Amritsar, January 5
The cold wave has claimed two more lives in the city. So far five persons have died in Amritsar since December last.

Two persons lost their lives in December while another person was found dead on the roadside on January 3. The remaining two unidentified persons were found dead near Hall Gate and Hussainpura railway tracks on Friday.

However, going by the records with the Shiv Puri cremation ground, run by the Durgiana temple management committee, as many as 19 unidentified persons died in December alone due to intense cold wave. Three persons have died since January 1, the records further revealed.

Harish Taneja, an office-bearer of Durgiana Temple management committee, said 22 persons, a majority of them being destitute, lost their lives from December 1 to January 5.

The minimum temperature in the city stood at 4°Celsius while the maximum temperature was recorded at 7.4°C.

People preferred to remain indoors to save themselves from extreme cold conditions prevailing in the region. All the victims, whose bodies were found on roadsides, were destitute and beggars.

Even as the district administration has launched Raain Basera scheme for providing shelter to beggars and destitute, there are few takers for the help. The Red Cross Society recently picked up about 24 beggars from the roadsides and lodged them in the shelter home.

Safety at receiving end Only 91 private schools out of the total of 872 in Amritsar have taken fire safety clearance from the Fire Department Fire Station Officer Tarlochan Singh said as per rules, each school needs to renew the certificate annually

Amritsar, January 5
It may sound shocking, but only 91 private schools out of the total of 872 in Amritsar have taken fire safety clearance from the Fire Department.

The fact came to light after Sandy Randhawa filed multiple applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Though the Municipal Corporation did not response to numerous RTI pleas, the Fire department released a list of 91 schools who had taken fire safety certificates.

A close look at the laid-down procedure brought out the fact that the schools which are exactly following the rules are even small in number.

Fire Station Officer Tarlochan Singh said as per rules, each school needs to renew the certificate annually. He admitted that not all the schools turn up to renew their certificates annually and added that some of them come to the Fire Department after a gap of several years.

Randhawa, a PPP’s youth wing leader, said these schools have turned a blind eye to the safety of thousands of students. He said the list revealed that even leading private and public schools, being run by religious educational societies, have overlooked the safety aspect.

He said the school authorities failed to take any lesson from the gruesome incidents of the past in various parts of the country.

District Education Officer (Secondary) Rasal Singh Malhi said as per the norms, files of all CBSE and ICSE schools containing certificates of building safety, fire safety and water purification are routed through the DEO (Secondary) office to their boards before taking affiliation for setting up of these schools. There are total 55 schools affiliated with the CBSE and ICSE in the city. Besides, there are 40 government-aided schools in the city which submit fire safety and building safety estimates and clearances to the district education office every year.

Meanwhile, affiliated PSEB schools are supposed to send their cases directly to the board head office. Occasionally, the board directs the District Education Office to visit the school to verify its claims for fire safety measures.

The state government in the middle of 2012 had issued directions to educational institutions to install proper fire fighting measures. The government had distributed a mini fire extinguisher, a gas stove and two LPG cylinders to its schools here in January 2009.

Amritsar, January 5
Two people were robbed by unidentified miscreants in separate incidents in the district.

Suresh Kumar of Jalandhar was robbed of Rs 15,000 by unidentified miscreants at Butala village late last night.

Originally hailing from Nepal, Suresh said when he reached near Butala Petrol pump, he saw two motorcycles lying on the road. As soon as he alighted from his vehicle to find out what has happened, the unidentified robbers armed with sharp-edged weapons surrounded him. He said the accused looted Rs 15,000 cash besides his driving licence, voter I-card and ATM cards.

The Beas police has registered a case under Section 382 of the IPC in this connection. Further investigations are going on. In another incident, unidentified miscreants robbed a medicine supplier, Harish Kumar of Kalyan Singh Road, when he was going to supply drugs to medical stores near Kohali village.

He told the police that two motorcycle-borne youths stopped and forcibly snatched Rs 15,000 from him. The Lopoke police has lodged a case under Section 356 of the IPC.

The victims
Suresh Kumar of Jalandhar was robbed of Rs 15,000 . Harish Kumar of Kalyan Singh Road was also looted of Rs 15,000

Amritsar, January 5
With the 8th regional conference beginning from tomorrow, a 70-member delegation of Pakistani chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) crossed over to India through Attari-Wagah land route here today.

Delegation members advocated toning down the aggressive gestures of two border guarding forces of India and Pakistan during the Beating the Retreat ceremony at three points on Indo-Pak border in Punjab.

