Amritsar, November 30
A day after The Tribune published a report about Guru Nanak Dev Hospital turning into a safe haven for drug addicts due to lack of adequate security at the premises, a drug user was captured on camera inhaling smack at a washroom inside the emergency ward today.

The hospital authorities had earlier said they have never caught a drug user red-handed and the incidents are reported to them after the accused had left the place. However, this correspondent brought the matter to the notice of various hospital employees present over there, but they remained indifferent.

The Tribune lensmen clicked photographs of the drug user with a pipe made of silver foil paper in his mouth, while he was busy inhaling his drug dose. The washroom sink was seen filled with silver foil paper, match sticks and cigarette cases. When the photograph of the accused was shown to an employee at the hospital, he identified him as son of a hospital employee.

As The Tribune team tried to contact Medical Superintendent Dr Karnail Singh, he was reportedly busy at Out Patients Department (OPD). The other doctors at the emergency evaded the matter saying that they will look into it. In the meantime the drug addict caught on camera was seen roaming inside the premises.

When contacted on phone in the evening, Dr Karnail Singh said, “I would inquire into the matter why action was not taken by the hospital employees when the matter was reported to them.” He further said as the Class IV employees too are on strike, perhaps there was nobody to check the miscreant.

Tribune lensman captures a drug user inhaling smack at a washroom inside the emergency ward today

When the matter was brought to their notice, various hospital employees remained indifferent

An employee at the hospital identified the addict as a son of another hospital employee

Amritsar, November 30
As the world observes AIDS day falling tomorrow, the figures with the Punjab State Aids Control Society (PSACS) put the scenario in the district as alarming.

Artist Harwinder Singh Gill displays AIDS insignia made of surgical syringes on the eve of World AIDS Day in Amritsar on Wednesday. photo: vishal kumar

The PSACS figures revealed that 30.95 per cent of the AIDS patients in the state are from Amritsar district alone. Further, 11.73 per cent deaths of the HIV patients in the state were reported from Amritsar.

As per the available data of the last six years maintained by the PSACS, out of the total number of 28,521 HIV patients in the state till October 31 this year, 8,828 are from the district.

In the same period out of the total 1,901 deaths reported in the state, 223 were recorded at Amritsar.

From the start of AIDS control programme in the state around six years ago till October this year, as many as 1,79,266 patients were tested at Integrated Counseling and Testing Centres (ICTC) for HIV in the district out of which 4.92 per cent were found HIV positive.

Talking to The Tribune, MM Sharma, Additional Project Director, PSACS, said the number of HIV patients in border district is high because of the high number of injectable drug users (IDUs) in district. "The IDUs are more prone to many other diseases along with HIV as they share the needle syringe used for injecting drugs," said Sharma.

District Programme Officer at District AIDS Preventive and Control Unit (DAPCU), Davinderjit Singh said in the period from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011, 1,284 patients were found HIV positive. Of this 401 were females, 82 children and 38 pregnant women. In the period from April 1, 2011 to October 31, 2011, the DAPCU has recorded 402 HIV positive patients in the district. "Of the 402 patients detected this year, 261 are male, 113 female, 16 children and 12 pregnant woman," said Davinderjit Singh.

He said the number of patients in district is high because large number of patients from Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur districts prefer to come here for treatment. "People generally do not prefer to come out for HIV tests and when they do, they try to visit some far of place," he said. However the PSACS figures state that during the same period 207 HIV deaths were reported from Tarn Taran and 185 from Gurdaspur districts.

On sensitising the people against the dreaded disease, Davinderjit Singh said the PSACS had organised at least 50 street plays to create awareness among residents. "We have roped in village panchayats and municipal councillors to increase the level of awareness among the residents of different localities," he said, adding that department is also distributing free condoms to the general public for their safety.

Amritsar, November 30
Higher education in the holy city took a back seat today as teaching and non-teaching staff of all non-government aided colleges struck work in order to exert pressure against the SAD-BJP coalition government for accepting their long-pending demands.

The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that many government-aided colleges have put off dates of second terminal exam, which generally start from the first week of December. These colleges took the decision in the light of the fact that the studies had been disrupted due to back-to-back strikes and holidays, which fell in the recently concluded festive season.

Earlier, teachers of govt-aided colleges had observed a 3-day complete bandh.

For the past 15 days, teachers have also struck work for 2 hours daily

Many government-aided colleges have put off dates of second terminal exam

Just 50 pc syllabus has been completed in the colleges

About 80 per cent of the total strength of students in the city study in as many as 8 govt-aided colleges

Amritsar, November 30
With the junior resident doctors initiating their complete and indefinite strike at all the hospitals affiliated with the Government Medical College, the medical services at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital were badly hit.

Amritsar, November 30
It's a bad news for those living near the Bhandari Bridge area. A Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) report terms the area as the most polluted in the city. The PPCB has carried out a study on vehicular pollution in busy hours on key points.

Air samples were collected from Chattiwind Chowk, Sant Singh Sukha Singh Chowk, Kitchlew Chowk and Bhandari Bridge.

At Bhandari Bridge, the particulate matter was as high as 599 per cubic meter (µgm/m3) during peak hours while it was 232 µgm/m3 during lean traffic hours. At Sant Singh Sukha Singh Chowk, it was 586 µgm/m3 during peak traffic hours and 212 µgm/m3 during lean hours.

