Amritsar, June 10
Aiming to provide succour to weary tourists jostling for space in the vicinity of the Golden Temple, the district administration has decided that the space near Dharam Singh Market, which is being used for parking vehicles at present, will be transformed into an open air resting place.

Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu said several elements will be integrated into the site plan, including shady structures, vitro-forming interlocking tiles flooring, bell mouthed type road gully chambers, renovation of chhabeel, concrete benches, retro-reflective information board, canopies, litter bins, and shady trees.

He said the project of upgradation and beautification of road from Dharam Singh Market to Shani Mandir near the Golden Temple with an estimated cost of Rs 10.73 crore has already been approved in principle by Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB). “During the course of inspection of the area it was realised that this area is also a part of the project and needs to be beautified. The matter was taken up with the government and finally it was decided that PIDB would develop this space at a cost of Rs 51.68 lakh approximately.”

Pannu said the site is in close proximity to Saragarhi Parking and therefore the tourists would get a place to breathe and rest while their vehicles would move to and fro the parking lot. Further, giving a respite from the scorching heat, the chhabeel in the area would be equipped with water coolers and water purifiers. The tenders for the site development have been floated and the place is expected to come up soon.

Amritsar, June 10
Guru Nanak Dev University has started admission process for various classes for the current academic session 2011-12 in the newly opened coeducation colleges at Verka, Chungh, Mithra and Narot Jaimal Singh.

Dr M.S. Hundal, Dean, College Development Council of the university, said the seats were being offered in the first year of BA, BSc (economics), BSc (computer science), BSc (medical and non-medical), BCom (professional) and BCA courses in all these colleges. The prospectus and application forms for admission were available in the colleges, he added.

The fee would be at a par with the government colleges in the state and collected in two instalments. The colleges would collect fee of Rs 3,100 per annum in two instalments from each student admitted to the BA and BSc courses, he said, adding that Rs 2,000 would be deposited by the student at the time of taking admission and Rs 1,100 would be realised from the student in November.

Similarly, each student admitted to BCom (professional) and BCA (first year) will have to pay Rs 11,000 as annual fee in two instalments, ie Rs 7,000 at the time of admission and Rs 4,000 in November, the same year, he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Mehal Singh had taken the charge of the Principal of GND University College at Verka, Amritsar district. Dr Mohanjit Nagpal Sethi had joined the University College at Chungh, Tarn Taran district, and Dr Daljit Singh Khehra had joined as Principal at Beba Nanaki University College, Mithra, Kapurthala district. The Principal of University College at Narot Jaimal Singh, Gurdaspur district, was likely to be appointed within the next few days, Dr Hundal said.

Amritsar, June 10
For the past two months, the family of a 12-year-old boy has been making rounds of the B-Division police station in the hope that the police officials will arrest the accused who allegedly sodomised the boy.

But, their hopes have now shattered. The police has miserably failed to arrest the accused persons, who the family claims are roaming freely in the area freely.

They alleged that the police was deliberately delaying their arrest so that they could approach court and procure a stay order.

“We are being pressurised to reach a compromise with the opposite party or otherwise face dire consequences,” said Didar Singh, a relative of the victim, while talking to The Tribune.

While detailing, Didar said the two accused, identified as Jagjit Singh and Gagan, both residents of the same area, befriended the victim and called him to their residence on March 15. He said the boy told the family that the two accused made him see a blue film and forcibly committed the crime. He said they threatened the boy with throwing him in a canal in case he told the incident to his family. He said they again repeated the crime. However, this time the boy told his family about the incident, which approached the police.

A medical examination of the boy was conducted, which confirmed the crime and a case under Section 377 of the IPC was registered.

Didar, who was accompanied by the mother of the victim, expressed fear that the accused might hurt the family or kill the boy in order to save their skin. He said the family approached Deputy Commissioner of Police Amar Singh Chahal in this regard, who also assured them and directed the police station to take the necessary action and arrest the accused. However, he said the police authorities were asking them to catch the culprit and hand them over to them.

