The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Power theft case against Akali leader GS Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 An Akali leader, Amarbir Singh Dhot, a councillor representing Ward no. 40, has allegedly been held guilty of stealing power to run machines at his factory. Besides lodging a case against him at the anti-power theft police station, the Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL) has also imposed a fine of Rs 6 lakh on him. The councillor is still out of reach even as the police claimed to have visited his house. It has been learnt that Dhot reportedly assaulted the PSPCL team, but later on a compromise was reached after some political leaders intervened. Confirming the incident, SHO of the PSPCL's anti-theft police station Ram Pal and Inspector Balbir Singh said the case was registered against Amarbir Singh Dhot for power theft in his factory, adding that a time span of 15 days would be granted to him to either compound the penalty amount or he would have to appear in court. "He should surrender himself and clarify his position, if he is not guilty. Otherwise, legal proceedings would have to be initiated against him," he said. On the other hand, refuting all charges, Dhot said it was a falsely registered case and a conspiracy to defame him. "I fail to understand how my name was involved in the instance when I have no concern with it. First the place was not a factory but a store which houses Germany-made knitting machinery. The machinery is owned by one of my cousins, Kulwinder Singh. The store, too, does not belong to me, but to another person named as Sarbjeet Singh. I just went to the spot when I was called by them," he said. About the allegation of physical assault, Dhot clarified that it was just an oral duel but was settled amicably. "The case does not hold any authenticity and already stands null and void. I am a law-abiding citizen and would fight the case on merit only," he said. Nonetheless, after detecting repeated power disruptions in the New Amritsar and surrounding areas, the PSPCL team initiated a random monitoring of the power supplyline. Day before yesterday, the team, including SDO (PSPCL), Mall Mandi, Darbari Lal, and two junior engineers, raided the said premises located in Dashmesh Avenue, only to find that the power was being drawn in an illegal manner. When PSPCL officials questioned the workers about this power theft, they tried to influence them, but in vain. "We found that the machinery in the factory, including the blowers, motors and knitting machines, were being run on illegal power supply. There was no power metre installed in the factory. We calculated the power to be at least 14 KW which was being consumed without being accounted," said SDO Darbari Lal. "Meanwhile, the workers called up their owner. He arrived with seven or eight supporters. He authoritatively told us about his identity and threatened us with dire consequences. But after finding us adamant on taking action, not only did he abuse us but also assaulted us physically. We also thought of reporting the matter at Maqboolpura police station but later on a compromise was reached on the issue. Nonetheless, we had managed to lodge power-theft case with the anti-theft Police Department," said SDO Darbari Lal.
	‘Run for vote’ to be organised tomorrow Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 Continuing its efforts to encourage people, especially the youth and the first-time voters, to use their franchise in the coming parliamentary elections, the district administration has decided to organise a ‘run for vote’ on March 30. VS Sampat, Chief Election Commissioner of India, besides additional CEC and Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar, are likely to participate in the run. Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat today held a meeting with officials of various departments in this regard. Earlier, the administration had reached an understanding with hotel owners for giving around 30 per cent discount on eatables and accommodation in a hotel. A couple of days ago, it had launched systematic voters’ education and electoral participation campaign under which a van equipped with various gadgets to encourage electorates to vote was launched. The administration also put up hoardings at various vital road intersections besides launching a Facebook page especially dedicated to this cause. Ravi Bhagat said hundreds of people would participate in the run which would be led by Chief Election Commissioner of India VS Sampat besides additional CEO and Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar. He said steps had been taken to target the maximum vote percentage during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. He said a video CD for the awareness of the general public while encouraging them to vote would also be released. He said auto drivers and rickshaw pullers would distribute T-shirts and caps with slogans of casting votes. The run would commence from the historic Ram Bagh garden at 8 am which would pass through Crystal Chowk, Bhandari Bridge, Aanemm Cinema, Virsa Vihar and would culminate at Guru Nanak Stadium. He said people would also take a pledge at the stadium for exercising their right to vote.
