Amritsar, March 13
Taking cognisance of bogus birth and death certificates being issued from MC, the authorities today swung into action and formulated a policy to be followed before applying for either of the certificates.

Nonetheless, in the "operation clean-up" the MC authorities has initiated its action plan against illegal agents who were operating from both MC premises at Town Hall and nearby shops.

Superintendent Shushant Bhatia, who had recently assumed the charge of the Birth and Death Certification Department, said that around 12 persons were identified who were never the employees of the MC but were operating from inside the MC premises right from filling the applicants' "forms to providing the certificates. They were virtually dragged out of the premises with the help of the MC's task force".

"Besides this, two shopkeepers adjoining the MC's building, too, were on our hit list. Today, they were given a final warning to refrain from fleecing the residents by producing forged certificates; otherwise an FIR could be lodged against them. The role of the insiders, too, could not be ruled out in this nefarious practice. But now, everyone has been cautioned and we hope to bring in transparency and efficiency in the process of issuing birth and death certificates," he said.

There was a nexus between these middlemen and MC employees, reportedly associated with the same department. It facilitates the service of providing illegal certificates with forged signatures for hefty charges. These charges ranged between Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000.

It was viewed that the birth certificates were "misused" either for getting admissions or for deriving benefits like selecting any sports team. On the other hand, death certificates procured unlawfully were being used to grab monetary benefits through property deeds.

In yet another development, the MC has made it mandatory for the applicant to produce his identity papers before applying for either birth or death certificate. This norm was never in practice before.

Amritsar, March 13
With the aim of keeping an eye on the poll expenditure of candidates of different parties, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the district administration today formed many teams and flying squads in this connection.

Additional District Election Officer-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner, Pardeep Sabharwal, today said in order to keep a vigil on the money spent by candidates of all political parties, the administration had formed 14 video surveillance teams, 13 video scrutinising teams, 12 accounting teams, 34 flying squads and 33 static surveillance teams.

Holding a meeting with district administration officials, Sabharwal said these teams would record all the expenditure of the candidates in their shadow registers, which would be later on compared with candidate’s expenditure register within the stipulated period.

As per the orders of the Election Commission of India, a candidate can spend a maximum of Rs 70 lakh for his poll campaign.

Sabharwal said the video surveillance teams would videograph all the poll rallies, including keeping recording of tents, chairs, posters, banners, hoardings and vehicles used during a rally by a candidate.

He said these teams would also record the speeches of the candidates while the video scrutinising teams would scrutinise the expenditure by the candidate by watching these videos.

He said in order keep a check on the use of cash and liquor flying squads would remain on their toes and reach the spot whenever they receive any complaint in this regard. These teams will seize material, gather evidence, prepare documents and register an FIR within 24 hours.

The static surveillance teams will hold nakas at various points and check the flow of liquor and cash. They will videograph all the events and file a report that will to be submitted to the District Election Officer and other concerned officials.

He said a candidate can carry a maximum of Rs 50,000 while a star campaigner can carry Rs 1 lakh with him. Anything beyond these limits will be seized in absence of any proper document or record pertaining to the amount recovered from them.

Amritsar, March 13
Even as the district administration has asked the licensed arms holders to deposit their weapons with the Police Department, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, checking the smuggling of weapons from other states will still be a big challenge for the department.

The city has over 9,500 licensed weapon holders. It is learnt that since the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct, around 1,100 weapons have been deposited.

The police officials are on their toes to maintain law and order in the city ahead of the parliamentary polls, besides providing fullproof security at the designated polling stations and booths.

The district administration has passed the orders in order to prevent any untoward incident during the elections. Despite of the above orders, instances in the past have pointed out that all the weapons are not deposited with the department.

It is found that illegal weapons smuggled from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have been sneaked into the city and seizures from different gangs in the recent past are evidence to that.

Recently, the city police busted a gang that used to procure illegal arms from UP. The members of the gang used to sell them to petty criminals on higher prices.

However, the police officials claimed that illegal weapons were hardly used in the poll violence in the past.

“Illegal firearms were hardly used during the poll violence as extensive security arrangements were at place during the period. Even in routine, we try to curb the smuggling of illegal arms and the recent arrest of anti-social elements and seizure of arms are a testimony to this,” said Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulkah.

He said nobody would be allowed to indulge in anti-social activities and spoiling the peaceful atmosphere in the city.

He said licensed weapons were being deposited at respective police stations on day-to-day basis. No matter the process was a bit slow but it would gather pace in the near future, he added.

Amritsar, March 13
Even as the municipal corporation authorities have woken up to the problem of touts and agents issuing fake birth and death registration certificates to people, the district transport authorities and Civil Surgeon too need to wipe out these agents.

