NOC issue: Deed writers end stir, property dealers protest
Amritsar, August 5
As the deed writers have called off their protest on the issue of making NOCs mandatory for registration of property, the property dealers have initiated a stir on the same issue.

Government announces campaign to increase green cover in city
Amritsar, August 5
In order to restore the dwindling green belt in the city due to various ongoing development projects and widening of roads, the Punjab government has drawn a comprehensive plan under which around 4 lakh saplings of different trees will be planted.

Amritsar, August 5
Though the city police claimed to have got some vital clues in yesterday’s firing instance in which two groups had fired at each other near the high-security court complex area in broad daylight, it has brought to the fore the deteriorating law and order situation in the holy city.

According to police authorities, the two groups, who were involved in the firing, were from outside Amritsar. They said that they had identified the persons and raids were being conducted to arrest the culprits.

Panic had gripped the posh area near the district courts complex after a few youngsters in two cars fired shots at each other. According to the police reports, around six bullets were fired during the incident. The onlookers immediately lay on the ground in order to save themselves.

Nishan Singh, investigating officer, said that a police party chased the two cars, which fled towards the Tarn Taran side.

He said both the groups involved in the incident had been identified from the vehicle(s) they were travelling in.

He said the accused were notorious criminals and belonged to the Patti side. A number of cases were registered against them. He said raids were being conducted to arrest them. He, however, refused to divulge the names of the criminals, stating that it would hamper investigations.

He said a case under Section 307, IPC, and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act had been registered with the Civil Lines police.

A resident of the Ranjit Avenue area said that such broad daylight instances bring a bad name to the police.

He said though the police authorities from time to time claim to launch various drives to identify criminals, but such instances nullify their claims.

A police official, preferring not to be named, said that in yesterday’s instance, it was the outsiders who were involved in the firing.

They had come for a hearing in a case. He said the police had identified them and they would be arrested soon.

He said in a majority of cases, the police had arrested the culprits and put them behind the bars, so there was no reason for the people to panic.

He said the Police Department was on its toes to curb the crime in the city.

The law and order situation in the city raises serious concern.

Amritsar, August 5
An association of migrant workers staged a protest outside the Municipal Commissioner’s residence to protest the MC’s drive of removing illegal encroachments on the roadsides.

MC employees had earlier today removed a few rhehris and stalls in front of Government Dental College on Hukam Singh Road.

In the process, some of the rhehris were were damaged. The migrants association claimed that a person named Ram Yadav was injured as he opposed the drive.

The issue of illegal rhehris on roadsides has been a major cause of concern for the city residents as they lead to traffic bottlenecks. Sometimes these rhehris can be seen placed in the middle of the roads, causing traffic chaos.

Most of the footpaths in the city have been encroached by rhehris and stalls, as a result pedestrians have to walk on roads.

Migrants said the MC had illegally and forcibly removed their rhehris. Amritsar Rhehri Mazdoor Union president Mahesh Kumar Verma said, “The union will stage a protest on August 11.”

He said around 11 thousand migrant families in the city are dependent on rhehris and they would not allow the MC to remove them.

MC Commissioner Pradeep Sabbarwal said, “Nobody is against anybody’s justified interests. But how come an encroachment on a footpath or a road be justified.”

He said the High Court had given clear instructions on the issue and MC was going to abide by them.

Sabbarwal said a ‘rhehri’ means a movable shop. “Nobody has stopped the working of these rhehris. We are just ensuring that they don’t make the roads their permanent stoppage,” he said, adding that concerned citizens of the city have been complaining for long about the problem caused by illegal rhehris.

Sabbarwal said he needed public support to make the city a better place to live. Some persons with vested interests were trying to manipulate the situation for their own good, he added.

He warned that strict action would be taken against those trying to interfere in the drive to check illegal encroachments. He said the drive would continue.

Amritsar, August 5
The district administration today directed all school managements, including the government, private and government-aided schools and educational institutes, to admit Scheduled Caste students without charging admission fee under Post-Matric Scholarship from Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes students.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Bhupinder Singh along with District Education Officer (Secondary Education) Satinderbir Singh and District Welfare Officer Jasdev Singh Purewal held a meeting with heads of various educational institutes in this connection.

The scheme enables SC students to obtain post-matric and higher level of education, resulting in their overall educational and economic development. The Central Government provides 100 per cent assistance to the state governments and UT administrations for this.

Bhupinder Singh informed the heads of various educational institutes that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered that all eligible students belonging to the SC category be admitted without charging them any admission fee. The fee would be funded by the Punjab Government after getting funds from the Central Government, which would later be transferred to the accounts of respective educational institutes.

