Better amritsar Non-biodegradable plastics—Ii
Find alternative to polybags: Residents
Amritsar, October 6
Products made of plastic have undoubtedly become a part of our day to day life. Its characteristics of being flexible, light weight, low cost have made it popular among the consumers prompting entrepreneurs to roll out objects keeping in view its ever increasing demand.

Star athlete Khushbir Kaur returns to rousing welcome 
Amritsar, October 6
Star athlete Khushbir Kaur, MA I student of Khalsa College for Women, today returned to a rousing reception after becoming the first Indian woman athlete to have won the silver medal in the 21-km race walk in the recent Asian Games held at Incheon (South Korea).

The first Indian silver medallist in the 21-km race walk in the Asian Games, Khushbir Kaur is greeted by the Principal and staff of Khalsa College for Women upon arriving in Amritsar from South Korea on Monday; and (right) Khushbir Kaur and her mother show the victory sign at railway station. Photos: Vishal Kumar

Man rapes widow for eight years
Amritsar, October 6
The city police have booked Kuldip Singh of Mata Ganga Ji Nagar on the Tarn Taran road for allegedly raping a widow after luring her for marriage.

50 gm heroin seized
Amritsar, October 6
The city police have seized 500 gm of heroin worth Rs 2.50 crore from Pawan Kumar, alias Gora, of Dharampura, Chheharta. The accused was arrested during checking of vehicles near the Brij Bhushan Mehra chowk.

Brotherhood: Children celebrate inside a mosque on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha in Amritsar on Monday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

Ways to enhance productivity of farm animals discussed
Amritsar, October 6
A scientist of the National Dairy Research Institute, Dr MS Chauhan, delivered a lecture on ways to enhance the productivity of farm animals at the science camp “INSPIRE” at DAV College here yesterday.

150 scholars attend workshop at GNDU
Amritsar, October 6
A six-day workshop on “Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR): Molecules to human behaviour” was inaugurated at the conference hall of Guru Nanak Dev University here today. The workshop is being organised by the Department of Chemistry in collaboration with the Centre of Biomedical Research (CBMR), Lucknow, and sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. As many as 150 scholars from various parts of the country are participating in the event.

PSU comes out in support of medical students
Amritsar, October 6
The Punjab Students Union (PSU) has come out in the support of students of Chintpurni Medical College, who have been protesting for shifting them to some other recognised medical colleges in state, due to de-recognition of their institute by the Medical Council of India.

Municipal Corporation to issue numbers to property tax payers
Amritsar, October 6
The Municipal Corporation has initiated a process to allot unique identity number to the property tax payers so as to keep track of payments made by them every financial year. Despite the lapse of deadline for depositing the tax, which has been advanced many times, a majority of the residents chose to remain on the defaulters’ list. Apparently they are expecting some relief from the government as has been a practice in the past.

HC judge visits Bar Assn
Amritsar, October 6
Inspecting Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, SK Mittal, visited Amritsar Bar Association today and met the Bar members. He also held a meeting with members of the Building Committee regarding the construction of chambers.

Intellectuals deliver lecture at science camp
Amritsar, October 6
A series of lectures were delivered by intellectuals on the third day of the INSPIRE, a camp sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at DAV College here.

Amritsar, October 6
Nine live bombs were found at a search operation carried out by the Army bomb disposal squad at the scrap dealer’s house following the blast that took lives of three persons and injured four others on October 1. Had all these bombs gone off after the blast, the loss of lives could have been immense, claim police authorities. These bombs were later defused by the squad.

This has also raised question marks on the way the Army carries out “sanitisation” work after practice and disposes of bombs at its firing range in the Mand area of the Beas. The search operation was carried out a day after the blast that ripped through the house of the scrap dealer, Tarsem Singh, on September 30 evening.

District police chief, Amritsar rural police, Jasdeep Singh, while confirming the incident pointed out that the recovery of live bombs had left the police baffled and residents worried. It is learnt that many persons were rendered handicapped due to such instances in the past.

Three persons were killed and four injured when a “defused” bomb exploded at Gajiwal Miani village near Beas on September 30 evening. The victims belonged to nearby villages. They were reportedly removing copper from the bomb scrap left by the Army jawans after defusing and disposing them of. The incident occurred when junk dealers started removing copper from the explosive material unaware of the fact that it was live.

