Amritsar, April 23
Jubilation over their wards getting elevated to the next classes was shortlived for parents as along with it came seven to 10 per cent hike in fee in private and public schools run by charitable trusts. The schools have also hiked the transportation charges.

A number of schools run by these Trusts have also hiked their fee for the academic year 2011-12. A survey of the schools in the city revealed that all privately run institutions are allegedly charging fees arbitrarily. If the charitable education trusts are increasing fee up to 10 per cent then private schools have hiked it by more than 10 per cent.

With worry writ large over their faces, parents term the move a crass commercialisation of education. Not ready to be named they say their wards are studying at Sri Guru Harkrishan School being run by Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD). “Fee hike has become an inevitable annual feature before the beginning of each session. It is becoming extremely difficult to cope with the constantly spiralling cost of education of their children. He said the CKD was established to impart modern education at subsidised fee.

On an average each educational institute increased the fee by a minimum of eight to 10 per cent. The fee hike is causing a bigger hole in the pockets of parents from the city already hit by spiralling inflation in the prices of essential commodities.

Father of a Class IV and I student of DAV Public School said over 10 per cent fee hike has hit his family's budget hard. This has also forced him to take steps to curtail expenses on other heads to cope with the rising expenses. He said he had been paying a monthly fee of Rs 1,100 in the UKG and now Rs 1,300 per month in Class I. He said it seemed that the Trust running the school had deviated from its goal to impart modern and scientific education within the reach of average families.

Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School director Dr Dharamvir Singh said about 10 per cent fee was hiked to meet expenses such as 12 per cent hike in DA and for latest education infrastructure. He said the fee hike was marginal in comparison to private schools. “To meet the cost of creating new infrastructure, procuring equipment and meet salary expenses, the fee hike was inevitable."

DAV Public Schools Regional Director Dr Neelam Kamra said a 12 per cent DA is to be given to the school teachers and keeping in view many other expenses the fee was hiked after approval by the local managing committee of the school, which also included parents.

Amritsar, April 23
Mohkapura police has arrested Atamjit Singh, son of a former senior vice president of Sikh Student Federation (Mehta) and Akali leader Iqbal Singh Tung for allegedly filing a false complaint against a Delhi resident Bhavuk Sahni.

Atamjit, a resident of Batala road, in his complaint to the police had alleged that Bhavuk Sahni of Delhi had tried to kill him. He had alleged that Bhavuk had fired at him indiscriminately while he was walking near his house at Batala road. The police had registered a case under Section 307, 148, 149 IPC and 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act at that time.

In his complaint Atamjit had alleged that Bhavuk had taken ~10 lakh from him on the pretext of sending him abroad. However, he neither sent him abroad nor returned his money. However, when he demanded his money back, Bhavuk entered into a quarrel with him and on March 23, he tried to shoot him, he alleged.

Amrik Singh, SHO Mohkampura police station said following registration of the case, the police arrested Bhavuk who along with his family had pleaded innocence. They approached the police commissioner, who had marked a probe into the case to him, he said. He said the probe found that Bhavuk had an ongoing property dispute in Delhi. The opposite group had approached Atamjit for help who allegedly took a heavy amount from him after which Atamjit filed a false case against him.

After the enquiry was completed, the police arrested Atamjit for lodging a false case in the same case while adding charges of Section 195 (fabricating false evidence) and 120-B (conspiracy) of IPC against him said Amrik Singh. Further action has been initiated to release Bhavuk Sahni, he said.

Amritsar, April 23
The shopkeepers on Majitha Road, near Power Colony, have been suffering due to damaged water supply pipeline in the area.

It took over two days for Municipal Corporation (MC) employees to reach the spot for repairing the broken water supply pipeline. However, minutes after they left, the water started leaking again from another point.

Vijay Kumar, a hardware shop owner, said the underground water supply pipeline broke down due to passing of some heavy vehicle on the road on Friday evening.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Public Works Department (PWD) is also laying the road. The leaking water started damaging the road, which is still in the initial stages of construction. Moreover, the oozing water started mixing with nearby sewerage water, complained inhabitants.

“We have been complaining to the MC authorities for plugging the leakage and repair the pipe for the last couple of days. Finally, they arrived today but a few minutes later when they left the scene, the water supply pipeline started leaking again bringing the situation back to square one,” said Vijay Kumar.

