Tarn Taran, November 23
A newly married woman of Banglarai village, near Patti, 30 km from here, in connivance with her paramour and a close relative, killed her husband and disposed off the body more than three weeks ago. The body has not been recovered as yet.

According to the information collected by this correspondent, the accused have been identified as Ranjit Kaur, alias Rano, her paramour Surjit Singh of Sabhra village and son of her mother’s brother of Waddapind (Moga).

The deceased, Gurjinder Singh (25) of Banglarai village, had married Rano only one and a half months back.

SSP Preetpal Singh Virk said a case under sections 302, 364, 201 and 34, IPC, had been registered against the accused. He said police parties had been dispatched to the possible hideouts of the accused.

It is said that on the morning of November 3 Gurjinder Singh was found to be missing under mysterious circumstances from his home. His father Charan Singh when enquired from Ranjit Kaur about his son, she could not give satisfactory answer and said that he left the room with his mobile phone having number 97809-51324 in the night when she was sleeping.

For days together the family members searched for Gurjinder. During this period they came to know that Ranjit Kaur, who had illicit relations with Surjit Singh, a youth of her parental Sabhra village, and close relative Surinder Singh kidnapped Gurjinder Singh on the night of November 2. They killed him and disposed off the body.

The SSP said that after collecting preliminary evidence, the police had registered a case.

Amritsar, November 23
Children’s Day on November 14 brought distinction to city-based 10-year-old boy Arman Arora, who became the first in the state to qualify online general knowledge test “IGENIUS” while pocketing a study scholarship of Rs 1 lakh.

The test was conducted by the Max New Life Insurance Programme. Arman, after clearing all the three levels, the third one through video conferencing, was called for the grand finale at Sri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi, on Children’s Day.

Arman, a class V student of Springdale School, Amritsar, was to compete with another bunch of 52 candidates, who had similarly been shortlisted from different parts of the country and all the candidates had to perform their extra curricular activity live before a panel of judges comprising quiz masters Derek O’ Brien and Neil O’ Brien, singer Palash Sen and widely read author Ruskin Bond.

Here, Arman was a bit dejected because his other skills were expertise in the game of chess. “I thought how would I perform on stage the game of chess. But I did it and my performance was placed at second place after a Delhi-based girl, whose plus point was that she was a Bharat Natyam performer. Anyway, I am contended,” he said.

Arman has started taking classes of chess learning techniques at his home in Ranjit Avenue. “I am assisting my international-rated chess champ brother Tejas Arora, who takes chess coaching classes for beginners daily at home, which helps in brushing up my game skills. Besides, I can proudly told my parents that I, too, am an earning member of the family,” said Arman.

Arman has keen interest in this game of brains. His name appears in the top three slots in the North Zone under-10 chess championship.

Elated over their son’s recent success, the parents - Sukhwinder Singh and Sonu Arora - said it just happened by chance that the event caught their attention. “One fine day, I just searched the Internet with subhead as scholarships. It was then that I got the link www.igenius.org.com and I persuaded Arman to participate in it,” said Sukhwinder. “I knew that my son would make it as he has been brilliant throughout his studies,” said Sonu Arora.

Amritsar, November 23
In an era of globalisation, world has become a village but at the same time the heritage village has been loosing its glory very speedily. The root of any culture lies in the heritage literature and customs of that society. Spirituality is a global human concern which is very much under debate, its cultural and religious factors has played very impressive role.

These views were expressed by eminent Sikh philosopher Dr Balkar Singh, former professor, Punjabi University, Patiala, while delivering his keynote address in the two-day National Seminar on Contribution of Guru Nanak’s Bani to Global Spiritualism.

This seminar was oragnised by the Department of Guru Nanak Studies of the Guru Nanak Dev University here yesterday.

Vice-Chancellor Prof A.S. Brar inaugurated the seminar and Dr Amarjit Singh Kaang, Dean Academic Affairs of the Kurukshetra University presided the first session.

Prof Rajiinder Kaur Sohi, Dr Samsher Singh and Dr Amar Singh, Dr Madan Mohan Verma from New Delhi; Janab Mohammad Kausar from Kadian; Dr Bhupinder Kaur, Dr Bharat Bir Kaur, Dr Dharminder Kumar, Raghubir Singh Taak, Harpal Singh, Dr. Sharan Arora, and Dr. Rajkumar, Dr. B.S. Dhillon, Dr. Jaswinder Kaur Dhillon, Dr. Harchand Bedi and Prof. Balwinder Singh all from Amritsar presented their research papers. The proceeding of this seminar was also released by the Vice-Chancellor on this occasion.

