Amritsar, May 23
As the faculty members of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) today went on a chain hunger strike seeking clearance of their dues against the Sixth Pay commission, Vice-Chancellor Prof AS Brar took no time clarifying that the issue was continuously being pursued with the Punjab government, adding that the Finance Ministry had already given its nod in this regard.

Interestingly, the government communiqué that had been received on May 21 was officially disclosed by the VC today only.

The faculty members had given an ultimatum to the VC to get their dues cleared by May 22, or else they would resort to hunger strike.

The Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association (GNDUTA) president, Dr Davinder Singh, and Member Executive Committee Dr Balwinder Singh sat on relay hunger strike. All the members of the Executive Committee were present during the strike.

“The association was compelled to take the path of agitation because all options of dialogue were closed due to the anti-teacher and adamant attitude of the Vice-Chancellor,” Dr Davinder Singh said.

“In a bid to suppress the teachers’ voice, the VC secured an order from the court restricting peaceful demonstration within a radius of 100 metre from the university boundary citing fears of violent agitation,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, Prof Brar maintained that the Finance Minister had agreed to pay the arrears as early as possible.

“The Principal Secretary, Finance, informed us on May 20 that the file has been cleared by the Finance Department. Now we are sure to get the required grant from the Punjab government to pay the arrears to all the teachers in a few days. Necessary instructions have already been issued by the state Principal Secretary Higher Education to the Treasury Department. A circular has been issued to the heads of the departments concerned,” Prof Brar said.

“In April this year, we were continuously in touch with the DPI office, Higher Education Department, and Finance Department as the provision of the funds had to be created in the budget from financial year 2013-14. The required provision was to be made by the Punjab government in the new budget and hence many formalities had to be completed,” Prof Brar said.

Showing respect to the court order, the association is sitting on hunger strike at Surta Singh Road Crossing on GT Road. A large number of teachers visited the site. The Khalsa College Teachers Association also visited the spot and expressed their solidarity with the GNDUTA.

Amritsar, May 23
Notorious criminal Jagtar Singh alias Sonu alias Bhoot, who was arrested by Kotwali police in March, slipped from the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) premises dodging the Kapurthala jail guards here this morning.

Jagtar was referred to the hospital by the Kapurthala jail doctors after he complained of chest pain, said the police. A case under Section 223, 224 of the IPC has been registered against three policemen for dereliction of duty at the Majitha road police station.

Among those booked are Lakhbir Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Kuldeep Singh, all posted at the Kapurthala jail. They have been placed under suspension and further investigations are on in the case.

Reports said Jagtar on the pretext of answering the nature's call got his handcuffs removed from the said policemen. Taking advantage of this, he fled the bathrooms located inside the ward where he was admitted.

Sources said Jagtar would pose as a policeman and rob vulnerable youths and couples. He had allegedly raped as many as 20 girls while posing as a policeman while a number of cases of snatching and robbery were also registered against him.

If the police sources are to be believed, he had committed over 100 lootings and snatchings posing as a policeman. He had raped a girl who along with her fiancée had come to the holy city to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple.

Jagtar was active near Company Bagh, opposite Guru Nanak Dev University, Green Avenue, Rani Ka Bagh, Lawrence Road, Sultanwind Road, besides the Attari and Manawala areas. He was also involved in stealing of vehicles in Tarn Taran and the neighbouring districts.

Police investigations had revealed that lovers were his soft target. After robbing the boy, he would rape the girl by taking her to a secluded place. The victims usually do not report such matters to the police as they fear for their reputation.

In the recent past, the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital has become a favorite place for the jail inmates to flee. This is the second instance this year in which a jail inmate escaped dodging the escorting guards.

An undertrial from Tarn Taran district admitted to the same hospital had escaped recently. 

Amritsar, May 23
With the mercury soaring above 47 degree Celsius in the city, traffic police personnel and those involved in manual labour are finding it difficult to perform their jobs.

Bali Ram, a rickshaw puller, said, “The temperature has increased within few days. The nature of our work is such that we have to remain on roads.”

