Amritsar, January 9
A Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) has lodged a complaint with the police that her in-laws harass her for bringing insufficient dowry and subject her to cruelty. The victim, a Class I officer of the Punjab Government at present, has been posted at Rayya near Amritsar.

The Civil Lines police have registered a case against her husband and in-laws following an inquiry conducted by an ADCP-rank official who recommended that a case be registered.

Ironically, she has been entrusted with special official powers by the government to resolve domestic victimisation, whereas she herself has been grappling with the same problem.

She lodged a complaint with the police alleging that she was subjected to mental and physical torture by her in-laws in July. The Civil Lines police have registered a case against her in-laws following investigations carried out by an ADCP-rank official in this regard.

Among those booked include her husband, Sahil Kapoor, father-in-law, Varinder Kapoor, and mother-in-law, Nigam Kapoor. A case under Sections 498-A (subjecting to cruelty by husband or his relatives), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (threatening), IPC, has been registered against them while no arrest has been made so far.

Nivedita said ever since her marriage, she was continuously subjected to mental torture by her husband's family while all her efforts to adjust in the family proved futile.

“Their behaviour did not change even after the birth of a girl a year after their marriage,” she alleged. She said she got married to Sahil Kapoor in 2005 and her family had given everything they demanded, including expensive jewellery and other goods, as dowry. She is the youngest of the three daughters of Dr RK Kumra who retired from Government Medical College and expired earlier this year.

She alleged that her father had deposited FDRs worth Rs 3 lakh in banks in her name. She had to encash her FDRs after her husband's insistence who used these for personal work and opening up a business. She said the accused used to demand a car and Rs 5 lakh as dowry.

She said things became worse in July when she returned after leaving her daughter in a school. She alleged that her in-laws, including her husband, assaulted her physically while saying that she used to remain out of the house. Fed up of all this, she gave a written complaint to the Police Commissioner who entrusted an inquiry to an ADCP-rank official.

Sohan Lal, Investigating Officer, said the case was registered following a probe carried out by a senior police official.

He said no arrest had been made so far and that further investigations were under progress. Kapoor and his family could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Amritsar, January 9
Senior BJP leader and former Health Minister Dr Baldev Raj Chawla today said that Navjot Singh Sidhu would be the BJP’s candidate for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing the media, he said the BJP MP had done a commendable job for the holy city during his stint as Member Parliament and had even spent Rs 1 crore from his own pocket for the "go-green go-clean" campaign. He said he also brought a number of development projects to the city.

Answering queries from mediapersons, he said if the party high command chose someone else as a party candidate from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, he would wholeheartedly support him.

Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in which he had stated that if Narendera Modi became the PM, it would be disastrous for the country, he said Modi was nevertheless the right candidate for the top post.

“Development of Gujarat is there for everybody to see and Modi's election as Prime Minister would take the country on the development path,” he said.

Attacking the Congress, he said the Congress was a synonym for corruption that had left the country drained of precious resources.

On the AAP, he said the AAP would not win even a single seat from Punjab. He said the AAP which had won the election in the national capital had no base in Punjab.

Moreover, he added that the party formed the government in Delhi after taking the support of the Congress, the party against which they had fought the election.

Amritsar, January 9
On the call given by the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU), the teachers working in non-government aided colleges affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University, today ceased work for two periods, organised dharnas on their college campuses and raised slogans against the Khalsa College management.

The teachers demanded that the case registered by the Amritsar cantonment police against 22 teachers (including the then general secretary Prof HS Walia and two lady teachers of Khalsa College) on the basis of a fabricated complaint lodged by principal of Khalsa College Daljeet Singh, be withdrawn.

An FIR was lodged on March 31, 2011, against the teachers for allegedly creating ruckus on the college campus as they had joined the agitation against the mangement’s move to elevate Khalsa College into a university.

Addressing the college teachers at DAV College, state executive member, PCCTU, Prof HS Walia said the FIR was lodged to pressurise the teachers to call off the agitation.

He demanded that an investigation by an independent agency be ordered by the Chief Minister to unearth the truth in the entire issue, including lodging of an FIR and registration of a case against the teachers.

He also appealed to the CM that the principal and the managing committee of Khalsa College be asked to implement the written agreement penned down between the committee and the representatives of teachers on June 16, 2011.

“It was agreed upon that all the punitive actions, including an FIR against the teachers would be withdrawn. In this connection, I had written an open letter to the CM, which was communicated through the print media,” he said.

District president of the union Prof GS Sekhon and state executive member Prof BB Yadav lambasted the Khalsa College principal, the managing committee and the government for harassing and victimising the teachers.

Amritsar, January 9
The year 2012 had Amritsar marking its presence on the global map with extravagant and successful cultural and theatrical events like the Bharat Rang Mahotsav and the International Sufi Festival. The year 2013 took another leap with some personal and cultural achievements in form of folk and heritage fests. And the current year, too, holds promising prospects for the city’s literati.

