Once a throbbing industrial hub in the suburb of the city on the Amritsar-Lahore GT Road, Chheharta has fallen on bad times due to alleged neglect of the political and the administrative set up.

Interestingly, the present Mayor of the city, Mr Sunil Datti, represents Chheharta constituency in the municipal corporation. The area seems in utter state of neglect, allege residents. Encroachments and other illegal constructions have become the bane of the residents of the area, who have been requesting for better living conditions for past some time. Much to the annoyance of Sikh devotees, the road leading to the historic Chheharta Sahib Gurdwara remains congested due to rampant encroachment by shopkeepers and hundreds of pheriwalas, who have extended their shops by about five to seven feet. This is the only road connecting various historic gurdwaras, including San Sahib, Baba Budda Sahib and others, besides leading to the only dry port here.

There is chaotic traffic on the road that remains blocked throughout the day. Animal and pull carts further add to the woes of the residents of the area.

The condition of the main GT Road leading to international Indo-Pak border at Wagah joint check post is even more pathetic. Here road becomes narrow, even for two-wheelers. This is due to encroachments on footpaths and half of the road on both sides by vegetable sellers.

Thousands of tourists and VIPs travel every day to witness the beating retreat ceremony at Wagah border. They have a tough time while crossing this stretch every day.

Chheharta, once a prosperous industrial hub of the city, has become an unplanned urban slum with hundreds of illegal colonies, without proper civic amenities, mushrooming in the vicinity. The big industrial houses, including Partap Steel Rolling Mills, Punjab Woollen Mills, India Woollen Mills, Niemla, Hemla and other textile units, which used to provide employment to thousands of local residents, have been closed. They have been converted either to residential colonies or marriage palaces and commercial establishments without any planning.

The area also lacks public transport system. Mr Ravi Kumar, a shopkeeper, said that traffic jams were a daily routine in this area, and the frayed tempers of commuters added to the misery of the people of this area. He urged the authorities to regularise the movement of traffic by removing the illegal encroachments. 

An upcoming UK-based Punjabi director Jeet Matharu’s maiden Punjabi feature film Addi Tappa would have its world premier on April 14.

Addi Tappa, a murder mystery starring six new Punjabi faces from the local BBK DAV College for Women and supported by 16 other college girls, has a storyline different from the typical Bollywood plot line.

Mr Matharu said the movie would be premiered in Amritsar on April 13, followed by Jalandhar, Vancouver, Canada on April 14. Chandigarh viewers would see the premier on April 15. It would be released across England and North America on the same date.

Saregama has released the music of Punjabi musical-thriller Addi Tappaa produced by Indo-British producers, who in collaboration with producer-director of the United Vision (a London-based production house) had shot the movie at local locales and the college campus last year.

This unique movie had created a history of sorts when a little-known England-based director Jeet Matharu, who had worked as an assistant with leading Mumbai filmmakers, decided to produce the film with all-female cast. He felt that it was instant chemistry that worked and crystallised into a film project.

Mr Matharu, who is the promoter and director of the United Vision, told The Tribune that he had been toying with the idea of making a film with all-women star cast in Punjabi and his chance meeting with Principal of the college, Ms J.Kackaria, set the project going. She readily agreed to the concept after showcasing the abundance of talent available in the college itself.

Mr Matharu immediately started the shooting after selecting the top six college artistes who had never faced the camera before. It was a tremendous challenge both for himself and his team. He said the entire film was shot in a highly professional manner and through special effects given by Rajtaru Videosonic Ltd and Reverse Telecine. The film is equipped with Dolby Digital, which was specially done in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

The director said he was confident that the story of the film and its contents were going to click, and his UK-based friend and financers Suresh Varsani and Bimal Parmar had tremendous faith in his ability to make this unique venture a commercial success. He felt that he had already organised pre-reviews in London, Vancouver and Malaysia, where he had received excellent feedback and response. He hoped the movie would be a great hit with Punjabi NRIs living in these countries.

Talking about the music of the film, he said he had enlisted some of the accomplished Punjabi singers and picturised three songs with the singers themselves. The singers included the Wadali Brothers, who had rendered a qawwali. They had also roped in the famous Bollywood playback singer Jaspinder Narula and Punjabi singer Sardool Sikander for two songs.

The lyrics were provided by Major Litteranwala and music was provided by Gurmit Singh. The Area Sales Manager of Saregama India Ltd, Mr Amit Jain, said they had already sold over 40000 cassettes and CDs during the last few days.

Ms Kackaria, who was instrumental in taking this major initiative, said she was delighted at the initial feedback. She lauded the efforts of Mr Matharu and his team.

The three-hour-long release function was marked by the performance of dance sequences from the film. Inderjit Nikko regaled viewers with his latest numbers. The programme was anchored by Satinder Satti.

It was a hard decision for more than 3000 odd families of Hindus and Sikhs to leave Peshawar — the land of Pathans, where they did not suffer even a single casualty during the holocaust of Partition.

