Amritsar, September 11
Even as the Deputy Chief Minister's London dreams are yet to be realised through magnetic pods under the proposed personal rapid transit system (PRTS) just on the lines of the system at Heathrow Airport, effort are afoot to put in practice his another dream project of replicating the Turkey's way of easing the traffic snarls by introducing air-conditioned bus service to run on the pattern of bus rapid transit system (BRTS) in the holy city.

Amidst MP Navjot Sidhu's resentment against the state government for discriminating against Amritsar when it comes to development funds allocation, the whole battery of district officials have been pressed into service to execute the project on priority.

The move came after a state delegation, led by the Deputy CM, had a ride on a bus on a 52 km-long route of BRTS at Istanbul recently and its "in-depth study" influenced the delegation to imitate it for Amritsar and Ludhiana.

The district administrative authorities have been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing a feasibility report for the BRTS in Amritsar.

The project would cost around Rs 500 crore in Amritsar under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) head in collaboration with the Punjab Infrastructural Development Board (PIDB).

Officials said the project would be funded jointly (50:50) by the Centre and the state governments, whereas the Municipal Corporation (MC) would be the nodal agency to provide the land and get it executed.

It is being viewed that the normal vehicular traffic on roads would be reduced by at least three lakh vehicles, including auto-rickshaws, in the city as people would prefer travelling in these buses, which would be safer, faster and cheaper. These buses would be apart from the 150 buses that have been proposed to be introduced under the city bus service plan.

Amritsar, September 11
The move of the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) to widen the approaching road to the 211-acre Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, popularly known as Maal Mandi scheme, along the SSP (Rural) office, which would require felling dozens of fully grown eucalyptus, Asoka and other trees, has aroused the ire of environmentalists.

Environmentalists frown over constant felling of trees in different areas of the city in the name of urbanisation and development.

Executive Director of the Mission Aagaaz, an NGO committed to the cause of environment, Deepak Babbar maintained that it was another fallout of rapid urbanisation. The city was bursting at its seems and people were jostling for residential and commercial space. In this process, they had become pitiless and did not mind removing trees. He said earlier in the name of progress trees were uprooted around Vidya Sagar Mental Hospital, for beautification of Durgiana Temple, at the Saifuddin Kitchlew chowk to raise a flyover, at Rajasansi to widen the Airport road and at Tarawala Pul to raise a new bridge."The holy city lost a plenty of green cover during the past sometime. This is not the lone case. Many trees face the same fate to facilitate development projects. The instances of trees being felled to pave way for development works are innumerable. Now, people with vested interests are resorting to setting trees on fire without realising the value of urban greenery," he said.

Another environmentalist Gurbhej Singh said urban green vegetation plays a vital role in the ecology of human habitats as these filter air, water, sunlight, provide shelter to animals and recreational area for people. They moderate local climate, slowing wind, and shading homes and assist in conserving energy. He said experts had proved that these green patches were lungs for the city as they were crucial for negating the urban heat effect. He said they also helped in potentially reducing the number of unhealthy ozone days that plague major cities in the peak summer months.

When contacted, AIT Chairman Sandeep Rishi said an officer of the trust would go to meet the District Forest Officer to inform him in advance of the felling of the trees. He added that since the trees were standing on the trust land they became the property of the trust and it would conduct their public auction. He added that in order to do its environmental duty the trust would plant maximum possible number of saplings in the same scheme.

Amritsar, September 11
An exhibition of the works of 20 national forum artists, on the subject of Amritsar city, was inaugurated at the International Departure Lounge of Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport.

KC Upadhyay, Deputy Commissioner, Security (Civil Aviation), who was the chief guest on the occasion, said: "Tourists have an opportunity to have glimpses of the paintings of the Golden Temple that would be a memory to cherish."

Kalyanmayee, a social welfare women’s organisation formed by women employees and spouses of male employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has facilitated the exhibition within the ambit of its MoU with EcoAmritsar, a city based NGO.

