Amritsar, June 22
The introduction of unscheduled power cuts soon after the conclusion of the local body elections has left residents fuming in the searing heat. Routine life of people is upset while traders and industrialists feel that their business has also been hit hard.

The city is sizzling as temperatures hover at more than 45 degree Celsius. It is leant that the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is finding it difficult to balance between the rising demand and supply. Though the PSPCL officials did not confirm but it is learnt that unscheduled power cuts of nearly three hours duration are being imposed daily in the district.

However, residents of many localities claim that the duration is much more then that.

Sale of generators and invertors has gone up. The hospitality and the hotel industry, the mainstay of the city's economy, apart from trade and industry have been adversely affected.

Hotelier said the daily bill for diesel has gone up in the recent past and erratic power supply is breaking it down.

Another hotelier Satnam Singh Kanda said a majority of the hotels in the walled city use inverters. He rued that frequent power cuts leave the inverters gasping for recharge and they break down as a result. He said they have to call mechanics all the time. He said it adds up to the cost of investment while the room rent remains the same.

Jaswinder Singh, running an inverter shop as well as a workshop, said initially there was a lean period in sales as the summer arrived late this time. He said the sale of inverters is good now and orders to repair them have also gone up in equal measure.

Kamal Dalmia of Focal Point Industries Association said unscheduled power cuts have been imposed even on Category II industry, which is supposed to be provided with regular power supply. He said Powercom needs to tone up its message system and make it more suitable with the needs of the times. He said a message from Powercom on June 15 had stated that the once in a week power cut has been extended to twice a week that is on Monday and Tuesday. Another message on June 19, also a Tuesday, conveyed that the second power cut scheduled on Tuesday has been withdrawn. However, all over the day power cut remained imposed against the new order, he added.

official speak
Power cuts have been made necessary following increase in the demand and supply. The use of ACs is a major reason. Power cuts are not as severe till a couple of years back when eight to 12 hours daily were the norm. Sometimes unexpected demand makes it necessary to impose power cuts

— Sudeep Singh Sandhu, Chief Engineer (Border Range)

Amritsar, June 22
Kulwinder Singh, 21, a resident of local Islamabad area, allegedly committed suicide by jumping into the sarovar in Golden Temple here today.

He took this extreme step following some dispute with his family.

The body was fished out by sewadars at Golden Temple and was later handed over to the police.

A sewadar at the holy shrine noticed him jumping in the sarovar and raised an alarm. But before anybody could reach him, he drowned.

Harbans Singh Malli, manager of the Golden Temple, said the sewadars at the temple retrieved the body from the sarovar after a few hours.

After his identification, a message was sent to his family.

His elder sister reached the shrine and said he had a quarrel with the family after which he left home in the afternoon today.

Malhi said the body has been handed over the police for further action.

Amritsar, June 22
Issuing mobile phones SIM cards to the accused in the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Sushant Arora would cost the mobile phone companies dear. The police is going to penalise the firms as the SIM cards were issued based on fake identity proofs.

It may be mentioned that the fake identities used to procure the SIM cards led to an inordinate delay for the police to reach to the accused. Even though the accused were not professional criminals, they managed to hoodwink the police department for 10-days since the murder of the boy.

"During investigations, we will also involve and take requisite action against those who had issued SIM cards to the accused," Police Commissioner, RP Mittal, said.

Sushant, who belonged to a middle class family living in Teliyanwali Gali near Gate Hakima inside the walled city was kidnapped and murdered by Prince and his relatives on June 12. A senior police official on the condition of anonymity said there are a number of cases which have come to light recently in which fake identities were used by criminals to procure mobile numbers which they later used in committing the crimes.

"The kidnappers made a call from their mobile number to a person and chatted with him for over two minutes.

The police faced great difficulty in tracing the accused as the number was procured on the basis of fake identity proofs. When interrogated by the police, nothing concrete came out and investigations reached a dead end," sources said.

"The problem is very serious. On the basis of past experience, there is an urgent need to have some concrete policy in this regard," he said. A report regarding this would be submitted to the higher police authorities and the state government to frame a concrete policy in this regard.

The accused in the case have been booked under Section 302, 364A, 201, 120B, 148, 149 of the IPC.

The police has also seized a country-made pistol and two live cartridges from the possession of two of the six accused in the case, Harpreet Singh alias Happy of Anngarh and Sukhchain Singh alias Mintu of Mundian Kalan. The police said the accused had procured weapons from a migrant.

Amritsar, June 22
Students doing their internship as part of the MBBS course at Government Medical College staged a protest today. They were demanding an increase in their monthly stipend. The interns demanded that their monthly stipend be increased to Rs 13,500 from the existing Rs 4,500 per month.

The students said the stipend paid to the students in many central and state medical institutions in the country is around Rs 13,500. The MBBS interns in all the medical colleges of Punjab are, however, being paid the same stipend amount of Rs 4,500. The students rue that as the stipend paid to the postgraduate students and junior resident doctors have been increased recently, their stipend should also be revised.

A student said, “The existing stipend is very less. On an average we are paid Rs 150 per day. Even daily wage labourers in the city earn more than what a MBBS intern gets.”

