Key issues remain off poll agenda
Amritsar, April 20
Though all major political parties busy in the blame game and justify their vision for the city besides roping in Bollywood stars to gain the attention, the core issues remained off their poll agenda.

Amritsar, April 20
To woo the electorates, the Lok Sabha candidates are making plenty of promises, which do not fall in the purview of a Member of the Parliament. A resident of Race Course Road, Dr AL Adlakha, said the Indian Constitution clearly defined the subjects, enlisted under the List - I of the Seventh Schedule, that fall under the purview of the Parliament. He said the candidates have said nothing about the long-pending demands of the the city residents.

He said after decades of delay, the holy city was connected to Chandigarh by a train a couple of years ago but the demand to extend the train to Kalka had not been met.

“Leaders of all hues are repeatedly saying that they would give an impetus to the trade and industry in the region. For this, they invariably look towards Pakistan and Central Asian countries without thinking that the city was not even well connected domestically,” Adlakha said

He said the candidates had said nothing about connecting the city with Himachal Pradesh, which would eventually give a fillip to the tourism and trade. There is no rail link between the holy city and the Malwa region of the state and there is no direct train to Ahmedabad.

CII’s national policy member Gunbir Singh said the MP’job profile was larger than that of an MLA. “Therefore, we need know what they wanted to do for the constituency,” he said.

He said there was no word on the abolition of service tax, which had been a long-pending demand of traders. Another long-pending demand of traders is the availability of the visa facility at the Integrated Check Post. The demand did not find mention in any of the statements made by the contestants.

Though these leaders accept that the Amritsar international airport is an asset for the state , they never disclosed their views on its expansion.The direct Amritsar-London flight was discontinued a couple of years ago without assigning any reason. The local airport was being used used to export vegetables and flowers to Britain.

Surinder Singh, a city resident, said the contestants in order to attract the maximum attention were promising the moon. “Almost all candidates announced to make the city a tourist hub but there was no word on the expansion ofinfrastructure in the city. For instance, nothing has been said about the railway, which comes under the Union government. The city badly needs additional platforms at the railway station. Keeping in view the expansion of the holy city, a provision for another railway station is required. 

Leaders of all hues are repeatedly saying that they would give an impetus to the trade and industry in the region. For this, they invariably look towards Pakistan and Central Asian countries without thinking that the city was not even well connected domestically.
—Dr AL adalakha

Amritsar, April 20
A city bus driver,identified as Gagandeep, was allegedly beaten up by several BSP workers following a minor altercation over giving side to the bus. The BSP workers were staging a road show in Putlighar area when the incident took place.

Following the incident, a number of city buses on the India Gate-Daburji route carrying passengers reached the spot and refused to ply further in protest against thrashing of the driver by the BSF workers.

In the meantime, a number of city buses plying on the road stalled their buses at the spot and started an agitation leading to the chaos. They refused to ply buses until registration of a case against the accused.

A Cantonment police team reached the spot and initiated the investigations following the statement of Gagandeep. He alleged that the accused also pelted stones on the bus which led to the injury to a couple of women who moved out.

The police said a case had been registered against the unidentified youths and further investigations were under progress. They said the victim had given them the number of the vehicles in which the accused were travelling in.

Amritsar, April 20
The Congress has sought an inquiry and action against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University for the violation of the model code of conduct by holding an election-related meeting at the guest house of the varsity.

Senior party leader and former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Bir Devinder Singh claimed that Chief Minister Badal had stayed at the GNDU guest house and held a meeting with different sections of society, soliciting their support for BJP candidate Arun Jaitley.

Bir Devinder said this was a clear violation of the model code of conduct as no government premises could be used for political purpose. He urged the Election Commission of India to take a serious note of it and question the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner for not reporting the matter to it.

On the other hand, VC Prof AS Brar denied the allegations. “The CM stayed at the varsity guest house and it was only me who met him,” he said.

Amritsar, April 20
Though all major political parties busy in the blame game and justify their vision for the city besides roping in Bollywood stars to gain the attention, the core issues remained off their poll agenda.

Some of the primary issues are safe drinking water, removal of encroachments, organised parking lots, efficient storm water disposal system, waste management, inadequate green belt. They have kept these issue out of their agenda because it could have dented their vote bank, inviting the ire of traders, local residents and Class IV MC employees, who also oppose the installation of the solid waste management plant.

Water supply

It is a pity that the walled city, where 30 per cent of the city's population resides, has the British-era water supply pipelines.

