Chaos: A traffic jam due to unregulated movement of vehicles on a road in Amritsar on Wednesday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

5,000 cleft-lip surgeries performed in region
Amritsar, November 7
Jammu and Kashmir has highest number of patients with cleft lip and palate in the region followed by Punjab, if the surgeries conducted under Smile Train Project are taken into consideration.

Dr Avtar Singh and his team with children, who were operated upon under the Smile project for cleft-lip and palate surgeries, in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

One nabbed with country-made pistol
Amritsar, November 7
The Beas police arrested Arshdeep Singh of Jhadunangal village and seized a country made pistol of .315 bore from his possession today. The police suspected that he might be a part of an inter-state gang of robbers.



Arshdeep Singh, who was nabbed with a country-made pistol by the Amritsar police on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

150 donate blood at DAV School
Amritsar, November 7
A blood donation camp was organised on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Hans Raj at DAV International School here today. JP Shoor, director (PS-I) and aided schools, DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Gang of robbers busted
Amritsar, November 7
With the arrest of five youths, the Civil Lines police today busted a gang of robbers and claimed to have solved a number of robbery cases in the city.



The accused in police custody in Amritsar on Friday. A Tribune Photograph

Murder accused held after one year
Amritsar, November 7
A year after the brutal murder of a granthi in Varpal, the Amritsar rural police today arrested the prime accused in the case, identified as Shamsher Singh Nihang.

 

Amritsar, November 7
Even as the state government’s solid waste management project is facing resentment from safai karamcharis in Jalandhar, the road for the project in Amritsar is not easy either.

Not only the residents of colonies around the Bhagtanwala dumping yard, but MC employees are also up in arms against the project.

The Bhagtanwala residents, who have been staging a dharna against the authorities for the past four days demanding shifting of dumping yard, resented that the installation of the solid waste management project in their vicinity would aggravate their problems.

They have already been facing serious health problems, which led to several deaths in the past.

Various state unions of class IV employees complained that the government had been shirking its responsibility to safeguard their interests by encouraging participation of private parties in the project.

The class IV safai karamcharis have been anticipating that the solid waste management project would be the end of their jobs.

They stated that the government should install the plant solely on its own and engage the existing safai karamcharis and other class IV workers, as was promised earlier, during the election time.

On January 14-15, four garbage laden privately run trolleys were stopped mid way by the agitating employees and they forced the trolley drivers and workers to drop the garbage by the roadside on Madan Mohan Malviya Road, opposite to the Dental College, at Hussainpur Chowk near the bus stand and Lahori Gate.

Vinod Bitta, president of Safai Mazdoor Union, said the Punjab Government’s move to engage private players for installing such a huge plant would result in exploitation of class IV employees.

Surinder Tona of MC Workers Union said they were not opposing the setting up of the solid waste management plant in the city but they were against the policy under which the plant was being established.

“The private companies will induct their own staff for garbage picking and processing jobs, whereas there were more than 1,000 class IV employees associated with the MC for more than a decade, whose services were not regularised till date. Various promises were made in this regard but in vain. We want that the government should install the plant on its own and open up new job avenues for those class IV employees of the MC who were still waiting to get their jobs secured,” said Tona.

He said it was on October 31, 2011, when the Punjab Government was compelled to take a u-turn on hiring a private firm for door-to-door garbage collection system.

“The Chief Minister had ordered that only the MC employees would be deputed to collect garbage and later when the processing plant is installed, it would be their job to transport the garbage to the plant. We want this decision to be implemented or we will resort to agitation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Bhagtanwala residents submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

Amritsar, November 7
Winter chill has almost engulfed the region with the mercury dropping and surprise rainfall confirming the change in weather.

The dip in temperature and grey skies greeted residents this morning, signalling a rather cold weekend.

The temperature was recorded at 20 degree Celsius in the city after the rain.

The change in season has made people run for their woolens, especially after the spells of rain witnessed on alternate weekends. The rain also resulted in traffic chaos. More rains are predicted for the weekend.