As 2014 moves ahead, with the calendar full of cultural events the holy city has become used to. The year-long activities will commence with the launch of a special calendar at Virsa Vihar. February will bring celebrations with Maa Boli Divas. The annual treat for theatre lovers will happen in March with the 11th National Theatre Festival organised by Manch Rangmanch, bringing acclaimed theatre groups from across the nation. The festival will be held from 8-17 March and will also serve as a grand opening of the newly renovated Punjab Natshala for the public. “This year the national theatre festival will be dedicated to late playwright Dr CD Sidhu, who was among one of the noted contemporary Punjabi playwrights and scholar,” shares Kewal Dhaliwal, theatre person and director, Virsa Vihar.

This will be followed by staging a series of five Punjabi plays written and directed by Kewal Dhaliwal in April and during Baisakhi celebrations. The summer will start afresh with a five-day folk festival, which will dedicate one day each to fine arts, theatre, literature, music and dance. This will have folk themes, highlighting the traditional and folk art forms of Punjab. The 14th national theatre workshop in June in collaboration with the National School of Drama will get over 200 theatre artistes, senior and amateur, to the holy city for a month- long theatre exercise. This year will also host a special India-Pakistan theatre workshop in August aimed to boost theatre collaborations from across the border.

The latter half of the year will also bring annual events like the International Sufi Festival, Preet Nagar Folk and Heritage Festival and a consecutive edition of Saanjh, India-Pakistan joint music and cultural event. With a long list of cultural events and by playing host to noted artists and cultural ambassadors, the city’s itinerary seems to be full.

Amritsar, January 9
Fed up of "false promises" and an "apathetic attitude" of major political parties, residents here have given a thumbs up to the Aam Aadmi Party which has formed a government in New Delhi, defeating the Congress and the BJP.

The residents were enthusiastic to participate in the rally organised by the AAP wherein senior Supreme Court advocate HS Phoolka besides Ramesh Srivastava participated.

Srivastava said the party would contest from a number of seats during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. He said besides corruption, drug addiction was the major issue which was hurting Punjab.

He said over 3 lakhs volunteers had registered with the party in Punjab during the ongoing membership drive, adding that the party had received a huge response in Punjab.

Ashok Talwar, district convener of the party, said the AAP had received a huge response in the district and it was beyond expectations.

He said around 8,000 persons, including prominent citizens, NGOs and office-bearers of major political parties had joined the party as volunteers during the past one and a half week's membership campaign.

"We are expecting that around 25,000 residents will join the party in near future from Amritsar district," he said. Phoolka today joined the party after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple.

Amritsar, January 9
Even as the district health authorities are continuously collecting samples of food items in the city, they have failed to stop the sale of unhygienic food being sold here. Not only roadside eateries but even the well known and costly food joints have been found guilty of selling substandard food to the residents as is indicative from the list of shops whose samples have failed on quality tests.

Further, most of the roadside eateries being run from makeshift stalls and rehris have failed to register themselves with the department under the Food Safety and Standards Act. The unregistered and illegal rehris have mushroomed at every nook and corner of the city as the department looks other way.

The worrisome fact is that these rehri owners do not seem serious in serving quality and food cooked in hygienic conditions. Even small children can be seen washing utensils and serving food to the customers at most of these rehris.

A visit to various roads in city would reveal that most of the rehris are using water for cooking from the nearest public tap most of which are surrounded by filth and garbage.

These rehris also keep their cooked and raw food on the roadsides. The dust and smoke emitted by vehicles on roads contaminate these foods thus making them unfit for human consumption.

The reports of the samples collected by the department are indicative of the fact that even samples of well know hotels and restaurants are not up to the quality.

In the recent times, out of 514 samples collected by the Health Department from various shops in the city, around 213 had failed on quality parameters.

Talking about the problem of unhygienic foods in city, District Health Officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said, “We are running an anti-adulteration campaign successfully as is evident from the test reports of the samples collected from various shops.”

He said residents of the city would also had to take responsibility for the scenario as they seldom report any case of substandard food to the department. “The customers must imbibe a habit to notice that if the food is being cooked in hygienic conditions and is being served in clean utensils. They must not overlook anything,” he said.

Amritsar, January 9
The Jamhoori Kisan Sabha and Dehati Mazdoor Sabha held a protest outside the office of the District Development and Panchayat Officer here today against the alleged auction of 37 kanal of panchayat land of Pindi Saidan village.

The associations claimed that the said land in question was being tilled by the family of Kewal Singh since 1950. Association leader Gurnam Singh Umarpura said allotting the land to the tiller, the bigwigs in the village had managed to get it auctioned to their favourites.

The association demanded that the government should take action against the concerned BDPO and other employees who were unnecessarily harassing the farmer’s family.

Amritsar, January 9
The city police today claimed to have arrested a notorious smuggler active on the India-Pakistan border and confiscated 4 kg of heroin worth Rs 20 crore besides a Pakistani SIM from him.

Commissioner of Police Jatinder Aulakh (left) shows the seized heroin during a press conference in Amritsar on Thursday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

The accused has been identified as Surinderpal Singh, a resident of Daoke village, located adjoining the international border.

