05032024-ATR-01.qxd 3/5/2024 12:49 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune AMRITSAR SAHIT UTSAV INAUGURATED AT KHALSA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 10% INCREASE IN DEMAND FOR POWER IN TWO MONTHS Naad Pragas, an organisation of researchers & students, opened Amritsar Sahit Utsav at Khalsa College for Women on Monday.P2 Punjab’s power consumption grew to 4,352 million units in Feb as compared to 3,911 million units last year. P3 » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY DIBAKAR BANERJEE AUDITIONED 6,000 ACTORS FOR LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA 2 Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee auditioned more than 6,000 actors for his upcoming film Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2. P4 » MAX 22°C | MIN 8°C YESTERDAY MAX 20°C | MIN 6°C SUNSET TUESDAY 6.24 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 6:42 AM TUESDAY | 5 MARCH 2024 | AMRITSAR Four arrested for stealing vehicles, two for iron grills Amritsar, March 4 The police have arrested four vehicle lifters and two thieves for stealing BRTS iron grills in the past couple of days. Prabhjot Singh Virk, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), said those arrested were identified as Ranjit Singh, a resident of Meera Kot Kalan, Germanjit Singh, a resident of Shahpur village, Sunny, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, Gagandeep Singh, a resident of Pandori Waraich village, Prince, a resident of Ram Tirath Road, and Surinder Kumar, alias Sonu, a resident of Hargobind Avenue. The ADCP said Ranjit, Germanjit, Sunny and Gagandeep were involved in stealing vehicles from different parts of the city. The police recovered four bikes from them. Gagandeep already had a snatching case registered against him. He said Prince and Surinder were part of the gang involved in stealing iron grills installed in different parts of the city. He said further investigation was in progress to identify their accomplices to whom they sold iron grills. — TNS SAD (A) activists detained, released after few hours Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 4 On the call of the SAD (Amritsar) to stop trains across Punjab today, party activists, led by its national general secretary Upkar Singh Sandhu reached Devidaspura village railway gate near Mananwala toll plaza here today. Before they could reach the rail track, the police took them under the preventive custody. They were kept at the Cantonment police station for a few hours and released later. Sandhu said party leaders and workers were protesting against the government for the release of Bandi Sikhs, shifting of Amritpal Singh, head of Waris Punjab De, and his supporters, lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail to any jail of Punjab and acceptance of demands of the protesting farmers. He asserted that unless the Central Government releases all Bandi Sikhs and accepted SAD (Amritsar) leaders and workers under preventive custody at a police station in Amritsar. farmers’ demands, their struggle would continue. Meanwhile in Tarn Taran, SAD (Amritsar) leaders condemned the police for its crackdown on party workers to prevent them from taking part in today’s ‘rail roko’ call to protest for demands of the Sikh community. Harpal Singh Bler, Harjit Singh Mianpur, Daljit Singh Heera, Balwant Singh Gopala and other party leaders said SAD (Amritsar) leaders had been pursuing their activities since Sunday. They said the police conducted raids on houses of party leaders at night to prevent them from participating in today’s ‘rail roko’ call. They said despite this, party workers and leaders managed to take part in ‘rail roko’ at Devidaspura village on Monday in big numbers. They said no train was allowed to run. The leaders said they were detained by the Amritsar police and held captive at different police stations. They were released in the evening today. Sans weighing machines at PDS outlets, no check on quantity of wheat, flour supplied to beneficiaries Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 4 Beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS) are at receiving end as they are unable to weigh wheat and flour supplied to them. Hardly any depot holder under the PDS scheme has a weighing machine. Beneficiaries of the PDS havw raised doubts over the weight of grains and wheat flour supplied to them. A beneficiary on condition of anonymity said mere talk about weighing grains or wheat flour elicited rude remarks from depot holders. “In this regard, their terse reply is that there is huge rush of beneficiaries. Large quantity of grains and wheat flour is supplied to them,” he said. Beneficiaries carry sacks of wheat supplied through public distribution system. FILE PHOTO He said, “There is hardly any mechanism at the PDS shops to authenticate the weight of subsidised ration delivered to beneficiaries free of cost.” There