These walls of history bear their careless scribbles
Amritsar, November 21
Youth may be constantly exploring the freedom to express themselves in our society, so when some young couples meet in the serenity of our heritage sites, they want to be known, it seems. As many etch their names on these historical walls, they belittle these majestic structures and what they stand for. Often these places of historic and cultural importance become dating joints, lover's point where love birds don't hesitate a bit to turn them into random slam books, scribbling their names or openly indulging in 'property display of affection'.

Cong’s ultimatum works, MC House meeting fixed for Nov 30 
Amritsar, November 21
Apparently, pressurised by the tough stand taken by the Opposition Congress for not conducting the House meet on regular intervals, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation today fixed November 30 for holding the same.

Endless wait for passport
Amritsar, November 21
Passport Sewa Kendras were introduced with much fanfare to expedite the process of issuing passports. However, things have not changed much. Passport applicants like Gurwariyam Singh can tell the true story.

The department was awaiting the approval of the Director General Civil Aviation to grant the CAT-II landing system to the Amritsar Airport. All works, including, runway lights, glide path and other relevant infrastructure is in place except another structure of IAF spread over 1.5 acres. It will not take more than a fortnight to remove the structure and operationalise the CAT-II ILS system.
— sunil dutt, airport director, Amritsar

Amritsar, November 21
Questions have been raised about the feasibility of the state government's move to increase the retirement age of teachers in government, medical, dental and Ayurvedic colleges in the state. Lower cadre teachers feel the move will be beneficial only for 20 per cent of the teachers in these institutes.

The move has come as a reason to cheer for a large number of teachers would be retiring within a year. As many as 50 senior faculty members, including professors, associate professors, and assistant professors were to retire by November 2015. Out of these, 16 will retire by December 2012 at Government Medical College, here.

With these, GMC was likely to be run out of its teaching faculty in the next few years. Several departments of the institution have already been rendered headless.

College Principal Dr SS Shergill said the teaching faculty has reacted positively. “Though a bit late, but the government has taken a wise decision. We are feeling the pinch as many departments have run out of staff while some of them were on the verge of closure," Dr Shergill said. Medical education was also taking a hit in absence of adequate staff, he added.

Dr RS Sidhu, president, Punjab State Medical and Dental Teachers' Association, said instead of enhancing the retirement age the government should make Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting a regular affair which will not only provide timely promotions to the teachers but also help in filling posts at the lower level. 

Amritsar, November 21
Several more names of ration depot holders have cropped in the investigations regarding the seizure of 50 bags of wheat recently. The bags were meant to be distributed under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The wheat was being taken in the open market to be sold to the flour mills.

The police is not disclosing names so as not to hamper the investigations. The police authorities said names of several commission agents have also figured in the probe. Meanwhile, the raids conducted by the police parties in Batala and Gurdaspur failed to yield any results as the accused had gone underground.

Vavinder Kumar, in charge, Anti-Narcotics Branch claimed that during investigations the accused Gaurav Sharma and Pardeep Kumar had disclosed that they had sold 2,000 quintals of wheat in the open market or various flour mills in Amritsar.

A police team headed by Vavinder Kumar had arrested Pardeep Kumar of Azampur village, Fatehgarh Churian and 50 bags of wheat were seized during a naka set up near Ball Kalan village.

Preliminary investigations found that the accused were going to sell the wheat meant for government ration depot under public distribution system to some flour mills. Gaurav, a resident of Devi Nagar, here was arrested following the revelations made by Pardeep Kumar. The police had also recovered nine bags of wheat from Gaurav’s residence. “We are now going to summon the accused whose names were figured in the investigations to join the probe,” said Vavinder.

Besides commission agents having political connections, the names of several officials of the district food and civil supplies department have also figured in the investigations, another official said on the condition of anonymity.

Sukhdev Singh, District Food and Civil Supply officer, Gurdaspur, feigned ignorance about the seizure of government wheat smuggled from Gurdaspur to Amritsar. “We have not been informed by the police or nobody has brought the matter to our notice so far,” said Sukhdev Singh. The police should inform us about anyone found guilty for pilferage of wheat for necessary action to be initiated against them, he added. He said the department regularly checks the stock of ration depots and anyone found guilty of this illegal will be taken to task.

Amritsar, November 21
Apparently, pressurised by the tough stand taken by the Opposition Congress for not conducting the House meet on regular intervals, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation today fixed November 30 for holding the same.

The Congress councillors had served an ultimatum to the AMC Commissioner warning that they themselves would hold the meeting on their own if the House meeting is not conducted shortly.

Nevertheless, Mayor Shwait Malik, despite the fact that his son’s marriage was scheduled to be solemnised today, conducted an officials’ meet and communicated the AMC Commissioner Dharampal Gupta to fix the date for the house meeting as soon as possible.

Confirming this, Dharampal Gupta said, “Since the city is witnessing various development projects, it was already on our agenda to hold the MC House meeting shortly because the process of these projects was being affected for want of House nod. The Mayor has submitted me in writing about the mandatory proceedings of the meeting which has been scheduled for November 30.”

On November 16, the Congress councillors led by Rajat Aggarwal had alleged that the House barely meets once or twice in a financial year, giving them hardly any chance to have a constructive debate over the people's problems and various development works.

Now, elated over the latest development, Congress councillor Ranjan Aggrawal said during the House meeting, their main focus would be only to review the development projects.

