Amritsar, November 10
With new trains and destinations being added to the city, the passengers here are a harried lot these days for want of adequate number of platforms at the Amritsar railway station.

The frequently approaching trains are made to wait at the nearby small railway stations or outside the station in the absence of vacant platforms.

As many as 130 trains arrive and depart from the city railway station which has only six platforms. The Amritsar-Chandigarh Superfast Express, Amritsar-Lalkuan (Uttarakhand) Express and Amritsar-Kanpur Express were introduced recently. Besides, two trains between Amritsar-Chandigarh and Amritsar-Ferozepur are in the pipeline.

Being a border town, many long-route trains begin and conclude their journey in the city. Most of the trains either arrive or depart in the morning or in the evening, thus creating a space crunch at the station and the yard.

The railway station requires much more space for servicing the locomotives. No new platform has been added to the station for the past many decades while the number of trains is steadily rising ever since.

As a result of this, thousands of passengers, including tourists, have to endure pangs of waiting at the nearby railway stations.

A plan to add two platforms was abandoned midway about five years back citing technical reasons. Even after so many years, no effort has been made to resume the work on this.

To add to the congestion, the Shatabdi Express and Swaran Shatabdi Express remain stationed at the railway station for long hours.

In 2009, the then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in her rail budget had named the Amritsar railway station as one of the 50 stations in India to be provided “world-class services”.

The passengers are apparently annoyed with the railway authorities due to the inconvenience caused to them.

Harjinder Singh, a city resident, said, “I travelled to Chandigarh in Superfast Express a couple of days back. I was pained to find that the train was kept waiting for nearly 45 minutes at Manawala station on its return journey during night.”

Sarbjit Singh, a retail apparel shopkeeper, said, “I travel to Delhi every Saturday night to procure material for the week ahead. I generally take the train back on Sunday afternoon. The train here is kept waiting at the city’s entry point.”

A Railway official said plans to upgrade infrastructure were underway and measures in this regard were being adopted one by one so that the regular flow of traffic was not hampered. Installation of escalators and beautification of the railway station are currently underway, he claimed.

Amritsar, November 10
The Chheharta police has arrested a man who was involved in preparing fake currency notes which he later circulated in the market.

The accused has been identified as Harpal Singh, a resident of Sultanwind area. The police seized fake currency to the tune of Rs 1.49 lakh from the victim when he was going to Ghanupur Kale to sell the same to certain clients.

Harish Behal, SHO Chheharta police station, said after a tip-off the police arrested him from near Ghanupur Kale. The police raided his residence and confiscated 139 notes of Rs1,000 denomination and 21 notes of Rs 500 denomination. The police also seized a computer, scanner and printer from the spot.

Investigations revealed that he had been in the illegal activity for the past three months and had circulated around Rs 60,000 in the market. Behal said Harpal was an addict and majority of times used the counterfeit currency for procuring drugs.

A case has been registered against him. Further investigations are under progress. The police has got two-day custody of the accused. 

Amritsar, November 10
A cameraman was hurt after gunshots were fired in the air during a marriage function in a resort on GT Road.

The victim, Harsh Mattu, a resident of Dr Ambedkar Gali, Gilwali Gate, was rushed to a private hospital where his condition is stated to be stable.

The police has booked two persons- Gurmeet Singh of Guru Ramdass Nagar and his brother Amrik Singh in this connection.

Both the accused are absconding. A case under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (attempt to murder) and Sections 25/27/54/59 of the Arms Act has been registered at the Sultanwind police station.

Major Singh, in-charge, Sultanwind police post, said Harsh Mattu was sitting in a chair near the stage where the relatives of the groom were dancing. He said one of the relatives, Gurmeet Singh, came to the stage armed with a revolver and started firing in the air all of a sudden. He reportedly fired a couple of shots in the air to celebrate the function. However, when he fired the third shot, the bullet struck in his revolver.

“While he was checking his revolver, the bullet got fired and it hit Mattu in his waist,” said Major Singh. The victim was immediately rushed to a private hospital for treatment. Gurmeet Singh and his brother fled the scene immediately. The police said raids were being conducted to nab him and recover the weapon.

Reports said the groom’s family had to bear the expenses of his treatment.

Amritsar, November 10
The Amritsar rural police has booked a former Akali sarpanch and a panchayat secretary for allegedly bungling development grants to the tune of Rs 13.50 lakh.

While both the accused are under suspension, a case of bungling and criminal conspiracy has been lodged at the Gharinda police station in this regard on the statement of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Attari, Gurmeet Singh.

