Amritsar, September 15
The executive committee of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) is all set to decide on the way to preserve gold foils related to the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Sikh intelligentsia are of the view that the gold foils which are of heritage value as they were prepared and plated during the rule of the legendary king who had taken personal interest in completing the project, must be preserved in a befitting manner for posterity.

They opined that the foils must be preserved for public viewing in a museum.

Meanwhile, 3,278 gold foils and sheets have been lying in a sealed room on the premises of the Golden Temple since they were taken off from Harmandar Sahib after the UK-based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) had initiated regilding the upper portion and domes of the Golden Temple with about 500 kg of gold in 1994.

They are raising questions on the efficacy of protection and preservation of foils. It is apprehended that the proper conservation method might not have been adopted.

SGPC secretary Dalmegh Singh said the executive committee would decide on the gold foils and sheets and make sure whether they were being preserved safely in sealed rooms of the complex.

The jatha had arranged artists and master craftsmen from Muradabad, Varanasi, Agra and Makrana (Rajasthan) so as to retain the intricate, precise decorative nature of the embellishments.

Even the craftsmen were given a copy of the interior of Harmandir Sahib before commencing work. The regilding work was initiated after a gap of 170 years as Harmandir Sahib had assumed the name of Swarn Mandir (Golden Temple) when Maharaja Ranjit Singh got the gold plating of the shrine done.

However, the jatha had halted the second phase of regilding the inner portions of the temple after a tussle broke out in the Akali factions led by Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra in 1999.

The UK-based jatha had taken the step after its members had to undergo a lot of inconvenience for completing the regilding work

Though the work was entrusted to the GNNSJ in 1994, it actually took off on February 3, 1995, by Panj Piaras

Meanwhile, the pace of restoration work at Darshani Deori of the Golden Temple was reduced due to recent spells of rain. The restoration work was handed over to a private company run by conservation expert Munish Pandit, Director, Sanrakshan. The experts are conserving the building in a traditional way in which cement is not used.

Amritsar, September 15
Even though eminent sportspersons and Olympians, after getting plum posts in the government or the public sector undertakings, forget the sport which had given them recognition, there are some families which are dedicating their time and resources to promote the sports.

The family of hockey Olympian Balwinder Singh Shammi is a fine example as three generations of the family have put in their best to promote not only hockey but other sports as well.

Shammi, who carved a niche for himself in society by establishing Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy (MRSHA) six years ago, is striving hard to take Amritsar hockey to the Olympics.

Like him, his two brothers and their families are either promoting or participating in the hockey and swimming championships.

Going down the memory lane, Shammi said he was greatly inspired by his grandfather late Master Ishar Singh who was also a hockey player and used to play for the Lahore team. He taught mathematics at Khalsa School for a long time. Shammi’s father late Sawinder Singh served in the Army and won many competitions in the 400m race.

Life partner of the Olympian and international hockey player Sukhjit Kaur got selected in the Indian team and went on to play in Russia winning the match there. She later got selected as captain of the Punjab women hockey team in 1989. In the same year, she got employed with the Railways at Kapurthala and played for the department for seven years. She takes care of the academy during free time.

She rued that the state government had failed to financially support the academy which has been promoting hockey for the past about six years by training young children. Harsahib Singh Shammi (15), who is studying in class IX in Spring Dale Public School, like his father also plays hockey and has already won three golds in school-level competitions. He got the best prize in Administration Cup, Chandigarh-2008, after he scored 18 goals.

Shammi’s elder brother Balkar Singh Dhall, besides playing hockey at the state level, is a Punjabi littérateur.

Born in 1956, Balkar got the gold medal in MA Punjabi, besides leading college and university teams. He had led the Khalsa College team in the first All-India Khalsa Gold Cup, Amritsar, organised by Inderjeet Singh, Chairman, Punjab and Sind Bank. His son Simran Singh, who is settled in America, has also played hockey and aims to play for the US team.

Manjit Singh Dhall, elder brother of Shammi, also has major achievement in the sporting field as he has won many medals in the swimming competitions. He is presently posted as a lecturer of physical education in the Guru Nanak Dev University College, Jalandhar.

