Amritsar, May 28
What do we have in the city in the name of school transport? School buses which have outlived their lives and wornout autorickshaws, overloaded with schoolchildren plying openly in the city.

The safety of schoolchildren apparently seems to be the last thing on the minds of the administration as well as the police.

The Supreme Court guidelines in this respect have seldom been adhered to. Even the police school bus ferrying children has no windowpanes.

Nevertheless, a bus belonging to a reputed school, plying on the new Amritsar route, was found to be having a broken front windshield (on the conductor side) and the adjoining seat was occupied by schoolchildren.

Another bus, which normally plies on the GT Road and was heading towards the railway over bridge, did not have a rear wind screen. A number of buses did not have mandatory horizontal grills on the windowpanes.
Similarly, the TATA magic, a goods carrier, has been put into service for ferrying schoolchildren. The colour of this vehicle would normally be white, whereas the colour specified under the SC guidelines is fluorescent yellow with a chocolate-coloured strip of at least six inches wide, with the school name written on it, running across it.

Autos in the city, in turn, have their own list of peculiarities, which in no way, ease the commuting woes of the children.

Children are mostly packed into these autos like chickens in defiance of the court guidelines which allow only six children in an autorickshaw at a time.

It is an irony that the heart-rending incidents involving the death of innocent children due to negligence have become order of the day but lack of follow up by the authorities to rein in errant bus and auto operators or school authorities has made the passage to schools unsafe.

The SC guidelines, applicable to all parts of the country, have stipulated the speed limit of school buses at 40 km per hour, but drivers hardly stick to it.

Most of the city schools do not provide bus transportation services to their students, forcing parents to rely on pick-up vans and autorickshaws.

Though state transport guidelines prevent the use of school buses for any other purpose other than ferrying schoolchildren, here school bus drivers are in a hurry as they, after dropping kids at school, have to pick up passengers.

Some buses have permanently been employed with offices to ferry their staff. Some school buses can be spotted on the GT Road right under the flyover during evening hours waiting for local passengers or for nearby destinations.

A school gate on a busy chowk, incidentally named after the school’s name abbreviation, would be a most accident prone site during the morning or afternoon hours, when the school finishes its day.

Another school on the GT Road did not bother to pay attention to autorickshaws, loaded with their children, plying on the wrong side of the road. These autos, overloaded with children and their bags hanging outside, prefer to be on the wrong side, in order to avoid a half-kilometre stretch to reach the divider break, putting lives of children in danger.

Amritsar, May 28
It was a pleasant surprise for residents of the holy city who were caught unawares by a sudden spell of rain this evening.

The showers brought down the day temperature to 36.5° Celsius which was hovering around 44.3 degrees yesterday.

Met officials attribute the rainfall activity to disturbances in the western region and predict the atmosphere to be almost identical tomorrow. “Such thunderstorm activity is not uncommon, if you go by the history of this region. It usually happens due to formation of a trough over western region like Jammu and Kashmir and neighbouring regions,” said Surinder Pal Singh, Director, Met Department, Punjab.

“We can expect the same type of environ tomorrow. The day temperature, however, will remain around 38°C, officials said. The isolated rain that started at around 5 pm today provided an opportunity to the people to venture out to places of their choice. “It is always enjoyable to hang out with one’s family in such a beautiful weather,” said Ramandeep S. Gill who had come to dine at Lawrence Road.

For others like students Sapna Rastogi and Poonam Johal, this cool breeze accompanied with rain was an out of world-like feeling. “This sudden change in weather compelled us to visit our favourite chaat bhandar on Mall Road.

Dr Rajdeep Kalsi, who was here on a business trip, was equally exclaimed by the sudden spell of rain which, according to him, was a much-needed respite from heat.

Another favourite spot which caught the fancy of most was Company Bagh. Scores of people were seen enjoying the weather there. “We are overjoyed that rain has turned weather moderate again. This would be of help in getting rid of viral diseases affecting children,” said a mother of two, sitting in the park.

The rickshaw-pullers were a delighted lot, too. “Looking at the sweltering duststorm in the morning, I decided to go back home as I could not find any passenger. But this change has compelled me to change my decision,” said Ram Avtar, while waiting for the passengers.

