Civil Hospital to buy a car to ferry doctors in emergency
Amritsar, March 3
To improve emergency medical services at night, the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial (JBM) Civil Hospital plans to buy a car to ferry doctors during emergencies. The vehicle will be in addition to the ambulances and other larger vehicles the hospital owns. In the absence of a smaller vehicle, the larger vehicles are used to bring doctors to the hospital during emergencies at night.

Amritsar, March 3
A 26-year-old man, identified as Pawan Kumar, allegedly committed suicide today by hanging himself from the ceiling fan of his house in Pawan Nagar area on Batala Road here. The Rambagh police has initiated proceedings under Section 174 of CrPC.

The family told the police that he had died due to a heart attack and that they were going to cremate the body. However, the police received a complaint alleging that Pawan had committed suicide.

A police team immediately rushed to his house and started investigations.

Prabhjot Singh, SHO, Rambagh police station, said the investigating team found some marks on the neck of the body. But the wife of the deceased, Tanu, and father Kishori Lal, claimed he had suffered a cardiac arrest.

“For the time being we have initiated proceedings under Section 174 CrPC and further investigations will be launched after receiving the report of the post-mortem examination,” the SHO said.

Amritsar, March 3
A garment shop located in the main bazaar of Ajnala was gutted in a fire today. It took over three hours for three fire tenders to douse the fire.

Rajesh Kumar, the owner of the shop said he had shut his shop in a hurry after the activists of a community gave a call to close down shops in protest against alleged misbehaviour with a temple priest.

He said after about half an hour, smoke starting coming out of the shop.

The fire which erupted at about 10 am spread in the three-storey building in no time.

He said fire brigade staff reached within half and hour of the incident. By the time the fire spread in the entire building damaging the material stored in it.

As many as three fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. Senior police and administrative officials visited the spot.

The exact cause of the fire could is yet to be known.

Amritsar, March 3
The tax recovery team of Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) worked overtime today as it sealed five properties and recovered 1 lakh from defaulters.

The team visited 16 properties in various parts of the city on the first day of the tax-recovery drive. Barring five, the remaining were granted a relaxation period till Monday.

Superintendent of House Tax department Bhawani Shankar said Manak Chand and Hari Naam at Bajrang Bazaar, Ram Lubhaya at Katra Kanhaiya and Amrit Talkies at Farid Chowk area were the major defaulters. The trio was liable to pay Rs 1.46 lakh, Rs 1.08 lakh and Rs 66,000, respectively. Another property in Katra Kanhaiya was granted a grace period on the basis of a written assurance of the two rental occupants that they will fulfil the terms and conditions by Monday. The rest of the property owners were given a grace period up to Monday. If they still fail to deposit the tax, they too would have to face the music,” he said.

Ashish Kumar, Inspector with the House Tax department told that around 10 properties were visited in the Hall Bazaar area and an amount of Rs 91,000 was recovered from the eight proprietors.

To boost up various development projects in the holy city, the cash-starved Amritsar Municipal Corporation has constituted special teams for recovery of taxes and has launched special drive to collect the taxes.

Sources say the AMC has a list of 145 defaulters which include 109 liquor vends liable to pay between Rs 1 lakh and 1.5 lakh as tax.

The AMC officials said the drive will continue till March 31.

Amritsar, March 3
To improve emergency medical services at night, the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial (JBM) Civil Hospital plans to buy a car to ferry doctors during emergencies. The vehicle will be in addition to the ambulances and other larger vehicles the hospital owns. In the absence of a smaller vehicle, the larger vehicles are used to bring doctors to the hospital during emergencies at night.

“The bigger vehicles are not convenient when every second counts as the patient is struggling for life. They are not even economical to use,” a doctor at the hospital said. The doctors feel that the smaller vehicle will be more fast and comfortable for transportation at night. The hospital management needs to call two to three doctors from home for emergencies almost every night.

Senior Medical Officer Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon said, “We get at least two to three emergency cases every night. To tackle these situations doctors have to be called from home.” He said though the doctors are present at the hospital during nights, but some cases require experts to be called in. He said the hospital had earlier demanded a smaller car which has now been approved.

“We have got a sanction of Rs 3.5 lakh for the car. A letter in this regard has been received and we hope to get the money soon," he said. He said money has also been sanctioned for repair and renovation of the trauma centre.