However, they preferred India — the land of their faith — to the ancestral place and started thronging this holy city from Wagah since 1955-56. Their first destination was Amritsar, from where they moved to Jalandhar, Khanna, Ferozepore, Delhi, Rajasthan and other places of India.

In Amritsar, about 500 Peshawari families live in the locality on Amritsar-Wagah road. They have converted their temporary sheds to beautiful mohalla.

Many innocent lives had been lost while crossing the Radcliff Line, created by the British in 1947. The hospitable Pathans protected their Hindu and Sikh brethren like their own folk. This was the reason that no exodus took place during Partition, and Hindus and Sikhs, most of them big landlords, preferred to stay in the picturesque hilly areas of Peshawar.

Dr Basant Lal Chanden, who runs an RMP shop outside the Peshawari Mohalla, was nostalgic about his youthful days in Peshawar. Recalling the happy old days, spent in his motherland, he said hospitality reigned in Peshawar — the land of contrast and beauty — and most of them were not prepared to come to India. Peshawar enjoyed the reputation of being the centre of attraction for tourists since centuries.

However, massacre of Hindus and Sikhs in other parts of the newly-created Pakistan had inculcated a sense of insecurity and they started approaching the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, for permanently settling in India, so that their religion would not be endangered at any point of time.

“Our decision stood vindicated even as our relatives who preferred to stay back now repent. Whenever they visit Punjab, they hardly go back,” says Dr Chanden. Narrating the recent incident of kidnapping of a Hindu businessman in Peshawar (Pakistan), he said that his cousin Balwant Ram was kidnapped by local goons who demanded ransom of Rs 15 lakh. He said such incidents had forced more migrations in 1980 and 1999.

Recently, one Roop Chand arrived from Pakistan to leave his wife and children. He plans to wind up his flourishing business in Peshawar to permanently settle here. The local Peshawaris say that after five years of stay or so, they normally get the Indian citizenship.

Many of the old Hindu Peshawaris still wear their traditional Pathani kurta pyjamas and Pathani kulla turban, while Sikhs wear unique turbans that differentiate them from the locals. They prefer to converse in Pushto and local dialect of Peshawar when they talk to each other. However, the new generation does not copy their elders and dresses like others.

Mr Devi Chand (70), who hailed from Tira, a tribal area of district Kohar (Pakistan), says that he wants to visit Peshawar to meet his old friends. He says that his relatives and friends from Peshawar cannot visit them, Punjab still being a “disturbed area”. The other grouse he nurses is that the younger generation of Peshawaris does not understand Pushto, what to talk of conversing in local dialect of their tribal area.

Being courageous and hard working, the Peshawaris know how to settle themselves in strange lands. After remaining in camps in Lahore and then its twin City Amritsar, their exchange with Muslims, who wanted to go to their “newly created country Pakistan” was peaceful. Wherever they went, they were able to mingle with the local public and live in most harmonious manner.

In Amritsar, the Peshawaris constructed beautiful temple and gurdwara, adjacent to each other, presenting unique communal harmony. Interestingly, president of gurdwara is Mr Anant Ram, a Hindu. He says the Peshawaris don’t discriminate against anyone on the basis of their faiths.

The message of Bhagat Puran Singh must reach hearts and minds of the people at the global level, said the great environmentalist and leader of the Chipko Movement, Mr Sundar Lal Bahuguna, while paying Bhagat Puran Singh a rich tribute. The occasion was the establishment of Bhagat Puran Singh Chair at Guru Nanak Dev University here. He termed Bhagat Puran Singh as great saviour of environment.

Mr Bahuguna added that the country was facing a severe challenge of water shortage and the forest cover was depleting all over the Himalayas.

The life of Bhagat Puran Singh symbolised all that was great about the Indian way of life, observed Mr V.N. Narayanan, an eminent journalist, while delivering the memorial lecture on the occasion. Mr Narayanan said that Bhagat Puran Singh had brought forth the spiritual power of poverty to live a life of dignity and grace.

Mr Narayanan described the founder of Pingalwara as an epitome of Guru Gobind Singh’s Khalsa, a sublime blend of courage, compassion and willingness to face any danger in the cause of helping others. “He banished the word ‘orphan’ from Pingalwara. The life of those he nursed and nurtured never suffered from the want of loving parents, brothers and sisters,” he explained.

The patron president of the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, Dr Inderjit Kaur, said that Bhagat Puran Singh was a multifaceted personality and he served the humanity irrespective of caste, creed and religion. He was a true saint, as he was always worried about the sufferings of others. She said Bhagat Puran Singh sacrificed his life in the service of crippled and downtrodden.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr S.P. Singh, said that it was indeed a momentous occasion in the history of the university to dedicate the Chair to continue the unfinished task of the bhagat of selfless service for the poor and the sick. Dr Jaswinder Kaur Dhillon, who would head the Chair, said that she would continue working for the betterment of the society and the environment. 

