Amritsar, December 17
The Farmhouse Stay Scheme, floated by the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) at the fag-end of 2008, has failed to find any takers in Amritsar.

Aimed at introducing tourists to Punjabi hospitality, cuisine, farm activities and to expose them to the countryside through farm holidays, it does not have a single member registered as yet.

This, despite the fact that the holy city is credited as one of world’s highly visited places by tourists and is internationally well connected by air and road.

The scenario also gives an impression that farmhouse owners here have literally missed out on a place in the farmhouse tourism map of Punjab.

In all, 23 farmhouses located across the state were granted the status of farmhouse stays. However, the holy city does not have a single farmhouse stay.

On the other hand, the remote and not so popular places among tourists like Ferozepore, Mohali and Rupnagar have three farmhouse stays each. Smaller districts like Fatehgarh Sahib, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur and Patiala have a farmhouse stay each.

Narinder Singh, a local, runs a similar centre at Rajewal village, 12 km from here, without any support from the government or any of its institutes. His farmhouse has been recording a steady rise in the number of foreign tourists with each passing year.

He rued that in spite of a milestone commemorating the construction of the road in 2008, a 0.5 km patch of the road is still kutcha. He said telephone lines and internet connectivity are yet to reach the village..

PHTPB Marketing manager Rajat Bhandari said the scheme was floated to give a fillip to farm tourism by intermediating between hotels and other agencies, and approved farmhouses. He said under the scheme, the government did not extend any kind of monetary help but provided training and expertise from reputed national hospitality chains.

Besides, the details of their farmhouses, facilities, location and contact numbers are given on the Punjab Tourism Department’s website.

About Amritsar farmhouse owners ignoring the scheme, he said the scheme was not time-bound and interested persons could submit the applications any time.

Proprietor of another farmhouse, Jagdeep Singh Dhillon, said such projects needed investment while the return was not assured.

Amritsar Hotel and Restaurants Association general secretary A.P.S. Chatha said the stay of tourists in Amritsar was short and a majority of them utilised the place as a transit. He stressed that the government must come out with plans to prolong the stay to promote farm tourism.

Amritsar, December 17
Even as mystery prevails about the discovery of an ancient historic underground tunnel shaped structure at the Lohgarh area in the walled city, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) showed little interest to study its authenticity.

The local civic bodies, which chanced upon the historic structure while digging the area for the rehabilitation project of the existing underground sewerage system of the city, had conveyed the news about its discovery to the ASI on Wednesday, but none of the officials from their side has turned up as yet to examine the site.

Nevertheless, while looking at the nature of the structure made of ancient Nanakshahi bricks, observers here speculated that it could be a security passage made in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh period from Kila Gobindgarh to Harmandir Sahib, to be used as an emergency exit during war. Another theory says that it must have been one of the relics of the ancient Lohgarh Fort, estimated to be located somewhere nearby, at one time.

MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said as soon as such rumours came to his notice, he conveyed the same to the ASI officials. “Otherwise, being an old city, it has a plethora of old historical structures and there was nothing unusual about it. It can be an old sewerage passage too, but you cannot reach at any logical conclusion till experts come and examine it. Still, I rang them up but they have not arrived to examine the spot as yet,” he said.

Charandass, senior assistant with the archeological department, admitted that he had received the message but said since he was in Chandigarh, he could not find out whether any team of the ASI has visited the spot or not. He referred another official - Dr Kuldeep Singh’s name - to ascertain whether action had been taken.

Dr Kuldeep Singh, however, simply denied receiving any such message.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, in collaboration with the municipal corporation, carried on with the digging work, to execute the work on sewerage and augmentation of existing underground system, under the Ministry of Urban Development’s programme.

It is for the first time that a Rs 40-crore project is being executed in the city, which would cater to about 50,000 people living in 31 localities. Elaborating further, DPS Kharbanda said this project was being undertaken for the first time after 1947.

“We have been receiving at least 20 complaints daily about the choking or snags in the sewerage system here. This project would redress their problem permanently”, he said. Superintending engineer GK Goyal, who headed the operation team, said this portion is the lifeline of the walled city and after the laying of these new pipelines, a major chunk of the sullage would be diverted to the main drain.

Amritsar December 17
The city, the birthplace of India’s most decorated Army officer and architect of Bangladesh liberation late Field Marshall Sam Mankeshaw, failed to pay homage on this day the Army brought freedom to the erstwhile East Pakistan.

The hero of India’s most decisive victory over the Pakistan Army which led to the surrender of more than 90,000 troops was given a rousing welcome and a public reception was hosted by the citizen’s of the holy city on his visit here, but his well-wishers and old family friends were disappointed that the people failed to remember his achievements which had brought glory not only to the country but to the place of his birth.

Sam was born in the Parsi family of Dr H.F. Mankeshaw in their Mall Road house in 1914. After schooling in a boarding school, he returned to the city and joined Hindu College for higher education to later join the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun in 1933. He opted to join the Gorkha Regiment. He saw active action during World War II in the eastern sector.

During tribal invasion of Kashmir after Independent, Mankeshaw was deployed in Kashmir to fight the Pakistan-backed intruders and was actively involved in the eastern sector during 1965 Indo-Pak war. He was elevated as the Army Chief in 1969 and was instrumental in strategic military planning and execution to liberate East Pakistan from the clutches of the Pakistani Army to help create Bangladesh.

