Amritsar, March 30
Guru Nanak Dev University is not ready to give proper display to the works of Gyanpeeth awardee Amrita Pritam in the university, said noted artist Imroz.

Imroz, who has been associated with the famous Punjabi poetess, stated this to The Tribune while inaugurating the 73rd all-India exhibition of arts - 2007 organised by the Indian academy of fine arts here recently. He said though the university was ready to keep the handwritten works and other items in a separate hall, it showed its inability to properly display them for the students citing lack of funds.

He said it was of no use if these works were kept in the shelves of the almirahs and were not easily accessible to the students and the public. He said these needed to be displayed so that students don’t have to waste time searching for them.

He said he had already spent his life’s earnings to display them in proper way in his drawing room but the space was not sufficient for all the works of Amrita Pritam to be displayed.

Answering a question, Imroz said if the government wanted to honour the noted artiste it should come forward for setting up a museum so that the people could know about the works and life of the poetess.

Later, prizes were distributed among winners of the exhibition in which 250 entries had been selected out of the 420 works.

The winners included Hemant Dwivedi of Udaipur, Savita Nag, R.S. Pathania of Kurukshetra, Neelima Verma of Noida, Ram Sharad Singh, Lalit Bhopal Prashar of Mathura, S.S. Bawa and Paramjit Kaur of Amritsar.

Amritsar, March 30
The Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia Federation, in association with the Sultan-ul-Quam Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Memorial Society, on Thursday honoured Centurion Bank of Punjab branch manager Gurpreet Singh for foiling a robbery bid in the bank on January 25.

The federation also honoured mayor Sunil Datti and deputy mayor Om Parkash Gabbar for helping the federation in changing the names of Chatiwind Gate and Ghee Mandi Gate to Ramgarhia Gate and Ahluwalia Gate, respectively.

Amritsar, March 30
With the district administration keen on playing a perfect host to tourists converging on Amritsar, the residents have been promised a detailed plan to make the holy city more attractive by developing more places of interest.

“The idea is that the city should have more places of interest besides the Golden Temple and Wagah border,” says the Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu.

The district administration is looking forward to handing over of the Gobindgarh Fort to it so that its complete revamp could be initiated. Beautification of the surroundings of the Golden Temples, construction of public toilets in the area and better management of traffic would also be given priority.

“The formalities for handing over of the Gobindgarh Fort from the Army to the state government would be completed shortly. Once the district administration gets possession of the fort, the task of beautification of the entire area would be assigned to a private party,” says Pannu.

The fort is likely to be thrown open to the public by the April-end and its phansi ghar (hanging place), keelar gate and prison cells would definitely generate interest. It was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who initiated the move to hand over the fort to the Punjab government.

Presently, whitewashing work and construction of the inner boundary wall of the fort is being carried out in full swing by the tourism department. The district administration has called a meeting of senior officials to plan out the opening ceremony of the Gobindgarh Fort.

“Development of the ‘galiara’ around the Golden Temple is also on the cards and the administration also plans to provide better public amenities to tourists coming to the city,” he adds.

It had been a long-pending demand of the residents, especially freedom fighters, that the Gobindgarh Fort is handed over to the district administration so that it is opened for public viewing.

“The fort, which is a landmark in the pre-independence history of the country, has a large area which can be developed to attract tourists keen on getting a peep into the by-gone era. A detailed plan would be worked out to develop the place so that it can become an independent tourist place,” says Pannu.

The historic fort dates back to 1760, which was built by Sikh warrior Gujjar Singh, till it was taken over by the British government in 1849 and maintained by the Army since Independence.

The fort also was the official residence of the British commander, Gen Dyer, whose name is associated with the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre.

The British army had added Darbar Hall, Hawa Mehal and Phansi Ghar to the fort after the annexation of Punjab. After Partition, the fort provided a temporary shelter to a large number of refugees from Pakistan. In October 1948, the fort was handed over to the Indian Army.

The Toshakhana, in the centre of the fort, also stored a large amount of grains and provisions for the 12,000-strong army. The fort was constructed with brick and lime with numerous army bastions and iron gates with 25 cannons on the ramparts, now replaced with modern weaponry.

“Unlike Chandigarh, where the locals can take their relatives and friends from outside to Rose Garden or Rock Garden or Sukhna Lake, Amritsar city doesn’t have many places tourist places to boast of,” he says.

