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Roof collapse at
Durgiana Temple Complex
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Gangster attacks youth after release on bail
Truck loaded with cement overturns
Despite limited resources, de-addiction centre providing laudable service to help
seekers
NGO accuses govt of mindless felling of trees
Bikramjit murder case: Accused policemen yet to be arrested
Panel formed to probe ragging case
Mobile phone seized from jail inmate
Computer teachers threaten to go on strike
Feedback
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Roof collapse at
Durgiana Temple Complex
Amritsar, June 17 JCBs were swiftly pressed into action to demolish the scores of structures in
the area. Labourers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said no engineer or Trust official monitored the demolition process. They said a majority of the illiterate labourers did not know the strength of structures after the JCB had pulled down many of the beams and pillars on which these structures were standing. The labourers stated that there were still scores of structures to be demolished which are in a dilapidated condition and have become shaky after the buildings around these were demolished. The deceased and the injured belonged to Harsha Chhina village. Police officials said the family members of the deceased and the injured refused to file any
complaint against the contractor. AIT Chairman Sandeep Rishi said an inquiry has been marked to Superintendent Engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma. He said the demolition work was outsourced to a private contractor with enough experience of handling such works. He said an inquiry would be investigated to check whether the contractor had taken all the required steps to safeguard the lives of labourers tasked with the completion of the project. The land has been acquired under the Durgiana Beautification Project that envisages the widening of the approach road to Durgiana Temple, a double-storeyed parking lot and an open plaza. It was the third and final take over of the possession of the land earmarked in the area. Its earlier 1,650 square yards of land belonging to Dashnami Akhara and some houses in the Durgiana Temple complex were vacated on September 4 last. The land has been acquired under the Durgiana Beautification Project for its third phase, envisaging the beautification of the surroundings of the temple. This would widen the approach road to the Durgiana Temple, which would further felicitate the smooth operation of battery-operated cars. Besides, a double storey parking lot with a capacity to house 400 cars would be constructed with an open plaza over it.
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Gangster attacks youth after release on bail
Amritsar, June 17 He has been admitted to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in a serious condition. He has sustained injuries in his head and other parts of the body due to attacks from sharp weapons. The incident occurred in the Gawal Mandi area falling under the Cantonment police station. However, no case was registered till the filing of the report. Gurminder Singh, SHO, Cantonment police station, said statements are being recorded and action would be taken
accordingly. A relative of the victim said a quarrel had occurred between the former councillor and Roshan around a week ago over the parking of a motorcycle in front of his office. Roshan used to go to the gym located on the upper floor of Vicky's office. He alleged that Roshan narrowly escaped from the spot as Vicky along with his accomplices attacked him. Prince Kapoor was released from jail on bail only yesterday in the evening. He was nabbed by the Crime Branch for allegedly possessing illegal arms a few days ago. He was booked in as many as nine cases of clash and also under the NDPS Act. After the release of Prince Kapoor, Vicky, along with his son and nephew, started looking for Roshan in order to teach him a lesson for quarreling with him. They found him on Ram Tirath road near Gwal Mandi. When Roshan tried to escape, they rammed his vehicle in a motorcycle after which he fell down. They then allegedly attacked him with sharp weapons while Vicky reportedly fired in the air a few
times. — TNS
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Truck loaded with cement overturns
Amritsar, June 17 The accident resulted in a road block for the vehicular traffic as it was not removed from the place till the afternoon which caused inconvenience to the commuters. The truck was loaded with cement coming from Pakistan. “The truck was coming along the divider. When it came to the point to facilitate U-turns, it collided with the divider as there was no proper lighting and a vehicle was coming from the other side which dimmed the visibility,” said an associate of the driver who was present at the place in the morning. The design of the dividers is such that it slants towards the left when the point for taking U-turn approaches near. After the U- turn point is over, it is built in a straight line towards the divider before it slants to the left. As a result, if a vehicle comes along the dividers, without noticing the slant and takes it to be a curved road, the starting point of the divider after the U-turn comes exactly in front of the vehicle. In the absence of reflectors, it becomes very difficult for a driver to
prevent collision. “Such points must have reflectors so that a driver can judge the spots,” said Kartar Singh, a nearby dhaba owner, adding that all the major roads must have light reflectors so that such accidents can be avoided. In an accident earlier last month at Kitchlew chowk flyover here, five youngsters had died when the driver hit the dividers at the point where it took a curve on the downward side of the bridge. The point too did not have reflectors to guide the drivers during the night.
