19092024-ATR-01.qxd 9/18/2024 10:54 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune KENYAN ATTACHE MEETS STUDENTS FROM HER COUNTRY PROTESTING TEACHERS BLOCK TRAFFIC IN SANGRUR The relay fast of teachers entered Day 18 outside the District Administrative Complex in Sangrur. P3 PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 35°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 34°C | MIN 25°C DOWNPOUR WATERLOGS FIVE VILLAGES IN ABOHAR Esther Karema Mutua from the Kenyan High Commission in India visited Guru Nanak Dev University. P2 FORECAST Residents of five villages of the Abohar area have been dealing with the problem of waterlogging. P3 » » SUNSET THURSDAY 6.30 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 6.17 AM » THURSDAY | 19 SEPTEMBER 2024 | AMRITSAR Waste management to get boost in city with 90 more vehicles Tribune News Service Cops paste a notice outside a drug peddler’s house in Amritsar. Amritsar, September 18 With reports of tardy garbage lifting coming in from different parts of the city after a dispute between the Municipal Corporation and Averda company entrusted with collecting waste, the district administration has instructed the garbage collection agency to increase the number of garbage collection vehicles by 90. It will raise the total number of vehicles to 200 from the present 110. Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney held a joint meeting with Medical Officers, Improvement Trust and PUDA officials for cleanliness in the city. Keeping in view the garbage problem, she gave strict orders to citybased agencies like Improvement Trust and PUDA in addition to the Municipal Corporation to start cleaning operations in zones under their jurisdiction. Understanding the current problem, the Deputy Commissioner instructed the garbage collection agency in the city to increase the number of vehicles from 110 to 200. She said that special vehicles will be introduced to separate dry and wet waste and new bio-remediation machines will be installed at Bhagatanwala dump. She clarified that if any agency or contractor violates the order, legal action will be taken against him, while cleanliness in the city will be brought back on track. The Deputy Commissioner said the city, where nearly one lakh tourists come every day, needs more resources to keep it clean. She said that keeping the immense potential of the city as well as its religious significance in mind, its cleanliness should be on time and a matter of priority. Deployment of minimum number of staff for lifting garbage, irregular timings and inadequate number of vehicles have already marred the old world charm of the walled city, offering an unhy- Appoint ETT without further delay, says DTF Moisture issue: Admn bans use of combine harvesters at night Amritsar, September 18 Accusing the state government of slow-pedalling on the issue of recruitment and station allotment to ETT teachers, the Democratic Teachers’ Front demanded that the completion of ETT appointment must be done on priority basis, without any further delay. Holding a meeting in support of the 2,364 ETT teachers who have been protesting in front of the office of Education Department, Punjab, in Mohali since August 20, the Democratic Teachers’ Front said that recruitment was continuously being postponed by successive governments in state. “Even now, the Education Department issued the station selection schedule for the selected ETT teachers on September 17, which was later rejected. Later, it was announced that only border district stations will open for this recruitment. This has further delayed the appointments,” said Ashwani Awasthi, DTF head, Amritsar unit. Till 2023, the state had high vacancy in ETT cadre, with most primary schools functioning under severe shortage of teachers. Some schools in the rural belt of Chogawan, Ajnala and Tarn Taran have three to five teachers tending to student strength of more than 500. “The appointment of ETTs is being done at a slow pace, while schools have been facing a shortage of teachers for the last five years. Instead of completing the recruitment, the government and the Education Department are continuously postponing the recruitment. Several ETT teachers, who had cleared the tests and recruitment process, are unemployed, waiting for the appointment procedure to get completed,” said DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh. — TNS Tribune News Service Properties of 5 drug smugglers attached by cops Tribune News Service Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney during a meeting with officials regarding cleanliness in Amritsar on Wednesday. Amritsar, September 18 The district administration has imposed a ban on use of combine harvesters for paddy harvesting at night to combat the problem of more moisture in grains. As per the orders issued by Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, the combine harvesters cannot be used for paddy harvesting from 7 pm to 6 am. The paddy crop harvested at night increases moisture content above the permissible limit. Owing to increased moisture, the procurement agencies are unable to purchase such produce which is kept out in the open for days to dry. This creates a shortage of space at the mandis causing a hurdle in the smooth flow of procurement work. Agriculture experts said the paddy crop should be harvested when