Amritsar, April 19
The Amritsar Improvement Trust has not been able to fulfil the housing needs of city residents. For, most of the flats it has constructed under various categories such as the high income group (HIG), middle income group (MIG), low income group (LIG) and economic weaker section (EWS), have gone into the hands of either investors or the land mafia.

Flats in the Shri Guru Teg Bhadur Mall Mandi locality are locked years after they were constructed by the Amritsar Improvement Trust.

On the other hand, people who actually need the housing facility are finding it difficult to get a roof on their heads in view of the skyrocketing prices of construction material and labour cost.

Construction of flats in the city started after the Amritsar Improvement Trust’s Ranjit Avenue scheme came into effect.

Later, it constructed apartments in New Amritsar and Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Mall Mandi. Barring Ranjit Avenue, majority of the flats in other two locations remain unoccupied. Prabhjit Kaur, a resident of Baba Sahib Chowk, said she was staying with a joint family comprising 15 persons in a house measuring not more than 70 square yards.

“Our family requires more space but affordable houses are not easily available even in the narrow-winding lanes of the walled city,” she said. During search for a house she was surprised to find majority of the flats locked in New Amritsar and ri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Mall Mandi.

Deepak Kumar, another house seeker, says Mall Mandi which is situated on the GT Road is not far from the bus stand but ironically the locality is by and large unoccupied.

He said the rising cost of land and construction material is also driving more and more people to apartments rather than an independent house. There are other factors like safety and easy maintenance which are turning people to explore to buy apartments, he adds.

The government should devise a policy to construct more built-up houses for residents, he added. There is no fun in keeping the flats locked keeping in view the purposes of market speculation which helped only investors who want to increase their profit, he says.

Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) chairman Sandeep Rishi said, "The Trust distributed the flats following a draw of lots as per the established norms. The reason of these flats remaining closed may be due to the fact that these were handed over to people in a state-level draw of lots. The buyers from outside the city may keep these flats for investment purposes."

The second reason behind this could be absence of provision of levying penalty for uninhabited flats after certain period of time. These were policy decisions taken at the government level, he added.

The Trust (AIT) initiated all its schemes only after conducting a demand survey, he said, adding it was now engaged in conducting another such survey for super-deluxe flats in New Amritsar and on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road.

The total area of construction and open space would be in the proportion of 20:80. A three-bedroom flat would cost at around Rs 65 lakh with a dining room, store and a servant room and attached bathrooms, Rishi said. 

Not for beneficiaries

Amritsar Improvement Trust had constructed flats for high income group (HIG), middle income group (MIG), low income group (LIG) and economic weaker section (EWS) categories

Ironically, most of these flats have been bought by either investors or land mafia rather than going to their actual beneficiaries

People who actually need housing facility are finding it difficult to get a roof on their heads with the skyrocketing prices of construction material and labour 

Speculation watch

Barring the apartments at Ranjit Avenue, majority of the flats in New Amritsar and Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Mall Mandi remain unoccupied

Some investors, it has been learnt, after buying cheap flats under various housing schemes are waiting to sell them at much higher prices later on

Amritsar, April 19
The state government is diverting funds of cash-rich Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) for development works of other towns in Punjab. Sources in the Amritsar Improvement Trust say if the diversion of funds continues with same pace, the days will not be far when it will be reduced to a loss-making body.

AIT’s profits were a mere Rs 2 crore in this year’s budget which is likely to take a toll on the ongoing development projects in the city.

Over Rs 20 crore have been diverted to various development works in Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Qadian, Kotkapura, and Nawashahr besides Rs 2 crore as contribution to the Jang-e-Azadi memorial at Kartarpur.

The board of trustees of AIT, in its meetings held on March 21 and April 1, passed the resolutions for extending Rs 12 crore as loan to the municipal councils of Kotkapura, Mansa in Malwa and Qadian in Gurdaspur district to meet their liabilities.

These committees had approached the government seeking funds to meet the liabilities of retirement benefits for their employees. Then the government directed these MCs to approach the cash rich AIT for availing loan.

Earlier, the AIT had extended Rs 3 crore as loan to the Hoshiarpur Municipal Council in 2010-2011, Rs 3 crore to the Tarn Taran Improvement Trust in 2011-2012 and Rs 3.20 crore to Nawanshahar Improvement Trust in 2011-2012. As per the agreement, these bodies will repay the loan to AIT through their VAT income.

