Amritsar, December 18
The holy city will make a mark on the tourism radar with its first helium balloon rides starting shortly.

It is estimated that there is a footfall of around 1 lakh tourists here daily. The tethered helium balloon ride, about 150 metres in air, will enable visitors to have a bird’s eye-view of key edifices of Amritsar, including Golden Temple, Durgiana Temple, the ancient Ram Tirath temple and the historic Jallianwala Bagh.

The Amritsar Municipal Corporation has already spared a two-acre plot in the Gole Bagh area which is the closest from historic shrines. Filled with around 6,500 cubic metres of helium, the balloon ride will take off from this location which will be transformed into a tourist destination having ticket counters, waiting galleries and food kiosks etc.

The balloon would have a gondola at its base and will be operated by an electronic winch that will lower or raise the structure. It will have a capacity to accommodate around 30 people in one go.

A flight of 10 minutes will cost between Rs 50 and Rs 100, depending on the age of the occupants.

The foremost point is that neither the Municipal Corporation nor the Punjab Government will have to spend a single penny on the project as it will be executed on the PPP (public-private partnership) basis. The whole operational and maintenance cost will be borne by the firm which will be hired for the project.

MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda, the brainchild behind this Rs 10-crore project, discovered this facility at Kankria Lakefront in Ahmedabad. He apprised Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi about it after gathering operational logistics of the project from the Ahmedabad civic authorities.

“It took me over three months to study the project being run successfully in Ahmedabad. I felt that this project could do wonders in Amritsar, as around 1.5 lakh tourists visit Amritsar every day and if just 2 per cent of them showed an inclination to take the air balloon ride, the project would be a major hit”, he said.

We had to ensure the space was open and without any interfering tree cover and Gole Bagh was the appropriate location which is just 50 metres from Durgiana Temple and 150 metres from Golden Temple. I discussed the project with the Deputy Chief Minister and the Local Bodies Minister after doing my homework and they instantly gave their nod. The project was tabled in the House meeting today which was approved unanimously. Tenders for hiring the firms would be floated tomorrow and it could be started within two months, he added.

Amritsar, December 18
The New Year is expected to bring mixed expressions of smiles and resentment on the faces of city residents On the one hand the city will witness its first ever public transport project in the shape of air-conditioned city bus service in Amritsar on January 1, and on the other, the MC is contemplating to impose city beautification cess on hoteliers and clubbing water, sewage and municipal waste charges with electricity bills shortly.

This was revealed during the MC’s general house meeting held under the chairmanship of city Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora today in its Town Hall premises. It was a clear-cut one-sided affair when the opposition, scant in number, was hardly given any heed that led to its boycotting the meeting during the culmination hours.

The leader of the opposition, Raj Kanwal Preet Pal Singh Lucky, viewed that all these moves lacked vision as they required concrete planning to make all the projects time-bound and officially accountable. “No planning was done to execute the projects in an efficient manner and the public would have to suffer due to faulty policy. They were never ready to listen to our point of view, that’s why we boycotted this meeting,” he said.

Nonetheless, projects worth Rs 365 crore were tabled in the House and were given approval. Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora apprised the House that a loan worth Rs 105 crore had been passed which would facilitate the augmentation of civic amenities in the city.

For the city bus service, the house approved to pool Rs 14 crore in its share. MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said there would be around 150 air conditioned low-floor buses and the project would cost Rs 46 crore. “As many as 25 buses have already been procured which will hit the roads as a New Year gift on January 1,” he said.

Another Rs 500 crore project, which got approval, was the air-conditioned buses run under Bus Rapid Transit System. This project would be jointly funded by the Centre and the state governments.

Besides this, another project which attracted the attention was the helium ballooning ride worth Rs 10 crore to be operated on PPP mode. It would facilitate the tourists to have a bird’s eye view of major landmarks of the city in a 10 minute air ride above 150 metres.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said HUDCO and Bank of India had given their go ahead in extending loans worth Rs 55 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively. Besides this, the MC had pocketed around Rs 12 crore as property tax and Rs 20 crore as development charges to regularise the illegal colonies under the one-time policy of the Punjab Government, he said.

“This amount will be spent solely on improving the basic infrastructure like repairing of roads, water and sewage facility, installing tube wells and streetlights. We had earlier spared Rs 11 lakh for each of the 65 wards, but now this amount could be enhanced to Rs 30 lakh each to enable the respective councillors to carry out civil works, street lights, operation and maintenance jobs in their wards,” he said.

