Amritsar, March 27
City planners and NGOs are concerned over the violation of building bylaws by a large number of high-rise buildings coming up in the city. Some of the builders have raised the height of the buildings even up to seven stories.

A senior government official pointed out that under the Commercial Shopping Complex scheme in Ranjit Avenue, the owner of a plot (366 sq yards) is allowed to raise the buildings up to 50 ft. But most of the builders have “illegally” raised the buildings up to seven stories.

The Tribune has in possession one such letter in which the the local bodies department has written a letter to the government to raise the height of the building from 50 ft to 65 ft but without inviting any objections from the residents of the area.

Social activist and chairman of the citizen forum Brij Bedi has pointed out that the government should not violate the bylaws and not to succumb under the pressure of the builders to allow them to raise the height of the building without providing adequate safety norms and parking facility.

“Under the rules, no one can be allowed to violate the bylaws as it may attract sealing at a later stage as is being witnessed in New Delhi these days,” he said.

Officers of the department have urged the government to take action and penalise the violators for throwing all norms to wind and creating chaotic conditions outside the building.

The forum has also taken up the issue of adopting fire safety norms in the new constructions.

Most of the buildings lack safety equipment to meet any eventuality.

According to sources in the department, the firefighting department officers never visit the premises to verify the emergency norms before issuing no objection certificates (NOCs).

It has been alleged that in most of the cases the NOCs are issued at the behest of political leaders without going into the merits of the case.

A survey undertaken by The Tribune team revealed that the provision of underground parking had been used for commercial activity, while the vehicles were parked outside the buildings.

Parking woes have added another dimension as vehicles block residential lanes. The traffic police has failed to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

The situation is indeed pathetic in various areas, including the road leading from Hall Bazaar to the Golden Temple.

According to official norms, a building with less than 500 sq yards plot is required to go up to the height of 37.5 ft with the provision of water tank and other provisions.

While plots above 500 sq yards, the provision for height is 70 ft. But some of the builders are adding mezzanine floor, violating the building bylaws.

Interestingly, on the Albert road that is a residential area more than a dozen commercial buildings have come up in violation of the bylaws.

Last week a hotel structure being constructed on a residential plot was pulled down by the corporation for not even adhering to the basic norms of land-use change.

When contacted, officials of the local bodies department pointed out that they were evaluating the large-scale violations and would soon take action against the defaulters.

Amritsar, March 27
The Confederation of Indian Industry today backed the idea of setting up a development authority here for the planned growth of the city.

The brainchild of Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP, who had made it a main election issue during his re-election from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

Talking to this correspondent on phone ,Sidhu welcomed the Badal’s announcement about setting up development authorities for four major towns in the state. Sidhu said the future of the state lies in setting up modern infrastructure for the accelerated economic growth. The present chaotic urban conditions were due to multiple administrative commands which led to ad-hocism.

He favoured a unified nodal agency which would take up the roles of the civic body, improvement trust, PUDA, and the PWD .The proposed authority would look into the future needs of the residents and prepare a comprehensive plan for the overall development of the city.

He has asked a leading IT company in Bangalore to prepare a blueprint for the city which would be implemented in phases. He would seek the support of people to implement the plan . 

Amritsar, March 27
Only a pied piper can possibly bring an end to the woes of residents of Pawan Nagar, who have been troubled by hundreds of mice. The rodents have dug burrows in the vacant plots on the main road and feed on heaps of garbage that is dumped there everyday.

The presence of such a large number of mice also poses a health hazard to the people of the area, who avoid venturing out after dusk, when hundreds of mice can be seen moving around freely.

“Some of us even growl at us, threatening to bite anybody trying to come any closer to their burrows. The whole scene seems to be taken straight out of the Pied Piper story and shopkeepers in the area keep foodstuff covered with heavy lids to save them from the notorious mice,” says Vinay, a resident of lane no 7 in the area.