Chahal, when contacted, said he would look into the case why the accused had not been arrested so far. He said he instructed the B-Division police station to arrest the accused and to report him about it without any further delay.

Amritsar, June 10
The controversy over proposed amendments in the constitution of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts refuses to die down.

Members of IAFA supported by eminent personalities from theatre and literary field alleged that even as the proposals of the amendments in the present constitution have been finalised, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina and his coterie failed to call general house meeting.

They threatened an agitation if the gallery authorities failed to finalise the date for general house meeting in seven days.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the general house meeting held on March 31, members unanimously resolved to amend the constitution and a six-member committee was constituted to give its recommendations.

Neeta Mohindra, convener of the academy, alleged that a draft was prepared under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu who ordered the Art Gallery authorities on May 25 to call general house meeting on June 14.

“As Arvinder Singh Chamak, honorary secretary, was on leave, the letter was addressed to Additional Secretary Shivdev Singh. But none of them bothered to follow the orders,” alleged Mohindra.

Chamak refuted the allegations and pointed that the gallery had written and asked IAFA president Avtar Singh to fix the date.

“As per the present constitution, the gallery had to finalise the date in consultation with president as he was the person (president) who will have to preside over the meeting. We proposed June 14 and later June 27 for holding meetings. However, Avtar Singh did not finalise the dates,” said Chamak.

Avtar Singh, president of IAFA, said they had approached him only on Wednesday evening adding that they had not approached him before. Meanwhile, the artistes threatened that they would launch an agitation besides moving the court to get the art gallery free from the clutches of few influential non-artist people.

Amritsar, June 10
In order to spread awareness among the general public about increasing incidences of tuberculosis, the District TB Control Society organised nukkad nataks (street plays) at Verka, Majitha Road, Muradpura, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital and Central Jail here today.

Dr Naresh Chawla, District TB Officer, said a play, “Jado Jago Udo Savera”, was staged by a team of artistes, led by Dilpreet Singh, especially sent by the state health society. The play spread the awareness about TB, its signs and symptoms and its mode of spread. The team also encouraged people to remove the stigma associated with the disease prevalent in the society.

The team of doctors that accompanied the team of artistes to Central Jail included Dr Sanjeev Kohli, Medical Officer, TB Control Programme, Senior Treatment Supervisor Parveen Kumari, Navdeep Kaur from the Red Cross, TB and HIV Coordinators Deepika and Daljeet Singh.

Speaking on the sidelines, District TB Officer Dr Naresh Chawla exhorted the public to visit the nearest health centre if they were suffering from cough for two weeks or more. He informed that free medicine of tuberculosis was available at every government health facility and identified private DOTS centres. A revised National TB control Programme camp was also organised inside the jail for the benefit of prisoners.

Amritsar, June 10
The Christian Youth Front today postponed an agitation after the assurances by the Army authorities of repairing the wall of the graveyard, which was allegedly damaged by Army jawans.

The front had given a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu to solve the issue, besides giving a call to hold an agitation at Bhandari Bridge today. They were agitated over the demolition of the wall around the graveyard situated in Killa Gobindgarh, part of which was under the occupation of Army battalions. The community alleged that graves were also damaged during the demolition of the wall.

Danial Bhatti, state president of the front, said a meeting of front leaders, senior police authorities, led by ADCP Satpal Joshi, and Army officers was held in which Army officers assured the community that they would repair the demolished walls by Tuesday. Bhatti said if the Army authorities failed to repair the demolished walls by Tuesday the front would initiate an agitation.

Amritsar, June 10
The Punjab hockey team clinched the national hockey title in under-17 category.

The event was organised by Bombay Hockey Association recently.

Six players --- Jugraj Singh, Jobanpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Gursimran Singh, Navraj Singh and Harmandeep Singh --- in the Punjab team were from Baba Uttam Singh National Hockey Academy, Khadur Sahib.

