City bears the burden of protests
Amritsar, December 23
With Assembly elections around the corner, protests by government employees have become order of the day. Various city roads, especially ones experiencing the highest traffic volume, are the target of these agitators. It results in chaos and long traffic jams. Amritsar Tribune talks to people to know their views in the matter. 

Amritsar, December 23
Leaving patients in a lurch, PCMS doctors from various government medical institutions in the city proceeded on a mass casual leave today to attend a protest rally in Chandigarh.

At the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital, all medical services except emergency medical care came to a halt. Worsening the matter, laboratory technicians in various government hospitals too proceeded on a strike.

In absence of strike by laboratory technicians, general public had to face problems in getting various medical diagnostic tests done. Further as the pharmacists at hospitals too are on a mass leave since December 12, patients could not avail themselves of free medicine.

Saudagar Singh, a patient said, “Everywhere, the rooms are empty. Doctors, pharmacists, lab technicians all are on protest. It seems only gatekeepers are present. The health and education are the two basic necessities of the poor. And we are getting neither of them.” He said the government should take action if it is not going to accept their demands.

Kewal Ram, another patient said, “In the end these employees would get what they are protesting for, but what about the general public. Would somebody compensate us for the harassment meted out to us?” He added that ever since the SGPC elections ended, the strikes in state have become a normal thing.

PCMS Doctors Association President, Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar, said, “More than 50 doctors from city have joined the protest rally in Chandigarh. The entire fraternity is united for the cause.”

Amritsar, December 23
Prompted by the lukewarm response to Amritsar-Chandigarh Duronto express right from its inception, the railway authorities have withdrawn its five coaches.

The 16-bogie non-stop train would now have 11 coaches while an AC and four second class Chair car bogies have been withdrawn.

Confirming this, SK Madaan, officiating superintendent of the Amritsar railway station, said this is likely to have an impact on the occupancy rate as on an average 300-400 passengers travel through the train from Amritsar while from Chandigarh it is between 250-300. Madaan was officiating as station superintendent in absence of Kuldeep Singh Teji, who was on leave.

Earlier, the 1400-passenger train has 16-bogies including 2 AC chair car and 14 second class chair car.

City residents had urged the authorities to change the name of the train and add some stoppages at several stations to make it economically viable.

B R Prenja, a senior citizen, pointed out that the occupancy rate has scaled down due to the onset of harsh winters in the region.

“Instead of reducing the number of bogies, railway authorities should have added stoppages at Beas, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. He said a large number of followers of Radhaswami sect travel through train. This would have increased the occupancy rate in the train,” he pointed out.

At present there is no halt between Amritsar and Chandigarh barring at Sirhind and that too because of technical reasons.

Amarjit Singh Asal, district secretary, CPI, said the government should have changed the name of the Duronto train and add new stoppages in the journey.

“This is all being done under pressure from the transport lobby who never wanted this train to be successful,” said Asal.

Amritsar, December 23
The Chheharata police has booked five persons for allegedly kidnapping and thrashing one Galab, a resident of Guru Nanak Pura area, besides snatching his purse and other belongings.

A case under Sections 365, 324, 323, 379-B, 148 and 149 of the IPC has been registered in this connection.

The accused were identified as Harpal Singh, Jatinder Singh, Goldy of Guru Nanak Pura, Palwinder Singh of Ram Nagar Colony and Pardeep of Dashmesh Nagar locality.

Galab in his statement to the police alleged that he was returning home when the accused stopped his motorcycle near Pannu Chowk, bundled him in a car and took him to near Bohri Sahib situated close to Pren Nagar area.

He alleged the accused tried to strangulate him with a rope. He said when he tried to ran away, the accused attacked him with sharp-edged weapons and snatched Rs 7000, a mobile phone and a gold ring from him. He said later, the miscreants threw him in a secluded place where he became unconscious.

The police said the complainant and the miscreants had an old enmity. During investigations it came to light that the accused had a clash with one Jatinder Singh, a friend of Galab.

“A case was already under investigations in which the accused were complainant and Galab and Jatinder Singh were named as accused. Now they have lodged a complaint against the previous complainant group,” said Harjit Singh, the investigating officer in the case.

He said the accused named in the present case were at large and raids were being conducted to nab them. Further investigations were under progress, he added. 

Amritsar, December 23
With Assembly elections around the corner, protests by government employees have become order of the day. Various city roads, especially ones experiencing the highest traffic volume, are the target of these agitators. It results in chaos and long traffic jams. Amritsar Tribune talks to people to know their views in the matter. 

I feel strange that disgruntled employees attempt to put across their voice by harassing common people who are not better than victims.

