Amritsar Police adopts Yoga to improve its functioning
Punjab News Line,Wednesday, 09 January 2008]
JAGMOHAN SINGH
AMRITSAR: Policeman in uniform of holy city has adopted Yoga to improve police functioning by increasing the efficiency of the manpower by reducing stress, fatigue and obesity.
This experiment is aiming to better police public relations and improved police behavior and to give patience hearing to public, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Kanwar Vijay Partap Singh.
One week long Yoga camp was concluded today whereupon, more than 500 police officers of various ranks right from Constable to SSP participated apart from school teachers and commoners. The camp was organized in collaboration with Amritsar Chapter of Patanjali Yog Vidyapeeth Hardwar (founded by Swami Ramdev).
SSP said this is the second camp. The first camp was organized in the month of May last year in the Police Line. And thereafter Yoga was included in the regular routine of the police. Since then encouraging results have been coming out and fitness level of the police officials increased.
After completion of this camp, 10 instructors have been selected amongst the police force who will conduct regular Yoga classes in the Police Stations in future. These instructors will also be sent for advance yoga course. Head Constable Baldev Singh was earlier sent to Hardwar based Patanjali Yog Peeth for yoga training, SSP added.
Adding further SSP informed that idea behind this camp is mental and physical development of the officers as well as to change their mindset to deal with the common people. It is going to change the work culture of the police towards commoners as well as to improve police public relations.
“We have got very good response from the officers of all ranks and it has proven very beneficial in the day to day policing especially in public dealing. Moreover it is very useful to keep the policemen fit and also to cure diseases like blood pressure, sugar, hyper tension, drug addiction etc,” said SSP.
Apart from others Sant Balbir Singh Sinchewal has attended the concluding session as chief guest. At this occasion he emphasized the importance of Yoga and meditation in the police functioning.
[www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/7745/38/]
Now, lodge FIR online
Cops go hi-tech, tie up with hotels to stem crime
The Tribune, Chandigarh, 11 July 2007
Amritsar, July 10
The city police is going hi-tech. In a major step, initiated to provide more convenience to residents, it has unveiled a new facility which allows registration of complaints online. SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said the people now need not visit police station for lodging FIRs. Stating that the new facility is being lapped up by the residents, the SSP said, “In the last 10 days, we have received more than 20 FIRs. It helps save precious time, both that of authorities and citizens.” The district police chief was addressing a meeting of Amritsar hotel and restaurant association here.
The district police conducted late night raids on all the major hotels to identify the anti-social elements and foreigners. The officer said the surprise check was to ensure that hotels were following the guidelines wherein it’s mandatory for them to pass on the information regarding their guests, especially foreigners, to the nearest police station.
It has come to our notice many Pakistanis are coming here in the garb of travel agents and officials offering youths jobs abroad. The meeting was attended by a large number of representatives of hoteliers, including association’s chairman Bhupinder Singh.
(http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070711/aplus1.htm)
Guardians of law will now save heritage
[The Tribune, Chandigarh, 22 December 2007]
Varinder Walia
Pul Kanjari, December 21
Though the “Friends Of India New Zealand” (FOINZ) and state government agencies have failed to see their plans on preserving glory of Pul Kanjri, once a bustling town, associated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh materialise, the Punjab Police has adopted the border village for overall development with support of local people.
The police took up the challenge of preserving the heritage sites of the border belt.
The historical town on the Amritsar-Lahore road, which was a big trade centre at time of Partition, has been reduced to a tiny village now. Most of the residents of Pul Kanjri who had survived the bloodbath, a few days after Partition, migrated to safer places, especially Amritsar. Partition brought ruin to this place.
It is joint venture of police-public to clear wild grass and clean about t 300 -year- old "Talab" (historical pond). District police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh and other IPS officers today visited the place to encourage villagers for cooperation with the police to accomplish the project .
The police has also prepared a project to identify drug addicts of Pul Kanjri and adjoining villages for de-addiction at various centres, run by the District Red Cross Society and other government institutions. The district police chief has also set up a committee, headed by SHO , Attari to prepare a list of educated , semi-educated unemployed youths to send it to departments for their placements .
Earlier H.S Luthra , general secretary of the FOINZ, had announced a plan to revive glory of the town. In a letter to the Prime Minister which read the association intended to involve people of India and Pakistan for raising appropriate memorial to all those who fell in the tribal attack , a week after Independence ,could be raised. However, two years after the announcement, nothing concrete has come so far.
