Amritsar, November 26
The arrest of Manav alias Manu Chopra, the third accused in the kidnapping case of Ritish Sharma has established that it had been stage-managed by Ritish himself. Ritish was reported to have been abducted for ransom on November 23.

Ritish was the mastermind in his kidnapping to extort money from his parents and grandfather who had recently retired from the Roadways, the police said.

The police had earlier denied the involvement of Ritish. Rinkle Masih, who was caught along with Ritish while collecting the ransom money from a designated place in the cantonment area, had told the media that it was his (Ritish’s) plan which was later corroborated by Manu also.

The police has booked Ritish for allegedly possessing 50 gram of smack. The police also seized a country-made pistol and two live cartridges from Rinkle. Manu was arrested from Khazana gate after specific information. Ritish (17) and Manav (17), both are students of Class XII at Hindu Sabha College, while Rinkle (18) is a Class XI student of the same college.

Vikram Sharma, in-charge of the CIA staff and one of the investigating officers said the police had recovered the two mobiles used by the three accused for allegedly threatening the family members to pressurize them to shell out Rs 2.5 lakh as ransom money besides the two motorcycles used in the crime.

Because of the accused being minors, the court today directed the police to send Ritish and Manav to juvenile jail at Hoshiarpur while Rinkle was sent in judicial remand at Amritsar Central Jail.

The police has also booked the three accused under Section 511, 182, 120-B of the IPC. Earlier, the accused had been booked under Section 364-A (abduction) case registered at D-division police station.

Amritsar, November 26
The haphazard parking of trucks outside Attari-Wagah joint post has put visitors coming to witness the beating the retreat ceremony at the joint check post, to great inconvenience. More than 10,000 tourists from various parts of the country as well as abroad come here everyday to the half-hour ceremony.

In the evening when the movement of trucks is halted for the ceremony and tourists arrive, it leads to a lot of problems as a large number of trucks ferrying perishable items and goods to Pakistan are haphazardly parked on either side of the road.

The trucks also encroach upon half of the roads on either side results in the hindrance to the movement of vehicles.

Tourists also find it difficult to park their vehicles in the absence of proper parking space.

There is no system in place to regulate the flow of trucks at the border.

To solve the problem requires involvement of the authorities at many levels making the task difficult.

Amritsar, November 26
The ease of buying household items from your kiryanewala or grocer over exchange of pleasantries may soon become a thing of the past going by the fears of retail merchants of grocery, chemists, stationery, cosmetics and various other categories besides distributors over the government's decision to allow 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand-retail and 100 per cent in single brand will prove a death knell for them. These businessmen feel that distributors, middle and high segment retailers will be severely hit as fallout of the decision.

Amritsar Distributor Association president Om Prakash Sharma said the very existence of the distributors was in danger as companies deal with them directly and supply material to their stores. He cited the example of the first wholesale cash and carry store in the country set up in the city by Indian private telecom major Bharti Enterprises, in collaboration with the US major Wal-Mart a couple of years ago, captured over 30 per cent share of business of distributors.

He said his association was representing 300 distributors of the city and one of their members had recorded his monthly sale of Hindustan Lever products coming down from Rs 10 crore to Rs 6.5 crore. He said a similar decline was being witnessed by other distributors as well. He said these stores now offer material to retailers on 15-day credit.

The Amritsar Retail Karyana Association president Kuldeep Rai Gupta, running a grocery store at Ram Bagh area of the city, said these international brands had plenty of resources and could set their own prices for various products after procuring them in bulk from markets, which amounts to monopoly.

He said within the past 24 hours, the prices of mustard oil had been hiked by Rs 6 a litre while Rs 3 were added to the price of a kg of sugar. He said distributors, whole sellers and reputed stores would be severely hit as the customers would switch over to these organised stores.

He said there were over 2,300 karyana stores associated with the Association and a majority of them offered employment to at least three persons besides, indirectly to thousands others, including labourers.

Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal president Amrit Lal Jain said multi-brand retail stores will not only take away the share of retail grocery stores but also pharmaceuticals, apparels and other essential items in the times to come. He said wherever retail majors had opened their stores, the middle and upper level shopkeepers had vanished.

He said there were about six crore retailers across the country. He said it was frustrating to know that the leaders who had taken the decision did not have any experience of studying the working of retail shops and their role in the society. They should offer these companies to run the Public distribution System (PDS), which is in a shambles. He said the move will add unemployment, imbalance in the society.

Harjinder Kaur of Greenfield Avenue said being a consumer she felt that there would be plenty to choose from. She said since these companies will procure material in bulk and the ensuing competition will make them sell these products at minimum prices to the customers.

