Amritsar, May 24
While the district administration has proposed to establish an environmental park on 125-acre land located along Tarawala pul (bridge) without disturbing the natural contours and green cover including trees, shrubs and bushes, the municipal corporation (MC) seem to disagree with the idea and is out to chop off century-old 40 trees in the name of beautification of Sakatri Bagh.

A day after MP Navjot Singh Sidhu wife led protest against the MC proposal, city residents and officials from the Forest Department expressed discontentment over the move.

It has been learnt that the MC has approached the District Forest Department for valuation of these trees, only to be auction them later. These trees would be replaced by musical fountains, proposed to be installed in the bagh.

Even as the Forest Department officials confirmed that assessment of some trees was done by the department, no communication was ever made about axing of those trees.

District Forest Officer Sewa Singh said it seldom comes under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department to stop the AMC from taking such a harsh step, yet he advised preservation of these trees.

“Since, it is not a forest land, we cannot interfere. Otherwise, the bottom line is that the Forest Department can never ask for chopping off any tree, until unless there are extreme circumstances. This land, since belongs to civic body, it was up to the MC authorities to decide what to do. Yet, I would advise the MC officials to think twice before going ahead and make way for preserving those trees because a musical fountain would not be as beneficial as these trees are,” he opined.

Showing concern about this grave issue, resident SS Sharma has written a strong letter to Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and the then Punjab forest minister Tikshan Sood to intervene in the matter.

“These are heritage trees. We have grown up playing and sitting under the shade of these trees. This holy city is known for its rich green heritage. How come the AMC be so cruel

to cut off these trees. If the AMC did not stop, I would approach the High Court against the MC,” said Sharma, who has also captured the views of frequent visitors to the park, to support this common cause.

Endorsing the views, GND University’s Botanical and Environmental Sciences Saroj Bala advocated that the civic authorities should instead think on the lines of beautifying the area around these trees by incorporating innovative ideas of landscaping. “Even in the university complex, we have experimented with same ideas around century-old trees. Here in Sakatri Bagh, the idea of chopping off trees cannot is not justified,” she said.

MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda clarified that only three trees at the entry point of the proposed garden would be axed. “Rest of the trees which be chopped off are dead trees. Nevertheless, under this Rs 5-crore project, we have plans to plant at least 105 more trees, he said.

Amritsar, May 24
There is no stopping congratulatory phone calls and sweets. From relatives to friends, all are flocking to the residences of students who excelled in the CBSE Class XII exams, whose results were declared on Monday.

Meanwhile, the celebrations started in schools after the results were declared.

Interestingly, the city saw an unprecedented rise in the number of students scoring above 90 per cent.

Tanya Sharma with 96.8 per cent in the five main subjects in the medical stream, brought laurels to her institution, DAV Public School on Lawrence Road.

Abhay Seth with 95 per cent in commerce, Anupam Kalra, Kanish Bansal and Snigdha Seth with 94.6 per cent in commerce were not far behind in the race of excellence. The school premises echoed with the shouts of hurrah as the overjoyed students celebrated their success.

Principal Neera Sharma said a total of 407 students took the examination this time and out of which 39 students made the school proud by securing 90 per cent and above and 360 students securing first division (60 per cent and above).

Similar, celebration times were at Spring Dale Senior School. Gagandeep Singh (commerce stream) and Zeeshan Ahmed (non-medical) topped in the school by scoring 94.6 per cent marks each.

Arshi Aggarwal, Mandeep Singh and Purnjay Peshawaria (all students of commerce stream) tied for the second position by scoring 94.4 pc marks.

Gagan Bhatia (non-medical) was third in the school with 94.2 pc marks. More than 26 students of the school secured more than 90 per cent marks in the aggregate total in various streams. Armed with boxes of sweets and chocolates, the students went to greet their teachers, to thank them for their contribution in helping them attain success.

