Amritsar, January 10
With the current financial year inching towards its closure, the Punjab Government’s budgetary proposal, envisaging installation of CCTV cameras, sensors and use of information technology at a cost of Rs135 crore in Amritsar and Ludhiana is slowly inching towards reality.

Though the project has been hanging fire for the past several years, it was shifted to the Safe City Project following the budgetary allocation.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat, who recently participated in a meeting over the project that was chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at Chandigarh, said the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) transferred had Rs 5 crore to the Home Department for the project. Now, the department is engaged in preparing a detailed project report (DPR). He said soon tenders would be floated from this.

A city resident, NS Gabarhia, said the budgetary allocation put all apprehensions to rest and raised hope that the project would be culminate to its logical soon.

He said significance of the project was being felt more with the occurrence of deadly accidents on the city roads. These cameras may help the district administration to pick the lacunaes in the road infrastructure and improve the same.

The Police Department has already identified key points in the city where these cameras would be installed to track the activities of traffic violations. Apparently to win people’s trust, political functionaries and bureaucrats announced the project at various forums but nobody ensured its early implementation.

A first-of-its-kind project in Punjab, it was supposed to be completed by 2011end. With a view to keep a tabs on the rising crime rate and traffic violations in Amritsar, the police would get high-tech with the installation of CCTVs at the key interjections across the city.

State-of-the-art CCTV cameras will be installed at various important locations and intersections in the city to keep a close vigil on anti-social elements. If sources in the Police Department are to be believed, the survey of identifying camera locations has already been completed.

It has been learnt that the Police have identified around 52 key points and a report regarding the requirement of a number of cameras has already been sent to the government. The modalities are being finalised by the government to release funds for the project.

The high-resolution day and night vigil cameras are proposed to be connected with a centralised control room through dedicated broadband lines. A real-time footage will be available in the control room to watch all the happenings in the entire area.

Some of the key locations where the CCTV cameras are proposed to be installed include GNDU Chowk, Putlighar Chowk, T-point, Ram Tirath Road, bus stand, railway station, T-point Daburjee bypass, T-point, Vallah bypass, Verka bypass, Majitha road bypass, Fatehgarh Churian road bypass chowk; Gumtala bypass; Chheharta Chowk besides the inside city locations.

However, electronic surveillance may require extra manpower.

Amritsar, January 10
None of the suspects in the murder of 10-year-old Gurkirat Singh in Verka have reportedly given consent for the polygraph test for which the city police have sought permission from the Sessions Court.

Gaurav Garg, ACP (East) said so far three persons, who were under suspicion in the case, had not agreed for the polygraph test. The city police had filed an application before the court seeking the test of the three suspects.

“Till now, they had not agreed for the test and therefore we will reiterate our appeal before the court for the polygraph test of the suspects which is necessary in order to find the veracity of their statements,” said Garg. The hearing has been fixed for January 16.

The police said suspects were not giving clear answers to the queries and were trying to mislead the investigating officials, which prompted them to conduct a polygraph test.

However, contrary to this, Sarabjit Verka of Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) who had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the police failure to crack the case and hand over the enquiry to the CBI claimed that the three suspects pointed out by the police had agreed for the test.

Among the suspects include a relative and two others having property dispute with the family of the deceased. The suspects, identified as Jagwant Singh, Harpal Singh and Jaspal Singh, are residents of the same village.

Gurkirat had mysteriously gone missing on November 7, 2012, while playing close to his residence. On November 16, his body was found dumped in a secluded building located just a few metres away from his residence.

A couple of months ago the city police restarted the investigation, which was handed over to ACP Gaurav Garg. The High Court had directed the city police to submit a status report in the case by November 15. However, the police had sought more time. Now, the High Court had fixed February 3 to file a status report.

In the meanwhile, family members of the Gurkirat Singh along with residents of Verka today carried out a candle march in protest against the police for its failure to identify and arrest the culprits even after elapsing of over a year since the murder of the boy.

The candle march started from outside Verka police station where a heavy police force was deployed. The march passed through various bazaars of the township and culminated at the police station.

The anger lit large on the faces of residents who were raising slogans against the government and the police.

Earlier, various prominent citizens of the town condemned the police for its failure to crack the case. While demanding the arrest of the culprits responsible for the killing of the boy by January 20, they said if the police failed to nab the killers, they should confess it before High Court so that the investigations could be handed over to the CBI. They said they would chalk out their next course of action after January 21.

Amritsar, January 10
Seeking an impartial inquiry into the drug racket, the Dal Khalsa took a dig at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for maintaining a studied silence over the issue.

Criticising Badal, party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said there could be two reasons behind the silence of the Chief Minister. "Badal looks afraid in handing over the probe to the CBI fearing that the investigating agency could bring out more skeletons from the cupboards of the high and mighty in the Akali Dal.