Amritsar, May 28
Even as the Indian Railways takes pride in announcing itself to be one of the oldest mass transportation systems in the world, getting tickets at the booking counters at Amritsar railway station is still an uphill task.

Serpentine queues and visibly distressed people uncertain to get tickets to their destinations are a common sight at the booking counters.

Amritsar, May 28
Wanton commercialisation of residential areas has marred the beauty of what was once one of the most beautiful localities (falling in Ward 51) of the city.This area also houses the residences of high profile citizens, including that of the Deputy Commissioner and the Mayor. But unfortunately, land mafia, using the change of land use as its main weapon, erased the green boulevard and destroyed the picturesque beauty which was an asset of these colonies, turning these localities into jungles of concrete. All the major thoroughfares, including Mall Road, Court Road and Taylor Road, have become commercial ones where residential complexes have mindlessly been converted to shopping malls, marriage palaces, banks and other business establishments.

Ironically, Mayor Shwet Malik, who himself runs a marriage palace in the huge lawn of his residence situated on Court Road, belongs to this area only.

A number of shops have sprung up at Taylor Road in a clandestine manner just close to the historic Gandhi Ground Cricket Stadium, while the Municipal Corporation authorities have turned a blind eye to all these violations of building bylaws.

Residents rued that the corporation never bothers about checking the pros and cons before giving the green signal to the change of land use to the property holders in a given area. “The owner just has to apply for the change of the land use. Nevertheless, the corporation authorities never fail to complete the paper work,” rued a resident, Ashok Sharma.

Many residences were razed quietly to be replaced by huge shopping malls, he added.

The anti-encroachment drive launched by the corporation could not see the car and scooter repair shops at Court Road being removed.

What is worse, a police post has come up on the pavement outside the residence of the Mayor. Shops have also sprung up in the green belts of the ward while the corporation has deliberately turned a blind eye to the encroachments.

The areas which fall under Ward 51 include Court Road, Green Avenue, Taylor Road, Yasin Road, Janta Colony, Mall Road and Kennedy Avenue.

Mindless commercialisation has turned Mall Road into a commercial road where a large number of shopping complexes have mushroomed and that too without proper parking facilities.

Vehicles could be seen parked on the road side while a large number of ornamental trees, which once enhanced the green cover of the posh area, were sacrificed for the sake of the “view” of the buildings.

“The owners of these malls chopped off the trees as these obstruct the view of their buildings. Ironically the authorities, including the forest department, remained mute spectators to all this,” rued a resident. Built in 1880 by the British after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Mall Road had a beautiful landscape with a large number of trees like silver oaks, golden showers, acacia, maulsary, peepal, neem and jamun, among others. The change in the houseline plan by the corporation aggravated the problem.

Footpaths, where these trees were mostly planted, were converted into parking places. Blind and ill-planned commercialisation has also irked the residents of the historic mall, who expressed disappointment over the negligent approach of the civic authorities and district administration.

CouncillorSpeak

The Mayor could not be contacted despite repeated efforts.

Amritsar, May 28
Narinder Deep Singh, alias Sonu, a resident of Rajinder Nagar, was booked on the charges of raping and extorting money from a married woman.The victim, in her complaint to Sultanwind police station, alleged that the accused, while threatening to kill her brother, took her to the Patti Mansoor Ki area and raped her on April 6.

She alleged that the accused also threw acid on her, injuring her arm. She said she did not report the matter at that time as it could have destroyed her married life. She said he blackmailed her into giving him Rs 40,000, besides gold ornaments, to keep him silent.

“However, the accused called her husband and told him about the incident which led to a clash between the two. This forced me to lodge a complaint against Narinder,” she stated in the complaint.

She said she had an affair with Narinder before her marriage. She alleged he had promised to marry her but later he refused to do so. After marriage, he started to threaten and blackmail her. He threatened that he would tell her husband and in-laws about the affair and would ruin her married life. “To save my marriage, I gave him money and jewellery,” said the victim.The police has registered a case under sections 376 and 384 of the IPC while the culprit was on the run, said the police.

