Jalandhar, December 26
Approach roads from Sadar police station to Namdev Chowk, Sky Lark Chowk to Geeta Mandir and BMC Chowk to HMV College have been declared as tow-away roads by the administration. Announcing this at a press conference here today, mayor Rakesh Rathore, deputy commissioner and MC officiating commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu and SSP Arpit Shukla said, “Any vehicle parked on either side of these roads will be towed away.”

Claiming there would be strict implementation of the order, the SSP said only a few spots on the roads, including those outside hospitals and places of worship, had been spared. “Here too yellow lines have been marked and the motorists have to park the vehicles within these lines,” he said.

A traffic enforcement committee had been constituted with the SP (traffic), the DSP (traffic), the DTO, the joint commissioner of the MC, the ADC (G), the SE of the MC as its members.

The SSP said the committee would meet once in a fortnight to identify traffic bottlenecks in the city, discuss parking problems and find short as well as long-term solutions to the problems. He said councillors of all the 60 wards would be asked to participate in the meetings and give suggestions for solving problems in their areas.

Billboards and banners would not be allowed at places, other than those sanctioned by the MC, said the mayor. Violators were liable to be prosecuted under the Defacement of Public Property Act. The mayor was at loss of words about huge signboards put up before visits by politicians. “We allow a very short period for putting up such boards and we get them removed as soon as the function is over,” he claimed.

Pannu said the recent demolition drive to clear blocked passages would continue and there was not much opposition from those indulging in encroachment.

Hoshiarpur, December 26
The complete ignoring of the public relation (PR) department due to the proposed formation of media corporation has badly affected the working of the department throughout the state.

Majority of the posts, including assistant public relation officers (APRO), clerks and drama artistes, have either been abolished or lying vacant for want of fresh recruitments.

According to official sources, nine posts of the district public relation officer (DPRO) are lying vacant in the state. No DPRO has been posted at Jalandhar, which is considered to be the home of print media, and the additional charge of it had been given to the DPRO of Ropar. There is no DPRO at Hoshiarpur and the DPRO of Nawanshahr has been assigned drawing and disbursing powers for the district. In Gurdaspur, Ferozepore and Tarn Taran districts, APROs are officiating 
as DPROs.

The posts of an additional director, three joint directors and four deputy directors are also lying vacant at the headquarters.

Majority of the district offices are lagging in even the basic infrastructure, including vehicles, etc. The sources revealed that the meeting of the departmental promotion committee had not been held for the past about four years due to which the due promotions of many of senior officials could not be done. Some of them had either retired or were on the verge of retirement.

The purpose of the department for which it was formed to make liaison between the public and government and to publicise the policies of the latter has completely vanished.On the condition of anonymity, many of the department officials said the minister of their department was adamant to form media corporation, which was being opposed by some of his colleagues, which led to  the prevailing condition in the department.

Jalandhar, December 26
Jalandharites love to flaunt. And they can perhaps pay any amount to fulfil their passion. As the district transport office today held an auction for fancy numbers in three series for automobiles, there were many a young guys coming in their swanky cars to bid in for their favourite numbers at the circuit house here.

A leading local publisher, Pradeep Jain, gave the highest bid of Rs 4.05 lakh to get a number of his desire for his brand new Mercedes. He took away the number PB-08-BA-0001. Jain believes in having a variety of VVIP numbers. He already has a Honda CRV with the number 0123. “I have a fad for luxurious cars. I also have a Honda Civic. My next car will be a BMW,” said the 45-year-old businessman, based near Sheetla Mandir here.

While the man with the number fixation admitted that he could have even bought another car with that amount, he said, “People may call me crazy. But I, somehow, wanted that number.” The man also has a penchant for whimsical phone numbers. His phone number ends with 37000.

The second highest bid of the day was by an NRI, Gurdarshan Pal Singh Toor, who got the same number 0001 in the BB series for Rs 3.85 lakh. The first number in the BC series was taken away for Rs 2.65 lakh by Model Town-based Shamrock Educational Society.

An agriculturist and owner of a cold storage at Raipur Rasoolpur village, Jaskaran Singh, walked away with two fancy numbers. He did not mind shelling out Rs 45,000 for the number 0002 in BC series for his Hyundai Getz and another Rs 31,000 for his Skoda, which will be numbered BB 0002. Still a student, he said he has an Ikon, Innova and a Tata Sierra parked outside his home.

There was one Aman Khanna who had applied for 0099 number for his Mercedes. “I want this number because my Skoda Laura has the same number. It looks good when one sees the cars with the same numbers parked outside the house. It is also my lucky number. My phone too has 99 at the end”, he tried explaining that number fixation is also an in-thing.

Gursheraz Singh, also a young businessman, said he was waiting to get 1111 number for his jeep. “My Skoda Octavia too has the same number”, he flaunted.

