Amritsar, October 2
Even as the milk processing unit on the Rajasansi Airport Road has agreed to shift their unit from the residential area and has sought two years time for this, the residents living in the vicinity today refused to give any time and asked the authorities to immediately get the unit transferred to some other place.

Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu confirmed that the authorities of Healthhaid Milk Factory have written to the district administration seeking more time to shift.

It is evident to mention here that the entire area of Guru Ram Dass Avenue on the Ajnala Road was rocked by a powerful blast of a boiler in the factory leading to injuries to as many as 12 persons. Its impact was so powerful that window panes of a number of houses in the one kilometer radius got smashed.

Shocked by the blast, the residents of the area took to streets protesting against the district administration which failed to initiate any action regarding shifting of the processing unit even after a number of representations to the DC.

Angry over the attitude of the administration and its inability to get the hazardous industrial units out from residential areas, they blocked traffic on the Amritsar-Ajnala Road to lodge their protest.

A resident of the area said more time for shifting was not acceptable to them. “We would launch a strong protest besides writing to human rights commission and looking for other ways to get the unit shifted,” he added.

He claimed that the blast could have taken many precious lives had it happened during the day time. The factory had also been polluting the area, he added.

Pannu said although the factory authorities had sought more time, the administration has been pressurising to get it shifted as soon as possible.

Amritsar, October 2
The grant of pear estate status to the district has caused a war of words between orchard-owners at Amritsar and Tarn Taran.

Orchard owners from Tarn Taran, where most of the orchards are situated in the Patti area, are of the view that their district must be declared the pear estate as it had more area under the fruit cultivation.

Amritsar contributes 224 quintals per hectare of pear while Tarn Taran produces 218.60 quintals.

Overall, the state produces nearly 221.61 quintals per hectare of pear annually.

At present, the area which Amritsar has under pear orchards is 405 hectares while in Tarn Taran it is 427 hectares. Adjoining Gurdaspur, where the fruit is mainly grown in Batala and Fategarh Churiyan, has an area of nearly 80 acres under pear cultivation.

Though Amritsar has 22 acres lesser area under pear than adjoining Tarn Taran, its yield is six quintals more per hectare, say local orchard owners.

Major Manmohan Singh Verka, who owns a 25-acre orchard of kinnow and pear in Phirawariyan village, 22 km from here, said Amritsar was considered one of the coldest districts among the plains which suit pear production. A 16-kg box of pear fetched Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 in Kolkata last month during Durga pooja.

Major Verka said instead of fighting with each other for grabbing the estate status, the district in cooperation with neighbouring towns could attain the status of a primary market in northern India as it had got the desired infrastructure.

He said Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu, along with Minister of Agriculture and Horticulture Sucha Singh Langah played a pivotal role in getting the pear estate status for the district.

The Amritsar international airport, with the facility of centre for perishable produce, is a gateway for exporting fruit while being connected with an elaborate railway and road network. The Chief Minister approved the pear estate status for the district on September 27.

Currently, Punjab produces about 60,000 metric tonnes of pear annually, which gives it returns of Rs 90 crore. The pear orchard owners feel that with some efforts, the produce could be increased to 90,000 metric tonnes to fetch Rs 135 crore annually.

Major Verka said in order to sell the produce to other states, waxing and grading plants are to be set up for cleaning, waxing and grading the crop of fruit.

He also advised the farmers that they should take upon themselves to market their produce to fetch the maximum benefit. Otherwise, the gain of the crop would be taken away by middlemen and traders.

Amritsar, October 2
Daljit Kaur, a student of BA (first year) of Khalsa College for Women (KCW) has brought laurels to the institution again by winning a gold medal in the Iska-Pyramid Open Kickboxing Championship held in Cario (Egypt).

Daljit Kaur bested Noora Mohhamad Syed in the flyweight category in the tournament, attended by participants from 24 countries.

College Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal said Daljit Kaur has already won 27 gold medals in boxing as well as kickboxing, both at state and national level. “This is indeed a proud moment for the college as one of our students has won a championship at the international level,” she said.

Daljit, who had won a gold medal in the kickboxing championship held at Dhuri last month as well as a gold medal in the flyweight category at the youth level in the State-Level Boxing Championship recently held at Gurdaspur, attributed her success to her hard work coupled with the blessings and guidance of her teachers and parents.

