Amritsar, August 3
The Amritsar administration may have the impression that it is providing a respite to the commuters by opening the elevated road connecting the city from the GT Road to Bhandari Bridge, it should know that a lot has yet to be done to endow the commuters with the actual breather from traffic bottlenecks, while reaching their destinations falling in between.

The primary initiative, now, should have been to open up ramps of the elevated road (from and to Bhandari Bridge), which would connect the on-way destinations falling on both sides of the GT Road.

It has been observed that in the absence of the ramp from Hide market, the commuters from at least 10 destinations - Rani Bazaar, Hussainpura, Sharifpura, Tehsilpura, Bus Stand, Ram Talai, Golden Avenue, Mall Mandi, Chawrang Road to Maqboolpura, Focal Point, Vallah Mandi, Pratap Nagar and New Pratap Nagar - have to cross over the whole stretch of about 3.5 kms on the elevated road.

The experts believe that the ramp, from and to Bhandari Bridge and Hide market, should be completed without delay.

In the absence of ramp route, the commuters hailing from the above mentioned areas, have to cross over the whole elevated road to reach their destinations on the GT Road. This, indeed, amounts to excess fuel consumption, besides wastage of time, they feel.

Another traffic bottleneck, which erupts on the Bhandari Bridge, especially during the morning and evening hours, is that the flow of heavy volume of vehicles gets pile up on the roundabout of the Bhandari Bridge. The state of affairs at this point would often lead to traffic chaos.

To top it all, the pedestrian and slow moving vehicle passage located over the railway lines, running parallel to the road, has been closed down, for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.

This move has made it quite hazardous for the pedestrians or cycle rickshaw or even two wheelers to share the route.

Amritsar, August 3
The government-run hospitals have become a place of excursion for the criminals and smugglers if recent case of shifting of a convicted ruling party leader to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital is anything to go by.

Harbhajan Singh, who is chairman of Market Committee Majitha and a senior leader of ruling combine and his brother Harbhag Singh, is convicted by the sessions court and Punjab and Haryana High Court in an attempt to murder case, was shifted to the hospital on July 27, just a day after he surrendered before the police under the direction of court.

“Earlier, he tried to get admission in Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital. But the hospital authorities refused to get him admitted as he was not suffering from any ailment,” said Raghubir Singh Baghi, vice-president, Amritsar Bar Association.

He said Harbhajan Singh was sentenced to three-year rigorous imprisonment by the high court in March this year. But the police authorities were deliberately not arresting the accused and they had to approach court for his arrest.

This has also raised many eyebrows on the functioning of high security Amritsar Central Jail that houses thousands of undertrials, dreaded criminals and notorious smugglers serving their jail term.

While detailing, Baghi said Harbhajan got admitted in medicine ward of the hospital from where he was relieved only to get admission in the orthopaedic ward, headed by Dr R.P.S. Boparai, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, using his political clout.

Mukesh Nanda, Secretary of the bar association, demanded that a medical board from the PGI, Chandigarh, be constituted to probe into the admission of Harbhajan and his brother Harbhag in the hospital besides taking stern action against the “erring” doctors. The association also urged the chief justice of the high court to initiate legal action against the nexus between doctors and criminals.

OfficialSpeak Dr R.P.S. Boparai, Medical Superintendent, GNDH: “We cannot admit any patient from central jail until and unless he/she is referred by the doctors posted inside the jail and when a patient is referred we have to thoroughly examine him/her which can take few days. I have been on leave last week due to some personal problems. But in this particular case, as I have been informed by my subordinates that he is suffering from some disc problem and an MRI scan has been prescribed which was to be taken today. If there would be no problem he would be relieved soon.” G.S. Sandhu, Superintendent, Amritsar Central Jail: “If a patient is already taking some treatment from hospitals we cannot risk of confining them to medical centre in the jail. We don’t have any facilities of testing available with us. If an inmate complains about something, we have to refer them to hospital for proper treatment,” said Sandhu.

Amritsar, August 3
Neha, a 23-year-old girl from Abohar, could never believe in her wildest dream that she too would lead a life like her friends. It was the expertise of Amritsar-based doctors, a father-son duo, who made her dream come true.