He said their income had already gone down with the onset of summer as people prefer to stay indoors. Even the traffic police personnel say it has become impossible for them to stand guard in the open the entire day.

“The posts at the roads are either having an iron or a concrete ceiling. It feels like we are standing in an oven,” said a traffic policeman. He said there were very few trees around the locations where they were deployed.

Balkar Singh, a construction contractor, says many people working as construction labourers opt for other things as the nature of their work is very harsh. He had been facing problem getting workers, he said.

Rajiv Kumar, a rehriwala on Lawrence road, said, “It is not easy to stand in the sun the entire day. Even customers do not bother to come in such conditions.”

Among others who face the music of the heat include security personal outside shops, houses and public offices, those standing guard at railway crossings, employees in public transport systems, postmen among others.

Many parents of small school going children have demanded that the government should announce early holidays.

“The temperature is at all time high and it will be better if early holidays for all government and private schools are announced,” said Seema Mehta, a homemaker. 

Amritsar, May 23
The kitchen at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital is lying closed for a long time due to paucity of funds. The kitchen is meant to serve food to the patients admitted to the hospitals. Even as the hospital boasts of having a well-equipped kitchen and cooks, the kitchen is not working due to lack of funds to buy food items.

The patients and their attendants are being supplied with langar from the Golden Temple. But those patients who are advised special diet by the doctors are suffering.

A patient said if the hospital started providing food, the poor people would not have to buy it from outside. He said as government hospitals these days were used only by poorer sections of society, the government must take care so that they did not suffer.

Earlier a kitchen at the Employees State Insurance (ESI) Hospital at Majitha road was closed due to some issue with LPG gas agencies. The treasury wanted the hospital to supply the bills of the purchased gas.

The Guru Nanak Dev Hospital has asked the state authorities to sanction money for operating the kitchen.

GNDH Medical Superintendent Dr KS Sidhu said the government had recently allocated an amount of Rs 6 lakh for managing the kitchen for six months. He said that money would be released soon so that kitchen could be started again.

“We are very keen to start the kitchen again. We have even talked to an NGO so that it could be managed till the time money is released,” said Dr Sidhu.

“The NGO has agreed to provide us with goods for a month. The food will be given as advised by the health specialists,” Dr Sidhu said, adding that they hoped to start providing food to the patients within next few days.

Amritsar, May 23
A retired deputy director of the Industries Department is running from pillar to post to claim a compensation of 21 marlas of land which was erroneously acquired by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for the construction of a road.

Kashmir Singh Randhawa, a resident of Sant Avenue, owned an ancestral land at Kathunangal village. Since, a portion of this land was needed to be acquired for laying of a road, the district administration got the work done through a land acquisition collector, Amritsar-1.

Consequently, in 2010, the required chunk of land measuring 16 kanal and 10 marla was acquired by the National Highway Authority and Kashmir Singh was given due compensation, as per the norms.

Things became adverse when the authorities layed their hands on an extra 21 marlas of land during the execution of the road project.

Bewildered Kashmir Singh approached the authorities concerned to claim the compensation of the extra piece of land which was used for the government project. The area was apart from his land which was legally acquired by the authorities. It has been three years since he has been knocking the doors of the authorities concerned for the compensation.

“I have approached every desk at the administration office, but even after a lapse of three years, I could not get the due compensation. It was very well in the knowledge of the officials, but their dilly dallying tactics were irksome. I had even filed an RTI to seek details of the land acquired for this particular road project and the compensation being given to the beneficiaries on November 26, 2012, but the reply is awaited till date,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said the verification about the claim being made by the applicant needs to be done by competent authority. “Discrepancies do occur on many occasion while executing any project practically, yet there is a provision for issuing the supplementary award. After getting it verifying by the concerned authorities, it can be put again for claim. If it still hampers, get him to approach me,” he assured.

NHAI manager Anup Kumar Kulshresht when asked said the verification would be done tomorrow instantly. “We have issued the inspection letter to the claimant and it would be verified tomorrow positively,” he said. 

