06092025-ATR-01.qxd 9/5/2025 11:34 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 33°C | MIN 24°C YESTERDAY MAX 32°C | MIN 24°C WORK ON TO FILL BREACHES BY RAVI IN AMRITSAR CENTRAL TEAM VISITS AREAS HIT BY FLOODS IN TARN TARAN WHEN ACTOR NAWAZUDDIN TOOK ACTING LESSONS Work on filling the Ravi river ravine that caused large-scale flooding in border areas has started. P2 A team of senior officials of the Union Government visited the flood-affected areas in Tarn Taran district. P2 Aditya Kripalani’s I’m Not An Actor, starring Nawazuddin, opens the 14th DC South Asian Film Festival. P4 » » » SUNSET SATURDAY 6.48 PM SUNRISE SUNDAY 6.09 AM SATURDAY | 6 SEPTEMBER 2025 | AMRITSAR People heave sigh of relief as rain takes pause Manmeet Singh Gill Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 5 After days of relentless downpour that battered the region, people finally breathed a sigh of relief as the skies remained clear in the last 24 hours. For floodhit villages in Ajnala, Ramdas and surrounding areas, the pause in rainfall has brought a ray of hope to people in distress. The absence of rain has not only mitigated the fear of further waterlogging but has also made it possible for officials to carry out a girdawari (assessment of crop loss). Until now, continuous rainfall had stalled the process, leaving farmers anxious about compensation for their damaged fields. With the water level beginning to recede and roads becoming more and more accessible, teams are expected to visit affected villages soon to document the scale of destruction of standing crops. According to officials, thousands of hectares of standing crops, including paddy and fodder, have been submerged. Many farmers have lost nearly the entire season’s produce. “Every pass- Another house collapses, no casualty Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 5 Another building collapse was reported in the city today, as the occupants blamed heavy rain in the region for the last few days for the incident. Fortunately, no loss of life was reported as the family was not at home at the time of the incident. The house, located in densely populated Sahibjada Fateh Singh Nagar in Gate Hakima area, belonged to Paramjit Kaur and her husband Amarjit Singh, who lived there with their 15-year-old daughter. The family members had stepped out earlier in the day and as such were saved from the tragedy. Even as several old and unsafe buildings have collapsed in the city during the rainy season, this particular building was constructed by the family recently. “We have lost not just our house, but also our savings. Heavy showers in the past few days weakened the structure and led to the collapse,” Paramjit said, holding the rain responsible for the damage. Five smugglers held with over 3 kg heroin, arms Pawan K Jaiswar Tribune News Service An agricultural field remains submerged in Ramdass area on Friday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR ing day was adding to our worries. With rain taking the much-needed pause, now government officials can see the damage with their own eyes and help us recover,” said Gurcharan Singh, a farmer from Ajnala. Flood relief work, too, had been suffering setbacks due to the weather. Rescue teams and health workers were finding it difficult to reach certain pockets where floodwaters had cut-off road access. The break in continuous rainfall has helped in speedy distribution of food packets, medicines and drinking water to affected people. Officials from the Health Department said medical camps will continue to function round the clock to check the spread of water-borne diseases, which remain a major concern in the aftermath of flooding. Even as the skies have cleared, the administration has urged people to remain alert. The Meteorological Department has not ruled out fresh spells in the coming days, though they added that the worst appears to be over. For now, clear weather conditions have kindled a ray of hope among people, besides giving farmers, families and officials the muchneeded time to plan ahead and start relief operations on a war footing. Amritsar, September 5 The Border Security Force (BSF) today nabbed five smugglers who had come to retrieve contraband, pistol, ammunition and mobile phone in the border belt of Amritsar in the past 24 hours. A spokesman for the BSF said that alert troops made the seizure in separate instances. He said following the movement of drones, the BSF jawans started a search operation in the Bhaini Rajputa village and recovered three packets containing 1.680 kg of heroin. Similarly, the BSF arrested three suspicious elements in the same area and seized two packets containing a pistol, two magazines and 63 live cartridges apart from four mobile phones from them. All the suspects, identified as Manpreet Singh, Sahil Singh and Lovepreet Singh, were Two suspects in custody of the BSF in Amritsar on Friday. from Bhaini Dilawar village. Further probe in the case was on, he said and added that their backward and forward linkages were being looked into. In another incident, the BSF nabbed two drug ped- dlers – Jaspal Singh and Sukhchain Singh of Dande and Attari village, respectively —- from Rorawala Kalan village and confiscated three packets containing 1.750 kg of heroin from them. It also impounded the bike they were travelling on and Rs 2,020 besides two mobile phones from them. The accused belonged to Dande and Attari villages. They were handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for further investigations. Now, admn focuses on providing financial Volunteers come to rescue of aid, checking spread of water-borne diseases elderly couple at Ghonewal Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 5 The district administration has issued directions to officials concerned to initiate paperwork to facilitate immediate release of compensation to those whose houses were completely damaged and families which lost their dear ones in the devastating floods in Ajnala border subdivision. While holding a meeting with officials of various departments at Ajnala here on Friday, Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said the compensation amount would be given to the victims in the coming days. She said relief and rehabilitation efforts for the affected families have already been initiated. The District Revenue Officer has been told to ensure timely distribution of compensation and relief materials by coordinating with the SDMs concerned and other officials of the flood-affected areas. She warned that no eligible citizen should be deprived of Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney during a meeting with officials of various departments in Ajnala on Friday. this relief. She directed the District Revenue Officer to take prompt action keeping in mind the instructions of the government regarding the applications and claims received from common citizens for compensation so that immediate relief can be provided to them. She said floodwater in the villages is now receding, but due to its accumulation in low-lying areas, various departments have been instructed to take immediate preventive measures to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases. The Deputy Commissioner directed the Health and Panchayat Department to ensure immediate deployment