Amritsar, June 2
Expressing serious concern over the vulgar depiction of women and girls in print and electronic media, Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla has urged President Pratibha Patil and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni to take stern steps to check this practice, which according to her, is banned as per the Indecent Representation of Women (prohibition) Act.

In a communiqué to the President and I & B Minister, she alleged advertisements of various products especially liquor companies and brands using obscene pictures of girls to attract customers, which is an insult to women and distracting our new generation.

She said as the President and I&B minister were themselves women, they could understand the plight of women. She urged them to formulate a policy to stop this practice.

Amritsar, June 2
Even as health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla has written to President Pratibha Patil and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, a huge surrogate billboard at Kitchlu Chowk has become an eyesore for residents.

The hoarding put up at the busy Kitchlu Chowk, popularly known as kachaheri chowk due to its proximity of district court complex and offices of the Deputy Commissioner and SSP, depicts the women in indecent way.

It is pertinent to mention here that putting up of surrogate hoardings were banned as per norms and rulings of the Health Ministry and the Supreme Court. Earlier too, such hoardings have cropped up in various parts of the city including bus stand, Crystal Chowk and near Guru Nanak Dev University. The installation of huge advertising boards and hoardings on busy roads and at crossings has also been banned by the apex court.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda said the unipoles and hoardings have been rented out to private advertising companies and added that he would seek legal opinion over the issue and action would be taken as per the law. He said the companies were duty bound to abide by the norms. He said these advertising companies never gave advance copy to corporation before putting up any hoarding.

Amritsar, June 2
In a major setback to the much touted Navjot Singh Sidhu’s “Go green go clean” campaign, a Punjab Government undertaking Punsup has opened its office on the old jail road near Red Cross Bhavan by breaking open the green belt fencing outside the Ranjit Avenue residential area.

A resident of the locality told to The Tribune that building bylaws and green belt norms had been thrown to the winds by creating an opening in the green belt for car parking and entry to the Punsup office. He said this had happened during the election period, while the authorities were busy with the poll process and the state government office was given an opening from the back of the residential colony.

According to residents, the corporation and the improvement authorities had already turned a blind eye to the opening in the green belt by private hospitals, also in proximity to the Punsup office. This may have led to forcible attempt made by the house owners to give hoots to the authorities who had already allowed the hospitals to break the law. Interestingly, Punsup had removed the tree guards put up during Sidhu’s go green campaign which he had himself funded to turn the city into a city of gardens and trees.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said on receiving the complaint prompt and strict action would be taken against the violators. He said the green belt would be restored immediately and broken green belt fence be erected, besides warning would be issued to the persons breaking the law.

Amritsar, June 2
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed HDFC Bank to pay Rs 3,000 as compensation and Rs 1,000 as litigation cost for deficiency in service and causing inconvenience to Amanveer Singh.

According to complaint Amanveer Singh, he had issued a cheque (No. 114460) on January 2, 2009, for Rs 7,000 to HFCL Infotech for paying his mobile phone bill. He alleged that the bank with the remarks “Drawer’s signature differ” returned the same. He stated that he had always put his signature in the same manner as appeared on the cheque.

Amanveer had claimed that the signature on the cheque were not different from his specimen signatures with the bank and the same could be judged from the three cheques issued by him during the same month. He alleged that the cheque was dishonoured on account of negligence on the part of the bank.

He claimed that due to negligence, HFCL Infotech disconnected all his mobile connections which had caused monetary and business loss to him. He had prayed that the bank should be directed to pay up Rs 50,000, besides Rs 25,000 as litigation expenses.

The district forum had directed the bank to pay the entire amount of Rs 4,000 through a bank draft or payee’s cheque within one month from the date of receipt of the order, failing which proceedings under section 27 of the Consumer Protection Act would be initiated against the bank.

Amritsar, June 2
June and July, which are considered to be the hottest months in this part of the region, force people to remain indoors for most part of the day. With mercury hovering around mid-forties reports of people being killed due to the heat are common.

The police has recovered the bodies of four elderly people who lost their lives due to the severe heat wave in the region during the past three days. The body of a rickshaw-puller was recovered by the police yesterday at Gate Hakima, while the Rambagh police recovered one body from near the bus terminal on May 26. Another unidentified body was found on Sultanwind Road on May 1.

Keeping this in mind, schools, colleges and other educational institutions have been closed.