According to residents of the area, people usually managed to get these “disposed of” bombs from the Mand area and sold it to junk dealers for copper and iron scrap.

Jasdeep Singh said the police was also contemplating to get a survey done in the area to find out how many persons had become handicapped due to such instances in the past. He said a comprehensive report would be prepared, which would be sent to the Punjab Government and the higher-ups, so that the matter could be taken up with the Army authorities for further action.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat also expressed concern and said the number (nine live bombs) was huge. He said the matter had been taken up with the Army authorities in this connection and hopefully they would take effective steps in future. “Fortunately we had isolated the area with the help of the bomb disposal squad; otherwise a similar incident could have happened again,” he said.

Naresh Vig, PRO, Army, said after the training, the Army “sanitises” the firing range and the adjoining areas after cordoning off the whole place. However, there are 0.1 per cent chances of human error as thousands of shells are fired during the training, he added. He said, during training, the bombs sometimes missed the targets and fell outside the range. While denying any lapse on the part of the Army, he said the whole area was “sanitised” in the best possible way.

Amritsar, October 6
A quarrel between two families, including a migrant family, in the Rajesh Nagar area last evening took an ugly turn when several youths of the area thrashed a woman and allegedly tore her clothes. The matter was reported to the Mohkampura police, which allegedly failed to take prompt action against the culprits.

Alleging this, a number of migrants, residing in the Rajesh Nagar area, today gheraoed the Mohkampura police station and raised slogans against the police officials. They demanded immediate registration of a criminal case and arrest of the culprits.

Kanti Devi, mother-in-law of the victim, identified as Jyoti Devi, said it was minor dispute after a child urinated in front of the neighbouring house, belonging to a Punjabi. She said the minor altercation between the women soon turned violent after several youths belonging to the opposite party thrashed Jyoti and tore her clothes. They also took away her jewellery, she alleged.

Ranjan Jha, a migrant, said on seeing this, he along with several others intervened. He said the accused, including Monty, Lovely, Patti, Vicky and Palli, thrashed them and started pelting them with stones. The accused also called their accomplices to the spot. He alleged that Surinderpal Singh, father of one of the accused, slapped a woman inside the premises of the police station and used abusive language when the residents reached the police station today.

This enraged the agitators, who allegedly created a ruckus inside the police station and allegedly broke chairs. The agitators alleged that the police was dithering on taking any action against the accused, which had led to the protest.

Surinder Pal Singh, however, denied the allegation and said that he had come to the police station as the agitating family was unnecessarily dragging the name of his son in the case while he had nothing to do with it. He said the agitating mob also attacked him.

Gurmeet Singh, SHO, Mohkampura police station, said a couple of persons from the opposite group were also injured in the clash last evening. He said they were taken to the Civil hospital for medical examination and the police was yet to receive any MLR report. He said the policeman who was sent in the evening to take statements somehow could not meet the victims. He said now the statements of the victims were being taken and a case was being registered. He said Surinder Pal Singh had been taken into custody.

Later a case of sexual assault, causing grievous hurt, criminal trespass, etc was registered against Vikram, Palli, Patti, Lovely, Monty and around 30 unidentified persons. 

Amritsar, October 6
Think big, create small. City-based artists Harwinder Singh Gill and Jagmohan Kanojia, popular names in the record books, seem to be working on the mantra with a strong resolve. And their achievements were recently acknowledged by the Guiness Book of World Records by listing them under the best five per cent world record holders in the world.

Both the artists specialise in making miniature object art forms. Gill has worked with egg shells, Netsuke art form or miniature wood sculptures, while Kanojia is a popular kite artist from the city. Together they share a total of 43 records, 25 listed by Kanojia and 18 by Gill.

Sharing their recent moment of achievement, the artists talked about the detailed process they had to go through. “We were invited by the Guinness Book people to participate in an online competition, which was to find the best world record holders amongst the participants. Over three lakh people across the world participated, out of which 40,000 were among the best record holders. Out of those 40,000, five per cent were finalised and among those, both of us were selected,” explained Gill.