Amritsar, October 2
No arrests have been made so far in the case relating to the kidnap of a five-year-old boy who was recovered within four hours of his abduction from outside his residence. Simarnjit Singh was playing with his grandmother outside their house in the Hall Bazaar area.

His father is an NRI employed in Dubai, while his uncle is an Army jawan posted in Jammu and Kashmir.

SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said the police had interrogated three suspects but no arrest had been made. He said investigations were on and hopefully the police would be able to crack the case. — TNS

Amritsar, October 2
After the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) took over the historic Ram Bagh gardens for its conservation to restore its old glory of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s era, the boundary wall of the garden was given a fresh coat of Red Fort colour to spruce up the surroundings before Divali.

The Union Department of Culture and Tourism has declared Ram Bagh gardens as protected area to preserve its beauty and conserve the entire complex as a monument, which had been the centre of attraction as the summer palace of the legendary king Ranjit Singh.

The ASI has been under flak from several conservationists and heritage lovers of the city for the slow progress in the restructuring of the entire complex. The ASI has shown its inability to bring in quality conservationists and masons who had worked on similar projects due to the paucity of trained manpower, so the project had been languishing for the past three years.

The only visible signs of change is the digging up of Baradari water channels and other buildings giving it an old shape so that the garden becomes the replica of the old pristine glory. According to the experts working on the project, who had been engaged by the ASI and the government to re-plan the whole Rambagh gardens, said the people of the city must support the project though the progress had been tardy and slow but they were engaged in a meaningful manner to bring back its old shape.

Rich heritage reflects from the paintings and special furniture. Images of Rajwara kings are beautifully carved on furniture. Painted furniture from Kishan Garh, with splendid paintings of Raja Samant Singh on the elephant with his soldiers, Bavi Thani’s figure on one of the furniture items, dressed in typical traditional dress, brings the tales of the glory of the erstwhile kings of the state flooding back to our minds.

Radha and Krishna are visualised on many of the handicrafts because King Samant Singh was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. Old artists Nihal Chand and Faiyad Ali painted many pictures on the orders of king.

Attractive antique windows with various paintings on them are another elegant feature of the exhibition. Beautiful raag-ragnis, painted on each shutter of the windows, in different postures, have varied looks. And one of the most precious antique works is Bara Mass (12 months of a year). Other glimpses are of a woman holding a veena and lost in devotion during the month of Kartik.

There is an enormous variety of objects in furniture like tables, sofas, chairs, peg tables, bar cabinets, brass cabinets and full bars with elegant Rajwara art detailing.

Sheesham wood used for making almirahs and cabinets is on flash-like bar cabinets with Bakhra work valued at Rs 32,000, eight-drawer cabinet Rs 19,000 and glass cabinet, iron jail cabinet, pyala cabinet Rs 7,760. The very entrance of the hall sports a large door made of brass cutting.

Tradition peeks in from various other paintings and handicrafts. Special kadamb wood is used in key chains, small images, net-like animals, paper cutter, pen, bookmark, etc, antique black wood ornaments like bangles, earrings etc, African figures and Radha-Krishna are the other stuff on display. Semi-precious silver jewellery was also on display at the exhibition.

Amritsar, October 2
As many as 10 operations were carried out at Dr Prem Rai Hospital, Mall Road, here today under a special workshop “Lasers in urology”. The workshop is being conducted by the north zone chapter of the Urology Society of India as part of the 19th Annual Conference.

Three operations were shown live via audio-video link at the conference hall in MK Hotel, where delegates from all parts of the country and abroad watched the operations and raised questions which were answered by the surgeons operating upon in the operation theatres.

One operation was flexible ureteroscopy and lazer lithotripsy in which a fine, flexible instrument was passed through the urinary passage and up the ureter to remove kidney stones after breaking with laser.

Another operation was laser prostatectomy, in which different types of lasers were used to remove prostrate gland endoscopically and without bleeding.

In Buccal Mucosal graft urethroplasty, a graft was taken from inside the patient’s cheek and the damage was repaired.

The operating surgeons were Prof N.P. Gupta, Head, Department of Urology, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr D. Ramayana from Bangalore, Dr M. Prabhakar, Tamil Nadu, Dr Richard A. Santucci and Dr Abdul Karim, both from the USA, Dr Anil Varshney, New Delhi, Dr Anil Elhence, Meerut, Dr C. Malikkarjuna, Hyderabad, and Dr Samir Rai from Amritsar.

