Amritsar, September 14
The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) got back its Rs 3.56 crore from the Income Tax Department after the Punjab and Haryana High Court decided in its favour.

The AIT officials were taken aback when Income Tax Department officials had froze the PNB account of the AIT and had transferred the amount citing it tax in August.

Sandeep Rishi, Chairman, AIT, said they protested against the move as unlike private builders the AIT was not a profit-making body. The AIT was working to develop the city and providing civic amenities in its various localities to improve the living standard of residents.

Quoting the rules, he said the AIT had been exempted from the income tax as it used its 85 per cent of the income in developmental works. He said he had written a letter to Income Tax Department officials to apprise them of the rules before knocking at the doors of the high court.

Amritsar, September 14
Khushbir Kaur of the Khalsa College for Women today returned home after winning gold medal in the walking event in the 53rd Open National Athletic Meet held in Ranchi.

Khushbir Kaur, student of the Khalsa College for Women, being honoured for winning the gold medal in the walking event in the 53rd Open National Athletic Meet held in Ranchi, by students and staff of the college in Amritsar on Saturday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

She was welcomed by fellow athletes, teachers and principal Sukhbir Kaur Mahal at the college.

She said her eyes were now set on next the Commonwealth Games to be held in Beijing next year.

Earlier, she set a new national record at the World Athletic Championship held in Moscow last month where she completed 20 kilometres walk in 1:34:28 hours improving her previous record of 1:37:28 hours.

“I am happy to have won gold in a national event now in which athletes from 25 states participated,’’ said an elated Khushbir.

She would now be undergoing training at Shilaru in Himachal Pradesh.

Khushbir had qualified for the Olympics but could not participate in the event due to some reasons. The athlete said she had already surpassed the qualifying trials for the Olympics by scoring higher that the qualifying timing for 20 kilometre walk in 1:38 hours.

A BA final year student, Khushbir had been a champion in the inter-college, inter-university and various national sports tournaments. She thanked her Russian coach Alexander, Gurdev Singh, Baldev Singh and Rankirat Singh and her teacher Sukhdeep Kaur for their guidance and training.

She thanked the college principal and the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for financial assistance.

Sports are pursued passionately in her family. Her younger sister Karamjit is also a national athlete. Khushbir dedicated the medal to her mother Jasbir Kaur who, she said, was her source of inspiration.

Mahal said the college management was proud of her achievement and would continue supporting her for the new sports events. She said Khushbir would excel in international events as well.

Amritsar, September 14
Notwithstanding the National Green Tribunal having made it mandatory to seek environmental clearance for mining or removal of sand from riverbeds, construction material sellers are openly flouting the norms.

Officials in the Department of Industries, who also act as mining officials, maintain that sand is coming from the Hoshiarpur belt where contractors have got the environmental clearance.

Majority of the 241 mines in Punjab are closed and seven of these fall in Amritsar district.

As sand rates continue to skyrocket in the city, residents are finding it difficult to get building material. Many small and big projects are facing an acute shortage of sand in the open market.

People working in construction projects say the rate of 100 cubic feet of sand has gone up to Rs 3,400 and above from Rs 2,800 about a month ago. The same quantity of sand was easily available between Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per 100 cubic feet over two months back.

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 Amritsar Improvement Trust. The Trust is undertaking 50 small and mega projects in the city.

The small works pertain to the construction of civic amenities in various wards of the city. 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.

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

The illegal sale of sand at high prices has escalated the cost for those who continued the construction of their buildings. On the other hand, people with little resources had to abandon the construction midway, awaiting the situation to normalise.

Harpinder Singh Walia, a construction material retailer, said the Supreme Court imposed a ban on mining of minor minerals asking the mining contractors to get an environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, even for an area of less than five hectares in February, 2012.

He said it paralysed the business for over a year and the situation was again reverted to previous one with the imposition of new order.

Parminder Singh, a local resident, said he procured a plot in a locality established by the Improvement Trust some years back. However, high prices of construction material forced him to delay his plan, he rued, adding that his family does not have any alternative but continue to live in a rented accommodation, Parminder added.

Amritsar, September 14
The police has tightened the noose around those involved in the illegal drug trade, especially the ones resorting to unlawful sale of pharmaceutical drugs.

In a recent incident, the Amritsar rural police arrested Paramjit Singh of Gopal Nagar in Ajnala and recovered around 29,000 capsules and tablets of habit-forming drugs from his possession.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused was a drug addict and used to run a shop of electric products. As he was finding it difficult to garner money for his addiction, the drug traffickers encouraged him to sell proscribed drugs.

Gurvail Singh, investigating officer, said Paramjit was in the 'trade' for past four months. He was caught from near Ajnala drain. He was handed over the consignment by a person who had not concealed his identity to him. He has been sent to judicial custody by the police.

Even as the police department has launched a massive crackdown against drug peddlers, the illegal sale of habit-forming drugs has been going on unabated.

The police has registered nearly a dozen cases of seizures of pharmaceutical drugs in the city and the rural belt.

