700 school principals to attend CBSE conference
Amritsar, May 25
About 700 principals of CBSE affiliated schools and eminent educationists from the country and abroad will attend the National Conference of CBSE Schools here in November 2013.

Townships along highways on the outskirts of city vulnerable to crime
Amritsar, May 25
Even as urbanisation has resulted in setting up of various townships on highways on the outskirts of the city, people residing in these localities are more vulnerable to criminal activities like robbery and snatching.

Amritsar, May 25
Couple of days after a notorious criminal Jagtar Singh, alias Bhoot, escaped from Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) after giving a slip to the jail escort guard, another undertrial, who was referred to the hospital from Gurdaspur, dodged policemen and fled from the hospital.

However, he was rearrested by the Majitha Road police following a hunt launched by it. A case has been registered against the four policemen for negligence in the duty.

According to information, Vicky Masih, the jail inmate, was admitted to the hospital on May 22 after he had fits. Doctors at the Gurdaspur jail referred him to GNDH. He was arrested by Fatehgarh Churian police for possessing narcotics.

Last night, he got his handcuffs removed on the pretext of going to bathroom. But taking the advantage of a broken window, Masih gave escaped from the hospital. The jail escort immediately informed the adjoining Majitha Road police post. A search operation was launched, which helped in rearresting Masih from the area.

Madan Lal, investigating officer, said a case of dereliction in duty had been lodged against Balwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Kuljit Singh, the jail escort staff.

It may be mentioned here that GNDH has become a favourite escape route for jail inmates. About a dozen undertrials have been under treatment in the hospital at present.

Earlier too such instances had occurred wherein notorious criminals and smugglers escaped from GNDH after dodging the police teams guarding them.

On April 22, an undertrial from Tarn Taran had escaped from the hospital.

In 2012, Vijay Kumar, who had been severing sentence in a murder case, fled from the hospital taking advantage of the negligence on the part of three members of the jail staff.

In December, 2010, an Afghan prisoner, Shahjahan, who was serving sentence for peddling of drugs and narcotics, dodged four guards and fled from GNDH.

Earlier, a Pakistani inmate, Niyamat Ali, escaped from police custody from the same hospital.

Amritsar, May 25
Considering the problem faced by attendants of patients from far-off areas, the Guru Nanak Dev 
Hospital (GNDH) authorities has plans to open a "serai" on the hospital premises. The hospital authorities are contemplating to convert the building of previous 
de-addiction centre and community health centre, managed by the Red Cross Society, into a "night-stay" facility for visitors.

The building is vacant at present and the hospital management has asked the Red Cross Society for it. Medical Superintendent of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital Dr KS Sidhu said, "As soon as the Red Cross Society hands over the building to us we would convert it into a serai." He said the facility would help a large number of people, who come here accompanying patients.

At present with no such facility in place, the attendants can be seen sleeping in corridors or out in the parks. "It would be very good if such a place is created in the hospital. People here come from far-off districts and sometimes even out of state," said a visitor, Kewal Ram.

Not everybody that comes to the hospital have relatives to seek help or resources to stay in a hotel. The proposed facility would provide stay and other facilities without the people having to spend much from their pocket.

Visitors said though they managed to sleep in corridors and in parks during the night, in the summers it is not a easy thing to do. "The corridors have fans, but it does not look nice. The serai would solve many problems for the visitors," added another visitor.

Meanwhile, an official of the Red Cross Society said they had received a request from the hospital as well as directions from the Deputy Commissioner.

The official said, "We are going through the revenue records to establish the ownership of the building. Once this is done, proper procedure will be followed to hand over the building for the purpose," said the official. 

Amritsar, May 25
The Child Labour Task Force, constituted by the district administration, rescued seven children working at jewellery and tea shops in the Guru Bazaar area here today.

Assistant Commissioner Surinder Singh said the police would take strict action against the shop owners.

The children were later taken to Red Cross Bhawan and were medically examined. Four of the rescued children belong to West Bengal, two to Uttar Pradesh and one to Tarn Taran district of the state.

Surinder Singh said all the children would be taken to Child Care Home at Hoshiarpur from where they would be sent to their respective homes. Around a week ago, the administration had got 15 children rescued from a house in the Sultanwind road area.

