Amritsar, June 1
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) has come under the scanner of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for failing to abide by its directions for allowing the general public to participate in the general house meetings.

On a contempt of court petition filed by a local advocate, the High Court has issued notices to Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora, MC Commissioner Bhupinder Singh and Secretary, Local Bodies, Ashok Kumar Gupta. The next date of hearing in High Court is September 2.

The MC has postponed the general house meeting scheduled for May 30 at the eleventh hour.

Earlier, in a civil writ petition filed by advocate Parmod Chander Bali in September 2012, the High Court had directed the Municipal Corporation to adhere to the “procedure” given in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, whereby the general public was empowered to attend the general house meeting of the MC.

Talking to The Tribune, Bali said, “Even as the High Court had given directions to the Municipal Corporation to allow the general public to participate in the general house meetings, they have failed to follow it.”

He said the MC had not yet framed the rules for allowing people to witness the meetings.

Interestingly, the MC had invited Bali to attend the general house meeting twice even as it failed to make room for the general public.

“I had received the MC invitation. But it should have been for all the residents to witness the meeting,” said Bali.

The Municipal Corporation has also invited criticism for postponing the meeting of the general house scheduled for May 30 at the last moment. The corporation officials had stated that the meeting was postponed because of the death of a family member of a senior leader of the house.

The People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) leaders said the move was unconstitutional. PPP’s district president Manmohan Singh Gumtala and youth leader Sandy Randhawa said Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora should take responsibility for his failure to invite the public to witness the meetings and for postponing the recent meeting.

Bali has even filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and sought explanation over under which procedures the meeting was postponed. He said he would approach the High Court as procedure was not followed by the MC.

MC Commissioner Bhupinder Singh said, "The procedure to invite the general public could not be followed as the corporation has not yet formed the rules for the same under the PMC Act, 1976. I have ordered for framing of the rules so that the general public could witness the general house meetings. The rules would be framed in the next fortnight."

Contempt of court petition On a contempt of court petition filed by a local advocate, the HC issued notices to the Mayor, MC Commissioner and Secretary, Local Bodies The HC had earlier directed the MC to adhere to the "procedure" given in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, whereby the general public is empowered to attend the general house meeting of the MC The lawyer has also filed an application under the RTI Act and sought explanation over under which procedures the May 30 house meeting was postponed

Amritsar, June 1
Some unidentified persons decamped with gold jewellery and Rs 2.50 lakh cash from a house on Yaseen road near Aanum Cinema here.

The incident came to light when a neighbour found a window of the house open. The family had gone to Delhi due to holidays.

Ravish Behal, owner of the house, said he had gone to meet their son in New Delhi and from there they went to Shimla for spending holidays. They reached today afternoon after they received the information regarding the burglary.

A cloth trader, Behal said the thieves decamped with gold jewellery weighing around 460 grams and diamond jewellery besides cash kept in different almirahs. A dog squad was pressed into service. Forensic teams also took the fingerprints from the spot.

Amritsar, June 1
The lure of easy money and lavish lifestyle drove Bikramjit Singh, Sahib Singh and Malkit Singh — the the three armymen arrested yesterday for being part of an interstate robbers' gang — into the crime.

Three of their accomplices are still at large.

While Bikramjit and Sahib were expelled from the Army, Malkit Singh was on leave. Bikramjit was expelled in January this year as he had not been joining the unit for past several months.

Investigations revealed that after committing the crime they used to lodge in at five-star hotels and move around in luxury vehicles snatched from various parts of Punjab and other states. Liquor vends and petrol pumps were their primary targets. They even looted showrooms of expensive mobile phones and shoes.

It was May 15 that they had looted a liquor vend in Rayya which led to their arrest. They had robbed around Rs 95000 from a liquor vend employee. The vend owner immediately informed the Rayya police which intercepted them near the Army Cantonment area.

The police had recovered arms, Army uniform, four mobile phones and a large number of SIM cards from the luxury car bearing number UK-04-HH-9699, which they had stolen from Bareilly in UP. The Army uniforms and identity cards led to their identification.

However, the accused along with their unidentified accomplice had fled the scene leaving behind the vehicle. After committing the crime they fled to Nanded in Maharashtra where they snatched a car at gunpoint.

