Amritsar, June 23
Ravi of Baba Deep Singh Colony was killed allegedly over a minor dispute two days ago. Ravi was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital with severe head injuries.

He succumbed to his injuries in the hospital late on Friday evening.

The police has arrested Varyam Singh of the same area for his death. As many as four persons, including Varyam and his two sons Gobinda, Jinda and Varyam’s wife have been booked under Section 302, 34 IPC at Sadar police station.

Vickey, the brother of the deceased, in his complaint to the police alleged that a dispute arose between Ravi and one of the accused Gobinda. Their neighbours intervened and sent them home.

He alleged that after sometime when his brother ventured out of the house to get cigarettes, the accused attacked him. He alleged Gobinda hit Ravi on his head with a blunt weapon.

Following this he fell on the ground and was rushed to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he breathed his last yesterday.

The police said Varyam Singh has been arrested in the case while the remaining members of the family are absconding.

Amritsar, June 23
A mere 200 applicants turned up at the passport mela organised by the Regional Passport Office here today. The office had issued a communiqué about the mela on Friday evening. Only a few applicants could get their applications processed after knowing about the mela from the newspapers today.

Even on normal days, the passport Kendra issues 500 appointments for personal interview sessions and processes as many applications.

The passport mela was planned by the Ministry of External Affairs at seven passport offices in the country in view of the complaints received from the general public to get online appointments.

Through this initiative, the MEA had asked people to get their applications processed at the respective seva kendras without taking prior appointments on June 23 and 24. Many applicants felt that people should have been informed about such a people-friendly activity few days before.

“As the local Kendra caters to the needs of far-flung districts such Pathankot and Faridkot besides others, it is not possible for people to plan the visit after knowing about the activity in the morning through newspapers,” said a visitor.

The authorities at the Kendra claim to process 500 hundreds applications daily, mere 200 applicants cannot be considered a big achievement by any standard.

Regional Passport Officer, JS Sodhi said, “We have passed on the information when we received it from the higher authorities.”

He said more visitors are expected on the second day of the event.

Talking to the media, Sodhi said there is no need for the applicants to play into the hands of touts and agents as the Kendra issues sufficient number of appointments everyday. Still there are complaints from the general public about difficulty in getting appointments.

Amritsar, June 23
The District Food and Civil Supplies department has suspended licences of 15 ration depots. The move comes after several irregularities were detected in their functioning during the raids conducted by the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC), Rakesh Singla. The department had received complaints alleging embezzlement of thousands of quintals of wheat meant for the public distribution system.

The ration depots in the state had gone on a strike after the state quota of kerosene oil was slashed by the central government. The strike continued for several weeks.

During this period, thousands of quintals of wheat meant for the economically weaker sections of the society reached to the dealers concerned.

The department received complaint that a number of ration depots had lifted the wheat from the dealers but did not supply it to the people due to the strike. The wheat lifted by the depot owners were sold in the black market allegedly in connivance with the employees of the department, the complaint added.

Following the complaint, the department started investigations. Rakesh Singla raided 60 ration depots and during these raids he found many irregularities in the functioning of the depots.

“Some of the depots raided had not reopened for quite some time besides there were also other irregularities in the supply record,” said Singla.

He said though during the raids conducted by the department no embezzlement came to light, but every depot would be checked by the department in the days to come and the guilty owners of the ration depots would be taken to task. He said if any official in the department was found involved, strict action would be taken against him or her.

Amritsar, June 23
With doctors at various government hospitals in the district refusing to write medico-legal reports (MLR) as well as no-injury certificates, processing of criminal cases has been affected.

The local Jallianwala Bagh Memorial (JBM) Civil Hospital consults at least 10 medico- legal cases on a daily basis. The MLR cases are also attended at civil hospitals in Ajnala and Ramdass.

These hospitals also issue no-injury certificates for persons arrested by the police before they are sent in judicial custody. The no-injury certificates are essential to prove that the arrested persons were not physically harmed in police custody.

Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon said, “On an average, doctors at government hospitals write 25 medico-legal reports everyday. As the doctors have refused to cooperate, the routine process has been affected."

PCMS Association president Jaspreet Singh said, “The jail authorities refuse to take in the arrested persons until they have a no-injury certificate. The protest was planned to pressurise the police, which is not arresting the persons accused of misbehaving and illegally confining one of our female colleagues.”

The association is protesting against the inaction in arresting those accused of misbehaving with Dr Simrat Gill, in charge of Sakatri Bagh Satellite Hospital here. Though a case was registered against the accused on June 9, the police has failed to arrest any of the accused even after 15 days.

He said the association would wait for Monday and if the police fail to arrest the accused, the protest would be intensified.

official speak
On an average, doctors at government hospitals write 25 medico-legal reports everyday. As the doctors have refused to cooperate, the routine process has been affected.

— dr balbir singh, smo, civil hospital

The protest was planned to pressurise the police, which is not arresting the persons accused of misbehaving and illegally confining one of our female colleagues.

— jaspreet singh, president, pcms association

Amritsar, June 23
To optimise the mobility pattern of people and goods besides easing vehicular flow, the district administration has come up with a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), informed Rajat Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar.

RP Mittal, Commisioner Police, Dharmpal Gupta, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Vimal Kumar Setia, District Transport Officer, and the representatives of various NGOs held deliberations on the Draft Final Report (DFR). It was later decided to incorporate the changes suggested by the members and prepare the final report to be submitted to the government for further action.

