Amritsar, July 10
The Mohkampura police today booked the woman, who allegedly stabbed her seven-year-old foster daughter to death and later attempted to commit suicide on Monday.

The woman, identified as Sakshi, is still under treatment at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. The police has registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC against Sakshi for allegedly killing the child.

Amreek Singh, in charge, Mohkampura police station, said the woman could not be taken into custody as she is under treatment at the hospital. "But as soon as she recovers, we will arrest her," he said.

Just two days back, the woman had filed a police complaint against her husband, Ramesh Kumar, who tried to sexually assault the 7-year-old child.

The police had arrested Ramesh and booked him under Sections 376 and 511 of the IPC. "We had got the autopsy of the child done and are waiting for the report. Meanwhile, Ramesh has been produced before the court for attempting to rape the child. He was later lodged in the jail. The investigation in the matter is on," he said.

The couple did not have a child even after a decade of marriage and had adopted the girl child of Ramesh's brother. Ramesh is a small-time tea vendor at Landa bazaar. His wife Sakshi had alleged that she saw him molesting the child in the wee hours on July 8.

Deputy Commissioner of Police SP Joshi said the exact cause behind the incident would be known only after woman's interrogation. "She might have been shattered after her relatives snubbed her for getting her husband booked for attempting to rape the child, but what prompted her to take such an extreme step is a matter of investigation," the DCP said.

Amritsar, July 10
The police has booked one Vicky under Section 304-B of the IPC for allegedly causing death of his wife.

Victim's mother Surinder Kaur, a resident of Gurdaspur, has lodged a complaint with the A division police station that her daughter, married to Vicky, was poisoned to death by her husband and in-laws.

Vicky is a resident of Gali Pethian Wali Batala road here.

Surinder Kaur alleged that her daughter was often beaten up by the accused on the pretext of bringing 'inadequate' dowry.

"On July 8, I got a call from Krishna Devi, mother-in-law of my daughter, who intimated me that my daughter had consumed some poisonous substance. It was a concocted story. My daughter had told me numerous times the accused had beaten her up and this time too they all made her eat some poisonous substance forcibly", she said.

Meanwhile, the victim had died in Sareen hospital during her treatment.

Parshotam Lal, investigating officer, police station Mohkampura, said a case has been registered.

No arrest has been made in this regard.

Amritsar, July 10
Streamlining the traffic flow in the holy city is nothing less than a Herculean task.

Though the district administration has put in place efficient road infrastructure like the elevated road on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road followed by soon-to-be introduced multi-lane elevated bridge on the UBDC canal after replacing the old and obsolete Taran Wala Pul, the traffic flow comes to a halt the moment it touches the internal roads.

Reason: In the last 10 years, there has been a multi-fold increase in the number of vehicles. There is an estimated volume of 20 lakh vehicles on 610-km-long road network in the district.

Traffic jams are common near Bhandari Bridge, Lawrence Road, Circular Road, Queen's Road, Cooper Road and the interiors of the city.

Projects in doldrums

The flyover project on the busiest Kitchlew Chowk is going on at a snail's pace and the one proposed on Four 'S' Chowk could not see the light of the day due to objections raised by the Archeological Survey of India because of its proximity with the historic Company Bagh. Had these two projects been executed practically, it would have proved to be a boon for commuters.

The flyover at Kitchlew Chowk was conceptualised at an estimated cost of Rs 22 crore. The work for this 900-meter-long first elevated road under the city limits was awarded to SP Singla Company in September 2011 and it was supposed to be completed in 15 months. To savour the political mileage it was inaugurated twice (once the occasion was just prior to the Assembly elections when the Deputy CM inaugurated it). This flyover was being projected to be the lifeline of the city to relieve the commuters from traffic snarls at this busiest spot. Almost one and a half year down the line, there is a negligible progress.

A visit to the site revealed that the giant machines of the construction company, which was hired to execute the project, had encroached 10-foot portion of the road from the middle to accommodate the supporting machinery and construction infrastructure for the past over several months. The bunch of electricity wires, water and sewerage pipes disrupted for the project had further added to the woes of commuters. All this has resulted in serpentine queues of vehicles stranded on the road. Similarly, the proposal to expand the Bhandari Bridge too is only on papers.

No check on auto-rickshaws

The number of auto-rickshaws on city roads is increasing day by day. Ironically, there is no record with the administration about the number of auto-rickshaws plying on the city roads. According to a rough estimate, over 15,000 unregistered auto-rickshaws operate within the city limits and the administration has turned a blind eye to this menace. Apart from this, around 8,000 vehicles enter the city daily from neighbouring states. This additional traffic is because of huge pilgrim flow to the city.

Inefficient policing

In all 170 traffic police personnel, including 20 Punjab Home Guard jawans, are supposed to control this road chaos. Majority of traffic police personnel can be seen just 'challaning' two-wheelers. They turn a blind eye to violations when their targets are met for the day. Regulating traffic, it seems, is not their task.

Walled city’s resistance

Even the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to make 410-metre area around the Golden Temple as 'no vehicle zone' did not bring desired results as walled city traders and residents were against the move. The end result was that the administration failed to implement a proposal for regulating traffic in the Hall Bazar area, Katra Jaimal Singh, Katra Sher Singh and Dharam Singh market, the approach areas for Golden Temple.

Amritsar, July 10
We think women are more emotional because the culture lets them give free vent to certain feelings, the "feminine" ones. But it is a fact that women usually prefer emotions to reasoning.

