Amritsar, September 10
A family from Uttrakhand, who was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, was brutally assaulted by four residents in a road rage instance near the Hall Gate area this morning.

The police has arrested the four, Puneet Dhawan, resident of the Hathi Gate area, Vikas Sharma, alias Sunny, resident of Bambewala Khu, Harpal Singh and Rajat Arora, both resident of Gali Murabean Wali, Tarn Taran road.

Durgiana police post in charge ASI Lakhwinder Singh said a case under Sections 323, 341, 506, 427,148 and 149 of the IPC was registered against the four at the Civil Lines police station.

According to information, Kulwant Singh, his wife Rupinder Kaur and father Arjun Singh, hailing from Uttrakhand, were heading towards the Golden Temple at about 6.25 am in their car. As they reached near the Sakandri Gate, their car hit the motorcycle of one of the accused. This infuriated him and the ones accompanying him. They allegedly broke the windshield of the car with a brick lying nearby before physically assaulting the car occupants.

The ASI, Lakhwinder Singh, said Rupinder Kaur received injuries in her eye and was admitted to Sohan Singh Eye Hospital at Katra Sher Singh. "She was operated upon, while other occupants of the car too received injuries," he said.

Amritsar, September 10
Commuters had a tough time in moving within the walled city due to the VVIP movement in wake of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's visit.

Besides, the market of Katra Bhai Sant Singh, which was venue of the rally, in the old city was kept shut during limited morning hours.

The administration has deployed men and women police personnel in good number to man the countless streets which open en route the venue of rally.

A resident of Dhab Wasti Ram, Deepak Bajaj, said he reached office late in the morning as he was caught in the traffic jam, resulting due to sealing of the area to facilitate the arrival of the Deputy Chief Minister. He added that he welcomed the arrival of Badal in the interiors of the walled city, characterised by its labyrinthine roads. Besides, it was not a frequent feature that the VVIPs visit the walled city, yet its timing must be fixed not to coincide with that of those going to offices and shops.

A shopkeeper, Shubham Mehra, said all roads leading to Katra Bhai Sant Singh were closed while the market at the katra was opened late. He said what startled him was the minute cleaning and garbage disposal of the area carried out before the arrival of the Deputy CM. He said the authorities cleaned those areas thoroughly where he was supposed to pass by. He said the residents of the walled city longed to see similar cleaning on a regular basis, but it remained a far-fetched dream. "I agree that the garbage lifting in 4 to 6 feet wide lanes remains a challenge when the population density is also high, but mechanisms can be evolved to resolve it."

Rajinder Goyal of Katra Ahluwalia said the trade did not suffer much in the market as wholesale markets of tea, suiting, shirting, shawls and other textile items were situated there and they normally opened late in the morning. However, the movement of tourists and office goers was hit in the area as the main road was blocked by the police.

Amritsar, September 10
The district health authorities have made it mandatory for the private hospitals and physicians to report dengue and malaria cases to the department before they confirm the disease to the patient.

District Epidemiologist Dr Charanjit Singh said the decision was conveyed to the hospitals and clinics. He said the move would help them collect data about the dengue and malaria cases more precisely and correctly.

It would also help saving people from falling prey to greedy doctors as the department would get the blood samples of patients reported by private hospitals tested to confirm the disease.

"We will send our team, which will collect the sample and get it tested from Government Medical College to ascertain the disease," he said, adding that sometimes the private physicians diagnose the person as suffering from dengue and malaria before waiting for the reports and this creates panic among the residents.

Earlier in September, 2011, when the death of a patient admitted to a private hospital here due to dengue was reported, the Health Department investigation later proved that the patient was suffering from a heart ailment.

The department had earlier confirmed three dengue cases in the city, after which isolation wards at government hospitals have become operative. Dr Charanjit Singh said the Civil Hospital had the facility of giving blood platelets to dengue patients as the count decrease in them drastically. He said the services were provided at subsidised rates than private clinics.

Amritsar, September 10
The Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital organised an auction to dispose of the worn-out furniture and other items on its premises. The hospital has earned Rs 1.70 lakh from the auction.

The auction was held in the presence of Deputy Medical Commissioner Dr Prabhdeep Kaur and Senior Medical Officers Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon and Hardeep Singh Ghai.

Dr Dhillon said a team of Punjab Health Systems Corporation had inspected the worn-out materials before the approval to dispose them of was granted.

The hospital was finding it difficult to store the large stock of worn-out goods, which had occupied a large number of storerooms. Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon said the additional space was required for the upcoming Mother and Child Care Centre at the hospital.

Though a new building is being constructed adjacent to the old building to house 50-bedded centre, the hospital is facing a space crunch.

