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Op redeem green to lessen the axe effect
Jalandhar, September 2 One of the major plans that MC officials are deliberating upon is the conversion of the nearly seven acres of vacant area of the central government alongside the BSF boundary wall up to PAP Chowk into a park. “We have mooted a proposal to set up a beautifully landscaped park there with footpaths to facilitate the morning walkers around the area. The state government is likely to take up the issue with the central government for claiming the possession of the land. Once that gets through, we would be able to pursue the project,” Mayor Rakesh Rathour revealed. BSF senior PRO Jagir Singh too pointed out that the land alongside the boundary was of the government. Another portion further ahead belongs to the force, he said, clearing any doubts over
its ownership. The MC officials are also planning to develop the existing green belts. A park in the centre of the busy Model Town market which was earlier dug up for construction of a basement parking will soon be handed over to a private agency for its maintenance, disclosed MC commissioner Vinay Bublani. Further, there is a plan to convert 11 roundabouts, three central verges and two islands in the city into plush green areas on the pattern of Chandigarh. These sites will be maintained by private companies like Pepsi, AS Farms and some hospitals that have come forward for the purpose, said Bublani. The roundabouts that are likely to be beautified under the plan include Shastri Chowk, Guru Ravi Dass Chowk and the one outside Kamal Palace, near
BMC Chowk. Bublani added that the renovation of Nehru Garden at a cost of Rs 1.25 crore was already in the pipeline. “There will be sprinklers, food courts and rides for children,” he said, adding that the unkempt Old Baradari Park had just been spruced up. The city had recently lost its prime green belts to the construction of flyovers. Scores of old trees were axed and two parks right across the Lyallpur Khalsa College railway crossing were dug up to make way for service lanes. Earlier, a park on old GT Road in Kabir Nagar, near DAV College level crossing, was also razed for construction work.
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Double-laning to add zip to Ladowali crossing
Jalandhar, September 2 Railwaymen are busy in the construction work at the site. The crossing has already been made double but the passage across the new lane is yet to be cemented. The project had been put on the back burner for the past several months but now work is going on at a good pace and is likely to take just a few days to get completed. The residents had been waiting for the change after the increase in the volume of traffic in the recent years and congestion along the alternative passage across the railway crossing near Lyallpur Khalsa College owing to construction of the flyover there. The problem along the passage across the Lyallpur Khalsa College crossing has increased manifold owing to simultaneous construction of the basement parking in front of Narindra Cinema on the same road near bus stand there. The basement construction has been on at the site since the past more than two years. A road connecting the GT Road with Garha Road along the cinema hall has been dug up since the past more than six months as the construction had been going on at a snail’s pace. The inconvenience for commuters has amplified since the past two days owing to the closing of the left lane of the road from the BMC Chowk side to railway crossing at several points. The harried passersby are being forced to take a diversion to Police Lines and then move past the crossing via the service lane. The service lanes, too, often get obstructed owing to movement of heavy machinery, loading and unloading of concrete at the site. The civic authorities, however, have been claiming that the public would have to bear with the problems for a short while only.
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Cantt board seeks scrapping of octroi
Jalandhar, September 2 The tax was abolished in Punjab except the cantonment areas of Jalandhar and Ferozepur. The Punjab assembly had earlier passed a resolution seeking to compensate the Jalandhar Cantonment Board in lieu of the abolition of the octroi system. Expressing concern over this problem, Jalandhar Cantt MLA, Jagbir Brar said the Punjab assembly had passed the Municipal Fund (amendment) Act 2008 six months back so that a provision can be made in the Punjab Municipal Fund 2006 to compensate the cantonment board, Jalandhar, for the loss of revenue on account of octroi. Though the cantonment board authorities demanded an advance amount of Rs 1.9 crore from the state government, the elected members from the seven wards, in consensus, expressed their interests in favour of the Punjab government. Brar, however, said he is committed to bring an end to this problem as per the new MC draft bill. Apart from this the members also raised the issue of the pathetic condition of Bhur Mandi. Councillor from ward number 6, Raj Kumar Raju said Bhur Mandi has always remained one of the most neglected areas and required development at many fronts. On this, board president, Brigadier P.M. Haritz maintained that he would personally visit the localities of Bhur Mandi soon. “Let me see the locality first and only then we would decide what action is to be taken for the development of the area,” he said. On being asked about the development works to be carried out in Bhur Mandi, Brar said, “We are committed to develop the area at any cost. And to provide clean living conditions to the residents of Bhur Mandi we have already approved a budget of Rs 1.6 crore with the help of the state government for the sewage line to be connected with the municipal corporation, Jalandhar”. Further talking about the routine checks at the surrounding villages of Sansarpur, Sofi Pind and Birring village barriers, Brig Haritz said, “We are bound to take such precautionary measures keeping in mind the security of the cantonment.” He also said the cantonment board would soon enforce the use of helmets and license for Cantt residents.
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City Christians protest Kandhamal killings
Jalandhar, September 2 The protesters assembled in front of the residence of the bishop of the Diocese of Jalandhar and marched towards the DC office. They were carrying placards and banners urging the government to restore normalcy in besides ensuring the well being of their community in the state. Father Peter K, a spokesperson of the Diocese, said they had organised the march to express their solidarity with their brethren in Orissa who were the target of the right wing Hindu organization. “We urge the PM to rush paramilitary forces to the affected Kandhamal block since the state police and even the RAF have failed to control the violence. Thousands of Christian families have been displaced since the people have moved to safer places fearing more widespread violence,” he pointed out. He said their demands include a CBI enquiry into the murder of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati and the
ensuing violence besides identifying those responsible for the crime. We also want that adequate compensation should be given to the kith and kin of those who have been killed and injured in the violence. The government should also rebuild homes for those whose houses been torched by the VHP activists.
