Ram Tirath (Amritsar), September 10
After about a decade, the dispute of Dhuna Sahib (sanctum sanctorum) of the ancient Ram Tirath Temple was amicably resolved today, following the intervention of the Punjab Government.

The district administration managed to broker a peace between the two warring groups headed by Mahant Baldev Giri and Mahant Malkeet Nath, respectively, supported by SAD leader OP Gabbar and various Valmiki organisations. The dispute was resolved after marathon meetings in the presence of Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Charanjit Singh Atwal, who is the patron of Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath (Ram Tirath) Vikas Board, and Cabinet Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike.

Police officials handed over the possession of a part of the disputed portion to Mahant Baldev Giri in the presence of Mohinder Singh, warrant officer from the local court, who came for the 20th time to try and hand over the possession to the Mahant. He had won a legal battle for the possession of Dhuna Sahib in the local court. As the local administration had failed to hand over the possession, the petitioner had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had directed the police administration to execute its orders.

As there was apprehension of a serious law and order problem, the police repeatedly failed in getting the disputed site vacated.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said an agreement was reached between three parties, Mahant Baldev Giri, the Mahant Malkeet Nath group and the Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Vikas Board, formed by the Punjab Government for the development of the shrine. “As per the agreement, Luv-Kush Paathshala and the adjoining portion will be handed over to Mahant Baldev Giri while Dhuna Sahib will be under the occupation of the Valmiki Tirath Vikas Board,” he said.

Mahant Baldev Giri while expressing satisfaction over the mutual compromise said that they had got the possession of Paathshala (education place of two sons of Lord Rama), the living place of Seeta and an old temple in the vicinity of the shrine. He said he would withdraw their case from the court. He along with his family members performed prayers at the Paathshala, vacated by Mahant Malkeet Nath.

Randeep Gill, member of the development board, said various Valmiki organisations had agreed to reach a mutual compromise.

Meanwhile, immediately after handing over the possession, the Border Security Force has been deployed at the site and in several other parts of the district for security reasons.

Amritsar, September 10
The Punjab Right to Service Commission Commissioner, Dr Dalbir Singh Verka, today paid surprise visits to the Police Saanjh Kendar, the Suwidha Kendar and the Deputy Commissioner’s office as part of his three-day inspection of services being offered under the Right to Service Act.

He visited these government departments to take stock of the services being offered under the Act.

He interacted with people at the Community Police Suvidha Centre, situated near the district courts. During his interaction with the officials there, he instructed them to provide services to people under the Act properly and on priority without causing them any harassment.

Officials at the centre said that as many as 27 services, including arms licences, FIRs, NOCs, criminal cases and others, were being offered at this centre. Of the 8,946 applications received from January 2014 to August 30, 2014, by the centre, 8,736 applications had been resolved. The remaining 216 applications were under consideration, the offficials stated.

Verka found that there was a need to open more service windows and introduce a token system at the centre. He alos directed the staff to set up a help desk to guide visitors to a service window.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said the government had scrapped the practice of affidavits and instead introduced submission of self-declaration. However, he said, various government departments were still pressurising people to deposit affidavits.

The centre has offered services to over 1.25 lakh applicants from January 2014 to August 30, 2014.

Subsequently, Verka chaired a meeting with officials of various government departments, including, the Municipal Corporation, the Police and the District Social Welfare and Health Department at the Circuit House.

The government penalises officials, who do not finish the job within the time frame given under the Act. Normally, monetary penalty is levied on erring officials. However, the Act has provisions like dismissal, departmental and other actions.

The commission got prepared a software, namely Right to Service Information System from the National Information Centre. This software would soon be installed at SAS Nagar under a pilot programme. This would enable all services to go online and commission members could learn the pendency of cases and kinds of services being offered across the state. “The software will automatically turn the applications into an appeal and send these to the senior official of the department after the lapse of a stipulated period,” he said.

The move was aimed at ensuring that officials were answerable to the people, he remarked. He directed the officials to install the display boards, highlighting the increased number of services under the Act. Now, as many as 149 services come under the Act. He said at the inception, only 69 services were brought under the Act, but later these were increased to 110.

Amritsar, September 10
The district Forest Department team today carried out an anti-encroachment drive in Professor Colony, Tilak Nagar area, and got its land free under the supervision of district naib tehsildar Parveen Chhibber.

