Amritsar, September 8
A day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took cognisance of the dilapidated garbage collection system in Amritsar and the subsequent non-execution of the solid waste management plant, a MC team in collaboration with other departments, including horticulture, today initiated a special cleanliness drive in the city.

The drive was kicked off from the Hall Gate.

The team observed the garbage collection mechanism and instructed workers to clean the storm water passages and sort out clogging of sewerage pipes.

Importantly, the MC drive seems to be a small step to sort out the big crisis.

The garbage collection system in the city collapsed after the private firm engaged for the job pulled out of contract in August owing to non-payment of dues.

Since then the MC is facing difficulties in maintaining the cleanliness in the holy city.

Though the MC claimed to have engaged private hands to do the job, it has not helped the matters.

With the crisis growing bigger with each passing day, MP Navjot Sidhu moved the high court against the MC’s failure.

In this one month (since the private firm ended its services), various parts of the city have been converted into garbage dumps. With door-to-door collection mechanism coming to a halt, residents often burnt the garbage in the bins only.

On August 1, Antony Waste Handling Company Ltd, which was engaged by the MC in December 2008, decided to stop its door-to-door garbage collection and transportation of municipal solid waste to the designated dump yard.

The company officials claimed that the MC owed Rs 1.6 crore to the firm.

In 2006, the Pollution Control Committee, an NGO, had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the MC. The high court had summoned MC officials against their failure to maintain proper garbage disposal mechanism.

In 2007, the company was then entrusted with the task of door-to-door garbage collection and transporting that to the designated dump yard in Bhaktanwala. As per court orders, the MC had also apprised the court about this arrangement.

Now, the NGO has accused the MC of contempt of court orders in respect of engaging proper cleanliness mechanism in the holy city.

It argued that the MC had failed to comply with the court orders and people of the city have to pay for MC’s apathy.

PS Bhatty, president, Pollution Control Committee, said, “The garbage collection system collapsed due to the rift between the MC and the private company. This has forced the residents to live under most unhygienic conditions. We have gone unheard on the serious issue. Now, we don’t have any choice but move the court again.” 

Amritsar, September 8
The Chheharta police has arrested eight persons involved in criminal activities.

The police recovered a stolen car, two motorcycles, jewellery, a LCD TV, a camera and seized a large number of bottles of illicit liquor and intoxicants from the arrested.

Harvinder Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (West), Amritsar, said three members of a gang, which committed a theft at a teacher’s house in Deenanagar, were nabbed by the Chheharta police. The accused were identified as Narinder Kumar of Panchwar village, Kishan Lal of Dhupai and Sunny Singh of Prem Nagar in Dhupai.

The police recovered a stolen car, motorcycle, LCD TV, 500g gold and a camera. The gang members were also carrying 255 toxic capsules when they were nabbed.

The trio has been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and NDPS Act.

Three members of gang in the police custody. A Tribune photo

In another incident, ASI Varinder Kumar attached with the Chheharta police nabbed Jatinderpal of Bhaktanwala on Friday and recovered two stolen motorcycles from his possession. A case under relevant sections of the IPC has been registered against the accused.

Chheharta SI Ranjit Singh also arrested Sajan of Rattan Singh Chowk area with 5g heroin and a stolen motorcycle.

He was booked under relevant sections of the IPC and NDPS Act.

The Chheharta police also laid down nakas at different places on Friday evening and arrested three persons who dealt in illicit liquor.

Sukhdev Singh of Guru Nanak Colony, Chheharta, was arrested with 70 bottles of illicit liquor. Mewa Singh of Bhalla Colony, Sher Shah Suri marg, Chheharta was nabbed with 60 bottles of illicit liquor. Aman of Nawa Pind Jandiala was held with 40 bottles of illicit liquor.

The three have been booked under relevant sections of the Excise Act.

Amritsar, September 8
In view of complaints of unhygienic food being served to students, the health department has asked canteen contractors at schools and colleges to get themselves registered under the Food Safety and Standards Act.

The department has instructed canteen owners to get their workers medically examined within next 10 days and obtain medical fitness certificates from any of the government hospitals.

District Health Officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said the department had received numerous complaints against the canteens in schools and colleges. Even during inspections, the teams had felt that the cooking areas were not kept clean, he added.

He said the schools had been instructed to use less of junk food items and instead make available products with nutritional value. He said canteen workers must cover their heads, wear a face mask and gloves in order to minimise chances of contamination.

He said it was the duty of canteen contractors to make clean drinking water available to the students. “A special inspection of schools and college canteens would be conducted soon. Strict action would be taken against those flouting the guidelines,” he said.

Amritsar, September 8
A prominent business website recently listed Amritsar in the list of 20 most promising cities in India in the coming years. The focus would not just be on business, trade and educational infrastructure, but also the human resources. While the holy city is gradually taking steps towards its commercial development, the human resource angle seems to be fitting in the criterion just fine.

