01062023-ATR-01.qxd 6/1/2023 12:11 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST MAINLY CLOUDY MINISTER FELICITATES OVER 250 STUDENTS IN JANDIALA NARGIS STARTS SHOOTING FOR HER NEXT PROJECT MANIESH WILL DON MULTIPLE LOOKS IN RAFUCHAKKAR Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO felicitated more than 250 meritorious students. P2 The yet-to-be-announced project went on the floors recently in Varanasi. P3 Maniesh Paul, who is making his debut on OTT, will assume multiple looks as a conman . P4 » » MAX 29°C | MIN 20°C YESTERDAY MAX 26°C | MIN 20°C SUNSET THURSDAY 7.30 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 5.26 AM » THURSDAY | 1 JUNE 2023 | AMRITSAR INBRIEF RESTAURANT OWNER BOOKED Amritsar: The Ranjit Avenue police raided a restaurant that was found serving hookah to the youth in illegal manner. The police recovered seized nine hookah and 10 hookah flavours from the spot. The police booked its owner Nitish Ubay under the relevant sections of the Cigarette and Tobacco Act. TNS CENTRALISED ADMISSION PORTAL Amid protests by teachers, GNDU conducts exams Mgmts & principals also sit on dharna outside colleges YOUTH FOUND DEAD Amritsar: A youth was found dead in the Himmatpura locality, falling under the Division C police station area here today. Police said the reason behind his death would be ascertained only after autopsy. TNS Members of college managements and teachers’ unions raise slogans on the first day of their three-day protest outside Khalsa College in Amritsar on Wednesday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR issue. Khalsa College Governing Council (KCGC) president Satyajit Singh Majithia, honourary secretary RMS Chhina, who is also president of the Aided Colleges Management Federation, members of the KCGC, principals of all Khalsa institutions, PCCTU cadre, principal Dr Mehal Singh sat on a dharna and protested the proposed portal which they alleged was aimed at destroying the institutions of higher learning in the state. They raised anti-govern- ment slogans for adopting coercive measures being taken by the Punjab Government under bureaucratic pressure. In their address to the protesters, both Majithia and Chhina targeted Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s government for not listening to the stakeholders and adopting the ‘policy of dictatorship’. They condemned the attitude of the department of higher education and DPI officials. Meanwhile, on the call of the Joint Action Committee continued on page 2 Show leniency towards 3 youths, say family members Doctors remove 3.5-kg tumour from 4-yr-old boy HARYANA CRIMINAL BOOKED FOR FRAUD Phagwara: The Nakodar Sadar police have booked a criminal from Haryana on the charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy. The police said the accused has been identified as Raja Hayder, a resident of Gurgaon in Haryana. Satimdar Singh, a resident of Billi Chao village, complained that the accused duped him of ~81,000 through an online meathod. OC Amritsar, May 31 Two days after the scuffle between some of the protesting lawyers and three IELTS students, members of a community held a dharna outside the court complex entrance gate here on Wednesday. The police have booked the three youths on charges of murder bid and under the Arms Act after a complaint was lodged by the Amritsar Bar Association in this connection. They were arrested by the police. The family members of the students termed the the registration of an FIR as atrocious and urged the police and the district administration to provide justice to them. They also urged the Amritsar Bar Association to take a lenient view of the students’ act considering their career and future. Harpal Singh, father of one of the youths, said arguments took place between the two Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 31 A massive joint protest under the banner of Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising aided and un-aided college managements, principals’ associations of three state universities, the Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers Union (PCCTU) was on Wednesday held at Khalsa College and Khalsa College for Women, DAV College and other colleges against the state government over the centralized admission portal LAWYERS-STUDENTS' CLASH Members of the Valmiki community protest outside court complex in Amritsar on Wednesday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR parties when the lawyers had just started the protest and they had sought a way as they were going to the institute at Ranjit Avenue. He said the video clippings clearly showed how brutally the students were thrashed. “Despite that we are ready to apologise. The case was registered by the police under pressure. How come three students could attack hundreds of protesting lawyers?” he said. Earlier, members of a community came in support of the families of the youths and threatened to hold a protest dharna outside the gate. The advocates also raised slogans from the other side. A large number of police personnel reached the spot and intervened. — TNS Tribune News Service One booked for rape bid on teenage girl Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, May 31 The Chabal police booked a man, a resident of Emma Kalan here, for trying to rape a teenage girl here on Tuesday. The police said the accused had been identified as 27-year-old Sikandar Singh. In her complaint, the victim told investigating officer Sub-Inspector