Amritsar, April 4
The 79-year-old internationally acclaimed eye surgeon, Dr Daljit Singh, intends to restore the old grandeur of the holy city. He wishes to achieve this by reviving its industrial and trade hubs to take the benefit of the location of the integrated check-post at the border with Pakistan and its close proximity to the Central Asian countries.

factfile Born on October 11, 1934, in Amritsar Schooling at Khalsa College Senior Secondary Public School. MBBS, DOMS and MS degrees from Government Medical College, Amritsar He has been in the field of ophthalmology for the past 54 years Remained professor and head of the department of ophthalmology at Government Medical College, Amritsar Professor Emeritus of Government Medical College, Amritsar, since 1986 Running his own eye hospital in Amritsar since 1985 Recipient of Padma Shri award, Shromani Lekhak award and Punjab Ratan Award Author of many books, both technical and literary Credited with introducing lens implantation for cataract cases in India in 1976 Trained over 600 eye surgeons in India Contesting election for the first time

He is for planned comprehensive infrastructural development of the city to resolve its consistent traffic problems. He intends to set up a 24X7 people’s office in Amritsar, to spare a day of the week to interact with local residents. Every three months, he would be giving his report card to the people of the city on what he has done, what he could not do and what he propose to do once he comes to power.

In an exclusive interview with the Amritsar Tribune, the doctor shares his vision for the border constituency.

Many areas of the city are still grappling for access to basic amenities like clean drinking water and proper sewerage system. How do you intend to address it?

I would make separate plans for the (a) walled city, (b) old areas outside the city and (c) news areas of the city. Clean drinking water would be the top-most priority— the aim would be to make tap water potable. Sewerage would be the next priority. All city garbage would be segregated before being disposed of. All this would be a part of “Amritsar 2020” perspective plan.

What will be your roadmap to develop the city into a tourism hub in the true sense of the word? Successive state governments have promised it but failed to deliver.

An Amritsar Tourism Agency would be set up to promote tourism in and around the city. Since, religious tourism is big in Amritsar, this agency will directly facilitate bookings from abroad. There would be over 12 new budget hotels— both in public and private sector, besides a 1,000-bed youth hostel for students visiting the city. On the lines of Lahore, three food street hubs would be created in the city. One in the vicinity of the Golden Temple (vegetarian food), second outside the Gandhi Gate (non- vegetarian food) and the third in the newer areas of the city (non-vegetarian food).

Though crores of rupees have been spent on building great infrastructure at the Amritsar airport, still it doesn’t have adequate air connectivity. What steps you will initiate to address this issue?

I would push for making Raja Sansi Airport on the lines of the airport in Delhi. I will fight for having direct flights from Amritsar to Birmingham, Vancouver and Toronto (not via Delhi).

Meanwhile, I will take up with the governments of the UK, Canada and the US the issue of setting up visa consulates in Amritsar so that people don't have to go to Delhi/Chandigarh for getting visa.

Once a hub of trade and industry, Amritsar now has hardly any major industry left due to government policies. How do you plan to revive the industry?

Efforts will be made to revive trade and industry in places like Chehratta by providing facilities and incentives. Viability of the revival of all old industrial hubs would be studied and taken up. On the basis of this, efforts to enhance the connectivity/rail cargo-facility of the city would also be taken up.

No city/ trade can develop without proper connectivity with the periphery. I will fight for extending the local bus facility to all townships in Amritsar's vicinity— Majitha, Raja Sansi, Attari and Ajnala.

Drug addiction among youth is rampant in Amritsar, whether it is in urban or rural areas. What are your plans to curb drug abuse and bring them into mainstream?

There will be zero tolerance on drugs. A citizen's committee will oversee police functioning. Efforts will be made to set up Drug De-addiction Centres in the urban and rural areas. NGOs will be roped in to make these free of charge.

Navjot Singh Sidhu had vociferously taken up the matter for granting heritage status to Amritsar in Parliament. Will you also pursue it?