Assisted by the police, the team comprising district forest officials, range officers, Jagdish Singh and Balwant Singh, raided the area. Finding that scores of residents had encroached upon the forest area, the team bulldozed the walls erected illegally, despite stiff resistance by the residents.

It is learnt that once a canal used to flow from this area, but it dried up. The residents in the vicinity encroached over the area by extending their yards and some even installed iron gates to utilise the place for their private purpose. The residents had already been issued vacation notices in the past, but they didn’t care to fall in line. The matter was then heard in the high court.

It was after the high court took a decision to get the land freed from any encroachment that the Forest Department carried out this drive, said an official.

Amritsar, September 10
The members of the family of Gurparkash Singh, who was earlier arrested by the Tarn Taran police in connection with a “drug seizure”, staged a protest at Bhandari Bridge here today, demanding his release.

The police managed to clear the road while issuing a strict warning to the family to end the protest. Later, the police arranged a meeting between the members of the family of Gurparkash Singh and the DIG of police.

The family had earlier approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, stating that while Gurparkash Singh was arrested from Amritsar, in the FIR registered at Tarn Taran, he was shown arrested from Tarn Taran, three days later.

The members of the family stated that Gurparkash Singh was implicated in a false case. Earlier, the six-year-old daughter of Gurparkash Singh had died while he was in jail. The family had alleged that the child had died due to depression.

Amritsar, September 10
The devastating floods hitting Jammu and Kashmir have cast their shadow on the city’s hospitality industry as the majority of the advance bookings made in the city hotels have been cancelled.

Manager of a local hotel Piyush Kapoor said the unfortunate turn of events, following the natural calamity in the Kashmir valley, had brought down the occupancy at the very start of the season. The tourist season starts in September and lasts till March.

Citing the instance that a group of over 40 tourists from Mumbai, expected to land here on September 27, has cancelled the bookings, he added that they did not want to go to Srinagar from here.

With his long experience in the hospitality industry, Kapoor anticipated that the natural calamity would eventually hit the entire northern sector in general and Jammu and Kashmir tourism in particular. He said the tourists were averse to taking risk and they may move to Rajasthan and other tourist sectors.

Randeep Singh, owner of another local hotel, said most of the tourists visiting the holy city were those who were either headed to Jammu and Kashmir or Himachal Pradesh. “Now, it is to be seen how long it takes the government to normalise life over there,” he said. He said the local tourism industry was keeping its fingers crossed as the tourist season intensified in October and November.

President of the Amritsar Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHARA) APS Chatha said the local tourism industry had suffered losses due to the natural calamities from time to time.

He said many groups who had gone in for advance bookings from the western part of the country, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, have cancelled their bookings. The statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism stated that the number of domestic tourists was 1.05 crore and foreign tourists 1.37 lakh during 2010 in Punjab. The next year (2011), the number of domestic tourists was 1.64 crore and foreign tourists numbered 1.50 lakh. The majority of these tourists visited the city of the Golden Temple in Punjab.

Amritsar, September 10
A team of block presidents and the District Congress Committee today surveyed the area affected by heavy rainfall and increase in the water level of the Ravi at Ghonewal village of Ajnala. The committee was led by DCC (Rural) president Gurjeet Singh Aujla and ex-MLA Harpartap Singh Ajnala.

The aim of the survey is to ascertain the reasons of the floods and submit a report to Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh, so that he may not only get relief for the farmers, but also get technical support from the Union Government in the development of flood-control infrastructure. During the visit, Ajnala said the basic reason of the flood lay on both sides of the border fence and a solution had to be found to save the area from future floods. He said the major reason was that there was no ‘dhussi bandh’ from Hissan village (Ajnala) up to Dharamkot village (Gurdaspur), which led to floods in the low-lying areas of Ramdas and Ajnala. He said if the ‘dhussi’ in the area was erected, then there would be 99 per cent reduction in the floods. He also attributed it to a dam which lay in Pakistan, the issue related to which could be resolved through diplomatic channels as the water released from that dam flooded the Indian region, especially Ajnala.