Working together in areas of synergy towards environmental-friendly activities, sustainable lifestyles and socially beneficial programmes for Amritsar, the two promise to hold many more events in the future.

The paintings are a part of the EcoAmritsar programme in collaboration with the Indian Academy of Fine Arts, wherein artists painted their expressions of Amritsar on the foundation day of the city this year.

Renowned artists Arvinder Singh Chamak and Shivdev Singh represented the academy at the exhibition.

“It’s a unique way to promote the culture of the city and the tourism by giving a glimpse of the symbolic features Amritsar stands for. Since the airport is a first impression of the city for international tourists, having these paintings to welcome them is a great idea,” shared Shivdev Singh.

Suneel Dutt, Airport Director, too praised the efforts, saying that the display and the work of Kalyanmayee was important for society.

Vinee Dutt, President, Kalyanmayee, said the exhibits would be on display in the departure lounge for three months, and shall be a delight for people travelling to various nations.

Gunbir Singh, Chairman, EcoAmritsar, also congratulated the artists for their fine endeavours and said the airport was a strategic entry and exit point for travellers visiting the city.

“It is the place which sets the first and last impressions with the tourists. We are, therefore, happy to work with Kalyanmayee and the AAI in their efforts initiated for visitors,” he added.

Amritsar, September 11
Members of the Mission Aagaaz in association with the District Forest Department today started a plantation drive along the cantonment road and various other spots in the city.

Forest range officer Rajesh Gulati participated in the drive and told students of Stalwart School about the role and necessity of plants in the survival of life on earth.

He said people, especially young children, need to be more sensitive towards this issue and if each and every student starts considering green life as a part and parcel of human life then there would be no dearth of green cover. Hence, everybody should plant more and more saplings.

The Forest Department and the Mission Aagaaz are going to plant 1,000 saplings of kaner, neem, jamun and mango on this stretch.

After this, 1,000 saplings will be planted on Macleod Road, Mall Road and Ram Tirath Road. The NGO is also planning to celebrate the World Ozone Week.

Amritsar, September 11
The District Legal Authority and Legal Literacy Club of Government Girls’ Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, jointly organised a seminar on “free legal awareness” and an essay writing competition on its campus.

The objective of the seminar was to make aware students of the Indian law. The Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, and District and Sessions Judge, HS Madan, was the chief guest.

He said women should realise what rights they have, only then they could attain their deserved position in society.

He said every citizen must be aware of these rights and each individual must know his or her responsibilities towards the nation.

He told the students that the District Legal Authority provides free services to those citizens who could not afford legal help due to shortage of funds or for any other reasons.

Secretary, District Legal Authority, Arun Aggarwal, said the Indian judicial system gives equal rights to its citizens irrespective of caste, creed and colour.

School Principal Mandeep Kaur welcomed the chief guest and encouraged the students to become responsible citizens by following the law.

The students performed a theme-based stage act, “Chetna”, along with a folk dance conveying awareness about the law against female foeticide.

Prizes were distributed among the winning students of the essay writing competition.

Later, in charge of the school's Legal Literacy Club Manpreet Kaur thanked the participants.

Amritsar, September 11
Anushka Ravishankar, celebrated children’s book author and storyteller, has pioneered the children’s book industry in the country when the only stories kids knew were happening in the West.

“The idea didn’t immediately strike me, but I got inspired when I couldn’t find a decent book to read to my six-year-old daughter. I played with the idea for sometime before making it my calling. But that was a long time ago in early 90s,” shared the author who was in the city to hold a workshop at One Up Library here.

She also participated in a discussion at Springdales School on thought-provoking literature and composing of catchy stories.

With over 25 books to her credit including ‘Tiger on a Tree’, ‘Anything but a Grabooberry’, ‘Excuse Me, Is This India’ ‘And Today Is My Day’, ‘One, Two Tree!’ ‘To Market! To Market!’, ‘The Rumour,’ ‘Catch That Crocodile!’, she believes that stories are important.

“Every child wants to listen to a story, its quite natural. We put a lot of emphasis on reading while a child is growing up but learning can be fun, something I try to do with my books,” said Anushka, who won many awards for her writings.

