Hoshiarpur, April 5
There was a time when exquisite furniture with its intricate designs would be inlaid with ivory and anyone wanting to possess such beauties for their drawing rooms would have to come shopping to Hoshiarpur.

But that era is no more. After the government banned the use of ivory, the traditional artisans learnt that their art was dying.

But as human ingenuity knows no bounds, the place of ivory was taken by plastic and it came to be known as an imitation ivory inlay work.

But the magic was gone and the industry here witnessed a slump and has never been able to regain its lost glory.

Old timers like Daulat Sharma recall that the town had a flourishing industry and furniture from here was in demand not only locally, but also people from all parts of the world came here for shopping. But that era was gone, he remarks wistfully.

Presently, Adamwal, an old village of the town, is a well-known place of plastic inlay work. Many artists in the Bassi Gulamthisain and Thaltan localities are national and state award winners.

Members of the Hoshiarpur Handicraft Manufacturer and Exporters Association agree that they are in dire straits and their units are dying a slow death.

The seven-factory outfit comprises Kanhaiya Lal Brij Lal, Dhani Ram Puran Chand, Ganga Ram Tulsi Ram, Rakesh Toys, Hindustan Exporters, Mehr Chand Dhani Ram and Cottage Industry Corporation.

President of the association Madhu Sudan Jain and secretary Gunesh Jain revealed that the total annual turnover of the industry was around Rs 10 crore a few years ago but due to the apathy of the government was down to about Rs 6 crore now.

Gunesh Jain said the handicraft industry of Hoshiarpur is among the places which exports handicrafts to the maximum countries in the world.

The USA and Canada are the primary markets. Apart from these countries, they have clients in Australia and Canada also. A few of them also export to Dubai.

The acrylic and wood inlay industry of the town is closing down due to various reasons like non-adoption of family profession by the present generation, rapid migration of labour to the Gulf countries, lack of financial assistance from the state government, non-availability of sheesham wood, besides the Value Added Tax (VAT) which is around 4 per cent, he said.

“On account of these factors we cannot infuse further capital for development and research purposes,” he added.

He rued that while other states were promoting the handicraft sector by waiving duties it was not the case in Punjab.

In states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, handicrafts had been exempted from VAT.

In the case of Rajasthan, the government has not only exempted VAT on handicrafts but also on wood and other material that goes into making the artifacts.

Due to official patronage, the export of these handicrafts has risen from just Rs 3 crore to Rs 1,800 crore in a span of 15 years.

But in Punjab, the total production has come down to Rs 3 crore from Rs 5 crore in the last 10 years, he said.

In other states, governments have been promoting the industry by supplying the wood on fixed and reserved rates, but this is not so here.

Besides, in other states, the governments are running training centres for artisans, but it is not so here.

Due to this factor alone, the number of families of the district who have been associated with the industry has reduced from 800 to just 300, he informed.

He added that they had submitted a memorandum to Punjab Forest Minister Tikshan Sud and another memorandum to former Finance Minister Surinder Singla when they met him in this context.

“We requested them for exemption from VAT on plastic, metal, wood, inlaid wooden handicrafts and wood carvings and wooden lacquered handicrafts, in the absence of which the sales of the industry have come down by 25 per cent,” he added.

He added that if exemptions were granted on sale of handicraft and on purchase of wood, the total loss to the exchequer would not be more than Rs 6-8 lakh annually.

“Sheesham is the main material of the industry and its shortage nowadays is a big problem. They are not getting the quality wood even though mature trees are available with the state Forest Department. Since Sheesham is getting scarcer they are of the view that the department should help in identifying an alternate with the help of the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun,” he said.

Gurdaspur, April 5
The Syndicate of the Guru Nanak Dev University, in its last meeting, decided to issue show cause notices to certain employees of the university’s regional campus here as to why shouldn’t the embezzled money, amounting to over Rs 23 lakh, be recovered from their pockets.

The minutes of the meeting, which are with the Tribune, have been listed in the report submitted by inquiry officer KL Sharma, retired joint director, local audit, which state that the amount was embezzled from the revolving fund account (number 20495) and mess account (number 20497) of the girls hostel of the GND varsity campus, Gurdaspur.

The KL Sharma report held that assistant warden Lakhbir Kaur, in-charge student welfare Rishi Raj Sharma and Dr Sujan Singh, co-ordinator, had been grossly negligent in discharging their duties.

Although the main accused Sukhjinder Singh alias Sukhjinder Singh Chauhan has been absconding since the filing of FIR and has also been dismissed from the university, it added.

Following directions of the then vice chancellor, Jai Rup Singh, on December 7, 2008, the inquiry was tendered to KL Sharma.

Sharma, in his report stated that the accused Sukhjinder, working on ad hoc basis at a fixed salary of Rs 3,000 per month since 2003, was all in all since he was discharging duties as a cash book writer, cheque writer and reconciling the account of the cash book with the bank statement periodically released by the bank.