The Mankeshaw family has left behind their shop in the Katra Ahluwalia area to the caretakers.

An old family friend, preferring anonymity, regretted that it was unfortunate that the brave solider had been forgotten by his own people.

Amritsar, December 17
The IT sector is the most sought after quarter as far as job assurance is concerned. At least the placement stats available with Guru Nanak Dev University indicate so.

Two days ago, a batch of 271 students of B.Tech (computers), B.Tech (electronics), MCA, M.Tech (IT) and M.Tech (computer science) from three campuses in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur were absorbed in TATA Consultancy Service (TCS). This figure is almost double the students hired by the same company last year.

Similarly, Accenture grabbed 51 students and IBM Daksh took 21 students this year.

Dr Hardeep Singh, director, placement cell, said the selected candidates were offered a package of Rs 3.16 lakh per annum each. They would join the TCS in June 2011.

As many as 673 students of batches 2010 and 2011 of various courses have been selected and more than 34 students have been shortlisted by 31 national and multinational IT or IT-enabled companies till today.

Around 62 to 70 per cent students have been employed in IT or IT-enabled companies and the rest of them in the other sectors. These selected students have been offered a pay package of up to Rs 6 lakh per annum, while an average pay package was Rs 2.71 lakh per annum.

In a response to another query, Hardeep Singh said the field of food science and technology had been emerging fast. Even as there were scant takers for the course, with nearly 30 students in this batch, up to 90 per cent students were absorbed by Nestle, ITC Food and Rawalgon, to name a few.

Similarly, all the 10 students of B.Tech (sugar and alcohol technology) of the department of applied chemical sciences and technology have got placements in the sugar industries in and outside the state.

Around 60 per cent of our MBA students of the current session were absorbed by the IDBI, the HDFC and the Khanna Paper Mills, said Hardeep Singh.

Tarn Taran, December 17
Farmers under the banner of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC), Punjab, staged a dharna at Gohalwar, 12 km from here, in front of the subdivisional office of the Punjab State Power Corporation in connection with the problems faced by the farmers of the area.

Bhupinder Singh, Gurlal Singh and other leaders said that the officials were delaying the 24-hour power supply to a number of farmers of Varpal village residing at farmhouses.

The leaders said the supply lines had been installed but the supply was not being given. The KSC warned to intensify the agitation if the supply was not started soon.

Amritsar, December 17
The K-5 security agency’s training compound, located on the Tarn Taran road, today became a battleground when two groups of uniformed youth armed with modern weapons opened fire at each other!

But hold on!. It was indeed a battle between them but to outdo each others’ team while playing an innovative modern game, originated from the USA.

Named as “Paintball Marker”, this game has been brought here by the Maidaan-e-Jung Paintball Club, which was inaugurated by SGPC committee members Rajinder Singh Mehta and Jaswinder Singh Advocate.

The game was started in the USA in 1970 and has gained so much popularity, especially among the youth, that various competitions are organised there.

To generate the thrill of being in a virtual warfield, sacks and other obstacles are placed in an open ground, just as it happens on the battlegrounds. The target is just “go to the enemy base, capture their flag and bring it back”.

Armed men target their enemies while hiding themselves behind piles of sacks or other hiding points made of wooden planks and heap of old tyres, etc, but what makes this game different is that the bullets used for the purpose are made of two plastic cups filed with organic paints. You plan, gear up, get armed and enter the war zone. The gun fires at a velocity of more than 250 feet per second, but if you get hit, you walk out painted.

That’s how the game acquired its name - paintball. As the bullet hits enemy, it leaves the paint on his hopper after which the player has to leave the warfield at least till the completion of the current round.

The object of the game in each round is to capture the other team’s flag, while securing one’s own. Then, there is a referee within the play field, who explains the rules of the game at each point.

Jaspal Singh, spokesperson for the club, said the game has started recently in Chandigarh and Ludhiana too. “Paintball is a highly action packed and adrenaline pumping adventure sport in which players equipped with paintball marker (gun), paintballs, face mask, chest guard, etc, compete in team or individually,” he said.

Talking about the game, he said 10 players can play at a time. “After paying the game fee, the aspirants can form two teams. Donning their helmets, hoppers and chest guards, they set their areas and flags before launching the attack. Even a lone person can come and play, as we have three trained men who can play with him,” he explained. “It is an exciting blend of strategy, team synchronisation, adventure and fun,” he added.

Amritsar, December 17
Rashnoor Singh of Shri Guru Harkrishan Public School, GT Road here, won the national championship during the seventh National SIP Abacus and Brain Gym Contest held at International Convention Hall, Hyderabad.

Over 4,000 students from different states, including 17 from various schools of Amritsar, participated in the competition.

Tarun Jit Kumar and Jasmeet Kaur of Shri Guru Harkrishan Public School, GT Road here, bagged the second runner-up position in level three, Shubhpreet Kaur and Harsimranjit Singh won the third and first runners-up positions in level five and six, respectively.

Kiranpreet Kaur, a student of International Fateh Academy, Jandiala, got the second runner-up position in level three and Jeevbasan Singh of Spring Dale Senior School got the third runner-up position in level eight.

The chief guest on the occasion was Kelvin Tham from Malaysia, who is the founder and head of International SIP Abacus and Brain Gym.