Kamran Sharif, a delegation member said the aggressive postures during flag lowering ceremony at Attari-Wagah check post should be stopped. Instead there can be a ceremony with friendship gestures like shaking hands.

On easing the visa regime policy, the members rued that if traders could get visas, then why not the media.

Nusrat Javed said that SAFMA has played a vital role in improving the relations between two neighbouring countries by changing the mindset of the people as well as the government on both sides. 

Amritsar, January 5
With the confiscation of packets of gold jewellery and diamonds at Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport, it seems that the domestic hawala system, known as ‘angariya’ and widely used by traders especially in the western part of the country, is making inroads in the border district.

The jewellery and diamonds were being ferried without documents.

Sleuths of the Excise Department seized gold jewellery weighing about 660 gm and packets of diamond from Surinder Kumar, a resident of Rajesh Nagar in the Batala road area of the city.

PS Randhawa, Deputy Director, Investigation Mobile Wing, Excise and Taxation Department, said the precious metal and stones were ferried in a Mumbai-Amritsar flight without valid documents. He said Surinder neither produced the sale and purchase bill nor filed electronic information collection (EIC).

He said with the evaluator not available today, evaluation of diamonds and gold jewellery would be made on January 7.

It appears to be a case of tax evasion. The dealers of the precious and costly objects did not inform the excise and taxation department before transporting these items to Punjab. As per the excise and taxation laws of the state, any material worth more than Rs two lakh being transported in the state by road, rail or by air needed to be disclosed in advance to the Excise Department through the EIC available on its website.

Traders resort to these illegal practices to evade tax (a nominal 1.1 per cent on value of the product). But if the tax violation is detected, the owners have to shell out a penalty of 51.1 per cent of the value of confiscated material.

Randhawa said the modus operandi of delivering the precious metals and stones seemed very similar to the ‘angariya’ system. He said his department had held one Naresh Kumar, a resident of Mumbai, with gold jewellery and diamonds worth over Rs 1.35 crore on November 7. He said Naresh had successfully got back the entire material after depositing Rs 59.33 lakh. He said vigilant sleuths of the mobile wing of the excise and taxation department here had earned about Rs 1.3 crore as fine from five such seizures so far in this financial year. 

Amritsar, January 5
The city police has decided to strengthen its PCR teams besides beefing up night patrolling in different parts of the city.

It has also decided to revive the beat system for further prevention of criminal activities which has seen a rise.

Besides increasing manpower in PCR teams, the personnel would be armed with pistols and assault rifles during patrolling. Recently, the Punjab government provided a fleet of 85 motorcycles to the PCR teams to the city.

Police Commissioner Ram Singh held a meeting with senior police officials besides SHOs of all police stations for finding ways to improve the PCR system in order to curb petty crimes and reduce the reaction time of the police in case of any incident.

In 2012, the city witnessed an increase in petty crimes, including snatchings and robberies, which prompted the police force to take a number of steps to curb these incidents. It enhanced number of nakas at prominent and vulnerable chowks and areas in the city which resulted in decrease in the snatching instances.

“I have asked the concerned SHOs of the police stations and sub-stations to prepare a list and beats of PCR team,” said Ram Singh. The idea was to reduce the reaction time from the police side to any crime spot in the city besides keeping a check on activities of the anti-social elements active in various parts of the city.

Earlier too the law enforcement agency had taken steps to revive the beat system in the city, but with the passage of time the system faded away owing to various reasons include shortage of staff and infrastructure.

“The government has provided us 85 new motorcycles. Earlier there were just 25 motorcycles which are being repaired,” said a police official.

We have decided to intensify the night patrolling as it has been observed that the anti-social elements strike in the late night, said the Police Commissioner. All the PCR teams would work under respective SHO of the police station. He said the focus would also be given on sensitive areas.

He said the PCR teams would also keep a strict vigil around educational institutes, especially girls’ schools and colleges.

night patrolling to be beefed up
The city police has decided to strengthen its PCR teams besides beefing up night patrolling in different parts of the city.
It has also decided to revive the beat system for further prevention of criminal activities which has seen a rise

Amritsar, January 5
The inquiry into graft charges against the Civil Surgeon office has seen no headway despite 25 days of the complaint.

A health department employee has accused another staffer of demanding bribe on behalf of the Civil Surgeon over issuing a no objection certificate (NOC), which he needed to apply for a passport.

