Plantation drive marks I-Day celebrations 
Amritsar, August 16
Director General, Border Security Force (BSF), Subhash Joshi, was on a two-day visit to Punjab Frontier. He was invited as the chief guest during the Independence Day celebrations, held at the Attari-Wagah joint check post.

Construction projects come to a halt due to ban on mining
Amritsar, August 16
Many small and big projects in the city are again facing the non-availability of sand in the open market, following a ban on mining or removal of sand from the river beds across the country, without an environmental clearance by the National Green Tribunal.

Amritsar, August 16
Six persons were killed in the district after dilapidated buildings in which they were residing collapsed due to incessant rain in the past three days.

While three persons, including a six-month-old child, died after the rented accommodation in which they were living in Bangla Basti, falling under the Gate Hakima police station here, collapsed, a woman in her mid-twenties lost her life in New Jawahar Nagar area located on the Batala road.

The victims in Bangla Basti incident were identified as Vansh (six months), Malti (25) and Chameli Devi (50), while Meena (26) died in the New Jawahar Nagar area building collapse.

In a similar incident occurred at Banga village in the Lopoke area, two minor children - Priya (11) and Meetu (16) - were killed while Ajaypal Singh (10) and his grandmother Bachan Kaur were seriously injured. They were admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. The incident occurred when the kutcha roof of their house collapsed this evening.

This is not the first time that old buildings have collapsed during rains. In the recent years too a number of buildings had collapsed in a similar manner, which also led to loss of life.

Police officials said Meena was killed and her two children sustained injuries when the dilapidated building collapsed following heavy rains on the intervening night of August 14 and 15. The family was sleeping at that time. The dilapidated structure was situated at New Jawahar Nagar on the Batala road.

The collapse of two buildings at Chaurasti Attari and Katra Bhai Sant Singh was reported to the Fire Brigade office today. No injury was reported at Chaurasti Attari, while an aged woman was safely evacuated from the falling structure at Katra Bhai Sant Singh by vigilant public. A fire station employee, Anup Singh, said the woman sustained some injuries and was admitted to a private hospital.

An old structure at Kulfiyan Wali Gali in the Sultanwind area collapsed in the heavy rain yesterday. No one was reportedly injured.

Meanwhile, the collapse of so many dilapidated buildings in a short span of time has put the "blame" on the Municipal Corporation (MC) for delay in the demolition of these unsafe structures. These structures pose danger not only to their inhabitants, but also to adjoining buildings.

Commissioner, MC, DPS Kharbanda said the demolition drive of unsafe buildings would be resumed from tomorrow. "All Assistant Town Planners (ATPs) have been directed to pursue the demolition drive in a phased manner," he added.

He said the number of unsafe structures had risen from 136 to 159 buildings, both residential and commercial, and majority of these were in the walled city.

It is pertinent to mention here that the demolition of unsafe structures was planned as a preventive measure prior to the monsoon season as a number of such buildings had collapsed due to rains in the past and claimed over a dozen lives. However, delay in the implementation of the plan led to the death of a woman and injuries to others.

Earlier, corporation officials served notices to occupants of these buildings to get their dilapidated structure properly repaired or vacate these buildings to move to some safe place within 10 days in June. Those who cannot fulfil these conditions on their own have been told to approach the district administration so that an alternate arrangement of their stay could be made on temporary basis.

A Municipal Corporation (MC) team had demolished some of the dilapidated century-old structures, the recent being the three buildings which were demolished in the Chowk Passian and Cheel Mandi areas. However, the drive was abandoned as fears of losing heritage-value structures were raised by some quarters.

The Commissioner said the corporation would not wait for the submission of the report by the Tourism Department and would resume the demolition drive from tomorrow.

Amritsar, August 16
A city-based doctor foiled a robbery attempt and caught one of the robbers who had barged into his house in the posh Basant Avenue area and tried to take his family hostage last evening.

Following the statement of Dr Sanjay Arora, the Civil Lines police has registered a case under Sections 392, 458, 511 and 323 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act against four persons.

The arrested accused was later identified as Pawan Singh, a resident of the Anngarh area, while his accomplice Bau and two unidentified robbers managed to escape.

Police officials refrained from speaking to the media about the incident, while the doctor also refused to provide details of the incident.

The Police Commissioner, Ram Singh, today visited the spot around 12 hours after the incident. He was accompanied by Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi.

Dr Sanjay stated to the police that he was with his wife Dr Dheeru Arora and his children at home. He heard cries of his wife from the kitchen. One of the robbers had pointed a pistol on his wife while the rest of them were trying to gag her with the help of a tape.

He said on seeing him, the robbers attacked him and hit him with the butt of the pistol. He said the robbers also tried to gag him with the tape. He said he resisted their attempt and caught one of them, who was later identified as Pawan Singh. Meanwhile, he said hearing their shouts, residents started gathering near their house. Seeing this the remaining robbers fled.

The ACP (North), Gurnam Singh, said they were investigating the case and raids were being conducted to nab the remaining accused.

Amritsar, August 16
The SAD-BJP coalition government has initiated multiple projects and schemes to raise the living standard of the people of the state, said Health and Family Welfare Minister Madan Mohan Mittal after taking salute from the march past and unfurling the Tricolour on the Independence Day at Guru Nanak Dev Stadium.

