Amritsar, August 9
The garbage collection system in the holy city was hit for few hours today as MC safai karamcharis held a gate rally to lodge their protest against engaging temporary hands from outside instead of regularising the services of contractual employees and not taking any steps to have their own infrastructure in place.

Already the private firm, Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt Ltd, engaged for garbage collection in the city has pulled out of the contract, following which the MC has engaged 15 trolleys at the rate of over Rs 1,000 each per day for lifting the garbage.

Opposing this move, safai karamcharis demanded that instead of shelling out over Rs 4.5 lakh every month just for hiring garbage lifting trolleys, the MC should invest this money in raising its own infrastructure or negotiate with the firm by paying their dues in parts so that the crisis could be over.

On the other hand, jobless workers of Antony firm, who have joined hands with the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) to lift the garbage, too have withdrawn their support.

Kuldeep Sharma, ex-worker of the firm, said MC Commissioner Dharampal Gupta had allured them that they would be absorbed with the MC but it ended up as a false promise.

“We held a meeting with the Commissioner a few days back, who told us to join hands for few days on the assurance that we would be given job in the MC. We lifted the garbage without charging a single penny for few days, but today we unanimously withdrew our support after realising that the MC itself has not paid salaries to their already engaged safai karamcharis. It has also never spared a thought to get the services of its contractual safai karamcharis regularised. Then on what grounds we expect anything from the MC,” he said.

Endorsing the views, Surinder Tona, general secretary of the Municipal Corporation Workers Union, Amritsar, said keeping in view that safai karamcharis, including Mohalla Sudhar Committee employees and those who were employed under the DC rate scheme, have not been paid salaries for the past four months.

“We resumed garbage lifting today because of Janamashtmi, which is just a day ahead and it would not have been proper to let the streets littered with garbage from where the nagar kirtan has to pass through. Yet, our grievances remained unaddressed. We will intensify our agitation in the days to come,” said Tona.

The private firm, Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt Ltd, engaged for garbage collection in the city has pulled out of the contract

The MC has engaged 15 trolleys for lifting garbage

Safai karamcharis demand that instead of shelling out over Rs 4.5 lakh every month for private trolleys, the MC should invest the money in raising its own infrastructure or negotiate with the firm by paying their dues

Amritsar, August 9
Panic gripped residents of the Rani Ka Bagh area here today when a resident opened fire outside a private hospital following a dispute over parking of vehicle.

In the incident, Gursewak Singh, a driver of the owner of the hospital, sustained minor injuries as splinters of the bullet hit him.

The person, who fired the shots and was identified as Pinka, was overpowered by security guards of the hospital. He was handed over to the police.

As per the information available, the incident occurred when Pinka, a local resident, found a vehicle parked outside the street where his house is located. Infuriated over this, he entered in a verbal dual with security persons.

Later, Dr Ashok Uppal, owner of the hospital also reached the spot and tried to pacify the accused.

“However, instead of relenting, he abused the doctor and security guards which enraged them,” said Raju Singh, an eyewitness and private security guard of the hospital.

Finding himself gheraoed by private security guards, he took out his pistol and fired in the air. The splinters of the gunshot injured Gursewak Singh, who was present on the spot. Private security guards overpowered Pinka and informed cops at Civil Lines Police Station, located a few metres away from the scene.

ACP Gurnam Singh and SHO Sukhwinder Singh reached the spot to investigate into the case. The accused has been taken into custody.

No case has been filed against the accused till the filing of the report. The police authorities said that investigations were going on. 

Panic grips Rani Ka Bagh area when Pinka got mad about a vehicle, parked near his house close to a hospital

Angry Pinka fires in the air after a verbal duel with hospital employees.

Gursewak Singh, a driver of the owner of the hospital, sustained minor injuries as splinters of the bullet hit him

Amritsar, August 9
Protesting against the killing of trader Munish Khanna and growing incidents of crime, traders of Shastri market in the walled city kept theirs shops shut for the second consecutive day today.

A textile trader, Santosh Gupta said it was natural for the trading community to panic and be concerned about their security as incidents of snatching, looting and now killing had become so frequent. He said it was high time that the administration must carve out a plan to stop these miscreants and ensure a safe future.

Deepak Mehra, general secretary, Shastri Market Cloth Dealer and Manufacturing Association, said a good number of traders travel to different parts of the country for sale and purchase purpose and many a time they carry cash with them. “The trade could not be sustained if the insecurity persists. The government and the administration have a duty to provide safe and trouble-free future to residents.”

Shopkeepers from Katra Jai Mal Singh, Gurdwara Tahli Sahib bazaar and Katra Ahluwalia also joined in the protest. They also demanded compensation of Rs 20 lakh and a job to the family of slain trader.

A businessman, Krishan Kumar said traders not only from textile industry, but also from various trades like gold and silver ornaments, grain, spices, and others travel to other parts while carrying cash. He urged the administration to ensure safety of traders and bring the culprits behind the killing of Munish to book to instill a sense of security among the trading community. 

