5 hospitals raided in city
Jalandhar, March 23
Tightening noose around the hospitals, nursing homes, maternity and infertility centres indulging in the illegal practice of pre-natal sex determination in the city, a team of the district health authorities today raided five health institutions and sealed an ultrasound machine and destroyed another one.

Budget disappoints Harivallabh mahasabha
Jalandhar, March 23
Whatever hopes the Shree Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Mahasabha had pinned on the Punjab Government this year to receive aid for the completion of the Harivallabh Bhawan project were dashed as it drew a blank in the Punjab Budget this year.

A file photo of the incomplete Harivallabh Bhawan in Jalandhar.

Property tax: MC Budget session likely to be stormy Jalandhar, March 23 The Budget session of the Municipal Corporation (MC), scheduled to be held on Monday afternoon, is likely to be stormy. As the residents have been holding demonstrations and keeping their shops closed in various parts of the city against the imposition of property tax for two hours daily for the last few days, the opposition Congress and the Dynamic Group of Councillors will oppose the same in the MC House.

The Municipal Corporation office in Jalandhar. A Tribune photo

World theatre Day
Now, time to take city theatre productions beyond Punjab
Jalandhar, March 23
About a decade ago, theatre in the city was just about trying. Trying to keep the act (play) together, remember the lines, prevent the microphones from creaking and prevent costumes or wigs from falling off. Actors used to mumble melodramatic lines which were difficult to understand for the audience because both the intonation and the accents were bad.

Students of St. Soldier School pay tribute to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on their martyrdom day in Jalandhar on Saturday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

All eyes on who will be dist BJP chief
Jalandhar, March 23
With an announcement of the state BJP team done yesterday, party leaders are now eagerly awaiting a decision of the state president Kamal Sharma on the selection of the district president.

Acquisition of land likely to get delayed
Jalandhar, March 23
The process of acquiring land for the extension of 120-Feet Road near the Mithapur area is likely to get a little delayed. A team of revenue officials, who had gone to the site for land demarcation, returned four days ago with only a few measurements taken.

5 hospitals raided in city
One ultrasound machine sealed, another destroyed in Kamal Hospital
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
Tightening noose around the hospitals, nursing homes, maternity and infertility centres indulging in the illegal practice of pre-natal sex determination in the city, a team of the district health authorities today raided five health institutions and sealed an ultrasound machine and destroyed another one.

The team directed the health institutions to comply with the guidelines of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act-1994.

Led by District Family Welfare Officer Dr Shiv Dayal Mali, a team of three officials raided Mohindru Scanning Centre, Kishanpura Chowk, Kamal Hospital, Kishanpura Chowk, Metro Hospital and Maternity Home, Kishanpura Chowk, MM Hospital, Hoshiarpur Road, and Dr Shima Sood Maternity and Infertility Centre, Lamma Pind.

A press note issued by Dr RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, revealed that during a search of Kamal Hospital, the team of health experts took two ultrasound machines into possession. The team destroyed a scanning machine that was in bad condition, while another one was sealed, he added.

After finding certain facilities and condition of machines unsatisfactory at Metro Hospital and Maternity Home, a show-cause notices was served on the management, Dr Mali claimed. The rest of the health institutions were found following the guidelines, he added.

The surprise visit to the hospitals was a part of the drive already launched by the district health authorities to keep a check on the illegal sex-determination practice by hospitals and to make sure that the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act-1994 was being complied with.

Budget disappoints Harivallabh mahasabha
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
Whatever hopes the Shree Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Mahasabha had pinned on the Punjab Government this year to receive aid for the completion of the Harivallabh Bhawan project were dashed as it drew a blank in the Punjab Budget this year. The oldest Indian music sammelan in the world (it was the 137th Harivallabh this year), it did not even find a mention in the government's cultural agenda in the Punjab Budget 2013-14.

While the Harivallabh had been promised Rs 25 lakh in the 2011-12 Budget, it is yet to receive half of that amount.

Even as the Centre’s (Union Ministry of Culture) share (Rs 12.5 lakh) for the bhawan, had already been received, the Punjab Government is yet to allocate the remaining Rs 12.5 lakh it had promised.

Rakesh Dada, treasurer of the mahasabha said, “After fund provisions for the Harivallabh in the 2011-12 Budget, we had hoped for government fund allocations every year. But no allocation of funds in the 2013-14 Budget is disappointing and a great dampener for the bhawan project.”

