Amritsar, November 2
As the Railways has rejected the proposal to widen the busy Bhandari Railway Overbridge, better known as uchcha pul, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation is trying to find an alternative to resolve the mounting traffic problem.

MC Commissioner Dharam Pal Gupta said the corporation was on the job. He said the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for the city has been prepared. “Soon the final decision would be taken after getting an approval from the government,” he remarked.

The proposal to widen the railway overbridge, which connects the walled city with the new city, was dropped after investing marathon 20 months in planning, meetings and debates. The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), funding agency for the project, has to forego the advance of Rs 12 lakh submitted to the RITES to carry out the feasibility study.

MP Navjot Singh Sidhu had endorsed the idea of widening the bridge as he had described it as a vital link between the Golden Temple and the rest of the city, and was instrumental in arranging the visit of a technical team of the Railways. A three-member technical team, headed by Senior Divisional Engineer Pankaj Tyagi of the Railways, visited the bridge on February 25, 2011, to carry out a feasibility study for the widening of busiest Bhandari railway overbridge.

Sources in the AIT said as per the rules of RITES, it seeks deposit of 2 per cent of the entire cost of the project before the finalisation of the detailed project of the report of the assignment.

They said the Railways rejected the proposal to widen the bridge as iron angles distinguishing its main road from the pedestrian paths on both sides could not be removed. Besides, being a cantilever bridge and keeping in view its age, it was found infeasible to spend so much money on widening it. Instead, they advocated raising of new bridge after demolishing the present one. However, the administration did not commit anything on this as it was primarily a technical matter and passed on the onus on the corporation to include the same in its CMP of the city.

Erstwhile Executive Officer of the Municipal Committee Padam Chand Bhandari was a force behind the construction of this multi-lane bridge, which was inaugurated in 1955. The width of the bridge is 21.7 metres with a three-meter pedestrian path encroached by light vehicles on both sides and various agencies were anticipating to widen it by at least 5 to 6 metres from both sides. The traffic flow on this railway overbridge increased especially after the Rs 244-crore flyover on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road came into being in the last couple of years.

According to RITES, over one lakh vehicles pass through this bridge in 24 hours. Another reason which attracted the attention of the people and authorities was the Punjab Pollution Control Board report on vehicular pollution around Bhandari Bridge which termed it the most polluted area due to vehicular pollution between 9 am and 8 pm. At Bhandari Bridge, the particulate matter was as high as 599 per cubic metre (µgm/m3) during peak hours while it was 232 per cubic metre (µgm/m3) during lean traffic hours.

Amritsar, November 2
With the arrest of four persons, including a medical store owner and a fake travel agent, the city police today claimed to have solved the sensational looting case in which an employee of money exchanger was shot at and robbed of Rs 41 lakh on September 24.

The police recovered a car bearing registration number PB-08-BW-2994 used in the crime, besides two country-made pistols, four live cartridges and Rs 4 lakh, from the possession of the accused. Two of their accomplices are still at large.

Among those arrested include Gurbaz Singh of New Raj Nagar, Basti Bawa Khel, Jalandhar, Deepak Kalia, Heera Gate, Jalandhar, Bhupesh Kumar, alias Bheema, of Bagh Ahluwalia, Basti Guja, Jalandhar, and Kamal Kumar, a resident of Gali Karmo Deori, Katra Jaimal Singh, the area where the incident occurred.

Those absconding were identified as Gurpreet Gopi and Vinay Kumar, both residents of Basti Bawa Khel, Jalandhar.

Kamal Kumar was the mastermind behind the robbery as he knew about the movements of the employee of the money exchanger.

Police Commissioner Ram Singh said: “Kamal, who knew about the daily transactions of money exchanger, told this to Bhupesh Kumar who earlier used to work in Guru Bazaar, but has shifted to Jalandhar about 8-9 years ago after the loss in business. Bhupesh further talked with Deepak Kalia who runs a medical store, who further contacted Gurbaz Singh”.

