The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Not enough water for all
By Anuradha Shukla

That is because there is a wastage of water. The distribution is not fair. The posh areas get sufficient supply while the residents on the outskirts of the city do not have enough to meet their basic needs

As summers push up the mercury, the city residents have lines of worry etched out on their faces, in fear of a drinking water crisis.

Will there be enough water to fill the veins of the city this summer?

The authorities say they have their act ready: new tube wells to make up for the shortage.

But sadly there is no water coming from these new installations and the old ones are not working properly.

The voices of dissent have already arising from the residents. People in Guru Nanakpura demanded their basic right to water in front of the Municipal Commissioner’s office two days back.

A local hospital too witnessed an exodus of patients, as there was no water supply, ringing alarm bells for the authorities.

As for the facts, for nearly 1,75,000 houses in the city, there are only 1,03,000 water connections.

Jalandhar residents collect water from a pipe running over a drain.
— Photo by S. S. Chopra

In the largest city of Doaba, with a population of 10 lakh and growing, last year itself, water tanks from the Municipal Corporation (MC) were unable to keep up with the demand.

Those memories are afresh in the minds of the residents who fear that the summers might still be as scary in absence of proper arrangements by the authorities.

Is the city prepared to fulfill the requirements of the residents for precious drops of waters or will there be queues for water this year too?

The posh colonies of the city like Urban Estate and Model Town have nothing to worry, as the MC tube wells installed here are in a fine shape.

But if one goes to the outskirts of the city the picture becomes clearer.

In villages like Reru on the Pathankot Road, the stench of the garbage around the tube wells show how safe the water supplied from the new tubewells would be. The authorities claim that some tube wells do not work since the underground water level is falling.

Then thee are frequent power cuts. To tap underground water, deeper bores are required but due to the frequent power cuts, the pressure build up take a longer time to push up the water.

The residents have no other option than to install traditional “nalkas”, as the installation of Tullu pumps is banned in the city.

The contrast is glaring: residents of posh areas have plenty of water to flood their gardens with timely cuts everyday, while the outskirts have no water in the peak of summers and they keep every possible utensil ready to store some water.

Sources say that enough water is available, but the fault lies with its distribution plan.

Red tapism has marred the water supply scene, as political considerations have resulted in lopsided distribution of water connections.

The Mayor, Mr Surinder Mahey, says the MC is the first one to have given water supply to authorised as well as unauthorised area of the city.

He said that from 1940 till 2002, there were total of 180 tubewells only, out of which 18 were not working.

“In my three-and-a-half year term, 148 new tube wells have been installed and 22 have been revived,” he said.

He said the new tubewells have been installed in outer areas like Kot Sadiq, Lamma Pind, Salimpur, Reru, Dakoha, Bding villages and also in Ekta Nagar, Mithapur Colony.

“In the next five to six months, MC plans to make the reach 100 per cent,” Mr Mahey added.

But the problem persists in areas like Basti Sheikh, Basti Gujan, Basti Nau, Guru Nanak Pura, Kamal Vihar, Ekta Vihar, Bharat Vihar and Bashirpura. Sources said that the tenders for the new tubewells have not yet been floated and still was not clear when that would happen.

MC authorities said there were 250 tubewells. But at least 20 newly-installed ones are not functioning properly and some new ones are waiting for a VIP inauguration for getting operational.

In contrast, the city of the NRIs has enough water to fill bathtubs and swamp the gardens.

The other section in the outer areas of the city has no option but to fill their buckets from pipes, which provides water even in the absence of pressure.

The overflowing tanks on the roofs of the kothis naturally causes heartburn to the likes of Ms Vibha Verma, a mother of two, who said that last summers, she had to wake up as early as three in the morning to store enough water for the day for her home on the second floor of a house.

The Municipal Corporation, people said, had to take responsibility of providing equal water to all the residents.