An inquiry has been conducted in the case by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DCP-Attari) Sukhwinder Singh.

The accused have been identified as Balwinder Singh, former sarpanch of Kaonke village and Harparkash Singh, panchayat secretary of Attari block.

Reports said the government had released funds worth lakhs for the construction of bus shelter and repair of village roads for year 2011-12. It has been learnt that the accused sarpanch in connivance with the panchayat secretary withdrew the amount in a single go while no work was undertaken at the ground level.

Gurmeet Singh, BDPO, revealed that a number of reminders were sent to the panchayat secretary and the sarpanch for submitting the necessary utilisation certificates of completion of work with the department.

They, however, did not produce the same. He said following this an inquiry was conducted by an official of the department who pointed out that no development works had been carried out in the village.

He said the sarpanch was again asked to initiate the development and completed it within a stipulated period. But he again failed to do so. Following this, the department filed a complaint with the police department against the duo.

Sukhwinder Singh, DSP, said a case under Sections 409, 120-B of the IPC has been registered at the Gharinda police station. He said he had summoned the record from the department for further investigations. No arrest has been made so far.

Amritsar, November 10
A Tarn Taran-based family today approached the Scheduled Caste Commission alleging that they were defrauded by a family from Ludhiana.

The aggrieved family said their son’s marriage was solemnised with the NRI daughter of the Ludhiana-based family who later took lakhs of rupees from them.

They alleged that on the very next day of the marriage, the girl returned to her parents and then left for Canada and did not return from there.

Rajkumar Verka, Vice-Chairman, National Scheduled Caste Commission, has directed the IG Border Range to personally investigate the case.

Gurdas Sharma, a resident of Tarn Taran who met Verka, said he got his son Nitin Sharma married to Pritpal Singh’s daughter on August 12. He said the marriage was arranged through a Chandigarh-based marriage bureau run by one Panday who had given an advertisement in a newspaper. He said the family had written that they wanted an early wedding. He said they approached the family who revealed that the girl was returning to Canada on August 20.

He said the marriage was solemnised at a Amritsar hotel. The marriage was registered before a tehsildar. After marriage, the girl came to her in-laws’ residence for a few hours and returned to Ludhiana with her parents.

He alleged that on August 17 the girl’s parents and the marriage bureau owner demanded money from them. He said they gave a Rs 3 lakh cheque in the name of Pritpal Singh besides Rs 3 lakh cash withdrawn from HDFC Bank. Panday also took Rs 1 lakh from them, he added. Later on, the girl returned to Canada on August 20 adding that when they contacted the girl’s family they again demanded money from them.

Gurdas said they became suspicious and lodged a compliant with the Tarn Taran police which handed over the enquiry to a DSP-level officer. He alleged the officer did not involve them in investigations and took statements of the girl’s family only. 

Amritsar, November 10
Presiding over the valedictory session of the 20th National Annual Conference of Sahodaya Schools, Prof Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-Chancellor, GNDU, today said educators need to change in this era of technology which is entering the classrooms and loaded the students with information.

“Today we are undergoing a transitional phase. The question is how they need to teach and nurture their competence to prepare global learners in true sense,” he quipped.

Prof Brar said the Indian education system is built on several presumptions which are not necessarily healthy for the students. He said whereas scientific studies proved that some kids learn faster while others are comparatively slow. There is no one-size-fits-all formula when it comes to educating the children, he said.

He said we can effectively decentralise education and if the government did not obsessively control the syllabus, there would be an explosion of new and innovative courses for serving niche learners. He further said our education system was essentially colonial and generated “pen-pushers” only.

“We may have most number of engineering graduates in the world but that certainly has not translated into much technological innovation here. One of the drawbacks of Indian education system is that the government has still not played a major role in bringing technology to the schools and higher education institutes,” he added.

“There are crooks, money launderers and politicians opening educational institutions which extract money. The focus is on marketing rather than innovation or providing great educational service. Allowing profit-making will encourage serious entrepreneurs, innovators and investors to take interest in the education sector,” he remarked.Vaneet Joshi, chairman, CBSE, Sadhna Parashar, Director, Academics Research Training and Innovations, Sahodaya Schools, DPS Kharbanda, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Amritsar, Dr Saravjit Kaur Brar, Principal, Khalsa College Public School and principals of various CBSE-affiliated schools were present on the occasion.

The VC further said since most of the families in India could not afford private school education, their children usually find it difficult to secure a job as their knowledge remains limited about technological developments.

Amritsar, November 10
To bring transparency and efficiency in the recovery of property tax, the Municipal Corporation of Amritsar initiated to conduct an awareness drive at the house of Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora today.