All efforts of the residents to get rid of the mice by filling up the burrows have proved futile. A whole army of mice comes out in the open every evening, entering houses in the vicinity and feasting on anything within their reach and ransacking and damaging costly belongings.

Shopkeepers in the area say numerous representations to the district administration in this regard have fallen on deaf ears and the menace of mice has only grown with multiplication of their population in the past couple of years.

“We have stopped using traps to catch mice as these creatures are so big that they either break out of the trap or just don’t fit in. There appears to solution to the problem until there is construction on the vacant plots and the garbage dump is also shifted from there,” says Ratna Kumari, another resident.

The residents demand that the municipal corporation should take some effective steps to clean up the place and turn the vacant plot, which belongs to a nationalised bank, be turned into a park in case no construction work is not about to start shortly.

“The twin problems of garbage and mice have turned this place into a mouse land. The colony gives such a repulsive feeling that we have stopped inviting friends and relatives here. My family is already planning to shift out of here to some other colony which has healthy surroundings,” says a college student, requesting anonymity.

Now that the state’s health minister is also from Amritsar and ambitious plans of attracting more tourists to the holy city are being discussed, such problems of locals should not be ignored, she adds.

The hope of crop stands desolate under the starry sky. Warm air cracks earth under Ramdeen’s feet. He turned 20 during the rains which passed his village by for the third year in a row. He has been borrowing to buy seeds and sowing those in time. But clouds come and go without sprouting the seed.

Money lender’s knock arrests his heart beat. Standing on a path through his fields, he broods over the future of his wife and pallid children.

Having gone to the bed of bare floor hungry last night, the family has a meal of corn flour as sun parches the village. Before the moneylender and cops reach his doorstep and the family is thrown out of the ancestor’s home, they trudge the dusty road to railway station.

They carry namesake belongings and their faith in Bhagwan Ram and leave the village with a heavy heart. Like many pauperised young and old from UP, Bihar and Orissa they head to Punjab to earn enough to keep their body and soul together. One can see them pulling weighty locals on rickshaws; serving them in dhabas and restaurants and selling pan and beedi from kiosks.

They work in fields along with local women whose men work hard in foreign shores to send home remittances. The wages of farm labour have improved as many companies take land on rent to cultivate cash crops. The farmers continuing the wheat–paddy cultivation around these fields feel the pressure as they can’t pay farm hands on par with the companies.

NRIs have raised mansions not only in cities, but also in villages. Most of these houses have families of migrants as caretakers.

They live in bastis in and around the cities with poor civic amenities. Some of them become victims of water-borne diseases. After toiling in the day they sit in groups to sing bhajans. On festive occasions men in the pant-shirt dress and women in colouful saris and in suits queue up in front of temples. Interestingly, they speak Punjabi laced with their mother tongue.

The city goes to sleep around 9 p.m. One can see an odd rickshawala carrying a passenger from railway station or bus stand. Most of them earn with the sweat of the brow to save for daughter’s marriage or father’s treatment. Some lose their souls while indulging their bodies.

Amritsar, March 27
For Sahan Bajala, his comb is his saxophone. With a piece of polythene wrapped over the comb, he can produce tune of any high-note song.

The moment he starts playing ‘baharon phool barsao’, the small room in his Power Colony residence echoes with mesmerising musical notes.

Singing Mohammad Rafi’s songs is his other obsession. If director Ram Gopal Verma was to make another film on an aspirant dreaming of making it big in Bollywood, Sahan’s life story makes a perfect script for a musical titled ‘mein Mohammad Rafi banna chahta hoon.’

Claiming that his voice has striking resemblance with one of the greatest playback singers of Bollywood, 30-year-old Bajala wants Pyarelal, of Lakshmikant-Pyarelal fame, to give him a break in his comeback film.

“Whoever listens to my voice says that I sound exactly like Rafi saahab. And since Lakshmikant-Pyarelal had a number of hits with him, I want that Pyarelal to give audience the same kind of sound which used to be his trademark in the 80s. After Lakshmikant’s demise, he is planning to make a comeback this year,” he says.