of response teams for a houseto-house survey in high risk areas. Besides, availability of all necessary medicines, diagnostic kits and beds in hospitals should be ensured to deal with possible cases. She said along with monitoring of cas- es registered at all health centres, fogging should be done in the affected areas. The departments concerned have been asked to submit a report in this regard. Teams of various departments have started their work and efforts have been initiated to prevent the outbreak of diseases caused by germs and dirty water in the affected areas. Besides, relief items and green fodder for animals are being delivered to affected families up to the village level. Among others, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Rohit Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Urban Development) Amandeep Kaur, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Farm Development) Paramjit Kaur, SDM (Amritsar-1) Gursimran Singh, District Food and Supply Officer Amanjit Singh, District Development and Panchayat Officer Sandeep Malhotra, Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Rajinder Pal Kaur and officials of various departments were present in the meeting. Pawan K Jaiswar Tribune News Service Ramdass, September 5 A group of volunteers have come to the rescue and relief of a poor elderly couple. The roof of one of the rooms of their kutcha house had collapsed in the recent floods caused by continuous rainfall. Ajit Singh (75) and his wife Lakhwinder Kaur (70) are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Their two sons died several years ago while their only daughter is married. She was also stuck in the floods at flood-ravaged Bhindi village in Ajnala. “We could not contact our daughter as there was no mobile network available because of widespread devastation caused by the floods,” said Ajit Singh. He said the roof of one of the rooms of their kutcha house collapsed during the ongoing rainy season while the roof of the other room is also on the verge of collapsing. They have put a plastic tarpaulin on the roof to save it from collapsing till the current spell Elderly couple Ajit Singh and Lakhwinder Kaur at Ghonewal village in Ramdass in Amritsar. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR of rains comes to an end. Now, they are forced to live in this congested small room. Baljit Singh, Sahilpreet Singh, Kashmir Singh and Jodha were among the volunteers from Bhaini Gill village in Ajnala who came to their rescue. “One of the volunteers, who did a recce of the village, told us about the plight of the elderly couple, so we decided to help them,” said Baljit Singh. He along with others is now constructing the roof of the house. He said the couple live alone and it is no less than a challenge for them to make ends meet. They said political leaders came only for photo ops and returned from Ramdass, but they did not visit the village. They appealed to the district administration to provide relief and help to the elderly couple. MP Aujla tours Bauli village that still waits for relief Setting aside self, teachers stand Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 5 While touring flood-affected areas, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla on Friday reached the last village of Ajnala constituency, Bauli, where the water level is still very high and people are also trapped, but no social service organisation or administration has reached them yet. MP Aujla drove a tractor on these narrow and broken waterlogged roads as he took stock of the entire village. He said he will send trucks of relief material here in a day or two and also appealed to other people to reach this village soon. The village is only a few kilometres away from the Pakistan border. While criticising the AAP Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla takes stock of the flood situation at Bauli village in Ajnala on Friday. state government for poor flood management, Aujla said the entire village was submerged because the Ravi waters breached Sakki and Nomine (small drains) for which corrupt officials are responsible. “The officials looked the other way when the Sakki and Nomine drains were being encroached upon. Is not it their duty to remove encroachments?” he asked. He said only two years ago, 50 buffaloes had drowned here during the rainy season. Despite that tragedy, it has not been repaired and today the entire village is drowning. “The village has been waterlogged for the last 12 days, as a result of which 1,000 acres of crops has destroyed and there is no way for the water to recede,” he said. He said the road leading from Fatehgarh Churian has been totally damaged due to c m y b incessant rain. “Roads are broken at many places and it has become very difficult to reach the village. My team also faced a lot of trouble in reaching the village,” he said. Sharing their problems with MP Aujla, villagers said thousands of acres of crops have been completely ruined. So far, no help has reached here from the administration or any other department. Aujla assured the villagers that he will provide help to them in every possible way. By tomorrow, three to four trolleys laden with relief material will be sent to the affected families in the village and nearby areas. He appealed to the sangat and social organisations to come forward and help the flood-affected families at Bauli. firm in support of flood victims Neha Saini Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 5 This year’s Teacher’s Day was supposed to be a day of protests against the state government’s unfulfilled promises and policies as the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) and the MidDay Meal Workers’ Union had planned to hold demonstrations across the state. But in the wake of devastating floods that have ravaged the state, especially the Majha belt, government school teachers came together to show solidarity with the affected families and gather support for relief work. On the call of the DTF putting their ongoing , struggle against the Education Department aside, teachers from Amritsar came forward to serve affected people and donate funds of up to Rs 3.5 lakh towards the flood relief operations. Ashwini Awasthi, state finance secretary and district president of DTF said the , donation will reach flood victims through the organisational structure as per their needs. Joined by members of the Democratic Employees’ Federation (DEF), Punjab, apart from fund collection, demand letters were sent to the Punjab Chief Minister under the leadership of DMF , Punjab, for compensation and other relief to flood victims. “As per the decision of the organisation, on the occasion of Teacher’s Day (on September 5 and 6), outreach will be made to affected people in Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Fazilka, Ferozepur and other affected districts. Several school teachers are already working on ground as volunteers for relief operations in these areas and our network of teachers in these areas will further reach out to families for assistance and aid, including ration and medicines for households, diapers for children, copies, books, clothes, shoes, etc, for school students, sanitary napkins for women and fodder and medicines for animals will be arranged,” said Awasthi.