Baljit Kaur said on Tuesday she was on her way home from the village government school when the accused who was standing at the gate of his house forcibly took her into his house. As he was alone in the house, he tried to rape her but her mother appeared on the spot. On seeing her mother, the accused ran away from the spot. The police said a case under Sections 376 and 511, Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act had been registered against the accused. The police have started conducting raids at the possible hideouts of the accused to arrest him, added the Chabal police. Drugs network busted, 4 nabbed in border belt Were active in Pathankot & Ferozepur areas Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 31 In a major breakthrough, the city police on Wednesday busted a drug-peddling network active in border areas from Pathankot to Ferozepur. The police have arrested four persons and confiscated a foreign-made pistol, three bullets, a Hyundai Verna car with fake registration number plates and fake passports. Those arrested were identified as Sarmail Singh and Gurjant Singh of Mehndipur in Khemkaran area, Gaurav Singh of India Gate, Chheharta, and Mahabir Singh of Kalia Saktara village in Valtoha. Sarmail was the kingpin of the gang who was planning to flee to a foreign country as the police found a fake passport from his possession. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhimanyu Rana, who is investigating the case, said raids were on to nab their accomplices whose names cropped up during their preliminary interrogation. Sarmail and Gurjant had criminal cases, including The alleged four drug peddlers in custody of the Amritsar police on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO under NDPS Act, registered against them in Kapurthala, Tarn Taran and Ferozepur. Gaurav has a case under the Arms Act registered against him. Sarmail was also wanted in a contraband case in Ferozepur district. He had remained in jail for four years before coming out on bail and reactivating his network. According to information, the four accused were held following a tip-off that they were in the area to meet someone allegedly for strik- WORLD NO-TOBACCO DAY Need to protect social and physical health Manmeet Singh Gill Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 31 A team of doctors at Fortis Escorts Hospital has successfully performed a complex surgery wherein a congenital tumour measuring 0.75 square feet and weighing 3.5 kg was operated and removed from a four-year-old male child. The patient, Ranjit Singh, had complaints of abdominal bloating and vomiting for four consecutive days along with constipation. On medical examination, a large palpable mass was diagnosed in the abdomen and blood investigations revealed severe anaemia with a extremely low haemoglobin level. Further diagnostic procedures confirmed the presence of Mesenteric haemangioma, commonly known as abdominal haemangioma, which required immediate surgical continued on page 2 ing a drug deal. They were travelling in a car and stopped near the bus stand. The police recovered two fake registration number plates from the car, besides a foreign-made pistol and fake passports. Police sources said Sarmail got the fake passport from a gang in Delhi and the police were conducting a probe to identify the racket behind it. The police took his passport into their custody after registering criminal and NDPS cases against him. Amritsar, May 31 While the harmful effects of tobacco consumption are known and a ban on smoking at public places is also in place, of late it has also become a cause of social tension as is evident from the recent instances in which a woman was caught smoking a bidi inside the Golden Temple premises or when some youths vandalised cigarette shops last week. And it is not for the first time that the sale and use of tobacco has caused conflict in communities and has led to serious repercussions. Back in the 1980s, when a section of a community had announced a protest march to demand a ban on the sale and use of tobacco in the walled city, another group from another community had held a march brandishing weapons with A vendor selling tobacco items in Amritsar on Wednesday. VISHAL KUMAR bidi packs tied on them to oppose any ban on tobacco. Amid the conflicting political interests and their manifestation, common residents feel that there is no harm in banning the sale and use of tobacco at least in areas around the Golden Temple where violent backlashes have occurred against the use of tobacco in the past and even recently too. “It is a fact that tobacco use is harmful and a cause of cancer. Its use among the youth has increased and some of them consider it to be a style statement. The government has tried to curb the use of tobacco by using various measures such as using pic- torial warnings or increasing tax to make tobacco costly but so far it has failed to give any results,” said Jatinder Preet Singh, an advocate for ban on tobacco sale. The residents said that an increase in the number of cigarette vends has been witnessed, especially as the population of migrant families in the city has increased in recent years. The residents stated that strict implementation of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) can also help in checking the use of tobacco in its various forms. “If we look at it from the perspective of harms that tobacco has on health, a ban must be imposed immediately. However, when