27072022-ATR-01.qxd 7/26/2022 11:06 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar TRIBUNE NO SALARY FOR FIVE MONTHS, SANITATION STAFF GO ON STRIKE Contractual sanitation workers of the local municipal council went on an indefinite strike here on Tuesday. FORECAST GENERALLY CLOUDY SKY INBRIEF 7 INMATES CLASH IN JAIL, BOOKED Amritsar: Seven prisoners clashed with each other in the Amritsar Central Jail here on Monday. Jail authorities said those booked were identified as Sikander Bhatti, Sagar Singh, Harpreet Singh, Simranjit Singh, Deepak Singh, Vishal Singh and Bobby, alias Billa. The police said a case under Section 52 of the Prisons Act was registered against them. Meanwhile, authorities recovered three mobile phones, two mobile phone batteries, two chargers and two air phones from the jail complex. The prohibited goods were found unclaimed. The police have registered three separate cases in this connection. TNS 6 ARRESTED WITH 123-GM HEROIN Amritsar: The city police nabbed six persons in separate incidents and recovered 123 gm of heroin from their possession. While Jyoti of Indira Colony, Kala Singh of Kapatgarh and Jai Vijay Singh of Badarke village were held with 25 gm of heroin each, Rinku Masih of Tung Bala and Gaurav Singh of Gujjarpura were arrested with 20 gm of heroin each. Similarly, Sahil of Sunder Nagar was nabbed for possessing 8 gm of heroin. Separate cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act were registered against them and further investigations were in progress. TNS PAGE 2 MIKA SINGH CHOOSES TV ACTRESS AKANKSHA AS HIS FUTURE BRIDE PAGE 3 After more than two months, Mika Singh has finally chosen television actress Akanksha Puri as his future wife. MAX 34°C | MIN 27°C | YESTERDAY MAX 35°C | MIN 27°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 7:30 PM KAHAANI GHAR GHAR KII SET TO RETURN TO TV AFTER 13 YEARS Be ready for major nostalgia as after almost 13 years, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii is reportedly coming back on TV screen! SUNRISE THURSDAY 5:43 AM Provide all essential services to residents on time, MC staff told WEDNESDAY | 27 JULY 2022 | AMRITSAR Balwinder ‘smuggled’ 100-kg contraband in a year: STF probe PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Mayor, Municipal Corporation Commissioner review development works Tribune News Service Amritsar, July 26 Mayor Karamjit Singh and Municipal Corporation Commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj today conducted a joint meeting with heads and deputy heads of various departments of the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama Company Bagh, in which all development works were reviewed. In the meeting, the Mayor welcomed the newly appointed Commissioner. Officials from the operation and maintenance (O&M), civil, health, water supply and sewerage, municipal town planning (MTP), property tax, estate wing, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Municipal Solid Waste and Advertising Departments were present in the meeting. The officials were strictly told to provide all basic services to residents on time. The Mayor and Commissioner asked Superintending Engineer Anurag Mahajan about the activities being done by the O&M Department. Mahajan said the department was facing staff shortage and secondly due to sewer system being affected due to digging of roads by various companies under their projects, the problem of contaminated water was being reported, but these com- ORDER REMOVAL OF ENCROACHMENTS ■ Instructions were given to the MTP Department that no illegal construction should be allowed in the city and actions should be taken within the ambit of law ■ Departments concerned asked to refrain from issuing no-objection certificates to private companies that dug up roads for their projects ■ The MC Commissioner has ordered the Estate Officer to remove illegal encroachments on Heritage Street permanently with the help of the police department and SGPC officials ■ The Mayor and Commissioner instructed the Health Department to keep the sanitation system of the city clean Encroachments galore at Heritage Street in Amritsar. PHOTO: SUNIL KUMAR plaints were being immediately resolved by the field staff and clean drinking water was being continuously supplied to the city dwellers. “Besides, the roster wise sewerage lines are cleaned in every area with super sucker machines and jetting machines so that the city dwellers do not face any problem during the rainy season,” he added. During the meeting, the Mayor said the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, had spent crores to develop roads and sewerage, but the development of the city was being affected by the projects of private companies. Therefore, the departments concerned were asked to refrain from issuing no-objection certificates to these companies. Instructions were given to the MTP Department that no illegal construction should be allowed