Amritsar, September 13
The Health Department destroyed huge stocks of substandard food items, seized from two factories a fe months ago. Employees of the department disposed of around 20 quintals of turmeric powder, 1.5 quintal garam masala, 5 quintal gram flour, 300 kg noodles and 2,000 packets of red chilly.

The food items were seized from the premises of SK Grinders at Dhab Basti Ram during a raid on May 28 and from Ganpati Noodle Factory at Banke Bihari Gali on July 13.

District Health Officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said they had collected samples of products which were seized and sent them for testing to the food testing laboratory in Chandigarh. He said the test reports received by the department stated that these items were not fit for human consumption.

Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said the products were destroyed so that these could not be sold in the market. He said they had recently destroyed around 2000 quintals of sausages on September 7.

Dr Kahlon said the food items were destroyed so that a serious message could be conveyed to those involved in manufacturing and sale of substandard foods. Dr Kahlon said the drive initiated by the health department earlier this year had started yielding results.

Besides collecting samples from shops on a regular basis, the department had also discovered over a dozen illegal food factories operating in the city. “Apart from collecting over 470 samples of foods in the current year, we have raided around 13 factories and sealed most of them for manufacturing substandard items,” said Dr Kahlon.

He said the department was soon going to initiate an extensive drive to check quality of foods being served to students at schools. “We have complaints stating that canteens at educational institutions are not selling hygienic food. Previously we had issued warnings to such schools,” said District Health Officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon.

Amritsar, September 13
Rare old silver coins were found buried underneath a century-old dilapidated residential building in Gali Ardasia, near Chaurasti Attari, in the walled city here today when its owner got it demolished.

The building was in a dilapidated condition and the owner had received a notice from the Municipal Corporation (MC) to demolish it. The demolition started about 15 days ago. However, the owner was in for a surprise today when the labourers found some silver coins buried underneath a small room.

The news of recovery of silver coins spread like a wildfire in the area as curious people started pouring in at the scene to see the coins. They seemed exciting on seeing the silver coins and repeatedly urged police officials to show the coins to them.

Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, SHO, Kotwali police station, said till now over 400 coins had been found, which they had taken into possession. He said further investigations were under progress to see whether any person or labourers had taken away the coins from the site.

Sahil Seth, son of the owner of the building, said this was their ancestral property. Our forefathers had told us about burying of silver coins in the house, which used to be use as currency during their time. He said the police, which had reached the spot, had found around 425 silver coins in the denomination of one rupee, one anna, four anna, which belonged to early 1916-17.

Amritsar, September 13
The Municipal Corporation authorities have expedited the process of hiring companies to make the solid waste management plant functional to meet the deadline set by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The High Court had directed the civic body on July 23 to engage an execution firm within six months.

Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said tender process for engaging firm for the project would be floated next month.

"We had targeted to furnish the tendering formalities within three months. By the next month, we would be in a position to finalise the tendering formalities. We have already applied for obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for authorisation of the project site. The project would be installed within stipulated time frame," he said.

It was an Amritsar-based NGO, Punjab Pollution Control Committee, which had filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006 seeking directions to the state government and the Amritsar Municipal Corporation to shift the present site for dumping municipal solid waste and dead animals at Bhaktanwala.

Later, MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife CPS Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu also intervened in the matter.

Parkash Singh Bhatti, president, Punjab Pollution Control Committee, said, "As per the HC directions, it is mandatory to follow the norms in accordance with the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) rules, 2000, and for scientific disposal of the municipal solid waste."

In the solid waste management case, pending since 2006, the High Court had directed the MC to award contract to set up municipal solid waste management plant within six months.

The city is in a dire need of the solid waste management project as it would be the ultimate solution to the garbage disposal problem the civic authorities have been grappling with.

The situation got worse when the firm engaged for garbage disposal, Antony Waste Handling, withdrew its machinery in August last year following a tussle it had with the MC over the payment of dues.

At present, the MC is facing an uphill task in maintaining the cleanliness in the city. Even as the MC officials claimed to have engaged private hands to do the job, the exercise has proved insufficient. 

Amritsar, September 13
The three-day Migratory Pulse Polio round with a target to immunise 1,13,601 children in the district would start from tomorrow.

Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said 641 teams of the department would target a population of 8,69,300 residing in 1,77,595 houses. He said all the children aged under five years would be administered polio drops during this period.

The department would be mobilising around 1,282 health workers under 127 supervisors for the drive, said Mitra. He said the drive had a special focus of migratory workers families residing mostly at factory premises, brick kilns, farm houses, railway station and bus stands besides slums.

District Immunisation Officer Dr Rajan Verma said that district being near to the Pakistan border is always at a high risk. He said that fearing transmission of polio virus, they have already set up permanent immunization posts. 