The touts and agents luring people with promises of getting their works done in an easier manner can be seen running their businesses outside the District Transport Office and the Civil Surgeon's Office.

The agents can be seen dealing with applicants outside the shops in front of the DTO office. Most of the shops in front of the DTO office deal with auto repair and spare parts. However, one can see tables set up outside them where agents are operating.

Likewise, outside the Civil Surgeon's office on Tailor road, one can seen dozens of tables and chairs set up on the road itself. The general public has often complained that touts outside these offices are hand in glove with the employees and they harass a person if he does not goes through one of the agents.

A local resident, Kultar Singh, said, “The agents sell application forms at exorbitant prices. Otherwise, these should be available on the enquiry counter of the office.” He said agents outside the DTO office accept completed application forms.

It was also seen that some people who do not want to spend time standing in the queue to wait for their turn also approach these agents as they can get the application submitted for some money.

“It is not the fault of the administration only, the general public, too, is at fault as people use their services to save themselves from trouble,” said another resident Balkaran Kumar.

The Civil Surgeon's office had, however, lately devised a method to curb involvement of agents in the sale of forms by printing a form number on the application forms. The authorities had directed the employees not to accept the forms which do not bear the number.

Amritsar, March 13
A 22-year-old youth, identified as Jashanpreet Singh, a resident of Partap Nagar Bazaar, today committed suicide by hanging himself with a ceiling fan.

The incident came to light when Jashanpreet's father returned from market after recharging his mobile. The police took the body of the deceased in possession for a post-mortem examination. Fateh Singh, the father of the deceased, who works as a driver in Punjab Roadways, said that he returned from his office Punjab Roadways depot number 1 in the evening and had gone to the market for recharging his mobile.

“It had hardly taken just 15 minutes. When I came back, I was shocked to see Jashanpreet hanging with the ceiling fan,” he said while pointing out that Jashanpreet used to remain in depression due to some reasons.

Fateh Singh had two sons and a daughter while he had divorced his wife. One of his sons is living in New Zealand while his daughter got married around a year ago, said Lakhbir Singh, investigating officer. He said no suicide note was found from the spot while according to Jashanpreet's father he used to remain in depression. — TNS

Amritsar, March 13
The festival of colours is here and while all preparations to celebrate the festival, including collecting water guns and heaps of colours, are going on, there is need for going on for safe celebrations. While there are a number of ways to play safe Holi, to one's best one is playing Holi this season with natural colours.

The special children of Ibadat, a school in the city, have already chipped in with their special holi touch. Making holi colours by using natural ingredients, dry flowers and packaging them ahead of festivities, they have sent out the message of safe and green holi.

"Our children have been making these colours for a month in advance, using discarded or waste flowers that people offer at temples. These flowers are put to use by collective effort of our students and staff, segregating and sundrying these and later mixing them to make dry colours," says Shilpi Ganguly, coordinator of Ibadat.

The tedious process takes 15 days to a month for the flowers to get dried up and mixed. Mostly marigold and amaltas are used to make colours, even their collection is done by our children. This is our annual activity before the festival and gets our children to enjoy creativity while adopting eco-friendly friendly ways," said Shilpi.

Packaging and selling them at Rs 50 per colour also helps with the funds for their education. While these children lead by example, there are others who follow a green holi. Found easily inside the kitchen, natural homemade colours using ingredients like turmeric and besan could replace Chinese and chemically laden colours. Narinder Bhatia, a shopkeeper in Putlighar, too, makes his own recipe of natural colours in holi.

"Since Holi is incompelete without colours and keeping in mind safety, too, we have herbal natural colours made using turmeric, red sandalwood powder, amla, henna, beetroot, dry flowets like marigold, hibiscus and tesu amaltaas," he says. The process takes 15 days and since colours are produced in bulk, it's economical as well.

Given their popularity, brands like Fabindia, Antarkranti and Vedic are also available. Recipes to prepare natural colours are easy, says Neera Monga, a housewife who makes natural holi colours during the festival. "Pomegranate boiled in water and kept overnight could be used as red colour. Beetroot is, too, a natural colour ingredient and good for skin. Using dry flowers, organic colours, extracts of flowers, leaves, and bark do not cause any harm to skin," she says. Scented gulabari in essential oil lemongras, orange and other fragrances, too, are available in market.

Amritsar, March 13
Even after a lapse of over 48 hours, there is no breakthrough in the incident in which robbers entered in a house on the pretext of being known to the victim’s son and decamped with cash and gold jewellery at knife point.

