20022023-ATR-01.qxd 2/20/2023 12:02 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune MOVE GOOD, BUT IMPROVE EDUCATION INFRA FIRST RICHARD GERE ON ROAD TO RECOVERY FROM ILLNESS The worst seems to be over for Richard Gere, who is currently recovering after being sick for weeks. P3 PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 27°C | MIN 13°C YESTERDAY MAX 27°C | MIN 13°C ACTRESS PRIYA BANERJEE JOINS RANA NAIDU TEAM Train teachers in latest techniques abroad, but also ensure basic facilities in all schools: Residents P2 FORECAST Actress Priya Banerjee will be donning the leading lady in the upcoming series, Rana Naidu. P4 » » SUNSET MONDAY 6.20 PM SUNRISE TUESDAY 7:07 AM » MONDAY | 20 FEBRUARY 2023 | AMRITSAR Gang of vehicle lifters busted, 4 arrested Tarn Taran, February 19 The Valtoha police busted a five-member gang of vehicle lifters on Saturday by arresting four of the gang members. The police also recovered two stolen motorcycles from the possession of the arrested accused. One of the gang members is absconding. ASI Sawinderpal Singh, who was leading the operation to bust the gang, said the gang members had been identified as Gurpreet Singh Gora, Hardeep Singh Dipi, Dilbag Singh, Manpreet Singh Kalu of Amarkot and Kashmir Singh of Bhikhiwind. Manpreet Singh kalu of Amarkot is absconding. The ASI said the gang members Gurpreet Singh and Hardeep Singh were arrested from the outskirts of Valtoha village with two stolen motorcycles who used to sell stolen bikes through Kashmir Singh and Dilbag Singh to innocent buyers at cheap rates. The arrested gang members were produced in a court on Sunday and the court sent them to two-day police custody. — OC Farmer unions set for rail roko in Gurdaspur from Feb 22 Two involved in kidnapping, Demand MSP for milk & new agriculture policy ~10L extortion case nabbed Of the six absconding prime suspects, two are yet to be identified Tribune News Service Members of the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha hold a meeting at Raipur village in Amritsar on Sunday. Amritsar, February 19 The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMKSC) is all set for the rail roko protest against the government at Gurdaspur from February 22 over unfair compensation for land acquisition for Bharat Mala project, stated general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher after a meeting of the union here today. Pandher alleged that while some influential people were being paid more as compensation for the land, the others were being paid much less. He said the administration has not given reasons for the dis- parity in compensation for the two adjacent plots. The KMSC leaders said thousands of farmers including women would participate in the rail roko at Gurdaspur. They stated that the other demands include release of sugarcane dues, compensation and jobs for the kin of farmers who had died during the agitation at the Delhi border. They said the Centre had yet not brought a law for the legal guarantee of MSP It strange . farmers have been forced to initiate a protest for getting fair compensation for their land. Meanwhile, members of the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha organised a public meeting at Raipur village and demanded from the government to fix the MSP for all crops, including vegetables. They also demanded that MSP be fixed for milk. Association president Dr Satnam Singh Ajnala said, “We also demand that the work of purchase, storage and distribution of food products should be done through public sector units and corporate houses be kept away.” The association demanded a new agriculture policy in which interests of food producers are protected.— TNS Amritsar, February 19 With the arrest of two persons, the city police claimed to have busted a gang of extortionists, which was involved in the kidnapping of a local resident and extorting Rs 10 lakh from him. Those arrested were identified as Jaskaran Khanna, alias Kaka, of Hukum Singh Road and Ajay Negi of Sharipura area. However, their six accomplices are still absconding and the police said raids were on to nab them. Those absconding have been identified as Bhupinder Singh, alias Laddi of Sharifpura, Kunal Mahajan alias Keshan alias Kan of Shivala Road, Mayank Mahajan and Sahil Duggal alias Lalli of Sharifpura locality. Two of their accomplices were yet to be identified. The police also recovered NSDC Adviser wants to set up skill dev centre in city Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 After being appointed Adviser to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Dr Sandeep Singh Kaura whose family hails from Amritsar’s Malowal village, would like to open a Skill India International Centre in the holy city. The recent Union Budget proposed to set up 30 such centres across the country and as a pilot project, the first such centre in the country has been opened in Varanasi. Currently working as Chancellor, Lamrin Tech Skills University, Punjab, Dr Kaura passed out from the commerce department of Khalsa College in 1998. An ideal example for the contemporary youth, Kaura had Migrant labourer found dead