At Chattiwind Chowk, particulate matter was 486 µgm/m3 during peak traffic hours and 175 µgm/m3 lean traffic hours. Similarly, at Kitchlew Chowk, it was 391 µgm/m3 during day time and 150 µgm/m3 during night hours. However, the SO2 was observed to be within limit with variation from 14 µgm/m3 to 18 µgm/m3 as against the ambient air quality standards of 80 µgm/m3.

Meanwhile, the board also advocated to built new over bridges and expand the existing ones to ease the traffic congestion.

KS Pannu, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board, said, "Two overbridges should be constructed at Chattiwind Chowk, Kitchlew chowk and Sant Singh Sukha Singh Chowk to avoid the traffic congestions. While the overbridge at Bhandari Bridge should be widened. Further the vehicles which are more than 15 years old and have already outlived their lives are required to be taken off the roads to improve the ambient air quality of the city", he said.

Amritsar, November 30
For this year at least the residents of Bhaktanwala have to bear the unhygienic conditions in their neighbourhood. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has again deferred its pronouncement, scheduled today, on the solid waste management plant, which was conceptualised at Bhaktanwala. The decision will be taken on December 15.

Confirming the development, Bhawani Shankar, Amritsar Municipal Corporation’s superintendent said the court has postponed the decision as it has been clubbed with another case of similar nature.

It is for the fifth time that the court has delay the decision. The court had earlier fixed dates as October 31, November 7, November 15, November 30 and now it is December 15. Even if the court delivers its final judgement on this day, it would take the AMC at least a month’s time to furnish the formalities for awarding the work.

The AKC company had filed a writ petition against the authorities for refusing to award it the job. Earlier, the decision was deferred as the company required an environment clearance certificate.

Bhaktanwala area, which has been designated as holy city’s main grain market and where over 30,000 residents live, has been proposed for establishing the solid waste management project. City garbage dump pond is also located here. The pond is almost full and the AMC is facing tough times to settle down the heaps of garbage mounting with each passing day.

Garbage is piling up at every nook and corner of the city. The grain market, consisting at least 60 shops, is covered with garbage piles from every side. 

Amritsar, November 30
The alleged scuffle between chemist shop owners, headed by MLA Anil Joshi and his supporters, with the sale tax department officials during a raid on chemist shops in front of the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital has snowballed into a major controversy.

The excise and taxation officers led by Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner have filed a written complaint to Commissioner of police to take action against Joshi and errant officials who had manhandled the sale tax department’s staff.

The employees today remained on strike while excise and taxation officials also extended their support to them.

On the other hand, the chemist associations have also came in support of the medical stores, located outside GNDH. The Amritsar Chemist Association and Guru Nanak Dev Hospital retailers’ chemist association while condemning the incident said that if the police take any action against chemist shop owners they would be forced to choose path of agitation.

“Tomorrow, all the chemist shops, including the retailers and wholesalers, would be closed and a protest march would be held, which would pass through various bazaars in the city against the alleged highhandedness of sale tax department,” said Surinder Duggal, general secretary Punjab Chemists’ Association.

“The chemists have very cordial relations with the excise and sale tax departments and it is unfortunate that such an incident has occurred. We request the authorities concerned to solve the issue amicably,” said Duggal while denying that the officials were manhandled.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sat Pal Joshi, said enquiry is being conducted by ADCP in this regard. In the complaint given to the police, P Kumar alleged that a team of the department was going through the records of four major medical stores outside the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital when the owners (of the medical stores) called Anil Joshi, BKP MLA, who along with his supporters arrived at the spot.

“The MLA along with his supporters disrupted the functioning of official’s of excise department. They also manhandled officials and used foul language,” alleged the officials of department.

The records pertaining to the medicine stocks and other related documents taken into possession by the staff were snatched from them.

Anil Joshi, when contacted, denied manhandling officials and said both the parties have reached on a compromise at Majitha road police station. He claimed he had reached the spot about half-an-hour after the incident took place. “According to shopkeepers, the officials were using unethical practices and asking irrelevant questions in order to harass them,” said Joshi. 

Owners of chemist shops say tax officials indulged in unethical practices and asked irrelevant questions to harass them.

They called MLA Anil Joshi, who came in their support.

Tax officials protest against the alleged manhandling of officials by the shopowners.

The chemist associations threaten agitation if police take any action against shop owners.

Amritsar, November 30
Now, going out has become a nightmare for Simarjit Kaur. Despite living in a posh locality in Ranjit Avenue, the law and order situation is so pathetic in the area that she feels unsafe stepping out of the house. It is for the second time within a span of three months that she has fallen victim to the street snatchers.

What is worse is that the police did not show any interest to attend to her complaint. “I have given the bike number to the police, but the police neither registered a case nor showed any interest to identify and arrest the criminals,” said Simarjit, an assistant manager in Birla Finance company, Ranjit Avenue.

Detailing the incident, she said two snatchers on a Pulser bike (No 8455) tried to snatch her purse. She couldn’t see their faces as they were covered with handkerchiefs. However, the accused failed to take her purse but dragged her for few yards.

“The irresponsible attitude of the police has disappointed us. What can we expect from the department? They seemed to be meant only for the political leaders rather than for maintaining law and order,” said Dr Rajinder Singh, father of the victim. The police commissioner, RP Mittal, said, “We will try to trace the accused and will nab them as soon as possible.”