Doctors against starting of postmortem facility at hospital
Amritsar, December 18
The doctor fraternity at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital has written a letter to the district health authorities to dissuade them from initiating postmortem services at the hospital citing staff crunch and work load.

Civil Hospital bears burden of staff-less trauma centre
Amritsar, December 18
For the last three years the trauma centre at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital is doing without any sanctioned staff as a consequence of which the Civil Hospital has to spare its own staff to keep the centre running.

Amritsar, December 18
Tension prevailed in the ancient Ram Tirath Temple today when two groups, fighting over the management of the temple, came face to face over laying the foundation stone of the Bhagwan Valmiki temple in the sarovar of the disputed site.

The police has to use water canon and light tear gas shells to disperse a huge gathering of members from both sides at the temple after the groups started pelting stones at each other.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rajat Agarwal, and Gurmeet Chauhan, SSP Amritsar Rural Police, besides other senior administrative and police officials rushed to the spot.

Sources said one group, while showing vacation of the stay orders from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, claimed that they could lay the foundation stone of the temple, while the other group (led by mahants) showed stay orders issued by a lower court which was announced yesterday.

The temper was high when the administrative and police officials reached the spot who tried to pacify them. The matter was later resolved when the one group was allowed to lay the symbolic foundation stone.

Rajat Agarwal said the situation was tense but under control. He said high security arrangements have been made in order to avoid any unpleasant situation in the near future.

"Had the police not used water canon or tear gas, the situation might have gone out of control," said Rajat Agarwal while adding that the heavy police posse has been deployed at the spot for the safeguard of the foundation stone as well as the mahants who live in the vicinity of the temple.

Om Parkash Gabbar, Congress leader who was leading the opposite group, said the high court has vacated the stay order regarding the construction of temple in the sarovar on November 22 and we have decided to lay the foundation stone today. He said after the completion of ceremony all the people dispersed from the site.

Amritsar, December 18
The narcotics and mobile phones continue to sneak inside the high-security Amritsar Central Jail. The jail staff recovered intoxicant powder and a mobile from two jail inmates during checking last evening.

One of the inmates even tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with the ceiling fan with the help of his turban following the recovery of intoxicant powder by the jail from his possession.

However, he was timely saved by the jail warden with the help of jail staff. The undertrial identified as Bhupinder Singh alias Tikka was learnt to be an acute drug addict.

Confirming the incident, BS Gill, Deputy Superintendent, Central Jail, said Bhupinder was an acute drug addict who was lodged in the jail along with his father. He had made unsuccessful attempts earlier also, he added. Yesterday, he tried to hang himself with turban. However, the jail staff timely saved him.

"At present he is admitted in the jail hospital where his father Kuldip Singh has been also kept to look after him," said Gill. During checking, the jail staff recovered one packet of intoxicant powder besides Rs 50 currency note and a coupon of Rs 400 from him, he said.

A case under Section 309 IPC, Section 42 of the Prisoners Act and Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at Cantonment police station in this connection on the statement of Gill.

Amritsar, December 18
Following the arrest of two money exchangers for their alleged involvement in Hawala transactions for the payment of drugs, majority of the money exchangers in the city have come on the radar of state special operation cell, the counter intelligence wing of the Punjab Police.

Two brothers, Parampal Singh and Gagandeep Singh, were recently nabbed by the cell after the investigations of three notorious smugglers who were caught with 4 kg heroin worth Rs 20 crore in the international market on December 7.

Though the accused were remanded in judicial custody on Saturday, the police officials said vital clues regarding transactions of Hawala money and module adopted for payment to smugglers have come to light during the interrogation of the two accused and three smugglers arrested earlier.

It is pertinent to mention here that officials from National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate were camping in the city for investigations. According to the SSOC sources, their arrest was a major breakthrough in unearthing the payment module through which the Pakistan-based smugglers, who used to push in heroin, counterfeit currency besides illegal arms in India, are paid.

“This will help in checking the payment of the smugglers and their associates here. The role of other money exchangers has also come under scanner. Now, the intelligence agencies would also keep an eye of the functioning of money exchanger in the city,” said the sources.

During the investigations, it was found that the two accused used to send the Hawala money through America, Canada Route. The police has recovered Rs 15 lakh from them which was meant to be handed over to Pakistan-based smugglers through Hawala. The investigations revealed that the accused had paid lakhs of rupees to Pak smugglers till now.

Amritsar, December 18
The doctor fraternity at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital has written a letter to the district health authorities to dissuade them from initiating postmortem services at the hospital citing staff crunch and work load.

The district health authorities had plans to initiate a new postmortem house at the hospital premises to conduct autopsy of the dead. The hospital already has a mortuary.

In the present situation, postmortems are conducted at the Government Medical College. Further the tehsil-level government hospitals are equipped to conduct the autopsy.

The medical fraternity has reasoned that as the postmortem house of the Government Medical College is efficiently providing services for the last 56 years and hence there is no need to initiate the postmortem services at the Civil Hospital now.

The doctors have further reasoned that as the medical college has an entire forensic medicine department, it is more competent then the Civil Hospital which does not have a single forensic expert.

A doctor on the condition of anonymity said, “In Patiala and Faridkot, where Government Medical Colleges exist, the respective civil hospitals have been spared from conducting postmortems. In Faridkot even the medico legal cases are attended by medical college whereas in Amritsar Civil Hospital, doctors have been assigned this duty.”

The medical fraternity reasons as they are already overburdened with VIP, jail, medical board and many other duties, the move to initiate the postmortem services should be stalled. They have further said none of existing doctors at the Civil Hospital has an experience of conducting postmortems.

