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Fund raising: MC to auction plot on July 26
Deputy Commissioner sets aside BJP councillor’s election
Youth booked for molesting, robbing girl student
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Health Dept finds quality, storage of mid-day meal in schools poor
Amritsar, July 18 
Following the death of 23 children after consuming mid-day meal in Bihar, the Health Department today carried out a special inspection at various schools in the city and found insects in wheat flour meant for mid-day meal at government schools in Karampura and
Faizpura.Punjab BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh inspects the quality of food served under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme at a government school in Amritsar on Thursday. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Sukhbir approves design of welcome gates
Local manufacturers using fake labels of brands located overseas
Proactive Centre needed to maintain food security: Experts
Three booked for duping man
Five killed in road accidents
MC's revenue wing yields little result
Man stabs wife to death over dispute
City girls to showcase designs in Lakme Fashion Week
The two INIFD students, whose collection has been selected to be showcased at Lakme Fashion Week, in Amritsar. A Tribune Photograph
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Fund raising: MC to auction plot on July 26
Amritsar, July 18 Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said the chunk of land lying idle would be put under hammer on July 26 at around 11 am at Guru Nanak Bhawan, City Centre, here. “It’s exactly 4,067 sq yard residential site located behind the MC Commissioner’s official residence on the Mall Road. The reserve price of the property is Rs 36,000 per sq yard. The earnest money to be deposited is Rs 14 lakh, which can be deposited through cash or demand draft in favour of the Commissioner, MC,” the Mayor said. The MC has on its list six such properties worth over Rs 150 crore, to be auctioned shortly. These properties are 6 acre land at old Sabzi Mandi, near Hall Gate, 2,100 sq yard plot of defunct slaughter house, near Nawan Kot, 1,500 sq yard plot opposite C-Division, 16 booths lying adjacent to Automobile Workshop at Gole Bagh, 2,000 sq yard plot near Shaheed Udham Singh Foundation Hall, near Gilwali Gate, and the 4,000 sq yard residential plot behind the Commissioner’s residence. This move is the result of the depleting fiscal health of the MC. Even as the current budget of around Rs 300.45 crore was anticipated for the year 2013-2014, yet it could not come out with any concrete policy matter to accumulate such a huge chunk of funds, except for selling its properties or raise loans from banks. It was announced in the last general house meeting that another sum of Rs 50 crore is being taken as loan from the Bank of India by mortgaging an MC property located near the bus stand. “All these arrangements are being made for the development of the city. We need at least Rs 15 crore to provide basic facilities to the residents. We have planned to allocate Rs 22 lakh each to 65 wards. The councillor concerned would ask for the funds while detailing about the works on which these would have to be spent,” the Mayor said.
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Deputy Commissioner sets aside BJP councillor’s election
Amritsar, July 18 The election of Dr Ram Chawla was challenged by an Independent candidate, Naresh Kumar Mehta, on the grounds that at least 1,100 votes were added to the list of voters from the constituency after the last date of filing of nominations. Legal counsel for the petitioner Kanwar Pahul Singh said, “These 1,100 votes were added on June 7, 2012, while the election was due on June 10, 2012.” He alleged that none other than the BJP candidate was to be benefited by the newly added votes and as such it was a disadvantage to the rival candidates." He said as per norms all the candidates were required to be given the copy of electoral voters in their constituency after the last date of filing of nominations and no new votes could be added after that day. Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said the Returning Officer could not give a justification regarding addition of new votes after the last date of filing of the nominations and the altered electoral lists were not supplied to all the candidates.
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Youth booked for molesting, robbing girl student
Amritsar, July 18 The incident occurred near the Sangam cinema hall when the girl was returning home after attending her school. The victim, a student of Class XI, complained to the police that Ranjit Singh came on a motorcycle and tried to give her a mobile phone, which she refused to take. Enraged over this Ranjit Singh tore her suit and physically abused her and put the mobile phone in her cloths. The police said infuriated over this, the girl threatened the youth with taking the matter to the village panchayat and hired an auto-rickshaw for her village. The youth then followed her and later ran away after snatching her purse, containing the mobile phone, school books, matric certificate and Rs 1,000. The girl alleged that Ranjit Singh also threatened to pour acid on her face to teach her a lesson. Amarjit Kumar, investigating officer, said a case under Sections 382, 354-A (1) and 506 of the IPC was registered at the A-Division police station. He said raids were being conducted to nab Ranjit Singh.
