Amritsar, July 16
Mystery shrouds the death of a girl student of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), whose body was found lying in the bushes near the Biotechnology Department of the university on the very first day of the new academic session today.

The deceased has been identified as Inderpreet Kaur, a third-semester student of MSc (Biotechnology).

There was no evidence to term the death as suicide, murder or an accident. Security guards of the university have recovered her mobile phone from the fourth floor of the department.

Prof PK Sehajpal, Dean, Students Welfare, Guru Nanak Dev University, who was present on the spot said it would be improper to reach any conclusion as there was no witness to the incident.

"There was no one who saw her falling from the building. The instance came to light when some students who were climbing stairs of an adjoining building, spotted her body lying in the shrubbery near the Biotechnology Department. It would be too early to say anything before the postmortem report comes. Meanwhile, the matter has been referred to the police and we are also inquiring from her fellow students on our end," he said.

The body of the girl was handed over to her parents and the postmortem would be conducted tomorrow.

The Station House Officer (SHO) of the Cantonment police station and investigating officer, Sohan Singh, said the matter was under investigation.

"No case has been registered so far. It would be done only after the postmortem or if someone lodges a complaint in the case," he said.

Amritsar, July 16
The Municipal Corporation (MC), headed by Mayor BR Arora, today conducted a crucial second meeting after a gap of over six months.

As per the precedent, on the agenda were various development works to provide quality life to the residents, yet the SAD-BJP councillors, as well as the Opposition leaders, including the Independent ones, showed solidarity in pointing out the failure of the MC in providing safe drinking water, roads, garbage-free surroundings, efficient sewerage and water drainage system. They openly held MC officials of various departments guilty of indulging in mass corruption without any check.

The main focus of the cash-strapped MC was to generate funds by sale of its properties or raise loans from the banks.

Besides this, the burning issues, like embezzlement by way of giving green signal to unauthorised colonisers while burdening the individual house owners, safe drinking water, hygienic environ by introducing fogging machinery and medicines to avoid any epidemic, menace of stray dogs, streamlining the public utility services like issuance of death and birth certificates and desilting of drainage system, etc were were deliberated up on in the House meeting.

The House unanimously pointed out the failure of the MC in the door-to-door garbage lifting and its disposal. Meanwhile, amidst little resistance from the Opposition, the whole set of resolutions were passed.

Amritsar, July 16
Public works at various government offices in the district have suffered as the ministerial staff staged a rally at Government Medical College against the anomalies in their pay grades.

The work at Excise and Taxation, Education, PWD (B and R), Public Health, Agriculture, Horticulture, Sanitation, Irrigation, Revenue and Treasury Departments were affected because of the protest by the Ministerial Staff Association.

The association said they had given sufficient time to the government to deliberate upon their demands. “We would chalk out the plan to intensify the protest against the state government on July 20,” said association’s state president Dalbir Singh Bajwa.

Association general secretary Jagdish Thakur said the state government was playing indifferent to their demands, but they would not let the matter go without yielding any results.

Thakur said the association was protesting to get the anomalies in implementation of revised pay scales corrected, besides various other issues. Prominent among others present in the protest included Tejinder Singh Dhillon, Sunil Kumar and Manjinder Singh. 

Amritsar, July 16
The Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association (PCPDA) has announced to hold a state-level protest in Jalandhar on July 22.

The decision was taken after holding over a two-hour-long protest at the revenue office in the Court complex. Members of the association raised slogans against the SAD-BJP coalition government and its restrictive policies against the real estate sector, said SK Vashisht, district president of the association.

The Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association is annoyed at the recently unveiled state government’s policy regarding the regularisation of unauthorised colonies. The PCPDA said the compounding fee, which is collected from the colonisers and the development charges, which are collected from the property buyers, have been raised unproportionately for regularising the unapproved colonies.

Association district president SK Vashisht said high compounding fee and development charges would hit the colonisers and end users. He said the real estate industry was already under recession in the state, in general and Amritsar, in particular.