Amritsar, November 26
The CIA staff today seized more than 20,000 litres of illicit liquor stored in a rented old rice sheller building in Muddal village. The accused have been identified as Lovepreet Singh alias Mony, a resident of Mallian village and Tarsem Singh of Patti Bahniwal village in Sultanwind.

Vikas Sharma, in-charge CIA staff said the accused were involved in preparing and supply illicit liquor to various villages as well as different parts of the city.

He said at a naka near Verka bus stand, the police party received information that the two culprits had stored a huge quantity of liquor at Muddal village located on the link road leading to Fatehgarh Shukarchak from Batala G T Road.

The CIA staff along with the Verka police raided the complex and recovered the liquor stored in water tanks, plastic pipes and cans from the spot. A case under the Excise Act has been registered while raids are also being conducted at all the suspected hideouts, said Sharma.

Amritsar, November 26
Painful, but cremating the dead in an eco-friendly manner may bring some solace to the kin as the end will not harm the environment. Amritsar will soon attain the status of being the first city in Northern India to have eco-friendly LPG-fired crematoriums. The machinery for the crematoriums has finally arrived in the city.

On the pattern of Kerala, these machineries will be installed at Shivpuri Cremation ground near Durgiana Temple and another one near Chatiwind Gate run by Shamshan Sewa Samiti.

After the failure of the only electric crematorium at Durgina in 1992, the district administration, in collaboration with Pollution Control Committee, an NGO and the Durgiana Mandir Committee, is leaving no stone unturned to apprise people about this new concept through advertisements, handbills and small information booklets.

Their job is to install the new crematorium technique at the cost of Rs 16.5 lakh each and is on in full swing. If officials are to be believed, it will take another 20 days to get it fully operational.

Bodies of those, whom no one claims as their own after their death, will be the first ones to be cremated here for the trial run. These will be the bodies found by the police, for which no one comes forward to stake a claim.

To keep in line with the religious beliefs of people, the original concept design of the machinery as is being used in Kerala has been modified. The modifications have been done after the intervention of the Punjab Pollution Control Board so as to keep up with the rituals followed at the time of cremation.

Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Rajat Aggrawal said, “Another important factor is that through the traditional method, at least two quintals of wood, which constitute almost a full-grown tree, is needed to cremate one body.

The new technique, which takes an hour, consumes half a cylinder for the task, thus saving our natural cover. “The LPG-run furnace has provided an alternative to fuel and we would leave no stone unturned to popularise it,” Aggarwal said.

As per an estimate, the traditional way of cremation costs between Rs 1,200 and 1,500 but the new system will bring down the cost by more than half to only Rs 400.

Parkash Singh Bhatti, an environmentalist associated with the project, said special information booklets in English, Hindi and Punjabi have been published which will be distributed shortly.

“Similarly, leaflets will be distributed as insertions in newspapers to change peoples’ perception,” he said.

President of the Durgiana committee said special performa are proposed to be published which will be furnished by the members of the committee. “These proformas will be on the pattern of an ‘affidavit’, wherein our members will pledge that they should be cremated through the LPG-run crematorium. We have over 1,200 ordinary members besides 40 executives and 12 cabinet members who will fill these forms. At least, it will be a beginning from our side and after deliberations with members, it will be implemented,” he said.

In this system, the body is kept in the furnace with the help of a trolley. High pressure LPG with air is ignited in the furnace. Each unit has a 100-feet high chimney and is easy to operate. The technology was approved by acclaimed national and international agencies.

The inside temperature will rise up to 1100 degree Celsius and the body is reduced to ashes within an hour. Full-length burners on both sides ensure uniformity of the burning process from different angles. The excess heat and fumes are taken out through a water bath in a roder to bring down the temperature to normalisation and let foreign particles settle down. In this process, the particulate matter oxides of nitrogen, hydrogen chloride, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced are brought down within the norms of the pollution control board. In the end, the fumes escape through a high-rise chimney. The ashes can then be collected from the stainless steel collection pan.

Amritsar, November 26
Following the intervention of Amritsar Municipal Corporation, the standoff between the staff and the management of Antony Waste Handling Company was resolved and the workers returned to work today. Nevertheless, the AMC has warned the company officials of a repeat of the situation.

For the past six days, drivers and other helping staff of the Mumbai-based company were on protest for having been denied wages according to the deputy collector rates besides bonus and proper uniforms.

The strike resulted in garbage heaps spilling over to the roads in at least 30 wards and over six lakh residents of the city were exposed to live in unhygienic conditions.

Dharampal Gupta, AMC commissioner said the strike has been called off and the workers resumed work in the morning today.

