Amritsar, April 23
The project of renovation and upgradation of Guru Nanak Stadium is likely to hit the roadblock with the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) serving a notice to the Public Works Department (PWD) to immediately stop the ongoing work.

The stadium is situated in the close vicinity of the summer palace, belonging to Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which is declared as heritage site and protected monument by the government under the Ancient Monuments, Archeological Sites and Remains Act 1959.

The Punjab Government had selected 14 stadiums in the state, Guru Nanak Stadium being one of them, for upgradation. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had announced provision of state-of-the-art facilities for these stadiums.

Under the project, Rs 7 crore was allocated for this multipurpose stadium, including Rs 2 crore for installing floodlights.

The ASI in its notice pointed out that as per the Act any construction and renovation work was strictly prohibited under the 100-metre radius from the ancient monument.

It was also mandatory for the department concerned to seek the necessary permission from the ASI to carry out any construction, renovation and repair work inside 200-metre radius. Any violation is punishable under the Act. The person may have to shell out Rs one lakh as fine or could be imprisoned for two years or both.

“As the stadium is situated just about 97 metres from the Summer Palace, it is direct violation of the Act. Hence the department has issued the notice to the PWD,” said an official of the ASI. The notice also pointed out that any application seeking permission would not be entertained by the department of ASI.

Pargat Singh, Director, Sports, Punjab who was here to supervise the site and ongoing work, said the PWD is only the executing authority and whenever the Sports Department would receive the notice we would see what could be done in this regard. 

Jalandhar, April 23
Member Parliament Maneka Gandhi today said people should stop fearing fraudsters and should come up in the form of a mass movement to end corruption, the way they did it when Anna Hazare took the lead.

Maneka was here in the city to release a book authored by Kerala-based yogi Sri M titled, ‘Apprenticed to a Himayalan Master: A yogi’s autobiography’.

“The heart is like a muscle. If people see power inside it, they start uniting with you for a cause. It is like a door,” she said.

Asked on the issue of a police official now taking cudgels to stand against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the riot case, she said she was against all kinds of riots. “It was when I had spoken on the issue of 1984 riots from the dais in one of the programmes that Jagdish Tytler had to resign”, she made a point.

She said there were two major problems that the country was currently facing - one is corruption and the second is population. She laughed saying that she had done what best she could do on population issue by giving birth to just one child.

An animal rights’ activist, Maneka announced that her association, People for Animals, was planning to open a big animal shelter and a veterinary hospital in Jalandhar soon. “I know that there is one very small shelter here. I also know that PFA people here are not actively participating in animal activities. But I am just going to make the things more streamlined soon”, she claimed.