30082025-ATR-01.qxd 29-08-2025 23:19 Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST MAINLY CLOUDY PINGALWARA SOCIETY CHIEF VISITS FLOOD-HIT AREAS RENOVATION WORK OF SHOPPING COMPLEX PARKING BEGINS GEORGE CLOONEY’S JAY KELLY GETS STANDING OVATION Inderjit Kaur, president, Pingalwara Charitable Society, visited the floodaffected villages. P2 AIT Chairman Karamjit Singh Rintu launched the work of renovating the District Shopping Complex parking. P2 Clooney walks the red carpet with wife Amal, co-stars Adam Sandler, Greta Gerwig & others at Venice Film Fest.P4 » » » MAX 31°C | MIN 26°C YESTERDAY MAX 32°C | MIN 26°C SUNSET SATURDAY 6.56 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 6.05 AM SATURDAY | 30 AUGUST 2025 | AMRITSAR Despite producing Olympians, city lacks basic hockey infra Two boys drown in pit filled with rainwater Tarn Taran, August 29 Two boys were drowned at Burj Puhla falling under the Harike police station here on Thursday evening. The deceased have been identified as Princedeep Singh (9), son of Nishan Singh, and his cousin Prabhjeet Singh, son of Gurpreet Singh, both residents of Burj Puhla village. SSP Deepak Pareek said on Friday that Gurbhej Singh of the village had allowed Nihangs from Ferozepur to tie their horses at his house. The Nihangs asked these two Mazhabi Sikh children, who were playing in the neighbourhood, to accompany them to a place for bathing their horses. When they reached near a brick-kiln, they saw a pit, allegedly got dug by the brick-kiln owner, filled with water, but they were not aware of the fact that the pit was 10 feet deep. Owing to rain, water and sand had collected in the pit turning it marshy. The boys started bathing the horses from the water collected in the pit and themselves began to swim in it and got stuck and eventually drowned in it. The Harike police led by Harpreet Singh Virk reached the spot and took the bodies into their possession. The SSP said the bodies have been kept at the mortuary of the Civil Hospital, Tarn Taran, for a postmortem. — OC NATIONAL SPORTS DAY Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service A JCB employed to raze the house of a drug peddler at Guru ki Wadali in Amritsar on Friday. Drug peddler’s house demolished Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 29 Continuing with their drive against drug peddlers, the city police on Friday demolished the house of a drug trafficker, identified as Sandeep Singh, alias Laddi, of Guru Ki Wadali village falling under the Chheharta police station here. He was currently lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail and faced nine criminal cases, three of them under the NDPS Act and three under the Arms Act. Sharing details, Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said Sandeep was actively involved in drug trafficking for a long time now. He had several cases of serious heinous offences, including the NDPS Act, registered against him. He said the operation was part of the concerted drive against drug peddling launched by the Punjab Government in March this year. He said as per investigation, he had acquired the house, which was demolished by the district administration with the help of the police, with the ill-gotten money earned through drug smuggling. He said civic body authorities had said that the house was constructed illegally. Deputy Commissioner of Police Alam Vijay Singh said the accused had been involved in drug trafficking for the past three years. The family members of the accused, however, alleged that the administration and the police did not give them notice before demolishing the property. The police said the action was taken after following all due legal procedure and on the request of the municipal corporation. The police Commissioner warned those involved in the drug trade, stating that individuals who are destroying the lives of Punjab’s youth with the poison of drugs will face strict legal action without any leniency. He reaffirmed that properties illegally acquired through drug money will continue to be targeted and demolished. He urged the public to come forward and share any information about drug smugglers with the police. The identity of informants will be kept completely confidential and exemplary action will be taken to set a deterrent precedent. MLA Dhaliwal donates ~1 lakh from salary to Red Cross Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 29 As flood relief and rescue operations continue with full force in Amritsar’s Ramdas and Ajnala areas, Ajnala MLA Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal donated Rs 1 lakh to the Red Cross, Amritsar, an organisation that is working collaboratively to help the flood victims. Handing over the relief amount to Red Cross Chairperson-cum-Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, Dhaliwal said