Jalandhar, December 18
Change seems to be imminent for the 133rd Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan this year. The age-old tradition of classical music aficionados waking up till the dawn to listen to their revered artists is being done away with now as the timings this year would be from 4.30 pm to 12.30 pm. The decision has been taken to avoid inconvenience to music lovers.

Another first this year would be the introduction of the saxophone, an instrument which has never before been played at the sammelan.

The congregation started here by Baba Harballabh in 1875 as a means to pay homage to his guru Tuljagir has become a pilgrimage of sort for classical music lovers. With sadhus and fakirs singing bhajans in the Dhrupad style through the days and cold nights of December, nobody must have thought the tradition would last so long.

Addressing mediapersons here today, the committee members said the sammelan would be organised from December 25 to 28.

This year’s sammelan has been dedicated to Padam Vibhushan Pandit Krishan Maharaj.

Talking about plans for Harballabh Bhavan, they said Rs 1 crore given by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to the committee would be used for the bhavan where training in music would be provided to students of the city.

PRO Deepak Bali said, “About Rs 50 lakh has already been invested on the bhavan and the remaining amount will be used to set up various facilities. A library will also be set up in the bhavan.”

Asked why only young and relatively inexperienced artists had been chosen for this year’s sammelan, general secretary Purnima Beri said, “We have Ronu Majumdar, who is a senior artist. Besides, these young artists are going to be tomorrow’s maestros, so I don’t see a reason why there should be a problem with them.”

The music competitions for junior and senior student categories would be held from December 22 to 24.

Jalandhar, December 18
About 150 students of Nursing College were detained by the Punjab police near Mehtapur Sugar Mill in Faridkot, in an attempt to prevent them from reaching Jalandhar where they were to submit a memorandum of their demands to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here today.

The nursing students were coming from Faridkot to Jalandhar in two buses to submit their memorandum to Badal during his visit to the city today, but the police stopped them near the Sutlej at Kanwawala Pattan at Shahkot from proceeding further.

They were taken to the mill and detained their till the completion of Badal’s function.

However, when contacted, Nakodar DSP Amarjit Singh Bajwa denied that the nursing students were detained. He admitted that they had been taken to the mill just to persuade them to send their five representatives to submit a memorandum to the chief 
minister but they did not agree to do so.

To a query, he said they were taken to the sugar mill as the atmosphere was not conducive to talk to them on the road. When they did not agree to send five representatives, they were allowed to go, he claimed.

On the contrary, on reaching Jalandhar the nursing students came to know that Badal had already left the city.

At this, they gathered at PAP Chowk on the Amritsar-New Delhi National Highway-I and stopped vehicular traffic there for about one hour to express their resentment.

Jalandhar, December 18
A day after accusations were levelled by former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and some other Congress leaders that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal had captured the entire cable network business in Punjab, Fastway Transmission and Digi stated that there is no compulsion and stipulation by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the union government that it has to relay all the channels or specific channel except the channels of Doordarshan (DD).

In an unsigned statement, it has been claimed that Fastway Transmissions and DIGI is a joint venture promoted by JS Kohli who is a pioneer and doyen of the cable industry and has managed major MSOs including Incable, Win cable (now Hathway) and WWIL, and launched Etc Music and Etc Punjabi Satellite channels.

Kohli launched DIGI as a new MSO operational not only in Punjab but also in other states of the country with the help of UK-based private equity fund Ashmore investments, claimed in the statement, adding that the launching of Fastway Transmissions and DIGI had seen small cable operators joining it en masse as it had helped in saving its business being eaten by big DTH operators who had a huge funding.

It has further been claimed in the statement that news channels like Aaj Tak, Star News, DD News, IBN 7, NDTV India, India TV, Zee News, MH 1, international channels like BBC and CNN and regional channels like Channel number 1 and DEtv have agreements with Fastway and are being shown on its network.

Without naming anyone, it has been alleged in the statement that some politicians were creating an issue to help some channels with whom Fastway had no agreement and Fastway would seek suitable remedy as per law.

Earlier, in a letter written to the TRAI secretary RK Arnold, Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira alleged that Sukhbir had captured and overtaken the cable network business with the help of support of SAD-BJP government, headed by his father Parkash Singh Badal.

Bholath MLA further alleged that Badal family had huge benami shares and interest in DIGI cable and Fastway cable companies. Ever since the formation of SAD-BJP government, Sukhbir Badal had coerced, threatened, registered false cases against scores of private cable operators in the state.

Expressing apprehension that Sukhbir Badal has been funding and financing Fastway Cable Company with huge benami shares in the business, he demanded a thorough probe into these companies including their overseas funding network to bring the truth to the fore.

The Congress party has been put to a severe disadvantage through this maneuvering by Sukhbir Badal with the support of his father and the Punjab, he stated, giving an example that PTC channel which is practically Badal’s channel, is way above on the UHF whereas other Punjabi news channels such as Zee Punjabi, MH 1 etc are way below to UHF 72 OR 73. It is common knowledge that the maximum reach of ordinary television sets in Punjab is approximately UHF 60, therefore by doing so majority of Punjab is watching one-sided publicity in favour of ruling Punjab government and the Akali Dal.

Nawanshahr, December 18
Dr S.K. Sukhi, BSP nominee from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency, and Paramjit Gosal, general secretary of the state unit of the party, while addressing mediapersons here today, claimed that the formula of social engineering, which had successfully been implemented by BSP president Mayawati to bring the party in power in Uttar Pradesh, had started gaining ground in Punjab too.

“The recognition and acceptability of the BSP in all sections of society has been increasing considerably,” claimed Sukhi. He said during the campaign in different assembly segments of the Hoshiarpur constituency he had been getting a good response from the upper castes also. The public perspective regarding the BSP as a political organisation representing Dalits was changing and people belonging to upper castes had been joining the party.

Besides, the incidences of the presence of BSP nominees in religious ceremonies like jagrans, etc, could be taken as an indications of the acceptability of the party among different sections of society, said Sukhi. Paramjit Gosal, in charge, Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, said the BSP had fielded Gujjar leader Kewal Krishan Chauhan from Anandpur Sahib as the constituency had more than one lakh voters belonging to the Gujjar community. The BSP would organise a “Gujjar sammelan” in the Anandpur Sahib constituency shortly.

Gosal and Sukhi welcomed Mohinder Singh Gujjarpur, Paramjit Pamma, Bittu Sabharwal, Sarabjit Bahrowal, Sandeep Begumpur, Ravinder Rana Karimpuri, office-bearers of the SAD-Amritsar (Panch Pardhani) and Jagdish Ganger of the Congress into the BSP.

Amritsar, December 18
The Jallianwala Bagh Shaheed Parivar Samittee and Jaago India Jaago, an NGO, today welcomed and thanked the union government for recognising the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 as part of the national freedom movement.

It took more than three decades of struggle of kin of Jallianwala Bagh martyrs to get the incident its due recognition. The historical incident had shaken the British empire and laid the foundation of concerted freedom struggle.

Bhushan Behal, president of the samittee, and D.P. Gupta, convener, Jaago India Jaago, thanked the Prime Minister, union home minister, Punjab Chief Minister and Amritsar deputy commissioner for their cooperation in getting the recognition. It is pertinent to mention here that the union government in a missive to the Chief Minister had informed that the Kuka Naamdhari Movement of 1871 and Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 had formally been included in the list of recognised events of the national freedom movement for the purpose of grant of pension under the Swatantrta Sainik Sanman Pension Scheme 1980.