20022024-ATR-01.qxd 2/20/2024 12:23 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 18°C | MIN 12°C YESTERDAY MAX 24°C | MIN 14°C TWO MEMBERS OF ROBBERS’ GANG HELD, 2 PISTOLS SEIZED RTAS ‘FAVOUR’ BIG BUS OPERATORS: ASSOCIATION OPPENHEIMER WINS SEVEN PRIZES AT 77th BAFTA Were arrested after being injured in an encounter and are undergoing treatment in a local hospital. P2 Urges authorities concerned to not accept any suo moto application for extension of routes. P3 Oppenheimer bags seven prizes, including best picture and actor, at the British Academy Film Awards. P4 » » » SUNSET TUESDAY 6.14 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 6:58 AM TUESDAY | 20 FEBRUARY 2024 | AMRITSAR BKU (U) farmers to protest outside Education Dept’s efforts to boost enrolment bear fruit BJP leaders’ houses from today Over 7K admissions in primary, middle classes to date Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 Protesting farmers have extended their protest at the three toll plazas in the district till February 22, stated Bharti Kisan Union, Ekta Ugraha, leaders here on Monday. The protesters have made the three toll plazas; Kathunangal on Amritsar Gurdaspur Nationa Highway, Chiddan on AmritsarAttari national highway and Manawala on Amritsar-Jallandhar National Highway free for the commuters for the past three days. While the agitators are trying to pressure the government to accept their demands, the move of making the toll plazas free on the national highways for the commuters has also given a respite to the commuters. The high toll fees at various roads is already a trouble BKU (U) members hold a dharna at the Manavala toll plaza near Amritsar on Monday. VISHAL KUMAR for the commuters. Kashmir Singh Dhangai, district president of BKU (U), Amritsar, said, “As per the initial announcements, the toll booths were to be made free for only two days. However as the government has yet not accepted any of the demands, a decision was taken yesterday evening to extend the protest at poll booths till Februar 22. Meanwhile, the union has also announced to initiate the dharnas outside the residences of prominent district BJP leaders. Kashmir Singh said earlier the dharnas were being held against the houses of three BJP leaders in the state. “Now we have intensified the protest and decided to hold dharnas outside the leaders of the party in the district from February 20,” he said. The union has announced that the protests would continue for three days after which the decision would be reviewed. The farmer leaders stated that the protests would continue till the demands regarding the MSP and other issues are accepted by the Central Government. Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 A week after the Punjab Education Minister launched an admission campaign started in all districts of Punjab, there has been approximately 7,000 enrolments till date in primary and middle classes in district. The department had also released a toll-free number and online admissions for the current year as an awareness van for the admission campaign under the new initiative, “Punjab Shiksha Kranti”, has been touring several villages and urban centres of the district to create awareness on the enrolment process of the government schools for academic session 2024-25. The target of the enrolments for this academic session is to surpass the previous year. An official from education department shared that par- The department had also released a toll-free number. ents are being motivated to enroll their wards in nearby government schools. Last year, the Education Department had asked teachers to complete a target of 1 lakh enrolments in a single day, by launching one-day mega enrolment drive in all districts. The number of total new enrolments last year in government schools remained around 20,000. Like last year, teachers have been asked to carry out doorto-door campaigns and also announced rewards for teachers who would register maximum enrolments in a day. Elementary and middle schools saw maximum enrolments through the district till date. This time, the department is expecting to reach a target of one lakh enrolments across the state. Woman held with 500-gm heroin Strike ends, garbage lifting yet to be streamlined Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 The police nabbed the wife of a drug peddler and recovered 500 grams of heroin, one pistol along with six cartridges and Rs 1.5 lakh drug money at Mulekot village in the Lopoke area here today. The accused has been identified as Amarjot Kaur, wife of Sikander Singh, a resident of Mulekot village. Amritsar (Rural) Senior Superintendent of Police Satinder Singh said Attari DSP and SHO Lopoke police station got secret information that a resident of Mulekot village named Sikandar Singh along with his wife Amarjot Kaur, got supply of heroin from Pakistan and they further supply to their links in the country. They managed to arrange a gate pass from Border Security Force (BSF) to cross the barbed wire fence on Indo-Pakistan border for agriculture purpose. Amritsar, February 19 Despite employees of solid waste management company announced to resume work after four day strike, the garbage lifting is still to get streamline. The garbage heaps all over the city irks residents. After four day strike of lifting garbage, the employees of Solid waste management company resumed services on Monday. The Municipal Corporation officials had a meeting with demonstrating staff on Saturday evening in which they assured to address their issues. The company accepted the demands of the employees on the recommendation of MC officials. During the meeting, Additional Commissioner Surinder Singh and Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar listened to all the issues of the employees in detail and also took written demand The suspect in police custody. TRIBUNE PHOTO Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided the house of Sikander Singh in Mulekot village. His wife Amarjot Kaur was present in the house. When the police asked about Sikander Singh, she told that he had gone out for some work. When the house was searched, 500 grams of heroin, one pistol along with six live cartridges and drug money of Rs 1,51,000 were found in the bedroom. Following this, the police arrested Amarjeet Kaur and registered a case under Sections 21-27(a), 29-25, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act at the Lopoke police station. The police officials stated that investigation in the matter is going on and raids are being conducted to arrest Sikander. Garbage strewn near the Institute for the Blind at Lohgarh Gate in Amritsar on Monday. SUNIL KUMAR letter from the employees. After this, the Additional Commissioner held talks with officials of the company. On which most of the demands of the employees were fulfilled on the spot. After this, Surinder Singh called the employees to his office and assured them about the fulfilment of their other pending demands. The employees of the company thanked the Addition- al Commissioner for fulfilling their most of their demands. Additional Commissioner Surinder Singh said if the employees of the company face any problems in future, they should No takers for driving training centres in district Civic body