Amritsar, December 21
Padmini Kolhapure, yesteryear actress and heartthrob of the 70s, feels that the holy city  oozes talent.

“I have held many workshops here and I feel the youngsters, who are aspiring to be actors, have everything in them to make it big. What is required is a bit of polishing,” said the actress, who gave hits like “Prem Rog” and “Sauten”, while talking to mediapersons on Friday. She was in the city to promote a play, “Heroin Ka Sabun”, featuring students of her acting school.

Regarding her school, she said “Raj Kapoor was my idol and I learnt a lot about acting from him. Since Bollywood is a fiercely competitive arena, I decided to open an acting institution so that aspirants pick up finer points of acting before they take the final plunge.”

On the question of joining politics, the yesteryear actress categorically denied it. She said, “My frequent trips to Amritsar for holding acting workshops does not mean that I plan to fight elections from the city. I have no such intentions and the thought of joining politics has never crossed my mind.” Though Kolhapure kept emphasising on how formal training in acting would save youngsters from being exploited by “falling into wrong hands” in Mumbai, she preferred not to kick off any controversy by elaborating on it.

She said, “Even if those attending my workshops don’t end up in films, the personality development tips make it easy for them to enter other coveted professions. For instance, many girls tell me that acting is not their cup of tea, and they had got the confidence to take a shot at become airhostesses.”

On her future plans, the “Prem Rog” girl said she would soon be seen in “Daughter - Ek Pyara Sa Ehsaas”, which would also feature Vikram Gokhle and Reema Lagoo. “I look back at my career so far very fondly,” she added.

Talking about the play, she said the play has been written and directed by Nikhil Raj and would also feature her and Avinder Bhatti. It is produced by Daljit Singh Arora and would be screened at BBK DAV College on December 23.

Play director Nikhil said the play was a humorous take and showed how everything was being commercialised in Punjab. “Youngsters don’t want to eat traditional ‘makki di roti’ and prefer pizza. But they would surely eat roti if it comes with a brand,” he added.

Amritsar, December 21
The fifth unit of the Rajasthan Atomic Plant (RAP) with a capacity to produce 220 MW of nuclear power would be commissioned by February next year, while the sixth unit would be ready by December, 2008.

This was revealed by Nageshwara Rao, director (operations), Nuclear Power Corporation, Mumbai, during the seventh meeting of the Northern Regional Power Committee held here recently. He said efforts were being made to increase power generation in nuclear power stations throughout the country.

The meeting was attended by directors and technical members of all the northern states, Power Grid Corporations and Central Sector Generators, including National Thermal Power Corporation, National Hydro Power Corporation, Nuclear Power Corporation, Tehri and Nathpa-Jhakri Power Corporation. All the delegates resolved to abide by the grid discipline to ensure security and reliability of the northern grid .

During the ongoing season, the demand for the power was the maximum and the production was minimum. The delegates also approved the decision taken by the NRPC Technical Coordination Committee to import power from the neighbouring regions to meet the energy demand. The NTPC was also authorised to immediately import cargo of liquid natural gas from international sporty market to meet the fuel shortage in its gas power stations. Talking to the mediapersons, NRPC chairman P.K. Dass said, “The state governments in the northern region should set up more power plants to meet the increasing demand of the power supply. The states in the northern grid should take measures to reduce the electricity consumption by introducing bulbs and lights that consume less power.”Urging the states to restrict their power consumption, Dass said the states could take power supply from states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand during the summer season when their producing capacity was optimum. Similarly, these states could support the hill states during the winter season when power-producing capacity in the hilly regions was minimal.

Amritsar, December 21
Concerned over the incidents of newborn girls being abandoned by their parents, the district administration and the Red Cross Society have decided to launch the “Pangurra” scheme to ensure that the lives of these babies are saved.

The city would perhaps be the first to launch this scheme in the state which has encountered alarming incidents of female foeticide in the recent past.

Many incidents of newly born girl children being abandoned by their parents in drains, garbage heaps or elsewhere have been reported in the city and its nearby areas during the past few months. Only recently, the body of a two-day-old baby girl was found dumped in garbage in the walled city area.

The incident had come to light when people spotted stray dogs fighting for the dead body which was wrapped in a polythene bag in the dump. They gathered near the spot and immediately called the police.

Earlier, health and family welfare minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, while strongly condemning the incident, offered to adopt the girl children. She urged the people to restrain from resorting to such inhuman acts. Terming the incident as unfortunate, she expressed her deep concern over this practice and added that if any family did not want girl child they should leave them outside her house after ringing the doorbell.

She said many families were willing to adopt girl children. “Basically the fear of social stigma and illicit relations are the major reasons which force mothers to throw their newborn babies,” says district police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh. The police department succeeded to crack only one such case out of five cases reported this year, while as per the police records there were not a single case of a child being abandoned in 2006. However, the police recorded four cases of infanticide in the pervious year and two cases this year.

“Sometimes, people also throw their child in some other places to escape legal action and fear of their own relatives. It is very difficult to find out the parents or the families who have thrown the babies,” admits the SSP.

