87 pc of drunken drivers killed in accidents died of head injuries
Amritsar, December 4
Love to gulp four-five pegs of whiskey before driving home on a two-wheeler, then you must wear a helmet as 87 per cent of the alcoholics killed in road accidents in the city died of head injuries and were not wearing helmets.

Newlywed strangled by husband, three arrested 
Amritsar, December 4
A newlywed woman, Amarpreet Kaur (24), was allegedly strangled by her husband in the Jandiala township, near Amritsar, today.

Amritsar, December 4
The modern goat abattoir, conceptualised in 2001, on a land provided by the Municipal Corporation (MC) at Ghumanpura, near Chheharta, turned out to be a non-starter, owing to alleged bungling in procuring the high-tech slaughtering machines and a section of farmers claiming that the land over which the abattoir is being built belonged to them.

The farmers moved the high court for their claim and the verdict is still awaited. The alleged bungling in the purchase of machinery parts by some Animal Husbandry Department officials, too, could not be proved, despite numerous inquiries by the police.

Nevertheless, a huge amount of money has been spent on the partial construction of the building, which otherwise was supposed to be completed within 17 months.

It has been learnt that Rs 3 crore were to be spent on the project to be executed by the Animal Husbandry Department in collaboration with the Punjab Livestock Development Board in 2001. A Delhi-based private firm was hired to run it on the turnkey basis, but despite spending Rs 1.5 crore on the construction of the building and procuring machinery parts, the project could not take off.

Meanwhile, the agitating farmers, too, managed to procure stay orders from the court, the officials said.

At present, the half-built infrastructure is lying non-utilised and slaughtering is being done in a small structure constructed at an adjoining site and in not very hygienic conditions.

Sources in the Animal Husbandry Department said unnecessary payments of over Rs 30 lakh were reportedly made to the Delhi-based firm for designing and consultancy, but nothing concrete was done to execute the project. Officials at the junior level were “falsely” implicated in the alleged Rs 40 lakh embezzlement in the purchase of machinery parts.

One of the officials Harjinder Singh, the then Veterinary Officer, had sought VRS in 2009, but the department revoked major part of his service benefits.

“I have been trapped on frivolous grounds because all the transactions were done at the higher level. Despite the fact that the then Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, Pawan Kumar Gandhi, had given me a clean chit in the case, I am still lurching to have my pension and dues,” he said.

Gandhi, who was well conversant with the facts of the case as he was the nodal officer then, said all the documents pertaining to the case were produced in the court and some departmental inquiries were still pending. “The farmers who had objected to the use of the site had procured stay orders through the court, that’s why the project was stalled. As far as the alleged bungling is concerned, the inquiry is still pending. Harjinder Singh’s service benefits were revoked because he could not produce the NOC, which was mandatory before extending all service benefits, as per norms applicable to any employee,” he said.

Amritsar, December 4
The Lopoke police has seized 250 g of heroin worth Rs 1.25 crore in the international market and Rs 1.38 lakh counterfeit currency notes from two persons, Kamaljit Singh of Kot Atma Ram here and Sunil Kumar, a resident of Lopoke village.

They were caught during a naka laid near a canal at Boparai Kalan village, while they were bringing the consignment from the border village of Naushehra Dhalla to deliver it further.

Recently Border Security Force (BSF) jawans had recovered 5 kg of heroin and fake currency notes of Rs 9.80 lakh, which were thrown into the Indian side of the border by an unidentified Pakistan smuggler.

Interestingly, Kamaljit Singh and Sunil Kumar were released on bail from the Amritsar Central Jail, where they were lodged in separate cases, recently. They came in contact in the jail and decided to jump in the illegal trade to make fast buck.

According to details, during search the police recovered 200 g of heroin and Rs 49,000 fake currency notes from Kamaljit Singh and 50 g of heroin and Rs 89,000 fake currency notes from Sunil Kumar. The fake currency was all in Rs 1,000 denomination, which was smuggled from Pakistan through the porous Indo-Pak border.

