Cops broker peace between two groups
Amritsar, June 22
The city police has managed to broker peace between the groups of two communities which were at loggerheads over a property dispute for one week.

Father-son duo booked for fraud
Amritsar, June 22
A father-son duo has been booked for cheating a local resident on the pretext of arranging permanent residency for him in the United States.

Woman says son turned her out
Amritsar, June 22
An elderly woman, Mahinder Kaur, of Chheharta area has alleged that she was thrown out of the house by her son.

College sets up help desk to assist BE.d, ME.d students
Amritsar, June 22
With a view to providing help to students seeking admissions in BEd and MEd Colleges throughout Punjab, Khalsa College of Education (KCE) today set up a free help desk-cum-admission cell on its campus here. This was a part of the programme of Panjabi University, Patiala, which is conducting centralised online counselling for BEd programmes for the session 2013-14, said KCE principal Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon.

Amritsar, June 22
Patient care services have been hit severely at the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital (also known as Civil Hospital) here due to an acute shortage of staff at its trauma centre.

Reason: The hospital authorities have to spare staff from its other regular services and wards to pitch in for the trauma centre.

The trauma centre has failed to get the sanctioned staff even four years after it came into existence.

The hospital which is already facing a staff crunch has to spare emergency medical officers, radiographers, nurses and other paramedical staff for the centre.

Employees at the hospital say that the trauma centre needs at least four emergency medical officers - three for working in shifts and one as a reliever.

Though the centre has few nurses and radiographers sanctioned for it, the entire hospital has only two emergency medical officers while it needs at least six emergency medical officers.

The centre was constructed around four years ago during the tenure of then Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla.

The employees feel that staff shortage has overburdened them Patients, too, are of the view that if the centre is equipped with sufficient emergency medical officers it could be of enormous help to them, especially the accident victims.

The trauma centre constructed at a cost of more that Rs 1.5 crore has not been able to utilise its potential due to staff crunch. Sources said even the ventilator machines had become dysfunctional because these are not put to regular use.

Sulkhan Singh, an attendant with a patient, said, “Poor people will not have to go to expensive private clinics if there is sufficient staff at government hospitals.”

He said the families of accident victims had to spend a lot of money at private clinics because they could not take the risk to go to government hospitals where staff was in a perpetual shortage.

Civil Hospital Senior Medical Superintendent (SMO) Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon said, “We have written to the Health Department for sanctioning more staff for the trauma centre.”

“We have been assured to get more staff for the centre soon,” the Senior Medical Superintendent said.

Amritsar, June 22
The Kotwali police has booked five persons in an abettment to suicide case, in which Rajesh Sehgal, a resident of Katra Baghian, had committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance.

Rajesh took the extreme step as he was under immense pressure as he had borrowed money on interest from the accused.

A suicide note was found in the pocket of the deceased which held several persons responsible for his death. On the basis of the suicide note, the police booked Nindi Pehalwan of fish market, Mohna Pehalwan, Avinash Sanju, Ashwani of Rambagh area and Babbu of Chita Gumat Ram Bagh.

Mayank Sehgal, the deceased’s son, told the police that his father had borrowed money from the said persons and was paying interest to them. But the accused, he alleged, were pressuring him to return the money. He alleged that they were charging exorbitant rate of interest from his father, due to which he was not able to return the money even after over five years. The accused, he said, had got the signatures of both him and his father’s on blank cheques, besides taking signatures of his mother on blank papers by force.

He said the accused had come to their shop yesterday and threatened his father of dire consequences. Mayank said after the accused left, his father consumed some poisonous substance and informed the family about this. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital where he breathed his last.

The police said a case under Section 306, 120-B of the IPC had been registered. No arrest has been made so far. 

Amritsar, June 22
Learning a lesson from the devastating natural calamity in Uttarakhand, the Amritsar administration has come out with a District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) and is holding training camps for local officials.

