Amritsar, August 20
Owing to the law and order problem, the Municipal Corporation authorities had to defer their move of sealing the illegal hotels, the guest houses and the inns falling in the vicinity of the Golden Temple today while giving temporary relief to their proprietors.

Over a thousand hoteliers, their staff, family members and supporters from religious sects, including SGPC’s task force, shouting anti-government slogans had gathered to block the sealing drive.

The situation got tense when Baba Guriqbal Singh of Mata Kaula Sangat Niwas Sarai and Baba Jagtar Singh of Dera Baba Jagtar Singh Sarai along with hundreds of their armed supporters joined the agitating hoteliers before 9 am. Meanwhile, the SGPC had also deputed its task force near Sri Guru Gobind Singh NRI Sarai to prevent any action by the authorities.

At round 10 am, the MC’s staff, assisted by a heavy cache of police force, had arrived in the walled city area to seal the targeted hotels, the guest houses and the inns, but had to step back.

A local resident, Sarbjit Singh Verka, had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in 2010 while challenging the functioning of illegal hotels around the Golden Temple after which a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed by the high court to scrutinise the matter and take appropriate action.

On August 16, the MC had sent closure notices to the owners of these hotels, asking them to shut down their establishments within 72 hours or face sealing of their units. Around 125 hotels and guest houses in the vicinity of the Golden Temple have been observing a strike to protest against this move for the past two days.

MC Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said that gauging the law and order problem, the sealing drive had to be postponed. “The sealing drive has been postponed temporarily. It has not been withdrawn. There has been no binding from the high court’s side. We just had to step back because the issue had attained a religious overtone with the inclusion of religious inns in the targeted list,” he said.

Meanwhile, the whole episode has been videographed and a report will be prepared by the SIT, which will be tabled before a Punjab and Haryana High Court bench on August 22, the next date of hearing in the case.

On the other hand, some of the hoteliers have also moved the high court to seek relief.

President of the Federation of Hotel and Guest Houses Association of Amritsar Surinder Singh claimed that a court notice had already been served upon MC authorities against the sealing drive till August 22.

“The government’s double-faced policy is not acceptable. On the one hand, statements were being made about regularising hotels while, on the other hand, the authorities were bent on sealing these. Now, we are awaiting the court’s decision,” he said.

SGPC secretary Dalmegh Singh said that the inns around the Golden Temple provided subsidised accommodation to pilgrims who came to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple. “Stopping their operation will cause inconvenience to pilgrims as these inns are being run on no-profit basis. Moreover, if there was some shortcoming about observing the civic body norms, it could be rectified,” he said. 

Amritsar, August 20
The recent incident of suspension of an SHO-rank official has snowballed into a controversy with BJP councillors led by district BJP president Naresh Sharma today backing the police official. They met Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh in this regard and demanded that the SHO’s suspension should be revoked to give a clear message to the public, which is crying foul over stern action against the police official.

The SHO had gone public with his grievance after he posted the incident on a social networking site.

The city police had suspended Varinder Mahajan, posted as SHO, Civil Lines, along with ASI Kulwant Singh and constable Dilbagh Singh for allegedly thrashing several youths, including the son of an Additional Police Commissioner, on August 11. According to the Police Commissioner, they were suspended following a report submitted by the ACP, North, on the incident.

However, the SHO had claimed that he had just performed his duty and had only stopped two groups of youths from creating a ruckus after their repeated requests to them went unheeded. Around 35-40 youths were creating trouble outside a bar in the posh Ranjit Avenue on the intervening night of August 9-10. The Civil Lines police received a message from the control room at 2 am and it took action.

Several youths were taken to the Civil Lines police station where they were allegedly thrashed. One of them was later identified as the son of an ADCP-rank official. The SHO claimed that he had only performed his duty and prevented a situation from getting out of hand.

Naresh Sharma, district BJP president, claimed that the accused cop was performing his duty honestly. He said law was the same for everyone and whoever tried to violate the law should be dealt with accordingly. While condemning the action against the police official, they demanded an impartial probe into the incident.

The BJP councillors also criticised the deteriorating traffic scenario. They said that the traffic policemen were stressing on challaning commuters rather than streamlining traffic.

A number of local residents had also condemned the police action against the SHO while alleging that the action was taken as the incident involved the son of a senior police official, who also used abusive language against the policemen, who took the youth into custody and had brought the groups to the police station. 

Amritsar, August 20
An escalator and a running room for Travel Ticket Examiners (TTE) were inaugurated by Ferozepur Division DRM Naresh Chander Goyal at the local railway station.

Although the escalator was installed sometime ago, it was awaiting formal inauguration to start functioning. However, passengers and visitors in order to avoid a a long walk to the island platform had started using the stationary escalator. The escalator has been installed on platform number one.

