Jalandhar, January 22
Travelling on the Ladowali-Guru Nanak Pura link road has become a nightmare for the people as local civil body authorities have started constructing a road-divider here.

This particular stretch-from Ladowali road till the Guru Nanak Pura level crossing-has become accident-prone due to potholes and piles construction materials there.

Problem of the commuters aggravates during nights in absence of light. The motorists often met with accidents due to poor visibility.

The potholes are not visible at night or in the early morning and people have to be extra careful while driving or walking on this road.

Situations here became more cumbersome on Monday nights when vendors dump trash and solid waste after apani mandi. Apani mandi is held Monday on this stretch.

Charanjit Sharma, a Guru Nanak Pura resident, said electricity poles on the roads were a serious threat to human lives and property here.

“These electricity poles, carrying high tension wires, have been causing major tragedies here for a long time. Yet the authorities are in a deep slumber,” said Harpreet Singh, a resident of Ladowali road.

The residents here want an early completion of the construction work of the road divider.

They also demand setting up of signboards near the construction sites to caution the motorists and road users, particularly during night.

Jalandhar, January 22
With just a few days left for the elections, there are many facets to the city and residents’ needs, which have never been touched.

While area residents and localities cry hoarse over basic amenities like water, sewerage and roads, needs like art aren’t even on the minds of politicians even as artists sulk.

When it comes to a systematic subversion of art, there isn’t a more classic example than Jalandhar. There is a long list of political promises to the city artists that weren’t kept.

Virsa Vihar, which was particularly made for the artists, presently hosts sales of hosiery items.

While it has been promised Rs 25 lakh by Captain Amarinder Singh and Rs 10 lakh by Manoranjan Kalia at different times in the past many years, both the amounts remained unpaid.

The world’s oldest classical music festival and Punjab’s gem, Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, clearly saw diminished interest both by artistes and audience this time. It has also not received Rs 25 lakh it was promised in the budget last year.

The city does not boast of a single auditorium or hall which might be both spacious and acoustically sound. The concept of spending a culturally rich and educating weekend is alien to city kids and art lovers because both art (visual or audio) and theatre events are a few.

While the city is clearly the media hub, it is nowhere near being the art hub of Punjab despite a glorious history of producing artists and intellectuals.

The art fraternity has lost hope as it looks at the Amritsar and Ludhiana art circles longingly. With the coming elections the city artists express their aspirations and demands.

Rakesh Dada, treasurer, Harivallbh Sangeet Sammelan, said “As long as we do not get proper funds, we cannot host a great show, because artistes demand more hefty fees now. For the last few years, we have been getting Rs 5 to 7 lakh (on an average) during every Harivallabh. The Rs 25 lakh that were allocated in the last budget have still not made it to us. Due to the election code of conduct, we did not get any funds this year during the Harivallabh from the government. For the Harivallbah Academy, too, we need a couple of crores for its smooth running. We can make it functional, but for a world-class arrangement things have to be better. We have been demanding heritage status for Harivallabh. Sure we need that but we don’t want it to go in the hands of the government. We love the festival and don’t want it to meet the fate that the Kapurthala Heritage Festival met. If only the government gives us timely funds, we can change things.”

Basudeb Biswas, national award-winning painter, “Virsa Vihar isn’t much of an option for artists, except for holding exhibitions. There is no infrastructure at the place. Jalandhar (or Punjab) artists are also facing a greater bias. While the artists from Chandigarh can participate in exhibitions held by the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademy, those from Punjab can’t participate in those held by the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi. The result is that it’s always Chandigarh artists that end up taking all the prizes. So we have nothing in the city and elsewhere too, there’s politics. The present DC formed an advisory committee of Jalandhar artists when he had just come in. But after that, he didn’t have time to hold even a single meeting. Has the government or political parties ever kept artists on their priority list?”

Deepak Bali of the Punjab Jagriti Manch said, “The amount allocated to the manch in the budget never came, even though there was supposedly a special thrust on culture in the election manifesto of the ruling party last time. The Amritsar Naatshala is doing a much better job than the Jalandhar theatre circles. They have something to watch every weekend.”

Chaitanya Kochar, art observer and coordinator of the city chapter of Spic Macay, “When the politicians are busy clamouring for their vote banks or just creating assets for self and favoured groups, how can they be supposed to find time for character-building projects of the youth. Those presently contesting elections have given away lakhs of rupees to high-profile societies for building concrete halls that never got completed. But they forget the plight of the ignored children of the slums in their constituencies. Fine arts and other artistic activities, which can be started at negligible cost at community-level gatherings or block/school-level platforms, are ignored.”

“The administration is like sitting over Virsa Vihar with a protectionist and preventive attitude. The chairpersons have no time to conduct the mandatory monthly meetings let alone visiting the premises to oversee the activities. In this scenario the bureaucracy is duty bound to take charge, create order and provide a calm working atmosphere and space for the sincere artist,” he adds.