One look at the growing list of talent from the city finding space on national television and one gets the point. It first started with the long list of artistes, the likes of Sudesh Lahiri, Gurpreet Guggi, Chandan Prabhakar, Rajiv Thakur, Rajvir Kaur, Kapil Sharma and more, successfully tickling the funny bone on national television.

Then came the biggest and brightest of them all, Bharti Singh, who after conquering the male-dominated domain of stand-up comedy is now shaking up things in Jhalak Dikhla Ja’s current season.

Then there are very recent examples in the current Indian Idol winner Vipul Mehta and finalist Amit Kumar who have lead from the front, crooning glory. Even the latest season of KBC has a contestant from the city and not to mention the upcoming season of India’s Got Talent has not one, but two participants from Amritsar.

It’s like for anyone who is hunting for national television, city’s got the talent.

Has the city suddenly woken up to its talented bunch? We ask.

“I believe the main reason why we send artistes to talent hunts is that people in the city take their art very seriously. There is passion for performing arts, people respect their talent whatever it may be. Parents encourage their children and push them to excel in performing arts and various other talents. And for one, you find great grooming ground as well in the city,” says Pankaj Vij, who runs Pankaj and Preeti Dance Academy. One of his students was selected for Dance India Dance Li’l Masters.

“I will say the city’s is God gifted. It’s coming out of the idea of being a small town and waking up to its talent,” shares Harpal Sethi, a television artiste.

He adds that the youth in the city is more focused and doesn’t take an instant fascination to fame and glamour. “Most of the young artistes are quite focused towards their talent and take it seriously rather than just running after money and fame. One can say that we have genuine talent which is worth all the recognition.”

Amritsar, September 8
The Health Department targets to administer polio immunisation drops to around 1.05 lakh children during the three-day polio immunisation drive commencing tomorrow onwards.

District immunisation officer (DIO) Dr Rajan Verma said 606 teams had been constituted for the purpose. He said 118 supervisors had been designated to manage the drive.

Dr Verma said the number of teams in comparison to the previous drive had been increased by four. He said the teams would target the areas where migratory labourers were residing.

“Factory premises, construction sites, brick-kilns, bus stands, railway stations, slums and border areas will be the key focus,” he said, adding that on the first day of the drive on September 9, a door-to-door campaign has been chalked out to administer drops.

The drive would be started with the flagging off a cycle rickshaw awareness rally from the local civil surgeon office. Dr Verma requested the people to cooperate with the teams.

“The country has almost eliminated polio through extensive immunisation drives. Even if a single child is left without administering polio drops, the entire country will be at risk,” he said.

He said all children in the age group of 0-5 years were required to be given the drops.

Amritsar, September 8
With most of its rooms and wards being used to store junk, TB Hospital here poses a bigger threat because of its old building. The hospital was started in 1936. With time, the once magnificent looking building has turned into a dilapidated structure.

Further, the sewerage system of the hospital, too, has collapsed and needs urgent repairs. Foul smell emanating from the clogged sewerage pipes makes life more difficult for the visitors here. Even, the patients prefer to sit outside their wards because of the stinking smell.

The collapsed sewerage system is the reason behind the stinking smell inside the entire premises. The outer walls of the hospital, too, need urgent repairs. The hospital has become a playing spot for stray dogs. They are seen roaming inside the rooms and sleeping on stairs.

Stray dogs at the hospital have become a problem for the visitors as well as the patients.

“Stray dogs make us feel unsafe. They even enter the patients’ areas,” said Sunita Kumari, a visitor.

She said the hospital authorities must make some arrangements to keep these stray animals out of the periphery.

It was also seen that some of the wards for patients have become storehouses of old furniture. The dust-covered furniture is rotting in male patients’ ward numbers 3 and 4.

Though, as per the information, the hospital authorities have requested the state government to renovate the building, no steps have been taken so far. The authorities have also written to the Municipal Corporation about the problem of stray dogs, but to no avail.

However, when it comes for providing services to the public, in the previous year 3,986 patients were diagnosed and given treatment under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. Even a separate ward for multiple drug resistant tuberculosis patients has also been opened at the district TB Hospital.

Amritsar, September 8
During a quarterly meeting of the District TB Control Society held at District TB Hospital here today, registered medical practitioners (RMPs) were asked to send sputum samples of suspected patients to the nearest health centres.

District TB officer Dr Naresh Chawla said 25 RMPs from the rural areas participated in the meeting.

He said RMPs were the primary health service providers, especially in the rural areas.

He asked the RMPs to help in diagnosing and treating TB patients. He said RMPs were thoroughly educated about the symptoms of the disease.