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Food plaza at rly station to open shortly
Amritsar, June 17 The manager of the food plaza, NK Sharma, said the railways released the power connection after the company deposited the refundable security amount of Rs 6.20 lakh with the Ferozepur division of the Northern Railways under whose control the local railway station falls. He said there was some misunderstanding over the depositing of security fee as the food plazas belonging to the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation?s (IRCTC) are not charged any security fee while the railway does charge the same. He intimated that the plaza would be opened shortly as his company was trying to get an appointment with the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Naresh Chander Goel. Earlier, the owner of the company had inaugurated the plaza which was asked to shut down for non-compliance of various formalities. Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Upjeet Singh had stated that the plaza operator did not submit the fitness certificates of its employees and the written permission from the IRCTC. The company, entrusted with the operation of the plaza, had inaugurated it despite securing a power connection. However, the plaza was shut down after the railway authorities objected to it. The railway authorities had handed over a 2,250 square feet area (250 square yards) to the IRCTC for the food plaza. The IRCTC has conceived four food plazas at the railway stations in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ferozepur and Ambala. Of these, the food plaza at Chandigarh has already started functioning. There was no regular outlet serving food at the railway station for the past many years. It has been a long-pending demand of the passengers. The footfall at the railway station is increasing day by day. A Delhi-based food product chain has been hired to run the plaza. As many as 130 trains arrive and depart from the Amritsar railway station every day. It records a daily footfall of over 30,000. Keeping in view the high number of tourists visiting the Golden Temple, the Union Government had announced to provide Rs 10 crore for the development of the railway station last year. Under the plan, state-of-the-art infrastructure would be provided at the railway station. It will have a retiring room, a VIP lounge, waiting room, VIP parking lot and a circulating area. Installation of an escalator at platform number 1 of the railway station was already underway.
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Despite limited resources, de-addiction centre providing laudable service to help
seekers
Amritsar, June 17 The centre, which used to get around 200-250 patients during ordinary days, is now receiving around 450-500 patients daily. Being a government institute, people prefer to come here as the fee charged here is very
nominal in comparison to the private de-addiction centres. Despite the fact that the centre is suffering from shortage of staff and infrastructure, a visit to the centre gives a clear picture about the service it renders to the youth who had lost all hopes due to the scourge of drugs. The centre also has a gymnasium for the patients. Several NGOs, besides the Punjab Police and Border Security Force, have joined hands with the centre and want to contribute their bit by adding more facilities to the
centre. The BSF even provided new beds for the patients. Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh
Aulakh, who along with ADCP Parampal Singh recently visited the centre, was very impressed with the service being provided by the
centre. He assured Dr PD Garg, director of the centre, to take up the matter regarding shortage of resources, which the centre faces, with the government. The Police Commissioner interacted with the patients and assured them that drug consumers would not be arrested, but they would be helped to come out of the addiction. However, the police would take strict action against persons involved in peddling, he added. Sanjay Bali, a speaker on stress management, who counsels the patients at the
centre, said it was observed that people mostly fall into the trap of drugs because of the company they keep. Besides, the continuous supply of drugs also aggravates the problem. Dr Garg said the aim of the centre was to provide every kind of help to the patients. He said the objective should not be defeated due to lack of resources. Around 1,200 new patients had visited the centre in May, he added. “As we have a limited bed capacity, we are preparing a waiting list of the patients who want admission to the
centre,” he said.
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NGO accuses govt of mindless felling of trees
Amritsar, June 17 Mission Aagaaz executive director Deepak Babbar claimed that same was the case with the 58 trees. He said the trees were of various varieties such as silver oaks, sheesham, mango, peepal, alistonia, gulmohar, amaltas and ashoka among others. Babbar said 11.2 hectares of area in the forest cover had been cleared for upgrading the GT Road from Bhandari Bridge to the GNDU Road. Compensatory afforestation has been proposed over 22.4 hectares of land, which is quite far from the affected area, he added. He said even as the officials concerned had remarked that only those trees that were an obstruction in the traffic revamp projects would come under the axe, but the trees along the roadside were also being chopped off. Gurbhej Singh of Mission Aagaaz said the government seemed to be in a hurry to implement one project after the other. It was only some months ago that the city bus service was launched and now it’s the turn of the BRTS, he added. He said it would have been much wiser on the part of the government to run the city bus service to its full capacity. High investment on raising elevated roads for operating metro buses could have been saved, he added. Instead, the government must have removed encroachments on these roads to smoothly operate metro buses, he said.
