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Former MP Threatens Agitation
Despite ‘Bhangura’ scheme, people abandon babies at odd places
A “bhangura” put up for abondoned babies on the gate of Red Cross Bhavan in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar |
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A Municipal Corporation employee catches a stray dog in Amritsar. A Tribune photograph
No notification even after two weeks
Campus Buzz
Jail inmate dies; family cries foul
Shagun Scheme Fraud
Model blood bank: NACO team visits GNDH
Elevated Road Bridge
Withdrawal Of Case
Unauthorised ticket collectors fleece public
India 24th in global hunger index
Wadali brothers release music of ‘Akhiyan Udeekdiyan’
Punjabi pop singer and actor Sarabjit Cheema and comedian Sudesh Lehri dance with students in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Medical camp held
Awareness workshop on disaster
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Eminent business houses flay increased power tariff
Sanjay Bumbroo Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 11 Amrit Lal Jain, President, Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM), while talking to The Tribune, said before increasing the power tariff, the state government should have invited representatives from trade, industry and other commercial establishments in the state. He said it would not be possible for trade and industries in the state to pay huge arrears as the cost of goods manufactured and sold from April till date were determined after calculating the cost of power at rates which were effective at that time. Jain said they were not against free power supply to farmers but to compensate the rural agriculture sector at the cost of the urban population, where most of the industry and trade exists, amounts to step-motherly treatment and it would create ill-will which would be detrimental to the state’s unity and brotherhood. He said this power hike would severely affect 46,79,397 domestic consumers, 8,04,436 commercial and 1,11,830 industrial consumers in the state. He said the state government should immediately withdraw the increased power tariff and hold talks with the representatives of trade and industry to increase electricity charges in future. The PPBM president said Punjab is a land-locked state situated along the international border and the industry here has to bear extra expenditure for the purchase of raw materials from other states by paying extra freight, central sales tax and entry tax etc. He rued that the state government never bothered about the industry as it had failed to pay any subsidy on the diesel purchased to run the industrial units during the last three months. Similarly, the Confederation of Indian Industry also strongly resented the retrospective hike in power tariff. The chairman of the CII, Punjab, Gunbir Singh said the sharp increase in electricity rates was totally unjustified and the collection of arrears would put an extra burden on the industry and make the industrial segment uncompetitive. Gunbir said the government should rationalise the power tariff structure by efficiently handling power generation and distribution to cut down losses and compensate the industry with concessions in electricity rates. Meanwhile, Textile Manufacturers Association, in a missive to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, has called the recent power hike disastrous for the industry. The honorary General Secretary of the association HS Makhni said at present the industry was already suffering from irregular power cuts with a long duration, thus losing its competitive edge and adding to the financial woes of trade and industry. Makhni said the government should spare the border areas (also owing to their disadvantageous location), as there are no incentives for the promotion of the industry. Rana Gurjit Singh, former Member Parliament, condemned the government’s decision to hike power tariff in Punjab and asked the state government to revoke power tariff failing which the Congress would initiate public protests against the government. Addressing a meeting of Congress workers, called for making arrangements for the political conference to be held at Guruta Gaddi Divas on September 18 at Khadoor Sahib, Rana charged the Badal government for adopting double standards. He said on one hand the state government pretended to be farmer friendly, while on the other, farmers were mercilessly beaten up by police and false cases were also registered against them when they tried to express their resentment by holding peaceful march against power hike and other problems faced by them. Rana Gurjit said Lakhowal should also resign as he failed to protect the interests of the farming community. The meeting, among others, was addressed by Jasbir Singh Dimpa, Dharmvir Agnihotri, Harminder Singh Gill and Advocate Rajinder Singh Tapiala.
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Despite ‘Bhangura’ scheme, people abandon babies at odd places
Amritsar, September 11 They are found abandoned in areas close to religious places and crowded public places like railway stations. The district administration has roped in the Red Cross to function it as a rescue and rehabilitation centre for infants. The move has gained momentum with the passage of time. Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu said with the goal of saving infants from being left at odd places the “Bhangura” scheme was introduced on January 1, 2008. Under the scheme, a cradle was installed in front of the Red Cross building where anybody could leave an infant without being asked any question.
