Jalandhar, July 7
Prasar Bharti Chief Executive Officer Baljit Singh Lalli today said the Direct To Home (DTH) service would soon be upgraded with nine more free to air channels.

With the addition of new channels, the number of channels on DTH platform
would increased to 59 and eventually, DTH would made a 200 channel platform
out of which some would be paid and others free to air, he said, while talking to mediapersons here.

Lalli said Doordarshan’s language channels play an important role in creating
the feeling of “Bhartiyata” amongst its viewers, which promote local folk, life
and traditions.

“People living in far off places and have no other entertainment options other
than DD, which runs 11 language channels, and radio, are our listeners and
viewers,” he said.

“As a public service broadcaster, this is the duty of both these organisations to inform, educate and entertain their subscribers with good substance,” he added.

Praising DD Jalandhar for being the number one in running best Punjabi programmes in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, Lalli said that DD Punjabi competes and leads in all national language satellite channels.

He said that the Prasar Bharti would soon start reality shows on Punjabi folk to bring new talent forward. This programme would later be followed on other language channels also.

The CEO said that to commemorate the 300th Sathapana Divas of Guru Granth Sahib which is falling in October this year, Prasar Bharti would bring a seven episode series on Guru Maneo Granth.

“A national-level committee has been set up for the purpose. The panel would be headed by union home minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra chief minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh and tourism minister Ambika Soni,” he informed.

The DVD titled “Guru Manyo Granth” would rope in renowned singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsale and music director Uttam Singh.

Regarding the stiff competition from various private channels, Lalli said, “We are looking forward to change programming schedules on DD Punjabi. There is a need to bring various aspects of village life to the fore to change outlook of the channel.”

Apart from this, Prasar Bharti is coming up with many content-based programmes on forts of India, institutions of democracy, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Public Service Broadcasting Trust etc.

Lalli further said to increase Jalandhar Doordarshan’s range upto terrestrial areas of Punjab, setting up of a 30 KV DD tower in Amritsar was on priority.

However, it has been delayed due to some technical problem which would soon be sorted out, he added.

Talking about Akashwani, Lalli said 49 news bulletins have been introduced on FM Rainbow channels in 19 places across the country, including Punjab from July 6th and before July 31st the duration of news on FM Gold would also be increased for another hour. It would then be more than six hours, he added.

Amritsar, July 7
Residents of Sultanwind and its adjoining colonies today blocked traffic for several hours following damage to a 125-year-old bridge on the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) connecting the Sultanwind and Amritsar.

They raised slogans against the administration and sought immediate repair of the bridge. The bridge caved in a couple of days ago, leaving a big hole in the middle, thereby endangering the lives of commuters.

This is said to be the oldest UBDC bridge in Amritsar. Following the bridge being blocked for even cyclists and pedestrians, the residents of Sultanwind Road and various other localities in the city have been facing a lot of inconvenience.

The ill-conceived idea of the administration to divert traffic from the bridge (due to construction work on the elevated road on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road) is said to be the immediate cause of the bridge caving in.

Since the municipal corporation failed to provide service roads along the elevated road, the administration planned to divert traffic from this UBDC bridge.

Service roads could not be made on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road despite tall claims by the administration. Hence the traffic, including heavy vehicles, started passing over this unsafe bridge.

Though the condition of the bridge was already poor due to lack of repair, the administration put the lives of people in danger.

Neither the irrigation department nor the district/MC authorities paid any heed to the demand of the people to get the bridge repaired. Heavy traffic continued to ply on this bridge though small holes were sighted by the local people.

Again, instead of providing service lanes along the elevated road, the traffic has been diverted to Chattiwind Road causing vehicles to cover about 15 km by using the new diversion.

Bhogpur, July 7
Up in arms against the police inaction in the Jaspreet murder case, family members of the deceased have threatened to commit immolation.

Jaspreet’s family along with residents of Kala Bakra and neighbouring villages assembled in a gurdwara at Alamgeer village today and lodged their protest.

The agitators demanded registration of a case against Inderjit Singh, a resident of Kingran village, for his alleged involvement in the murder.

The family members said they suspected Inderjit’s hand in Jaspreet’s death and alleged that a local MLA was shielding the suspects.

In order to avert any untoward incident, the police had cordoned off the gurdwara and deployed additional security in and around the village.

Interestingly, the police has already booked two persons - Ravinder Singh and his father Surjit Singh - on the statement of the deceased’s father Jarnail Singh.

Jaspreet Singh, a student of Khalsa College, Jalandhar, was murdered on the Jalandhar-Jammu highway near Kala Bakra village on May 10 this year.

He was on his way to the college when some assailant attacked him with sharp-edged weapons, leaving him critically injured. He later succumbed to his injuries in the Jalandhar civil hospital.

