Amritsar, October 22
In a new twist to the Ludhiana youth suicide case, the police today registered a case against five persons on the basis of a complaint submitted by the father of the deceased.

Harjinder Singh, a resident of Kot Mangal Singh, Gill Road, Ludhiana, lodged a complaint with the police that the five persons used to terrorise his son Jaswinder Singh (24) on the issue of some monetary transaction.

The accused have been identified as Koshal Sharma, resident of Rajguru Colony, Ludhiana, Jagga, Rubal, residents of Dad village in Ludhiana, Aman Ghai, alias Bhatia, and his wife Baljit Kaur, residents of Rajguru Colony, Ludhiana.

Even as no arrest had been made so far, yet the E-Division police had registered a case under Section 306/34 of the IPC (offence of abetment to suicide), confirmed the investigating officer, ASI Sarwan Singh. Earlier, the police had initiated action under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

"The deceased's father alleged that the accused used to terrorise his son constantly and threatened to kill him. This was the reason which forced his son to take such an extreme step," he said.

Harjinder Singh said his son had taken some amount on loan from Koshal whereas Aman Ghai and his wife Baljit Kaur were the guarantors in the deal. He said since then his son was under great stress.

He was allegedly attacked and later abandoned in his car by several persons on October 16 in Ludhiana. A case had already been registered at the Dugri police station, Ludhiana.

Two days later Jaswinder came to Amritsar along with his mother to see his sister's newborn baby at a hospital, but by evening he went missing. Without intimating any of his acquaintances, he had hired a room at Aggarwal Guest House in Katra Ahluwalia here. Yesterday morning, his body was found hanging with a rope from the ceiling fan in the room.

The SHO of the Kotwali police station, Surinder Mohan, said the instance came to light last morning only when the guest house owner informed them about the foul smell emanating from the closed room.

The police suspected that he had committed suicide on the same day, ie on October 18, when he checked in the guest house.

"We have got the postmortem conducted and the body has been handed over to the deceased's family. The exact cause of death will he ascertained only when the report of postmortem comes. Since it is now an inter-related case of two cities, we will be work with the Ludhiana police for further action. The report here will be prepared on the basis of postmortem report only and after that we will proceed further," SHO Surinder Mohan said.

Amritsar, October 22
The house tax recovery squad of the Municipal Corporation (MC) and sub-committee constituted for resolving the disputed cases has swung into action following the directions issued by Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi to clear the pending cases by December 15.

There were around 2,200 cases lying pending before the house tax sub-committee, comprising councillors Sukhminder Singh Pintu and Surinder Sultanwind, SE Jaswinder Singh and Superintendents Shushant Bhatia and Daljit Singh.

It has been learnt that there are several big establishments, including hotels and shops on Lawrence Road and GT Road, whose cases have been lying pending on the arbitration table for quite sometime.

Superintendent Shushant Bhatia said the proposed assessment of realisation comes to a whopping amount of over Rs 20 crores. “But it is just a proposed assessment based on ARV (annual rental value). The exact amount would come out only once the arbitration move is cleared,” he said.

Pintu, who won the elections from Ward 10 with a record margin consecutively for the second time, said the "big ‘fish" would be dealt with first.

“Out of 2,200 cases, around 350 have already been resolved amicably. As per the Local Bodies Minister’s directions, it would be our earnest endeavour to clear as much pending cases as possible within the stipulated time frame. We have been conducting sub-committee meeting on regular basis, ie on every Tuesday and Friday,” he said.

Today, the house tax team sealed five properties and the areas targeted were located in Partap Nagar, New Partap Nagar and on the right side of the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road.

The team collected a sum of Rs 3.5 lakh. Among the sealed properties included a non-operational factory situated in the East Mohan Nagar, the proprietor of which was to pay Rs 2.5 lakh as house tax. Similarly, two other properties, Bhandari Property Dealers and Kunwar Telecom, both located in New Partap Nagar, were sealed.

Amritsar, October 22
The Health Department today conducted a raid on a cosmetic unit located in Katra Kanhaiya and seized a huge quantity of spurious cosmetic material and sealed the machinery.

On a tip-off, a Health Department team, comprising Drug Inspectors Anupama Kalia, Rajesh Suri and Sukhdeep Singh, inspected the unit, Jamna Das Beauty Centre.

Even as no arrest has been made so far, yet the proprietor of the unit Vijay Kumar has been booked under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act for manufacturing and selling spurious cosmetics imported from China under popular brand names.

“On the first impression it looked like any other cosmetic and drug store, but when we checked the upper floors of the shop we discovered that a full fledged machinery was set up over there to manufacture cosmetics and toiletry products without complying with the stipulated standard. We have confiscated an enormous quantity of beauty products with popular brand names which appear to be imported from China, besides cartons and labels. Some of the products also bore the name and address of a Delhi-based firm”, Anupama said.

“We will produce the seized spurious material like facial creams, shampoos, body sprays, perfumes and talcum powder in the court tomorrow to initiate further action against the accused. He has been held responsible for running the unit without obtaining the mandatory drug and cosmetics manufacturing licence,” she added.

Amritsar, October 22
Municipal Corporation (MC) employees called off their strike this afternoon after the authorities handed them over their pending salary cheques. Yet, they warned that their fight would continue for getting their arrears against the Dearness Allowance, Sixth Pay Commission and other dues.

