Amritsar, February 9
Stray dogs and unscrupulous elements continue to haunt morning walkers at the historic Ram Bagh here. This 84-acres summer palace set up by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1819 in the city is a prime example of negligence by the authorities.

Incidentally, it is frequented by Cabinet Minister Anil Joshi and Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora has his camp office on its premises.

The Deori, the main entrance to the summer palace complex is a “convenient place” for abandoned horses and cattle to graze and ferocious dogs.

It is a practice of dumping garbage inside the garden by MC staff or privately engaged garbage-pickers, apparently to save their energy and time by not transporting it to the designated place. The stray dogs and abandoned animals are attracted towards the garbage dump.

Besides, several vendors who sell juice and other items are also among the culprits, as the visitors often throw food items inside the garden.

Though it is a liability of the MC to remove the garbage, its staff sets the dump on fire there itself without bothering about its harm.

The residents, who visit the place during the morning or evening hours, pointed towards the laxity on the part of the authorities concerned. The place has also become synonymous with unscrupulous elements.

“We scare while jogging on the track as sometimes stray dogs chase us. I could never gather courage to shoo them away because they loiter in hounds,” said Kanika Sharma, a resident of Mall Road.

“Besides stray animals, every evening or early morning you can find people enjoying smoking intoxicants, gamble in groups and couples sitting in “objectionable manner. It has stopped us from coming here. It is ridiculous,” said Naresh Johar, a resident of Rani Ka Bagh.

“We refrain from going to the place after dark as we would often come across drunkards,” said Jagdish Singh, another resident of Bagh Ramanand.

Officerspeak
"The issue has come to my notice. I will depute my team to have a routine vigil of the place. Those who burn garbage inside the Ram Bagh will also be taken to task. The authorities concerned will also be intimated to remove stray animals from the garden."— DPS Kharbanda, MC Commissioner

Amritsar, February 9
The allurement to own a house could lead you to trouble if you are not cautious enough to know about the credentials of the broker and the ownership of the land. The official crime diary carries a number of cases pertaining to the property deal frauds.

The one thing common among these is that after paying hefty advance, victims come to know about the reality that the land had already exchanged hands many a time before.

As many as six back-to-back such cases have come to light in the city in the past 10 days. If police officials are to be believed, the number of property disputes had increased manifold in the past one decade.

It sometimes cause law and order problems in various areas when opposite groups clash or create ruckus.

In a recent instance, the Sadar police booked four persons for alleged criminal trespass and fraud. Satnam Singh, a resident of Bagh Rama Nand, told the police that Surjit Singh, Bir Singh and Joga Singh of Baba Deep Singh Colony and Kashmir Singh of Rampura Abadi usurped his plot by cheating and threatened him to murder.

Another incident reported in the C-Division police station area. Joginder Pal of Guru Nanak Colony, Tarn Taran road, said Narain Dass of Katra Karam Singh gave him Rs 35,000 as advance to sell his plot and got signed a power of attorney, which was later found to be fake.

The accused, he alleged, even filed a false case against him. However, after probe Narain was found to be guilty.

Manjit Kaur, a Gurdaspur resident lodged a complaint with the Civil lines police while stating that the accused took someone else in her place and made registry of her land in the name of Sukhdev Singh. Among those booked include Harjinder Singh of Dashmesh Avenue, Jagtar Singh of Golden Avenue, Mohinder Singh of Rasulpura Kallar and Satnam Singh of Indira Colony, besides others.

In yet another incident, several armed persons tried to take possession of a land at the National City Homes, GT Road. The land belongs to Gulbag Singh of the Circular road.

He told police some persons armed with firearms and sharp-edged weapons tried to usurp his property and created panic by firing shots in air.

The police arrested one of the accused while the others fled, while threatening him to murder, he said.

The rise in such cases had been manifold in the past one decade or so said a police official while preferring not to be named.

He added that nowadays fraudsters try to mingle with political leaders and with the help of them they try to exert pressure on the Police Department.

Common people are at the receiving end as they had to go through unnecessary harassment and sometimes they end up losing their hard-earned money at the hands of these swindlers.

Amrik Singh Pawar, ADCP, City-II, said first and foremost reason behind this was that people have become more materialistic due to which the moral values among the public have degraded.

They wanted easy money by hook or crook and they see properties, especially the disputed ones as the easiest way of earning the same.

Officialspeak
"The people should verify the antecedents of the owner of the property besides the brokers before buying any property. One should check the revenue records before making any deals regarding a land or property." Amrik Singh Pawar, ADCP, City-II

Amritsar, February 9
"Though I am happy that the nation has remembered and released a commemorative stamp in the memory of Jagjit Singh, much more should have been done in his honour."

This was stated by Chitra Singh, a prominent ghazal singer and wife of ghazal singer late Jagjit Singh.

She was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the legendary singer.

Talking to The Tribune, she said: "Jagjit should have been honoured with the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna. Who deserves it more than him."