Amritsar, November 7
After the launch of the city bus service, efforts are in full swing to complete the Deputy Chief Minister’s dream project of replicating the Turkish pattern of public transport, the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

A total of 93 AC buses (each costing Rs 90 lakh) will ply on the dedicated corridors being built under the project.

However, the project also invited the ire of environmentalists, when around 800 trees had to be chopped off to pave the way for constructing dedicated corridors and elevated roads.

The main time-consuming work of acquiring the land and re-fixing the power lines according to the project has almost been completed. The supporting infrastructure is expected to be completed by the next year.

A Punjab Bus Metro Society (PBMS) has been constituted by the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) for the project.

The PIDB has outsourced the construction work for the BRTS to a private concern while the PWD (B&R) Department has been made the execution agency.

Amritsar, November 7
The Amritsar rural police today busted a four-member gang of robbers who used to rob valuables from tourists coming to witness the Beating Retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah joint check post.

Those arrested include Gurjit Singh of Rania village, Gurmail Singh of Sidhwan village, Gurjant Singh and Rahul of Lopoke. They were arrested from Kaonke village.

The police recovered two sharp-edged weapons, two motorcycles and mobile phones snatched from the tourists, from their possession.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar (rural), Jasdeep Singh, while giving details said the Gharinda police received a complaint from Pawan Kumar of Attari that he along with his daughter was returning to Attari from Amritsar when the four accused intercepted them and looted his mobile phone and his daughter’s purse containing Rs 6,000.

He said the police immediately swung into action and arrested the accused from Kaonke village. During interrogation, they confessed that they used to target tourists coming from Amritsar to watch the retreat ceremony, he added.

He said they used to hire auto-rickshaws to commit crimes.

The SSP said they were getting complaints that certain youths were targeting tourists when they used to return from Attari on auto-rickshaws.

However, as the tourists belong to other states of the country, they prefer not to lodge a complaint with the police. Taking advantage of this, the accused used to escape easily.

He said a case under Sections 392 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against them. Further investigation is likely to help in cracking various other robbery incidents in the area, he added.

Amritsar, November 7
Amritsar doesn’t enjoy the status of being an eco-conscious city and this bitter truth has often been swallowed quite comfortably by its residents. So, the three-day film festival on environment by organised by CMS Vatavaran in association with the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology came as an opportunity to do some damage control.

The event screened more than 25 short films and documentaries based on environmental issues at various venues, including the Central Jail. The film screenings were followed by panel discussions, seminars and a film-making workshop at the end of the event.

The traget audience was everyone, who cared about the bio-diversity and supported efforts to save it. GD Goenka School, DAV College, Guru Nanak Dev University, All India Women Council, Central Jail and Pingalwara campus, Manawala were the chosen venues for the eco-enthusiasts and volunteers who took it upon themselves to get in more support.

The opening day screened films such as Jal Khet (Watery Fields), followed by discussions on major biodiversity challenges faced by the country such as food security, scarcity of drinking water, ecosystem imbalances, energy shortage and drastic climate changes.

Department of Botanical and Environmental Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, also gathered experts for a panel discussion on inland waters and wetlands biodiversity of Punjab.

Outlining cinematic efforts of organisations across India as well as other countries such as Korea, Dubai, Adarsh Pal Vig, Associate Professor, Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, GNDU said, “The main purpose of the event was to address the key eco-problems faced by Punjab such as falling water table and pollution via industrial sources.”

The wetlands of Punjab under the Ramsar Convention with the prime agenda of Harike wetland and the threats they are facing were discussed.

“The shrunken size of the wetland from 1989 to 2010 has been observed to be 9 to 14 per cent and the major areas of worry have been identified to be colonisation by exotic species and weeds like eichhornia spp, phosphate pollution through fertiliser runoffs, faecal contamination and use of synthetic detergents,” he said.

He proposed to hold a film-making competition every year so that students and citizens are made aware about biodiversity and wildlife themes.