The administration has sought to include expert local residents who may play a significant role in rescue operations by lifting debris, cutting iron and other such activities.

It has asked disaster management experts to incorporate names of such volunteers, their contacts numbers, places and areas of expertise in the 261-page book. The DDMP is jointly prepared by Rinkal Mahajan and Parashant Gautam, project officers with the Punjab government.

There would be a rulebook with the DDMC which is tasked with planning, implementing and monitoring the disaster management activities. This is a multi-disciplinary committee with over 30 members.

In case of a disaster, the Incident Command System (ICS) would be the higher authority in the district. The ICS is a pre-designed system which is activated only in the event of disaster and its roles get over as soon as the rehabilitation is completed.

There are Crisis Management Groups and three working groups under the Incident Commander-cum-Deputy Commissioner.

Disaster Management expert Surjit Sharma said there were a number of skilled people in the district whose services could be solicited in event of a disaster. He said these people could be residents of Mohkampura area who had their workshops in cutting iron bars. Lifting of heavy items by people, locally called Kharasiye, is available outside Ghee Mandi.

The vulnerability and hazardous situation and capacity available to face a disaster are elaborately described in the rulebook. It also offers mitigation plan, standard operation procedures and action plan for the Emergency Support Programme. It also contains the resource inventory of the district, emergency contact number, papers for data collection, checklist and more. Besides, it provides an exclusive list of schools in the district and various associations in the district.

The district faces various hazards, both natural and man-made. It states the district falls in the seismic zone-IV thus making it prone to earthquake.

In case of an earthquake, it anticipates that the damage will be at most 40 per cent. Sandwiched between the Beas and Ravi, the area is also prone to floods. The flood threat looms large over 40 villages in from Ajnala and 10 villages in Baba Bakala.

Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said the objective of preparing this document was to introduce the tested method of disaster management while replacing the conventional ones.

Amritsar, June 22
The city police has booked three persons for allegedly throwing acid on a person following a dispute.

The victim, Harpal Singh, a resident of Wadda Haripura, suffered burn injuries while Narain Das who was standing near him also suffered injuries due to the acid.

The accused were identified as Money, Ravi and Dina Nath, who work in a dairy located in Bazaar Borian.

Ashok Kumar, SHO D-division police station, said preliminary investigations had revealed that Harpal had allegedly teased a girl known to the accused. Angry over this, the accused threw acid on Harpal.

He said a case had been registered and further investigations were under progress.

Amritsar, June 22
The city police has managed to broker peace between the groups of two communities which were at loggerheads over a property dispute for one week.

Both the groups were holding demonstrations in support of their demands.

The city police today invited both the groups for talks and after more than one-hour-long deliberations, a compromise was reached in the presence of senior police officials, including Additional (ADCP-Special) Baljit Singh Randhawa and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP-City-I) Shailender Singh Shelly.

While a group had charged the opposite party of encroaching upon the land belonging to their community, the other group had traded the allegations of forced conversions. They had lodged criminal cases against each other and have been threatening to agitate. They had even blocked roads for pressing for action against the opposite group.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP-Special) Baljit Singh Randhawa said both the groups had agreed to wait for the court's decision on the disputed piece of land.

The ADCP further said both the groups had assured that they would abide by the court verdict.

They also decided not to impress upon any other person to convert their religion, Randhawa informed. 

Amritsar, June 22
A father-son duo has been booked for cheating a local resident on the pretext of arranging permanent residency for him in the United States.

Jainder Singh of Adliwal village in Amritsar alleged that the two accused identified as Gurinderpal Singh and his son Dev Roop Singh of Industrial area in Goindwal Sahib took Rs 21 lakh from him to arrange his permanent residency there.

Jainder Singh said Gurinderpal Singh had assured him of arranging his permanent residency in the US as his son was settled there. He had asked for Rs 40 lakh and took Rs 21 lakh in advance.