Two separate cases have been registered against them under Section 489-A of the IPC and Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act.

HS Brar, SP (Detective), Amritsar rural police district, said preliminary investigations revealed that both the accused were inside the jail in connection with an attempt to murder case and a case under various sections of the Excise Act.

Amritsar, December 4
Love to gulp four-five pegs of whiskey before driving home on a two-wheeler, then you must wear a helmet as 87 per cent of the alcoholics killed in road accidents in the city died of head injuries and were not wearing helmets. Further, drunkards amount to 23 per cent of people who die in road accidents in the holy city.

The facts were revealed by a study conducted by a junior resident doctor, Dr Ishwer Tayal, at Government Medical College, based on the postmortem reports of the dead at the Postmortem House at Majitha Road.

A nine-month study of the reports of the dead by Tayal stated that out of the total dead who were high on alcohol 82 per cent were riding two-wheelers. On the contrary, drivers of four-wheelers seemed much safer as only 9 per cent of them were killed in the road accidents, when high on alcohol.

The study has also proved that 56 per cent of alcoholics had died on only two days — Saturdays and Sundays — the weekend when most of the people are having a party time. Interestingly, in the nine months’ period when the study was conducted, on Tuesdays, when most of the people prefer not to drink, because of their religious beliefs, no accidental death was reported.

Further, a maximum number of 39 per cent of the deceased were in their twenties and 38 per cent of the deceased were self-employed and 10 per cent students.

Dr Ishwer Tayal said, “Of the total alcoholics who died in road accidents, 61 per cent had died because of cerebral compression and 26 per cent of laceration of brain. Both of these are caused by severe head injuries. Had these 87 per cent people been wearing helmet they might have saved their lives.”

Amritsar, December 4
A newlywed woman, Amarpreet Kaur (24), was allegedly strangled by her husband in the Jandiala township, near Amritsar, today.

Nishan Singh, husband of Amarpreet Kaur, used to suspect her of immoral character. The police has arrested Nishan Singh, his father Jagtar Singh and mother Balwinder Kaur and registered a case under Sections 302 and 120-B of the IPC against five persons.

According to information, Amanpreet, who originally hailed from Rana Kalan village, was married with Nishan Singh on November 28. However, just a couple of days later, Nishan Singh started suspecting the character of his wife. He allegedly strangled her in the wee hour today.

Partap Singh, father of the deceased, alleged that the family received a call from Nishan Singh that Amarpreet was not well. As we reached her in-laws house, all the family members were sleeping. When they tried to wake Amarpreet Kaur up, she did not respond. He alleged that her in-laws had strangled her.

The Jandiala police handed over the body to the family after postmortem.

Amritsar, December 4
National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) Adviser Dr Latha Pillai has said the country needs to train 4.15 lakh teachers annually to realise the goal of a 100 per cent literacy.

Addressing the 55th Annual Convocation at the Khalsa College of Education here today, Pillai said the current capacity of all the teacher training institutes was 1.60 lakh teachers and the gap was too big to fill.

She said radical reforms, including creating "thinking teachers" with good theoretical foundation while concurrently having strong partnerships with key stakeholders and the schools to ensure strong field practice so as to inject the reality of professionalism in teacher development was required. "Articulation of professional standards, benchmarks and goals-on three performance dimensions- professional practice, leadership and management and personal effectiveness is a must," she said.

She said we are living in the information age, which is marked by information explosion. "Emphasis of teaching-learning on mere acquisition of information will have to give way to abilities like information gathering and processing, seeing hidden patterns and using them for problem-solving."

She also highlighted the new law guaranteeing the Right to Education, there is likely to be a renewed focus on teacher training.

She along with former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Dr HS Soch and GNDU Dean Colleges Development Council Dr MS Hundal and varsity's Sports Director, Dr Kanwaljit Singh and Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC) Honorary Secretary, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina also distributed 460 degrees to Med and Bed students of the college.

