Amritsar, April 17
After the Jalandhar factory collapse, the state government has ordered a statewide safety audit of commercial and industrial buildings. Scores of such unsafe century-old buildings both residential and commercial are crying for attention of the authorities. The authorities, however, claim that no-objection certificates were not granted to these buildings. In the past, a series of these buildings had collapsed due to rain. Many lives were also lost in these accidents.

On the directions of the district administration, the Municipal Town Planning (MTP) wing of the Municipal Corporation has ordered a fresh survey to identify such buildings. Any building whether commercial or residential, has to obtain a no-objection certificate from the MTP department, yet neither of these century-old buildings could qualify for this certificate. People are still living in these potential disasters or run businesses from here.

These buildings have been used for commercial purposes for the past six decades, and since their structures are in very dilapidated condition, NOCs cannot be issued against them as per the law, says Senior Town Planner Shakti Bhatia. “We issue NOCs against these rickety structures only for the purpose of obtaining a bank loan and not on the basis of structural safety. We receive 100 applications everyday to obtain NOCs against fresh construction, maximum of which will be of residential buildings. We know that these buildings are located in the Walled City and are unfit for residential purpose. Still people do not want to vacate them. Tenants live in these buildings for several decades and even operate businesses from here, and if we initiate any action, they get stay orders from the court,” said Bhatia. “It is our liability to take care of them and in the past we had safely demolished at least 40 such structures and a notice has been circulated today to conduct a fresh survey, so that some planning could be done to rehabilitate those who are compelled to live in these buildings in the absence of an alternate arrangement,” he said.

The district administration, in collaboration with the MC and the Improvement Trust had submitted a policy with the ministry of local bodies, under which occupants of these buildings were to be offered alternate living arrangement, yet after a lapse of over six months, a nod from the local bodies is still awaited.

The MC teams led by Senior Town Planner Shakti Bhatia had identified 113 century-old buildings which were on verge of collapse and had even demolished some in Dholi Mohalla on the Sultanwind road, Maini Chowk in Lakshmansar, Tabela Jagatram in Namak Mandi areas. “Most of these buildings were not occupied and thus it was easy to demolish them. It was necessary because these buildings posed danger to the adjoining buildings as well,” Bhatia said.

Areas like Dharam Singh market, Katra Ahluwalia Bazaar, Namak Mandi, Gali Chhajju and Guru Bazaar Pratap Bazaar, Cheel Mandi, Ghantagarh, Haveli Zamadara and around Golden Temple have hundreds of such old buildings.

Amritsar, April 17
As many as eight persons, including a woman, received bullet injuries in a group clash that took place at Azad Nagar area here this evening. The injured were admitted to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. Their condition is stated to be out of danger.

The injured have been identified as Sukhraj Kaur, Jagir Singh, Manjit Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Avtar Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Rashpal Singh while another person who received minor injuries in the incident was admitted to Kalra hospital.

The two groups had an old rivalry and entered into an altercation this evening. Members of another group, including Kuldeep Singh, Baljeet Singh, Davinder Singh, Gurmej Singh and Maninder Singh, allegedly opened fire from a double-barrel gun. Splinters from the gun injured their opponents. The accused responsible for opening fire are yet to be identified.

ACP (Central) Navin Singla said it was a group clash and the two groups were called at the B-Division police station to sort out their differences but an altercation ensued before they could reach the police station.

Amritsar, April 17
As authorities blame their failure to control stray dog menace on lack of infrastructure, residents have taken law into their own hands by poisoning the dogs themselves.

Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department failed to kick start a programme to control the population of stray dogs due to a lack of infrastructure, say sources.

The officials of the Animal Husbandry department blame it on the MC for delaying the supply of the requisite supporting infrastructure to conduct sterilisation operations. Sterlisation of dogs requires anaesthetic and post operation medicines.

In a meeting of the MC and the Animal Husbandry department held two months back, the officials discussed Animal Birth Control (ABC), a central government funded project to control population of stray animals was discussed. The meeting also discussed the sterilisation process, post-operative care as well as the diet of the stray dogs. As many as five teams under the supervision of MC health officer Dr Yogesh Arora were constituted. It was decided that these teams will be equipped with the requisite infrastructure like dog catchers, cages and vehicles. The operation was to be conducted by experts of the Animal Husbandry department but it has not received the requisite medical infrastructure from the MC so far.

MC Commissioner Dharampal Gupta said a communication in this regard had been sent to the health department of the state government. “The matter is being taken up at the state level because the stray dog menace and dog bite cases have been increasing with each passing day in all districts. We too have sent a communication about the problem faced by the residents here. The sterilisation drive is on here, but it is yet to deliver the desired results. We cannot be cruel to the animals and the programme of MVOT could not be started because was a central government funded project which too could not take off. A decision will be taken soon at the state level. I attended the meeting three days back.”

