Amritsar, October 26
The way it’s going, the fate of the mission green undertaken by the Amritsar administration seems bleak.

What more can one expect from the authorities when the plants grown just on the main entrance of the Municipal Corporation’s guest house on the Mall Road, were suffering the brunt of utter negligence. The trees along with the iron guards were found to be badly damaged.

The Tribune team took a random round of the city to have a check on how seriously the “Go Green, Go Clean” campaign is being followed. Just beneath the main elevated road, while entering the city through the GT Road, a massive campaign was initiated to plant trees to make a green cover on road divider. Today, these trees are crying for attention of the authorities as there is no one to take care of them and have been left to die.

The whole belt, planted a few months ago, has got dried up, for want of water and proper pruning. The recent strong winds uprooted majority of them. Another startling fact is that in the absence of tree guards, the stray and domesticated bovine animals end up munching on what the administration plants.

Nevertheless, the saplings planted as part of the campaign in several localities have dried, especially on the Circular Road around the historic gates, the M.M. Malviya Road, the Mall Road, the Ram Tirath Road, Chalis Khuh gardens and its adjoining areas. It is pertinent to mention here that even in rural areas, panchayats have been roped in to plant at least 10 trees against installing a tube well. The authorities even started a mobile green campaign by launching dial a plant scheme, but all these efforts would end up ineffective, until unless there is a proper programme to engage expert hands to implement them and educate the aspirants to take proper care of the saplings.

Even as the administration has initiated several schemes to boost the plantation drive by launching various campaigns like distributing plants in schools and colleges, little groundwork has been done to take care of saplings after plantation. On school management’s call for purchasing at least two saplings each child, Abhiraaj, a 10-year-old school kid very keenly brought home two saplings --- mango and guava --- without having an inkling that both these plants need an open ground to prosper. Now it has become a headache for his parents.

Reason: They own a three bedroom flat at Ranjit Avenue and there is hardly any space to plant the trees. But, the parents had to give up before the insistence of their son and planted them in a flower pot on their second floor flat. “He waters them and attends them daily. Now, I know that these plants would die soon for want of space and air. I am worried because my son has brought them home and if these trees die, he would never plant a tree again. He would have a psychological effect not to plant trees. The school management should initiate to observe all condition before handing over the plants to kids. Merely to raise the plant count would never make a difference, I suppose,” said Dr R Chandana, a psychologist.

Amritsar, October 26
Even as the Punjab State Power Corporation (Powercom) claims to have contemplated a number of steps to check power loss, the huge illuminated hoardings without valid power connections are belying their claims.

These billboards are eating away major chunk of power by way of kundi connections causing a huge loss to already dwindling financial fortunes of Powercom and the Municipal Corporation.

The authorities have turned a blind eye towards the menace as a majority of these advertising unipoles belong to political bigwigs and private advertising agencies who do not give two hoots to any norms or guidelines.

As per the norms, every unipole or advertising hoarding fitted with hoarding lights must be fitted with electricity meters so that they can be charged whatever power they consume.

Illuminated huge billboards at the Nehru Shopping Complex building on the Lawrence Road chowk are some examples as some of these billboards don’t have any proper power connection. Unipoles near the GT Road from Putlighar Chowk to Guru Nanak Dev University are being illuminated with hoarding lights by way of kundis on streetlights wires.

Streetlights are maintained by the Municipal Corporation, which has failed to check the problem. There are more than 150 unipoles at various transactions of the city, it is learnt. There is need to check whether they have valid power connection, said a resident.

“Powercom or the Municipal Corporation should launch a drive to check this menace as ultimately it will be the common man who would bear the burden by way of taxes levied by the MC or Powercom, while owners of these billboards would continue to mint money,” said Suresh Kumar, a resident of the Basant Avenue area.

The city is dotted with hoardings, which have become an eyesore. Many more billboards are coming up, especially in the areas and buildings developed by the Amritsar Improvement Trust, converting the holy city to hoarding city.

Tarn Taran, October 26
Two workers of the Goindwal Thermal Plant died on the spot when five of their colleagues were injured near the local Moulsary Palace at the bypass late last night.

The accident happened when the vehicle (PB-63-E-0058) in which they were traveling turned turtle after the driver lost control while saving the stray animals.

The deceased have been identified as Miceal Soloman (29) from Karela and Shashi Kumar (25) from Tamil Nadu. The injured were Jagtar Singh of Vaion Poin, the driver of the vehicle, Sarwan Kumar, Vilay Harjaie (both from UP), Vikas Marhawa (New Delhi) and Silwak Kumar (Tamil Nadu).

The injured were admitted to the local Civil Hospital by the police. Their condition is stated to be out of danger. The police has lodged a report under section 174 of the CrPC on the statement of Sarwan Kumar.

According to the information, all the seven workers were returning to Goindwal Sahib after paying obeisance at Harmindar Sahib, Amritsar.

At the Moulsary Palace, some stray animals came in front of the vehicle and the driver used breaks to stop the vehicle.