The Civil Lines police has registered a case under Section 420 and 120-B of the IPC in this connection. Lakhwinder Kumar, in-charge, Durgiana police chowki, said a case had been registered following an inquiry conducted by ADCP City-II Amrik Singh Pawar and after taking the opinion of the District Attorney Legal.

He said when the accused failed to send him abroad, he signed an agreement with the victims on August 2012 that he would either return the money or send them to the US. He said during investigations carried out by the senior police official the signature on the agreement matched with the handwriting of Gurinderpal Singh.

This clearly indicates the involvement of Gurinderpal, Lakhwinder Singh said. The police said raids were conducted at the residence of the accused who are absconding. 

Amritsar, June 22
An elderly woman, Mahinder Kaur, of Chheharta area has alleged that she was thrown out of the house by her son.

In her complaint to the police, Kaur said her youngest son Amarjit Singh had forcibly taken all the documents of her bank accounts and property.

She said her husband Gulzar Singh, who had retired from railway department, died a couple of years ago and she was residing with her youngest son since then. She said she was thrown out of the house by Amarjit about five months ago claiming that the house and property belonged to him.

She alleged that the will of the property was also taken by Amarjit Singh.

She urged the police authorities to provide justice to her and help in getting all the documents of her pension, bank transactions besides the property documents.

The police said they were investigating the case. Appropriate action would be taken against the guilty after the probe, he added.

Amritsar, June 22
With a view to providing help to students seeking admissions in BEd and MEd Colleges throughout Punjab, Khalsa College of Education (KCE) today set up a free help desk-cum-admission cell on its campus here. This was a part of the programme of Panjabi University, Patiala, which is conducting centralised online counselling for BEd programmes for the session 2013-14, said KCE principal Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon.

He said the cell was established keeping in view the hardships that parents and students face while registering themselves for online counselling. The counselling service, he said, would provide information about availability of colleges of education, subject combinations, reservation policies, weightage to rural area students etc.

"The college will provide free services for online registration from June 25 to July 01, 2013. For the cell, a team of senior teachers, including Dr Bindu Sharma, Dr Indu Sudhir, Dr Deepika Kohli, Prof Ravneet Kaur, Prof Gurkiran Kaur, Prof Anju Tyagi, Prof Harpreet Kaur Bains and Prof Manpreet Kaur Cheema has been formed," said Dhillon who is also Dean, Faculty of Education, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

The help desk will remain open on all days from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. "This will save the students from fleecing and cheating by agents at cyber cafes and other internet providers, who charge huge amount for this purpose but still upload wrong information which leads to cancellation of the candidature of most of the students," said Dhillon.

The free service is meant for all students, from all over Punjab, who wish to register themselves online for BEd admissions for session 2013-14.

Amritsar, June 22
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Santosh Chaudhary said funds received from the Central Government, in terms of grants-in-aid, were often misutilised by the state government. She was here to pay obeisance at Golden Temple after her recent induction as minister of state.

Chaudhary said she had asked for details of the grants disbursed by Health and Family Welfare Department to the states and how these were utilised. All the states in country had failed to utilise the central funds in a responsible way, she added.

Interacting with media at Congress Bhawan here, she said 108 ambulance vehicles in the state were funded by the Central Government but the state government had tried to take credit for it.

To a query about the pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on these vehicles, she said, “They should have removed the picture on their own or they will now have to remove these,” and added that there were clear-cut guidelines about the issue.

On the occasion, senior Congress leader and MLA Om Parkash Soni demanded that the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry should constitute a board to enquire into the anomalies of central funds.

“While hundreds of crores of rupees have been received by the state, these have not reached the people for whom they were meant to be,” he said.

Others present on the occasion included District Congress Committee (Urban) President Jugal Kishore Sharma, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Darbari Lal, Harpartap Ajnala and Vikas Soni.

Amritsar, June 22
Now, you do not have to run after patwaris or seek recommendation for obtaining the copy of jamabandi. Thanks to computerisation of land record division in Amritsar.