Amritsar, May 28
To tighten the noose around the criminals who operate through cyber cafes, the city police and Ideacts Innovations, a cyber cafe solutions company, has developed an innovative and unique Internet application, to be installed at cyber cafes of the city.

Police officials and cyber cafe owners of the city today participated in an interactive session on “Cyber cafe security and management.

The event, conducted at the Police Lines, was led by Police Commissioner Varinder Kumar. “Our objective was to make cafe owners aware of the misuse of cyber space in various anti-national and criminal activities and the problems faced by all stakeholders in reporting such crimes,” he said.

“Until now, most cyber cafes maintain cafe visitor data in stationery registers which is not only inefficient information management but also difficult to retrieve when required and a cumbersome task for cafes.

“Cyber cafes, with the software, CLINCK Cyber Cafe Manager, will now be able to capture all relevant cafe visitors’ data easily and the visitors will be requested for registration for any access to the terminal and Internet and an all-India single login ID will be given to all cafe visitors with this application,” he said.

“All information and data backup will be done on CLINCK servers and it includes storage of photo, photo ID, address, contact numbers, e-register, etc. In addition, the software also facilitates highly efficient terminal management, report generation, inventory management and enables easy deployment and usability,” said Gurvinder Singh, Group Head, Operations, Ideacts Innovations. — TNS

Amritsar, May 28
The recently inaugurated elevated road has become centre of politics in the city with Congress leaders claiming credit for the construction of the ambitious road that will not only de-congest the GT Road but also help in getting rid of traffic chaos.

Former MLA and Chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust Jugal Kishor Sharma in a press conference pointed out that the project was conceived during the previous Congress regime and the construction of which was started by the then Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh.

He said the major share of the ambitious Rs 233 project came from the Central Government, while the state government failed to provide the matching grant leading to inordinate delay in the completion of the bridge. He said, “The ramps on both sides are still to be constructed while the company is yet to starts the work towards the Golden Temple side.”

“What is worse, the Punjab Government even failed to mention the name of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who played a pivotal role in initiating various development projects for the city, including the elevated road,” said former the MLA. Releasing a picture in which Capt Amarinder Singh was commencing the construction work of the flyover, he claimed that during his tenure as the Chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, he gave a cheque for Rs 5 crore for the construction of the same.

He alleged that Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal inaugurated the incomplete road only to earn false credit and appreciations besides misleading the people. He claimed that various development projects, including four-laning of the GT Road, upgradation of the Amritsar International Airport, Bus stand, construction of Gateway of Amritsar, were all started by the Congress regime.

Amritsar, May 28
Under the ambitious project of upgradation of blood bank at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital as model blood bank, the hospital received a state-of-the-art blood transportation van from the National AIDS Control Organisation.

The van, having four boxes that control temperature, would be used for safely transporting blood from various part of the city and hospitals from adjoining townships.

Dr R.P.S. Boparai, Medical Superintendent, GNDH, said the van could store blood up to 50 units. “Usually a lot of risk is involved in transporting the blood from one place, for example blood collected during medical camps, to the bank as high temperature could spoil the blood. But with the help of the van we can safely shift blood to blood bank or the hospitals having the proper storage facility in case of emergency,” said Boparai.

Dr Neerja Sharma, in charge of the blood bank, said the hospital would also provide blood to Tarn Taran, Ajnala and Patti Civil Hospitals besides hospitals in Amritsar.

It is pertinent to mention here that the GNDH is the only hospital in the state which was designated by the NACO for upgradation to model blood bank with a grant of Rs 1.5 crore, out of which about Rs 60 lakh was to be spent on procurement of the latest equipment for the bank that includes special blood storage refrigerators, component separator machine for separating four components from blood, agitators and vehicles. The remaining amount would be given to the bank in instalments of Rs 25 lakh for three years.

Amritsar, May 28
Keeping in view the high incidence of dental injuries in contact sports, Guru Nanak Dev University launched India’s first sports dentistry clinic under its Department of Sports Medicine to manufacture custom made personalised mouth guards for prevention of dental, oro-facial and cranial injuries. The project has been initiated by Vice-Chancellor A.S. Brar.