As the leader of the survey team, Aujla said the residents of the low-lying areas of Ajnala demanded that this issue must be raised in Parliament by Capt Amarinder Singh and a suitable solution may be found and implemented. He said that due to repeated floods in the area, most of the dairy industry had moved to other areas, farmers were not in a position to apply crop rotation and diversification; no growth in industry had been witnessed and this border belt had lagged far behind other areas of the state. He said the farmers who have land ahead of ‘dhussi’ were demanding to set up a quick-response station of the Army, so that in case of floods without warning, the Army could evacuate men and machines before its got too late. The team assured the residents that Capt Amarinder Singh would surely raise these issues in Parliament and would bring soon state and farmer-friendly solutions from the Union Government.

Amritsar, September 10
A day after the staging of a protest by Mahal village residents, the police has zeroed in on a few persons, who allegedly crushed to death a native of the village, Assa Singh, alias Aastha, under their car, on Monday night.

The victim (32) was an auto-rickshaw driver and a father of two girls.

The culprits have been identified as some GNDU students, who were occasionally involved in “anti-social activities” in their rented accommodation, which the residents in the vicinity had objected to. The house was owned by Tarsem Singh, a contractual Class IV employee of the GNDU only. The police is regularly in touch with the GNDU authorities to arrest the accused. On the other hand, the GNDU authorities were still clueless about these students. The registrar, Dr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, admitted that the house was owned by the GNDU employee, but the accused in the case were still to be identified “the reason being that Tarsem Singh is absent since the day of the incident.” Only Tarsem Singh could identify the accused. If their involvement comes to the fore, action would be taken,” he said.

SHO of Kamoh police station Sukhdev Singh said that a breakthrough into the case could be expected soon and the exact identification of the accused could not be disclosed as of now. “We have gathered some clues, which would help us in arresting the accused. Revealing details could hinder investigation,” he said.

The residents of Mahal village, falling under the Attari constituency, had blocked Mahal Chowk on the Attari-Jalandhar bypass road placing the body of the victim on the road. The dharna was lifted only after the intervention of DSP, Attari, Daljit Singh Dhillon and District Congress Committee (Rural) president Gurjeet Singh Aujla and other party workers.

The residents alleged that the accused used to bring girls on their premises and often created a ruckus with their friends during odd hours. On September 8, at around 8.30 pm, a woman entered their house again and the neighbours raised the alarm. The other residents of the locality also gathered on the spot.

Finding themselves in a difficult situation, the accused tried to flee in their car along with the girl. It was then that the car hit the victim, who was present among the protesting residents. The residents alleged that the accused repeatedly hit the victim, which led to his death.

Amritsar, September 10
In a shocking incident, an unidentified woman was found brutally murdered near the Madiala village drain.

The beheaded body of the woman, who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, was wrapped in a sack while there were sharp-edged weapon injury marks on her body. The police today cremated the body after a post-mortem examination.

Sikander Singh, SHO, Chatiwind police station, said that the woman was killed brutally by unknown persons. She appeared to be from a well-off family and her body was dumped here after she was murdered. He said it appeared that the accused dumped her body here around five days ago.

While giving details, he said the woman was wearing a pink cloth and was having a golden wrist watch on her left hand. He said it seemed that she was not from the area, adding that a case under Sections 302 and 201, IPC, had been registered against unidentified persons and further investigations were under progress.

Amritsar, September 10
The Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) today alleged that the purpose of the Galliara Scheme was being defeated with the coming up of commercial and residential establishments in gross violation of the plan.

President of the AVM, Kulwant Singh Ankhi, said the objective of the Galiara Yojna was to beautify the surroundings of the Golden Temple complex, which had remained unfulfilled even after the passage of decades.

“Keeping in view the security aspect, it was planned that no domestic or commercial establishment will have opening in the Galiara. Only streets and bazars will have opening in the Galiara area. No household will be allowed to have any door, window and even ventilator opening in the Galiara. All buildings will have backside towards Galiara. A high decorative wall was to be constructed around the whole Galiara,” he said.

Tenders were also floated, but the wall was never constructed, he added.

Ankhi said people shifted their residences to other places and converted their houses into hotels and guest houses keeping in view high commercial value of the area. These small hotels/guest houses had no parking and security arrangements. They flouted the building bylaws of the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar and did not pay taxes to the MC. Air conditioners, burning of waste and vehicles polluted the area, which caused damage to the gold plating and marble of Sri Harmandar Sahib, he added.

The Amritsar Vikas Manch demanded that the state government must construct the Galiara as per the original plan, which would lead to removal of unauthorised constructions of commercial buildings.

