Amritsar, July 3
The 75-year-old Amritsar Railway Station built by the British with colonial architecture figured among 50 railway stations of the country, which would be upgraded as world-class station, which would have shopping centres, food stalls, restaurants, book shops, telephone and fax booths, medicine and variety stores and budget hotels as well as underground parking.

This was disclosed by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee during the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha in New Delhi. She also proposed Amritsar-Kolkata non-stop bullet train.

Presenting her ministry’s budget for the current fiscal in the Lok Sabha, Banerjee said, “The world-class facilities in the 50 stations, including Amritsar, will be developed through innovative financing and under public private partnership mode.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the Central government had prepared a master plan to upgrade this station about three years ago. However, with the provisions made in the railway budget today, lot of investment would be made to make it a world-class railway station.

It had been a long-pending demand of city residents that the railway station be renovated to add more facilities for hundreds of passengers.

Many city-based historians and architects have, however, expressed reservations about the way the colonial architecture of the station is being replaced by a commonplace look with plaster of Paris covering the pristine pillars, which have always been a reminder of the glorious past of the station.

Most of the railway stations built by the British during that time had very similar colonial architecture.

“With such old buildings disappearing at a fast pace, it is important to preserve whatever heritage it is left. We do not want our next generation to see photographs to know what the old railway station looked like before it was completely renovated,” said the experts.

However, residents of Amritsar feel that the traffic chaos outside the railway station might be solved by regulating the movement of auto-rickshaws and clearing up encroachments which have mushroomed all over the place after its upgradation in the coming years.

The announcement to include Amritsar railway station in the list of developing world class stations and to introduce a non-stop superfast train between Amritsar and Kolkata was welcomed, but residents of the city rued that their vital priorities were being ignored.

Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee, in her budget could not justify not linking the Malwa region with the holy city.

Dr A.L. Adlakha said the railway budget was utterly disappointing for the people of Punjab as rail connectivity within Punjab, especially areas of Ferozepore, Bathinda, Muktsar, Patiala, Gurdaspur and importantly Amritsar had been ignored.

He said many cities of the state were not connected with its capital Chandigarh. While the infrastructure for running a fast Amritsar-Kalka train existed, the railway authorities did not bother to look into it.

Demand for a halt of the Shatabdi at Rajpura to facilitate faster movement of passengers to visit Patiala and Chandigarh remained unheeded.

Guninderjit Singh, Chairman, CII, Punjab, said despite repeated requests the demand for a 25-km line from Makhu to Patti remained non-implemented.

He said the line would bring down the distance from Amritsar to Mumbai by 240 km, besides connecting this part of the country with Rajasthan.They opined that insufficient number of trains on these routes were responsible for the heavy rush of traffic on land routes which contributed to rise in the number of accidents.

Traders involved in import and export with Paksitan welcomed the introduction of special trains to carry perishable products like fruits, vegetables and fish from identified production clusters to consumer centres. They said the country suffered a loss of about Rs 40,000 crore annually on account of wastage of perishable goods. They demanded that the special cargo train must be linked with Amritsar as it would facilitate faster movement of goods to the perishable cargo complex at Rajasansi airport from where perishable products were exported to various destinations across the globe.

Jugal Kishore Sharma, former Chairman, Improvement Trust, said the scheme for issuing special passes for Rs 25 to BPL families, for travelling at least 100 km, would percolate benefits of development to the grass-roots level. He said development of Amritsar railway station on the international level would provide a memorable journey to pilgrims visiting the Golden Temple.

Amritsar, July 3
Even as SGPC president Avtar Singh today announced that he would preserve the Kalgi, said to be worn by Guru Gobind Singh in the Golden Temple’s Toshakhana, the research committee, which handed over the relic to Jathedar Akal Takht yesterday, failed to reveal the name of the person and the country from where it was brought.

However, after repeated queries, Jathedar Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh told The Tribune that the Kalgi was brought from England.

If this is true, then why did the kin of Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, the then Jathedar Akal Takht, his personal assistant Prithipal Singh and Kamaljit Singh Boparai, one of the two members of the research committee, wanted to go to Canada in the year 2007?

Amritsar, July 3
If you thought rickshaw-pullers can’t be challaned, you are in for a surprise.

The law has provisions to challan rickshaw-pullers for violating traffic rules, but strangely not a single rickshaw-puller has been challaned by the police ever.

