The Akalis objected to covering up of the drain because they thought to preserve it for its historic significance. Did they ever think of the unhygienic conditions we are living in? Look at their logic of boasting about the ‘so called development works’.

— Charanjit Singh, maqboolpura

Sewage collects at the entrance of our houses. The councillors come to our street only at the time of elections to show some concern. Except for false promises, no one has ever bothered to redress our grievances.

— Baljit Kaur, gali no 1

I have not seen my councillor’s face for the past five years. It is an irony that we do not have direct water supply in our taps for past many years. It is only the submersible motor on which we rely for water supply, which is also not safe for drinking.

— Jaswinder Singh, partap avenue

The water and sewerage facilities in our area are reasonably good but our streets need to be paved. It is difficult to reach our houses during rainy season. The councillor has promised us to get it done, but to no avail.

— Gurdeep Singh, new partap nagar

Amritsar, May 19
Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh has defused rebel in the district Congress leaders. The rebels took a U-turn today at the end of their 72-hour ultimatum. In the meantime, the rebel leaders have also backed out from their earlier statement to join the ruling alliance.

Rebel leaders, led by former-senior deputy mayor Shawinder Chhinda and Amritsar Bar Council chief Pardeep Saini also a contender in the ensuing civic polls, had threatened to quit the party if veteran Congress leaders Darbari Lal, MC polls screening Committee and District Congress chief Jugal Kishore were not removed from their posts.

At a press conference on May 15, the leaders had declared to switch over to the ruling alliance if their demands were not fulfilled. Today they declared that in such circumstances they will field their supporters as Independent candidates in the MC polls. Saini said, “We wanted to quit to save the Congress. We will not tolerate such people as leaders in our team who have always played a negative role. We hope that Captain Amarinder Singh will listen to us otherwise we will have no choice but to field our candidates as Independents," he said.

Chhinda said even as an action plan was to be released today but a call from the party mediators in the morning forced them to stall the move. “We got a call from senior Congress MLA OP Soni that Amarinder Singh will be in the city in a day or two, especially to resolve the issue. We have been conveyed that another senior leader Rana KP Singh will come here for a dialogue with us. Therefore we have unanimously decided to postpone our move for two-three days," he said.

Saini said they have got the support of at least 35 Congress leaders who are yet to submit their candidature. “The fate of those who have already submitted their papers with the screening committee will be decided by the party high command,” he said.

Amritsar, May 19
Contrary to expectations, a random check at various petrol pumps in the city today had a positive outcome. Fuel both in terms of quantity as well as quality came out to be 'above the standard mark'.

This was revealed during an awareness campaign conducted by the volunteers of the Amritsar chapter of India Against Corruption (IAC).

Even as the report card of three fuel pumps, two located on the Court Road and one on the GT Road was a 100 per cent, yet it does not imply that everything was in order.

The team started their campaign at a petrol pump on the Court Road. Here, the team found that the petrol dispensing machine was not accepting the feed in terms of quantity.

Parbodh Bali, spokesperson of IAC, said except for the absence of calibrations, nothing objectionable was found at these petrol stations. He said no lapses were detected from the tests conducted with filter paper.

“The five litre can, which should always be present to measure if asked by any consumer, did not have the mandatory seal of the weight and measures department at these stations. Similarly, the machines were not accepting command, if the volume of the fuel required was fed in. Nevertheless, the machines were being operated only when the quantity of money was punched in. In general, nothing objectionable was found. The machines were dispensing some excess units of petrol instead,” he said.

DS Calcutta said the IAC wants make people aware of their rights and to ensure the quality and quantity of petrol and diesel being disposed by various outlets. “The IAC is dedicated to the cause of eradicating corruption. Checking of petrol pumps was to draw the attention of the people towards their right to check the quantity and quality of fuel they are pay for,” he said.

Amritsar, May 19
The state government will open cancer treatment hospitals equipped with the latest techniques, said Medical Education and Research Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat after inaugurating the mammography unit at Guru Nanak Dev hospital here.

Bhagat said more hospitals will be opened soon so that people of the state don't have to go to other states and countries for treatment. He said special cells to cure cancer have been set up at various medical colleges and hospitals in the state. He said a cancer hospital will also be established at Bathinda. He said mammography will help detect breast cancer in the early stages. He said the test will be provided at a nominal fee of Rs 250. He said the residents of this border belt will benefit from the mammography unit.

Bhagat said the state government is serious to improve the standards of medical education and research for which it will make recruitments against the vacant posts. He later inaugurated the computerisation project of OPDs at the hospital.

Industry Minister Anil Joshi, CPS Mohinder Kaur Josh, director medical education and research Dr Jai Kishan, Government Medical College principal Dr SS Shergill were also present.

Amritsar, May 19
Radisson Blu Hotel has thrown opened Kebabs and Biryani, a tempting cuisine of aromatic flavours from the age old tradition of North West Frontier cuisine, at its restaurant Tavolo Mondo today.

An array of 27 vegetarian and non vegetarian kebabs and biryani will be served here, said hotel general manager Jitender Sohal. He said the dishes are prepared with secret recipe with chosen exotic spices and ingredients.

Famous Indian street snacks like golgappas, aloo tikki etc accompanied with different pannas and summer drinks to beat the heat and to build an appetite for kebabs and biryani will be available for the customers. The sumptuous spread of our different veg and non veg biryanis with traditional salan and pachdi are a must to have. Kebabs and biryani can be enjoyed with roganjosh, butter chicken and other curries along with dal bukhara, sheermal, roomali roti, kulcha or naan.