Suggestions were made to construct three ring roads, improve rotaries at the Hall Gate, Hussian Pura Chowk and Court Road Chowk, junction improvements, construction of new rail over bridges, pedestrian foot over bridges/subways, parking structures, up-gradation of traffic signal control system, installation of signage and redesigning of the main junctions and crossings carrying high volume of traffic resulting in congestion at places like Sadar Thana crossing, Putlighar Chowk, Kot Khalsa Road Chowk, university signal, Chheharta Chowk, Rigo Bridge, Albert Road, 100-ft Road, Canal Chowk crossing etc.

"We have a vision to develop, operate and manage an Integrated Multi-Modal Transport System (IMMTS) for Amritsar which is efficient, inclusive and affordable and which enhances the brand image of the city as a world class city. This is the vision behind the Comprehensive Mobility Plan", Aggarwal said.

Meanwhile, the task to prepare the CMP was entrusted to Consulting Engineering Services (I) Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.

The company has conducted an exhaustive survey of road network inventory, speed and delay survey, traffic volume count, pedestrian movement survey, intersection turning movement count, freight operator survey as well as household interviews.

The study area covered an area of 142.37 sq kms within the MC limits and four major urban settlements of Jandiala, Rayya, Majitha, Rajasansi within the local planning area of Amritsar. The base year for the study is 2010 and the horizon year is 2030.

Amritsar, June 23
Hundreds of qualified teachers working in PSEB-affiliated private schools in the holy city are underpaid. Alleging exploitation at the hands of the school authorities, the teachers say rules in their favour are not being implemented despite the probe conducted by the education department two and a half years ago.

However, the probe report is gathering dust since then as no action has been taken so far, the teachers allege.

The probe was conducted by the then District Education Officer, Manjit Kaur, and Sukhdev Singh, who had retired as Senior Manager.

The inquiry was conducted as per the list of 267 schools provided by the PSEB prepared on January 7, 2010, a copy of which is with the Amritsar Tribune. The report states that 13 schools were found to be fake while two government schools, five of them in Tarn Taran, and 247 schools remained for the inquiry to be conducted.

Then two-member team reported that 135 schools refused to divulge information while 12 of them were not implementing the rules and only 100 were following the rules.

A teacher at a private school on the condition of anonymity said he was being paid a measly sum of Rs 4,000 per month in violation of the PSEB rules which made it compulsory for schools to pay at least the basic salary.

He said in many cases salary is not being paid through cheques.

He said teachers do not raise their voice for fear of losing their jobs. He urged that the government must ensure implementation of the rules for betterment of the youth.

DEO (Secondary), Sukhwinder Singh, said he would take action on the report of the inquiry on the next working day. He admitted that schools underpay their staff though the PSEB has issued guidelines that at least the basic salary must be paid to teachers and principals. A principal must be paid the basic pay of Rs 15,600 and in addition Rs 6,600 as grade pay, he said. He hoped that the rules would be stricter after the Right To Education (RTE) Act is implemented.

official speak
I will take action on the report of the inquiry on the next working day. He admitted that schools underpay their staff though the PSEB has issued guidelines that at least the basic salary must be paid to teachers and principals. A principal must be paid the basic pay of Rs 15,600 and in addition Rs 6,600 as grade pay.

— sukhwinder singh, deo (secondary)

Amritsar, June 23
The city’s green cover is set to increase manifold with the decision of the district forest department to plant 50,000 saplings next month.

A meeting in this regard was held under the chairmanship of District Forest Officer, Wilbert Samson. NGOs Mission Aagaaz, Amritsar Vikas Manch, Bharat Vikas Parishad and others attended the meeting.

The participants identified the localities where green cover could be increased and the modalities to take care of the saplings in the future.

Amritsar, June 23
Director, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Dr SK Das, today inaugurated an auditorium at Global Institutes.

He also launched a new website of the institute.

Dayanand Anglo Vedic College principal Dr KN Kaul was the guest of honour.

A press release issued here today stated that the state-of-the-art air conditioned auditorium has the seating capacity of four hundred.

It is equipped with latest gadgets like LCD projector, digital audio system, revolving screen, cordless and gooseneck mikes etc.

Users can visit the institute’s website www.globalinstitutes.org.

Amritsar, June 23
What can be better than lounging around in a swimming pool on a hot summer day? The fun gets even better when it's in your own backyard!

With the hot summer months making it very difficult to remain indoors, portable pools are becoming very popular in saving them from sweating. Diving into the portable, inflatable pools is the best new summer activity for the children. The cool comfort of having their own swimming pool, inside their room or the backyard is the latest luxury that city children are indulging in big time.

Happiest are the humble vendors at various prominent points around the city who are selling them like hot cakes.

Available in various shapes and sizes, and at throw away prices, these easy to set up pools are the perfect way to beat the heat. They come with rainbow rings, canopies and funny shapes which attract children the most. To make it more fun, multiple accessories and pool toys come complementary.

But while these pools offer a way to chill out, they also have some risks involved. A new study conducted by researchers in the US reveals the risk of children drowning in portable swimming pools is high. Other hazards include inflatable and wading pools.

"Parents need to be aware that these pools can present the same risks for drowning, especially for young children, as in-ground pools," which are thought of as a greater safety hazard," says Kamal Kumar, in-charge, Gol Bagh swimming pool.

"While this doesn't suggest that families shouldn't use inflatable pools or wading pools but parents need to put some thought into the safety factor while buying these pools," he said.

"They need constant supervision, especially with very young children. Most people buy four to six feet pools for their kids, but the bigger ones with eight and 15 feet depth should be avoided," says Chandar Mohan, a toy shop owner from Lawrence Road.

"Pool toys like floats, rings buoys should be kept for safety of the children. And parents must keep an eye all the time," he adds.