Amritsar, July 4
Suspicious about the character of his mother, a teenage boy hacked her to death and later set her body on fire in the 88-feet road area located on Majitha road here today.

The accused, identified as Heera Masih (16), did not flee and himself informed the police, which arrested him after reaching the spot.

Balkar Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (North), while giving details of the incident said that Masih used to suspect the character of his mother, Karamjit Kaur, alias Bhundi. He said he also used to suspect that she was involved in the killing of his father Noor Masih. Noor Masih was found dead mysteriously on the railway lines near Majitha around three years ago. The Government Railway Police had initiated action under the CrPC at that time.

Harish Behal, SHO, Sadar police station and investigating officer, said that since the death of his father, Heera Masih used to remain upset and had started living separately from his mother at Bhagwanpura village in Ramdass. He came to the house around 4.30 am and attacked her with a datar (sharp-edged weapon) after which she fell unconscious. He later poured petrol over her body and set her ablaze. The police have recovered the weapon and the bottle of petrol from the spot.

He said that after committing the crime, the accused was not repentant of his action. He informed the control room that he was a criminal and that he might be attacked by certain people. He gave his location to the police. A little later, a police team from Sadar police station reached the spot where he narrated the instance to them. A case under Section 302, 201, IPC, has been registered against him.

Speaking to the media, Heera Masih alleged that his mother had illicit relations with someone and this was the main reason behind committing the crime. He said that it was not a sudden provocation and he had decided to kill his mother a long time ago before actually committing the crime today.

Amritsar, July 4
Even as the dust is yet to settle down on the controversy sparked off by the auction of the first municipal corporation property, the authorities’ latest move to auction 2,100 sq yard land along the “faseel wall” (inner circular road from the Hall Gate to the Sikandari Gate), which rolls around the walled city, has evoked criticism.

Those opposing the move contended that besides adding to the traffic congestion on the stretch, it would lead to lessening the historical significance of the gates.

Nonetheless, the plan is to put the land under hammer on July 9 to develop SCOs (shops-cum-offices). There will be 23 commercial plots, measuring 43.37 sq yard on 1,043 sq yard land.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora justified the proposition saying that the land would fetch over Rs 30 crore. “This money will be utilised for development works. Our endeavour will be to garner the maximum amount out of the sale of the property,” he said.

Criticising it, senior BJP leader Luxmi Kanta Chawla advocated building of a multi-level parking on the site. “It is already the most congested area and coming up of the proposed venture would add to the problems,” she said.

Congress councillor Raj Kanwal Preet Pal Singh Lucky said that the ruling alliance had created such a “forbidding” atmosphere that no one dared to stand up to them.

“It seems that the mayor has a short memory. After passing a resolution in the MC house meeting, it was he who tried his best to raise a Rs 100-crore loan from banks and financial institutions, but now he has rejected the move midway and started selling prime properties to generate money. For how long will they sustain after selling off the property? All his planning was just to woo voters during the Lok Sabha elections,” he added.

A vigilant resident, Naresh Johar, viewed that the need was to make this area free of encroachments, as this stretch could serve the purpose of bearing the extra load of the main circular road, being located parallel to it.

“But the new proposal of the MC will make it more congested, besides tinkering with a heritage site,” he said.

A trader, Parveen Sehgal, said that there was a negligible need to raise shops here, especially when there was a whole lot of shopping lots, starting right from the entrance of the Hall Gate. “It was nothing but a money-making exercise of the MC at the cost of the residents’ convenience. It was not a wise decision to overload this crammed stretch by constructing more shops here,” he said.

Surinder Singh Verma, who runs a watch shop adjacent to the Hall Gate, stated that the government should give the space to rehabilitate those who have been operating from the main Hall Gate road side.”We are ready to pay for the cost of the land at the prevailing reserve price. By this proposal, the whole stretch of kiosks which have been operating from the road side for the past several decades will leave the place and the main road could be widened up to 15 feet. It will help in de-congesting the area,” he said.

Amritsar, July 4
A former sarpanch, Swarnjit Singh, hailing from Chawinda Devi, has been booked on the charges of power theft.

He has been imposed a penalty of Rs 6.14 lakh for stealing power to run a tube-well and home appliances through an illegal ‘kundi’ connection.

On a tip off, a Power Com (Punjab State Power Corporation) team raided his property only to find the actual proof of the theft.