According to Kanwar Pal, the second reason could be that Badal was happy from within that the controversy has brought bad name to Bikram Singh Majithia, who had time and again displayed tendency to emerge as a parallel power centre to Badal family.

"Whatever could be the reason, Badal must understand that he was damaging the image of the Shiromani Akali Dal by showing his government's inability to move a step further in probing the role of senior politicians and cops," he said.

It was highly regretful that many a time in the past, Badal has shown scant regard for rule of law and justice, he alleged. "Badal needs to inform the people about the allegations levelled against his minister," he further said.

He said even as the alleged involvement of Majithia got highlighted recently after the confessional statement of arrested drug peddler Jagdish Bhola, former DGP (Prisons) Shashi Kant, who was handpicked by Badals to head the state intelligence department has pointed finger of suspicion towards Majithia much earlier. 

Amritsar, January 10
Even as the vigilance cell of the Health Department woke up from its deep slumber after eight years to hold a meeting, officials from the key departments, including Municipal Corporation and Public Health, were conspicuous by their absence.

Aimed at providing hygienic conditions and safe drinking water to the people, the cell was constituted following directions of the Punjab Human Rights Commission in 2004. The commission has taken cognisance of deaths that have occurred in the Sultanwind area and the Kot Mit Singh area here due to the spread of water-borne diseases such as hepatitis-A.

The cell constituted by the Health Department included officials from this department, MC, sewerage board and Public Health Department besides the district mass media officer.

However, the meetings were discontinued after a couple of years of its constitution. Later meetings were again started in 2012 after local RTI activist, Ravinder Sultanwind, complained to the Director, Health, regarding this. But the meetings were discontinued again for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.

Sultanwind recently met Civil Surgeon Dr Usha Bansal in this connection who directed the officials concerned to hold vigilance cell meetings at regular intervals. Today, the meeting was presided over by the district malaria officer, Dr Charanjit Singh.

Ironically, officials from two key departments, MC and Public Health, preferred to abstain from the meeting. According to health officials, spread of hepatitis-A takes place in unhygienic conditions and both the MC and the Public Health Department are responsible for providing a hygienic environment to the inhabitants of the city.

The major objective of the cell was also to spread awareness among the general public about the precautions to be taken to prevent disease.

Dr Charanjit Singh said the Health Department had informed the two departments around 10 days ago. He said the Health Department had written to the MC Commissioner, DPS Kharbanda, and the Deputy Commissioner, Ravi Bhagat, about the absence of MC and Public Health officials and urged them to ensure the defaulters' presence in the next meetings. Dr Charanjit Singh said during the meeting they had decided to hold regular meetings and initiate steps for spreading awareness among the public especially in the slum areas. 

Amritsar, January 10
Spellbinding performances, remembering traditions and an evening dedicated to Hindustani classical music and its patrons was the purpose behind the cultural event, Raag Sandhya, held at Guru Nanak Dev Auditorium. Organised by Hazoori Raagi Bhai Sarabjit Singh, the evening had a cultural and a musical buffet of senior and young artists from Kolkata, Delhi and Amritsar.

Puran Chand Wadali, who was among the special guests for the evening, was present in the audience. Beginning the musical sandhya was young vocalist Renu from Rajasthan. She was also a part of the reality singing show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Masterly performances from Vidushi Sanhita Nandi, a renowned Bengali classical vocalist, and violinist Dr Santosh Kumar Nahar, a regular performer at the Akashvani, Delhi, were the highlight of the evening. Ustad Kale Khan, Ustad Akram Khan and Dr Murli Manohar entertained on tabla and sitarist Pandit Manu Kumar Sen, too, gave a scintillating performance. Prominent raagas and recitals from Rabindra Sangeet enthralled the audience as expected.

The evening was aimed at promoting classical music and its traditions among people, especially youth. "We lack self belief when it comes to the most traditional and ancient forms of classical music in our civilisation. Our rich classical music is internationally acclaimed, though it finds limited audience and has to prove its worth. While the senior generation of renowned classical artistes such as those performing here have promoted our music globally, the younger ones have a lot to carry on their shoulders since they are the hope for the future of the music," said Bhai Sarabjit Singh, the organiser of the event.

Amritsar, January 10
Viva Sports Club and Kala Afghana village teams enter the finals of the Shahid Police Open Boys Football tournament being played at Sarup Rani Government College for women. The final will be played tomorrow.

Both teams today sailed into the final after beating their rivals in semi-final matches.

Viva Sports Club edged past SE XI Hoshiarpur 9-8 in a penalty shoot. In another match, Kala Afghana village beat Rataul village 2-1.

Amritsar, January 10
Angered over the non-deliverance of a promise made by Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka to arrange a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on January 8, the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union announced to hold a protest rally in Education Minister’s constituency at Rampura Phull in Bhatinda on January 18.