He started his career with swimming and water polo and participated in various competitions. He was declared the best swimmer of the university in 1977, besides winning the bronze medal in the inter-university competition held at Kanpur in the same year. He was captain of the senior national team of Punjab in 1978.

Besides a swimmer, Dhall has also played cricket and badminton. He has also participated in the veteran games and got the 10th position in Adminton (USA). He also participated in a seminar on swimming held in Chicago and produced about 25 papers on sports.

His son Jaipreet Singh (21), who is a student of B.Tech-II computer science in the GND varsity, has also won various medals in swimming and water polo. He has won the gold in the state level championship in 2005 and became state champion in 2006. In 2008, he became water polo champion.

All three brothers live in a joint family and give credit to their parents for their achievements in the field of sports. Their mother Preetam Kaur said she took special care about their diet and was proud of the achievements made by her children.

Amritsar, September 15
The Municipal Corporation has removed the encroachments and dismantled the swings set up by the Lions Club in the Children Park situated in the historical Ram Bagh here. The Lions Club had been maintaining the park for the last 40 years.

The corporation has also demolished several quarters situated in the garden besides asking others to take away their belongings within a week.

The step was taken after the directions of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which has been entrusted with the job of preserving the historic garden and summer palace of legendary Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who used to stay here during his visit to Lahore.

However, this has not gone well with the Lions Club, which had been looking after the upkeep of a section of the garden as Children Park for the last four decades. The children used to play here, which also having boating facility and swings set up by the club for the entertainment of the children and their families.

Naresh Babbar, former president of the club, said they had a lease of 50 years with the MC that would expire in 2019. He said the three acres area of the park was declared recreation park by the government at that time. He said children belonging to middle class families, who had no other place for their entertainment, used to visit the park with the facility of lake and boating.

He said the Lions Club had spent a huge amount for creating facilities in the Children Park. He said the club would have a board meeting soon where further course of action would be decided. He said there was no heritage building in the park, then why the swings and other things removed and gates of the park sealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier, the ASI has directed the removal of a coaching academy being run by the Punjab State Lawn Tennis Association for the past 89 years. The three clubs has also written to Prime Minister for de-notifying the area on lines of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panaroma built by the government.

Brij Bedi, social activist and president of the Citizenz’ Forum, an NGO, pointed out that there was no fun in evicting three clubs, lawn tennis academy and Children Park from the Ram Bagh as after this the garden would bore a deserted look and nobody would like to visit the garden.

Earlier, the MC team first took over the Children Park and sealed the gates and later demolished several quarters belonging to government employees and quarters situated adjoining to tennis academy and 10 other quarters.

Amritsar, September 15
The district administration would provide the land for setting up an institute for training, education and rehabilitation of mentally challenged children of the holy city and neighboring areas.

Revealing this, Deputy Commissioner, K S Pannu said the Red Cross Society would offer complete support for this project and urged the NGOs and the public to offer their cooperation for starting this project to help train children with mental disabilities.

Addressing the gathering during an awareness camp organised at the DAV Public School by National Family Federation and Parents Association (NFFPA) for making parents, children and teachers aware, Pannu said land would be provided at Verka for the construction of this proposed institute.

The DC said the administration has launched a special survey to identify mentally disabled children, which would be completed soon. He urged the parents of such children and public to inform the administration about such children so that plans could be chalked out for their rehabilitation and welfare so that they could lead near normal lives.

Amritsar, September 15
Escorts Ltd. conducted a written test and interview for students from B.Tech Mechanical during the campus recruitment drive at the Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology. Gaurav Tejpal Head Training and Placement said it is for the second time that a company has conducted written tests.

IBM visits Global Institute

A high-level team from IBM Gurgaon visited the campus of Global Institute here to conduct a seminar to help develop technical skills among the B.Tech and MBA students under the title of “Great Mind Challenge -2009”, a worldwide software development project. The vice chairman of the institute Akashdeep Singh said the visit has enabled students to get more exposure regarding the latest IT scenario. The IBM team, which visited, was led by Atul Agarwal, Executive Promotions Punjab.