Her latest ‘Moin and the Monster’ has been a hit with children since its publication and she is planning to write the next series of some of her books.

Watching the industry grow since its early stages, Anushka still feels that there is a lot to be worked upon.

“We were reading Lewis Carol and Dr Seuss and then came the Harry Potter series, which changed the children books industry. Fantasy books do good with children but the genre culture is missing here. We have a few of everything but the variety is required,” feels the author, who is also running her own publishing company - Duckbill in Gurgaon.

Anushka doesn’t feel the need to go in for animated version of her writings.

“I was offered interesting concepts to convert ‘Moin and the Monster’ into a film but then its quite a daring step and I am not quite sure about it.”

Admitting that she is not much sentimental about children but enjoy their company, Anushka is still hoping for the next best thing to happen in the children’s book industry.

Amritsar, September 11
The cycling team of the BBK DAV College for Women lifted the GNDU Inter-College Road Cycling Championship Trophy with 16 points held yesterday.

The winning team gave a splendid show by winning a trophy with a great margin. The runners-up HMV College, Jalandhar, team got six points and second runners-up GNDU Campus team got five points.

Pinki, Gargi, Manisha and Narpinder won gold medal in 10 km (team time trial). Gargi won gold and Rajbir Kaur won bronze in individual time trial.

Manisha G, who had participated in the Asian Cycling Championship at Delhi in March, is at present in the Indian cycling team.

Amritsar, September 11
Vijaylakshmi Rajaram Iyer, chief executive and managing director, Bank of India (BOI) held a managers' and officers' review meeting of the bank here today.

Issues like better customer services, increase in retail loan and offering of new-customise products/services to customers were discussed.

Managers were told to promote bank’s recently launched BOI Mahila Saving Bank Account and BOI Star Senior Citizen Saving Bank Account. Both these products offer free accidental death benefit insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh and overdraft facility, upon fulfilling conditions. There was also a discussion about launching of its new scheme to meet the credit need of rice shellers and mills.

Later, Iyer visited the Golden Temple and paid obeisance. 

Amritsar, September 11
Eight persons have been arrested with huge quantities of habit-forming drugs under Sections 21/61/85 of the NDPS Act.

The Chheharta police has arrested Jagdip Kumar and recovered 25,000 capsules of Parvon Spas and 2 lakh tablets of Microlit from his possession, said Sushil Kumar, investigating officer of the Chheharta police station.

Jagdip is a resident of Naraingarh in the Chheharta area and a case under NDPS Act has been registered against him.

In another incident, three persons - Avtar Singh, Rajat Bhanot and Balbir Singh - were arrested under the NDPS Act.

The Chheharta police recovered 300 capsules of Parvon Spas from Avtar, who is a resident of the Guru ki Wadali area, while two silver paper, two half-burnt candles and some burnt matchsticks from Rajat, a resident of Kot Khalsa, and Balbir of Chheharta.

The Gate Hakima police has arrested Ajay Singh of Bharanwal with 100 capsules of Parvon Spas.

In another case, the D-Division police has arrested Amit Kumar of Beri gate and recovered 20 gm of heroin from him.

Meanwhile, the C-Division police has arrested two persons - Abhishek, a resident of Khairdeen, Amritsar, and Amardeep, a resident of Sanga Papal, from whom the police recovered 180 capsules each of Parvon Spas.

Amritsar, September 11
A local woman has lodged a complaint against her husband and in-laws for allegedly physically assaulting and abusing her.

Among those booked include victim’s husband Daljit Singh, a resident of Verka, his father Capt Jarnail Singh, his brother Manjit Singh, Manjit’s wife Surinder Kaur, a resident of Rama Mandi, Jalandhar, and another relative Jasvir Kaur.

The victim, Sarabjit Kaur, a resident of Verka, alleged that the accused also snatched her jewellery.

A case under Sections 323, 452 and 506 of the IPC has been registered in this connection while no arrest has been made so far.