Amritsar, August 30
An employee of a petrol pump, located in the Varpal area, was robbed by four unidentified motorcycle-borne youths when he was going to deposit money in a bank located in Chabba area.

Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Varpal, said he was going to deposit Rs 48,000 at the Bank of India, Chabba branch, when the unidentified robbers, armed with sharp-edged weapons, surrounded him and threatened to kill him. He alleged that the robbers took away the bag containing the amount.

The Chatiwind police has registered a case.

Meanwhile, in a similar instance, the Beas police has booked three persons, identified as Sarabjjit Singh, Jagroop Singh and Jasbir Singh, all residents of Pheruman, for allegedly robbing a truck driver, Major Singh, a resident of Bhinder village.

Major Singh stated to the police that he was going to Ludhiana from Tarn Taran. When he alighted from the truck near Rayya for checking air pressure in the tyres, the three accused, who came on a motorcycle, attacked and injured him with a sharp-edged weapon and took away his purse containing Rs 1,500 and important documents.

The Beas police registered a case, while no arrest has been made so far.

Amritsar, August 30
A team of Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) officials today visited the site of Dashnami Akhara in the vicinity of the Durgiana temple complex to convince its inhabitants to vacate their premises to pave the way for the beautification plan of the shrine.

The AIT plans to build a "joda ghar" and landscape over 2,725 square yards of land under the akhara. Of this, the department acquired 1,075 square yards about a year ago. The remaining over 1,650 square yards of land is under the possession of nearly 70 families and have a building of the akhara and a Shiv Ganga temple on it.

The team, comprising Superintendent Engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Executive Officer Jiwan Bansal and others, visited the site and requested the occupants to vacate the premises by September 3 as the Land Acquisition Department would initiate acquiring the same on a day later (September 4). Bharat Bhushan Sharma said they informed the occupants that they could receive the compensation by submitting valid documents like "kirayanama" (tenant documents) and proofs of construction at the Land Acquisition Collector office at Dharma Singh Market, near Jallianwala Bagh. He said for their convenience the office would remain opened even tomorrow on Saturday.

The land is being acquired under the Durgiana beautification project, phase-II, which is expected to be finished before the year end.

The Land Acquisition Department issued 68 eviction notices to the occupants of Dashnami Akhara some days back.

Meanwhile, Bharat Bhushan Sharma said a multi-storey commercial complex being raised under the phase-I would be finished in September and the shops would be constructed for traders in October.

The third phase of the project, envisaging beautification of the surroundings of the temple, would see demolition of shops, houses and structures from the left side of the Durgiana temple (at its post office entrance) up to Shamshan Ghat. This would widen the approach road to the Durgiana temple, which would felicitate smooth operation of battery-operated cars. Besides, an open-air theatre and auditorium would also be constructed on the same space.

The cost of the project, notified in 2007 by the Amritsar Improvement Trust, rose from Rs 36 crore to over Rs 50 crore following delay due to various reasons.

It has been learnt that the owners of the residential area are being paid compensation amount calculated at an approximate rate of Rs 18,000 per square yard. On the same pattern, the proprietors of commercial space are being compensated at about Rs 60,000 per square yard.

The AIT would beautify about 3.03 acres of land around the Durgiana temple by raising an auditorium, open-air theatre, "joda ghar" and information centre, besides a four-storey parking lot to accommodate about 400 cars and over 150 two-wheelers. Over 70 per cent of the land would be open space and have a greenbelt.

About Rs 28 crore have been kept aside as compensation for the acquisition of the whole chunk of land and Rs 22 crore will be spent on raising the infrastructure.

Amritsar, August 30
The Director General (DGP) of Punjab Police, Sumedh Singh Saini, has cancelled the alleged mass transfers, which were done by the outgoing police Commissioner Ram Singh. The transfer list had come out a couple of days after he joined his duties at Jalandhar. These transfers did not go down well with certain police officials.

This reportedly prompted the newly appointed police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh to take charge at Amritsar, a day before his scheduled joining. During a press conference after joining his office, Aulakh had pointed out that he would examine these transfers.

It is pertinent to mention here that controversy had erupted over the mass transfers in which policemen from the ranks of constables and head constables to inspectors were shifted from various police stations. This had invited a severe criticism as two inspector rank officials had reportedly entered into verbal duel over their transfers.

The issue remained a hot topic in the corridors of the Police Department. It also came up during the meeting of the new police commissioner with the low rank police officials. The commissioner without mincing any words had asked the police officials that he would personally examine their work for a month before taking any action.

However, former police Commissioner Ram Singh said he had transferred only 60 to 70 policemen, whose requests were pending due to the rumors of Kala Kachha gang and later due to Independence Day celebrations, during which the city remained on high alert.

Aulakh while confirming the cancellation of the transfers said the orders were passed by the office of the Punjab DGP. When asked about any specific reason behind the cancellation of transfers, he said these were cancelled on administrative grounds.

It has been learnt that transfers of constables and head constables had been maintained, while the transfers of chowki in-charges, sub inspectors and inspectors were cancelled by the DGP office. They have rejoined their earlier positions where they were working before the transfer orders.

Amritsar, August 30
The Municipal Corporation (MC) Commissioner, DPS Kharbanda, has decided to lodge a complaint against a local Akali leader with the Police Commissioner. The Akali leader had threatened the MC staff and used abusive language during the tax collection drive yesterday on behalf of his known gas agency owner, who is a tax offender.