	Bus service between Verka, court complex sought Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 Keeping public convenience in view, the civic authorities have started the bus service from inside the railway station. The demand, however, is there to extend the service between Verka and District Court Complex. Commuters believe that the importance of this route should have been on the top priority as all the important offices like Deputy Commissioner, Sub-divisional Magistrates, Tehsildar, District Education Office (DEO), Suwidha Centre, Zila Parishad existed in the District Court Complex. It would indeed be in the fitness of things to start a direct regular bus service from Verka to District Court Complex and back. Recently, buses running on route no 1 (from Daburji to India Gate) now go inside the railway station, take a two-minute halt on its way to and fro. Earlier, the city bus used to pass through the gate of railway station located on the main GT Road leading to India Gate. All this exercise was done to relieve the commuters from felling victim of exorbitant auto-rickshaw fares. Residents demanded that the same relief should be extended to scores of Verka residents. BR Pareenja, General Secretary of Consumer Rights Protection Society, said, “Apart from the residents of Verka area, the residents of various localities like Gopal Nagar, Pawan Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Jawahar Nagar, New Jawahar Nagar, Tandon Nagar and Bharat Nagar will be benefitted if the bus service is started on the Verka-District Court Complex route”. Officialspeak We have put a route from Verka on chart but even if there is some demand on a particular stretch, it could be considered after we receive the next lot of buses. Our aim is to facilitate commuters and the routes could be altered accordingly. — MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda
	3-day India-Pakistan Fashion Street opens Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 For shopoholics, the festivities never end. It's another happy weekend as a three-day designer Indo-Pak Fashion Street opened up at MK International. The lifestyle shopping event, the Fashion Street, a part of the initiative by the hotel to get Indian and Pakistani designer brands on one platform, saw a large number of visitors on day one. The exhibition comes with a wide range of fashion and lifestyle products, from known designer houses and brands. With over a dozen designer-wear brands from across the border displaying their collection, the clothes section was the most crowded. With particular style of hand embroideries and lacework, the Pakistani suits have made a brand of themselves with the city women. A summer special, the Fashion Street also offered accesories and jewellery from ethnic to chic. Juttis, the colourful embriodered Pakistani specialities, were too a popular pick. The exhibition has been organised by MK Exhibitors and has already become an annual affair. It will be on till Sunday. The famous silver jewellery that has become a fashion must have too is making ahed turns at the exhibition. The exhibition, which is primarily women-centric has a reason to be so. "We know that the summer season is around the corner as well as Biasakhi. Women like to be pampered more so. So all the products and brands focus on women whether its clothes, jewellery or accessories," said the organiser from MK Exhibitors. Another shopping destination with designer labels is Golden Tulip, with weekend long Spring Fashion bringing 60 exhibitors from across the region. The coolest summer wear and accesories, labels like Manish Arora, Nita Bhargav, pakistani collections, western wear from local and Delhi based brands, home decor, footwear and inetriors, the exhibition is a one-stop shop for all your trending.
	Insert child’s name in birth certificates Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 The Birth and Death Certification Department of Municipal Corporation (MC) has called upon the parents to get the names of their children added in the birth certificates officially, as per the guidelines of the government. Shushant Bhatia, Superintendent, said this arrangement had been made for those parents who had got the birth certificate earlier, but sans the names of their children on it. “These certificates were issued on behalf of the names of the parents at the time of the birth of their children but never carried the names of the children. Now, as per notification of the government, the parents have been advised to apply separately for inserting the beneficiary’s official names on record. The parents would have to submit the copy of old certificate (at the time of birth) along with the proof of name registered with the school they have been studying in”, he said.
	Cellphone, SIM seized from two jail inmates Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 In yet another instance of its kind, the Amritsar Central Jail authorities confiscated a mobile phone and a SIM card from two of the jail inmates. RK Sharma, officiating Superintendent (Jail), said a mobile phone was seized from Shamsher Singh, a resident of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Sultanwind Road, while the SIM card was seized from Lakhwinder Singh of Kamoke village. He said the seizure was made during a search operation in the jail. Both inmates have been booked on charges of fraud. Sharma said that Shamsher Singh had gone to the local court for hearing and a mobile phone was seized from him after he returned. During checking it was found that he had tied a mobile phone on his arm. He said the policeman, who was deputed to take him to the jail, had also been booked for negligence. The Amritsar Central Jail authorities confiscated a mobile phone and a SIM card from two of the jail inmates. RK Sharma, officiating Superintendent (Jail), said a mobile phone was seized from Shamsher Singh, a resident of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Sultanwind Road.