“Traffic bottlenecks would also be dealt with as part of the beautification plan for the city. It is definitely a hurdle in making the city a perfect tourist destination and a concerted effort would be made to ensure smooth flow of traffic,” says the Deputy Commissioner.

Municipal Commissioner Hussan Lal adds that a meeting would soon be held with the district administration to plan out beautification in collaboration with the district administration.

Most of the welfare associations, however, feel that besides developing more tourists places, the administration should concentrate on evolving an effective garbage disposal system and repair of potholed roads so that the overall look of the city is improved.

Amritsar, March 30
Chandigarh based Punjab Heritage and Education Foundation (PHEF), has appealed to the Sikhs world over to purchase the rare sculpture of Maharaja Duleep Singh to be auctioned in Bonhams (London) on April 19.

In a letter written to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and various sikh organisations the members of the Foundation have urged to take steps for to purchase the bust of Maharaja.

The bust of the Indian Prince Maharaja Duleep Singh, sculpted by John Gibson, a UK resident about 150 years ago, would be sold at Bonhams on April 19 and is expected to fetch an amount of £25,000 to £35,000.

Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Commiteee chief Avtaar Singh Makkar had also written a similar letter to the PM. 

Amritsar, March 30
The biographical profile of Dr Maninder Lal Singh, Reader, Department of Electronics Technology, Guru Nanak Dev University, has been selected for inclusion in the 25th Silver Anniversary Edition of the Marquis Who’s Who in the world to be published in November 2007 in recognition of his achievement in the fields of Electronics Engineering Education and Research.

The Marquis Who’s Who publication founded by A.N. Marquis in 1899 has headquarters at New Jersey, USA. The 25th Silver Anniversary Edition will chronicle nearly 60,000 global leaders in every significant field of endeavor - from science and medicine, to politics and government, to finance and information technology - from over 215 nations and territories.

Dr Maninder Lal Singh did his doctorate in the field of Optical Communication Systems and presently guiding PhD students in the same field. He has also been granted a research project by the UGC for developing numerical methods for the evaluation of fiber nonlinearity effects in optical communication system.

His research will be helpful in developing computer simulation tools for fiber optic communication systems. Fiber optic communication networks having span of several thousands kilometers cannot be easily materialised in laboratories for research so the computer simulation tools are very helpful in simulating the environment of real time networks from research point of view.

Dr Singh has several research publications in national/international journals and conference proceedings to his credit.

Amritsar, March 30
The contribution of Punjab in the development of India is commendable as it is the birthplace of saints, philosophers and historians, said Ved Parkash, pro-vice-chancellor, Gurukul Kangri University, Hardwar. He was here to address a seminar on “Description of Punjab in Sanskrit literature” organised by Guru Nanak Dev University.

T.D. Narang, dean, academic affairs, presided over the seminar, while Ravinder Kaur, dean languages, Punjabi University, Patiala, delivered the keynote address. Ved Kumari from Jammu University, Jammu, was also present.

While highlighting the contribution of Punjab, Ved Parkash said Maharshi Dayanand propagated vedic thoughts by setting up DAV College in Lahore. Expressing concern over the present status of Sanskrit, he said efforts would be done to popularise the language among the youth. Ravinder Kaur, in her keynote address, said Punjab had been the land of compilation of vedas and it had significant place in the history and culture of India.

T.D. Narang, in his presidential remarks, lauded the contribution of Punjab in the development of Sanskrit.

Earlier, Dr Lekh Ram welcomed the chief guest and the participants.

Renu Bala, head of the department, presented a report of activities of the department.

Amritsar, March 30
A seminar on Emerging Social Issues and Empowerment of Women was organised by the Guru Nanak Dev University.

Addressing the seminar Prof Mahendra Narain Karna said that there is a need to change the attitude and mentality of women and the male dominated society. He said there was need to articulate programmes to build equality and to strengthen the primary education of women

Prof. Balwinder Arora, Department of Sociology, (GNDU), said that empowerment of women was a critical issue and was being discussed all over the world. “Women empowerment also foster decision making and action through collective process, enable women to make informed choices in areas like education, employment and health, provide information, knowledge and skill for economic independence and enhance access to legal literacy and information related to their rights and entitlement in the society,” she added.

Meanwhile, in other lecture on environment, Prof. A.K. Thukral expressed his concern about the present environmental situation. “About 60% loss of life in the form of death is caused by man and 40% deaths are due to the natural disasters. Decrease in biodiversity is the biggest loss because each species is an asset for others,” he said.