Amritsar, March 3
Ministry of Textile joint secretary Suniana Tomar today visited local units of old textile industry of the district to get a first hand account of the industry.

She visited units of OCM, Amritsar Swadeshi and Apollo Shawls. She also held an interactive meeting with the manufacturers and traders last night.

Local textile industrialists and traders acquainted the official with various trade complications and put forth demands during the meeting.

They demanded reduction of import duty on shuttle less looms from 15 to 5 per cent in view of the high rates of euro and US dollars. This reduction would facilitate the technology up-gradation fund scheme (TUFS). At present the union government extends subsidy of 10 to 20 per cent on the total value of the machinery imported.

Shawl Club of India president PL Seth demanded exemption from central excise duty in the forthcoming budget. At present shawl are charged central excise duty of 10.30 per cent.

The textile industrialists demanded charging of interest rate to micro/small power loom sector at par with 7 per cent of the agriculture. Seth said textile was the second largest employment provider after agriculture in the country.

Manufacturers sought the small scale industry (SSI) limit to be raised to Rs 10 crore from 5 crore.

They also demanded due representation of associations related to SSI sector and to allow this sector to become a part of policy making.

They want monitoring to be constant and on a regular basis by the office of the textile commissioner. This would stop the harassment they are subjected to by various government agencies on different pretext.

Contract Labour Act for unorganised power loom sector should be introduced immediately to avoid labour strike and sought that duty draw back rates to be enhanced for shawl sector.

Tomar said she would recommend to the ministry of finance for the recall of the central excise duty. She said requests for brining down the interest rate has been forwarded to the ministry concerned and efforts were afoot.

Amritsar, March 3
The health authorities seized medicines worth Rs 1.5 lakh from a medical store in a village near Ajnala. Drug Inspector Bableen Kaur and Ashok Kumar said at the time of the raid conducted at Bhullar medical store, there was no qualified pharmacist present there.

The team said the stock seized today consists of 14 various kinds of drugs. The owner of the shop failed to produce a valid license for the medical store. “The owner was called to produce the documents but he failed to reach the shop, though the team kept waiting for him,” said Bableen Kaur. The team also conducted raids at six other medical stores in the area but no irregularities were detected.

Drug Inspector Bableen Kaur said many drug store owners ran away on seeing the team. He said a dozen medical stores could not be checked as the owners ran away after shutting down their stores.

Amritsar, March 3
Over 800 students were honoured on the 43rd awards day function of BBK DAV College for Women.

The college principal Dr Neelam Kamra presented college report and highlighted the achievements of the college in different spheres. She specified that 267 students have been placed in the merit list of Guru Nanak Dev University. Of 42 sports, college students participated in as many as 39 games. Fourteen college teams bagged runner up positions, she added.

DIG cyber crime investigation cell Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh and GNDU registrar Dr Inderjeet Singh were the chief guests who handed over the degrees and prizes to the students.

Amritsar, March 3
Renowned poet, intellectual, teacher and freedom fighter Professor DD Sharma, who died recently, was remembered today at his bhog ceremony.

Professor Sharma, a teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit, is still remembered for his lyrics, ‘Punjabi ho ja madrasi ya kisi bhag ke ho vasi, hum ek hai’ which was a famous song aired by All India Radio during 1962 India China war. Sharma was jailed during 1942 Quit India Movement. He had also written dialogues and lyrics for films as Neel Kamal, Nanak Nam Jahaj Hai and Sarbansdani Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Former Deputy Speaker Professor Darbari Lal payed homage and said the city has lost one of its real gems. 

Amritsar, March 3
The GNDU Pensioners/Retirees Welfare Association has sent a one-month notice to the authorities for implementing their demands. The association also threatened to sit on dharna in front of the V C’s office if the authorities fail to fulfil the demands.

Amarjit Singh Bai, president of the association, said the arrears of first instalment of revised pay scale and pension has not been paid to all pensioners of GNDU. “By norm, it should have been paid since November 2010, but it was not to be,” he said. The demand of the pensioners include payment of arrears of two instalments of dearness allowance ie January and July 2011, allotment of suitable office to the association, approval of GNDU pensioners association by the Syndicate and all other facilities to pensioners as provided to regular employees.