Amritsar, May 10
Patients and their kin remained at the receiving end as almost all the wholesale and retail chemist shops remained shut following the strike call given by the Punjab Chemists Association.

People who came from various parts of Punjab were seen waiting outside medical stores till evening for procuring medicines for their ailing family members.

Rajinder Kaur, a resident of Dhariwal (Gurdaspur), said for the last three years she had been getting her son treated from Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH). But as the medical stores in the city were closed today due to the strike, they were forced to wait for long hours in the hope that the shops might open by evening.

“We find it difficult to find the medicines prescribed by the doctors from Dhariwal. Therefore, we prefer to procure the same from the medical stores located opposite to the hospital or any other shop,” she said.

Seema Rani, a resident of Lopoke, who was accompanying her daughter-in-law, said they were facing a lot of inconvenience in view of the strike. All the shops there and in the medicine market were closed and they were waiting for them to open.

The same scene was witnessed outside the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital.

Meanwhile, a number of activists of the Punjab Chemist Association (PCA) held a demonstration outside the GNDH in favour of their demands. They were agitating against the new National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy of the Central Government under which thousands of products would be brought under price control. Chemist associations were alleging that it would squeeze their profit margins.

“Chemist associations said the policy will squeeze their retail profits by 4 per cent and that of the wholesale sellers by 2 per cent, which earlier used to be in the bracket of 16-20 per cent and 8-10 per cent for retailers and wholesalers, in that order,” said Surinder Duggal, working president of the PCA.

“The new policy would bring majority of products under the price control regime, which will hit the retailers and wholesalers badly. Inputs costs such as electricity charges and basic infrastructure cost have raised manifold. With the new policy the traders will not be able to sustain their businesses," said Surinder Sharma, president of the Amritsar Chemists Association. They also protested against the entrance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the trade.

Amritsar, May 10
A 23-year-old youth was electrocuted to death in the Sandhu Colony area, located on the 88-feet road on Majitha Road late last night.

He was trying to fix the plug of a fan at his residence when the incident took place.

The deceased was identified as Paramjit Singh, son of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Gulzar Singh Bittu. Leaders of the SAD and BJP, including Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi and Upkar Singh Sandhu, expressed their condolences with the aggrieved family.

Amritsar, May 10
Nehru Shopping Complex continues to face the apathy of the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) apathy as the lifts installed in the key commercial complex continue to remain defunct even after the passage of around two decades. The area around the non-operational lifts has been turned into dumping ground.

The multi-storeyed shopping complex, raised in the 1990s, has not seen the lifts operational for even a year. Located in the prime Lawrence Road commercial area of the city, the complex houses as many as 376 shops. The non-occupancy rate rises with addition of each floor, uttered shopkeepers.

Majority of the shopkeepers feel that the lifts were never seen operational in the market during the last 10 years. In the absence of easy access, customers are reluctant to climb scores of stairs to reach the third floor. Thus, over 90 per cent of the shops on the third floor are lying locked. Hence, investors did not dare to invest money in opening shops and offices on the upper floors, commented a real estate agent, Gurminder Singh Virk. “It defeated the very purpose of raising a market in a posh area of the city to augment venues of employment and push business up”.

A visit to the enclosures of lifts revealed a sordid tale of affairs. Heaps of garbage are piled at the place which states that hardly any person visits there.

Shopkeepers said unhygienic condition and non-operational lifts were taking heavy toll upon the business.

They said two lifts were installed in the complex and they were operational at its launch. Gradually, they developed snags and amazingly were never repaired.

Interestingly, the Improvement Trust never got a chance to repair these lifts as the private concern, which had installed these and was bound to maintain them, had ceased to exist.

The Improvement Trust had mooted a proposal to run these lifts in partnership with an association of the complex as per which the maintenance cost was to be borne by the two on 50:50 basis.