Sanjiv Kapoor, contractor involved in the construction of road, echoing the sentiments of the residents, said he bore all the expenses of repair and even provided machines for taking out the water accumulated in the huge pit dug up for repairing the pipe.

“We urged the MC authorities to repair the pipe a number of times, but they hardly paid a heed to it,” he pointed out.

Jaswinder Singh, Superintending Engineer (Water Supply), while passing the buck to the PWD, said the water supply pipeline broke due the negligence of the PWD contractor. “We only coordinate with them in case of such incident. I was informed by officials this evening that the pipeline had been repaired. In case it has started leaking again, I will ask them to visit the site and get it repaired without any delay,” he said.

Amritsar, April 23
After onions, capsicum and tomatoes, the officials of the Amritsar Central Jail have discovered another way to sneak drugs into the jail. This time, it was a simple bathing soap cake which was found in a well packed sachet of 35 gm smack and Rs 100 currency note.

This soap along with other articles of daily use was allegedly brought in by the relatives of an inmate.

Confirming it, Deputy Superintendent Balkar Singh Bhullar said there had been instances in the past when drugs were found concealed in onions, capsicum or tomatoes, but it was the first of its kind incident when drugs were found hidden inside a soap cake.

The person who tried to snuggle in the drug has been identified as Gurbir Singh. He had come to meet jail inmate Darshan Singh, a resident of Kona village in Kemkaran area yesterday.

A case has been registered by the Cantonment area police station in this regard on the basis of a complaint filed by jail official Vijay Kumar.

The drug was packed so well that it escaped the attention of officials at the checking point and reached inside the jail premises. It was only during the search operation at the second stage that it was detected by the guards. The wad of smack was hidden inside a soap cake after making a slot in the middle of the soap. Thereafter the slot was fixed once again with the help of a cellophane adhesive tape. Bhullar said, “We have already banned the entry of onions, tomatoes and capsicum but with this incident, we are confused as to how many more articles can we ban. To conduct such detailed checking is very difficult.”

Amritsar, April 23
Mystery surrounds the disappearance of a 13-year old girl from the Golden Temple complex. The CCTV footage shows that the girl was last seen in the company of two unidentified girls. The police has lodged a missing persons report.

Balwinder Singh, a resident of Moga, said he along with his family had come to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on April 21. He said his family stayed at Mata Ganga Nivas (sarai) situated in the premises of the shrine.

He said his daughter Veerpal Kaur alias Jyoti had gone to play outside the sarai but did not return to their room. When she failed to come back, the family began searching for her. They later approached the CCTV control room where they last saw the girl with two unidentified girls.

Joga Singh, SHO Kotwali police station said a missing persons report has been lodged. “We are conducting investigations whether the girl was kidnapped or not," he said.

Amritsar, April 23
Rambagh police has booked seven persons in an attempt to murder case. The accused have been identified as Kanwal Kishore Verma, Vinay Verma, Rajan Verma, Montu and three others who are yet to be identified. They were booked on the basis of a complaint filed by Amanpal Singh here.

Amanpal alleged that the accused called him near the Celebration Mall where all the other accused who were armed with swords, baseballs and bottlers, were waiting for him.

He said as soon as he reached there the accused attacked him and broke his SUV. He said he saved himself as he fled from the spot. He said he was friendly with the wife of the accused which was the main reason behind the incident.

Amritsar, April 23
Even as the old sabzi mandi (vegetable market) was de-notified in 1995 and majority of the shops were shifted to the new vegetable market at Vallah in 2004 yet many wholesale fruit merchants still operate their shops from the former location.

The visit to the old sabzi mandi found that many trucks were parked and fruit were being unloaded there indicating that the wholesale fruit merchants have even set up storage to stock the material at the sabzi mandi.

Located opposite the busy Hall Gate and running along it up to Ram Bagh area, loading and unloading of fresh fruit also obstructs a free movement of traffic.

Majority of these wholesale shops were found stocking papaya and banana. As per the Punjab Mandi Board rules, the shops can neither be issued licences nor function from a de-notified market area.

A wholesale merchant on the condition of anonymity said many of these shops have constructed basement to store their stock.

Manjit Singh, secretary, Punjab Mandi Board, said he joined the office recently and will check whether these shops had licences. He said there is a possibility that shifting of these shops may have been stopped after the new market was found to fall within the prohibited limit of the Army ammunition depot at Vallah.

