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Two gold traders injured in firing
The persons who were injured in firing by robbers in Amritsar on Wednesday. Photos: Sameer Sehgal
Punjab Roadways depot in the city in a deplorable condition
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Stamp paper shortage troubles residents again
3 booked for culpable homicide
MC fails to recover Rs 10 crore from govt offices
Govt vehicles take law for a ride on city roads
A Health Department ambulance without number plate in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Workshop on astronomy, physics concludes at DAV College
Woman accuses her husband of murder bid
City youth to study child mortality causes in India
Defence Minister invites criticism for his Parliament remark
Three cops booked for dereliction of duty
Border area farmers meet BSF DIG
Omaxe to open concept mall soon
Awareness programme on breastfeeding organised
People attend an awareness session on breastfeeding at the Civil Hospital in Amritsar on Wednesday. A Tribune Photograph |
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Two gold traders injured in firing
Amritsar, August 7 The accused reportedly took away around 0.5 kg of gold jewellery from the victims. Senior police officials reached the spot and started investigations. The incident occurred at about 8 pm just near former MLA Malkeet Singh’s residence when the two traders, identified as Subodh and Varun Kumar, were returning from Tahliwala Chowk. The area is famous for gold jewellery trade. The accused, who were armed with sharp-edged weapons and illegal weapons, first tried to snatch the bag containing the jewellery. When the traders resisted them, they allegedly fired at them, besides attacking them with sharp-edged weapons. Several passersby also sustained minor injuries from the splinters. An eyewitness, while detailing the incident to the police, said the two traders came running in order to save themselves while the accused were chasing them. He said the accused also fired at a nearby chowk while fleeing from the area.
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Punjab Roadways depot in the city in a deplorable condition
Amritsar, August 7 There is neither any drinking water facility nor proper washrooms for the staff while it remains waterlogged during rainy days. To make the situation worse, there are heaps of discarded tyres and spare parts of vehicles, in which rainwater gets accumulated for days together, posing a perfect ground for breeding mosquitoes and flies. There are dingy rooms with broken windowpanes which are being used by drivers and conductors. The bus depots have no proper benches or seats for the staff on which they could relax during their resting hours. Dhanwinder Singh, a driver of a long-route bus between Amritsar and Delhi at Depot No.1, said they had broken benches and wooden stools to relax in between their scheduled hours. Another driver Jaspal Singh said they would be exposed to various diseases due to pathetic conditions prevailing in the depot. "With the absence of any provision for proper washroom, we are compelled to urinate in the open. The whole premises remains waterlogged. Such unhygienic conditions are telling on our health, but the authorities never bother to take cognisance of it," he said. Sukhwinder Singh, a driver associated with Depot No. 2, said during the rains, they have to pass through the area by folding their trousers up to the knees. "We have no choice but to wade through the slush," he said. "The smell is so awful that it is impossible to pass through stagnant water without covering the nose. It is the duty of the officials to at least provide us with reasonably good conditions, if not very good. We drive on long routes, but there is no proper provision of drinking water," he said. General Manager, Punjab Roadways, Amritsar depot, DS Gill, admitted that there were shortcomings. "I joined here a few days ago only. I know that deficiencies are there, but I will try my level best to rectify these," he said. Grey areas
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Stamp paper shortage troubles residents again
Amritsar, August 7 The stamp paper worth Rs 50 is being sold at Rs 300, while the one of Rs 100 value is available at Rs 500, alleged one Nasib Singh. The scarcity of stamp papers of smaller denominations has pushed up their price in the market. The shortage of stamp papers seems to be a continuous problem, as people at the district courts said the stamp papers had always been sold at a higher price. The shortage has turned to the advantage of stamp paper sellers, as they are charging for stamp papers. Gurbhej Singh, a resident of the Rani Ka Bagh area, said the scarcity was disadvantageous for the common man. He alleged that stamp papers of the value of Rs 100, which were being sold for Rs 200 a month ago, had become dearer now. He said if the customer were not willing to spend more, the shopkeepers refuse to give them stamp papers. He said the persistent scarcity had zoomed up the prices. Advocates at the District Courts, too, rued that the stamp papers of the value of Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100 were not easily available. These stamp papers of smaller denominations were required for notary documents and signing of various agreements. It is not that all stamp paper sellers are selling these. Many of them deny having stamp papers, while the few which have these sell the same at a high price. Treasury officials said the district requires stamp papers of around Rs 2.5 crore every month. Stamp papers are printed at Nasik and then they are brought to the Ludhiana treasury, where the state nodal agency is situated, from where these are distributed to the district treasuries. Officials at the treasury said the demand for stamp papers had already been sent and the shortage would end soon. District Revenue Officer Mukesh Sharma said his department would conduct searches and anybody found hoarding stamps would not be spared. He added that his department could recommend the cancellation of licences of these vendors to the District Collector, which is the issuing authority for the same.