	Lok Sabha seat: Cross-section for separate blueprint from candidates Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 A cross-section of people, including agriculturists, academicians, manufacturers and individuals, have demanded a separate blueprint or a visionary statement for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat from the candidates seeking mandate from here. They feel that the border district has its own advantages and disadvantages and these need to be acknowledged. Kuljeet Singh, a qualified advocate, is also looking after his family’s 25-acre farmland located close to the city. He abandoned vegetable cultivation due to mounting input costs and shifted to wheat and paddy. Sharing his views he said while living along the International Border and not having harmonious relations with the neighbouring government of Pakistan, the government must make arrangements to export vegetables to Central Asian countries. We have an advantage of geographical location and infrastructural benefit of having an international airport. However, there are not enough processing units to process the locally produced crops by adding value to these. Under international pressure, the government was withdrawing subsidies — it is telling heavily on farmers as the minimum sale price (MSP) must be linked to the price index ratio which takes care of input costs of farmers. The importance of food production of Punjab has gone down as it used to be during the Green Revolution. Since many other states have also reached the same production level on a par with Punjab. To stop its adverse impact, canal irrigation must be strengthened and export-oriented produce must be sown and for this conducive environment, logistics, and infrastructure must be made available. APS Chatha, a hotelier, has been in the industry for the past many decades. He is the president of the Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association and is also a member of the Airport Committee. He said, at present the hospitality industry was the economic backbone of the holy city, yet the government failed to lend any constructive support to it. The government gave the industry status to the tourism years ago, but its benefits like to power tariff and others were yet to be extended. Instead of supporting it, the hospitality industry was battered with a spate of state and Central taxes. On the other hand, the government failed to deliver on its promises of commissioning tourism potential sites like Gobindgarh Fort, Ram Tirath temple, Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s summer palace in Ram Bagh, heritage village in Guru Nanak Dev University. Besides, the plan to include a religious-cum-historic tourist circuit, including a visit to the retreat ceremony at Attari border, Goindwal, Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib, Gobindgarh Fort, Harmandir Sahib, Durgiana Mandir, Jallianwala Bagh and Ram Tirath temple remains on paper. The short stay of tourists in the holy city continues to fritter away the business opportunities for hoteliers and others who invested heavily here. All these projects will bring desired results if the local infrastructure is upgraded to an international level and tourists felt at home while moving around here. These points needed to be reflected upon in the visionary statement of the MPs seeking a mandate here. Rajan Bedi, importer and exporter of various commodities from Pakistan and manufacturer of fertiliser, said proceeding without plan was akin to roaming aimlessly. Valid issues had not been raised by any political party. Guided development would help revenue-generating industries to realise their optimum level. Before development of industries, the holy city requires quality infrastructure and basic civic amenities.
	Trust transfers land to Chief Khalsa Diwan Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 The Amritsar Improvement Trust has transferred a vacant piece of land to the Chief Khalsa Diwan in the Golden Avenue area after getting it vacated from illegal occupation by politically connected individuals. The 2,000 square yards plot was originally allotted to Bharat Scouts and Guides a few decades ago. However, it did not construct anything over the. Since it failed to deposit the value of plot to the trust, it forfeited the ownership right and the trust took it in its possession in 2006 for non-payment of cost. Meanwhile, the prime chunk of land attracted the attention of land mafia as its market value runs in crores of rupees. Sources stated that some people backed by politicians tried to usurp the land. They constructed a room, installed a gate and locked it. When contacted Improvement Trust Chairman Sandeep Rishi conceded that some individuals made an abortive attempt to usurp the land. However, timely action by the trust officials managed to retrieve it. He said the unauthorised room over it was demolished and the locked gate was taken under possession. In the meantime, he said, a request for procuring the land was made by the Chief Khalsa Diwan as its Sri Guru Harkrishan Senior Secondary Public School was situated adjacent to the plot. He said the plot was marked as institutional land in the blueprint of the Golden Avenue scheme which was carved out by the trust decades ago. Hence, it can not be sold to any individual. Therefore, the house of the Improvement Trust passed a resolution to sell it off to the CKD for expansion of its school. According to the norms, the institutional area can only be sold at collector rate which in this case is Rs 10,000 per square yard. It would earn the trust nearly Rs 2 crore.
	Seminar on agro processing opens at GND varsity Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 A two-day national seminar on "Agro-Processing Industry in North Western States of India - Performance, Prospects and Problems" inaugurated at Guru Nanak Bhawan auditorium of the Guru Nanak Dev University here today. This seminar is being organised by the Punjab School of Economics of the University and sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. As many as 80 subject experts and research scholars are participating in the seminar. Prof MS Hundal, Dean, Academic Affairs, presided over the seminar while Prof SP Singh from IIT, Roorkee, delivered the key-note address. Dr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Head of the Department and Director of the seminar welcomed the chief guest and others. In his keynote address, Prof SP Singh emphasised that agro processed industry has huge potential but there are many shortcomings like lack of productivity and suitable infrastructure. He pointed out other key challenges like less affordability to common masses, high cost and poor quality of raw materials, long and fragmented supply chain, interrupted power supply, poor technology, high packaging cost, (ranging from 6 per cent atta to 20 per cent chips of selling price) low efficiency and productivity, regional imbalances, inadequate and ineffective food safety laws. He said food safety standards was added to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with the purpose that no country should be prevented from taking necessary measures to ensure the quality of its imports. Prof Hundal emphasised to diversify the agriculture and also to develop the complementary industries. He said this industry was suffering due the non-implementation of food safety laws. Pof Hundal also honored Prof SP Singh on behalf of the university. In the technical sessions, Prof SS Dhillon, Prof Paramjit Nanda, Dr Harmandeep Kaur, Prof AS Sidhu, Dr Lalita Kumari, Prof Parminder Singh, Dr Sawraj Kaur, Dr Balwinder Singh Tiwana, Dr Rajiv Khosla, Dr Gurmail Singh, Dr Manoj K Sharma and Dr Manpreet Kaur presented their research papers.
