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AIT enters into land war with govt school
Second confirmed case of swine flu in city
Banned drugs ‘sneaking’ into jail, finds CPS during raid on chemist stores
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British High Commission team visits Golden Temple
align="left">Amritsar, January 22 Ahead of the scheduled visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron next month, a team from the British High Commission today paid a visit to the Golden Temple. The six-member team comprised British PM's security officer, his political advisor, media representative and representative of protocol team.
Cold wave pushes up sale of eggs, broilers
Loan waiver upsets many industrialists
Six booked for abducting minor girl
Refresher course in library and information science begins
Members of the Kisan Sangarsh Committee burn the effigy of Punjab and Central Governments during a protest in Amritsar on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph
50 present research papers on Punjabi manuscripts
Talks with Director fail, Health Dept staff to go on protest from Jan 28
31 students recruited in Germany-based company
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AIT enters into land war with govt school
Amritsar, January 22 Officials of the Education Department denied the allegations and furnished a copy of the letter (number AA/603), issued by Municipal Corporation’s Estate Officer Vishal Wadhawan, which was addressed to Executive Officer Jiwan Bansal, to substantiate the school’s claim on the land. The letter said the Municipal Corporation had constructed the school with the Union Government’s grant of nearly Rs 8.50 crore on its 6.75 acres of land in Mall Mandi area after due approval of a high-powered committee comprising the then Chief Minister, Local Bodies Minister, Education Minister, Chief Secretary, Director, Local Bodies, Chief Secretary Education Department, Deputy Commissioner, Mayor, Commissioner MC, Chairman and Superintendent Engineer of the AIT. The school became operational in 2006. The letter also said the school building along with boundary wall was handed over to the Education Department by the Municipal Corporation, who previously owned the land. Hence, the Education Department claimed that the land did not have any connection with the AIT’s Mall Mandi scheme. On January 9, the Executive Officer of the AIT in a communiqué to the school principal claimed that the proposed 80-feet wide entrance to Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar had been encroached upon by the school. He asked the principal to remove the encroachment within 15 days. He had warned if the school authorities failed to remove the encroachment, then the Trust would be forced to act against the school as per rules. The Amritsar Tribune team visited the school and found a room for mid-day meal scheme, another for a watchman and trees located on the land whose ownership was claimed by the AIT. KS Pannu, Director General School Education, said the matter was brought to his notice by officials of the district education department. He said he had directed District Education Officer Rasal Singh Malhi to meet the Chairman of the Improvement Trust Sandeep Rishi to resolve the matter amicably. AIT chairman Sandeep Rishi said they were awaiting a response from the officials of the Education Department. He said if the error was on the part of his department, then the Trust was ready to compensate the school with land of same dimensions and bear the relocation cost of two rooms. Meanwhile, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Welfare Association President and General Secretary Harpinder Singh Walia and Parminder Singh, respectively, said over half of the plots in the scheme, were allotted through a draw of lots in the past seven years. They said the AIT had collected Rs 150 crore from the allottees. In return the Trust has not been given the possession of land. “Plot holders must not be penalised without any fault,” they said urging the government to take up the matter on a priority and resolve it amicably. Krishan Thakur, president, National Welfare Society Amritsar, said the Education Department was considered a soft toy which could be tinkered with as per the whims and fancies of officials and bureaucrats. The society once had taken up the fight of preserving the heritage structure of the Saragarhi School which was reportedly raised by the British Government in the memory of Sikh soldiers who sacrificed their lives while fighting in Afghanistan. He said earlier the same institution was shifted from near the Golden Temple in 2006 to its present location at Mall Mandi to pave way for the construction of a parking lot. He said the government and administration did not bother about the heritage structure of the school. He said he would appeal to the authorities to stop AIT's move to change the layout of the school building.
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Second confirmed case of swine flu in city
Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said the case of Tarn Taran patient was confirmed today after they received reports from the PGI in Chandigarh. He said tests of the other two patients had been sent for confirmation. Earlier, Tarn Taran-based Joga Singh had died of swine flu.
