Amritsar, June 14
A day before taking over as the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner, Rajat Aggarwal has listed his priority on the work front.

“First thing would be to focus on issues which impact society the most,” said Aggarwal.

An IAS officer of 2008 batch, he would assume the charge from Kahan Singh Pannu tomorrow.

While talking to The Tribune, Aggarwal, whose last posting was as chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, said three sectors ---health, education, environment and infrastructure would be given priority.

“But I have yet to have the feel of the holy city and the necessities of the people living here. Law and order situation would be another area which needs total devotion and care. I can assure you that with apt coordination between the bureaucracy and the police wing, I will try to maintain it in its true letter and spirit,” he said.

“Apart from this, various undergoing development projects too would be well taken care of. I would try to maintain the sanctity of this city which it commands from its historical significance and provide better living conditions for its residents,” he added.

On the other hand, outgoing Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu, seemed to be satisfied with his about four-year stint with the holy city and now was preparing to join his next posting as the Joint Development Commissioner (IRD), Punjab.

“I had spent an unforgettable tenure here. It had always been my earnest feeling to work for the cause of this ‘Guru Ki Nagri’, which has given me so much respect, cooperation and scope for proving my mettle and I can say that I have honestly fulfilled my mission. I had initiated various development projects, though got delayed due to some unavoidable circumstances, these projects would transform the shortcomings of the city and it would truly be synonym with its term ‘the international hub’,” he said.

“We had our basket full of jobs for the current year as number of projects - be it integrated checkpost at Attari-Wagah border, environmental leisure valley, expansion of elevated road projects or multi-lane high level bridges on Amritsar-Tarn Taran- Jalandhar road and erecting the new District Court Complex. I hope that all these projects would be executed within the stipulated time frame to improve the living conditions of people,” he said.

It is to mention that Pannu has been instrumental in initiating the beautification of galliara project, plaza at the entrance of Golden Temple, parking lot at Saragarhi for pilgrims visiting the holy shrine, the much-talked about light and sound track system for Jallianwala Bagh and his much acclaimed initiative along with his wife -the Panghura scheme for abandoned newborn. — TNS

Amritsar, June 14
Even as the Supreme Court has banned the sale of tobacco products in plastic pouches, the Punjab Government has miserably failed to implement the ban, alleged Mission Aagaaz, an NGO dedicated to various environmental issues.

The NGO said the Union Ministry of Environment had issued a notification in his regard banning the use of plastics for packaging gutka and other tobacco products. Furthermore, packaging of foodstuffs/ eatables was also banned as per the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011, he added.

The organisation representatives today met BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu in this regard.

He said he had taken up the issue with the Punjab Government and Forest Minister Arunesh Shakaar in this regard who assured him to implement the notification within one month.

“Unmindful and rampant use of polybags, plastic wrappers of gutkas and other tobacco products, milk, shampoos, plastic bottlers of water, cold drinks etc virtually brought us to the verge of crisis to such an extent that if immediate effective steps are not taken to stop this, it will become difficult to maintain the ecological balance and soil productivity,” said Gurbhaj Singh, convener of the organisation.

Deepak Babbar, executive director of the organistion, and Dr Navjot Sidhu, chairperson, Art of Living Foundation, pointed out that they had come across huge dumps of plastic wrappers of tobacco while digging earth for planting saplings at different sites.

These wrappers were shown to BJP MP and he expressed deep concern over the matter.

Sidhu said he would spearhead a plantation campaign under which he vowed to plant more than 30,000 plants of 8-feet height in and around Amritsar to make this holy city green, clean and pollution free.

Deepak Babbar said although tree plantation was drastically required, the residents need to be sensitive about the green cover.

Amritsar, June 14
Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP MP, yesterday came in the support of the members of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA) and artists who staged a dharna at S.G. Thakur Singh Art Gallery here today.

They were agitating against the failure of its patron Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina for calling a general house meeting for reviewing the “controversial” new constitution of the academy.

Carrying black flags and wearing black badges they raised slogans against Chhina and his associates for dilly-dallying in solving the issue.

Sidhu, who met the agitating artists at the art gallery, asked Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu, also the Chairman of the IAFA, to conduct the meeting. Pannu, while assuring them, directed the academy authorities to call the general house meeting on June 19.

Neeta Mohindra, convener of the academy, said as per the new constitution, 18-members of the academy in a communique to Chhina urged him to call the general house meeting within seven days. “However, ignoring the constitution, Chhina did not call the meeting,” alleged Mohindra. The artists urged the Punjab Government to intervene in the matter.

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. A draft was prepared under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu, who ordered the art gallery authorities on May 25 to call a general house meeting on June 14. However, the authorities failed to call the meeting.

Meanwhile, addressing the artists Sidhu promised to give Rs 5 lakh for the development of the academy to the new president, whosoever would be elected after the elections.

Amritsar, June 14
The nexus between politicians and micro-finance companies are hurting banks and people who take loans from these companies, alleged CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, All-India Bank Employees Association, who was here to participate in the state-level convention of Punjab Bank Employees Association.