It was the third such accident in the area caused due to stray animals during the last three weeks claiming four valuable lives.

Jagir Singh Sandhu, a social worker in his several letters to the local civil administration, has appealed to find out the solution of the stray animals moving on the roads of the area causing serious threat to the human lives but nothing has been done so far.

Sandhu has warned that he would be forced to move to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in case the administration failed to perform its duty seriously.

Amritsar, October 26
To promote authentic handicrafts of Tamil Nadu and to provide direct and indirect potential marketing support, the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited has brought in a wide range of craft objects.

The exhibition will be open till November 1 between 10 am to 9 pm including Sundays.

Under the brand name “Poompuhar”, an undertaking of the Tamilnadu Government, these handicrafts are unique artifacts of excellent craftsmanship in bronze brassware, stoneware, sandalwood and rosewood carvings in day to day utility art pieces like lamps, wooden sculptures, wall brackets, door handles, tableware, lampshades etc., besides Thanjavur picture paintings, jewellery, bedspreads and cotton sarees.

The artifacts, to be offered are for every class of society with prices ranging from Rs 65 to Rs 10,00,000.

The collection comprises exclusive art objects of the state, for the benefit of art connoisseurs, collected painstakingly over a period of six months.

Traditional woodcarvings and various sizes of highly decorated bronzes and rare motifs and expressions, brass lamps with peacocks, parrots and swans on top, are highlights of the exhibition.

A special discount of 10 per cent will be offered on handicrafts and 20 per cent on the handlooms on display.

According to officials, the corporation has a network of 16 showrooms all over India, including states like Bangalore, Kolkata and New Delhi.

“Such exhibitions are conducted to reach remote crafts pockets of the state, particularly places where we do not have our showrooms”, said the officials.

The corporation has seven production centres, set up to provide design inputs and production of rare objects. The corporation also undertakes projects like the manufacturing of wooden, silver and golden chariots, bells and other items required for temples. 

Amritsar, October 26
Alleging discrimination, the 1984-Sikh Kataleyam Pirat Society today urged the government to extend various facilities, given to anti-Sikh riot victims living in Ludhiana, to the victims living in other parts of the state.

“It’s almost 26 years from now, the consecutive Punjab governments have failed to implement the policy framed by the then Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala for rehabilitation of the riot victims who had migrated to Punjab during riots which were sparked off after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1985,” rued Ajit Singh, president of the society.

Under the policy, the government had decided to fix a quota of 5 per cent in residential plots, 20 per cent in commercial plots and booths, 10 per cent in government jobs to next to the kin of the riot victims and LIG flats for widows for the their rehabilitation. Gurcharan Singh Aulakh, senior vice-president of the society, pointed out that in 2001, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced another policy that only benefited the victims living in Ludhiana.

He alleged that the CM announced benefits for the victims associated with an association headed by his close confident. The office bearers and list of victims only include those persons who are living in the Ludhiana while it has nothing to do with the victims residing in other parts of Punjab. Hence, these benefits could not reach to other victims. Aulakh said this has upset the other victims who were facing harassment at the hands of bureaucratic authorities and even after elapsing of 26 years to the incident, they were still fighting for their cause.

Urging the Chief Minister, Aulakh said whatever the facilities had been given to families of riot victims in Ludhiana should be extended to other districts also.

Amritsar, October 26
A number of residential and commercial projects undertaken by the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) has been awaiting to be handed over to the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (AMC) for their maintenance.

As per section 55 of the Punjab Towns Improvement Act 1922, the AIT is to hand over the projects prepared under various schemes to the AMC for their upkeep.

Apparently, the cash strapped corporation finds its resources overstretched in order to maintain the areas. With limited staff and facilities at its disposal, the corporation has to offer regular cleaning of the surroundings, street lights, sewerage flow and other civic amenities.

An insider in the corporation said the responsibility comes without any monetary benefit as the AIT had already pocketed the profit from the sale of land. Unambiguously, what pinches it the most is that revenue earned is much lesser than the liability.

The AMC earns revenue in shape of taxes in lieu of civic amenities.

Chairman, AIT, Sanjeev Khanna, said so far nearly 160 projects small and large were handed over to the AMC and 11 more would be given to it shortly. He said the projects under the Punjab Damaged Area Act were also included in this list.

The AIT’s biggest ever scheme so far --- 97-acre Ranjit Avenue scheme --- has seen only its A and B blocks going under the control of the AMC while the rest of the blocks C, D and E were yet to see the legally-binding transition.

Besides, the smaller schemes, including, Transport Nagar, Yaseen road, Lohgarh and City Center would also be handed over to the MC.

MC Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda said a joint team of engineers from the corporation and Improvement Trust had carried out a survey of the schemes to be received by the MC.

He added that the understanding regarding the unfinished works had been achieved as per which the AIT would pay for them while the corporation would complete them.

He said the report has been compiled and would be tabled in the House for its approval. Kharbanda said the corporation was never reluctant to accept the schemes but it was duty bound to maintain them.