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Kingpin of looters’ gang arrested
Policemen display how the kingpin of the looters’ gang, Kashmir Singh, used to enter the bunker built in his house to hide himself and looted goods; and (right) the accused in police custody in Amritsar on
Tuesday. Photos: Vishal Kumar
No end to garbage dumping in Company Bagh
Dip in price, Akshay Tritiya spur customers |
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Beer and whisky
Unemployed youths sitting atop a water tank during their protest in
Amritsar. Photo: Sameer Sehgal
Punjab eves win 5 matches in tennis tourney
AC repair agency asked to pay up
Human rights association to educate masses
One booked in accident case
Woman commits suicide in village
Drugs seized from Central Jail
Red Cross unit felicitated
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Kingpin of looters’ gang arrested
Amritsar, May 14 Even though the police made a breakthrough after busting this gang on May 7, wherein the rural police had arrested four gang members, Kashmir Singh was out of their reach despite having been identified. Numerous raids, conducted at his house located in Jandiala Guru, near here, bore no results. It was only today, when a Kamboh police party, led by SHO Yadwinder Singh, conducted a raid at his house and nabbed him from a 6-foot-deep bunker that had been built by breaking open the wall of a room. The bunker was created in such a fashion that it was connected underneath with the stairs located behind the room, leaving no chance for any doubt to anyone. Bewildered at this ingenious hideout, SHO Yadwinder Singh said whenever the police party went to conduct a search at his house, it had to return empty-handed. “Today, we carried out an intensive search and after sliding the sofa set placed in one of the rooms, we discovered a bunker-like hole that was specially designed to hide,” he said He said the gang was wanted in a number of criminal cases in Amritsar and its adjoining districts. Out of the five accused, Kashmir Singh was wanted in 11 cases, which included murder, dacoity, robbery and theft. The gang had looted a truck laden with 250 quintals of wheat in the wee hours of May 7. Buta Singh, the owner of the truck, and Basant Singh were going towards the Punsup godown located at Bauli village. As they stationed the truck near Mahavir Dharam Kanda at about 1.30 am, the five-member gang, brandishing sharp-edged weapons, overpowered them. After tying the victims’ hand and putting them in the truck cargo, they drove some distance and threw them out before decamping with 550 bags of wheat. The Kamboh police registered a case under Section 395 of the IPC and launched a hunt to nab the accused. A day after, four of the accused were identified as Kashmir Singh, his son Lakhwinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Charanjit Singh, all residents of Jandiala Guru. The police arrested Charanjit Singh and recovered the truck
and wheat bags from his possession.
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No end to garbage dumping in Company Bagh
Amritsar, May 14 This historic site, once the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, on which crores are being spent by the government for its preservation, is becoming a garbage dump yard. The historic park has two faces. While entering from the main gate, located on Mall Road, the one on the left hand side would be in order, as this stretch is visited by VIPs, including Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi, who takes his morning and evening walk here, but it appears that they never visited the left side of the garden. Here one is welcomed by heaps of garbage, burnt leaves and defunct stinking urinals. Ironically, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora’s camp office is also located on panorama, located within the Bagh. He passes through this stretch daily to attend his pre-lunch session with the MC officials, but this dismal state of affairs never catches his eye. The MC’s own sanitation staff, dumps the garbage collected from the streets in a corner of this Bagh. They ignite the garbage heaps on fire, to save their efforts of disposing these of. Jagdish Singh, a resident said since the garbage collection system had collapsed in the city after the withdrawal of machinery by a private firm, the MC, too, had knowingly turned its back to have a check on his own men who dump and even burn the garbage inside the bagh. MC Commissioner Bhupinder Singh when told about this menace, said, “It calls for attention, I will enquire into how the sanitation staff could be so lenient,” he said.
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Dip in price, Akshay Tritiya spur customers to buy gold
Amritsar, May 14 Punjab Swarnakar Sangh vice-president Jaspal Singh Kanda said the customers, who had so far been holding back their investment in anticipation of further fall, came out with full confidence in the market. He, however, added that the continuous downtrend in the yellow metal was keeping the sentiments of the investors negative. A school teacher, Amarjit Kaur, said in order to perform the marriages of her two daughters, her family would require some amount of gold in the next two to three years. She said she had been saving for the same for past some years, but was unsure of buying at a go as the rate was too high. She recalled that the gold had galloped to over Rs 3,200 per gram some months ago. But the low prices gave her an opportunity to buy it now. Manish Mahajan said he was holding back in buying gold after it hit the low of over Rs 25,000. He studied the trend and found that the rate was hovering between certain levels. “I did not intend to fritter away the opportunity and bought the yellow metal now”. Bullion and Ornaments Merchants Welfare Association vice-president Anil Kumar Jain said customers anticipated that the slide in gold prices might continue, but it was wise to procure at every dip. “It was not long ago that the yellow metal touched its highest ever price at Rs 32,850 and now a slide is dodging customers and traders alike”, he said. He said the anticipation of Rs 25,000 per ten gram gold price seemed untenable, but it could hover between Rs 26500 and Rs 28000 per ten gram. He stated that the customers had a tendency to hold back from investing in the unstable market, which was seen when the gold prices plummeted in a day recently. “More stable the market, greater is the confidence of the customers”, is the buzzword, he quoted. After having burnt their fingers in the bourses, investors would move to invest in buying physical gold, he commented. City-based jewellers cashed in on the buying spree on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya. They said jewellery of various sizes and designs was lapped up by customers.