But this, sources say, may take a toll on various projects being executed by the AIT in the city. Among major projects on the cards are worth over Rs 26 crore, including raising of residential units for the lower income groups (LIG) while it is funding Rs 100 crore worth projects for providing civic amenities in the assembly constituencies of the city which otherwise falls in the jurisdiction of Corporation.

The AIT is also investing Rs 10 crore for the construction of a parking facility and other works for the beautification of the Durgiana Mandir scheme.

Sources say the Trust funds should be utilised for purposes for which it was formed. The government, they said, was not endorsing the resolutions passed by the board of trustees for investment in development works in the AIT’s own schemes like Ranjit Avenue, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar scheme and others.

Attempts to contact Local Bodies Minister Chuni Lal Bhagat did not elicit any response. AIT officials maintained that they forward the resolutions for development schemes after getting these ratified by the trustees. The permission to allow which work is to be done on priority basis rests with the government, they said. 

Amritsar, April 19
Do not be surprised if you see young policewomen chasing miscreants, including snatchers and other criminals, while driving high-speed motorcycles in the city in the near future.

Newly recruited policewomen being imparted training in driving motorbikes at the Civil Line area in Amritsar. photo: Vishal Kumar

With the crime against women on the rise in the city, the Punjab Police is contemplating to induct recently-recruited women police personnel in PCR teams.

About 30 newly recruited policewomen are now being imparted training to drive motorcycles. After completion of the training, they will be deputed at various key locations, especially outside women educational institutes to check eve-teasing and other crimes against women.

Women in the city have been at the receiving end since instances like snatching and robbery have continued unabatedly even after the police department has initiated a number of steps to curb the same.

"The idea behind this exercise was to inculcate a sense of security among women. The young women personnel will be armed," said Police Commissioner Ram Singh.

In case of emergency, these personnel could also call police teams to help them. The policewomen would be accompanied by senior women police officials during patrolling. The Punjab Government has initiated a project under which the Women Armed Special Protection Squad would be formed in every district to curb crimes against women. The project was launched in Muktsar recently. The squad would be provided with Activa scooters.aRam Singh said selected policewomen would be given training to drive motorcycles. They would be deployed at key locations and markets, besides educational institutes. 

Amritsar, April 19
The Amritsar police is all set to launch a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) police station here. The authorities today deputed Inspector Amrit Swaroop Dogra as the Station House Officer (SHO) of the police station.

A senior police official while confirming this said the process of deputing the staff had been initiated. The police station would be run from a new building near the Cantonment Police Station area.

The state Home Department has given its go-ahead for setting up the police station, which would deal with complaints of the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

The process of appointing qualified staff had been initiated after the Police Department received a notification regarding the same in the month of March.

The region has seen a spurt in crimes against Non-Resident Indians who often complain about grabbing of their properties by unscrupulous elements.

The department received a majority of matrimonial and fraud complaints. A majority of them remained pending for want of investigations, said sources in the police department.

Moreover, Non-Resident Indians did not have time to stay here and wait for the investigations to be completed.

The police said the establishment of the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) police station would help in dealing such cases on a priority basis, which earlier used to suffer delay due to one reason or the other.

Amritsar, April 19
Its raining Punjabi films, and the audience is getting all entertainment. Another one to add to the showers is ‘Dhi Punjab Di’. Falling under the issue-based cinema, this Punjabi film promises a few surprise elements like women-centric script, strong female characters and Surinder Singh, tabla master, of Comedy Circus’ fame.

The lovable and laughable Surinder is ready for opening innings in the film industry.

In Amritsar to promote his upcoming film and visit Golden Temple, the actor and musician shared his experience on working as an actor and facing the camera.

“It was not planned but my popularity on ‘Comedy Circus’ gave me the confidence to try acting. Since, I was always a part of every performance on the show, I was, in a way, already acting my part out,” he said. As for ‘Dhi Punjab Di’, a film made on women issues, he said it was a perfect debut.

“Though, my character is a supporting role and humorous, but the film has a strong message for society. The script is good and rakes up issues like female feoticide and women rights. It’s a good film to be a part of,” he added.

The film also stars Satwinder Bitti and Jaspinder Cheema in the lead and city-based actor Satesh Arora Bawa and is being produced and directed by Baljeet Singh Balli.

“It has a lot of new things like action sequences done by female protagonists, good storyline and required drama. Since Punjabi films are getting good response from the audiences, there is a space for everything,” said Satesh.