Amritsar, April 22
The rotation of 65 wards in Amritsar has put candidates aspiring to contest the ensuing municipal corporation elections in a catch-22 situation.

Following the rotation system, the state government has declared several general wards reserved for women candidates under general category. This would affect many councillors of the ruiling alliance, including Mayor Shwait Malik and Improvement Trust chairman Sanjeev Khanna. The elections are expected to be held in the first week of June.

Besides, several wards have also been declared reserved for contestants belonging to backward classes. Following the rotation, the wards represented by BJP’s Shwait Malik (No 51), Deputy Mayor Ajaibir Pal Singh Randhawa (No. 38) and Sanjeev Khanna (No. 9) have been declared reserved for women candidates.

Similarly, Ward No. 2 represented by Congress councillor Sunil Datti, who contested Assembly elections from the Amritsar (East) constituency, Ward No. 23, represented by Rakesh Gill, who also contested Assembly elections from the Amritsar (West) constituency, Ward No. 5 of Gurjit Aujla, Ward No. 12 of BJP’s Anuj Sikka, Ward No. 20 of Ajit Singh Bhatia, Ward No. 26 represented by BJP’s Pappu Mahajan, Ward No 32 of SAD’s Shamsher Singh Shera, Ward No. 41 of BJP’s Kamal Nain, Ward No. 44 of Raman Mahajan, Ward No. 47 of Arun Kumar Pappal, Ward No. 54 of BJP’s Sukhdev Singh Chahal and Ward No. 63 represented by independent Lakhanpal, have been reserved for women candidates.

The wards which have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Backward Classes (BC) include Ward Nos. 16, 28, 31, 37, 57, 59, 60, 61 and 62. The wards reserved for women candidates belonging to SC/BC categories include Ward Nos. 6, 14, 15, 17, 18, 30 and 48.

Amritsar, April 23
The Health department will organise month-long special health camps for families belonging to the BPL categoroes at various government hospitals in the district. The camps will be organised under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY).

Dr Hardip Singh Ghai, Deputy Medical Commissioner, Punjab State Health System Corporation (PSHSC) and Nodal Officer, RSBY, said the camp will begin from April 28 from Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital and culminate on May 26. “Patients will be provided the facility of free medical tests prescribed by the doctors, including labortary tests, X-ray, ultrasound and ECG etc during the check-up camps besides free of cost medicines will also be given to them,” he said. Patients he will be treated free of cost. A private company will bear the expenses. The camps will be held at Civil Hospital, Ajnala Sub-divisional hospital (SDH) on May 5 and Community Health Centre, Lopoke, on May 7, at CHC Majitha on May 10, at SDH Baba Bakala on May 14 and CHC, Manawala, on May 15. The last camp will be organised at CHC Tarsikka on May 26. — TNS

Amritsar, April 23
A national-level athlete and student of Khalsa College for Women (KCW) Khushbir Kaur has set a new national record in the 20 km walk event. She has qualified for the World Cup in the discipline to be held in Russia next month.

In a statement released here today, Kaur completed the walk in one hour, 37 minutes and 24 seconds during the Federation Cup, being held at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Patiala.

She thus broke the record set by Deepmala of Manipur whose national record was of one hour 37 minutes and 49 seconds, KCW Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal said.

Amritsar, April 23
Two motorcycle-borne youths allegedly snatched the purse belonging to a resident of Delhi near Kundan Dhaba on Albert Road late last night. The woman and her husband Harmeet Singh, a resident of Fateh nagar Jail road, New Delhi were on their way back on a cycle rickshaw after attending a wedding. They had hired the cycle rickshaw from the railway station.

Harmeet said the purse contained seven gold rings, a ‘kada’ made of gold, a mangalsutra, four gold bangles besides two mobiles phones and Rs 7,000 cash.

The Civil Line police has registered a case under Section 382, 34 IPC against the accused.

In yet another snatching incident, the police booked two persons identified as Vicky of Kot Atma Ram and Kala of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, both on Sultanwind Road for allegedly snatching a woman’s purse.

The victim’s husband Balwinder Singh in his complaint lodged with B-division police alleged that his wife was returning home from Ajit Nagar market when the accused snatched her purse containing Rs 1,500 cash and some important documents.