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Terrorism-affected families’ lives miserable
House tax sub-committee meeting today
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Cops clueless in young boy’s murder case
Amritsar, December 23 The Amritsar rural police have yet to make any significant breakthrough in the murder of a 13-year-old boy, who was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in Mehta area.
Year 2013 ender Year 2013 ender
Review meeting held for
Eco-Amritsar
Personality development camp at Spring Dale
Finalists selected for Miss Amritsar Contest
One-sided matches in hockey tourney
Feedback
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Terrorism-affected families’ lives miserable
Amritsar, December 23 Shankuntla Devi (70), a resident of an area located near the historic Jallianwala Bagh, lost her husband Durga Dass in a bomb blast that took place in Katra Ahluwalia in 1988. She has been living in a dilapidated rented accommodation at present. She received an ex-gratia grant of Rs 1 lakh In the name of compensation. Her son, Ashwani Kumar, had a government job, but his untimely death left her shattered. His son's wife got a government job on compassionate grounds, but immediately after, she separated and shifted elsewhere. “Now, I survive on the meagre pension given by the Punjab Government. In the absence of a system, we do not receive the pension for four to six months,” she said. Balbir Singh, a resident of Varpal, said that he lost three members of his family, including his father, Kartar Singh, brother Major Singh and his wife, Gurpreet Kaur, during the peak of militancy in 1991. "We did not get any grant or job from the government while I made rounds of the department concerned at the Deputy Commissioner's office. A truck driver by profession, he has two sons who do menial jobs in a factory. Joginder Pal, a Home Guard jawan, sustained bullet injuries when he was attacked by militants in 1989. He was returning home from the Kotwali area. The attack rendered him handicapped and he was thrown out of the Home Guard Department, he alleged. However, he added that he neither received any assistance from the department nor from the Punjab Government. Similar was the tale of other terrorism-affected families who had approached the All-India Terrorist Victims Association for help. While stressing on the formation of a Welfare Board for terrorism-affected victims, Dr BR Hastir, Chairman of the association, said there were around 50,000 affected families in Punjab. Out of these 32, 514 families were registered with the government itself. Amritsar alone had around 16,000 registered affected families, according to the government records. “The Central Government, on the pattern of a relief package provided to the 1984 riot victims, has proposed a package of Rs 781 crore according to the recommendation of the state government. The Department of Financial Commission Revenue sent a number of reminders to the Central Government for releasing the relief package, but nothing has been done so far,” said Dr Hastir. Under the package, the government will give Rs 3.50 lakh to the family of the person who died during militancy, Rs 2 lakh to the families who migrated to other places, Rs 1.25 lakh to the injured, said Dr Hastir. He urged the government to release the package soon.
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House tax sub-committee meeting today
Amritsar, December 23 Later a report will be prepared only to be submitted with Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi. The house-tax sub-committee comprised councillors Sukhminder Singh Pintu, Surinder Sultanwind besides SE Jaswinder Singh and Superintendents Shushant Bhatia and Daljit Singh. Even as the sub-committee has scheduled its meeting to deliberate over pending disputed cases for tomorrow, it will be a daunting task to redress the grievances of the residents who had challenged the house-tax methodology. It has been learnt that there are around 1,600 such cases, including commercial ones. There are several big establishments, including hotels and shops on Lawrence and GT roads, whose cases are pending for quite some time. Pintu said even as it would be difficult to hear such a huge pending lot of cases, these could be redressed only if authorities, too, take into account the role of its officers in creating discrepancies in house-tax calculations. In a majority of cases, the proprietors argued that they had received hosue-tax recovery notices which were four or five times of the actual taxes they had been paying earlier. "It is true that gross miscalculations were found in the maximum cases. Here, either the officials were wrong in that inadvertently or out of leniency, they sent parties tax details which were less than the calculated amount," he said. "We had before us over 2,000 cases out of which around 390 could be resolved amicably. The meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow. Despite all odds, it would be our earnest endeavour to clear as much pending cases as possible within a stipulated time frame. We have planned a regular schedule to hold a sub-committee meeting on Tuesdays and Fridays," he said.