Nothing royal about it
By Arun Sharma

A blot on the face of Kapurthala.
— A Tribune photo

Once called the Paris of Punjab, the royal town of Kapurthala is losing its sheen due to the apathy of the district administration.

The local administration has remained a failure in checking the littering visible all around the erstwhile princely state.

Even the residents are not much keen to keep the town clean.

The Municipal Committee started a scheme to collect garbage from every doorstep in August last year. But a lot still need to be done to curb the dumping of garbage.

All sides of the Ramnik Chowk on the Sultanpur Lodhi Road have been encroached upon by taxi stand owners and the open area near it has become a garbage-dumping site.

There is hardly any shop or restaurant in the city where a dustbin can be found.

The fruit juice vendors in the markets as well as boiled egg sellers find it right to dispose off the peels in the middle of the roads before leaving in the night.

The vegetable vendors and other shopkeepers also find the roads suitable for disposing off garbage.

No check has been put on the sweepers too, who after clearing the garbage on the roads in the morning, set it on fire resulting in air pollution.

Similarly, all the nooks in the town have turned into urinals in the absence of basic civic amenities. There are very few public urinals provided by the Municipal Committee and the existing ones are in a bad shape.

The wall of the Ghantaghar has virtually turned into a urinal. There is no other place for shopkeepers and visitors in the market to relieve themselves. As such, a foul smell emanates here all the time.

The tap installed nearby has been rendered useless. People can be seen urinating there.

There is no check on the use of recycled polythene even after administration’s repeated reminders to the public.

Polythene bags of various sizes are being used for packing edible objects, even as there is a ban on their use in the district.

Passion for buildings
He has built hospitals, gurdwaras
By Anil Jerath

Mr Piara Singh shows wall-hanging pictures of tapestries that are hung in the High Court

Age is no bar for this Phagwara-based 72-year-old engineer for making buildings. Piara Singh was born in Sujjon village of Nawanshahr district in an illiterate family in 1933. He was determined to do something extraordinary after he passed out his matric from Banga and F.A. from a Nawanshahr college.

“I used to see buildings and wanted to give some different shape to them while on my way to the engineering institute after I got admission in the two-year diploma in civil engineering,” says Mr Piara Singh.

“Within no time after getting my diploma in civil engineering, I got a job with the Punjab government as an overseer. It was a post which enabled me to see the works of the lowest to the highest officials and look after various construction activities, recalled Mr Singh.

He got his first posting in Chandigarh as a site engineer for two of the most prestigious projects of his life— the Civil Secretariat and Punjab High Court buildings.

“Then there was no looking back as I got two more projects — Janj Ghar and Government Senior Secondary School in Sector 23 in Chandigarh,” discloses he.

After completing these memorable projects in Chandigarh, he turned to his Doaba belt and left the government job in 1966. “As many as 90 per cent of the Phagwara hospitals have been built under my supervision,” says Piara Singh.

“Religious sentiments moved me towards some charity. I got to serve a historical Panj Tirath Gurdwara hall measuring 55’x95’ without pillars in Laroya village in memory of sixth Guru Hargobind Sahib, the Dandi Sahib Gurdwara in Sandhwan village and a museum hall at Khatkar Kalan in memory of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, all in Nawanshahar district apart from the Miri Piri Hall at Palahi village in Phagwara subdivision,” remarks Mr Singh.

He says he felt some sense of responsibility when he was assigned to work on a building of Guru Nanak Mission Hospital at Dhahan Kaleran in Nawanshahr district.

Another feat came in his life in the shape of Skylark Hotel in Jalandhar. He also took charge of the Punjab National Bank building in Phagwara, the GNA auto parts factory on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur Road, Mahal Cinema in Garhshanker and Sutlej Cinema in Banga within a very short time period of one year in 1974-75 for which he got an appreciation letter from the then Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ram Gopal, who laid the foundation of the cinema and then inaugurated it also.

