Amritsar, February 26
The student placement committee of Guru Nanak Dev University celebrated 10 years of campus placements at Guru Nanak Bhawan here today.

The function was presided over by Students Welfare dean Dr A K Thukral. Addressing the gathering, Dr Thukral said the GNDU had made maximum campus placements as compared to other universities in the state. He said the university had introduced various job-oriented courses keeping challenges of globalisation in mind and the quality education of the university was the main source of attraction for various MNCs.

Amritsar, February 26
The vice-chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) has deliberately announced the syndicate and senate members’ meeting on March 3 to get his financial and administrative illegalities cleared in the absence of Punjab government officers and MLAs who would be busy with the budget session. This was alleged by MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha to the media in a press release here on Monday.

He alleged that a majority of syndicate and senate members, including the minister for higher education, the principal secretary, higher education, the director, Public Instruction (Colleges), seven MLAs (five of whom are senate members and two are nominated syndicate members of the university), would be busy with the budget session.

He questioned why Dr Jai Rup Singh, VC had deliberately fixed the meeting on March 3 when the state government had already issued a notification of budget session of the assembly in various newspapers. He said the VC wanted to avoid the unpleasant and stiff opposition by the government officers and the nominated senate members.

The MLA said, besides him, Anil Joshi, Dr Dalbir Singh Verka, Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal and Prof Ravi Shankar would be taking up the issue with the Governor and chancellor of the university, the Chief Minister and the minister for higher education as well as the principal secretary, finance and higher education, for issuing the necessary instructions for postponing the meetings of senate and the syndicate till the budget session was over. He said if the VC irgnored their advise/orders, they would move resolutions for annulling the proceedings of the finance committee as also all the decisions of the syndicate and senate meetings.

Rubbishing teh charges, Dr Jai Rup Singh said the meeting had been fixed much before the announcement of the budget session.

Amritsar, February 26
The police has arrested five persons - Gurvinder Singh Cheema, an ex-serviceman and owner of Navjeevan, an illegal de-addiction centre, Gaunsabad village, near here, Amandip Mehta, a BAMS doctor, and three musclemen Ravinder Kumar, Loveinder Kumar and Rahul Kumar - on the charges of violating the Mental Health Act and rules framed for the registered medical practitioners.

According to Surjit Singh, SP (detective), the accused were produced in the local court, which remanded them in one-day police custody. Giving details, the SP (D) said the musclemen of the Navjeewan de-addiction centre used to torture those addicts who refused to undergo treatment. He said the accused had been booked under sections 420, 342, 343, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code at Sadar police station.Thirtythree addicts were rescued in a raid by a flying squad, comprising additional deputy commissioner, civil surgeon, doctors of the Institute of Mental Health and officials of the Red Cross Society, on Gaunsabad village yesterday.

They were taken to the government-run de-addiction centre in official vehicles in the presence of ADC Parmjit Singh, SP Surjit Singh and civil surgeon Dr Lehmbar Singh. The raid was conducted on the direction of Laxmi Kanta Chawla , Punjab health minister, who asked deputy commissioner Kahan Singh to immediately send a flying squad.

The Navjeevan de-addiction centre was being run by Gurdevinder Singh Cheema without having any proper infrastructure and paramedical staff. The owner was making profit of Rs 4 lakh per month by charging heavily.

Meanwhile, the parents of some addicts met the the deputy commissioner and told him that they were “satisfied” with the treatment given to their wards in the de-addiction centre.

Amritsar, February 26
“We have applied for registering the MMKMT with the central government as it was not able to bring in huge donations for the social cause due to the disturbed area tag,” said Mata Mohinder Kaur Memorial Trust (MMKMT) chairman Amrik Singh Gill at the annual prize distribution function of Government Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Dasundha Singh, here on Tuesday.

The trust provided funds to the tune of Rs 14 lakh to the government school to construct six classrooms, besides providing separate washrooms for the women staff and girl students of the school.

“We don’t want to harm the environment here by cutting more trees which could be used for making furniture for the students,” Gill said while talking about the conservation of environment.

He said the environment of the region had badly been affected by cutting of trees. Keeping this in view they had decided to import wooden chairs and tables by ordering wood from Finland and got the furniture manufactured in China. He said the total cost of the furniture - 400 chairs and 200 tables - was about Rs 9 lakh as they had to pay a huge excise and customs duty.

Gill, accompanied by Jeff Nagle, had visited the school in October 2005 and was dumbfounded to see the school students sitting on dusty floors. Jeff, who has also become member of the trust, immediately provided mats to the school by contributing funds.

Since then the MMKMT members have never looked back and adopted the school to raise funds for developing the school as an Adarsh school. He said once their institution was registered, they would be able to adopt more such schools in future.

Amritsar, February 26
In spite of a number of criminal incidents, including a double murder which rocked the city during last month, by migrants being reported in the holy city, local residents still seemed to be oblivious to the need of getting the antecedents of their migrant servants checked.

The police has made numerous appeals to citizens to give it the complete details of the domestic helps employed by them to check the crime involving migrants, which has increased considerably during the past few years.

Although a few employers turned up, that too after police beat teams approached them by going door to door, the police is not getting the desired response from public. It becomes very difficult to trace culprits in the absence of their complete details.

Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh felt that the people of the Civil Line and posh areas, where majority of the migrant servants worked, were not responding to the appeal as desired.

He said in case the people of the city provided the complete information of their servants to the police for getting their antecedents properly investigated, it would not only bring down the crime rate but also act as a deterrent against the arrival of errant migrants, who had flocked the city in the past many years.