Gurbaz had connections with Gurpreet Singh and Vinay Kumar. Gurpreet had a criminal record who was wanted in a murder case and was declared proclaimed offender by the court, he said.

“For the execution of the plan, they procured two country-made pistols from Baksar (Bihar) at Rs 25,000 and following this they visited the area for a recce. About a fortnight before the incident, they made a failed attempt after a person noticed the suspicious signals of Kamal Kumar,” the Police Commissioner said.

He said on September 24 when Rajan Sharma, an employee of the money exchanger, resisted their attempt, they shot two fires and ran away after snatching the bag containing the money. They used the car belonging to Deepak Kalia for fleeing.

The Police Commissioner said Gurbaz was a fake travel agent who had defrauded several persons on the pretext of sending them abroad. He added that raids were being conducted to nab the absconding accused.

Amritsar, November 2
The Amritsar Central Jail authorities seized three mobile phones from the possession of three jail inmates during a search operation conducted in the jail today.

Amrik Singh, Superintendent Jail, said during the search, the jail staff recovered three mobile phones from as many undertrials, identified as Sandeep Singh of Kot Salag Ram, Lalit Kumar of Bharat Nagar and Ramesh Kumar of New Jawahar Nagar. They were lodged in the Central Jail on various criminal charges.

The incident has once again highlighted the fact that even after the efforts of the jail authorities, mobile phones and narcotic substances continue to sneak into the jail premises.

The jail authorities have urged the government for installing mobile phone signal jammers on the jail premises, but nothing has been done so far.

Amritsar, November 2
Petty crimes and snatchings have considerably come down in the past couple of months if the data released by Police Commissioner Ram Singh is anything to go by.

The Police Commissioner, while releasing the data, claimed that snatching incidents had scaled down.

As per the data, maximum number of snatching cases have been reported in February, in which 32 cases have been reported with various police stations of the city, followed by 30 in July and 29 in March. In January, as many as 28 cases were reported, in May the number was 23 and in April and June, it was 19 and 18, respectively. As many as 22 cases have been reported in August.

Going by the data, only one case was reported in October, which is the lowest in this year.

"In the past three months, the police has registered 31 cases of snatchings. Out of which, 23 have been traced and 35 persons have been arrested," the Police Commissioner said.

Besides, eight persons were nabbed in older cases, he said.

He said during the past three months, the police had nabbed 12 persons involved in dacoities. It had seized 9 pistols, 17 cartridges, sharp-edged weapons and narcotic substances from their 
possession.

He said the police had also taken stringent measures against drug peddlers active in various parts of the city.

He said in the past three months, 175 cases had been registered and 206 drug peddlers had been arrested. The police had recovered 658 grams of heroin, about 2 kg of smack, over 600 grams of opium, 2.40 grams of charas, besides a huge quantity of habit-forming drugs and 19.820 kg of narcotic substances, from their possession.

He said during the period, the police had arrested 27 persons belonging to seven notorious gangs, including Sonu Kangla gang and Chhota Rajan gang, operating in the city. The police had also managed to neutralise Jujhar gang, Mota gang and Rickey Mahasha gang.

Ram Singh said the police officials had been mobilised from police stations to lay nakas and conduct patrolling in order to curb the crime in the city.

Amritsar, November 2
The Amritsar Rural police today claimed to have arrested two couples involved in snatching incidents occurring in the Ajnala area.

Those arrested were identified as Tarsem Singh and his wife Satinder Kaur of Loharka Kalan village, Heera Singh and his wife Devi of Kaji Kot village.

The police authorities said both accused used to take victims in their confidence and on the pretext of giving them lift, they used to rob them of their belongings and jewellery. The Ajnala police received specific information that the accused, who were in a car bearing registration number PB-02-L-1868, have snatched gold earrings of a woman, Daljit Kaur, of Ballawal. After the information, the police laid a naka near Dhussi Bandh near Sarang Dev village and intercepted their car.

The police recovered a .12-bore country-made pistol, besides a pair of gold earrings, from their possession.

