Amritsar, October 3
Dasehra was celebrated with traditional gaiety and fervour in the holy city today.

Dressed in colourful attires, people of all ages thronged the Dasehra venues and saw the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkarna, and Meghnad go up in flames.

People were seen perched atop their houses and buildings adjoining the venues to have a clear glimpse of the burning effigies.

Effigies of Ravana were burnt at many places at the events organised by various religious organisations and political leaders. Every year these leaders hold Dasehra celebrations in their constituencies to continue their sway over the voters.

People turned out in large numbers at various localities where the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnad were burnt.

The colourful, magnificent and huge effigies were placed at different venues in the city, including Gol Bagh, Bhadar Kali temple, Ranjit Avenue, Khandwala, Chheharta and New Amritsar.

Earlier, processions were also organised in different towns and other places.

Interestingly, people still believe in the myth that bringing home a small piece of wood used in the making of the effigies will protect them against bad luck. Scores of onlookers rushed towards the burning effigies, which forced the policemen to chase them away and to prevent any untoward incident.

Residents from nearby areas flooded the city, thus choking the roads and the streets. The traders did brisk business on the occasion.

Children dressed as langoors and wearing traditional outfits were enjoying the spirit of the festival.

Several religious organisations held functions in the city and performed community service. Langars were organised at temples and gurdwaras.

Special celebrations were held at Ranjit Avenue here where Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi attended the Dasehra celebrations. BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav was the chief guest at the ceremony and effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnad were put on flames by pressing a button.

Similarly, political leaders held the Dasehra celebrations in their constitutencies. For instance, Akali leader Inderbir Singh Bolaria held a programme at Bhadar Kali temple and BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla at Gol Bagh. A separate stage was set up at Gol Bagh, at which Congress leader OP Soni was the chief guest. Soni held another function at Chheharta. Another Congress leader and ex-mayor Sunil Dutti was the chief guest at the Khandwala area.

Amritsar, October 3
The Municipal Corporation and Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) have embarked upon cleanliness drive under “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”. Municipal Corporation Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said, “Under the Abhiyan, sanitation work will be carried out in two wards every day so as to cover all 65 wards in a month.”

He said the staff along with machinery would visit these wards every day to clean the area. “I hope that the special drive will instill a value of maintaining cleanliness among the people,” he added.

Officials of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, chairman Sandeep Rishi and superintendent engineer Bharat Bhushan Sharma took an oath to keep their premises and areas under their various schemes clean and green. Sharma said under the nationwide “Swach Bharat campaign”, a cleanliness drive was launched at Ranjit Avenue, which was also monitored by Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi. He said the trust had already undertaken a project to plant 20,000 saplings under its various schemes.

For this the AIT would incur an expenditure of Rs 40 lakh with two year maintenance cost of trees and its guards. He said in case there was a loss of saplings, these would be replaced.

These saplings are being planted at Ranjeet Avenue, New Amritsar, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur and Mall Mandi areas.

Amritsar, October 3
The city police have booked three persons, including a Delhi resident and his daughter, in separate incidents for allegedly duping local residents of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of sending them abroad.

Jaswinder Singh of Gobind Nagar, Sultanwind road here, lodged a complaint with Division B police station, saying that a Delhi resident and his daughter took Rs 13 lakh from him to send him to England. However, the accused neither sent him abroad nor returned the cash. He alleged that they gave him a cheque for Rs 12.40 lakh, which later bounced. Those booked were identified as Harjit Singh and his daughter, Rubi, of Vishal Enclave, New Delhi. The police have registered a case under Section 420 and 120-B, IPC, against them and launched further investigations.

In another incident, Bhupinder Singh of the Sharifpura area was booked for defrauding Sarabjit Singh Kohli of Mohan Nagar of Rs 6.50 lakh on the pretext of sending him to a foreign country. The police lodged a complaint under Section 420, IPC, against him while no arrest had been made so far.

Amritsar, October 3
RTI activist Prabodh Chandra Bali, president, Amritsar Civil Society, an NGO, has accused former Police Commissioner RP Mittal of awarding an advertisement contract to a private agency for five years in an “illegitimate” manner. He has alleged that the contract was awarded at a meagre rate of Rs 8,500 per month, which has allegedly caused a huge loss of revenue to the state exchequer.

According to the contract, which was made in October 25, 2011, the Police Commissioner gave “absolute authority, rights, and powers” to the company to deal with the advertisement on all “Traffic Aids and Management Equipment”, including all barricades, booths, vehicle shelters, traffic lights and road signage under the jurisdiction of the city police.

“No tenders were ever floated or no such intentions of the police was ever made public through any advertisement, media or otherwise. It was totally a surreptitious deal and is totally against the Punjab Financial Rules,” Bali alleged. The most interesting aspect is that the private party is allowed to do it for only two years under the contract at one place, but in this case the party has been allowed to go on for five years with no break in contract, he pointed out while showing the documents.

The private party was to pay Rs 1 lakh per annum and that, too, not in government exchequer. It was to be paid to “Traffic Police Welfare Fund” and the private party was to “install and renovate traffic booths, shelters, barricades, etc and advertise on the same,” he revealed.

He said the reply filed by the police confirmed that there was no record of any tender procedure done, reasons for such an arrangement, renewal on expiry of contract, authority with the Commissioner of Police to make such arrangements, the sanction of the Municipal Corporation, etc. He said even the bank statement regarding the payment of contract amount by the advertiser had no specific entry of Rs 1 lakh specifically or showed that any money was deposited by advertiser.