Though workers of the company performed their duties but heaps of garbage were still lying around and spilling out of the garbage trolleys in parts of Hide market, Lawrence Road, Mall road, Queens road, all areas most frequented by the tourists.

It was for the second time that the staff of the company had refused to work. Earlier also they had held the residents to ransom for their differences with the management. The residents feel that the leniency by the civic authorities will encourage them to repeat it.

AMC Health Officer Dr Yogesh Arora said the strike was the unpardonable attitude of the company workers. "The liability lies with the company as the residents were at the receiving end despite the fact that we have been paying such a heavy amount to the company. I will recommend the higher authorities to penalise the company," he said.

"We do not appreciate the way we suffered due to their in-house unrest. But at this juncture, our priority was to get the job done. It will be decided later about the kind of penalty to be imposed on the company. I have asked the company officials to depute extra staff or instruct them to rope in extra hours to remove all the garbage at the earliest. The things will become normal soon or else the firm will be penalised,” he said.

Amritsar, November 26
DAV International School and Planet Education, an authorised centre of University of Cambridge, held a workshop on 'Cambridge Advanced English (CAE) Test'.

The workshop aimed at acquainting the students of Class X, XI, XII of the school with the CAE Test, which can be opted to procure foreign visas.

IGNOU Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof MM Pant and Planet Education chief executive officer Sanjay Malaviya were the resource persons.

First part of the workshop focused on guiding the students about the importance of English language for achieving success in professional and academic world.

Malaviya addressing the students said the test was globally recognised and by securing 'A' grade, the students could get 70 extra UCAS tariff points which make them eligible for admissions in all UK universities.

Unlike more popular TOFEL and IELTS, the CAE test is much cheaper and valid for lifetime. He said the test was based on real life language skills used in professional world.

The students were also acquainted with various degree courses offered by Cardiff Metropolitan University (CMU), UK. The students were offered opportunity to get enrolled for these programmes either with Planet Education or go to the UK.

The second part of the workshop delved on improving learning abilities "Fire up the learner within". It stressed on how to foster good study habits among the students and how online resources and social media could be used for effective learning using gadgets like laptops, smart phones, tablets and others.

Prof MM Pant emphasised the importance of ICT tools such as Google, Twitter, Diggo, You Tube and others in order to enhance learning abilities and thus making them independent learners.

School Principal Anjana Gupta said the workshop was arranged for providing better learning environment and techniques to the students in globally changed environment. It aimed at broadening their vision regarding various avenues.

Amritsar, November 26
Amritsar North MLA Anil Joshi today flagged off a rally taken out by the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (DJJS) to spread awareness against female foeticide. The rally was organised to mark the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women.

Participants in the rally took help of placards and street plays to spread their message. Sadhvi Jyotsna Bharti of DJJS stressed the need to change the mindset of the people so as to root out the menace.

Amritsar, November 26
Punjab Government should realise the importance of the holy city and must give a chance to be developed as an IT hub, said Amritsar Vikas Manch, an NGO.

The NGO has written to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to develop the holy city as an IT hub and provide suitable land to Infosys at Amritsar in this regard. Amrit Lal Mannan, president, and Hardeep Singh Chahal, general secretary of the manch, said the city has perfect environment and fulfils all the requirements mandatory for setting up an IT industry.

"Amritsar has a world class international airport connected to several countries of the world besides having a state-of-the-art air-cargo complex at the Amritsar Airport," Mannan said.

He said the city has world class 4-star and 5-star hotels and many more are in the pipeline while there are ultra modern malls and residential colonies built by leading multinational companies of India. "With the opening of first integrated check post at Attari, the city will emerge as a world class international trade centre," said Chahal.

Amritsar, November 26
A renowned athlete and a student of BA first year at Khalsa College of Women (KCW), Khushbir Kaur, today completed a 5-km walk in just 24.31 minutes, setting a record in the inter-colleges athletic championship being held at Guru Nanak Dev University. Her earlier record is of a 10-km walk in 49.21 minutes. She had also won gold medal in the 5-km school national walk held at Pune and a silver in the Asian Games held at Singapore last year. She also took part in the youth Olympic Games. Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal congratulated Khushbir on her achievement.

Best judoka

Rasheswori Chanu of BBK DAV College for Women has been adjudged the best judoka in the All India Inter-University Judo Championship concluded recently at Pune.

Amritsar, Jalandhar, November 26
The team from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, emerged as the overall winner of Virsa, the five-day North Zone Youth Festival, of the Association of Indian Universities that concluded at Lovely Professional University today.

The host team was declared the runners-up. As many as 700 youths had taken part in the festival. The events held today included guitar harmony, fusion dance from the south and north, display of martial arts, fusion of blind dance, b-boying and Indonesian dance.