As many as 106 cases were resolved and the MC pocketed an amount of nearly Rs 2 lakh. This camp will be held for the next three days in which residents can deposit their tax on the basis of the self-assessment of the area and dimension of their properties.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said the move was aimed at curtailing the "inspector raj phobia" prevailing in the minds of the residents.

"It was just a part of the door-to-door survey for assessing the tax applicable on households. The residents just need to tell the size and the location of their properties. It would then be our duty to tell them the exact tax applicable on their properties," he said.

Proprietor of a property would be provided a form, which will be self-assessed by them only. This information can later be tallied with the digital analysis of the Map My India firm, which has been engaged in conducting the geographical mapping of properties and the infrastructure of the city. The firm would conduct the geographical survey of around 3 lakh properties (both commercial and residential) under the jurisdiction of the MC.

The MC has has also initiated to hold a series of sessions with different sections of society. In the first session, they interacted with hoteliers of the walled city area. The MC has also put up hoardings to sensitise the people on the issue and it seemed to be working, officials say.

With the deadline of depositing the property tax (November 30) approaching fast, the MC has been holding camps in different localities to sensitise the residents about the need to pay the tax. " I and the Commissioner are monitoring the outcome of the awareness camps. The reason behind holding the camps is to encourage the residents to pay the tax on their own while shunning the inspector raj phobia. These steps have been taken after the direction of Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi who advocated to establish a warm and friendly atmosphere between officials and the residents. The awareness camps are showing results," he said.

Amritsar, November 10
East Zone and Central Zone will lock horns in the final of the five-day All-India Inter-Zonal Cricket Tournament of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) at Gandhi Ground tomorrow.Both the teams edged past their opponents in the semifinal matches today.

East Zone won the match by 55 runs. North-East Zone won the toss and decided to bowl first. East zone scored 121 runs. North-East Zone could score only 66 runs in 14.5 overs. MK Tahid took 4 wickets in two overs and was adjudged man of the match.

In the second semifinal, Central Zone won by 7 wickets. Central zone won the toss and decided to bowl first. North Zone played well and posted a target of 153 runs. Central Zone played aggressively and won the match in 19.3 overs with a loss of 3 wickets. Deepak Kumar was declared man of the match for his 55 runs, studded with four sixes and four boundaries. — TNS

Amritsar, November 10
To boost cultural exchange and agreement in the Indian subcontinent besides promoting the young and upcoming musicians from the US, the US embassy's American Centre has brought peppy and exciting all-women mariachi troupe to Amritsar.

The first women mariachi troupe, a genre dominated by the men, will be performing a concert with a giddha team from Khalsa College for Women at the art gallery on Monday evening. The excitement seems unmatched in both camps. It's our initiative to showcase this lively and unique music form from North America, which is an example of cultural prosperity across the US, Mexico and Canada. The eight member band draws its members from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds like Cuba, Mexico, India, Us et al and embodies the message of cultural exchange and togetherness," shared Joshua W Polocheck, the cultural attaché for North India travelling with the band.

Kicking off their India tour, Flor De Toloache, the first ever women Mariachi band that caught attention world over with their refreshing sounds and cultural diversity, will travel to Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta with their music and perform fusion concerts with Indian artistes. Bringing Mariachi, a lively folk music originated in Mexico, has love, betrayal, death, and politics inspired lyrics with suave string and brass harmonies, and romping rhythms, the troupe will interact and hold workshops in the country.

The leader and founder of the band, Mireya Ramos, says, "The marriachi music is about traditions, culture and a way of life. It touches hearts and helps one to reflect on humanity. Mariachi and giddha share many things - love, heartbreak in countryside, nature and deep emotions." She also hopes to learn a step or two of giddha.

"I have no clue about the Punjabi folk art form but I am looking forward to learn more about the Punjabi culture."

The Khalsa College girls are excited to be perform with the band. "At first, we were confused as to how the edgy, energetic and fast paced giddha would gel with the soft and different rhythm of mariachi. But after the rehearsals, we are confident that our fusion would be quite exciting," says Sandeep Kaur, leader of the giddha team.

Amritsar, November 10
The city police has arrested three persons, including two women, for the alleged involvement in immoral trafficking. Vavinder Kumar, SHO, Sadar police station, said following a tip off, the police team raided the residence of a woman running flesh trade at her house in Sandhu Colony on Batala road.

The police arrested her husband Sukhwinder Singh and another woman from the spot. However, another accused Gurwinder Singh of Sohian Khurd village fled away from the scene.