Josh, who waged unrelenting war against the mighty British regime, has not been given the place he deserved even after 58 years of Independence, though he was instrumental in shaping the destiny of the nation.

Born on November 12, 1898, at Chetanpura, Josh passed the Middle examination from Church Mission School and the Matriculation from DAV School, Amritsar. For higher education, he joined Khalsa College, Amritsar, but had to discontinue his education on account of financial difficulties.

In 1921, when the Akali movement started, he enthusiastically participated in it and travelled from village to village, preaching against the government. He was arrested for his seditious activities, and tried in the Akali Leaders’ Conspiracy Case and sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment. The total jail sentence of Josh was more than 14 years.

Interestingly, he started his political career as a diehard Akali leader and frontrunner leader of the Gurdwara Reform Movement, but later joined the Communist Party and desired in his last will that no religious ceremony be performed after his death. He was cremated in his ancestral house itself without any rites. His ashes were immersed in the Ravi.

He led the movement to get back the keys of the Golden Temple that had been taken on November 7, 1921, by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Mr Dunnet. The incident had come as a bolt from the blue for the Sikh community, wrote Josh. He went from village to village, narrating the Golden Temple key episode. At that time, he was a member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
He was a multi-dimensional personality. Besides being the close companion of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, he was the General Secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal and one of the founder-members of the SGPC, the founder-member of the undivided Communist Party of India and the General Secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Party of the undivided Punjab. (Mr Partap Singh Kairon, who later became Chief Minister, was his office Secretary). He had a stint as a Politburo member and Chairman of the Control Commission of the CPI.

His activities compelled the British authorities to sit up and take note of the deep unrest prevailing in the country. He displayed great courage and determination in the face of cruel persecution.

Chetanpura village, which should have become the Mecca of the patriotic Indians, seems to have been forgotten by one and all. In his autobiography, “My Tryst with Secularism”, Josh writes, “My participation in the Akali movement encouraged others to become Akalis… Soon Chetanpura village began to stir with Akalis, and their shouts of Sat Sri Akal.”

It is indeed sad that the ‘Pustakdwara’ (the name he coined for the library) in his ancestral village has been closed down. Dr Parmjit Singh Josh, his grandson, rues that the portrait of his grandfather has not been put up in the SGPC-run Sikh museum so far, though he was the frontrunner in the Gurdwara Reform Movement. “It might be because of his joining the CPI, but his contribution in the formation of the SGPC and the SAD should not be forgotten by those at the helm of the Panthic affairs.”

His son, Mr Devinder Singh Josh, says that his father would contribute his entire money collected from different sources, including the Soviet Land Nehru Award, Punjab Language Department, for the welfare of common people and the CPI. For him, the party was the foremost. “However, the same party seems to have forgotten the great leader,” says his son. He adds that proper treatment was not arranged when his father suffered a massive heart attack that proved fatal on July 29, 1982. “Disillusioned” with the CPI, Mr Devinder Singh Josh has joined the CPM.

The statue promised by the then Chief Minister Darbara Singh was proposed to be installed at Rialto Chowk, Amritsar. It has not seen the light of the day so far. The promise (as announced by the Congress Chief Minister at his native village, Chetanpura) to establish a 25-bed hospital in the name of this great freedom fighter has not been fulfilled even after 24 years of his death. It was due to the efforts of the Josh family, along with the local people and the CPM activists, that a memorial gate was built in the village itself.

It is painful to admit that many noted visionaries, who had the courage to voice their opinion against what they thought was “wrong”, have been meted out a raw deal. Macauliffe died heartbroken. G.B. Singh, the historian of the Gurmukhi script, was physically assaulted. Similarly, Josh, too, faced “humiliation” in the hands of Akali leaders for raising objections as per democratic norms.

Having a flair for writing, Josh adopted journalism as his major vehicle for propaganda against the British government. He was associated with the revolutionary paper “Kirti” (for which Bhagat Singh had worked for three months). When in 1935, “Kirti” assumed the name of “Parbhat”, once again Josh was its editor and publisher.

According to Mr Niraja Rao, in 1925, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore and within the next year he and his colleagues started a militant youth organisation called the “Naujawan Bharat Sabha”. In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh, and through him the “Workers and Peasants Party” brought out the monthly magazine “Kirti” in Punjabi. For the next year, Bhagat Singh worked with Josh and joined the editorial board of “Kirti”.

Veteran CPM leader, Mr Harkrishan Singh Surjeet, says that it was most credible that Josh was elected the General Secretary of the SAD at the young age of 20-21 years.

An expert on the sugar industry, Mr Harkamaljit Singh said that as the country was in turmoil due to the increasing prices of petroleum products, the Centre should formulate a policy for new projects to allow only sugar complexes (sugar-alcohol-electricity with minimum 5000/10000 TCD capacity along with 20/40 MW exportable power generation and potable/power alcohol plant).

This, he said, would save expenses on transportation for molasses and the sugar industry could provide steam and electricity to the adjoining distilleries comfortably without much investment.

He said sugar industry was the only agro-based industry in the world, which generated electricity from its own fuel. Bagasse, with the cogeneration sugar industry, can contribute power and help the state electricity board for six months during the winter season.