“In all we got Rs 22 lakh (from private donations) in 2012 and our expenditure was Rs 28 lakh. We didn’t receive any government grant last year. So we are currently running in deficit. Ideally, we need at least Rs 30-40 lakh for the sammelan and Rs 10 lakh for the running of the academy (after its completion) per year,” he added.

Notably, the Harivallabh Bhawan is presently under construction on a land at Shree Devi Talab Mandir. The building shall house the sangeet academy - educational complex, library, music studio and musical archives - as well as an auditorium.

The 30-40 students of the academy have been awaiting the completion of the bhawan for the past few years and presently receive classes in makeshift classrooms at Dada’s residence on Tanda Road.

“At the moment we need at least Rs 1 crore for various expenses of the bhawan, including classrooms, acoustics, air-conditioning and furnishing among other things,” Dada said.

In December, funds for the sammelan had been announced by Congress MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee (who promised it Rs 5 lakh from his MPLAD funds), CPS KD Bhandari (promised Rs 5 lakh) and Pawan Tinu (Rs 2 lakh) as well as state Cabinet ministers Sarwan Singh Phillaur (promised two grants of Rs 1 lakh each) and Bhagat Chunni Lal (promised Rs 5 lakh).

However, these funds are dependent on visits by politicians and sammelan members say they need a fixed fund per year to sustain the sammelan.

Why the Harivallabh Sammelan is important?

• Oldest Indian classical music festival in the world (recognised by the Limca Book of Records and plans are on to apply for the Guinness Book of World Records as well).
• Boosts tourism in the region in December when scholars and musicologists from India and abroad come visiting the city.
• The Harivallabh Academy will provide patronage to research scholars and lessons to music students in the region. Scholars approaching the academy will have free access to recordings of Harivallabh archives (live Harivallabh recordings of stalwarts since 1994 and earlier).
• The research journal (in the pipeline) of the academy will include articles on music chosen by artistes like Pt Ajay Chakrobarty and Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra.

Property tax: MC Budget session likely to be stormy
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
The Budget session of the Municipal Corporation (MC), scheduled to be held on Monday afternoon, is likely to be stormy. As the residents have been holding demonstrations and keeping their shops closed in various parts of the city against the imposition of property tax for two hours daily for the last few days, the opposition Congress and the Dynamic Group of Councillors will oppose the same in the MC House.

Leader of Opposition in the MC House Jagdish Raj Raja told The Tribune that the Congress would raise the issue in the House against the imposition of too much property tax.

He said the SAD-BJP government might impose only a nominal property tax.

On the other hand, an active member of Dynamic Group of Councillors of the Congress Sushil Rinku said the Badal government should withdraw its decision of imposing property tax. Rinku said they would raise the issue in the MC House with full zeal on Monday.

He said, “The review committee should consider the objections submitted by different councillors and residents against property tax.”

Rinku said, “The zoning system should be done away with as influential politicians managed to include the colonies falling under their areas in such zones where property tax is very low.”

Meanwhile, Jagdish Raj Raja said the MC showed Rs 50 crore as income from property tax in its proposed Budget, whereas the same was being reviewed.

World theatre Day
Now, time to take city theatre productions beyond Punjab
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
About a decade ago, theatre in the city was just about trying. Trying to keep the act (play) together, remember the lines, prevent the microphones from creaking and prevent costumes or wigs from falling off. Actors used to mumble melodramatic lines which were difficult to understand for the audience because both the intonation and the accents were bad.

From those quaint bad-theatre days, Jalandhar has come a long way to a place where “trying” no longer means putting up a decent performance but making a mark beyond Jalandhar, in some cases even out of Punjab.

Tired, hackneyed stories are being replaced by brave new scripts, which dig deep into the psyche, unafraid to explore the dark and nasty areas of the human mind.

With just four days to go for World Theatre Day (March 27), The Tribune talked to some theatre artistes, whose groups have been responsible for such change in the theatre industry of the city.

Ankur Sharma of the group YUVAA, an English professor at a local college, started off with theatre for his college youth festivals but, “Seeing the youth festivals end up increasingly being exploited as a medium for aged directors to loot colleges and establish their monopoly in the college circuit, we broke away from the youth festival and decided to do something new and independent of our own.”

