18012023-ATR-01.qxd 1/18/2023 12:25 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune PANELS TO CHECK CHINESE STRING SALE IN JALANDHAR SELENA GOMEZ HAS FOUND LOVE IN DREW TAGGART Hollywood Singer and actress Selena Gomez is said to be enjoying time with Drew Taggart. P3 GENERALLY CLOUDY MAX 16°C | MIN 2°C YESTERDAY MAX 17°C | MIN 2°C SHOTGUN WEDDING TO PREMIERE ON JANUARY 27 The Jalandhar DC has constituted committees to check the sale of Chinese kite strings. P2 FORECAST Shotgun Wedding will premiere for Lionsgate Play members starting from January 27. P4 » » SUNSET WEDNESDAY 5.49 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:26 AM » WEDNESDAY | 18 JANUARY 2023 | AMRITSAR INBRIEF SIX CELLPHONES SEIZED FROM JAIL Amritsar: The Amritsar Central Jail authorities have confiscated six mobile phones with other prohibited material from inside the high security jail here. Three cell phones were seized from three prisoners who were identified as Yudhvir Singh, Rishav Bhatia and Dharvinder Singh. One mobile phone was abandoned during a surprise check. An unclaimed packet was seized from the jail complex. It contained two mobile phones and 102 bundles of bidis, six tobacco packets, five cool lips, two packets of cigarettes, two mobile chargers, two heater springs and two data cables. The packet was apparently thrown from outside the jail by some unknown miscreants. The police have registered four separate cases in this regard. TNS THREE ARRESTED WITH HEROIN Amritsar: The city police have arrested three persons in two separate cases and seized 195 gm of heroin from their possession. They were identified as Gurpreet Singh of Fateh Singh Colony, Aniket Singh of Kot Khalsa and Manpreet Singh of Katra Moti Ram. The police seized 160 gm of contraband from Gurpreet Singh while other two were possessing 35 gm of heroin. TNS Delimitation process of MC wards nears completion; high-level meeting on Jan 18 Charanjit Singh Teja Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 17 The demarcation for the new boundaries of the Municipal Corporation wards is being conducted on the basis of a delimitation survey in the city. A high-level meeting of the delimitation board would be held in Chandigarh on January 19. The MC staff deployed for the delimitation process is working to complete the task before the meeting. A team of the Municipal Corporation on the delimitation duty has prepared a map of the city wards. The number of MC wards would remain 85 but the boundaries and serial numbers would be changed. Municipal Corporation Joint Commissioner Hardeep Singh recently held a meeting with the officials associated with the delimitation process. Hardeep The number of MC wards would remain 85 but the boundaries and serial numbers would be changed. said all the officers submitted their reports during the meeting. The MC boundaries of wards would be finalised now. Following that, a delimitation resolution will be passed in a meeting. The Director of the Local Body Department will hold a meeting in Chandigarh on Thursday (January 19) regarding the delimitation of the city’s wards. The meeting would be attended by Deputy Commissioner Harpreet Singh Sudan, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu, the five MLAs of the city, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sandeep Rishi, Joint Commissioner MC Hardeep Singh and councillors of the Delimitation board. Earlier the delimitation of ONE HELD FOR SNATCHING Amritsar: Maqboolpura police have nabbed Princepal Singh of Johal Dhaewalal village in Tarn Taran for snatching a mobile phone of a local resident, Sandeep Kumar. TNS Despite ban, sale of string rampant across city Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 17 A youth was grievously injured by a dangling Chinese synthetic kite string on Sultanwind Road here on Tuesday. The string left a deep cut on his throat when he was on his way to work (he is an employee of HDFC Bank). The victim has been identified as Mansimran Singh (28), a resident of Baba Buddha Ji Avenue falling under the Sultanwind police station here. Passersby rushed him to a private hospital where his condition is stated to be serious. Paramjit Singh Rajewal, father of the victim, said his son worked in the loan department of the bank. He HIT BY ACRYLIC STRING The victim works in the loan department of the bank. This morning when he was on way to the bank, a dangling acrylic kite string got entangled around his neck slitting his throat. He somehow stopped his bike while passersby rushed him to hospital. said this morning when he was on way to the bank, a dangling acrylic kite string District & Sessions Judge visits Work on automated parking at Goindwal Sahib Central jail Kairon market likely in March Tribune News Service MAN ROBBED OF MOBILE PHONE Amritsar: Unknown persons snatched a mobile phone from a government employee, Upwinder Kaur. She works as a medical laboratory technician at a community health centre in Sursingh village. The incident occurred in Maqboolpura area. The incident occurred when she was returning home on an autorickshaw. Two motorcycle-borne miscreants came from behind and snatched her phone. A complaint has been lodged with the police. TNS wards was conducted in 2017 and the number of wards had increased from 65 to 85. This time, the number of wards would not be raised. Even though the MC has collected caste-based data to reserve wards for candidates belonging to scheduled castes and other backward classes, but the same areas would remain reserved for different categories. Last time, the odd number wards were reserved for women candidates as the government had declared 50 per cent of reservation for women in all the categories. This time, the pattern may be changed for the genderbased reservation. The delimitation board had asked the MC staff in a recent meeting to divide the population of the city in 85 equal segments. The new boundaries should be drawn as per the assembly constituencies. Hit by Chinese string, biker gets 20 stitches District and Sessions Judge Priya Sood, accompanied by Chief Judicial Magistrate Pratima Arora, listens to the problems of jail inmates at the Central Jail in Goindwal Sahib on Tuesday. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, January 17 The District and Sessions Judge, Priya Sood, who is also the Chairperson of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), paid a surprise visit to the Central Jail, Goindwal Sahib, here on Tuesday. She was here to get the first-hand information of the living conditions of the inmates. The District and Sessions Judge was accompanied by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Pratima Arora, who is also the District Secretary of the DLSA, and CJM Rajesh Ahluwalia. Judge Priya Sood apprised the inmates of their legal rights and redressed their problems. The Judge also visited the kitchen and barracks in the premises. She instructed Jail Superintendent Iqbal Singh to sanitise the jail from time to time. Amritsar, January 17 Finally, the construction work for automated multilevel parking at Kairon market is expected to start within next a few months. The technical evaluation of the tender of Kairon market multilevel parking is going on with the Municipal Corporation Technical Evaluation Committee. If a valid bid is found, the file will go to the Local Government Department, Chandigarh, for vetting. After getting the approval from Local Government Department, the construction of parking is expected to start in the month of March. Earlier, a tender was floated several times by the Smart City, but it could not materialise. As per the proposed plan, there would be a total of seven floors (two underground) at the proposed Kairon market parking. The cars would The Kairon Market parking where the project will come up. be parked automatically in the lots. The parking would facilitate several markets near Hall Bazaar and Katra Jaimal Singh. The automated parking projects were announced by Amritsar Smart City Limited (ASCL) in 2017. In 2020, the city-level technical committee revised the cost of multi-level car parking at the Kairon market. Earlier, the cost of the project was Rs 18.24 crore, which had been revised to Rs 32 crore. got entangled around his neck slitting his throat. He somehow stopped his bike while passersby rushed towards him and removed the string. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors administered around 20 stitches on his neck. The incident has once again highlighted the menace of rampant use of Chinese kite string by kite flyers. Concerned over the menace, the Punjab Government had recently asked the Deputy Commissioners and district police chiefs to take stern action against the violators recently. Despite this, the deadly string is used by people while the district administration and police officials look the other way. Man loses bike to 5 miscreants Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 17 A group of five bike-borne miscreants robbed a local resident of his bike on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. A complaint was lodged with the police yesterday, and a case has been registered under Sections 379-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. There has been no breakthrough in the case so far. The gang of bike-borne robbers has been on the prowl in the district. The cops are still groping in the dark about the gang members. Ravi Kumar, a resident of Division C police station area, told the police that he was on his way back home on his bike at around 2 am when the incident occurred. He said that as he had reached the Gilwali gate, five men showed up on two bikes. They waylaid him. One of them allegedly even pointed a dagger at Kumar. continued on page 2 Residents stage dharna over Rising interest rates Laid fortnight ago, road dug civic problems in Tarn Taran affecting exports, local up again to lay sewer pipes industry, says PPBM Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Residents of Muradpur and Gokalpur localities during a protest in Tarn Taran. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI Tarn Taran, January 17 Residents of the local Muradpur and Gokalpur localities staged a dharna in front of the main gate of the municipal council office here on Tuesday. They were protesting against civic issues and the sale of drugs in their areas. As the dharna staged in front of the main gate was blocking the movement of people (visitors) and the employees of the municipal council to the office for hours, the barricade was removed with the mutual understanding between the protesters for public interest. Fakir Chand Khaddoo, Zabar Singh, Dalbir Singh and others, leading the protesters, said they had come to the civic body office to raise the issues of overflowing drain and sewers and the stagnant sewage water in streets of the localities, creating a foul smell. Besides, they alleged that a self-styled leader of the ruling AAP misbehaved with them. It was also one of the reasons that they decided to sit on the dharna in protest. While addressing on the occasion, the leaders said the residents were forced to live in abysmal conditions with sewage water accumulated in the streets and the bazaars of the locality. They said they were being supplied contaminated drinking water with the result that many residents were suffering from Hepatitis-B. — OC Amritsar, January 17 The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) has claimed that exports from India were declining due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.PPBM officebearers also said that a higher interest rate was being charged from the domestic industry and that the war in Europe had jacked up the cost of all kind of fuels, thereby disrupting the supply chain. Piara Lal Seth, president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said the country’s exports declined by 12.2 per cent to 34.48 billion US dollar and the country’s trade deficit increased to 23.76 billion US dollar in December 2022. The pace of orders from Europe and America had also slowed down, he informed. c m y b Sunil Mehra, another PPBM functionary, said due to the Ukraine-Russia war, the global economy had slowed down and closer home, the Reserve Bank of India had increased the repo rate by 2.25 per cent since May 2020, which affected the interest rates of banks and provided capital to businessmen at a higher interest rate. Due to these factors, indigenously rolled out products were lagging behind in competition in the domestic and international markets. In the event of this crisis, the government should provide capital to traders at lower interest rates while bank interest rates should be reduced for the MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) so that exports as well as domestic consumption can increase, Mehra said. The Chabhal road outside Waheguru City which was dug up to lay sewer pipes in Amritsar on Tuesday. Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 17 The stretch of the Chabhal road outside Waheguru City, which was laid a fortnight ago, is now being dug up to lay sewer pipes. Residents of the area are surprised as the stretch was a kutcha road and it was laid for the first time now. The digging has been underway for the last two days. Harjeet Singh, a resident of the area, said the road was laid after a long wait. He recalled that Dr Ajay Gupta, MLA of the Central assembly constituency, under whose jurisdiction the locality comes, had inaugurated the project. “We were dismayed to find the newly laid road being dug up to lay the sewer pipes.” Manjeet Kaur, another resident, said they did not know when the road would be re-laid the next time. “Public money has gone down the drain and they would have to once again face clouds of dust and difficulty in moving along the stretch. A vehicle passing the stretch would raise dust. The houses constructed on both sides of the road would be covered with dust.” Dr Ajay Gupta, MLA of the Central assembly constituency, said he would comment on the matter after getting it properly checked.