Government Medical College 
Ragging witness submits audio tape as proof
Amritsar, June 14
An anonymous witness to the ragging of a junior student by seniors at Government Medical College here has submitted an audio recording of the conversation between the victim and the accused to the college authorities.

sale of drugs at Grocery shops
Crackdown on drugs brings problems to the fore
Amritsar, June 14
With the government initiating a crackdown on drugs, many unknown dimensions of the problem, the latest being the sale of habit-forming medicines by grocery shop owners, have come to the fore.

Amritsar, June 14
A day after Congress leader Dinesh Bassi questioned certain anomalies in the beautification plan of Durgiana Temple, the temple management committee contended that the beautification plan was contemplated by the Congress government in 2005.

Shri Durgiana Committee president Satpal Mahajan said the Durgiana beautification scheme was notified under the Punjab Town Planning Urban Development Act 1922 on May 13, 2005 and at that time, the Congress was in power under the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh.

He said the committee did not have any say in the planning and designing of the beautification scheme as it was being done by the Amritsar Improvement Trust. He said the temple committee had disbursed over Rs 32 lakh among 73 tenants who were displaced from their houses. He said these persons were in no way employees of the committee but even then the temple management decided to give money as it was a religious body.

Shri Durgiana Committee general secretary Ramesh Sharma said the state government compensated the owners with Rs 50,000 per square yard for commercial property and Rs 18,000 per square yard for residential property. These were above the prevalent market value at that time.

Meanwhile, office-bearers of the certain Hindu organisations today went to the office of the Shri Durgiana Committee and entered into a verbal duel with its office-bearers and raised slogans against them.

Members of these outfits were demanding the re-construction of the Bhairav Nath temple, a part of which was demolished a few days ago. After they were ousted from the temple, they raised slogans against the committee for its failure to uphold the sanctity of the Bhairav Nath temple when police personnel with shoes on entered its premises.

On the other hand, PPCC secretary Dinesh Bassi and AAP district convenor Ashok Talwar today met the displaced shopkeepers and office- bearers of the Bhairav Nath temple. 

Amritsar, June 14
An anonymous witness to the ragging of a junior student by seniors at Government Medical College here has submitted an audio recording of the conversation between the victim and the accused to the college authorities.

The college authorities had earlier suspended four senior students from the college till the time the inquiry is complete. All the four students have also been expelled from the college hostel.

Sources at the college said a student had recorded the entire conversation between the senior and junior students on June 8 and 9 when the ragging is reported to have taken place.

A junior student had on June 10 filed a complaint with the college authorities alleging that he was manhandled by a few seniors when he refused to entertain them. The complainant had stated that he was slapped many times by the seniors after he forbade them to verbally abuse him.

The hostel warden and senior faculty member Dr RS Sidhu admitted that they had received an audio clipping and were trying to recognise the voices of the speakers.

Meanwhile, the college authorities are contemplating the quantum of punishment for the accused which may range from suspension from one to four semesters.

A senior faculty member at the college said, "The private colleges often resort to imposing heavy fines for even minor acts of indiscipline but the government colleges does not have such provisions."

He said in the light of harsh punishments like suspension from college, sometimes the college authorities tend to ignore complaints which encourages the wrong-doers. 

Amritsar, June 14
With the government initiating a crackdown on drugs, many unknown dimensions of the problem, the latest being the sale of habit-forming medicines by grocery shop owners, have come to the fore.

Taking notice of the situation, the deputy commissioner has asked the Health Department to keep an eye on the activities of such grocery shops and individuals who are selling habit-forming drugs.

Sources in the Health Department revealed that such miscreants have been active in villages where there are no chemist shops or the chemists are not ready to sell habit-forming drugs.

A resident of village Bohru said, “The pain killers have been sold at grocery shops in the villages for long. The people had nowhere to go when there were no chemist shops in the villages around 10-15 years back.”

“Sometimes, there is no health centre but the village has two to three drug stores. It creates suspicion as to what brings business to these shops,” said a senior health official.

The employees of the Health Department said that even as regular inspections are conducted at the chemist shops, there is no method to know if a grocery shop or individual is selling habit- forming drugs unless a specific complaint is received.

In a recent case, a woman whose brother is a drug addict, provided the Health Department with details of a person living near Ramdass town from whom her brother used to buy drugs. A case under the NDPS Act was registered against that person after the Health Department passed on the information to the police. 