The addition of new facilities at hospital has also resulted in a space crunch. The hospital has also asked the Ayurveda Wing of the Indian System of Medicines to shift to Verka citing the problem of space.

Amritsar, September 10
The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) today postponed the technical bid to find a suitable operator to run the heritage village reflecting Punjabi country life, culture, attires, culinary on the private public partnership (PPP) mode.

Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) Chief General Manager Brig (retd) Charanjit Singh, talking to this correspondent over phone from Chandigarh, said the technical bid was postponed and would be held early next month after some vendors sought many clarifications.

The state government has entrusted the PIDB with the task of finding a suitable operator for running the ambitious project.

He said at least five companies had evinced interest in running the village. The selected bidder would be responsible for project development, operations, maintenance and management of the heritage village for a predetermined concession period and would also collect charges from the users as per the laid down provisions of the request for proposal (RFP) documents.

In order to qualify to take part in the bid process, technical capabilities had been laid down by the PIDB. The eligibility criteria was having at least one heritage theme project spread over a minimum area of five acres and with a minimum annual turnover of at least Rs 3 crore or at least one operational hotel project (3 star and above) or heritage category of 25 rooms capacity or at least one entertainment park/amusement park, leisure park project spread over a minimum site area of 10 acres and with a minimum annual turnover of at least Rs 3 crore.

Chief General Manager Charanjit Singh said after qualifying the technical capabilities the successful bidder would graduate to the second round of financial capability.

District Tourism Officer (DTO) Balraj Singh said the majority of the civil work at the heritage village had been finished. Soon a sewerage treatment plant (STP) and a suitable entrance gate would be erected at the site. He added that the successful bidder would then get some time to furnish interiors.

However, the heritage village, being set up at Guru Nanak Dev University here, would be further delayed as against the earlier announcement of opening it in January this year.

A hotelier, Surinder Singh, said the then Punjab Tourism Minister SS Phillaur, during his visit to the holy city last year, had promised to open it to the public by January, 2013.

He said the holy city ranked 12th among the major tourist destinations in the country and undue delay in opening the project was hitting the business here. He urged the government to open it during this summer, as it brought a stream of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir-bound tourists.

He said the location of the village on the road to the Attari-Wagah joint check post would come in handy for the thousands of tourists heading to witness the Retreat Ceremony to stay here for some hours and even for a night in the village.

The state government wishes to revive the old charm of Punjab villages. The heritage village would include shops of potter, blacksmith and carpenter, a dhaba and an akhara, a traditional wrestling place. These shops would not only prepare traditional items, but also sell these to the interested visitors. A block had been reserved for holding melas, which used to be an integral part of the Punjabi country life. Interested tourists could also stay there, as nearly 20 rooms are being constructed for staying purpose.

An interesting feature is "Barat Ghar", where people could also solemnise the marriages in a traditional way with even "dholis" at their disposal. Besides, auditorium, handicraft and convention centres would also be established in the village.

As per the ancient tradition of Punjab, the village would have a "khera" (first house dedicated to God with no idol inside) and "Gugga Marri" (snake shrine). These shrines used to be built first before the setting up of a new village. Same features would be visible here.

Amritsar, September 10
Even after numerous announcements about making Amritsar the ‘safest city’, the administration has failed to install CCTV cameras here so far.

Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had announced to make Amritsar the ‘safest city’ prior to the Assembly elections also, but till date nothing has moved on the ground.

Crimes like snatching, loot and eve-teasing are on the rise in the city.

Recently, a 25-year-old Danish woman was molested by an auto-rickshaw driver near the railway station. Even though the accused was arrested, such instances, especially with the tourists, are the order of the day here.

Leaving no trace, the accused simply go scot-free.

Yesterday, tourists from Uttarakhand and Delhi were attacked by snatchers in separate incidents. While Uttarakhand residents Navnit Chand and his wife were made target when they were coming back after attending a function, Delhi resident Kavita’s purse was snatched by unidentified persons at the busy Lawrence road the same evening. The accused are yet to be arrested. Had there been CCTV cameras, the police could catch them easily.

Scores of instances of loot and snatchings occur in and around the city, especially around the Golden Temple, which is visited by over 1 lakh tourists every day. In the absence of CCTVs, the snatchers conveniently vanish from the scene after committing the crime.

The Intelligent City Surveillance Project, under which CCTVs were to be installed at the key locations in the city, was announced by MP Navjot Singh Sidhu in presence of then Police Commissioner RP Mittal and former Improvement Trust chairperson Sanjeev Khanna in June 2011 . The project was aimed to be completed in a year. Lately, the Deputy CM also endorsed this move on several occasions, but till date it could never move towards reality.

