Youth fest: GNDU emerges runners-up
Amritsar, February 12
Guru Nanak Dev University won the overall first runners-up trophy at the Inter-University National Youth Festival organised at University of Kalyani. This festival was organised by the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi.

Members of GNDU youth festival team pose with Vice-Chancellor AS Brar after bagging runners- up trophy at Inter-University National Youth Festival, in Amritsar on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph

Celebrating love
Making V-Day memorable with special offers, gifts
Amritsar, February 12
It's still two days for the day of love and one could feel the whiff of romance in the air. For diehard romantics, Valentine's Day is a reason to celebrate. For the ones who are not Cupid's favourite, it still is a day to try their best.
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with cake and candlelight dinners with your special someone in Amritsar. photo: sameer sehgal 

Naturopathy not limited to India, but practised world over: Expert
Amritsar, February 12
Naturopathy has always locked horns with modern methods of medicine, world over. While the two schools of sciences have always shared opposing views on holistic health and wellness, the traditional method of healing through natural elements has always found takers.

Govt dispensary to hold camps
Amritsar, February 12
Aiming at promoting homeopathy, the Government Homeopathy Dispensary would organise camps in the rural areas from February 13.

Amritsar, February 12
It seems that the police force has been dithering on registering FIRs in order to 'reduce' the crime rate in the city.

In the latest instance, the D-division police station has failed to register an FIR in a property dispute case even after a month.

Ironically, the police had not even started a probe into the case, alleged Usha, a resident of Kashmir Avenue, who had filed a complaint to the police in this regard.

She alleged that several persons, under the patronage of a political leader of the ruling party, had claimed ownership on her property (a two-storey building) at Bazaar Babaian, Katra Dullo, in the walled city, by forging registry documents and had even started the demolition work.

"The police instead of lodging a fraud case against the accused, it has asked us to procure a stay order from the court," the woman complained.

"Till we get the stay orders from the court, the accused would have dismantled the whole building. In fact they have already demolished half portion of the building while our repeated requests to the police officials failed to yield any result," said Usha's son Ashwani Kumar. He said, "A BJP leader had threatened us of slapping false cases against us."

Ashok Kumar, SHO, D-division, said, "As far as the matter of stopping the work is concerned, we have asked the opposite party to stop the work at the disputed site. But, as far as the ownership of the property is concerned, it is up to the court to decide," he said while pointed out that the aggrieved party should approach the court for the possession of the property concerned.

Amritsar, February 12
Two police officials have been taken to task for their negligent handling of a rape case. On February 3, a woman in her 40s was allegedly gang-raped by five youths at Harad Kalan village in Ajnala.

An officiating Station House Officer Didar Singh and an Assistant Sub-Inspector Sukhchain Singh were found negligent in performing their duties.

As punishment, the two officials have been transferred to police lines.

Sub Inspector Didar Singh, who was the officiating SHO of police station at Majitha, and ASI Sukhchain Singh, allegedly did not entertain the victim and her family members when they went to lodge a complaint about the incident on February 8.

Superintendent of Police (headquarters, Amritsar rural police) Jasdeep Singh said both police officials did not performing their duties in a proper way.

"Both of them neither lodged a complaint, nor brought the matter to the notice of the senior police officials in time. They have been shifted to the police lines," he said.

The family lodged a complaint on February 8 after identifying the accused at their own level.

All the accused, identified as Harvinder Singh, his brother Davinder Singh and Jagtar Singh of Harad Kalan village, Jagtar Singh of Kohala village (Lopoke) and Sukhdev Singh of Moga, had been arrested.

The victim, a resident of Kotla Gujran village in Majitha and a widow, had come to her parents' home in Chamiari village in Ajnala. She along with her brother-in-law Sahib Singh was going to Harad Kalan village when their motorcycle developed a snag due to rain. While they were walking towards the village, five motorcycle-borne youths intercepted them. They first looted Rs 10,000 and a mobile phone from Sahib Singh.

Later, they took them to a tubewell room located nearby and tied Sahib Singh with ropes. The accused then raped the woman.

Amritsar, February 12
The police busted a gang of snatchers and arrested six of its members. The gang used to target tourists.