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3 booked for culpable homicide
Amritsar, August 7 Among those booked include Mangal Singh of Baba Sangat Singh Nagar, Mehta road, Jhudu of Baba Shaheed Singh Nagar, Mehta Road and Bikkar Singh of street number 9, Maqboolpura. Davinder was thrashed and beaten up by a number of youths involved in "thikri pehra" in the Maqboolpura area on the night of July 30. Raju, deceased's father, stated to the police that his son had gone to drop some relatives, who had come to participate in a jagran. He was accompanied by Kishan Singh, principal, and Jaggu, all residents of the same area. He alleged that when they were returning, the accused, who were involved in "theekri pehra" and were armed with sharp-edged and blunt weapons, tried to stop them. On seeing the armed persons, Davinder and others got frightened and tried to escape from the spot. He said the accused threw bricks and pebbles at them. One of the bricks hit his son, following which he fell down. He was later rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Iqbal Singh, SHO, Maqboolpura police, said a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) 148, 149 IPC had been registered, while no arrest had been made so far.
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MC fails to recover Rs 10 crore from govt offices
Amritsar, August 7 The House Tax Department is planning to renew its efforts in this regard. This time, it has kept a target of recovering Rs 80 lakh for the current month. Sources said the house tax team had set a recovery target of around Rs 22 crore for the current year, including a sum of Rs 10 crore which is being considered as ‘dead’. The amount has to be recovered from various government offices such as the departments of forest, police, education and other Central as well as state government-run offices and institutes. Besides this, there are scores of properties which have either changed hands or were demolished which is proving to be a hindrance in tracing their case history. House tax officials say this amount has still been put into cold storage and hence the target has been set at around Rs 12 crore. Of this, Rs 2 crore has been recovered so far. Recently, a team in collaboration with the House Tax Committee was successful in realising Rs 55 lakh from Alpha One Mall. The department has already announced that the defaulters who volunteered to deposit their due taxes uptil August 31 would not be charged any interest whereas others would be imposed interest rate between 13-18 per cent as penalty after this date. Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said efforts were being made to recover the dues. “It is the revenue generating departments which are a source of income to the MC. We need to speed up the recovery process. I have told the department to meet the recovery target at any cost and they are doing their best. We have on our list some of the big houses who have been evading their tax liabilities. They too would be getting notices soon.” Pending dues
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Govt vehicles take law for a ride on city roads
Amritsar, August 7 Triple riding by policemena on a bike is a common sight in city. Vehicles of government officials and offices reportedly lack proper documentation. While a commoner can be fined for not producing proper documents, these official vehicles are apparently held as exception in this regard. “More than 90 per cent of policemen and at least 50 per cent journalists in the city do not have valid documents of their vehicles. They do not bother to acquire a ‘pollution certificate’ or keep driving licence in their pocket,” a traffic policeman quipped. He added that this was because they know that nobody would seriously question them about the papers. City residents said the government should lead by example and make efforts that documents of official vehicles were complete. Balwant Kumar, a local resident, said, “Most of the vehicles of the police department do not have proper documents. Vehicles without number plates can be spotted very often.” He said the traffic police should also challan official vehicles if they violate norms. Checking violations by government vehicles could also help motivate residents to stay on the right side of the law.
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Workshop on astronomy, physics concludes at DAV College
Amritsar, August 7 Following the motto of Vigyan Prasar “think scientifically and act scientifically”, the workshop proved to be a boon for the promotion of scientific ideas. Students from different schools and colleges participated in the workshop. Addressing the students, the experts spoke on a plethora of topics of physics and astronomy. Dr Arvind Ranade from Vigyan Prasar acquainted the students with the basics of telescope and Indian observatories. He made the students aware about the principles of reflection and refraction. Dr Sandeep Sahipal from Panjab University, Chandigarh, gave an overview of the origin, operation and death of stars.
Ranade also talked about the career and opportunities in astronomy. To polish the skills of the students, a quiz round was organised wherein the students participated with zeal. A valedictory function was held wherein the quiz winners were honoured by principal KN
Kaul. Kaul thanked the guests and added that such workshops proved to be a good source of knowledge for the students. He said our society needed a scientific base and the youth should come forward to promote the scientific ideas. Prof Sameer
Kalia, head, Department of Physics, extended a vote of thanks to all the guests and the students. He said students were the future of our nation and they should channelise their energies in the right direction.
