Jalandhar, April 8
This would surely leave the city environmentalists fuming. The entire stretch of eye-soothing green belt on either side of the GT Road near Sadar railway crossing will soon be gone to pave way for the construction of a flyover from Lyallpur Khalsa College to Narinder Cinema.

The PWD today started its operations with flattening a park at the entry of Defence Colony. The JCB machines roared the entire day to pull down the boundary wall of the park, old trees and shrubs. The workers were also seen loading green grass and soil in the trucks and taking it away. The area was the only wide green belt left along the highway in the city. Most of the green cover, including the one near the bus stand, has been already sacrificed at the altar of development and modernisation.

The parks in front of Lyallpur Khalsa College and its women wing will also be soon dug up to create traffic service lanes before the construction of flyover begins in another fortnight.

PWD XEN BS Tuli said there was no other option but to remove the green areas. “How else will be the passages created on either side of the road for traffic to move? The buses will take BSF Chowk and Ladowali Road detour, but we need to create an alternative passage along the stretch as well”, he pointed out.

“The construction of approaches is likely to come at a cost of Rs 42.6 crore. The railways at an additional cost will construct the span of the flyover above the crossing. The project starting from April 23 is expected to be commissioned in one-and-a-half-years,” he said.

The flyover will have three arms, one coming down towards bus stand, another one near police lines and the third towards cantonment and Defence Colony side, informed the official. Lakhbir Singh, president of NGO Pahal, said the destruction of well-maintained parks in the name of development have marred the beauty of the city in the recent past. “The civic bodies atleast should refrain from any such activity. Where it’s unavoidable, the administration should ensure that such a facility is created at some different location to maintain the overall ecological balance,” he added.

Jalandhar, April 8
When it comes to savouring the real taste of our country, crispy “pakoras” and “samosas” top the chart, especially in the North where they are a hot favourite.

“Narain Dass ke vade pakore” in the Central Town area of Jalandhar is one destination where the munching dreams of the people take off. Customers clamour for this desi delicacy. The serpentine queues of vehicles in front of the shop say it all.

A name famous for mouth-watering “pakora”, “vada” and “samosa” with hot and appetising “chhole”, the place is virtually a crowd puller. Started some 60 years ago, the place derives its name from the founder of the shop, Narain Dass Malhotra, father of Kanwal Malhotra.

Hailing from Gujjranwala district in Pakistan, Narain Dass came here after partition and started the family business of making “pakora” and “vade” in the early 1940s. Kanwal serves the Jalandharites from 3 pm to 7 pm.

On being asked as to why he makes “pakora” in the evening, he maintained, “Pakora and samosa are the evening snacks specially served with tea. Keeping this fact in mind I started making pakora in the evening and it has been a major hit.”

Talking about the recipe of “pakora” and “vada”, Kanwal said, “We have been following the family tradition of making quality pakoras. Perhaps this is one reason why even after so many years people love the flavour.”

Such is the rush in the evening that children, youngsters and oldies eagerly wait outside the shop for hours to get “pakora” and “vada”. He says,

“Even if I wait for five minutes while making pakoras, it actually becomes difficult for me to meet the demand.

These days even my son is also working with me.”

On being asked about his plans to start any big restaurant in future, Kanwal replied, “This is our ancestral job which I started along with my father from this small shop and I want to carry the same legacy.”

Jalandhar, April 8
Hundreds of activists of the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha held a rally at Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall here today to protest against the failure of the successive governments to redress their grievances that have made farming an unviable option.

Addressing the gathering, senior leader of the outfit Gurnam Singh Sanghera said the incidence of debt-ridden farmers committing suicides was known to all. Their plight had not been acknowledged by the state as no relief package had been announced.

The debt waiver would only provide relief to a fraction of the farmers in Punjab. What about the crores owed by the farmers to the money-lenders and commission agents. The commission agents had lobbied that no worthwhile legislation was passed by the government that restricted the percentage of interest to be collected by the agents or money-lenders, he added.

The government had not provided any relief to the farmers whose crop was destroyed by the hailstorm a few days ago.

Similarly, the cane farmers were a harassed lot as they were not getting a remunerative price for their produce. The government should increase the price of sugarcane to Rs 165 per quintal. The mills should also be allowed to install ethanol, alcohol and power plants, he added.

Santokh Singh Bilga demanded a special survey to access the damage to the vegetable and potato crop in the region due to frost. He said to make the debt waiver scheme more effective, the clause of waiving the defaulting amount should be scrapped and it should include all sorts of debts. In its present form it was more of a relief to the banks saddled with bad debts and a political gimmick ahead of poll, he alleged.

President of the outfit Manohar Singh Gill said the government should not only make debt waiver its milestone but initiate steps to make farming an attractive proposition at the earliest. This would ensure that the farmers did not fall in the debt trap again. The state should strengthen its marketing mechanism so that the farmers who opted for diversification did not suffer on this account. Presently, farmers were sticking to the wheat-paddy cycle in the absence of marketing avenues, he added. The state should also provide soft loans to the farmers, besides discounting diesel, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.

Jalandhar, April 8
Lovely Professional University and Pahal, an NGO, organised a seminar on a thalassemia and a blood donation camp on the LPU campus to mark World Health Day on Monday.

A team from Pahal visited the Lovely campus to generate awareness regarding blood donation among the students of Lovely Professional University and Lovely Institutes. Prof Lakhbir Singh of Pahal informed the assembly that 25 crore people were suffering from thalassemia across the globe, of them 25 crore were in India. Moreover, every year 8,000 to 10,000 children were born with blood-related disorders. The number could be greatly reduced by providing adequate and timely health care.

He said, “The requirement of blood to counter thalassemia and other blood-related disorders amounts to one crore bottles per year. The requirement is met by blood donors of which only up to 40 per cent are voluntary and the remaining are professional donors.” In all, nearly 120 volunteers from LPU, including 70 girl students, participated in the drive by donating blood.

Jalandhar: Chandigarh is all set be the second sub-centre in India for chartered management courses through the London Institute of Management Education (LIME), UK. Addressing mediapersons at Jalandhar Press Club, Aryans Group chairman Anshu Kataria said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding this had been signed with LIME.

Opening of the centre would enable students, especially those from the Doaba region in Punjab, to get CMI qualifications in the country.

Ladowali Road, particularly the stretch from the level crossing near Preet Nagar to the Suvidha Centre, has become a traffic hazard. The reason - it has a number of manholes which have either sunk or twisted. Some of the manholes are up to six inches deep than the road level. These are hazardous, particularly for cyclists and two-wheel drivers. Moreover, the road beyond the petrol station run by Punjab Agro has become 
a bottleneck as almost half of it is encroached upon by shop owners who repair damaged vehicles right on the road. Another accident-prone spot is level crossing itself. The authorities had started work on widening the road about a couple of months back but it has not 
progressed beyond construction of a watch room.

— R.S. Sharma, Jalandhar

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