MBBS students continue stir
Amritsar, February 13
Students of Government Medical College boycotted classes for the second consecutive day here today to protest the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) proposal to increase the duration of the MBBS course from five and a half years to seven and a half years.

Amritsar, February 14
Environmentalists and residents are angry over the chopping off trees as the Improvement Trust today started ground work to widen the Circular Road from Trillium Mall, Rattan Singh Chowk to Saiffudin Kitchlew Chowk, known as Court Chowk.

Environmentalist PS Bhatti said, "It was painful to see full grown trees to be chopped off in the name of development. “It takes not years, but decades for trees to attain this growth. But it was very easy to chop off these trees”.

Another environmentalist Deepak Babbar said earlier scores of trees were axed in the same area to shift Vidyasagar Mental Hospital to the back side and handing over the front portion of the land to a private organisation some years ago.

Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) Superintendent Engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma said removal of tress was un-avoidable as the present road was one lane and keeping in view the movement of traffic it was accident prone.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had laid the foundation stone for widening it to four lanes in December last. After undertaking due procedure, over 300 trees, were given final go ahead to be axed.

Before this, the Forest Department prepared an assessment of their value, the auction fetched over Rs 22 lakh to the Trust. He said majority of the trees had outlived their life.

He said as per the norms, the Trust would plant trees on this road to fulfil the loss. He said ornamental palm trees would be planted on the central verge of this road while additional trees would be planted at its 97 acres locality in Ranjit Avenue scheme. 

Amritsar, February 14
On the eve of Valentine's Day, a young girl in Ajnala took the extreme step of ending her life by consuming some poisonous substance after her lover, an Army man, refused to marry her.

The victim, identified as Narinder Kaur, a resident of a border village, Teda Rajputa, died in a hospital here today.

Following the complaints of her father, the Ajnala police in Amritsar rural police district registered an abetment to commit suicide case against the culprit identified as Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Chak Dogra village.

Sohan Singh, DSP, Ajnala, said Narinder Kaur, a student of BA at Government College, Ajnala, had an affair with Sukhwinder Singh. Later Sukhwinder got recruited in the Army after which he refused to marry her.

A few days ago, Sukhwinder came home on leave when Narinder Kaur met him and asked him again to marry her which he denied.

Perturbed over this, she went to her college yesterday and while returning consumed some poisonous substance. When her condition started deteriorating, the girl narrated the whole incident to her family. They took her to a hospital where she died today.

Sohan Singh said a case under Section 306, IPC, had been registered against Sukhwinder Singh while no arrest had been made so far. 

Amritsar, February 14
Even after a three-member committee constituted by the Director, Research, and Medical Education to probe faulty allotment of shops at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital stated in its report over a year ago that the government had suffered a loss of Rs 11 crore, no action had been taken against the guilty officials.

The committee had held that rules were ignored while allotting these shops. The hospital has around 14 shops that are required to be rented out to applicants through an open auction.

Though the government has received complaints by various quarters over the issue, taking up the matter again, the Amritsar Youth Association has written a letter to the Principal Secretary, Finance.

Ravinder Sultanwind, president of the association, said: “Many of the officials responsible for the faulty allotment have already retired. The government has even released their pension benefits.”

He said senior officials in the department were trying to shield the guilty officials by delaying action in the matter.

Taking a note of the probe report submitted by the committee, the office of the Minister of Medical Education and Research had also asked to expedite the process of recovering rent as per the set policy.

Sultanwind said lakhs of rupees are pending against shopkeepers who were allotted the shops.

He said in an individual case, the hospital recovered rent for a shop at the rate of Rs 400 per month from an allottee, who was held illegal occupant by the apex court.

Sultanwind said shops that could fetch rent in lakhs were rented out merely for thousands by ignoring the rules, adding that the state government must take immediate action against the guilty officials.

Amritsar, February 14
A major portion of the 135-foot wide road outside the city bus stand has been encroached upon by some persons. They have parked worn-out and under-repair trucks there due to which public is facing difficulty to walk and drive on this road.