Principal Rajiv Kumar Sharma said 96 students had scored A1 grade in English, 41 in economics, 37 in accounts, math and SST each, 30 in chemistry, 24 in physics, 77 in physical education and 15 in commercial arts.

At Delhi Public School, Amritsar, Ramneek Kaur Sandhu topped in the school in science stream with 93.60 per cent marks and secured A1 in all subjects. Angad Harshbir Singh stood second in scoring 87.20 per cent while the third position was shared by two students Navjot K Thind and Puneet Kaur both scored 86.80 per cent. School Principal Sangeeta Singh informed that the school had attained cent per cent result with no failures. Meanwhile, in commerce, Amandeep Sharma topped with 86.40 per cent followed by Gauravdeep S. Rataul (82.40 per cent) and Aastha Arora (80.60 per cent).

The glorious achievements of Bhavanites at Bhavan’s SL Public School too cannot be ignored. In Science stream, Piyush got 94.4 percent by bagging first position while second and third were Swati (93.6 per cent) and Preeti (93.4 per cent). In Commerce, megha stood first by scoring 93.2 per cent, Sonia second with 91 percent and Ketan was ranked third with 90.8 per cent. Principal Anita Bhalla told that all the 183 students appearled in the examination got through. “Our nine students reached the target above 90 per cent , 36 scored 80 per cent, 67 scored more than 70 per cent and 89got more than 60 per cent marks in various streams”, she said.

The students of Guru Harkrishan Senior School, GT Road, too repeated the glorious history of the school with their splendid performance. Kiranpreet Kaur occupied first places in the medical stream in their respective groups by scoring 94.2 per cent. Principal Renu Ahuja told that out of total of 222 students, 13 got 90 percent and above marks, 59 got 80 per cent and above and 84 scored 70 per cent and above marks in various streams.

DAV International School Principal Anjana Gupta informed that all the 90 students passed the examination. The first three positions in the school were bagged by Aman Bhalla who scored 89.8 per cent in non-medical stream, Aditi Kundan scored 89.2 per cent in medical and Piyush Patney (commerce) scored 88.8 per cent. In the non-medical stream, second position was occupied by Shaunik Seth with 88.6 per cent and third place went to Abhinav Mahajan who got 88.1 per cent. In the medical stream, Akansha Chopra secured second place with 86 per cent and Sameen Singh stood third with 84.4 per cent. In commerce, Jatin Mallan stood second with 87.8 per cent and Aayush Tandon was third with 85 per cent marks.

Amritsar, May 24
In her late fifties, Gurpreet Kaur is still recuperating from the injury, which she sustained after a youngster riding a motorbike hit her from behind. He was allegedly talking over his mobile phone when he lost his balance and hit the aged woman.

This is not a single mishap of such kind in the city.

Gurjeet Singh of Chheharta also became a victim of this careless attitude.

The taxi, he was traveling in along with five other passengers, met with an accident after the driver got busy with his mobile phone. The taxi hit an auto-rickshaw and all seven received injuries.

Incidentally, such accidents related to mobile phone use while driving has increased but it seems the traffic police has turned a blind eye to such violations.

Residents felt that the reason behind this growing practice was the police inaction.

The traffic police on its part can impose a fine of Rs 100 to Rs 1000.

On the other hand other states in the country have strict laws to punish the offenders.

For instance, in Delhi people caught talking-and-driving could be fined Rs 2,000 or six months imprisonment or both.

The punishment could be suspension of driving licence for six months if such acts lead to accidents. Using hand-free devices or sending and reading text messages while driving are also counted as offence.

In some states police fine such offenders under Section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Amritsar, May 24
In a major achievement, all the students tutored at free coaching centre set up by Citizens’ Forum Vidya Mandir - a school for children of drug addicts - have cleared the Joint Entrance Test.

“They all stand eligible for various courses run in different ITI and polytechnic colleges,” said Master Ajit Singh, one of the founders of the school.

