SHO suspended for ‘detaining’ woman
Amritsar, January 8
Following orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the city police has put State House Officer of B-division police station under suspension for allegedly keeping an old woman under illegal detention. Jagwinder Singh, SHO B-division police station, had allegedly kept Manjit Kaur, a resident of new Azad Nagar under illegal detention who was later released by a warrant officer appointed by the HC.

Amritsar, January 8
The recent tragedy which snuffed out lives of 12 school children in an accident in Ambala is yet to wake the authorities out of their slumber towards safety of school children. Without guilt or fear of punishment autos ply school children in blatant violation of the Supreme Court guidelines towards safety of school children.

Worn out school buses and overloaded autorickshaws are engage in the daily exercise of plying children without ensuring their safety and security.

Making children even more vulnerable some schools are open even during foggy days in the absence of any directions from the district administration.

Nevertheless, a bus belonging to a reputed school, plying on the new Amritsar route, was found to have a broken front windshield (on the side of the conductor) while the adjoining seat was occupied by school children while another bus was without its rear wind screen. Similarly, a number of buses did not have the mandatory horizontal grills on their windowpanes.

The SC guidelines stipulate the colour of the school buses to be fluorescent yellow with a chocolate strip (six-inch wide) and having the school name painted on it, but here TATA magic, goods carriers, have been put into service to ferry school children. This vehicle is usually white in colour. The SC guidelines, applicable all over the country, have stipulated the speed limit of school buses at 40 km per hour, but no speed governors have been installed in buses.

Though the state transport guidelines prevent the use of school buses for any other purpose except to ferry school children, but here school bus drivers start ferrying passengers immediately after dropping the kids to schools.

School authorities too have engaged some buses to ferry teachers. These school buses can be seen parked on the GT Road, right under the flyover, to ferry local passengers after school hours. Against the High Court guidelines allowing only six children in an auto-rickshaw in one these overloaded vehicles with over 16 to 18 children are a common sight. Another school on the GT Road has so far failed to check its auto-rickshaws plying on the wrong side of the road thus putting the lives of innocent school children to grave danger.

The SC guidelines, though welcomed by all schools, are being observed in breach as most of them hire chartered buses to ferry students and thus have little or no control over the conduct of the staff of private bus operators.

Amritsar, January 8
Four persons lost their lives and two persons were injured in separate road mishaps in various parts of the city late last evening.

Narvail Singh, a rickshaw puller and a resident of Bharariwal village here was crushed to death under a speeding truck (PB-11-J-3598) when he was on his way back to his village in the evening after work. The truck driver identified as Jani, a resident of Chhota Haripura, was caught by the local residents when he tried to flee from the spot and was later handed over to the cantonment police. The police has lodged a complaint under various sections of the IPC on the basis of a statement of Swarn Singh, father of the deceased.

In another incident, Gurmeet Singh was killed while his wife was seriously injured when they were on their way to Bua Nangali village on their motorcycle from Pandori Rumana village in Tarn Taran district to meet their daughter.

An unidentified person driving a car hit them near Bal Kalan village. Gurmeet Singh died on the spot while his wife was seriously injured in the incident. She was rushed to a private hospital on Ajnala road here where her condition is stated to be stable.

The Airport police has registered a case on the basis of a statement of their son Satnam Singh. The police said the accused car driver allegedly fled after committing the crime.

In yet another mishap, Bawa Singh of Jania village falling under Jandiala police station was killed while his son was critically injured when their tractor trolley collided with a truck (number PB-08-AM-5839). They were on their way back to their village from Amritsar at the time of the incident.

Bawa died on the spot his son Saba sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a private hospital.

Sarfu, a resident of Tirath Pura village, was crushed to death by an unidentified speeding vehicle. His wife Manjit Kaur told the police that he had gone to work but did not return. Later in the evening, the police was informed about the accident. Jandiala police has registered a case against an unidentified person in this regard.

Amritsar, January 8
Following frequent complaints of road blockades and quarrels involving truck drivers at Attari-Wagah joint check post (about 27 kilometres from here), the district administration has deputed policemen to regulate the flow of trucks carrying out import or export of goods through the route.

The move has been initiated after there were reports of chaos and allegations against custom officials of favouritism. The traffic blockades at the joint check post had also put the visitors coming to witness the Beating the Retreat Ceremony to great inconvenience.

It is pertinent to mention here that more than 10,000 tourists visit the joint check post to watch the flag lowering ceremony daily. On holidays, it is particularly difficult for tourists, double in number than weekdays, to get parking for their vehicles in the presence of large number of trucks and in the absence of proper parking place. Till now, there was no system in place to regulate the movement of trucks.