Amritsar, May 23
The Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University organised a one-day "Biodiversity Conservation and Shramdaan Camp" under the aegis of National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC) and the Ministry of Forest & Environment, Govt of India.

Prof Ashok Kumar Pandit, former director, Centre of Research for Development and former head, PG Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, briefed the audience about the significance of wetlands all over the world.

He referred to the wetlands of Kashmir as biological pumps and nutrient sinks which needed to be preserved as these were providers of many commercial and food products to mankind.

Prof AK Thukral, former director, Research was chief guest. Dr Adarsh Pal Vig, head of the department, welcomed the chief guest. Prof Avinash Nagpal, Prof Renu Bhardwaj, Prof Saroj Arora, Er MS Bhatti, Ms Rajinder Kaur, Er BP Singh, Dr Jatinder Kaur, Dr Harpreet Walia, Dr Indu Sharma, research scholars and non-teaching staff were present on the occasion.

Amritsar, May 23
Change of mindset is the need of the hour, but those who do not keep pace with the changing technology, would lag behind. These views were expressed by Vice-Chancellor Prof Ajaib Singh Brar while speaking at the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solutions held here at the Senate hall of the GNDU.

The programme was organised by the university to get the faculty as well as students acquaint about the introduction of complete computerisation of academic, administration system of the campus, regional campuses, constituents colleges and affiliated colleges of the university.

The responsibility of the prestigious project was assigned to the Infinite Computer Solutions, (India), Limited.

Prof Brar presided over this function, while Ram Goel, programme manager, Manoj Chawla, project manager, Aayushi Saxena, functional expert and Amit Kumar, IT Infra expert from Infinite Computer Solutions, (India) Limited, were present on this occasion.

Infinite Computer Solutions, (India) Limited Company would take about an year to complete the whole process of computerisation by passing through various phases to upload the complete data on the system which could be assessed by any client.

Prof Brar said with the computerisation of whole system, the admission process, results, students inquiry would be done with an ease. “For example, if any student of the university is sitting abroad and would like to have transcriptions and their verification of their certificates, this would be done online through this programme within a few minutes,” he said. 

Jalandhar, May 23
In gross violation of norms and much to the chagrin of the residents who have often complained regarding the issue, the practice of burning garbage mounds across the district has been causing a great damage to plants and property.

While so far, the waste burning exercise had been causing great harm to trees and plants, upsetting residents, the practice cost dear to two car owners today whose cars, parked near the bus stand area, reportedly caught fire from a garbage mound in the morning.

Both cars - an i 20 and a Santro - were gutted.

While owners said they were not sure about the cause of the fire, witnesses expressed the view that the burning garbage mounds near the cars caused the fire.

An owner of a car, Neha, said, “I do not know the cause of the fire because when I was called from inside the bank, where I was working, the car was already burning.”

Reacting to the suspicion that the cars caught fire due to the burning of garbage, MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani said, “A joint commissioner will be out on the job to look into violations in this case and strict action will be taken against those found guilty.”

Residents have often complained of waste burning at the Old Baradari area, Model Town, Green Model Town, GT Road, Nakodar Road, abandoned plots, parks and other open roads and places.

While The Tribune had also brought the issue to light a few days ago, MC Commissioner Vinay Bublani had said a report on the issue was awaited.

Assistant Commssioner Ved Vyas said he had “no knowledge” of any MC official burning waste.

Interestingly, PFA activist and former wildlife warden Chander Bushan said, “I have brought the notice to the issue of the MC commissioner as well as the assistant commissioner. A day ago, I called the assistant commissioner regarding burning trees in the Baradari area. He had assured me that it would stop. Many trees in the area have been ravaged due to the constant burning of waste by MC officials. Some house doors have been blackened with soot. And even the MC’s own trees planted to render the city green, have caught fire. What’s the point in planting trees if you want to burn them?”

Amritsar, May 23
DAV Public School, Lawrence Road, Amritsar bagged the overall winner’s trophy in the Mega Event Spirit - 2013 hosted by LRS DAV Senior Secondary Model School, Abohar.