The MC has no system either to conduct a census of stray dogs or to sterilise them. Gurmeet Singh, chairman of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Front, received information to his queries in this regard filed under the RTI Act, a few weeks ago. In reply to the query, the MC officials admitted that they had neither maintained any record of the total number of dogs sterilised nor do they have a case study to prove the dog-bite cases.

The government hospitals in city are not equipped to provide anti-rabies vaccine to the patients.

Amritsar, April 17
The Verka police arrested Sukhwinder Singh alias Sonu alias Chirri for allegedly killing his friend Vinod Kumar, 27, today.

A resident of Abadi Mohan Nagar Gali Number three, Verka, Krishna, mother of the deceased, alleged that her son was killed by Sonu following some monetary dispute. Sub-Inspector Amolak Singh said the case was sensitive and it took sometime to carry out the preliminary investigation. In the meantime, he said, family members and residents of the area became suspicious and gathered around the police station.

He said the accused Sonu was arrested immediately. The deceased’s body was handed over to the family members after conducting a post-mortem examination.

“The body has two wounds in the chest, one at the back and another at the left ear,” he said.

Amritsar, April 17
The police has arrested PK Shaan and Laadi on the basis of a complaint filed by Kanwaljit Singh, a resident of Ranjit Vihar, that a group of armed accused attacked and looted him and his wife on Monday evening.

The other six accused are yet to be identified.

A case under Section 452/ 379/ 323/ 427/ 506/ 148/ 149 IPC has been registered.

At 8.30 pm, when the complainant and his wife were at their shop, more than 10 persons with swords and other sharp-edged weapons broke in and took away ~32,000 in cash and two gold earrings kept in the cash box.

Amritsar, April 17
The Civil Lines police has arrested three persons for allegedly abducting a person after an altercation. The victim, Ankush Sharma, a resident Gali Parothewali, Amritsar, freed himself after two hours.

The police has arrested three of the four accused, Karan Singh, Arjan Singh and Honey Bedi. One of their accomplices Navjot Gill fled from the spot.

The Civil Lines police station in-charge Ashok Kumar said the victim was known to the accused. They entered into an altercation at 9 pm last evening. Ankush was on duty at Sarhadi guest house when the four accused came in a car and forcibly took him towards Rajasansi area. “We are on a lookout for the fourth accused and a case under Section 364/34 IPC has been registered,” he said.

Ankush Sharma also alleged that the accused were talking of killing him by throwing him into the canal. “But I managed to get down from the car and ran away,” he said.

Amritsar, April 17
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today directed government officials to complete construction work on the Golden Temple Entrance Plaza by Diwali, 2013.

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the Circuit House here this evening, he asked the officials to ensure quality work. He said there was no dearth of funds and the main objective of the project was to enhance the glory of the sacred site.

The CM was told by PWD officials that in all 8,000 square yards of area was to be covered under the project. They said in the first phase, 4,800 square yards would be covered before June 30 this year and the remaining 3,200 square yards by December 31.

The CM asked his technical adviser Lt Gen (retd) BS Dhaliwal to inspect the construction work and submit a report to him every fortnight to ensure quality control. Badal said he would be personally supervising this project and no laxity would be tolerated.

Later, the Chief Minister presided over a meeting for renovating the Circuit House. He also visited the prestigious Gobindgarh Fort.

Amritsar, April 17
A team of the health department found an illegal medical shop operating in Ajnala.

Drug Inspector Anupama Kalia said Happy Medical Store in Tolanangal village was found operating without a valid licence.

She said 29 different kinds of medicines were seized from the shop. The shop owner, Harpreet, claimed that he had applied for a licence from the department. “Selling medicines without a licence is a violation of norms,” she said.

The team also raided New Sharma Brothers medical store in Chehartta area and seized 17 different kinds of medicines. “Out of the total medicines seized by the department, 13 were habit-forming drugs,” said Kalia adding that the owners could not produce purchase or sale records for the four kinds of medicines.

The health department also found the pharmacist absent from the medical store. As per norms, a qualified pharmacist needs to be present at the shop when it is selling medicines. The department had raided the shop last week too and seized habit-forming drugs.

Amritsar, April 17
Kings XI defeated Diamond XI in the final of the second ML Saini Memorial Cricket Cup organised by the Amritsar Bar Association at Gandhi ground here today.

Winning the toss, Diamond XI chose to bat first. The team scored 149 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Rakesh Kashyap scored 60 runs and Rakshak Mehta made a fine 49.

Chasing 150 runs, Kings XI finished the task in 19 overs. Vikramjit Singh score an unbeaten 75 for the winning team.

In the prize distribution ceremony held in the evening. Vikramjit was adjudged man of the series. Vicky Mehra was given the best bowler of the series award.

Speaking on the occasion, District and Sessions Judge HS Madaan said such events should be organised more frequently.

Bar Association president Pradeep Kumar Saini said the cricket tournament would be organised every year. He said the winning team was given a cash prize of Rs 11,000 and the runner-up team was awarded Rs 5,000 as the prize money.