Earlier, the construction wing of Northern Railway floated a tender for civil work for installation of the escalator and other miscellaneous and allied work at Amritsar railway station on July 8 last year. Tender bids were opened on August 20, 2013. As per the tender, the work was to be completed within three months of the opening of the tender.

Sources in the railways said that the work was expected to be finished by February as it was started in December. However, there was a five-month delay in making the escalator functional.

DRM Goyal also inaugurated a running room for the TTE at the railway station. 

Amritsar, August 20
Amidst police bandobast, the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) acquired prime 9,500 sq yard land worth Rs 125 crore at the posh Ranjit Avenue this morning.

Deputy Director, Local Government, and Land Acquisition Collector Daljeet Kaur acquired the land and handed over the possession to the AIT.

A large number of police personnel, including policewomen, were present to thwart any opposition to the acquisition drive. However, the drive was completed smoothly.

AIT Chairman Sandeep Rishi said the AIT had procured about 51 kanal and 14 marla land from Akhara Brahmbutta in 1973. This land became a part of the AIT’s popular Ranjeet avenue scheme. However, he said, the akhara went to court seeking re-possession of 11 kanals of land out of it. He said the land acquired today was part of this 11 kanals of land. He added that barring this chunk of land, the rest of the land was acquired by the AIT in 1980.

Rishi said that the AIT would sell off this chunk of land as a single commercial property.

Officials from the Revenue Department, PSPCL, were present and a fire tender and an ambulance was also there during the drive.

The prime land that originally belonged to a religious akhara was attracting land sharks for a long time. The akhara had leased out the land to an industrialist to set up a carpet-weaving unit for 99 years. Somehow, a businessman, RK Sharma, a brother of DGP (Human Resource Development and Community Policing) SK Sharma, procured the land.

AIT Chairman said under the CLU policy, RK Sharma got it converted into commercial land in 1999 from the Municipal Corporation. The land was dug up to start a commercial project, prompting the AIT to take action some years ago. The then AIT Chairman, Jugal Kishore Sharma, had written to the district police chief demanding an inquiry into the case.

Amritsar, August 20
Repeated instances of burglaries in residential areas, particularly in posh colonies, are giving sleepless nights to residents of the city.

However, the police are yet to achieve any breakthrough despite the fact that they have CCTV footage of some of the criminals. Recently, two temples were targeted by these burglars. A few days ago, an unidentified person barged into a house in the Rani Ka Bagh area in broad daylight. The accused decamped with Rs 8.50 lakh in cash besides gold ornaments after breaking open an almirah. He gained entry into the house after breaking the locks of the main gate. The owner of the house was not present at home at that time.

The police had the CCTV footage of the accused, who had been making rounds outside the house for hours. Baldev Singh, owner of the house, and his children had gone to his shop in the Katra Sher Singh area while Baldev Singh’s wife went away with her relatives. The accused took over an hour for committing the crime.

On the basis of the CCTV footage, the police have launched a manhunt to identify and arrest the culprit, who was still missing.

In a similar incident, burglars decamped with Rs 2.50 lakh from the locker of a shop in the Jahajgarh area on the main GT road. Akhil Babbar, owner of the shop, said that he had locked his shop on August 8. Next day, when he arrived at the shop, he found the locks broken and money missing from the locker.

In another incident, a thief decamped with with a Golak from a Lord Hanuman temple on 100-feet road while, in a similar incident, an unidentified person took away silver and gold ornaments from Bawa Lal Dyal temple. In these cases also, the police has launched a manhunt against the culprits on the basis of CCTV footage.

Ironically, the footage hardly serves any purpose in identifying the culprits due to the inferior quality of cameras, said police officials.

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said that investigations were under progress in these cases and there were already some clues. 

Amritsar, August 20
Two coaches of the Amritsar-Chandigarh Express derailed at Amritsar railway station this morning, delaying the train by about one hour 45 minutes.

The incident occurred on platform number 1-A when two coaches at the rear were derailed. Pasengers had a miraculous escape as no injury was reported.

Subsequently, the railway staff detached the two coaches from the train. The derailment did not hinder the route of other trains as the platform is on a side of the station being used mainly for Gurdaspur and Pathankot railway stations.

Amritsar, August 20
The police have released the sketches of suspected women, who have allegedly been robbing elderly women in the city. In the past one month, around eight such incidents were reported. Though the Police Commissioner had formed police parties to arrest the culprits, they failed to make any headway in the case while the robbery incidents continued.

In the latest incident, Kamla Devi of Guru Amardass Avenue, Airport road, was robbed by the accused. They bundled her in a car and robbed her of her gold bangles, weighing around 40gm. They later dumped her on the roadside and fled. — TNS

Amritsar, August 20
The vacant plots at Employees State Insurance Hospital here has turned into a jungle with wild growth of weeds. The growth is too dense and high. It has become a home for snakes, reptiles and other harmful insects.