Luthra is grandson of Shaheed Partap Singh of Panja Sahib (now in Pakistan). The FOINZ had also planned to build “Unity Park” with freedom memorial walls at Pul Kanjri. The park was proposed to raise four freedom memorial walls with flora and fauna from both India and Pakistan and walkways. He had also announced to install statues of freedom fighters and famous people, a museum and a theatre to promote art from India and Pakistan are also proposed to be constructed. The association also planned to invite private investors from overseas and local persons to set up shopping arcades, hotels and other attractions like children’s park and cultural centres.
However Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said to promote tourism , other heritage buildings of the border belt would also be identified for preserving with people’s help.
[http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071222/punjab1.htm#7]
Clerk held for posting morphed nudes of varsity dons
(The Deccan Chronicle, 12 August 2009)
By Asit Jolly
Police in Amritsar has arrested a junior clerk at the Guru Nanak Dev University following complaints that he was posting morphed nude pictures of male and female faculty members on social networking sites on the Internet.
Arun Mahajan allegedly created ‘fakes’ by morphing faces of male and female university teachers onto nudes downloaded from pornographic websites. The ‘creative’ clerk would then soup up his creations with an obscene text commentary.
But, not satisfied with that, he created two fake email identities and routinely circulated the dons’ nudes to other faculty and staff on the Amritsar campus. Understandably embarrassed and angry at the trash being sent out to all and sundry, many of the teachers made written complaints to the GNDU Registrar, Dr R.S. Bawa.
Amritsar SSP Kumwar Vijay Pratap Singh ordered Arun Mahajan’s arrest after a prolonged investigation during which the police cyber crime wing managed to trace the obnoxious emails to computers used by the over imaginative clerk.
Police said, Mahajan who became aware that police were investigating, had managed to format the hard drives on all his computers in a bid to destroy the trail of evidence. However, cyber trails and circumstantial evidence clearly pointed to his involvement.
While police have booked the clerk under numerous IPC Sections pertaining to obscenity, pornography and destruction of criminal evidence, efforts are still on to determine whether he had acted alone or with accomplices.
[www.deccanchronicle.com/national/clerk-held-posting-morphed-nudes-varsity-dons-826]
Woman booked for cyber crime
(The Tribune, Chandigarh, September 18, 2002)
Amritsar/
The district police has detected a cyber crime case in which a woman was projected characterless by the accused, who also happened to be a woman.
Mr Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, SP City-I, disclosed that the accused has been identified as Vinita Jhunjhunwala, a resident of Mumbai and a family friend of the victim, Mamta (not her real name) who had developed some personal grouse against her. She allegedly created her (mamta) profile at the website www.amritsar.net and projected her as a characterless woman. The phone number and other particulars of the said woman were also added on the site.
The SP said the woman was flooded with phone calls and obscene letters as a consequence of this. The accused further created a fake ID of her as mamta@hotmail.com and started sending and receiving obscene e-mails. The ID was also used for net chatting. A complaint regarding this was lodged in the month of July this year.
Mr Vijay Partap also talked about the problem the police had in finding out the administrator of the website to get the profile of Mamta deleted and to trace the person who had created the file.
Some of the persons who had contacted Mamta on the phone were also questioned. They revealed that they had received e-mails and porno pictures on the said ID (mamta@hotmail.com). On the basis of a few messages the police traced the main server which showed the location of the server of the originating internet protocol (IP) in Mumbai. The log records and other details were taken from the server administrator in Mumbai, which brought out involvement of Vinita in the case.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that she had recently developed some personal grouse against Mamta and wanted to settle scores with her. She has been booked under Section 67 of Information Technology act and under various Sections of the IPC.
[www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020918/punjab1.htm#10]
Child rescued within hours of kidnapping
Kidnapped child recovered by Punjab police
JAGMOHAN SINGH
Thursday, 01 October 2009
AMRITSAR: Amritsar Police here Thursday recovered a 5 year old child who was kidnapped late last night.SSP Amritsar Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said that police received information that one 5 year old child name Simranjit Singh alias Sam was kidnapped by some unknown persons while the child was playing with his grand mother at his house near Hall Bajar.The child belongs to a mediocre family having business in Amritsar. The father of child is working in Dubai and his uncle is in Army working in the J&K.