Amritsar, May 25
Though the Tourism Department installed benches along the roadside at Dharam Singh Market near the Golden Temple to facilitate tourists, they have been encroached upon by shopkeepers in the area for keeping their stock of goods, thus defeating the purpose of the exercise.

A pilgrim from Sangrur, Amardeep Singh, said he along with old parents and other family members came to the holy city for pilgrimage yesterday. “My old parents were completely exhausted while returning from the holy shrine in the morning. They wished to take rest on benches installed in Dharam Singh Market.” However, shopkeepers had placed their merchandise on the benches and their request to remove the same was treated with frown.

He said the government must ensure that the facilities were maintained and used by the people for whom they were provided. “The misuse of government facilities by businessmen defeat the objective,” he said.

Another tourist from West Bengal Ranjan Sen said the way seats were placed with their front facing the road it was apparently for tourists to take some rest. However, he wondered that not one, but all benches were occupied by shopkeepers by placing their merchandise over these. He pointed out that the benches were placed under the open sky and were useless in the present scorching heat and during rains. He felt that canopies could be raised over these to provide shelter from heat and rain to tourists.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner Bhupinder Singh said though the seats were installed by the Tourism Department for the convenience of pilgrims, but the corporation was taking care of these. He ensured that he would direct the staff to take action against the shopkeepers who had encroached on these seats and clear them for the tourists.

Amritsar, May 25
About 700 principals of CBSE affiliated schools and eminent educationists from the country and abroad will attend the National Conference of CBSE Schools here in November 2013.

This was announced during a meeting of principals of Sahodaya Schools, an organisation of CBSE schools, held yesterday at Senior Study School. As many as 80 Principals from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts attended the meeting. Dharamveer Singh, Chairman of the organisation, presided over the meeting.

The Amritsar Sahodaya is an organisation of the CBSE. Its members aim at promoting the welfare of students through cooperation and sharing of knowledge and experience for the implementation of new educational policies.

Khalsa College Public School Principal Sarvjit Kaur Brar, who is convener of the conference, announced various committees of principals to organise the conference. The Implementation of Skill Competency Based Vocational Courses in Schools at the senior secondary level, from the 2013-14 academic session, was also discussed in the meeting.

The CBSE is now offering 40 vocational courses in different sectors at the senior secondary level and four vocational courses at the secondary level. Many of these courses are offered in collaboration with professional organisations to create skilled manpower for the industry in order to upgrade skills and proficiency of youngsters and also to provide awareness about various career options.

Dr Dharamveer, while interacting with Principals, said the CBSE was bringing about a lot of changes in the syllabus and scheme of examinations so that the analytical and critical thinking of students could be evaluated.

Vijay Mehra, Principal, Senior Study School, who is the coordinator of a committee under the sahodaya Schools, explained in detail about various changes in syllabus and style of paper of various subjects for 2013-14.

Principals of various schools, including Neera Sharam, Urminder Kaur, Promila Kamal, Dr Manjit Singh, Vinodita, Amarjit Kaur and Dapinder Kaur, were among those present.

Amritsar, May 25
Even as urbanisation has resulted in setting up of various townships on highways on the outskirts of the city, people residing in these localities are more vulnerable to criminal activities like robbery and snatching.

Over the past some years such incidents have reached an alarming level exposing the claims of the SAD-BJP government providing a crime-free environment.

This has become evident with a fresh instance of a teacher getting injured by robbers when she resisted their bid to loot her in the New Amritsar area located on the Amritsar-Jalandhar highway.

A resident of the New Amritsar B-block, Amarjit Kaur alleged that yesterday she was attacked with a sickle by three motorcycle-borne youths about 1pm when she was returning home from school. The miscreants managed to injure her both arms but she resisted their attempts to secure her purse.

Though she had informed the nearest police post at Tara Wala Pul about the incident, did not file a formal complaint. She recalled that it was around a year ago that she was attacked in a similar fashion by some unidentified youths and her purse was also snatched that time.

Another resident of the New Amritsar B-block locality said some unidentified youths waylaid him when he was returning home on a scooter from the day’s work some months ago. They tried to snatch away his wallet by pointing a sharp-edged weapon.