He said with a view to providing health facilities within a distance of 10 km in the state facilities at 100 hospitals were being spruced up and 500 specialist doctors were appointed. He informed that a grant of Rs 300 crore had been approved for the establishment of cancer units at Amritsar, Faridkot and Patiala.

Senior BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla distributed sewing machines and Rs 200 monthly scholarship among 20 girl students during the Independence Day function at Hindu Sabha School. She stressed on economic empowerment of women to realise women emancipation in the country.

Famous Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans and Pingalwara Society chief Bibi Inderjit Kaur led a tree plantation drive at the Khalsa College for Women (KCW). The drive is aimed to make surroundings green to check degradation of environment. College Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal said on the first day itself 150 saplings of alstonia, ficus, amaltas, lagistonia and jatropha were planted.

Independence Day functions were held in various educational institutes, including Buds Senior School, Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School, Spring Dale Senior School, Bhavan’s SL Public School and Amritsar Engineering College.

Amritsar, August 16
Director General, Border Security Force (BSF), Subhash Joshi, was on a two-day visit to Punjab Frontier. He was invited as the chief guest during the Independence Day celebrations, held at the Attari-Wagah joint check post.

Joshi said the Border Security Force is committed for the safeguard of the country and is ready to meet challenges at any given time.

The DG also answered the media queries after launching a plantation campaign from the joint check post. He distributed plants to the villagers and urged them to participate in the campaign.

During his two-day visit, he held meetings with the senior BSF officials including special DG, BSF, Chandigarh, Rajdeep Singh, IG, Punjab Frontier, Aditya Mishra and other BSF officials.

A cultural programme was organised at the border by the North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala. Cultural teams from Punjab, Chandigarh, Assam, Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and a number of students from various schools also participated in the programme.

The Director General also flagged off the cycle rally in which as many as 106 BSF jawans from various units of Punjab Frontier have 
participated.

He said the participants would move along the international borders and promote the campaign. They would also motivate people and inhabitants of the border villages to plant saplings to increase the green cover.

"The jawans will also spread awareness about the hazardous changes taking place in the environment," he added.

The cycle rally would conclude on August 21, 2013, at the respective sector headquarters of BSF including Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Abohar.

DIG BSF MF Farooqui also gifted sweets, fruits and tree saplings to their Pakistani counterpart.

Amritsar, August 16
Many small and big projects in the city are again facing the non-availability of sand in the open market, following a ban on mining or removal of sand from the river beds across the country, without an environmental clearance by the National Green Tribunal.

The people working for the construction projects said the rate of 100 cubic feet of sand has gone up from Rs 1,500 about a month ago, to Rs 2,800. They said sand was being delivered on the line of contraband.

Construction of many infrastructure development projects in the city, which have been hanging fire, after a ban on earth and sand mining, was resumed only a couple of months ago.

At present, many infrastructure development projects are under-construction in the city and majority of them are being undertaken by the Improvement Trust.

Improvement Trust superintendent engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma, said over 50 small and many mega projects were under-construction.

"The small works pertain to construction of civic amenities in various wards of the city. The mega infrastructural works include flyovers at Saifuddin Kitchlew Chowk, Durgiana temple beautification project, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Mall Mandi Scheme and a part of Ranjit Avenue Scheme," Sharma added.

Similarly, the development projects of the government being executed by other agencies like the Public Works Department (PWD) and others have been hit due to ban on sand mining.

Illegal sale of sand at high prices have escalated the construction cost for the people who were continuing with the construction of their buildings. On the other hand, people with little resources had to abandon the construction mid-way, awaiting the situation to normalise.

Earlier, the Supreme Court imposed a ban on mining minor minerals, asking the mining contractors to get an environment clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, even for an area of less than five hectares in February, 2012.

A resident of Udham Singh Nagar, Sawinder Singh, said his budget for constructing a house has escalated haywire.

“I along with my wife saved some money to raise a structure over a plot that I bought a few years ago. Thereafter, I decided to invest my savings, but soon realised that I was short of money due the increased prices of the construction materials," he added.

Amritsar, August 16
As the rains continue to deluge city’s every nook and corner, most roads and streets give a poolside view as commuters struggle through the submerged roads. The continuous showers has made the condition of roads worse.

The city residents are facing a tough time driving vehicles.

A helpless administration and MC joins the citizens who are struggling to keep pace with everyday life. Most of the areas of the city are filled with rain water. Even the posh colonies like Green Avenue, Ranjit Avenue and Mall Road are full of water with no proper drainage system.

The condition of the roads has highlighted the inability of the MC to provide a proper drainage system.

“Its been three days and every time you go out on road, it becomes a task to make way through water,” said Lalit Mohan, a commuter from Lawrance road.

One of the most effected areas are the Hall Bazaar, roads stretching to the Golden Temple, heritage walk route and even the MC Town Hall office.

The problem gets worsened by the hapless sewerage disposal system.

The vegetable markets at Putlighar and Majitha raod are also submerged in water. The rainwater has even entered the houses of the local residents of Islamabad, Kot Khalsa, Adarsh Nagar and Majitha road areas, leaving the residents harried.

“Water from the sewerage and the drains have entered our houses, causing serious health concerns and also ruining our furniture,” said Manipal Saini, a resident of Adarsh Nagar.