The strangest thing is that even policemen do not know that they can challan a rickshaw-puller. As per the Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Licence) Act, 1976, and the rickshaw bylaws framed by the erstwhile Municipal Committee, Amritsar, published in the Punjab government notification (7809-C-51/II/755) dated 
February 5, 1952, a police officer can challan a rickshaw-puller and the court can punish him with three months’ imprisonment, besides imposing a fine of Rs 500.

Advocate P.C. Sharma alleged that a majority of the rickshaw-pullers in the holy city had been plying illegally. Besides, they often become a cause for brawl as they give scant regard to traffic rules.

As per law, the licences should only be issued in favour of widows, wives of ex-servicemen and disabled persons (who are unable to earn their livelihood by any other means).

However, the Municipal Corporation has issued licences in favour of actual rickshaw-pullers. Further, only two people could be taken on a rickshaw at a particular time and a maximum of 20 kg of weight could be kept on it. According to sources, the MC has never issued a single licence in favour of widows, wives of the ex-servicemen or disabled persons. The committee has provided 14,800 driving licences to rickshaw-pullers. According to the record of the MC, only 14,800 cycle-rickshaws are plying in the holy city. But the actual number of rickshaws moving on the roads, streets and bazaars is far more than this. The department of rickshaw (MC) has only five employees, one inspector, two clerks and two sevadars. All members work in the field and office. Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic)Gurmeet Singh, when contacted, feigned ignorance about this and asked to contact traffic wing in charge.

However, traffic in charge Baljit Singh also feigned ignorance. As per section 5 (1) and (2), if any rickshaw-puller does not have a valid driving licence to ply rickshaw or violates any rules, he will be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three months. Section 6 says the police can impose a fine of Rs 500 on him and can impound the cycle-rickshaw.

Tarn Taran, July 3
In order to wean the youths from drug abuse, the district police chief has urged the people, especially parents, to provide information about their wards who were victims of this menace.

While the information of these children would not be made public, joint efforts by the police, NGOs and parents would be made to bring them back to the social fold.

SSP Sukhdev Singh Brar said the police had taken some solid steps to make its ties friendly with the people. He said the police had sought the cooperation of the social organisations to check the drug menace.

The SSP said the police had provided seven ambulances at different points and equipped them with mobile phone. These would be ready round the clock, especially in case of casualty.

He added that these ambulances were parked at Gohalwar naka (phone-94636-49920), Chuslewar crossing, near Patti (94638-28785), Chabal (94177-09672), Kapurthala crossing, Goindwal Sahib (98152-84064), Bhikhiwind (98149-38416), Highway post and Thathian Mahantan (98720-26451), besides the town mobile phone-98158-89844.

The police chief said a clerk at the district headquarters had been deputed for the needy people to write their applications to be submitted to the police. The SSP made an appeal to the doctors not to issue medico-legal reports to the wrong persons in case they found them fake. 

Amritsar, July 3
The legislators, syndics, principals of various affiliated colleges, teachers, officers and non-teaching employees association of the university, prominent citizens, various educational, social, and religious institutions today hailed the appointment of Dr Ajaib Singh Brar as Vice-Chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University.

While congratulating Dr Brar, who is a distinguished scientist, academician, researcher and able administrator of international repute, they expressed hope that the university under his dynamic stewardship would continue to excel in the fields of academics, research, sports and culture.

Dr Brar is, at present, serving as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lucknow since January 6, 2008. He has vast experience of more than 33 years in the field of education and research at prestigious national and international institutes in various capacities. During his tenure he has brought various reforms in the university administration through his transparent and effective governance. His main focus has always been on high quality in teaching and research and in promoting efficiency and transparency in administrative work.

The Amritsar Vikas Manch and Punjabi Writers Cooperative Society in a statement said that it was an honour for the residents of Amritsar that a scientist and educationist of such a repute has been appointed as VC of the university. They hoped that the university would achieve new heights under his leadership.

GNDU non-teaching employees said they would extend all cooperation in the working of the university.

Amritsar, July 3
i360 Staffing and Training Solutions, a Delhi-based vocational training centre, has opened its office here, which was inaugurated by DAV Public School principal Neera Sharma.