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Woman accuses her husband of murder bid
Amritsar, August 7 She said Jaskaran was son of her first husband while she was remarried to Major Singh who happens to be the brother of her first husband who was murdered about six years ago. She alleged that the accused wanted to grab their property. Nishan Singh, Ranjit Avenue police post in-charge and investigation officer in the case, said a case under Section 307, 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 25/27/54 59 of the Arms act has been registered against the accused. He said the accused was absconding after the registration of case. BR Ambedkar National
Fellowship for GNDU prof
Prof Paramjit Singh Judge from the Department of Sociology of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) has been conferred with the prestigious Dr BR Ambedkar National Fellowship for studies in social justice. The fellowship has been offered to Prof Judge by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of Human Resource Development. Prof Judge said the fellowship would be for the period of two years and during this he would carry research on the topic "culture and violence in making of post-colonial modernity" with special focus on Amritsar city.
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City youth to study child mortality causes in India
Amritsar, August 7 Boparai, who hails from the city, has served as vice-president of Columbia Journalism School and is currently working on the study as a doctor-journalist. The project is called “The Seven Million”, referring to the number of under-five-year children dying globally every year. Harman said India still accounted for one-fourth of the world’s child mortality cases. Of the 27 million children born in India each year, nearly 1.7 million never make it to their fifth birthdays, he said. Many of these deaths occur from easily preventable and treatable diseases like childhood pneumonia and
diarrhoea, he said. Boparai has travelled to Panna district in Madhya Pradesh, which has among the highest level of child mortality in the country, with 140 deaths out of every 1,000 live births. About his travels to tribal areas, Harman said, “The biggest problem I saw when I spoke to villagers was the lack of awareness about the existing
programmes.”
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Defence Minister invites criticism for his Parliament remark
Amritsar, August 7 Addressing a press conference here today, Billa said he had received a list of 54 prisoners, all related to defence forces, who are believed to be jailed in Pakistan. He said the government should make efforts to bring each one of them back. He had earlier asked for a information through RTI about the number and names of Indian prisoners in Pakistan's jails. Billa criticised the UPA government for not taking any action against Pakistan for killing five Army personnel in Poonch recently. He also criticised the Defence Minister for his statement in Parliament after the attack. He said the Defence Minister must render his resignation and India must reply in the same way to Pakistan’s provocations.
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Three cops booked for dereliction of duty
Amritsar, August 7 She was arrested along with her son for possessing nearly 2,000 tablets and capsules of proscribed drugs along with injections on July 31. The Sarhali police has booked them under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Among those booked include Davinder Kaur, Gurpargat Singh and Sukhdev Singh. They have been placed under suspension, while a case under Sections 223 and 224 of the IPC has been registered against them at the Civil Lines police station. A police official said she managed to escape last morning after she got her handcuffs removed on the pretext of going to washroom.
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Border area farmers meet BSF DIG
Amritsar, August 7 General secretary, Border Area Sangarsh Committee, Rattan Singh Ajanala said they were demanding that the procedure to issue identity cards to farmers with land across the fence should be simplified. He said they should be allowed to work for 10 hours on all weekdays and be allowed to bore new tubewells as well. He said all the roads leading to the border outposts should be paved with concrete.
Ajanala said the farmers should be given Rs 15,000 as yearly compensation. The issues related to sand mafia and unemployment among the border area youth were also discussed. He said the DIG keenly heard their problems.
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Omaxe to open concept mall soon
Amritsar, August
7 Gold Cinema's chain of leading multiplexed has also signed up a four-screen multiplex in the mall. The mall will open at Airport Road in January next year. Avneet
Soni, president, Omxe Ltd, said, "Amritsar is a leading tourism hub. It has scope for lifestyle development. The tourism-driven economy of the city will also benefit as the mall will bring in employment opportunities for the youth here. The mall will host brands like
Mothercare, Clarins, Alcott, Wrangler, Levis, Tommy Hilfiger among others. The mall will prove to be a stopover destination for tourists from in and out of the holy city.
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Awareness programme on breastfeeding organised
Amritsar, August 7 Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai said the last week was observed as the breastfeeding week and various functions were organised to educate women. Dr Ghai said medical research had proven that apart from being a very good diet
for the newly born children, the women who breastfeed their kids are less susceptible to threat of uterus cancer. Dr Arun Sharma and Dr Sandeep Aggarwal also delivered lectures about the correct techniques of breastfeeding. They also cleared many misconceptions among women about the issue.
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Two traders, belonging to Muzaffarpur in Bihar, were shot at and seriously injured by three unidentified robbers in the Channan Singh Colony area on the Sultanwind road here this evening.
With rampant traffic violations in the city, government vehicles too seem to be on the wrong side of the law as some of them are plying on the road without proper number plates.
Interestingly, an ambulance of the District Health Department was spotted in the cavalcade of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal recently without registration plate. The vehicle carrying local doctors was on emergency duty with the Chief Minister. The ambulance had Civil Hospital Ajnala written on it.
Amritsar, August 7
