J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Amritsar airport gets nod for CAT-II landing system
Amritsar, December 21
The Director General, Civil Aviation (DGCA), today granted approval for the operationalisation of the Instrument Landing System (ILS), CAT-II, for Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport. Amritsar Airport Director Sunil Dutt said the approval was granted today.

Police faux pass: Dead woman surfaces at Sambha
Gurdaspur, December 21
A faux pass by the Gurdaspur police has made it a laughing stock. The police claimed that a policeman had had eliminated his wife who later surfaced in Sambha.

SAD sarpanch ‘confesses’ to assaulting teacher
New Delhi, December 21
The head of a village in Muktsar district of Punjab, Baljinder Singh, yesterday appeared before the National Commission for Women (NCW) to reply to the charges of slapping a female teacher seeking regularisation of services in the state recently and is said to have confessed to his mistake.

Congress leader cremated
Amritsar, December 21
Political leaders belonging to various parties today bid adieu to young Congress leader Harpal Singh Bhatia, who died in a private hospital in New Delhi yesterday after fighting for life for two days.

Amritsar airport gets nod for CAT-II landing system
Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 21
The Director General, Civil Aviation (DGCA), today granted approval for the operationalisation of the Instrument Landing System (ILS), CAT-II, for Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport. Amritsar Airport Director Sunil Dutt said the approval was granted today. He said as soon as the airport would receive the written permission the facility would be made functional.

The implementation of the advanced technology would reduce the visibility requirement for an aircraft from present 650 m to 350 m. The visibility of less than 650 m makes the Amritsar airport out of bound for all aircraft. Passengers at the Amritsar airport would feel relieved as foggy winters are underway. The flight schedule is generally disrupted due to fog creating low visibility. Consequently, they have to wait for longer hours for visibility to improve.

Popularly known as CAT-II ILS, the system was installed at the Amritsar airport in parts some years ago. The city experiences heavy fog during winters due to its geographical location. However, its functioning was delayed for one reason or the other.

The commissioning of the already installed CAT II ILS system will facilitate easy takeoff and landing of flights during fog.

In view of non-functioning of the advance landing system, pilots of national and international carriers have to seek help from the archaic category-I ILS.

Several years have passed since the local airport was elevated to the status of an international flying destination, but its operational capability is severely curtailed during the winter season.

Notably, all major international airports in the country have category-III ILS systems, but the Amritsar airport today got the approval of the category-II system.

The instrument landing system is a ground-based system that provides guidance to an aircraft in approaching and landing on a runway by a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays.

The Airport Director said all obstructions were removed in the first week of December. Earlier, two structures of the Indian Air Force (IAF), one spread over 1.5 acres and another one small but strategic, which were obstructing the smooth functioning of the CAT-II ILS, were removed after gaining approval from the Indian Air Force authorities.

He elaborated that all works, including, runway lights, glide path and other relevant infrastructure were already in place and it would take only fraction of the time to operationalise the technology after the permission arrived in his office.

Police faux pass: Dead woman surfaces at Sambha
Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, December 21
A faux pass by the Gurdaspur police has made it a laughing stock. The police claimed that a policeman had had eliminated his wife who later surfaced in Sambha. The police found the headless body of a young woman from improvement trust scheme no. 7 on Tibri road on December 12, following which Gurdaspur SSP Varinder Pal Singh and other senior police officials, including the SP (Headquarters) and the SP (Detective) reached the spot and started investigations.

Bua Masih, father-in-law of Manoj Masih, approached the police and said that the deceased was actually his daughter, following which a case was registered against Manoj Masih and others under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (tampering with evidence) of the IPC . Bua Masih identified the women’s body by her clothes and a burn scar and the body was buried in their native village of Man Chopra, 13 km from here. Despite the fact that the needle of suspicion pointed to Manoj Masih, the police did not arrest him.

With the police not arresting Manoj, Bua Masih and his family members staged a dharna at the Gurdaspur city police station. Finally, acting under sustained pressure from Bua Masih and his family, the police arrested Manoj.

During interrogation, he told the police that the deceased was not his wife and he himself wanted to complain to the police that his wife was missing for the past few days.

This gave another twist to the story. The police asked Manoj to provide them with the cell number of his missing wife, following which the police traced his wife -Goldy - in Bari Brahmina falling in the Sambha district of Jammu and Kashmir where she had reportedly eloped with her paramour Sonu, a resident of Fateh Nangal, near here.

The police took both Goldy and Sonu in custody and let them off after questioning them. “We have no evidence to prove that Goldy, Sonu or Manoj Masih have a hand in the murder of the young woman whose headless body was found on December 12. That is why we left them off,” said Harjit Singh, additional SHO of the Gurdaspur city police station.

The Police is now groping in the dark over the identity of the headless body. A senior Police official disclosed that DNA samples of the body had been taken and would be sent to the forensic lab.

“The body will be exhumed only after somebody makes a claim to the body,” said a police official.

The police is clueless over the identity of the body which now has been buried. Moreover, the theory that Goldy and Sonu might have gone to Bari Brahmina on their own and that somebody else might have murdered the young woman is also doing rounds.

SAD sarpanch ‘confesses’ to assaulting teacher
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 21
The head of a village in Muktsar district of Punjab, Baljinder Singh, yesterday appeared before the National Commission for Women (NCW) to reply to the charges of slapping a female teacher seeking regularisation of services in the state recently and is said to have confessed to his mistake.

Singh, who belongs to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, came to the Commission in reply to a notice the NCW had earlier sent to him to come and explain his conduct. Singh is the sarpanch of Daula village where the incident involving the slapping of Varinder Kaur, a local teacher, took place. Kaur had come to the village to meet the visiting Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, also the wife of Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Mamata Sharma, Chairperson of NCW, today said that though Singh initially resisted accepting that he assaulted the teacher publicly, he later confessed to having committed the crime. "But when we told him the whole world and not just we in India saw him slapping the teacher, he admitted what he had done," Sharma said, adding the NCW would send its report to the Punjab government based on Singh's confessions and statements. Singh was arrested and later bailed out in the case.

Congress leader cremated

Amritsar, December 21
Political leaders belonging to various parties today bid adieu to young Congress leader Harpal Singh Bhatia, who died in a private hospital in New Delhi yesterday after fighting for life for two days.

He was cremated at the Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh cremation ground. Among others who were present included DCC president Jugal Kishor Sharma, former Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Prof Darbari Lal, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mayor Shawet Malik, Dr Baldev Raj Chawla, BJP youth leader Rajesh Honey and SAD leader Gurpartap Tikka.

Harpal Singh Bhatia, PPCC delegate member, was also the ticket aspirant for the newly carved out Amritsar (East) Assembly constituency.

Earlier, a huge number of supporters of Harpal Bhatia raised slogans against Congress MLA Om Parkash Soni, former MLA Jasbir Singh Dimpa and recently elected Youth Congress president Vikas Soni. They sought the registration of a case against them. They alleged it was not an accident, but a murder and demanded a CBI inquiry into the accident of Harpal Bhatia.

Bhatia was going to Delhi when his vehicle hit a footpath three days ago. He was seriously injured in the mishap. He was going to meet senior Congress leaders following the registration of an attempt-to-murder case against him and several of his followers after a clash during the Youth Congress elections in the city. — TNS