Apart from this, he is a member of the Governing Council of Guru Nanak College, Sukhchainana Sahib, Phagwara, a life member of the City Club, Phagwara, and a member of the Phagwara Rotary Club Central.

With sharp and fond memories of the High Court where he was the site engineer, Piara Singh still treasures the invitation letter sent by the Registrar of the Punjab High Court to him to attend the opening of the High Court in Chandigarh by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on March 19, 1955.

Piara Singh still remembers the cost of each and every material used in the construction of the High Court building. “The tapestries that hang in the courtrooms were specially got hand-woven for Rs 2,200 each, the judges’ chairs for Rs 700 each, the carpets for Rs 4,000 each and the witness boxes for Rs 300 each.

In the Golden Jubilee of the High Court held in March this year, the original invitation card of the High Court’s inauguration, which was sent to Piara Singh in 1955, was also put on display.

He was the special invitee to the exhibition and had kept that first invitation card safe and gladly gave it for display at the exhibition. He was also presented with a special gift of wall-hanging pictures of the tapestries that hang in the courtrooms by a High Court Judge, Mr Justice J.S. Narang, in the presence of Judges H.S. Bedi and H.S. Bhalla.

Afraid of maths?

Ajay Palta with his Abacus

Maths, the scary word for many, is in for a change with the new Abacus called Palta’s Abacus by its inventor Ajay Palta.

A businessman by profession, Palta used to think why the numbers seemed beyond easy comprehension to many and his research has led to the fact that the very numbers, which rule the technological and scientific processes in the modern world, are not taught in a way that is in consonance with the natural learning process of the mind.

The children, forced to cram tables and numbers, grow up shying away from the most fascinating subject in the world, says Palta.

“Our survey found that 85 per cent of the students were afraid of mathematics, but with the help of new Abacus they overcame their fears. Even my nephew, a second standard student who hated maths, became a ‘mathemaniac’ so to say”.

Abacus is in consonance with the most natural ways of counting used by man over centuries like the first counting machine our hands, using pebbles.

Man proceeded to find the Abacus, which according to Palta, was present in all ancient civilizations but vanished in some with the passage of time.

Different from the Chinese and the Japanese Abacus, Palta’s Abacus helps young children learn maths through his special classes.

While the Chinese Abacus has two heaven beads and five earth beads, the Japanese have one heaven bead and four earth beads divided in two sections. Palta’s Abacus has only nine beads.

The Abacus, if taught to younger children, can work wonders at the primary education level. This section, which has remained the same for the past 60 years, needs an overhaul, says Palta.

“It is the most natural way to learn as the hands can feel the numbers and eyes can see the answer on the Abacus. The visual solution to the problems of numbers helps the mind learn the subject logically.

“One of the most progressive societies in the world, the Japanese still use it and see the technological advancement they have achieved, says Palta. — TNS

Shooting set to attract youngsters
Sports roundup by Anuradha Shukla

Vijay Kumar (Army) takes part in a shooting event in Jalandhar. — Tribune photo

Shooting, the passion of the brave, has made a grand entry into the city. And the game is all set to catch the fancy of the youngsters here going by the response to the first-ever masters-level championship held at the PAP Shooting Range here recently.

The one-acre shooting range here was home to star shooters, fresh with their success at the recently held Commonwealth Games and the World Cup in China. The champions included Samresh Jung, Jaspal Rana, Anjali Bhagwat, Anuja Jung, Deepali Deshpande, Suma Shirur, Tejaswini and Avneet Sidhu. All of them came down to the star-studded shooting event much to the delight of the local fans.

Athletes like ace-shooter Avneet Sidhu said the range would provide more chances of practice to the local shooters.

Olympian Anjali Bhagwat said that the environment here made her score higher after a long time and the range had more scope of expansion.

Samresh Jung said the bigger shooting ranges required greater maintenance and the smaller ones make it difficult to practice. He said once the finer details were worked put, the range at PAP might turn out to be world class.