Ironically, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had already banned the putting up hoardings and had ordered to remove all such hoardings and signage from main roads. A contempt petition is already being heard in court in which the Amritsar police and the Municipal Corporation are parties and are giving replies in the negative.

RP Mittal, who is now posted as IG (training), confirmed that though he had reached an agreement, at present he did not have the exact details and he could comment only after going through that agreement.

Amritsar, October 3
The Kotwali police have booked former Darbar Sahib manager Harbans Singh Malhi along with three other persons on charges of criminal trespass and theft. Among others, who were booked, include Jaspal Singh, Naresh Kumar and HS Kamboj. The case was registered following an inquiry conducted by an ACP rank officer and taking legal opinion of the district attorney.

PHRO activist, Sarabjit Singh Verka, who is a complainant in the case, said the accused forcibly entered a building located at Katra Ahluwalia. The building was rented out to Suresh Chander from 1955 onwards, who was running a Bal Vidyalaya from its premises. However, after receiving threats from owners, including Jaspal Singh, the victims filed a civil suit of permanent injunction in the case. The court ordered a status quo in favour of Suresh Kumar and directed the owners to not to interfere in the peaceful possession of the tenants.

Despite the orders, the accused forcibly entered the complex and took away all the belongings in February. The victims filed a complaint with the police, who allegedly failed to take necessary action due to political pressure from an MLA of the ruling government. Later, Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh marked an enquiry to an ACP rank officer, which indicted the culprits in the case.

The Kotwali police have now registered a case under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC against the culprits. However, no arrests have been made so far. — TNS

Amritsar, October 3
The Dussehara festivities for agitating students of Chintpurni Medical College mean a little at this moment as they were forced to protest on the road for their genuine demand.

These students, facing uncertain future, have been on the path of agitation since September 27 after de-recognition of their institute by the Medical Council of India due to inadequate infrastructure and staff. They protested outside the Government Medical College today.

Yesterday, they had gheraoed Medical Education and Research Minister Anil Joshi when he was leaving historical Ram Bagh Garden after kicking off Swachh Bharat Campaign in the city. They stood before his vehicle and forced him to come out and listen to their grievances. Apparently, unpleased with the move, he first spoke in anger, but later after a little argument gave two-day time.

Earlier, they had rejected the call given by the college management to join their classes.

Today they raised slogans against the Punjab government and reiterated their demand to shift them to other medical colleges in the state. They said if the government failed to pay heed to their problems they would intensify their agitation.

Amritsar, October 3
Five days have passed since the sensational killing of local gangster Sanjiv Nayyar alias Babba, but the police have failed to make any breakthrough in the case so far.

Police officials said they had been interrogating a number of gangsters, who might be involved in the brutal murder of Babba, who was gunned down by unidentified assailants on the intervening night of September 28 and 29, near a marriage resort.

The police are planning to bring gangsters lodged inside the jail on a production warrant for questioning. It is also going through the video of the marriage function in order to identify those persons, who were unknown to the family and were present at the function. Several persons have been reportedly keeping a close eye on the Babba’s movements.

He was out on 28-day parole and was to return to jail on October 3. Babba was serving a life imprisonment for his involvement in the killing of another gangster Raju Chikna of Jagtar Boxer gang.

Police officials were also looking into the theory of supari killing. Several gangsters inside the jail had celebrated his death and the jail authorities had informed about this to the local police.

SHO of the Sadar police station, Parvesh Chopra, said investigations were under progress. Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said police teams were working on various theories to crack the case. — TNS

Amritsar, October 3
To encourage reading as a lifestyle choice and generating interest of children in books at an early stage, One Up library is celebrating the international bookmark month in association with the International Association of School Libraries. Partnering with schools from Croatia and Massachussets, US, student members of One Up library will be making homemade bookmarks that reflect this year’s theme.

The programme, which will continue over the weekend, will have students creating different bookmarks. “It’s a programme designed to celebrate reading and promote libraries across the world. Every year, the schools assigned to each country exchange bookmarks and video graphs based on a theme. This year’s theme is “Your Library — Mind Map Central,” says Dalbir Kaur Madan, from One Up.

One Up in Amritsar has signed up with Elementary School, Croatia, and US. As many as 50 bookmarks created on the theme will be sent to the schools along with the video, documenting the process. The whole process is about idea exchange, says Dalbir. “The bookmarks will reflect upon the libraries and exhibit the importance of the libraries amongst children across the globe. Children in Croatia will get to see how children in Amritsar learn in libraries and what they read. Similarly, our children will get to learn how libraries in the US or Croatia work.”

The programme involves children between the age group of seven to 16 years, across 30 countries. It’s a simple, basic, fun way of sharing and exhibiting the importance of reading and libraries, and making friends. With the promotion of libraries and reading, the programme aims to encourage imaginative learning and sharing common ideas. “Children struggle with reading across the world, and this is one of the few innovative ways to share the problems openly. The most important thing here is the growth and existence of libraries as social and educational hubs,” says Dalbir.

Amritsar, October 3
Shri Ram Ashram Public School celebrated World Farm Animal Day with enthusiasm today. The day gives an opportunity to participants to speak against atrocities on animals.

A small play was staged by students in which they highlighted the fact that animals were suffering to fulfil the needs of human beings.

While addressing students, school manager-cum-education adviser SN Joshi said they should be sensitive towards animals. He said, “We all should come forward and be a part of this movement to save farm animals from the torture of human beings.”