Amritsar, August 21
The Anti-Power Theft Police Station of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) arrested Gurinder Pal Singh, proprietor of Bhatia Guest House near the Golden Temple, for stealing power for his guest house.

PSPCL Enforcement Director Amarjit Singh said the accused had been fined Rs 30.45 lakh as he consumed 29-KW load against the sanctioned load of 11 KW. "A notice has been sent to the offender to deposit over Rs 29 lakh and another Rs 1.45 lakh as compounding fee, which is levied as per kilowatt usage".

He said an FIR was lodged at the Anti-Power Theft Police Station at Verka on August 18.

The Enforcement Director said a raid was conducted by sleuths of the enforcement wing, led by Additional Superintendent Engineer Nirmal Singh, following a tip-off. It was also found that the power consumption of the guest house was very low. He said the raiding party found that the accused had installed an illegal meter without any record and used to replace it with the original one when PSPCL men came to take meter reading.

He did not rule out the connivance of the employees of the PSPCL in this illegal act. He said the investigation was going on to identify the black sheep and then they would be brought to book.

The Enforcement Director appealed to power consumers not to commit power theft. He asked residents to report any illegal activity to the enforcement wing.

Amritsar, August 21
The autopsy report of Balwinder Kaur, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her residence in Green Avenue a couple of days back, has confirmed that she was murdered.

Though the unidentified murderer tried to project the incident as suicide, the police suspected murder from the very beginning and was waiting to get the autopsy report for confirmation.

It is learnt that the doctors, who performed the postmortem, confirmed that the victim, who was in her mid thirties, died due to strangulation and her body bore several injury marks.

Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, SHO, Civil Lines, the postmortem report confirmed that it was a case of murder. "The postmortem report indicated that she was beaten ruthlessly before strangulated to death. We are now investigating to get a breakthrough in this case," he said.

Preliminary investigations also revealed that a person named Aman, who practised black magic, used to visit Balwinder's house frequently.

SHO Sukhwinder Singh said, "Aman was absconding since the incident had come to light. We are on the lookout for him."

Sources said the police had already taken Aman's brother in the custody to know his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Balwinder's body was handed over to her family and she was cremated last evening.

On Sunday evening, Balwinder was found dead on the floor while a dupatta was found to be hanging with the ceiling fan and a piece of the dupatta was wrapped around her neck.

The police team, led by ACP North Gurnam Singh, had also smelt a rat after examining the circumstantial evidence.

The police team also found that the fan blades were not tilted. They felt that if she had committed suicide, the fan blades must have been tilted considering her weight.

Secondly, she was found lying on the abdominal side on the floor, but there were no injury marks on her face. Thirdly, a chair was found lying upside down on the bed, but the cloth over it was found to be wrinkle-free which ruled out the possibility of suicide.

It has been learnt that Balwinder Kaur was living separately from her husband for the past over five years and was running a beauty parlour from a rented accommodation.

Amritsar, August 21
After a span of around four years, the police today got success in nabbing a gang who used to loot people at pistol point.

Chheharta and Kot Khalsa police teams, in a joint action, have also recovered two revolvers of .32 bore with three live cartridges, two country-made pistols of 315 bore and 12 bore with two live cartridges, 330 toxic capsules, 220 gm toxic powder and a car from their possession.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) Harwinder Singh Sandhu said five accused had been nabbed from a gas godown located in the Guru Ki Wadali area against whom various cases were registered since 2008.

Those arrested have been identified as Kulwinder Singh, alias Kaka, a resident of Putlighar, Sandeep Singh, alias Sony Pistol, a resident of Ram Nagar Colony, Jatinder Singh, a resident of Guru Nanakpura, Sarbjeet Singh, alias Sonu, a resident of Nuure Shah Colony, Islamabad area, and Neeraj, alias Bholu, a native of Guru Nanakpura.

“They were conspiring to execute some looting incident when our police party arrested them. Several cases of looting are registered against them,” he said.

“They procured weapons from Uttar Pradesh, which were replica of original ones and costing about Rs 12,000 each,” he added.

Cases under Sections 339, 402, 379, 382 and 25-54-59 of the Arms Act and Sections 22-61-85 of the NDPS Act had been registered.

“We are interrogating them to crack various looting instances that had happened in the past,” he added.

Amritsar, August 21
With a view to get the portion of Durgiana Temple complex amicably vacated for the execution of the proposed beautification project, the land acquisition department today served fresh notices to occupants of shops and residences.

Pradeep Sabharwal, Collector-cum-Regional Deputy Director, Local Bodies, said the occupants had been given seven days to vacate their places and claim their compensation.

"The compensation award had been announced since May 21, 2008. We have been publishing this notice in prominent newspapers while inviting shop and house tenants to claim their dues as per the land acquisition norms from my office between 8 am to 2 pm on any working day. The tenants who have made any construction in their places too have been invited to claim compensation subject to the condition that the landlord certifies his or her claim," said Sabharwal.

It has been learnt that the owners of the residential area would be paid compensation amount calculated at an approximate rate of Rs 18,000 per sq yard. On the same pattern, the proprietors of commercial space would be compensated at about Rs 60,000 per sq yard.

