Seminar on 'Research methodology in applied economics' begins
Amritsar, October 12
A two-day UGC-sponsored national seminar on "Research methodology in applied economics", organised by the Department of Economics of the BBK DAV College for Women started here today.

Amritsar, October 12
In a campus placement drive at Universal ITI (Industrial Training Institute), Japan-based company Denso selected 27 students of different trades for jobs.

The institute’s managing committee chairman SS China said the representatives of the company interviewed 86 students during the drive. During the previous academic session a total of 108 students had found jobs with various companies through campus placement drives.

Dev Raj Bansal, company’s General Manager (Production), said Denso is an MNC with its plants in 32 nations. The company makes automobile parts, as gear boxes, for various leading automobile manufacturers. He said 27 students had been selected for the company’s plant at Manesar in Haryana.

The appointment letters to the selected students were handed over in the presence of the institute’s Managing Director Harvinder Singh Sandhu and Principal A.S. Ahuja.

Amritsar, October 12
A two-day UGC-sponsored national seminar on "Research methodology in applied economics", organised by the Department of Economics of the BBK DAV College for Women started here today.

The seminar has been organised with an objective to improve the participation and quality of research methodology which when applied to economics help in the growth and development of the nation.

In the inaugural session, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora felicitated the Principal and the staff of the college for organising the seminar on such a meaningful and purposeful theme. The keynote address was delivered by Dr R.L. Bhat, Head of the Department of Economics, Central University, Jammu, in which he explained the intricacies of research methodology and highlighted that the goal of the research is two fold, i.e. first it led to new discovery and secondly it confirmed the truth of the hypothesis. He said the research should not remain limited to labs or institutions, but help in analysing real world problems and give solutions to become a meaningful exercise.

Earlier, Principal Dr Neelam Kamra welcomed the guests and expressed the confidence that the seminar would be a very stimulating and enriching experience for the delegates and invited the house to deliberate on the ramification of the theme. Sudershan Kapoor, Chairman, LMC, presented the vote of thanks.

Dr Vikram Chadha, Punjab School of Economics, GNDU, Amritsar, Principal Neera Sharma, Principal Anjana Gupta and Principal Shabnam Handa were also present.

Amritsar, October 12
A state task force meet under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was organised by the Department of Chest Diseases and Tuberculosis at Government Medical College (GMC) here today.

The Deputy Medical Superintendent of TB Hospital, Dr N.C. Kajal, highlighted the menace of tuberculosis, multi-drug-resistant TB, HIV and AIDS in his introductory lecture. He said the country had the highest number of TB patients in the world.

“Around 2 million cases occur every year. Its association with HIV and AIDS has further complicated the scenario,” he said, adding that it led to difficulties in diagnosis and treatment.

The GMC Principal, Dr S.S. Shergill, stressed on the need of sincere implementation of the RNTCP to eradicate TB. He termed the disease as the "biggest killer of mankind". He mentioned the performance and achievement of the college’s Department of Chest Diseases and TB. He lauded the role of the department in implementing schemes as the PMDT and DOTS plus and for starting integrated counseling and testing control (ICTC) for HIV.

Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra stressed the need for improving the quality of services and achieving the objective of the universal access to TB care.

In the scientific session, papers were presented on TB, DPTS, HIV/AIDS, MDR-TB and TB notification, besides the latest developments in the field. Others present on the occasion included Dr Balbir Malhotra, Dr Bharat Bhusanm, Dr Priyanka Aggarwal, Dr Naresh Chawla and Dr Kiran Chabra.

Amritsar, October 12
A day after Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal pulled up the Police Department over the security of pilgrims coming to the Golden Temple to pay obeisance, it today held a meeting with the SGPC authorities.

Tourists have become the prime target of snatchers on the way to the holy shrine.

The Deputy CM along with his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal visited the Golden Temple yesterday. Pilgrims, who had been in the shrine, approached Sukhbir Badal and told him that tourists were being fleeced by the police authorities at various nakas. They alleged that the pilgrims and tourists were being targeted by snatchers every now and then near the areas close to Darbar Sahib, while the police had miserably failed to curb the menace. In order to "lessen" the crime graph, the police had not been registering cases, they alleged.

Following this, Sukhbir Badal reprimanded police officers and asked them to be on their toes to nab the snatchers and make sure the security of the pilgrims and tourists coming to the city.

Senior police officials, including Commissioner of Police Ram Singh, today held a meeting with the SGPC authorities, headed by Dalmegh Singh, secretary Shiromani Committee.