Three unidentified persons allegedly decamped with cash, gold and gold ornaments besides other expensive goods after threatening an old-aged woman at knife point in Paradise Colony, located in the Chheharta area here.

The victim was identified as Rupinder Kaur (65). She was alone at home while her husband Dilbagh Singh had gone to drop his daughter at the bus stand who was going to Chandigarh to attend some professional course.

Paramjit Singh, SHO, Chheharta police station, said the accused had gained entry into the house after convincing the old-aged woman that they were friends of her Australia-based NRI's son, Inderdeep Singh, alias Bunty.

Rupinder Kaur stated to the police that they arrived at her house around 2 pm. After she was convinced that they were friends of her NRI son, she allowed them inside the house and asked them to sit in the drawing room and went to make tea.

She said when she was in the kitchen, the accused followed her and took out sharp-edged weapon and demanded money and valuables kept in the house. She said the accused took away Rs 72,000 in cash, gold biscuits to the tune of 50 gm and gold ornaments (around 120 gm in total) besides other expensive provisions from the house. The incident came to light when Rupinder Kaur narrated the whole instance to her daughter on phone.

“They said they had come to give a marriage invitation of one of the men accompanying them. They had brought three boxes of sweets while two of them were found empty. These boxes were procured from a local sweet shop in Chheharta,” said Inder Kaur, daughter of the victim. She said the accused had full knowledge of the family and also mentioned the name of their cousin named, Gippy.

The SHO said preliminary investigations pointed out that the incident was the handiwork of an insider and a case under Section 392, IPC, had been registered in this regard.

He said police teams were working on different theories. Though at present we have not made any significant breakthrough, we are on the job and we would hopefully crack the case soon.

Amritsar, March 13
The Health Department has requested social and religious organisations to join hands to end the drug menace in the district. The department has asked different organisations to spread awareness among masses in this regard.

Speaking at a seminar organised to chalk out an action plan for checking the drug menace, Civil Surgeon Dr Usha Bansal said it was a socio-economic problem and voluntary organisations could play a big role to get rid of the problem.

She said drug abuse was not an individual but a problem for the whole society. The Civil Surgeon said it was the duty of the entire society to work jointly for the de-addiction of drug addicts.

“It is not just the responsibility of one or a few families. We all have a duty,” she said.

District Family Welfare Officer Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar said, “A young mind gets swayed easily. Youngsters think taking drugs is a cool thing to do. They get attracted towards them as it is considered a fashion statement.”

Head granthi at Chheharta Sahib Gurudwara, Giani Gurdeep Singh, said all religious scriptures had elaborately discussed the ill effects of drugs and people should stay away from drugs to lead a healthy and spiritual life.

Dr PD Garg of Swami Vivekananda De-addiction Centre said drug addiction was a disease and it should be treated in the same way. He said society should not become hostile towards drug addicts and instead should treat them with humility and patience so that they can be motivated to shun drugs.

Amritsar, March 13
The fourth day of the National Theatre Festival was all about period drama. A presentation of the 17th century political and social ideals, the radical and nationalist movements of the time, the play Satayagrah, presented by Jodhpur-based Rammat Theatre Group, had a strong message for the present generation.

Telling the story of political upheavals experienced in 1643, and the revolt by a group of poets against the king, leading to sacrifices made against social injustice, the play highlights that Satyagrah was used as a tool in that period.

"It’s a story in our history that needs to be told to the present generation. It has political and social dimensions. Since centuries the ones ruling us have been compromising with common man’s welfare in order to please their might. While every now and then, someone is forced to be a leading voice against social injustice," said director Arjun Deo Charan.

The Sahitya Academi Awardee and popular poet- playwright has carried on a creative fight to protect the dying folk art forms of Rajasthan.

In his play, he highlights the sects of Charan poets who lead a Satyagreh against the king and led to the popular concept of protest adopted effectively by later nationalists.

It’s explained how Mahatma Gandhi too adopted the Satyahrah method after reading about this incident. The play indulged in nationalist sentiment, the characters talking about the love for the motherland, freedom of expression and commitment towards larger good.

Using narrative style theatre and individual dialogue, the play delivered a message to youngsters to dedicate their energy towards the nation.

The Rajasthan-based group has 15 actors, who give the audience a glimpse of the rich Rajasthani royalty of those times through costume and stage design.

The next play in line is “Kehar Singh Ki Maut” by a Patiala-based theatre group.

Amritsar, March 13
It's raining Punjabi film stars in the holy city going by the cast of upcoming film "Myself Ghaint" that came here to promote their film.The film stars Gaurav Kakkar, who was last seen in "Sadda Haq", and actor Dolly Sidhu, who will be making her debut in the Punjabi film industry.

