Admn initiates special health campaign
Amritsar, October 9
The district administration has undertaken and initiated a major health campaign in order to make the holy city free from eye ailments, which often lead to blindness.

Seized sugar to be auctioned today
Amritsar, October 9
The district administration would sell the sugar seized from hoarders, in raids conducted by the district Food and Supply Department from various private stores, in an open auction scheduled to be held on October 10.

Amritsar, October 9
Even you don’t have to listen to his dialogues; just a glance of his through the big or small screen can tickle your funny bone. He is a born comedian, so he feels, who has established himself as a brand after a hard fought struggle.

Meet Johnny Lever, the person who got his inspiration seeing the greatest comedians ever in the Hindi film industry, Kishore Kumar and Mehmood.

In the holy city on a promotional tour of his acting institute --- Johnny Lever Ryan Film Academy --- the actor says comedy can’t be learnt or taught, a person is born comedian.

Lever says Kishore Kumar and Mahmood not only helped him in honing his skills but also lend a hand in his career.

Now the comedian desires to venture out in filmmaking and wants to make a film with strong message that can shake the conscience of common man and encourage them to do something for the society.

Citing an example, he says, “Kunwara Baap, made by Mahmood, was a masterpiece, which motivated the country and its men to fight against polio.”

Commenting on realty shows being telecast on various television channels, he feels though such shows provide a platform to a person for showcasing his talent and get instant success, it is very difficult to maintain this success. “Sometimes, such persons disappears when fail to sustain in the cutthroat competitive world.”

Lever says it was not easy for him to reach this level and like others too he had to pass through the hard realities of life and struggle. “My past memories are my treasure and I would not forget them as it motivates me to do something for the society and people aspiring for Bollywood,” the actor adds. Taking about his academy, he says the main objective of the academy to train the young children in various arts of the film industry including acting and dancing.

Amritsar, October 9
With Divali round the corner, people of all age groups, especially children, are keen to enjoy its every moment by bursting crackers. Certainly, fireworks and crackers have become the cynosure of the festival and people love to see rainbow of colours emanating from fireworks and thunderous sounds of crackers.

The district administration has already issued guidelines for traders of crackers to exercise precautions so that no untoward mishap takes place. However, Annagarh, infamous for illegal firecracker units, is still keeping the civil and police administration on toes.

A spacious market in the Jahajgarh area on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road has been earmarked for selling crackers and other fireworks. The market has got enough open space. Trader Surinder Singh said the rates of crackers had increased by 20 per cent this year.

Crackers from Re 1 a piece to Rs 2,100 for 252 shots are available.

Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu has banned the bursting of fireworks and crackers in the district from 10 pm to 6 am. He said within the 100-metre area around silence zones like hospitals, educational institutes, courts and religious sites the bursting of crackers has been prohibited.

The administration has issued a list of earmarked places where crackers could be stored and sold. These include District Shopping Centre’s parking lot, Sultanwind Road, open space on Batala Road, near Gurdwara Baba Jiwan Singh in Guru Ki Wadali and Sakatari Bagh. However, the shops and stalls of crackers could only be put up after taking due permission from the Municipal Corporation and the Improvement Trust. The orders would remain in force till November 3.

Infamous for bootlegging and drug addiction, Annagarh is also known as mini Sivakasi of the district due to a large number of illegal firework and cracker units being run with impunity. The number of these units swell further as many small-scale units come up close to Divali. Since these units are run illegally they hardly follow any preventive guidelines.

A blast had hit an illegal firecracker unit being run by an SPO in the beginning of the year. Two teenagers were killed.

Untrained children and women are involved in the manufacture of crackers in these units. The administration has failed to come out with a plan to save the young lives being consumed by illegal manufacturers using fissile material.

A resident of the area on the condition of anonymity said the illegal business was thriving under the patronage of politicians who had a clout in the civil and police administration in running the cracker units.

Amritsar, October 9
The district administration has undertaken and initiated a major health campaign in order to make the holy city free from eye ailments, which often lead to blindness.

The administration identified as many as 14,583 eye patients in rural areas by carrying out an extensive door-to-door survey with the help of health officials and Asha workers under the National Rural Health Mission.

