Amritsar, December 25
In a first of its kind, Green Christmas was celebrated by churches of Amritsar today. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) joined hands with EcoAmritsar and the Catholic community of the city to inculcate sustainable values in the faithful on this occasion.

While Father Varkey of St Mary’s church signed an MOU with EcoAmritsar to foster environmentally friendly activity and responsible citizenship, Father Titus of Diocese Amritsar spoke at length on nature's virtues as God's gifts during the sermon. A pledge was also taken by the Parish to conserve, reuse and respect nature and its gifts to humanity.

Marking a green Christmas, various NGOs in city, too, joined the mission and distributed plants as Christmas gifts. Cloth bags were distributed at various congregations in the city by EcoAmritsar’s Santa Claus as substitutes of plastic carry bags. People who were carrying plastic bags replaced these with attractive cloth bags which carried the message “1 cloth bag=1,000 polybags”. In a specially arranged talk at the church during the prayer meeting, Gunbir Singh, chairperson, WWF Punjab, talked at length about the need to safeguard the elements of nature by saving water, saying no to plastic, planting and nurturing trees, and reusing to waste nature's resources. Brothers Manohar Gill and Sisters of Charity also graced the occasion and shared views and greetings.

“This is indeed a significant beginning in the inter-faith movement towards a cleaner, greener and responsible Amritsar. This auspicious day has been well spent in day-long meetings along with Dr Rajwant Singh of Eco Sikh, USA, and with communities besides the SGPC authorities, President, Chief Khalsa Diwan, and NGOs. The fruit of these endeavours will reflect in the days to come,” shared Gunbir Singh.

Chritsmas carols

The children at One-Up Library played captivating musical notes. Preparing and performing Christmas carols and presenting a concert of violin and guitar-playing, they brought out all the key musical elements of Christmas. Dressed in special Christmas costumes, with some sporting Rudolph nose and Santa caps, the children were also surprised by Santa Clause showering gifts on all.

The 28 ft Christmas tree at AlphaOne, too, stole the limelight along with a cultural evening with performances by Voice of Punjab fame Hargun Kaur.

Amritsar, December 24
All arrangements for the smooth conduct of the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) for Junior Research Fellowship and Eligibility for Lecturership, scheduled to be held on December 29, have been made.

A total of 32 centres have been established in colleges and schools in the city including 12 centres on the GND University campus.

Dr TS Banipal, co-ordinator of UGC-NET, said roll numbers and subject-wise centre statement and the list of discrepancies of the candidates appearing in this test had been uploaded on the university website www.gndu.ac.in

He instructed that all candidates should note down their centre of examination and write it down on their admission card.

No admission card/roll number would be sent separately.

The candidates who have not sent the hard copy of their application form should submit it by hand in the office of the Co-ordinator, UGC- NET (Director of Research), Physics Block, GNDU, Amritsar, before the stipulated date.

He advised the candidates to check the discrepancy carefully and said that they were required to fulfil the necessary requirement before December 29 to avoid any problem at the time of the test. For further information, students could contact on telephone number 0183-2258844.

Amritsar, December 25
The holy city continues to be haunted by beggars who follow you on the road, peep into your cars and chase you when you are out on the streets, often uttering blessings in the name of God.

Even as residents and tourists have lodged numerous complaints about this menace from time to time, yet in the absence of the implementation of the Punjab Prevention of Beggary Act, 1971, beggars rule the roost. They, mostly migrants from UP and Bihar, have made the bus stand and the railway station as their home. They roam about on the roads for small-time trade practices including selling of sundry articles besides pestering commuters for alms. Scores of them can be spotted selling seasonal things, including decorative items, tissue papers, sunscreens for car windowpanes, etc right under the nose of the police.

Ironically, not a single case was ever registered by the police against beggars who are caught during "special drives" conducted by the administration in collaboration with the District Red Cross teams.

A random round of the city reveals that the most preferred destinations of these beggars are the areas surrounding the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Mandir complex, the Shivala Mandir besides Dasehra Ground, Longawali Devi Mandir, Bhandari Pul, traffic-light points on Lawrence Road, Crystal Chowk, Mall Road, etc.

