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GNDU heritage in shambles
No one to care for ancient structures, priceless paintings on campus
Perhaps no official of the university has ever bothered to visit the site otherwise they would have found the treasure trove with little efforts. The priceless fresco painting in the tomb of four descendants of Fateh Singh - one of the generals in the army of legendary Maharaja Ranjit Singh situated in varsity premises are slowly vanishing from the interior walls due to negligence of the administration and the GNDU authorities.
The paintings depicting Lord Krishan and his friend and devotee Sudama on the outer walls of the tombs have already been damaged due to vagaries of weather and irresponsible behavior of the visitors who had engraved their names on the walls. The paintings just above the floor have been damaged as the plaster has chipped off from the walls. The renovation work, carried out from time to time has revealed that the care-takers of the heritage structures themselves had shown scant regard for the precious wall paintings. A portion at the centre of the floor has been dug out. These tombs are of descendants of Fateh Singh and his relatives. These samadhs remained out of reach for common people as there was no pathway to reach these historical artifacts. The main and bigger tomb out of the four having the wall paintings was locked with iron doors that too are cracked and damaged by rust at various places. It is perhaps for this reason that the major portion of the invaluable frescos remained intact and could be preserved by taking immediate steps by repairing the damaged ones. The fungus has blackened the face of the samadh and the Iron Gate at the main. The tombs are built of Nanakshahi bricks. The platform around the tombs have also been damaged with passage of time. Even the water pool constructed during the reign of the Maharaja has almost disappeared and the wild grass has swathed not only the tombs but whole of the area. The outer walls of the dome depict the architectural marvel of the seventeenth century. Some of the young heritage enthusiasts who visit the tombs almost daily have installed small flags near the main tomb. They said that something should be done by the Department of cultural affairs, archaeology and museums to save them keeping in view their importance as part of national heritage.
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14-yr-old water tank awaits inauguration
Amritsar, April 27 This tank was built for providing better water supply to about ten thousand population of the locality. Now it is being used to tie animals by residents of near by areas. The lower portion of the pairs of the tank had been damaged due to apathy of authorities concerned. The officials of the Municipal council Tarn Taran said the water is not reserved in this tank to make it available for the upper stories of the houses in the locality. The officials further told that as the municipal council has only one electric motor which has not the capacity to send the water to the tank level and it is for this that the tank has not come into use for the residents. It is also a reality that the faulty sewerage system in the locality about the same time back too is of no use for the locality. Jatinder Kuamr Sood, president of the council, said that the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage which is the agency for installing the sewerage system in the locality is wholly responsible for the faulty installing of the sewerage system here as the down stream of the system has been vice versa. The officials of the council told that as the sewerage system of the locality is faulty so the council give less quantity of water to the locality as it may cause problem for the out let of the sullage water.
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Police busts gang of bookies, arrests three
Amritsar, April 27 The SSP said the three persons were nabbed by the police teams while two of the accused managed to escape from the site. He said the accused were identified as Anoop Kumar a resident of Akash Avenue, who was the kingpin of the gang, Amit Kumar of Canal Colony and Vinod resident of Bihar, while the two absconding culprits include Vishal alias Bhalla of Bazar Sirki Banda and Vicky of Shivala Colony here. He said the gang had been operating in the city for the past couple of years and had become active since the start of the world cup. He said the gang was active in Ludhiana and Batala with its headquarter in Jalandhar.
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Finding that healing touch
Amritsar, April 27 He is on special mission to educated people about the positivities and to abandon negative thought process. Talking about his first visit to the holy city, Swami ji said that he was greatly enamored by the holiest of holy shrine of Sikhs the Golden Temple and it was his desire to pay his obeisance that crystallised his visit. The people of the city had adopted a new healthy mantra to remain fit through many yoga camps which have become not only a social status but have brought about increased awareness about leading a healthy life. The Amritsar Centre of Bhartiya Vidhya Bhavan, founded by Dr D M Munshi in 1938 have invited Swami Karamvir and accomplished Vedic scholar, philosopher and yogi to organize Yog Sadhna and Yog - Chikitsa Camp which opened here on April 24 to 30 in the sports complex of DAV College Shastri Nagar Amritsar received a huge response. The camp starts at 5 am daily with bhajan and kirtan and there after yog sadhna begins at 5.30 at the venue. Swamiji accompanied by many experienced ayurvedic doctors also helped the suffering public from ailments like diabetes, asthma, hypertension arthritis, obesity, heart problem and others. The camp has been co-sponsored by many organizations including banks.