Pannu said the aim was to save the girl children so that they could be brought up in safe and healthy environment and provided education. He added it also saved the guardians of embarrassment of facing unsavoury questions. A girl was found abandoned at a gurdwara in Chheharta on September 10. She was the third girl found abandoned in and around the city over the past 10 days. Earlier, nearly a two-month-old girl was found crying at Darbar Sahib, Tarn
Taran. After medical tests it was detected that she was mentally retarded and the infant was admitted at Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara Trust. Another about two-year-old girl was found left at the railway station. It seemed that the guardian had deliberately left the girl there since some pairs of clothes were lying beside her. Red Cross Secretary Balwant Singh said so far nine girls and two boys had been recovered from various parts of the district - the oldest being a two-year-old girl and the youngest of a few days. He said despite the installation of a cradle infants are being found abandoned in polythene carry bags and wrapped in clothes. “So far only five infants have been found placed in the cradle,” he added. He said the Red Cross had an arrangement with the EMC Hospital and all such babies were rushed there for medical check-up. Subsequently, the babies was sent to the Shishu Greh Trust Nari
Niketan, Jalandhar, for their care. |
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MC squad to catch stray dogs daily
Amritsar, September 11 Stray dogs are a constant threat to the general public and hardly a day passes when these animals not bite them during the late hours in the night when they return from their jobs or business establishments. However, the dog squad team is not fully equipped with instruments to catch hundreds of animals roaming in the city. They don’t have the net in which these animals could be trapped and catch these with the help of four crunches, two iron rods with rope and one cab with tractor. A five-member team, including a driver, has been deployed by the corporation authorities to catch the dogs. Even though the squad members are well-trained for the job but in the absence of any equipment they have to struggle hard for catching these stray animals. On Thursday morning the team reached the Ahuluwala Katra and caught five dogs after a two-hour-long struggle. One of the team members on the condition of anonymity said the dogs would be sterilised after catching them and would be let off after the sterilisation process. He said the cost of operation came to Rs 465 per dog. He said a proposal had recently been passed by the House of the Municipal Corporation to sterilise 25,000 stray dogs of the city so as to control their population. He said after the operation they would attach a tag to the stray dog. According to information, the corporation is trying have a tie-up with the Animal Welfare Corporation, Hyderabad. The Municipal Corporation was to start sterilisation of bitches in 2005, but the experiment failed. The authorities have ordered the squad to catch at least 10 dogs daily.
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No notification even after two weeks P.K. Jaiswar Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 11 The Chief Minister had already directed the departments concerned for immediate notification regarding implementation of the NPA to the government doctors. However, it had failed to implement the same even after more than two weeks had elapsed. Dr Karamjit Singh, general secretary of the PSMDTA, said that no office order had been issued by the Finance Department till now. He said medical and dental teachers during their executive meeting had decided to sit along with PCMS Association, Punjab, to launch an agitation if the notification regarding the NPA was not issued soon. Expressing surprise, Dr Singh said it was astonishing to see that even though the state Cabinet had approved all the allowances, including the NPA, the government was dilly-dallying in the implementation of its own orders. The Central government and the neighbouring states had already given these allowances to their employees about a year back, he added. The doctors working in the Health Department as well as in government medical and dental colleges are drawing NPA at 25 per cent of the basic pay as per their longer study period, nature of services, round-the-clock duties and risks involved in patient care. However, this was not included in the new recommendations after which the doctors started an agitation. Now the CM had instructed the Finance Department to issue the notification regarding 25 per cent NPA as per new scales, it was dithering on its implementation, alleged Dr Singh.