Members of NGOs, scholars, faculty members actively participated in the discussion, addressing local issues like shortage of safe drinking water, public toilets, green belts and cutting of trees.

Several films at the festival were lauded for their effective depiction and outreach on some moving environment issues.

“The film titled ‘Harvest of Grief’ based on farmer suicides in Punjab was really moving. It threw light on the issues, which were otherwise taken lightly by the authorities as well as citizens. The gravity of the problem and the amount of damage it has already done was quite a revelation. The government’s false claims and cover up on famer suicides issue was blown up,” said Arif, the media spokesperson of DAV College, which hosted the festival for two days and provided technical support to the event.

The film ‘Smarty Plants’ by Kavita Bahl and Nandan Saxena (winners of Rajat Kamal -Silver Lotus at The National Film Awards 2011) delivered a special message on the practical utility of otherwise aesthetically pleasing plants.

Two foreign films — ‘The Moors’ and ‘Winds of Change’ depicted the drastic aftermath of the climate change process. Central jail inmates were also a part of the eco-drive, with two films screened on the third day. The authorities purchased a special projector only for the purpose of screening these films. A film-making workshop was organised on the last day by Aamir Aijaz from Delhi.

Amritsar, November 7
Jammu and Kashmir has highest number of patients with cleft lip and palate in the region followed by Punjab, if the surgeries conducted under Smile Train Project are taken into consideration.

The Smile Train project is a US-based NGO, dedicated for providing free surgeries to patients all over the world with cleft lip. The NGO in association with local Amandeep Hospital has completed 5,000 surgeries in the region since its launch in 2004. The hospital organised a programme to celebrate the occasion here today.

Dr Ravi Mahajan, project director, Smile Train, and head of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Amandeep Hospital, said around 2,788 patients from Jammu and Kashmir were operated upon under the project followed by Punjab with 2,107 surgeries. Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had 46, 31 and 22 patients, respectively, who were treated under the project so far, he added.

Dr Mahajan, while giving details about the project, said, “Under the Smile Train project, we bear the expenses of corrective surgery, counselling, picking up and dropping patients from their homes, medication and hospital stay. We also reimburse lost wages for the poor patients.”

The ‘Smile Train’ is a US based charity, which is devoted to the cause of clefts world over. The organisation started by some philanthropists in the USA in 1999 with prominent world personalities as patrons, include George Bush and his wife, Bill Gates, Richard Gere, Paul Newman, Warren Buffet and others. As many as 80 countries in the world have been covered by the project for providing relief from disability and offering a new lease of life to patients.

Dr Avtar Singh, orthopaedic surgeon, while giving details said cleft lip and palate occurred in one out of 700 live births and 35,000 children were born in India every year with this condition. There were more than 10 lakh children in India, who required cleft surgery, he added.

Renu Mehta, programme manager of the Smile Train India from Delhi said, “Since 2000, the Smile Train has sponsored more than 4 lakh cleft surgeries in India.” Among other dignitaries, who were present on the occasion, include Smile Train’s donor Poonam Mittal, who came from the US to attend the function. She was the chief guest on the occasion. Mamta Carrol, NGOs regional director, South Asia, besides Civil Surgeon, Dr Rajiv Bhalla, were also present at the event. 

Amritsar, November 7
The Beas police arrested Arshdeep Singh of Jhadunangal village and seized a country made pistol of .315 bore from his possession today. The police suspected that he might be a part of an inter-state gang of robbers.

His accomplice, identified as Harpreet Singh alias Tony of Sathiala, managed to escape. The police said during checking, an Alto car was signalled to stop. However, the accused instead of halting the car, tried to speed away. Harpreet managed to flee from the spot, while Arshdeep was arrested by the police. A case under Sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against him. Further investigations are under progress. — TNS

Amritsar, November 7
A blood donation camp was organised on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Hans Raj at DAV International School here today. JP Shoor, director (PS-I) and aided schools, DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi, was the chief guest on the occasion. Dr VP Lakhanpal, chairman, Dr KN Kaul, manager, of the school, were also present at the event. The camp began with the singing of a song. It was followed by recital of a bhajan eulogising the importance of noble and charitable deeds performed for the good of the humanity.