it is fully ripened as it becomes fit for purchase gienic view to the visitors who come to the Golden Temple daily to pay obeisance. The filthy streets are a result of the ongoing dispute between the Amritsar Municipal Corporation and Averda company, with both the parties blaming each other. But this has made the people suffer as there are heaps of filth in the city. The Deputy Commissioner told Dr Kiran Kumar, District Health Officer of the Municipal Corporation, that he should review the cleanliness arrangements under supervise it. Also, cleanliness of the city should be done daily. Executive Engineer Sandeep Singh and other officials were also present on the occasion. Amritsar, September 18 The Amritsar Rural Police have attached the properties worth ~2.07 crore of five drug peddlers. The properties included five residential properties along with drug money. Amritsar SSP (Rural) Charanjit Singh said the properties belonged to Ravitinder Singh, alias Ravi, of Dhanoe Khurd, Gurdeep Singh Chowkidar of Neshta village, Roshan Singh, alias Roshi, of Rorawala Khurd, Manjit Singh of Dhanoe Kalan and Dharminder Singh of Hardo Rattan. Ravitinder was arrested with 300-gm heroin in October last year while Gurdeep Singh was held with 500-gm heroin in February this year. Roshan Singh and Manjit Singh were arrested with 500gm and 1-kg contraband, respectively, in February this year. Similarly, Dharminder Singh was arrested with 3-kg heroin and ~1.5 lakh drug money by the police in July. The paddy crop harvested at night increases moisture content above the permissible limit. FILE PHOTO at the minimum support price (MSP). If the crop fails the quality parameters set for purchase at the MSP it has to , be sold to private traders, who offer a lower price. District Agriculture Officer Dr Tajinder Singh said, “The farmers should not be in a hurry and bring only fully ripened crop.” He said at present, the harvesting of early-sown basmati varieties has started. “The harvesting of PR and PUSA varieties of paddy would also start soon and it would draw a crowd at grain markets,” he said, adding that as harvesting these days is fully mechanized, huge stocks of produce would arrive at the mandis each day and to run the operation smoothly, it is required that the crop is ready for procurement the same day. Armed robbers loot ~24L from HDFC bank at Manjhwind Hold employees hostage before committing crime, probe on PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 18 Five armed robbers looted Rs 24 lakh from HDFC bank at Manjhwind village near Kathunangal in broad daylight here today. The incident occurred at around 3 pm while the police got the information at around 3.30 pm when the bank authorities came out after the incident. The miscreants had rolled down the shutters of the bank and also took away three mobiles and laptops from the staff while escaping. The mobile and laptop was recovered just a few meters away from the spot. They also took away a digital video recorder of the CCTV camera in the bank. Senior police authorities led by Amritsar rural SSP Charanjit Singh and Harinder Singh Gill, SP (D), reached the spot and started investigations. The police teams have been scanning footage from the CCTV cameras adjoining the area for clues about the perpetrators. According to information available, the robbers detained the unarmed guard, cashier, staff and customers Amritsar, September 18 The Amritsar Rural Police have nabbed three more persons in connection with the robbery of dry fruit occurred at a cold storage in Ibban Kalan village here on September 4. Those arrested have been identified as Dharminder Singh, Harpreet Singh and Sahil Singh of Asal village in Ferozepur. Earlier, the police had arrested a notorious criminal Thana Singh of Zira along with three other looters in the case. The three others were identified as Parveen Singh of Zira, Jaswinder Kaur of Gurdaspur and Ravinder Singh of Adampur. Thana Singh has 11 crimi- Two accused in custody of the Amritsar police on Wednesday. nal cases registered against him while Jaswinder and Ravinder also have one case each registered against them. Police teams had recovered huge quantities of dry fruit and other grocery items looted from the storage facility. They also recovered 29 bags (weigh- ing 30 kg each) of black pepper, 40 bags (weighing 30 kg each) of black grams, 189 tins of cashew, 62 boxes of fig, 76 buckets of almond, five bags of turmeric, besides other items. Amritsar (Rural) SSP Charanjit Singh said the prime accused and others were c m y b INADEQUATE SECURITY The lack of security in bank premises has raised many questions. There was only one unarmed private security guard at the bank. “As per information received, the bank has a daily dealing of Rs 40 lakh and above while security arrangements were inadequate. We have spoken to the bank authorities but due to some policy issues, they did not have an armed security guard,” said the SSP, while adding that the police have repeatedly asked financial institutions like banks to maintain adequate security arrangements. by pointing pistol at them. The five robbers, three of whom were equipped with pistols, came on two bikes. They had covered their faces. After entering the bank, they took the guard and bank staff hostage. They went to the cashier and threatened to shoot him and asked him to hand over the