Jalandhar, June 28
Taking cognisance of a news report published in Jalandhar Tribune on Friday about the plight of around 200 HIV positive children in the district, the Health Department today has sought information from the ART Centre at the Civil Hospital pertaining to their health and other nutritional needs.

The department is now planning to hold a special screening camp for these children and their parents from where their complete health record, including family details, will be maintained thereafter.

“I have asked the Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital to provide me details about these children. Very soon, we will be organizing a health check-up camp for these children and will also check their specific nutritional needs following which the Health Department will maintain their health record thereafter,” said RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar. He also informed that the Health Department would also organise HIV/AIDS awareness camps in Basti areas, the places most prone to this disease.

Jalandhar Tribune had highlighted the plight of around 200 children in and around the district who are registered with the ART centre here at the Civil Hospital.

The report has also revealed the fact that most of these children have either lost one or both parents. Some of them were even staying with their relatives due to social pressure and are facing a lot of harassment and humiliation.

The report had also revealed that most of these children are anaemic and require special nutritional care and attention.

Most of these children are not even going to schools after they were shown the door by their respective schools.

Now with the Health Department coming to their rescue, the situation of these children is expected to improve a little in the coming few days. 

June 28, Jalandhar
An abandoned, dilapidated house in the US, Vietnamese dolls, the upskirt of the Eiffel Tower, Turkish Graffiti, an extreme close-up of a closed-eyed dog (read: hilariously titled ‘You are not stoned’), streetscapes of Bulgaria and Venice, a woman sitting in a room filled with curiosities and crockery (and a cat) gazing out the window and the insightful and ironic - ‘Play of time’ depicting two nudes flanking a black-robed woman holding an inverted watch – these are the visuals that met and refreshed visitors at the local Virsa Vihar for the past three days.

The best of conceptual, landscape and portrait photography from across the globe made its way to Jalandhar’s modest Virsa Vihar and delighted viewers in a first-of-its-kind venture put up in the city.

An exhibition called TIAS: Biennale - the display brought together works of talented photographers from 30 countries, conserved and arranged by Hoshiarpur-based artist Jaspal S.

While the city has had enough of tired works (interspersed with occasional wonders) which misinform locals about what art really should be like, the said exhibition brought much for the art community and fans to celebrate about.

These works actually looks into people’s lives (bringing forth their irony, laughter, pain and journeys), render meaning to their landscapes (as seen in the conceptual ‘photographs of artist Sandra Aschmidt from Germany who places geometric shapes in real landscapes to give them a new meaning – in the work ‘Dodecahedron at Swiss Mountains’) through attempting to tell stories.

Groetin Ilonka Solbrig ‘pokes fun at a sleeping (or dead?) dog as she tells it Ýou are not stoned, Dario De Zolt from Italy captures the playfulness of a silent mother, child conversation Vikram Singh from India discreetly portrays the silent ebb of time in his shots of a little girl sitting some steps below her old grandfather and Anil Gupta does the same in his shot of a coloured child peeking into a play of B&W children at a local village.

There are some perspective shocks as well – the Eiffel Tower doesn’t even look like itself from the bottom, and a glorious leaf striped by the play of light looks much like a graphic design work than the part of a growing, breathing plant.

Artists from Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA and Vietnam spread their brilliance for the people of the city to savour.

Artists Samir Ahmeti, Alejandro Adrono Menduina, Anna Khachatryan, Jasna Dragun, Lo Illy, Dr Takis Alexiou, Ashok kaushal, Dr Gagndep Toor, Dario De Zolt, Cristian Sima Maikhail Pavin, Shereja Shapoval, Pelin Surmeli, R Yevette Hendle, Tran Thi Bich Hue were also honoured with special awards for their works.

Artist Jaspal S. Who is responsible for putting together the effort for the local art lovers said the initiative has been taken to bring a glimpse of avant garde art hapeening across the world for the people of Jalandhar. Although the response hasn’t been as much as we hoped, it is encouraging enough for us to plan more future ventures, next time maybe paintings for the people of the city.

While art in the region is ages behind, ventures like these are sure to add the much-needed fillip to the glum art scene. 

Jalandhar, June 28
On failing to conduct proper investigation in the routine road crashes witnessed in the jurisdiction of the city commissionerate, traffic cops have now been relieved from the duty, which was recently assigned to them by the Police Commissioner.

This has been done to improve the sorry state of traffic scene in the city. Police sources said now the station concerned will be solely responsible for conducting investigation into road crashes.

Notably, this initiative was taken by former Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh with the motive to relieve the cops engaged at police stations so that they could pay more attention to solve the other crime cases. However, the initiative did go well with the traffic police.

Sources said the decision to shift the onus on the police stations was recently taken by the senior police officials and the same was also intimated to the traffic police.