Due to haphazard parking of trucks, quite a number of incidents were reported in which the truck drivers, who came from various parts of the country to export goods to Pakistan, were involved in brawls with their fellow drivers in an attempt to outdo each other for crossing over to the neighbouring country to unload the material.

The custom officials were also charged of favouritism while allowing trucks to Pakistan. Exporters, who levelled these charges, said they have to incur huge losses as perishable items are damaged as trucks, loaded with these items, remained stranded at the border for more than a week.

After a meeting between custom officials and district administration, it was decided that truck operators would park their vehicles outside the defence drain about a kilometre from the check post.

Deputy Commissioner Rajat Agarwal had directed the Amritsar rural police to deploy police teams to regulate the traffic. Following this a team of Gharinda police has been asked to regulate the traffic.

Truck operators have been told that trucks would be allowed to cross the border on ‘first come, first serve basis’ and whosoever tries to create chaos and traffic jam near the border would be dealt with iron hand, said the Deputy Commissioner.

He said the Customs Department were also directed to allow trucks laden with perishable goods to cross over to Pakistan on a priority basis.

India and Pakistan custom officials have agreed for the import and export of perishable items on Sundays. The decision has been taken with a view to clear the stranded trucks carrying perishable items which got damaged due to longer stay at this side of the border.

Confirming this, Jaswinder Singh, Superintendent, Customs at Attari said the trucks would now be parked at Attari grain market where custom officials would give them tokens for their onward journey to the joint check post and further to 
Pakistan.

It is pertinent to mention here that the number of trucks reaching JCP is more than the number of trucks getting clearance daily. At present as many as 100 trucks are cleared by Pakistan for unloading the material there.

Amritsar, January 8
Following orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the city police has put State House Officer of B-division police station under suspension for allegedly keeping an old woman under illegal detention. Jagwinder Singh, SHO B-division police station, had allegedly kept Manjit Kaur, a resident of new Azad Nagar under illegal detention who was later released by a warrant officer appointed by the HC.

The court had appointed the warrant officer following a habeas corpus petition filed by her grandson for securing her release. During the search, he found Manjit Kaur in police custody. The SHO at that time had said she was not required in the case. However, after few hours of departure of the warrant officer, the B-division police arrested Manjit Kaur and her grandson once again besides assaulting them for having approached the high court, he alleged. The victim's family once again approached HC which had recommended the accused SHO's suspension to the police commissioner.

Coming down heavily on Jagwinder Singh, the High Court observed that the SHO had acted in defiance of judicial orders and asked the police department to initiate departmental proceedings against him while pointing out that his act was not only highly objectionable but also illegal and arbitrary.

RP Mittal, police commissioner, said Jagwinder was suspended as per the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and further probe could be initiated if the HC orders so.

Manjit Kaur had been taken into alleged illegal custody by B-division police when a complaint was lodged against her by the family of her daughter-in-law Nandanjit Kaur. They had filed an application alleging that she was trying the grab the property of Hardip Singh, son of Manjit Kaur, in December.

Nandanjit Kaur, who was booked by the police for allegedly poisoning her husband Hardip Singh and son Robin to death, has been absconding since then.

Her son Manvinder Singh was saved by the doctors. It was second marriage of Hardip Singh.

The incident had occurred in September 2009.

Amritsar, January 8
“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after 
generation.”

While the anonymous quotes hints at the human temptation for triumph, some new generation kids from the city have added their own version maintaining the sentiment behind the words of 
wisdom.

Defying their age and lack of prudence that comes with it, these young achievers have made it big despite their academic time tables and enjoying a normal childhood. Starting young in their respective fields of specialisation, they have turned professionals at an age when all kids care about are movies, video games and a leading burger chain.

Meet Ketki Sethi, a student of XI at DAV Public School and an athlete. Her medal tally at various sporting events is a proof of 17-year-old’s achievements. Her USP? Winning gold medals in shot put at every national event she has participated since 2007.

“I didn’t want to enter the sport, but a positive push given by my principal led to my debut in the school competitions. After that I started taking the sport seriously,” says the young sports star. Since then, Ketki has won gold at national-level competitions and was also selected for the Youth Olympics last year, held in Singapore. With her 5.9 feet built, Ketki doesn’t consider herself as just good enough. “My aim is to become one of the best and compete in the Olympics.” For that she trains herself two hours everyday, keeping a good academic profile as well.

Another example of multi-tasking is Atul Mattu, 17, who has made a name for himself at the artistic circles in city. His awards and achievements match his passion for water colours and paintings, which he took five years back.

