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6-member panel constituted
Man, teenaged sons stab youth to death
Five-day-old baby girl left at 'Pangoora' of Red Cross
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Health department
raids GNDU canteens
Amritsar, December 18 The health department, during an inspection at Guru Nanak Dev University here, collected 22 samples of various food items from three canteens today. The team was led by District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon.
New train announcement welcomed
Pharmacists hold gate rally outside hospital
City in grip of Yuletide spirit
Credit growth outplays aggregate deposits of banks
Seminar on personality development
Traders upbeat over new visa regime between India, Pakistan
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6-member panel constituted
Amritsar, December 18 The committee has been constituted following the intervention of the District and Sessions Judge HS Madaan. Earlier, a faction led by former bar association VK Dhand had accused Bar Association president Pradeep Kumar Saini of favouritism. Meanwhile, Saini, in a press conference, today demanded that advocatesguilty of firing at his residence and ransacking his office should be put behind bars. The police has already registered separate FIRs in the two cases. Saini maintained that the allotment of chambers was done impartially and with transparency. "The orders of the Building committee of Punjab and Haryana had duly empowered me to allot the chambers. Even though the orders gave me the discretion of allotting 8 chambers, I did not exercise it to achieve any personal ends," said Saini, adding that no advocate who belongs to the C block
had protested against the allotment. "All the protesting advocates, except VK Dhand do not belong to the C block. Even Dhand did not raise any objections till five days after the allotment. Why was he silent?" questioned Saini. The new chambers complex with 140 chambers was constructed by the district administration to vacate the land for the proposed mini-secretariat building. The building committee of the Punjab and Haryana high court had asked the administration to build the chambers before the advocates surrendered their land. Initially, 90 advocates of the block had given NOCs to surrender the land if they are provided an alternative space. Later on, it was worked out that in total 128 advocates would be affected. Finally, 140 chambers were constructed. The insiders at the bar said a few members are trying to assert their candidature for the upcoming bar association elections next year.
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Man, teenaged sons stab youth to death
Amritsar, December 18 The incident took place at a "halwai's" shop at about 11 am when the accused Kanwaljit Singh and his sons Jugraj (17) and Sukhraj (15) assaulted him with sharp-edged weapons. Onlookers and people around the crime spot remained mute spectators. Police sources stated that the accused kept attacking Rajinder, who had come on leave from Dubai, as long as he did not die. They alleged that all the accused even shouted at their loudest to claim that they had killed Rajinder and did not have any remorse over it. Police sources said the accused suspected Rajinder of having illicit relations with Kanwaljit’s wife. SSP (Rural) Preet Pal Singh Virk said all three accused had been arrested and a case under Section 302 of the IPC haD been registered at the Beas police station.
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Five-day-old baby girl left at 'Pangoora' of Red Cross
Amritsar, December 18 The girl was provided medical help at a nearby hospital and was found to be healthy. The society’s secretary Vinay Sharma said with the new baby arriving yesterday, the home had so far helped
62 children. She said the girl could be adopted by aspiring couples through the legal channel. Ritu Aggarwal, wife of Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal, went to welcome the child.
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Health department
raids GNDU canteens
Amritsar, December 18 The department also visited two food joints outside the campus and collected samples. Four samples were collected from Bikaner Sweet shop and two from Barcode restaurant. All the samples have been sent to the food laboratory for testing. Dr Kahlon said, “The hygiene conditions at canteens inside the campus was not satisfactory. We have strictly warned them to mend their ways with in a week’s time.” The department also found a few expired drinks and eatables from a canteen on the campus. The canteens were asked to destroy the expired items immediately, said Kahlon. He said the department would also write to the university authorities to look into the condition of the canteens so that students could get healthy food items to eat. He said the manager of a canteen on the campus closed down his shop to evade inspection by the team. The department had earlier, through a letter to all the canteens in educational institutions, asked them to maintain proper hygiene and serve quality foods. The DHO said the department would conduct more such inspections at educational institutions. He said a follow-up of the today’s inspection would be done to see if the canteen managers had upgraded their kitchens. The department also plans to inspect the food served at hostel messes in various educational institutions. The department had yesterday collected 13 samples of eatables from various eating joints.