Irritation in eyes, low level of water in human body, skin problems, scabies, sunstroke, infection and viral fever affect the people of all ages during this season.

According to doctors, housewives and old persons should avoid moving out of their houses during the day, besides advising the people to drink a lot of water. They also caution the general public to make sure that fruits and vegetables they eat are not dirty or over-ripe as these could be infected and make one ill.

The heat wave conditions have also increased the demand of air coolers, fans and air-conditioners and the shopkeepers have increased the rates of air coolers. About 20 per cent increase could be seen in the rates of the air coolers.

She said this further aggravated the skin problems. For that girls should use of the balanced diet and visit parlour once in 20 days for maintaining healthy skin and hair, she added.

Amritsar, June 2
In a drive launched against smoking at various public places and strictly imposing the anti-tobacco law in the holy city, the district administration led by Tehsildar Amritsar-II today challaned 20 persons in posh areas of the city.

Tehsildar Param Preet Singh Goraya said many senior officials, including a DM of a corporate house, was challaned during their surprise checking at the Civil Lines, including Lawrence Road, Ranjit Avenue and Rani Ka Bagh.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chairman of District Tobacco Control Committee Kahan Singh Pannu formed five teams for the proper implementation of the anti-tobacco law at public places, hotels, restaurants, railway station, bus stand and offices.

The teams visited various parts of the city, including bus stand and railway station, and imposed fines on persons involved in smoking at public places. Sub-inspector level police officers, executive magistrates and heads of various departments had been given powers to impose a fine of Rs 200 on defaulters. 

Amritsar, June 2
Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu has banned all kinds of movement within a 500-metre area of the border with Pakistan in the district from 8.30 pm to 5 am. He said the step was taken under section 144 of the CrPC in order to avoid any untoward incident which could pose a threat to the lives and properties of the residents of the district.

Pannu issued another direction under the same act in which he asked the residents to submit photographs, permanent residential proofs and other relevant papers of tenants to the nearest police station.

He said it came to light that tenants did not provide authentic information about themselves before hiring a shop or residential accommodation.

He said it was the duty of the owners to submit all relevant information regarding their tenants at the police station.

The District Magistrate issued one more direction under the same act in which he asked the residents to submit all details along with the photograph of domestic help at the nearest police station. He said the past experiences suggested that criminals, in the garb of domestic help, had taken advantage of the lacunae in the system and went untraceable after committing the crime.

Amritsar, June 2
Concerned over the destruction of road berms and joining the land with link roads by farmers, the district administration has directed all the officers concerned to launch an earth-filling drive on both sides of the link roads.

Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu in a release to the media here today said that a meeting of senior officers of the district administration was convened and they were given instructions to immediately complete the earth-filling work on 604 link roads while the work was in progress on 70 roads.

He directed the officers to complete the berm filling work by June 30 as the fields were vacant in view of the late sowing of the paddy crop.

Pannu said the destruction of the berms on both sides of the link roads had become the cause of accidents in the region. He said that besides this, the farmers were facing problems in carrying their crops to the grain markets.

Amritsar, June 2
At least 39,000 employment cards were issued under the NREGA scheme, besides a five-year plan for providing employment was chalked out in the district, said Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu.

Chairing a monitoring-cum-training workshop for reviewing works under the scheme here today, Pannu directed all block development and panchayat officers to maintain employment record of all villages under their control and to encourage people to work.

They also reviewed the pace of preparation of biometric smart cards being undertaken by the Oriental Bank of Commerce and Phino Company. Officials concerned said that 13,000 smart cards had been issued so far.

Dr Baljit Singh, OSD, NREGA, said under the scheme, beneficiaries were also insured for Rs 75,000 under the “Jan Shri Bima Yojana”.

The annual premium of Rs 200 is equally shared by the Central Government and the NREGA worker. Another insurance scheme is the “National Health Insurance Plan” in which the workers enjoy cashless medical facility.

Out of an annual premium of Rs 750, the Central Government contributes Rs 655 and the remaining amount is shared by the state government and the worker. Under the plan, the family of a worker could utilise the medical facility up to Rs 30,000 and could avail transport expenditure of Rs 1,000.

Amritsar, June 2
Under the drive launched by the district administration to check sale of spurious milk and milk products, the dairy department took 25 samples in the Model Town area here today of which 17 samples were found containing excessive water content.

