Amritsar, May 20
District police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh today reviewed the security arrangements for the Amritsar (South) assembly constituency byelection. During a meeting with senior police officials, he said all necessary arrangements had been made for the smooth conducting of elections scheduled to be held on May 22. He said no outsider would be allowed to roam during night from this evening and all liquor shops would remain closed till the election process was over. All hotels and sarais would be checked, he added.

He said more than 2,000 cops and three companies of commandos had been deployed to guard 140 polling stations for the elections. He said all polling stations had been declared sensitive.

He said three DSPs - City-I, Sadar and Special Branch - had been deputed to maintain law and order in the three police stations under which the area falls.

SP (City-I) had been given the charge of maintaining law and order in the walled city while SP (City-II) had been made responsible for city-sealing plan to keep a watch on the activities of miscreants.

The SSP said a plan had been chalked out to put up nakas at different points in the city. Fourteen patrolling parties would remain vigilant round the clock to ensure the peaceful conduct of the poll. The SP-D and DSP, Jandiala, would head two quick reaction teams.

For preventive measures, action had been taken against 58 persons till now in this month. He said 224 warrants had been executed and 55 proclaimed offenders arrested besides registering 103 cases under the NDPS Act, Arms Act and Excise Act in which 127 persons had been arrested.

Amritsar, May 20
The stakes are high for the Amritsar (South) byelection scheduled to be held on May 22, which would witness a triangular contest here.

While Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Bhai Ram Singh is general secretary of the party and was active during the militant movement, yet the main contest would be between Inderbeer Singh Bolaria, joint candidate of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP and Congress candidate Navdip Singh Goldi. Though both are greenhorns in politics, they are being intensively campaigned for by the respective presidents of their parties.

Inderbeer Singh Bolaria, born in 1980, is the first-time councillor elected on the SAD ticket. After schooling from Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, he graduated from Guru Nanak Dev University and was supported by his father late Raminder Singh Bolaria. He is contesting on the SAD ticket from Amritsar (South) constituency byelection for the first time on account of his father’s death.

Navdeep Goldi has passed the higher secondary examination from the Punjab School Education Board. Though he is president of the District Youth Congress and an MC, Goldi is considered as a greenhorn in politics. Contesting the elections of MLA for the first time, he is facing two criminal cases even though the allegations have been refuted by him. He claimed that the FIRs were registered as part of “political vendetta”.

Bhai Ram Singh, a candidate of SAD (A), was born on April 2, 1952, at Amritsar and after his schooling completed his Giani and later joined Damdami Taksal and took up training Sikh seminary from 1967 to 1984 and was later appointed head raagi in 1970. He is a witness to Operation Bluestar in 1984 and was later picked up by the security forces. He remained in captivity along with his party president Simranjit Singh Mann in Bhagalpur jail in Bihar for six years. He joined the party floated by Mann while in jail in 1986 and now is functioning as its general secretary.

Amritsar, May 20
The district administration has failed to take action against two aided primary schools accused of financial irregularities and embezzlement of government grants.

This was alleged by Jalwant Singh, president of the Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union (ASTOEU), while talking to mediapersons here today.

He urged the district administration to register a cheating case against the managements of Shishu Niketan Primary School and Shri Krishna Primary School which have been strongly indicted by the education department for misappropriation of government grants.

The department had initiated an inquiry against the schools after finding the managements guilty of committing financial irregularities, said Jalwant, adding that the department had ordered the district education officer (DEO) to take appropriate action in the case but he had failed to initiate any measures to recover the money or file a criminal case against the erring managements.

However, DEO Sukhwinder Singh said he had filed a complaint with the Amritsar police on the basis of affidavits submitted by teachers who were placed under suspension when they raised their voice against the alleged harassment by the school management.

Vivek Sharma, secretary of Shri Krishna Primary School, claimed that they had been dragged into the case due to political pressure. He said the management had already filed a case in the lower court at Amritsar against the teachers for submitting false affidavits to the education department and the next date of hearing was on June 2.

Despite repeated attempts, SSP Kanwar Vijay Pratap could not be contacted.

Amritsar, May 20
The sudden changing of the colour of the historical Hall Bazaar gate from pink to yellow - the favourite colour of the Shiromani Akali Dal - on the eve of the Amritsar byelection has raised many an eyebrow. This also amounts to violation of the election code of conduct.

When the SAD-BJP government came to power in 1995, the colour of the roadways buses was changed to yellow, which received flak from the common man at that time.

In the last couple of years, the colour of the historical gate has been changed thrice. Initially it was red, which changed to pink and now it is being painted yellow.

However, the successive state governments, including the Badal government that had promised to give governance on the pattern of “Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule,” and the SGPC failed to preserve the invaluable art of the Maharaja’s time. Amritsar looked like a fortified city in the days of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

The fortification consisted of an immense rampart of earth and a wide ditch, apart from 12 gates, to save the town from foreign invasion.