Jatinder Singh Aulakh, who took over as Amritsar Police Commissioner three weeks ago, has announced sincere efforts to nab the drug traffickers and warned the police officials against any negligence on their part. The police has registered nearly 125 cases under the NDPS Act since then and arrested as many persons. During this, the police seized huge quantity of proscribed drugs, besides heroin and other narcotic material.

A couple of days ago, the Chheharta police confiscated in the city area over two lakhs of tablets and capsules from a person who used to work as courier for big peddlers.

Aulakh said the police department was committed to eradicate the menace. He appealed to the people for informing the senior police officials or directly to him on his mobile about the drug peddlers.

"It is the common man who knows about the black sheep involved in drug trafficking in their areas. So they can be of a great help and I promise them that action would be taken on the information provided by them," the Police Commissioner said.

Amritsar, September 14
Amritsar boy Amarjot Singh has brought laurels to the city after he published his research work in the publication of NASA's Harvard Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics.

His fathe\r, Sukhbir Singh, is an internal auditor working with the Power Corporation and while his mother, Satinder Azad, is principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Wadala Viram.

Amarjot is a graduation student and research assistant in the laboratory for robotic vision at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.

He said his research was on 'analysis and improvement of SNR' (sound to noise ratio) using time slicing. A bachelor of technology in electrical and electronics engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Amarjot's name also figures in India Book of Records for having the maximum number of research papers published in international journals as an undergraduate student.

"Noise is a very important factor which in most cases plays an antagonistic role in the vast field of image processing. So noise needs to be studied in great depth to improve the quality of images. The outcome of research would help in capturing high quality distances for long distances," he said.

Amarjot said he plans to pursue PhD from USA. "My dream is to start my own company devoted to research and manufacturing of high-end robotic systems for defense forces."

He said his research interests include image processing, computer vision, motion tracking, image annotation, mobile robot vision etc.

Students celebrate Hindi Divas at a school in Amritsar

In another event, students from montessori section participated in different activities like speaking, self-compositions and calligraphy competition.

Orientation session held

Eminent scientist from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, Prof Arvind addressed 'Super-50' batch of students at Khalsa College Public School (KCPS) and stressed on developing scientific temperament. He asked the students aspiring to take admission in various top engineering universities and institutions, including the IITs, to look at the world through an eye of logic and work hard with single-minded determination to achieve success in life.

He suggested innovation in teaching and motivated the students to be more inquisitive and curious. After the session, a question-answer round was held and students and teachers asked queries relating various aspects of the education.

Amritsar, September 14
Swavalamban, joint venture of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), today launched its 25th centre for women at the Government Industrial Training Institute for Women here.

The programme has been designed to uplift women education.

“You teach a woman and you teach the entire nation,” said Nishi Vasudeva, director, marketing, HPCL, and chairperson-designate of HPCL. She inaugurated the centre.

She said in the first batch, 100 girls from economically weaker sections would undergo training in various courses like stitching, tailoring and beautician at the ITI. These courses would be of four months duration.

To ensure inclusive growth, Swavalamban has been undertaken under the corporate social responsibility (CSR).

“HPCL as a company believes in inclusive growth. To achieve our goal, it is necessary to reach out to every section of the society, especially girls. Training 100 below poverty line (BPL) girl beneficiaries is a conscious effort to provide livelihood to the community. The programme not only entails training but encourages self-employment as well. Recognising the strength and interests of the local population, the courses adopted are stitching, tailoring and beautician. Their objective is to equip every girl with a skill which is transferable and is in demand as well,” Nishi Vasudeva said.

Earlier, the centre finished a pilot-project under which 25 girls were trained in these courses and eight of these were placed in companies. Its success has given the confidence to all the stakeholders to launch a full-fledged centre. She also distributed sewing machines to the beneficiaries from the pilot batch to make them self-reliant.

She appreciated the CII in its efforts to genuinely ensure a placement platform to provide livelihood and sustainability for the entire community. The Swavalamban project, which is in its 8th year, has 25 centres in 18 states and has impacted 18,000 lives. The aim of the intervention is to make the underprivileged youth employable and self-employed.

Amritsar, September 14
Dr Karnail Singh has assumed charge as the new principal of the Government Medical College (GMC), Amritsar.

Dr Singh was earlier working as the head of the pediatrics department at the college.

The outgoing principal Dr SS Shergill has been transferred to the Government Medical College, Patiala, as the head of eye department. The transfer orders were received at the college last evening after which Dr Karnail Singh assumed charge this morning.

Dr Singh held a meeting with the heads of various departments and senior officials today.

Restoring the reputation of the college and building confidence among patients would be a challenge for the new principal, especially at a time when it is facing acute staff shortage.

Amritsar, September 14
National Academy of Competitive Examinations today conducted a cycle rally to create awareness among the rural youth about NDA/CDS examinations as well as to motivate the students to work hard to protect interests of the country and its people.

Baba Sewa Singh, the patron of the institution, flagged of the rally from Nishan-E-Sikhi tower, Khadur Sahib.