in the city and actions should be taken within the ambit of law. On the issue of temporary encroachments on Heritage Street, the Estate Department was instructed that lakhs of pilgrims come daily to visit the religious and historical places of the city, but illegal encroachments were tarnishing the image of the Municipal Corporation, on which the Commissioner ordered the Estate Officer to PAGE 4 remove these illegal occupations permanently with the help of the police department as well as SGPC officials. The Mayor and Commissioner instructed the Health Department to keep the sanitation system of the city clean. They said the work being done by the sanitation staff was commendable, but more effort was needed to bring the city to top number in the country in terms of cleanliness. At the end of the meeting, the Mayor and Commissioner said a separate meeting would be held for each department to review the development works of the city and asked the Civil and O&M Departments to pre- pare and submit the pending cases for approval of the committee in the meeting of the finance and contract committee which will be held in the coming days. In today’s meeting, Joint Commissioner Deepjot Kaur, SE Anurag Mahajan, Dapinder Sandhu, Sandeep Singh, Bhalinder Singh, AE Gurpal Singh, Karan Kumar, Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar, Dr Rama, MTP Secretary Mehar. ban Singh, Vishal Wadhawan, Rajinder Sharma, Daljit Singh, Estate Officer Dharminderjit Singh, Superintendent Loveleen Sharma, Jagjit Singh and representatives of MSW were also present. Amritsar, July 26 Balwinder Singh, the prime suspect of the drug module busted by the Special Task Force (STF), had smuggled around 100-kg contraband received from across the Indo-Pak border in the last one and a half years. This came to light during a weeklong investigations carried out by the STF in the case. The STF had arrested Balwinder Singh, a resident of Chak Allah Baksh village located just close to the International Border fence on Monday. Currently, he was residing in Baba Deep Singh Colony in Chheharta area. He was remanded in three-day police custody for further interrogation. Besides Balwinder, the STF had arrested Avtar Singh and Guravtar Singh who were sent to judicial custody by a court. According to STF officials, Balwinder Singh was the right hand of another crossborder drug peddler Surmukh Singh. Surmukh was arrested by the police in January this year in connection with smuggling of improvised explosive devices, one of which was used in the Ludhiana bomb blast. In this IED and drug module, the police had arrested 10 persons in the past six months. Apart from Balwinder, Avtar, Guravtar and Surmukh Singh, the police had nabbed Harpreet Singh Happy of Dhanoe Kalan village, Sawinder Singh of Dha- DRUG MODULE BUSTED USED DRONES, PAK SIMs TO SEND LOCATIONS Investigations revealed suspects were using drones and sending locations through phones using SIMs of Pakistani telecom companies whose signals were strong in the border villages noe Khurd village, Dilbagh Singh, alias Baggo, of Chak Allah Baksh village, Gurpreet Singh of Miadi Kalan village, Rinku Kumar of Gumtala and a juvenile. A case under various sections of the NDPS Act, Arms Act, Explosives Act, UPA Act at the STF Mohali. , Investigations revealed that taking the advantage of the location of their native village near the border, the accused was involved in the cross-border smuggling for the last two years. They were using drones and sending locations through phones using a SIM of Pakistani telecoms companies whose signals are strong in the border villages. “They used to send the location of a cremation ground in their village to their Pakistan-based accomplices. They received heroin there with the help of a drone, which flew back after dropping the narcotics,” said an official privy to investigations. Aided school teachers slam govt Legacy lives on for not releasing grant for salaries Contractual workers of the Punjab Roadways hold a protest against the state government on Tuesday. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI Contractual Roadways workers hold gate rally Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, July 26 Contractual employees of the Punjab Roadways and PRTC held a gate rally in front of the gate of the local roadways workshop here on Tuesday. They were demanding the regularisation of their services and other demands. The rally was organised under the banner of Punjab Roadways, Punbus and PRTC Contract Workers’ Union. While addressing on the occasion, Satnam Singh Tur, depot president, and other leaders said the assurance given by the AAP-led Punjab Government to regularise the services of 35,000 employees was nothing but a cheating. The leaders said as per the policy of the government, the services of not even a single employee would be regularised. The leaders said announcements made on occasions by TO GHERAO TRANSPORT