Surinder felt that the time is right for Punjabi artistes to try and be a part of the growing Punjabi entertainment industry.

“Punjabi artists have always been appreciated for their talent in Bollywood and the television industry, but the struggle is also there.

Now, when the Punjabi entertainment industry is growing and opportunities are abundance, I think artistes should make the most of it.” After his debut, Surinder plans to continue with acting, with some Bollywood projects in pipeline.

“In one of my upcoming Bollywood films, I will also compose music.” Way to go!

Amritsar, April 19
The five-day comedy theatre festival at Punjab Natshala concluded amidst peels of laughter and important social messages.

A play being staged at the Punjab Natshala in Amritsar on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Five comedy plays staged by various theatre groups from Jalandhar, Jaiton, Goraya and Abohar had entertained the city audiences and took up serious issues like female foeticide and other women-related issues in a humorous way.

The festival organised by The Narrator, a city based theatre group, and its patron Pritpal Pali, was received with accolades.

The aim of the festival was to bring fresh entertainment to the city audience and take liberty of experimenting with a popular genre of comedy. It was dedicated to late Jaspal Bhatti, the king of comedy.

The plays include RSVP written by Pali Bhupinder, Bappu Jamme Chaar Nikkamme by Baljinder Sandhu, Biba Putt by Gamnu Bansal, Maut kyun Raat Bhar Nahi Aati by Partap Sehgal.

The play staged on the last day was a comedy, ‘Jihne Jhalle Mere Palle’, written by Gaurav Vij and directed by Manish Madaan. All plays worked with tried and tested formula of satire and comedy had burning social issues as central themes.

The festival’s success has prompted its organisers to plan it as a calendar event.

Amritsar, April 19
A newspaper is many things - news, the fourth estate, a medium for expression, an excellent packing material and even a valuable waste. Making it an aesthetic medium of expression, Moradabad-based artist Anurag has made sure to add to the creative bit.

Using it as a base for his thoughts, painting on a newspaper, he has put up a solo exhibition of his paintings and installation made on and out of newspaper.

While most artists paint on canvas, he uses newspaper.

“It is the simplest and most powerful source of the creative media. Since everyday we get a new newspaper, the previous one is thrown as waste. To use that waste and create art form is my purpose,” says the 27-year-old artist.

The exhibition, ‘My Paper World’, was inaugurated by Rajinder Mohan Chinna, president, Indian Academy Of Fine Arts, at the Art Gallery. Using newspaper with all its elements in his works, Anurag’s works have been displayed and appreciated in prominent art galleries in Delhi, Kanpur, Barielly and some of his works are a part of the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

He has been honoured with excellent work by the Rajya Lalit Kala Academy, UP, and the Sanskar Bharti, Moradabad. Doing his first solo show in Amritsar, Anurag is hopeful that people will like this kind of work.

“My paintings work around the elements found in newspaper, like articles, news items, advertorials, pictures and headlines.

The exhibition will be on till April 22, 2013.

Amritsar, April 19
The Health department with the help of the Punjab Police seized proscribed drugs worth Rs 2 lakh from an illegally- run godown at Guru Ram Dass market in the Katra Sher Singh area late last evening.

Drug Inspector Sukhdeep Singh said they had specific information that the accused was running a godown where he had stocked habit-forming drugs. The accused identified as Keshav Kumar Saini did not possess the license for storing such medicines.

The Health Department shared the information with the Rambagh police which also had information about this.

A raid was conducted and proscribed drugs were recovered.

Reports said the accused tried to hide the boxes of intoxicant drugs covering them with tin sheets on the terrace of the adjacent building. The raiding party, however, managed to seize the material.

The Drug Inspector said the accused had no license for storing the drugs nor he could present any sale/purchase record. He said action has been initiated under Section 18 (C) of the Drugs and Cosmetic act.

The role of one of the accused's relatives was also under scanner and further investigations were under progress, he added.

Amritsar, April 19
With the arrest of about a dozen drug peddlers last evening, the city police has arrested as many as 58 drug peddlers in the past couple of days.

The crackdown was part of the special campaign launched by the Punjab Police to curb the menace of rampant drug abuse and peddling of narcotic substances in the state.

Majority of those arrested would deal in habit-forming drugs and many were even drug addicts. They started drug peddling to make money for their addiction.