The school authorities established the free coaching centre for tutoring children, belonging to rural and poor families, for competitive entrance examinations of ITI and JET.

Master Ajit Singh, popularly known as Master ji, said that it is up to the students which stream they would choose during the counselling. The students and teachers of the school were elated over clearing the exam.

The students, who could not afford huge tuition fee at private coaching centres, in unanimous voice thanked the school authorities, including Master ji and Brij Bedi (industrialist turned social worker), and the teachers for the sincere efforts and help.

Retired as well as the serving teachers have rendered their services voluntarily to prepare these children for the competitive exams. They gave coaching in English, mathematics, science, aptitude and mental ability subjects.

From the first batch, Jobanjot Singh has topped with 5333 rank. As many as 57 students were tutored at the centre.

Maqboolpura, an area notorious for rampant drug addiction, came into highlight for losing its young boys to the menace. Brij Bedi joined hands with Master ji to shape the school after the issue was highlighted in The Tribune columns leading to the foundation of Citizens’ Forum Vidya Mandir.

Started with just 20 students, the school now has strength of about 450 students who are being taught by the senior students of the school.

Tarn Taran, May 24
Farmers of the area under the banner of Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC) staged a dharna in front of the Police Station, Sarhali, 22 kms from here, demanded the arrest of a patwari against whom a case was registered a month back.

Sawinder Singh Chutala, senior vice-president of the KSC, addressing the farmers sharply condemned the Sarhali police for not arresting patwari Gurwinder Singh of Sheron village, 8 kms from here.

He said a case under Section 420 and other relevant sections have been registered against Gurwinder Singh who made wrong entries and committed other irregularities in revenue records of the village during his tenure as patwari.

The KSC leader alleged that some higher ranked officials of the Revenue Department were sheltering the ‘corrupt’ patwari as they countersigned the wrong entries in the department records.

Amritsar, May 24
A large number of farmers, including women, staged a dharna outside the deputy commissioner office here on Saturday. They were agitating against the inordinate hike in power tariff besides failure of the government to ensure 16-hour regular power supply to tubewells in villages besides increase in the rates of fertilisers and non-implementation of recommendations submitted in Dr Swaminathan report. They raised slogans against the Punjab Government.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Satnam Singh Ajnala and Rattan Singh Randhawa, president and vice-president, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha alleged that due to wrong policies of the state government, the underground water has been declining by two to three feet every year and the marginal farmers were feeling the heat. They were not even getting the water from canals for the irrigating their fields.

Randhawa alleged that the government has miserably failed to fulfill its promises which it had made in its poll manifesto. He said the government and canal department also failed to provide water in the canal for the irrigation purposes.

They submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu to be forwarded to the state government.

Amritsar, May 24
Three per cent of brain tumours are because of hydatid cysts that develop from eggs of a parasite, which can pass into human body due to close contact with dogs. But it can be prevented by keeping good personal hygiene.

Rinka (18) was one of such patients who was suffering from hydatid cyst in brain and was recently operated upon by Dr Ashok Uppal, an expert neurologist of the region.

“It is estimated that out of the total brain tumours, 3 per cent are because of these cysts. Out of these patients 35 to 40 per cent complain severe headache and vomiting while 25 to 30 per cent suffer epilepsy. 35 per cent of the patients lose their vision and 10 to 15 per cent end up with mental illnesses,” said Dr Uppal.

He said such type of hydatid cyst occurs in those people, especially children, who play and remain in very close contact with dogs. Dogs have in their bodies a parasite about 5 to 6 mm long and this parasite lays eggs that pass into human body with contaminated hands or food and further hydatid cysts develop from these eggs in the brain.

Emphasising on the public awareness, Dr Uppal said timely detection and treatment of such patients in the form of neurosurgery by which the whole hydatid cyst is brought out from the brain can save their lives.

He said Rinka came to the hospital with loss of vision, headache and vomiting. After examination, it was found that he was having a big hydatid cyst in the brain (8X7cm size).