For this, the teachers would proceed on mass casual leave on that day. The union president Gurcharan Singh Chahal had called off a protest rally at Chandigarh on December 20 after an assurance by the minister to arrange a meeting with the Chief Minister.

Among others, the union has been raising the demand of merger of aided schools with government schools. The teachers, who have been struggling for this for the past few years, say that this was the only solution to all the ongoing problems of the aided schools in the state.

They said it was in 1967 that the then Chief Minister Lachchman Singh Gill had brought all the private schools under the grant-in aid system on Delhi pattern. He said as many as 9,468 posts were sanctioned for 508 schools in the state. He claimed that 24 schools had either been closed or were on the verge of closure.

In 2003, the Amarinder Singh government stopped their pension and put a ban on filling the vacant posts in these schools. These steps deteriorated the imparting of education in these schools, he said.

The union says the panacea for several ills plaguing the government-aided schools rested in their merger with the Education Department.

They opined that it would reduce the burden on the judiciary first of all because so many cases of aided schools are in courts. Many employees of the Education Department, including clerks and officials, attend court proceedings which adversely affected their regular office work. The provident fund of these employees amounting to nearly Rs 200 crore would also get shifted to the government treasury.

Their other demand includes irregular release of the 95 per cent grant-in aid by the state government is continuously delaying their salary, alleged Ajay Chouhan of the union. He said as many as 4,200 employees working in 484 aided schools in the state had been without salary for the past three months. Earlier, they were issued salary after a gap of six months in September.

The teachers of these schools are complaining of being overburdened as 60 per cent posts are lying vacant.

Amritsar, January 10
As the cold waves sweeping the region, the number of deaths since December has risen to four. An unknown man in his mid-fifties was found dead near Shivala Temple here today.

Similar instances came to light when an unidentified person was found dead on January 4 and two on December 26. One common aspect in these instances was that they all appeared to be homeless migrants from other states like UP and Bihar.They were found near religious shrines, surviving on alms. After failing to brave the cold, they died and were later cremated by the police.

The Supreme Court has already directed that no death should occur due to cold and that the respective district administrations will be held liable to provide shelter to the homeless.

Despite making adequate arrangements at Old Karam Singh Ward (also called Raen Basera) for them, here, these destitutes are not availing the facility.

The administration, in collaboration with the Red Cross, had been running a programme since February 12, 2010, to rehabilitate the destitutes by accommodating them in a portion of the Old Dr Karam Singh ward, but this has not found favour with them.

Among other factors, it has been found that they are mostly migrants, want to roam around freely, never want to work and are addicted to drugs.

A District Red Cross Society official, Dr Randhir Singh, said, “Most of them are drug addicts and homeless.

Amritsar, January 10
Employees of the Deputy Commissioner office continued their pen down strike in support of their demands for the third consecutive day today which badly affected the administrative works related to different wings of the office. The strike ended today.

The general public were a harried lot with Saturday and Sunday being the regular holidays. The Deputy Commissioner Office Employees Association had announced a three-day pen down strike while demanding for the recruitment of new staff sanctioned for the public works.

Asunil Kumar, president of the association said office would resume its work from Monday. The association was protesting as the workload on existing employees had increased many fold during the recent times.

Generally, the public works remain pending for days due to which they had to face their criticism. Instead of addressing the problem of shortage of staff, the existing employees were accused of laxity and red-tapism.

Amritsar, January 10
Some unidentified armed persons snatched a luxury car from a doctor at Loharaka road here this evening.

ADCP City-II Amrik Singh Pawar reached the spot after getting the information.

The victim identified as Dr Nikhil Monga was sitting in his clinic when a youth came to him and asked for the keys of the car. He said before he could understand anything, the accused threatened him with a sharp-edged weapon and took away the keys.

“When I followed him and came out of the clinic I found that his accomplice had put a pistol on my helper, Karan. They threatened to shot Karan if I raised any voice or tried to call the police. They took away my car,” he said.

The police have started investigation in this regard.

Amritsar, January 10
The police have arrested five persons for allegedly involving in drug trafficking and bootlegging.

The arrested include Kupa of Gawal Mandi and Rajesh of Rigo bridge near railway godown, Sukhjit Singh of Mandar Wala Bazaar and Gurpreet Singh of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar and Jaswant Singh of Sohia Khurd village.

Kupa and Rajesh were nabbed with 200 gm of narcotic powder. The police said the accused had confessed to snatch a mobile phone which had been recovered. They have also admitted their involvement in a theft case.

The police have seized 120 capsules of proscribed drugs from Sukhjit Singh and Gurpreet Singh while Jaswant Singh was held with 36 bottles of wine. — TNS