The water supply network could not be extended to the 25 per cent houses in the walled city till now. Moreover, 8.5 lakh residents of the walled city get 50 litres less water than the national recommendation scale, which recommends on an average150 litres of water for a city resident every day. In Amritsar, on an average, a resident gets 100 litres of water. The system of distribution and maintenance is old and poorly managed.

Moreover, the residents are heavily dependent on the groundwater , which is drawn through tubewells and supplied to the residents through a system of overhead reservoirs.

According to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, there are 350 tubewells in Amritsar that supply 180 million litres of water to the residents. Due to the inefficient supply line, around 80 million litres of water gets waste.

It is an irony that in the absence of any scientific system to treat or check the quality of water, the residents in many areas are being compelled to drink contaminated water. In most of the localities, water gets mixed with sewage because of leakages in the sewerage and water supply pipes.

Encroachments

Encroachments upon roads by traders or small time venors and the lack of footpaths have put the lives of pedestrians in danger. A few minutes stroll on Lawrence Road, Crystal Chowk, Cooper Road is enough to gauge the lacunae in the planning. It is a Herculean task for every pedestrian to walk on the road because of the traffic. From Crystal Chowk to Cooper Road, one side has a footpath but the other does not. It is one of the busiest roads in the city.

Due to the faulty drainage system, a brief spell of rain submerges the city under water and it becomes impossible to walk on waterlogged roads.

Parking woes

Parking lots have also been encroached upon by traders or vendors. It is an irony that the state government contemplates to make Amritsar a world class tourist destination and the Deputy CM intended to introduce the robotic parking system here, but the holy city is still crying for the basic parking facilities. Haphazard parking can be witnessed in the entire Walled city, Mall Road, Lawrence Road, Crystal Chowk and Queens Road.

In the walled city area, the already narrow lanes become thinner, especially when traders park their vehicles in front of their shops. The formal parking facility is available only at the Golden Temple and Gurdwara Shaheedan. But even this is inadequate.

Absence of green belt

The Green belt failed to figure in political parties' agenda. Sitting MP Navjot Sidhu had spent Rs 1 crore on the green belt in the city. Later, in the absence of maintenance, it was destroyed.

Waste management

The problem of waste management will be solved if the waste management plant is installed here. There is a need for door-to-door collection of garbage before dumping it at a designated site. 

Amritsar, April 20
The Jammu and Kashmir Centre for Creative Arts (JKCCA) in collaboration with the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA), Amritsar, organised the All-India Art Exhibition at an art gallery in the city.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, president, Indian Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition has been organised with an aim to promote artists from the region. Thirty art works of 24 artists from different states of the country are on display at the exhibition. Committed to promote art, culture and literature in the state, the IAFA has organised such exhibitions in the past too

Speaking on the occasion, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina said it was a welcome step by the JKCCA that it decided to organise the exhibition in Amritsar.

Among the artists who are participating in the exhibition are Chandana Khan from Hyderabad, VS Rahi and Badal Chitrakar from New Delhi, ND Jamwal, TS Batra Bhushan Kesar, Jang S Verman, OP Sharma, Subhash Anand, Reecha Gupta and Amrit Kaur from Jammu, Dr Mamta Singh from Dehradun, Neelima Gupta, Meerut and Pratima Singh from Lucknow, Nathu Lal Verma and Govind Srivastava from Jaipur, Aslam Naqshbandi from Srinagar, Prabhinder Lall from Chandigarh, KS Gill, Dharmender Sharma, and Narinder Singh from Amritsar, Shantala Madhu, Banglore and Romika Bhasin from Bhopal.

Amritsar, April 20
Since the imposition of model code of conduct, the city police have arrested 258 persons under preventive custody and recovered Rs 95 lakh of unaccounted money. The police have also seized a huge quantity of narcotics and illicit liquor.

The city police today listed out its achievements after the announcement of the general election and the implementation of the election code. Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said the city police had constituted three flying squads and three static surveillance teams for every Assembly segment in the constituency. He said these teams, accompanied by paramilitary forces, were working round the clock to maintain the law and order situation. He added that the police teams and jawans of paramilitary forces were also checking vehicles in order to prevent the use of unaccounted money during the polls. He said as many as 1,385 vehicles had been checked by the police till now.

The city police have seized over two kg of heroin, around 500 gms of charas, 500 gms of opium and one kg of narcotic powder besides 2.50 kg of poppy husk. It has also confiscated around 8,500 intoxicant capsules.

Aulakh said the police have also recovered three countrymade pistols besides confiscated Rs 95.82 lakh of unaccounted money so far.

