13012023-ATR-01.qxd 1/13/2023 12:21 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST GENERALLY CLOUDY LOHRI OF HOPE, TRADITIONS & COLOURS IN HOLY CITY AJAY DEVGN TREATS FANS WITH THROWBACK PICTURES SIMI GAREWAL’S ‘RENDEZVOUS’ WITH BB16 HOUSEMATES Lohri brings warmth and spirit amid harsh winter as several institutions hosted festivities to mark day. P2 To mark National Youth Day, actor Ajay Devgn shared pictures of him from his younger days. P3 Celebrity chat show host Simi Garewal will soon be seen talking to housemates on Bigg Boss 16. P4 » » MAX 14°C | MIN 8°C YESTERDAY MAX 15°C | MIN 10°C SUNSET FRIDAY 5:47 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 7:30 AM » FRIDAY | 13 JANUARY 2023 | AMRITSAR Drive against drugs launched in Tarn Taran Patients suffer as ambulance staff join strike near Ludhiana Tarn Taran, January 12 Residents of Shahabpur and Dial villages organised a meeting at Shahabpur village on Thursday and decided to come forward against drug menace and to save youth from its clutches. Panchayat members of both the villages, besides religious personalities attended the meeting. Two police officials too participated in the meeting on behalf of the administration. In the meeting it was resolved not to pursue the cases of drug peddlers arrested by the police or any other agency. Baba Budh Singh, while addressing the meeting, said though some low category peddlers had been arrested but the big fishes were still at large.Sub-Inspector Kewal Singh and ASI Dilbag Singh urged the residents to cooperate police and give information about the peddlers and identity of the informer would be kept secret. The residents also decided in the meeting they would not go for bail surety of the drug peddlers in any court. Sant Narinder Singh assured that he would bear the cost incurred during the treatment of drug addict. The residents formed a joint committee who would keep a close watch on the activities of drugs peddlers. — OC Tribune News Service INBRIEF 1 ARRESTED WITH 75-GM HEROIN Amritsar: The Anti-Gangster Task Force team has arrested Rajbir Singh, alias Babbu, of Mehlawala village and confiscated 75-gm heroin from his possession. A case under the NDPS Act was registered and he was brought on police remand for further investigation to ascertain source of the contraband. TNS PURSE SNATCHED FROM WOMAN Amritsar: The Sultanwind police have booked a youth, identified as Sonu of Baba Budha Avenue for allegedly snatching purse from a local resident, identified as Mandeep Kaur. She told the police that she was returning home on e-rickshaw and reached near Tara Wala bridge when the accused came from behind on a bike and snatched her purse. It contained Rs 500 and other documents. The police have registered a case. TNS Amritsar, January 12 The protest by employees of 108 Ambulance Service on Thursday caused much inconvenience to patients as well as their attendants in the district. Many patients had to be transported to hospitals by private vehicles by their family members. The employees of the state-run ambulance service, being managed by a private company, went to join a statewide strike at Laddowal near Ludhiana demanding better wages and working conditions. The employees have been demanding from the state government to absorb them in the health department and pay them salaries on a par with government employees. They alleged that under the present management they were being exploited and paid less. They also accused the private management of Seven nabbed till now I 7 lakh tablets seized so far Tribune News Service A patient being transported on a stretcher by his attendant towards a ward in Government Medical College in Amritsar on Thursday. not revising their salaries for the last many years. Meanwhile, patients were an inconvenienced lot as their calls made to call ambulance service remained unanswered. The families of the patients had to make their own arrangements. A visit to Government Medical College here revealed that many people were bringing patients on auto-rickshaws and other private vehicles. They stated that the 108 ambulance service was very beneficial for poor patients in case of road accidents and for those who does not own any vehicle. MC takes action against illegal colony Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 12 The Municipal Town Planning (MTP) wing of the MC demolished the roads and other infrastructure in an illegal colony in Partap Nagar area Tramadol racket: Chemists under police radar in city here on Thursday. Roads were being made by de-marking the plots of various sizes in a land chunk of two and