Amritsar, July 2
Up in arms against the hike in hostel and tuition fees, students of Guru Nanak Dev (GND) University today initiated their protest to press upon the varsity administration to roll back the increased charges.

Before initiating the protest, the students met the Vice-Chancellor in his office. The students said the tuition and hostel fees charged by the university was already more in comparison to Punjabi University, Patiala. The students threatened that if their demand was not met, they would be forced to launch an indefinite stir.

Harminder Singh Teja, a student said, “The university has increased fee of pre-PhD course from Rs 33,000 to 55,000.” He said the hike was not justified at all. MPhil students rued that the university was reluctant to provide them hostel accommodation during the final semester of their three-semester programme.

University Registrar Dr Inderjit Singh said the university had increased the hostel fee by Rs 300 per month. “It was necessary as the cost of electricity and other infrastructure has increased. Our electricity bill has increased from Rs 23 lakh to 38 lakh,” he said.

Talking about the problem faced by research fellows in getting hostel accommodation, he said, “The students who are being paid fellowships are also paid house rent allowance. As such they can easily arrange for the accommodation with the allowance. Besides, they are old students of the university and they must cooperate with the university if there is any shortage of accommodation in the university hostels.”

He said the fee had been hiked by the university to arrange more funds.

The university was short of funds and it would have to generate income to be self-sustainable, said the Registrar. 

Amritsar, July 2
In its drive against drug peddlers and bootleggers, the Amritsar (Rural) police has nabbed 13 persons and recovered a huge quantity of “lahan” (raw material for preparing illicit liquor), illicit liquor and narcotics from their 
possession.

The Beas police has nabbed Jang Bahadur, resident of Lopoke, but currently residing at Rayya, for allegedly possessing 500 gm of narcotic powder. The police authorities said he had been in the illegal trade for the last many years and a number of cases had been registered against him.

However, after getting bail, he again restarted his business. He had been remanded in judicial custody by the court.

The Rajasansi police station has arrested three persons, Daljit Singh of Rakh Uthia village, Sukhraj Singh and Sonu Gill of Kadial village, and recovered 285 gm of narcotic powder from them. The police seized 100 gm, 85 gm and 100 gm of narcotic powder from their possession, respectively. The trio was arrested near a fish farm.

The police said they were acute drug addicts and also used to sell the same to other addicts.

Karam Singh of Chaugawan village was nabbed by the Kathunangal police with 400 gm of opium.

Cases have been registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Meanwhile, acting on a tip-off, the Lopoke police seized 4,000 kg of “lahan” from Gurmukh Singh of Hetampura village. The liquor was hidden in a secluded house from the village where hardly any person visits. As per the police authorities, the raiding party recovered 40 drums of 100 kg each from the spot.

Gurmukh Singh was absconding since the recovery of the “lahan”.

In another significant seizure, the Ajnala police recovered 510 kg of “lahan”, besides an illegal running distillery from Chak Aul village. The police has nabbed two persons, Balkar Singh and his father-in-law Bhula Singh in this connection.

The police also arrested Joginder Pal of Jhander, Sakatar Singh of Jhander, Joginder Singh of Padde village, Bhag Singh of Chak Balla and Piara Singh of Bhala Rajputa village in separate cases and recovered a total of 48 litres of illicit liquor from their possession.

Amritsar, July 2
The Sultanwind police has booked two persons, including a woman, for allegedly burgling the house of Rajinder Singh at Mata Gangaji Nagar, Bhai Manjh Sahib Road, 
here today.

The woman is daughter-in-law of Rajinder Singh, while the other person booked is Gagandeep Singh of Friends Colony. A case under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC has been registered against them.

Rajinder Singh in his complaint to the police alleged that his daughter-in-law decamped with Rs 5.51 lakh, besides gold jewellery worth Rs 3.5 lakh.

He said that his daughter-in-law had illicit relations with Gagandeep Singh. The incident occurred on the intervening night of June 21 and 22 when they were not present in the house.

“When the family suspected the involvement of their daughter-in-law in the burglary, she went missing from the house, while Gagandeep Singh also ran away from his house,” said Arjun Kumar, investigating officer in the case.

He said the investigations were under progress in the case. Both the accused were absconding and raids were being conducted on their suspected hideouts to nab them.

Amritsar, July 2
To have a passion and follow it religiously is not rare. But to have it and share it with the world is. The inspiration doesn’t come from knowing that you own something quite rare and important, but from the fact that your prized possession might become more meaningful when shared with the world.