Prof Balkar Singh said basically all spiritualities had universal outlook but due to cultural and institutional distinction, conflict occurred among different traditions. “But Guru Nanak’s approach to religion is beyond sectarian demarcations and his universal brotherhood has been accepted by international community”, he said while emphasising the preachers to establish the relevance of the religion in contemporary situations and prospective and that peace is needed in the world which is only possible when whole religions unite together on a single platform.

Prof Kaang in his presidential remarks said that Guru Nanak’s Bani had scientific approach which has many layers and depth. “Truth is biggest value in our society but ethics and character is bigger than the truth. We have achieved a lot today, but somehow we have lost our cultural and religious ethics. So, the truth defined by Nanak Bani is needed to be understood by the masses in right direction”, he advocated.

Prof Brar in his inaugural address said the Guru Nanak’s Bani is more scientific and relevant. He said in fact science also tries to solve the problems of human being internal as well as external world, but Guru Nanak’s Bani is more applicable in this context. His teachings need scientific interpretations to facilitate the modern man, he added.

“Guru Nanak’s Bani helps the academicians to get rid of modern problems that our society is facing and that university is always ready to provide all essential help for the development and promotion of Guru Nanak Studies and Punjabi Department of the University. The scientific approach, aptitude and practical concern could be helpful to understand the human mind and agony, traditional style of thinking and traditional idiom cannot be useful in understanding the inner sense of this worldliness and that worldliness”, he said.

Amritsar, November 23
Newly appointed Director of Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport (SGRIA), Suneel Dutt, has tough tasks ahead.

The young technocrat has a challenge of attracting more flights, passengers, cargo while providing quality services besides jacking up the profit of the airport to bridge the wide gap between revenue and expenditure.

He has about 19 years of experience at Ahmedabad, Srinagar, Bhopal, Indore and Chandigarh airports.

The Amritsar Plus talks to Suneel Dutt on a range of issues. Excerpts

Q: The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has recently hiked the user development fee (UDF) for domestic and international passengers at Hyderabad. Other airports in the country are expected to follow suit. What is the status of the UDF at this airport?

Suneel Dutt: The local office has not received any information regarding the hike in the UDF. Presently, the AERA was charging Rs 910 and Rs 150 UDF from International and domestic outbound passengers, respectively. It was implemented for 10 years from June 15, 2010.

Q: The two aerobridges, also known as passenger boarding bridges, which were constructed a year ago, have been lying unused for over a year. Were they abandoned after the incident of a mouse being noticed in a London-bound Air India flight from this airport in September 2009.

SD: Not at all. For construction purposes, the functioning of aerobridges was stopped. They will be operational before November 30.

Q: Will SGRIA be capable to see CAT II functioning from this season.

SD: No. Since multi-agencies are involved in the matter and winter has already set in, the operationalisation of CAT II will be possible in the next winter. The Indian Air Force, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Director General Civil Aviation are trying to hammer out a solution to remove obstacles. Landing an aircraft in 500 meters visibility needs high level of precision since it involves safety of hundreds of passengers, any physical obstruction even in the shape of a tree could prove highly dangerous.

Amritsar, November 23
Research, conferences, seminars, symposia and panel discussions are of paramount importance in updating knowledge in any discipline. It applies even more particularly to orthopaedics which has made revolutionary insights in recent years and which warrant dissemination there of among the ortho faculty and surgeons.

With this as the objective, the two-day XVI annual conference of the Indian Orthopaedics Association was hosted by the Department of Orthopaedics, Traumatology and PMR of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital Complex and Government Medical College, Amritsar, which concluded yesterday.

At least 15 eminent authorities in orthopaedics read out lectures on new surgery techniques. Around 200 delegates and 20 guest speakers from Punjab and the rest of India took part in the deliberations and shared their experience and skill with other participants on the occasion.

In his inaugural address, Dr JPS Walia, president, Punjab chapter of the Punjab Orthopaedics Association (POA) emphasised that it should be utmost endeavour of POA to make available the costly treatment to common man.

“Today, ortho doctors have been equipped with state-of-the-art technologies but these procedures are still out of reach of a common man because of high cost of treatment. Our goal is achieved only, if we would be able to make this technology available for aam admi,” he said while apprising about the road accident patient project of POA undertook in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO).

Echoing the same views, Dr SS Shergill, told that new infrastructure in medical college has been established to produce ‘cream’ in the field of medicine.

Dr SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, said very soon the scarcity of faculty in medical colleges in Punjab would be dealt with as new recruitments would be made.