Students visit hotel

Students of tourism, travel and management and air travel services of the BBK DAV College for Women visited a hotel in the city to get first-hand information about running a hotel. Principal of the college Dr Neelam Kamra said students got the exposure about the working of a hotel and a group of students interacted with the staff of the hotel to acquaint themselves with regard to various facilities available there. — OC

Amritsar, September 15
For self-defence, young girls have been joining the judo or karate classes since long but students of the Khalsa College for Women have learnt the art of gatka for their protection, besides promoting the traditional martial art of Sikhs.

Gatka is a style of fighting with sticks, intended to simulate the sword and focuses on infusing physical, spiritual and mental fitness. The weapons used in gatka are sword, lathi, chains, khanda, kukri, chakram and katar.

Earlier, only the boys could be seen performing this art but now girls have also adopted it and are performing well.

The gatka team at the college was constituted three years ago when the principal felt the need to encourage students to adopt the martial art. The gatka team is being trained by coach Jagdish Singh.

Principal Sukhbir Kaur Mahal, said there were some students who played gatka during the school time but had no opportunity to perform in front of others. So she decided to form a team and selected five to seven students. After getting trained, they gave many performances on the invitation of Guru Nanak Dev University and many institutions.

Mahal said this was the best way of self-defence but the main thing was that the girls were also helping in promoting this art.

She said only their college had a gatka team but they were trying to promote it and have been requesting Guru Nanak Dev University to arrange competitions for girls so that other colleges may also constitute teams and promote the martial art.

Amritsar, September 15
A four-member Chinese delegation recently visited the holy city to inspect sanitary and phytosanitary measures for the safe entry of Indian basmati rice into China.

Winding up their day-long visit, the Chinese delegation, led by Fu Bizhong, Director from the department of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, inspected the mill of a leading rice exporter of this border district on September 8 and later visited the fields of basmati paddy to determine the quality and stringent phytosanitary systems adopted by the Indian agro-processing industry.

It may be mentioned here that India has been impressing upon China to import the heritage and fragrant Indian basmati rice for the last couple of years and now the last ditch efforts were being cleared for the Chinese to relish India’s niche agriculture produce.

Giving details, K.R.S. Sobti, coordinator of the day-long visit, told The Tribune that the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, has already initiated a protocol between the general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine of the People’s Republic of China to meet the requirements for exporting rice from India.

The protocol had mentioned that Indian rice export to China should comply with the Chinese plant and quarantine laws and India would ensure that rice export to China was free from all kinds of pests, as mentioned in the agreement.

The visit of the Chinese delegation was coordinated by APEDA, the nodal Indian Food and Vegetable Export Development Authority under the Ministry of Commerce and was hopeful that the opening of a new market in China would help improve the export potential of the country.

Amritsar, September 15
The minister-counsellor for economy, environment, science and technology affairs from the US Embassy at New Delhi, Blair Parks Hall Jr, said the firing of rockets from Pakistan into the Indian territory seemed to be the work of a subversive group.

Talking to The Tribune here yesterday, Blair said people behind such volatile incidents were inimical to the progress and prosperity of humanity. He added that the Pakistan government must rein in splinter jehadi groups to usher in peace and prosperity in the Indian subcontinent.

Blair was part of the three-member delegation from the US Embassy to kickstart a three-day visit to Punjab. They were here as part of “America Days” activities. They discussed climate change, education and the economy in the USA. The other members of the delegation were Matthew Bunt, Vice-Consul and Diana Brandt, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer.

On the first day yesterday they interacted with students of Guru Nanak Dev University and DAV BEd College for Women. They also paid obeisance at the Golden Temple and viewed the Beating Retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah joint check post in the evening.

Diana said the Indo-US relations had seen extraordinary growth, particularly in trade and investment in high tech areas. Government-to-government relations, rise of Indian-American community in business, politics and academics, phenomenal rise in the number of Indian students in the USA and the feeling in the USA about rise of India was positive for America and the rest of the world indicated that India-US partnership was getting cemented day by day. US-India civil nuclear cooperation programme was the due recognition of India’s rise as a global power.

