Nawanshahr, October 22
The on-going dispute between the Principal and the management of the local Doaba Arya Senior Secondary School for the past two and a half years has taken a new turn. Now, two parallel managing committees have started claiming themselves as real ones.

The DPI (S) has granted approval to Mr Sulakshan Sareen as manager-cum-correspondent of the school. After receiving the approval, Mr Sareen and the “suspended” Principal, Mr Hans Raj Sharma, went to take charge of the school on Thursday. However, office-bearers of the “defunct managing committee”, headed by Mr Prem Bhardwaj, have accused Mr Sareen and Mr Sharma of trespassing on the school. They levelled allegations of breaking locks of the office. The matter was reported to the police, which has registered a case under Sections 448 and 34, IPC, against Mr Sareen, Mr Sharma and others.

Mr Sareen told mediapersons on Friday that he had orders of the DPI (S) and had gone to school to take the charge after informing the civil and police administration. He denied allegations of breaking the locks saying that he had got the keys from the chowkidar. He even showed a bunch of keys of the school to the mediapersons. He accused the Bhardwaj faction of trying to mislead the civil and police administration. When he had the orders of the Education Department and the keys with him then the question of trespassing on the school premises did not arise, he claimed.

He said the holidays declared by the officiating Principal had also been cancelled and all employees had been informed about it telephonically. The staff violating this order would be marked absent.

Mr Bhardwaj, president, Arya Educational Institutions, when contacted, questioned the legality of the managing committee of Doaba Arya school approved by the Education Department.

The Arya Vidhya Parishad, headed by Mr Sudershan Sharma, was the real body to constitute managing committees of the Arya institutions, he said.

“Surprisingly, on the one hand the Education Department had approved the managing committee of Doaba Arya Senior Secondary School constituted by the Arya Vidhya Parishad headed by Mr Balbir Singh and on the other it had approved the management committee of W.L. Arya Senior Secondary School constituted by the Arya Vidhya Parishad headed by Mr Sudershan Sharma,” said Mr Bhardwaj, adding that any body could contact at the office of the parishad in Jalandhar to know the real parishad.

However, Mr Sareen, countering the claim of Mr Bhardwaj, said Swami Agnivesh, president, Sarvdeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, New Delhi, which is the parent body of the Arya Vidhya Parishad, had dissolved the two parallel Arya Pratinidhi Sabhas, one headed by Mr Sharma and other by Mr D.P. Dutta in 2005, and had constituted an ad hoc committee headed by Mr Balbir Singh.

The ad hoc committee headed by Mr Balbir Singh was legally valid, while the sabha headed by Mr Sharma had been maintaining its “illegal possession” on the sabha office, he alleged.

Interestingly, the row between the two managing committees of the Doaba Arya Senior Secondary School has also surfaced the factionalism in the local Congress.

Mr Lalit Mohan Pathak, president, Municipal Council, has been siding with the managing committee headed by Mr Bhardwaj.

On the other hand, the District Congress president, Mr Kuldip Rana, is the president of the managing committee, which has recently been approved by the Education Department. However, Mr Rana has been claiming that he has resigned from the post and presently the president of the managing committee is Mr Rajinder Chopra, a Congress councillor.

Amritsar, October 22
The SAD (Amritsar) today sought intervention of the Jathedar of Akal Takht to direct the SAD supremo, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the SGPC for not taking any political mileage while celebrating 500th birth anniversary of Baba Budha on October 25.

Mr Gurjatinderpal Singh Bhikhiwind, general secretary, SAD (A), announced that his party would not allow Mr Om Prakash Chautala, a former Chief Minister, Haryana, and Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP’s MP, to address the gathering.

“Politicalisation of the religious function will not be tolerated,” he said.

The SGPC is likely to depute a heavy posse of its task force to meet any eventuality following the hard stand taken by the SAD (A).

Mr Bhikhiwind alleged that the SGPC had shown utter disregard and disrespect to the Sikh sangat by inviting leaders of the Indian National Lok Dal and the BJP at this religious function.

He said the party had also appealed to all five Jathedars to intervene in this regard. He said SGPC members and various other leaders of the party, led by the party President, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, would attend the celebrations.

Kapurthala, October 22
When the entire country was observing the festival of lights with full fervour and religious enthusiasm, Kapurthala was left under dark in the absence of any power supply.

Most of the residents observed Divali in the dark as no power was supplied in almost the entire city.

The localities where power was not supplied included Model Town, Ajit Nagar, the MES area, Ranjit Avenue, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Jat Pura Mohalla, Sheenpura, Malkana Mohalla, Kadupur village and Bawaya Mohalla.

Most parts of these and adjoining localities remained without power from five in the evening to two in the morning on Sunday.

Champa, a resident from a locality near Devi Talab Mandir, said they observed Divali in the dark in the absence of any power. It was for the first time in her life that no power was supplied on Divali, she added.