Amritsar, December 21
Well-known Punjabi theatre artiste Har Rajeshwar Dyal Singh is back after making waves the USA with shows of his play “Sant Sipahi” held in 19 cities. He played five different characters in the play, based on the two- century old history of the Sikhs from martyrdom of the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev, to the sacrifice of the four sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh.

He displayed his talent as he played roles of Muslims as well as of Sikh jathedars, including Sai Mian Mir, who laid the foundation stone of the Golden Temple in the play. The play also displayed how the family of Guru Gobind Singh separated after he left the fort of Anandpur Sahib. The play was staged at New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and other cities.

Singh belongs to the ninth generation of Bhai Nand Lal Sahib and has been associated with Punjabi theatre for over 25 years. He also works for TV and films. A bank employee by profession, he began his career in theatre in 1974 from Khalsa College Senior Secondary College in Amritsar. He began under the guidance of playwright Atamjit Singh in “Gau Mukha Sher Mukha” play directed by him.

Having worked under known directors, he has done almost 5,000 shows of over 100 plays, including “Dhamak Nagare Di”, “Rishtiyan Da Ki Rakhiya Naa”, “Shaher Bimar Hai”, “Ek Tha Gadha”, “Hawa Mahal”, “Aalana Teelo Teel”, “Anne Kane” and “Ek Aurat Farido”. He travelled all over India and also performed in Canada. He also lent his voice to animation film “Sahibzade”.

HRD Singh is an approved artiste with Jalandhar Doordarshan and has worked in over 30 plays for this channel. These include “Lakeeran”, “Dabbi Agg”, “Akhara”, “Maharaja Ranjit Singh”, “Navi Musibat Aaye” (Alpha Punjabi), “Dal Dal”, “Sipahi Ki Diary” (Delhi Doordarshan), among others. He also worked in various telefilms, including “Dharam Di Chadar” and “Assin Doon Sawaye Hoye”. He played the character of a Sikh jathedar in Punjabi film “Anokhe Shahid-Baba Deep Singh Ji” and a sarpanch in “Sardari”.

Amritsar, December 21
Presenting a glimpse of Indian crafts, a two-day craft exhibition, “India in unison”, was opened at DAV Public School here. The event exhibits traditional crafts of nearly 20 states created by students from pre-nursery to class X. The event that strode from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and east-west of the country was inaugurated by Mayor Shavet Mallik. In addition to the exhibition, special food courts and games have been put up for fun.

While a flower girl, “shikara”, saffron flowers and “namda” carpets gave feel of Jammu and Kashmir, the famous Himachali cap and basket of apples aptly exhibited Himachal Pradesh. Famous pottery, “lak” bangles, colorful “torans”, “ghagra-cholis” and headgear on the stall of Rajasthan added a vast palette to the colours from India.

“Phanoos” with gossamer lights and mirror work on files from Gujarat were casting a spell of their own on the spectators. Magazine holders, natural-dyed necklaces and bracelets made of jute from West Bengal added to the event’s charm.

The stall of Assam displayed a variety of bamboo mats, ornate photo frames and lamp shades made of natural grass. Kerala’s coconut tree bounty helped in making jewellery boxes, stationery holders and belts, while the state’s famous fishing boats and nets gave a glimpse of “mysterious waterfronts”.

Bihar’s “chhaj and deh”, Manipur’s kites and Nagaland’s wall masks spears and elaborate headgear and hats from Goa added to the vast display of art. A display of traditional painting styles by class XI and XII students too was able to attract a huge number of audience.

Amritsar, December 21
The Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) today urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to drop the Mohali international airport project. In a communiqué to Punjab Chief Minister, manch patron Charanjit Singh Gumtala said the proposed airport at Mohali would only encourage shifting of industry from Punjab to Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and some areas of Haryana.

He expressed the view that Mohali airport would not be of much use to Punjab as 12 out of 20 districts of the state were nearer to Amritsar than to Chandigarh.

Among the eight districts which are close to Chandigarh, Patiala, Ropar and Mohali constituted only 2 per cent of the total passenger traffic to foreign countries as per the report of Delhi-based firm Consulting Engineering Services (India) in association with the ICRA Management Consulting Services.

Moreover, all these districts comprised only 23 legislative constituencies out of the 117 in Punjab.

The manch leader said it would not be wise for the state government to waste a staggering amount of Rs 700-800 crore on a project the benefit of which would be shared by Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. They urged Parkash Singh Badal to prevent the wastage of public money to be spent for acquiring land for the proposed airport.

The financial position of the state was already very poor and it is proven by the fact that the Punjab government had given a grant of Rs 100 crore to the holy city after mortgaging property of the Amritsar improvement trust.

Thus, the government, on one hand, did not have Rs 100 crore for improving the basic infrastructure of the holy city and, on the other, it was providing Rs 700-800 crore for the proposed international airport at Mohali, which is not essential for the state.

Amritsar, December 21
Renowned poet and Sahitya Akademy Award winner Surjit Patar released five books of noted Punjabi writer Dr Joginder Kairon, including “Neele Tarian Dee Maut”, depicting the post-period of Operation Bluestar, at a function held at Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School here today. Patar was the chief guest on the occasion.

The other books released were “Roza May,” “Punjabi Sahit Da Lokdhari Pichhokar,” “Punjabi Lokdhara Adhiyan” and “Lok Kahaniya.” — OC