The accused have confessed to about 12 looting cases. Investigations revealed that they had been doing this for the last two-and-half month. 

the Crime Trail Snatched a Skoda Fabia car from Bareily in UP Snatched cash from a liquor vendor near Kapurthala Robbed a mobile shop at Subhanpur at gunpoint Robbed a liquor vendor outside Rayya and snatched Rs 50,000 and a mobile phone Snatched a Maruti Swift car at gunpoint from Nanded in Maharashtra Looted a Reebok showroom on the Delhi-Karnal highway

Amritsar, June 1
With the oil companies increasing the petrol and diesel prices from tonight and Verka also raising milk prices by Rs 2 per litre, the common man has been further hit by high inflation.

Punjab Petroleum Dealers’ Association president JP Khanna said though the oil PSUs hiked petrol price by 75 paisa and diesel by 50 paisa, the government charged 30 per cent VAT on petrol, which was the maximum in the country. Chandigarh charges 22 per cent VAT, while neighbouring Haryana levies 20 per cent VAT on petrol.

The hike in petrol and diesel prices after the recent hike in loose and packaged milk left common people, industrialists, traders and petroleum dealers fuming.

Suhasini Marwaha, a housewife, said the hike in prices of milk, petrol and diesel would burn a deep hole in the pocket of middle and lower middle class families. She said it would bring in more trouble for economically weaker sections.

Industrialist Raman Gupta said raw material for majority of industries here, including, yarn, coal, wood, colour, chemicals, iron bars, thread and others, came from as far as Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and southern states.

“The hike in diesel price will increase the transportation costs, even if marginally,” he said. 

Amritsar, June 1
A day after a news report was published in Amritsar Tribune regarding a rare fresco on the verge of vanishing near the Golden Temple, a team of the Department of Tourism today visited the site and showed keen interest in preserving the wall painting.

“This is a rare wall painting depicting the first Sikh master Guru Nanak Dev during a religious discourse with his sons Baba Sri Chand and Baba Laxmi Chand along with his two disciples Bala and Mardana playing ‘Rabab’,” said Tourism Officer Balraj Singh.

“I was deputed by Deputy Commissioner Rajat Agarwal to personally visit the site and look what could be done in this regard,” he said.

The head of the Baba Tehal Das Akhara who owned the samadh which adorned the painting was out of station and he would discuss the issue with him, he added.

Balraj Singh said if the akhara desired they would provide them the expertise for preserving the fresco.

We had highlighted the pathetic condition of the fresco located near the Golden Temple entrance where a plaza is being constructed. 

Amritsar, June 1
It is not only the domestic consumer, the power crisis has also hit the micro and macro industrial units located in unplanned and residential areas of the city.

An erratic power supply is giving a tough time to the industries. Poor industrial growth in the state was due to irregular power supply and that too at high costs, said Suresh Aggarwal, an industrialist. While power is available at cheap rates in the neighbouring hill states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, the situation here is different altogether.

Traders and industrialists feel that their businesses have been hit hard. Harjinder Singh, an industrialist, said the power supply situation was reasonably good at planned industrial areas like New Focal Point on Mehta road, Focal Point and others.

But irregular power cuts are being forced in other areas which is increasing their cost of production, said PL Seth of Shawl Club of India (SCI). He said the raw material used in the textile industry came from outside the state. In this scenario, industrialists do not stand any chance to compete with their counterparts in other states.

He said about four-hour long power cuts were being forced in Nawa Kot and Dam Ganj areas where many small textile units are based.

It has been learnt that the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is gearing up to manage the balance between the rising demand and supply. Though the PSPCL officials did not confirm the development, it is learnt that unscheduled power cuts of nearly three to four hours are being imposed daily in the district.

Sale of generators and invertors has gone up. Besides trade and industry, hospitality industry which is the mainstay of the city's economy, has been adversely affected. A hotelier said the daily bill for diesel had gone up in the recent past.

Another hotelier Satnam Singh Kanda said the majority of hotels in the walled city used inverters. 

Amritsar, June 1
BJP president Kamal Sharma and other party leaders met protesting teachers of Guru Nanak Dev University here today. Demanding release of their arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission, the protest by GNDU Teachers' Association (GNDUTA) entered its tenth day today.

Kamal Sharma was accompanied by Chief Parliamentary Secretary and MLA Amritsar (East) Dr Navjot Kaur and BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh.

Sharma gave a patient hearing to the grievances and demands of the teachers and assured them that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Association leaders apprised Sharma of several instances of the alleged anti-teacher and autocratic behaviour of the Vice-Chancellor.