Ankhi said during the operations Blue Star and Black Thunder the security forces faced hardships due to narrow, arterial lanes and dense population in the surroundings of the Golden Temple Complex.

It was a tough job for security forces to keep law and order situation under control in these densely populated streets and bazaars. He said after operation Black Thunder, the Union government had funded a Galiara Scheme, which was chalked out in 1988. In the first stage it was proposed to clear all domestic and commercial activities, which were carried out in the 90 feet radius of the Golden Temple complex. Later, the area was reduced to 60 feet radius. Under pressure from residents the radius was further reduced to 30 feet, he alleged.

Amritsar, September 10
A four-member team of disaster management from Panjab University, Chandigarh, is studying factors, which might lead to a calamity in the holy city, during its three-week stay here.

The team comprises Tashi Namgyal, Amandeep Kaur, Ranjeet Singh and Sarabjit Singh. During their course of study they are being guided by Surjeet Sharma, a city-based disaster management expert. Sharma said the three-week internship programme was scheduled in the district by the government for students of masters in disaster management, Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The study-tour started on August 9. The students said Amritsar was among the most populous district, which falls between Beas and Ravi rivers, and shares its border with Pakistan. Rapidly increasing urbanisation and industrialisation had adversely impacted the city’s environment.

District Disaster Management Committee is the high-powered committee at the district level for planning, implementing and monitoring disaster management activities during normal times. Amritsar falls in Zone IV on the seismic scale thus making it prone to earthquakes.

The team found the ground water pollution in the city attributable to seepage of polluted water from drains, which include Tungdhab, Hudiara and Ganda Nallah. Release of industrial effluents and heavy metals, leaching of agricultural chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers to groundwater aquifers is also polluting ground water.

During the course of their study, students interacted with officials of various departments, including, the Police, Municipal Corporation, Health, Drainage, Transport, Fire, Home Guard, Civil Defence, Food Supply, Animal Husbandry.

They also met administration officials at Ajnala and Baba-Bakala. The team would submit its report to Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat on conclusion of their study. 

Amritsar, September 10
A special seminar on “Serving society through atomic energy” was organised by the Director of Research, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU).

The programme was part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Department of Atomic Energy, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which were held at Guru Bhawan Auditorium on the university campus.

An exhibition on BARC technologies, including poster gallery, interactive models, LCD displays, information kiosks and AV presentations depicting applications of atomic energy was inaugurated by Prof TS Benipal on the occasion.

GNDU Vice-Chancellor, Prof AS Brar, who was the chief guest on the occasion, delivered the keynote address. Head, media relations and public awareness, BARC, Mumbai, gave details about the centre.

Director of Research, Prof TS Benipal, welcomed the guests. Prof Brar spoke about the use of atomic energy in various fields like nuclear medicine, agriculture, industry and generation of electricity.

Dr SV Thakre delivered a lecture on “Nuclear energy - A gateway to prosperity” in which he shared information about the discovery of radioactivity, types of nuclear reactor and applications of radio-isotopes in various fields like medicine, industry, agriculture and research. He also discussed the use of radiography for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Another lecture on the topic of “Genetic improvement of grain legumes using mutation, conventional and molecular breeding approaches,” was given by Dr SK Gupta. He explained the methods of increasing productivity of grain legumes by developing high yielding varieties (TAG 24, TPG 41).

Dr RK Singh from BARC spoke about the Indian nuclear energy scenario, in which he discussed the use of atomic energy, the major challenges before our society and methods to solve them.

The concluding lecture was delivered by Dr Atul Khanna from the university’s Department of Physics on “Indian nuclear energy programme - history and accomplishments”.

He discussed in detail about the origin of nuclear fission and uranium enrichment. He briefed the participants on new reactors, which are under construction. Besides, he also gave details about the opportunities in the field of science after postgraduation and inspired students to choose his/her field of interest to pursue research.

A valedictory function was also held at the end of the seminar. Professor and convener of the seminar, Dr SS Chimni, thanked delegates, professors and students for making the seminar a success.

Amritsar, September 10
The Regional Passport Office organised a lok adalat here today to clear the pending applications. The passport office had earlier sent letters to 500 applicants, whose files were pending because of want of relevant documents.