Painter Amit says, “I have personally made efforts to meet the Mayor on issues concerning art. I left my card with him, but I never received a call from him later. I had talked to him on issues regarding art during an award ceremony. City kids do not have any initiation in art. The government could hire artists like us to paint murals at key public sites. The city could be made to look more beautiful. Regular events could be held for schoolchildren. Right now there is nothing. Its an artistic void that we are living in. Cultural enrichment of a city is the farthest thing on a politcian’s mind and I hope some government wakes up to the artistic crisis before its too late.”

Channi JS Takulia, office secretary of Virsa Vihar, says, “We have to hold private sales and exhibitions to meet expenses. We have been promised Rs 25 lakh by Captain Amarinder Singh and Rs 10 lakh by Manoranjan Kalia at different times, but did not get any of the amounts. So many projects at the Virsa Vihar are lying incomplete. There is an idea to build an amphitheatre, which can’t start before we get the requisite funds. The upper story also needs work. We have held bhangra, giddha, music and dance classes from time to time, but the projects mostly fell flat. We meet maintenance costs with money generated from sales and exhibitions. There is only one AC room in the entire building. The upper rooms also need renovation but I never got a query asking what we need at the Virsa Vihar.”

Jalandhar, January 22
The recovery of Rs 20.35 lakh from a private ambulance at Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar on Friday has alarmed the police authorities.

The cash was later released by the income tax authorities after the owner produced the source of money. But the things which have now put the police on its toes are the recovery of money from an emergency vehicle.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), headquarter, Navjot Singh Mahal said this was the first of its kind incident in the district where the recovery was made from the emergency vehicle.

He said strategic and surveillance patrolling teams of police was implementing the instruction of Election Commission regarding illicit cash flow in elections. “To check the misuse of emergency vehicles, police will do intensive routine checking on suspicious vehicles and special instruction will be issued to the patrolling teams to keep strict vigil,” said Mahal.

As these vehicles handle emergencies and are always in a hurry to take the patients to hospitals, police hardly stops these ambulances. Police source, requesting anonymity, said this incident was an eye opener.

Police sources said since the poll code of conduct has come into force, city police has seized Rs 1.22 crore as unaccounted cash.

Amritsar, January 22
Encroachers are taking advantage of the fact that government agencies are engaged in a smooth conduct of the assembly elections to grab public land.

The building of a private clinic in New Tehsilpura is being expanded towards a park belonging to the Municipal Corporation. At least four concrete beams have been erected on the side of the park with to build a new wall.

Vigilant residents have taken a serious note of the alleged violations. An old boundary wall can be seen intact, said a resident of the area, on the condition of anonymity. He said work enabling construction of the external portion was being undertaken on a war footing to finish the work before the assembly election.

He said after this the old wall will be demolished allowing expansion of the interior space of the building.

Besides, a concrete second floor helps expand the building much more than the land beneath it. This expansion has been made on the side of the park. He said the clinic has been in operation in the area for past many years. However, keeping in view the time of the elections the owner is busy expanding the structure violating the norms against the encroachment of public land.

Another instance of violation has come to light on the green belt outside Shera Wala Gate.

A concrete roof has been laid on a small religious shrine, located within the green belt, to expand it. Environmentalists are peeved at the development and say the expansion of the shrine means shrinking of the green belt.

An environmentalist Deepak Babbar of Mission Agaaz said the trend was unhealthy and urged that the authorities must act tough.

Jalandhar, January 22
Ordeal of Sohan Lal, a resident of Kartarpur town, seems to be endless. This octogenarian continues to run from pillar to post in order to bring his son's murderer to book. He is been fighting for the past 10 years.

Sohan Lal has now knocked the door of the Nation Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to seek justice. Earlier, he had written to the Haryana and Punjab Police seeking arrest of his son's murderer. He sought CBI enquiry in the same case as well.

Holding a brief case in one hand and a walking stick in another, Sohan Lal flayed the Haryana Police for not bringing the main accused to books. He also alleged intervention of certain top brass of the department in hushing up the case under the influence of well-connected persons.

Brij Mohan, the victim, had a flourishing business of molasses in Karnal. He was found murdered in his rented accommodation (2233/13 Urban Estate, Karnal) on March 2, 2001.

The police had found Brij Mohan's mutilated body dumped in his bed-box almost a week after his death. The postmortem report confirmed that Brij Mohan was 'strangled to death' and his partially naked body was later dumped in the bed box.

"There were a number of deep cuts of a blade on his chest that showed that Brij Mohan was tortured before he was strangulated," recalled the shattered father.

He further alleged that the Haryana Police "failed to even identify the accused" as one of the suspect was a close relative of a DGP rank officer.

Jalandhar, January 22
City police booked four youths for allegedly raping a minor girl. The victim’s mother, resident of Guru Angad Nagar, in a statement alleged that from the last few days, Balwinder Singh alias Sunny had been teasing her 14-year-old daughter. He used to follow her daughter whenever she headed to school, said the mother. She had even asked him not to tease her daughter.

"Yesterday, when I woke up in the morning, I was shocked to notice that my daughter was not present at home. I realised that alleged youth had taken her to some secret place," the victim's mother told police in her statement.

On Saturday her daughter went missing. The girl did not return homebefore evening. She told her mother that she was raped by four youths, including Balwinder Singh.

The police has registered a case against Balwinder and his three unidentified accomplices.