The blanket ban by Punjab and Haryana High Court notwithstanding, a number of hoardings have come up in the city with the alleged connivance of the authorities of the local Municipal Corporation and the Improvement Trust.

Not a single road has been spared of these hoardings, what to talk about the main GT Road, the national and state highways and the international Amritsar-Atari Road.

The Punjab Roadways buses are in miserable condition. Rickety buses sans any window — these buses are a safety hazard.

For eight years now, not even a single bus has been inducted in the Amritsar Depots of state roadways. All this is thanks to the state government that has not allotted a single penny for this in its annual budget due to the alleged vested interests of political leaders.

A number of political leaders, both from the ruling party and the Opposition parties, have their own fleet of private buses, which ply on different routs. The induction of new roadways buses could hamper their earnings even though both private and government buses have almost the same fare.

While the higher authorities in the district were tightlipped over this, sources in the roadways department said that private buses belonging to political leaders often allegedly violated rules. No authority had the courage to challenge them due to obvious reasons, sources added.

In Amritsar, about 170 buses (91 from Roadways depot-I and 79 from depot-II) run daily on all routes, whether local or interstate, sources said. Out of these, about half of the buses were plying presently. Out of these buses about 25 per cent had been declared “unfit”, sources revealed. The lack of spare parts has further aggravated the problem. The roadways workshop is forced to use the spare parts of the unfit buses to keep the plying buses ‘roadworthy’. Moreover, the workshops in the city lack the facility of repairing engine and axel.

Come Raksha Bandhan and all jawans stationed at borders here anxiously await for the arrival of one special sister!

For them Ms Laxmi Kanta Chawla is not BJP State President or politician playing vote bank politics, she is the common sister they all have. She brings them the memories of their families, year after year.

Every year, for the last 37 years, Ms Laxmi Kanta Chawla on the sacred festival of Raksha Bandhan gathers her “troop” of young students to tie rakhis to jawans, bringing with her sweets and garlands to make the day ever so special for them.

This year was no different and a two-hour cultural programme was performed for jawans of Army, CRPF, ITBP and Punjab Police on the Raksha Bandhan day.

Not the one to be cowed down, Ms Kanta has been fascinated by rakhi strings. It’s the deeper meaning of Raksha Bandhan that holds her attention.

Born during the Quit India Movement in 1942 and fired with the spirit of patriotism, she fulfilled her desire for patriotic zeal for the first time in 1968 when she was only 25 years old and had joined as a lecturer in DAV College.

She motivated students of the college to tie rakhis to jawans deputed at borders, including Wagah, Ranian, Saniwala, Pul Kangri, Khemkaran, Ajnala.

The occasion has become an annual event, and villagers from surrounding villages come in hordes to watch the celebration and cultural show, even as Pakistanis, too, enjoy the event from afar at the joint check post (JCP).

“The Khalsa College for Women participated this year for the first time,” said the jubilant crusader.

They tied rakhis to 650 jawans of all ranks. More than two dozen institutes participate religiously every year.

These include the DAV School for Boys, BK School, DAV Hathi Gate, Ajanta School, BBK DAV College, Vikram Vidhyalaya, Lohgarh Arya Samaj School.

“Recently, a newspaper headline screamed — ‘Malsinghwala — a village in Punjab ready to be sold’. Even as the CM, Capt Amarinder Singh, plans to procure costly cars for VIP legislators and bureaucrats, a village is ready to be sold owing to neglect by the ‘fund-starved’ civic authorities,” alleges Mr Satya Pal Dang, veteran CPI leader, while talking to Amritsar Plus.

“The village was rendered barren, as no alternative was made to the supply of salty water to the village from the lone tubewell.

According to the statement of the village chief, Mr Jasvir Singh, the village has 750 acres of barren land. This has resulted from saline water that made the land unfit for irrigation,” Mr Dang explains.

The villagers have pleaded with the government to divert the water of a small stream that flows only six and a half kilometre away from the village. “The entire village is in debt and every house has taken loan from cooperative bank and private moneylenders,” says Mr Dang. If the administration does not take adequate steps, the village would soon get totally “depopulated”.

All villagers are on the brink of selling their land and leaving the village, though officers concerned say that efforts are being made to resolve the difficulties of the villagers, Mr Dang adds. 

Mr Beli Ram Sharma, 80, passed away on August 15 following a massive heart attack. The agency holder of The Tribune Group of newspapers, Mr Sharma had been associated with the newspaper industry since he was 13 years old.

Born in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh, he joined the work of distribution of newspapers in Lahore in 1938.

He worked there till Partition forced him to move out. With the help of his cheerful disposition, he earned several friends there, say his associates.

After Partition, he settled down here and stuck to this profession. He struggled hard to overcome poverty and came out with flying colours, add his associates. He took the agency of The Tribune Group of newspapers in the black days of militancy. “He discharged his job meticulously and roped in about 300 hawkers to do the job,” remarks an acquaintance.