A number of children of a tender age can also be seen begging on busy traffic intersections in the city or selling items not only becoming a nuisance to the commuters but also risking their lives amid heavy traffic. There is no right to education for them.

There are no takers among them for the district administration's Rain Basera arrangement at Old Karam Singh Ward.

Naresh Johar, a resident, says that only food and shelter will not serve the purpose. The Rain Basera initiative will be fruitful in its true sense when there will be proper schooling and vocational training for begging children so that they become self sufficient and capable of earning their livelihood.

APS Chatha, president of the Amritsar Hotels and Restaurant Association, said, "Amritsar is on the global map because of the holy Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple. The police as well the administration are duty bound to make the city free of beggars; otherwise what impression lakhs of tourists who visit here from all over the world, take back is anybody's guess. The beggars operate in an organised manner right under the nose of police."

The Kotwali police led by its SHO Sukhwinder Randhawa had busted a gang of beggars, including children, hailing from UP, Bihar and even Nepal, who were indulging in petty crimes like snatchings and looting. ADCP (Crime) Harjeet Singh denied that any such gang was active in the city at present.

"Still, it's a menace which is difficult to curb. The administration has initiated the Rain Basera project to accommodate them along with free food and shelter, yet their mentality has not changed. Even as we keep an eye on their criminal tendencies, it cannot not be ruled out that they vanish after committing any crime because we have no idea of their antecedents. Begging is a slur on the holy city and we are committed to launch special drives to discourage it," he said.

Amritsar, December 25
Some thieves broke open a liquor godown located at Hussainpura Chowk and decamped with huge quantity of whisky, here today.

According to Ankur Sharma, at about 6 am, his salesmen Kishan Lal and Manjit Singh informed him on phone that the locks of the shutter of the godown were broken and some unknown persons had stolen one box of Royal Stag, one box of Blender’s Pride, one box of Signature, 10 bottles of 100 Pipers, 3 bottles of Vat 69, 3 bottles of Black Dog, 4 bottles of Black Dog (D) and cash Rs 8,225.

Investigating officer ASI Sushil Kumar of A Division police station said the accused were still at large but a case under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC had been registered.

Amritsar, December 25
After finding serious deficiencies in medical services at Government Medical College here yesterday, the Minister for Medical Education and Research, Anil Joshi, instructed the college management to ensure proper cleanliness, presence of all doctors during duty hours and good working condition of equipment.

The local medical college is located in the constituency of Anil Joshi. He expressed his dismay at cleanliness on the hospital premises, despite there being a large number of cleanliness employees.

The minister also asked the hospital management to ensure presence of senior doctors during duty hours at the college and the hospital. A few doctors were found absent from duty, but he let them go on the pretext that it was his first inspection and he would not spare anyone if somebody was found absent during the next visits.

He has also instructed the hospital management to get all the machines in proper working order so that services for the general public are not disrupted.

The minister took notice of the situation wherein post graduate students referred to as PG doctors were in control of the hospital as senior faculty of the college and hospital preferred other things to their duties.

Joshi also lambasted at the faculty for complaints that doctors were hand in glove with the owners of chemist shops. However, there were some in the faculty who criticised the minister for the way in which he had conducted the inspection. A large number of chemist shop owners accompanied him to the college when he was grilling the hospital staff for deficiency in services.

“The minister came just to set the supremacy of private chemists. Otherwise, there was no other motive for these chemists to accompany him on his official visit. The visit has conveyed a wrong message that these chemists are more close to the minister than the hospital staff,” said a senior faculty member on condition of anonymity. 

Amritsar, December 25
Yet again, the Municipal Corporation's much touted House Tax Sub-Committee failed to hold its meeting scheduled for yesterday to hear the house tax arbitration cases.

The reason was that the house tax officials, who were part of the sub-committee, were pressed into service for collecting property tax and holding awareness camps.

Ironically, the sub-committee has around 1,600 cases lying pending before it, but it has failed to conduct its meeting on the stipulated schedule for one reason or the other.