Vice-Chancellor A.S. Brar apprised the delegates of various engineering and technology courses and other academic programmes being run by the university

Bunt focused on the question of student visas so that students going to the USA for higher education may not get trapped in visa frauds. He said the United States India Educational Foundation was the right platform for moving ahead. He stressed for verifying the status of the universities and colleges, the level of their accreditation, the number of courses, the amount of expenses involved in the funding resources and visa-obtaining formalities.

Amritsar, September 15
Another chapter was added to the history of Guru Nanak Dev University as a team of army officials led by Lt-Col Ashutosh Sharma today arrived at the varsity for the recruitment of commissioned officers.

The team organised a massive recruitment drive under 19th University Entry Scheme in which more than 300 students from various Engineering Departments of GNDU and its regional campuses of Jalandhar and Gurdaspur participated.

Apart from GND varsity and its regional campuses, the joint campus drive also included students from Lala Lajpat Rai College of Engineering, Moga, Amritsar College of Engineering and Technology and Baba Kuma Singh Ji Engineering College, Attari in the recruitment drive.

Dr Sukhdev Singh, Director Placement, revealed that the short listed students would again be subjected to a Staff Selection Board interview and successful candidates would be inducted as Commissioned Officers in the Indian Army. A salary package of Rs 4.5 lakh plus perks will be paid to the successful commissioned officers.

He said it is for the first time that a joint campus placement has been organised in which students of various engineering colleges also participated. 

Amritsar, September 15
The petty crime graph has shown an upward trend while serious incidents of murder and dacoity have marginally come down as comparison to corresponding period of previous year till August 31, 2009.

Snatchings remained the bane of holy city, which had resulted in fear among the people, especially women. Although, according to data, it has relatively come down from last year, the residents say it was mainly due to reluctance of people from going to the police as they usually face disappointment, besides unwillingness of police chowki concerned as this results in thjeir insult and verbal thrashing by senior officials.

A resident wishing not to be named says that the snatchers remain active in posh localities, including Ranjit Avenue, Basant Avenue, Green Avenue and localities nearing Mall Road and Lawrence Road, etc

According to the data, the police recorded 96 cases of burglary and 373 cases of theft this year as compared to 73 and 265, respectively, till August 31 last year. The number of cases of snatchings is pegged at 58.

A senior police official on condition of anonymity said the main reason for the snatching, burglary and dacoity was drug addiction among the youths who indulged in such petty crimes to get easy money for their addiction. He said another reason was the migrants from other parts of the country, some of them with criminal records, and it was very difficult to keep an eye on them.

As per the data collected, the rate of murder has come down to 34 from last year’s 39 cases, while rape and kidnapping have marginally gone up giving rise to the crime rate in the city from 10 to 13.

The most significant gain of the vigilant security agency have been the sharp rise in the detection of cases under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act which have dogged the border region in the past many decades. According to the data available, this year more than 260 cases of seizure were reported in city as compared to 131 cases last year. 

Amritsar, September 15
A kisan loan mela was organised by Punjab National Bank at Rajasansi where loans amounting to Rs 10.15 crore were disbursed among 425 farmers of the area.

Speaking on the occasion, Ajit Kumar Jaitely said the bank offered the kisan credit card facility and urged the peasant community to take advantage of the agriculture scheme from the nearest branch. He said the PNB had launched a scheme under the mahila kalyan yojna through which every eligible woman could secure a loan up to Rs 50,000 to start their own small enterprises. — OC

Amritsar, September 15
Panther Artillery Brigade under the aegis of Panther Division organised vanamahotsav at Old Amritsar Cantonment here. As many as 1,200 saplings of fruits, medicinal and ornamental trees were planted in the old cantonment area and each family was entrusted with planting five saplings and looking after them. They were informed about the ways of planting trees.Suchita Pama, convener, FWO, Infantry Division, who was the chief guest on the occasion, interacted with the families of Army personnels and made them aware of the effect of global warming and asked them to take the responsibility of protecting the surrounding environment.

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