Amritsar, April 20
A handcuffed man managed to flee from police custody yesterday after dodging the cops. He is still out of the reach. The man has been identified as Nanak Singh, son of Avtar Singh, a resident of Navi Abadi Rattan Singh Chowk, Amritsar. He was a proclaimed offender (PO) and was booked under the NDPS Act.

According to ASI Narinder Kumar of Fatehgarh Churian road police post, Nanak Singh was nabbed in a case registered under the NDPS. At about 12.15 pm yesterday, when he was taken to the court for a hearing, he requested the cops to let him go to the loo. Taking advantage of it, he ran away.

“He didn’t show his ill intentions. We didn’t loosen his handcuffs and head constable Jasbir Singh accompanied him up to the toilet door but he took the advantage of it, pushed the head constable and ran away. We are searching for him,” said ASI Kumar.

A case under Section U/S 224 of the IPC has been registered.

Amritsar, April 20
With the parliamentary polls approaching near, the city police have tightened the noose around persons involved in the sale of illicit liquor and narcotics with the arrest of such 12 persons today. They wereheld for allegedly possessing liquor and narcotics .

The Chheharta police have arrested three persons in as many as instances and recovered a total of 122 bottles of liquor from Ravinder Singh, alias Ravi, of Naraingarh, Chheharta, Harjit Singh of Naraingarch and Manjit Singh of Batala Road.

The police also seized 100 capsules of habit- forming drugs from the possession of Manjit Singh.

The Civil Lines police have seized 10 and nine bottles of illicit liquor from Sukhwinder Kumar of Anngarh and Gobind of Karampura respectively. Similarly, Rambagh police station arrested Amrik Singh of Rasulpur Kallar and Avtgar singh of Verka and seized nine and 10 bottles of illicit liquor from them respectively.

In another instance Sultanwind police and Maqboolpura police nabbed Sarwar Singh of Goarkhpur, Uttar Pradesh and Janga of Maqboolpura for possessing 45 bottles and 33 liters of illicit liquor respectively.

The Sadar police have nabbed Pal Singh of Mustfabad with 10 bottles of illicit liquor.

The Islamabad police arrested Baldev Raj Sharma of Dam Ganj area and recovered 2,400 capsules and tablets of proscribed drugs from his possession. He failed to produce any documents relating to the habit forming drugs.

Similarly, the Kotwali police arrested Paramjit Singh of Bage Wali Chhine village with 1,00 intoxicant capsules.

They have been booked under relevant Sections of the The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act (NDPS).

Meanwhile, the C-Division police station recovered a .315 bore country made pistol from Sukha Singh, alias Raju, of Johal Raju Singh village.

Amritsar, April 20
Members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) today rescued a Sambar from a group of people as they were trying to kill it at Vallah village, on the outskirts of the city. The SPCA team reached the spot after a caller from the Police Control Room (PCR) alerted about its presence.

Ashok Joshi of the SPCA said the call was received at about 10.30 am. “After arriving at the spot it was found that the frightened deer was hiding in the village pond to escape a group of people who have been trying to either tame or kill it”, he informed.

Following a nearly two hours struggle and with the assistance of a group of villagers the deer was eventually overpowered and loaded into a carriage. He said officials of the Forest Department had been intimated about the animal. He said the animal had injuries on its rear legs and left eye. The animal was being given medical aid at SPCA shelter outside Hathi gate.

It was the second Sambar recovered by the SPCA in the district during the past three months. Earlier, the SPCA recovered a sambar from Sultanwind village after the police alerted its volunteers about its presence on February 8.

Catching of Sambars and frequent instances of wild boars being sighted in rural areas are a good indication that their population is once again rising. However, animal lovers are of the view that there is a great need to identify their areas, protect and preserve them so that these do not become victim of man-animal conflict.

The state government has made legal provisions allowing hunting of wild boars responsible for destroying crops in villages near reserved forest areas.

Farmers’ grudge about boars is that they destroy more than they eat. There are some pockets of reserved forest area like one at Bohru, another at Sarai Amanat Khan and one near Ramdas close to Indian-Pakistan border.

Local Forest Department officials said they had already forwarded a proposal to put up a 70-km-long fence around the reserve forest area in the Amritsar Forest Range to secure the life of wild animals and preserve them for posterity.

SPCA volunteers said species of Sambar deer was spread to almost every corner of the country and these did not appear on the endangered list. These animals have a life expectancy ranging between 16 to 20 years. They said green fodder was available in plenty in the region besides availability of conducive environment was the reason of their thriving.

Over the years, they said, Sambar deers have become less shy of humans and were sighted in rural areas.