The sugar industry expert said Brazil, which was importing 70 per cent of its fuel during the 1973 Arab oil embargo, with their vision set up National Alcohol Program in 1975 and invested massively in the sugar-based ethanol industry.

He said today Brazil’s automobile industry was using blend with up to 10 per cent ethanol, which required no change or adjustments in the vehicles.

He said for almost 30 years ethanol had been used in light vehicles in Brazil with 25 per cent ethanol.

The Nizam of Hyderabad, he added, was the first to introduce power alcohol production in India in the Nizam Sugar Ltd (distillery unit)at Shakaranagar in Nizamabad, for their fleet of vehicles.

The expert said that in the existing technology of sugar production, 3 m/c boiling scheme should be changed to 2 m/c boiling scheme where distilleries were attached to the sugar complexes, so that BH molasses could be pumped into the distillery which would result in high yield of 310-320 litres per tonne of molasses, as compared to 215-225 litres per tonne of molasses (in 3m/c boiling scheme).

He said the world over, the cheapest source of alcohol production from molasses, which was the co-product of sugar industry and 90 per cent of alcohol was produced from molasses worldwide.

He said with spent wash from the distillery, one could produce biogas. “About 60-80 per cent of the total fuel requirement of a distillery can be met in the shape of biogas (60 per cent methane and 40 per cent CO2).” With this blend, the automobile exhaust would come under permissible limits and as a result of it, air pollution would be controlled and health hazards minimised, he added.

The disease manifests itself in epilepsy-like seizures when the worm settled in the brain releases certain toxins, causing severe trauma to the patient.

According to Dr Prabjit Singh, a neurologist with Escorts Multi-Speciality Hospital and Adlakha Hospital, 2-3 cases were being reported in both these hospitals daily.

The neurologist said he had treated almost 100 cases in the last six months. The medication for the disease needed to continue for two years to eradicate the worm from the body, he added.

The worm completes its cycle in the pig. The faecal matter or stool of pork/ pig-meat consumer carries the worm to the sewerage. The water contaminated by this kind of sewerage disposal is mostly used to irrigate fields. The worm then settles in vegetable leaves.

The neurologist, who had undertaken research in this field in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, says, “Cabbage is the most vulnerable to house this worm. Since the vegetable is used in raw in salads and fast foods much washing, the worm continues to subsist in its womb.

The consumer of the infected cabbage thus gets infected when the worm lodges itself in the intestines, he adds.

“The worm can also affect any and multiple muscles in the body and cause seizures, frequent headaches and loss of vision when lodged in the eye. The disease is referred to as Nuero-Cysti-Cercosis (NCC) in medical terms, which also manifests itself as frequent body aches and swellings under the skin.”

The life cycle of the worm can only be cut by controlling the population of pigs, hygienic disposal of faecal waste and checking samples of pork sellers, say experts.

The farmers too need to be made aware of not irrigating their fields with untreated water, they add.

Mr K.S. Kang, the Municipal Corporation Commissioner, said the corporation would consult veterinary experts and draw a strategy to control pig population besides consulting health authorities to check samples of pork sellers and pork being used in restaurants and eating joints by the name of pepperoni.

Spokesmen from various industries and trading associations, especially paper and steel mills, have also been resenting against the prolonged power cuts. They claimed that production in the industries had dipped.

Officials at the Municipal Corporation said they were trying to synchronise the water supply schedule with the power supply timings in the mornings and evenings.

Certain areas of the Walled City and the Civil Lines had also been affected by low availability of water due to untimely power cuts.

To overcome the shortage of portable water, the corporation said it was planning to revamp the entire water supply and overhead reservoir system. The corporation has decided to install heavy-duty generators at the water heads for round-the-clock supply to several areas of the city. There are also plans to install more tubewells by this month.

Mr Aiyer, during a visit to the district here recently, said the Panchayati Raj system needed to be reformed, enabling rural people to have direct access to the funds.

He added that more than 70 per cent of the country’s population was living in the villages.

The minister lamented that states were not following Kerala’s pattern of development. He said the Planning Commission had allocated Rs 40,000 crores per annum for the development of the rural sector. “This amount, if rightly used, would greatly benefit people living in the villages. He said that in the current year, more than Rs 20,000 crore would be released to the Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Saying that there was a lack of awareness amongst the elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj system, the minister added that the Zila Panchayat committees needed to be restructured for effective governance and proper allocation of funds.

Under the offer called “Sweet Deals”, passengers travelling with the airline would be entitled to discounted tickets to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Bali, Mr Vimal Rai, Manager, Singapore Airlines (Punjab), said.

The promotion scheme entails discounts ranging from 30 to 40 per cent on economy fares to these destinations, he added.

“A return trip to Singapore would cost Rs 11,500, return economy fare to Kuala Lumpur Rs 12,000, Bangkok Rs 14,800 and Denpasar Rs 18,500.”

Mr Rai said bookings for the offer must be made by May 20 and the tickets for outbound travel was valid from May 12 to 31. The tickets under the offer would be valid for a month.

“The scheme is an attempt to tap into the potential of leisure travel from the state to international destinations.”