Amritsar, April 27
The CIA staff came under fire when they raided a house belonging to an alleged drug peddler in the infamous Anngarh area last evening.

The CIA staff had received a tip-off that Parkash Kaur, alias Pasho, a notorious drug peddler of the area, had received a consignment of heroin. Following this a police team, headed by Vikram Sharma, in charge of the CIA staff, went to raid her residence.

However, when they reached the house in the Anngarh area they came under heavy fire by another notorious criminal Jasbir Singh. The police team also returned fire. Jasbir Singh, along with his two brothers, identified as Heera and Mintu, however, managed to escape from the spot.

Surinderjit Singh, investigating officer, revealed that the miscreants fired three gun shots at the police party, but it had a narrow escape.

“We had to retaliate and took cover in order to save ourselves. But the miscreants managed to escape from the roof to the adjoining residential buildings,” he said. Parkash Kaur also fled away after locking her house before the police party could reach there, he added.

Later during search the police recovered a country-made pistol without magazine and a cartridge from the spot.

A case under Sections 307, 186 and 34 of the IPC, Sections 21, 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and Sections 25, 54 and 59 Arms Act has been registered against Parkash Kaur, Jasbir Singh, Mintu and Heera, all residents of the Anngarh area at the Gate Hakima police station.

It is evident to mention here that Jasbir Singh is wanted in as many as 25 cases including that of murder, attempt to murder, arms and NDPS act registered at Gate Hakima and various other police stations of the city.

Surinderjit said Parkash Kaur had been booked in several cases under the NDPS Act for selling smack and heroin in the area.

He said on the directions of senior police authorities five teams had been formed to raid various suspected hideouts of the absconding accused.

Amritsar, April 27
A pregnant woman of border village of Ballarwal, falling under the Ajnala police station (Amritsar rural police district), committed suicide by consuming poison here late last evening.

Fed up of continuous physical and mental torture by her husband and in-laws, the woman, Bawi, consumed poison. She was rushed to a local private hospital, where she died.

The Ajnala police has registered a case under Sections 304-B and 34 of the IPC against Bawi’s husband Bitta Singh, his father Santa Singh and mother Jagir Kauron on the statement of Bawi’s father Jagir Singh, resident of Sarangdev village.

In his complaint to the police, Jagir Singh stated that Bawi got married to Bitta Singh of Ballarwal village about four years back. At the time of the marriage they had given dowry to

Bawi as per their capacity. The couple had a two-year-old daughter.

“Bitta Singh and his parents used to beat Bawi asking her to bring more money from us. Yesterday, we received a call from Bitta that Bawi, who was pregnant, was ill and admitted to a private hospital. However, when we reached the hospital, Bawi told us that the accused had beaten her demanding dowry and fed up of this she consumed poison. Later, she died in the hospital,” Jagir Singh said.

The police authorities said the accused were at large after the registration of the case and raids were being conducted to nab them.

Amritsar, April 27
With centuries-old trees coming in way of completing the Punjab Government’s ambitious Durgiana Beautification Scheme, the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) is all set to float global e-tenders to invite bids from expert firms to shift heritage-value trees.

The AIT Chairman, Sanjiv Khanna, said with a view to maintaining city’s green cover while ensuring development, the trust decided to take the step. As many as five trees, most of them of pipal, have come in the way of raising multi-storeyed building in the Durgiana Temple complex.

“Instead of axing these trees, we decided to explore the ways of transplanting them into some other place and maintain them for posterity,” commented Khanna.

Similarly, the trust decided in principle not to chop off about 90 small and big trees coming in the way of a flyover at Kitchlew Chowk.

He said in all probability these trees and plants would be transplanted into Anand Park in Ranjit Avenue. The AIT would not hold back in spending money in transplanting these trees.

The AIT Superintending Engineer, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, said the trust had zeroed in a Delhi-based company which claimed to transplant all these trees in three months. He informed that it would cost about Rs 1.20 crore to transplant all these trees.

In order to facilitate construction of large scale projects without cutting trees, this technology has been developed. He added that since trees had been there for many years, it was not possible to just lift and transplant them. Thus, a proper scientific procedure had been developed. As per which initial preparation like preliminary root investigation, health diagnosis of the tree, treatment of the infected trees, soil sampling, testing and site selection was done.