Amritsar, October 2
A two-day conference on the latest trends in radiology and imaging is going to be conducted by the Department of Radio Diognosis and Imaging at the Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences, Vallah, here from October 3.

Dr C.L. Thukral, head of the department and organising chairman of the ICRI-CMS-2009, said that this academic feast would be attended by senior radiologists from across the country.

During the meet, special sessions had been planned on the latest in the field of musculoskeletal and endocrinological radiology.

The occasion will be graced by Dr Prabhakar K. Reddy, President, IRIA, Dr Kishor Taori, President-elect, IRIA, Dr Bharat Parekh, Chairman, ICRI, and Dr H.S. Mann, Vice-President, PMC.

The inaugural ceremony will be attended by SGPC President Avtar Singh as the chief guest.

Amritsar, October 2
As the state government spared a thought for the preservation of Punjab art and culture, and entered into an agreement with Guru Nanak Dev University to set up a ‘Heritage Village’, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu, the brainchild behind this conception, furnished some details about the project.

The Heritage Village, a mega tourism destination, has been conceptualised with a view to develop a model village for conservation of Punjab village culture.

This first time ever idea would cost the government over Rs 10 crore.

According to the DC the aim was to leave a legacy for the future generation to conserve Punjabiyat.

“It would be a sort of food for thought for Punjabis all over the world,” he said.

A special research centre with Punjabi Culture and Heritage department has been set up at GNDU to lay down the expansion work of project.

“It would take another two to three months’ time to start the project. The idea cropped up as we viewed that the 5,000-year-old Punjabi legacy is being diminished in just 50 years. With the race towards urbanisation and villages getting vanished, our rural treasure is being robbed off instantly and the coming generation, mainly those who are born and brought up abroad, is hardly aware of the Punjab heritage culture and traditions, the way our forefathers used to live. Through this project, our endeavour would be to touch each and every aspect with is related to Punjabiyat,” said Pannu.

The “Heritage Village” has been planned in two phases with special focus on areas like Majha, Malwa and Doaba. The Punjabiyat touch would be there through replicas of true village streets, chappad, fields, chakki, kohlu, akhara, mela ground, jhule, snake shrine, haveli, doors and windows with minute rural details and Persian wheel etc.

The activities too have been classified. In oral traditions segment, there would be story telling, ballads and “kissas” related to romantic tradition of Punjab, dance, songs and bolian, in folk and art category, the activities include knitting and needling phulkari, darian, galeeche etc.

In open space activites, apposite provisions have been planned to make Khu (traditional well), khui (small well), Kohalu, which extracts oil from seed and velna (extracting sugar cane juice, village sath (panchayat ghar), chhappar (village pond) and kups (space for cowdung and crop residual heaps).

“Undoubtedly, these terms would be new to our present generation and it would be a great opportunity for them to get to learn about our origin. We have also planned to hold various rural sports activities like dog races, bullock cart race, loading and unloading of tractors, tent pegging, guli danda etc”, said Pannu.

This project would also house shopping areas where the artifacts of sunar (goldsmith) carpenter, weaver, potter besides Punjabi traditional merchandise, juttis (footwear), domestic articles, utensils etc would be on sale.

Amritsar, October 2
Designers from the metro cities will unveil the secrets of the fashion industry and help improve personality of residents of the holy city with their designs that would be displayed in fashion forecast exhibition scheduled to be held on October 3 and 4.

Tania Chatha, organiser of the exhibition, revealed that this year they were bringing in high-class designers and makers so that the people of the holy city could have the glimpses and ideas about the new trends and fashion becoming the eye catcher in high societies as well as in metro cities.

She said fashion forecast has recently tied up with D.L.F Mall, New Delhi, and they had about 60 exhibitions from all across the country including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh. Among this year’s attractions, Tania disclosed, they have invited famous jewelry designer Anu Chadha besides another jewelry designer from Chandigarh.

While clothing designer from Delhi Jannat by AJS, semi precious jewels from Jaipur and chocolate maker from Delhi and western clothing designer from Mumbai under the banner of Italian market will attract the people.

Another aspect, which would attract the people this time, is vastu, numerology, reiki and tarot card reader. Tania said the taste of people of Amritsar is now changing and they want everything unique and it was the duty of the designers to fulfil the need, she added.