Jatinder Singh Aulakh, police commissioner, said following a specific tip-off, the CIA staff had laid a naka on the road leading to Chatiwind village from Bhai Manjh Singh road. He said a police team intercepted a motorcycle (PB-06-W-0362) driven by Surinderpal.

“The contraband was hidden in the kit bag hanging on his shoulder,” he said, adding that during interrogation Surinderpal confessed that he was in contact with Pakistani smugglers through a Pakistani mobile number which operates in border villages.

Taking advantage of darkness and fog during the winters, he used to sneak in contraband and later would hand it over to his customers. Aulakh said the accused was being brought on police remand for further investigations and to identify his accomplices involved in drug peddling.

Amritsar, January 9
To sensitise students about the hazards of electronic waste and how to reduce it through proper disposal, the local Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School organised a lecture on e-waste disposal here today. The lecture was delivered by the environmentalist, Harpreet Chatwal.

Principal Dr Dharam Veer Singh also urged the students to save the mother earth through proper disposal of electronic wastes. “We should not lose the chance to save the Earth. We should take care of this planet,” he said.

Harpreet Chatwal apprised the students of different types of e-waste and their safe disposal through recycling and reusing. She supported her lecture using an impressive PPT presentation.

Amritsar, January 9
The softball team of BBK DAV College for Women won GNDU Inter-College Championship after a gap of eight years. They defeated HMV College, Jalandhar, with a score of 11-7 and KMV College, Jalandhar, with a score of 8-5.

College principal Dr Neelam Kamra said six players-- Gagandeep, Harpreet, Gurmeet, Mandeep, Manpreet, and Karamjeet got selected for the All-India Inter-University Championship going to be held at Nagarjuna University, Andhra Pradesh, from January 13.

Neelam Kamra congratulated the winners for bringing awards for the college and appreciated the efforts of the sports staff. Savita Kumari, Assistant Professor, coach Daljit Kaur and Loverishi also congratulated the team for their achievements.

Amritsar, January 9
A day after the Congress leaders held a demonstration near the residence of Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia and burnt his effigy, a number of SAD workers headed by Upkar Sandhu, district SAD president, today burnt the effigy of PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa.

Upkar Sandhu said the government had launched a drive against drug trafficking and took stern action against those who were involved in the illegal trade. He said arrest of Jagdish Bhola and Devinder Singh Dev was testimony to the fact.

He said the DGP had given a clean chit to Majithia while Bhola was giving baseless statements to divert the attention of the police probe. — TNS

Amritsar, January 9
The Health Department has initiated a vigorous campaign for registration and issuing licences for running food businesses under the Food Safety and Standards Act as the deadline for the same is February 4.

District health officer Dr Shivkaran Singh Kahlon said, “We have started a programme to fast-track and make the process easier. In a camp held yesterday, we accepted hundreds of such applications and the department will get back to the business once we are done with the procedural formalities.”

He said that hopefully this time, the date for getting registered or obtaining licenses would not be extended as the government had already extended the date on three separate occasions.

As per an estimate, the district has around 25,000 food businesses, which are required to get registered under the law. While those with an annual turnover of more than Rs 12 lakh are required to obtain a license, the businesses with lesser turnovers are simply required to get registered.

Dr Kaklon said despite the department’s vigorous attempts, so far 650 businesses had obtained licenses. Till now 6,000 businesses have got themselves registered with the department.

Kahlon said registration was mandatory for all those engaged in the activities related to food processing, manufacturing, packaging, storage, transportation, distribution, import and catering. Even temporary stalls selling food ingredients and karyana stores require registration.

The health officer said registration would help the department keep a better eye on businesses dealing in food items.

Amritsar, January 9
Employees of the Deputy Commissioner office continued with their pen-down strike for the second day here today. As a result of the protest, general public works as pertaining to issuance of various certificates and property related works were affected.

Asunil Kumar, president, The Deputy Commissioner Office Employees Association said they were protesting to get more staff sanctioned for the public works. He further said the workload on existing employees had increased many fold during the recent times.

Generally the public works remain pending for days and weeks. Instead of addressing the problem of shortage of staff, the existing employees were accused of laxity and red-tapism. He added that employees have no fault in going on protest as they had given a notice to the government before proceeding on protest.

Amritsar, January 9
An interactive session on cyber security and career in the field of information technology was held here today at DAV Public School, Lawrence Road.

Jatin Kataria, a research scientist currently working in the US, was the resource person for this session.

Jatin has worked with Microsoft and Macfee and helped design security softwares which are being used by the US security agencies. He provided valuable insights into cyber security and responsible use of internet.

A lot of interesting and lesser known facts related to software usage and hacking were highlighted during this talk. He also provided information about ethical hacking and how it could be developed as a career in the future.

The students were curious about many aspects of cyber safety and the languages that need to be mastered in order to pursue a career in this field. — TNS

Amritsar Tribune invites feedback from its readers on issues of public concern relating to Amritsar city and the nearby areas. Readers can email their views to feedback.asr@gmail.com.

They can also send their views to: Feedback, Amritsar Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh - 160029. Letters sent by post must mention 'Feedback for Amritsar Tribune' on the envelope.