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Health Dept finds quality, storage of mid-day meal in schools poor
Amritsar, July 18 The team also found that food ingredients were stored with building material at the same place at Dharam Nagar and Kangra Colony schools. The kitchen at Mustafabad School was found lacking in cleanliness and hygiene. Civil Surgeon Dr Yash Mitra said all Medical Officers (MOs) had been instructed to keep an eye on the quality and cleanliness of the cooking process so that children were served good-quality foods. He said all the schools had been instructed through the Education Department to ensure that good quality ingredients were used for cooking. Personal hygiene of the cook should also be ensured. He suggested that an advisory committee of parents and schoolteachers should be constituted in each school to ensure proper hygiene and quality of foods being served. Meanwhile, Punjab BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh along with his supporters also visited government schools in his constituency to ascertain the quality of foods being served to students. He visited four schools and found the conditions worst at the Government Girls School on the Jhabal road as the food material was infested with insects while pulses were scattered on the floor. He said he would bring that to the notice of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, besides taking up the matter with the district administration. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said they had carried out special checks in view of the Bihar incident. He said it had come to light that there were problems in mid-day meal scheme in the schools located in urban areas, while it was ok in the ones situated in rural areas of the district. He said there were infrastructural issues in some schools, but come what may there would be no compromise on food quality and sanitation, adding that corrective measures would be initiated. The school in charges were responsible for these and they could not evade their responsibility.
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Sukhbir approves design of welcome gates
Amritsar, July 18 Designed by the Architecture Department of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), these 100-foot high golden-shade dome gates will reflect the heritage of the city. Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department Jasbir Singh Sodhi said special light arrangements would be made which would illuminate the contours of these gates. "In the first phase, the gate on the Jalandhar-Amritsar GT Road would be set up at a cost of Rs 7.39 crore. The tender for the same has already been released after getting nod from the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board. This gate would be 100-foot wide and 100-foot high. Besides this, state-of-the-art landscaping would be done around it which would add to its grandeur," he told.
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Local manufacturers using fake labels of brands located overseas
Amritsar, July 18
The general public often tends to buy imported goods hoping that these might be prepared as per set food safety standards. The customers are getting sub-standard goods prepared at illegally-run factories here. The department had last week found samples of firms located in Jaipur and Indore from an oil packaging unit operating from Gurjarpura area. Dr Kahlon said, "These factories are often run with batch numbers mentioned on the food. We presume that if someone is selling these products by hiding the actual manufacturer's details, he is supplying sub-standard items." He warned that people must buy food items only after checking the manufacturer's details, batch number, manufacturing date and expiry date. Even the noodle factories busted by the Health Department were found using these fake labels to market their products. The department in the raids conducted outside the local railway station collected 12 samples of food items from five food joints. The shops from which these samples were collected include Kundan Dhaba, Joginder Dhaba, Pehalwan Dhaba, Pritam Dhaba and Narula Hotel on Mall Road. Kahlon said that food joints near the railway station are visited by large number of passengers and as such there were many complaints against them stating that they were selling sub-standard foods.
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Proactive Centre needed to maintain food security: Experts
Amritsar, July 18 Vice-Chancellor, Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh, Prof SS Chahal said this here during the ongoing three-week refresher course in “Health & Life Sciences” at Academic Staff College (ASC) of Guru Nanak Dev University. Dr Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Director, Academic Staff College, welcomed the chief guest and introduced him with the teachers. Dr AJS Bhanwer, Course Coordinator of the Department of Human Genetics, talked in detail about the ongoing course. Prof Chahal, while delivering his talk on food security for removing hunger and improving human health in India, said the policy had focused essentially on growth in agricultural production and the support price for procurement and maintenance of rice and wheat stocks. He said the high production of paddy in Punjab resulted in a decreasing level of groundwater. “The least preferred crops such as pulses and oilseeds are also needed to be produced in Punjab for compensating the decreasing level of groundwater,” he said. The role of genetically modified (GM) crops to meet the millennium development goal for elimination of food scarcity cannot be understated, he added. There is need for a proactive approach of the Indian government through investments in vital agriculture infrastructure, credit linkages and encouraging the use of latest techniques, motivate each district to achieve local self-sufficiency in foodgrain production which ultimately helps to increase food security, he said. Prof Vasudha Sambyal from the Department of Human Genetics emphasised the role of various genetic and racial elements in disease susceptibility. Prof Anish Dua from the Department of Zoology explained the working of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and gave a detailed account of various applications of SEM in various fields of life sciences.
