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With Sharif at helm in Pakistan, city traders see a ray of hope
ZP, Block Samiti elections: A boon for illicit liquor distillers
Posters deface public places in city
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Why govt took long to book Honey Singh, asks Congress
Big haul of habit-forming drugs, 2 held
Congress workers refute Lalli Majithia’s claim
After a month, man booked for wife’s murder
Vaibhav Gupta scores 97 per cent in ICSE exam
28 ACET students get campus placement
Faculty and students of Interior Design Department of BBK DAV College for Women during the exhibition in Amritsar on Saturday. A Tribune photograph
‘No need to hospitalise child abourers’
Servant flees with cash, jewellery
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With Sharif at helm in Pakistan, city traders see a ray of hope
Amritsar, May 18
A leading local industrialist Kamal Dalmia said Sharif, who hails from Lahore and has his roots in Tarn Taran, has complete understanding of the shared common culture of Amritsar and Lahore. The establishment of the integrated check post (ICP), four-laning from Jalandhar to the ICP, Amritsar airport's flights to various national and international destinations, train links to even remote parts of the country and international bus terminal offer quality infrastructure to usher in the next stage of growth, he remarked. Though a joint checkpost was established at Attari-Wagah on October 11, 1947, the general public of both countries has not utilised the potential of social interaction. To pay tributes to about one million people who were killed during the Partition, Raja Porus Mela, supposed to be the king who ruled the region of Punjab at the time of the invasion by Alexander the Great, is held in the month of November every year. Punjabi writers have let known their sentiments over the common
culture shared by Amritsar and Lahore. He said litterateurs gave the concept of twin cities, governments provided infrastructure, logistics and governance, but eventually it would be trade and tourism which would usher in growth and people-to-people contact. He accepted that the historic bus diplomacy initiated by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and reciprocated with equal zeal by Nawaz Sharif did not succeed as the Pakistan army stayed out. “But now, the Pakistan army has learnt its lessons after burning its fingers and stayed out from the elections,” he quipped. Dalmia said the holy city and the region around offer specialised manufacturing in various fields to cater to the market needs of Lahore, which is a metropolitan of Pakistan and feeds a large area domestically. He said many local industrialists had interacted with Nawaz Sharif and had business ties with him. A leading importer Rajan Bedi said he had a business dinner with Nawaz Sharif in December over the signing of a sugar deal, as the latter had a big group of sugar industry there. He congratulated him over his victory after the announcement of the result. He said a group of four local industrialists would head to meet him at his residence in the Raiwind area, which is about 10 km from Lahore. “After a couple of meetings with Mian Nawaz Sharif in the past some time I could understand that he was aggressive and optimistic about business ties with India, in general, and both Punjabs, in particular. Apparently, its first direct benefit would be to the holy city which shares border with Lahore and has the entire required infrastructure,” he commented. Another industrialist Raman Gupta said there were about 1.20 lakh registered engineering goods manufacturing units in the state and many of them were in the city. He said the industry here was facing closure due to stagnation and anticipated that these units could easily benefit with greater ties with Pakistan as a majority of engineering goods were in its imported list. He added that small-scale industries (SSI) here had got advanced machinery and wherewithal to manufacture and deliver high-quality products. The SSI units were finding it hard to get new markets and Pakistan would be a big target in this direction. Lahore, being located closer to Amritsar, gives advantage to the holy city as it is the second biggest market in Pakistan after Karachi. A shawl manufacturer PL Seth said the city had a number of units spinning out textiles of various varieties, including tweeds, blazer, shawls, stolls and others. He added that export from here was in multi crores and closer trade ties with Pakistan would open a new market in the shape of Lahore. Gunbir Singh said Amritsar and Lahore have long been touted as twin cities on either side of the border. However, in terms of development, Lahore was almost two decades ahead of Amritsar. I visited Lahore as part of the SAARC car rally some years ago. The city, unlike Amritsar, has no visible garbage, has orderly traffic and has manicured gardens and crossings. The powers that be have preserved the best and developed the rest. The old areas are well preserved with an eye on tourism, and lit up in the most professional manner. No hotel or multiplex can operate without undertaking this responsibility. Even their car parks are well organised by professional security guard agencies. The parks and the roundabouts are tastefully maintained and seem straight out of Dubai and Singapore. While the old heritage building on this side of the border was crumbling as no authority was willing to take the responsibility and was not taking any headache to preserve the golden era of the past. A trip from Lahore down the Sheikhupura road showcases industry in ship shape. In sharp contrast, Amritsar has become today a municipal nightmare, with each successive government offering lip service at best to resolve the core issues.