at construction site Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 The police have found the body of a man, identified as Ram Roop, who had been missing for the past fortnight. His body was found in the under-construction lift structure in a building in Ranjit Avenue D block here on Sunday. The incident came to light when the odour of the dead body filled the building. A migrant, the victim was working in the adjoining building. He went missing on February 1. Varinder Singh Khosa, ACP (North), said inquest proceedings were under way in the incident and the body was sent for a postmortem. The ACP said it appeared to be an accidental fall that led to this death. Nevertheless, the autopsy report of the deceased would clear the reason, he added. Dr Sandeep Singh Kaura a humble childhood. His father Kuldeep Singh was a constable in the Punjab Police. The family, comprising three brothers and a sister, had shifted to Krishna Nagar in the Jodda Phatak area for better education. Being an adviser to the Skill Development and Technical Education Department, Punjab, headed by the Chief Minister, he had pleaded the case of providing employment to the next of kin of the victims of Dasehra rail tragedy. Later, all of them had received jobs. At the national level, he has been tasked to map the requirement of professionals in foreign countries. For this, he said he would go on to collaborate with professional agencies of that country and develop the same skills among the youth here. This will ultimately lead to an increase in inward remittances and automatically decrease the outflow of rupee. To drive his vision, the implementation strategy will be to bring together international accreditation and certification bodies, overseas employers and international training partners by preparing the young workforce in domain and linguistic skills, continued on page 2 Rs 16,000 from the possession of Khanna and Negi. The duo had picked up the cash from the father of the victim. Assistant Commissioner of Police (North) Varinder Singh Khosa said the accused had kidnapped Shivam Sood, a grocery store owner, on February 2 from outside his house when he had just reached there. Sood told the police as he came out of his car, a bike-borne youth hit his bike. As they indulged into arguments, a car stopped nearby him. Three of occupants bundled him into a car and fled away. Sood told the police that the accused posed as accomplices of Lawrence Bishnoi and demanded Rs 10 lakh as extortion while pointing pistols at New SSP (Rural) seeks people’s cooperation to check crime PK Jaiswar Dr Sandeep Kaura wants to create skilled workforce hub Neeraj Bagga Two of the accused in custody of the Amritsar police on Sunday. him. He said he got afraid and called his father asking him to hand over the amount to his friend. He said the accused then called his accomplices who took the amount from his father. He said the accused then let him off while threatening to shoot his entire family in case he revealed the incident to anyone. Khosa said the victim informed the police next day following which a case was registered at the Sadar police station under Sections 365, 384, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act was registered against unknown persons. Following an initial probe, the police nabbed Jaskaran and Ajay and their interrogation led to the identification of their accomplices. While Bhupinder had three criminal cases, including attempt to murder, Kunal Mahajan had a murder case registered against him. Tribune News Service The drone recovered from border area on Friday night. GURBAXPURI Drone entering from Pak side shot down Amritsar, February 19 The newly appointed Amritsar Senior Superintendent of Police (Rural) Satinder Singh has a challenging task ahead of him — that is of checking cross-border smuggling of drugs and weapons with the help of drones by Pakistanbased anti-national elements. However, he plans to counter this with the ‘cooperation of people’, especially those living in the border areas. “With people’s cooperation, we would fight against the scourge of drugs in this border district. I’ll visit villages in the border areas and hold public meetings to improve liaisoning between the police and public,” he said. Amritsar has witnessed a large number of aerial intrusions by unmanned aerial vehicles in the recent past. Amritsar police had recov- Newly appointed Amritsar (Rural) SSP Satinder Singh ered over six drones recently that were used for smuggling of narcotics and arms. Satinder Singh said the Punjab Police have adopted a zerotolerance approach against rampant drug smuggling and addiction and have clear instructions to deal with those involved in drug peddling with an iron hand. “We have been maintaining close contact with other agencies including the Border Security Force and intelligence agencies to nail Tarn Taran, February 19 Vigilant BSF jawans fired at a drone spotted entering from the Pakistan side on Friday night at about 11.47 pm near BOP Noorwala falling under Khemkaran police station. The 103 Battalion of the BSF said here on Sunday that the personnel deployed at