requirement for auction of this space”.

When contacted, Medical Superintendent Dr R.P.S Boparai refuted the allegations that the local management of these institutions had violated the directions. He said the communication received was not from their department, hence it was not binding. About auction of shops, he said it was done following the established norms.

The General Manager of (F & A), Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC), in a letter to GMC Principal dated April 29, 2009 said the Union Government wanted an extension counter be opened up in the medical college to sustain the Jan Aushadhi store at Amritsar, which was opened at Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital here on November 26, 2008.

The communiqué also stated the store would be operated by Hindustan Anti-biotech Limited. Jan Aushadhi generic stores across the state were opened under the Central scheme involving Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers, Department of Chemicals and Petro Chemicals.

Four shops fetching over Rs 6 lakh per month in rent were auctioned at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital recently. The auction had brought out the fact that the margin of profit was extremely high in pharmaceuticals, pushing retailers to notch the deal at alarmingly high prices.

All these shops are located on the ground floor of the new multi-story building housing multi-specialty hospital. In all, the hospital now has five medical stores, while one more would be auctioned soon.

Ravinder Sultanwind, president, All-India Youth Association, demanded that fair price shops must be opened at GNDH, Government ENT Hospital and BDS Hospital to give reprieve to poor man from high rates of medicines.

At present the Jan Aushadhi store was getting medicines from five government-run pharmaceuticals firms while many private companies were also vying to get a place in this fair price shop.

These shops were supplying drugs at no-profit-no-loss basis at more than 70 per cent discount which is more comforting for the common man who would be able to get regular medicines at far cheaper rates from the chemist who were charging exorbitant rates.

Amritsar, January 15
A Delhi-based NGO has launched a five-day mass awareness and education campaign “Nasha Mukt Punjab” - (Punjab da josh - Punjab di shaan) after it carried out a survey and found 10.77 per cent and 17.03 per cent people in Amritsar’s urban and rural areas, respectively, are regular users of alcohol.

The campaign aims to reach out to the youth of Amritsar and make them active promoters of health. A series of street plays in the form of nukkad nataks would be staged across the city enumerating the ill-effects of alcohol, tobacco, substance abuse and its adverse impact on the society as a whole.

In it survey, Chronic Care Foundation, a charitable trust, found that 26.3 per cent of regular users were in the age bracket of 40-49 while 71.4 per cent in 50-59 age group.

It stated that 30.9 per cent of these regular users in urban and 52.1 per cent in rural areas had their first drink at 20-29 years of age while 93.75 per cent and 79.71 per cent of the persons from these categories were married.

The NGO said majority of the regular users consumed or preferred to consume alcohol of a particular brand. More than three-forth of these in urban (87.5 per cent) as well as in rural (82.9 per cent) areas consumed alcohol daily.

Substance abuse, which includes individual dependence on alcohol, drugs and tobacco, is emerging as a major health and social problem in Punjab. The NGO buttressed its point by quoting an epidemiological survey conducted by the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Chandigarh, the minimum age of exposure to drugs is 20 years in the rural population and 19 years in the urban slums. The prevalence rate of alcohol consumption stood at a high of 25.11 per cent in urban areas and at 60 per cent in the rural areas of Amritsar.

Due to the heavy dependence on drugs and alcohol, majority of the people involved in substance abuse reported chronic health complications followed by family problems.

The Chronic Care Foundation through “Nasha Mukht Punjab” campaign aims to promote good health by educating the citizens on ways of prevention of chronic diseases by avoiding any form of substance (tobacco, alcohol and drug) abuse and minimising the incidence and effects of substance abuse among the people of Punjab.

Amritsar, January 15
The multi-level parking at the Lawrence Road, incidentally the first and the only initiative taken with a view to ease parking chaos in the markets, seems to be dying its own death.

The credit goes to the authorities concerned, who gives two hoots to the depleting condition of the parking lot worth crores of rupees.

Conceptualised over a decade ago at one corner of the Nehru Complex on the Lawrence Road, this parking lot was mooted as a pilot project to reduce traffic snarls on this busiest market, but except for its inaugural day, no official or authority ever cared to take stock of it.

In the absence of any concrete policy matters, this parking lot could never be made functional or organised. Now even after spending crores, this ardent parking lot is of no use and the parking on the Lawrence Road is ‘just as grim as it was’ and the traffic jams routine.

The situation inside this parking lot was no less pathetic. The place has become a garbage disposal unit with broken rusty shutters. Its walls littered with pan spitting, serve the rickshawalas, vendors or rehriwalas of the area, as ‘place of convenience’. They ease themselves on these walls without any fear or guilt.

“When nobody cares for this place, why do you bother? Use it whatever way you want to,” said a vendor, when this correspondent objected to his urinating on one corner of the stairs over there.

Vendor’s statement seemed to be true. There were number of diesel-run generators placed on its basement, probably by the adjoining shopkeepers. The grease and over-spilling diesel from the generators and the broken tiles on the walls and floor itself were enough to speak volumes about the place being left to be destroyed.

The outer part of the structure is being misused by putting up illegal hoardings and its open space is being used often for promotion of automobile promotions by the companies.