Besides singing, Bajala’s second obsession is taking out sound of saxophone with a comb by wrapping a piece of polythene over it.

“I have been listening to Mohammad Rafi’s songs for the last 16 years. I can sing the toughest of Rafi songs and also take out its tune on the comb. “By making it to the top 15 of Indian Idol contest and numerous stage performances to my credit, I have proved my talent and only need the right opportunity to fill the void which Rafi saab left in Bollywood,” he says.

Amritsar, March 27
The Adult Continuing Education and Extension Centre, which was established by the GNDU in the Amritsar Central Jail, would organise its first convocation in collaboration with the university for inmates who passed their certificate and diploma courses, said Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, SSP Gurdaspur and Batala.

Speaking at the three-day seminar on ‘Sensitisaiton of Social Problems: Role of Adult Education’ organised by the Department of Adult Continuing Education, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) in Amritsar, he said the Centre has proved to be a boon in educating inmates.

He exhorted the students, teachers and NGOs to launch a crusade against social evils like female foeticide, dowry and drug addiction.

The university through this centre is providing education to the jail inmates in TV maintenance, computer basics and dress designing. He said that the establishment of this centre brought a social change in the inmates.

Expressing his concern over the present education system, Partap said all social and political problems were legacy of British education system. He suggested that the necessary steps by the central and state governments be made for total revamping the education system.

Laying emphasis on awareness about the problems, Dr Jai Rup Singh, Vice-Chancellor, GNDU, said that the advantages of science and technology should reach the common man. The technology is for the welfare of the mankind but unfortunately it is also being misused and exploited by some people for their commercial motives.

The Centre for Genetic Disorders of the GNDU developed a technology to know weather the foetus is normal or not, but now it is being misused for other mean purposes.

Krishan Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Nawanshahr said that his society named ‘UPKAR’ established with an aim to ‘save the girl child’ had hold several programmes at block, village and district level. He said educated women were chosen to launch a campaign against this evil.

Participants said that the students studying in schools, colleges and universities are the real ambassadors and should come forward to eradicate these evils from the society.

Dr Jai Rup Singh also honoured Prof D.P. Singh, former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University and Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh by presenting sets of University publications.

Amritsar, March 27
A legal and constitutional provision to safeguard human rights of common man so that it could reach the lower strata of society is need of the hour. These views were expressed by the experts participating in a seminar on “Human Rights and Duties Education” organized by political science department of Khalsa College, Amritsar.

Speaking in seminar, Chander Shekhar, ADGP, Law and Order, stressed on the rights in respect of duties. Emphasising the need of bringing improvements in functioning of the police, Shekhar said, “a common man is a policeman without uniform and a policeman is member of the society. If both work in co-operation with each other there would be no human rights violation.”

Dr Surjit Singh Narang, former director of the centre of Punjab politics, Guru Nanak Dev University, in his keynote address detailed about the role of universities and other educational organisations in protection of human rights.

“Human rights could only be recognised when a common man would have awareness about them.”

Amritsar, March 27
The Punjab Heritage and Education Foundation, an NGO, has asked the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to set up a heritage cell in Amritsar.

The foundation president Prof Gurbax Singh Shergill and vice-president Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala have written a letter to SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar urging him to give serious attention to decaying heritage of the Sikh religion.

The Sikh religion had a rich and glorious heritage, however due to negligence of the Sikh bodies, it has almost eroded in the name of the Karsewa, they said. Whatever left is soon going to finish if serious attention was not given to maintain it, said Gumtala.

The SGPC should establish a heritage cell comprising INTACH, ASI (Archeology Survey of India) and other NGOs like Punjab Heritage and Education Foundation, Amritsar Vikas Manch and educational institutes like Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjabi University, Patiala and some representatives from foreign countries.