The auction of numbers continued till late in the evening. More than 500 numbers in the series BA, BB and BC were auctioned today. The DTO, Babita Kler, said the collection made in the auction of fancy numbers could not be ascertained as it was yet to be calculated.

Jalandhar, December 26
A meeting of the advisory committee of the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) was held under the chairmanship of Brig B.B. Patil, Commander, 91 sub-area, here today. Lieut-Gen Surjit Singh (retd), Brig D.S. Ahluwalia (retd), Brig M.S. Dhillon (retd) and some other retired officers also attended the meeting.

An Army release sdaid the main aim of the meeting was to bring about awareness and functioning of the ECHS. Brig Patil said the scheme was applicable to ex-servicemen of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and their dependents who were in receipt of any type of pension, release said.

After becoming members by depositing one-time contribution, ex-servicemen and their dependents could avail of the free medical treatment in empanelled private hospitals, the release said.

The scheme was free of cost for those ex-servicemen who had retired before April 1, 1996, it said, adding that this scheme was voluntary for those who had retired before April 1, 2003, and compulsory for those who had retired thereafter. Brig Patil added that the closing date of the scheme was March 31, 2008.

Nawanshahr, December 26
A miscreant allegedly snatched Rs 1.56 lakh, a motorcycle and a mobile phone from an employee of the agriculture cooperative society of nearby Dopalpur village, here on Wednesday.

As per the information, Dalbir Singh, a clerk in the Dopalpur Agricultural Cooperative Society, was going to deposit the cash in the Nawanshahr cooperative bank, Dopalpur, which is about half a kilometre from the society office. A miscreant with muffled face appeared before him and threatened him with the weapon he possessed.

He asked Dalbir to hand over whatsoever he had to him. He snatched the motorcycle, cash and the mobile phone from the employee and fled.

DSP Dilbagh Singh Pannu said a case had been registered under section 392, IPC, at Sadar police station and search for the culprit was on.

Jalandhar, December 26
Revealing that the National Students Union of India (NSUI) would be strengthened in Punjab, national general secretary of the NSUI Ragini Naik, today said that the new president of the state unit would be declared soon.

“We have shortlisted four names to head the NSUI in the state and it is expected that one of the names will be approved by next month,” she told reporters here.

She revealed that the national leadership was even not averse to the idea of appointing a non-student as the president of the student organisation in the state.

She admitted that the delay in the appointment of the state presidents for the past four years had adversely affected the working of the organisation, but a few leaders of the organisation had worked tremendously well during this period who would be given priority in the formation of the new unit of the organisation.

Naik claimed that with Rahul Gandhi taking over the charge of the general secretary in charge of the frontier organisations of the Congress, fresh enthusiasm had been infused amongst the youth of the party.

Making a scathing attack on the state government for the recent incident of cane charging the students in Bathinda, Naik said it was an undemocratic way of the government adopted to suppress the voice of the agitating students. — PTI

Jalandhar, December 26
For nurturing and promoting classical music, the role played by fests like the Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan is unparalleled and cannot be matched by the recent flood of reality talent shows on television. The stars churned out by such shows ride on voting by public which is unaware of nuances of classical music and vote on the basis of personality or other factors they are attracted to. 

Sheetal Dhawan (left) and Jasleen Kaur. —Photo by S.S. Chopra

At festivals like the Harballabh, the audience may be small in number, but they are the real music lovers, feel participants in the 132nd Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan, which began on Tuesday. Jasleen Kaur (21), taking part for the fourth time, says, “Classical form of music is the basis for learning and teaching music. People generally don’t know about it and feel that anything which soothes your ears is music. Understanding and learning classical music requires lot of time and this may be the reason why it is not popular as compared to other music forms,” adds Jasleen. She is a semi-finalist in the Gurbani competition being telecast on the “Shraddha” channel.

Sharing her views is Sheetal Dhawan, a contestant from Ludhiana, pursuing her post-graduation in vocal music. Sheetal says, “One would find very little audience when it comes to classical music competitions. But for students like us who are trained in it, we know that it is the blessings of these few audiences that has kept the spirit of classical alive.”

However, participants feel that festivals like Harballabh were a good platform for classical singers as they are recognised by gurus of classical and winning such festival gives them an identity.

Talking about the inception of the concept of musical competitions at Harballabh, Shree Baba Harballabh Sangeet Mahasabha general secretary Purnima Beri says, “The first musical competition in Harballabh was held in 1979 in vocals and S. Prashanti from Chennai was the winner.” Since then the tradition of encouraging classical music through such events is continuing,” she adds. On the second day of the festival, competitions for non-percussion of junior category were held. Ramanpreet Kaur, who played santoor was adjudged first, while Satvinder Pal (sarangi) and Varun Sumbria (violin) were declared second and third, respectively.