The romantic comedy revolves around the life of three friends and how their boring, mundane life changes with a shocking turn of events.

While Kakkar's last release was with a serious and a controversial film, this one is a light-hearted film. "It has a good script, with humour, love, friendship and lots of entertaining elements. Working with talented actors like Dolly was exciting," he said. He had won the Best Male Debut award for his film "Chak Jawana" and already impressed with his acting talent.

The film is directed and written by Akashdeep Bath, who earlier made short films and is producer and writer of the upcoming Punjabi "VFX" film, "We Are Warriors". Bollywood singer Dolly Sidhu plays the female lead and has a fun character in the film. "I think youth would relate to the situations in the film and love the characters." The film releases on March 21 and has comedy artist Pak Pak Deepak, too, playing one of the characters.

Amritsar, March 13
Saroop Rani Government College for Women organised a convocation function for the session 2012-13 on its premises today. The function was presided over by District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh.

College principal Sunita Sehgal Dhillon presented the annual report of the activities and achievements of the college.

Dr Sunita said around 750 students received post-graduate and graduate degrees.

The chief guest applauded the students and also motivated them. A cultural programme was also presented on this occasion.

Amritsar, March 13
All India Hindu Shiv Sena has criticised the Amarnath Shrine Board’s guidelines for mandatory medical fitness certificate from doctors specified by it before going for the pilgrimage.

At a press conference here today, All India Hindu Shiv Sena president Suirnder Kumar Billa said, “The Shrine Board should accept certificates signed by any qualified doctor or they can set up their medical centre at Pahalgam for the purpose.”

Billa said this new decision would discourage pilgrims. “Already the number of pilgrims has come down from 7 lakh to 3 lakh a year. Impractical instructions will further create hurdles for pilgrims,” he said.

All India Hindu Shiv Sena had decided to write to the President of India and the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, said Billa, adding that the decreased number of pilgrims would also affect thousands of families around Amarnath, who are dependent on pilgrimage for their livelihood.

Billa said the Shrine Board should instead make efforts to make the pilgrimage more comfortable for people.

Amritsar, March 13
Amritsar may be ranked as the hub of traditional clothing material and footwear, but inhabitants of this border district are catching up with the global shopping trends. A leading e-commerce shopping firm found Punjab to be among the top 10 states and close to 20 per cent of their total visitors belonging to Amritsar.

This was stated by Mausam Bhatt, director, Mobile Marketing, flipkart.com, here today.

Increasing smart phone penetration and lower costs of devices has further contributed to this trend. And now from e-commerce, it's going to be m-commerce, which implies mobile commerce. It is the next big thing coming up in online shopping.

Nonetheless, the new trend may have reduced footfalls at showrooms, but it is giving the tech-savvy people a never-before experience.

A recent report by Boston Consulting Group noted that at present around 45 per cent of online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the Internet. This is expected to increase to 60 per cent over the next three years.

The top product categorise among the mobile shoppers in Amritsar are mobiles, clothing, footwear and computers. Delhi topped the list, closely followed by Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai," he said.

The ease and convenience of being able to shop on the go without needing access to a PC is swelling the popularity of m-commerce today. Imagine being able to buy anything you want from anywhere you want "while standing in queues, waiting at the airport, sitting in your college canteen" all you need is an Internet-enabled smartphone. And with easy payment options like cash-on-delivery available on Flipkart's mobile site, mobile shopping is now the preferred way to shop for a growing base of customers.

Ravi Vora, Senior Vice Presidebt ( Marketing), said, "Contribution of mobile channel to overall Flipkart revenue is steadily climbing. Today, more than 20 per cent of our orders come from mobile. Mobile traffic is growing at two times the rate of desktops. We also see a lot of the mobile customers coming from non-metros and Tier 2 cities. We are constantly working towards making online shopping easier and delightful for these new adopters of ecommerce".

The e-commerce marketplace leader recently launched its android and iOS application to make its shopping experience faster, smoother, safer and easier. Through the app, users can check prices instantly, using voice search and barcode scanning, and can also share product information with friends easily through call, SMS, emails, social media without exiting the application.

Diplen Kaur, a net-savvy MBA graduate, said, "Online shopping offers attractive deals, freebies and a wide variety of products. More so, just a click of a mouse gives you an access to thousands of products at the same time".

Baljeet Johal, another online purchaser said, "What can be more user-friendly than getting international brands at the click of a mouse and that, too, with credibility and quality. The warranty or the guarantee remained in tact according to dealers' norms. I just log into the online site through my mobile during idle time to make purchases as I am a model and an actor. Otherwise, I seldom find time to go to markets or malls to buy articles of my choice ."