Earlier, it was contended that the project was delayed due to the announcement of the SGPC elections, but even after the Assembly poll, followed by the civic elections, no thought was spared to implement the project in the city.

The task was initially entrusted to the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), which was supposed to fund the project, costing about Rs 4.5 crore, but later it got stalled due to red tape.

Meanwhile, the respective tenures of Police Commissioner Mittal and AIT chairperson Khanna had ended and the project could not see the light of day.

Nonetheless, the onus ultimately fell on the police department.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Amrik Singh Pawar was confident that the CCTVs would be installed before the culmination of the current year. “I recently attended a meeting with the DGP (law and order) at Chandigarh. A team from the short listed company will visit Amritsar to conduct the technical viability of the 52 key points we had selected for installing the CCTV cameras. It is the top item on the agenda of the government,” he said.

Amritsar, September 10
The row between milk suppliers and halwais over the price of the milk entered third day today. The milk suppliers, commonly known as ‘dhodhi’, are on a strike for three days. The row has hit the consumers.

With this, nearly three-month-old agreement between the two was also jeopardised. The warring milk suppliers and halwai unions buried the hatchet over fixing of milk rates as the two-member committee appointed by the district administration fixed the rate of a litre of milk with 4.2 fat and 28 gravity at Rs 28 in June. Following this, the Milk Suppliers’ Union withdrew its strike.

Now, once again the union has started a strike, claiming that many halwais have not been giving the same rate as was decided in June.

The president of the Amritsar Milk Halwai Association Charanjit Singh Pappu said it was not good on the part of milk suppliers to snap the milk supply. He claimed that a majority of the halwais were paying the rate as agreed by both the parties before the one-member committee of the Deputy Director, Dairy, Kashmir Singh. The committee was appointed by the then Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal to mediate between the two groups. The impact of the then hike in the milk rate was visible on the prices of curd, cheese and ghee in the open market. Harish Mehra, a resident of Gopal Nagar, said it was a shock in the morning that he did not get the usual supply of milk from the nearby milk shop. “My milk supplier said ‘dhodhis’ had gone on a strike and they did not receive the required supply,” he said.

Pappu said many suppliers were supplying milk directly to the consumers. Thus, halwais were incurring losses. He reiterated that they were following the agreement and were ready to offer the same price, while urging the milk suppliers to call off their strike. 

Amritsar, September 10
As many as 184 students from various departments of Guru Nanak Dev University were placed on campus with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), New Delhi, today.

Dr Hardeep Singh, in charge, placement, said a team of 38 members from the TCS visited the university for recruitments. The selection was based on an online test followed by technical and HR interviews. The selected students were offered a package of Rs 3.18 lakh per annum. The new recruits will join with the TCS in June 2014 after the completion of their formal studies, he said.

The selected students are from the 2014 batch of BTech in computer science and electronics, MCA and MTech in IT and CS from all three campuses of the university— Amritsar, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur.

Dr Hardeep said many companies of international repute like Capgemini, Headstrong, Infogain, Nagarro and Amdocs etc were likely to visit the university for placements.

Amritsar, September 10
‘Panchrang’, a painting exhibition by a group of Amritsar artists, was inaugurated at KT Kala Art Gallery here yesterday. Paintings of more than 30 artists were put on display.

The exhibition shared works of both established and budding artists.

Inaugurating the exhibition, Baldev Gambhir, a senior and renowned artist from the city, said, "These exhibitions are important occasions for art lovers. The exchange of culture and creativity through these paintings boost art culture in Amritsar."

While discussing the need for a whole new approach to art in the city, many artists presented their views on contemporary and abstract art forms. "Artists should work with new media to give a new dimension to art," shares Harmeet Singh, a graphic artist from the city.

“It is not as easy as it seems. Learning the software is easy, but using it to give a shape to your thoughts is not. It requires a lot of time and understanding,” he says.

Harmeet’s works include collages made of bits and pieces of different photographs by synchronising them. He believes that creating art using digital media is like writing poetry. “One has to bring together all the elements as envisioned, otherwise it fails to leave an impression,” he says.

Priyanka Sharma, another amateur artist from the city, feels after a few years, smaller cities will also boom with techno art forms. “A lot of work is being done in the field of digital medium of art and I am sure that more artists will adopt this futuristic art form," she shares.

Sumeet Dua, an artist who runs his own studio Creative Spot in the city and works extensively with murals, "I have many clients who want life-size murals or photo galleries for their homes. Abstract art has become an important aesthetic and interior design element.