MINISTER ON AUGUST 15 IF DEMANDS NOT MET Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar were mere lies. They said the AAP government was claiming to end the mafia raj in the transport sector, but according to the new transport policy, inducting buses of big private bus operators in the PRTC it would lead to a loss of Rs 158 crore in the coming six years. The leaders demanded the implementation of ‘equal work equal pay’ principle, besides the acceptance of other demands. Ravinderjot Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Ranjit Singh were among others who spoke on the occasion. The union has declared to gherao the Transport Minister on August 15 in case their long-pending demands were not fulfilled. Amritsar, July 26 Teachers and members of the aided schools in the city have condemned the state government and the DPI (School Education) for not releasing grants for their salaries. Members of the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees’ Union from district alleged that inter-departmental delays have resulted in grants being given to aided schools getting delayed. “Over 200 teachers from the district, including myself, have not received salaries since March 2022. The aided schools received 95 per cent of funds through government grants and 5 per cent is management funded. While we have been running from pillar to post to know the reason behind salaries being delayed, there has been no explanation by the officials concerned at the ‘UNABLE TO MEET DAILY EXPENSES’ 200 teachers from the district have not received ❝Oversince March 2022. We have been running from salaries pillar to post to know the reason behind delay, but haven’t got any explanation so far. Staff is unable to meet their daily expenses. Ajay Chauhan, SECRETARY, AIDED SCHOOL EMPLOYEES’ UNION ❞ DPI,” informed Ajay Chauhan, secretary, aided school employees’ union. Chauhan is also a teacher at Prem Ashram Senior Secondary School, Lohgarh. He said recently grants were released for aided schools in some districts while others were still awaiting the orders. “It’s a matter of concern that the staff of these districts are working without salary for five months. Our union delegation met officials at the DPI and the deputy director of aided schools regarding releasing of grant. But till date the staff did not get a sin- gle penny. In such circumstances, staff is unable to meet up their daily expenses, their electricity bills, fee of their children and many other important household expenses. On the one side, the government promised in his election manifesto that the staff of aided schools will be given all facilities on a par with government schools, but on other hand, the DPI office is unable to release the grants,” he said. There are around 30-40 aided schools in the district and they have demanded immediate intervention of the education minister in this matter. Three booked for molesting minor Tribune News Service Amritsar, July 26 The Chattiwind police have booked three persons for allegedly molesting and attempting to kidnap a minor girl. Those booked were identified as Bagha, Furman and Sadiq, all residents of Manawala. They are yet to be arrested. A case under Sections 354, 354-A, 506 and 34 of the IPC and Section 8 of the POCSO Act was registered against them. The victim told the police that on Saturday when she was grazing buffaloes, the accused caught her and asked her to marry him. She said they wanted to kidnap her and make her tie the knot with Bagha. She alleged Sadiq who was sitting in the Bolero SUV was c m y b shouting to bring her. She said she struggled and somehow managed to get herself out of their detention and fled away. The next day the accused along with their unidentified accomplices came and threatened to kill them in case they lodged a complaint with the police. The police said raids were on to nab the accused who are absconding. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR Tribune News Service T-shirts dedicated to slain singer Sidhu Moosewala displayed at Heritage Street in Amritsar. Don’t support clubs inside Ram Bagh: NGO to MLAs Tribune News Service Amritsar, July 26 Members of a local NGO has written to Cabinet Minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar and Amritsar East MLA Jeevan Jyot Kaur to protect the interests of the public in case of encroachments in Ram Bagh (Company Bagh). Principal Kulwant Singh Ankhi, patron of the Amritsar Vikas Manch, said members of the three clubs, who had encroached upon a major part of the Company Bagh, have sought the support of MLAs and the Cabinet Minister to remain in the Company Bagh The Company Bagh in Amritsar. PHOTO: SUNIL KUMAR despite the fact that their lease had expired at least 25 years ago and they are not paying any lease money to the Amritsar Municipal Corporation. “We have urged the MLAs to not lend any support to the three clubs, who have encroached upon a major Continued on Page 2