“The DPC (Department Promotion Committee) meeting would be held shortly and it would be helpful in filling up the vacant posts,” he said while adding that three new medical colleges would shortly be build in Patiala, Faridkot and Amritsar at a cost of Rs 100 crore, Rs 80 crore and Rs 182 crore, respectively. Besides this, new recruitments of teaching faculty would be made in various centres. The advertisement to this effect has already been released and a lot of 180 applicants has been received. Before December 31, the whole process would be completed.

Dr RPS Boparai said Amritsar was the centre stage of health and medical education in north India even during the British period before the Partition, when small towns and the countryside didn’t enjoy any medical infrastructure.

However, after the Partition, the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, which is now called Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and which is now an associate hospital of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital Complex, took up the task of modernisation.

As a spin off of this, a new, separate department of orthopaedics came into being under the headship and professorship of Dr. Karam Singh Grewal, who had then just returned after his Post Graduation form UK in 1949.

Dr PS Maini, known as founder of orthopaedic achievements, said Dr Karam Singh left an indelible signature in the field of orthopaedics and during his headship groomed numerous ortho-surgeons under his tutelage in the 1950s and 1960s.

Meanwhile, Dr Boparai was elected as new President of POA on the concluding day of conference. As many as 25 guest speakers enlightened about the new techniques adopted in curing ortho problems. Dr Shishir Rastogi from AIIMS, told how leg and arms of bone marrow infected patient can be procured. Dr IDS Oberoi from Delhi told about orthoscopy treatment techniques for knee, shoulder joint surgery, Dr Rajiv Gandhi and Dr Sandhya Kaushik spoke about surgery-less fracture treatment of ankle, foot etc.

Similarly, Dr Kamran Farooqi from AIIMS told about new techniques available for spine injury, its timely recovery and risk factors.

Civil Surgeon Dr Chandanjit Singh Koundal speaks at a seminar organised by Red Ribbon Club of Khalsa College in Amritsar. A Tribune photo

Amritsar, November 23
A seminar on “AIDS: A Deadly Epidemic” was organised by the Red Ribbon Club of Khalsa College. Civil Surgeon Dr Chandanjit Singh Hundal said the threat from this deadly epidemic is far more than the danger of the third world war. He stressed on the fact that in this particular disease “Prevention is better than Cure”. He advised the youngsters to maintain sincerity in their relations and stay loyal to their spouse.

Dr Daljeet Singh, Principal, Khalsa College, expressed his view that AIDS awareness should be made a mandatory part of the education curriculum. He also felt that it’s time to discuss such issues in the open so that the youngsters can realise the consequences. The convener of Red Ribbon Club, Dr. Bhupinder Singh, also addressed the gathering and said if one follows the outlines of disciplined life according to the dictates of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, then the epidemic would come to a halt. Other speakers who shared their views included Dr Subhash Chander, District AIDS Programming Officer. He informed the audience that usually it takes 8 to 10 years for HIV virus to turn into AIDS but in a developing country like India the spread is more rapid.

He also felt that AIDS patients should be treated as equal members of the society without any stigma. Dr Baljeet Kaur, State Family Planning Trainer, gave vital statistics regarding this disease.

She said in the year 2007 there were 2.3 million HIV infected cases in the world out of which 39 per cent were women and 4 per cent were children. Seven per cent of the cases are pregnant women which is an alarmingly high rate.

Amritsar, November 23
Citing breastfeeding as the perfect food for newborn babies, specialists opined that it also helped in reducing their death rate. This issue was discussed at a state-level childcare advocacy workshop held under the leadership of Civil Surgeon Dr Chandanjit Singh Kaundal here today.

Dr Kaundal said the mother’s milk contained the vital vitamins and minerals that a newborn required, and all of its components could easily be digested by a newborn’s immature system. State Family Welfare Officer Dr Satish Duggal said that an infant should be put on breastfeed for at least six months. State Vaccination Officer Dr A. Gaba said the child may be protected from diarrhoea and should be vaccinated on time to strengthen the immune system. He said breastfeeding also reduced the chances of contracting diseases related to uterus and chest among mothers.

Echoing similar views, another child specialist Dr Naresh Kumar said that pre-mature babies had depleting immune system and such infants needed extra care. Dr Rashmi made the participants aware of Mamta Divas being conducted at the primary health centre or sub-centre level to check the death rate among infants where the expectant mothers were taught about three requisite check ups and advantages of timely vaccination. The others present on the occasion included Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Naresh Duggal and Health Officer Dr H.S. Kochhar, besides senior medical officers of ayurveda and homoeopathy.