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Three booked for duping man
Amritsar, July 18 He said the accused, identified as Vishal Prabhakar his brother Vikas Prabhakar and Vishal’s wife Aarti Prabhakar, returned only half of the money. The police has registered a case under Section 420, 120-B of the IPC. Man arrested with banned drugs
The anti-narcotic cell of Amritsar rural police nabbed Jagjit Singh of Kayaspur and seized over 7,500 capsules and tablets of proscribed drugs from him. The accused was booked under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at the Ramdass police station in this connection. The police said the accused was held from near Gorenangal village. Sub-Inspector (SI) Gurvel Singh said the police recovered 5,510 capsules and 2,010 tablets from his possession. Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused used to sell the drugs to gullible people in rural areas. The accused, who works as a quack in the village, had been brought on police remand and further investigations were under progress, the SI added. Mystery shrouds death of Gate Hakima resident
Mystery shrouds the death of Hardyal Singh, a resident of Gate Hakima, who allegedly consumed some poisonous substance and later died in a hospital. The police said the deceased had illicit relations with a married woman residing in Sultanwind area where the incident took place. The police has initiated action under Section 174 of the CrPC in this regard. The police said appropriate action would be taken after the post-mortem examination. The woman whom the deceased had an affair with earlier lived in Gate Hakima. Her family however shifted to Sultanwind village when they came to know about their relationship. Hardyal's family, however, suspected that he might have been killed by the family of the girl.
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Five killed in road accidents
Amritsar, July 18 In the first incident, a Mahindra Bolero , driven by Manpreet Singh of Majitha Road, hit an auto-rickshaw near Sangatpura village which led to the death of Money (8), a resident of Sanjay Gandhi Colony and Paramjit Singh (60) of Bal Kalan village. The victims were going to pay obeisance at Dera Baba Nanak. Makhan Singh, an injured,
told the police that the speeding Bolero came from wrong side and hit their vehicle which was badly damaged. All the victims were trapped in the damaged auto-rickshaw and were pulled out. Among those injured include Wilson Masih, Gopi, Pargat Singhm, Wilson, Raju, Sajan and Vicky, all residents of Sanjay Gandhi Colony and Lal of Dharampura village. Jhander police has registered a case under Section 304-A, 279, 337, 338, 427 of the IPC against Manpreet who fled the scene. In another road mishap, three women were run over by a speeding truck near Chauhan village. The police has arrested the truck driver Sukhwinder Singh in this connection. Reports said a speeding truck crushed five persons who were walking on the roadside. The driver apparently lost the control as a result of which the truck went off the road and ran over the victims identified as Palwinder Kaur, her sister Jasbir Kaur, Sahib Singh, Gurbachan Singh and Sammi, all residents of Chauhan village. While Jasbir Kaur (27) and Sammi (50) died on the spot, Palwinder succumbed to her injuries at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital here. Sucha Singh, father-in-law of Palwinder Kaur, told the police that the truck driver identified as Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Varpal, was driving very rashly which led to the incident. The Tarsikka police arrested the accused and a case under Section 304, 279, 337 and 338 of the IPC has been registered against him.