A section of employees sat on a dharna yesterday for the non-payment of their salaries and other pending demands like conveyance, uniform and mobile allowances, despite getting assurance of getting them.

Earlier, this morning the employees raised slogans against the authorities and staged a protest. Today, the firemen also joined the stir and had warned the authorities that they would shun work this Diwali if they would not be paid their dues on time.

Major Singh, general secretary of the Amritsar Nagar Nigam Workers Union, said the affected employees belonged to all classes, but since the authorities had paid their salary cheques, the agitation has been withdrawn for the time being.

“We all have received our salary cheques, though our other demands like the conveyance allowance and mobile allowance, pending since 2011, and payment of 7 per cent of DA instalment, have not been met. Similarly, 40 per cent of the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission have been given to almost all employees, whereas 60 per cent is still to be given. We would continue our agitation till the last pie lying pending,” he said.

Amritsar, October 22
City Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora held a meeting at his camp office in Company Bagh today to discuss water logging problem in the city during the rainy season. Later, he, along with officials also visited the areas which have to face this problem.

During the rain, not only old walled city area, the posh areas like Lawrence Road, Crystal Chowk, Mall Road and MM Malviya Road submerge in water, putting life out of gear.

The Mayor said after discussing the problem at length with the experts it was observed that the process of covering of ganda nullah at several places was the main cause.

“It was observed that the work of covering the nullah is underway and the pending work has been hindering the passage of drain flow. After visiting one of the sites opposite Durgiana Mandir, we saw that the whole sewerage was choked. I immediately directed the officials concerned to de-silt it on priority. Similarly, the level of the ganda nullah passage from where the rain water flows in, too, did not have even level, especially from PBN School point to the Sakatri Bagh side. The officers concerned have been instructed to make it correct,” he said.

Amritsar, October 22
In an effort to bring home closer for the BSF personnel at border posts, special video conferencing facility and video chats were started which had the personnel talking to their spouses back home, celebrating Karva Chauth. Personnel posted at BSF Headquarters at Khasa availed themselves of the facility.

The facility, which was started at the Integrated Check Post at Attari on August 15, has been expanded to the BSF Headquarters at Khasa and joint check post at Attari as well. And the personnel joined their spouses during the ending of Karva Chauth fast through video conferencing, right from their posts. The simple, yet effective facility, has been making life and job easy for the troops.

Agrees Gaurav Singh, Deputy Commandant, BSF, who was among the officers celebrating the festival with their wives through the digital platform. "I am glad that the facility has put me through with my family, especially on the festival day. While serving for the country, the officers and jawans do feel homesick and watching my wife, who is in Ludhiana, on Karva Chauth made the day for both of us." He added that this facility had found support from all quarters. "It is a novel idea that has already having positive impact on the personnel. Everyday, a specific time is reserved for the jawans to talk to their families through video chats, Skype and other means."

Calling it as an assurance for the jawans and keeping them motivated, Gaurav Singh says that at least over 80 or more jawans celebrated the occasion with their families on Karva Chauth through video conferencing at various posts along the border. "At the time of festivals, many personnel apply for leave, but because of the nature of our duty, it is impossible to accommodate all. If they can't go home on Karva Chauth, this was the best possible way to bring the home to them," says Gaurav Singh.

Terming it as a boon for jawans, who feel stressed and homesick, especially during festival time, DIG, BSF MF Farooqui, says the move had been able to loosen the pressure. "We started the facility only to de-stress our personnel with the nature of the job being strenuous. It has been over two months now and we have been getting requests from more jawans for the interaction, mostly during festivals. With jawans whose families are in places like Karnataka, Nagaland and Rajasthan, the facility has come as highly motivating move."

The plan is to expand the facility to all border outposts where the BSF jawans are on surveillance duty. "Each will have a computer and internet facility of own. The BOPs will have wireless internet service, helping not just in personal communication, but also inter-post communication," said Farooqui.

Amritsar, October 22
Azim Premji University (APU), Bangaluru, Registrar, Giridhar S, today stressed on making Indian youth creative and innovative for the general progress of the country and society. He said onus to take country to the path of economic progress and prosperity was with the youth, but education had to be re-framed to develop 'thinking human beings’.

Addressing students at Khalsa College of Education (KCE) during a seminar on 'Role of Youth for Better India’, Giridhar said the education and development of any society economically and socially were interlinked and we had to make education more practical and society-oriented. He also appealed to the educators to break away from mindset of status quo and bring change in imparting education to develop 'thinking minds’.

Dr Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, principal of the college, welcomed the guests and said the KCE was looking at faculty and students’ exchange programmes with the APU, which was Karnataka’s first university in private sector with the objective of focusing to bring change in education and way of instructions for students.

Giridhar also endorsed that APU-KCE would co-operate in research, exchange programmes of teachers and students and holding workshops and seminars in diverse subjects in near future.

Amritsar, October 22
The International Stuttering Awareness Day was observed at the Adhlakha ENT Speech and Hearing Centre, Race Course road, here today.

Around 50 persons from all walks of life attended the seminar conducted on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Adhlakha said this day was celebrated all over the world to spread awareness about stuttering problem and its social implications for the sufferers.

“The only solution for the problem is speech therapy by a trained therapist. Stuttering is a big social handicap and cannot be treated by any medicine," said Dr Adhlakha. This day was commemorated for the first time on October 22, 1998 by two US-based organisations, International Stuttering Association and International Fluency Association.