For this, the Bank of India, with which the varsity has its account, could not detect the fraudulent withdrawal.

Elaborating the modus operandi, the report said Sukhjinder used to get the signatures of the drawing and disbursing officer on a cheque with the right amount but changed it later.

It stated that the accused used to get it endorsed in his name for withdrawal in most of the cases by getting his signature attested from Rishi Raj Sharma and Sujjan Singh as they had separately been exercising powers of the drawing and disbursing officer from July 2003 to November 2008.

It is mentioned that the accused used to collect cash from students against the official receipt issued by him and added that he had been depositing less or no amount in the bank as counterfoils of the bank challan attached in the cash book were found fictitious.

It added that the accused had issued about 61 receipts for Rs 53,425 and added that the cash received by him was neither accounted for in the cash book nor deposited in the bank account.

Amritsar, April 5
The Rashtriya Raksha Dal (RRD), a political party floated by defence personnel, has so far nominated nine candidates, especially from those Lok Sabha constituencies where major cantonments or families of service employees are residing.

It has nominated its candidates from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh apart from Punjab.

Col Dharam Singh, state president, RRD, said allowing defence personnel to cast ballots at the place of duty had definitely given a shot in the arm for the party. The dal is banking upon employees of services and their families to corner their votes.

In Punjab it gave mandates to Major Gurnam Singh Gill for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, IPS (retired) Narinder Singh Phulka from Sangrur, Col Bhag Singh from Ludhiana and Brig Harwant Singh from Chandigarh.

Col Dharam Singh said the party would soon announce its candidate for the Patiala Lok Sabha seat. He informed that the dal would participate in the rally for one rank one pension at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on April 12.

Established in 1999 after the Kargil war, the party would soon release its manifesto to let the public know about the issues on its agenda.

The dal’s candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Gurnam Singh Gill said he was qualified to be a civil engineer and had retired from the Army in 2004.

Jalandhar, April 5
“Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” fame television actor Ronit Roy would be campaigning for SAD’s Lok Sabha candidate from Jalandhar, Hans Raj Hans.

The actor was in the city to officially announce his support for Hans. Addressing
a press conference, he said being an ardent fan of Hans Raj Hans, he has decided
to campaign for him.

“I have been associated with Hans Raj Hans for quite a long time now. Being his friend, I felt the urge to support his ideology of public service as a politician and I will be here again in the coming days to campaign for him.”

On being asked whether actors make good politicians, he thought over before replying that it all depended from person to person.

“This is difficult to prove as working for the welfare of the public is the choice of the person concerned”, he maintained.

Answering a query on whether he would also join politics in the near future, the actor quipped, “I have no plans at all to formally join politics. However, I will campaign for Hans Raj Hans as I share a good bond with him”.

District Congress president Arun Walia, PPCC secretary Virendra Sharma, district Mahila Congress chief Dr Jasleen Sethi and district Congress vice-president Jitendra Sharma were present.

Nawanshahr, April 5
Activists of various panthic organisations, including the SGPC, Damdami Taksal, Kalgidhar Sewa Jatha and Sikh Students Federation (Grewal), burnt effigies of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and blocked the vehicular traffic near Kahma village on the Nawanshahr-Jalandhar highway today.

They were protesting against the nomination of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar by the Congress for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections and clean chit given to Jagdish Tytler by the CBI allegedlly at the behest of the Congress.

Speaking on the occasion, SGPC member Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa said the Congress had rubbed salt on the wounds of the Sikhs by nominating the two leaders who had engineered the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 in New Delhi.

Tarn Taran, April 5
The Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists (CPUJ) has criticised the state government for not implementing the accepted demand of the journalists and has warned that the CPUJ would launch an agitation against the government in case the demand was not implemented within 15 days.

Speaking on the conclusion ceremony of its second day state-level delegate session here today, CPUJ state president Vinod Kohli said the union had been raising its demands, including land for establishing an institute of mass communication at Mohali, exemption from toll tax at toll plaza barriers in the state and free travel facility for all working journalists in the state transport buses, besides releasing Rs 11 lakh for the union announced by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Kohli added that six months back Badal had announced to implement demands raised by the union within 15 days in Ludhiana but these were not implemented till date.

Various other issues concerned with journalists were discussed at the meeting. More than 100 delegates from various districts of the state participated. It was decided that the seventh state meeting of the union would be held at Faridkot.

Kapurthala, April 5
A migrant labourer strangled his wife at his rented accommodation near Fawara Chowk last night.

Migrant labourer Parkash used to beat up his newlywed wife Krishna after drinking. He beat her up in an inebriated condition after some altercation on Saturday night. Later, he strangled her.

Parkash has been arrested and a case under section 302 of the IPC has been registered against him on the statement of Krishna’s grandmother Pushpawati.