Ajit Singh Arora from Malkana Mohalla on the Amritsar road said they kept on dialing the electricity complaint number time and again to lodge the complaint but nobody was picking the phone.

Similarly Sandeep Atwal from Model Town said his family members joy diminished a lot due to non-supply of power. They had installed small fancy electric bulbs to light their house but they were of now use, he said, adding they had to light earthen pots to light their house in the absence of electricity.

Anil Kumar from Ranjit Avenue complained that nobody picked the phone as they tried repeatedly to lodge their complaint with the PSEB complaint number. He and his family members had to perform “pooja” in the dark, he added.

While the PSEB Superintendent Engineer, Mr K.D. Bharti, could not be contacted, the PSEB Xen, Mr Sandeep Sood, admitted that the residents of the city and adjoining areas had to observe Divali in the dark as power could not be supplied due to some unknown fault. 

Amritsar, October 22
The Amritsar Exporters Chamber of Commerce today lodged a complaint with the Customs authorities at Wagah for not permitting perishable items for transshipment to Pakistan.

The general secretary of the chamber, Mr Rajesh Setia, lodged the complaint with the authorities concerned that they were holding up the consignment of onions for the past five days, causing a huge business loss.

Nawanshahr, October 22
Mr Parkash Singh, Parliamentary Secretary, inaugurated the traffic lights installed at a cost of Rs 18.29 lakh in the town on Friday.

However, with the increase in the number of vehicles coupled with encroachments on the Banga road, the Chandigarh road, the Garhshankar road, the Rahon road, the Old Court road, etc, the problem of traffic congestion has become a routine affair.

With the completion of the Rahon-Machhiwara bridge across the Sutlej, the volume of traffic is bound to increase in the town. As the bridge would shorter the distance to New Delhi, the flow of traffic from Jammu and Kashmir, Pathankot, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur to New Delhi would pass through Nawanshahr. But narrow main roads and chowks in the town are virtually incapable to bear the expected increase in the volume of traffic.

Keeping in view the problem, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Krishan Kumar, has launched a drive “Amicable removal of encroachments” from main roads.

Various encroachments from the Ambedkar chowk have been removed and shopkeepers near Baradari Garden have been persuaded to extend their cooperation in widening the Old Court road by providing them space in the rear side of their hops in lieu of the front. This has widened the road by about 7 foot. The Deputy Commissioner has also planned to remove traffic bottlenecks from the Fatti-Basta chowk and the Chandigarh chowk.

JALANDHAR: Has amla the potential to being the future crop for water-deprived Kandi areas?

Dr S.K. Kaushal, a plant physiology scientist at Agriculture University, Palampur, claims yes.

He has been supervising an amla orchard being run by an NGO at Dharampur Devi village in Hoshiarpur district since 1998.

Mr H.S. Padda, a farmer of Kapurthala, is the brainchild behind the farm. The 10-acre model farm was set up with an objective to see whether amla varieties of high commercial value could suit the area or not.

The first successful “economic fruiting” of amla has proved that apart from naturally grown common varieties, some highly commercial species of amla could also be grown in the entire Kandi area.

The maiden fruiting of six-year-old amla trees of Chakayia NA-6-7-10 (developed by Faizabad-based Narinder Dev Agriculture University) and Kanchan varieties has upbeat both Mr Kaushal and Mr Padda.

Amla of these varieties command high price as these are used for medicinal purposes.

“Though these varieties start bearing fruits at the age of four, their economic fruiting starts when the trees are six years old. The first economic fruiting has cheered us up as the size of fruit is as big as that is grown in Uttar Pradesh. The luster is also the same. Now it has been proved that all these high-value varieties can be grown in Kandi and that too without any water, the crop could be a viable alternative to normal crops like paddy and wheat,” said Dr Kaushal.

His study shows that since one kg of amla commanded a minimum price of Rs 11.50 in New Delhi, farmers could earn up to Rs 3 lakh per acre in a year.

“In comparison, the wheat-paddy crop cycle only makes a farmer to earn a maximum amount of Rs 40,000 per acre in a year’s time. Moreover, amla requires no water or supervision unlike other crops,” said Mr Padda, adding that organic cultivation of the crop has also proved that it did not require any chemical fertilizers.

“The amla crop can even be more profitable if intercropping of amla and turmeric is planned in a field as the combination marks a good deal of success,” said Dr Kaushal. 

Hoshiarpur, October 22
A farmer was murdered with sharp-edged weapons yesterday.

The body of Kuldip Singh (32), a resident of Naushera Pattan village, was found near the banks of the Beas this morning.

According to the police, the victim left his home last evening and did not return. His relatives informed the police last night.
The police found his motorcycle parked near a tubewell in the fields this morning. During search, cops recovered the body. The police has registered a case.