Improvement Trust Chairman Sandeep Rishi said a proposal to start a cube lift worth Rs 12.50 lakh was in the pipeline. He said in all probability the lift might be installed on the side of the Mall Road. He said efforts would also be made to repair the two lifts installed inside the complex.

Amritsar, May 10
Activists of various unions of the Railways, farmers and Class IV government employees jointly held a protest march in the city today.

They criticised the ill-conceived policies of the Central as well as state governments and railway authorities which resulted in inaction against the accused who committed a murderous attack on railway activists on April 27 during railway union polls. They alleged that the Railway Board and Central Government intended to privatise the Railways and felt union to be an obstacle in this direction.

The farmers alleged that due to faulty policy matters, the farmers who had already been reeling under debt, were being suppressed economically leading to suicides by many of them.

Class IV employees alleged that the management of the Health Department had been exploiting the employees on contractual basis and stopped the recruitment on regular basis. Om Prakash, president of the Dental College Union said the Class IV employees demanded Rs 1 lakh as interest-free loan for the marriage of their daughters and Rs 10,000 loan for the purchase of wheat, house loan on minimal interest basis, uniform allowance and risk coverage.

Amritsar, May 10
A group of students in Jabowal has tried to find a solution to the problem of paddy straw burning during the post-harvesting season.

The students led by Sanjeev Sayal, a science teacher at Government Senior Secondary School, Jabowal, are using a simple process to convert agricultural waste into bio-fuel.

A self-designed charring drum with a chimney and vent is used to burn paddy straws to make bio-fuel from it.

"Burning of paddy straw is an important issue in Punjab as it is a threat to the environment as well as soil fertility. The authorities have failed to curb the menace and there is no awareness among farmers about other alternatives. We have been toying with the idea to bring an alternative for long. I started working on this project three months back."

His students, who give presentations on the procedure during seminars and also nearby villages, have successfully converted dry leaves, agricultural waste, paddy straw into bricklets of biofuel.

"The process is quite simple. It is called pyrolysis or compact burning of biomass in absence of oxygen. When burnt, we retrieve the char which is then crushed and mixed with binders of the required amount and moulded into bricklets. The bricklets when dried in sun can be used as fuel," he explains.

The process involves a lot of details but has its advantages. "First, the partial burning allows us to reuse the waste as fuel, and secondly, less smoke is emitted during the process. Since it converts agricultural waste into energy-efficient fuel, it provides a healthy alternative," he adds.

He wants to promote more such energy-efficient ideas to dispose agricultural waste.

"US President Barak Obama praised Indo-American student Meghna Rao for her project on 'biochar', which is quite similar to our concept. I want that more effort should be put in to promote such healthy scientific practices in India as well," he says.

Having a Master's in horticulture and agriculture sciences from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Sanjeev was a banker for seven years before joining as a teacher. He was helped by his brother in devising this project.

"My brother is a researcher and biotechnologist working in the field of bio-fuels. We worked on designing and rectifying any errors in the project and finally managed to start three months back," says Sanjeev.

Since then, he has used biomass like sugarcane waste, wheat and rice waste, cardboard boxes, dry leaves and more to produce bio-fuel.

"We have also been selected at the district level for Inspiration Award held for all government-run schools in the country. We are trying to improvise by working on the concept of bio-cooker, which will use heat or energy from biochar to cook. But it will take some time," he says.

How it works After burning the waste, the char is retrieved, then crushed and mixed with binders of required amount and moulded into bricklets The bricklets are dried in the sun and can be used as energy-efficient fuel and provides a healthy alternative The partial burning allows one to reuse the waste as fuel and less smoke is emitted during the process

Amritsar, May 10
Inderjit Kaur, a resident of Kot Atma Ram, today alleged that she was thrashed by her relative Davinder Singh Bagga in full public view while she was going with her nephew.

In her complaint lodged at the city’s B-division police station, Kaur said the accused along with some of his accomplices hit their two-wheeler as a result of which they fell down.