During the meeting, Rajiv Chaudhary, district coordinator of Project Axshya for control of TB run by Voluntary Health Organisation of India, informed the medical practitioners about various sputum collection centres set up in the district.

He said the sputum samples collected from these centres were sent for testing and reports were delivered by volunteers under the project.

Later, a question-answer session was also held to clear the doubts of the participants.

Amritsar, September 8
“Never-ending insurgency problem and communal conflicts have crippled the economy and disrupted the efforts for the development of the border areas of the country, especially in Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states”.

These views were expressed by Prof GM Bhat, Head of Department of Economics of University of Kashmir, Kashmir, while delivering his keynote address at the inaugural session of the national seminar on “Socio-economic Development of Border Areas - Challenges and Prospects”.

The seminar was organised by the School of Social Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, in association with the University Grants Commission, New Delhi.

Prof Bhat said the socio-economic status of the border states of India is as diverse and as heterogeneous as the varieties of tribes found in the region.

“On the basis of BPL Household Count Ratio, the seven poorest border districts in Jammu and Kashmir are Kishtwar, Kupwara, Bandipora, Reasi, Poonch, Ramban and Kargil which have more than 35 per cent estimated BPL households ranging in between 42.73 per cent and 35.87 per cent,” he said.

He said the reduction of poverty in northeastern states was found to be encouraging (from 51.9 per cent in 1973-74 to 31.8 per cent in 2010-11) as compared to all India level (from 54.9 per cent in 1973-74 to 26.7 per cent in 2010-11).

“The percentage is relatively high in case of UP and Rajasthan at 25.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent, respectively. In case of other states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and J&K, the percentage is around 10 per cent below poverty line,” he said.

Prof Rajinder Kaur Pawar, Dean, Academic Affairs, in her address, said: “The preamble to the Constitution envisages to secure its citizens. However, people living in the rural areas, especially the border areas, are deprived of social and economic justice even after the 65 years of Independence”.

“Concrete measures need to be taken by the government for which a strong political will is needed for plugging the leakages in grants meant for improving education and health facilities in the rural and border areas,” she said.

Amritsar, September 8
The Excise and Taxation Department has planned to take measures to check evasion of tax on the goods ferried through the Railways. Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner PS Randhawa said following the instructions from the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, A. Venu Prasad, all officers were checking important railway stations.

He said the operation was being monitored by senior officers of the department. Amrik Singh, director (Investigation), Excise and Taxation, inspected the programme at the local railway station.

He also visited railway stations in Jalandhar and Ludhiana. He said the department was also taking steps so that genuine tax payers were not harassed.

A meeting between senior officials of the department and assistant traffic managers of railway stations in Amritsar and Jalandhar was also held.

The assistant traffic managers were informed by the officers that unscrupulous persons evade tax by transporting goods to and from railway stations through various escape routes around the stations by using broken boundary walls.

The assistant traffic managers have ordered the officials concerned to repair the broken walls of railway stations. They have also assured the department of full cooperation in the detention of goods, which are suspected of tax evasion.

Amrik Singh said the department had recovered a penalty of more than Rs 3.50 crore in the current financial year till date on the goods which were transported through the Railways.

He said the department would not allow evasion of tax by transporting goods without proper invoice or bill through the Railways and the checking would be further intensified.

He added that the evasion of tax by various transporters by road had been effectively curbed through strict checking. As a result of which, penalty to the tune of Rs 11 crore had been imposed up to July.

Amritsar, September 8
Even after being short-listed by the Punjab Subordinate Service Commission for counseling-cum-interview for the post of driver in the forest department, a city youth has bleak chances of getting the job.

Reason: As per the eligibility, he needed to produce Class VIII pass certificate, but the school where he studied till Class X has destroyed records of many previous batches.

Narinder Singh, the youth, never thought that he would need Class VIII certificate as he had Class X certificate from the Punjab State Education Board. Hence, he never collected his Class VIII certificate from Guru Nanak Senior Secondary School.

“In 1993, exams were conducted by schools and not the education board. Hence, I approached the school for an endorsement letter,” he said.

He said the same endorsement letter needed to be counter signed by the District Education Officer, but the official had demanded to see the admission register and result register of the school so as to ascertain that there is no fraud.

He said as the school principal claimed that registers were destroyed years ago, he was worried about his future.

Principal Varinderbir Singh Sodhi said, “I took charge of the school only two years back. I have learnt that the old records were destroyed by the previous principal, who has now expired.”

He said they had given a copy of the result register to Narinder.

“One of our teachers had accompanied him to the DEO office to explain the situation. Besides we have given him a letter after finding his record in the result register,” said the principal citing his helplessness to do anything else.

DEO Sukhwinder Singh said, “It is necessary that the school produces the record. Otherwise which, how do I know that the case is genuine and not a fraud?” He said he would enquire the matter with the school management.