the Red Cross stands with the people of the district in every crisis and even now the Red Cross is working tirelessly to help the flood victims. “I am especially grateful to the volunteers of the Red Cross, Amritsar, who are working to help the people of Ajnala. As an encouragement, he gave a cheque for Rs 1 lakh to the organisation and I am there to help the Red Cross in the future as well,” he said. This comes after several political leaders from the Opposition, including Sukhbir Badal and MP (Amritsar) Gur- jeet Singh Aujla criticised the lack of resources in rescue and relief operations, calling them ‘inadequate’. Meanwhile, Dhaliwal went on a boat to interact with the people of the villages in his constituency that were surrounded by water and listened to their problems. He also distributed langar and inspected the relief camps. Batala gears up for ‘Babe da Viah’ festivities Ravi Dhaliwal Tribune News Service Batala, August 29 The steel town of Batala was all decked up to receive the ‘barat’, which arrived from Sultanpur Lodhi, today to celebrate the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev ji’s 538th wedding anniversary celebrations which also go by the euphemism of ‘Babe da Viah’. The procession was received at Adowali village, near Batala, by Deputy Commissioner Dalwinderjit Singh, Batala MLA Amasher Singh Sherry Kalsi and his Sri Hargobindpur counterpart Amarpal Singh. The ‘baratis’ will be staying at Gurdwara Sri Satkartarian Sahib for the night. Many of them will be going to the houses of their relatives and friends, as has been the case in the previous years. More than one lakh devotees are expected to attend the festivities tomorrow. For the last two days, senior administration and police officials were engaged in intense deliberations to ensure no untoward incident happens. Batala MLA Sherry Kalsi has instructed officials to ensure that all the roads on which the ‘barat’ will be travelling are roadworthy and devotees face no problems at all. He also presided over a meeting of Municipal Committee (MC) offi- The ‘baratis’ being received by Gurdaspur DC Dalwinderjit Singh and MLA Sherry Kalsi at Adowali village on the outskirts of Batala on Friday evening. cials where he made it clear that cleanliness of the city should be number one on their agenda. The DC is personally monitoring the situation. SSP Suhal Qasim Mir said 10 DSP and four SP-rank officers had been deployed to make sure that the law and order situation remains under control. “All traffic bottlenecks have been cleared and pilgrims will not have to waste time in traffic jams,” he said. An elaborate security paraphernalia has been in place from Gurdwara Dera sahib, from where the ‘barat’ will start tomorrow morning and Gurdwara Kand Sahib, where the festivities will culminate. Hundreds of cops have been requisitioned from the neighbouring police districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar (Rural) and Pathankot. In previous years, the police were flooded with reports of pick-pockets having made the city their temporary base. “We do not want anyone to destroy the sanctity of the occasion. A majority of pick-pockets, who were keenly waiting for the day keeping in view the ‘massive returns’ it offered, were quietly picked up by the cops,” said SSP Qasim Mir. Historians say Guru Nanak Dev was married to Sulakhni, daughter of Mul Chand, in 1487 in this town. The ceremonies were a grand affair as Sulakhni was the daughter of a revenue official. Legend has it that Guru Nanak Dev refused to follow the marriage rituals dictated by Brahmins of that era. He and Sulakhni took four of the prescribed seven rounds around the sacred fire. MLA Sherry Kalsi said, “Facilities at the Civil Hospital have been upgraded to deal with any eventuality. CCTVs have been installed at all strategic places in the city.” c m y b Amritsar, August 29 The country is celebrating National Sports Day today, which is dedicated to hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, but the day highlights the lack of seriousness on the part of the state government towards making serious effort to resume hockey in the border district. Termed a nursery of hockey in the border districts, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy has been closed for the past nearly two years, which means no activities are being organised to promote the game. Moreover, the sole AstroTurf ground on the Guru Nanak Dev University premises has already been in tatters over the years. Without government support, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy has been serving the national game in the border districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur. The academy produced three Olympians — Shamsher Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh — and nearly four international, including