Many times my office and family schedule got hampered due to protests. It is similar to a victim victimising another victim.~

— Jatinder Mohan Chowdhury, a resident

There are many ways to protest. But a thought must be given on the inconvenience of residents before deciding the medium of any protest. Leaders of these agitating organisations feel that blocking routes of common people would convey their resentment to the higher authorities 

— BR Preenja, a resident

Governments follow policies and rules which are same for all categories of employees. If they have any grouse over pay and on policies, then there must be a set procedure to convey the same to the authorities. Understanding between the government, employees and their unions would ultimately resolve these problems~

— Guarav Dhawan, a trader

Roads and railway traffic are vital national infrastructure categorised as engines of growth. Blocking these amounts to serious crime of hindering national development. The government under political compulsion and due to ensuing Assembly elections seems to be not interested in implementing the law.~

— Ajay Pal Gill, an employee in a private firm

Amritsar, December 23
When it comes to proper disposal of the biomedical waste at hospitals, Shri Guru Teg Bahadur (SGTB) Hospital associated with the local Government Medical College is blatantly turning a blind eye to the norms.

During a visit to the SGTB Hospital, it was found that the hospital staff had been throwing clinical wastes on more than a dozen spots in its premises. Further, the half burnt remains of the surgical wastes such as cotton, syringes, gloves and many other things were found scattered around the hospital campus.

It was also found that two of such biomedical waste heaps were set on fire by the negligent staff at the hospital. The biomedical waste was also found scattered near the old nursing college building in the hospital premises.

Open space outside the gynaecology ward has also become a dumping ground. Biomedical waste such as used cotton and syringes pose threat to the attendants of patients, who use to sit in the sunshine during the winters.

Sources said since long, the hospital staff has been negligent in their approach when it comes to disposing biomedical waste. Leave alone disposal, the hospital does not even have dust bins with different colours to segregate biomedical waste in their wards. This also underlines the "indifferent approach" of the authorities towards disposal of biomedical waste as per norms.

Government Medical College principal Dr SS Shergill said the GMC has plans to shift the hospital to a new building in the complex. “When the hospital would shift to the new building, things would automatically improve,” said Shergill. He said the building would be changed in a month’s time so that the activities are regularly monitored. He said the present building of the hospital is very old. 

Amritsar, December 23
Khusbir Kaur, a student of BA first year of Khalsa College for Women (KCW), has set a new record in five-km walk at All-India Inter-University Athletics Championships, held at Mangalore (Karnataka). She completed the five kilometers walk in 23.33 minutes, a new record in the inter-varsity tournament.

An upcoming athlete, Khusbir already has a record in her name in the 10-km category with a timing of 49.21 minutes, said College Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal.

Dr Sukhbir said Khusbir already has won a gold medal in 5-km school national, held at Pune and in 2010 she won a silver in Youth Asian Games held at Singapore.

Khusbir has set her eyes on the next Olympics now, said Dr Mahal.

The principal congratulated Khusbir and her coaches for the achievement.

Talking to The Tribune on phone from Mangalore, Khusbir Kaur said, “The earlier record was for 24:18 minutes.” She said she took the sport when she was studying in Khalsa College Senior Secondary School.

Khusbir had also been selected to participate in a national-level training camp, going on at Patiala, for the upcoming Olympics. She said her sister inspired her to adopt the game which is quite uncommon in Punjab. She hails from Rasulpur village near Mehta.

The Guru Nanak Dev University’s coach Harpreet Singh, who is accompanying the team to Mangalore, said, “We have high hopes from her as her personal best in 5-km category is 23:00 minutes. She would make us proud in the coming Olympics,” he added.

Amritsar, December 23
Exporters, importers and farmers of the area dealing in fresh fruits, vegetable, spices and dry fruits would soon have a facility of a controlled-atmosphere (CA) cold storage here that will increase the longevity of perishable items.

Though it is a private venture, the National Horticulture Board (NHB) will provide technical knowhow and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will provide financial assistance to promote the technology at the state-of-the-art unit coming up at Vallah bypass.

The storage is the initiative of Raman Gupta, a pharmaceutical exporter.

With the storage coming up, fresh farm produce could be stored for a longer period of time. The storage will equipped with a latest technology and will have facilities of drying, sorting, grading, waxing, packing and pre-cooling.

At present, fresh farm produce like vegetables are being exported to Pakistan from the Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post (JCP) and to London from Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport besides, dry fruits are being imported from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Raman Gupta said dry fruits consignments after being offloaded at Attari was then transported to the rest of the country. He said all these products needed gradation and preservation which this centre would provide, which was earlier not available in this part of the country.