The interns said they play a vital role to provide medical services to the general public at hospitals associated with the college along with other staff.

The students had earlier also forwarded a memorandum to the Chief Minister. The students, while submitting a memorandum to the local administration officials, threatened to proceed on a hunger strike if their demands are not met.

Amritsar, June 22
Many doctors in the district stopped issuing no-injury certificates and medico-legal reports today in protest against the alleged inaction of the police to arrest the accused responsible for manhandling a woman doctor at Sakatri Bagh Satellite hospital a fortnight ago.

The medico legal reports and no-injury certificates are required by the police to initiate proceedings in various criminal cases.

Though a case against 25 persons, including a staff nurse at the hospital, was registered soon after the incident, the police has failed to arrest any of the accused so far.

Dr Simrat Gill, in-charge of Sakatri Bagh hospital, had alleged misbehaviour and illegal confinement by a group of persons associated with a woman worker on June 8.

PCMS Doctors Association president Dr Jaspreet Singh said, “We would paralyse medical services in the entire state if needed. On the assurance given by the Civil Surgeon, we have agreed to postpone the indefinite strike till Monday.”

He said they would continue with their decision not to write reports till the arrests are made in the case.

Earlier the association had announced to launch a strike from Saturday but following an assurance of the Civil Surgeon Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai, the decision was deferred.

Amritsar, June 22
The Amritsar college of Engineering and Technology has proved its mettle in innovation and research. A five-member team from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Sciences of the college claims to have successfully synthesised bio-diesel from the waste seed oil.

Members of the team, include three first year students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jitender Pal Singh, Karan Ghai and Tarun Sharma, under the guidance of Dr Amit Sarin and Hemant Mittal from the Department of Applied Sciences.

Dr Amit Sarin said all the apparatus which used in the process was of household use and is found at everywhere. “Innovation is the key to look for alternatives to costly fuel,” he said. Hemant Mittal said bio-diesel from the waste seed oil could be a useful alternative.

Amritsar, June 22
The state Government has approved setting up a government engineering college at Patti in the border district Taran Taran.

In a press release issued here today, the Food and Civil Supplies Minister and MLA from Patti, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, said the state government has provided land to the Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, at a prime location in Patti to set up the college.

He said till the completion of the building, the university has taken a building on rent and admissions for the 2012-13 academic session will begin soon.

Kairon said the construction would be completed within a year and after that college would be shifted to the new building.

A separate library and laboratory would also be set up in the new college.

The minister said besides diploma courses in engineering, Class XI and XII classes in the science stream would also be started in the college.

He said the state government under its commitment to provide quality education to the students from the border belt was taking this step. He said earlier also the Guru Nanak Dev University had started Government College Patti.

Education upgrade

n The state government has provided land to the Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, at a prime location in Patti to set up the college.
n Punjab Technical University has taken a building on rent till the completion of the building.
n Building to be completed within one year after which the college would be shifted to the new premises.
n A separate library and laboratory would also be set up in the new college.
n Besides diploma courses in engineering, Class XI and XII classes in the science stream would also be started in the college.
n Punjab Technical University to begin admissions for the 2012-2013 academic session.

minister speak
The move comes to provide quality education to the students from the border belt was taking this step. Earlier also the Guru Nanak Dev University had started Government College, Patti. besides diploma courses in engineering, Class XI and XII classes in the science stream would also be started in the college

— adesh partap singh kairon, Food and Civil Supplies Minister

Amritsar, June 22
NCC cadets taking part in the national integration camp at Sidana Institute visited the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post today. As many as 624 cadets are attending the camp, which will conclude on June 29.

Additional Director General of NCC, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, Major General PS Mander recently visited the camp to encourage the cadets. Air show involving parasailing and aero model flying was held at Khasa cantonment on June 20.

NCC director general, New Delhi, Lt General PS Bhalla, also visited the camp on the same day.

Amritsar, June 22
A woman doctor and a nurse allegedly entered into a heated argument at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital today after which the nurse was hospitalised.

She complained of hypertension and was shifted to the emergency.

Later the nurses' fraternity staged a protest. "Action must be taken against the woman doctor," Nurses Association president Raj Bedi Anand said. Senior faculty member Dr RS Sidhu said a meeting of teachers and nurses will be held on Saturday.” — TNS 

Amritsar, June 22
The Fortis Escorts Hospital here has decided to conduct a series of special live demonstrations for surgeons to train them in knee arthroplasty through live telecast through the web and audio conference between Fortis Escorts Hospital, Amritsar and Chennai. The first of such surgeries was preformed by Dr Manuj Wadhwa, head of the Department of Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement, today.

“This special module is a part of the inter-mediate arthroplasty course which is a comprehensive training programme meant for surgeon-candidates interested in exploring the nuances of primary arthroplasty for hip and knee," said Dr Wadhwa.

The two and a half hour interactive session on preceptorship-live surgery demo on primary knee arthroplasty started with a short introductory talk on pre-operation planning, patient positioning and on surgical approach and techniques, followed by the actual live surgery.

Dr Wadhwa stressed on the importance of the state-of-the-art laminar flow operation theatres and space suits for joint replacements to reduce infection rate.