She said his fans across the world were frustrated as governments had not done much for him.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a commemorative stamp to mark the birth anniversary of the ghazal maestro yesterday.

She, however, expressed displeasure as the government had failed to provide a building for the Jagjit Singh Foundation, an academy where talent of young and budding artistes could be nurtured.

"It was his dream to set an academy where training would be providing to artistes belonging to all kinds of arts so that they could carve a niche for themselves in their respective fields," she said.

She added the foremost requirement for this was the land or building, where they could be trained and she had not enough funds for the same. She said had written to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, besides meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in this regard.

However, she said she had not got any positive response till now.

"The Maharashtra CM has told her that he will contribute 50 per cent of the total expenditure incurred on the building. Which means a share of around Rs 50-60 crores. If I had so much money, then what was the need of seeking help from the government," she questioned.

She said those who claimed themselves to be great fans of the ghazal maestro should come forward for bringing his dream project to reality. Besides tapping the young singing talent, another aim of the academy would be to provide medical aid to needy artistes, she added.

Amritsar, February 9
Mid-day meal workers held a protest rally seeking implementation of minimum wages and other demands outside the Hall Gate here today.

Raising slogans against the government, they demanded that the mid-day meal workers must be given a minimum monthly wage of Rs 7,028 under the category of semi-skilled workers.

Daswinder Kaur, a leader of the mid-day meal workers, said they must be given other benefits like medical and casual leaves, gazetted holidays, ESI scheme and provident fund.

They demanded that there should be a mid-day meal worker for every 50 students and Rs 2 lakh insurance of each worker and sought rolling back of the decision of outsourcing of mid-day meal preparation.

Daswinder said the mid-day meals were being distributed among 1.57 lakh students, including 97,000 from primary schools and nearly 60,000 from upper-primary schools in the district.

Amritsar, February 9
The government’s consistent failure to control the increasing number of stray animals especially dogs on city roads has caused major problems for residents especially children, elderly, two-wheelers drivers and pedestrians.

Canines occasionally bite and maul people. Animals such as cows and oxen could be seen on roads within the walled city despite the MC’s ban on rearing and keeping of these animals within its limits.

Severity of menace

The menace of canines has reached an alarming proportion. A middle-aged man was mauled to death while he was on his way back home late night on February 12, 2013, in the Majitha area.

In a similar instance, a pack of seven to eight stray dogs killed and partly ate a man, Subeg Singh (45), a resident of Pandori village on February 8, 2012.

In another shocking incident, a group of stray dogs attacked four schoolchildren while they were on their way to school in April 2013.

Irked at the increasing number of dog-bites, some unidentified persons of Katra Dullo area killed about 10 dogs a few years back. There are many streets in the city where residents dare not visit after dusk.

Many people still rear cattle within the city limits against the norms. They release their cattle in the evening to feed on the waste dumped by residents on streets. Many a times, these animals run amok on roads after being chased by stray dogs. In the chaos, they often cause injuries to commuters.

Many plans but no action

All these factors necessitate an urgent solution to this problem. However, lack of funds and administrative will puncture all plans.

To control the population of stray dogs by sterilisation and immunisation is the responsibility of the civic bodies and the state government.

The issue has been the priority item on the Punjab Cabinet as well as the MC House agenda, but except for assurances, no concrete policy has ever been made in this direction.

The much-talked about advanced minimally invasive vas occlusion technique (MIVOT) programme introduced for the first time here around six years ago had to be abandoned as it was disapproved by the Animal Welfare Board of India.

Similarly, the ambitious Central Government-funded Rs 1.26-crore animal birth control (ABC) project of the Animal Welfare Board of India, to sterilise stray dogs, too, could not deliver expected results.

The People For Animals (PFA) has proposed a novel and scientific method for the sterilisation of stray dogs: catch, neuter, vaccine and release (CNVR) method.

The Amritsar Municipal Corporation had adopted the CNVR programme in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department to tackle the canine population.

Under the CNVR method, five clinics had been spared exclusively for the sterilisation of stray dogs. The programme required competent surgeons and complete aseptic conditions. However, it failed to produce desired results due to non-availability of expert veterinary doctors and adequate funds.

Growing numbers

As per the 2007 survey, there were about 25,000 stray dogs in the city and out of these, only 7 per cent could be sterilised. Animal Husbandry Department officials estimate that their population must have doubled in the absence of any sterilisation treatment.

Controlling the canine population has become a big challenge with the sharp rise in the number of dog-bite cases.

As per the official records, in 2012 (till December), 1,707 cases of dog-bites were reported at the Anti-Rabies Department of the government-run Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH).

Another startling fact was that four persons died due to rabies. However, officials say the actual figure could be very high, as people generally prefer private clinics and hospitals to government hospitals.

At present, the sterilisation programme has been stalled due to lack of funds. It requires a 10-day treatment, including three days before surgery and seven days post surgery and care of female dogs that includes feed and medicines. Its estimated cost is around Rs 1,000 per animal.