The dump yard in Bhagtanwala. photos: Sameer Sehgal

In public domain

• MC conducts public hearing over the project
• As residents reject the project, the MC Commissioner says a decision will be taken keeping in view the objections raised by the public.

Amritsar, March 9
Four incidents of snatching and robbery have occurred in the city in the past two days.

A tourist couple from Lucknow was targeted by two motorcycle-borne youths when the couple was going towards the Golden Temple last evening.

Karanvir Singh and his wife Jaspreet Kaur, residents of Lal Bagh road, Lucknow, were traveling by a rickshaw. When they reached near Mata Launga Wali temple, the thieves came from behind and snatched Jaspreet Kaur’s purse containing a gold chain, a gold pendant, a diamond ring and Rs 20,000 cash. The Kotwali police has registered a case under Section 379-B of the IPC in this regard.

In another incident, two persons snatched a bag and a purse containing Rs 4000 and mobile from one Vishal, a resident of Nawa Kot Islamabad area when he was coming towards the Durgiana Temple after alighting from a bus at a petrol pump near Gol Bagh.

Vishal had come from Kathunangal. He said the accused came on a scooter and asked for time. As he took out his mobile, the accused threw some chilly powder in his eyes and looted his belongings. A case under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC has been registered at Civil Line police station in this regard.

In another incident, a car driver decamped with his owner’s briefcase containing Rs 3 lakh cash and gold jewellery worth over Rs 2.50 lakh.

In his complaint with Chheharta police, Sandip Bedi, a resident of Jujhar Avenue, Ajnala Road, said the accused, Shamsher Singh, was his driver. A day before yesterday, he had left his briefcase in the car while going to office. But when he returned, he found the driver had fled away with the briefcase.

The police has registered a case under Section 381 of the IPC in this regard.

One Virat Kundra, a resident of Rani Ka Bagh was looted by two youths when he was coming back from his shop located in the Putlighar area. He said the two accused came on a motorcycle and looted the money at gunpoint near Gwali Mandi chowk. The police has registered a case under Section 392 of the IPC in this connection.

The police authorities said they have launched the investigations to identify the accused involved in the crime.

Amritsar, March 9
The district health authorities sealed ultrasound machines at two ultrasound centres for alleged violations of Pre-conception Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act today.

Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa said Prime Diagnostic Centre on Tarn Taran road and KVS HighTech Centre in Model Town were sealed.

Centres were found guilty of concealing facts in test reports, lacking in maintaining record and failure to intimate district health authorities regarding an abortion case involving local resident Paramjeet Kaur.

The health authorities had earlier sealed Sigma Diagnostic Centre in the same case on February 7.

Dr Randhawa said, “Investigating the case of Paramjeet Kaur, it was found that the patient had earlier got her ultrasound test conducted at the said two centres. Later on checking the records, the centres were found guilty of violating the PNDT Act.” The centres were sealed by teams, led by Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Kuldeep Singh Ghai and Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital. Dr Dhillon said centres have been issued showcause notices.

Amritsar, March 9
The house tax recovery team today realised over Rs 10 lakh from defaulters. The team also sealed as many as three buildings, whose owners failed to deposit their tax.

The house tax squad, headed by its Superintendent Sushant Bhatia, raided as many as 30 buildings in Lawrence Road, Ranjit Avenue and Chheharta areas.

The team sealed a three-storey restaurant located opposite the Khalsa College as its owner, Rana Rupinder Singh, failed to pay over Rs 27,000 as tax.

A building comprising two shops situated on Lawrence Road was also officially sealed by the team. A designer garment shop and a mobile store did not pay over Rs 1.25 lakh to the department.

At Partap Bazaar, the team raided a building --- having two shops --- owned by a single owner who failed to deposit Rs 25,000 as house tax to the Municipal Corporation. One of the shops was sealed while the proprietor of the other shop gave Rs 12,000 to the raiding party.

In Ranjit Avenue, the team raided a shop-cum-flat whose owner owed Rs 85,000 to the MC. The owner paid Rs 85,000 on the spot.

Two marriage palaces located on Shivala road also deposited Rs 62,000 as house tax.