He had an active social life. He was the patron of the local unit of the Himachal Sudhar Sabha and also a member of the Company Bagh Welfare Society. 

As many as eleven Kendriya Vidyalaya schools from the region participated in multiple exhibitions held at Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) No 3 located at New Cantonment, this week to mark the 33rd Jawaharlal Nehru Exhibitions.

Several competitions, along with a number of exhibitions, were organised. These included science and social science exhibitions, debates, competitions in Hindi and English, group songs, music and dance, besides quiz competitions.

 Schools from Amritsar, Jalandhar and Jammu participated in the events. Group dances were based on national themes, while folk dances were organised on the theme of Uttar Pradesh.

On the topic “Western culture has eroded Indian culture”, students gave interesting points showcasing advantages and disadvantages of both cultural influences.

In other competitions, points were allotted on the basis of coordination, presentation and aptness of the subject.

Fifteen top models from various schools were chosen in the science exhibition. About three models of the host school, including “clock–tower”, were given commendations.

As many as 25 exhibits, write-ups and posters were selected for further participation at KV, Jalandhar, for regional level and KV, Lucknow, for national competitions.

KV No 4, Jalandhar, secured the top position in group song, while KV No 1 won Hindi as well as English debate.

KV, Jalandhar, stood first in group dance and KV, Saranassi, secured the first position in quiz competition. Eminent judges from colleges and institutes were invited to make the final selections.

Reports have been received about some Public Call Office (PCO) owners allegedly fleecing customers.

Some customers reported to Amritsar Plus that a few PCO owners in the Civil Lines areas were indulging in “malpractices”.

They alleged that when they went to make an ISD call and dialed the numbers they could hear the ring but the caller did not pick up the phone at the other end.

Despite not being able to get through the number, they were charged by PCO owners. In one case, the PCO owner showed the customer three slips, charging him a total amount of Rs 10. “AS I was aware of the whole procedure, I told the PCO owner that he was indulging in malpractices and I did not pay him anything,” said this customer.

However, two other persons who were NRIs, alleged that they had to shell out Rs 12 and Rs 15 each just dialing phone numbers!

According to top sources in the BSNL, the telecom department was receiving complaints in that regard and some PCOs had also been sealed following the recent raids.

To generate these kinds of fake slips, it is learnt that the PCO owners keep the pulse rate higher than that assigned by the telecom authority and manage to fleece gullible customers, especially illiterate persons, women and NRIs who rarely report the matter to authorities.

“I did not want to get involved in unnecessary controversy and create a scene over a paltry sum,” confessed one of the NRIs.

The General Manager Telecom (GMT), when contacted, assured that the department was keeping an eye on some “black sheep” among the PCO owners.

He said people should come forward and make complaints in that regard by collecting the issuing slip, noting the telephone number of the PCO, besides making note of his address.

He assured that immediate action would be taken against such PCO owners.

However, it is learnt that private telecom companies that offer pre-paid connections to PCO owners shrug off their responsibility in this connection.

This makes things difficult for the local BSNL authorities who lose their share of PCO owners to these private companies, say sources. It’s high time that self-operating phone booths be constructed, says an expert.

A lifeline that used to flow with its majestic might hardly a few decades back is now a ghost of its former glory. The Upper Bari Doab Canal, which originates from the headworks of the Ravi River at Madhopur near Pathankot, used to be a delightful sight some years back.

On the way from Pathankot to Dhariwal and Amritsar and beyond, it flowed to irrigate the areas up to Kasur, now in Pakistan. On the way, at some places such as Dhariwal, Amritsar, and Khalra, mini-hydroelectric power plants and flour Mills were powered by the kinetic energy of the fast-flowing water of the canal.

Long back, during the Mughal times Emperor Jahangir carried out a big project of irrigation by digging two canals — the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) and the Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC). The first one was dug out for the special purpose of supplying water to the holy tank of the Harmandar Sahib at Amritsar. The second one was meant for the upkeep of Shalimar Gardens at Lahore. Though these were the specific purposes at the time of digging the canals, with the passage of time the two canals evolved into a main source of irrigation for the adjoining lands.

Till the 1990s, the people of Amritsar had a special privilege of watching the Upper Bari Doab Canal flow along the city on the eastern side. Old memories still linger of the past splendour of the canal when the government had a special department with a large number of employees to look after the maintenance of the canals. The present condition of the canal is pathetic when compared with its past glory, despite the signboards mentioning that it is 40-foot deep and dangerous for swimmers.

The reality is that the canal water is hardly knee-deep and also that the water is seen in it only occasionally. In fact, it has been reduced to a neglected nullah filled with filth and used-ploybags.

The irrigation department has been often censured because of alleged corrupt practices by its functionaries. The canal is gradually decreasing in its width as well as depth. Mushrooming growth of congress grass impedes the flow of water, that is, if there is a flow.

A number of distributaries have been closed, and at many places, even the sewerage water is allowed to flow into the canal. Sources say the whole stretch of the canal, from the GT Road Bridge down to the Taran Taran Railway Bridge, has the potential of a site for water sports.