More than 30 schools of the region participated in the event. DAV Public school won three first prizes in the exhibit contest participated by Nitigya Chug and Kartik Gupta of class XI, poster-making contest participated by Utsav Teji of class XI and paper-writing and submission in young scientists forum participated by Abhinav Grover of class XII.

The school won a second prize in quiz contest participated by Saket Dingliwal, Nitigya Chug and Kartik Gupta of class XI. With their commendable performance in all events, the school clinched the overall trophy and gained a lot of appreciation from the judges and audience. BBK DAV College principal Dr Neelam Kamra and school manager Dr KN Kaul appreciated the efforts of the students and blessed them for their future endeavours. School principal Neera Sharma said, “I am very impressed with hard work of the students and the efforts they are putting in as only these would help them to improve and grow."

Amritsar, May 23
The Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC), running 12 colleges and five schools in the region, has announced admissions to its colleges and schools for the academic session 2013-14.

Khalsa College, that offers graduate and postgraduate (PG) courses, some exclusive, will hold entrance test for BSc (agriculture) on June 11. The admissions to MSc, MA, MCom, BSc, BCA, BCom and other courses have been opened till July 7, 2013.

The exclusive courses being offered from the current session include MSc (bio-technology), MSc (food sciences and technology), Master of Physiotherapy, BJMC and MBA.

Khalsa College for Women (KCW) is also following the admission schedule as announced by the GNDU for graduate and postgraduate courses in science, commerce and arts stream and exclusive courses, including fashion-designing and computer sciences, till July 7, 2013.

On the other hand, the admissions in the Khalsa College of Engineering and Technology, Ranjit Avenue, affiliated to Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, would be held as per the JEE-2013 and later on the basis of qualifying examination, authorities said. The admission to Khalsa College Chawinda Devi was also opened for BA, BSc (economics), BCA, BCom and Diploma in Stitching and Tailoring. Similarly, the admission to Khalsa College of Physical Education would be held as per the GNDU schedule.

The admission to the Khalsa College of Law, Khalsa College of Pharmacy, Khalsa College of Nursing would be on the basis of a common entrance test and counselling as per the notification to be issued by state government in this regard shortly.

The admission in all schools, including Khalsa College Public School (KCPS), Khalsa College International Public School (KCIPS), Khalsa College Senior Secondary School (Boys), Khalsa College Girls Senior Secondary School and Khalsa College Public School-Heir is also open for all classes.

Amritsar, May 23
Three persons have been booked in connection with yesterday's looting incident in which a man was robbed of Rs 20.70 lakh in the Baba Bakala area. The incident took place when the victim along with his grandmother was going to the Baba Bakala tehsil complex regarding the registry of land.

Those booked were identified as Manmohan Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Ranjodh Singh of Kamoke village. Gurdeep Kaur, a resident of Kamoke village, told the police that her sister-in-law Kanwaljit Kaur of the same village struck a deal of 10 kanals and 18 marla land through Manmohan Singh, Lakhwinder and Ranjodh who are property dealers.

The accused got the registry of the land transferred against her name at Rs 25 lakh about a month ago. The accused also asked them to give Rs 20.64 lakh extra till May 23.

She said as per the promise she along with her grandson Amolakjit Singh was going on motorcycle to give the money. She suspected that when the three accused who snatched their bag took away the money were none other than Manmohan, Lakhwinder and Ranjodh who knew that she was coming to give the money.

The police has registered a case under Section 382 and 34 of the IPC against the trio. Harkrishan Singh, Station House Officer (SHO) Beas police station, said the case was registered following the statement of Gurdeep Kaur. Further investigations were under progress and no arrest had been made so far, the SHO said. 

Amritsar, May 23
Following a tip-off, the Anti-Narcotic Cell of the Amritsar rural police nabbed a person and seized 10 kg of opium worth Rs 8 lakh from his possession. The accused has been identified as Rajinder Kumar, alias Bagga, from Lakhuwal village.

Preliminary investigations revealed that he had brought the consignment from Rajasthan and used to sell the same to truck drivers in a small quantity.