The MC has also drafted a proposal to impose sewage, water and municipal solid waste disposal charges to the residents, which will be clubbed with the electricity bills and it was given a green signal by the house.

Besides this, the proposal to install LED streetlights equipped with energy savers also got approval. As per the pilot project, these lights will be installed on the Lawrence and Sultanwind roads. Later, these will be installed at the light points located in Hussainpura, Ghee Mandi, and Durgiana Temple sub divisions. It will not only save electricity consumption but will also be environment friendly.

The 4-G cable networking is also being installed in the city by Reliance Infosys Company, which will lay around 94,470 metre long optical fibre cable web.

The Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board’s proposal to renovate façades of buildings located on both sides of the road leading to Golden Temple from Hall Gate was also approved in the House. The total cost of the project worth Rs 50 crore will be borne by the Board only, but it will require NoC from the MC.

Looking at the dismal state of affairs prevailing in the Ram Bagh area, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), the House agreed to take the matter with the ASI so as to get it transferred to the MC. 

Amritsar, December 18
Employees of various banks in Amritsar observed pen-down strike today, following the nationwide call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).

Demanding immediate wage revision and stopping of bank reforms, the strike brought the entire banking system to a halt. The agitating employees assembled in front of the Bank of India Town Hall area at about 10:30 am and held a rally.

They defined the UPA government’s policies as anti-public sector and pro-corporate. Wages and service conditions in the banking industry are governed by the industry level Bi-partite settlements signed between the Indian Bank’s Association and the Trade Union of Employees and Officers. The last Bi-partite settlement on wages came to an end on October 31, 2012 and revision of wages and other service conditions have become due since then. 

Amritsar, December 18
The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) today abandoned its campaign midway to remove encroachments on its plots in Kabir Park area after illegal occupants resisted the move tooth and nail. The agitated occupants pelted the police with stones in which a cop was injured.

The Trust initiated the anti-encroachment drive after the plot holders threatened to move court to get possession of their property. As per the norms, the Trust was bound to hand over the possession of the plots to the allottees.

Over 25 shanties have come up on equal number of plots. Each plot has 100 square yards of area.

A battery of the Trust officials along with 25 labourers and heavy police bandobast, including lady police, descended at the site at 11:30 am and called off the anti-encroachment drive at about 1:30 pm anticipating the situation slipping out of control.

The illegal occupants came out on the road raising slogans and held sticks to confront the combined teams of the police and the Trust. In a brief confrontation, a protestor also threatened self-immolation.

During the two-hour campaign, the trust officials managed to remove about 20 shanties.

Superintendent engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma said they conveyed the impending demolition to the occupants in advance so that they could remove their household articles safely. He assured that the remaining shanties would be removed soon.

It may be mentioned that the Trust had removed illegal occupations in Kabir Park area in 2010, following the Supreme Court’s order. With the passage of time, temporary settlements again sprung up in the area.

Amrtisar, December 18
Fire broke out in the passport office located at Ranjit Avenue area here this morning reportedly following short-circuit.

The passport authorities in a press note issued here said that officials and the security staff controlled the fire with fire extinguishers while a fire brigade also reached the spot soon. It later doused the fire.

The officials said there was no damage to any person, files, records, passports, furniture and other official property of the passport office, adding that due to damage to power supply wires, computers and other electronic systems were not functioning.

“Due to this, they wiill be unable to do public dealing in the office for passport-related queries,” passport officials said while adding that they were trying to restore the services as soon as possible.

They, however, said the Passport Seva Kendra at Mall Road was functioning as usual in a normal way. They advised the applicants to visit the Passport Seva Kendra at the allotted time and date for submitting their applications.

Amritsar, December 18
A notorious criminal, Gurmukh Singh, who was wanted in 13 cases of dacoity, robbery and NDPS cases, today slipped away from the Ajnala civil court where he had gone in connection with hearing in a case. According to information, he gave a slip to the police party after his appearance in the court. As soon as the police team was going to handcuff him, he pushed the policemen and ran away from the court premises.

Confirming this, RK Sharma, Deputy Superintendent, Jail, said the jail authorities had written to the Police Department that Gurmukh Singh was a notorious criminal and heavy security should be provided in order to thwart any such instance. A case is being registered in this connection.

Meanwhile, the cantonment police have booked an Assitant Sub-Inspector and a head constable, posted at Tarn Taran, for dereliction in duty which led to the escaping of a jail inmate identified as Ravinder Singh, a resident of Naraingarh, Chheharta.