A total of seven people from Punjab feature in the final list and the two artists from Amritsar are glad to have made it. Gill’s 10 Guinesss records include turning eggshells into miniature masterpieces by just drilling multiple holes, his best one having more than 10,000 holes. He has made what he claims to be the world’s smallest denture and has already earned a spot in the Limca book of records four times and his latest muse is pencils. “I have been carving pencil tips into alphabets, shapes and forms. Creating portraits by using bizarre objects, even vegetables, he has created sculptures using 1,000 egg shells,” says the dentist from the city.

Similarly, Kanojia, a businessman and an artist, who has over seven Guiness records and over 15 records in India and Limca book of records, is a kite artist. Having made over 10,000 kites over the years, ranging from 2 mm to 40 ft, Kanojia’s records not only include his kite making skills but also his love for gardening. So, the first one came with growing the tallest papaya plant, followed by successfully growing a grapevine and then a guava inside a 500 watt light bulb, making the world’s smallest kite measuring 2 mm, having a collection of maximum varieties of eggs and growing a 10-foot tall ladyfinger plant. The other artists from Punjab selected were from Jallandhar, Nakodar and Ludhiana.

Popularising their respective art forms through their passion, the two artists have also earned a name in making the fastest records in a year. 

Amritsar, October 6
Products made of plastic have undoubtedly become a part of our day to day life. Its characteristics of being flexible, light weight, low cost have made it popular among the consumers prompting entrepreneurs to roll out objects keeping in view its ever increasing demand.

Though the government promulgated various laws to curb its usage, its immense popularity and lack of environment friendly substitutes failed to bring out the desired results.

Amritsar, October 6
Star athlete Khushbir Kaur, MA I student of Khalsa College for Women, today returned to a rousing reception after becoming the first Indian woman athlete to have won the silver medal in the 21-km race walk in the recent Asian Games held at Incheon (South Korea).

The students, fellow players and sympathisers today lined up to shower rose petals and praises as Khushbir Kaur today arrived at her Khalsa College for Women (KCW).

She arrived at the local railway station earlier from where she was brought to the college, riding in an open Jeep with all college teachers, staff and students thronging the railway station to accord her a warm welcome.

A beaming Khushbir Kaur credited her mother for the achievement as the latter “encouraged her to adopt sports as a career”. She said her mother did not allow their poor financial condition to come into her way.

“I am overwhelmed with the warm reception. At least I could play my part in bringing honour to the country,” she said in an emotional tone as she explained that despite a muscle-pull injury, she was able to sail through.

“I belong to a family of limited means. But still due to good wishes of people and financial support from various quarters, I was able to compete in Asian Games,” she stated, adding that she suffered from a muscle-pull injury a year ago and thought she might not be able to participate in the Asian Games.

A student of MA (Punjabi) I, Khushbir Kaur has become the first Indian woman to win the medal in the Long Walk category. She completed her 20-km walk in one hour and 33 minutes to win the medal.

An athlete par excellence, she belongs to Nikka Rasulpur village near Chowk Mehta in this district and hit the headlines when she bagged the medal in the Aisad. “That was a moment of glory. I felt on the clouds when I saw the Tri-colour flying high in front of my eyes,” she stated. She said she would continue her practice and her target is now to bring glory for the country in the next Olympics.

She is eight minutes and five seconds behind from Ebola of Russia, who was the London Olympics champion in the same edition. Khushbir Kaur said her Russian coach, Alexander, was putting in serious efforts and improved her timing after she came under his coaching since 2011.

The KCW Principal, Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal, her coaches and fellow students welcomed her and they all broke into bhangra on the tune of `dhols’. They said they would continue to extend financial and emotional help to Khushbir Kaur to achieve her Olympic dream.

Khushbir Kaur, meanwhile, thanked the Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC), Principal Dr Mahal, her sports in charge Sukhdeep Kaur, coaches Baldev Singh and Rankirat Singh and her family for support.

Amritsar, October 6
The city police have booked Kuldip Singh of Mata Ganga Ji Nagar on the Tarn Taran road for allegedly raping a widow after luring her for marriage.

The victim, in her complaint to Division A police station, said she was a widow and had two children. She said the accused entered into physical relations with her after luring her for marriage. She said Kuldip Singh started living with her and continued raping her for the past eight years. She alleged that the accused started teasing her and said he had done all this for physical pleasure and grabbing her property.

Police officials said a case under Section 376, IPC, had been registered against Kuldip Singh, but no arrest had been made because the accused was on the run. 