Expressing concern, he said there was a great need to expose and stop this nexus. He said at present about Rs 70,000 crore had been loaned to these micro-finance companies by various nationalised banks and these loans were not being returned properly by the companies allegedly due to the political patronage. He said the these companies take loan at 8 per cent while they give loan at very higher rate of interest, ranging from 40 to 50 per cent, which people find to repay.

Meanwhile, he said the bank employees would go on a strike all over the country in favour of their demands on July 7. He said as many as 10 lakh employees would participate in the strike.

Their demands included no privatisation of public sector banks, not to issue licences to corporate houses for opening private banks, to revive banking service recruitment board for the recruitment in public sector banks, to start five-day banking system etc. He said the bank employees would continue their agitation till their demands were met.

Amritsar, June 14
Municipal Corporation Commissioner DPS Kharbanda visited the Sant Nagar area of Verka where the cases of jaundice have been reported.

He also visited the house of one Sukhwant Singh, who allegedly died due to the waterborne disease. However according to MC authorities, Sukhwant died of ulcer.

It is to mention here that a number of residents of the Verka complained to jaundice which put the health and MC authorities on their toes.

Kharbanda claimed that jaundice cases were not due to poor sanitary conditions in the area as claimed in the reports.

“A number of inhabitants of the area have illegal water connections that pass through the drains and during blockage of drains reportedly due to polythene bags the sewage got mixed with the drinking water supply resulting in contamination and thus complaints of water borne diseases,” said the Commissioner.

He said another factor was consumption of water from hand pumps. Residents have also put up underground sewage tanks that contaminate underground water. The consumption of this water also results in waterborne diseases, he said.

He also directed the staff to desilt the drains, fogging, spraying in the area besides removing plastic bags from drains.

Amritsar, June 14
The inaugural ceremony for a three-day workshop (June 14 -16) ‘Early Childhood Care and Education’ was held at BBK DAV College for Women, Amritsar.

The workshop is being organised under the aegis of DAVIIER (DAV Institute of Inservice Education and Research), DAV CMC New Delhi, under the guidance of Dr Neelam Kamra, Regional Director, and kind support of Neera Sharma, Principal, DAV Public School, Lawrence Road, Amritsar Zone.

As many as 75 pre-primary and primary in charges from all over Punjab and Jammu region are attending the workshop. The function was presided over by the Director, Punjab Schools and Aided Schools JP Shoor.

Rashmi Chari, assistant director, DAVIIER in her address highlighting the aim of the workshop said the workshop would fulfil the long standing need of transacting curriculum and instructional practice that are modern and scientific.

JP Shoor said teachers were indeed ‘gurus’ who groomed the students to take on the challenges of life.

Prof Kiran Devindra, Head, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT, emphasised the need of giving the child his due freedom and rights rather than pressurise him to perform well academically all the time. “We need confident people who tackle the problems of life well rather than mechanised students who only can take high percentages.”

Amritsar, June 14
Arrhythmia (abnormal heart beat) is the largest cause of cardiac arrest and over three lakh people die every year due to this in the country, said Dr Arun Chopra, principal interventional cardiologist, Fortis Escorts Hospital.

He highlighted the need of simple pulse checks to detect serious heart rhythm disorders during an awareness workshop organised by the hospital while observing World Arrhythmias Week.

“Abnormal heart beat has become a major cause of deaths. Fast heart beat can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in which chances of survival is less than 2 per cent. In case of SCA, there is a disruption in this electrical signal and the heart rate becomes very fast. This irregular heart rhythm can prevent the heart from pumping normally. The heart eventually stops beating completely leading to patient’s death in more than 90 per cent of the cases,” he said.

Early defibrillation is provided within the first few minutes, the chances are 90 per cent that the victim’s life can be saved. After that, the rate of survival drops 10 per cent with every minute.

Patients at risk of SCA often experience unexplained fainting or syncope (loss of consciousness). This is normally misdiagnosed and confused with blood pressure/ neurological problem. Cardiac arrest is reversible in most cases if it's treated within a few minutes with an electric shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat. This process is called defibrillation.

Pulse check during symptoms such as shortness of breath, fainting may help diagnose a serious problem, prompt treatment can prevent fatalities. Periodic pulse checks by the patient or during doctor’s visits may help save thousands of lives from death or disability resulting from heart rhythm disorders and also reduce health care costs significantly.

Amritsar June 14
VLCC Institute of Beauty and Nutrition today announced the commencement of a digitised format of beauty courses, that will enable uniform standards of training and expertise for students across its 51 campuses in 39 cities. The digitised course was launched by Narinder Kumar, Group CFO & Business Head, here. The occasion also saw the launch of two books on skin --- Basic Beauty Culture and Advanced Beauty Culture. The course curriculum covers many specialised areas such as aromatherapy, beauty culture, hair designing, make up, salon management, spa therapies, nail art, nail extensions etc.