A case under Sections 392, 34 of the IPC and Sections 25/54/59 of the Arms Act had been registered against them. Further investigations were under progress and more recoveries were likely to be made. — TNS

Amritsar, November 2
A seminar dedicated to Punjab Day was organised today at Khalsa College for Women (KCW). A talk was held on Punjab’s history and culture during the seminar. Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal, principal of KCW, said the motive behind the talk was to apprise the students about the struggle for the creation of Punjab and how the decision affected the geography, history, language and culture of the people here.

Prof Nirmaljit Kaur, Head, Department of Punjabi, told the students about the event that led to the creation of the state in 1964. — TNS

Amritsar, November 2
A dental fortnight was inaugurated at Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital on Thursday. Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said 155 free dentures would be provided to needy patients during the two-week programme.

He said free dentures to patients would be fitted at the civil hospital, government hospitals at Baba Bakala, Ajnala, Majitha, Lopoke, Verka and Rajasansi and all five satellite hospitals.

Dr Mitra said during the fortnight, dental patients would be given free medical services and medicines at the government institutions.

District Dental Health Officer Dr Jasmine Nanda said it has been observed that most of the dental patients suffer from dental caries, a disease in which teeth get decayed.

She said situation can be avoided by brushing teeth twice a day, so as to remove food particles. Dr Jasmine said wrong technique of brushing the teeth could cause scratches in between gums and teeth which can act as a breeding ground for germs. “Everybody should imbibe the habit to gargle mouth with simple water after every meal. It is necessary every time you eat something,” she said.

Amritsar, November 2
Khalsa College today scored a hat-trick by becoming champion in kabaddi in the Inter-Colleges National Style Kabaddi Championship held at Guru Nanak Dev University today. It defeated DAV College, Jalandhar, by 56-18 points in the final.

This was the third consecutive year that the college had emerged winner. In 2011-12 and 2010-11 also, the college was the champion in the tournament, said principal Dr Daljit Singh.

He congratulated players, sports in charge Bachanpal Singh, coaches Shamsher Singh and Sucha Singh for the success in the championship.

Dr Daljit Singh said out of their 12 players who played in the matches, eight had been selected for the university team for the Inter-University Championship to be held shortly.

Amritsar, November 2
Just like some of the commercials on television these days, even a sigh is just a click away. In the world where virtual dominates the real world, online shopping has changed the way shopping was supposed to be - exhaustive, extensive and spontaneous. A flurry of portals offers almost everything from electronics to clothes, shoe, fragrances, even a pair of jocks. And with the festive and holiday season on, portals are high on demand.

Emerging as the world’s third biggest nation when it comes to online shopping, Indians buy 20 items per minute online. The facts might sound business like, but they tell a story of the new age Indian shopper, who likes to shop quick and easy. Amritsar netizens too have contributed to the big shopping boom online. “Online shopping has struck a chord with time-constrained middle class shoppers, with good income and taste for exclusivity. Online shopping portals offer everything on a platter, with some extra credits,” says Sakshi Pathania, a housewife from the city. By that she means easy payment, money back guarantee, cash on delivery and many other options thrown in. “For electronic gadgets and bigger purchase, they also offer EMI option,” she adds.

Not only in India, but more than 85 per cent Internet users in the world are purchasing goods and services online and credit cards have become the preferable mode of paying. Off late, savvy online users are opting to make big purchases on the digital space as it comes with a hassle-free shopping experience. Gunjan Raheja, a fashion design student from the city, shops most of her stuff from online fashion websites. “The variety is more than what you get in the markets here, but at same price. It saves time and energy and also if you are not satisfied with the purchase, they offer money back or return of the product as well.”

The trend has boomed during the festive season. With new offers and perks online everyday and specific festival attractions, the clicks are growing. “Diwali shopping is the most dreaded thing for me as one has to toil in the overcrowded market all day to find suitable gifts. I find online shopping easy way out as there you just have to pick and click and the shipping will be done at the desired address,” shares Sukeerat Dhillon, a beauty professional, who has done majority of the Diwali shopping online.