Amritsar, December 4
The rural police arrested four persons who allegedly murdered a man near Batala grain market a few weeks back.

The victim, identified as Kuldeep Singh, was driving a tractor trolley laden with Basmati rice worth Rs 25 lakh.

The accused, identified as Gurbinder Singh, Harjeet Singh, Samuel Masih and Sarbjeet Singh (all residents of Gurdaspur), had taken lift in the tractor and later shot its driver at a secluded place and absconded with the loaded trolley.

The police has recovered the rice as well as the arms used in the crime from the accused.

The incident occurred on the intervening night of November 21-22. Kuldeep Singh was a resident of Ludhiana.

After taking lift in the tractor, the accused threatened the driver to leave the trolley near Kasba Mehta. When Kuldeep Singh resisted, they shot him and threw him off the tractor.

Inspector Bikramjit Singh of Mehta police station said Sarbjit Singh was the mastermind behind the event. A proclaimed offender, Sarbjit has been involved in many looting incidents.

“It was also found that Sarbjit had served 4-year jail sentence and had come out in April last. The accused landed in our net on Monday night. The trolley and Basmati sacks were recovered from Sathiali village. Besides this, a pistol, two live cartridges were recovered from Samuel Masih and a dagger from Gurbinder,” he said.

Amritsar, December 4
A day after 26-year-old Harish Mahajan was killed in an elevator mishap, the police booked the owner of the shop, where the elevator was installed, for the death.

Parveen Kumar, the owner of the five-storey shop at IDH market and a resident of Krishna Square, has been booked under Section 304 of the IPC. He has not been arrested yet.

In his complaint with the A Division police station, victim’s father Chander Mahajan, a resident of Katra Bhagian, alleged that his son had died due to negligence on the part of the shop owners as they did not employ a lift operator.

Chander Mahajan said shop owner’s brother Inder Kumar intimated them on Monday that his son got injured in an accident occurred in the elevator. When he reached the spot, he found his son dead.

According to the police, the victim took the lift to reach the upper floors of the shop when it developed some snag and stopped in between. As the victim tried to look out, the elevator started moving and his head got stuck between the grill.

Amritsar, December 4
The tussle over pictures on the 108 Ambulance service refuses to die down.

BJP workers, especially supporters of former Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, and activists of Bhagat Singh Youth Front have joined the fight that ensued after Youth Congress activists pasted pictures of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on 108 Ambulances.

After Youth Congress' move, activists of the Youth Akali Dal retaliated and pasted pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Cabinet Minister Bikram Majithia on Centre-run institutions, including the railway station.

BJP workers said if anyone deserves credit for the ambulance service, it should be only Chawla. They demanded pictures of Chawla to be pasted on the vehicles.

Activists of the Bhagat Singh Youth Front demanded that instead of any leader's picture, Shaheed Bhagat Singh's photograph should be there on the ambulances.

Front chairman Gurmeet Singh Bablu said the ambulance should have photographs of martyrs which should at least inspire people. "We insist the political leaders to refrain from adopting such cheap tactics to gain credit and show generosity by pasting pictures of martyrs on ambulances," said Bablu.

The BJP leaders also held a meeting in this regard in which they advocated that there should be no controversy over this service.

They claimed that this service was the brainchild of the SAD-BJP government during their previous term in 2007 when Chawla the Health Minister.

"Even as the funding for this service is being extended under the JNNURM, it was an initiative of the ruling alliance only," said Dr Rakesh Sharma.

Councillor Rakesh Vaid said it was not proper on the part of Congress workers to create a political controversy for a service which was introduced with the help of public money only.

Others present on the occasion included Pawan Kundra, Gopal Verma, Jaswant Dogra, Daljeet Singh Babba, Vikas Mishra, Parveen, Sanjeev Malik, Surinder Kaka, Vikas Khanna, Ramesh Kapoor and Santosh Sarin which is being involve this issue into a controversy.

• Controversy errupted after Youth Congress activists pasted pictures of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on 108 Ambulances

• Youth Akali Dal activists retaliated by putting up pictures of the CM, Deputy CM on Centre-run institutions
• BJP workers come out in the support of Laxmi Kanta Chawla, during whose tenure the service started
• Activists of Bhagat Singh Youth Front say instead of any political leader, paste pictures of the martyr on ambulances

Amritsar, December 4
With ASHA workers boycotting the cancer survey, the programme is expected to take more time than scheduled. The Health Department had earlier decided to complete the survey in two weeks in the rural areas.

Sources in the department said in case ASHA workers don’t join the work, it may take at least six weeks to complete the survey. The ASHA workers have boycotted the work demanding more remuneration.

The department has announced to pay Rs 200 to each ASHA worker for the entire survey. However the workers are demanding Rs 100 per day of work. Of the total 1,123 ASHA workers and 55 ASHA facilitators, more than 50 per cent did not join the survey today, sources said.

Meanwhile, the health department officials held a meeting with the representatives of ASHA workers last night and asked them to join their duty.

Parminder Kaur Mann, a leader of the protesting workers, said the association has decided not to join the survey work. She added they had not taken a final decision in this regard.

Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar, District Family Welfare Officer, said they had asked workers to join their duty.

“If they fail to do so, the ANMs and male workers would have to do the extra work for which they would get extra time,” said Buttar.

He said the department is not paying any money to nursing students and others. “It is a national duty and workers must do it as a service to the nation. The survey would help in assessing the true scenario about prevalence of cancer in the state,” he said.

Amritsar, December 4
Lifting close to 300 kgs and adding to the count every passing day is not an easy job. But so is the task of having to carry the burden of lifting up a professional sport in India.

With a lack of finances and the required spirit to promote a budding professional sport like power lifting, Vishal Khanna has rather carried out both the mentioned tasks rather successfully.