After getting dejected by a negative reply from doctors almost all over Punjab, Neha’s parents took her to Shrimati Paarvati Devi Hospital in Amritsar where Dr Joginder Pal Singh Chhina and his son Dr Guriqbal Singh Chhina decided to give the case a try.

Neha limped since her birth and as she grew up she started to feel the disability called dysplastic hip. This deformity is a condition in which the hip joint is malformed or absent since birth and the patient in these conditions would not be able to walk or lead life like a normal person.

Her parents were a worried lot while foreseeing no future for their young daughter. “Hardly had we left any doctor or nursing home where we had not approached but no doctor agreed to take the case of our daughter,” said the visibly happy parents.

Dr Guriqbal Singh Chhina told the parents the case was complicated and difficult because the normal anatomical landmarks were either absent or distorted. “On first go it appeared to be a very low success rate case. The chances of cure were negligible and it appeared that if she would be operated upon, it would have a poor outcome and the problem might become worse. But with the help and encouragement from my father, we both decided to undertake the case,” said Dr Guriqbal.

Dr Joginder Pal Sngh Chhina explained that the surgery since it was a case of congenital dislocation of hip joint and that too since the patient’s birth, it became a bit difficult because we had to virtually form an artificial hip replacement.

Besides the expertise of the doctors, all thanks to the innovation in medical science, the computerised navigation technique did wonders.

With this technology, the profile of the bone can precisely be observed and rest of the job is done by computer scanning which guides the doctor that in which angle implant should be fixed. The organ replacement can be done up to the mark of 100 per cent accuracy with the computer navigation technique.

Amritsar, August 3
Tension gripped Naushehra village in Majitha subdivision on the outskirts of the city over claims and counter-claims on an old haveli.

Village lambardar Krishan Baldev Sharma alleged that armed persons on the instigation of certain villagers descended on the haveli to occupy it in favour of the All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society (AIPCS) in the morning.

AIPCS president Dr Inderjit Kaur, however, rubbished the allegation that its men had attempted forcible occupation. She said the charitable society and its members never resorted to such cheap tactics of forcibly occupying a place. She said a former resident of the village, Jasbir Kaur, had donated the haveli to the society some years ago. However, the present occupants were not ready to vacate it, she added.

Sharma said he did not have the property in his name similar to nearly 500 families living in the village. He said the entire village had one khasra number unlike city residents where each plot had a khasra number notifying its owner.

Amritsar, August 3
Members of heritage clubs opened in various city schools took part in a heritage walk held under the patronage of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) on July 31.

Under the walk, heritage buildings located inside the walled city were visited by the students in order to reiterate their resolve to preserve the heritage while creating awareness among public to put their earnest endeavour to work in the direction.

As per the plan, they visited Jallianwala Bagh, Quila Ahluwalia, Guru Bazaar, Darshani Deorhi, Taksal Thakur Dwara, Lakshmi Narayan Mandir, Chitta Akhara and Akhara Sangal Wala.

Experts accompanying the students educated them about the kind of architecture techniques and material used at the time of their construction. Students appreciated the installation of grills outside some of the buildings for security purpose as it did not hinder the flow of air inside the buildings as well.

State convener, INTACH, Dr Sukhdev Singh said it was essentially necessary to adopt new architectural techniques to minimise waste and be eco friendly.

Meanwhile, at the same time it was necessary to preserve the old buildings which showcase country’s rich heritage. He said with a view to attract tourists to these buildings, the local authorities must ensure repair of roads, cleanliness of drainage system, removal of dangerously dangling electric and telephone wires and their poles.

The students belonged to Khalsa College Public School, Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, Shri Ram Ashram Public School, Bhavan’s S.L Public School, DAV Public School and Government Senior Secondary School, Town Hall.

Amritsar, August 3
Students of Spring Dale Senior School bagged 50 out of 97 awards in Science Olympiad organised by the Science Olympiad Foundation. Sixteen students of the school received cash prizes.

Ishbir Singh, a student of class IX, received a cash prize of Rs 5,100 for his outstanding performance and meritorious result in National Cyber Olympiad.