The decision was reversed as the engagement of traffic cops into the investigation of road crashes was virtually affecting the traffic scene in the city. The city traffic police already has a shortage of traffic force and they were not coordinating well between traffic management and investigation into road crashes. Due to the issue, responsibility was again shifted to the police stations concerned, a traffic police official said.

The public also faces inconvenience as it has to reach the traffic police station for completing the formalities after road crashes. The city has 14 police stations and wherever an accident occurs, even though a case is registered at the police station concerned, the kin of the road crash victim have to reach the traffic police station for investigation, sources said.

Dalbir Singh Butter, ACP, Traffic, while confirming the development, said traffic cops were not able to strike a balance between managing traffic and conducting investigation into road crashes. Due to that fresh instructions were recently issued by senior police officials.

Jalandhar, June 28
Four identified youths forcibly took away a Maruti Swift car from New Jawahar Nagar resident Manju Shahi here today.

According to information, Manju, along with three other women, had gone in her car (PB 08 CR 5153) to Ram Sharnam Satsang Ghar.

Police Station Division Number 5 cops said when Manju was coming out of Satsang Ghar, the four persons snatched keys of the car and took away the car.

A case in this regard has been registered against unidentified persons under Section 34/382 of the IPC.

Jalandhar, June 28
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will lay the foundation stone of the Jang-e-Azaadi Memorial project at Kartarpur in the third week of August this year. 

The upcoming memorial will be completed within two years by August 2016. This decision was taken during the fourth meeting of the Jang-e-Azaadi Memorial foundation held in Chandigarh yesterday to take stock of the project and apprise all members about the latest developments related to it so far. — TNS

Jalandhar, June 28
Employees of the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) are a harried lot as they have to shell out hefty and arbitrary bus fare. Private bus operators, including The Prince Bus & Transport Company, are charging Rs 20 from the RCF to Sultanpur, which is far more than the actual fare.

Passengers said private bus operators have started doing it since the revised fare has come into effect. As per the revised rates, the ordinary bus fare is 91 paise per km.

It is notable that considering the demand of private bus operators, the Punjab Government had decided to increase the bus fares by 8 paise per km.

The distance from the RCF to Sultanpur is 18 km, which means the actual fare must be around Rs 16.38. The Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) is charging Rs 15 only.

Passengers said they had asked bus conductors several times about fare difference, but they were not ready to listen. Some of the passengers have also approached officials of the transport company, but to no avail.

The other private bus operators, indulging in this malpractice, are Doaba Bus Service, New Aparpal Bus Service and Gagandeep Bus Service.

A teacher from the RCF, Harpal Singh said it was sheer violation of the government rules. “When we ask them about it, they don’t give a satisfactory answer. It seems that all private bus operators have made some sort of union. Meanwhile, we are planning to approach the transport officials to get our issue redressed,” Harpal added.

When contacted, managing director, Prince Bus & Transport Company, Rajinder Singh said they were charging the fare as per the government survey reports. He said the distance from the RCF to Sultanpur was 20.2 km, not 18 km.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to charge the fare in round figure as there is a shortage of change. Therefore, private bus operators are charging Rs 20. “Apart from this, we have a meeting with the PRTC GM at Kapurthala on Monday, where the issue will be sorted out,” he added. 

Jalandhar, June 28
A Punjabi book, Sahit Gagan De Suraj: Mahakavi Santokh Singh, was released by Padma Shri Dr Surjit Pattar here today. The event was organised by the Ranjit Memorial Trust, Adampur.

Apart from this, a discussion was also organised on a poetry book ‘Rut Kasumbe’ written Ranjit Singh Kharag.

Speaking to Jalandhar Tribune, Karamjit Singh said, “I named the Ranjit Memorial Charitable Trust after the name of my father. He was a famous poet. He died in 1971. We preserved his writings published in various newspapers and then published a poetry book of his works some time ago. Renowned intellectuals Dr Uminder Johal, Dr Anurag Sharma, Dr Darshan Singh Aashat and Dr Jagir Singh Noor read papers on my father’s poetry.”

On the occasion, the first Ranjit Singh Kharag Memorial Shiromani Kavi Award was given to Nirman Singh Bhandal for his contribution to the Punjabi literature. — TNS

Jalandhar, June 28
To commemorate the 103rd birth anniversary of Harishchander Nistandar, India’s prominent educationist, the district Homoeopathy Department organised a free camp in the Guru Nanak District Library here today.

Around 225 persons attended the camp and free medicines were distributed to them. While inaugurating the camp, RL Bassan, Civil Surgeon of Jalandhar, said this form of treatment was very old in India. He also said if treated with homoeopathy, the chances of getting the disease again became almost negligible.

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