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Summer camp instills love for art among kids
Amritsar, June 17 The workshop includes group learning as well as target learning in the field of performing and fine arts. The month-long activities, including painting, dancing, music, theatre, mural making, digital media art and finer details of contemporary art forms, is holding regular classes everyday and special classes on the weekends for both kids and parents. The weekend classes are a favourite given their interesting appeal. "We organise specific traditional yet rediscovered art forms like puppet making, caricatures, calligraphy, murals and sketching, among others, during the weekend workshops.The two hour classes are open for all, and also involve the parents along with kids. We have over 200 hundred kids on every weekend," informs PS Grover, convener of the summer camp. City-based artists turn mentors for these young creative kids. George Emanual has been roped in for caricatures, Dr Naresh Maudgil for textile designing, Kulwant Gill for sketchng and OP Verma for clay modelling. With growing awareness about the use of these specific art forms in the media and other alternate art fields, the camp focuses on honing talent at an early stage. "We have six groups for painting, two dance groups, one for mural making and one for music being
conducted continuously at the camp," says Grover. Apart from this, Puneet, an artist, is filming every ongoing activity at the camp which will eventually be a part of a special documentary based on the workshops held at the summer camp. "The motive is to offer creative activities and hone the skills of kids and adults alike, something that is not taken up voluntarily. All the activities are on offer at a nominal fee. Apart from educational activities, we will also hold entertainment gigs like magic shows and musical and dance performances every weekend," says Grover.
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Bikramjit murder case: Accused policemen yet to be arrested
Amritsar, June 17 Bikramjit was allegedly kidnapped by the policemen on May 5 and his body was recovered from a canal falling under the jurisdiction of the Kiratpur Sahib police on May 8. The police have booked 13 persons, including 12 policemen while another person, identified as Deep Raj, a resident of Qadian, was arrested for criminal conspiracy. The accused policemen had used his building during the illegal detention and interrogation of Bikramjit Singh, who was allegedly tortured to death. The police have arrested seven policemen so far while five others, including police inspector Narang Singh, are still out of the reach of the police. Besides Narang Singh, those who are yet to be arrested include ASI Baljit Singh and head constables Gupreet Singh, Jagjit Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, all attached with the Batala police and a police tout Jagtar Singh of Chatiwind village. They had been booked on the charge of kidnapping, murder, destroying evidence and criminal conspiracy. Bikramjit, a murder convict, was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital for some orthopedic problem. He was allegedly kidnapped from there after a trap was laid by the counter intelligence wing on May 5. On May 8, his body was found in a section of a canal falling under the jurisdiction of the Kiratpur Sahib police. The police kept the body for five days and cremated it on May 13. His ashes were immersed at Kiratpur Sahib on May 14.
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Panel formed to probe ragging case
Amritsar, June 17 Senior faculty member and warden of hostels, Dr RS Sidhu, who is also a member of the college’s disciplinary committee said, “The inquiry will be conducted by a 12-member committee. It will not be justified to say that one or two persons influenced so many members.” In a reaction to the statement of PCMS Specialist Doctors’ Association president Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal that a few faculty members are trying to relate the conflict between two student groups competing for the students’ body with the ragging case, Dr Sidhu said, “Whether it is ragging or not, it will be decided by the disciplinary committee. The complainant had alleged ragging and the committee is probing the
matter.” Sohal had alleged that the complainant had affiliations with the students’ group that had lost the previous students’ body elections, which is the reason why the office-bearers of the other group were made the accused in the case.
Sidhu said statements of many hostel inmates had been recorded. The college had earlier suspended four students. The students are debarred from visiting the college campus. The college authorities said parents of all the four students had been informed through a
letter about their suspension.
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Mobile phone seized from jail inmate
Amritsar, June 17 He was lodged in the jail in connection with a murder case registered at the Sarhali police station. A case under Sections 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 42 and 52-A of the Prisoners Act has been registered at the Cantonment police station in this connection. As per details, the seizure was made during a routine checking in the jail premises. During checking, the jail staff confiscated a Samsung mobile - SGH 8100 without a SIM card. It is pertinent to mention here that seizure of mobile phones and forbidden material in the jail has also been witnessed in the past. Earlier, on June 6, a mobile phone was recovered from an undertrial Balwinder Singh, who was lodged in the jail for thefts and possessing narcotics. —
TNS
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Computer teachers threaten to go on strike
Amritsar, June 17 Computer Teachers Union president Parminder Sivia said around 7,000 computer teachers in the state were regularised three years ago. He said till date, the employees had not received service benefits such as medical reimbursement, promotions, LTC, CPF and leave for foreign travel, that are available to the other employees of the state government. He said the computer teachers had not been paid the DA arrears even as other employees of different departments have received them. Sivia said computer teachers had not received salaries for the month of April and May. He alleged that the salary bills of the computer teachers were deliberately delayed every month. Sivia said they would launch a protest soon and the dates would be announced after discussion with the office-bearers in various districts.
— TNS
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Amritsar, June 17
Despite all odds, Swami Vivekanand De-addiction Centre at Government Medical College is doing yeoman’s service to society by
de-toxifying youths thronging the centre. The centre has been witnessing a huge rush of drug addicts for the last few weeks as the police have tightened the noose around the drug peddlers, thereby cutting the
supply line.
