19022025-ATR-01.qxd 2/18/2025 11:21 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 26°C | MIN 10°C YESTERDAY MAX 25°C | MIN 8°C THREE MESSIAHS WHO SAVED LITTLE BOY'S HEART ACTRESSES MAKING A MARK IN THE WORLD OF FASHION AMEESHA PATEL-HRITHIK’S REUNION CHEERS UP FANS Suman Bala, the mother of the child, devoted months at PGI, Chandigarh, for Navraj's open heart surgery. P3 From Alia Bhatt to Richa Chadha to Soha Ali Khan, actresses are making waves with their own fashion labels. P4 The duo, which shared screen space in the iconic Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, has left fans eagerly hoping for a sequel.P4 » » SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.20 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 7:07 AM » WEDNESDAY | 19 FEBRUARY 2025 | AMRITSAR Licence of IELTS centre cancelled Civic body severs water, sewer connections of 10 illegal hotels Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 18 Additional District Magistrate, Amritsar, Jyoti Bala on Tuesday issued a notification under the Human Smuggling Act, 2012, and the Punjab Travel Professional Regulation Act implemented by the Punjab Government, cancelling the licence of a consultancy centre. The scrutiny began as a result of the three flights from the US, carrying deportees, who took the ‘dunky’ route to illegally enter US borders. The Additional District Magistrate said that no request was made by the agency to renew the licence of its office, so their licence has been cancelled. Additional District Magistrate Jyoti Bala in exercise of the powers vested in her under Section 6(1) (e) of the Punjab Travel Professionals Act (Regulation) Act, 2012, hereby cancelled the licence of JJ Consultant, 48/5 Hyde Market, Hussainpura Chowk, Amritsar, Punjab with immediate effect. Amritsar, February 18 In a crackdown on illegally constructed hotels in the city, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation disconnected water and sewer connections of 10 hotels here on Monday. The action was taken under the directives of MC Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh. The illegal hotels in Goenka Market, Katra Ahluwalia and Pakki Gali area were found to be operating without the mandatory approval of building plans. The Operations and Maintenance (O&M) wing of the municipal corporation executed the disconnections as part of the ongoing enforcement drive. Earlier, the municipal corporation had taken similar action against 12 other illegally constructed hotels in Katra Ahluwalia, Jalebi Wala Chowk, Sherawala Gate areas. With the latest disconnections, the total number of affected hotels has risen to 22. MC Commissioner Aulakh said orders had been issued for CIA staff nab 9 with heroin, illegal arms in separate cases Tribune News Service MC staff disconnect the sewer connection of a hotel in Amritsar. disconnecting water and sewer connections for 29 illegally built hotels in total. “We have already disconnected water sewer connections of 22 hotels, and the remaining seven will face similar action soon,” he said. Additionally, the municipal corporation has formally requested Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to cut off electricity connections of these hotels. Aulakh also reminded the public that construction should only commence after obtaining necessary approvals. “We urge all prop- erty owners to ensure they have the required permissions before beginning any construction work,” he stated. It is worth mentioning here that over 800 illegal hotels have been constructed in the walled city area around the Golden Temple despite a ban on construction activity. The MC often seals illegally constructed buildings but hotel owners break open the seals and make the hotels operational again. Social and political activists allege connivance of MC officials in the illegal construction. Amritsar, February 18 The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of Amritsar police has busted a drug trafficking and illegal arms supply gang with the arrest of nine miscreants. The police seized 3-kg of heroin and five sophisticated pistols in three separate cases. A team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Detective) Harminder Singh Sandhu, under the supervision of Inspector Amolkdeep Singh, in-charge, CIA Staff-1, Amritsar, successfully apprehended the suspects and seized the contraband. In the first case, Cantonment police arrested Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi (25), Kunnan Singh (55) and Balwinder Singh alias Baba (29), all residents of Ballarwal village, Ajnala; Prem Singh alias Kala (37), a resident of Ajnala; Balwinder Singh alias Gopi (29), a resident of Jagatpura village in The four suspects in the custody of CIA staff in Amritsar on Tuesday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR Tarn Taran; and Sabar Sandhu alias Tarlok Baba (40), a resident of Umarpura village, Ajnala. The police recovered 2-kg of heroin and two pistols, including of .30 bore and .32 bore. An FIR has been registered against them under Sections 21-C and 29 of the NDPS Act at Cantonment police station, Amritsar. Meanwhile, in another case, Sadar police arrested two accused, Rajvinder Singh (31) and Ravinder Singh (25), both residents of Tera village in Amritsar. The