Jalandhar, December 20
A part of the sprawling Circuit House building situated in the heart of the city will be auctioned on January 10. Announcing this loudly, the dholi accompanied by the court’s messenger today declared the court’s decision on the premises of the building.

The Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr K.K. Kareer, had in the case of Rajiv Ahuja versus the Government of Punjab ordered that a part of the Circuit House building would be auctioned as the state government had failed to pay the bills for the work done by Ahuja Motors.

The litigant, Mr Rajiv Ahuja, present on the occasion, informed that he had filed the case against the state government after it failed to pay him up for the repair work of bullet-proof and other vehicles of the Punjab Police.

The government had paid only partially for the repair and maintenance work done by Mr Ahuja for ten to twelve years. The remaining work was done on credit.

In 2001, Mr Ahuja informed the police department head that payments up to Rs 72 lakh remained due from the department in lieu of the repair work and demanded that the payment be made at the earliest.

Mr Ahuja said his troubles began when the department head, the then Director General of Police (DGP), replied with a letter saying the payments were due for more than three years and thus Mr Ahuja could not stake claim on the remaining payments.

The department head had refused to make payments on behalf of the police department, claimed Mr Ahuja. The owners were forced to seek legal recourse.

The court on December 6 last decided that to repay the sum of Rs 7,43,869 to Ahuja Motors, a part of the Circuit House building would be auctioned.

Implementing the court order, the court naib and dholi today declared the court’s decision at the Circuit House premises and announced that the auction is due to be held on January 10. 

Jalandhar, December 20
The historic Devi Talab Temple Complex here, where around 130 years ago the doyen of classical music Sri Baba Harballabh once used to enthrall the audience with his tunes, is all set to immerse music lovers in the uninterrupted flow of the classical tunes for three days from December 23. This time, the “Mahakumbh” of classical music has a number of musical surprises in its lap for the music lovers.

One of these is a performance by Pakistan-based sitar player Ustaad Raes Khan Sahib of “Sainian Ghrana”.

Another welcome step undertaken by the organisers is that instruments like mandolin and rabab are being included in the festival for the first time. Rabab is considered to be more of a spiritual instrument as it was associated with Bhai Mardana, a follower of Guru Nanak.

The music lovers are more likely to encounter a jugalbandi of tabla maestro Krishan Maharaj and his disciples—Sukhwinder Namdhari, Sandip Dass and Shubh Shankar— towards the conclusion of the event on December 25. Shubh Shankar, according to organisers, is the grandson of Krishan Maharaj. So, the jugalbandi between the grand pa and a grandson is likely to be a memorable affair.

“We are taking a number of conventional steps this time. One of these is that to save music lovers and artists as well from biting cold, we have advanced the daily take off time for the event from 7 p.m. to 5 pm,” said Ms Purnima Beri, the General Secretary of the Sri Baba Harballabh Sangeet Mahasabha.

On the last day on Sunday, the festival would start at 12 noon. The event would conclude with the performance by vocalist Sanjiv Abhiyankar, a disciple of Pandit Jasraj.

Interestingly, in the instrument section, sitar has largely been dominating the festival so far. But this time, this convention is all set to break as the organisers have decided to give a chance to the budding artistes and to ensure inclusion of more instruments.

Prominent vocalists Jaitinath Megoumgi and Shubha Guha, would also be enchanting music loving souls, who would also have an opportunity to listen to the prominent santoor player Ulhas Bapat and sarangi maestro Kamal Sabri, a son and disciple of great Sabri Khan Sahib.

Tabla player Sattar Khan was likely to come from the US to gave his performance on the first day itself. Ulhas Bapat and Pandit Ajay Pohankar, are also scheduled to perform in the opening part of the festival, which, would also witness the magic of Shailesh Bhagwat on his shehnai.

Jalandhar, December 20
The students of Apeejay School have proved their mettle as space architects, at least theoretically.

A 12-member team of the school’s senior section that had sent its report to the Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition organised by NASA has been declared the top fourth team amongst the 55 competing teams from 37 Asian countries.

The students are now preparing for the final all-Asia competition to be held in Chandigarh by third week of January.

The Apeejay students would form a 24-member combined team for the contest in coordination with a Pakistani team that was declared fifth in the competition. On January 10, the team from Pakistan would be visiting Apeejay School for joint preparations.

The local team which comprised Ankur Mahajan, Ankit Singhal, Saurabh Chopra, Arvinder Singh, Hardeep Singh, Anroop Singh, Rohan Sardana, Mohit Thukral, Aseem Handa, Kanika Puri, Harleen Kaur and Nikhil Khanna had sent a report on space settlement on a satellite of Mars. The students were assisted by their physics teacher, Mr Emmanuel Ratnaraj.

They today showed a multimedia presentation of their project in which they had designed a virtual cylindrical satellite with an area of 4 lakh square metre that could house almost 14,400 humans.

The project also had radiation protection, temperature control, sustainability and availability of materials for habitation. It also had models for creating a water cycle. The concept of bio-suit, an advanced single layer suit to replace the 23-layer ordinary design, was also depicted through the presentation.

Mohit Thukral, a team member, explained the design of the space shuttle leading to the satellite. He even demonstrated the functioning of two robots, Alexander and Mechismo, in the satellite for various works. Entertainment activities in the form of virtual inter-planetary activities were also depicted.

Harleen Kaur, another participant, said how the team members were now working for the final contest. “We have been surfing the Internet, collecting CDs and encyclopedia from various sources to enhance our knowledge on the subject.”

About the final competition, Harleen said there would be two rounds. “The first one would be about the same project that we had sent earlier.

There would be a question and answer session following the presentation. The second round will be the real competition. We will be given a topic pertaining to an aspect related to space settlement on which we will be asked to make a 30-minute presentation. The time allotted will be 23 hours,” she said.

“If we make it to the top rank, we will be representing Asia in the international competition to be held at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida,” the students said.

Jalandhar, December 20
Protesting against the Punjab government for the non-fulfillment of their demands, non-teaching employees of 150 private-aided colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh affiliated with Guru Nanak Dev University, Panjab University and Punjabi University assembled on the campus of the Doaba College to hold a rally here today.

The members raised slogans and demanded the immediate merger of 50 per cent DA with the basic pay, release of DA installments announced by the state government from time to time, implementation of regular release of the salary grant, implementation of pension and gratuity and ban on fresh recruitments.

Mr Gurdial Singh Johal, president of the union, and Mr Raj Kumar Singla, general secretary, said the representatives of their union had met Mr Surinder Singla, Finance Minister, Punjab, and apprised him of their demands. They said the minister had assured them justice.