	Students excel in car-making Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 Two cars similar to formula one racing car and an off-road made by BTech Mechanical Engineering students of Global Engineering College have won the first and second prizes at national-level competition held at Pushpa Gujral Science City. Students designed and fabricated aesthetically attractive and aerodynamically planned, two separate "Off Road AT vehicle" and "On Road SUPRA vehicle". Production and assembing activities was done at the mechanical engineering labs of the university by the students themselves. Both the teams along with their vehicles participated in the National Level Event INNO-Tech 2014 organised by the Pushpa Gujral Science City, Kapurthala. The teams received prize of Rs. 25,000 and Rs 10,000 for the first and second positions respectively. The captains of the teams praised the management of the Global Institute for their support and motivation. Members of the team coming first were Vikramjit Singh (Captain), Mandeep, Yogesh, Rajbir Singh and Jagraj Singh. Members of team coming second were Sagar Sharma (Captain), Harpreet Singh, Rajan Saini, Hemant Arora and Navneet Sharma. Dr Arvind Bhardwaj, Director, Global Institutes, said the institute had adopted the policy to continuously encourage the students to undertake such projects.
	Experts deliberate on ‘vision of Kalidas’ Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 A two-day national seminar on "Vision of Mahakavi Kalidas in Present Scenario" was inaugurated here today at the Nanak Bhawan Auditorium in Guru Nanak Dev University. This seminar is being organised by Sanskrit Department. Prof TS Benipal, Director, Research, inaugurated the seminar. Dr Lekh Ram Sharma, Professor Emeritus of the university delivered the key-note address. Prof Shashi Prabha Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Sanchi University delivered the presidential remarks. Prof Dalbir Singh, Director of the seminar said the vision of Kalidas was quite relevant in present scenario especially in respect of environmental awareness and administration. Prof Renu Bala, Head of the department, elaborated the achievements of the department. Dr. Vishal Bharadwaj presented the vote of thanks. Dr Lekh Ram Sharma, in his keynote address said Kalidas had stressed to consider the trees and animals like ones kith and kin. He advocated that these must not be harassed. “Even a flower may not be plucked unnecessarily. According to Kalidas a King should always keep a watchful and affectionate eye over his subjects”, he said. Dr Shashi Prabha Kumar said, “As per the vision of Kalidas, a woman plays a major role in prosperity of the family. Kalidas maintained the honour and dignity of women folk”. Dr TS Banipal, Director Research, said thoughts of Kalidas related to nature and administrative set up were evergreen. He said Kalidas always praised nature through his literature.
	from schools & colleges Historical perspectives, trends of tourism in Punjab to be discussed Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 28 The Department of Travel and Tourism under the aegis of the Postgraduate Department of History, DAV College, Amritsar would organise one-day National Seminar on ‘Historical Perspective and Recent Trends of Tourism in Punjab’ tomorrow. Tarun Chugh, General Secretary, BJP, Punjab unit, will be the Chief Guest and Prof (Dr) Vishav Bandhu, Head, Department of History, will be the Chief Organiser of the function. Investiture ceremony Holy Heart Presidency School held its investiture ceremony. Anjana Seth, school Director announced constitution of a council of students to air the voice of students in the functioning of the school. Vikram Seth,Principal, handed over the title of “Perfect” to the students who excelled in the academics, sports and extra curriculur activities. He asked students to develop the quality of leadership. Earth Day celebrated To create awareness among students regarding protection of environment and saving energy, Khalsa College Public School (KCPS) celebrated the ‘Earth day’ here today. Students were sensitised about the concept of celebrating Earth Day, which gives the message that we must work together to save our planet. Dr Saravjit Brar, Principal, addressed the students and asked them to conserve environment and energy for the future generations. She asked the students to switch off all lights and electrical devices for an hour on the scheduled day and time.The students took pledge to observe ‘Earth Hour for Mother Earth’ and to say no to the use of plastic to create healthy environment. Results declared Mani Malhotra, a student of BBK DAV College for Womens, secured first position securing 317 out of 400 marks, Esale Haume secured 2nd position with 312 marks and Kirandeep Kaur, Kajal Sharma and Saloni Manchanda secured 3rd, 4th and 5th positions, respectively, in MA semester-III (commercial art) in Guru Nank Dev University. Besides, students of BBK DAV College bagged all the top four positions in BBA first semster of GNDU. Ravneet Kaur stood Ist in the university by securing 264 marks out of 350 marks while Himanshi Gupta stood 2nd by scoring 258 marks. Both Tanupreet Kaur and Tanya Malhotra have secured 3rd position by scoring 257 marks while Gurleen Khurana got 4th position by scoring 252 marks. Dr Neelam Kamra ,Principal, felicitated the students.