Old habits die hard. This seems to be apt in case of Col (retd) Harcharan Singh, once the world’s fastest left-winger. These days, he can be seen exercising hard to put up his best show against Pakistan in the last match of the first leg of the Indo-Pak Veteran Hockey Series to be held at the astro-turf ground of Guru Nanak Dev University on April 16.

It is an unusual occasion for the veterans of the two neighbouring countries. These veterans had once played against one another in their youth. The tournament becomes more significant, as it is for the first time ever that a tournament of the veterans is being held between India and Pakistan. Many of the former players have retired from their occupations.

Says Arjuna awardee, Harcharan Singh, who retired the last year, “Not only my family members and friends are enthusiastic about seeing me on the field, but also I am enthusiastic about playing wholeheartedly.”

He reflected that the match would also help in popularising the game in the region and would give a chance to budding players to see their heroes on the field.

He said resumption of hockey between the neighbouring countries would ultimately benefit the game and would raise its standard.

He had played in three World Cups, two Olympics and two Asian Games. He is remembered as the player who scored the winning goal in India’s 2-1 overtime win over Malaysia in the 1975 World Cup semi-finals at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Born at Marar village in Gurdaspur district, this village lad contributed his best to hockey and brought worldwide fame to the country. He was 19-year-old when he was selected for the Indian squad in 1969. Luckily, the same year he was selected to participate in the first World Cup for hockey. He remained vice-captain of the Indian team that won the World Cup at Kuala Lampur in 1975.

He was the chief national trainer in 1999. However, his stint lasted for a month, as he had to shift to Jammu and Kashmir to join his duty during Kargil war.

He said the need for resumption of hockey ties was increasingly felt between the two nations, as the Asian hockey was lagging behind at the international level.

The Punjabi play Sahekdey Rishtey delineated the crumbling of relations in the society that was imitating the Western culture mindlessly.

The play was staged at Punjab Naatshala last week. The local play company Manch Rangmanch presented it. The play was based on the Mohinderjit Singh’s book Jado Sham Pandi Hai.

The story unfolds the pitiable state of relations in the materialistic world, where people are becoming more and more self-centric. The play conveyed how a rural youth after getting job in a reputed firm in Mumbai gets married to a city girl who detests the past of her husband. He follows his wife instead of caring about his old parents.

The character of Kultar Singh, enacted by Pawan, is born and brought up in a village of Punjab. He finds job in a multi-national company in Mumbai and settles down there. His wife has a yen for attending parties. He neglects his old parents, so much so that his mother dies pining for him and he hires a servant to look after his old, ailing father. His wife is not willing to let his father stay with them at Mumbai.

The play concludes with poetic justice. Kultar’s son also marries a girl of his own choice without even caring to inform his parents! 

The local chapter of the Taraksheel Society last week sent a memorandum to President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, drawing his attention to social evils being spread by television channels.

Mr Sumeet Singh of the society said that these channels were propagating superstitions, miracles and blind faith through their programmes, which had a damaging effect on viewers. He said as per 51A (h) article of the Constitution, it was the duty of government and every citizen to develop scientific temper, spirit of inquiry and reform. He, however, maintained that this duty was being ignored by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

He said the channels were telecasting unscientific, irrelevant and imaginary programmes, which inculcated negative values in the viewers.

The Taraksheel Society demanded that Drugs/Magic Remedies and Objectionable Material Act 1954, Medical Registration Act and Mental Health Act 1987 should be brought into force to prevent so-called god men from exploiting innocent people. It appealed to the president that all television serials, films and other programmes promoting superstition be banned on all channels.

It criticised government for its “dichotomous” policies. “On one hand, the last year was celebrated as the year of scientific awareness and on the other hand, education of astrology was being imparted in numerous colleges and universities,” the society members stated.

The society urged that the maximum budget be allocated to scientific awareness. It also stated that to encourage the spirit of humanism, the information regarding religion and caste in government and non-government departments should not be demanded from the people. It sought the curbing of noise pollution emanating from religious and non-religious places.

The Taraksheel Society requested the president to make appointment of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists mandatory in hospitals. 

Shree Lakshmi Narayan Stitching School, run by the Shree Durgiana Temple Management Committee (SDTMC), was established in 1992. It has been doing a yeoman’s service for the cause of women, especially those belonging to the weaker sections of the society. Students are imparted training in stitching and embroidery, absolutely free of cost. They are also taught the art of applying mehndi.

Ms Veena Kumari, who has been teaching in the institution since 1992, told TNS that two batches in forenoon and afternoon were held daily. “There are about 20 to 25 students in each batch. The school has not fixed any time limit and the students can continue their training till they achieve expertise in their trade,” she said.

She added that old students still came there and discussed about the difficulties they faced. She further said that the students who had done diploma courses from other professional institutes also visited the school for practical training.