The protesting teachers alleged that the Vice-Chancellor was flouting both the UGC norms and the university calendar to push his own agenda and misrule.

Talking to the teachers, Sharma said that he would arrange a meeting of the GNDUTA with the Chief Minister. He agreed that the non-payment of the arrears of university teachers was an urgent matter which he would take up with the authorities concerned. The teachers expressed their thanks to the visiting dignitaries.

Association's vice-president Dr Amarjit Singh Soodan and treasurer Dr RS Kaler sat on the hunger strike today. All other members of the executive committee remained present during the hunger strike. Teachers from the GNDU campus and constituent and affiliated colleges and the PCCTU representative marked their presence at the venue.

Amritsar, June 1
Members of the Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Sikhya Abhiyan Non-Teaching Employees Union held a protest at historic Ram Bagh here today against the state government in favour of their demands.

District president of the union Vikas Kumar said about 2,000 non-teaching employees in the state were working under the Union Government-sponsored schemes for the past eight years.

He said all these employees were working on contractual basis while the state government regularised the teachers who were appointed under these schemes.

Another member of the union Sanjeev Kumar said even in the contemporary phase of high inflation they were being paid a fixed amount while denying the social welfare benefits which were being extended to other employees. 

Amritsar, June 1
Dr Rakesh Sharma, Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Government Medical College, has been invited for the 14th Congress of the “European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT)”, being held at Istanbul, Turkey, from June 5.

He will present his paper based on his three-year old research on the topic “Growth Factors Rich Plasma (GFRP) - Emerging Management Option For Early Osteoarthritis Knees”. Dr Sharma said the research was an endeavour to find the most cost-effective measure to achieve management for osteoarthritis knee so that knee-joint replacement could be avoided. He said he had presented the pilot work at many National and Asian forums in India.

He claimed that it would be after a long time that an orthopaedic surgeon from a local government medical college would address an international gathering in Europe.

Dr Sharma used platelet rich plasma therapy for over 100 patients suffering from different stages of osteoarthritis joints, including knee and shoulder with very good results. 

Amritsar, June 1
A group of SAD workers today protested against Amritsar East MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu accusing her of ignoring the development works in their area which falls in her Assembly constituency. The SAD workers from Ward Nos. 16, 17 and 34 blocked traffic on the Sultanwind road and burnt her effigy to lodge their protest. They alleged that they worked hard to make sure that she won the Assembly elections, but today they were being ignored. They alleged that the BJP MLA was biased against them, particularly in Ward No. 34.

Independent councillor Jaskeerat Singh said, "I had told them not to resort to protest as we were the ones who supported her in the elections, but they didn't heed to my request." On the other hand, Dr Sidhu denied the charge, contending that she was making all efforts for the development in her constituency and if the people had any problem they could approach her.

Meanwhile, Dr Sidhu met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh yesterday and brought to his notice the problems being faced by residents of Verka and Vallah and other parts of her constituency. She urged Badal to release funds for the cleaning of Verka Vallah drain which was the root cause of many health problems. The Chief Minister immediately directed the Chief Drainage Punjab to inspect the area along with Municipal Corporation Commissioner and submit report directly to him so that necessary action could be taken accordingly. Badal also sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the development of Amritsar East Constituency through the Amritsar Improvement Trust.

He also agreed to fulfill the demands of Dr Sidhu for making Vallah a model village in which all the basic amenities like sewerage, safe drinking water, better roads, street lights, upgrade of schools etc would be provided to the residents. 

Chandigarh, June 1
On the first day of the Dhruv Pandove Trophy for boys (U-19), the local side scored 194 runs for the loss of eight wickets against Amritsar today.

The Chandigarh team elected to bat first and was restricted to 194 runs in 95 overs. Arpit Singh (42 runs), Shubham Bhambri (33 runs), Arjit Singh (31 runs) and Simranpreet (20 runs) were the main contributors. For Amritsar, left-arm spinner Rohit claimed 6 wickets by giving away 59 runs. 

Amritsar, June 1
Unidentified motorcycle borne youths robbed a Delhi resident, identified as Baljit Kaur, who was travelling on a rickshaw in the Golden Avenue area here.

The victim said she and her daughter-in-law were travelling on a rickshaw and had reached a Gurdwara in Golden Avenue when two motorcycle-borne youth snatched her purse. She said the purse contained Rs 60,000, four passports, air tickets to Delhi, besides other belongings.

A case under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC has been registered at Rambagh police station in this connection. — TNS