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Cops clueless in young boy’s murder case Amritsar, December 23 The family of the deceased cremated him clandestinely which raised suspicions. SP (D) Jasdeep Singh said though there was no significant breakthrough at the moment, the police had taken one person into their custody following initial probe. However, he added that his involvement was yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile, he said the mortal remains of the boy were sent to forensic laboratory for examination to ascertain the cause of death, he said. — TNS
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City's killer roads continue to take a toll on human lives
PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service
Amritsar, December 23 The rural belt has witnessed the maximum number of accidents which snuffed out 144 lives during 2013 till now. As many as 83 persons have lost their lives in the city area which is more than the previous year in which the number of deceased was 75, whereas in 2011 it was 64. The alarming figures only point out the grim traffic scenario in the city as well as the rural area. The efforts of all authorities have failed in improving the scenario for decades. Various plans made by the police authorities, district and civic administration proved a futile exercise in absence of the political will. Those riding two-wheelers are the ones who bear the brunt of such mishaps. According to the data available, the rural belt has recorded 154 cases while in the city area, the number is 102 road mishaps. Around 202 persons, 150 in rural and 52 in city, sustained injuries in these accidents respectively. As far as the road mishaps in rural areas is concerned, the police authorities attributed the reason to single-lane roads, absence of traffic signals, rash driving by bus and truck drivers besides youths. Absence of reflectors on roads and behind heavy vehicles, including tractor- trolleys, also causes accidents. A dismal traffic scenario in the city besides illegal entry of heavy vehicles are the major reasons for road accidents. Though the city police have chalked out a number of plans in collaboration with the civic authorities, these have failed to produce desired results. Officialspeak
The city police is very serious about resolving traffic chaos by initiating various steps in a phased manner. I am studying the traffic scenario in the city and appropriate plans are being undertaken to find out a solution in a phased manner. You have seen that we have recently diverted the traffic to reduce the rush at Bhandari Bridge. Similar steps were taken in the Kot Mit Singh
area The Police Department has identified as many as 25 accident-prone areas in its vicinity and is looking into the measures which can be adopted to avoid mishaps, especially during fog in winters. The traffic education cell is also conducting seminars to spread awareness among public, schoolchildren, truck drivers and bus drivers besides the taxi unions. Efforts were also being made to provide first aid to accident
victims
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Weak security, arbitrary decisions diminish GNDU’s achievements
GS Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, December 23 While the teachers opposed the authorities’ adamant and politically motivated policy matters when it came to promotional avenues or pay scales, the students, especially the girls resented breach of security on the campus. Controversial annual round-up
The most horrifying instance was the death of a girl, Inderpreet Kaur, on July 16, a third semester student of M Sc (Biotechnology), whose body was found abandoned in the bushes near the department. Mystery shrouded the whole case whether it was a suicide, murder or an accident. The university authorities and the police could not reach any conclusion as there was no witness to the mishappening. The GNDU’s security lapse raised eyebrows with back to back invasion of miscreants in the premises who harassed girls. An unidentified person allegedly managed his way to girls’ hostel by dodging the security guards during the wee hours of November 28. The victim alleged that the intruder also took away her mobile phone, after she raised an alarm. Even as a complaint was registered in the Cantonment police station, the cops could not trace the accused. In August, three young men entered the university campus in their car, probably not questioned at the entrance gate, and harassed some Ph D students, who were on their way to their hostel at around 9.19 pm after doing work at the university laboratory. As they reached near their hostel, they were intercepted by the car borne youths. It was the girls’ courage that they caught hold of two of them, gave them a sound thrashing and handed them over to the police. Later, the two were released on bail. Another major opposition from the staff was against the university authorities’ move to lease out its chunk of land for establishing Adarsh School. The Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association (GNDUTA) maintained that this transfer of the university land to the government was simply an attempt by the Vice Chancellor to please the Chief Minister. President of GNDUTA Dr Davinder Singh Johal stated that GNDU needed land for future growth which would require building of new academic departments and several infrastructural facilities like sports stadia, hostels, community centres and green belts. Amidst opposition, the GNDU syndicate gave its nod to extend the service of Dr Inderjit Singh whose four year tenure was about to expire on October 31 in his capacity as Registrar. This extension will prevail till the time he attains the retirement age of 60 years. Resentment prevailed in the teaching camp about adopting biased and discriminative approach when it came to granting extension to other retiring teachers. It was lamented that certain bilateral and mutually accepted decisions between the management and the teachers were not implemented, which included ignoring the UGC guidelines while granting promotions. Achievements
The UGC has given a go-ahead to the up-gradation of micro-biology department of GNDU, besides sanctioning a grant of Rs 54 lakh for the purpose. The department has been approved for up-gradation to DRS-II. GNDU has been awarded with the status of 'University with Potential for Excellence’ (UPE) by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and got a grant of Rs 50 crore. By achieving this, its ranking has catapulted among the ten best high status universities of the country. Further, because of the UPE status, it is the only state university in Punjab where every MPhil student gets Rs 5,000 per month and every Ph D student (non-NET qualified) gets Rs 8,000 per month as fellowship. In the field of cultural activities, the university won the north zone inter-university youth festival overall championship in addition to fine arts, literary and theatre trophies in 2011-12 and also won overall championship in the year 2012-13. The GNDU has also emerged winner of the coveted “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy” (MAKA Trophy), the inter-varsity national sports award of the country for the year 2010-2011 after overcoming the legal tussle with Punjabi University, Patiala, some months ago. It can now boast of possessing this highest sports emblem at the inter-varsity level for the 22nd time.
