Nawanshahr, November 8
Tension gripped the local civil hospital due to the death of an NRI, Sarabjit Singh (50), belonging to nearby Bhagauran village, in the operation theatre of the hospital on Saturday. Relatives of the deceased raised an accusing finger against the doctor and wailed outside the operation theatre for about four hours and refused to take the body until the doctor concerned is brought before them.

With a view to maintaining law and order situation, adequate security arrangements were made by the police and the local medical fraternity also assembled there to express solidarity with the doctor concerned and to help in amicable solution.

Randhir Kaur, Jaswinder Kaur, sisters of Sarabjit Singh, Mandeep Singh, nephew of Sarabjit Singh, and an Itally-based NRI Harshwinder Singh, a close friend of Sarabjit Singh, told mediapersons that Sarabjit Singh had come from Itally on October 22. During the intervening night of October 27 and 28, Sarabjit Singh and his brother Mohinder Singh were injured in a domestic quarrel.

Their another brother, Raghbir Singh had allegedly conspired the attack on them. Injured Sarabjit Singh was brought to the civil hospital for treatment. Dr Davinder Singh Chahal plastered his fractured leg and said everything was “normal,” but later he decided to operate the leg for plating, they said, alleging that not only the doctors showed negligence in treatment, but also the police did not take any action against the miscreants responsible for the fatal attack on Sarabjit Singh.

Dr Davinder Singh Chahal, while terming the allegations of negligence in treatment as baseless, told the mediapersons that the operation of plating to treat fracture tibia was done successfully but unfortunately after the completion of the operation, the patient started showing signs of sudden faintness due to cardiac arrest. Medical specialist Dr Rajesh Bhatia was immediately called but the patient could not be revived, he said.

DSP Satpal Bhangu, while talking to mediapersons also refuted the allegations of police inaction in handling the case. “After receiving the MLR, a police party visited the civil hospital for recording the statement of Sarabjit Singh number of times but as he was under treatment, it could not be possible to record his statement, said Bhangu, adding that even today the police party was sent for recording the statement.

The aggrieved relatives of the deceased were demanding that action to nab the accused in the fatal attack on the NRI should be expedited and action against the doctor be taken. The DSP, Satpal Singh Bhangu, and SHO city, Raj Kumar, after pacifying the irate relatives, started recording their statements. The body was kept in a mortuary.

Dr Chitranjan Brar, civil surgeon, said the post-mortem examination would be conducted tomorrow. A panel of doctors for the purpose had been constituted. Answering a query regarding the demand of the relatives for getting the post-mortem examination conducted from the panel of doctors outside the district, the civil surgeon said till now he had not received the demand. He would consider it when received for satisfying the aggrieved family.

Jalandhar, November 8
A shooting incident outside a restaurant-cum-bar in Urban Estate, Phase-I, created panic in the area this afternoon.

The incident took place at about 2.20 pm when Paras Miglani of Shakti Nagar and his friend Vivek from Railway Road, both students of Apeejay school, were approaching the restaurant after parking their car (PB-08W-0847, temporary number). The two had a narrow escape as the “shooter” failed to hit his target. The bullet hit their car.

SI Sukhwinder Singh, who is the investigating officer, said that Paras and Vivek, in their statement to the police, disclosed that they heard the sound of a bullet shot and noticed some movement of certain person inside Terminal 37, a restaurant-cum-bar, soon after. They apprehended that some one had fired at them from inside the restaurant, the SI revealed.

The students later found that the bullet had pierced the body of their car. A case has been registered. — TNS

Jalandhar, November 8
Following in the footsteps of Gurdas Mann and Harbhajan Mann, another Punjabi singer Shankar Sahney will try his hand in Punjabi films.

During his Jalandhar visit on Saturday, Sahney said the shooting of the proposed romantic film -name yet to be finalised - would be started within a month in different parts of the state. Sahney will not only produce but he will also act as hero in the film.

“Machhali Hai Oye” song-famed Sahney said the story of the film had been written by Dr Dinesh, who would also be director of the film. Shankar’s brother Vivek Sahney will give music. Reacting to Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans’s decision to join active politics and contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll from Jalandhar, he said, “If someone wants to do social service, one will be in a better position to do so when he was an elected representative.”