He said the comparison between the compounding fee and development charges for unlicensed colonies was unreasonably high as well as unrealistic. The government had fixed compounding fee per acre for cities like Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar at Rs 2.50 lakh for colonisers and Rs 250 per square yard development charge from plot holders as per the 2007 policy. Now, the same compounding fee has been fixed at Rs 15 lakh for these cities and development charges at Rs 500 per square yard.

He demanded that on the line of industries, single window system must be introduced for the real estate sector and fees and charges must be brought down to provide access to larger sections of the society to own their dwellings.

Agitating members of the PCPDA submitted a memorandum at the Deputy Commissioner’s office and PUDA to vent their feelings to the state government.

Amritsar, July 16
Congress leader Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli accused Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal of working against the rural population of the state by transferring around 500 specialist doctors from rural dispensaries.

Lalli Majithia said the Health Minister’s move of transferring specialist doctors was aimed at consolidating BJP’s urban vote bank. “Instead, the focus should be on providing better medical and education services to all citizens of the state.”

Majithia termed this action as ‘a result of internecine battle between Akali’s and BJP’ as Mittal was not concerned about rural areas and requirements of the rural populace and interested in implementing the agenda of caring about urban areas only.

The mass transfers of doctors during the previous month had already drawn flak from the medical fraternity.

“This single move of the Health Minister has denied around 10 lakh residents of 761 villages in district of the services of specialist doctors,” Majithia said.

Majithia said the Health Minister had taken the transfers’ decision in view of its policy to strengthen 100 health institutions in the state.

Majithia requested Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to understand the ulterior motive of the BJP minister and intervene in view of the needs of the rural population. 

Amritsar, July 16
One of the favourite corporate sports in the country, squash, is gradually wooing youngsters in the holy city. For those who have been smitten by this rigorous sport, the only squash arena in the city at the Service Club has become a training ground.

Rated as one of the healthiest sports to play by Forbes, squash has recently been introduced to the city. Following the international popularity of squash, a good number of youngsters are taking up the sport. “There are at least 25 to 30 people pursuing the sport in the city. The level of playing depends from fitness to professional motivation and it is generating a lot of interest too,” shares Siddharth Arora, a student who plays squash at the inter-university level.

From an activity that was limited only to the cantonment area in the city to becoming a fitness regime, squash has gained popularity, but only among the select few. “Most people are not aware of it since it is not a much televised sport. Moreover, only those who play the sport, understands and appreciates it, for others, it’s just another ball game,” informs Sahil Adlakha, a businessman from the city, who was the first to introduce the game in Amritsar.

Adlakha has been training many youngsters to take up a liking to squash. “It’s a rigorous sport that demands a lot of strength, stamina and commitment. Most of the students who play at the inter-college or university-level do not pursue it further. Though there are club-level and college-level championship being played in the city and the university too has been supporting the sport for the past two years now, still there is a lack of education about squash,” adds Adlakha, who has played the sport professionally at Malaysian circuit and coached at Lawrence School, Sanawar and BBKDAV in the city.

Most of the inter-university players in the city are self trained as there are no professional coaches or guidance available in the city. “I have played squash at inter-university level and I trained myself by watching videos of international squash tournaments on Youtube. That’s how most of the players train themselves before any competition,” says Siddharth.

With the support for squash to be recognised by the IOC and incorporation in the future Olympic programme, the future seems to be promising. “Squash has been a popular sport in all major international educational institutions and even in India. If you are good at it, it makes you eligible for admission into any reputed academic institution on sporting grounds. Secondly, it’s a great way of a powerful workout. And also, it a highly competitive sport that enjoys international popularity,” says Sahil. He is one of the patrons of the Punjab Open Squash Championship held annually in the city to promote the sport. “Every year we get lot of promising youngsters from the city and Jalandhar who want to take up squash professionally, if only given a chance,” he says.