“Our resolve has paid off,” Ankur beams.

Ankur became the first Punjab-based theatre artist to get permission from the legendary Gulzar Sahib to perform his play in Punjab. He also tied up with TV veteran and producer Harjit Singh on one of his productions and subsequently shocked audiences with his dark, realistic take on addiction, (the script was from a Mumbai-based playwright) and made a lasting mark.

While he will now be taking one of his productions to Delhi “tying up with Ambrish Saxena, a theatre person from the National School of Drama, for his upcoming project on March 24, Delhi’s Akshara auditorium will be showcasing the production.

“The play looks into the psyche of men. What they pretend and what they actually think about women. It showcases their double standards and changing moralities depending on their own wives and the wives of other men.”

Aptly titled S for Sex, Ankur plans to tone down the title when he brings it for the Jalandhar-based audiences in April.

The cherry on the top is that Ankur is slated be honoured at the Punjab Natshaala, along with some other eminent theatre persons of the region, on World Theatre Day for his contribution in this field.

On March 30, Ankur shall also be bringing two of his production to the region.

Gurvinder Singh, another Jalandhar-based artist, took his play to Kolkata recently.

Performing for a four-day international theatre festival for Institute of Factual Theatre (IFTA), Gurvinder’s play “Mother Impossible” (based on the story of a man who loses his mother early on but during his work at a maternity centre, he finds himself vying to be a mother, to give birth to a baby) featured alongside theatre teams from Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Chennai, Bangladesh, Delhi and Bihar.

Gurwinder, too, shall be taking his production team titled “The Bohemians” to perform a play at Bihar next month.

Gurvinder says “It feels good see where we have reached today from the primitive theatre days in Jalandhar to the theatre boom. Productions are being called from outside, schools are arranging street theatre contests and audiences are ready for brave scripts, which earlier would have been booed away. However, we still have a long way to go and efforts are on to bring Jalandhar on the national map.” Some of the most important contributions that the Jalandhar theatre has seen are from Neeraj Kaushik, whose plays on the underprivileged, the political system, the (theatre) politics behind the scenes (Parde Ke Peeche) and about deep conflicts in a writer’s mind were the first ones to set the stage for others to venture out.

A lawyer by profession, Kaushik has displayed an undying passion for the stage and his contribution has been vital for other artists to dream big.

All eyes on who will be dist BJP chief
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
With an announcement of the state BJP team done yesterday, party leaders are now eagerly awaiting a decision of the state president Kamal Sharma on the selection of the district president.

Former Mayor Rakesh Rathour, a close confidant of national party leader Navjot Sidhu and Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari, who has been picked for the coveted post of party general secretary, and Vijay Sampla, who has been appointed as vice-president, are now likely to have a say in the decision. It was perhaps for the same reason that a function organised by the party in the city this evening in the honour of both the leaders had an overwhelming response.

It is now being speculated that Ravi Mahendru, who is from the opposite camp of Rathour and whose election to the post of district president had been quashed in view of objection filed by another claimant Shiv Dyal Chugh, may not be the lucky one. Another indication in this direction is that Mahendru’s appeal to national election in charge has not yielded any result till date.

There has been a drastic downfall in the political career of Mahendru, who had rather been in limelight in the party politics during the tenure of Manoranjan Kalia as the Local Bodies Minister. Having won the councillor election for the second time, Mahendru had been a contender for the post of Mayor. He quited his state secretary post to become district president, the post which he could enjoy barely for a day or two.

Both Mahendru and Chugh have been long awaiting a final decision in the case. Ever since the elections got quashed, Subhash Sud had been reappointed as the officiating district president. There have been several claimants for the post, including Punit Shukla, Subhash Bhagat, Anil Sachar and Raju Mago.

Acquisition of land likely to get delayed
Extension of 120-Feet Road
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23
The process of acquiring land for the extension of 120-Feet Road near the Mithapur area is likely to get a little delayed. A team of revenue officials, who had gone to the site for land demarcation, returned four days ago with only a few measurements taken.

The SDM-I, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, said there were certain problems in the demarcation of the land. "It will take a little more time as there are certain complexities involved. There are several houses, a part portion of which may fall in the land to be acquired. All the owners of duch houses will have to be convinced before physical acquisition. There has been a lot of hue and cry in the area," he added.