a half acres along the GT Road Pratap Nagar area of East Zone. On MC Commissioner’s orders, Sandeep Rishi, Assis- tant Town Planner Paramjit Singh Dutta, Building Inspector Rohini, demolition staff, the department’s team along with MC police took action against the illegal colony. The coloniser did not get nod to develop the colony. Amritsar, January 12 Following the arrest of two more persons in connection with the interstate racket of illegal manufacturing and trafficking of tramadol tablets, the city police are now trying to identify the chemists or others who were involved in the illegal purchase and sale of the tablets. Till now, the police have nabbed seven persons in the racket, including Usman Rajput, owner of a pharmaceutical firm — Rapport Remedies — located in the industrial area of Dehradun in Uttarakhand. Besides Rajput, others who were arrested included Nishan Sharma of Sunder Nagar and Rajiv Kumar of the Namak Mandi area here, Nitin Singh of Rohini, Delhi, Sanjiv Arora of Vikas Puri in Delhi, Rishi Kumar of Muzaffarpur in Bihar (now residing in Budh Vihar of Delhi) and Rajan Kumar of Saran district, Bihar. The racket was busted following the arrest of Nishan Sharma and Rajiv Kumar on Two accused, residents of Bihar, were held by city police with a huge quantity of tramadol tablets. December 21 when the police confiscated 29,920 tablets of tramadol and Rs 29,000 were seized from their possession. Their interrogation led the police to Usman Rajput who was arrested with 4.05 lakh of tramadol tablets. Ironically, his licence was already cancelled by the drug authorities in Dehradun. His firm was sealed by the Punjab Police on December 26. The record seized from the spot led the police party to Nitin Singh and Sanjiv Arora who were operating a distri- bution firm in the name of ‘A Phrama’. During the probe, the police found no such firm existed physically. Further probe resulted led to the arrest of Rishi and Rajan, seizure of 3.63 lakh of tramadol tablets and Rs 4 lakh of drug money from their possession following a raid at their godown in Uttam Nagar, Shiv Vihar, in Delhi. Police Commissioner Jaskaran Singh said investigations carried out so far revealed that they had formed illegal firms on the basis of fake documents. They used to procure sedative pills in the name of these firms and later further sold them on fake bills. After six or seven months of operation, they used to shut down the firm and created another fake firm. They were planning to create three more such firms for future illegal operations, he told. He said the parcels in which they used to courier the drugs contained the stamp of general drugs and they would put tramadol in these parcels. Teachers to suspend evaluation work Two nabbed for breaking into house in Tarn Taran Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 12 A meeting of the district council of university and college teachers from major colleges of the city, including DAV College, BBK DAV College, DAV College of Education, Khalsa College, Khalsa College for Women, Khalsa College of Education, Hindu College, SN College and SDSP College Rayya, was held here on Thursday. They unanimously rejected the state government’s decision to reduce the retirement age from 60 years to 58 years in its 7th Pay Commission notification for college teachers. Terming the decision discriminatory, they said it was against the Grant-in-Aid Act in 1979 by the Punjab Government, where the retirement age of teachers was fixed at 60 years. DAV College teacher Dr Gurdas Sekhon, who is also a member of the PCCTU, Amritsar, said aided college staff was not getting pension, so retirement age should not be as per the government employees. Tribune News Service College teachers protest the reduction retirement age in Amritsar on Thursday. “Also, the staff of aided colleges is under the governess of university calendar, which depicts the retirement age of 60 years for college and university teachers,” said Dr Sekhon, general secretary, PCCTU. Further Dr Sekhon pointed out that the UGC was recommending retirement age of 65 years for college/university teachers whereas the Punjab Government was working reversely. In this context, recently the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Non-Govt Aided Colleges Management Federation (NGACMF), Principals’ Associations, Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) and Un-aided Private Colleges’ body also expressed resentment over the decision. All colleges will observe strike on January 18. Dr BB Yadav, district president, PCCTU, said it had been decided to boycott the