He said although many of the servants did not have criminal background but the residents had to be cautious of the runaway criminals who could be finding refuge at new addresses in the city on fake names. He said the majority of residents did not verify the antecedents of the persons they employed, both as domestic help and in their commercial establishments.

Since January three cases of murder and theft had been reported from the city, while several of them go unreported but still the people were not coming up with the details of their migrant employees.

He urged the residents of the city to get the police verification of their servants done at the earliest to save their lives and property.

Amritsar, February 26
Students, staff and alumnae of the Khalsa College of Education and its other institution had a scintillating experience by watching a rhythmic dance performance by folk artistes from Greece and Russia. The artistes were in the city to participate in the Amritsar International Folk Festival organised by the Punjab Cultural Promotion Council (PCPC). 

The artistes engrossed the audience with their breathtaking performance. Students from Khalsa College presented bhangra.

Addressing the audience, PCPC director Devinder Singh Chinna said it was his endeavour to present the glimpse of the culture of Punjab to the people across the world besides bringing foreign artistes in the country so that people, especially students, could become aware of the different societies and their cultures outside India.

He said 40 such festivals had been conducted by the council till now.

The group leader of the Psilorilis Folk Ensemble from Greece, Rinia Botchka, expressing her delight after watching gidda and bhangra by local students said, “It was a great experience to perform in Amritsar and see the culture and folk dances of Punjab. Such festivals also help promoting peace and friendship between countries.”

Isha Kovavira, leader of the Preplyas Folk Ensemble from Russia, termed the experience as a good one as it had helped her group members in acquainting themselves with the culture of Punjab.

Earlier welcoming the guest artistes, Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, principal, Khalsa College of Education, appreciated the concept and appreciated the efforts of Chinna for promoting the culture of Punjab. The artistes also exchanged mementos. Mayor Shawet Malik, Khalsa College Managing Committee secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chinna were present on the occasion.

Amritsar, February 26
The staging of play “Savi”, coupled with excellent performances by artistes, left an indelible impressions on the minds of the audience at Punjab Naatshala to witness live performance of one of the scintillating plays depicting the plight of a young woman to uphold the “wata-sata” (exchange of females in the matrimony) in the Gujjar community in far-flung areas of Himachal Pradesh, here on Sunday evening.

The story is based on the life of Savi, who sacrificed her youth to fulfil the wishes of her brother who married his beloved but at the cost of getting Savi married to the five-year-old son of his beloved’s brother.

The tragic tale wove around the community which sets up a strange tradition of exchange of women folk during its famous “Minjar” fair held to celebrate the wedding season in the community. A village youth, Dholan, falls in love with a girl, Mallon, and is bent upon securing his love.

The protagonist of the play, Savi, has to accept the condition to go to Mallon’s family for the sake of happiness of her brother and agree to marry five-year-old son Ranjhu of Saanwal Gujjar, brother of Mallon.

The play took an intriguing twist when Savi, who has brought up five-year-old Ranjhu in the hope that she would disclose her true relationship to him when he would grow up as an adult.

The tragedy strikes when Ranjhu, after attaining the age of 18, brings home a young village belle and announces his desire to marry her and introduces Savi as his mother to the girl, much to the disbelief of Savi. In the end, she accepts the ultimate and lives the life carrying the grief.

The play was staged to mark the celebration of the completion of 10 years of existence of the Naatshala. “Savi” is the only play in the 60 years of the history of the Punjabi theatre which has been played in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and nominated for the best story play in the past 10 years.

Dedicated to famous television, film and theatre personality late Harbhajan Jabbal, the play was directed by Jagdish Sachdeva. Mandeep Kaur Manch played the lead role of Savi, while Neeta Mohindra and Jatinder Kaur, along with Amarpal and other co-artistes, weaved the magic with their performances. Income tax commissioner J.R. Sufi was the chief guest.

Amritsar, February 26
Botanical scientist Prof Gopal Singh Puri has made commendable contributions to the Punjabi literature by highlighting the problems of Punjabi immigrants.

This was stated by Prof Jagbir Singh while delivering “Dr Gopal Singh Puri memorial lecture” at Guru Nanak Dev University here on Monday. The lecture was organised by the immigrant centre of School of Punjabi Studies. Describing various challenges being faced by the Punjabi immigrants, Prof Jagbir said the experiences of such people gave us an insight to what these people had gone through. He appreciated the university for introducing Pakistani Punjabi, immigrant literature and folklore as part of the syllabus for MA in Punjabi. Sharing her experiences, Punjabi writer Kailash Puri said social evils like alcoholism, domestic violence and crime against women were prevalent throughout the world.

However, she maintained that western people gave due respect to the human rights. She said, “Indians should not copy the West and should respect their civilisation, mother tongue and language.” She said people should not forget their identity. — OC

Amritsar, February 26
Excessive bleeding during the menstrual cycle is a growing problem among women above 35 years and those nearing menopause. This was disclosed by Dr Sita Sharma at a gynaecological and dietary consultation camp held at Fortis hospital here.

Dr Sita, along with a five-member team, attended to women patients who turned out in large numbers from nearby areas.

Addressing patients, Dr Sita said there was no need to hide infertility problems because advanced treatments were available now. Besides, the treatments had given excellent results in conceiving child and giving birth to healthy babies. She added that ignorance and lack of awareness about the medical facilities were the main causes of marital and social problems.

The gynaecologist informed the patients that the ideal age for conceiving varied from 20 to 24 years and after 30s the process slowed down.

Meanwhile, the patients availed free tests, including haeomoglobin, sugar test, blood pressure and ultrasound.