The jail authorities in their complaint lodged with the police alleged that ASI Balwinder Singh and head constable Sarabjit Singh had taken Ravinder Singh to the Tarn Taran judicial court in connection with hearing of a case, but they did not return. A case under Sections 222, 223, 224, IPC, has been registered against them while the Police Department has initiated action for placing them under suspension.

Amritsar, December 18
On the call of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), teachers of private aided colleges of Amritsar, Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran, ceased work for two periods and assembled at Bhandari Bridge to protest against the “indifferent and callous attitude” of the SAD-BJP coalition government.

Addressing the rally, PCCTU vice president Prof Mukhwinder Singh lambasted the government for not releasing the grants for salaries for the last one year and thus breaking the life-line of the higher education system in the state.

The demands include, inter alia, implementation of pension and gratuity scheme, regular disbursement of grant meant for salaries under the 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme, security of service for the teachers working on un-aided posts as per the 1974 Act, lifting ban on recruitments imposed in 2005, review of posts after every three years as per the commitment made in 1978, provision of arrears pertaining to revised pay scales for the teachers working on un-aided posts, relaxation in the refresher courses up to December 2013 as per the UGC guidelines, rationalisation of promotion based on Academic Performance Indicators (API) and raising of retirement age to 65 years as per the Central Government notification.

PCCTU former general secretary Prof HS Walia described the government’s policy towards education as anti-teachers and claimed that due to the directionless and faulty policies, about 50 per cent colleges in the state were on the brink of closure. 

Amritsar, December 18
Renu Puri from the Meeting Branch has been elected as the president of the Officer's Association of Guru Nanak Dev University, the elections of which were held last evening. Dr Jaspal Singh from the Law Department was the returning officer.

Tirath Singh from the Computer Centre has been elected as vice-president, Rajesh Kalia from the Conduct Branch as secretary, Mokesh Sharma from the Engineering Department as joint secretary and Sham Mohan from the Examination Branch-I as treasurer.

Harwant Kaur from the Accounts Branch, Naresh Nandan from Bhai Gurdas Library, Piara Singh from the College Branch, Surinderjit Singh from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kanchan Kohli from the Department of Commerce and Business Management and Dr Pawan Sharma from the Health Centre have been elected as executive members. — TNS

Amritsar, December 18
The high profile Attari-Wagah land route on the India-Pakistan border has always been busy with lots of prominent dignitaries including politicians, bureaucrats and traders preferring this route for crossing the border or for trade purposes.

Sukhpreet Kaur (left) and Dalbir Kaur, wife and sister, of Sarabjit, wave at Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post on April 23. Tribune file photo

The year 2013 started with a lot of enthusiasm with the launching of ‘Visa-on-Arrival’ facility for the elderly people, following the implementation of a new liberal visa regime between India and Pakistan. A special counter was also set up on the Indian side of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) for this purpose.

However, a day after its launch, it was put on hold following the brutal killing and beheading of an Indian soldier by the Pakistani forces at the LoC.

It evoked sharp reaction from the Indian government which decided to put on hold the facility, besides taking other stringent measures to give a clear signal to the neighbouring country for this cowardly act. While only one person from the Indian side availed the facility to go to Pakistan on its inaugural day, no Pakistani national arrived from the other side of the border. Consequently, the facility has not been restored till now.

Emotions ran high on the international land route after the fatal attack on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national incarcerated in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail. His family including his sister Dalbir Kaur, wife Sukhjit Kaur and two daughters - Swapandeep and Poonam- crossed over to Pakistan with a heavy heart after the news, but they returned soon after finding him in a critical condition in a hospital in Lahore.

In yet another major development, a seven member Pakistani Judicial Commission crossed over to India through the land route to take forward the prosecution of seven suspects including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and cross-examination of four prosecution witnesses in 26/11 Mumbai attacks which led to the killing of as many as 166 persons including foreign nationals.

Besides, the smuggling of narcotics from across the border through the rail route as well as through the porous Indian-Pakistan border has hit the trade badly.

While the import of cement has virtually stopped through rail cargo following the recovery of huge consignments of drugs in goods trains and rail cargo of Samjhauta Express, the lesser number of sheds and platforms at the ICP has also done no good for the trade activity. Recently, the Land Port Authority of India has increased the godown charges, which have not gone well with the traders, who also complained of not getting the required number of boggies.

The Indo-Pak border with Border Security Force officials claimed to have confiscated over 322kg of heroin from the Punjab border during this year. It killed as many as five Pakistani smugglers who were trying to push in the contraband while three Indian smugglers were also shot dead who had come close to the barbed fence to retrieve the drug consignments.