Amritsar, July 6
Tension prevailed outside the Golden Temple complex here today when a tiff broke out between the SGPC security force and taxi operators over the issue of “overcharging” pilgrims and creating chaos at the entrance of the complex.

The taxi operators denied the allegations and took vehicles off the road in protest. Harjinder Singh Judge, representative of Sri Guru Ram Dass Taxi Union, said most of them have been operating from outside the Golden Temple for the last over 20 years and never faced any complaint from passengers.

“There are around 250 operators who have been running taxi service under this banner. Today, without any provocation from our side, a group of the SGPC security force attacked us with sticks when we were waiting for passengers outside the complex,” he said.

Reacting on the issue, SGPC secretary Dalmegh Singh said the retaliation was resultant of their (taxi operators) disturbing the decorum of the holy shrine.

“It has been observed that they charge exorbitant fare and unnecessarily get accumulated at the entrance point causing great inconvenience to pilgrims. They had been warned numerous times but in vain. They seldom take prescribed fare from the passengers. We have been working out modalities to fix the taxi fare for other important destinations in and around the city from Golden Temple point and they would have to follow them strictly”, he said.

Jalandhar, July 6
Assigning diminishing interest of the students in physiotherapy courses as the reason, quite a few colleges in the region have closed down admission on their campuses from this year.

The authorities of two local colleges - St Soldier College of Physiotherapy and Tara Institute of Physiotherapy - have confirmed their decision of not holding any fresh admission for the coming session. There also are reports of some physiotherapy colleges in Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur stopping any further admission.

Anil Chopra, chairman of St Soldier Group of Colleges, claimed that there was a very little turnout of candidates for physiotherapy. “Same is the case with nursing courses. The reason is that there are very few students who take medical stream after Class X which has had its impact on minor courses that students take after schooling,” he said.

Randhir Hastir of Tara Institute too claimed that the number of applicants over the years had decreased. “The course is very good especially if one intends to take job overseas. In Mumbai, it is a very popular course. But there is very little scope for pass-outs in the northern part of India.”

Dr SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, cited a different reasoning, “We have insisted the colleges to have hospitals alongside and appoint an orthopaedic surgeon as well. The colleges wanted easier norms while we were getting a bit tough on them. We have been told that they are now trying for affiliation of their colleges from other universities which allow them to follow easier norms”.