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Review meeting held for
Eco-Amritsar
Amritsar, December 23 Eco-Amritsar was initiated as a citizens’ project when it was launched last year. Since then it has observed Amritsar Foudnation Day on 6th July, celebrated Guru Ramdas’ birth anniversary in a very innovative ecological way and launched Green Nagar Kirtans. Eco-Amritsar chariman Gunbir Singh opened the session addressing all the stakeholders and welcomed them for open discussion and constructive criticism. Principals from schools and colleges of Amritsar shared their commitment to the project via Eco-Amritsar’s upcoming ‘Green Schools’ initiative. Baba Kulwant Singh of Ajnala, who initiated daily cleaning of the galliara with volunteers from over 60 villages around Amritsar was highly acknowledged during this meeting. Inspiring videos from the cleaning of galliara and Green Nagar Kirtans were shared. In the concluding session, Eco-Amritsar announced five major initiatives for the coming year-Green Schools, Amritsar as a plastic/litter-free city, farmers’ awareness programme towards organic agriculture and against stubble burning. EcoSikh also promised to raise 50 per cent funding for galliara cleaning project along with the annual celebrations of Amritsar Foundation Day, birth anniversary of Guru Ramdas Ji and Sikh Environment Day. Chariman Eco-Amritsar, Gunbir Singh said, “The programme has taken out six major Green Nagar Kirtans reaching across all communities in the city for a cleaner, greener more responsible and sustainable city for the future generations.” Host of NGOs and institutions participated in the meet, appreciated the accomplishments of the programme, and assured their continued support for the city. The president EcoSikh said, “I am delighted to see the way Eco-Amritsar programme is shaping up. It has already become an inspiration for various cities within the country and overseas.” He said it was the very first time that a positive movement towards sustaining a city had been created by the citizens themselves, and there was no other such example in the entire world.
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Personality development camp at Spring Dale
Amritsar, December 23 The camp also saw the participation of parents and grandparents of Class V students in various events. For the students, the activities included Yoga, PT exercises, relay race with batton, holding the ball with shoulders, one leg hopping race, straight run (70 mt), sack race, juice race and rope skipping race. The activities for the parents included needle and thread race, three legged race, musical chairs and candle race was for grand parents. Principal Rajiv Kumar Sharma said that students, their parents and grandparents had fun in the two-day camp as they too participated in various events that enabled them to learn lessons in team spirit and coordination. He added that such camps were regularly organised with a view to make learning an exciting proposition for them. Director, Spring Dale Educational Society, Dr Kirat Sandhu Cheema, blessed the students on this occasion. She said the camp infused a spirit of discipline and coordination among the students, which were essential attributes for achieving success in life.
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Finalists selected for Miss Amritsar Contest
Amritsar, December 23 Principal Dr Neelam Kamra was the chief guest on the occasion. She encouraged the students to come forward and empower themselves by gaining confidence through such competitions. Neha Saini, Kamal Puneet and Navdeep were short listed for the final competition. The panel of judges comprised of Arvinder Bhatti, Charu, Richa Vashisht and Namrita Arora. A total of 16 participants were selected for the final round at Trillium on December 29, 2013. DAV Public wins maths quiz
DAV Public School, Lawrence Road, Amritsar, won the Mathematics quiz contest under the aegis of Sahodaya Schools Complex held at MKD DAV Public School, Attari. There were as many as 17 teams from the north zone. Regional director Amritsar Zone Dr Neelam Kamra, principal of BBK DAV College for Women said the school team comprising of Ateev Bhandari of Std VII, Gauri Gupta of Std IX and Siddharth Nohria of Std X bagged the first position. They were awarded medals and a trophy. Tiny tots celebrate annual day
Tiny tots of the Sunshine Wing of Delhi Public School, Amritsar, organised the annual function on theme ‘100 Years of Indian Cinema’. The theme was used to convey the values and impacts of cinema on young minds. The function started with a ceremonial prayer and lighting of lamps by chief guest Ragini Sharma, managing director of Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology. Through dance, drama and song, students presented glimpses of the reel world. The children dressed up as various characters portrayed values of friendship through film Sholey’s hit number ‘ye dosti…’, parental respect through scenes enacted from film ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum’, film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ taught the lesson of ‘never give up’ and pariotism through “Maa Tujhe Salaam’ and ‘Merey Desh Ki Dharti’. School principal Sangeeta Singh while addressing the students said, “Cinema doesn’t mean only eating popcorn and nachos in movie halls, it also meant learning from them.”
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One-sided matches in hockey tourney
Amritsar, December 23 All the winning teams registered a one-sided affair defeat. In the first match, the Gwalior girls toppled the Patiala team with a convincing margin of 7-0. In the second match, the Jalandhar team defeated the Delhi team 2-0, the Sonepat team outclassed the Amritsar team 3-0 and in the last match, the Chandigarh girls defeated the Bhatinda team 4-0. Tournament organiser Manminder Singh said that Amritsar District Transport Officer Angrez Singh, Railways’ Assistant Traffic Manager Ashok Salaria and URMU’s (Uttar Railway Mazdoor Union) secretary Rajesh Kumar were the chief guests on the occasion. Manminder Singh added that gift coupons sponsored by PS Seth Jewellers were distributed among the spectators.
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Amritsar, December 23
Amritsar, December 23
Amritsar, December 23