Preserving, restoring, reviving and researching on the idea is city-based collector Rajnish Khosla. Popularly known as a manuscript man, a status he inherited along with the over 35,000 odd ancient and rare manuscripts from his forefathers, he is using his mammoth collection of ancient history for the good of society. “The handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit and Persian are over 300 to 400 years old. Many of these manuscripts have excerpts from the Vedas,” says the collector.

Having preserved them by the unique window-cut-mount technique that uses ancient Egyptian and Indian method of preservation by preventing any air and moisture contact through eight manual processes before binding them in attractive Bjopatra-style using silk and copper, he has taken a cue from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs’ national mission on restoring manuscripts and is working with scholars and professionals to research on the contents of these manuscripts. “I have been working along with doctors and scholars to research the contents of some of these manuscripts that contain important information on ancient medicines and ayurvedic healing process. Some of these ancient techniques can be a breakthrough in medical science and beneficial for the society,” says the patron, who has exhibited his collection at numerous cultural fairs in the country.

He has donated a large chunk from his collection to religious museums at Tirupati Balaji and Golden Temple and museums at Scindia Palace and National Archives. He is also working with some of the top legal aides in the country to stop smuggling of Indian manuscripts.

Another such patron and collector is Simar Onkar Singh, a retired government employee, who now owns a limited, but valuable collection of paintings and first-edition books. The 65-year-old art lover has names like Sir Sobha Singh, Bheem Malhotra, FN Suza and miniature Kangra paintings to name a few and has also art works from European contemporary artists. “Call it a childhood disorder, but I considered paintings and books as my best friends. Though I never took up art as a career, but I managed to collect a few of the famous art works around the world,” says the connoisseur. Apart from the paintings, he also has some first-edition books like a collection of novels by Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi and some coffee table pictorial books on famous royals of Punjab. But his passion is not just collecting, but sharing it with others.

“I have given some of the paintings from my collection to private art galleries in Delhi and museum in Dharamsala as I realised they were too valuable to be wasted for my personal collection,” he says. He is currently working with prominent art galleries in Chandigarh and Delhi, learning new techniques to restore and preserve art works. “I started collecting art for my passion, but realised that preserving art is very important rather than collecting it.” He works in collaboration with various artists to research and restore art, his current subject being Kangra paintings.

Amritsar, July 2
Amritsar rural police has nabbed two persons, identified as Surinder Singh and Pargat Singh of Ghugga village, in connection with the brutal attack on the forest department team that went to take possession of a land in Bahlol village near Ajnala a couple of days back.

The police authorities said the preliminary investigations pointed out that the two accused gathered the villagers on the spot. The crowd later attacked the forest department officials. They had gone to take possession of the land and to plant trees, he added.

Following the incident, the police has booked 25 persons, including a present sarpanch and a former sarpanch of the village on attempt to murder charges.

Sukhbir Singh, SHO Bhindi Saida police station, said that raids were being conducted to nab the remaining culprits.

Meanwhile, a forest department team with the help of police took possession of the land.

The forest department employees alleged that the villagers for a long have been tilling the lands belonging to forest department. The department has taken possession following the court orders.

The official in the department claimed that about 400 acres of land has been encroached upon by the farmers in various villages.

Amritsar, July 2
One and half months have passed since a female patient filed a complaint on sexual harassment at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH), but the committee constructed to probe into the case is yet to file its report.

The patient has alleged that she was sexually harassed by a hospital employee on May 14 after which the hospital authorities had immediately constructed a three-member team to find the facts.

However, the committee was changed a few days later as one of its members had wished to withdraw from the panel citing his affiliation with the accused. The hospital management had assured of speedy results.

Senior Medical Superintendent Dr Satpal said, “The person against whom the complaint was made was admitted to the hospital as he had undergone under some kind of surgery. Obviously it was not possible for the committee to involve him in the inquiry under these circumstances.” He said as per his information, the committee had its meeting two or three days ago. He said he hopes that the report would be filed in next few days.

In a complaint to the Medical Superintendent, the female patient had mentioned that she was suggested a procedure for her medical condition by hospital doctors. She had alleged that as she was resting in the operation theatre, she was misbehaved with by a male hospital employee. Dr Satpal said the action would be initiated after the fact-finding committee submits its report. 

Amritsar, July 2
The All-India Vimukat Jatis (Denotified tribes) Sewak Sangh has criticised Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal for demeaning the Congress MLA, Mohammad Sadiq, in the state assembly.

Sangh’s state president Dharambir Singh Mahia said they were pained at the words used by the experienced and respected Chief Minister. Mahia said when political representatives quote poems and couplets of famous poets, why Sadiq’s was victimised.

"The MLA Sadiq has not indulged in breach of any code of conduct. We also advise him (Sadiq) to be careful in future and not to fall for any such political traps," said Mahia.