Commuters travelling on roof tops of buses
Prez office tells Chief Secy to check practice
Amritsar, June 6
The President's office has asked the Punjab Chief Secretary to take appropriate action in connection with the blatant violations of public transport rules wherein the goods carrier vehicles are being used to ferry passengers.

Eight held for possessing illicit liquor
Amritsar, June 6
The city police have arrested as many as eight persons on charges of possessing narcotic and illicit liquor.

Amritsar, June 6
The 30-year arduous wait for 133 shopkeepers, displaced during Operation Bluestar, seems to be reaching its conclusion with the shopkeepers accepting the state government's offer of allotting shops to them at collector rate.

These traders have been fighting a legal battle for their right for the past three decades during which around 40 of the 133 traders died. Some of them died after contracting diseases during adverse circumstances that prevailed after the tragedy while some committed suicide in view of their deteriorating financial condition.

One of the leaders of these shopkeepers, GS Arora, said, "Their shops were taken over by the government after these were damaged and the merchandise burnt during the military attack on the supreme Sikh shrine." He rued that they were never compensated for the loss of their trading material.

He stated that the Galiara beautification scheme was initiated in 1986. At that time, many tenant shopkeepers were rehabilitated at the IDH market and at the Pink Plaza at a land rate of Rs 1,000 per square yard, whereas the then collector rate was Rs 4,000.

Arora said, asking for the same treatment, they went to the court and were awaiting the verdict. However, in view of the long, agonising wait, they decided to accept the offer. He said the shopkeepers were holding meetings among themselves to arrive at a unanimous decision.

Meanwhile, the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) has already zeroed-in on a nearly four-acre site in the Mall Mandi area on GT road.

Amritsar, June 6
Just a day after Environment Day, a high number of trees, saplings, bushes and high grass were burnt at the ESI Hospital situated on the Majitha road.

The spacious campus of the hospital with a number of saplings and trees planted by NGOs to turn the city green came to naught as some of its employees reportedly set the dry grass afire.

An Amritsar Tribune team visited the hospital and found that rows of half-grown and full-grown tress in tree guards were turned to ash while the tree guards got blackened in the fire. The green belt spread on a few acres was stripped of green cover.

Experts says burning the refuse of plants, grass and trees result in emission of harmful gases, loss of bio-diversity, increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, degeneration of the micro-climate, increase in respiratory ailments and other harmful fallouts.

Amritsar, June 6
With the municipal corporation gearing up to collect property tax before its June 30 deadline, the residents, who volunteered to pay their dues, resented that the option of paying the tax online through the municipal corporation's website was lying defunct for quite some time and no efforts were made by the authorities to rectify the snag.

The long queues to deposit the tax irked the residents. To cope with the huge number of applicants for submission of property tax, the MC had launched a web portal with its link through the official website on www.amritsarmunicipalcorporation.com.

The online deposit facility was introduced in December to give relief to those residents who cannot come over to the tax-collection centres physically. The facility had yielded desired results as a number of residents had opted for it and paid their dues without hassles.

Besides, the MC had also tied up with the HDFC Bank and the Axis Bank which offered dedicated desks for collection of property tax through their eight branches where the people could deposit the tax through credit or debit cards.

Such moves were taken for speedy recovery of the tax as most of the residents were dejected at the long queues at the collection centres. They were otherwise interested in clearing their dues before the stipulated date.

Now, neither the website link works nor are there any dedicated desks at the designated bank branches in sight.

On the other hand, Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi had already announced that no grace period would be given beyond June 30.

Amritsar, June 6
The President's office has asked the Punjab Chief Secretary to take appropriate action in connection with the blatant violations of public transport rules wherein the goods carrier vehicles are being used to ferry passengers.

The instructions were passed following a petition to the President's office filed by Dr AL Adlakha, a prominent ENT doctor and an RTI activist associated with an NGO.

In the letter, Adlakha highlighted the problem of gross violation of public transport rules in India. He referred to the incident in which four young lives were lost after a truck ferrying passengers touched a high-voltage wire at Patti in Tarn Taran.

Amritsar, June 6
Theatre artistes in the city are busiest this summer with the month-long annual workshop being held at Virsa Vihar. The annual edition of the workshop which brings in the best from the National School of Drama to interact and hone the theatrical skills of aspiring artistes from the city is in collaboration with Preet Pal, an NSD passout and director, and Kolkata-based theatreperson Partho Banerjee.

Kewal Dhaliwal, who has earlier conducted workshops in various parts of country, says, "This workshop has become one of the most awaited and prominent theatre activities in the city. Over the years, we have invited and hosted artisets from various parts of the country and across the border as well. " For him it has become more of a mission than a workshop. "There is so much talent in Punjab but lack of attention and exposure to smaller towns of Punjab has made it necessary to hold regular theatre activities." Through these workshops he aims to hone not just acting skills but theatrical skills also of young and aspiring artistes. "Theatre has become very professional. Sets, design, sound and light, production and costumes, everything is an important part of it. We want that our students gain knowledge and are not surprised to hear about theatre and its improvisations," he says.

The workshop has transformed into a theatre haven with 41 young artistes taking part in it and being given a lesson or two in various technicalities. This includes street plays, mono-acts, realistic acting and voice and speech modulation besides studying movements and facial expressions. Some of the participants had participated in earlier workshops also. But a good number of participants from the region, including Moga, Patiala, Nabha and Ferozepore and some of them even from Batala, will benefit the most. "Mostly, artistes from small towns do not get much exposure and they do not benefit from experienced professionals. These workshops offer them an opportunity to plug the gaps. Every year the workshop culminates into a stage production, turning famous plays into successful adaptations. "This year, we plan to work on four plays, including Girish Karnad's "Tughlaq" and Shakespeare's "Tempest", says Dhaliwal.