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Banned drugs ‘sneaking’ into jail, finds CPS during raid on chemist stores
Amritsar, January 22 The shops which were inspected were Sandhu Medicos, Satguru Medical store, Jasleen Medicos, New Lovely Medicos, Unique Medicos and Sareen Medicos. Dr Sidhu found proscribed drugs being sold from two medicine stores located in front of the Central Jail. “One of the shopkeepers even admitted that he had been supplying banned drugs inside the jail whenever he got a slip from the jail,” said Dr Sidhu. She said the teams also seized expired drugs from these stores. The CPS said no qualified pharmacist was available at a few shops. She said she would recommend strict against the guilty shopkeepers. She expressed need for more such operations to control unauthorised sale of drugs. “During various de-addiction camps, people have told us that these drugs were easily available at the stores. We need to check the sale of banned drugs,” she said. The shops were did not maintain any record of the stock, sale and purchase of medicines. Dr Sidhu said, “Drug inspectors are crippled with lack of supporting staff and vehicles which is why they could not raid shops at regular intervals. I have noticed that few of the drug inspectors are women. Can we expect them to visit and check shops which are selling these drugs alone,” she said adding that the government is required to increase the efficiency of the health department. Dr Navjot Sidhu said more raids would be conducted in the future. Drug Inspector Anupama Kalia said eight different kind of banned medicines from Sandhu Medicos, seven from Satguru Medical Store and 10 from New Lovely Medicos were seized during the raids. Drug Inspectors Amarpal Singh and Sukhdeep Singh were part of the raiding teams.
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British High Commission team visits Golden Temple Amritsar, January 22 They inspected the Golden Temple premises for over two hours and enquired about various security aspects from SGPC Secretary Dalmegh Singh. Dalmegh Singh said the inspecting team did not divulge details about the proposed visit. "They enquired about the security aspects at various spots," he said. — TNS
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Cold wave pushes up sale of eggs, broilers
Amritsar, January 22 Local poultry farmers now manage to sell chicken at around Rs 85 per kg which was fetching them less than Rs 75 per kg about three months ago in the wholesale market. Narinderpal Singh Bhandari, a poultry farmer, said prolong and intensive winter rejuvenated the profession which was saddened by numerous ills. He said demand of eggs and broilers had risen sharply due to cold waves. Having been in the profession for the past four decades, Bhandari said the city had relegated in the broiler and egg production. The profession, which was started under the patronage of former Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon, had recorded nearly seven lakh layer birds, which lay eggs, in small town of Patti in 1975. He rued that the number of birds had drastically come down to about 15,000. He said the situation was such that the city traders now procured eggs and broilers from districts like Sangrur and Ludhiana to meet the domestic demand. He held various reasons for the decline of poultry industry. “Extreme cold and warm weather is the biggest discouragement in flourishing the poultry farming.” He said the loss of north India poultry farming was a gain for the southern and western states of the country which have nearly equal weather all over the year and favours poultry birds. Another poultry farmer Jodh Singh, also National Egg Co-Ordination Committee chairman, said the biggest drawback was that the feed cost has almost doubled within a year. He said the feed for chicks, which used to cost Rs 12 per kg, now costs Rs 22 while feed for layer birds got swelled from Rs 9 to Rs 18 per kg. He said all these feed come from southern Peninsula of the country which witnessed high production of soyabean, groundnut cake, maize and mustard cake. He held high amount of export behind the reason of steep rise in prices of poultry feed in the domestic market. He advocated government’s intervention to bail out the farmers. Above this transportation cost of feed swelled in the investment cost. Another poultry farmer Satnam Singh said Srinagar was the only major market for local poultry developers but the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s move to impose Rs 9 per kg entry tax had hit the trade. He said the Punjab Government was no different as it was charging four per cent entry tax on feed brought from outside the state. He said cost of about Rs 7.20 per unit of power was another big setback to the industry. He rued that the government was extending various incentives to promote farming and allied vocations like diary and fishery but the same enthusiasm was missing when it came to poultry.
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Loan waiver upsets many industrialists
Amritsar, January 22 The government had announced to waive off loans amounting to Rs 1,300 crores to revive dormant and closed industries. The government extended the waiver under the One-Time Settlement (OTS) scheme, which would remain in force till March 31. Besides, the industries in border districts will be charged interest at the rate of 6 per cent while the units in the rest of the state will be charged interest at 12 per cent. A leading industrialist, Raman Gupta said the government slashed rate of interest on the unpaid loan but did not consider those who had paid loans on higher interest. He said sending a wrong message, the government was rewarding those who had defaulted while those who paid their dues had to shell out more money due to higher rate of interest that stood between 18 to 22 per cent. Anil Bhandari of Gurbaksh Spinning Mills (P) Ltd said the company paid back Rs 72-lakh loan at comparatively higher interest. Ashwani Kumar of Shri Krishna Dying and Printing Mills said the firm had taken a loan of Rs 36 lakh in 1995-96. He added that he had so far paid Rs 42 lakh. He said defaulters had been rewarded while industries like his who had been paying loan installments diligently were left out.
