Amritsar, April 26
Even as the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Education Department to identify unsafe school buildings, the Amritsar Tribune found there are many dilapidated structures in which elementary schools are operational in the city.

In a glaring instance of this, three government schools, an anganwari centre and the Block Elementary Education Office (Amritsar-I) are functioning under one roof from a pre-Partition dilapidated building on Mahna Singh Road.

The dilapidated building houses Government Elementary School, Mahna Singh Road, Government Elementary School, Baba Sahib Chowk, and Government Middle School, Baba Sahib Chowk. Six rooms of the building accommodate over 200 students of all these schools.

The antiquity of the building can be known from a commemorative inscription installed at the school, which referred to it as Municipal Board School and mentioned that “building was opened by SM Sharif, Esquire, MA (Cantab) Bar-At-Law, Inspector of Schools, Lahore Division, on February 25, 1940.”

Another plaque dated 1951 states that the back extension was opened by Seth Radha Kishen, president, Municipal Committee, Amritsar, PD Jawa, Municipal Engineer, and PC Bhandhari, Executive Officer.

Over 250 students of Government Elementary School, Mohakampura, are studying in deplorable conditions and are deprived of basic amenities like toilets, benches, desks and even rooms.

Located in a slum locality of Mohkampura, the school is functioning on the land given by a gurdwara. Sources in the Education Department revealed that the land of the school originally belonged to the Waqf Board.

A majority of its students come from economically weaker families and need more exposure to compete with their counterparts in future, said retired teacher Charanjit Singh. He added that the scarcity of resources at home and wretched conditions at the school were enough to detract the students from studies.

The school has two rooms to accommodate five classes from Class I to V. Three classes are held in the open dusty ground. A slight rain is enough to disrupt the study. A dingy room and a verandah serve as classrooms.

Similarly, about 200 students of Government Elementary School, Maqboolpura, are being imparted education in a school building which has two dingy classrooms to accommodate equal number of classes and a dusty ground, which holds three other classes.

Basic civic amenities, like potable water and toilets, are completely absent and teachers and students are dependent on the residences around. Teachers go to a nearby gurdwara for using toilet, while students urinate in open and girl students go knocking at the doors of neighbouring houses. Yet they feel lucky that their situation has improved with the covering of a nullah as its foul smell had made their lives miserable.

Government Elementary School, Sharifpura, is running from a dilapidated building of a mosque, which was apparently raised in the pre-Partition India. The roof of as many as three rooms has already fallen and they have been locked. The school authorities are left with three number of rooms to impart education to the students from Class I to V.

Its reconstruction is caught in bureaucratic rigmarole. As per the Education Department rules the development fund cannot be allocated to a school for the construction of a rented building. In this scenario, the school authorities could not use more than Rs 7,500 annual grant for maintenance.

Sources say the Education Department gives about Rs 500 per month as rent to the Wakf Board.

Situated in the constituency of Industry Minister Anil Joshi, Government Elementary School, Mustafabad, has been functioning from an under-construction building over which high-tension wires pass posing danger to students. Two students had a miraculous escape some months ago because of high-tension wires.

Amritsar, April 26
Surinderpal Singh Oberoi, Dubai-based businessman, and the 17 Indian nationals whom he got released from the Dubai jail, paid obeisance at the Golden Temple to express their gratitude today.

Oberoi had paid $1 million as "blood money" to secure the release of these young boys, who were on death row for killing a Pakistani man in the United Arab Emirates.

Afterwards, they all reached Central Khalsa Yatimkhana, run by the Chief Khalsa Diwan. President of the Chief Khalsa Diwan Charanjit Singh Chadha and other management members honoured Oberoi for his tireless efforts for the noble cause.

Oberoi was also honoured by resident president Nirmal Singh, honorary secretary Santokh Singh Sethi, Director (Education) Dharamveer Singh.

Meanwhile, Oberoi also assured help to Central Khalsa Yatimkhana.

Amritsar, April 26
The Kotwali police today claimed to have arrested two snatchers.

Those arrested were identified as Daljit Singh and Palwinder Singh, both residents of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, located on the Tarn Taran road.

The police authorities said a police team was holding a naka near Ghee Mandi Chowk when it intercepted the two youths, who were riding a motorcycle bearing number PB-02-BH-5425. On seeing the naka, the youths tried to speed away, but were caught by the police party. On search the police recovered 450 intoxicant capsules from their possession. During investigation, the duo admitted to have committed seven snatching instances in various parts of the city.

A case under Sections 21, 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act was registered at the Kotwali police station. Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, SHO, Kotwali police station, said Daljit Singh and Palwinder Singh were remanded in police custody and more recoveries were likely to be made.