Amritsar, August 3
The Department of Biotechnology, DAV College, organised a lecture on “Biotechnology: Catalysing quality of life” by Dr Pratap Kumar Pati, Head, Department of Biotechnology, Guru Nanak Dev University, under the Star College Programme of the Union Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi.

Dr Pati pointed out that the challenges before science and technology were to generate high technology that could improve quality of life and the lives of the poor. In this context he mentioned that plants were playing an important in human welfare and it was therefore important to know about plants, propagate them, enhance their commercial value and bring them into the existing framework of rational scientific use.

He discussed some high-end technologies such as in-vitro culture techniques, genetic transformation and RNA interference being used for crop improvement. He emphasised on how plant biotechnology was instrumental in improving nutritional efficiency and productivity of plants, post-harvest quality of fruits, vegetables and flowers and producing plants against diseases, drought, salinity, temperature.

Dr Vikas Gupta, Dr Ashish Gupta, Dr Vikram Dhuna, Dr Rupinder Kaur, Dr Poonam Rampal, Prof Jaskirat Kaur, Prof Daizy Sharma, Dr Sanjay Sharma, Dr Rajni Bala, Dr Neeraj Gupta, Prof Ravi Sharma, Prof Munish Gupta, Dr Harpreet Walia and Prof Rajesh Mittu were present.

Amritsar, August 3
As many as 21 cleared the Microsoft Certification Examination in various technological fields like Windows XP, SQL-2008 and .Net 2.0 Window Base.

The examination was conducted by NIIT Amritsar and the results were declared in the institute premises.

These successful candidates are now certified Microsoft professionals. Thirty students appeared for this online examination at the Amritsar centre of NIIT.

NIIT Director Gurjeet Sekhon, in a press release here, said, Microsoft certification gave a competitive edge to candidates over other IT professionals.

This would help them find placement in top IT companies within India who are employing Microsoft technologies in their organisations. Armed with the certification, students also get better salary packages. This certification helps the recruiting companies to pick up students with certified technology skills and these people start performing from day-one.

Amritsar, August 3
Newly nominated co-in charge of the BJP Yuva Morcha Navjot Singh Sidhu has demanded concrete youth-centric policies so as to help them become self-reliant. The BJP MP was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and the Durgiana Temple after his nomination.

Speaking to the media, he said in the absence of any concrete policy, the youth of the country was directionless and easily fell prey to drugs. He said he would raise the issue in Parliament for framing policies for the younger generation.

“About 55 per cent of the population consists of those who are below 40 years of age and the government should provide them proper education and jobs helping them become self-reliant,” said Sidhu.

Tarn Taran, August 3
A non-government organisation (NGO), Capt Gurdeep Singh Memorial Education Society (CGSMES), has offered to open drug de-addiction centre for undertrials at Patti sub-jail.

The offered was made by Rupinder Kaur, president of the society, at a meeting with district officials here today.

The meeting was presided over by Khushi Ram, Deputy Commissioner (DC).

The meeting was attended by the district-level officials of the Social Security Department, besides representatives of different social organisations.

The Deputy Commissioner said the state government had a proposal to open drug de-addiction centres in all jails of the state in collaboration with NGOs.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Kulbir Singh, co-coordinator of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Bikram Singh Gill, Assistant Civil Surgeon Manjit Inder Singh and other officials were present.

Amritsar, August 3
The Kotwali police has booked Sukhwinder Singh of Old Lakkar Mandi for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl while she was sleeping alone in her room. The father of the victim in his complaint to the police alleged that as soon as his daughter opened the door being knocked at by the accused, he forced his entry into the room.

He covered the face of the victim with some cloth and raped her. He threatened her with dire consequence if she narrated the incident to anyone. The police has registered a case under section 376, IPC, in this regard, besides launching a manhunt to nab the culprit.

Cops of police, BSF booked for fraud
Tribune news service

Amritsar, August 3
The Civil Lines police has booked Jagjit Singh, a head constable of the Punjab police and Balbir Singh, a head constable of the Border Security Force, for allegedly defrauding Gurmukh Singh of Neshta village (Attari).

Gurmukh in his complaint to the police stated that the duo took Rs 5.30 lakh for recruiting his son in the BSF but neither they returned the money nor got his son employed. A case under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B, IPC, has been registered against them in this regard.