As soon as the information was received, the police immediately swung into action and SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh reached the spot. A red alert was sounded in the city and the photograph of the child was circulated at all the Naka points in the city area. In the mean time kidnappers’ cellphone was tracked which was incidentally taken away from the house of the victim. The kidnapper was engaged in negotiation which was personally conducted by the SSP. Various teams of the district police were formed in search of boy and all exit points of the city were sealed. It was learnt in the preliminary investigation that only one person came to take away the child and he was backed by two-three others, added SSP.
As this process was still on, two Constables of the district police Kashmir Singh and Kuldeep Singh spotted the child at Chowk Malkan Butt and the child was rescued. A case of kidnapping has been registered at Police Station Kotwali. Further investigations are going on, said police. [www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/19302/38/]
Tourism Police to Smarten Up
(The Hindustan Times, Friday, 24 July 2009)
Amritsar, July 24
WITH AN aim to add more sheen to the Amritsar Tourism Police, the District police have written to the State Tourism Department, demanding smart uniforms, offices at tourist locations and other facilities to help tourists.
It may be mentioned that the District police had formed the Tourism police wing around two years back to assist lakhs of national and international tourists visiting: the holy city.
The wing cops are deployed at various tourist locations, including the airport, Harmandar Sahib, Durgiana Mandir, railway station and other locations, to guide tourists.
Although the wing has been facing criticism for some time in not being as active as it is supposed to be. But now, the District police had demanded the above facilities from the State Tourism Department.
It may be mentioned that apart from assisting the tourists and keeping a check on crime against tourists, the tourism police also needs to improve its communication skills, especially when dealing with foreigners, who speak fluent English or any other language. There have also been few incidents in the past where tourists have been targeted, which needs to be tackled by the wing.
Leaving aside the Tourism police, there is much left to be desired from the District Administration and State Tourism Department too as far as tourism in Amritsar is concerned.
Keeping in mind the number of tourists visiting, the State Tourism hasn’t much to offer. There is no provision of a facilitation centre, no ‘hop in-hop off’ buses, no guides and much more is missing.
Talking to HT, Amritsar SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, said, “We are stressing on improving the wing and various changes are on the cards. The Tourism police is committed to national as well international tourists.”
We have written about a few things to the State Tourism Department and further facelift will be done. We are also tying up with hotels and keeping an eye on cabs to avoid crime against tourists. We have also ensured to have people in the wing that can communicate in English.” he added.
Paying price for being fearless
The Tribune, Chandigarh, 27 May 2004
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 26
Controversies manage to track him down. When he was in Amritsar, the now Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh busted the great kidney conspiracy. But he then ended up moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court for protection from “kidney mafia” even as patients and relatives alleged harassment in the matter.
In Mohali, as Superintendent of Police, he managed to annoy Deputy Speaker-cum-Kharar MLA Bir Devinder Singh. Alleging insubordination, the Deputy Speaker — in a letter to the Chief Minister — alleged that his orders were not being complied with by the SP. He had further alleged that the officer made it a point to be absent from functions where he was present.
After a short stint in Mohali, he reached Ferozepore just before the Lok Sabha elections. In less than a month of his arrival, he did something no officer had apparently done before.
In an unprecedented move, the officer booked his immediate superior-cum-Deputy Inspector-General of Ferozepore Range H.S. Randhawa on the allegations of “illegal confinement and criminal breach of trust”.
But officers who know him say that the SSP is “honest and professional to the core”. They add that the 1998 batch IPS officer has many distinctions to his credit starting from the high-profile kidney scam to tracing the first cyber crime in the state. Besides tightening the noose around an international hawala operator allegedly being “protected” by senior officers and politicians in Punjab, he was also involved in busting a fake certificate racket of the Punjab School Education Board. They assert that the officer managers to collect “strong foolproof” evidence in cases he investigates”.
This was not all. The SSP went up to the extent of creating an email account for the benefit of Mohali residents. Anyone feeling harassed or with vital information could simply sit in front of the computer, directly key in his complaint and simply mail it to “spmohali@yahoo.com” for sure shot response. He also promised “complete confidentiality” to the residents mailing him.
In an affidavit filed before the High Court, he foregrounded the plight of police officers involved in unearthing scams. He stated that proper security should be provided to police officers involved in busting of the kidney racket as they faced threats from the “kidney mafia” and “influential high-ups”.