The third range to come up after Mohali and Phillaur, the range is spread over an area of one acre and houses a 10-metre indoor range with 35 points, 25 metre rifle range with six points with six sets of turning target devices and a spectator gallery, and the 50 metre rifle range with 20 points with up and down trolleys. The range also has an administrative block.

The range was built in 2001 under the then Director General, PAP, M.S. Bhullar, and was designed by the then DIG, Training, and now DIG, T.S. Dhillon, himself an international-level shooter.

The range was set up in the slushy and most-ignored corner of the PAP complex and was reactivated this year for the masters’ competition, which had 12 top ranking players from the preceding national event taking part.

The game not a spectator game has natural appeal to the players of the region as the guns are not unfamiliar to the youth of the martial community, feels Dhillon. The ADGP, PAP, Rajan Gupta has helped in the up gradation work of the range. “Hopefully it would get an air-conditioned 10-metre range as well as a false ceiling and wood paneling, uninterrupted power supply,” Mr Dhillon said.

The setting up of the shooting club and hosting of more high-level competitions would promote the game further in the region, he added.

Jung takes oath

CRPF officers prompt Samresh Jung to
read out the oath

The responsibility of taking an oath on behalf of all the participants at the Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Memorial Masters Shooting Championship rested on the shoulders of the star of the Commonwealth Games at Sydney, Samresh Jung. The winner of three individual medals and two team gold medals though had a hard time reading the Hindi oath. He could only pronounce the words after great effort, reminding how a kid reads something he is still learning. Then help come from the Assistant Commandant, Mr Kandhar Singh.Seeing the champion in trouble, he decided to help him by prompting from behind.

As such, the oath took much longer to complete.

Friends from Pak welcome Rehmat

Pak Hockey captain Mohammed Saqlain( front) Dilwar Hussain (on his right) and Salman Akbar (behind Saqlain)

Ace hockey player Kamalpreet Singh had had an eventful time recently as the star player was on an emotional high when he received the new of the birth of his daughter. He and his wife, Gultaj Chahal, have named her Rehmat.

When Rehmat was born, her father was playing the Indo-Pak test series in Chandigarh.

Kanwalpreet had reached home to welcome his daughter on the night of February 18 while the rest of the team reached the next afternoon for the third test match.

To welcome the new guest came special friends of the star, players from the Pakistani team. The captain of the Pakistani team, Muhammad Saqlain, the goalkeeper, Salman Akbar, and Dilwar Hussain, all close friends of Kanwalpreet went to see the girl in the hospital.

And the Pakistani captain had a word of advice for the little girl, not to be “ladaki” (quarrelsome).

Earlier, the Indian team had lost to the rivals.

Motorcycle sales pick up
By Deepkamal Kaur

Honda launches its latest motorcycle, Shine, in Jalandhar on Wednesday.
— A Tribune photo

A sporty, macho appeal, riding comfort and optimum saving on fuel. This gives Generation-X a sufficient reason to go in for a motorcycle. The trend is indicated by a substantial jump in the average sales of all bike manufacturers over the last few years.

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd claims an increase in sales by 130 per cent in the last five years, up from 12 lakh bikes a year in 2001 to 30 lakh annually now.

Local dealers of Honda claim to have captured 21 per cent of the total market share with its models— Honda Unicorn and the recently-launched Honda Shine.

Motorcycle manufacturers are now luring customers by adding new features with assurances them of a good mileage, excellent pick-up, powerful disc-brake system, tuff-tube tyres for minimising punctures, comfortable riding positions, fuel tank knee grip, self-start models, multi-reflector halogen bulbs and Teflon-coating finish to reduce scratches on the bike’s body.

Companies seem to be popularising their latest models— Hero Honda for Super Splendor, Bajaj for Discover and Honda Motorcycle for Shine.