The sub-committee comprised members including councillors Sukhminder Singh Pintu, Surinder Singh Sultanwind, SE Jaswinder Singh and two house tax superintendents Shushant Bhatia and Daljit Singh.

The officials have to hold the meeting twice a week- on every Tuesday and Friday. They demanded that the house tax officials should be spared at least on both the days of the week so that the hearing of cases could be done.

It has been learnt that among the pending cases related to house tax, 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 some time.

The MC is already facing tough times in the wake of acute shortage of staff to attend the heavy rush of residents who intend to deposit their property tax dues.

To cope with the heavy rush, the MC has inducted house tax department officials, besides officials from other departments for the purpose, but it has taken its toll on recovering the house tax dues.

Even as the authorities have extended the deadline for achieving the set target of Rs 17 crore house tax till March 31, some policy matters still need to be drawn to attain it.

Pintu said it would be impossible to clear such a huge pending lot if the authorities did not spare the house tax officials from collecting property tax at least on the days when they had to hold the sub-committee meeting.

A status report has to be submitted as was directed by Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi.

Acknowledging the crisis, Pintu said the matter had been brought to the notice of the MC Commissioner. “It would be impractical to clear the huge lot of disputed cases of house tax with the present set-up,” he said.

About the next course of action, Pintu said since the inception of property tax, the house tax may lose its significance, but as per the norms, the pending house tax had to be recovered before the stipulated period.

“What we are going to do is we would prepare a status report, only to be submitted to the Local Bodies Ministry. Afterwards, it would depend upon the ministry’s discretion to deal with the cases,” he said.

Amritsar, December 25
A controversy has erupted at the local Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital after a doctor on night duty was accused of filing a medico-legal report in the morning.

The doctor who is at the centre of the controversy was on night duty and had reportedly come to the hospital during the morning to file the MLR report. As per the norms, a doctor can file an MLR report during his duty hours only.

The matter pertains to the night of December 23 when Gurjant Singh and Brijinder Singh were admitted to the hospital. The MLR report of the duo, who were injured in a clash, was filed on the next day.

It is said that the doctor did not complete the report then and there. After the matter came to the notice of the Civil Surgeon, Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Balwinder Kakkar seized the relevant records of the hospital for investigation.

Even as a few doctors at the hospital said there was nothing wrong with the doctor coming to the hospital during the next morning to file the report as due to rush at the hospital, sometimes it could not be filed at night.

“This is a lapse on the part of the doctor if the report is not filed on time. It suggests that something illegal was done,” said another doctor about the lapse. 

Amritsar, December 25
In the Shaheed Udham Singh Girls Junior Hockey Tournament, teams of Gwalior and Sonepat entered the final by defeating their opponents here today. The Gwalior team defeated Chandigarh by 4-1, while the Sonepat team defeated Jalandhar by 3-0.

The Chandigarh and Jalandhar teams will compete for the third position on December 26. Olympian Gurbaj Singh, who was present on the occasion, said local coaches should start training players in the European style.

He said India, which was once know as a champion of hockey, was fast losing its reputation as coaches had still not updated the younger players with the latest techniques of the game.

Amritsar, December 25
Within 24 hours of the registration of a case regarding a ransom letter to a local trader, the Kotwali police nabbed the accused here today.

The accused has been identified as Satnam Singh (35), who is a pathi by profession. It has been alleged that he had sent a letter to a local trader, Harbhajan Singh, in the name of Babbar Khalsa militant group and demanded Rs 2 crore as ransom.

The incident came to light when the victim lodged a complaint with the police yesterday, saying that he had received the letter which was handed over to him by an 8-year-old child. The accused had asked him to reach Chattiwind Canal with the ransom amount in the evening.

Ironically, it was a mobile number written on the letter that led the police to nab the accused.

SI Paramjit Singh of Kotwali Police Station, who led the police party in this case, said the accused was arrested from his house located on Tarn Taran road.