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MC's revenue wing yields little result
Amritsar, July 18 There have been regular transfers of employees and officials in the House Tax Department which also hampered the recovery process. There are, ironically, a substantial number of offenders who have repeatedly been issued legal notices but they did not bother to clear their dues. Some of the cases are as old as 10 years. A couple of months ago, the MC had issued notices to over 200 defaulters through advertisements in various newspapers. They have been warned sternly against the non-payment of their dues within a stipulated period, lest their properties could be auctioned to recover the amount. Official sources said even as over 75 per cent people had paid their dues, it was a miniscule collection. Later, the MC had to abandon the move apparently owing to the directions from the government as the next Lok Sabha elections are approaching. Officials said around 600 cases belonged to the big business houses and commercial ventures, which enjoyed "immunity" for a few months and played a major role in funding the political parties during elections. Superintending Engineer Jaswinder Singh has ordered his staff to re-scrutinise the defaulters' files. It has been learnt that over 1,500 cases of “objections” have been lying pending before the House Tax Sub-Committee. Superintendent Sushant Bhatia said the House Tax Department is planning to boost the recovery process and fresh notices are being served upon the offenders. “The payments got stalled as some of the defaulters who had sought some time to clear their dues had been granted the same. Then there were a lot of discrepancies in the list of defaulters which needs to be reviewed. We are going to issue fresh notices too,” he said.
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Man stabs wife to death over dispute
Amritsar, July 18 Gian Singh, a close relative of the accused Kewal Singh, told the police that the victim came to his house a day before and alleged that her husband used to beat her over minor disputes. He said last morning when he along with his wife and Sharanjit was sitting in his house Kewal Singh came on a motorcycle there. Before they could understand anything, Kewal took out a sharp-edged weapon and stabbed Sharanjit and fled away, he said. He said Sharanjit fell unconscious and was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital, Baba Bakala, where she died last night. Earlier, the Beas police registered an attempt to murder case which was later converted into a murder case. The police said that the accused was still at large and raids were being conducted to nab him. 7 held for drinking in public
The Cantonment police has nabbed seven persons in three separate incidents on charges of drinking in public place. The accused were identified as Jatinder Singh of Guru Nanak Pura, Rajinder Singh of Mohan Nagar Verka, Kamal Sharma of Chheharta, Vijay Kumar of Chheharta, Ajit Singh of Putlighar, Harkirat Singh and Kulwinder Singh of Fatahpur. They were later released on bail while three separate cases under Section 68/1/14 of Excise Act were registered.
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City girls to showcase designs in Lakme Fashion Week
Amritsar, July 18 Both the girls have their fingers crossed.
"It's quite exciting to be a part of something so exclusive in the fashion industry. Though our designs will be displayed in the GenNext category along with other amateur designers, it still means putting your best efforts in place," says Simran, a first-year fashion designing student. The girls have conceptualised an autumn/ winter collection inspired by Chinar leaves. "Chinar leaves are beautiful and symbolise perfect autumn/winter setting. We have used all the shades of chinar leaf in our designs and used its shape to highlight the patchwork in our collection," says Sonia. Doing away with the usual autumn colours, they have used vibrant hues in orange, red and green to improvise. "The collection comprises of trousers, skirts and blazers and we have made interesting combinations with bright colours. We have not used any accessories but just footwear which too has shades of Chinar," says Simran. They use a lot sequins, second stitch work and fabrics in lycra and khadi as embellishments and patchwork. For Simran, it is her first big break. But Sonia, a third-year student in fashion designing, is at the LFW for the first time. Her designs had made it to the GenNext category last year as well. "I love playing with colours in my designs. My last collection too had vibrant shades and worked with enamel-based colours. This time a lot of red and orange has been highlighted," she says. She stood out with her zipper accessories last time and this time it is the boots. "The only accessories in our collection this time are long, knee-high boots in bright colours like neon greens and reds," she says. "We don't know yet if our collection will make it to the ramp or be a part of the exhibition area, but we hope to grab attention with our designs. We have kept the idea simple as we both believe fashion should come easy and simple for all," quips Simran. Both of them expect to meet their role models Manish Malhotra and Sabhyascahi Mukherjee and hope to make their visit to the LFW worthwhile even if their designs do not hit the ramp.
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The cash-strapped Municipal Corporation (MC) will start auctioning its properties to generate funds for carrying out development works in the city, which have been suffering due to paucity of grants.
While the Municipal Corporation (MC) is already grappling with fund generation, its revenue generation department has failed to yield desired results.
It has come to light that out of the total recovery of nearly Rs 24
crore, which is to be realised by the MC's House Tax Department lying due for the past six years, the possibility of recovering Rs 10 crore seems bleak as most of the defaulting properties have either changed hands or have been demolished.
Amritsar, July 18