Amritsar, June 10
Punjab’s oldest aviation club, established in 1962, Amritsar Aviation Club, has earned the distinction of being the best club in the country for imparting all-round flying training required to be a commercial pilot.

This was stated by Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu during the inauguration of the new building block of the club at the Guru Ram Dass International Airport complex here yesterday.

The club, unlike other civil aviation institutes and clubs, has been equipped with ultramodern navigation aids like night-flying facilities, crash and fire-fighting equipment, etc.

While apprising the gathering of the new block built on the gothic historic design, Pannu said this part of the club had been raised with the help of Rs 35 lakh grant extended by the state government. It would have additional classrooms, simulator rooms and an engineering block, besides the CGI rooms.

The club has its own hangar with parking bays and apron for its aircraft. It boasts of five aircraft, which included the old Pushpak aircraft too. At present the club is catering to the at least 26 boys and 10 girls hailing from across the country.

The club is being operated on “no profit, no loss basis” and grants special concession to the aspirants belonging to the SC/ST categories on training as certified by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

“Now, we have in our possession an ultramodern multi-engine Beech Baron G-58 aircraft. This aircraft would enable the learners to try hands on the multi-engine aircraft. We have other most modern aircraft like Cessna 172R and Simulator, which have been equipped with the gadets like VOR (very high frequency omni range), glass cockpit with ILS (instrument landing system), NDB (non-directional beacon), etc, and we expect to have two more aircraft in the next financial year,” he said.

“The club has been designated as an authorised examination centre by the DGCA. As many as 75 students appeared for the examination held in April last,” he added.

Amritsar, June 10
The Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology (ACET) here, the only institute in the region accredited to the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), has offered various scholarships to deserving candidates.

Announcing it here today, Dr R.S. Bawa, Director, ACET, and Amit Sharma, Managing Director, said the first 25 top merit holders would be given full fee concession.

“From 26th rank to 100th rank, there would be concession of 50 per cent in the fee and those falling under the category of 101st position to 200th position would get 25 per cent concession in their fee for various engineering and technology courses,” said Dr Bawa, while adding that 10 per cent concession in tuition fee would be given to candidates having blood relations, like older brother or sister, already studying in the institute.

The ACET had also decided to give appreciation award to students for securing positions in the university in any semester. The student getting first position would get Rs 51,000, the second would get Rs 31,000 and the third would get Rs 21,000. However, those securing fourth to 10th positions would be eligible to claim appreciation award of Rs 11,000.

While talking about the placement graph, Amit Sharma said 45 companies visited the ACET for placements for the 2011 batch. “Various national and multinational companies hired 311 students from the 2011 batch at the ACET, beating the placement record of previous years. Almost all interested students have been placed.” 

Amritsar, June 10
Baffled at the uncaring and callous attitude of district administration towards the eco-drive ‘Go Green Go Clean’, launched by her husband and BJP MP from Amritsar parliamentary constituency Navjot Singh Sidhu, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has decided to file an RTI seeking details of the expenditure incurred on the drive, from contribution of Rs 1 crore made by her husband from his personal funds.

“I have observed that only 30 per cent of plants could survive and most of them are without the metal protectors. I fear that for want of water, the rest may die too. The trees are also not numbered, which too is essential,” she said.

Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who has now taken charge of the eco-drive with active support from the NGOs like Art of Living and Mission Aagaaz, said they were surprised to find wrappers of gutkas about two feet below the earth when they uprooted the dried and dead trees to plant new ones at their place.

She said they had already begun the re-plantation of saplings in Amritsar Cantonment and would complete the whole project by the end of July.

As part of corrective measures she said the MP had agreed to spend Rs 1 lakh per ward on plantation. “We have formed 20-member ward wise committees that will look after the plantation process,” she said.

After completion of plantation process the duties of their maintenance would be divided between the Municipal Corporation and Improvement Trust and both the departments would be held accountable for any neglect or negligence.