18052023-ATR-01.qxd 5/18/2023 12:32 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune DESPITE INCENTIVES, FARMERS UNWILLING TO ADOPT DSR SHAH RUKH KHAN HOSTS US AMBASSADOR TO INDIA US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti was hosted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai. P3 PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 38°C | MIN 24°C YESTERDAY MAX 41°C | MIN 23°C GAYLE TALKS ABOUT HIS COLLABORATION WITH ARKO Though the state government has declared incentives, farmers seem unwilling to go for DSR. P2 FORECAST West Indies batting legend Chris Gayle has joined hands with singer Arko for the track, Oh Fatima. P4 » » SUNSET THURSDAY 7.22 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 5:31 AM » THURSDAY | 18 MAY 2023 | AMRITSAR INBRIEF GANG OF THIEVES BUSTED, 8 HELD Amritsar:The Sadar police have busted a gang of thieves who used to steal scrap from closed factories and later sold it to a scrap dealer who was also arrested by the police. Those arrested were identified as Gagandeep Singh, Surinderpal Singh, Sahil, Arjan Singh, Kishan Singh, Sahil aka Jara and Vinod Kumar, all residents of Mustafabad area on the Batala road. The scrap dealer, identified as Vijay Kumar of the same locality, was also arrested by the police following preliminary investigations. The police authorities said Joti of Indira Colony was the mastermind of the gang and he was yet to be arrested. Assistant Commissioner of Police Varinder Singh Khosa said the accused used to steal goods from closed factories on the Batala road. The police have recovered an iron gate, a fridge, a bike, iron bars and a submersible motor from their possession. TNS ASSAULT ON COP: ONE BOOKED Amritsar:A day after a video of a man scuffling with a traffic cop near the Khalsa College area went viral on social media. Taking note of the incident, the Cantonment police have booked the accused, identified as Jagtar Singh, of Kaler village near Ram Tirath. He was booked for assaulting a government officials and obstructing him from discharging his duties. TNS Paddy transplantation across fence to begin after June 10 Working hours in the fields across the fence are limited Arms smuggling via drones a challenge for security forces Punjab Police & BSF to evolve strategy to counter the menace GS Paul Tribune News Service Farmers pass by the fence at Kakkar village along the Indo-Pak border in Amritsar. FILE PHOTO Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 17 The state government has already fixed June 19 as the starting date for paddy transplantation in the district and now it has relaxed the norms for the farmers tilling land across the barbed fence alongside the International Border with Pakistan in view of the problems faced by them. These farmers are allowed to transplant paddy after June 10. The farmers tilling their lands across the fence have to go through strict security checks. The working hours in the fields on the other side of the fence are also restricted due to security reasons. Unlike the farmers tilling their land on this side of the fence who can work throughout day and night, those tilling land on the other side have only fixed hours, out of which too, a lot of time is wasted during security checks. A farmer owning land on the other side of the fence said, “Proper identity documents even for farm labourers are required. Usually, labourers work from early in the morning to late in the evening in normal conditions, but across the fence, they get only seven to eight hours maximum on a daily basis.” He said, “It is good that the government has relaxed the norms for them, otherwise they would have to face huge problems.” Farmers’ leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said farming on the land across the border fence was a difficult job considering that it was a 24-hour job. “During harvesting and sowing of crops, farmers work day and night to complete the work. The security norms should be relaxed or it could be done in such a way as it takes very less time,” he added. Amritsar, May 17 In the absence of any technology that could counter the air penetration from across the India-Pakistan border, the smuggling of narcotics and arms through drones has been the biggest challenge for the security agencies The emerging trend of terrorist-gangster-smuggler-criminal nexus, sensitive issues like drug trafficking, capacity-building in the area of counter-drone measures and fast exchange of actionable information on realtime basis, was deliberated upon during the joint coordination meeting of senior Punjab Police officers of the border districts of Punjab and senior BSF officers organised at BSF Campus, Khasa, Amritsar. Arpit Shukla, Special Director General (Law and Order) agreed that smuggling through drones was indeed a challenge and that a mutual strategy in collaboration with the BSF was being devised to counter this menace. Shukla said that the focus of the meeting was to have a seamless multi-level coordination between the police and the BSF in addition to , ADGP (Law & Order) Arpit Shukla (centre) addresses mediapersons at the BSF’s Khasa headquarters near Amritsar on Wednesday. Also seen in the picture are Dr Atul Fulzele, IG, Punjab Frontier (right) and DIG (Border Range) Narinder Bhargav. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR roping in the local population of the border belt. On the lines of the BSF the , Punjab Police too has announced an award of Rs 1 lakh to an informer who would expose those indulging in smuggling through drones. Shukla claimed that the BSF’s exercise of awarding the informers has yielded results. Punjab shares an approximately 553 km of international border with Pakistan comprising the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Ferozepur. In the absence of any technological counter plan, the security agencies are dependent only on troop alertness in detecting the “buzzing sounds” of the drones. Though the BSF possesses a trained dog squad to detect the concealed narcotics and arms, the latest addition was a female dog that has been trained to catch the sound of drones. Christened as “Frooti”, this German Shepherd has been deployed since May 2022 after it underwent a special training at the BSF’s National Dog Training Centre at Tekanpur, Gwalior. It has secured the title of being India’s first trained dog in drone detection. On the success rate of cracking the cross-border drug nexus, an official, preferring PSPCL goods stored illegally in pvt godowns seized PPBM members meet DETC Powercom Junior Engineer comes under the scanner of department The goods seized from the private godown near Ghee Mandi in Amritsar on Wednesday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 17 The enforcement wing of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) on Wednesday raided two private godowns located on the premises of a shrine near Ghee Mandi Gate area and recovered a huge quantity of missing power cables and other equipment worth lakhs of rupees from the spot. The godowns were allegedly hired by a Junior Engineer who had stored the material in an illegal manner without informing the department. “The material was issued to him for installation during his duty hours, but he failed to deposit the left-out material to the department,” said a senior official of Powercom wishing not to be named. The Junior Engineer was under the radar of the depart- ment for the past few months after it detected huge power thefts under Ghee Mandi subdivision where he has been posted for the past 15 years. Sources said the PSPCL authorities had fined two hotels in the past two months after they were found indulging in power thefts allegedly in connivance with the aforesaid Junior Engineer. They hotels which were located in the walled city could not be allowed power meters as per the norms. The official said a preliminary report would be handed over to the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of PSPCL for further necessary action against him. Acting on a tip-off, sleuths of the enforcement wing landed at the godowns around 8am. They recovered over 1,000 kg of aluminum power cables of different sizes, electric conductors of different sizes weighing around 400 kg, new cable wires of different sizes and LTCT power meters from the spot. The cost of the entire material was around Rs 6-7 lakh. As per the norms, Powercom employees have to inform senior officials in case he hires a private space for storage of wires and equipment. However, the accused JE had not informed the department about the stores. The material was found from the basement and a room located near the langar hall of the shrine. The raiding team included two Executive Engineers, three subdivisional officers and four junior engineers. over verification of GST dealers District Excise and Taxation Commissioner Rajwinder Kaur (2nd from left) being given a memorandum. Amritsar, May 17 A delegation of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) met the District Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC) Rajwinder Kaur regarding door-to-door verification of GST dealers here on Wednesday. The PPBM delegation led by their president Piara Lal Seth met the DETC, Amritsar, Rajwinder Kaur over the department imposing a door toll on GST dealers. A memo- randum was handed over to the DETC after holding a meeting on the issue of verification of the premises of GST dealers. DETC Rajwinder Kaur told the PPBM delegates that the registered dealers need not be scared of anything. She suggested that they take some precautionary measures like putting up a board with GST number, name of the firm and address at their premises. She also asked them to keep the GST certificates, PAN cards of Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 17 Members of organisations representing over 400 hotels situated in the walled city narrated the troubles that tourists face as well as that of their own to Deputy Commissioner Harpreet Singh here on