Woman commits suicide, husband booked
Amritsar, November 14
A woman, identified as Harpreet Kaur (30), committed suicide by jumping into a canal. She took the step as she was allegedly harassed by her in-laws.

GND varsity's 43rd foundation day on Nov 24
Amritsar, November 14
Guru Nanak Dev University would celebrate its 43rd foundation day on November 24.

Grace Public School wins inter-school athletic meet
Amritsar, November 14
Grace Public School won the trophy during the Col Satpal Singh Memorial Inter-School Athletic Championship organised by Rose Buds Public School, Kale Road, Chheharta, at Guru Nanak Dev University.

Ryan I’ntl students celebrate Children's Day
Amritsar, November 14
Students of Ryan International School celebrated Children's Day during a special assembly at the school. Chairman Dr Augustine F. Pinto said teachers should prepare the children for the future. A lively show was put up on this occasion with songs like 'Nanha Munna Rahi Hoon' and a play entitled 'Jaisa Karoge Waisa Bharoge'.

Amritsar, November 14
Divali turned into a mourning event for two city families who lost dear ones in scuffles.

In the first incident, a youth was allegedly beaten to death by employees of a liquor vend near Gheo Mandi in the walled city area late last evening.

Family members of the deceased, identified as Baljinder Singh, today staged a dharna on Gheo Mandi Chowk and blocked the road for an hour in protest against the alleged police inaction against the liquor vendor.

It is learnt that Baljinder and employees of the liquor vend had an altercation over the price of a liquor bottle. Soon the verbal duel took an ugly turn when the employees started thrashing him. He was brutally beaten up following which he became unconscious. He was rushed to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

As the police was allegedly dithering on registering a case against the accused, the family was forced to stage a protest. Following the protest, the police registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC against the unidentified persons on the statement of the deceased’s brother.

Ravinder Kumar, SHO, B-division police station, said the case was registered following the complaint lodged by the family of the deceased. About the role of the employees of the liquor vendor, he said it was being investigated.

In another case, the Verka police booked one Pardeep Singh of Kallu Vehra, Verka, in connection with the murder of Mangat Ram.

Mangat, belonging to the same area, was killed following a scuffle between the two.

A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered against Pardeep on the statement of deceased’s wife Paramjit Kaur.

In her statement to the police, she alleged that her husband had a dispute with the accused who had taken a mobile phone from him. He allegedly refused to return the same to her husband which led to the scuffle. She said the accused hit Mangat on his head due to which he sustained serious head injury. He was rushed to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors. Tarlok Singh, SHO, Verka, said the accused was on the run. He said nothing could be said about the incident at this point. He said raids were being conducted to nab the accused.

Amritsar, November 14
Residents of the holy city celebrated Divali with fervour and gaiety but bursting of fireworks increased the pollution level, which had a negative impact on the flora and fauna.

While many people ignore the smell of fissile material in crackers, the fact is it affects the health of all living beings. Dr AL Adlakha, a private practitioner, said crackers result in increase in the level of sulphur nitrate, magnesium and nitrogen dioxide in environment and these chemicals are injurious to our respiratory system. For asthmatics, the festival could prove fatal. Extensive use of fireworks on Divali night causes same damage to the ecology as normal pollution causes to it over a year.

He said the use of crackers on Divali posed health hazards besides causing noise and air pollution. These can cause hearing loss, high blood pressure, heart attack and sleep disturbances.

Vineet Randhawa of SPCA said people like noisy crackers and are unware of its impact on birds and animals. She added loud noise is bad for human beings also. “Loud noise leads to pollution and a prolonged exposure to such high level of noise can lead to permanent damage of eardrums,” she said.

Another drawback of bursting crackers is that tonnes of garbage is generated. Today morning streets were littered with papers and leftovers of the crackers.

Punjab Pollution Control Board executive engineer Jaswant Singh Randhawa said the exact amount of pollution caused by firecrackers on the night of Divali would be known on November 16 as the department had forwarded the samples to a laboratory. He added that prior to Divali, two-day monitoring of the environment was carried out from November 6. He said four stations were set up in the city - near the Golden Temple, a residential area, a commercial zone and near a hospital.

Deepak Babbar of Mission Aagaaz said people should form societies to enjoy firecrackers at a common place in their locality to bring down the pollution levels.

Amritsar, November 14
Except for two incidents of fire, no major mishap was reported in the holy city on Divali.

In the first incident, a cloth factory located in the Preet Nagar area on Batala road caught fire on Tuesday evening. Three fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. Owners of the factory said four machines, a computer and cloth worth lakhs of rupees were gutted in the fire.

Fire also broke out near a transformer repair workshop of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited in the Mustafabad area after a firecracker fell on transformer oil spread on the surface near the workshop.

A number of transformers were damaged in the fire, which was controlled after about three hours.