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Six booked for abducting minor girl Amritsar. January 22 In his complaint to the police, girl’s father Sikhwinder Singh alleged that one Rohit Kumar Sharma lured his daughter and kidnapped her on the pretext of marriage. Rohit Kumar Sharma is said to be a resident of Gali No 6, Rama Nand Bagh. He allegedly took help of five others, identified as Karan, Malik, Nand Kishore, Joginder Pal and Kamal Kumar Sharma, to kidnap the 15-year-old girl. “My daughter studied in a school. On January 20, she went for extra classes, but did not return till 12.30 pm. I sent my son to enquire about her at the school, but she was not there. The information gathered by my son revealed that Rohit had taken her on his motorcycle,” the girl’s father claimed. Investigating officer Harbans Singh said a case under Sections 363, 366-A and 120 of the IPC had been registered against Rohit Kumar and five others. At present all are absconding. — TNS
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Refresher course in library and information science begins
Amritsar, January 22 Dr HR Chopra, former Professor from Punjab University, Chandigarh, inaugurated the course. Prof HS Chopra, librarian, welcomed the chief guest and others. Prof Amritpal Kaur, head, Department of Library and Information Science and course coordinator briefed the participants about the course. Prof TS Banipal detailed the activities of the college. Prof HR Chopra in his inaugural address talked about the challenges faced by the libraries due to advent of Internet and Intranet in the modern times. He said the expectations of the readers from the libraries and the librarians had also changed accordingly. He exhorted the participants to reorient themselves in order to meet the expectations and challenges posed by the digital libraries. He said the conventional and digital libraries have to co-exist simultaneously for the benefit of readers. Prof TS Banipal said the libraries were the repositories of knowledge and information and showed his concern over the declining number of the library users.
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Uninterrupted power supply sought
Amritsar, January 22 Committee president Satnam Singh Pannu said the farmers were not getting adequate power supply due to which crop irrigation was delayed. The KSC has also announced to organise a protest outside the Chief engineer office on January 30 in support of their demand of free power supply to landless labourers. Pannu also criticised the government’s move to decontrol the prices of diesel and hike in price of domestic LPG cylinders.
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50 present research papers on Punjabi manuscripts
Amritsar, January 22 More than 50 scholars presented their research papers during the seminar on aspects like availability of Punjabi manuscripts at various places, methods to preserve these manuscripts, conservation methods, preservation of brittle and fragile manuscripts, microfilming, digitisation, use of natural herbs and leaves to protect the manuscripts, factors responsible for deterioration of manuscripts. Dr AK Thukral, director, Research presided over the valedictory session. Dr HS Chopra, librarian, Bhai Gurdas Library welcomed the chief guest and others. Delegates, who participated in the seminar, were of the view that a database of all the manuscripts in Punjabi should be prepared which were scattered throughout India and more than 600 manuscripts were available in European countries, USA, Pakistan and Samarkand. They said manuscripts with individuals and religious places may deteriorate within few years if attempts were not made to save them. They said destruction by invaders, internal disturbances and tropical conditions were responsible for the deterioration on manuscripts which needed to be checked. Among the other scholars were Prof Chaman Lal, Delhi; SP Singh, ex director, National Museum, New Delhi; Dr Balwinder Kaur, head, Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala; Dr Karam Malhotra; Dr Saroj Bala; Dr Kulwinder Singh all from Punjabi University, Patiala; Dr HL Bawa, Muktsar; Prof Raj Kumar Hans from MS University of Baroda; Dr Dharam Singh; Dr Rajwant Kaur; Dr Asha Narang; Dr Amritpal Kaur; Prof JS Sabar; Dr Balwant Singh Dhillon all from the Guru Nanak Dev University.
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Talks with Director fail, Health Dept staff to go on protest from Jan 28
Amritsar, January 22 Association general secretary Jagdish Thakur said, "Most of our demands were earlier agreed upon by the department, but even after two years, these demands were not fulfilled." The association is fighting to get regular employment, recruitment at higher posts through promotions and appointment of only ministerial staff as clerks. Association’s state chief Sukhwinder Singh said they had given enough time to the department to deliberate upon their demands. If the demands were not fulfilled now, the association would intensify its protest, he said.
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31 students recruited in Germany-based company
Amritsar, January 22 He said the students had been selected for the jobs of electricians and fitters. A Japan-based company, Denso, had selected 27 students of the institute in October last year. —
TNS
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The Amritsar Improvement Trust’s 211-acre Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Scheme, popularly known as Mall Mandi Scheme, has hit another roadblock.
Chemist stores situated in front of the Amritsar Central Jail were reportedly found to be selling banned drugs to some people inside the jail.
The Amritsar Improvement Trust’s 211-acre Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Scheme, popularly known as Mall Mandi Scheme, has hit another roadblock.
Trust officials have alleged that Government Saragarhi Senior Secondary School had encroached upon a piece of land which is said to be the entrance of the said project.
Amritsar, January 22