“We started the proceedings through tracing the details of the mobile SIM card. It was found to be procured on an ID proof of Ludhiana, from where we nabbed a person who told us about the details of the accused. He was arrested with the mobile phone from his house. We have procured his 3-day remand after producing him in the court,” he said.

The preliminary investigations revealed that he had confessed that he had attempted this move to become rich overnight. 

Amritsar, December 25
Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi held a meeting with officials of the Municipal Corporation's civil wing and monitored the progress of the sewerage project currently underway.

After an inordinate delay of almost eight years, work on the ambitious sewerage project, sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is being carried out on war footing, as the original cost of the project has already escalated from around Rs 350 crore, when it was sanctioned in 2005, to Rs 443 crore at the time of its launch in 2011.

This increase of around Rs 90 crore has been attributed to red tape that prevails in the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Local Bodies departments. It has been estimated that the cost of the project may further escalate to around Rs 600 crore when it will be finally executed. JICA has provided Rs 348 crore aid for laying sewerage pipes in around 400 km, officials said.

This project was recently in the news when Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was left "aghast" on finding that the MC and the Improvement Trust of Amritsar had laid down a parallel sewerage line in the city, wasting crores of rupees of public money.

Without realising that under the Japanese project, the sewerage line has already been laid, the Improvement Trust and the Municipal Corporation, on their own, laid parallel sewerage lines, wasting crores of rupees in some localities.

To prevent such duplication, Badal held the officials accountablefor such a lax approach and ordered officials concerned to form a nodal agency to monitor the project.

Nonetheless, Joshi today directed officials that the execution part of the project had to be monitored every month. "It is required to work in coordination with other departments like the Mandi Board and the PWD which will help in building water-passage channels. At present the work is being carried out simultaneously in around 20 wards. Apart from the city area, the outskirts that lack sewerage facility are likely to benefit from the project," he said.

Meanwhile, others present on the occasion included Chairman of Water and Sewerage Board Vinod Sharma, City Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora, CEO, Water and Sewerage Board, DK Tiwari, Local Bodies Technical Adviser BK Bhat, MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda and other councillors. 

Amritsar, December 25
Nirmal Sewa Society of Gurbaksh Nagar organised a mass wedding programme for girls belonging to the weaker section of society here today, in which the PPCC vice president and in charge of Majha zone, MLA OP Soni, was the chief guest.

Soni arrived at the venue in ward no 57 of central constituency where president of the Nirmal Sewa Society, Harbhajan Singh Bhola, welcomed him and also greeted him on his birthday.

Soni blessed all the 51 wedding couples with shagun and congratulated them at the beginning of their new journey.

Addressing the gathering, Soni extended greetings to the people on Christmas and also praised the efforts made by the society. Vikas Soni, Paramjit Batra, Jaswinder Singh Samra, Sarabjit Singh Latti, Paramit Chopra, Baldev Raj Billa, Ashok Shahi, Ashok Bahoru, Rinku Bedi, Gaurav Batra and others were present on the occasion. 

Amritsar, December 25
Four persons have been arrested by the police in separate instances of possessing drugs.

In the first instance, the police have arrested Jobanjit Singh, son of Sulakhan Singh, a resident of the local 124 Nagar Nigam colony. Confirming this, ASI Davinder Singh of the Narcotics Cell said that 10 gm of heroin had been seized from him and a case under various sections of the NDPS Act has been registered with the C-Division police station.

In another instance, Tarlok Singh, son of Natha Singh, a resident of Malian, Jandiala police station, Amritsar, has been arrested with around 1.5 kg of poppy husk. A truck (PB-02-BS 9516) has also been confiscated in this regard. ASI Janak Raj said a case under the NDPS Act had been registered with the Maqboolpura police station.

In the third instance, Kuldeep Singh, son of Amarjit Singh, a resident of 923/76 Kirpal Colony, Batala road, has been arrested with 290 intoxicant tablets. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered, confirmed ASI Jasbir Singh of Sadar police station.

In the fourth instance, Sarwan Singh, son of Chaman Singh, a resident of 6855, Varyam Singh Colony, Amritsar, has been arrested with 100 gm of intoxicant powder.

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