Revealing this, Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu said according to a survey, there were about 120 lakh people suffering from eye ailments in year 1986-89 in India and the number is expected to double by 2010.

He said according to specialists who had pointed out that if a patient is treated for eye ailments, including cataract and other minor eye problems, within a timeframe, a country would be free from suspected blindness cases by 2020.

The district administration has involved leading eye surgeons of the city, enlisted Dr Daljit Singh Eye Hospital, Dr Om Parkash Eye Hospital and Mata Kaulan Mission Hospital for treating these patients free of cost.

Pannu said according to plans, the free eye camps would be organised at different community health centres, primary health centres and mini primary health centres in the rural belt. He informed that the camp would start functioning from October 19. Forty such camps of three days each would be held in various rural areas, he added.

During these camps, surgeries would be performed on patients suffering from glaucoma, corneal transplantation free of cost besides they would also be referred to Government Medical College (GMC) and other hospitals associated with the campaign.

He said under this campaign the administration in association with hospital would complete the process of treating the patients by December 31.

Pannu said several NGOs, including Rotary Club, Lions Club, Dr Jubliee Eye Hospital, Dr Sohan Singh Eye Hospital, Guru Ramdass Charitable hospital have joined hands to make this campaign a success in the district. 

Amritsar, October 9
The Pingalwara Charitable Society, a home for destitute, aged, disabled, handicapped, orphans and mentally retarded, will open a school for deaf and dumb children at its Manawala branch.

The school, named after founder of Pingalwara Bhagat Puran Singh, would come up in the three-storey building constructed with the financial aid of more than Rs 60 lakh provided by Dr V.S. Abrol of Jalandhar. Revealing this, Bibi Dr Inderjit Kaur, Director, Pingalwara Society, said the latest equipment, including BERA and OAE machines, besides the latest audio meters, were being installed in the complex which would help in finding the hearing ability of the children at very early stages after their birth. The whole building would be soundproof and free from pollution.

Expressing her views, she pointed out that there was great need of spreading awareness among the parents of newborn children to get the hearing ability of their children tested so that early treatment could be given and hearing aid provided to them. She said this would help in eradicating deafness and dumbness to some extent.

Meanwhile, the Pingalwara Society is going to organise Continue Medical Education (CME) programme on rehabilitation of the deaf on October 11, besides a two-day free check-up camp for deaf children on October 10.

The programme would be held at the Manawala branch in which eminent doctors, including Dr R.C. Deka, Director, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and Padam Shri Dr Prem Kakkar would participate. Dr Deka would preside over the function.

Dr Inderjit Kaur and Dr J.M. Hans, Padam Shri winner and personal physician to the Prime Minister would also be part of the CME. Dr Varinder Sodhi from the USA, Dr Ashok Gupta, Dr Vikas Kakkar and Dr Chander Mohan, all eminent doctors from various parts of the region have given their consent. She said about 200 ENT specialists and members of the judiciary would also participate. Dr Jagdeepak Singh, an ENT specialist, said the damage to cochlear in the ear was the chief cause of hearing disability. He said with early detection cochlear could be implanted in the ear. 

Amritsar, October 9
‘Panj Ishq’ staged at Punjab Naatshala as part of Sukhdev Preet Yaatgari Natak Mela 2009 left the audience spell bound with its dramatization.

Panj Ishq, a poetic drama, is a collection of beautiful poems woven into a mesh to create the story of a woman trapped within five aspects of her life - daughter, sister, wife, mother and devoid of her own identity. The play looks for her lost identity.

Directed by Mandeep Kaur and written by Simrat Gagan, the play showcased the journey of a woman from defeat to self-realisation. She is abandoned by love of her life on account of his social obligations and responsibilities.

If it is not enough, her parents and brother want her to sacrifice for their honour and marry an unknown person. Her inability to come to terms with her new relation further worsens the situation and her husband leaves her. With nowhere to go, she turns to God. She feels outcaste and the entire journey leads her to look for her own identity and life.