The vacant area is always waterlogged as the hospital has a faulty drainage system. The waste water from the toilets settles there, making it a fertile ground for weeds and insects.

The waste water at the plots has also affected the nearby hospital building as its paint has coming out.

Employees at the hospital said the drainage system needs immediate attention as it has lead to a number of problems.

An employee said, “As the vacant place is always waterlogged, it is impossible for tractor mounted cutters to enter it. The hospital doesn’t have enough gardeners for manual cutting of weeds after regular intervals.”

Patients complain that the hospital doesn’t even look like a health institute. They said snakes from the wild growth might sneak into wardrooms.

An attendant of a patient, Kirpal Singh, said, “The wild growth is a house to many insects and thus, the hospital is not a safe place for people.”

He said people don’t let their children play around here because of the fear of reptiles. “People avoid going to washrooms at night because of the fear of snakes and other insects,” said another visitor to the hospital.

Amritsar, August 20
A Jammu-based patient detected with a rare cancer — lymphoma of the bone — was diagnosed and treated by the doctors at a local hospital. Citing medical records, director of the hospital, Dr Amandeep Kaur, said only 7-8 in 1,00,000 cancer patients are affected by the disease that primarily occurs around 70 years of age.

Talking about patient Kaali Singh (35), Dr Kaur said he had come to the hospital in January with a swollen leg and was diagnosed with this particular cancer.

She said this type of cancerous tumour is very aggressive and can occur in any part of the body with the first signs being a rapidly growing mass with occurrence of fever, weight loss and night sweats.

Dr Kahlon said the patient had to undergo six cycles of chemotherapy, followed by radio therapy and the patient was able to recover without the amputation of the limb. — TNS

Amritsar, August 20
Prof Paramjit Nanda today joined as the head of Punjab School of Economics at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU). This development came as Prof Sharanjit Singh Dhillon joined as the new Registrar of the GNDU recently.

Amritsar: CKD Institute of Management and Technology (CKDIMT) organised a seminar on self-growth. Shishir, managing director of T Tech Company, Dubai, delivered a talk on personal growth to the students of MBA, BBA, BCA, B Com and B Sc (ATHM).

He elaborated on how one’s personal growth has enormous impact on one’s relationships at workplace. “Personal development plan serves the purpose of clarifying our goals and the reasons behind them,” he said.

Charanjit Singh Chadha, president, CKDIMT, said, “Lively seminars are different from other self-help conferences as they offer a way for people to discover how to have more satisfying lives.”

Amritsar, August 20
Call it lacunae in the system or connivance on the part of the civic staff, the sewerage system in the holy city has never been streamlined.

Even as politicians speak of turning Amritsar into a dream city, the ground reality is contrary to the tall claims.

The solid waste management plant is still hanging in balance due to the official rigmarole. The basic job of lifting garbage and disposing it of is being done in a very unprofessional manner.

Besides heaps of garbage dumped on the streets, sewage dug up from underground sewerage tanks lies in the middle of roads. Vehicular traffic further spreads it, further worsening the problem.

Almost every part of the walled city area is affected by the problem.

When enquired, it came to light that there are two departments involved in taking out sewage and disposing it of.

Due to lack of coordination between the two departments, sewage keeps on piling up in the middle of roads, as most of the manholes are located in the middle of the roads in the Walled City area.

The whole stretch of the road near Katra Baghia and Katra Jai Mal Singh area near the Golden Temple is covered with sewage.

A similar scenario is witnessed in areas such as Ram Bagh, Ghee Mandi, Katra Ahluwalia and Chowk Farid as the MC’s de-silting drive through super-sucker machines is in progress in various parts.

Residents complain that the matter was brought to the notice of the MC authorities many times but in vain. They resented that their sewerage lines remain blocked.

MC Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said, “The issue will be monitored. I will see to it on priority.”

Amritsar, August 20
Two groups of students from Delhi School of Planning and Architecture have come to the holy city to study heritage structures and the traffic scenario.

These groups are from the Departments of Urban Planning and Regional Planning. A group leader, Dr SK Kulshresth of Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, said today they met Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat to seek assistance from various government departments for carrying out the academic exercise.

The study will conclude on August 30. The academic study is named as Metropolitan Regional Plan.

Dr Kulshresth said Amritsar qualifies as a metropolis since its population is more than one million. Hence, the thrust area of the study is to gauge the influence of the city on the surrounding areas.

Surrounding areas include satellite towns such as Majitha, Ajnala and Rajasansi, and even neighbouring Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts as floating population plays a major part in increasing traffic.

The students arrived in the city two days ago. He informed that after finishing the study here, the students would go back and carry out intensive study for the next two-three months.

The outcome would be a development strategy for the entire region, which will include both urban and rural areas, he added.