police recovered -kg of heroin from them. Police officials stated that this successful crackdown shows the relentless efforts being made by the Amritsar police in eradicating drug trafficking and illegal arms trade, ensuring a safer community. Similarly, in a third case, the police arrested Varinder Singh (23), a resident of Mehnia Kuhara village in the Kambo area, and recovered three .32 bore pistols along with two live cartridges. A separate case has been registered against him under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act at Gate Hakiman police station. Two held in mobile Online challaning yet to see the light of day Harjot Bains, Sisodia’s surprise visit to SoE phone robbery case PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 18 The B-Division police arrested two persons involved in a recent mobile phone robbery case here on Tuesday. Those arrested have been identified as Simranjeet Singh, alias Mota, and Sumbhrat, both residents of Makboolpura in Amritsar. The police recovered a mobile phone snatched by them and a Splendor motorcycle used in the crime. The case was registered on a complaint filed by Sahil Sharma, a resident of Kanwa Taragarh, in Gurdaspur district. As per the complaint, at 8.30 pm on February 12, he was walking on 100 Feet Road near Tarlok Dairy while talking on his mobile phone when two motorcycle-borne snatchers approached him from the rear, grabbed his mobile phone and fled the scene. Following the complaint, an immediate investigation was launched. The two snatchers in custody of the Amritsar police. ACP (East) Maninderpal Singh formed a special team to trace the culprits. A breakthrough came when ASI Rampal from the B-Division police station, with the support of his team, successfully tracked and arrested the accused. During their interrogation, the snatched mobile phone was recovered from their possession. The suspects will be presented before a court and further investigations will be conducted to recover any additional stolen items. Amritsar, February 17 The city police have been facing problems in implementing online challaning systems in the city. It was slated to be launched on January 26. Apart from some technical hitches, the miscreants were also stealing the batteries of these cameras while in a couple of incidents they also decamped with CCTV cameras at different chowks. Nevertheless, these were replaced with new ones by the company without any delay. The batteries were also being swapped with the new, said a traffic cop wishing not to be named. The Punjab Government had announced to start the system of online -challaning of vehicles in four major cities, including the holy city, of the state. Apart from Amritsar, the project was likely to be launched in other three major cities — Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali. Initially the facility would A CCTV camera installed at Novelty Chowk in Amritsar. VISHAL KUMAR be started from seven intersections where high-tech CCTVs are already working to check offenders. These are Sant Singh Sukha Singh (SSSS) Chowk, Lawrence Road Chowk, Crystal Chowk, Canal Office Chowk, Amandeep Hospital Chowk, Session Chowk and Ranjit Avenue T-point Chowk. Around 1168 CCTV cameras were installed at 409 locations across the city. Aims to establish a state-ofthe-art surveillance system the Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) under which the cameras were installed started in October 2022 under Amritsar Smart City Limited project. The Rs 91 crore project includes 50 face detection cameras, 10 LED screens and a public alert system at 50 chowks. According to police sources, the cameras were yet to start recording of footages which is also leading to the delay. Under the online challaning system if anybody violates the traffic norms such as jumping red light, crossing a zebra crossing, overspeeding, the high-tech CCTV cameras installed at the intersections would identify the offender by way of checking their registration number plate. The challan would be sent to the violator directly on his mobile or their home address by post just like in Chandigarh. Besides helping in identifying traffic violators, the CCTV cameras would be a great help in regulating traffic. Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that there were some technical glitches. “I have scheduled a meeting to find out the updates on the project,” he said while adding the police would also take up matter with Improvement Trust which had hired the company for the project. Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, February 18 Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains along with senior leader of AAP and former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia paid a surprise visit to the local School of Eminence and other schools here on Tuesday. The visit was kept secret as no mediapersons, officials of the district Education Department and the District Public Relations Officer were informed of their visit to schools. Not even a single newsman was allowed by the security personnel to enter the local School of Eminence till the time the team remained in the school. Besides, Bains and Sisodia visited Government Elementary School, Noordi , Government High School, Dalake, Government Middle School, Valipur, Government Senior Secondary School, Shahbazpur, Government Middle School, Koharka, and others. The visiting team hesitated about criticising the functioning of the schools and teachers, but urged them to work hard so that students avoid preferring to go abroad in an illegal way. Like Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, Manish Sisodia did not go for a group photo with teachers in schools. In a statement, Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) district president Kanwardeep Singh Dhillon condemned the surprise visit of Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains and AAP leader Manish Sisodia. He said the purpose of their visit was to terrorise the teachers as no official of the department was called to the place. The DTF leader demanded the acceptance of the longpending demands of the teachers to create a conducive atmosphere in the state and fill the vacant posts of teachers and other categories in the department. Constituency-wise development projects for city draw flak Cong councillors meet MC chief AAP leader writes to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, officials about the process being biased to expedite work in their wards Amritsar, February 18 The floating of tenders by the local Municipal Corporation for various development works in the city estimated to cost Rs 114 crore has come in for criticism. Former district president of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Suresh Kumar Sharma, has accused the MC officials of favouring select contractors in the allocation of road and street construction projects. He alleged that these tenders were designed to benefit a few chosen contractors rather than ensuring impartial development. He also alleged that the newly elected councillors have been bypassed and development of the city would suffer because of this partiality. The tenders floated include those for the Rs 21.48 crore project Suresh Sharma (C) addresses mediamen in Amritsar on Tuesday. for the North and West Assembly constituencies, Rs 43.29 crore for the Golden Temple radial roads, and Rs 49.40 crore for the Central, South and West constituencies. These tenders were published on January 29 and are set to open on February 25. The AAP leader criticised the process, stating that the MC, which typically functions based on division of wards, has instead floated tenders based on assembly constituencies. He argued that the system prevents equal development across all wards and sidelines the authority of municipal councillors, who are responsible for ward-level planning and development. By issuing these tenders shortly after the appointment of new municipal councillors on December 21, 2024, Sharma claimed that the MC’s intentions appear questionable and raise doubts about favouritism. Sharma highlighted that while 150 contractor companies are eligible for projects up to Rs 1 crore, only five companies can bid for projects ranging between Rs 1015 crore, and just two firms qualify for tenders exceeding Rs 15 crore. This, he argued, allows larger firms to dominate the bidding process while smaller contractors are left out, reducing competition and leading to unfair allocations. He claimed that 90 per cent of MC tenders in c m y b recent years have been awarded to a single company, indicating a clear monopoly. He stated that such practices not only result in wastage of public funds but also prevent small contractors from securing work, aggravating local unemployment, particularly among unskilled labourers. Sharma has written to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary and the Director of Local Bodies, urging them to immediately cancel these tenders before their scheduled opening on February 27. He also called upon the Mayor and 84 municipal councilors to submit objections in writing to the Principal Secretary, Government of Punjab, demanding that tenders be issued ward-wise rather than constituency-wise. Charanjit Singh Teja Tribune News Service Amritsar, February 18 A delegation of Congress councillors met Municipal Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Aulakh today to submit a memorandum regarding the problems in their wards. Councillor Vikas Soni stated that they do not recognise Mayor Jatinder Singh Moti Bhatia as the legitimate mayor, as the matter of mayorship is still pending in the High Court. He further demanded that the Mayor’s office should be sealed until the High Court delivers its verdict. During the meeting, the Congress councillors submitted complaints about various issues affecting their wards. The Municipal Commissioner assured them that the PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR Charanjit Singh Teja Tribune News Service Congress counsellors at the MC office in Amritsar on Tuesday. problems would be resolved in the coming days. However, the councillors warned that if their grievances were not addressed within 10 days, they would stage a protest at the MC office. Municipal Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Aulakh acknowledged receiving the memorandum from the Congress councilors and assured that the issues would be resolved based on merit. He added that the municipal authorities are already working to address public grievances on a priority basis.