are at least 3.47 lakh card holders in the district, who get free wheat flour and grains from the state government. Consumers have a choice to choose from either to accept flour or wheat grains. Sartaj Singh, District Food Supplies Controller, said weighing machines were provided to depot holders so that they could weigh wheat flour and grains before handing these over to beneficiaries. He said, “Beneficiaries can ask depot holders to check weight of the ration supplied to them. Besides, Markfed has 60 Model Fair Shops and 70 mobile vans for distribution of free wheat under the PDS. Markfed has signed a contract with flour mills to lift flour. There is hardly any doubt about the weight of packed grains or flour.” He said teams of the Food Supplies Department would check outlets of depot holders to find out whether they had weighing machines or not. Two killed in road accident Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, March 4 Two persons died on the spot on Sunday night in a road accident here. The deceased were identified as Jugraj Singh (23). He worked as constable in the Police Department. He was residing in a quarter at the Police Lines. The second deceased was identified as Amarjit Singh (24), a resident of Gukalpur locality in Tarn Taran. The police said Jugraj was going to his quarter on a car when it hit a caved in manhole. A car tyre got punctured due to the impact and Jugraj lost control over the vehicle. The car Two booked for duping man of 26L Amritsar, March 4 The Ramdass police have booked two persons on charges of forgery and fraud after they allegedly duped a local resident of Rs 26.68 lakh on pretext of providing a Canadian work visa for him. Those booked were identified as Navdeep Singh, alias Fauji, a resident of Dalleke village, and Sivani, a resident of Preet Nagar on the Fatehgarh Churian road here. The victim, identified as Jugraj Singh, a resident of Gorenangal village, had lodged a complaint with the police in September last year. In his complaint, he alleged that the duo took Rs 26.68 lakh by luring him for providing a work visa for Canada. However, they neither sent him to Canada nor returned his money and passport. A probe was conducted by the DSP Economics Offence , wing, which recommended registration of an FIR against the suspects. Following the probe, the SSP Amritsar , (Rural), directed the Ramdass police to register a case. Sub-Inspector Gurmukh Singh, investigating officer, said a case under Sections 420, 120-B, 467 and 468 of the IPC was registered against Navdeep and Sivani. Further investigation was under progress. He said raids were on to arrest the suspects. — TNS The car that rammed into a road side marble pot in Tarn Taran. hit a moped going ahead. Amarjit Singh, who was driving the moped, received head injuries and died on the spot. After collision with the moped, the car rammed into a road side marble plant pot and Jugraj too died on the spot. The police shifted bodies to the mortuary of the Civil Hospital. A report was filed under Section 174 of the CrPC on the statement of the relatives of both the deceased. No breakthrough in gun house theft case Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 4 The police have failed to make any breakthrough in a case of stealing of arms and ammunition from a gun house near Bhandari bridge 10 days ago. There has been a growing concern that these arms would land in the hands of unscrupulous elements with the Lok Sabha elections round the corner. “Investigations are still in progress and nothing can be said at the moment,” said Varinder Singh Khosa, Assistant Commissioner of Police (North). The incident was captured on the CCTV camera footage in Royal Gun House. The miscreant had covered his head and face, therefore the police were finding it difficult to identify the suspect. As per the probe carried out so far, the primary objective of the thief was to steal arms from the shop. He made his way into the shop by breaking the wall after gaining entry into a neighbouring submersible pump shop from the rooftop. He did not steal anything from the shop, but targeted the gun house. Suresh Arora, owner of ❝The suspect has taken away eight guns of .12 bore calibre, three pump action .12 bore double barrel gun, 18 bullets and ~6 lakh cash from the table drawer. ❞ Suresh Arora, OWNER, ROYAL GUN HOUSE the shop, revealed that the suspect took away eight guns of .12 bore calibre, three pump action .12 bore double barrel gun, 18 bullets and ~6 lakh cash from the table drawer. “I have full faith in the Police Department that it would identify the thief and recover the stolen weapons,” said owner Suresh Arora. Ironically, his gun house was targeted by unscrupulous elements in July 2023 also. The police were yet to crack that burglary. Khosa said investigations were taking time, but the police were hopeful of cracking the case soon. Hoardings of AAP govt’s policies, Principal