Dilpreet Singh, over 150 national players. Otherwise, Amritsar has consistently produced exceptional players for the national hockey team, contributing stars to both the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Despite this remarkable contribution, the city lacks a dedicated AstroTurf for training its young talent. The one at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), installed in 2008-09, BSF nabs two with drugs, drone, arms at Int’l Border Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 29 Following intelligence inputs, the Border Security Force (BSF) has arrested two smugglers and recovered a pistol, narcotic substance and drone in multiple operations on Indo-Pak border in Punjab. In a statement released on Friday, a BSF spokesperson revealed that on Thursday night, the BSF held a suspect roaming near the border in Attari village. He was arrested and a probe was on. In another operation, the BSF in a joint operation with the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) nabbed a drug smuggler along with a packet of heroin having gross weight of 563 gm. He was travelling on a bike when he was arrested from near a farming field in Attari. Similarly, while tracing the movement of a drone, BSF troops recovered two packets of contraband weighing around 1.127 kg of heroin from Hardorattan border village in Amritsar. In another instance, BSF jawans seized a packet containing a pistol along with a magazine from Havelian village in Amritsar while a Chinese drone along with a packet of heroin was recovered from Chhimbewala village in Fazilka. Olympians Dilpreet Singh (sitting extreme left) and Shamsher Singh (sitting third from left) along with office-bearers of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy in Amritsar. FILE has been closed since 2023 due to its deteriorating condition, and neither the Centre nor the state government has committed to fund nearly Rs 7 crore required to install a new one. Amritsar has produced four key players for the Indian men’s hockey team in both the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics, where the team clinched bronze medals on both occasions — an unprecedented achievement of two consecutive Olympic medals. Among these players are local stars Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Shamsher Singh and Jugraj Singh, who represented India in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Similarly, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Amritsar contributed five players to the men’s national team and one to the women’s team, including drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur. One of the founders of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy, Balwinder Singh Shammi along with his wife Sukhjit Kaur Shammi, Maninder Singh Palli, Jagroop Singh, Amarjit Singh used to impart training to youngsters. All former international hockey players, employed with different government departments, were imparting training free of cost. Shammi, during his seven-year-long eventful international career, played in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, two World Cups in London, 1986, and Lahore in 1990, 1986 Asian Games, Asia Cups in Dhaka and Delhi. Their endeavours were financially supported by Sahil Sandhu, Dr Avtar Singh and DIG Sukhminder Singh Mann and helped in the establishment of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy. He said there was a huge potential in the players from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts. There are several villages, including Attari, Mehta, Sathiala, Butala, Timowal, Marar, Pakharpura and Chahlan in the area, where hockey had been adopted as a folk culture. He felt that apart from a good sports environment in the city, players required excellent infrastructure and proper coaching. There was only one AstroTurf at Guru Nanak Dev University in the city, which needed to be replaced with a new one. In this scenario where should the budding players go for practice. Despite Amritsar’s impressive track record of producing hockey talent, the lack of proper facilities, including an AstroTurf, hampers the development of future players. Experts believe this oversight is detrimental to the city’s hockey prospects and calls for urgent attention from the government. Veterans have been demanding at least two AstroTurf fields in Amritsar to meet the growing demand for high-level training. Olympian Brigadier (retd) Harcharan Singh stressed the importance of artificial turf for training, saying, “In modern-day hockey, practicing on artificial turf is not just important, but a critical factor for success. However, it is up to the government to decide on laying AstroTurf, which costs around Rs 7 crore. There should at least be two AstroTurf surfaces in Amritsar alone for the players.”