“I have won state-level awards and already have two exhibitions to my name,” says the young painter. Recent was an award for excellence by Indian Academy of Fine Arts. Having taken no professional training, his talent is natural. “I was always fascinated with colours and wanted to control them through my imagination,” he says. The humble Atul wants to pursue his dream of becoming a good artist and learning modern art. “May be one day, I would see myself named with the likes of MF Hussian, Subodh Gupta and Anjoli Ela Menon.”

Agam Shingari, at 10, is a name well known. Be it his effortless tabla playing skills or the Limca Book of Record holding feat, this young artiste is another one on list of young achievers. Starting at 2, when Agam couldn’t talk properly, he could catch the beat on a tabla. At 10, he is the youngest table maestro in the country. And still he is unaware of his feats. “I just like playing table,” comes the innocent reply. Amongst the zillion prizes and accolades like National Award for exceptional achievement and a scholarship from the Government of Delhi, ask him about his best and he replies, “When I met Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Jasraj.”

Amritsar, January 8
The holy city, which was looked upon as the centre of excellence in medical services after the Independence and till PGI came up at Chandigarh, lost the status after losing favour with the ruling parties in the state.

The city has two important government managed medical institutions --- Jallianwala Bagh Memorial (JBM) Civil Hospital and Government Medical College (GMC). The GMC in return is the mother of various hospitals associated with it, the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital being the most important one.

The holy city's population of more than 10 lakh besides visitors from neighbouring Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur seem to have lost faith in these institutions. Even the state's influential and top-notch political class, which otherwise is competent to extract oil from dried seeds, too have lost faith in the hospitals.

Just two examples and it would be clear that politicians too don't come to the GMC, which once had a special room reserved for state's first family during Pratap Singh Kairon's Chief Ministership.

First: During the chief Ministership of Congress's Harcharan Singh Brar, the then Minister for Medical Education Sardool Singh preferred to get admitted to a private hospital when he met with an accident. The minister had to later shift to the GMC after Brar took a serious note of the incident. Second: As CM Parkash Singh Badal took services of private doctors when he broke his hip joint in the city. Later, Badal was airlifted to Delhi for treatment.

The city intelligentsia feels that the city has lost on 3 Ms --- men, material and machines. The medical institutions are staff crunched, buildings need repair and instruments are lying defunct for years. Even the GMC does not have sufficient faculty to train and educate future doctors.

Dr Parkash Singh Malhotra, former Principal of Guru Ramdass College, said, "It was after 1984-85 that recruitment of junior teachers was not encouraged. Presently, the stress is on raising the retirement age of the faculty." Rather the stress should be on admitting new junior teachers, he said.

Dr Malhotra said client satisfaction should be the aim of these medical institutions. “There should be social set up to monitor the working of doctors as well as patients,” he suggested. He said even as government apathy initiated the devaluation of medical services in the city, nexus of private diagnostic centres have added to the problem.

"The private diagnostic centres would automatically go out of business if 24-hour diagnostic services are available at government institutions," he said.

KJS Ahluwalia, a biochemist and former in charge of the chain of GMC laboratories, said, "The government woke up after Fortis Escorts hospital came up in the city. It realised that Amritsar GMC should be given due importance."

He said earlier irrespective of the SAD or Congress governments, the GMC was given a step-motherly treatment.

He said, "A separate and independent Department of Diabetology is urgently required considering the gastronomical behaviour of Punjabis, especially Amritsar residents." Ahluwalia said Amritsar has a capacity to regain its glory if the government it serious. 

Amritsar, January 8
The Department of Posts is organising an exhibition of postal stamps here on January 9 and 10. More than 100 stamp collectors from the city will put their collections on display here. Amritsar Philatelic Club secretary Dharmender Kapoor said a special envelop cover with the picture of the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah check post will also be released on this occasion.

He said since independence, the Indian Postal Department has released 3,000 postal stamps of various kinds. “Amritsar-based collectors have a huge collection of many of these rare stamps,” he said. The winners of the competition will also be honoured by the postal department. A quiz contest for the school students will also be organised on the occasion,” he said.

Amritsar, January 8
The Civil Lines police has arrested two persons allegedly involved in stealing motorcycles and selling them on the basis of forged documents.

Those accused have been identified as Jaswinder Singh of Deenewal village in Tarn Taran and Ajay Singh of Sant Baba 
Bhuriwale Gali on Tarn Taran road.

The police has also recovered 10 motorcycles from their possession besides a .12-bore country-made pistol along with two live cartridges from their 
possession.

The accused were on their way from Rialto Chowk to Ashoka Chowk on a motorcycle (PN-46-G-44487), which was later found to have been stolen.

A case under Section 379, 411, 420, 467, 468, 471, 472 Indian Penal Code and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act has been registered against them, Sukhwinder Singh, Station House Officer, Civil Line police 
station, said.