Women more tension prone
Swami Karamvir said that according to statistics women were more prone to tension and he has got a special method to relieve them from the daily mundane routine. According to statistics available 15 per cent women in the world suffer from migraine whereas only 5 per cent men were afflicted by this disease. He said that the present day woman was having babies through caesarian section which was not a very healthy phenomena. He said that he had devised a special breathing exercise programme for such children and hope that by adopting this method the children will be born with peaceful disposition. He described yoga as a preventive medicine and advised the women to maintain peace and harmony at home for the good upbringing of the children. He said the woman was a symbol of good family traits which would help the children grown with character and honesty.
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Cops plan crackdown on ‘erring’ drugs units
Amritsar, April 27
Sources said the police has sought a list of pharmaceutical units from the district health authorities and the list of drugs being manufactured would be compared with the items mentioned in the licence. As per the provisions of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, property of anyone involved in making profits out of unauthorized sale of drugs can be seized by the police. The police is also keeping an eye of chemists selling drugs to addicts without prescription. Conforming this, IG (Border Range) Rajpal Meena said action would be launched against erring pharmaceutical units and
chemists.
Meanwhile, to tackle the menace of drugs, a narcotic cell has been constituted by the police. Any tip-off about drug-peddlers can be passed on to the officials deputed at the special cell for prompt action. The information about drugs can be provided at the toll free numbers of the cell (1090 and 1098). The tip-off would be kept confidential and the information provider would be rewarded suitably by the police. Setting up of the cell is a step towards rooting out drug abuse from the area with the help of general public. During the last fortnight, the police has registered as many as 20 cases in Amritsar under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, wherein 20 persons have been arrested with a total of 78 grams of smack, 490 injections and 120 grams In Majitha, police district of Amritsar, in the 13 cases registered in this month, 155 kilograms of poppy husk was seized. Various social organisations in Amritsar have expressed concern over the growing problem of drugs and year that more and more youth are getting hooked on to narcotics. It had been a long-pending demand to launch a crackdown on drug paddlers. The Customs Commissionerate has also launched drive to curb drug menace in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. K.R. Verma, Assistant commissioner (Anti Smuggling) Customs, said it had been observed that the medicines meant for medical purposes were being diverted to illicit trade for use by drug addicts. He said the stocks of the manufacturers and chemists were being routinely verified to check this malpractice. He added that specific intelligence was gathered about the movement of the drug peddlers dealing in heroin, opium, charas and smack. As a result, a number of cases of drug smuggling had been detected by the department in the recent past. He said during the financial year 2006-07 four cases of drugs as such heroin valued at Rs 78.95 lac were detected and 6 persons were arrested. In March, about 8.26 quintals of poppy husk valued at Rs 4.96 lakh in the market seized during the year 2004 was consigned to flames in a furnace of a private factory by the Customs Commissionerate. He appealed to non-governmental organisations and general public to provide specific information about smuggling of these drugs so as to fight the menace of drug addiction. In February, the police arrested two persons Harpreet Singh and Surinder Singh, both residents of village Bodh for allegedly possessing 80 grams smack. A case was registered under relevant the NDPS Act at Sultanwind Police station here today. According to information the accused brought the narcotics from a person in Anngarh area. The police authorities said the accused had recently entered into
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Experts dish out advice to farmers
Amritsar, April 27 Due to scarcity, majority of dairy farmers are feeding the milk animals with wheat bhusa (toori), karbi (dry fodder of bajra) and rice straw with a dash of green fodder in the form of barseem. This is resulting in lower production of milk. Now the feed and fodder experts of the animal husbandry department have been familiarising farmers in the region with a novel way of enriching these inferior fodder with urea chemical fertilisers, which are otherwise used for enhancing the quality and fertility of soil. Dr Hazara Singh Cheema, a feed and fodder expert of the animal husbandry department, said wheat bhusa, rice straw and dry fodders of bajra and barseem are very poor in nutritive value, having very low contents of protein, phosphorous, but have probably the largest amount of crude fibre. “In western countries, straws are never fed to milk-producing animals but in India farmers usually give a straw diet to cattle in large quantities during lean periods of green fodder,” he said. Regarding the technique of treating straws with urea, Dr Cheema said a solution of four kg of urea, dissolved in 50 litres of water is mixed with 100 kg of straw. The straw is then pressed thoroughly in order to make the stack more compact and drive out the unwanted air. The stack is covered with a polythene sheet to minimise the leakage of ammonia gas. After about ten days, the physiochemical reaction is completed in which urea is first hysrolised to ammonia, which, then, penetrates into the straw fibres and breaks the lignocellulosic bonds. Dr Cheema said before feeding this protein-rich diet to animals, the treated straw is exposed in open for an hour to remove the smell of ammonia. This treated straw should be mixed with a little amount of green fodder and then fed to animals. Feeding 4-5 kg of this treated straw can increase milk production by around 2 kg and 5-6 of treated straw can meet the requirement of energy and protein of dry animals. However, there is a word of warning: Ruminant animals below the age of six months should not be fed this treated straw.