Mandeep, who is actively working in the field of theatre for last 16 years as an actor, succeeded to raise her point coupled with effective presentation and striking performance in her directorial debut. She started her career in Chandigarh with eminent directors like Sahib Singh, Gursharan Singh who are the pillars of Punjabi theatre. She also worked with Kewal Dhaliwal and Neeta Mohindra after coming to Amritsar. Dolls House, Lal Batti, Paedaan, Partapi, Baba Bantu, Gaddi Chadhan Di Kahl Badi Si are some of her remarkable performances as an actor.

Panj Ishq is the first play of the Sukhdev Preet Yaatgari Natak Mela 2009 inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu who said the play brought forward the various aspects of woman’s life.Among others who performed in the play included Manchpreet, Gulshan Saggi, Aman Ball and Mandeep Ghai.

Amritsar, October 9
A three-day convention of Catholic Yuva Dhara (CYD) started at Saint Francis School here today.

Dr Leo Carnaleo, Arch Bishop of Bhopal, inaugurated the convention. About 3,000 delegates from across the state took the oath to work towards stopping female foeticide and drug addiction. Half of the total participants are girls.

CYD president Father Peter said members of the CYD would take the campaign against these social evils to every household in villages and towns of Punjab. He said they would hold programmes in villages and subsequently these programmes would be taken to urban areas.

Another office-bearer of the CYD Tarsem Peter said the need of the hour was to equally stress about these menaces in rural areas as a majority of the population resided there. However, the unfortunate part was that a majority of the movements concentrated and remained in towns.

As per the programme, distinguished persons delivered lectures on these evils in order to wean the youth away from them. Later a cultural programme was held in the school. The participants would exchange their views on female foeticide, drug addiction and other burning social problems.

A march was held against the social menaces from the school premises to Jallianwala Bagh where it concluded after paying tributes to the martyrs.

He said the aim of the convention was to give positive and meaningful direction to girls and boys of the young generation. He said the participants would be given lectures on fulfilling the needs of needy persons. He said meaning of dedication and donations had changed with the passage of time and the youth were needed to ingrain these human values.

Among other, Dr Anil Ghutto, Bishop of Delhi, Franco Mullakul, Auxiliary Bishop of Delhi Diocese, and Father Ruby took part in the convention.

Amritsar, October 9
The Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) in a communiqué to the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister today strongly urged to establish Indian Institute of Technology in the holy city.

In letters to Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal, Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, manch president Manmohan Singh and general secretary Amrit Lal Mannan pointed out that Amritsar was not only a historical city but also a religious, cultural and political capital of Punjab.

They said the city has emerged as an international tourist destination due to the Golden Temple and it receives more than 10 million tourists from all over the world annually.

They said Amritsar was the birthplace of Akali Dal and it is the city where Akali Dal fought several peaceful battles, they said, adding that the ruling party has more responsibility and moral duty towards the development of the city.

The manch leaders said the CM should set up the Indian Institute of Technology here so that the city with so many multifarious importances should emerge as a knowledge and education hub of international level.

Amritsar, October 9
Activists of the Punjab Students Union (PSU) carried out a protest march and held a sit-in in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner seeking abrogation of cases registered against the union leaders and members.

In the presence of police bandobast, they started their march from Bhandari Bridge, halted at Ram Bagh for some hours where leaders of the student organisation delivered speeches. Subsequently they resumed their march to district court where the office of Deputy Commissioner was located. For over an hour they held sit-in in front of the DC office and concluded it only after SDM Sandip Rishi accepted their memorandum.

Their demands included abrogation of two separate cases registered against their leaders and resumption of passes for students in all categories of buses.

The police had arrested five members of the PSU and had registered a case under section 307 of the IPC on September 9. The case was registered after they had held a protest against the withdrawal of free bus pass facility to students.

Besides, they also demanded that the case against their state President Gurmukh Singh Maan under section 307 of the IPC registered on February 12 also be quashed.

On that day, the PSU along with the Bharat Naujawan Sabha had destroyed the open air theater inside Jallianwala Bagh on the premise that the beautification of the historic bagh had transformed its original shape and structure.

A leader of the PSU said the peaceful agitation would only conclude after their members were released from jail and cases against them quashed.

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