entire cash. Within minutes, they took the cash and fled the scene. “As the robbers rolled down the shutters of the bank while escaping, the bank staff did not dare to open it. They informed the police around half an hour later. Had they informed the police on time, we would have taken timely action leading to their arrest,” said the SSP while adding that the police would nab the robbers soon. Customs Dept seizes illegal cigarettes from airport Illegal firecrackers seized from two separate places, 2 booked Amritsar, September 18 The Customs Department has seized cigarettes being imported illegally by passengers at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar in different cases. All the passengers had landed here from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) via Kuala Lumpur flight No. MH0206. The smuggled cigarettes, having the identical brand Gold Flake, were seized on September 16 under relevant provisions of Customs Act, 1962. Further investigation is under process. According to information, 36,800 cigarette sticks were recovered from the baggage of Gaurav Bidlan worth Rs 6.25 lakh; 38,400 cigarette sticks from Pruthi Anuj valued at Rs 6.52 lakh; 37,400 cigarette sticks with a market value of Rs 6.35 lakh and 37,600 cigarette sticks worth Rs 6.39 lakh. — TNS Amritsar, September 18 The Chatiwind police seized as many as 700 boxes and 56 bags of illegal fire crackers stashed at two places at Ibban Kalan village here on Wednesday. The police have booked two persons under the Explosives Act. The accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh of Sahibzada Fateh Singh Nagar and Balwinder Singh of Sanghna village. Amritsar SSP (Rural) Charanjit Singh said both suspects did not have the requisite licence for storing firecrackers without any precautionary measures. This can lead to some untoward incident in an accidental spark near the storage. Giving details, he said the police got information that Gurpreet Singh had an illegal firecracker factory and a storage at Ibban Kalan village. A Dry fruit robbery: Three more arrested Tribune News Service Cops investigate the case at the HDFC bank branch at Manjhwind village in Amritsar on Wednesday. produced in a court and brought on police remand for further investigation. On the intervening night of September 3 and 4, over a dozen armed robbers detained the two watchmen and labourers at the cold storage facility owned by Happy Arora and decamped with dry fruits and grocery items worth crores of rupees from there. A large number of traders of Majith Mandi area in the walled city store their goods there. The incident had led to panic among the trading community. A number of political leaders had visited the site and met with businessmen to allay their fears. They also assured them of the perpetrators’ arrest soon. Tribune News Service The crackers seized from Chatiwind area in Amritsar on Wednesday. raid was conducted by a police team which seized 500 boxes of firecrackers and 40 bags of unpacked firecrackers. Similarly, the police seized 200 boxes and 16 bags of crackers from the premises of Balwinder Singh. He said separate cases under the Explosives Act and other relevant sections of the BNS have been registered against them. Raids were on to nab them, he said. It may be mentioned here that two persons, including a woman, was killed while five others were injured in an explosion at an illegal firecracker unit at Nangal Guru village in Jandiala area earlier this month. Paddy residue burning cases in dist Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 18 Even as the harvesting of basmati crop is at the initial stage, cases of burning of crop residue in the fields have started coming. The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre has reported a total of 15 fire incidents in the last three days. A total of 18 such incidents have been reported from Punjab so far, out of which maximum cases are from the Majha region. The harvesting of paddy starts early in Majha as compared to Malwa and Doaba. In the district, fire cases have been reported from the vegetable belts of Majitha, Jandiala Guru and Verka blocks. Vegetable growers in a hurry to make time for an extra crop in between paddy harvesting and wheat sowing use fire as a convenient method to clear their fields of crop residue in no time. The remote sensing centre had spotted nine fire incidents of the season in the district on September 15. Punjab Pollution Control Board Executive Engineer Sukhdev Singh said after physical verification, fire was spotted at three of the nine places. He said the administration has already imposed a fine of ~2,500 on a farmer and action is being taken in other cases. After receiving a report from the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, teams of the administration conducted a physical verification. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney has asked officials of the Revenue Department to get FIRs registered against those farmers who burn crop residue. She asked the department to make red entries in the revenue records of such farmers. The DC asked the cops to increase patrolling in their areas to spot fires and take action. The district administration has also identified 93 hotspot villages where maximum fire incidents were reported last season and deputed teams to keep an eye on these places.