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ZP, Block Samiti elections: A boon for illicit liquor distillers
Amritsar, May 18 A source said, “Normally, it takes seven-10 days for the fermentation. In earlier times, people used 'gachi', a common substance to speed up the fermentation.” Clearly, the contestants do not have time, they are pushing the distillers to supply the liquor as fast
as they can. Sources in the business said even limestone was being used to distill the liquor. In the traditional process, a special apparatus was used. However, with limestone, there was no need for all this painstaking method. “People just put a kilo or two of limestone into the utensil which contains fermented jaggery mixture. When the limestone is added, it produces a lot of heat. The water substance, which starts floating on top of the mixture after half an hour of putting limestone, is taken out and served when it gets cold. This is what people are consuming in elections,” said the source. The liquor, produced in this way, is highly dangerous for drinkers and may prove fatal in some circumstances. A person had yesterday died allegedly after consuming alcohol at a village, near Tangra here. The quantity of homemade liquor distilled in the district could be assessed from the fact that the narcotics cell of the district police had yesterday caught a vehicle with 1800 litres of illicit alcohol. The police had arrested three persons and a case was registered at the Maqboolpura police chowki.
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Posters deface public places in city
Amritsar, May 18 Even the pedestal of Madan Lal Dhingra’s statue has not been spared. Hundreds of these posters are pasted on the pillars of Bhandari Bridge on the Jalandhar road. Manvinder Malhi, a city resident, said, “During the past few weeks, the menace of illegal advertisements on poles and rooftops have gone down.”
The local railway station has a large number of such posters urging the employees to vote for candidates to various railway employees unions. Residents said the administration should take strict action against those who were guilty of defacing the public places. They demanded that FIRs should be registered against them. “The organisers of all such events, such as unions and religious organisations, should be asked to pay damages for the defacement, and if possible, the administration should file complaint with the police,” said Joginder Pal Sharma, a senior citizen.
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Why govt took long to book Honey Singh, asks Congress
Amritsar, May 18 “It was only after receiving an order from the Punjab and Haryana High Court that an FIR has been registered against Honey Singh. It is the duty of the Home Minister to clarify why the administration was avoiding registering a case against the singer so far,” said the Mahila Congress vice-president. Lambasting Bathinda MP Harsimrat
Badal, Mehta said, “Why did Harsimrat Badal, who has remained on the forefront by claiming herself as the self-appointed guardian of women in the state, failed to hear the state-level protest against the singer for bringing out such vulgar songs? Harsimrat neither issued any statement nor initiated any action in this regard. This clearly shows her concern towards women in the state,” said the Punjab Pradesh Mahila Congress vice-president. She said despite herself being a woman the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Superintendent of Police
(SSP) was dilly dallying registering the case against the singer. Demanding an immediate transfer of the
SSP, she said the incident in which the police and the administration failed to take necessary action against Honey Singh is a clear-cut indication that they were under pressure to do so. She said the Punjab Pradesh Mahila Congress would organise a seminar where discussions about vulgarity in the songs would be held.