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New train announcement welcomed
Officials at the local railway station said the occupancy rate of the superfast train was about 50 to 60 per cent, which was considerably above the loss-making Duronto train. The 1,400-seat capacity train of Duronto was incurring a loss of about Rs 4 lakh daily, as on an average, only 20 per cent of the seats remained occupied. While the passengers travelling from Chandigarh to Amritsar were even less than this, informed the authorities. Passengers from Amritsar were seeking halts at key stations like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali etc and people from Chandigarh were demanding stoppages at Beas, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali as well. Duronto became the first train connecting the holy city with the state capital on August 24 last year. However, it ran into losses due to low occupancy, even forcing the Railways to reduce the number of coaches a few months after its launch. The Amritsar-Chandigarh direct Duronto had evoked a poor response from the passengers who were demanding that the train be given halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. However, the Railways authorities were not open to the idea earlier, contending
that Duronto was a non-stop train plying between originating station and the destination. However, the authorities later gave in to passengers demand and decided to rename the train as
Amritsar- Chandigarh Superfast Express. A city resident, Dr AL Adlakha, said a talk with some passengers who travelled in the express train from its inauguration on August 24 to October 10 showed that a maximum number of people from the holy city of Amritsar travelled through this train. About 8,989 passengers had travelled from Amritsar to Chandigarh, while only 7,265 passengers utilised the services of this train from the city. The train, with two AC coaches and 12 non-AC chair car coaches, has a capacity of over 1,400 passengers. He said the implementation of their demand of halting the train at Jalandhar and Ludhiana made it financially viable. He said the timing of the train was suitable for employees and professionals like advocates and people commuting to secretariat. However, people coming from remote rural areas of the city and adjoining towns of Batala and Tarn Taran were not able to catch it. A communist leader, Amarjit Singh Asal, welcomed the announcement of the railway minister of operating another train between the holy city and its capital. Led by Asal, the Left parties and city-based NGOs had organised an agitation against the railway ministry after delay in starting the Duronto between Amritsar and Chandigarh. He said the second train on the route was also their demand, as it should be operated at a different timing to facilitate passengers from remote and adjoining towns. He said train journey was a respite for passengers coming from middle and lower income groups of families. He urged the railway authorities to swiftly accomplish the operationalisation of Ludhiana-Morinda track to cut down the travel time between Amritsar and Chandigarh by at least 40 minutes. He said, at present, the Superfast Express train passes through Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Sirhind and Morinda stations to reach Chandigarh. Once the railway line is completed, the train would no longer need to travel to Sirhind, where power change takes place. He added that it would attract more passengers from Jalandhar and Ludhiana, who currently found the road travel more short.
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Pharmacists hold gate rally outside hospital
Amritsar, December 18 The pharmacists wore black badges to express their anguish. Association president Shamsher Singh Kohri said the health director had been unjust in denying the extension to pharmacists even as the state government had announced it for its employees. Another leader of the association Ashok
said the association would continue its protest till the director Ashok Nayyar takes its orders back. He said district-level protests would be
organised on January 3. The association had also announced to organise a state-level protest in Chandigarh on January 10.
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City in grip of Yuletide spirit
Amritsar, December 18 Santa Claus seems to be an all-time favourite whether it is Amritsar or Amsterdam. The King of the North Pole seems to have made home in the walled city, with every nook and corner shop decorated with X-mas trees, Santa goodies and Christmas specials. With the city wearing the Christmas colours, there's a lot citizens have on their mind for Christmas, starting with shopping. Now, gifts are an essential part of the celebrations, and with Christmas sale and offers, one has the option to pick up as many as they want. "Almost every major brand has festival offer, which makes it easier for me to pick up nice stuff for my kids. Since both of them are way past the toys and video games phase, I prefer gifting them new clothes," said Kavita Arora, who is happy to play Santa for her sons, Amish and Dhruv. The other shopping corners in city have also turned red, with the Christmas tree turning blue and white this season. Imbued in silvery, glittering colourful lights and ornaments, the Christmas tree is finding a place in most homes this X-mas. Archies Gallery has a list of Christmas goodies like silver balls, bells, miniature Santa Claus, decorative stockings, musical cards and stick candies cut out like X-mas tree. "Christmas has become a global festival now and kids really enjoy it, as they love the gifts and the whole Santa Claus affair. We always buy a Christmas tree for our house and my kids are excited to decorate it with whatever they want," shared Aarti Narula, another homemaker from city. It's not just the kids, but grown-ups too find their curiosity rising for the festival. "I have cousins in the USA who send me gifts every year during Christmas. This time I too have bought gifts for them online and hope they'll like it," shared Gaurav Narang, a real-estate professional from city. The city malls too have a lot to plan. "We have some special plans to celebrate Christmas like last year when we made a Santa Village inside the mall with snow, sledge and reindeers. Also, a huge Christmas tree would be stationed in the middle of the Atrium," said Avinish Singh, manager, marketing, Alpha One. Apart from the goodies, cakes and candies too make for Christmas celebrations. Special offers around city bakeries are Gingerbread house, plum puddings, Christmas chocolate tree and homemade chocolates for the occasion. Special Ice cream cake that looks snow-clad and cookies and candies are to be found in abundance as potential Christmas gifts. "People buy cakes, especially as a gift or otherwise, on Christmas, specially for kids who are fond of baked Christmas delights. We have special Santa Claus icings and toppings for Christmas, but they are on order," said Rakesh, working at Popular Bakery, Lawrence Road.