He said while transplanting big trees with large girth, extra care was required. It would require pressing in 80-tonne wieight lifting crane. During transplantation feeding the plant with alternative methods were required as the roots vulnerable to infections were cut.

Sharma hoped that e-tenders would be floated witihin the first week of the next month and the it would take about three months to transplant all these trees.

It may be mentioned that following one delay after another, the cost of the beautification project, notified in 2007, rose from Rs 36 crore to Rs 50 crore. The AIT managed to remove all the hurdles in the acquisition of property around the Durgiana Temple to facilitate the beautification of the shrine.

Khanna said following a competition, the final design for beautification of 3.03 acres of land around the Durgiana Temple was chosen.

After an arduous effort, the AIT managed to shift 48 owners and tenants of shops situated near the temple complex to the multi-storeyed commercial complex. The state government came up with the ambitious scheme with a view to add attraction for tourists in the city.

Giving details of the project cost, he said about Rs 28 crore would be utilised for the acquisition of land and the remaining Rs 22 crore would be spent on raising infrastructure for the convenience of tourists, devotees and pilgrims.

He said as per the norms, the owners of the residential area would be paid at the rate of Rs 18,000 per sq yard. Following the same pattern, proprietors of commercial space would be compensated at about Rs 60,000 per sq yard.

He said the AIT would raise a four-storeyed parking lot to accommodate about 400 cars and over 150 two-wheelers. Also an auditorium, open-air theatre, joda ghar and information centre would be constructed.

Khanna said about 72 per cent of the land would be an open area, which would include greenbelt. He added that the AIT would also offer battery-operated cars to the temple committee to carry handicapped and aged visitors to the temple.

Amritsar, April 27
The Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC), once again, hogged the limelight as one of its senior members Bhag Singh Ankhi, 76, today tendered his resignation to its president, Satyajit Singh Majithia, after remaining associated with it for nearly 42 years.

In his resignation letter, addressed to members of the governing council and its president, written in Punjabi, Ankhi said that personal reasons pushed him to call it a day with the council in which he had been deputy secretary, honorary secretary and that of the vice-president. He said during over his four decades long association with the council, there might have been differences over some issues but it was never personal. He added that his motive was to serve the institute and impart quality education among the community.

Ankhi, who was expelled as honorary secretary of Chief Khalsa Diwan, had openly aired his disagreement over conversion of Khalsa College into a university last year. He had stressed on the need for maintaining originality of the college and its heritage building. Thus, he has fallen out with the top functionaries of the council who were in favour of elevating it into a varsity.

On the other hand, the KCGC honorary secretary, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, who forwarded the resignation to the KCGC president, Satyajit Singh Majithia, asking Ankhi to take back his decision. He added that it seemed that the decision was taken in haste and that he should not leave the prestigious institution that he served for 40 years. “Contributions of Ankhi are immense to this great institution and we want him in the council for more times. His resignation has reached me but the step seems to have been taken in haste. I will like that he takes back his decision,” said Chhina.

He added that in the big institutions like that of the KCGC the differences do crop up on various issues due to diverse opinions but that does not mean that any one should leave the institute over them. He said they were working hard to take the educational institution to new heights and Ankhi should extend his cooperation instead of retreating.

Amritsar, April 27
A local hospital has introduced laser assisted surgery for enlarged prostate in the city.

This is for the first time that such facility has been introduced in any of the hospitals here, claimed Dr H P Singh, medical superintendent of the hospital in a press conference here today.

Dr Suresh Kumar Bhagat, a noted urologist and kidney transplant surgeon, speaking on the occasion said that the open surgery even in very large prostate has been outdated with the development and advent of modern endoscopic instruments and development of laser treatment in Benig Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).

He said the enlarged prostate is removed by Holmium Laser Enucleation of Prostate (HOLEP) technique.

The Fortis Escort hospital authorities also brought two patients, who had gone through the laser surgery for the removal of very large size prostate.

While explaining, Dr Singh said that many patients, who have the history of bypass surgery and angioplasty and are on medicines for thinning of blood cannot undergo through old open surgery method wherein such medicines needed to be discontinued besides due to profuse bleeding during surgery.

Cardiologists do not advise such surgeries as it require 6-7 days for such patients to recover and blood thinning medicine could not be discontinued for such a long time due to risk of coronary blockage.

In such patients, the laser technique method is like a blessing as the patient does not have to go through the blade, hence, no or negligible blood loss during the surgery.