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Campus Buzz
Amritsar, September 11 Gaurav Tejpal, Head, Training and Placement, said 350 students participated in the placement drive. He said more companies, including Nagarro and JK Technosoft, would visit the college campus soon to offer more jobs to the students of the college. UGC grant In its bid to provide quality hostel facilities and infrastructure, the University Grants Commission has extended a grant of Rs 65 lakh for the extension of the hostel building in the BBK DAV College complex. Principal Dr Neelam Kamra said it was a good gesture on the part of the UGC to sanction the amount for building extra hostels for girls and provide them better environment. Eye
camp A two-day eye camp was organised at the BBK DAV College for Women by the NSS unit and Youth Red Cross unit of the college in collaboration with Johnson and Johnson. More than 400 students and teachers were screened for various eye ailments. Dr Neelam Kamra, Principal, said the camp was held to create awareness among students about eye ailments, the right time for their correction, the use of right kind of spectacles and contact lenses. They were also told about the nutrition and some eye care tips. Dr Munish Sarpal, Dr Richa Pathak and Dr Anupam Kesri from Smavs examined the students. University toppers Shivani Kohali and Dolly Seehra, students of Khalsa College, have topped in MA (political science) part-1 and MA (English) part-1, respectively, in Guru Nanak Dev University. Shivani scored 295 marks. while Dolly scored 272 marks out of 400. Dr Daljeet Singh, Principal of the college, congratulated them and said such students were a role model for other students. Professor returns Rajiv Mahajan, Assistant Professor of the Information Technology Department, Amritsar College of Engineering, recently returned from Singapore after presenting a paper on “Retina as authentication tool for covert channel problem” as India presenter at the international conference on “Bioinformatics, computational and systems biology”. |
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Jail inmate dies; family cries foul
Amritsar, September 11 Jail Superintendent G.S. Sandhu said the deceased had arrived in the jail at 5.45 pm after which he fell ill. He was referred to the Civil Hospital when his condition became serious. He died on the way to hospital.The cause of the death could not be ascertained immediately. He was declared an absconder in an Arms Act case in which a sharp-edged weapon was seized from him more than a year ago. However, family members of Sandeep alleged that the police, which took him away from his home on September 9, tortured him. Palwinder Singh, a cousin of Sandeep, said policemen told them that he had not presented himself in the court in an old case uner the Arms Act after which he was declared an absconder by the court. Later the family was informed by their lawyer that he had been sent to jail. They said Sandeep was in good condition when the police took him away. The police refuted the charge of torture.
— TNS |
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Sarpanch, ex-serviceman booked
P.K. Jaiswar Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 11 According to information, Ram Lal showed his income less than his actual income in connivance with the sarpanch and got released a cheque for Rs 15,000 for the marriage of his daughter. A case under sections 420, 465, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC was registered at Beas police station against them after the directions of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Amritsar rural. An enquiry in this regard was conducted by officials of the Deputy Commissioner office. The enquiry revealed that Ram Lal had an annual income of Rs 60,000 as he was getting monthly pension from the defence accounts. However, he showed his annual income to be Rs 20,000 as per the norms for fraudulently getting the benefit of the Shagun Scheme. Under the scheme, an applicant belonging to the Scheduled castes or a widow having annual income up to Rs 20,000 in rural areas and Rs 27,500 in urban areas could get money for daughter’s marriage by simply providing an affidavit declaring that he/she has an income as per the norms. Harjit Singh Bajwa, SHO, Beas police station, said the accused were at large after the registration of a case.
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Model blood bank: NACO team visits GNDH
Amritsar, September 11 The team inspected the blood bank of government-run GNDH where certain modification were done to meet the shortcomings for setting up
the ambitious project costing more than Rs 1.5 crore that was pointed out by a NACO team that
visited earlier. The shortcomings that were pointed out by the team included increasing the area and construction of a seminar or training room in the existing blood bank. Under the project about Rs 60 lakh would be spent on procurement of the latest equipment for the bank that included special blood storage refrigerators, a component separator machine for separating four components from blood, agitators and vehicles. The remaining amount would be given to the bank in instalments of Rs 25 lakh for three years. The authorities of the GNDH said the blood bank would also cater to the Civil Hospital, primary health centres and other allied hospitals. It is pertinent to mention here that the setting up of the first model blood bank was earlier caught in a departmental tussle over merging of rooms with the blood bank as per the requirement of NACO. |
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Elevated Road Bridge
Amritsar, September 11 The over Rs 200-crore project was launched in 2006 with great fanfare by the previous Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh to be constructed by Gammons India within two years, is now showing signs of near completion in the next two to three months. The construction of the bridge, which began at the entry point of the city near the canal, has now reached Hussainpura Chowk for its final destination and has dislocated the traffic on the busy Bhandari bridge connecting the old walled city with the Civil Lines area. Even though SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said he was not informed about the closure of the bridge and the traffic diversion, yet the traffic police could be seen helping and directing the people to other routes. Municipal Corporation Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda said that with the consultation of Gammons India they had only closed the Bhandari bridge to complete the remaining work of raising four pillars near the bridge. He said that the due to the narrowing of road from Hussainpura Chowk to the Bhandari bridge it was difficult for the company to move the heavy machinery for the completion of
the project. Recently Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal directed the Finance Department to release the remaining payment of the elevated bridge project for its early completion.