As many as 150 people from various walks of life donated blood on the occasion. Principal of the school, Anjana Gupta, inspired the students to donate blood. Many former students of the school, faculty members also participated in blood donation and to make the camp a success.

In his address, the chief guest dwelt upon the initiatives of DAV College Managing Committee under presidentship of Punam Suri for the alleviation of human suffering and enrichment of the life of the the poor. Shoor also cleared various misconceptions in the mind of general public regarding blood donation by presenting scientific facts. He said blood donation gave a new lease of life to a dying person as well as fresh supply of blood to the donor. He honoured the school Principal for her achievements and awards.

Amritsar, November 7
With the arrest of five youths, the Civil Lines police today busted a gang of robbers and claimed to have solved a number of robbery cases in the city.

Those arrested were identified as Arun Kumar of New Kapoor Nagar, Sultanwind Road, Lakwhinder Singh of Jaspal Nagar, Simranjit Singh of Peera Wala Bazaar located in Gurnam Nagar, Jatinder Singh of Old Octori, Sultanwind Road and Gurpreet Singh of Kapoor Nagar area.

The police said the accused were held from the Company Bagh area following a tip off. A case under Sections 399, 402, 382 of the Indian Penal Code, 22 of the NDPS Act and 25 of the Arms Act has been registered against them.

SHO of the Civil Lines police, Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, said during interrogation the police recovered two pistols, a live cartridge, two sharp-edged weapons and 300 gm of narcotic powder from their possession. The accused confessed that they had snatched Rs 2.55 lakh from an Airtel collection agent near Hindu Sabha College in January this year. They had looted around 500gm of gold jewellery from a gold smith from Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar area in August this year. A case under Sections 394, 341 and 34 of the IPC and 25 of the Arms Act had been registered at Sultanwind police station in this regard.

Randhawa said the accused had confessed that they had committed around 10 such robberies in different parts of the city and further investigations were under progress.

Amritsar, November 7
A year after the brutal murder of a granthi in Varpal, the Amritsar rural police today arrested the prime accused in the case, identified as Shamsher Singh Nihang.

He was living in Bathinda after changing his identity. There ,too, he was lodged in Talwandi Sabo jail in connection with grievously hurting a person. The Amritsar police brought him on a production warrant and arrested him in the murder case.

Shamsher Singh Nihang and his family had killed a granthi of a gurdwara, located at Varpal, on the Amritsar-Tarn Taran road. They had later set the victim’s body ablaze on the gurdwara premises on September 28 last year.

The deceased was identified as Waryam Singh, who originally hailed from Gujjarpura village in Ajnala. He had been performing sewa in the Rori Sahib Gurdwara for the past three years. He was deputed by the villagers to perform sewa.

However, the Nihang wanted the possession of the gurdwara. The accused claimed that the gurdwara was constructed on his land, so he had the right to perform sewa, said Jasdeep Singh, SSP, Amritsar rural police. But the villagers opposed his claim. This became a bone of contention between the two groups. Earlier, too, there was a clash between the two groups and a case of attempt to murder was registered against Nihang and his supporters.

On September 28, Nihang along with his wife Raj Kaur, son Sajan Singh and mother Kashmir Kaur, entered the gurdwara premises and beat Waryam Singh to death. Before doing so, they pushed several persons present there into a room by brandishing sharp-edged weapons and bolted it from outside. They later put his body on a bed near the langar hall of the gurdwara and set it abaze, the SSP said. The incident came to light when several devotees came to the gurdwara for paying obeisance. They searched for Waryam Singh in the gurudwara and later found his charred body near the langar hall, said the SSP.

A case under Sections 302, 201, 342 and 506 of the IPC was registered against Nihang and his family. The local court later declared him a proclaimed offender.

Investigations revealed that he was living in Bathinda after changing his identity to Sarwan Singh of Gujja Peer. The police brought him on production warrant and recovered the weapon used in the crime.