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Big haul of habit-forming drugs, 2 held
Amritsar, May 18 He was nabbed by the Rambagh police from near the railway station. The drugs were concealed in a briefcase. A case under Section 22/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered in this connection. Rambagh police station SHO Neeraj Kumar who is the investigating officer in the case said Anuj’s father Sumit Agarwal was already behind bars on similar charges, while his brother was also allegedly involved in this trade. The seizure from Anuj has brought out the fact that drug-peddlers have now moved to other states to procure proscribed drugs, as it has become difficult for them to buy these drugs from local markets. Neeraj said concerned over the rampant drug addiction and unabated sale of proscribed drugs in the shops, especially in the rural areas, the state government had recently passed clear instructions to wage a war against the drug peddlers. He said in the second instance, the Kotwali police has arrested Deepak Kumar of Kot Atma Singh with 5,000 capsules, which he procured from a person who brought the consignment from Ludhiana. Deepak was produced in court, which sent him to two-day police remand.
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Congress workers refute Lalli Majithia’s claim
Say they withdrew nomination on their own Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 18 Lalli Majithia had claimed yesterday that the Congress workers backed out in favour of Akali workers while fearing for their lives in the ensuing zila parishad elections. Contesting Lalli’s claim, Baljit Kaur, who was a Congress ticket aspirant from Majitha zila parishad segment, said she had decided not to contest the election on her own. She denied any outside pressure behind her decision to withdraw nomination. “It is a white lie that any Akali worker ever threatened me. It was my independent decision to quit,” Baljit Kaur said. Endorsing her views, Prem Singh, who filed but later withdrew his nomination from Bhoma block samiti segment from the Congress side said it was frivolous and fabricated propaganda by Lalli Majithia. Ravinder Singh from Mattewal block samiti zone and Sheetal of Sohian Kalan block samiti zone said, “We have no clue about what Lalli Majithia said yesterday. We too withdrew our candidature without any fear or pressure,” they said.
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After a month, man booked for wife’s murder
Amritsar, May 18 Those booked include the woman's husband Manjit Singh, his father Amrik Singh and mother Amarjit Kaur. They have been arrested in the case after a case under Sections 302, 34 IPC had been registered against them. According to information, Maninder Singh, the deceased's brother, alleged that her sister was burnt to death by her in-laws. He alleged that the accused used to harass her and asked her to bring Rs 2 lakh from her family. The police, at that time, had initiated the action under Section 174 of
the CrPC. The police authorities said after the completion of the inquiry, opinion was also sought from the District Attorney, following which a murder case
was registered.
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Vaibhav Gupta scores 97 per cent in ICSE exam
Amritsar, May 18 In all, 167 students appeared and all of them cleared the examination. Other meritorious students of the school are Bahaar Pathania (95.2 per cent), Isha Malhotra (95.2 per cent) and Rishab Mehra
(95 per cent). Harjap Singh of Holy Heart School scored 95 per cent, Ajaypal Singh 95 per cent, Bikram Singh and Kawaljit Singh secured 94 per cent marks each. Twentyfour students got more than 90 per cent marks, while 78 students of the school were in the merit list as they got more than 80 per cent marks.
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28 ACET students get campus placement
Amritsar, May 18 ACET managing director Amit Sharma congratulated the students and said the foundation stone for their successful future had been laid and the college was very proud of its students and would continue to support them in their studies as well as career. Exhibition of designer furniture held
The faculty and students of Interior Design Department of BBK DAV College for Women organised an exhibition of designer furniture in the college auditorium. The students created chairs, tables, consoles, LCD cabinets etc using wooden glass and steel. These were furnished with polish and laminated further. From sawing to cutting and fining of wood, every task was done by budding interior designers.
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‘No need to hospitalise child abourers’
Amritsar, May 18 The association took serious note of the situation and said two child specialists working at the Civil Hospital, Amritsar, had conducted a thorough medical examination of all the children. PCMS Association president Dr Madan Mohan said, “Some reports have been published that the children were not admitted for treatment. The doctors had verified every case and children had nothing except old wound marks.”
— TNS
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Twenty eight students from Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology
(ACET) got placements at EXL Infotel as site software engineers. The campus recruitment drive took place at the ACET campus here. The students have bagged a pay package of Rs 3 lakh per annum.
Sunil Kumar, a shopkeeper, said, “If organisations which claim to work for the betterment of the city are defacing it, what can we expect from those who try to save some money by using such places for advertising purposes.”