Amritsar, September 13
A policeman posted in the Narcotic Cell, Amritsar (Rural) police, was caught consuming heroin at a secluded place near Rampura village.

The Chatiwind police recovered a silver foil and matchbox from head constable Amandeep Singh. A case under Sections 27, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him.

Tarlochan Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), posted in the CIA staff, said he along with his staff was patrolling the area in private vehicles when they spotted a man hiding in bushes. The police team arrested him. During investigation he revealed his identity. He told the police that he was addicted to heroin and found this secluded place for consuming it.

In another instance, Amritsar Central Jail staff arrested a Home Guards jawan for allegedly possessing 8 gm of heroin. The jawan, identified has Hardyal Singh, had concealed the contraband in capsules.

Deputy Superintendent, Central Jail, RK Sharma, said following a tip-off jail staff searched Hardyal Singh, who was on night duty at that time, and found the contraband.

Lately the Police Department has deputed Home Guard jawans of the Punjab Armed Police in the central jails in Punjab in order to check the smuggling of narcotics into the jails.

A case has been registered at the Cantonment police station.

Amritsar, September 13
A man committed suicide by shooting himself at Sangna village, under Chatiwind police station, here.

Palwinder Singh (50) took the extreme step following a dispute with several persons, who had got lodged a police complaint against him and his family members and later got it released in a section of media.

The police has registered a case of abetment to suicide against three persons - Savinder Singh, his two sons Sukhdev singh and Paramjit Singh, all residents of the same village.

Gurmit Singh, brother of the deceased, stated to the police that his brother was very upset with the registration of case against him and his family members, including women. He said last morning at about 7 am, Palwinder shot himself with his licenced .12-bore rifle. He died on the spot.

The police said a case under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 34 of the IPC was registered against the three and raids were being conducted to nab them.

Amritsar, September 13
Nine women have been arrested by the city police for their alleged involvement in drug peddling and bootlegging this month so far.

The police yesterday nabbed Jaswant Kaur, a notorious peddler, who is popularly known in her area as 'Aunty'.

A number of cases are registered against her and she has even served sentence in jail. However, she restarted her business all over again after her release, said the police.

Presently, she was wanted in over half a dozen cases.

The city has witnessed an alarming rise in the drug addiction due to its proximity to the international border. The Home Department, Punjab, has directed the police officials to launch a massive drive in order to curtail the drug abuse spreading its tentacles all over the state.

There has been a spurt in the number of women involved in drug trafficking of late.

A very few women were arrested in such cases in the past for drug trafficking.

Sources in the police department disclose that many women were in the 'business' for quite some time but they generally escape the suspicion taking advantage of their gender. The rising trend has sounded an alarming bell in the law enforcing agencies. The police also claimed to have arrested another woman Sukhdip Kaur, a resident of Mata Ganga Ji Nagar, for drug peddling.

"In majority of such cases, women generally belong to families which have traditionally been in the business. Some of them get involved when male members of their families are either arrested or flee for fear of their arrest," said Amrik Singh Pawar, ADCP city-II.

A few days back, the police arrested three smugglers who had connections across the border. Investigations found the involvement of Rajwant Kaur, one of the accused's wife in the trade.

Amritsar, September 13
A group of men allegedly assaulted and molested a woman and also beat up her husband in Tarn Taran over a minor dispute.

The victims have lodged a complaint with the police in this connection.

The woman has alleged that instead of registering an FIR, SHO Jaswant Singh started pressurising her to withdraw the complaint. The victim, a resident of Iqbal Avenue, Tarn Taran, along with her husband today appeared before Rajkumar Verka, vice-chairman of the National SC/ST commission and urged him to intervene in the matter.

The victim said that on August 26 her husband was going to bring children from school when the accused, Varinder, hit him with car. She said the accused instead of apologising started abusing her husband and used casteist remarks against him.

She alleged when she complained this to Varinder's family the accused along with Savinder Singh and Gurdeep Singh came to her their residence and started abusing them.

She further said when she objected to this, the accused torn her cloths and molested her. She said when her husband came to her rescue, he was brutally beaten up.

Verka summoned Tarn Taran SSP Rajjit Singh Brar and directed him to depute an SP-rank official to investigate the case and submit the report within 15 days. 

Amritsar, September 13
Mystery shrouds the death of a 28-year-old youth who died after he fell down from an elevated road here last evening. The post-mortem examination conducted on the deceased's body today confirmed that he died of critical head injury.

Amarjit Singh, bus stand police chowki in-charge and investigation officer in the case, said action under criminal procedure code has been initiated in the case. The police is also probing other angles.

The investigation officer said it was yet to be ascertained that how he fell down the elevated road even as he was walking on foot. The police has found no suicide note.