He directed all institutes to adhere by the instructions as the fee of the SC students would be given by the Director, Welfare Department. He said any institute found defaulting in implementing the orders would be dealt with strictly.

Amritsar, August 5
As the deed writers have called off their protest on the issue of making NOCs mandatory for registration of property, the property dealers have initiated a stir on the same issue.

The deed writers called off the strike after a meeting with Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi, who assured them to get the date for allowing registration of property without NOC extended for some more time.

While Joshi made this promise, he made it clear that it would be only a temporary arrangement and the provision for furnishing the NOC would not be scrapped in totality.

Meanwhile, protesting against the state government today, members of the Majha Zone Property Dealers Association said that the introduction of the NOC had dealt a severe blow to the real estate business.

The property dealers demanded that instructions regarding registration of property with 2 per cent registry fee should also be abolished. They stated that instead of the 2 per cent fee, the government could charge a lump-sum fee. Association leader Sanjeev Rampal said the “impractical” instructions of the state government for registration of property had also affected the revenue of the government.

He said that the system of procuring the NOC from was cumbersome and because the Municipal Corporation had stopped issuing NOCs after March 15, the people were at their wits’ end. He added that PUDA had stopped issuing NOCs after April 23.

While burning an effigy of the state government at Bhandari Bridge, the property dealers warned of an intensified stir if the state government did not revert its instructions regarding NOCs.

The association leaders state that it was because of these instructions that the scam of issuing fake NOCs had surfaced. Rampal said, “Now the NOC has been made mandatory for getting an electricity connection and when people fail to get the NOC, they will resort to theft of power,” he said. 

Amritsar, August 5
In order to restore the dwindling green belt in the city due to various ongoing development projects and widening of roads, the Punjab government has drawn a comprehensive plan under which around 4 lakh saplings of different trees will be planted.

Forest Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat announced the new move through a statement issued here today. He said the government had launched a massive plantation drive to make the city green and environment friendly.

He said different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious bodies would also be involved in the campaign.

The plantation would be done on government land as well as land belonging to religious organizations, he added.

He said more than 1.5 lakh tree saplings would be planted within the limits of Amritsar Forest Division while remaining 2.5 lakh would be distributed free to various government organisations, NGOs and religious bodies.

The government had also decided to develop a nature park on the banks of UBDC Canal, he added.

City residents, especially the environment lovers, have been constantly condemning the mindless chopping off full-grown and decades old trees on Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road, on the pretext of widening of road.

Hundreds of trees were ‘unnecessarily’ cut even though they did not come under the limits of the BRTS project launched by the state government.

Even as Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had stated that there would not be any unnecessary felling of trees, however, it has been observed that a large number of over half-a-century old trees such as peepal, banyan and eucalyptus are being chopped off blindly even though they were far from the road-widening limits, said environmentalists, who visited the Putlighar area where huge banyan and peepal trees were chopped off for the BRTS project.

Ironically, no official from the district administration or the Forest Department is looking into this aspect, they alleged.

Senior BJP leader and former Punjab minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla had also hit out at the SAD-BJP coalition government and had termed the ‘Vanmahotsav’ organised by the government as mere publicity stunt.

She said the government was not at all serious about augmenting the green cover and flayed it for “indiscriminate” chopping of trees along the highways as well as within the city.

Amritsar, August 5
Activists of the Punjab and UT Mulazam Sangharsh Committee today staged a protest outside the deputy commissioner’s office to press for their long-pending demands.

Committee leader Balbir Singh said the state government had accepted their demands during a meeting with a high-powered committee in Chandigarh on February 18, 2014, but had not implemented them yet.

He said the government should issue a notification regarding their implementation.

Their major demands include regularisation of services of contractual employees, enhancement and fixation of wages for Anganwari/ASHA workers, discontinuation of outsourcing policy, and immediate release of interim relief and 10 per cent DA.

Meanwhile, the committee also condemned the lathi-charge on the ETT teachers in Amritsar, a couple of days back. They demanded that the arrested teachers should be immediately released. — TNS

Amritsar, August 5
A 65-year-old woman has accused a senior doctor at Government ENT Hospital of not attending to her properly at the government facility “because he runs a private practice”.

In a complaint to Vini Mahajan, Secretary, Research and Medical Education, Harwinder Kaur, a resident of Friends Colony here, has accused Dr Karan Sharma of neglecting her during treatment.

Harwinder Kaur’s son, Tejpal Singh, said, “My mother was undergoing an unbearable pain in her ear for which she went to the ENT hospital on August 1 to get treatment. The doctor wrote some medicines without a proper examination and asked for a follow-up after seven days.”