Even as an artist, women find a muse no better than emotions. At least this is the case for the city-based artists Varuna Khanna and Aruna Sharma.

The friends-cum-colleagues-cum-fellow artists share multiple relations between themselves and with the canvas. Opening their first exhibition at KT Kala, the artist duo gets candid about life as a woman and as an artist.

For the two art teachers from DAV School, the love for colours and shapes started 20 years back. "I always saw things with an artistic eye and later decided to make it my career," shares Aruna. But while she had continued having her fling with art, the real affair began when she started painting professionally. "Some of my paintings were exhibited in national art festivals and were also selected for national and state awards. But this would be the first time I have exhibited my paintings on a large scale," shares Aruna. Twelve of her works are displayed that have emotions as the central theme. Her paintings are as unpredictable as emotions. One of her paintings shows a figure of dancing girl to express happiness and the freedom. A painting titled 3 Images had hidden figures that symbolise the hidden relationships in our life.

Similarly, for Varuna Khanna, her introduction to art happened more than 18 years ago and today she is glad she could finally take that big leap. Her works depict and celebrate woman in all her roles -a mother, a daughter, a wife and a sister. "In my works I see woman as an achiever despite all her roles and responsibilities." Varuna says her works reflect herself and she believes that all the facets of a woman's personality add to her strength. "No one can express emotions like a woman does. Probably the natural 'gift' is good enough to bring out the best out of a woman and it is amasing how smoothly she carries the responsibilities throughout her life." But the same very character is a hindrance when talking about woman artists. "Punjab has many talented women artists who miss out on the big stage because of the family responsibilities and social bindings," shares Varuna.

Aruna on the contrary believes that most women artists suppress their own talent by staying "indoors". "Also, unlike Delhi or Mumbai, there are lesser opportunities here for those who want to come out in a big way," she adds.

The exhibition is on till July 13.

Amritsar, July 10
Amritsar is fast moving towards getting a 'smoke-free city' status. The health department has written to all the other departments to comply with various norms necessary to get the status.

The health department has asked heads of other departments to install display boards citing 'no smoking area' on their respective premises. The departments have to hurry up to get the things in place as July 31 is the official deadline announced by the Punjab Tobacco Control Cell.

The cell through a letter received by the health department during the first week of June expressed its interest to announce Amritsar as a 'smoke-free' city. As per the conditions laid down by the cell, every department in the city must have a display board warning the public against smoking.

The cell had also asked the administration to strictly implement the laws to control sale and consumption of tobacco and tobacco products. The cell has asked the administration to get the names and addresses of officials authorised to listen to the complaints in each office on the boards.

Earlier on May 31, the administration had issued challans to 322 people for smoking at public places. Civil Surgeon Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai said, "We had collected Rs 13,000 as fine from violators. After we are through with the formalities, we will start a campaign to challan defaulters on a regular basis." He said they had held a meeting with the heads of different departments to seek their cooperation.

"The health department officials are also working hard to get the city the status of smoke free city," said Ghai. He said illegal sale of tobacco and its products would be checked with help of officials of the local bodies department.

Warning cigarette vendors against selling products to minors, Dr Ghai said, "No government campaign can achieve success without public support. We request people to whole-heartedly support the administration in rooting out a deadly menace from the city," said Ghai.

Amritsar, July 10
The Amritsar Bar Association in an emergency meeting today announced to abstain from work for two days (July 11 and 12) in support of strike call given by the Bar Council of India.

Association president Pardeep Kumar Saini said, “Their association supports the call of the Bar Council of India and demands from the Central Government to exclude the legal education from the ambit of the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011 and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutional Act 2010.

He said, “The association further demands that the HRD Ministry should not encroach upon the functions of Bar Council of India and State Bar Council.”

He said the Amritsar Bar Association also demands from the Ministry of Law and Justice to introduce the insurance scheme for lawyers, stipend for young lawyers and pension schemes for all advocates of the country.

Amritsar, July 10
Remote controlled helicopter and aircraft models gave some thrill moments to NCC cadets of naval and air wings during the NCC training camp at DAV Public School today.

As many as 278 cadets of air and naval wings from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Pathankot and Tarn Taran are taking part in the camp, conducted by Bo 2PB Air Squadron NCC. The 10-day camp will conclude on July 15.

Cadets are being imparted intensive composite NCC training to inculcate qualities like leadership, discipline, adventure and to give them exposure to military camp life.

Wing Commander SK Vachhani, who is the camp commandant, said camp activities have been chalked out with the objective to develop young minds into leaders of tomorrow. Training includes drill, yoga, parasailing. The cadets are also engaged in social activities like tree plantation drive, anti-drug rally.

Amritsar, July 10
The Volunteer Heath Organisation of India has announced to open a sputum collection centre at the Pingalwara Charitable Society under the Project Axshya, launched to control tuberculosis.

The Volunteer Heath Organisation of India is already running 12 sputum centres in the district. Rajeev Chaudhary, programme coordinator, Axshya, said, "At present, 12 of the inmates at Pingalwara home are undergoing treatment for TB."

He said volunteers of the programme would bring sputum for testing at any of the designated microscopic centres in the district.

He said patients undergoing treatment have to get their sputum tested after every two months to ascertain their level of recovery. "The patients and even suspected patients would have no need to go to any hospital for diagnose," said Rajeev adding that test reports would be delivered within a week's time.