Security tightened ahead of New Year celebrations
Amritsar, December 30
Security has been tightened in the city ahead of the New Year celebrations. Police teams have been deployed at major intersections and roads especially located in the posh localities. The police has intensified search operations in order to thwart any untoward incident.

Girl from slums makes city proud
Amritsar, December 30
Puja, a resident of slum locality near Chattiwind canal, has made the city proud by securing third position in the state-level contest of mathematical tables held at Mohali recently.

18 BTech students get jobs in Google
Amritsar, December 30
Google Inc, an American multinational internet and software company, selected 18 BTech students of Global Institutes in campus recruitment. These BTech students were from computer science, electronics and information technology streams.

Year Ender 2011 Illegal trade
Smuggling across border in full gear
Amritsar, December 30
Amritsar sector emerged as the more preferred region for Indo-Pak smugglers to carry out their nefarious activities this year.

Amritsar, December 29
No rain in the winter season so far has resulted in a fall in the hydropower production. The resulting unscheduled power cuts have put residents to great inconvenience. No information from the authorities concerned on these power cuts further adds to their woes.

Officials say the entire state has been reeling under severe power crisis for the past one-and-a-half month because of a fall in the power generation and the situation will prevail for next few more weeks.

It has also been learnt that the Punjab State Power Corporation had been forced to impose power cuts ranging between 6-10 hours in both rural and urban areas.

According to electricity department officials, the demand for power in the state during this winter has reached 950-1,000 lakh units per day but the power corporation could only supply just 800 lakh units per day from all of its resources. Besides, dry weather conditions and low generation, the unfinished second phase of Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant of 500-MW capacity has also added to the woes.

Balbir Singh, Deputy Chief Engineer, city circle, said grimness of power will be there for few more weeks. “It is not at the district level. Due to low power generation, we are bound to abide by the instructions we receive from the power corporation headquarters at Patiala. Because it is from there that power supply or allocation to other states under barter deal is finalised. Yet, another problem is that we seldom get an advance power cut schedule from the headquarters. Thus we are unable to convey the same to the consumers before hand,” he said. He assured that the problem will be sorted out soon. Meanwhile, a large number of complaints lodged with the local power stations yielded no breakthrough leaving the residents and industrialists, especially those who run small-scale industry because of scant resources of arranging alternate arrangements like heavy-duty generator sets etc.

A fan manufacturer Rattandeep Singh said, “We are already suffering on account of rupee apprecia tion and spiralling steel prices and now the power shortage has turned out to be double blow.”

Kiranjeet Kaur, a resident of New Amritsar, regretted that the unscheduled power cuts have been telling upon the study of students. “The announcement, if ever done by the electricity department through newspapers, too seldom match the actual power cuts. My daughter Aksha, who studies in Class XII, faces difficulty in concentrating on her studies during evening hours,” she said.

Residents of Majitha Road, Taylor Road, Batala road, Shastri Nagar and Shakti Nagar areas air similar views.

The situation is further complicated for farmers because of frost conditions prevailing in the region. “We were advised by experts to apply light irrigation to neutralise the impact of frost. But we could not do so because of long power cuts imposed by the board, which resulted into damaging the crop,” Rattan Singh Randhawa, secretary of Jamhoori Kissan Sabha.

Amritsar, December 30
When the Amritsar rural police is yet to make any headway in a sensational rape case in October, another girl was found dumped near Manawala here.

She was reportedly thrown by five unidentified persons from a vehicle in late night hours on Wednesday.

She was rushed to a government hospital at Manawala near Amritsar where she is said to be under shock and trauma due to the incident. The girl was allegedly kidnapped from Bhurewal village falling under Goindwal police station in Tarn Taran district.

Ironically, the police was still busy in passing the buck. The Jandiala police said it was duty of Goindwal police to take action while Goindwal police said the Jandiala police should register an FIR in this connection as the girl was found from their area.

“As girl was kidnapped from Bhurewal village which falls under Goindwal police, it was their duty to lodge the complaint and investigate the case,” said the Jandiala Guru SHO Jaspal Singh.

However, the SHO Goindwal said the girl was recovered from an area on Amritsar-Jalandhar highway that comes under Jandiala police, they should have initiated the necessary action after registering a complaint and recorded the statement of the victim,” said Harjit Singh, SHO Goindwal police.

Dr Satinder Singh Bedi, SMO, community health center, Manawala where the girl has been admitted said though she is physically stable and fine, the victim was still under shock and unfit to give any statement to the police.

On October 30, a woman was kidnapped and raped by two unidentified miscreants in the wee hours while her husband was left seriously injured. The incident happened near Khalchian.