The Municipal Corporation authorities have introduced the city bus service in the holy city about one and a half month ago, but they did not do any thing to remove the bottleneck at the starting point of the city transport service.

A resident of New Golden Avenue Harpinder Singh Walia maintained that these trucks leave only one lane operational for both ways of traffic. The road is good passage to many lanes of New Golden Avenue and also provides passage to backside of Panj Pir. He said a long-pending demand of the area residents remained unheard to remove these trucks from the middle of the road. They thought that these would be removed after the beginning of the city mass transport service. However, after one and a half month nothing has been done so far.

Parminder Singh, a resident of Panj Pir, said the Transport Nagar was situated across the other side of the GT road from the 135-foot road. Its name apparently suggested that the administration wanted to provide adequate open space complete with wide enough roads in the area. However, it was a fallacy on the part of the administration not to force such violators to remove the under-repair and junked vehicles from the road. He said it was double whammy for the violators as they were running their businesses at the cost of public convenience while not paying any fee to the government for using its land.

Notably, the office of the SSP (Rural) and residential quarters of the police personnel, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and BSNL offices were located at one side of the road, while Government Senior Secondary Saragarhi Memorial School is situated on the other.

Another resident of the area Harjinder Singh said students to Government Senior Secondary Saragarhi Memorial School face difficulty to walk on the road. Besides, a private school was also situated here. 

Amritsar, February 13
In its endeavour to curb instances of border smuggling and stem the problem of drug addiction among the border youths, the Border Security Force has launched a number of civil action programmes involving villages located close to the India-Pakistan border fence.

Continuing their efforts, the BSF today held a cricket match and a tug-of-war competition among several villages situated near the Fatahpur border outpost.

The cricket match was held between youths of Dug Toot and Vera in which the Dug toot team won the match. The tug-of-war competition was organised between youths of Chhan Kalan and Toor village. The competition was won by Toor village. The winners and participants were awarded and given sports kits by the BSF authorities.

The BSF has been trying to wean away the village youth from drug addiction and made a "second line of defense" by encouraging the villagers to identify and reject smugglers and inform the BSF about these black sheeps.

The BSF had held a number of de-addiction programmes by organising rallies following which a number of youths approached the BSF for detoxification. They were admitted in the de-addiction centres for this purpose.

Ajay Tomar, IG, BSF, while speaking on the occasion gave a call to the people to participate in constructive activities by holding sports competitions. He said the BSF would continue to organise such sports events and de-addiction programmes in the future as well.

MF Farooqui, DIG, BSF, Amritsar sector, also appreciated the efforts of BSF jawans and asked the villagers to pledge against drug abuse. He pointed out that the main aim of these programmes was to encourage the villagers and build confidence among them so that they could approach them without hesitation. This in turn would help in curbing drug smuggling from across the border.

Amritsar, February 14
Arun Bakshi, a popular face of the Bollywood, came calling to the city to release his music album. The actor-singer, who has been a part of over 100 films and has sung over 300 songs, launched his latest album titled ‘Ishq Faqeeri’ here.

Interacting with the media, Bakshi said: “Whenever I used to interact with my fans, I observe that they only knew about the actor in me, and not realising that I have sung songs in Hindi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri films over the years. But this time, I came across a group on the social media talking about my singing and it was motivating enough for me.”

Eight tracks of the album are written by Bakshi, his mother Ved Bakshi and Punjabi poet Madanpal.

“The songs have a sense of realism and are about emotions. My favourite among them is the one written by my mother called ‘Chinta’, where she has mocked the ability of people taking stress,” said the Ludhiana-bred artiste.

He said he had only prepared for 15 days prior to recording the album and deliberately avoided making any video for it.

“I believe that music is for ears and not eyes,” Bakshi said.

Advising upcoming singers and their families, the singer said: “The Punjabi music industry has seen a lot of changes. But there is no need to waste money on music videos that sell only because of their visual content. Do not sell your land and gold to become a singer, instead sing for the soul.”

Amritsar, February 14
State BJP chief Kamal Sharma has promised full support to the demand of the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union who have been seeking merger with the Education Department.