He had added that the officers investigating the scam, including him, might face dire consequences. Taking a serious note of his affidavit, the High Court had directed Punjab’s Director General of Police (DGP) to provide “proper security” to police officers involved in the bursting of the kidney scam.
A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Mr Justice B.K. Roy and Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi, had observed that they were astonished to find the cry of an IPS officer for proper security.
Transfer Calls over SSP Snub to Akali Leader
(The Hindustan Times, Chandigarh, 27 September 2009)
AMRITSAR: Refusal by Amritsar Senior Superintendent of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh to hear the delegation of Shiromani Akali Dad councillors led by Youth Akali Dal general secretary Mandeep Singh Manna, who faces criminal charges, has put the two in conflict.
Now when the district police have decided to go ahead with the action against Manna, the SAD councillors will stage a dharna next week to demand the transfer of the SSP.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Manna, who was there along with the councillors, said: “A group of 6-7 councillors from the SAD accompanied me to the office of the Amritsar SSP, but he made us sit there for nearly 90 minutes and, later, misbehaved with us on telephone and refused to meet us.”
Manna alleged the working of the Amritsar police was not up to the mark and recently it had called a girl to the police station and made her sit there for long.
The SAD councillors said the dharna against the SSP would be on from September: 29 till his transfer.
When contacted SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said: “Manna faces criminal charges and I cannot entertain him in my office. His place is in the lock up. I will not entertain anyone who supports him. There are a couple of cases against Manna and the police are doing their job.”
During the press conference, C Division SHO Prabhjot Singh served summons to Manna, which the Youth Akali Dal leader refused to accept.
When contacted, the SHO said: ”A case of cheating was registered against a man called Rakesh Jangi, who is in custody. The police also suspect the involvement of Manna in this case and, hence, he got the summons.”
SAD councillors Amarjit Singh, Jatinder Pal Singh, Amarjit Singh, Surinder Singh and M.S. Verka were present at the press conference.
Rajasansi Airport drill passes terror test
The Tribune, Chandigarh, 18 October 2008
Ashok Sethi
Amritsar, October 17
In a bid to carry out a reality check to verify the quick responses of various crucial elements during hijacking, a mock hijacking drill was conducted at the Rajasansi International airport here on October 15.
The local crises management group and the airport management authorities cobbled together all their resources to show their preparedness to handle serious aviation crises, which was keenly observed by senior representatives of the National Security Guards (NSG) from New Delhi.
The director airport Arun Talwar said though it’s an annual ritual to organise mock exercises to check the fine tuning of the response system of all the vital components including the officers of the airport authority, commandos, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and to check the response level of the local administration including the deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police (SSP).
The Rajasansi Airport has been witness to real-life hijacking experiences. The first two were organised by the Sikh radical groups while the third was the infamous hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight 187 to Kabul.
Talwar said a number of groups were involved and were keenly watched by observers who would make their point about the preparedness and the quick reflexes of the team to meet the crises. He said all communications to different people were thoroughly checked and even interpreters who knew various languages were put on alert in case of international hijacking.
This dummy exercise, he said, fine tunes the response structure of various components including fire fighting system, ambulances etc. to handle all kind of emergencies.
SSP Kunwar Vijay Pratap said the entire drill passed off satisfactorily as all the vital inputs required to handle serious crises were in perfect shape and the responses were good. He said the entire one-and-a-half-hour-long mock drill was closely monitored by NSG.
[www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20081018/aplus1.htm]
Police-Public Meet
Pulkanjari residents air grievances
(The Tribune, Chandigarh, 2 April 2008)
Amritsar, April 1
A police-public meet was organised at Pulkanjari, near Attari, recently in which people from Dhanoya Kalan, Dhanoya Khurd, Mode and Attalgarh villages took part. The problems of the people were heard by district police chief Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh and most of the problems were sorted out on the spot. The main problems of the villagers were lack of educational facilities and unemployment as the area around Pulkanjari is very backward in the border district of Amritsar.
Pulkanjari was a famous township which was founded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and he also established a baradari here. He used to stay at this place on the way to Amritsar from Lahore and back. However, this site was neglected after the partition of the country. Due to stoppage of trade between Amritsar and Lahore the area became economically backward. In December 2007, the heritage site of Pulkanjari was renovated with police-public cooperation. Now the site is being developed as a tourist spot by the Punjab Tourism Department and Archaeological Survey of India.