Amritsar, May 19
A seven-year-old girl and her father were killed by several unidentified assailants in the border village of Maude, seven km from Attari, here late last evening.

The accused barged into the house when the victims were asleep in their house located in the fields. The victims have been identified as Jagtar Singh alias Jagga (35) and Simarjit Kaur (7). They were sleeping in the verandah of their house.

The police has registered a case against unidentified assailants on the basis of the statement of deceased’s wife, Amritpal Kaur. The accused were armed with sharp-edged weapons.

Amritpal Kaur told the police that the four accused had covered their faces with black cloth. They barged into the house and first tied her mouth and then attacked her husband and daughter with sharp-edged weapons.

She said while leaving the accused said the girl was killed unintentionally and that they only wanted to kill Jagtar Singh.

Jagdeep Singh, SP, Amritsar rural police, who reached the spot along with other senior police officials said the police had registered a case on the basis of the statement of Amritpal Kaur and further investigations are on.

The police pressed the dog squad into service to conduct a search of the area, he said. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Jagtar Singh got threatening calls till about a year ago when he was also a drug addict, Jagdeep Singh said. He said further investigations were under progress and accused will be nabbed soon.

Amritsar, May 19
A group of armed assailants led by an Akali leader Randeep Singh alias Rimple allegedly barged into a house in the posh Green Avenue locality at Maqbool Road in the evening today.

The accused fired indiscriminately before fleeing from the spot. Senior police officials, including SHO Majitha road reached the spot immediately. The incident was the fallout of a tussle between two groups over the sale of liquor in the city area.

Bobby, one the complainants and an eyewitness alleged that Rimple along with Lalit, Sukha, Gurmukh and over 20 unidentified persons came in their vehicles and started calling them out. He alleged that the accused snatched the arms of their gunman and fired at them. Two gun shots hit the doors and another gun shot hit the window glasses of their vehicle. "Me and my friends saved ourselves by hiding in the bed room. We bolted the room from inside. The accused said they wanted to teach us a lesson for coming in their way," he alleged.

He said Rimple and his accomplices were authorised to sell liquor in Chaugawan area but they illegally sold liquor in the city area which has become a bone of contention between the two groups. He said they had seized the liquor belonging to Rimple group several times and cases had been registered against their accomplices earlier also.

He said they had stopped vehicles carrying liquor belonging to Rimple group at a naka laid by his accomplices at Lopoke Chaugawan road today. He said enraged over this he along with other armed persons had attacked their residence. No one was injured in the shooting while the accused threw the rifle of their gunman back before fleeing from the spot.

SHO Majitha road said a case under Section 307, 452, 506 of the IPC besides the Arms Act has been registered against Rimple and his accomplices.

Amritsar, May 19
The Sadar police today arrested a BJP leader for allegedly defrauding people by posing as a ruling party leader.

He had put up red beacon on his vehicle bearing number PB-02-BN-0123 with jet black film and pasted a VIP parking sticker on it. The police has booked him under Section 419, 420 IPC. The accused has been identified as Anil Kumar, a resident of Bhalla Colony Chheharta.

Vavinder Mahajan, SHO Sadar police station said the accused works as an accountant at a leading private educational institute and gets Rs 10,000 as salary. He said when he was asked to show the documents regarding use of a red beacon light and tinted windowpanes on his car he could not produce the same.

He said it was found that the accused had amassed property worth Rs 25 lakh within a year.

He used to allegedly cheat people by impersonating as the Mandal president of the ruling party. 

Amritsar, May 19
Lure of easy money landed two city youths in jail today. They were arrested by the police on charges of snatching and robbery. The police said they were active in the entire city and were involved in 45 snatching cases in the various parts of the city. Indian and foreign tourists were among their targets. Those arrested were identified as Shamsher Singh alias Shera, (20) a resident of Sultanwind Road and Gurpreet Singh of Dramma wala Bazaar located at Sultanwind Road.

Police Commissioner RP Mittal told mediapersons here today that the police has seized 700 gram of narcotic powder, two country-made pistols, five live cartridges, a motorcycle, gold jewellery weighing 130 gram worth Rs 4 lakh and foreign currency, including 200 crown and 200 US dollars from their possession.

He said the accused were in the habit of committing snatchings and they used to do so to lead a lavish lifestyle. He said the culprits were caught on a tip-off from New Amritsar, GT Road. He said during interrogation the accused had admitted to have committed 45 snatchings in various parts of the city and out of these cases had been registered in 25 incidents. They had snatched purses and gold jewellery, he said. "They used to procure branded things from shopping malls or showrooms and visit star hotels in the city," said Mittal.

Amritsar, May 19
The Chheharta police has arrested two women, identified as Mona and Salma hailing from Kolkata, for allegedly cheating a cloth merchant on the pretext of selling foreign currency to him on cheaper rate. One of their accomplice escaped from the spot. The accused went to a cloth shop and after shopping tried to pay in US dollars to the owner of the shop Bharat Bhushan. They said they did not have the Indian currency notes.

The two accused told Bhushan that they had 250 US dollars and wanted to sell it at Rs 40 each instead of the prevailing rate of Rs 55. They took the telephone number of the shopkeeper and later called him to meet them at Khandwala. Bharat Bhushan said when he reached the spot he found the two women along with another unidentified person. He said they gave them the Indian currency while the accused gave him a bundle of 'dollars', which he found was a soap covered with dollars. They caught hold of the two women.