He said moisture and humidity would be controlled at the unit. He said advanced technology like thermal mass with steel, hollow cemented blocks instead of bricks would be used in the construction of the unit. The unit would be equipped with a modern laboratory for testing the produce and issuing certificates.

The Central Government is extending support in raising more storage facilities in the remote parts of the country as nearly one third of horticulture produce, especially fruits and vegetables, are wasted on account of poor cold storage and other storage facilities.

The assistance by government agencies will be in the form of credit-linked back-end subsidy at 40 per cent of the capital cost of the project in general areas for a maximum storage capacity of 5000 MT per project. Multi-chamber cold storages with mezzanine floors of RCC would have facility to control temperature ranging from 0°C to 16°C or above with fin-coil cooling system, with control system for humidity.

The local plant would be of 5100 metric tonne storage capacity. It would have six chambers for storing fruits, vegetables and dry fruits.

Gupta said six chambers would be available in the unit and kinds of fruit, vegetables, spices and dry fruit to be stored have been decided. He said category wise storage would ensure preservation of properties in the produce for a longer period of time. He said garlic-like produce could also be stored.

In fruit apple, orange, grapes, pomegranate, kiwi fruit and Mosumi would be stored. In vegetables, carrot, cabbage, turnip, potato, cashew, pistachio and raisins like dry dates and walnuts would be kept. In spices dry chilly, coriander, beetle nut, turmeric, garlic and ginger could be stored.

Amritsar, December 23
While the ruling SAD today announced its candidates from five out of 11 Assembly constituencies of Amritsar, there were no surprises and the name of the candidates were on the expected lines.

Leading the list from Amritsar is former minister and Youth Akali Dal chief Bikram Singh Majithia, who will be the SAD candidate from Majitha Assembly constituency. In 2007 Assembly elections, Majithia had defeated Congress candidate Sukhjinder Raj Singh (Lalli) Majithia by a huge margin of around 23,000 votes. It was Bikram’s first contest in the electoral arena and hence these elections will be an acid test for him as the people will be giving their mandate on his performance in the past five years. The stakes will also be high as Majithia has come a long way from being a political greenhorn to one of the leading SAD leaders in Majha region during this period.

From urban seats, the SAD has fielded Chief Parliamentary Secretary Inderbir Singh Bolaria from Amritsar (South). Inderbir had retained the constituency for the SAD in 2008 byelection necessitated by the death of his father and sitting SAD MLA Raminder Singh Bolaria. Like Bikram, he, too, will be banking upon his performance in the last four years to stage a comeback in the Assembly.

The SAD has fielded Punjab Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike from the Attari Assembly constituency. Ranike had defeated Rattan Singh of the Congress in the last Assembly elections.

From Ajnala Assembly seat, the SAD has fielded its sitting MLA Amarpal Singh Ajnala (Bonny), who had defeated Congress candidate Harpartap Singh Ajnala.

The ruling party has fielded Veer Singh Lopoke from Rajasansi Assembly constituency. Lopoke had lost to Congress candidate Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria in the 2007 Assembly elections.

Amritsar, December 23
Up in arms against the alleged highhandedness of the state drug authority, the Punjab Chemists Association has decided to hold a state-level protest in Chandigarh on January 1.

The association, threatening to shutdown their shops, has sent a memorandum to Health Minister Satpal Gosain seeking his intervention.

The Association General Secretary, Surinder Duggal, said, “The drug controller’s office is putting red stamps on licenses for banning sale of six drug salts and their combinations. This is used on new licenses as well as the ones that go for renewal.”

The association said the move was unfair on the part of the office as some of these drugs are necessary for medical procedures.

“There is no such ban in other states. It would be better if the production of such salts be banned, if they are not allowed for sale. For example, the salt Pentazocine is needed in all surgeries but its sale has been banned,” said Duggal.

The association said application for renewing licenses sent by few chemists more than eight years ago were still lying with the office. “Our demand is to renew these licenses on priority basis. Even the new licenses should be provided to qualified persons,” said Duggal.

He added that each year 2,570 trained pharmacists were passing out from colleges but the government is not allowing new licenses.

The Association President, Surjit Mehta, said, “Generally, chemists are unduly harassed on the pretext of checking sale of banned drugs. As per law, after raid if a chemist fails to produce the record of drugs within two days time he is to be penalised. But presently officers are sealing shops on the spot.” He added that the chemists are facing difficulty to run their businesses due to the highhandedness of the officials.

The association has announced that if the problems are not solved they would be forced to shutdown their shops in protest.