The team found that a 10 hp motor was being run in his fields and his domestic power load was around 12.70 killowatt.

Kathunangal SDO Hartesh Kumar Soni said “It was found that the 10 hp motor was operational for 24 hours in his fields and the power supply was through a ‘kundi’ connection taken directly from the main electricity line. He had also been running all the electricity appliances at his house, which included refrigerator and two air-conditioners. The illegal wire was extended to the bathroom to run a geyser. We had calculated the load according to which the fine was imposed as per the law,” he said.

Rs 4.69 lakh was calculated as penalty for the illegal motor connection and Rs 44,828 for illegal domestic power theft besides other fines.

A complaint was submitted with the anti-power theft wing.

Inspector Ram Pal said that a case no 262 for power theft had been registered on the basis of a complaint received on July 2.

Amritsar, July 4
Members of the Unaided Staff Front (aided schools) today submitted a memorandum seeking a hike in salary along with other demands with the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

They said the teachers with unaided schools had not been promoted since 2003 and those appointed against vacant posts had been getting just Rs 2,500 per month.

They raised slogans against the government. Kuljeet Singh said they would be forced to hold a public agitation if their demands were not met.

Amritsar, July 4
Star hotels hospitality industry in the holy city is facing difficult times due to high taxes. It is learnt from real estate dealers that two five-star hotels and a four-star hotel are on sale. A three-star hotel on the Mall Road has been outsourced to another concern on contract. Besides, a couple of reputed hotels have also expressed their willingness to be outsourced to a concern.

When contacted, Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHARA) president APS Chatha did not deny the report of some hotels being up on sale. He said availability of quality rooms at low rates in serais (inns) being run by various religious bodies and deras in the walled city besides high taxes were robbing the star hotels of a fair number of their customers.

He said a large number of city hotels came up with a large amount of loans and their administrations are paying high rates of interest. In addition to this, hotels get power at high rates.

AHARA general secretary Piyush Kapoor said the hotels that charge room rent above Rs 200 pay eight per cent luxury tax and 7.42 per cent service tax, which goes to the Centre. Besides, value-added tax (VAT) on food in most of the hotels is being levied at the rate of 14.3 to 19.25 per cent. These hotels also pay various taxes to the municipal corporation.

Kapoor said their business was a seasonal one and at times they were forced to offer rooms at concessional rates. In this scenario, many hotels were up for sale while the ownership of a five-star property in the city has already seen exchange of hands. The city’s heritage sites are in a shambles and other infrastructure is in a deplorable condition.

It has been a long-pending demand of the hoteliers to tempt tourists to prolong their stay in the city. The government has taken up development of various tourism projects like the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Ram Bagh gardens.

Amritsar, July 4
The district administration has initiated a special awareness programme on cancer — in the rural, semi-urban and urban areas — besides conducting a special door-to-door survey with an aim to curb the evil of cancer by detecting the disease in a preliminary stage.

Ravi Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner, said that the Health Department in association with the district administration had identified more than 1,559 cases of cancer involving disbursement of treatment charges to the tune of Rs 18 crore. He claimed that the holy city had witnessed the maximum disbursement of financial help to cancer patients throughout the state under the Chief Minister Punjab Cancer Raahat Kosh Scheme to help out the cancer patients. He said the scheme was launched on June 1, 2011, in the city and there were only 25 compensation files pending, which would also be cleared soon.

Reiterating the commitment of the Punjab Government to weed out this fatal disease, Bhagat said that a three-member doctors’ board of the Health Department was deputed to clear the files after a thorough verification of documents with the treatment record.

He also called upon the people that if they felt any difficulties in filing their applications for financial help to cancer patients, they could directly visit the Civil Surgeon or his office. He said that the Punjab Government had arranged ultramodern machines for treatment of cancer at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot while Bathinda, too, would get a state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre.

Amritsar, July 4
The Amritsar jail authorities have recovered narcotics from an inmate. The accused has been identified as undertrial Jatinder Kumar alias Jinder, son of Bhushan, a resident of Lahori Gate, Kapurthala.

According to jail superintendent, during the routine checking, 17.80 gm of contraband was recovered from him on July 2.

He had already been lodged under the NDPS Act.

“A fresh case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and 42 of the Prisoner Act has been registered against him at the Cantonment police station,” he said.

