Amritsar, January 24
Taking a cue from cities like Bangalore and Nagpur, which have set benchmarks in carrying out development projects under the Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (NURM), the Amritsar MC on Friday organised a “rapid training” programme for councillors.

Mayor Shawet Malik said since many key projects, being undertaken in the city, are being funded by the ministry of urban development through NURM, it was important to make the newly-elected councillors aware of the nitty-gritty of development programmes. As part of the programme, the councillors would be briefed on how to involve the general public in evolving ways to increase the revenue of the corporation, besides ensuring time-bound implementation of projects and initiating steps to improve the basic amenities.

The resource persons provided by the ministry would also give information on rain water harvesting and other novel ways for effective utilisation of the available resources. The programme is particularly targeted at councillors representing the relatively less developed and rural areas within the municipal limits, where there is a need to make people aware of simple things like importance of paying taxes to the corporation so that better infrastructure and facilities can be provided to them.

Interestingly, most ambitious projects being undertaken in the city, including the elevated road project, which would provide a direct link to the Golden Temple, are moving at a snail’s pace.

Sources in the district administration say this is due to the inability of the corporation and state government in making available the right grant for projects. Only 50 per cent of the total cost of the project is borne by the Centre through the NURM scheme. A request for bringing down the local share to 25 per cent has already been made to make sure that the development projects do not suffer due to lack of grants. During his visit to the city on January 18, minister of state for commerce, Jairam Ramesh said he was pained to see poor infrastructure at Amritsar and he had spoken to Montek Singh, deputy chairman of the planning commission regarding it. He even asked him to relax the 50:50 ratio under the centrally-sponsored NURM scheme.

“We hope that the newly-elected councillors would make the best of the training programme to work as a team for making Amritsar a model city,” said Malik.

Jalandhar, January 24
Doctors at the civil hospital reportedly failed to determine the exact cause of the death of a migrant boy, Lokesh (5), even after conducting postmortem on Thursday, as the body was mutilated.

Lokesh, son of a permanent resident of Kota in Rajasthan, now living in the slums near PTU on Ladowali road, had went mysteriously missing along with his cousin Amarpal (9) during the last week of December.

A report was lodged with the city police in this regard. While Lokesh’s body was recovered on Tuesday, the whereabouts of his cousin Amarpal are not known yet. There is possibility of a tantrik’s hand behind Lokesh’s murder. The body of the boy’s body which was in a decomposed form is believed to be at least ten days old. The vital organs were also missing from the body. An ATM card issued in the name of one Madhu Sharma was also found lying near the body.

GRP SP Shamsher Jang Bahadur Sharma told The Tribune that the body would be sent to the Amritsar forensic science laboratory for further examination, to know the exact cause of his death. Sharma said the FIR of the murder was registered against unknown persons on Thursday, as the boy had apparently been killed. The SP admitted that GRP could not make any headway in solving the blind murder as it could not get any clue so far.

Sharma said he himself visited the Bashirpura locality, where the body had been found on a railway track two days back, to ask the residents if they had noticed any suspicious person.

While most of the residents denied seeing anybody suspicious, a few of them said they noticed the movement of some ‘sadhus’ in the locality. Answering a query, the SP said the GRP men today searched the bushes near the railway track to see if the body of any other boy had been dumped there.

Jalandhar, January 24
The International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO) has decried the decision of France to ban sporting of turbans in the country by its citizens.

In a memorandum submitted to the French ambassador in New Delhi on Thursday, D S Gill, chairperson of the outfit said President Nicholas Sarkozy was the chief executive of a country which has a constitution based on the virtues of liberty, fraternity and equality and was aware of the importance of religious freedom, as set forth in the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, to which France is a party.

He said people across the world were moved by Sarkozy’s speech to the UN General Assembly when he said: "Attachment to one's faith, to one's language and culture, and to one's way of life, thought and belief - all this is natural, legitimate and profoundly human…To deny that, is to sow the seeds of humiliation. A clash of civilisations will not be averted by forcing everyone to think and believe alike; cultural and religious diversity must be accepted everywhere and by all."

Gill said when France passed a law in March, 2004, banning any ostensible display of a religious symbol in school, it was not only a blow to the religious freedom that Sarkozy defended at the UN, but it also affected the right to education.

The consequence of the law was that the transport and home ministries started to ask Sikhs to bare their heads for their driving license, passports and refugee cards. The French were well aware of the fact that the turban was the most recognisable feature of a Sikh.

Unlike other head coverings, it is an inextricable part of the Sikh identity and is worn by Sikhs at all times to cover their unshorn hair, a mandatory article of their faith. As a part of the core identity of a Sikh, this law essentially has the effect of banning the practice of the Sikh religion in France, he pointed out.

Jalandhar, January 24
An indecent MMS of an adolescent boy and a girl has reportedly been in circulation in the city for a few days.

When contacted, SP (city I) S.K. Kalia said he had no knowledge of the circulation of any such MMS. At the same time, he said if the police came to know about it, legal action would be taken.

The MMS, reportedly of over one-minute duration, has seemingly been shot by one or more persons known to the boy and girl in an office located in the heart of the city. The boy and the girl were shown in a semi-nude position. The voices of some boys are also reportedly heard in the MMS in which they instructed the boy and the girl to make a particular pose.

It is suspected that the persons who captured the boy and the girl in a compromising position might have sent the MMS to their friends, who in turn might have sent it to their friends and it got circulated in Jalandhar. The police has registered a case.

Amritsar, January 24
Close on the heels of a double murder in the city by a migrant labour, another case of looting by a migrant labour was reported in the East Mohan Nagar area of the city here on Thursday.

According to information, a migrant labour, identified as Kala, invited five to six persons, late on Wednesday night, to the house of goldsmith Ajit Singh as he was out of the city on a business tour.

After locking up Surinder Kaur, wife of Ajit, in a room, they looted cash worth Rs 1.80 lakh and jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh from the house.

Meanwhile, the police have registered a case against the accused Kala and the six other unidentified persons. — TNS