“In the meeting, we will like to know the details about various development projects of the city over which the ruling alliance had claimed to spend Rs 526 crore. We fear that the ruling alliance is misleading the general public with a view to grab votes in the upcoming assembly elections. According to our calculation, the projects which are being repeatedly highlighted on every occasion by the ruling alliance leaders in their speeches, should not be more than Rs 430 crore. We would question them the mis-utilisation of the excess amount they had spent,” he said.

On the other hand, Mayor Shwait Malik said the House meeting could not be held on a regular basis due to over indulgence in finalising the strategies for various overall development projects already underway in the holy city.

“The details of each and every penny spent or proposed to be spent on various development projects is in black and white and there is nothing to hide about. The house. But at the same time, I too would like to know if the opposition too would be bringing the details of the development projects, they had done, if any, during their regime before 2007. Except for creating chaos in the house meeting, they would not have any concrete agenda to discuss over,” he said.

Amritsar, November 21
Passport Sewa Kendras were introduced with much fanfare to expedite the process of issuing passports. However, things have not changed much. Passport applicants like Gurwariyam Singh can tell the true story.

Even after furnishing all the documents required by the Regional Passport Office, Amritsar, Gurwariyam Singh has not succeeded in getting a passport. Gurwariyam Singh, a resident of Roopwali village, Kathunangal, Amritsar, had submitted an application for a passport with the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in April 2009.

After a long wait he approached the passport office only to learn that his passport was ‘duly’ dispatched to him (bore dispatch no POO 2416) on November 11, 2009.

It came out that his passport got misplaced. He lodged a complaint with the Kathunangal police. Despite the fact that the postman had given it in writing to him that the negligence was on his part, the post office officials waited for “certain formalities” to pursue the matter.

Gurwariyam Singh requested for reissuing his passport on April 16, 2010, by shelling out a reissuing fee of Rs 1,500 plus the duplicate passport fee of Rs 2,500.

At present, Gurwariyam has been trudging from the post office to the passport office with the passport dispatch number, but still does not see any hope.

“I have been roaming from pillar to post to get justice. The postal officials, instead of helping me out, rebuked me sayiing i am wasting their time,” he complained.

“The liability of the passport office gets restricted to just giving me the dispatch number. Don’t they have any liability to dispatch the passport safely?” he said.

“No one picks up the enquiry phone number and on top of it I cannot find any guidance on their website in case of any grievance,” he added.

After getting no response on the official telephone enquiry number (0183-2506256), this correspondent checked the website of the Regional Passport Office.

The web page to check the status of the passport stated “the page cannot be found”.

“The police had earlier been hesitant in lodging the complaint. Later, an FIR was lodged after the absconding postman was traced,” said Gurwariyam Singh.

I do not have any knowledge about this particular case. Ask the complainant to submit his case to me tomorrow positively. If he had indeed paid the re-issuing fee, the liability stands with the postal department for the loss. We will also communicate with the postal department to reimburse him the reissuing fee.
— JS Sodhi Regional Passport Officer

Amritsar, November 21
That the adversity brings forth best out of a man was one of the messages in Shakespeare’s famous play King Lear. This stands true for Charan Likhari, a class IV employee in Khalsa College.

Likhari droppd out of school in class IV and later started earning money as a construction labourer, like his father. Born and brought up at Mannan village, he used to travel nearly 18 km daily to his new-found job at the Khalsa College.

Speaking in chaste Punjabi he said his personal sufferings find expression in his poetries.

Likhari has written poetries that have been sung by many Punjabi pop singers. He has so far written about 270 poems. Many of his songs were sung by folk singers Manmohan Waris and his brother, Kamal Hir. Likhari said “although it received a small pay but he was contented as his words were gaining popularity”.

He said Likhari, which means writer, was a name that was given by Manmohan Waris. He was inspired by Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi, who also used to pen down his personal sufferings into rhythmic words.

He recalled that he once bought a book ‘Birha Da Sultan’ written by Batalvi at Rs 70 after saving from the wages earned at a construction site. The college also gave him opportunity to read out his poems to the audience gathered to facilitate Canada’s first turbaned minister of state Tim Uppal.

Khalsa College Principal Daljit Singh said he had referred his poems to the College’s Punjabi department to get them evaluated. Once the experts approved them of good literary standard then these would be forwarded to be printed in a book form. He said he had attached Charan with the College’s Youth and Culture Department so that he may get ample opportunity and exposure to show his talent.

Amritsar, November 21
Fun and frolic was in the air at Ryan International School, Amritsar, on Saturday as the school organised a fête to inculcate business skills among the students. During the event the students arranged various eatables and games stalls with the help of their teachers. The main attraction of the fête was swings.

Amritsar, November 21
Police Commissioner RP Mittal today visited the residence of Manjit Singh. Five armed robbers had decamped with cash and jewellery worth Rs 70 lakh from the house on the evening of November 19.

Mittal interacted with the family members and neighbour and assured them that the accused will be traced soon. “I was not in the city for last two days and therefore, I visited the family today. We are hopeful of finding some definite clues about the culprits," Mittal said. He said the involvement of an insider could not be ruled out.

Maninder Kaur, wife of the owner Manjit Singh, along with her granddaughter and two maid servants were at home at the time of the incident. The family members had brought diamond and gold jewellery from the bank locker on the same day for a wedding function.