Amritsar, April 20
The residents of the Islamabad area are facing a trouble because of the municipal corporation employees who pile up the silt taken out from the sewerage on road instead of transporting it to the dump.

The residents said MC employees are continuously dumping the silt on the road. They said they have requested the employees to refrain from throwing silt on the road but they have not stopped doing so.

Even as the road inside the Islamabad area leads to many localities as Guru Nanak Pura and Haripura and hundreds of vehicles pass from it daily.

“The road is narrow and people have to cross over from the garbage. The entire stretch of the road gets dirty. The MC must ask its employees to refrain from indulging in such acts,” said Sanjay Anand, a shopkeeper.

Some drivers complained that they would have to wash their vehicles to get rid of the filth as they would start stinking because of it. The residents near the places where MC employees have thrown the silt said the foul smell emanating from these heaps was making breathing troublesome.

Amritsar, April 20
A meeting of the Khalsa College Governing Body was held today to discuss various academic, financial and administrative matters. At the meeting it was decided to open various new courses including Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication (BJMC) and MSc Physiotherapy, to be introduced from the current academic sessions.

The meeting, chaired by Khalsa College Governing Body Chairman Satyajit Singh Majithia, also decided to institute ‘Dr Bhagh Singh Sidhu and Bhagwan Kaur Sidhu’ scholarship of Rs 30,000 each to four meritorious students of the college.

The decisions relating ordinances regarding examinations was also taken during the meeting. University Grants Commission (UGC)’s special nominee Dr Vibha Chauhan, Dean, College Development Council, Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr MS Hundal, Khalsa College Governing Council Honourary Secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina and principal Khalsa College Dr Daljit Singh, took part in the meeting.

The governing body also decided to start MSc (Honours) Food Science and Technology and MSc Bio-Technology and approved the change of nomenclature of all MSc to MSc (Honours).

The budget of the autonomous college was also unanimously passed during the meeting.

Amritsar, April 20
Various city-based NGOs came together to hold the programme "Amritsar Speaks" to inform all LS candidates about the problems being faced by the city residents. The NGOs are of the view that the actual issues and problems of the residents remain unsolved.

This is for the first time that this kind of initiative was taken to bring all the candidates at a common platform.

The NGOs, which participated in the programme, are Mission Aagaaz, Voice of Tobacco Victims, Amritsar Consumer Forum, Voice of Amritsar, All-India Terrorist Victim Association, Amritsar Vikas Manch, Himmat, Lok Kalyan Samiti and Vatavaran Ate Samaj Bachao Morcha.

Several contestants from the recognised parties as well as 11 Independent candidates also participated in the interactive session. These NGOs raised various issues like rampant corruption, VIP culture and the harassment of the common man at the hands of the police, reducing green cover, drug abuse, lack of civil amenities, poor health and educational facilities in the government sector, special economic zone (SEZ) and the absence of a tourism park.

Congress candidate Capt Amarinder Singh said in 2006, a high-level committee was constituted and a concerted plan for the development of Amritsar was formulated. He said he would ensure the release of a package of Rs 781 crores, which is pending with the Home Ministry, for the terrorism-affected families. He also pondered over the issues of rampant cutting of trees and drug abuse in Amritsar.

Dr Daljit Singh from AAP presented his Amritsar vision document, stressing upon the need for all-round development of Amritsar and uplift of the civic amenities.

Amritsar, April 20
The District Consumer Disputes Reddressal Forum has directed Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) to pay Rs 8,675 to a local resident who had earlier purchased a plot from it. The forum has also directed the AIT to pay Rs 2,000 to the complainant as litigation expenses.

Earlier, Paramjit Kaur, a resident of Mallan village in Tarn Taran had filed a complaint stating that she had purchased a plot from AIT for which a transfer deed was made on December 23, 2011. She stated that after execution and registration of the transfer deed, she went to the Halqa Patwari for sanction of mutation but the patwari refused to sanction the mutation with the plea that the khasra number of property mentioned in the transfer deed is wrong.

She alleged that the AIT has mentioned the wrong khasra number and consequently she had to get executed a correction deed on July 7, 2013. She complained that she had to spend Rs 8,175 on correction deed besides Rs 5,00 on stamp papers. Alleging deficiency on part of the AIT she had filed a complaint asking the trust to pay the amount she had spent on execution of correction deed.

The forum observed that the evidence produced on record by the complainant remained unrebutted and unchallenged as opposite party neither filed written version nor any person on behalf of the opposite party dared to file affidavit to rebut the case of the complainant.

The forum stated that the complainant had to spend Rs 8,675 extra due to the negligence of the AIT and as such it is liable to pay the amount to the complainant.