Amritsar city needs no “heritage tag”. But whatever facilities are required to preserve its rich heritage and monuments will be taken up. I will use the services of the Punjabis abroad to preserve the city's heritage on modern lines.

Border areas present a picture of utter neglect with the people having no access to basic amenities like healthcare, education, roads and drinking water. How do you plan to ensure their all-round development?

The border areas need special focus. I will get a study group to identify their problems in the fields of education, health and civic amenities and then take them up in a systematic manner.

Border farmers having their land across the fence are a harried lot for decades now, as they can’t cultivate their land properly. Will you take up their demand for adequate compensation?

I will ensure that the farmers whose land falls on the border face no problems. The farmers of these areas will have a say in the policies that govern those areas. In case they face problems, I will take up with the Union Government the matter of compensating them by calculating the average income of areas away from the borders.

Indo-Pak trade plays a key role in the constituency’s economy. How will you address the issues of trading community like poor rail cargo facility in Amritsar?

Since, there is a huge scope of trade with Lahore, I will fight for a day visa between traders of Amritsar and Lahore (6 am to 6 pm) enabling people to cross over by road. I will also vie for greater frequency of Amritsar-Lahore buses on a daily basis.

Amritsar, April 4
Senior BJP leader and party candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Arun Jaitley today spelled out a series of measures for boosting trade and industry in the holy city, besides addressing the issues of the border areas.

In his latest Facebook post, Jaitley said he met a number of representatives of trade and industry during his campaign over the last fortnight and felt that there is a need to expand economic activities, recreate investment environment period, place more money in the hands of the consumers and lower the burden on the weaker sections. He suggested that the current income tax exemption for an income of Rs 2 lakh should be gradually but significantly raised, as it will be a major relief to small traders and common man. He said small industrial units up to a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore are exempted from payment of excise duties. In view of the depleting value of rupee and inflation, this limit should be enhanced to Rs 5 crore. "The Goods and Service Tax (GST) should be immediately implemented. This will ensure a uniform rate of tax in all states." He said tourism circuits like Amritsar should be exempted from strict compliance of conditions under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Scheme.

Focusing on the border areas, Jaitley said the border area farmers are losing on cultivation of their land across the fence. "The NDA government had started a compensation package for these farmers, which was discontinued by the UPA. The same should be restored." Dwelling on rampant drug addiction, he said even though it is primarily the responsibility of every family to inculcate such values in the children that keep them away from the forbidden path, nonetheless, governments cannot abdicate their responsibility in this matter. He stressed on the need for creating new avenues for gainful employment. He said he will seek the creation of 6 new polytechnic institutes and similarly 6 new Industrial Training Institutes in the constituency. He also proposed extending incentives for setting up additional 25,000 small and medium industries based on the comparative factor advantage of Amritsar — particularly textiles, woolen fabrics, textile machinery, agro-processing and leather products.

In addition, he said many of the existing 12,418 SMEs need financial restructuring. He also advocated setting up of an Entrepreneurial Development Centre for training of potential entrepreneurs, besides establishing a sports development centres in the state. He said training of youth for job orientation, converting them into skilled work-force and creation of job opportunities was the need of the hour.

Amritsar, April 4
The Municipal Corporation today passed a budget of over Rs 339 crore for the fiscal 2014-15 after a walkout by Congress councillor Raj Kanwal Preet Singh Lucky, the leader of the opposition in the MC house.

The budget proceedings, which lasted for just 15 minutes were presided over by Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora. MC Secretary Gurdial Singh read the agenda of the meeting while Senior Deputy Mayor Avtar Singh and other ruling SAD-BJP councillors announced it passed as they felt that the discussion over it was irrelevant.

The budget estimate earmarks 56 per cent for the MC employees, 40 per cent for development works and four per cent for contingency.

On the other hand, Congress councillors were conspicuous by their absence as all of them had gone to support Capt Amarinder Singh as he was to file nomination papers for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat today. Raj Kanwal remained in the House for a brief period.