Amritsar, June 14
With the temperature soaring high in the region, the birds are the receiving end as they fall an easy prey to dehydration and die a painful death. Social networking sites are also flooded with messages urging the people to make arrangements for water on their roofs or at other places so that the birds could get enough fluids to survive the extreme hot weather conditions prevailing during the summer.

Various NGOs are also pitching in asking the people to keep some bowl on the rooftops or at any other convenient place and fill it regularly with water.

Gurbhej Singh of Mission Aagaaz pointed out that it is responsibility of the people to do their bit for saving the environment, be it saving the green belt or the birds which are an integral part of the eco-system.

“During the hot weather, the people should keep water in earthen bowls which helps in the keeping the water cool. They should also make arrangements for different types of seeds for them,” said Ashok Joshi of the Soicety for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), while adding that during the summer, the birds die due to dehydration. He said the people should also avoid Chinese thread to fly kites as the birds got entangled in it and sustain serious injuries.

"Recently, we save two hawks who had their claws almost chopped off due to the Chinese string entangled in the trees. One of them later died," said Joshi. He said the oicety for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received a number of birds including pigeons which fell ill due to the summer. They were later set free after treatment. 

Amritsar, June 14
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar today condemned the statement of ad hoc HSGPC leader Deedar Singh Nalvi regarding the formation of a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana.

Makkar said Nalvi should refrain from creating a divide among the Sikh community and playing into the hands of the Congress. Warning against any such move, he accused Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of conspiring to create a rift between the Sikhs by issuing a statement regarding the constitution of a separate gurdwara panel in the state.

"The SGPC is the premier organisation of Sikhs and any step to carve out a separate committee for Haryana will not be tolerated." He alleged that the Congress wanted to interfere in the gurdwara affairs in Haryana but the Sikhs would not allow its "nefarious designs to succeed".—TNS

Amritsar, June 14
The CPM activists today carried out a motorcycle rally as part of their public awareness campaign against the anti-people policies of Punjab government and the menace of drug addiction.

Jagtar Singh Karampura, local secretary, CPM, said while carrying out the awareness rally on their motorcycles and auto-rickshaws, a number of workers of the CPM today passed through various bazaars of Guruwali and Varpal area on Tarn Taran road. They raised slogans against the state government and urged it to nab the culprits involved in the drug trafficking.

Jagtar Singh Karampura alleged that the police department has nabbed drug consumers while the real culprits who enjoy the shelter of political big wigs were still untouched. "It is condemnable that political leaders whose names were figured by the drug traffickers were not arrested by the police so far,” he said. They also criticised the government for raising the power bills which affected the common man.

Amritsar, June 14
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) task force with the help of CCTV footage has nabbed two women hailing from Rajasthan for allegedly stealing at the Golden Temple complex.

They were handed over to the police who recovered the stolen purse along with the cash from their possession.

Those arrested were identified as Surjit Kaur of Madhuban Rameshwar Nagar, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Manju of Junagarh, Rajasthan.

Gurinder Kaur, a resident of Kot Khalsa, told the police that she was standing in a queue at the sanctum sanctorum at the Darbar Sahib for paying obeisance when the accused picked her purse containing Rs 4,500 besides documents. During a search, the police recovered the items from their possession.

Bhagwan Singh, Galliara police chowki in-charge, said a case under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against them and investigations were under progress. 

Amritsar, June 14
A team of nine gymnasts from Spring Dale Senior School reaped a rich harvest of medals after beating nearly 500 students from different schools from 12 states of India, in the 23rd National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship, held at Thane.

The Spring Daleans won as many as 20 medals, 15 silver medals and five bronze medals, in the event. Gursirat Kaur of Spring Dales was adjudged the third best gymnast.

The school team was further divided into four teams. These teams were U-8 team second; U-10 team second; U-12 team third and juniors-team second. Members of U-8 team second comprised of Gursirat Kaur, who bagged one silver medal for team championship and one silver medal for group events, besides a bronze medal each for ball and all round events, and Meera, who won one silver medal each for group event and team championship.

The U-10 team second included Kanishka Salhotra, who bagged one silver medal each for group event and team championship and Manmeet Kaur, who claimed one silver medal each for group event and team championship, while the U-12 team third included Mohina Kaur Girgla, who won one silver medal for the group event and one bronze for the team championship.

Vanshika, of the U-12 team third, won a bronze medal for the team championship and a silver medal for the group event. Tisha Mahajan, of the same team, too won a bronze medal in the team championship and a silver medal for the group event.

Sarpreet Kaur Sidhu and Anikta Sachdeva, of the juniors team second, both won one silver medal each for the team championship and one silver medal each for the group event.