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Docs give new lease of life to 62-year-old woman
Amritsar, April 27 Three out of her four vital valves were damaged when she was brought to the hospital. Dr Harshbir S Pannu, Chief Cardiovascular surgery, Escorts heading the eight doctors’ team that operated upon the patient, revealed that she was bed ridden for months, breathless even at rest with severe pain in abdomen. She weighed just 43 kg and was suffering for more than 33 years with relief for just a few years after her first surgery. She was operated and treated by the hospital free of cost under Employees Contributory Health Scheme run by the Central government for its employees and ex-servicemen which otherwise cost huge expenditure. Dr Pannu said that due to the last stage of disease and minimised blood flow she had developed multiple-organ dysfunction wherein some of her vital organs such as liver, lungs and kidney were in critical condition. He said only one per cent of patients suffering from rheumatic heart disease are faced with this 'rare' condition of stenosis (obstruction) of all three valves. Triple-valve surgery has a high mortality rate of up to 20-25 per cent according to 'World Literature', he added. In most cases requiring heart valve surgery only one or two valves are found damaged and tackled. He said the operation involved 'intricate' replacement of two heart valves and 'thorough' repair of third besides complicated multi-disciplinary pre and post surgery care. He said that the surgery took nearly six and half hours involving stopping the heart for nearly two and half hours. Dr Pannu said that for two hand and a half hours her heart had to be removed and put on heart lung machine till they managed to repair the four valves which were not pumping enough blood to the critical organs of the body which resulted in dysfunction of the kidney, liver and lungs. He said that the patient with just 43 kg weight was suffering from last more than three decades and was bed -ridden for many months and even suffered from breathlessness during rest and had severe pain in the abdomen. He said that she had also undertaken a heart surgery 22 years ago in Pune which made the task of the doctors even more difficult. He said the complex surgery had been performed with great care. He however added that the mortality rate among such patients was more than 25 per cent and the team took the chance and managed to help the woman to come out of the serious crises. He said the blood to be emptied from the heart by an artificial heart and lung machine. Thereafter the two valves (Aortic and Mitral) were replaced while the third valve was repaired with ‘valvotomy to correct the obstruction suture annulo-plasty to abolish the leakage of the valve. Describing this as a rare operation in the annals of the Indian cardio-vascular surgery history Dr Pannu said that this kind of the rheumatic disease was very rare in India and abroad. He said the rheumatic heart condition come to this problem through lack of properly treating sore throat ailment which creates problem for the heart valve. Besides Dr HS Pannu the team included Dr Davinder Mohan Saini, Dr Lalit joshi (cardiac surgeons), Dr Rajesh Arora, Dr Sunila Kapilla, Dr Manpreet Singh (Anesthetics), Critical care was managed by Dr Sonika Thukral, Dr Rishi Goenka, Dr Sunila Kapilla, Dr Manpreet Singh while Dr Puneet Verma Chief interventional cardiologist prepared the patient for surgery.
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Expressing oneself
Amritsar, April 27 “I was fond of reading literature in my childhood and going to ‘kavi darbars’ and literary conventions gave me utmost joy. “As I grew up, the ups and downs of life and the issues ailing society used to disturb me. I found peace only after writing down these intense thoughts on paper,” he says. The transferable job of his father ensured that the writer got to see most parts of Punjab and life in countryside had a lasting influence on him. This is reflected in many of his poems which describe the nitty-gritty of living in the lap of nature. “These poems are am attempt to put forth my point of view in simple words. For me these poems are like ‘Amrit Kinkas’ as they are very much a part of my personality. I am grateful to every shade of nature, which inspired me to pen down these poems and the entire process has always been a source of venting out my intense feelings,” he says Mannan.