About Rs 188 crore, which is 56 per cent of the total budget, have been earmarked for salary and arrears of the employees. About Rs 91 crore have been kept for development works and the remaining amount was kept under the contingency fund.

The budget estimate aims to generate income from property tax, advertisement tax, licencing fees, cooking food licences, slaughter houses, building fees and development charges. In the previous budget, the MC had expected its annual income to be at Rs 23,470.10 lakh but it had to be satisfied with the income of Rs 20,803 lakh.

On the other hand, the budget anticipates the expenditure of Rs 129 crore ,which will be spent on its 4,500 employees, interest on advances, power bills of streetlights, their maintenance, power bills of MC offices, landscaping of parks, water bill, construction of MC's new building, share in the JNNURM, construction of new roads, development of slum colonies besides others.

The leader of the opposition in the MC House alleged that the budget was a flop as it claimed to earn a little over Rs 281 crore while the expenditure was of Rs 298.22 crore.

Amritsar, April 4
Amritsar has witnessed an unprecedented seizure of contraband and arms along the Indo-Pak border in the past three months, which is very high if compared with the past several years.

Of the 182 kg heroin seized along the Punjab border this year, almost 131 kg of heroin has been recovered in the Amritsar sector alone. Besides the state special operation cell, the counter intelligence wing of Punjab police has also made a number of seizures in the sector.

Standing crops coupled with winter and foggy season besides the desperation on the part of the Pakistan-based smugglers to push in heroin and arms in Indian territory is said to be the reason behind the unprecedented seizure .

According to sources in the Police Department and the BSF, Amritsar is the most “economical” route for the smugglers as compared to other border areas, including riverside belt in the Ferozepour sector.

"Another reason is that a number of smugglers who have been convicted and languishing in jails have come out of parole during the harvesting season. After coming out of the jail, they have revived their contacts in Pakistan and restarted their nefarious activities," said the sources.

However, MF Farooqui, DIG, BSF, Amritsar sector, said that the reason behind this was the alertness of the jawans. He said they had made some changes in the operational guidelines at the ground level in case of suspicious movement of smugglers from across the border.

"Besides, the expansion of our information network following the de-addiction drive launched by the BSF is also responsible for the seizures. We have also rewarded our jawans after the seizures which have motivated them to do good in future," said Farooqui.

In 2013, more than 50 per cent of the seizures were made in this sector. Around 172 kg of heroin was confiscated in the Amritsar sector.

Amritsar, April 4
Mystery shrouds the death of a jail inmate who died at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital late last evening. The family members of the deceased Vaneet Kumar alleged that he died due to the negligence of the jail staff who failed to provide him treatment on time.

Vicky, elder brother of the deceased and a resident of the New Jawahar Nagar area, alleged that the police as well as the jail staff did not bother to inform the family even after he was admitted to a hospital in a serious condition. He said they came to know about this from other people in the jail.

He said Vaneet was arrested by the police in a false case of possessing narcotic substance around five-and-a -half months ago. He said day before yesterda,y they had met him in the jail. He said he was ill.

"We came to know that he was later admitted to the hospital inside the jail where he was crying for medication. Later, he was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he died," said Vicky. He alleged that the family was not allowed to see the body till today afternoon.

RK Sharma, officiating Superintendent, Amritsar Central Jail, however, refuted the charges. He said Vaneet was admitted to the hospital on time and was given proper treatment. He said the deceased was suffering from severe hepatitis and was a drug addict. He said he was being given full treatment and was referred to the hospital when his condition deteriorated. He died on way to the hospital.

Amritsar, April 4
Mystery shrouds the death of Sharanjit Singh of the Ghanupur Kale area whose body was found abandoned in the Chheharta area late last evening. He was identified in the morning when the family members approached the police with a missing complaint.

The police told the family about the body found and later he was identified. The family members told the police that last evening he had gone for some work but did not return. They even tried to locate him.

The police said as per some family members, the deceased was a drug addict while several others were claiming that he was murdered. However, they added that further action would be taken after they get the post mortem examination report.

At present, the police have initiated action under Section 174 of the CrPC.