BOP Noorwala heard the buzzing sound of a suspected flying object coming from the Pakistan side. BSF troops fired 23 rounds at the object and it was brought down. The jawans took the drone in their custody. The area was searched on Saturday and four packets of heroin weighing 4 kg were recovered. Further proceedings have been initiated, BSF officials said. — OC Dr Harpreet makes his presence felt in city music circles DCC president exhorts party workers to gear up for LS poll MC initiates drive to keep UDBC, surroundings clean Our Correspondent Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 Singing is next passion after dentistry for Dr Harpreet Singh, popularly known as Dr Harry, in music circles of Amritsar. Recently, his rendition of Satinder Sartaj’s song, ‘ Rutba’, from Punjabi movie Kali Jotta has been receiving overwhelming response on his YouTube channel. Dr Harpreet is a dentist and currently working at Community Health Center, Sursingh in Tarn Taran district. Apart from prime occupation, he spares good amount of time for practice regularly and it is a reason that his presence over musical stage in Amritsar is quite common now. Dr Harpreet said, “I was having inclination towards music and I am a die-hard fan of Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Tarn Taran, February 19 The District Congress Committee president (Tarn Taran), Harminder Singh Gill, addressed party workers at the local Congress Bhawan on Sunday. He exhorted the party workers to be ready for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled for the next year. He claimed that the AAP-led Punjab Government has failed to build a good administration. He also alleged that corruption is prevalent in the state machinery. He condemned the closure of rural health centers already functioning in the district for decades as the staff and the Medical Officers of these health centers have been sent to the Aam Aadmi Clinics. Amritsar, February 19 The Amritsar Municipal Corporation recently initiated a drive to keep the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) clean. Staff of the health wing of the MC conducted cleanliness around the canal near GT Road. Municipal Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar said a special campaign had been started to clean the canal surroundings along with Chief Sanitary Inspector JP Singh, Sanitary Inspector Anil Dogra, sanitary supervisors and safai sevaks. He said it was very important to make people to maintain cleanliness around the canal. People should not throw garbage and single use plastic into the canal. He said during the cleanliness of the the drug traffickers. Search operations are carried out with BSF whenever such intrusions are noticed,” he said. Besides drugs, illegal country-made weapons were also finding their way into the border state. This has increased crime rate in the border areas. Armed robbers are striking at their will in different parts of the rural belt. About a month ago, Rs 17.50 lakh was looted from the Punjab National Bank’s Kathunangal branch. The SSP (Rural) said the Punjab government has launched a concerted drive against gangsters and armed traffickers. Maintaining law and order is always a top priority for the police, he emphasised. Satinder Singh said the police would be made peoplefriendly and it would be ensured that women and the elderly are not summoned to police stations. Dr Harpreet Singh Kumar since childhood. Initially I was shy to perform over stages and it took a lot of time to remove hesitation and finally I am taking part prominent musical nights organised in Amritsar. I usually upload retro Hindi songs on my YouTube channel, but it was for the first time that I uploaded a Punjabi song and it has received a good response from viewers.” — TNS c m y b The Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) in Amritsar. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR canal, the Health Wing team apprised people of the importance of water and ill-effects of water pollution. Dr Kiran Kumar said warning boards had been installed on the spot. The warning board asked the residents not to spread filth in and around the canal. Legal action would be taken against those who throw filth into the canal. Even challans would also be issued and his team would keep a check on the violators continuously. Goindwal Sahib trader receives extortion call Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, February 19 Amarjyoti Chawla, a karyana merchant of Sri Goindwal Sahib, has reported receiving an extortion call. Prem Singh, father of the shopkeeper, said theirs was a small business and the extortionist had demanded Rs 20 lakh. Chawla said he received the extortion call from the number +447440231524 on February 9 and then on February 15, demanding Rs 20 lakh. The caller threatened to kill him in case he refused to oblige. Prem Singh said the family was under great mental pressure. He said that during the period of militancy, the family had migrated to Haryana and returned only when normalcy prevailed. The Goindwal Sahib police have registered a case under Sections 386 and 506 of the IPC.