Jalandhar, March 12
The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) has failed to initiate punitive measures against the consortium of the NRI Academy of Sciences and St Joseph’s Health Care System US for its failure to pay Rs 65.50 crore as the first instalment of the lease money as per the terms of the agreement.

Sources maintained that the request for proposal (RFP) to run PIMS, Jalandhar,
under private-public participation (PPP) clearly specified that the selected bidder
should deposit 50 per cent of the financial bid within three weeks after the
contract was awarded.

The remaining 50 per cent should be deposited within six months of the RFP acceptance by the bidder.

The RFP was issued to three selected bidders, consortium of BSES Kerala Power Limited, Ernakulam, Reliance Health Ventures Limited, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and the University of Nebraska Medical Centre, USA; consortium of the Shri Aishi Ram Batra Public Charitable Trust and the Shri Chander Chinar Bada Akhara Udasain Society, Srinagar, and the consortium of the NRI Academy of Sciences and St Joseph’s NRI Academy of Sciences US for submitting financial bids.

Interestingly, the Reliance group opted out of the race on its own, while the
Shri Aishi Ram Batra group reportedly submitted “conditional” financial bid to face
automatic exit.

Though the reserve lease price was Rs 120 crore, the NRI Academy of Sciences, the lone eligible bidder, bagged the 99 years lease contract to run PIMS for Rs 131 crore on January 1.

Sources said Medical Education and Research Minister Tikshan Sood and a section of senior departmental officers had reportedly termed the selected financial bid as low and suggested a figure of Rs 200 crore for the 56-acre medical college.

The minister, however, said he was not aware of the current payment status. But the selected bidder failed to deposit Rs 65.5 crore by January 22 as mandatory under the RFP terms.

Though there was a provision to charge penal interest for three weeks and contract can be terminated after waiting for another month, the PIDB was in no mood to displease the private player.

Despite repeated attempts, PIDB managing director Sukhbir Singh Sandhu was not available for comments.

The PIMS has been awaiting completion for the past several years even as
Rs 115.26 crore had been spent to raise this building in the Rs 241.16 crore in
the first phase.

It is pertinent to mention here that PUDA took over the possession of nearly 119.72 acres from the PIMS under the optimum utilisation of vacant government land (OUVGL) scheme in 1994, wherein the former developed the land and was continuously selling it as commercial and residential properties through auctions.

But work on the project got stopped midway more than four years ago, sighting shortage of funds as the reason.

Amritsar, March 12
The brutal ragging incident which snuffed out the budding doctor Aman Satya Kachroo who died after being ragged by his seniors at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, in Himachal Pradesh, has sent shocking waves among the students of Government Medical College here.

Strongly condemning the incident of ragging, the future doctors of the GMC here today expressed their deep shock and observed a five-minute silence for the peace of the departed soul.

All of them, especially students of first professional year, took the pledge not to involve in ragging when they would assume the role of seniors.

Terming it a menace, spokesman Jeetpal Singh said they would launch a nationwide movement against the act by involving the students of various medical colleges.

He said first they would involve the students of medical colleges of Punjab in the anti-ragging movement and then they would take it to the national level.

He said they would try to get the guidelines of the apex court regarding the provisions against ragging implemented by the law. He said they would send a condolence message to the family of Kacharoo.

Amritsar, March 12
The country’s premier medical college continues to be in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Just about a month back a student was injured in a group clash.

As if it was not enough, the Holi night once again saw a group clash in the college. A quarrel between two groups resulted in blunt injuries to a student.

Showing his scarred back and face, Jagroop, a student of the new final year who sustained injuries, alleged that he was kidnapped by members of the other group last night and thrashed by them.

Meanwhile, the Principal of the college, Dr Jagdish Gargi, said he had marked an enquiry to Dr R.S. Sharma to probe into the matter, adding that stern action would be taken against the erring students.

Talking to this correspondent, Jagroop said Rohit Sharma of his class had a dispute with Bhupen, an old final-year (intern) student on an alleged eve-teasing incident. However, the matter was solved after they reached a written compromise.

According to information gathered, a girl, who reportedly happened to be a cousin of Bhupen, had complained against Rohit, Parteek and Mahtab, all new final year students of eve-teasing that had resulted in the dispute.

Jagroop alleged Bhupen kept this grudge and made him the target. He said he was kidnapped by Ramveer, classmate of Bhupen, along with several other persons from his hostel last night and thrashed.

However, Bhupen alleged that it was Jagroop who called him along with other students in the hostel where he was detained in the room and beaten up by them. He said he was released only when the hostel warden reached the hostel.

Dr Gargi said he got the information only this morning and asked Dr Sharma to
inquire into the episode.

Amritsar, March 12
The district police today nabbed a Delhi-based inter-state drug smuggler, Ravi Pandey, who is the main supplier of smack in the holy city and its adjoining areas.

He was nabbed along with a local drug peddler, Rahul, a resident of Vijay Nagar Colony. The police seized more than 700 gm of smack from him.

Acting on a tip-off, a party of the Narcotics and Cross Border Crime Cell of the Amritsar (urban) police laid a naka near Patakha Market, Transport Nagar, here and nabbed the accused. During their search the team seized 610 gm of smack from Ravi and 100 gm from Rahul.

During preliminary investigations it was found that Ravi Pandey is a notorious inter-state drug smuggler of New Delhi. He used to bring the smack from Madhya Pradesh to supply in Amritsar and Jalandhar districts.

He was caught by the special cell of the Delhi police in 2002 and 1.5 kg of smack was seized from him. After his bail he started smuggling activities again.

While Rahul is a local drug peddler who used to take smack from Pandey and sell in different parts of the city.

A case under sections 22, 25, 29, 61 and 85, NDPS Act, has been registered at B-Division police station against the accused.