Ajay Chauhan of the union said a delegation of the union met the BJP chief who responded positively to the demand.

He pointed out that neigbhouring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan had done the same as it was in favour of the government as well. However, the state government was not emulating the move. Aided schoolteachers said the merger of aided schools was almost a win-win situation for the government as it would get 4,300 trained teachers only at the cost of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 per head as this was the share of the 5 per cent which the government would bear for the merger. The state government was already footing 95 per cent of the expenses. The employees of these schools are resentful due to the uncertainty over their future. 

Students of Class XI hosted a farewell party, 'Shaam-E-Rukhsat', for Class XII students at Government Senior Secondary School (girls), Mall Road, here. The event witnessed colourful performances by students. School Principal Mandeep Kaur gave best wishes to all students and exhorted them to achieve great heights of success in their lives.

General quiz

To promote effective communication and general awareness, DAV College's departments of social science and English organised a general quiz for students under the aegis of the Dr Ambedkar Study Centre. The motive behind the competition was to encourage the students in becoming more aware of the happenings around them. Teams from the departments of computer science, commerce, humanities and PG classes participated in the quiz. The PG department of economics won the competition. Prof HS Walia, Vice-Principal, DAV College, gave away the prizes to the winners. College’s postgraduate department of computer science and IT also held a seminar on 'Safer internet day' on the campus. Competitions like multimedia presentation, essay writing, still photography, painting, dialogue and debate were also organised. Dr Amardeep Gupta, head, department of computer science and IT, appreciated the efforts of students and teachers.

Student wins laurels

Harnoor Singh of Class V of Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School bagged the third position among the 18 winners in the international English Language Championship, 2013. He was awarded with a certificate and smart phone at the 6th EDU Convex 2014 Award ceremony at the Air Force Auditorium, New Delhi. The school was also presented with the prestigious International School Award. —TNS

Amritsar, February 14
The fire instance in a cosmetic shop a couple of days ago took a curious turn today when the city police registered an attempt to murder case against two persons.

Among those booked include Paramjit Singh and his mother, Manjit Kaur, of the Jora Phatak area here.

A cosmetic and general store located in Chowk Manna Singh were gutted in fire. The shop owner, Harpal Singh, alias Romy, suspected the role of Paramjit Singh behind the incident.

Romy told the police that his residence was above the shop. He said on the intervening night of February 13-14, he found that his house was engulfed in smoke and later found the shop on fire. He said he immediately woke up his family and went out of the house. It took fire officials around four hours to douse the fire in which the whole shop was gutted.

He alleged that he had a dispute with the accused who had threatened to put his shop on fire. — TNS

Amritsar, February 14
Rani Jhansi Society, an NGO, with the help of the BSF held a programme to make rural people aware of evil effects of drug addiction at border Kakkad village today.

BJP national vice-president Lakshmi Kanta Chawla and BSF Commandant Satish kumar were present on the occasion. Members of the village panchayat and sarpanch also participated.

Theatrical group Alfaz staged a play, highlighting the evil effects of drug addiction.

Addressing the participants, Chawla said inability of the Union and state governments to prevent the illegal sale of drugs had made it accessible to common people. — TNS

Amritsar, February 14
In yet another robbery incident, robbers allegedly snatched a bag containing over Rs 6 lakh from employees of a petrol pump owner late last evening.

The incident reportedly occurred near the house of the owner of the petrol pump located in the Dayanand Nagar area of Lawrence Road.

However, the police have found the claims of the owner suspicious and they were yet to register an FIR.

According to information, an employee of the Behal petrol pump, which is located on the main GT Road, was going to give the cash to the owner, Sunny Behal. The employee claimed that he was just near the house when three motorcycle-borne youths surrounded him and looted him of money.

The Civil Lines police immediately reached the spot for investigations. They also took the CCTV camera footage in their custody.

Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, SHO, Civil Lines police, said the matter was still under investigations. However, he added that anything concrete would be said only after proper investigations. A case could not be registered as the victim was yet to give his statement to the police.