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Chip of the old block
Lakhwinder takes singing traditions of Wadali family to next level
Amritsar, April 27 Visibly ecstatic the Wadali sibling said that following the family traditions he had endeavored to come up with new experiments in singing though maintaining the Sufi spirit of Punjabi music alive there by keeping the family flag flying high and emerging out from the shadow of his illustrious father-uncle due. However, he rued that with his uncle and father met with an unfortunate road mishap resulting in serious jaw injuries to his uncle which made him to abandon the singing. Earlier, he added that the one song which he sang with his father was planned to sing with the Sufi singers duo. But he quickly added that in the next album he would definitely feature with along side his father Puran Chand and uncle Pyare Lal Wadali. Saanwal Rangiye has 12 numbers carrying the lyrics of Jaswant Baaj. He sang a number ‘Ve Maiya Tere Dekhan Nu Chuk Charkha Gali De Vich Dawaan’ which he sang with his father Puran Chand. He said he learnt a lot of new things while singing with his father. Lakhwinder who earlier came up with album Bullah with very good success, said that he had tried new experiments in his new album. “As I am young, people expect me to do something new, that’s what I tried in this new album without abandoning the classical style which has been forte of his family. I hope that people would love this”. With this new album he is trying to establish the domain of wadali family through his absolutely different singing style which would prove to be a blend of old and new. He felt that he was slowly emerging out as new generation singer. When asked that how does he place himself vis a vis his more famous father-Uncle duo he said that nobody could match the charismatic singing of wadali brothers, but hasten to add that he would try his best to follow their footsteps to carve a place for himself in the big music world.. Believing in the myth that the god creats the inseparable dues like his father-Uncle duo he said “Jodia Jag Thoria”. Meanwhile, Puran Chand and Pyare Lal while talking to media during a function at local club said that it was only the love of people and grace of god that they had escaped the accident. Pyare Lal said that with the grace of god and prays of well wisher that held him recover fully.
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‘Badal govt has unleashed political vendetta’
Amritsar, April 27 Sukhbinder Singh Sukhsarkaria, former MLA said that the Congress would expose the hidden agenda of the SAD-BJP combine which was bent on committing excesses on the Congress workers. He said even the police under political pressure was not registering cases against the Akali leaders besides implicating Congress workers in false cases. Sukhsarkaria said that after coming to know about the excesses on the Congress workers the congress parliamentarians have asked them to get the details of the cases registered against the congress workers during the past two months in the state so that they could take up the matter in the Parliament. Earlier, Sawinder Singh Kathunangal, former Chairman Zila Parishad, said that four shops of one Jagjit Singh Sacchar who is closely associated with Congress leader of the area Bhagwant Pal Singh of Village Kathunangal was demolished by Akali workers at 8.30 pm on
April 21. He said the a police chowki is just 200 yards away from the site of the incident but the police failed to take any action against the accused who had come there with a JCB machine and armed with lethal fire arms.
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Scholarships for 104 students
Amritsar, April 27 Exhorting them, K.S. Pannu, Deputy Commissioner, advised them to have a targeted approach in life and make efforts to help in the eradication of drug addiction and other ills in society. He urged them to become good citizens in every sense of the word and follow rules
and regulations framed for benefit of society besides instilling the same in others around them. The highlight of the function was the award and scholarship conferred on Kriti Ahuja who achieved third position in India in class-X, CBSE
examination.
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Amritsar, April 27
The beautiful frescos of Krishna, the ‘supreme lord’, Sudama - his best friend during school days, ‘gopis’ the group of cow herding girls famous within Vaishnava Theology for their unconditional devotion to Krishna as described in the stories of Bhagwat Purana, have been losing sheen because of the indifference shown by one and all. The tombs contained beautiful wall paintings of Hindu Gods as well as of Sikh gurus. The other frescos are that of saints including lord Shiva and Parvati, Radha, Saint Kabir, Meera Bai, historic poetess and devotee of lord Krishna, Munshi Ditt, Gopi Chand, Sixth Sikh Guru, Sri Guru Harkrishan, Tenth Guru, Sri Guru Gobind Singh, Narad Muni and Arjun of Mahabharata Epic. 