While most of the gates have been demolished, there is no trace of the ditch. Unmindful of their heritage value, most of the gates were pulled down in the past. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, many old buildings were replaced by “modern monuments” constructed by the British.

Historical gates like Ahluwalia Gate, Lohgarh Gate and Gilwali Gate have also been demolished. A haveli, belonging to the days of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was demolished recently, reportedly for constructing a shopping complex.

The haveli was opposite Hindu College here. This is the second haveli to be demolished in the past few months.

Amritsar, May 20
The students and staff of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the border district today organised a rally against the state government with regard to the privatisation of ITIs in the state.

Lashing out at CM Parkash Singh Badal, various speakers said the SAD-BJP government has been exposed among the people as it had failed to fulfill the promises made to them during the previous by-elections in the state.

They said instead of providing more funds for the modernisation of these technical education centres the government wants to hand these over to private operators.

They said the students of the border areas belong to the farming community and were finding it difficult to pay their fee decided by the government. They said if these institution would be privatised the private owners would charge exorbitant fees and the students would not be able to continue their training. The students alleged that the Students Organisation of India (SOI), formed by Sukhbir Singh Badal, has been spreading terror among the students of the state. They alleged that whenever the students wanted to lodge their protest against the state government, SOI members attacked them.

The ITI trainees said they would be forced to intensify the stir if the state government went ahead with the decision of privatising the ITIs in the state.

Amritsar, May 20
To lay emphasis on the importance of discipline in an individuals’ life, Gandhi Katha, a talk on Gandhian philosophies was held at local Khalsa College of Education here. Over 200 students and faculty of B.Ed and M.Ed courses participated in the event.

Shobhana Radhakrishna, who is on a mission to spread the leader’s message to the people, was the main speaker on the occasion. She traced the evolution of a true Satyagrahi through different stages of introspection, self-examination and self-purification. The participants were made aware about the philosophy of great man through peace education.

During her talk, the speaker highlighted the pivotal role that Khalsa College had played in freedom struggle as the father of nation himself visited the premier educational institution in the year 1920, a year after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. She said Gandhiji’s life was one of dedication and simplicity, and he valued ahimsa and truth. Like Kabir, the Mahatma also followed the inner voice that guided him throughout his life.

Having spent a part of her life in Gandhiji’s Sevagram Ashram in Wardha, Shobhana has studied in the basic education school in the ashram. — OC

Amritsar, May 20
Students of the School of Social Sciences of Guru Nanak Dev University have made it to several prestigious national institutions.

Chetna Bhalla has been selected in the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Jasmine has made it to the International School of Business and Media, Noida. Rukmani Riar has got admission in masters in social entrepreneurship in the prestigious and internationally renowned Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, by obtaining the ninth position.

Disclosing this, Dr Gurnam Singh, head of the school, said more than 1.5 lakh candidates appeared in the entrance test for 20 open-category seats. The school was the only one of its kind in the whole of the country and UGC had taken a special note of it.

Dr Gurnam Singh said in recognition of the excellent track record of the school, the University Grants Commission has selected the school for starting masters in social sciences (honours school) from July.

Amritsar, May 20
Dr Preetam Singh, a vitreo-retinal consultant of the Sardar Bahadur Dr Sohan Singh Eye Hospital recently participated in the conergy marathon, Hamburg in Germany, in which about 20,000 marathoners from 85 countries took part.

He had gone there to attend the “Frankfurt retina meeting 2008” where he, along with Dr Vipin Vig, presented video presentations of their surgical techniques. More than 900 vitreo-retinal specialists from all over the world attended the meeting.

Singh said the marathon was flagged off on the 42.2-km stretch by the mayor of Hamburg, Ole von Beust, from Millerntorplatz which was the starting point of the race.

Amritsar, May 20
Due to pollution and uncontrolled use of pesticides, the numbers of useful insects are declining at an alarming rate.

These remarks were made by a young artist, Arsh Rup Singh after the inauguration of his two-day photo exhibition on insects titled "Tiny but Mighty Inhabitants of Planet Earth" at the SG Thakur Singh Art Gallery here. Nearly 49 photographs of different species of insects, taken over a span of three years, are on display.

Arsh said Punjab has the minimum forest cover in the country and it is declining with each passing day. He said mostly insects are considered as pests. “In fact, only less than 1 per cent of insects are harmful, the remaining are useful and absolutely essential for maintaining the ecological balance,” he said.

Earlier, SSP Kanwar Vijay Partap Singh inaugurated the exhibition. Highly impressed by the artist’s photographs, SSP said there was immediate need to spread awareness among the masses on environment issues.