Fire Officer Tarlochan Singh said though 15 cases were reported in the city on Divali night, only two were major incidents out of the total. No casualty was reported.

“Some property was damaged in these two cases, but no serious incident of fire was reported at any fire station,” said Tarlochan Singh.

A view of traffic chaos on Lawrence Road. A file Photo

Plans afoot

• This new route would connect key roads like the Mall road, the Majitha Road and the 'Four S' Chowk which further leads to numerous key destinations.
• The idea of converting this 1.5-km 'kutcha stretch' into a smooth road was jointly conceptualised by Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi
• The plan to lay the storm water drainage and installation of streetlights has been designed and the work to lay the road would start soon

Officialspeak

A man, who was arrested with 1kg of opium, in police custody in Amritsar. A Tribune photo

Amritsar, November 14
With the arrest of five persons, the police claimed to have busted two gangs of robbers, involved in drug peddling, vehicle lifting and transformer theft.

Those arrested were identified as Nishan Singh of Chohla Sahib, Rohit Singh, Dalip Singh of Patti village (Tarn Taran), Amandeep Singh of Guru Ram Dass Avenue, Gumtala and Satnam Singh of Bhala Pind of Ajnala.

In the first case, the police arrested first four persons --- Nishan, Rohit, Dalip and Amandeep --- who were involved in stealing transformers from rural areas, including Ramdass and Ajnala.

Prem Pal, the investigating officer, said the police impounded a four-wheeler, seized 25 kg of copper wire, sharp-edged weapons besides 250 grams of narcotic powder from the four.

Preliminary investigations revealed that after dismantling transformers, they used to pull out the copper wires and sell the same to a junk dealer, identified as Bunti, in the Putlighar area. He said Bunti was absconding and raids were being conducted to nab him.

A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC, Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act and Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

In the second case, the Cantonment police arrested Satnam Singh and recovered a stolen Activa vehicle and seized 150 grams of intoxicant powder from his possession. A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC and 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered in this connection.

Amritsar, November 14
High prices notwithstanding, the festive season saw an increase in the sale of gold bars and ornaments by over 20 per cent as compared to last year.

Charanjit Arora, president, Bullion and Ornaments Merchants Welfare Association, said there was over 20 per cent surge in the sale of gold and diamond jewellery this festive season in the city.

“Though the gold prices are at all-time high, customers have put their weight behind age-old tested metal. In comparison to the previous Dhanteras, customers bought gold in small quantity, but jewellers are being compensated with high sales.” He said more and more people were now convinced that the value of the yellow metal would keep on rising with the passage of time.

Echoing similar views, a leading city jeweller Baljit Singh Nagi said the sale was over 20 per cent. He added the gold was about 20 per cent costlier than the last fest festive season. He said minute observation of the sale pattern suggested that the people come out to buy gold as per their budget.

Over a period of time, customers are shifting to diamond and gems jewellery. He said thanks to government awareness campaign through advertisements, customers now buy Hallmark and certified jewellery.

Amritsar, November 14
A woman, identified as Harpreet Kaur (30), committed suicide by jumping into a canal. She took the step as she was allegedly harassed by her in-laws.

On the statement of deceased’s father Jaswant Singh, the police has booked her husband Gurcharan Singh and his mother Balwinder Kaur. The accused stayed in the Tarn Taran Road locality.

Jaswant Singh, in his complaint to the Sultanwind police, alleged that though Harpreet had a 6-year-old son, she was continuously taunted by her in-laws for not bearing another child.

A day before Divali, Jaswant Singh received a call from Harpreet informing him that she would commit suicide.

“We immediately rushed to the house only to find it locked. Later we received the information that Harpreet’s body was found in the canal near Kot Mit Singh,” Jaswant said in his statement. — TNS

Amritsar, November 14
Guru Nanak Dev University would celebrate its 43rd foundation day on November 24.

A special meeting was held here in the registrar office to review the arrangements.

Registrar Dr Inderjit Singh said various committees have been constituted for the smooth celebrations of the foundation day. He said Prof Dev Parkash Agrawal, Chairman, Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi, Prof JS Grewal, former Vice Chancellor of the university, and Prof Jaspal Kaur Singh, Professor, Northern Michigan University, USA would deliver their lectures in the Guru Nanak Bhawan Auditorium on this occasion.

Vice Chancellor Ajaib Singh Brar would preside over the event, he added.

He said an exhibition of rare books, manuscripts, besides a painting contest would also be organised at various venues.

There would be women's hockey match between Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Guru Nanak Dev University at the astroturf stadium.

• Various committees have been constituted for the smooth celebrations of the foundation day.

• Prof Dev Parkash Agrawal, Chairman, Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi, Prof JS Grewal, former Vice Chancellor of the university, and Prof Jaspal Kaur Singh, Professor, Northern Michigan University, USA, will deliver their lectures
• An exhibition of rare books, manuscripts, besides a painting contest will be organised.