Confirming the development, Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar, president of the local PCMS Doctors Association, said, “The entire medical fraternity is of the view that Civil Hospital doctors should not be subjected to any new duty as the hospital is understaffed and doctors are overburdened.” He added the doctors had unanimously decided to write the letter.

Amritsar, December 18
For the last three years the trauma centre at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital is doing without any sanctioned staff as a consequence of which the Civil Hospital has to spare its own staff to keep the centre running.

Already going through a staff crunch problem, the Civil Hospital has to spare emergency medical officers, radiographers, nurses and other paramedical staff for the trauma centre. The deployment of workers at the trauma centre hinders the smooth functioning at the Civil Hospital.

Sources at the hospital said the trauma centre needs at least four Emergency Medical Officers (EMOs) --- one each for three shifts and one as reliever. The centre also needs nurses, paramedical staff and other employees.

It is learnt that the trauma centre got few nurses and radiographers recently but it is yet to see any EMOs which are a key component in facilitating its smooth functioning.

The centre was constructed by the SAD-BJP regime in its current tenure. If fully equipped, the centre could cater to the needs of numerous accidental cases and other emergency cases.

The centre constructed at a cost of over Rs 1.5 crore has thus proved inefficient in providing the desired services to the general public. Because of the absence of efficient and required staff, the much-needed life supporting systems such as ventilators have gone defunct during the previous three years.

A patient at Civil Hospital said the government must have deployed the sanctioned staff before opening the trauma centre. “Without the sanctioned staff the trauma centre is not more than a building. The government should rather spend the tax payers’ money to provide better services,” said the patient.

When contacted, Civil Hospital’s Senior Medical Superintendent (SMO), Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon, admitted that they are facing staff shortage as it has to designate staff for the trauma centre.

Amritsar, December 18
The city had its date with the man’s best friend. Sunday afternoon saw the most expensive, well kept and pampered breeds compete for the winning titles at the annual dog show organized by the Amritsar Kennel Club at Baba Ishwar Singh School at Ranjit Avenue. Amongst city’s who’s who were their favourite pets, with fur as fine as silk and collars as expensive as a vintage wine.

The annual event had over 300 entries from across the nation, some even participating from Down South. The biggest and most exclusive gathering of dog lovers across the region, it was nothing short of mela, one stop place for the elitist, classiest and rarest of the breeds. And all form Chinese Sherpie to Rottweilers, German Shepherd’s to huge but humble Saint Bernard’s, every dog looked dressed up for a red carpet entry. “This time, the dog show is on a bigger scale. We have maximum entries this year and the judges too are from South America who are international all breed judges and have judged at the greatest dog how in the world, The Crufts at London. It took us four years to actually get them here for the show,” says Yogesh Tuteja, organizer of the event.

Amritsar, December 18
Without migrant labourers, Punjab farmers could have found it difficult to bring in the green revolution, which helped the state to get the tag of “food bowl of India’. However, these migrant labourers have come a long way from being a farm hand to skilled workers and even small-time contractors in cities.

In Amritsar, migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have made their mark in businesses of construction and home furnishing.

As per estimate, the holy city, which has a population of more than 15 lakh, has more than one lakh migrant labourers. “Our people have gained expertise in fixing marbles at homes, painting walls and even construction,” said Lal Singh, a migrant from Poornia district of Bihar. He said they feel good when they are addressed as ‘mistri ji’. Over the years, as more and more machines made their presence felt in the fields and schemes like MGNREGS started providing employment opportunities in their home states, their fondness for the fields have also diminished.

Ram Kumar, another migrant said, “Times have changed. Now the migrants from UP and Bihar are no more available for farm works. Most of them have acquired skills and prefer to work at factories where remuneration is better than the farm sector.” With railways still a preferred mode of transportation for them, large numbers of them can be seen waiting here until they find a suitable job. Babu Ram, said, “In present times, large number of factory owners and farmers come to the railway station to find a worker. So finding a job is not difficult.”

But still the life is not very much comfortable for them. Suresh, a labourer, said, “We share rooms, eat less, work overtime and some times are even abused at the workplaces.” He said they work hard to save money so that they could do something better with it.

Bimal Kumar said, “We have to save money so that we can send it to our families. After all the expenses here, I save Rs 1,500, which I send home.”

A rickshaw puller, Bimal said he had worked as a labourer to save money to buy a rickshaw.

Gauri Khan, migrant from Bihar said, “It takes time for every one to get settled. It took me six years to learn the art of fixing marbles, which I did working as a construction labourer.”

Amritsar, December 18
Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Patti, was killed and Raj Kumar was seriously injured when a speeding truck hit their car near Tarn Taran bypass road late last night. Raj Kumar was driving the car.

The Jandiala police has registered a case under Sections 304-A, 337, 338 and 427 of the IPC in this connection and has launched manhunt to nab the unidentified driver of the truck (PB-02-AV-9950).

The incident took place when victims were going from Fatehgarh Churian to Malot. Raj Kumar in his complaint to police said the truck came from behind and hit their vehicle ran.

Amritsar, December 18
The Jandiala police under Amritsar rural police has recovered huge quantity of illicit liquor from Chhapa Ram Singh village.

But persons, identified as Bakhshish Singh and Roor Singh, running illegal distillery units managed to escape from the spot.

The police team recovered 60 kg of lahan besides 10 litre illicit liquor in Bakhshish Singh’s distillery unit and 150 kg lahan and 30 litre illicit liquor from the Roor Singh’s unit.

The Jandiala police has registered two separate cases under the Excise Act against them.

Amritsar: Two unidentified motorcycle-borne youths snatched a purse from one Dr Jeewan Sodhi, lecturer in the local BBK DAV College for Women, when she was returning home.