The SSP informed them that already 40 youths of this area had been selected under the Parkash scheme after holding special interview sessions organised by the local police to help youths of this backward area. He said all the selected candidates would be imparted three months’ training in vocational courses and inducted into the private sector.
The basic idea was to employ the youths in constructive activities so that they could not indulge in drug trafficking and other anti-social activities, he said.
[www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080402/aplus1.htm]
Public perception of police performance
(The Tribune, Chandigarh, 1March 2008)
Amritsar, Febuary 29
The makers of the Indian Constitution have beautifully made three wings of the government - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary - and the country will run very well if all these wings perform their functions within their own respective fields without grabbing functions of any other wing.
The Legislature, which comprises the members elected by the people, makes law after that it should leave it to the administration and executives. The political interference in the working of the administrative machinery of the government at any level and to any extent is most undesirable.
— Legal luminary Sudarshan Kapoor
After the new police head took charge in April, 2007, of Amritsar, the city has witnessed unprecedented changes and improvements in the police administration. “File your own FIR scheme” is a unique and novel idea introduced for the first time in India and is being sought to be replicated in other states as well. It is learnt that hundreds of new FIR’s have been registered under this scheme, in addition to the regular FIR’s registered at various police stations. Registering complaints by e-mail has also been introduced. In fact the whole working of the police administration has been upgraded by using modern technology and computerisation.
— Vikram S. Uppal, Rotary Club Civil Lines chief
Women police officers, who were previously confined to the headquarters only for being deployed on VIP duty, have now been posted as PROs at all police stations which has tremendously improved the working of the police force. It has changed the environment at the police stations and now any woman can go alone fearlessly to any police station to lodge a complaint.
— Amandeep Sekhon, Principal, Indian Public School
The traffic in Amritsar is multi-lane and multi-planer in which animal-drawn carts and expensive cars vie with each other for the same space. Strict measures are still desired to keep the ever increasing traffic under control and to check the violators of traffic rules and to protect the lives of innocent, law-abiding public.
The traffic problem of the city can be managed, only if the traffic police, the municipal corporation, social organisations and public at large cooperate and coordinate with one another at all levels.
— Dr Ravijit Singh, ophthalmological surgeon
Encroachments need to be removed to ease traffic congestion. The drive undertaken by the police to remove encroachments gets nullified when local politicians with vested interests put pressure to get them back.
This problem can only be tackled when all segments of society rise above their self interests and work for the betterment of the city. He appeals to all the well-meaning citizens of Amritsar to raise their voice in protest and only then something meaningful will happen.
— Ranjit Singh Sandhu, a businessman
The public posturing of certain politicians is disappointing who instead of appreciating the positive steps taken by the police try their best to criticise and demoralise them. The results in solving blind murders and other crimes have shown tremendous improvement. Start of beat system by local constables will help in reducing the crime rate in the ever expanding city.
— G. S. Sekhon, CII member
[www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080301/aplus1.htm]
Bypoll: All polling stations sensitive
SSP takes stock of security arrangements
The Tribune, Chandigarh, 21 May 2008
P.K. Jaiswar, Amritsar, May 20
District police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh today reviewed the security arrangements for the Amritsar (South) assembly constituency by-election. During a meeting with senior police officials, he said all necessary arrangements had been made for the smooth conducting of elections scheduled to be held on May 22. He said no outsider would be allowed to roam during night from this evening and all liquor shops would remain closed till the election process was over. All hotels and sarais would be checked, he added.
He said more than 2,000 cops and three companies of commandos had been deployed to guard 140 polling stations for the elections. He said all polling stations had been declared sensitive.
He said three DSPs - City-I, Sadar and Special Branch - had been deputed to maintain law and order in the three police stations under which the area falls.
SP (City-I) had been given the charge of maintaining law and order in the walled city while SP (City-II) had been made responsible for city-sealing plan to keep a watch on the activities of miscreants.
The SSP said a plan had been chalked out to put up nakas at different points in the city. Fourteen patrolling parties would remain vigilant round the clock to ensure the peaceful conduct of the poll. The SP-D and DSP, Jandiala, would head two quick reaction teams.
For preventive measures, action had been taken against 58 persons till now in this month. He said 224 warrants had been executed and 55 proclaimed offenders arrested besides registering 103 cases under the NDPS Act, Arms Act and Excise Act in which 127 persons had been arrested. [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080521/aplu s1.htm]