The aggrieved MC men had submitted a complaint with the office of the MC Commissioner seeking his intervention in the matter. Kharbanda, who was out of the town for the past couple of days, said it was a clear-cut case of preventing government officials from performing their duties, besides abusing them while they were on official job.

“We are going to lodge a complaint against the erring Akali leader with the police soon. It was unbecoming of a political leader to interfere in government affairs. The move of collecting the taxes from the defaulters is the decision of the government and our men just complied with that. I was apprised of the misbehaviour and threatening our officials when they went to collect the dues from a gas agency. I have told my men to continue with the drive without any guilt or fear. The rest will be taken care of as per law,” he said.

High drama prevailed yesterday, when the MC house tax team led by its Superintendent Shushant Bhatia went to Rattan Singh Chowk area with its drive of beating drums in the locality of the repeated tax defaulters.

A gas agency owner, who owed Rs 30,000 to the MC as tax, was readied to pay up a partial amount of Rs 10,000, but when the MC recovery team objected to it, he put on line an Akali leader, who was his acquaintance. Bhatia alleged that the Akali leader not only abused him on the phone but also threatened to kill him.

“Our team has jointly submitted a complaint to the MC Commissioner. We are just awaiting his return and see what action he is going to take. We are sure of being heard and given justice as per the law,” he said.

Amritsar, August 30
With no foolproof security arrangement there has been no let up in the instances of jail inmates making an escape route whenever they are admitted to the hospital for availing treatment. On Monday Satnam Singh alias Satta, a notorious drug peddler, made his way out from Swami Vivekanand De-addiction Centre located on the premises of the Government Medical College.

It is sheer violation of the directives of the Health Ministry, which sternly advocates having separate ward reserved for the jail inmates, who are admitted to the hospital while serving their sentence in the jail or being held under trial. Another lapse is the negligence on the part of the security guards on duty. They tend to become friendly with jail inmates and their leniency becomes the advantage of the inmates to flee. Although disciplinary action is taken against the guilty cops, yet such instances keep on repeating.

Deputy Superintendent of Amritsar Central Jail said often jail inmates pretended to be ‘severely ill’ whereas their motive would be to get admitted to a hospital outside the jail, which would often be crowded and provide them an opportunity to disappear.

“While in hospital, they cook plans to escape, either on their own while taking advantage of the situation or with the help of their near and dear ones, who come to meet them in the hospital. There are fair chances that guards escorting criminals get attacked by gang members to help the prisoner escape. Generally hospitals are overcrowded and it is not possible to recognise their gang members. While in jail, on most of the occasion they indulge in clashes inside the premises and on the pretext of getting hurt they want to be admitted to hospital outside the jail premises,” he said.

A jail doctor preferring anonymity said it was a mandatory norm to have special provision for jail inmates especially in those towns where there would be high-security jail. The Amritsar Central Jail is the high-security jail, where hardcore national and international criminals have been lodged, but due to lacunae in the system, they make their way out through hospitals.

On May 23, another notorious criminal Jagtar Singh alias Sonu alias Bhoot, who was arrested by Kotwali police in March, slipped from the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) premises dodging the Kapurthala jail guards. 

Amritsar, August 30
The first administration of folic acid to children above six months may cause drowsiness for a short time and even vomiting in some cases, if taken on an empty stomach. This word of caution was given by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during the launch of national ‘Iron Plus Initiative’ on Wednesday at the Government Medical College here.

Revealing more on the subject, District Family Welfare Officer Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar said general public needs to be made aware that the folic acid was to be administered after feeding the child properly. He said the iron supplement helped fighting anaemia in children.

The district administration would shortly receive stocks of the medicine, which would then be distributed among auxiliary nursing midwives (ANM). Dr Buttar said ‘Iron Plus Initiative’ was a community- based service where the addition would be supplemented in the same way as basic immunisation facilities were given.

Though the programme was formally launched here on Wednesday, the Health Department is yet to receive the medicine so that it could practically launch the programme. Dr Buttar said programme to create awareness about how and when to administer the supplement to the children would be organised for the health staff working at ground level in district.

A programme for providing folic acid supplement to adolescent children is already being run by the state government. The department is giving iron tablets to schoolchildren on weekly basis under the school health programme.

Amritsar, August 30
Ironical, as it may sound, but with so much being talked about women empowerment and safety, there is less thought given to the fact that it re-emphasises that women are not capable of defending themselves. Well, some of us might just change that view. Some of the women in the city have decided to kick some action into their lives by taking up self-defence fitness programme.

As the world becomes a dangerous place by every passing day for the fairer sex, some women are ready to fight without fighting. Hear it from Geeta Kumari, a 20 year-old fitness trainer at Talwalker’s, who trains a dozen women in kick boxing and mixed martial arts. “Ever since, these extreme martial arts became popular in the fitness industry, we have had women more than men taking up martial arts like kick boxing, aikido and cross training. It’s more than just self-defence. It’s about personality grooming and confidence, which affects the psychological mindset of people as well,” she said. Having trained in martial arts since seven years and playing nationals, Geeta has been teaching kick boxing since three years now. Her students have increased day by day. “Mostly, I have requests from girls to train them in kick boxing, which is a strength building exercise,” says Geeta.

As for the one’s sweating it out, it’s all worth the trouble. “Crimes against women will not stop in a day and there is no solution in just debating on the issue. So, why wait up for someone else to do the job when you can do it yourself? I believe that women should become responsible for their own safety and with such fitness and self defence tactics, one’s confidence reflects in the psychological awareness,” said Amarjot Kaur, who is pursuing sports psychology from the GNDU.