The incident reportedly took place on May 7. She alleged that the accused pulled her hair and slapped in full public view. Before some shopkeepers could come to her rescue, they fled from the spot. She said she had filed a written complaint at the B-division police station soon after the incident in this connection.

Investigating officer Janak Raj said a case under Section 323, 341, 506 of the IPC had been registered against the accused after investigations. He said Bagga was evading arrest and raids were being conducted to nab him. Investigations are on, the police said.

Amritsar, May 10
Industry Minister Anil Joshi today said the technical institutes in the state had been directed to introduce courses to train the youth to enable them to run pollution control plants in industries.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for industrialists, Joshi said industrialists were complaining of not getting trained employees to run these machines to control pollution in their mills. He said industrialist committees were being constituted at district and state level to redress the grievances of manufacturers and traders.

The Industry Minister lauded the efforts of the PPCB to hold seminars to make industrialists aware about pollution norms and curtail effluents and discharging harmful gases into environment.

Director Industries Vikas Pratap, industrialists Sundeep Khosla, Kamal Dalmia were among those present on the occasion.

Amritsar, May 10
To make the public aware about legal rights and offer the poor free legal assistance, a special legal aid clinic was set up at Khalsa College of Education (KCE) here today.

The clinic, set up by the District Legal Services Authority, would be a boon for the marginalised and weaker sections of the society, said District Session Judge MS Madaan.

Also present on the occasion was Khalsa College Governing Council honourary secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.

Madaan said the role of educational institutions in disseminating legal knowledge was crucial. He said this was the 12th clinic in the district and the college established one of the most modern and high-tech aid service in the region.

The clinic, he said, would be managed by a panel of advocates and para-legal volunteers who had been trained to provide legal services to needy persons.

He said cases from family matters to service rights could be taken up through the clinic and legal literacy was must for the justice to prevail in the society.

Chhina spoke about the delay in justice system and said there should be more appointment of the judges and strengthening of infrastructure to clear the backlog.

Earlier, KCE principal Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon welcomed the guests and others as he honoured Madaan, Chief Judicial Magistrate Arun Kumar Aggarwal and Chhina, KCGC joint secretaries Ajmer Singh Heir and Major Rajbir Singh. — TNS

Amritsar, May 10
A sensitisation workshop on flora and fauna was held today by Mission Aagaaz, an NGO, at Garden Green here.

The main objective of the workshop was to highlight the issues concerning the protection of animals, birds, vegetation, humans and other forms of life as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Deepak Babbar, executive director, said with the burning of field waste besides trees, several living organisms which were a vital part of the life chain also get killed.

“We acknowledge that all forms of life require equal importance because any change in the natural food chain or life cycle is likely to affect the life on earth,” he said. Mukesh Sharma from People for Animals emphasised that human beings should be sensitive towards animals such as dogs, cows, buffaloes and birds.

He said there had been a long association of humans with the animal kingdom. “It is a fact that humans have relied upon dogs for their safety during nights. Now, in an era of urbanization, people have resorted to foreign varieties irrespective to their nature, tolerance to local climates and genetic limitations thus totally ignoring the breeds that are much more resilient and adaptable to the local environment,” he said.

Sehej Gulati apprised about various laws and regulations for the protection of flora and fauna.

Gurbhej Singh, General Secretary of the NGO, urged the government, district administration and the city residents to listen to allow the due share of animals and birds.

He said the local breeds of dogs, cows and other animals should be recognised as part of the natural system. They asked mediapersons to help the cause by spreading awareness on these issues.

Amritsar, May 10
Surbhi Anand, a student of Class XII at Ryan International School, brought laurels to the school by scoring 220 marks out of 360 in the JEE. Sumit Pal of the same school also cleared the examination and made the institution proud.

These students have cleared their way for admission into the IITs and other deemed universities.

Another student Jaideep Singh won accolades by bagging Inspire Award at Government Girls Senior Secondary School for his project 'Ultra Sustainable Car'. As many as 287 schools participated in it. — TNS