Amritsar, October 6
The city police have seized 500 gm of heroin worth Rs 2.50 crore from Pawan Kumar, alias Gora, of Dharampura, Chheharta. The accused was arrested during checking of vehicles near the Brij Bhushan Mehra chowk.

According to information, Division-A police station had been checking vehicles near the Brij Bhushan Mehra chowk when the accused was intercepted in a car. The accused tried to flee after leaving the car behind. The police chased him and seized the contraband. It also seized two mobile phones from him. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered in this regard. Meanwhile, the city police have arrested Satwant Singh of Chabba Patti Lehindi village and seized 100 gm of narcotic powder from him. The police also arrested Kabir of Navi Abadi Faizpura and Tarandeep Singh of Sundar Nagar for possessing 50 gm and 40 gm of heroin, respectively. 

Amritsar, October 6
A scientist of the National Dairy Research Institute, Dr MS Chauhan, delivered a lecture on ways to enhance the productivity of farm animals at the science camp “INSPIRE” at DAV College here yesterday.

Around 200 students from schools in Gurdaspur, Batala, Jandiala and Amritsar are participating in the camp.

The main focus of Dr Chauhan’s lecture was on “How we can enhance the productivity of our farm animals?” He is a pioneer in producing world’s first stem celled buffalo calf. He discussed development of the reproductive technologies in humans and animals for the treatment of infertility and its results over the period of past 20 years. Dr Chauhan also talked about in-vitro production of embryos using in-vitro technology.

Dr Umesh K Sharma, scientist D, Inspire Division, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, said Inovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) was an innovative idea to spread science education among the budding generation.

He also discussed various INSPIRE fellowships run by the Department of Science and Technology. These scholarships are provided from school to the higher education level. Dr Umesh motivated the students to step forward and avail INSPIRE scholarships to pursue careers in life sciences.

The second lecture on “A journey from past to present structure of earth” was delivered by Dr Rajwant Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, University of Jammu. While interacting with students through her lecture Dr Rajwant discussed about the structure and formation of the three main layers of the earth. She talked about different types of crusts of the earth and the plate tectonics.

Dr Rupinder Kaur, co-ordinator of the science camp, released the manual for INSPIRE. 

Amritsar, October 6
A six-day workshop on “Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR): Molecules to human behaviour” was inaugurated at the conference hall of Guru Nanak Dev University here today. The workshop is being organised by the Department of Chemistry in collaboration with the Centre of Biomedical Research (CBMR), Lucknow, and sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. As many as 150 scholars from various parts of the country are participating in the event.

Prof AS Brar, Vice-Chancellor, inaugurated the workshop while Prof CL Khetrapal, a distinguished professor, CBMR, Lucknow, delivered the key note address. Prof RK Mahajan, Dean, College Development Council and convener of the workshop, welcomed the chief guest and others.

Prof KV Ramanathan and Prof N Suryaprakash, both from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Dr Dinesh Kumar from CBMR, Lucknow, also delivered lectures on the occasion.

Guru Nanak Dev University has installed 500 MHz NMR spectrometer to facilitate the research activities in the university recently.

In his address, Prof Brar said the NMR spectroscopy was the key technique to determine the structure of the molecules. He said with high resolution NMR machines and using two dimensional and three dimensional experiments, one could solve the complete structure of the polymers as well as the biomolecules.

He said the objective of this workshop was to create awareness of principles and applications of NMR/MRI among young researchers working in various academic and research institutions in the country. He said there would be no dearth of funds for a quality research.

In his keynote address, Prof Khetrapal, said the NMR had a number of applications in various fields of science, including biological, medicinal, social and forensic. He said magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was the most recent application of NMR to medical sciences and there was a lot of scope for undertaking new research in this area, which would definitely help in improving the diagnostic tools. Prof Khetrapal also discussed the applications of the portable MRI and the portable NMR.

He said the MRI, which was based on the principles of the NMR, had revolutionised the diagnostic techniques. “Due to this technique, the detection of any deadly disease like cancer is possible at an early stage. I exhort young scientists to take up the new challenges to solve problems of society by using latest scientific techniques.”

Prof Palwinder Singh, co-convener of the workshop, proposed a vote of thanks.

Amritsar, October 6
The Punjab Students Union (PSU) has come out in the support of students of Chintpurni Medical College, who have been protesting for shifting them to some other recognised medical colleges in state, due to de-recognition of their institute by the Medical Council of India.