Amritsar, April 26
The traffic police has launched a special drive to check the misuse of VIP/press/police stickers pasted on vehicles in the city.

Taking the advantage of laxity on the part of traffic police, a number of people are reportedly involved in anti-social activities by misusing these stickers.

A senior traffic police official revealed that during the drive it was found that the even friends of policemen or relatives of mediapersons were misusing the stickers by pasting them on their vehicles.

He said the drive was launched following the instructions of senior police officials, who had received numerous complaints about the misuse of VIP stickers. Preferring not to be named he said during the drive the unscrupulous persons threatened policemen of dire consequences by saying that they were close to the ruling party.

The traffic police challaned over a dozen persons yesterday while more challans were issued today also.

A number of vehicles were impounded also as the owners failed to show any documents to the police.

The senior police authorities said the drive would continue in the coming days.

Amritsar, April 26
Young stars of upcoming romantic film "Ashiqui 2" Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor paid a brief but chaotic visit to the city today. Director of the film Mohit Suri accompanied them.

The trio arrived early and paid obeisance at the Golden Temple. While the leading lady, Shraddha, daughter of Bollywood actor Shakti Kapoor, kept busy enjoying the spiritual energy and some "parshad", the other two interacted with the media about the film. "It's a musical romance, just like Aashiqui was, but the story is different and a modern day love story," said Mohit Suri.

Aditya and Shraddha are not newcomers, but paired opposite each other for the first time. They are both hopeful that the film will get good opening. "As young actors, trying to make their mark in industry, we are both excited and hopeful that the film does well. A lot of hard work has been put into it and I wish the audience is entertained well," said Aditya, who looked dapper in a white kurta.

Sharing their spiritual experience at the Golden Temple, Mohit Suri said, "It was one of my wishes to come visit the Golden Temple and take blessings before the release of Aashiqui. The only reason we rushed a visit in between the tight promotion schedule from Delhi was to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple." Agreed Aditya, "I had many friends telling me how the humbling experience one gets at the Golden Temple. Now, I can share that feeling too. The positive energy makes you feel human, something people from Bollywood need to realise once in a while."

The brief visit was cut even shorter as the trio had to travel to Jalandhar for further promotion of the film.

Amritsar, April 26
With a view to streamlining the plantation drive under the Greening Punjab mission in the upcoming season, the district administration today held a meeting under the chairmanship of Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal here.

The meeting was convened by Divisional Forest Officer NS Randhawa and attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC-D) Pardeep Sabharwal, Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman Sandeep Rishi and representatives of the Pingalwara Charitable Trust, Dera Kar Sewa, Khadoor Sahib and Sant Baba Bhuri Wale.

Rajat Aggarwal reviewed the action plan chalked out by the Forest Department and stressed upon the need to make efforts to involve NGOs, all government departments, village-level institutions and communities in the campaign.

Expressing concern over the deteriorating environmental scenario, he said, "It is the need of the hour to immediately reverse the trend of ecological degradation. The plantation drive will be taken to areas outside conventional forest belts so as to significantly increase the green cover in Amritsar. The district has already registered a hike of 16 square kilometre in forest area in the past few years."

The Forest Department assured to extend all possible help to NGOs, village-level institutions, both private and government, the departments concerned to make it a big success in the district.

While talking about the action plan, Divisional Forest Officer Randhawa apprised about the action plan and preparedness of the Forest Department to make this campaign a success.

He said at present the department had a stock of about 32 lakh saplings in the nurseries of the forest division which normally used to cover around 10 lakh at this point of time of the year.

About 3.50 lakh saplings have been raised under the NREGS which will be given to various village-level institutions for plantation. Advance earth works have been completed on 375 hectares of land under the NABARD project which has been approved by the government recently.

About 55, 000 poplar trees of certified quality have been raised under this scheme to give a major thrust to agro-forestry, the DFO said.

Under this project, the Forest Department will supply other agro-forestry species line burman, dharek, clonal shisham and eucalyptus to farmers to increase the forest cover outside conventional forest belts.

Expanding green cover To take the plantation drive to areas outside conventional forest belts so as to increase the green cover in the district The Forest Department to extend help to NGOs, village-level institutions and other departments to make the scheme a success in Amritsar The department has a ready stock of about 32 lakh saplings in the nurseries of the forest division for the plantation drive About 3.50 lakh saplings have been raised under the NREGS which will be given to various village-level institutions for plantation

Amritsar, April 26
Members of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA) released a species of cobra in the forest near Beas last night.

SPCA Inspector Ashok Joshi said the four-foot-long cobra was recovered from a house situated near Mata Ganga Ji Gurdwara at Verka. He said a call was received from an animal lover that scores of people had gathered around the snake and were planning to kill it.