— TNS
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Panchayat workers’ dharna on Sept 5
Jalandhar September 2 He demanded that 909 panchayat secretaries working in rural and panchayat departments should be made regular, the 73rd amendment to the Constitution regarding the rural development should be implemented soon and the state government should pay Rs 4,600 and Rs 1,800 to sarpanches and panches, respectively, on the pattern of Kerala. Singh further demanded that the pay scale of gram sewaks should be hiked to Rs 3,220 to make development works of the rural development departments possible.
— PTI
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National honour for Jalandhar teacher
Jalandhar, September 2 Vij, who is the principal of the school, holds the distinction of being the only teacher in the state to get this award this year. Terming this achievement as a great motivation for her in the years to come, she said, “The award will certainly give me a boost to do good work in future and help poor children get quality education.” Talking about her work in the school, she said, “Our school has a special quota for the underprivileged children. We have as many as 500 children from the financially weaker sections of society.” A doctorate in psychology (gold medalist), she started her career as a lecturer in the local HMV College in November 1987. During her 21 years in the teaching profession she has held some prestigious posts. She started Police DAV Public School as its founder principal in 1996. She worked as president of the Jalandhar District Roller Skating Association, chairperson of the Jalandhar Independent School Sahodaya Complex, president of the Kho-Kho Association, to name a few. At present Vij is manager of Police DAV Public School, Amritsar and Patiala, and Dayanand Model School, Dayanand Nagar, and Model Town. She is also the recipient of the Best Principal Award given by HRD minister Arjun Singh in 2007, the Vocational Award of Excellence by the Rotary Club Jalandhar for the academic year 2001-02 and Avantika Dr Radhakrishnan Samman at Innocent Hearts School, Jalandhar. She has also participated in various national and international seminars and conferences on education and counselling.
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Hamlet comes to town
Jalandhar, September 2 The play, indeed, was a rare treat for theater lovers as the city-based group YUVAA (Young Upcoming Versatile Artists Association) enacted Shakespeare’s legendary work Hamlet, in Hindi. The intermittent happenings, including the endless attempts to match the light and sound in every act along with Hinglish dialogues, instead of the original Shakespearean style, got the audience riveted to the play. “We aim at making theatre a widely accepted and popular live art form by performing major dramas written by well known writers in Hindi, Punjabi and English, on a regular basis”, said Vikram, the lead protagonist of the play. The fratricide, usurpation of the throne, feigned madness, the characters of Ophelia, Gertrude, Horatio and the duel of wits between the uncle and the nephew were all woven fantastically into the plot. Directed by Professor Ankur Sharma, the actors on stage, namely Vikram Singh, Vikas Anand, Amandeep, Swati Sharma, Guari Rai, Abhishek, Lakhan Kaul, Rajnish, Vishesh and Govind, all students of the local Doaba College, did the city crowd a great favour by bringing in the Hindi version of one of the classics of Shakespeare. “Initially we were apprehensive about the success of the play but the kind of response we got was quite motivating,” maintained Vikram. Put in Harkirat Kaur, an audience member, “This play is perhaps the first of its kind which had such a lot of audience participating. We have been studying Shakespeare since our school days and the way it has been presented with Hindi as a medium actually helped the team to rope in more audience”. Despite the Hindi presentation of the play, attempts were made to deliver certain dialogues in a Scottish accent. An experience in itself, Jalandharties had a brush with the Shakespearean world but Desi style!
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Harpuneet is ‘Koyal Jalandhar Di’
Jalandhar, September 2 Harpuneet Kaur, a plus two student of Ravindera Day Boarding School, was selected as the “Koyal Jalandhar
Di”. She is now looking forward to the grand finale at Chandigarh where the winners from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Chandigarh will compete for the “Koyal Punjab
Di” title. The “Vatika Koyal Punjab Di” consists of city-level auditions followed by the city finals. The contest has been held at Ludhiana. After Jalandhar, the contest will take place in Amritsar, Patiala and Chandigarh. “The five finalists from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Chandigarh will compete in the grand finale to be held in Chandigarh on September 28. The winner will get a chance for on-air singing on Big 92.7 FM,” said Dabur India Ltd sales head (northern region) Adarsh Sharma. “The contest is to empower the young women of Punjab by offering them a chance to showcase their natural talent on a bigger scale,” said BIG FM regional director (north-I) Siddharth Bhardwaj.
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Young talent on show
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 2 The students performed in various events to showcase their talent. Chief engineer TS Thind of Punjab State Electricity Board, Jalandhar, was the chief guest on the occasion. Green concern The NSS unit of Prem Chand Markanda SD College for Women
celebrated Vanmahotsav in association with State Bank of India, New Railway Road branch, here today. The students
planted saplings and also participated in poster-making competition. Blood donation On the occasion of International Peace Day,
the authorities of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV), in collaboration with the Rotary club (Jalandhar Central), organised a
blood donation camp here today.
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‘Rectify anomalies of fourth pay panel’
Jalandhar, September 2 The case regarding arrears of the 4th pay commission to some of the serving and retired defence officers is still pending with the Supreme Court and the union government of India. President of the association Col GS Ahluwalia said it’s the result of the wrong determination of pay at that time. “The government should rectify the anomaly and provide us our dues”, he said. “Since the recommendations of the 6th pay commission have been approved by the cabinet of the union government, the anomalies of the 4th pay commission should also be resolved,” maintained Lt Col Kashmir Singh, general secretary of the association.
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Ration sent to flood-hit areas
Jalandhar, September 2
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