A bank employee and a resident of this locality alleged that sanitary items and other costly articles were taken away by thieves about three months ago nfrom his home.

He said unidentified persons forcibly entered his house after breaking open the doors and decamped with costly household items.

A resident of the New Amritsar Residents Welfare Association locality and also a social worker, Vivek Goel, said earlier women and old-aged people were vulnerable to such incidents but nowothers arfe also being targeted. In the absence of any concrete action, they are now attacking people in daylight taking advantage of desolate roads during the noon.

“Residents of New Amritsar B-block area have demanded enhancement of security and patrolling in the area to check criminal activities. A demand was also made to raise a boundary wall around the locality,” he said. He added that due to such incidents residents were avoiding late evening walks.

Such incidents are not confined to the New Amritsar locality but are common in colonies that have come up on highways.

In November 2011, five armed persons barged into a house in the Palm Groove Colony on the airport road and decamped with cash and jewellery worth lakhs after holding a five-year-old girl hostage at gunpoint.

In another incident, six armed persons decamped with gold jewellery worth over Rs 9 lakh from a house in the Green Field locality, located on the Majitha road area on August 20, 2011.

Earlier this year, armed youth barged into the house of a medical practitioner in the Vrindavan locality on the Fatehgarh Churiyan road and decamped with cash and jewellery after keeping members of the family hostage.

Amritsar, May 25
The Regional Passport Office held a passport mela here today to facilitate applicants who have been facing difficulties in securing an appointment for the issuance of 
passport.

The office had issued 500 appointment slots to ease the rush. Regional Passport Officer JS Sodhi said: “The passport mela would help reduce the rush at the office.”

He said of the 500 appointments made online, around 455 applicants attended the mela.

He said passports would be granted within the next few days to those applicants who were interviewed today.

Sodhi said in view of the summer holidays, the rush at the office had increased enormously.

The passport seva kendra where this mela was organised today remains closed on Saturdays.

“We had called the entire staff of the office so that applicants do not face issues in getting their passports issued,” Sodhi added.

However, some persons who had reached the passport seva Kendra without taking online appointment tried to create a ruckus demanding that they should also be allowed to get interviewed. However, police was called to control the situation.

Sodhi said: “We had clearly defined the fact earlier that only those who would take the appointment would be interviewed. As such, there was not any chance that we could allow those who had not followed the guidelines.”

The office had made elaborate arrangements to accommodate the applicants. Drinking water was also arranged for visitors outside the office.

Amritsar, May 25
Though the city police has formed a special investigating team (SIT) in the high-profile gambling case in which several senior police officials were accused of misappropriating the confiscated money, the move has not gone down well with the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO), an NGO that had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the matter.

The PHRO had alleged in the petition that the Punjab Police was trying to hush up the case and was not taking action against the senior police officials who had allegedly misappropriated the money.

A probe was already conducted in the case by SS Chauhan, IG, (Crime), who had recommended action against the accused police officials. He had reportedly submitted its report to the department in December 2012.

The probe was entrusted to him by the Principal Secretary (Home) after the PHRO had approached the high court in 2011.

The high court has, now, asked the police department to submit a detailed reply along with the probe report submitted by Chauhan, besides the action being taken by it on May 29, the next date of hearing.

In October 2011, a police party had raided Shalimar Resort where a high-level gambling was allegedly under progress. Initially, it was alleged that the police had recovered nearly Rs 80 lakh, besides apprehending about 180 couples belonging to the who’s who of the city. But later, the police registered a case against 45 persons while claiming that only Rs 9 lakh were recovered from the spot.

At that time the police had suspended ADCP crime Bahadur Singh, ACP Jaswant Singh, besides several other police personnel, including two policewomen.

The city police has formed SIT, headed by ADCP city-II, Amrik Singh Pawar, to further investigate the case. ACP Gurnam Singh and Inspector Harish Behal were among others who are included in the investigating team.

Sarabjit Singh of PHRO questioning the move said when a probe was already conducted by an IG-level officer, then the constitution of another SIT does not hold any ground.

He said the PHRO would boycott SIT and would not join the investigations.