However, there were no harmful contents found in any of the milk sample, said Dr Joginder Singh Dhillon of the department.

Meanwhile, an awareness camp was organised in the Model Town area to educate the milk consumers about the quality of milk. Dr Dhillon urged the residents to immediately report the matter of contaminated milk to the department so that people could be saved from harmful diseases.

Sale of spurious milk and milk products increases in the summer season due to reduction in the milk production. The district administration has decided to keep check on this activity.

It has come to light that there are certain unscrupulous persons who are involved in the production and sale of spurious milk along with genuine milk and its products, including cheese, khoya, ghee, etc. The administration has appointed 10 teams which would keep an eye on such crooked persons.

Amritsar, June 2
Gurshabadjit Singh of School of Social Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University has brought laurels to the holy city. The prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, has selected him for Masters Programme in Media and Cultural Studies.

A student of final year of Bachelor of Social Sciences, Gurshabadjit Singh has scored 96.4 percentile in CAT. Based on the CAT score, he has made to internationally renowned prestigious Indian Institute of Forestry Management (Bhopal) under the PGDFM Programme scoring 15th position.

He has also been selected for admission to MBA in the University Business School of Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Amritsar, June 2
The rules and regulations of our society are such which do not allow anyone to go beyond their limits. Infact, everyone should abide by the norms of society. But, there are such elements which hinders the growth of those who are part of society.

Family counsellor of Community Policing Resource Centre Surjit Sharma, also Deputy Chief Warden of Civil Defence Service, who has been resolving conjugal disputes for many years, observed that poverty, illiteracy, addiction, greed, ego, crumbling of joint family system are the major reasons responsible for ruining the matrimonial relations.

He added that the number of matrimonial disputes had risen manifold. Run by the Punjabp, Amritsar, Community Policing Resource Centre (CPRC) is doing a Yeoman’s service in resolving matrimonial disputes.

The centre holds office on Wednesday at Circuit House (Police Cell), on Thursday and Saturday at DAV Public School, and on Friday and Tuesday at Bhavan’s SL Public School.

At Circuit House, SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh chairs the session, while on other days Surjit Sharma counsels various couples and their families to resolve their differences out of court premises.

Sharma said the decision of holding counselling sessions at schools was aimed at providing congenial and relax ambience to families and couples to ponder over their relations.

Family members in general and parents in particular must not feel shy in cross-checking salary, qualification, age and medical of prospective grooms and brides before finalising the matrimonial alliances.

He said more than 4,000 cases of HIV positive were found in the district. It made mandatory to verify medical history. He said a woman ran from pillar to post as her in-laws rejected her after her husband and daughter died with AIDS. She was HIV infected and had been pleading with her in-laws to get her only son examined. 

He said breakdown of the joint family system was due to matrimonial disputes. In one of the cases, a fatherless girl was married to an addict without checking the claims of groom. Mother of two, she is now seeking divorce.

Amritsar, June 2
The Youth Development Board of the state government has honoured Ayush Mantri (13) for his performance in the Asian tennis tournament U-14 in which he remained third.

Board Vice-Chairman Tarun Chugh said the Amritsar lad had made the city and the country proud by clinching the third position in Asia in the lawn tennis tournament held at Pune. He said the Sports and Youth Department of the state would help Ayush in getting the next level training. Ayush had attained the 13th position in the country.

Ayush, who remained the first runner-up in the CBSE national tournament held at Nagpur in November last year, said he wanted to fulfil the dreams of his father who worked hard for him. He said his focus was now to bring the first position in the next tournament.

Alok Mantri, father of Ayush, said he played 20 tournaments in a year. He said there were no facilities for the professional tennis players in Amritsar, while the state government failed to provide help to them even as Ayush was bringing laurels for the country, state and city.

Ayush is playing lawn tennis since the age of six. He said they had to face financial restraints as he had to go to various parts of the country for playing national-level tournaments.

Alok had written to a number of companies for providing sponsorship to the budding player, but in vain. He said he would do whatever was possible for him to provide professional coaching to his son.

He urged the state government and various private companies to adopt his son who had impressive performances to his name and could be an asset not only for the state but for the country.

Lavishing praising, Chugh said he was probably the lone lawn tennis player in the state who achieved such a high rank. He said the state government had decided to search for such talents and help them in their proper grooming and training.