Wednesday. The meeting which lasted for nearly two hours saw the presence of over 40 representatives. Harinder Singh, Chairman of the Federation of Hotels and Guest-Houses Association, informed the Deputy Commissioner about tourists coming out of the parking lot situated on the Heritage Street facing difficulties in finding directions to reach their hotels, serais (inns) and guest-houses. “It is but natural that the tourists comprise the old, infirm and children. Besides, they carry loads of bags and baggage. In order to reach their guest-house, they need the assistance of rickshaws.” Similarly, guest-houses and shops selling merchandise continued on page 2 Amritsar, May 17 NABARD Chief General Manager Raghunath B led an inspection team that visited Government Senior Secondary Smart School at Heir and Government Senior Secondary School at Wadala Bhittevad here on Wednesday. They were here as development works are being carried out under the NABARD funding in several schools of the district. The team was comprised of Jaskirat Singh, Assistant General Manager, district, NABARD, and Manjit Singh, A team of NABARD officials during their visit to a govt school in Amritsar on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO DDM, Amritsar, District Education Officer, Secondary, Jugraj Singh and others. c m y b Cop among three robbed by miscreants, police clueless Tribune News Service their companies, Aadhaar cards of their partner, proprietor and director in their offices. The DETC informed them that the door-to-door campaign was for the verification of those GST dealers who had not filed their returns for many months and those who were doing bogus billing. Those GST dealers who file their returns at the right time and discharge their taxation obligations honestly need not worry, she said. — TNS Hoteliers inform DC NABARD team carries out inspection of schools of tourists’ problems Tribune News Service anonymity, said that breaking the drug supply chain would be a daunting task. Misutilising the digital technology platform, smugglers from this side send the location through mobile phone to their Pakistani handlers to bring in consignments from across the border at the designated spot. Further, the couriers who ferry the drug packets from one place to the other change various hands and would be detached after delivering the consignment. Hence, it becomes difficult to reach the end-user. According to the data, across the entire western border that runs through the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), 106 drone activities were witnessed since January 2023. In Punjab, there were 87 sightings of drones, out of which five were shot down and five were recovered that may have landed or fallen. One was shot in Rajasthan. In 2022, from January 1 to December 28, there were 254 drone activities in Punjab out of which nine were shot and 12 were recovered. The team inspected the schools along with Rajesh Kumar Sharma, District Edu- cation Officer, Elementary Education, Amritsar, and several officials in-charge from the District Education Department. Nabard had released funds to several elementary and secondary schools in the district to construct new classrooms, playgrounds and other infrastructure earlier this year. Balraj Singh Dhillon, Deputy District Education Officer, Secondary, Amritsar, said the school at Heir would also be getting further grant by the NABARD team. Navdeep Kaur explained the details of the grants received under NABARD for Government Senior Secondary School, Wadala Bhittevad, continued on page 2 Amritsar, May 17 Unknown armed miscreants robbed a senior Punjab Police constable of his car when he went to the market for buying household items here on late Monday night. The victim, Kulwinderpal Singh, said at around 10.50pm he went to the market and stopped near Medical enclave for buying some household items. He said he parked his Baleno car (PB-02- DD-9514) just a few steps away. He said as he was going to sit in the car after shopping, three motorcycle-borne persons reached the spot. Two of them pulled and dragged him out of the car and drove it away. He said his mobile phone was also in the car. The police have registered a case under Sections 379-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code in this connection while there was no breakthrough in the case so far. Meanwhile, two more snatching incidents took place in Jandiala Guru area. Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Sukhewal Bandala village, told the police that he worked as a milkman. He said around 8.15pm on Monday, he was going from Bandala village to Thathia village. He said when he reached near Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Kan Singh, six persons, riding two motorcycles, with faces covered stopped him. One of them tried to took cash from his pocket while another asked his accomplice to shoot him. He said one of them fired in the air. He got frightened and the accused took away Rs 4,000 continued on page 2