Secretary tells firm to achievements dot roads in city complete project work on time Tribune News Service Members of the writers’ delegation at the Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar. 51 writers in Lahore for Punjabiconference Amritsar, March 4 A delegation of 51 Punjabi writers from this side of Punjab crossed over to Pakistan to participate in the three-day World Punjabi Conference to be held in Lahore from March 5, from Attari-Wagah joint check-post here on Monday. Deep Devinder Singh, secretary, Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha, said, the delegation from Indian Punjab left for Lahore today. Darshan Buttar, president, Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sab- ha, said the conference would focus on peace and development in the region. Punjabi poet Gurbhajan Gill, singers Pammi Bai, Ravinder Grewal and Sahaj Preet Mangat, film actors Sunita Dhir, Anita Sabdish, Gurcharan Kaur Kochhar, Dr Seema Grewal, Jagtar Bhullar, Daljit Singh, Sushil Dusanjh, Balwinder Sandhu, Jaininder Chauhan, Kamal Dusanjh and Daljit Singh Shahi would attend the meet. — TNS Amritsar, March 4 Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, umpteen number of hoardings, unipoles and display boards displaying the AAP government’s policies, achievements and schemes introduced for the welfare of people have been installed in the city. All vantage positions on city roads, including the Rani Ka Bagh locality, near Khalsa College, Guru Nanak Dev University, Bhandari railway overbridge, New Amritsar, Court Road, Mall Road and several other stretches are teeming with large size hoardings. These display boards are splashed with jumbo size photographs of AAP leaders. Anil Vinayak, a resident of the Race Course road, said one could see hoardings in every nook and corner of the city. One such hoarding installed on the GT road mars the landscape. He said it gave the impression that the AAPled Punjab Government’s A hoarding of the state government in Amritsar. PHOTO: SUNIL KUMAR advertisement budgetary allocation had no limits. Hoardings installed along state and national highways were not only eyesore for commuters, but also against the road safety rules and distracted vehicle drivers, he said. It was blatant wastage of taxpayers’ money and a burden on state treasury which was facing financial crunch, he added. He suggested that the government should utilise resources for the public welfare and shun useless adver- c m y b tisements at the cost of the state exchequer. The five large LCD screens installed on Heritage Street leading to the Golden Temple advertise government policies, schemes and its achievements, instead of telecasting Gurbani. AAP leaders claimed that the tender for the advertisement on screens was floated by the SAD-BJP government on March 23, 2016. They said as per tender, there was no clause for telecasting Gurbani on those screens. Amritsar, March 4 The Principal Secretary, Local Bodies, Ajoy Sharma, along with the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, Harpreet Singh, visited water treatment plant (WTP) project site at Vallah to review the progress of work. Officials of L&T company, hired to execute the work, gave a presentation about the ongoing work of the water treatment plant to Sharma. Sharma issued directions to company officials to complete the work within stipulated timeline. He thoroughly checked details of the project. MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh said the main objective of the project was to supply 24x7 canal-based pure drinking water to residents of Amritsar after treatment at Vallah-based plant. Currently, drinking water is supplied through tube wells. The ground water level is depleting with each passing day. This project is 70 per cent funded by the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Local Bodies Principal Secretary Ajoy Sharma at the water treatment plant project site in Amritsar. TRIBUNE PHOTO Investment Bank (AIIB) and 30 per cent by the Government of Punjab. The operation and maintenance of the WTP will be done by the municipal corporation. The contract for the project was awarded to L&T by the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC) in April 2021. The total cost of the project is 784.33 crore out of which 665.32 crore is for design build services, 98.26 crore for operation and maintenance and 20.75 crore for arrange- ments. The project is to be completed by July 7, 2024. The MC Commissioner said in the first phase of the project, there were three components including the WTP transmission , and overhead water storage reservoir. Superintending Engineers Lata Chauhan and Sandeep Singh, Project Manager Kuldeep Singh Saini, Deputy Project Manager Narinderpal Singh, JE Harpreet Singh, Quality Engineer MD Bawa and L&T Project Director Sanjay were present on the occasion. — TNS
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