starts Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 19 Three years after the Union Government passed instructions to set up driving training centres (DTCs), no private company has shown interest to set up the same. In this scenario, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) does not have any alternative but to provide technical training to aspiring drivers of four wheelers and two-wheelers. It relies only on tests conducted on the automated driving testing track, situated opposite Qila Gobindgarh. Though the government owns the installation, its services to conduct tests are outsourced to a private company. The Union Government had modified the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019, Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, vide notification number 394(E) dated June 7, 2021, to make the driving training scientific and systematic through the accredited driving training centres which are to be set up and operated The automated driving testing track in Amritsar. TRIBUNE PHOTO by private companies. The ambitious plan envisaged that these institutes would not only impart scientific and systematic training to driving aspirants but also inculcate good behaviour among road users and road safety. The centres would have promoted scientific and systematic driving training besides creating employment opportunities for youth. Gurcharan Singh, who has been imparting driving skills to aspirants for the past two decades, said this was an extremely costly proposition which requires a big chunk of land, equipments, plenty of skilled manpower, daily operational cost and other features. He added that a big company with deep pockets could invest in the project. Certainly as per the guidelines the accredited DTC should have infrastructure, basic facilities, qualified manpower as per provisions under the Central Motor Vehicles (CMV) rules 1989. These are adequate land parking area for the vehicles, men to be used for imparting instructions in driving, classrooms with teaching aids like computers and multimedia projector for holding theory classes or lessons on traffic rules and regulations, driving procedures, vehicle mechanism, public relations, first aid simulators for both the classes of vehicles including light motor vehicle and heavy motor vehicle, broadband connectivity, driving tracks, vehicles for training with dual control except in case of two wheelers. The amendment carries 12 general guidelines to be complied by the driving training centres. Sources in the transport department stated that the guidelines stated that an applicant should have premises on at least a minimum land piece, duly connected with an all-weather road, separate public utilities for men and women, financially capable to operate the centre as per provisions, curriculum of training course duration and level of proficiency will be as per the national skill qualifi- c m y b cation framework or as approved by the government. As far as accreditation procedure is concerned it states that the state government shall make provisions in their motor vehicle rules to mandate driving training for certain categories mandatory and to establish a system to grant accreditation, promote monitor audit and other activities of DTC. In addition, these DTCs would be subjected to annual audit whose cost would be borne by the DTC centre. In case during audit or inspection the designated authority which granted the accreditation is satisfied that the centre has failed to comply the provisions of the rules. Sumit Singh, a resident, said the project could see the light of the day if the government sets up infrastructure and then outsources the same to a private company to run its affairs. Otherwise, the project sought huge investment and then scrutiny over its day-to-day functioning by the Transport Department. C&D waste plant Amritsar, February 19 The construction and demolition (C&D) waste plant of the Municipal Corporation (MC) got functional and the MC started collecting debris from roads and street on weekend. The construction and demolition material would be collected from city roads on Saturday every week. On the directions of Municipal Corporation Commissioner Harpreet Singh, officials of the Civil Wing started the pilot project for the C&D waste plant, established at Jhabaal Road. Zonal officials from all five zones led by Superintending Engineer Sandeep Singh visited various areas of the city along with ditch machines and tippers. The heaps of buildings waste from different areas of five zones were picked up and transported to the C&D waste plot. SE Sandeep Singh said as a pilot project, eight tipper of debris has been picked up from the city on Saturday and Sunday. He said debris would be recycled and kerbstones would be manufactured at C&D waste plant. MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh said the builders of the under construction buildings should immediately remove the building material from roads. He said no building completion certificate will be given to those who will not lift the debris. He said the C&D waste plant was not functional for a long time. Now this plot has started. Curb stone and other materials will be recycled from the debris. He warned the people that challans would also be issued to those who are constructing the buildings and kept material in the streets. MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh said on Saturday and Sunday, four JCBs and four tippers will lift debris as a pilot project. This process will continue for keeping the city clean. — TNS directly contact the sanitary inspectors and chief sanitary inspectors of the Municipal Corporation. Due to absence of company vehicles for four days, there were heaps of garbage in the city. Following the instruction of MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh, the MC collected the garbage at its own level on Sunday and hired tractor trolleys to collect garbage from the main roads of the city. The Solid waste management company started lifting garbage today but it will take three to four days to streamline the lifting of door to door garbage. Naman Rajput, a resident of Putaligarh area, said, “It is almost a week the garbage is lying in the bins inside house. The house is stinking. Residents dump the garbage on the corner of streets. Even after the end of strike, the garbage collection vehicles have not visited our area even today. Burglary at AAP leader’s house in Tarn Taran Tarn Taran, February 19 Gold ornaments and cash was stolen from the residence of Dilbag Singh, a resident of Ratta Gudda, on February 18. Thieves make away with cash, gold ornaments Dilbag is the Chairman of Market Committee, Harike, and also the private personal assistant (PA) of Laljit Singh Bhullar, Transport Minister, Punjab. Dilbag said he was away to Marimegha village at the residence of his relative on February 17 and when he returned home on February 18 he saw the locks of his house and the rooms broken. The articles were lying scattered all around in the house. He said on the checking of the household articles, 13 tola gold ornaments and Rs 2 Lakh in cash were robbed from his house, he said. The police said a case under Sections 380 and 457 of the IPC has been registered in this regard. — OC
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