inter-community conflicts come into play, a simple matter gets unnecessarily politicised,” said another resident, Saurabh Sharma. School named after Olympian awaits astroturf for 5 yrs Remand of peddler Neha Saini Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 31 The Government Senior Secondary School, Attari, which was renamed after Shamsher Singh, Indian hockey midfielder and Olympian, has been waiting for a hockey astro-turf for the last five years. The fact that Shamsher is the first Olympian from Attari and had spent most of his early years playing hockey at the uneven, muddy playground inside the school, fell short of waking up the authorities from their slumber. The school offers three field of sports to the students — volleyball, football and hockey. Currently, it has 75 under-training players, all students of the school, playing in the Under-14 and Under-16 categories in national and state teams. “We have repeatedly written to the authorities to request them to build an astro-turf as The sprawling grounds of Government Senior Secondary School at Attari on Wednesday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR we have good talent in the sport from Attari. Apart from the turf, we also require sports kits including hockey sticks and fully equipped gymnasium for the athletes. Till date, we only receive an annual sports grant of Rs 25,000 for all our needs,” said Navjit Singh, sports head and coach at the school. On an average, he said that the sports kit for hockey costs around Rs 8,500 and the football and volleyball kits costs Rs 7,000. “We are not left with much for the development of any other sports,” he said. The school has two grounds, one for hockey and one for volleyball. It also has an indoor gymnasium, with bare minimum equipment. The school is among the three in the district with a mud-based hockey training ground. Players from Attari and other border villages, who get training here have to later go and join other sports academies offering residential sports programmes or government schools in urban centres to get proper benefits. The Department of Sports, Punjab, had set up a sports wing in selected government schools in each district, where players were provided training, sports kits, equipment and diet. “While players at the residential sports centres at Cheherhta get regular diet as well, our students have to depend on their own for their nutritional requirements, which is difficult for them as they come from low-income families. We try to sustain a healthy diet for them by contributing from our own pockets c m y b and engaging some NRIs who are associated with the school,” said Navjit. Shamsher also contributes towards the school’s sports development every now and then. Shortage of teachers another challenge The school also faces a shortage of master cadre teachers for several subjects including Punjabi, English and History. It has 150 students of History with just one regular teacher. The principal of the school has been transferred to Kot Khalsa, so there will also be a post for the principal vacant from next month onward. “Several posts for the subjects of Science, English, Punjabi and History are lying vacant. We have been engaging teachers from other subjects or general subjects to take classes in case of need,” said a senior teacher who is due for retirement in December. Despite new appointments and the Education Department’s efforts to ration teachers by sending them back to their parents’ schools, the shortage of teachers in schools in the border belt remains. This shortage, in some schools, also violates the RTE Act, which stipulates that the pupil-teacher ratio should be 30:1 (primary) and 35:1 (upper primary). The school has 700-740 students and the biggest challenge is that teachers do not willingly apply for border posting. “The reason is because the government has stopped the rural and border area allowance, which deducts around Rs 5,000Rs 6,000 directly from the average salary of a teacher serving in border schools. Many teachers have to travel long distances, which increases their expenses,” shared Hardeep Singh, Hindi master at the school. Gurjit Singh extended Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 31 Gurjit Singh, the courier, arrested by the Border Security Force with a drone and 3.4kg heroin at Dhanoe Khurd village on Saturday night was to receive Rs 2 lakh for retrieving the drug consignment dropped by the drone. He was produced in a court after the expiry of his police remand. The court extended his police custody by two days. He would now be produced in the court on Friday. His interrogation led to the identification of his two accomplices who had escaped from the spot when BSF troops nabbed Gurjit Singh. They were Jagjit Singh of Nausheshra Dhalla in Tarn Taran and Munshi Singh of Maude border village. During investigation, it was revealed that Gurjit had retrieved the consignment following the directions of Munshi Singh. “Munshi had promised to give him Rs 2 lakh for retrieving the contraband dropped by the drone giving him the location where it would likely to plunge,” said Attari Deputy Superintendent of Police Parvesh Chopra. He said both Jagjit Singh and Munshi Singh had cases under the NDPS Act registered against them and they were currently on bail. Police sources said the duo was allegedly in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers and the police were investigating their backward and forward links.