Amritsar, August 9
Amritsar clinched the overall trophy at the state-level pear fair organised by the Punjab Horticulture Department at Guru Nanak Bhawan here today.

The trophy went in favour of Amritsar as it won 27 prizes in 68 different categories.

This achievement has strengthened its position for establishing the pear estate. The Punjab Government has already given its nod to establish a pear estate in Amritsar under the Estate Societies Registration Act 1860, informed Gurbachan Singh Babbehali, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Agriculture, Punjab.

The second place was grabbed by Ludhiana which won 14 prizes at the fair. The best variety prize was won by Hoshiarpur.

As many as 2,950 entries were received during the fair from all over Punjab.

The area under pear cultivation has been steadily increasing because of its high yield potential and good economic returns. Well-managed pear orchards may yield a net income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per acre, said Baaj Singh, Deputy Director, Horticulture Department, Amritsar.

The main aim of organising the fair was to attract farmers to diversification.

Lajwinder Singh Brar, Director, Horticulture, Punjab, viewed that their focus was to make farmers self-reliant by adopting new methodology which could help them strengthen their economic condition. He also apprised farmers about various subsidies being offered by the state government.

Experts from the Punjab Agriculture University apprised the farmers about innovative techniques which could help them prosper.

In Punjab, around 71,400-hectare area is under fruits cultivation. Around 14.20 lakh metric tonne of different varieties of fruits is produced annually.

The pear is being produced in 2,706 hectares and around 61,000 metric tonne of pear is produced in the state.

“Though Amritsar is the most preferred place for pear cultivation having an average yield of 22.6 metric tonne per hectare, the fruit is also prospering other districts like Tarn Taran, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. About 2,100 hectares in these districts is under pear cultivation and the yield is around 47,000 metric tonne”, said Babbehali.

Amritsar, August 9
The Amritsar district has achieved a major success in preventing tuberculosis from spreading its tentacles. Data under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) reveals that Amristar has recorded 90 per cent conversion rate and 86 per cent of cure rate. The death and failure rate stood below three per cent.

Dr Naresh Chawla, District TB Officer, said out of the total patients reported in the city from January 2012 to July 2012, 90 per cent of the patients have shown a negative trend during their follow-up treatment after two, four and six months while 86 per cent patients have been cured.

As per RNTCP data, as many as 37,216 patients have been provided free TB treatment from 2003 to July 2012 in Amritsar while nearly 2,700 patients have been put on directly observed therapy- short course (DOTS) in the district during this year while more than 4,000 TB patients were put on DOTS as per RNTCP analysis of April 2011 to March 2012.

Last year, as many as 4082 TB patients were reported in Amritsar. Significantly, the conversion and cure rates have been hovering between 80 and 90 per cent.

Dr Chawla said TB-HIV coordination had been efficiently established with 80 per cent TB patients undergoing HIV testing in final quarter of 2011 and sincere efforts being made to bring 100 per cent HIV testing coverage for TB patients.

“Amritsar has pioneered the DOTS-PLUS programme in Punjab by starting services for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) since November 2011. Sputum samples of 111 MDR suspects have been sent for culture and DST and out of these 38 patients have been put on treatment for MDR-TB after a weeks’ admission in DOTS-PLUS ward in the Government TB Hospital,” said Dr Chawla.

While speaking about RNTCP DOTS strategy launched in the country in 1997, Dr HS Ghai, Civil Surgeon, said the project was implemented in Amritsar in 2003. He said the district has RNTCP framework of four tuberculosis units (TU’s) and 21 designated microscopy centres (DMC’S) catering to the population of around 25.2 lakh. Presently there are 293 DOT centres in community and 44 private practitioners involved in RNTCP with ongoing efforts to increase the contribution of private sector catering to the health needs of majority of patients.

RNTCP in Amritsar has six NGOs working towards awareness generation amongst public, patients, DOT providers and private practitioners. “Amritsar has about 46 slum areas and 53 migratory population areas which are being focused by the programme as high-risk areas contributing to more than 30 per cent of total patient load in 2011-2012,” revealed Dr Ghai.

The main motive behind the project was to ensure that infectious TB patients are diagnosed and treated effectively ensuring full course of drugs under direct supervision, he added.

Amritsar, August 9
Rajdavinder Kaur was adjudged the best participant in a competition ‘plant diversity at home’ during the vanmahotsav celebrations held by the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University today. The winner was judged by Prof AK Thukral and Prof Saroj Arora.

Besides this, special lectures, video presentations, poetry recitals were part of the programme, which was organised in the memory of Dr KM Munshi, an Indian independence movement activist, who was a writer, an educationist and a politician from Gujarat.

Dr Munshi was an environmentalist who had started celebrating vanmahotsav in 1950, when he was the Union Minister of Food and Agriculture.

A large number of faculty, students and research scholars were present on the occasion.

Amritsar, August 9
Many schools held cultural programmes to celebrate Janamashtami today. Students of DAV International School enacted popular episodes from the childhood of Lord Krishna during a special morning assembly to commemorate the occasion. The girl students attired as Gopies presented a beautiful dance. A colouring competition was also organised for juniors.