The team also visited a liquor vend in Dayanand Nagar area on Lawrence Road. The vendor deposited Rs 63,000 on the spot.

Superintendent Sushant Bhatia said liquor vends, hotels and shopping malls would be our next target.

“As many as 70 more properties would be raided by March 19. Another list of 150 defaulters is being prepared. Defaulting hotels and shopping malls will be included in the list too,” he revealed.

Amritsar, March 9
With the SAD-BJP combine holding on to power in the state, the real estate sector in the city is keeping its fingers crossed and hoping that the new regime will bring in policies beneficial to the sector.

The sector was not too happy with the performance of the previous SAD-BJP government.

Real estate agent Harpinder Singh Walia stated that many residential projects had come up in various parts of the city, but majority of them were waiting for a catalyst to drive the prices up and even some to attract customers. He felt that the coalition government must create conducive environment to drive the real estate prices up in the border city. He added that the present real estate trend was very positive with the operationalisation of the Internation Check Post (ICP) in offing. He hoped that big industrial houses of the country would arrive in the city to benefit from the dry port and it would eventually benefit city’s economy.

He said the present dispensation in its previous tenure revised the valuation of property many a time besides high charges of Change of Land Use (CLU) dissuaded developers. He said even high registry rate dissuaded end users from buying houses.

Another real estate agent Raman Arora said the government must understand that its revenue would go up if it rationalised registry and valuation prices of different areas. Besides, it would bring real customers in the market and keep the speculators away.

He observed that no visible stimulus was there in the city to drive the prices of real estate industry up after the proposal of setting up of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) fizzled out about seven years back

Another real estate agent Gurdhir Singh Virk said, “The Central University was shifted from the city to Bathinda on the pretext of scarcity of land during the previous tenure of the SAD-BJP government.”

He stated that during the past five years many areas lost their prominence among people, while new areas emerged as number one choice for owning a house. Undergoing eight-laning work on Tara Wala Pull to the bus stand and construction of elevated road on the same stretch made the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road number one choice for owning property, relegating Ajnala Road, also known as Airport Road to lower position.

Member of the Amritsar Valuers’ Association VK Grover opined that there must be some yardstick depending upon the inflation to scale up and down the valuation of properties. He felt high registration fee of property dissuaded buyers from middle income groups and economically weaker sections to realise their dreams of owning houses. He said present 1 per cent relaxation in registry fee for women must be increased and similar benefit must be extended to the handicapped.

Ramesh Arora of Metcalfe Nirvana, which has set up 107-acre township here, said picture of real estate would be more clear after the government announced its real estate policy.

Meanwhile, Jaskaran Singh Sandhu, Managing Director, Elite County Developer, said quality housing facilities coupled with approachable roads were being liked by real end users even at a slightly high price.

Amritsar, March 9
The blood bank at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) is installing a single-donor platelet machine, “Apherisis”, costing Rs 15 lakh. The machine would help meet the requirement of blood platelets in the patients of dengue, viral infections, chemotherapy and few gynaecology complications.

In charge of the Blood Bank Dr Neeraj Sharma said, “Earlier in cases where a large number of platelets were required, the requirement was filled from multiple donors. Now as we can extract only platelets and put the remaining fluid back into circulation, the platelets can be extracted from a single donor.” She said the donor was in a position to donate platelets again after seven days.

“The biggest benefit is that unused components of the blood after extraction of platelets can be put back in the donor’s body circulation. This way we take only what is required,” said Dr Sharma said, adding that the machine would also be useful in plasma exchange.

Dr Sharma said finding donors was a tough task. “Especially in times when there is dengue epidemic or other such situation, the availability of donors is very less,” she said, adding that as more of the platelets could be extracted with the help of the new machine, even fewer donors can serve the purpose. She said that six to eight times more platelets could be extracted from a single donor using Aphersis machine.

The Blood Bank has got the machine under the Pradhan Mantri Swasth Suraksha Yojna. “We have also got refrigerators and platelet storage machines,” said Dr Sharma, adding that better storage facilities would help in meeting the demand for emergency and ICU patients. She said increased storage capacity would help the Blood Bank meet emergency and epidemic-like conditions. The machine would be installed at the Blood Bank during the next week, added Sharma.