Regional Passport Officer JS Sodhi said of all the applicants, who were asked to attend the lok adalat and submit the required documents, around 410 visited the office today. He said after scrutinising the documents, around 300 applicants were issued passports on the spot.

The passport office had objections on the files of 110 applicants, who were asked to submit documents at the later stage. The office also closed 90 files of the applicants, who failed to attend lok adalat today. Sodhi said in these case applicants would have to apply afresh if they wanted a passport.

He said the office had collected Rs 77,000 as penalty from applicants. The Regional Passport Office has so far organised five Passport Melas and six lok adalats this year for making the issuance process easier for applicants.

Sodhi said the online system of passport issuance was helping people save a lot of time. The office would organise more lok adalats in near future to help people get passports, he added. 

Amritsar, September 10
The much sought after solid waste management project in the city will soon become a reality. As many as six companies, including one from the UK, participated in pre-bids for the state government’s solid waste management project that has been hanging fire for the past many years. The pre-bids were opened in the presence of Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and Municipal Corporation Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal.

According to information, the six companies, which participated in the process, include the UK-based Eco Worldwide Company, Jindal Urban Infrastructure, Ess Ell Infrastructure, Ramoki Engineers, Suneel Hi-Tech Infra Pvt Ltd and Jyoti Company.

These companies were called by the MC to clear their queries. According to reports, representatives of these companies had sought more details about the project due to which the final tender date was extended from September 15 to 30.

Officials from the MC gave a presentation to the company representatives in order to give them a clear picture of the plan of the proposed municipal solid waste management plant, which will come up at Bhagtanwala. The processed garbage may be transformed into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) cakes. Twenty five acre has already been demarcated on which this plant would be constructed on lease basis. The participating company will get the land at the rate of Re 1 per square metre. A resolution to this effect was approved in the MC’s general house meeting. For the construction of the plant Rs 20 crore has already been credited in the MC’s account.

According to the original plan, the plant sanctioned under the JNNURM, will have a capacity to handle 600 to 700 metric tonnes of garbage, generated daily by the residents and the small-scale industry.

The project faced many obstacles. Despite High Court’s green signal, after disposing of a petition filed by a local NGO, raising objections about snags in the execution process, the stumbling block was the high rates quoted by firms, which had responded to the earlier bidding process. The lowest quoted rate was of Rs 1,800 per metric tonne for lifting and disposing of garbage, which was many times beyond the expectation.

Two firms had applied in response to the tender bids invited earlier. One firm quoted the price for transportation, processing and disposing of garbage at Rs 1,800 per metric tonne whereas the other offered the services at Rs 22,00 per metric tonne. If the case of lowest bidder is taken into account, the MC would have to shell out over Rs 2.5 crore more per month.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said the garbage problem could be resolved only through this plant. “We have been trying our level best to engage a firm, which should have vast experience in executing the garbage processing job in the past and should serve us in an economical way too,” he added.

MC Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said the company representatives had some queries about the project. “We tried to clear many of their queries related to the project on the spot and rest will be conveyed to them through e-mail after consultation with our technical experts. That’s why we have extended the final tendering date by fifteen days,” he said.

Amritsar, September 10
Two persons died while two were injured in separate road mishaps in Rajasansi and Gharinda police station area during the last 24-hours.

Surinder Singh (56), a resident of Bhindinain village, died while his relative, Gurpreet Singh, was injured when a speeding bus collided with their motorcycle near Rajasansi. Brother of the deceased, Rajwant Singh, said Surinder and Gurpreet were going to Amritsar on their motorcycle when a private bus coming from opposite direction hit them. Surinder died in the hospital while Gurpreet sustained serious injuries. The driver of the bus, who could not be identified, fled from the spot.

Rajasansi police have registered a case under Sections 304A, 279, 337, 338 and 427 of the IPC and started further investigations.

In another incident, Lakhbir Chand of Chhheharta was killed while Balwinder Singh of Khurmania village was injured when they were hit by a speeding car near Khasa. An eyewitness of the incident, Subhash Kamal, told the police that the deceased along with Balwinder, who were on a motorcycle, came on the main road when car driven by Sumit Sharma of Islamabad area hit them. Lakhbir died on the spot while Balwinder sustained serious injuries.

Gharinda police registered a case under Sections 304A, 279, 337, 338 and 427 of the IPC in this regard while no arrest has been made so far.