One can now get computerised copy of jamabandi from personal computer within 15-20 minutes through as many as nine ‘farad kendras’, one each at Amritsar-1, Amritsar-2, Majitha, Attari, Ajnala, Baba Bakala, Lopoke, Tarsika and Ramdas.

Rajat Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, said almost all the land records of villages in the district had been uploaded online and computerisation of land records of urban areas was at full swing.

“This is a revolutionary administrative reform by the state government to ensure transparent and hassle-free delivery of public utility service to people. All farad kendras have now been equipped with modern technology and proper sitting arrangement for farmers, water coolers, fans and other facilities”, he said.

The administration had issued farads of 1,13,238 farmers in the last financial year and the government had earned over Rs 97 lakh by charging a marginal fees of Rs 20 per jamabandi paper.

Amritsar-1 farad kendra issued 11,995 jamabandis and earned Rs 10,98,240, Amritsar-2 issued around 8,452 jamabandis and collected revenue of Rs 7,61,620, Majitha farad kendra issued 11,142 jamabandis and collected Rs 10,60,180, Attari farad kendra released 7,682 jamabandis and collected revenue of Rs 7,23,620. Lopoke farad kendra issued 12,247 jamabandis and collected revenue of Rs 10,54,240, Baba Bakala farad kendra issued 21,372 jamabandis against Rs 17,18,760 and Tarsiks farad kendra issued 9,674 jamabandis and earned a revenue of Rs 9,05,280.

“Gone are the days when people needed to go to the patwaris to get a copy of their land records. Now they can get a computerised copy from farad kendras within a few minutes. I appeal to the residents not to fall prey to any middle man and instead file a complaint to my office if any element misguides them and charges more than Rs 20 per page of jamabandi”, Aggarwal said. 

Amritsar, June 22
Summers are a tough time to save water and with the ignorant attitude of public and rampant water wastage during peak season, the situation worsens and results in a water crisis. In a world where at least 2.5 billion people do not have access to quality water, the issue of water conservation becomes a top priority. Rising up to the occasion, some city-based social activists have come up with some simple solutions to save water and are busy educating others about these.

“We only talk in the name of awareness regarding the issue. But it is high time we put words into action,” said Rekha Mahajan, a social activist working towards water conservation. “We have been working along with school and environment-conscious citizens who shared simple yet effective measures that can help achieve the uphill task,” she said.

“Access to quality water is the right of every citizen of the world and utmost priority for any governance. With simple changes like repairing faulty taps and equipments in public conveniences, which are the cause of water wastage, the authorities can do more than a bit in this direction,” said Dipak Babbar, member of Mission Aghaaz.

Examples like the Government Senior Secondary School in Jandiala and Prabhakar School in Cheherta, who made sure to conserve waste water being sourced out from the RO systems by storing the discarded water through a pipe that runs into a storage drum, are more than inspiring. “One can apply the same at our home, since most of us use RO systems for water purification. About 80 per cent of the water goes waste in the process that could be saved for other household usage,” Dipak shared.

“Implementing some basic disciplinary rules in our daily water consumption process can be quite effective in checking water wastage,” he added.

Simple things like checking the amount of water wasted during washing clothes, dishes or using the toilet could go a long way in saving water. “If each household that uses RO systems stores the discarded water for usage, roughly 2,000 litres of water would be saved in a few hours everyday,” he said.

Also, earlier the villages had kuccha houses that ensured making up for the groundwater levels during rains. But now, since every house is concrete, lesser water seeps through the ground. Another important aspect to take note is open defecation. It is a major cause of water pollution and diseases and needs to be taken seriously. Voice of Amritsar, another active NGO in the city, has its volunteers up in arms against this struggle for clean water. “We have to be aggressive sometimes in asking people to stop wasting water. Most understand the problem but choose to ignore it as long as they can,” Gurbej Singh, a volunteer, said.