Amritsar, June 6
Even though the rush of drug addicts at the local Swami Vivekanand De-addiction Centre at Government Medical College (GMC) has doubled during the last few days due to ongoing crackdown on drug peddlers, which has also affected the supply line of drugs, the centre is grappling with the shortage of staff and infrastructure.

Headed by Dr PD Garg, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, GMC, the 50-bedded centre has around five assistant professors, three senior residents out of which one assistant professor and two senior residents also look after the government-run centre at Jalandhar. They work four-days a week at Jalandhar and for some days in Amritsar. The department has recently sought more non postgraduate doctors, besides other staff, including a couple of NGOs, psychiatrists and clerical employees.

Dr Garg said they also needed security staff as it is but natural that sometimes the patients become violent as the withdrawal symptoms appear.

Initially the department had borrowed beds from ENT hospital run by the GMC. However, the department had later taken the beds back. Recently, the Border Security Force (BSF), which had launched a de-addiction drive, had donated beds to the centre.

“Certainly we are facing problem as we are running full to the capacity. What we are now doing is preparing a list of the patients coming to the hospital and required admission for the treatment,” said a doctor. We are treating patients in the OPD and hospitalising only those, who are acute addicts and consuming drugs for the past several years.

There is only one government run de-addiction centre in the city while another centre is being run by SGPC run Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Medical Sciences at Vallah here. Besides there are several private-run centres out of which only two are recognised by the government while some of them have applied for the permission for running the centre. It is pertinent to mention here that a de-addiction centre run by Red Cross Society was closed down years ago due to lack of funds.

Amritsar, June 6
The Sultanwind police have reportedly arrested Charanjit Singh, who allegedly raped his 13-year-old step daughter, by offering her fruit drink laced with intoxicants.

Though Arun Sharma, Station House Officer, said raids were being conducted to nab the culprit and he would be arrested soon, sources at the police station said the accused had already been nabbed.

The 13-year-old victim stated to police that the accused used to rape her often after making her unconscious by giving her sleeping tablets. The police have booked Charanjit under Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012, and under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC.

In another incident, in which two minor girls were allegedly raped by their Gatka (Sikh martial art) trainer, the police were yet to make any arrests.

SHO Sushil Kumar said the police was busy in beefing up security arrangements due to 30th anniversary of Operation Blue Star.

The police have booked Randeep Singh (30), a resident of Gurnam Nagar and Saminder Singh (19), a resident of Dam Ganj area, in this regard.

The girls had stated to police that the two accused sent remaining students to a Gatka competition in Sarhali while they detained them in a house in Gurbax Nagar area. They gave some tablets to both the girls following which they fell asleep. The victims alleged that when they woke up they found the two accused raping them. The girls said when they tried to raise an alarm, the accused threatened to kidnap their fathers and brothers.

The police investigations revealed that after the incident, both the victims stopped going to the training centre, while the remaining students also withdrew one by one.

This enraged the accused, who, barged into the house of one of the victims and created ruckus while demanding back all prizes, which she had won. The victim’s grandmother had lodged a complaint with the police in this connection.

The police had registered a case of criminal trespass and outraging the modesty under Sections 452 and 354 of the IPC. Sushil Kumar said teams had been constituted to nab the culprits, who were still at large.

Amritsar, June 6
With an aim of providing public friendly service, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has come out with a convenient approach.

In a latest development, the PSPCL has commissioned division-wise nodal complaint centers and their dedicated telephone numbers under the City Circle, Amritsar.

These numbers will not only cater to the disrupted power complaints, but will also revert back to customer with a unique complaint number against which the complaint has been registered.

These telephone numbers will be linked with caller identification machine and the caller will be sent the complaint number through an SMS.

The name and mobile number of the lineman/assistant line man to whom the complaint has been assigned will also be sent to the customer via SMS.

SK Chawla, deputy chief engineer, City Circle, Amritsar, said the process was designed to make it public friendly, efficient and transparent.

He said, “Presently, two landline numbers have been reserved exclusively for receiving complaints and if need arises their number will be increased. The same will be done after judging the load on these lines.”

“This will make an official concerned accountable for the complaint number registered against his name. He will be bound to attend the complaint and rectify the fault. All this information will be sent to the customer via an SMS,” said the deputy chief engineer.

This system will remove the long outstanding grievance of the customers that their complaints are not registered at the complaint centre and will also inform customers about the status of their complaints.

Amritsar, June 6
The Amritsar Central jail authorities recovered two mobiles and narcotics from the possession of two undertrials. Jail Superintendent RK Sharma said during checking in the jail, a mobile phone with a battery and SIM card was recovered from Avtar Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran. He was lodged in the jail under an FIR No. 59/12 U/s 307 of the IPC registered at the Kamboj police station.

“Besides this, one gram of intoxicant powder was also recovered from Avtar,” said Sharma. A case under Sections 21/61/85 of the NDPS Act, 420 of the IPC and 42 of the Prisoner Act has been registered at the Cantonment police station against the accused.

Another mobile phone of Samsung make was recovered from undertrial Kulbir Singh, a resident of Lopoke village. A case under Section 42 of the Prisoner Act has been registered at the Cantonment police station against Kulbir.

Sub Inspector Prabhjot Singh of Gumtala has been designated as investigating officer to probe the matter.