Shankar, who started singing when he was just three, said “Khehre Yaar Nu” was his best out of total 17 albums released so far.

Jalandhar, November 8
A mediation and conciliation centre was set up in Jalandhar today. Supreme Court judge S.B. Sinha formally inaugurated the centre by way of video conferencing.

With this, Jalandhar has become the first district in Punjab to have this centre. As many as 17 mediation centres have been set up in different districts of Punjab and Haryana.

Civil cases referred by the presiding judges of different courts will be taken up in the mediation and conciliation centre. Only pending cases will be taken up in the centre and no pre-litigative cases will be heard as has been done in lok adalats.

The centre in Jalandhar will work on the second floor of the judicial court complex. It will consist of a waiting room for lawyers and litigants and two rooms for holding mediation sessions by different mediators.

This will be a free court. Two judicial officers, additional district and sessions judge B.K. Mehta and civil judge (junior division) Sanjeeta, have been trained in mediation process by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. They will be holding mediation sessions.

As many as 12 cases for settling disputes by way of mediation were taken up by these judicial officers today.

Mediation and conciliation is a process through which disputes between two parties will be solved by way of settlement. Mediators and conciliators will only facilitate resolution of disputes between the parties.

The judicial officers will apprise both the parties of their mutual rights and duties and will try to remove hindrances in settlement of disputes.

Mediation is very cost effective, time-saving method. By settling disputes through the process of mediation, relations between two parties remain intact and matter comes to an end permanently as there is no provision of appeal.

So, the maximum number of disputes should be settled through mediation, he said, adding that 90 per cent of the cases were being settled through mediation in several western countries.

Hoshiarpur: A mediation and conciliation centre was inaugurated by Supreme Court judge S.B. Sinha through video conference at the district court complex here on Saturday. As many as eight such centres have been opened in Punjab and Hoshiarpur is one of them.

Mediation and Conciliation Centre chairman and High Court judge Mahesh Grover has been assigned the responsibility to open these centres in the state.

Additional sessions judge of Hoshiarpur S.S. Sahni has taken over as mediator of the centre.

Members of the District Bar Association along with their president R.P. Dhir were present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, November 8
Elegance writ large in her demeanour, she is getting dressed for the show in the evening. Sensing the apprehensiveness, she immediately flashes a smile which transports one into the comfort zone which is the trademark of personalities such as hers.

Nursed by her gurus Sadhana Bose and Guru Birju Maharaj, she has worked on topic ranging from Kahlil Gibran to Ghalib and merged Kathak with mediums that nobody dared to think about before.

In the town to perform at the Kapurthala Heritage Festival, Kathak maestro Padmashree Shovana Narayan talks to The Tribune on the dance that is life for her.

How did the journey into Kathak start?

“As a kid I used to be very energetic and restless. My mother tells me I used to ask her every few seconds ‘Ab mai kya karun?’ So at the tender age of two-and-a-half years, I was taken to Sadhna Bose, the actress and danseuse of the yesteryear. The first thing she said seeing me was ‘koler baccha niye eshcho?’(you have brought a baby in the lap to teach her dance?)”.

Did you instantly feel the connect or just pursued it as an obligation in the beginning?

I instantly loved it. I was the kid who never used to get tired even when all the kids went back home and class was over. I always wanted more of it.

When did you start experimenting with it?

I don’t look at my works as experiments. I sleep, breathe, eat, live Kathak. Otherwise too, you might have seen that all the classical arts have been evolving right from the beginning. Its because artistes are always in the quest of something.

Do you feel that some people are deprived of true art even though they are talented enough, just because they don’t get the right kind of exposure?

There are people who are not talented but manage to go a long way just because they are industrious. There are the kinds who make it through. And there are people who are talented and don’t get the right chance all their life. All these scenarios co-exist.

What do your disciples see you as Hitler or an affectionate mother?

I am pretty strict with them. But they see my zeal, energy and interest while I am with them. They see in me a mother and a close confidant.

How was it working without ghungroos?

We were working on “Moonlight Impressionism”, a ballet about harshingaar, a flower which blooms during the night. While working for it the composer said he did not want any sound amplifications, just the sound of the piano. That’s how I decided that we would do it without ghungroos. The other ballet which we did without ghungroos was “Muktilekha”. It was on human rights.