This parking lot equally reserves place for sheltering unscrupulous elements. The broken wine bottles, the empty wrapper of intoxicants and syringes tell a horrifying tale. “Recently, an incident of a computer shop being ransacked here where the culprits decamped with goods worth over Rs 65 lakh. This incident too could not catch the fancy of the authorities,” said a trader.

“The indifferent attitude of the authorities can well be gauged from the fact that the lift which was inaugurated around 10 years ago has still to see the light of the day,” rued Gurdeep Singh, another trader in the complex.

“Due to unmanned place, this has become an ‘adda’ for mischievous persons. Even the costly tiles and marble have been stolen? But who cares when it was public money?” rued another trader while adding “Lakhs o rupees have been spent on constructing toilets, but they can hardly be put to use due to non-availability of water and sewerage connections”.

Amritsar, January 15
Congress activists today held demonstration in front of the office of Sub-divisional Magistrate, Baba Bakala in protest against alleged atrocities against Congress workers besides corruption in the implementation of NREGS and rejecting the blue cards of Congress families.

K K Sharma, Congress block president Baba Bakala, along with several local leaders addressing the protest, said the residents of the area were subject to large scale disruption of power in view of the severe cold wave and added that the government has failed to give pension.

Sharma alleged that the officers were playing into the hands of the ruling combine and urged them not to toe the ruling partys line and should be prepared for dire consequences after the congress comes to power.

They submitted a memorandum to the SDM listing charter of demands. 

Amritsar, January 15
The multi-faceted Dr. Hari Om Goel is a personality worth emulating for the residents of the city in general and youth in particular.

Academically educated as a researcher, Goel took voluntary retirement as a Research Officer from the Directorate of Research of the Punjab government in 1998, exactly six years ahead of superannuation. Since then, he has been running a Homoeopathic clinic in his house, apparently adding income to his mediocre pension.

Displaying scholarly attitude in his post retirement period, Goel penned three books Tension-Tension, Persoanlity Development and Ten Talks.

“I attempted to convey my experiences, various troubles in life and their solutions to help the younger generation”, he remarked. He felt like writing these books as he observed some youngsters losing heart while grappling with the problems of day to day life.

The bespectacled, agile, active, and straight-backed Goel gives the impression of a motivator and a psychologist.

His creative spirit took him to first learn the nuances of commandeering subjects of his time. He did his masters in English, secured highest percentage in the All India Business Management exam conducted by Indian Merchants Chamber of Commerce, Mumbai. He also did diploma in UN studies and International Understanding, recognised by the World Federation of UN Association, Geneva.

He proved his ability in his service career as well and was awarded the 
President medal and certificate of honour on Republic Day, 1973 for meritorious services on government duty. 

Amritsar, January 15
Hundreds of shopkeepers on the 1.5-km stretch of Batala Road are sore over the announcement of the widening of the road as per the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as this would likely result in the dismantling of shops on both sides of the national highway.

The High Court has reportedly ordered the widening of all the national highways and removal of encroachments.

Shopkeepers under the banner of Batala Road Market Association today closed down their shutters and urged the authorities to solve their problems, as the decision would affect about 4,000 small and marginal shopkeepers situated on both sides of the road from Celebration Mall up to the Verka Bypass. They met local MLA, Anil Joshi, who they said, had assured all possible help besides taking up the issue with concerned authorities.

Munish Sharma, General Secretary of the association, while detailing, said the Batala Road is part of the national highway 15, starting from the newly-opened Celebration Mall, as per the demarcation done about 40-50 years back. He said now the situation is different, as the city has expanded till the Verka Bypass road during this period and four-laning of the bypass is already underway.

It is pertinent to mention here that Public Works Department recently laid the Batala road after a lot of hue and cry was raised over its deplorable condition.

Harjinder Singh, President of the association, claimed that all the shops were legal and had their registered deeds. He said the demolition would ruin the families who are associated with the shops.

Munish pointed out that the four-laning of the Verka bypass up to the Attari joint check post is already underway and authorities should consider this fact before embarking on a project of widening the road.

DPS Kharbanda, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, said all the legal aspects w15 ould be considered before taking any action, adding that they could not go beyond the orders of the High Court. He said encroachments would be removed from both sides of the road as per the Schedule Road Act. 

Amritsar, January 15
Setting up a deadline for completion of renovation work at historic Jallianwala Bagh here, the trust’s local managing committee meeting has pulled up the Indian Tourism and Development Corporation (ITDC) authorities and asked them to finish the beautification project by March 15.

The meeting, convened by committee chairman R.L. Bhatia, however, decided to postpone the renovation of a stage, being constructed for light and sound programme. The stage was damaged by the activists of various organisations. Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu and MLA Om Parkash Soni also the member of the committee was also present during the meeting held to review the beautification project.

Confirming this, Soni said the corporation has been asked to finally complete the work by March 15 so that they could invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inaugurate the renovated memorial on Baisakhi. He said they had also approved Rs 1 crore more for the work from the funds released by the Centre.

The Deputy Commissioner said the work of gallery and information centre had been completed till now. He said megastar Amitabh Bachchan would render his voice in the light and sound programme.