He said during investigations it was found that the accused stole vehicles from outside marriage palaces from the outskirts of the city and adjoining townships like Jandiala, Rayya etc. One of their accomplices, who is lodged in jail, used to forge documents and sell stolen vehicles.

Sukhwinder Singh said the accused have been sent to one-day police remand.

Amritsar, January 8
Pensioners from the department of posts and the railways came together to air their grievances. At a meeting held under the leadership of Postal Pensioners Association president Dev Raj Sharma it was decided to submit a memorandum of their demadns to the government. They urged the government to remove the disparity in the pre and post 2006 pension structure.

He said the disparity had demoralised the employees who had retired before 2006. He said pensioners were also battling inflation like all others.

Surinderjit Sharma of Postal Pensioners said the central government had bifurcated the Post and Telegraph departments in 1985 and made the telephone department independent of the former. He claimed that the government had assured pensioners from the Post department that they will be given the facility of free telephone after 20 years.

He said pensioners of the Postal department had to fight for their demands. He rued that there was no provision of medicines to the postal pensioners in the P&T dispensary, Amritsar. He said the officials cite the non-availability of funds as the reason.

Jaspal Singh of Railway Penioners said the much talked about health insurance scheme for the pensioners of the union government remained on papers. He also demanded that it must be implemented immediately. As per the scheme, 75 per cent of the amount was to be contributed by the government while the rest 25 per cent by the pensioners for Rs 5 lakh as insurance. For medical expenses above Rs 5 lakh, the entire expense was to be borne by the government.

The members said any move by the government to stop pension after 80 years of age will be opposed and challenged by the respective associations.

Amritsar, January 8
What’s the best way to beat the winter chill? Some would say a piping hot cup of coffee or tea while others would take refuge in hot chocolate. But there are some who would beat the cold through some frozen delights. Sure winter is not the season to indulge in cold comfort, but then a big tub of your favourite ice cream at midnight does serve as comfort food, whether winters or summers.

Since it’s not exactly a popular winter dessert, several popular joints in the city have come up with seasonal changes to get noticed. And the move has seen quite a few takers as well, going by the ‘usual’ footfall at these parlours.

A global ice cream brand has come up with innovative and new flavours cake in a cone, with frosty bits swirled with confetti ribbon, cheese cake ice cream, German chocolate cake with Swiss chocolate ice cream with coconut, walnut, and brownie bit along with hot caramel and winter white chocolate ice cream with cherry bits.

A mere mention is tempting enough, but these innovative concoctions help the cause in winters. For the more experimental there are ice cream sizzlers, with deep fried hot outer layer and cold smooth ice cream inside. Marmalade in flavours like orange and cinnamon are also a hit. An Italian frozen dessert brand in a mall too has some popular picks for the season.

Gelatos, sorbets and frozen yogurts that they offer too are a cool replacement for ice cream in winters. Their seasonal flavours include chickoo, kiwi sorbet, white chocolate with raspberry and fig and honey.

Some traditionally popular joints on the Lawrence Road too have their winter fare. With usual flavours like vanilla, strawberry and butterscotch, they too have seasonal additions like anjeer flavored ice cream, walnut and raisins, tiramisu and the ever popular hot chocolate fudge. Nutmeg, cinnamon and dry fruit flavours are apt for the winter season as well.

Another innovation with cream happening is hot desserts combined with ice creams. Like apple cinnamon samosa, that has a deep fried outer apple flavoured layer with cinnamon flavoured ice cream filled inside the core. Another one is the innovative version of brownie sizzler called the ice cream sizzler with brandy, rum filled fruits as the core along with big dollops of ice cream.

With many visibly tempting options available in the market, don’t let the cold stop you from trying these frozen delights this season. Also, it will help you pile on some much needed winter calories.

Amritsar, January 8
A high-level team of the union and state health departments will visit the district on Monday to review the various health schemes including the National Rural Health Mission.

Principal Secretary, Health, Satish Chandra, will also be a part of the visiting team. Earlier, a team headed by the joint secretary from the union health ministry, Anuradha Gupta, had reviewed the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the immunisation programmes being run in the district on December 6.

Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa said the team will be visiting various health centres in the district especially in the rural areas. Dr Randhawa said the district which earlier had the distinction of being the top performer on the health front has slipped over the past few months.

“The teams will review the working of various officials especially those under whom targets were not met,” said Randhawa. Records of various hospitals will also be scrutinised, he said.

Dr Randhawa said the team will also assess the threat of polio in the border areas after reports of polio outbreak in Pakistan. Lopoke block of the district adjoining the international border with Pakistan had earlier been declared a high-risk area for polio, he pointed out.