The 125-cc Shine with quantum core engine, Super Splendor comes at Rs 44,600 to give a mileage of 70 km per litre locally and 75 km on highways.

Mr N.S. Anand, dealer of the company, said he had sold 125 bikes since its launch about one-and-a-half months back. He claimed that the sales of Passion, priced at Rs 41,613, was more. He said he was selling nearly 300 Honda Passion a month.

Mr Anil Verma, Assistant Senior Manager with Hero Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd, is optimistic about its newly launched Honda Shine, a 125 cc motorcycle empowered with 10.3 bhp engine with improved pick up and mileage, disc brakes, three-step spring loaded hydraulic shockers, tuff-up tube and primary kick that would allow kick start of engine in any gear.

The companies are also offering high-range bikes. Hero Honda’s Karizma, priced at Rs 71,012, is said to be a 223-cc bike, with a ground blurring speed of 125 km per hour.

There also is a segment of low-end bikes which are largely old basic models sans use of any latest technologies.

While LML has its CRD Super Deluxe coming for Rs 36,000 with a mileage of 101 km per litre, its 109.1-cc Freedom Prima comes for Rs 40,000.

Hero Honda has two models of lower range. The 100-cc CD Dawn comes for Rs 30,900 while the CD Deluxe with the same engine capacity is priced at Rs 33,900.

Exhibition from April 22

“Theme for a dream”, an exhibition of summer wear, handicrafts and other household items would be organised by Ms Reeti Singh, a fashion designer and an event manager, at Hotel Radisson on April 22 and 23. The exhibition would give a platform to young and upcoming designers and women entrepreneurs working from home, Ms Reeti Singh said. She runs “Ferns n Petals”, a florist shop, and “Cinnamon”. — TNS

DAV School founder’s day

Police DAV Public School celebrated its founder’s day on Sunday. A path of Sukhmani Sahib was organised. Shabad recital was done by Saumya, Somali and Anandita. Students, staff, Chairman of the school, Mr Rajan Gupta, ADGP, PAP, and Principal, Ms Rashmi Vij, prayed for the progress of the school.

District topper

Amardeep Kaur, a student of M. Sc. (Computer Science), first semester, from Prem Chand Markanda Sanatan Dharam College, secured top positions among all the local students. She has stood first in the district and second among all colleges affiliated with the Guru Nanak Dev University. Nearly 90 per cent of the students enrolled in the programme from the college have got first divisions.

Mahatma Hans Raj

Students of Dayanand Model School, Model Town, remembered Mahatma Hans Raj on the occasion of his birth anniversary on Thursday. The students of the school’s junior wing remembered the social reformer by singing bhajans in his honour. Neha, Mukesh and Jyotsana highlighted the achievements of Mahatma Hans Raj and his contribution towards creation the DAV society.

Value education

Sanskriti KMV School organised a seminar on “Role of teachers and parents for developing value education and life skills” here on Wednesday. Dr Poonam S. Kohli, educationist and MD of a publishing house encouraged the parents to have open discussion with their children so that their mental conflicts could be resolved. She forbade the parents to be over-ambitious. She advised them to follow the PLUS formula which meant that the teacher should have patience, love, understanding and sympathy for her pupils.

PTU toppers

Students of GNA Institute of Management and Technology have brought laurels to the institute by securing top ranks in the university. Ashu Puri, a second semester student of diploma in multimedia, has stood first in the Punjab Technical University. In B.Sc. (Multimedia), second semester, Gurpreet, Amit Kalia and Abhinav Saini stood first, second and third respectively in the university.

New test centre

Manipal University Learning on Wednesday announced the launch of a test preparation services for engineering and medical entrance examination in the city. Mr Niranjan Jayakumar, General Manager, Marketing, Manipal University, said students appearing for IIT JEE, AIEEE, CBSE PMT and other state level entrance tests would be able to get a right combination of the best study material, specialised instruction and localised teaching. — TNS