The police seized 250 gm of intoxicant powder, 1,000 intoxicant capsules, six mobile phones, four purses, Rs 4,900 and a car (Maruti Esteem) from the members, identified as Angrez Khan of Katra Ahluwalia, Rahul Kumar of Bagh Ramanand, Manak of Gheo Mandi, Rohit of Bagh Ramanand, Shah Rukh Khan of Katra Ahluwalia and Karan Sharma of Bagh Ramanand.

Inspector Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa said they used to target tourists visiting the Golden Temple, Durgiana Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Attari-Wagah border.

"They used to pick pockets and snatched the belongings of the devotees. The preliminary investigations revealed that they had committed at least 50 such incidents," he said.

A case under Sections 21, 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and 382, 379, 411 of the IPC have been registered against the six.

Amritsar, February 12
Two days after the seizure of Rs 13.88 lakhs of fake currency in an agricultural land close to the Indo-Pak border fence near Mahawa, jawans of the Border Security Force seized another haul of fake currency notes, amounting to Rs 7.48 lakh, from the border area falling under Dauke post.

Nobody has been arrested.

“The jawans during routine patrolling noticed suspicious activity near the Amritsar sector of Indo-Pak border. They found a packet lying in the fields. The packet contained fake Indian currency notes in the denomination of Rs 500,” said RPS Jaswal, DIG, BSF.

On February 10, five packets containing fake currency notes were found in the fields near border pillar 106/M. “These packets contained fake Indian currency notes in the denomination of Rs 1,000 (890 notes) and Rs 500 (996 notes),” said Aditya Mishra, IG BSF.

Amritsar, February 12
The government's irregularity in disbursing timely salaries has hit employees of the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital hard. The hospital staff has not got their salaries for the past couple of months forcing many of them to borrow money from their relatives and friends.

Few of the employees have even claimed that they have not received their arrears after the pay was revised.

Rakesh Kumar, chairman, Mulajam Welfare Committee, said employees had not received their salaries for December 2012 and January this year. He said it had become extremely difficult for the employees who have not been paid salaries.

Rakesh Kumar said few of the employees have not received installments of arrears. "The department officials have failed to give any satisfactory reason for the delay," he added.

Committee president Rajwant Chinna said the income tax deductions made from the accounts of few of the employees have not been deposited with the income tax department. He highlighted the cases of ophthalmic officers Rakesh Kumar and Pishora Singh, and pharmacist Bikramjit Khanna to prove his claims.

Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said a delegation of the employees had met him recently. "I explained to them that salaries will be disbursed as soon as the department gets the money from the headquarters. The district health department could not disburse the salaries as it did not have required money for the purpose," he added.

Amritsar, February 12
About a couple of months ago, when the police department had conceptualised the idea of engaging private players for towing away the wrongly parked vehicles, residents were a delighted lot, as such a move was the need of the hour to deal with the massive parking woes in the city. However, this move appeared to have ended in a farce exercise.

Thanks to the "couldn’t careless" attitude of the police department itself as the "on-duty" cops refrain from taking the pains of calling the tow-away vehicles, apparently, with the assumption that this part of the duty "is outsourced by the department" and hence they seldom share any liability.

Otherwise, had this move been taken in its true letter and spirit, it would have solved the dual purpose. Apart from generating revenue, it would have helped teach those who do not bother to park their vehicles at the proper place. The police has engaged eight privately owned hydraulic tow-away vehicles, but these vehicles are hardly found on the job.

An employee of the tow-away vehicle firm said they were also happy to do the job, as it would have generated income for the firm too, but it all depends upon the cops who would have to put our services into practice.

A major portion of the money realised through fine was to be pocketed by the lifting vehicle operator, while the rest of the money, equally divided, was supposed to be ploughed back for the police welfare fund as well as the state exchequer.

Amritsar, February 12
Guru Nanak Dev University won the overall first runners-up trophy at the Inter-University National Youth Festival organised at University of Kalyani. This festival was organised by the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi.

Dr Jagjit Kaur, director, youth welfare, said the university had participated in 22 events, including music, theatre, dance, literary and fine arts.

She said the GNDU team won positions in 17 events.

Amritsar, February 12
It's still two days for the day of love and one could feel the whiff of romance in the air. For diehard romantics, Valentine's Day is a reason to celebrate. For the ones who are not Cupid's favourite, it still is a day to try their best.

But nonetheless, Valentine's Day is almost here and so it's time to celebrate and express love for the special someone, mixed with a heavy dose of consumerism. People hunting for the perfect gift have several options to choose from.