As many as 60 students have been camping outside the Government Medical College to impress upon the Punjab government and Medical Education Minister Anil Joshi for shifting them to recognised colleges.

Their future hangs in balance as the Mata Chintpurni Medical College management has threatened them of punitive action if they failed to join their classes.

Harpreet Singh, a local activist of the PSU, said the union would stand by the medical students till their genuine demands were met. He said the current situation was the outcome of the privatisation of the education system. The government did not keep a check on these private educational institutes, which extorted money from students on the one pretext or other, he alleged.

Congress leader Inderjit Singh Zeera also met the students and assured them of all possible help.

The students, who had also met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during sangat darshan here, are waiting for tomorrow as the CM had sought time by October 7 to resolve their grievance. The students threatened to intensify their agitation if the Punjab government failed to address their problem. 

Amritsar, October 6
The Municipal Corporation has initiated a process to allot unique identity number to the property tax payers so as to keep track of payments made by them every financial year. Despite the lapse of deadline for depositing the tax, which has been advanced many times, a majority of the residents chose to remain on the defaulters’ list. Apparently they are expecting some relief from the government as has been a practice in the past.

From September 2013 onwards, when the process of collecting property tax actually started, a grace period of around 100 days was given to the residents. Thereafter, many deadlines with 10 per cent rebate were advanced many times.

Officials said a massive drive was on the cards to recover property tax from commercial and residential units after penalising them. The defaulters were being charged 50 per cent penalty along with 18 per cent rate of interest applicable from April 1 till the date they cleared their dues. The MC also plans to kick off sealing drive against some commercial houses.

According to reports an amount of Rs 1.55 crore was recovered after the due date without any penalty. Most of the defaulters were from the residential sector. Over 70 per cent recovery has been made from the commercial establishments.

Officials believe that repeated advancement of the deadlines by the government was one of the major reasons for the lukewarm response from the residents’ side. According to official information, the MC has identified around 2.6 lakh units, which have to pay property tax. Around 60 per cent of the residents have yet to pay up their dues. The MC has failed to recover Rs 40 to 50 crore till March this year, which was its target.

Superintendent Pushpinder Singh said according to the self-assessment formulae, nearly Rs 21.53 crore was collected as property tax from around 1.4 lakh units till March 31 this year. From April onwards, only Rs 2.25 crore could be realised.

Taking account of the lukewarm response, the MC has started uploading the credentials of the residents, who have the liability to pay taxes, on its computers. Officials said it would be mandatory to clear the backlog of dues before depositing the current year’s tax.

“Though the new pattern of the property tax has come into being for 2014-15, yet it will be compulsory to show us the receipt of dues cleared for 2013-14. We have also been feeding the details of the residents in our computers before allocating them some identification number. This will help us know the status of the tax payee instantly. At present the response is quite dismal. We have been charging the dues with penalty as per the MC norms,” said Pushpinder. 

Amritsar, October 6
Inspecting Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, SK Mittal, visited Amritsar Bar Association today and met the Bar members. He also held a meeting with members of the Building Committee regarding the construction of chambers.

A seven storey building will be constructed for the chambers of advocates for which the government has already released Rs 2 crore. He said the work on the complex would start soon.

Justice Mittal also held a meeting with judges of local courts, besides visiting Suwidha Centre in the court complex. — TNS

Amritsar, October 6
A series of lectures were delivered by intellectuals on the third day of the INSPIRE, a camp sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at DAV College here.

Dr Ashok K Mohanty, principal scientist, Biotechnology Centre, NDRI, Karnal, talked about protemic strategies for the identification and analysis of proteins in his lecture. He said protemics was the large-scale study of protein expression, protein-protein interaction or post-translational modifications.

Dr Khushwinder Kumar, Principal, MM Modi College, Patiala, also delivered a lecture on mathematics mystecism. Speaking on the occasion, he discussed with students number one, pythagorean belief, fibonaci and triangular numbers.

Dr Neeraj Khare, Department of Physics, IIT, Delhi, also delivered a lecture on superconductors. While discussing all the aspects of superconductors, Dr Khare said superconductors are materials which exhibited zero resistivity when cooled below to a temperature known as critical temperature.

A practical session was also held during the event in which students did practical in botany, zoology and physics laboratories to better understand the concepts.