Kedar Nagawanshi, franchise support manager of the institute, said it offers vast array of courses to meet the vocational training and soft skills development needs of students. These include vocational training courses like Financial Wizard, Retail management, one-year certification course in managerial accounting, CS training among others.

The i360, supported by Unicon investment solutions, also offers programmes to develop soft skills such as the career development, spoken English, call centre training and IELTS. He said the company, which started last year, had 100 per cent record with almost all the pass-outs getting appointment in good companies.

This is the 22nd centre in north informed Nagawanshi and added the centre at Jalandhar was opening shortly while one at Phagwara was also in the pipeline.

Amritsar, July 3
Prof Vijay Kumar Vishal, a multi-lingual poet who pens his thoughts in English, Hindi and Punjabi, would receive a PhD degree for his thesis on “Expression of anger in contemporary Indian English poetry from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla.

Currently heading the communication skills faculty at the Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology, Vishal had been teaching at the GGDSD College, Baijnath (Himachal Pradesh), for the past four decades.

In his research paper, he touched the hitherto unexplored subject with multi-dimensional ramifications, which focuses on Indian English poetry (IEP) written from 1975 onwards.

Anger, in general, is a feeling of keen displeasure usually with a desire to punish for a wrong done to us or those around us.

It may be excessive or misplaced but is not necessarily criminal.

He mentions in his study that like love and death, anger is an elemental, all-consuming passion which expresses itself in myriad ways.

Everyone expresses some kind of anger pattern based on his or her experiences.

Vishal culls out “anger” and its variables from the poetry of about 70 male and female poets, besides specifically scrutinising the poetry of Dr R.K. Singh (Dhanbad), Dr I.K. Sharma (Jaipur) and Dr P. Raja (Puducherry) as their poetry abounds with anger in various hues and colours.

Amritsar, July 3
A health check-up and awareness camp was organised by the Department of Neurology at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital by Dr Rajnish Sharma, head of the Department of Neurology. As many as 100 patients suffering from various neurological diseases were examined. Free medicines were distributed.

Dr Sharma said the Neurology Department was running special clinics, including epilepsy, headache, stroke, paediatric, neurology, dementia, neuro-ophthamology, vertigo and movement disorder clinics, for the benefit of patients.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association, Amritsar, led by its president Dr Narotam Bhalla and former state president Dr Amrik Singh Arora observed the day by planting saplings. — TNS

Tarn Taran, July 3
Iqbal Singh Afridi, facing more than eight criminal cases, today made an attempt to escape from the police custody in the court complex.

He allegedly attacked and tried to kill the police personnel who had brought him back from the court. SSP Sukhdev Singh Brar said a case under sections 307, 353, 332, 186, 224, 511, 148 and 149 of the IPC had been registered against nine persons, including Afridi.

Afridi escaped from the police custody with handcuff in October last year but later surrendered before a court.

He had been responsible for opening fire for more than half an hour in the nearby township Fatehbad with his more than 20 accomplices in 2007, in which four persons were injured.

Police sources said Afridi was brought here from the Amritsar jail for appearance in two cases in a court. He had called about 10 of his aides to escape from the police custody. The accused tried to strangulate him.

When he tried to run away from the police custody, police official Narinder Singh nabbed him but his other accomplices fled.

Afridi and his other aides attacked him and beat him up. The accused torn his uniform and removed his turban.

Amritsar, July 3
Ravinder Ravi’s poetic play “Makhote Te Hadse” was staged on the first day of the five-day theatre festival being held at Virsa Vihar here yesterday.

Unlike plays unfolding sequenced narrative displaying development of characters, especially protagonists, the play was an artistic attempt to explore and comment on defining the changing role of women over the time.

Artistes wearing masks of various shapes and sizes, covered with apparels of different hues, articulated the fate of women in the past and present.

Receptive audience gathered in the hall lapped up the concept conveyed with the help of movement of hands and dance.

The play does not talk about oppression on women confined to a particular geographical region, class or country. In this way, it has universalised its appeal by addressing the problems of entire womanhood. It conveyed that religions, despotic rulers, politicians and societies have contributed to the woes of women in one way or the other in the past.

The play culminated with the advice that an attempt should be made to re-analyse the past by being above petty religious and political beliefs.