Jalandhar, July 7
The dreams of a young girl to lead a happy married life shattered when her dream man refused to bring a marriage party to her residence near Bhogpur, about 20 km from here, today.

The incident occurred in Jamalpur village when Manjit, a resident of Bhogpur village, refused to solemnise marriage with his girlfriend Suman at the last moment.

The villagers disclosed that Suman and Manjit were having an affair for a long time and despite belonging to different religions they finally decided to get married.

Their parents also gave in to their wish and a ring ceremony was organised a couple of months ago.

The family members, relatives and guests were shocked this afternoon when Manjit and his parents failed to bring the marriage party to the bride’s house.

Repeated phone calls and messages from the bride’s family did not yield results. The victim later came to know that the groom was now refusing to get married to her.

Shattered over the non-arrival of the “barat” and the behaviour of the groom’s relatives, the bride’s relatives called Bhogpur nagar panchayat president Raj Kumar and went to Bhogpur police station.

The issue was resolved after the grooms’ parents reportedly paid Rs 80,000 to the girls’ parents for the expenses on marriage preparations , said SHO Som Nath.

Jalandhar, July 7
Alarmed over the depleting green cover in Punjab and attempting to sensitise students, the director of General School Education asked all the district education officers (DEOs) to rope in teachers and students from various government schools to work for the cause of fighting environmental degradation.

This project would be taken up as part of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. As many as three lakh saplings would be planted across the state under this project.

The initiative has been taken keeping in mind the laid-back attitude of the teachers who usually leave the tree plantation campaign to the students.

A meeting in this regard was held with principal chief conservator of forests, where it was decided that the forest department would make available saplings for plantation in schools free of cost.

The plants would be supplied in every district through the district forest officers concerned. The newly envisaged massive plantation drive includes 20 districts of Punjab, Amritsar, Bathinda, Barnala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepore, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar, Nawanshahr, Patiala, Ropar, Sangrur, SAS Nagar and Tarn Taran.

Under this project, the DEOs have been asked to identify the number of plants
to be planted.

DEO (secondary) Harinder Sahni said, “We have been specially asked to sustain plants. All efforts are being made to protect the plantation.

The ultimate aim is to ensure that the plants are guarded. We started 250 eco-clubs in government schools to create awareness about tree plantation among students.

Apart from this, we are regularly in touch with environmentalist Baba Seechewal to provide us variety plants,” he added.

He said, “However, under the project we would work in liaison with the district forest officers for plants.”

The plants specified for plantation include kikar, neem, kachnar, shisham, bohr, pipal, silver oak, mango, drek, champa, toot, bottle brush, bahera, jamun and teak. Under this project the teachers who had done exemplary work would be awarded.

The forest department would conduct an evaluation of the plants after every three months, Sahni said.

Jalandhar, July 7
The Punjab fields which were once known for their grains are now fast turning into gold mines for those in the education business.

In the past few years, the demand of engineering and management colleges has increased manifold. Cashing in on the craze, a large number of private players have ventured into the education sector.

However, finding it difficult to secure large chunks of prime land within the cities, these groups are heading towards agricultural land on the outskirts to set up their sprawling campuses.

Set up in more than 250 acres of agricultural land on the GT Road, near Jalandhar, Lovely Professional University is doing brisk business by offering various undergraduate and postgraduate courses on its campus.

The institute also boasts of 745 placements with different business giants in the past two years.

LPU chancellor Ashok Mittal said, “Though India is known as agrarian economy, the need of the hour is professionals in the service sector and that is what we are contributing to. If some part of agricultural land is being used for it then it should be considered good as it gives more employment avenues.”

Similarly, CT Group of Institutions on 40 acres too has a lavish campus attracting students. Group chairman Charanjit Singh Channi said, “We felt the need of a good college in this part of the area, so we decided to have an institute here. Using a small piece of agricultural land does not make any difference because we are producing talented students which can compensate to the GDP.”

After placing 500 students successfully in the past two years, the group too has expansion plans. The group is planning to set up its new institute on the back of its present campus.

The 350-acre Rayat and Bahra Institute near Ropar is another contender offering every facility on the campus.

Citing a shortage of prime land in city, managing director of the group C.M. Behl said, “We had a desire of establishing a university of international standards in Punjab so that students do not hunt for courses abroad.”

The institute provides best of the education to students and they don’t find location odd at all, said Behl, adding that they were planning an institute near Adampur.

Even, economist Prof S.S.Virk feels using some hectares of land to run educational institutes is not a topic to worry.

He said, “India does depend on agriculture to a great extent, but these professional institutes have helped a number of students to get jobs. Employment is the key to India’s development and these institutes have, no doubt, contributed to it.”

Likewise, the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on 60 acres on Garha Road and Punjab Technical University’s new campus of 60 acres on Kapurthala Road are some other examples where agricultural land has been utilised for commercial purpose like education.