evalua- tion work in all the universities on January 16 in protest against reduction of retirement age. “On January 18, all colleges will remain shut and memorandums would be submitted to Deputy Commissioners in all district headquarters as neither the Higher Education Minister nor the CM is giving us time meet them to raise our issues,” said Dr Seema Jaitly, Women Convener (Punjab), PCCTU. Amritsar, January 12 The Tarn Taran police have nabbed two alleged robbers who broke into a house on the intervening night of January 7 and 8 with the intention of burglary. They were identified as Rahul Singh and Abdul Masih of Ward No.1 of Patti. The police have confiscated two country-made weapons along with live rounds from their possession. The police said raids were on to nab their accomplices who absconded following the instance. The complainant, Balbir Singh, who is a resident of Ward No.19 of Patti, told the police that at around 11pm on January 7, he came out of his room and started moving towards the kitchen to take water for his ill wife, when he found around six armed persons entering his house. Two accused in custody of the Tarn Taran police on Thursday. They were armed with baseball bats, datar and wooden sticks. Balbir identified Rahul Singh, Abdul Masih and Sukhchain Singh, but three others who had covered their faces could not be identified by him. On seeing them, he shouted and called his brother who fired a gunshot at the accused. Some of them got hit by splin- ters following which they fled from the spot. A complaint was lodged with the police and the police nabbed Rahul and Abdul Masih. Gurmeet Singh Chohan, SSP Tarn Taran, said the , accused were produced in a court, which sent them to police custody. Raids were on to nab their absconding accomplices. 3 booked for selling Chinese dor Boom barriers at BRTS flyover on Batala road soon Amritsar, January 12 The Rural Police have booked three persons for allegedly storing and selling the banned synthetic kite string. Those booked were identified as Ranjiv Kumar, his father Ramesh Kumar and Akash, all residents of Fatehgarh Churian here. Investigating officer Takwinder Singh said a police team was present at Chowk Talwandi Nahar when it got a tip-off that Ranjiv and his father Ramesh were involved in selling Chinese kite string on a large scale from a closed factory on Ajnala Road. Following this, the police raided the factory and recovered 336 Chinese rolls (gattu) from the spot though no accused was arrested in the Tribune News Service The accused in the custody of Amritsar police. TRIBUNE PHOTO case so far. The police have registered a case. ASI Takwinder Singh, investigating officer in the case, said further probe was on and raids were being conducted to nab the suspects. Meanwhile, the city police have arrested Rohit Kumar of Dhupsadi area in Verka for allegedly selling acrylic kite string. The police recovered four rolls from his possession. A case has been filed. — TNS Amritsar, January 12 With rising instances of accidents in the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) lane due to unabated plying of general vehicles, the police administration along with civic authorities have planned to install boom barriers in the BRTS lane. These barriers would be opened with sensors installed in the BRTS buses. As a pilot project, four boom barriers are being installed at Batala Road BRTS fly over from Celebration Mall to Verka bypass chowk and vice versa. If succeeded, it would be installed on other routes also. Rajesh Sharma, an official of the Municipal Corporation, said that a Ghaziabad firm c m y b WHO CARES? Commuters drive their vehicles on the BRTS lane in Amritsar on Thursday. had been hired to install boom barriers at a cost of over Rs 14 lakh. He said that it would help as deterrence for people plying their vehicles on the BRTS lanes, which is exclu- sively made for BRTS operations. He said that if anybody damages the same, stringent action would be taken. “Barriers work with sensors installed in the BRTS buses. The buses will reach the BRTS bus stop it will be lifted and as soon as the bus pass through, it will come down,” he explained. With traffic scenario in the holy city turning into a nightmare for commuters, the people are tempted to ply in the BRTS lanes, thereby making these lanes accident prone areas especially in the nights. The four wheelers zoom past in these lanes while the broken iron grills are used by pedestrians to cross the road. This makes the lanes vulnerable to mishaps. Two days ago, a youth was killed in the BRTS lane when a speedy SUV hit him near Chheharta.