The SPCA Inspector said earlier a viper was held from Maqbolpura locality some months back.

Dr Jagdish Chander Shori, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, said since there was no provision for keeping the poisonous snake at the SPCA, it was decided to release it in the wild. 

Amritsar, April 26
A team of doctors at a local hospital have performed a rare and difficult operation on a 38-year-old man here. The patient had a birth defect called coarctation of aorta and bicuspid aortic valve.

Cardiac surgeon Dr Pankaj Goel, who led the team, said in such situations the patient should be operated soon after birth. In this defect the main artery after giving branches to the arms is severely narrowed as a result the upper part of the body gradually develops high blood pressure while the lower part and the legs have very low blood pressure.

In this case, the blood pressure in the patient’s arm was above 200 and in the leg it was just 90. Because of high blood pressure and weak aortic tissue, the patient had also developed a 9 cm aneurysm of the aorta along with leaking of the aortic valve over the years. Dr Goel said the patient had a danger of rupturing his brain arteries as his blood pressure could not be controlled with medicines. 

Amritsar, April 26
The American Indian Foundation (AIF), a philanthropy organisation based in US, is focusing on India with its project Our Family, Our Neighborhood, Our World (‘O3’) to connect with children to do social good through innovative educational programmes.

Working at villages and community schools around Amritsar and its periphery, AIF has been making children self-reliant and socially conscious through digital media projects.

The ‘O3’ combines the global interactive media such as video, digital storytelling, documentaries, theatre and animation with local Punjabi art forms such as bhangra, giddha and folk stories.

“We aim to make young people critically understand their own identity and the issues that affect their lives while creating communities of service and cooperation,” informs Aamir Aijaz, AIF project manager.

The project allows the children to understand the power of new media technology and then create original community projects by connecting the local to the global. Working in collaboration with 15 schools in the city and over 700 students, the project has been organising workshops with experts from theatre, music, dance and filmmaking.

“Last year, we screened short films made by children on social issues. Pakistani filmmaker Anwar Jamal’s film Harvest of Grief opened the event. This time too, we are collaborating with Ghazala Khan, a known Pakistani documentary maker for a workshop involving rural schools,” says Aamir.

From heritage walks to rapping with Los Angeles-based Punjabi artist Mandeep Sethi, these kids are having fun while they learn to get responsible. Their focus remains on areas like Sham Nagar and villages near Attari.

“We have folk artists from these areas teaching the children sammi, gidda and folk dance forms on one hand and expert choeroegrapher from US Jyoti Singh teaching them contemporary dance forms on the other. This way, they can connect to their roots and understand the global culture,” informs Aamir.

These children are gaining a firsthand knowledge about media from theatre person Kewal Dhaliwal and poet and editor of magazine Akhar Parminderjit and Miss poonam, editor, Preet-Larhi.

Amritsar, April 26
The proposed wealth tax imposed by the Central government will prove detrimental for the farmers who were already reeling under huge debt, said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during the inauguration of a complex of Chinmaya Mission here.

In a brief interaction with the mediapersons here in the city, the Chief Minister said the Shiromani Akali Dal would oppose the move and launch district wise protest against it from May 2.

The proposed wealth tax will be levied on farmers whose land falls within eight kilometres of the Municipal Corporation. The Chief Minister said with the implementation of the tax the farmers would have to pay from Rs 30,000 to Rs 70,000 per acre as wealth tax. 

Amritsar, April 26
Stem cell therapy is proving beneficial in treating children suffering from type-I diabetes.

While talking about this, a city-based diabetes specialist said the stem cell method had provided complete cure to children suffering from the diabetes type-I disease in which the pancreases stop producing insulin.

Addressing the media, diabetes specialist Dr Rohit Kapur, along with Mumbai-based stem cell expert Dr Abhijit Boparadhikar, said the disease was fast spreading among children who faced diabetes-related problems and subsequently shifted to insulin to control the disease.

The stem cell therapy had given a ray of hope to these children and their family members who were worried over their health condition, he added.

He claimed that he had managed to completely cure about six children who were suffering from type-I diabetes.

Dr Abhijit said stem cell therapy had the potential to become the first line of treatment in future. He said the therapy was being used in cardiovascular disorders, liver disorders, bone disorders, neuro-muscular disorders, kidney disorders, lung disease, diabetes and cancers all over the world.

The therapy was proving beneficial among mentally-retarded patients,he claimed.

Dr Kapur said international surveys suggest that two out of 100 diabetic children were suffering from type-I diabetes and 92 per cent of diabetes children got completely well with the help of the therapy.