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MC staff thrashed again
Traffic cop beaten up by unidentified men
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Focal Point Industries Assn shoots letter to ministry
Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom day observed
Stabbing incident: Man dies
Man run over by speeding truck
Two arrested with heroin, illicit liquor
Mobile phone recovered from undertrial
Folk art exhibition
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MC staff thrashed again
Amritsar, November 24 The accused were identified as Gurmel Singh, Babbu, Laadi, Ravi, Sham, Bunty, Sonu, Manwinder Singh alias Billa, Tinka and Raj Kumar. The team had gone to remove the make-shift shops from the public land, but the mob of residents became furious and attacked the MC team. Estate Officer Vishal Wadhawan said the accused forcibly climbed on the cargo of the recovery truck and deloaded the confiscated materials which were kept illegally on the public land. It was the second incident that happened with the same MC team led by Estate Officer Vishal Wadhawan which went to carry out the anti-encroachment drive accompanied by heavy police force. After the violent retaliation by the offenders, the team had to withdraw the operation. Ironically, the MC's enforcement team had confiscated the belongings of the shopkeepers and loaded these on trucks, but later had to make extra efforts to return these to the agitating shopkeepers, with whom a couple of politicians too showed their solidarity. Meanwhile, investigating officer Kashmir Singh of the cantonment police station said a case under Sections 353/186/148/149/506 of the IPC had been registered against the accused but no arrest had been made so far.
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Traffic cop beaten up by unidentified men
Amritsar, November 24 At about 2 pm, Sardara Singh was performing his duty at the spot and was about to take his lunch beside a furniture shop when the accused approached him. After a minor verbal duel between both sides, one of the accused picked up a chair from the furniture shop and hit the policeman. Before Sardara Singh could act in defence, they took out sharp-edged weapons and attacked him, leaving his wrist injured. The accused then fled from the scene. The policeman was taken to the Civil Hospital for medical aid. Sardara Singh said the accused were not known to him, but he got some information from witnesses present there about the locality they belonged to. “On the basis of this, the police rounded up a person, but the main accused are still at large,” he said.
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Heritage, Panj Sarovar walks struggle to attract tourists to city
Amritsar, November 24 The Tribune team today visited the Town Hall, the starting point of the Heritage Walk and the Panj Sarovar Walk, and found that tourist guides deputed by the board were waiting for tourists as no one had come for the walk. The guides told that they wait for tourists for around an hour or so before calling it a day. Besides, trolleys loaded with garbage were stationed near the starting point of the walk. As one stepped out of the Town Hall, the entire route of the Heritage Walk could be seen dotted with garbage heaps. At a few points, garbage was even set ablaze. Incidentally, MC staff starts cleaning up the walled city streets at the time when the walk is about to begin. The Heritage Walk, launched on September 27 last year, took off on a wrong note as literature meant for its promotion had serious mistakes like mentioning sarovars as lakes. As a result, the entire literature was withdrawn and re-printing was ordered. The board authorities then put up the flex boards for promoting the walk, but they went missing in a day or two. Later, the board planned to display hoardings to promote these initiatives, but that too turned out to be an exercise in futility, as the MC acted tough against illegal hoardings in the walled city. Lack of cleanliness on the route has also kept the tourists away. Still, a comparative account reveals that the Heritage Walk has proved to be more successful as compared to the Panj Sarovar Walk. As per the PHTPB figures, the Heritage Walk drew 162 tourists last month as compared to around 50 for the Panj Sarovar Walk. Harpreet Kaur, community development officer of the PHTPB in Amritsar, said they were making all efforts to promote these initiatives. She admitted that at times no tourist turned up for the walk. “We’ve got the
leaflets for promoting the Heritage Walk. We are again planning to run a cleanliness awareness drive in the areas, which fall on the Heritage Walk route so that the residents keep their surroundings clean,” she said. She said: “The Heritage Walk primarily attracts foreign tourists as well as those from other parts of the country. As far as the Panj Sarovar Walk is concerned, people with spiritual leanings come forward for it”. At present, a domestic tourist is charged Rs 25 and a foreign tourist Rs 75 for the Heritage Walk, while Panj Sarovar Walk is free of cost. Panj Sarovar Walk: The walk takes the tourists to the guided tours of five historic Gurdwaras having sarovars in the holy city - Gurdwara Santokhsar, Gurdwara Bibeksar, Gurdwara Ramsar, Gurdwara Kaulsar and the Golden Temple.