"But it can vary depending on the location and type of property. Every process will be adopted as per law and norms," said Sabharwal.

A final design for beautification of 3.03 acres of land around the Durgiana Temple has been chosen. The work has already been awarded to an Amritsar-based firm for the first phase of the project which is to build a multi-storey commercial complex.

As the shops in the Durgiana Complex would be demolished, the displaced shopkeepers would be provided 53 shops on a reserve price. Bharat Bhusan, Superintending Engineer of Amritsar Improvement Trust, which would execute the beautification project, said two storeys would be kept reserved for displaced shopkeepers.

About Rs 28 crore was kept aside as compensation for the acquisition of whole chunk of land required for the beautification project and the remaining Rs 22 crore would be spent on raising the infrastructure for the convenience of tourists, devotees and pilgrims.

The AIT would raise an auditorium, open-air theatre, joda ghar and information centre besides a four-storey parking lot to accommodate about 400 cars and over 150 two-wheelers. According to planners, over 70 per cent of the land would be an open area, which would have greenbelt.

Meanwhile, the cost of the project, notified in 2007 by the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), rose from Rs 36 crore to Rs 50 crore following delays due to various reasons.

Sources said nearly Rs 40 crore had already been deposited by the trust to the Local Bodies Department to carry out the development work. All this is being initiated to attract tourists to the city.

Amritsar, August 21
Picture this. A long shot of mustard fields in a remote village in Punjab, the hero looking all rouge in his kurta and chadra, and enter Claudia Ceisla, looking all desi, dressed in suit-Patiala salwar with a perfect parandi in place.

Misplaced identity? Not at all. The German leggy lass is all set to entertain, the Punjabi way. Up till now, her only tinsel town connection was her stint in Bigg Boss, Claudia Ceisla is ready to make her acting debut with Punjabi flick, Yaar Pardesi.

The upcoming Punjabi movie directed by Gurbir Grewal features Vandana Singh, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Dhanveer Singh in the lead.

In Amritsar to promote the film, she got candid. "The film is a mix of emotions of love, comedy, as well as the social aspects of society. I play a Canadian girl in the film who is one of the central characters," says the beauty.

Post her Bigg Boss stint, she has made India her home, and very conveniently so. "Whenever I go home back to Germany, it feels like a vacation. Within days I want to come back to India. I have even learnt to tie the saree and love Indian outfits."

She pleasantly surprises with her almost fluent Hindi, but what about her Punjabi? "Well, I am working on that. But I am glad that I am doing what I always wanted to. My calling is in acting, and I am following my heart." About the film, apart from having Claudia as the lead, another highlight is that this movie will be first ever Punjabi movie which has been fully shot with sync sound.

Amritsar, August 21
A drive to issue Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) cards to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families was inaugurated today. Around 110 cards were issued on the occasion.

The cards were handed over to the BPL families by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu at Verka near here.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sidhu said BPL families must avail the facility provided by the government.

"Medical service has become more easily accessible with the RSBY scheme," she said adding that the drive would continue till September so that maximum number of families were enrolled for availing the benefits of the scheme.

She said a total of 2,183 cards would be issued to BPL families residing in the Verka block.

Senior medical officer Balbir Singh Dhillon said the local Civil Hospital had got the distinction of serving maximum number of BPL families in the state, thereby making it possible for them to avail free services worth Rs 12 lakh accumulatively.

However, the department is facing a limited problem in locating a few of the BPL families as they have reportedly displaced.

Civil surgeon Yash Mitra said: "A few amendments have also been introduced in the scheme for bettering the service of public".

"Earlier under the scheme, the card could be issued only on the name of the male head of the family. But now, women too have become eligible for getting the card issued on their name as the head of the family. A maximum of five members of the family can avail the service,” the civil surgeon said.

Others present on the occasion included SAD District president Onkar Singh Sandhu, civil surgeon Yash Mitra, a former civil surgeon Hardeep Singh Ghai and District Family Welfare officer Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar.

Amritsar, August 21
Members of the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) will hold a protest against the state government for its alleged anti-teacher policies outside the office of Director General School Education in Chandigarh on August 24.

Sukhraj Singh Sarkaria, district president of the DTF, said rationalisation was being used to erase the previously adopted model of cadres. He said it was resulting in politicisation of the Education Department.

Sukhraj Singh said lecturer-grade teachers were burdened with the limit of at least 32 lectures a week. He demanded that it must be reverted to previous 27 lectures a week.

He said a lecturer was supposed to teach students of senior secondary classes, but increase in lectures meant that they would have to take higher secondary classes, which is a jurisdiction of master-cadre teachers.

He sought the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act to limit the strength of students in primary and middle classes to 30 in a section and higher school classes to 35 and senior secondary classes to 40 students.

Ashwani Kumar Awasthi, district secretary of the DTF, said Classical and Vernacular Teachers were being treated shabbily by directing them to teach two schools a week.

He said the government must regularise teachers working under various heads like RMSA, SSA and 7654.