Considering the seriousness of charges where laboratory technician Jai Karan Singh had accused multipurpose health worker Navtej Singh of demanding Rs 10,000 to get the NOC issued from Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra, the department in a demonstration of laxity has failed to complete the inquiry.

Jai Karan had wanted the NOC for attaching it with his passport application. But when he failed to get the work done, he got in touch with Navtej, who assured him of getting the NOC for a price. Jai Karan had also produced a recording of the telephonic conversation between him and Navtej to substantiate his claim.

Though Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra had announced to conduct an inquiry on the same day when The Tribune reported the matter on December 12; the inquiry has not seen any progress.

Dr Mitra, however, had said if some department employee had asked for money in his name, he would inquire the matter and take necessary action.

“The charges are very serious. If some employee had used the Civil Surgeon’s name to ask for bribe without his knowledge, the office should have taken disciplinary action. But the way probe has been carried out, it seems that something is fishy,” said a junior staff member on the condition of anonymity.

Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said the inquiry had been entrusted to Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Balwinder Kakkar. He said the inquiry could not be completed because the complainant went on a medical leave. 

Amritsar, January 5
Even as the Air India (AI) has seen over five per cent increase in its market share between April to November 2011, the passengers and the tour operators continue to wait for the resumption of Amritsar-Delhi-London flight (cancelled in July 2011), which was discontinued due to the national carrier’s pilots’ strike last year.

The AI officials, on anonymity, said AI’s market share was 16.2 in May and remained intact in June as well, despite the fact that its pilots had gone on strike. In July, it went up to 18.2 and one per cent increase (19.3) was recorded in September. The share went to 20.7 in October and remained so in November too.

They credited the increase in the National career’s market share to gradual rise in air traffic and Kingfisher’s exit.

Meanwhile, there is no word of resuming Amritsar-Delhi-London flight. After the pilots called off the strike, AI gradually resumed other flights on international routes but there was no official word to restart this flight. Harjit Kaur, a passenger, said it was really a convenient journey to land directly from Europe in the home state. She said after the withdrawal of Air India’s Amritsar-London-Toronto flight on October 31 in 2010, the NRI community in Europe, in general, and in the UK, in particular, had to travel to Delhi Airport, which was exhausting and cumbersome.

Another passenger, Rajbir Singh said the direct link to Europe was of great convenience for those who frequently flew to that place.

Amritsar Vikas Manch Patron, Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala said a large number of Punjabis are residing in England and Canada. He said the Amritsar Airport could provide them a direct air link to the holy city, provided a dedicated and continuous flight remained operational on these routes. Initially, Jet Airways used to operate the flight on these routes, but once the private airline pulled out due to recession, AI filled the breach. The thrice-a-week to and fro service of BMI between London-Almaty-Amritsar started on October 2011 and was withdrawn a year later.

Apart from passengers, export of fresh cargo like baby corn, snow pea, sugar snap, okra and other vegetables to London was also hit many a time due to the withdrawal of flights. Export of fresh cargo was started in July 2006 after setting up of temporary perishable cargo. Sarbjit Singh, an exporter of vegetables, said exporters do not have any choice but to turn to Delhi, which hikes their input cost. 

Amritsar, January 5
Khushbir Kaur, Amarbir Kaur, Inderjit Kaur and Sharanjit Kaur, all players of Khalsa College for Women (KCW), have been selected for the Inter-University Athletics Meet to be held at Kalyani University, Kolkata, at the end of this month.

They were selected following their performance in the recently concluded Inter-Colleges Athletics Meet of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU).

Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal said college students won nine gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals.

Meanwhile, the judo team of BBK DAV College for Women topped in the discipline at the championship. It garnered 34 points. College team got six gold medals and a silver medal in different weight categories.

Amritsar, January 5
After carrying out a midnight operation against encroachments in the Verka area two days ago, the MC enforcement wing launched a drive on the Batala road.

The MC had already issued notices to traders and had even carried out an anti-encroachment drive on the Batala road just ahead of the civic polls, but the drive had to be stalled midway following opposition by traders. The high court has ordered removal of encroachments on national highways.

The drive may affect about 4,000 small and marginal shopkeepers situated on both sides of the road from Celebration Mall up to the Verka Bypass.

MC’s Municipal Town Planner Des Raj said it would be a continuous drive against encroachments on public land. “We have issued warnings to offenders and granted them 15-day period to remove encroachments, otherwise which they would have to bear the expenses for removing the encroachment,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that this stretch comes under the Punjab Scheduled Roads Act which specifically prohibits any type of encroachment or construction beyond five meters from the road edge.