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Several construction projects hit a wall
Amritsar, November 24 Harjit Singh, a resident of Udham Singh Nagar, said his budget for constructing a dream house has gone haywire. He said he along with his wife accumulated some money to raise a structure over a plot bought on the Sultanwind road a few years ago. When they approached some banks for loan, they were told to first lay the foundation with their own funds. Working on the advice, he decided to invest his savings, but soon realised that he was short of money due the increased prices of construction materials. Sarbjit Singh, a resident of New Amritsar, said he started construction of his house after taking a huge loan from a private bank. He was unable to stop the construction midway. He said the cost per cubic meter of sand has touched Rs 1800 from Rs 180. The price of gravel has also increased by 10 times. In view of the current scenario he has decided not to construct a room to contain the budget, he said. Similarly, development projects of the government being executed by its various agencies like PWD and the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) have been hit due to shortage and high cost of sand and gravel. Majority of the brick-kilns are closed. Price of bricks (per 1000 pieces) has touched Rs 5,000. Some of the major infrastructural works which have hit been hit are flyovers at Saifuddin Kitchlew Chowk and SSSS chowk; Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Mall Mandi Scheme and Ranjit Avenue Scheme. Anil Aggarwal, general secretary, Amritsar Brick-kiln Owners’ Association, said firstly the state government doubled the sales tax from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 3.50 lakh for A-category kilns. Then, extraction of earth for manufacturing bricks was also banned. Similarly, the tax on B category kiln was hiked to Rs 1.75 lakh and C category to Rs 1.25 lakh. Dharam Pal Bhagat, General Manager, Department of Industries and Commerce, who also holds Mines portfolio, said the Union Government had agreed to shift the minor mineral projects of an area less than 5 hectares to the B-2 category after the state government took up the matter with the minister concerned. He said the prices would come down in couple of months. He said there are many mining sites of less than 5 hectares at Ajnala and
Beas.
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Focal Point Industries Assn shoots letter to ministry
Amritsar, November 24 They are peeved at the MoRTH for delay in widening a 20-km-long stretch on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway (GT Road) despite recommendations by the President of India. FPIA president DS Goraya, in a letter to Road Transport and Highways Minister CP Joshi, stated that the association had been taking up the matter with the ministry for long but no concrete action had been taken to materialise their demand. He stated that NHAI GM (Tech) MK Jain, in reply to a letter had informed the association in October, that the four-laning of the 20-km-long stretch between Dhilwan village and the Jalandhar bypass would be executed under a separate contract. Jain had also stated that the proposal was under consideration with the MoRTH for its approval. He urged the minister to approve the project and ensure its expeditious implementation. He intimated that the association had been taking up the project for the past 10 years. He said numerous representations had been sent to various agencies concerned that the stretch had snuffed out many lives in road accidents. Besides, roads connecting the stretch from both ends were of four and six lanes. He said it was learnt that the private concern was reluctant to undertake the widening work on the BOT basis, for it being non-viable. He said the matter had been pending for the past nearly a decade and there was still no hope in sight. He said talks with the concern revealed that it was ready to execute the work on cash payment only. He recalled that the association representation to the former President Pratibha Patil had received encouraging response, as her office had directed the ministry concerned to look into the matter on priority this February. Following this, NHAI general manager SS Gaharwar intimated the association that the MoRTH had been requested to upgrade the 20-km stretch from the Dhilwan to Jalandhar bypass on an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) mode through government funding. Another member Kamal Dalmia said the association had been writing to various authorities, including the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), state government and the local MP for the past many years but without any success. Dalmia said thousands of tourists visit the holy city via road. Besides, a large number of tourists come via this road. However, lack of infrastructure on a small stretch leads to traffic blockades and accidents.
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Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom day observed
Amritsar, November 24 On the 337th death anniversary of the ninth Sikh Guru, devotees started reaching the gurdwaras early morning. Many of them took a holy dip in the Amrit Sarovar (holy pond) of the Golden Temple. Guru Teg Bahadur was executed in Delhi on the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb after he refused to embrace Islam. He is known to have made long journeys to places such as Kashmir and Assam in the country to preach the tenets of Guru Nanak. Earthen lamps were lit outside gurdwaras and sweets were distributed among all. The Chief Khalsa Diwan Charitable Society also held a religious programme at its gurdwara.
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Stabbing incident: Man dies
Amritsar, November 24 Ravi said it was about 12.30 AM when he and his brother were passing through the flyover located on the Islamabad area, the accused came and stabbed Sandeep. “I don’t know them and also could not understand their motive behind the attack,” he said. Inspector Dinesh Singh of the Islamabad police station said a case under Sections 302/34 of the IPC had been registered.
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Man run over by speeding truck
Amritsar, November 24 His nephew Shamsher Singh, a resident of Majitha road, who was following him, said the truck sped away after hitting the victim and also hit a scooter driven by two women. "They also fell and received injuries. I noted down the number of the truck, but it's untraceable," said Shamsher. "I managed to shift him to the GND Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries this morning," he added. Investigation officer Narain Singh said a case under Sections 279/304-A/337/338/427 of the IPC
had been registered with the A-division police station, but no arrest had been made so far. "We are trying to trace the accused through the registration number of the truck," he said.
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Two arrested with heroin, illicit liquor
Amritsar, November 24 A case under Sections 22/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at Sultanwind police station. In another instance, the police has arrested a woman, identified as Biro, and recovered 20 bottles of illicit liquor from her possession. A case under Sections 61/1/14 of the Excise Act has been registered against the accused.
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Mobile phone recovered from undertrial
Amritsar, November 24 The investigating officer, Narinder Kumar of Gumtala police post, said the accused was caught with the mobile phone during a routine search.
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Folk art exhibition
Amritsar, November 24 In the exhibition, the college displayed agriculture instruments and articles related to the Punjabi
culture. Principal Dr Neelam Kamra congratulated the students and staff for achieving the first position.
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