Amritsar, December 30
Amritsar's chances to become the first city in north India to have an eco-friendly LPG-run crematorium could be hit as Minister for Social Welfare, Punjab, Luxmi Kanta Chawla today opened a front against the project.

In an official communiqué to the Mayor and Durgiana Committee president, the minister has alleged that decision of installing LPG-run crematorium in the city was taken under political pressure and that residents were never taken into confidence.

However, firing a fury of questions, she alleged that the authorities here are overpowered by a handful of influential politicians, who themselves live in posh localities and conspire to make the lives of common men miserable.

"Instead of spending lakhs on these machines, the need of the hour was to spend money on erecting new crematoriums, which should be located outside the city limits. The present crematorium sites, which are located just adjacent to thickly populated residential premises, are in no way conducive to the environment and people's health," she said.

There are two crematorium sites in the city --- Shivpuri cremation ground near the Durgiana Temple managed by Durgiana committee and another near Chaatiwind gate which is looked after by Shamshan Sewa Samiti.

As per pattern adopted in Kerala, the LPG-run machineries are proposed to be installed at these two crematoriums.

Questions are being raised that why didn't she react three years back when this Rs 25-lakh project was conceptualised. Many say it might be a political stunt to gain some attention just before the Assembly elections.

However, firing a fury of questions, she has alleged that the authorities here are overpowered by a handful of influential politicians, who themselves live in posh localities and conspire to make the lives of common men miserable.

Reacting over the minister's statement, Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggrawal said the project is almost through and it would be an environment-friendly unit.

"The idea of introducing LPG-run crematorium here was taken before my joining. I just implemented the decision. Likewise, the required machinery has been purchased and civil part of the project is almost done and it would be made operational soon. Moreover, we are just installing the eco-friendly unit in the existing system being adopted for cremation purposes and it would be beneficial for residents who reside nearby," he said.

Nevertheless, in the backdrop of non acceptance of the only electric crematorium installed at Durgina since 1992, the district administration in collaboration with Pollution Control Committee, an NGO, and the Durgiana Mandir Committee conceptualised the idea of LPG-run crematoriums at the two cremation sites of the city, just on the lines of ones prevailing at Kerala.

The civil job of installing the new crematorium technique, costing about Rs 16.5 lakh each, is on full swing and it would take a few more days to make the crematoriums operational. It has been learnt that once it gets functional, the trial run would be made by cremating the unclaimed bodies found by the police.

Even, keeping in mind the constraints observed by residents out of religious and superstitious beliefs, the original concept design of the machinery has been modified to perform religious rituals conforming to Hindu and Arya Samaji sects.

Amritsar, December 30
Security has been tightened in the city ahead of the New Year celebrations. Police teams have been deployed at major intersections and roads especially located in the posh localities. The police has intensified search operations in order to thwart any untoward incident.

“Though the security has been tightened at all parts of the city, major emphasis has been given on Crystal Chowk, Madan Mohan Malvia road and Lawrence road where people gather in large numbers to celebrate the occasion,” said RP Mittal, Police Commissioner.

The city has been divided into four parts, each to be supervised by ADCPs and ACPs who will report to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sat Pal Joshi.

During a meeting all the station house officers, police post in charges, PCR and quick response teams have been asked to intensify patrolling and search operations in their respective areas.

As most of the people are expected to be out partying or visiting religious places, the traffic police has been deployed on major roads and outside religious shrines to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

About 400 police jawans from all the police stations, police lines and offices have been withdrawn and deployed across the city for security purpose.

Policemen would also be deputed outside hotels, clubs, restaurants, shopping malls, cinema halls and busy markets which drew huge crowds on this occasion. Mittal said police teams would also keep an eye on drunken driving.

The police has also directed the authorities handling the emergency services like 108 ambulance service, fire brigade, police control rooms to remain on alert.

Amritsar, December 30
Puja, a resident of slum locality near Chattiwind canal, has made the city proud by securing third position in the state-level contest of mathematical tables held at Mohali recently.

She participated in the state-level education festival organised by Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan Authority Punjab under Parho Punjab Project.

Overcoming adverse domestic situation, she has excelled in studies, especially mathematics. She credited her success to play-way teaching method and her penchant for mathematics.

Interestingly, her parents had discontinued Puja’s studies due to some illness. However, her teacher Gurmit Kaur at Government Elementary School, Kot Mit Singh area, made her parents re-admit her in 2008.

Puja has two brothers and a sister. Her father and the elder brother are working as whitewash painter while her mother is a domestic help. According to her teacher Gurmit Kaur, Puja is good in calculations. “She could say tables till 3,000 with ease and her calculating speed is also strikingly fast,” she said.

Amritsar, December 30
Google Inc, an American multinational internet and software company, selected 18 BTech students of Global Institutes in campus recruitment. These BTech students were from computer science, electronics and information technology streams.