Kewal Dhaliwal directed the play while Harinder Sohal was the musician. The cast included Jaswinder Kaur, Kuldeep Bal, Amit Taneja, Gurtej Singh, Virpal Kaur, Gurjot Singh and Barinder

Amritsar, July 3
The Ramayana research team, appointed by the Sri Lankan Government, has identified as many as 50 sites linked to the Hindu epic Ramayana, of which two sites have been conserved and temples erected there.

Revealing this, Ashok Kumar Kainth, the only Indian member of the Ramayana research team, said the committee, which was formed in 2004, had documented these sites and worked continuously to discover more such sites.

Talking to The Tribune, Kainth, who was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and the Durgiana Temple, said the two sites which had been developed, include Ashok Vatika where Sita, wife of Lord Rama, was kept by King Ravana after her abduction and the place where Sita had given “agni pariksha” after the victory of Rama over Ravana.

Kainth shifted to Sri Lanka in 2004 on his mission to find out places related to the Ramayana owing to his curiosity to make sure whether Sri Lanka was the same place as was mentioned in the Ramayana.

A retired judge of the Ministry of Justice, Kuwait, he said the committee constituted 22 members from all over the world, including Germany, Holland, France, Australia and Mauritius, NASA, etc. who were making earnest efforts through scientific means to identify more such places.

He said the places so far discovered were situated in the dense forests of Sri Lanka. Among other places which were discovered were the mountain of Sanjivini herb, cave of palaces of Ravana and sites related to Lord Hanumana, including Anjanya temple, Amrit Kali and Hanuman Tirath Stambh.

He said idols of Rama, Sita, Laxmana and Hanumana, made of granite and about two feet tall, had been taken from Banga and were installed at Seetha Temple, also believed to be Ashok Vatika described in the Ramayana.

Amritsar, July 3
The second day of the Northern Zone Master Resource Person’s Training Programme on Total Solar Eclipse 2009 for triggering an interest in science and technology started with the expert lecture of Dr Biman Basu, in which he talked about scientific background of solar eclipse and cleared all kinds of myths related to it.

In his lecture, he explained the duration of totality of solar eclipse in detail. Dr Satwinderjit Kaur chaired the lecture. Second lecture was delivered by Dr Arvind C Ranade, in which he discussed about total solar eclipse, Saros cycle and stressed upon the importance of total solar eclipse, which will be on 22nd July, 2009. Dr B.S. Bajwa, Head, Department of Physics, GNDU, while chairing this session applauded the role of teachers in generating interest of science and astronomy among the children.

Third lecture was presented by Dr V.B. Kamble in which he informed all the participants about the harmful effects of observing the sun with naked eyes. Dr Saroj Arora, head, appreciated the efforts of Vigyan Prasar and Rashtriya Vigyan Evam Prodyogiki Sanchar Parishad (RVPSP), DST, New Delhi, in popularisation of science and training resource persons for this purpose.

Dr Adarsh Pal Vig, coordinator of the workshop, asked the participants to learn maximum from the lectures and practical activities demonstrated by the experts of astronomy.

On Monday night, a telescope was set on the roof top of Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences to watch moon and stars in the sky. Teachers, students and children of the campus watched half moon through this telescope and had a wonderful experience of nature and space.

An astronomy quiz was held among the teams of the participants, in which multiple-choice questions were asked about solar system and space etc. to judge their knowledge and train them to conduct such quiz among the general public and school students. Later, participants were taken to Attari Border to watch the Retreat Ceremony.

Amritsar, July 3
The Chandigarh Group of Colleges opened its career counselling centre here today to help the students passing their matriculation, plus two and graduation examinaions and looking for a career option.

Announcing the opening, CGC Chairman Satnam Singh Sandhu said in the absence of a sincere and in-depth counselling structure to guide students to help choose career for them in the country, the students had to depend upon themselves only for taking this important decision which made a permanent impact on their life and hence couldn’t be changed in future.

Understanding the need of the students and their parents here, the group has decided to start career counselling centre where professional career advisors which would take the students through the entire process of career planning which would include self and professional assessment followed by guidance to choose career option currently in demand. He said the aspiring student should select the course according to their capability and interest.

For the students from far-flung areas, the CGC has established career helpline 099881-74259, 098785-46383 where these students can interact with experts and can take details about the various professional career-oriented courses like hotel management, airline tourism, animation and multimedia, biotechnology, MCA, MBA and BBA along with their future prospects.