An internationally acclaimed power lifter, winner and Asian record holder in bench press championships held in Hungary and Finland, Vishal’s most recent achievement came with the winning title of the heaviest lifter at the State Powerlifting Championship.

But he seems to have different aim. “I have been pursuing professional power lifting since 12 years. I became the only one to do so in India and have won many championships in the US, Europe and Asia. But I was compelled to shift my base to Canada, as power lifting didn’t leave me with much scope as a sport in India,” shares the Amritsar-based lifter.

The state championship marks his return to the professional circuit in India after five years. “I trained with professionals there and have since pursued the sport passionately. I have opened my own training centre for aspiring youngsters who want to take up the sport in the future,” he says.

Like many other sports, power lifting too has no takers in India. “There is no state sponsored training centres for the sport in the country, which is a sad fact considering the game is catching up popularity in Europe and Asian countries. Since the game is in its nascent stage in India, I want to develop the right infrastructure and professional environment for the sport with my experience,” he says.

He has brought in the concept of raw power lifting, which doesn’t use the aide of power lifting costumes like guards, pads and gloves. “It’s 10 times more challenging and exciting that the usual weight lifting,” he says.

“Professional sportspersons in countries outside India pursue sports for passion, while here people are more concerned about securing a job and the right amount of money that comes with the sport. The Indian Olympics Association has recognised the sport, but there are very few sponsors and financial aid coming in support of the sport.”

With two big events coming up (the North India Benchpress Championship in Jammu to be held later this month and the National Championship to be held in February next year), Vishal is sure the game will pick up pace once it’s popular.

“Anybody who is passionate about the sport is welcome to join us,” he shares. Though, he does expect some state help for the game to go the Kabaddi way. “Kabaddi as a sport has really been helped with the World Kabaddi Cup tournaments initiated by the government. It was lost in the dark, but now it has got back the limelight. I wish the same could be done for power lifting.”

Amritsar, December 4
The premises of Bhai Dharam Singh Satellite Hospital at Ranjit Avenue is dotted with cow dung cakes put their by a chowkidar. Interestingly, the chowkidar had kept a cow on the premises only a few days ago.

The hospital authorities had to direct the employee to send the cow to some other place as he could not use the government hospital for keeping an animal. However the dung cakes, which he had made for using as a fuel for his kitchen, are still lying on the premises.

"It does not look nice when a government hospital in the posh colony of the city, which otherwise has a good record of providing medical services, is used by an employee for keeping a milch animal," said Ravinder Singh, a visitor.

Even the stagnant water, overflowed from the washrooms of the hospital, has become a breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes. The water has stagnated because of the overflowing sewerage.

When contacted, hospital in charge Dr Hardeep Kaur said, "I had personally asked the employee to take away the cow when the matter had come into my notice." She said the worker had got the cow as a gift from one of his relatives, who unknowingly dropped the animal at the hospital. "The worker was made to transport the animal to his village," she said.

Amritsar, December 4
At a time when manufacturers and traders are all geared up for the seventh edition of the Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX) starting from December 6, they hope the government to fulfil its 2-year-old promise of setting up a permanent convention and exhibition centre here.

Traders along with participants and organisers of the PITEX, who had raised the demand for the centre, got a glimmer of hope when Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal endorsed the idea while attending the concluding ceremony of the PITEX in 2010.

At that time, the Deputy Chief Minister had said permanent trade exhibition centres would be established at Amritsar and Mohali on the lines of New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.

He had announced that the work on the local trade exhibition centre would kick off in 2011 and would take two years to be completed. He had hoped that once the centre was established, trade exhibitions would become a routine affair.

A year later, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at PITEX-2011 informed that a meeting of various state departments, including officials of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, would be held to finalise the allotment of land in the holy city to set up a permanent business and convention centre on December 11, 2011.

Even Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu at PITEX-2009 had said once the state government allocates land for the centre, he would give an amount of Rs 2 crore from his MPLAD fund.

The convention centre is anticipated to boost trade activities not only in this region, but also import and export from neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Local industrialist Kamal Dalmia said the centre would help the micro and small industry of the region.

He said with international air connectivity, four-lane road network and operationalisation of the Integrated Check Post have made the city a potential export-import hub.

Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said the government was looking for an appropriate piece of land to set up the centre.

He said it was only on November 30 that state head of the department concerned visited the area and identified a chuck of land on the Airport road.

Amritsar, December 4
On a call given by the Joint Action Committee of teachers and non-teaching employees working in government-aided colleges, some employees observed a day-long fast and protest at Bhandari Bridge against the state government and principal of Khalsa College.

The fast was observed by Prof RK Jha, Prof Ullas Chopra, Prof Ashu Vij, Prof Ajay Sharma, Prof Lalit Kumar, Prof Prem Kumari, Prof Kuldip Singh, Prof RC Bhatia, Rajeev Sharma, Rajesh Kumar Koundal, Rajesh Sharma and Anil Kumar.

Addressing teachers and employees sitting on the hunger strike, Prof HS Walia, state executive member of the committee and former PCCTU general secretary, said it was really a matter of concern that the state government was sitting on the pension and gratuity scheme for the last 16 years. It is despite the fact that the detailed scheme was formulated on December 1996 that was passed by the State Legislature in 1999 and approved by the Cabinet in 2001, he said.

“Now, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab Government to submit the detailed scheme in the court by December 17 so that the scheme could see light of the day. Despite this, it appears that the government has not made up its mind to implement the scheme,” he added.

Talking on the next course of action, Prof Walia said a state-level rally would be organised on December 13 at Jalandhar.

Committee leaders condemned the anti-teacher and autocratic behaviour of the principal of the Khalsa College and appealed to him to withdraw the “false” FIR lodged against 22 teachers including Prof HS Walia.