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Credit growth outplays aggregate deposits of banks
Amritsar, December 18 The findings of the Sharing details, Jatinder Mankotia, chief lead district manager, said aggregate deposits of banks in the district swelled from Rs1,7804 crore as on September 2011 to Rs 19,722 crore this September, registering an yearly growth of Rs 1,918 crore (10.77 per cent). On the other hand, outflow from the banks was high, as credit growth increased from Rs 7,592 crore in September 2011 to Rs 9,794 crore this quarter, showing an annual growth of Rs 2,202 crore (29.01 per cent). The SSI sector gobbled up the lion’s share of the credit flow, as it got Rs 413 crore as on September 30 against the target of Rs 275 crore showing a surge of 150.37 per cent. Closely following it was disbursement in the agriculture sector, which touched the figure of Rs1,039 crore against the proportionate target of Rs 911 crore, showing an achievement of 114.07 per cent. Mankotia claimed that the performance of district banks in the union government-sponsored schemes such as Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Swaranjyanti Gramin Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY ) and others remained satisfactory. Now as per the latest government instructions, all banks were aware that, under social pension schemes, all the pensions were to be credited electronically , directly in the pensioners account through EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) and to be disbursed at their doorstep. Additional Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Rishi, who presided over the meeting, said banks of the district achieved all the quarterly target allocated for the second quarter of this fiscal. He, however, pointed out that the CD ratio of the district was going down, which needs special attention. Economic development of the district will be possible only when BPL (Below Poverty line) families should be up lifted through micro financing and Self Help Groups, SGSY and other government-sponsored schemes. He said credit flow under the annual credit plan (ACP) during the second quarter this year had been to the tune of Rs 2,109 crore against the target of Rs 1,611 crores, showing an achievement of 126.95 per cent.
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Seminar on personality development
Amritsar, December 18 Director of "Our Trainers and Motivators" Gurpreet Kaur was the resource person at the seminar. She addressed the students about various aspects of personality and had an interactive session. She urged students to be affirmative and accept their individuality. She also advised students for choosing the right career for their future by recognising their real aptitude. School director Dr Dharam Veer Singh stressed the need for goal-oriented student life. Headmistresses SK Gulri, Kawalpreet Kaur, faculty and senior students of the school attended the seminar.
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Traders upbeat over new visa regime between India, Pakistan
Amritsar, December 18 A cross-section of industrialists contacted to elicit their response over the relaxation of visas said any rise in the bilateral trade would mean the percolating of the benefits to trade, industry and tourism of this border city. Industrialists and traders are averse to the current visa regime and hold it responsible for negating the efforts like setting up of the integrated check post (ICP) at Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post and other relevant infrastructure provided to help flourish the trade. A local industrialist Kamal Dalmia said two families from Pakistan were to arrive here to take part in his family function last week. Mian Shahid Rafi and his family from Lahore managed to come over here after a lot of efforts. However, Mushtaq Mughal a businessman from Karachi could not make it despite investing three days at the High Commission in Islamabad. He said in such a strict visa regime, it was not possible to increase the trade as it would amount to undoing such efforts and investment. He said in the present scenario, it was easy to travel to developed countries like the USA, UK and Singapore than to Lahore, which is hardly 50 km from Lahore. Bal Kalan Industrial Welfare Association president Sundeep Khosla, also running a plastic unit, said at present, the IOC refinery at Panipat was exporting about 3,000 tonnes of plastic granules per month to Pakistan through the ICP. He said efforts must be aimed at exporting finished products which would ensure more employment to skilled workers and industrialists. He said the Indian traders were exporting less than 24,000 trucks to Pakistan annually till last year, with a major share of exporting commodities being fresh vegetables, soyabean and other eatables. Besides, he opined that it was high time to revive engineering goods manufacturing units, as there were nearly 1.20 lakh registered units in the state and many of these were facing closure due to stagnation. He said these units could be rejuvenated, as Pakistan imported a large number of engineering goods from overseas. “Though I come from a different background, during a visit to Pakistan, I found that there was a sea of opportunity for Punjab-based units with specialisation in engineering goods”. He stated that many local units spinning out items like nuts, bolts, nails, agriculture appliances and others could gain from the move. He added that Pakistan turned to India, as it had limited success in trade ties with China, as language barrier and long distance came in the way. The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) National Planning Council member Gunbir Singh said the liberalisation of visa regime would translate into a surge of business in goods being manufactured in Punjab, in general, and Amritsar, in particular, like sports goods of Jalandhar, textile industries of Ludhiana and Amritsar, pharmaceutical, engineering goods, and agrarian commodities like foodgrains, besides scattered food processing and agro-based industry. He said now the total trade between India and Pakistan stood at about $ 2.5 billion, while the indirect trade was even more and it would swell to new heights in minimum time. He added that at present inhabitants of the countries coming from SAARC nations could get SAARC visas, as per which they could travel within these countries with ease. However, the SAARC visa being an expensive one could not serve the purpose. An individual is to shell out Rs 2.5 lakh annually for the SAARC visa. A hotelier APS Chatha said tourism industry would be one of the major gainers from the liberal visa set-up. He said Pakistanis, in general, and people from Lahore, in particular, were very keen to visit the holy city. He said it would not be long enough that tourists from Pakistan would be a major force to reckon with after the operationalisation of the new visa system. He felt that the state government must extend helping hand to see the desired results.
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A six-member committee has been constituted to probe into the alleged allegations of favouritism in the allotment of chambers at the new chambers
complex at the district courts complex.
Amritsar, December 18