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Non-availability of particular brands hits hotel business
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 14 Piyush Kapoor said hotels with liquor and beer bars had not been getting the supply of popular brands like VAT 69, Teachers, Black and White in scotch and Kingfisher in beer since the start of this financial year. He said they had been requesting the suppliers to release the consignments of the desired brands, but they had failed to do so. “It hit their business hard, as brand-conscious customers come to visit the pubs and liquor bars. They beat the monotony in their life over a couple of glasses of whisky, beer and scotch in the serene environment. However, when they do not get their choicest brand, they leave such a pub or hotel. He added that it was hitting their sales and business trust. A liquor supplier Keshav said they were not getting the supply of these brands from Ludhiana, where liquor and beer stores are situated. Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHRA) president APS Chatha said beer and liquor bars and hotels with the same facilities fall in bulk buyers and they were permitted to buy only from suppliers. However, when the same brands are available at vends in the market but not in the hotels, it hurts the business interests of the hospitality industrialists. He urged the government to plug the loophole and replenish the supply of scotch and beer brands at hotels. As per the excise department rules, hard liquor, including, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and imported liquor, can be served in bar, rooms and restaurants of star hotels at Rs 4 lakh annual license. For hotels within the Municipal Corporation (MC) limit, the annual licence fee is Rs 2.5 lakh. The annual licence for beer bar is pegged at Rs 30,000. These establishments are authorised to buy the same in bulk from the Excise Department. Excise and Taxation Officer Malkiat Singh said it had been learnt that the licence of the private concern for storing liquor and beer had not been renewed yet. He said the decision was to be taken at the head office.
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Waiting to be seen, heard for a month and a half
Amritsar, May 14 With worsening health, Manjinder is admitted at local Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital here. He said, “My hunger strike will continue till
the government provides us with jobs.” The youths are demanding jobs on compassionate grounds as their parents had died while serving at the Power Corporation. Another youth Sukhchain Singh said, “The government officials visited us on various occasions but they had nothing to offer except assurances.” He said as the temperature was going up, problems were increasing for them. He threatened that they might take some drastic steps to get their voice heard. “It pains when nobody seems to bother. We have families to look after and we are growing restless,” he said, adding that in case some mishap occurred, the entire responsibility would be of the state government. The Power Corporation has around 340 cases of persons, who are demanding jobs on compassionate grounds, pending with it. In total, the corporation had more than 5,800 cases in the category, but most of them had accepted compensation and pension offered by the department. Ranjit Singh, another youth said, “As we had not taken the compensation we should be given jobs.” He said they had the option to choose either compensation or jobs and they had opted for the latter. The protesting youths said their families were worried about them. “Nobody amongst us can afford to stay away from home for such a long time. Had we been well to do, why would we have chosen such disgrace and humiliation that we are getting from the state government,” he said.
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Punjab eves win 5 matches in tennis tourney
Amritsar, May 14 In the under-14 group, Rubani Ahluwalia of Chandigarh overpowered Hansika of her city 9-5, Tanya of Chandigarh got the better of Punjab’s Jannat Khurana 9-8, while Alisha Menon, Reetindu Kaur and Seerat Kaur Pannu managed to qualify for the next round. Sabrang Sandal of Chandigarh outplayed Himanshu Mor of Haryana 9-8 in the under-16 age group after intensive competition, Suraj Kumar beat Mehak Bajaj of Delhi 9-8, Digvijay Pratap of Chandigarh beat Danish Ahmed of Delhi 9-5, Arnav Bhardwaj of Haryana defeated Calvin Golmei 9-3, Sohrab Singh of Chandigarh outclassed Mayank Arya of Delhi 9-3 and Kartikey Sharma of Delhi outplayed Vikas Kumar of Punjab 9-4. In the under-14 boys group, Arnav Bhardwaj, Dhrona Walia, Danish Ahmad, Digvijay Pratap, Mayank Arya and Dhruv Handa sailed into the next round.
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AC repair agency asked to pay up
Amritsar, May 14 Advocate Kanwar Pahul Singh, legal counsel for complainant Surinder Singh, said the forum had also directed that the machine be installed at the complainant's place within one month.
Kanwar said Surinder had bought an AC in June 2011, which was problematic since the beginning. He said the agency neither repaired the machine nor replaced it.
Surinder said the agency owner had harassed him as even after spending money on the AC, they had to do without it the entire summers. He alleged that he had repeatedly requested the company to replace the machine, as it had assured to replace it if a problem arose within one year of purchase.
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Human rights association to educate masses
Amritsar, May 14 While talking to mediapersons here, Dua said the march had stopped at various places on the route and organised functions to educate common masses. He said there had been rampant violations of human rights, especially by police and other security agencies. “Unless the public is educated and aware of kinds of incidents, the practice can never stop. People should come together to resist such violations,” said Dua. He said he would be organising various functions in and around the city in the next three days to reach out to masses.
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One booked in accident case
Amritsar, May 14 According to Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Sant Baba Bhuriwala on the Tarn Taran road, he and his brother Palwinder Singh were riding a motorcycle towards their house on May 10 at 8 pm, when the accused hit them with his motorcycle. “My brother received severe injuries in this accident and he died in the GRD hospital. We had lodged a complaint with the police in this connection,” he said. The investigating officer of the Sultanwind police station ASI Jatinder Pal Singh said the matter was under investigation and the accused would be arrested soon. “We have registered a case under Sections 279/304-A/427 IPC against the accused,” he said.
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Woman commits suicide in village
Amritsar, May 14 A case under Section 306 of the IPC has been registered against him. Father of the deceased Jaswant Singh alleged that Manjit’s in-laws used to harass her over dowry. Kashmir has been arrested following the complaint filed by Jaswant Singh.
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Amritsar, May 14