SI Prabhjot Singh, in-charge of the Gumtala police post, has been deputed as the investigating officer in the matter.

Amritsar, July 4
The city police have arrested five persons on the charges of possessing narcotics and illicit liquor.

The D-division police have arrested two persons for allegedly possessing 230 gm of charas. Among those arrested include Kamal Kishore alias Nikka of Ludhiana and Subhash Kumar of Gilwali Gate, Amritsar.

The Chheharta police have arrested Prince Sharma of Guru Ki Wadali with 40 gm of toxic powder while the Sadar police have arrested Sandeep Kumar of Vikas Nagar with 140 capsules of proscribed drugs.

The Division-A police have arrested Avtar Singh of Ram Nagar Colony, Verka, with more than 8,000 ml of illicit liquor.

Amritsar, July 4
The Police Department has reportedly formed a three member special investigating team (SIT) to probe into the matter in which a woman had accused the police for falsely implicating her son in a drug case.

Sources in the department revealed that the SIT formed by Border Range IG would be headed by DIG AK Mittal while SSP (Rural) would also be a part of the team.

Kiran Bala, mother of the victim and resident of Mahal village, had yesterday alleged that around 10 policemen came to her place in the wee hours of June 2.

She said they picked up her son, Sanjiv Kumar alias Nikku, for some investigation.

At that time, the police team found nothing from his possession, she added.

Later, the family came to know that the police had registered a case against her son under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act for allegedly possessing 60 gm of a drug.

While admitting that though Sanjiv was hooked to drugs, she said her son had done nothing wrong and was not involved in drug peddling as claimed by the police.

Mohan Lal, father of the youth, while showing some CCTV footage said it was clear that the police found nothing from his possession and arrested him from the house and not from a naka as was claimed by the police.

He alleged that his son was falsely implicated in the case by the police.

According to the FIR, Sanjiv was arrested from a naka set up on Ram Tirath Road and a “recovery” was made during his search.

IG, Border Range, Ishwar Chander, could not be contacted even after repeated attempts.

Amritsar, July 4
As part of the de-addiction programme, the district community police conducted a seminar on de-addiction at Police Lines here today. The programme was presided over by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Babu Lal Meena.

Meena said the Punjab Government was serious about eradicating the menace of drugs. He said under the campaign launched against drug traffickers, the police had nabbed hundreds of drug peddlers.

He said this had helped in shattering the local network thus destroying the supply of drugs. Many addicts had been approaching de-addiction centres, he added.

District community police officer Baljit Singh Randhawa urged people to join their hands with the police in the campaign and get the problem eradicated.

He said the drugs had destroyed the youth and their families and it was a high time that that people should come forward and help the Police Department by sharing information regarding persons involved in drug trafficking.

He said due to drug addiction, the youth had started criminal activities. He said people should make aware their children about this menace so that they could not fall in the trap of drug addiction.

Meanwhile, the community police showed some documentaries on the ill effects of drugs.

Dr Jaswinder Singh Gandhi, an expert on de-addiction, also spoke on the occasion and gave tips on how to get out of drug addiction.

Amritsar, July 4
Tourism Secretary, Punjab, Raji P Srivastava, today reviewed various tourism development projects in and around the city.

With a view to prolong the stay of tourists visiting the holy city, Raji held a meeting with officials at Circuit House here today.

She inspected various tourist sites such as Golden Temple plaza, Town Hall, Gobindgarh Fort, heritage village at Guru Nanak Dev University and the war memorial.

While inspecting the work at the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Ram Bagh gardens, known as Company Bagh, Raji asked the officials to complete the work in time so that these sites could be opened for tourists soon.

Raji said Golden Temple and the Retreat Ceremony attract lakhs of visitors daily and proper arrangements should be made for them.

For the convenience of visitors at the Retreat Ceremony, the tourism police will install RO systems and set up tourist information centres.

Amritsar, July 4
With an aim to promote art in the region, the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA) organised an exhibition at Thakar Singh Art Gallery here today.

The four artists from the city — Bhupinder Singh Nanda, S Sukhpal Singh, S Kulwant Singh Gill and Dharminder Sharma exhibited their talent at the exhibition.

IAFA president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, while inaugurating the exhibition, said IAFA had always taken significant steps to promote art and artists all over India.

The exhibition showcasing 25 paintings got an overwhelming response from the city artists. The work of budding artists was lauded by art lovers. — TNS