Amritsar, December 4
Sangya Ojha and Hashim Haider, puppeteers and voice-over artistes from the famous “Galli Galli Sim Sim”, an adaptation of “Sesame Street”, took a bunch of kids to the world of Nandu, Fenny and Chaman, muppets from the popular show, as an initiative to popularise and promote the art.

Performing and participating along with kids in the city, they brought back childhood memories of “Sesame Street” alive. “Sesame Street made muppets into legendary characters and before “Galli Galli Sim Sim” Indian audience was clueless about the high-star value of muppets. The best thing about the shows and the concept is that it inculcates moral values like friendship, coexistence and peace in kids without having them to forcibly absorb them,” says Sangya, who is the voice of Elmo.

Amritsar, December 4
The local Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector has huge listing potential in the coming years as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has already given a nod to the SME Exchange on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), said CEO, BSE (SME) Exchange, Lakshman Gugulothu.

He said this while delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘Raising of Equity Capital and Listing of SMEs on BSE SME Exchange’ organised by the PHD Chamber with BSE on the fourth day of the Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX), today.

Organised to sensitise the industrialists in and around the city about the benefits of listing under BSE (SME) Exchange, Gugulothu said the BSE has undertaken a multi-pronged activity to create awareness about the likely benefits that would accrue to SMEs on listing.

“So far there have been only debt-financing options without any access to alternate equity options,” said Gugulothu. There is a general lack of awareness among SMEs about equity capital, stock market and funding operations other than banks. He said banks were able to meet only about one-fourth of funding requirements of the SMEs.

He said equity financing will lower the debt burden leading to lower financing cost and healthier balance sheet by providing SMEs with equity financing opportunities to grow their business-from expansion to acquisition. It will also enhance the company’s visibility.

The basic criteria of listing on the bourse would be minimum 50 investors and Rs 50 lakh post Initial Public Offer (IPO) paid-up capital, he said.

For companies with Rs 50 lakh to Rs 10 crore paid up capital, the listing will be compulsory, while for the companies with paid up capital between Rs 10 crore to Rs 25 crore, it will be optional to be listed on either the SME Exchange or the main Board.

Earlier, welcoming the delegates, PHD Chamber Punjab Committee co-chairman RS Sachdeva said the introduction of SME exchange will provide the much needed opportunities to SMEs of the city, including, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, rice millers, textiles and others, to access and avail the capital market easily.

It will also help the small and medium enterprises resolve their serious start-up issue of lack of initial liquidity, Sachdeva added.

Amritsar, December 4
The representative of Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAK FTZ) to India Bissoon Surnam today called upon investors from Punjab in general and Amritsar in particular to invest in the trade zone RAKFTZ, which includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Addressing a seminar on Investment opportunities in RAK FTZ, organised by the PHD Chamber on the penultimate day of Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX) today, Surnam said the RAK FTZ was fast turning into a business hub and offered it as a cost-effective destination to set up operations.

Setting up an office or industry in RAK FTZ, he said costs three to four times less money than in Dubai, he said. The zone allows 100 per cent repatriation of profits and provides all utilities 24 hours a day with peaceful environment.

Investors in Ras Al Khaimah enjoy a full range of business incentives, including 100 per cent income, personal and corporate tax exemptions and absence of value-added tax; 100 per cent capital and profit repatriation; 100 per cent ownership in free zones; no foreign exchange control; liberal labour laws; up to 30 per cent lower cost of doing business compared to other locations in the region; and ease in the establishment and registration of companies. He said the key economy sectors being manufacturing, construction, trading, and real estate.

The RAKFTZ offers special advantages like 100 per cent foreign ownership, 100 per cent income tax and corporate tax exemption, 100 per cent capital and profit repatriation, no import and export duties among others.

He said starting with 15 Indian companies in 2000, the number of registered Indian companies in 2010, has risen to 9,702 with a projected growth of 15 per cent in terms of new companies each year. RS Sachdeva, co-chairman, Punjab Committee, PHD Chamber, said its proximity to many of the world’s emerging markets, RAK FTZ make it new niche investment area.