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Farmers, teachers support Punjab Students Union
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 11 PSU state president Gurmukh Singh Maan said the organisation called an emergency meeting to chalk out its future strategy to deal with the situation arising out of the registration of the case against five of its activists. He said the union demanded immediate release of its activists and legal action against the police officials concerned. He said the agitation was a way to manifest grievances and to make the voices of marginalised sections heard by the government and policy makers. Registration of cases against the five activists, under clauses of the Indian Penal Code, which were usually used against offenders of heinous and serious crimes, amounted to denial of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Constitution, he added. The police had physically removed agitating activists of the PSU when they were protesting by blocking traffic at Bhandari bridge yesterday. They demanded quashing of the case registered against their state leaders and also sought repealing of free bus pass service to students from economically weaker families. Dharminder Singh, resident of Patran village (Patiala), Rajinder Singh of Tarn Taran, Mohinder Singh of Ferozepore, Harpreet Singh and Manbir Singh, both residents of Tarn Taran, were arrested on the charge of causing inconvenience to the general public.
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Unauthorised ticket collectors fleece public
Amritsar, September 11 According to information available with The Tribune, a team of six to seven under-training collectors carrying fake and expired identity cards harassed two women who were just coming out of the railway station after seeing off their relatives (who boarded the Shatabdi) recently. Narrating the harrowing experience, the women (who refused to be identified) said they were accosted by the group near the exit point of the station and asked to show their platform tickets. Taking a stand, the women asked the collectors to show their identity cards before they would pay the fine. One of them reluctantly took out an ID card which had expired in 1988. He forced them to pay Rs 295 as a fine for entering the station without the platform tickets. The women took this erring collector to the office of the Station Superintendent who chided him for this act and said he could be sacked for harassing innocent passengers and their relatives. When contacted, Senior Division Commercial Manager Dharminder Kumar (based at Ferozepore) said he was shocked to know about the incident and added that he would enquire into the matter and take action against the unauthorised ticket collectors for troubling passengers.
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India 24th in global hunger index
Amritsar, September 11 Dr Gaurav Thukral, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Fortis-Escorts Hospital, disclosed this during an awareness programme organised to mark a nutrition week held on the hospital premises in which about 500 participants from various fields took part. The National Nutrition Board organises nutrition week from September 1 to 7 every year to make general population aware of the importance of balanced diet to avoid malnutrition. During the week-long programme, an awareness drive to motivate school students to eat healthy and public lectures were held in schools. A community awareness programme was
organised. |
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Wadali brothers release music of ‘Akhiyan Udeekdiyan’
Amritsar, September 11 Puran Chand Wadali and comedian Sudesh Lehri enthralled the audience during an hour-long programme. Music director Gurmeet Singh said they had tried their best to produce quality music. Navtej Sandhu, co-producer of the film, said the main song of the film is “Lohri” but indeed lots of effort had gone into the other songs like “Rabba teri beparwahiyan”, “Mittran nu na dasja”, “Main han kach da saman” and “Tu full ban ja te main khushboo”. Meanwhile, Sarabjit Cheema and Lahiri visited many educational institutions for the promotion of the film. They were accompanied by film producer Bhupinder Singh.
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Medical camp held
Amritsar, September 11 Principal, Sri Guru Ramdas Medical College, Dr Gita Sharma said tests for diabetes, ECG, TB, etc were done on patients and they were distributed medicines free of cost. She said nearly 200 patients were detected for operations for various ailments and added that they would be charged half of the cost of the operation. Ultrasound and X-ray tests were conducted at a nominal cost.
— TNS |
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Awareness workshop on disaster
Tarn Taran, September 11 SSP Sukhdev Singh Brar while inaugurating the workshop stressed to learn the life support in disaster management. He requested the disaster team to organise such a workshop in the local Police Lines to teach police personnel about the different phases of the disaster. Disaster management expert J.S. Sandhu said the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster would hold such workshops in 100 towns of the state.
— TNS |
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Amritsar, September 11
Amritsar, September 11
Amritsar, September 11