He alleged that the doctor did not care to go for a detailed examination even as she repeatedly requested for it. Tejpal alleged that afterwards as they went to a private clinic, the doctors there reported that there was an insect in the earlobe, which was later removed by them.

“The doctor at the Government ENT Hospital did not care to examine the patient thoroughly as he runs a private practice at his home,” he alleged. The complainant has demanded action against the doctor.

When contacted, Dr Karan Sharma said, “We had given the best possible treatment to the patient. A senior doctor sees more than 100 patients at the OPD daily. So what we do is to dictate juniors, who then explain the treatment to the patient. In this case, I had sent a Senior Resident along with the patient to the Minor Operating Theatre for conducting an autoscopy.” Dr Sharma said that the Senior Resident later reported that the patient had refused to accept the treatment and had left.

He said, “May be the patient wanted me to accompany her to the OT and conduct the examination, but that is not possible when we have a long queue waiting outside.” Talking about the allegations of private practice, he said, “When someone files a complaint like this, whose motives are not clear, he tries to add more than one accusation to increase the weight of the complaint. Regarding my private practice, an investigation can be conducted any time.” 

Amritsar, August 5
The Health Department has proposed to set up two new community health centres (CHC) in the city under the National Health Mission.

As per the proposal, the new CHCs will be set up at Dhab Khatika and Narayan Ghar. For setting up CHC at Dhab Khatika, the department has proposed to utilise the existing building of Municipality Hospital.

Health officials said the proposal regarding the repairs and renovation of the building had been sent. They said the department had planned to preserve the architectural spirit of the heritage building.

Municipality Hospital, originally Princess of Wales Jenana Hospital, was set up in 1917. The spacious two-storey building is being underutilised these days as the government has appointed only one medical officer at the place.

The building also has a provision of residential quarters for the staff.

The CHC at Narayan Ghar is proposed to be set up at the place where a dispensary managed by the Municipal Corporation is being run. The small dispensary is in state of neglect these days due to lack of funds. It has an area of two acres. The department has proposed to construct a new building at the place for the CHC.

Besides, the department has proposed to upgrade three satellite hospitals in the city into CHCs. Five satellite hospitals were set up around the city to reduce the rush of patients to the hospitals in the city.

Barring two satellite hospitals at Fatahpur and Ghanupur Kale, the department has sent a proposal to upgrade the remaining three at Sakatri Bagh, Ranjit Avenue and Mustafabad to CHCs.

The proposal has already been sent to the state health authorities and the MC authorities for transfer of the land as required for implementation of the project.

Deputy medical commissioner Dr Prabhdeep Kaur said, “Under the National Rural Health Mission, a total of 14 health centres in the city will be upgraded, besides setting up of two new CHCs.”

She said a detailed report of the all the centres has been sent. The new centres would help reaching out to the people of different localities, she added. — TNS

Amritsar, August 5
On the culminating day of the two-day workshop organised under the Road to Safety Programme, policemen and private drivers acquired information about traffic rules and regulations, defensive driving and traffic control devices.

The workshop was organised by Delhi-based Indian Road Traffic Education (IRTE) in association with DIAGEO, a beverage company. The workshop was aimed at reducing road mishaps, especially those that occur because of drunken driving.

Pankaj Mehra, transport planner of IRTE said a special lecture on effects of alcohols was also held. He said drivers were taught about techniques of defensive driving with which they can not only assure the safety of their passengers but also of the other vehicles plying on the roads, thus reducing the chances of road mishaps that are the eight major reason of deaths in the world.

IRTE imparted knowledge about various traffic signals and road signs and efficient use of traffic control devices to the participants.

IRTE also trained the policemen to handle the technically advanced alcometer donated by the company. They were also told about the various laws under which they can use breath analyzers.

Mehra said the participants were told how to measure liquor consumption using the breath analyser. He said the road to safety programme would also be organised in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala soon.

Amritsar, August 5
Paediatrician Dr Sandeep Aggarwal was installed as the president of the Rotary Club, in the presence of various dignitaries, at a function held here last night. Intelligence Bureau IG Manmeet Singh Narang was the chief guest on the occasion.

While sharing his vision for the club, Dr Aggarwal said a programme for mentally challenged and autistic children and a tailoring school at Rattan Singh Chowk would be the foremost priorities of the club.

He is presently working as a child specialist at Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital.

Gaurav Sharma and Dr Jaspreet Grover were chosen as the secretary and advisor of club respectively.

The out-going president, Dr Raman Gupta, presented the detailed report of the activities of the club during the past one year.

While congratulating Dr Aggarwal, he assured his whole-hearted support to the new team on all issues. Senior most Rotary member Er PS Grover was also present at the function.