The classics

Words may fail to express the love, but flowers and chocolates never fail. They are the classics that make Valentine's Day special. Whether it's a single bud or a bunch, these have a magical power to express love effectively.

Ferns n Petals has this on mind. It has come up with heart shaped bamboo, roses, exotic flowers and orchids along with custom made chocolates and aroma candles are on offer. There are some special on-order flowers like pink roses, tulips, lilies for those who want something different. The prices start at Rs 800 onwards.

Chocolates make for a sure thing on Valentine's, even if one is already high on sweet nothings. Custom made chocolates available at various outlets in the city too are attracting lot of attention. Flavours ranging from strawberries, plum, wine and resin are popular and you can also get a customised love message carved out on them for that specialised touch.

Go extravagant

A simple activity such as shopping could well prove to be a perfect Valentine's gift as city-based malls have put on V-day special sale, including international brands that are offering special discounts on the day. And if you want your love to stand out in the crowd, then there are some designer labels waiting for your nod.

Fashion labels like Pia Paurro, Ritu Kumar's and some city-based studios like Ruaab have put up special V-day collections from names like Gaurav Gupta, Manish Arora, Varun Bahl and Karan Johar.

If clothes are not your thing, accessories will get you there with designer houses brands like Swarovski, fashion brand Ganjam that has come up with a limited edition collection of fragrances and beauty products.

Love on the menu

If a cosy candlelight dinner is on cards, then all leading fine dine restaurants are ready to make it special with their discounts on the day for couples. Up to 20 per cent less on drinks and food along with some special complementary will make your day definitely something to remember.

Some cuisine based joints have a special V-day menu to take you by surprise. "We will be celebrating the day by offering a special menu with dishes like Jungle Valentine, loads of Mexican dips and sauces along heart shaped desserts and customised cakes. To top it all we have a lively evening performance by 3B Monks, a local band," says Ritesh Sharma from Café Oz.

Say it with a Spa!

Valentine's is all about pampering and that is what exactly city-based beauty clinics are offering. Cleopatra is offering special grooming packages for men and women both, with head to toe services.

Amritsar, February 12
Naturopathy has always locked horns with modern methods of medicine, world over. While the two schools of sciences have always shared opposing views on holistic health and wellness, the traditional method of healing through natural elements has always found takers.

In the city, naturopathy expert Shyam Lal, too, agrees that natural therapies are a sure shot way to achieve healthy living. “Though allopathy and other sciences doubt naturopathic methods of healing, results have proved otherwise. It is a leading practised procedure to cure many chronic ailments world over, and not just in India,” he said. Delivering a lecture at a seminar on “Natural food therapy”, Shyam Lal emphasised that naturopathy is based on five basic principles.

“Its all about five elements - earth, water, fire, air and sky. Natural methods include nature’s elements like sunshine, water, heat, cold, nutrition, et al, as a medicine. It focuses on natural self-healing rather than follow a specific procedure. We believe that every element in nature effects our vital energy fields, responsible for proper functioning of our body,” he said.

Some of the ideology and methodological underpinnings of naturopathy are in conflict with the paradigm of evidence-based medicine. But Lal differs. “I am not against other prevalent methods of medicine, but I believe they are not the only way out. People are experimenting with alternative methods like ancient Chinese healing, rolfing, chiropractic, reflexology and what not. We have to have an open mind about using nature to our advantage,” he said.

Promoting a natural diet and exercise and avoiding tobacco and overwork, Lal discussed ways to deal with stress-related or lifestyle diseases that modern day world has brough on the civilisation. Some atypical methods like ozone therapy, which increases oxygen in the body, colour therapy, hydrotherapy, fasting or even having a wholesome diet involve natural healing and were discussed at length.

Amritsar, February 12
Aiming at promoting homeopathy, the Government Homeopathy Dispensary would organise camps in the rural areas from February 13.

District Homeopathy Officer Dr Jugal Kishore said a series of camps had been planned to create awareness about the benefits of homeopathy treatment system.

The dispensary would organise a camp at Nwa Pind village on February 13, at Naga village on February 16, at Kohala on February 17, at Bohru on February 21 and at Prem Nagar on February 23. The camps at each place would start from 9 am onwards.

He said the stream was known for treating the root-cause of diseases and not symptoms. — TNS