They told the Commissioner of Police that besides snatchings and robberies, the pilgrims were also facing the problem of traffic chaos. They urged him to depute extra police force near the Golden Temple to smoothen the traffic, besides removing the encroachments from the roads.

Ram Singh told the SGPC authorities that the tourist and pilgrims would not face problems and every possible step would be taken to smoothen the traffic and ensure law and order in the area.

Amritsar, October 12
Activists of the BJP Mahila Morcha today held demonstrations against the Congress-led UPA government in the city and the Ajnala township area here.

They raised slogans against UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for their alleged anti-people policies.

Meenu Sehgal, BJP councillor, along with other activists demonstrated at the busy Putlighar chowk here. They mocked the government by cooking on an earthen "chulah" prepared on a roadside.

While criticising the Central Government, they said the Congress-led government gave a little thought to the economical conditions of the common people who were hardly hit hard by the unprecedented inflation.

"The prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and shaken the budget of the common man," she said.

The women activists in Ajnala, headed by district president Narinder Kaur, burned an effigy of the UPA government.

Addressing a rally held at a local temple, Ram Sharan, district president (rural) of the party, said it had become very difficult for the common man to arrange two square meals a day. He said the hike in fuel prices had shot the inflation, which has broken the backbone of people.

Amritsar, October 12
The CIA staff today arrested two key accused Jaspreet Singh, alias Sherry, and Deedar Singh, alias Dari, in connection with the seizure of a huge quantity of habit-forming drugs on August 22.

The police had arrested a driver and his two conduits at that time who were unloading the material to further supply it to their designated medical stores in rural areas.

Jaspreet was arrested from near the Sikandari gate following a tip-off. During his interrogation, he admitted that out of the total drugs recovered by the department, he just had 20,000 capsules, while the remaining contraband belonged to Deedar Singh, who runs a medical store in his residential area in Dhapai and his partner Pardeep Kumar, who had a pharmaceutical firm in the Katra Sher Singh area of the walled city.

Deedar Singh was arrested by the police today morning.

It may be recalled that the CIA staff had seized over 2.80 lakhs of habit-forming capsules and tablets from a canter. The police has arrested, Vikram, the driver of the canter besides Vikramjit Singh and William Masih, his two agents. The police is now looking whether the licences of medical stores run by Jaspreet Singh and Deedar Singh were valid.

"After the completion of the inquiry, we would write to the state drug controller, besides the health department to cancel their licences with immediate effect," said Anoop Kumar, in charge, CIA staff.

It has come to light that certain medical stores at themedicine market in the Katra Sher Singh area, whose licences were cancelled by the health department, continued with their nefarious activities. The health department had already cancelled the licence of Jaspreet Singh in February and his shop lies closed in the market. However, he continued with his business. Interestingly, he procured the contraband from one Prince Pharmacy, Ludhiana, which was also closed down on similar charges. He was serving a jail term in Ludhiana for illegally selling habit-forming drugs. 

Amritsar, October 12
The health department has seized habit-forming drugs from a medical store in the Katra Sher Singh market here. The department has also seized insulin injections from another shop as these were not stored as per the guidelines.

Drug inspector Sukhdeep Singh said around 5,000 tablets and 18,000 habit-forming capsules were seized from Sahni and Sahni Medicos. He said the shop owners could not produce the purchase records of the medicines. He said the medicines were being misused by drug addicts.

The department also seized 40 insulin injections from Madhav Medicos. He said the injections were required to be stored in a refrigerator, but at the time of the inspection, these were found to be stored outside.

He said the shelf life of the injection decreases when it was not stored at a temperature between 2° C to 8° C. He said the department had initiated action against the accused as per the procedure.

Amritsar, October 12
Busting a flesh trade racket, the city police arrested nine persons, including two women, from a house in the Gokul Nagar area here last evening. The police has registered a case under Sections 4, 5, 6, 7 of the Immoral Traffic Act against them.

Those booked included Manish Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Arun Kumar, Sourav Goyal, Harsimran Singh, Gurdev Singh, Sonu Kumar, besides two women.

Harjit Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said the police received a tip-off that the two women were running a flesh trade racket in the residential area, following which a raid was conducted and the accused were arrested.

Amritsar, October 12
The police has nabbed one Hardev Singh of the Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar area for allegedly possessing 300 gm of opium.

He was arrested while he was going towards the Sultanwind area.

The CIA staff said on seeing the police party, Hardev tried to escape due to which the police team got suspicious of him. During search, the police recovered the opium, which he had brought from the Rajasthan side.

A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against him.