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Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Made free of encroachments, park to be beautified now
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Mission
Aagaaz
Helping them design livelihood
SGPC Poll: Places for preparing voter cards declared
Chawla wants to see Punjab a ‘dry’ state
Govt defaming farmer bodies to garner central funds: CPI
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Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Earlier, in 2008, the central government had recognised the incident as a part of the freedom struggle and the victims were granted the status of freedom fighters. The incident, which occurred on April 13, 1919, changed the course of the freedom struggle. Families of thousands of victims, who lost their lives and were injured during the incident, have been fighting for a long time to get the status of freedom fighters, said Bhushan Behal, President of the Jallianwala Bagh Shaheed Parivar Samittee. It is pertinent to mention here that the samittee has submitted a memorandum to the district administration to grant the freedom fighter status to families of victims, besides issuing necessary certificates in this regard. The administration forwarded the memorandum to the Department of Freedom Fighter, Government of Punjab on May 12, which has now issued certificates to as many as 10 families. Terming it a major success, Behal, whose grandfather sacrificed his life during the historic incident, said the samittee has been fighting for the cause for last three decades. Ironically, there have been gross discrepancies in the list of names of victims of the massacre, available with the various agencies. Deputy Commissioner, Kahan Singh Pannu said the Jallianwala Bagh Trust, in its next meeting, was contemplating to prepare a list of victims whose names figure in every list and get it installed at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial. At present, there are three lists - one with the trust, one with the district administration and another one lying with the Shaheed Parivar Samittee. The list prepared by the British government in 1921, consists of the names of 400 persons while the Jallianwala Bagh Trust has a list of 388 persons. The samittee, on the other hand claimed to have a list having names of as many as 464 persons. The list prepared by the fire brigade at that time had the names of 1,000 persons while the one made by Madan Mohan Malwia, freedom fighter, consists of 1,100 names. |
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Made free of encroachments, park to be beautified now
Amritsar, June 29 Once replete with greenery, clean environment and fine landscape, the park would be a nice meeting point for people living in its vicinity. The Punjab Government has approved the amount to beautify the park, said MC Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda. Present condition of the park is pathetic. With crumbling outer walls, shabby gate and uneven growth of vegetation, the park offers a repulsive look. It discourages public from enjoying a stroll in the park. Instead, it has become a haven for anti-social elements and people preferring to kill time by playing cards even during day time. The holy city was once known for its parks and orchards of pears, guava and mangoes has been undergoing a great makeover as it is expanding on its seams. However, in haphazard development parks are the biggest casualty. Hardly officials take out time to visit the place to learn deficiencies and removing them. Some of the prominent parks were Ram Bagh, Bagh Ramanand, Akali Phoola Singh, Chali Khui, park opposite B.K Dutt gate along with many pear and guava orchards. They has been stripped of its some parks and almost
all orchards. As per the beautification plan, the park would have a new entrance, concrete pavement, fountain and ample streetlights. Meanwhile, the path to remove encroachment was not so easy. The corporation officials with police bandobast swooped down on encroachers on Saturday night. As many as 27 shops were demolished. They had sprung up in shape of kiosks about
four years ago. However, their owners in a blatant violation of norms had converted them into shops. Kharbanda said they ignored the notices. Hence, they
had to resort to removing them. |
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Mission
Aagaaz
Amritsar,
June 29 Ironically, whatever steps the government took for plantation in the past have come to nought in the absence of any follow-up mechanism, while the task force constituted at the district level disappeared after a few months. Mission Aagaaz, an NGO, urged the government to ban cutting of trees such as pipal, banyan, neem, kikar and sheesham as they were matchless as far as producing fresh air and abundant oxygen was concerned. The authorities so far have failed to grow trees in place of those chopped off to widen roads. “The protection of environment is of utmost necessity in the current scenario as is evident from the various reports indicating rise in toxic substances,” said Gurbhej Singh, general secretary of the organisation. Mission Aagaaz urged MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Mayor and the Deputy Commissioner to restart the “Go Green, Go Clean” campaign. The organisation gave a call to support the Prime Minister’s Mission India Programme, saying the wastage of water should be stopped. |
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Helping them design livelihood
Amritsar, June 29 Vice-Chancellor A.S. Brar, who inaugurated the exhibition, was impressed with the garments and various articles displayed in the exhibition. Lauding the university for its role in providing self-employment to women folk through its Adult Education Department, he stressed upon the fact that the department should have the active collaboration with various manufacturing and designing units. He also emphasised the need to have an Incubation Cell in the Department so as to develop new designs and methodologies and to give the students a first hand experience of the demands of the market by the way of procuring orders from various customers. Over 250 students of dress designing, cutting and tailoring, textile designing, cosmetology, computer applications and computer hardware maintenance are participating in this exhibition by displaying their products in
this exhibition. Prof Rajinderjit Kaur Pawar, Head of the Department, said that the students of textile designing exhibited their creativity through designing and printing by different ways like potato printing, match stick printing, screen printing, block printing, nozzle printing, tie and dye, batik and hand printing while the students of dress designing cutting and tailoring presented different designs and dresses of various age groups using different types of fabrics, designs and colour. She said so far the department has trained about 3,000 students in the vocational courses and such courses are also run being run in Amritsar Central Jail to train the inmates. Besides, Dr. Inderjit Singh, Registrar of the University, Prof. Harish Chander Sharma, Professor Incharge, Public Relations, Prof. Radha Sharma, Department of History, Dr. Sukhpal Singh, Co-ordinator, NSS Department, Dr. Jagjit Kaur, Director, Youth Welfare, Prof. Gurpreet Bal, Department of Sociology, Dr. M.L. Singh, Head, Department of Electronics, Jatinder Kaur, Head, Department of Home Science, Govt. College, Amritsar and a number of other faculty members and students were present on
this occasion. |
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SGPC Poll: Places for preparing voter cards declared
Amritsar, June 29 Xerox, cyclostyle and typed copies in similar format of these forms can be utilised for applying for voter cards. The last date for submitting forms is July 15. In Baba Bakala constituency, notified gurdwaras are Gurdwara Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, Baba Bakala, Gurdwara Patshahi Nauvi, Dera Sahib village, Sathiala, Gurdwara Bunga Sahib, Patshahi Chhevi, Sathiala village, Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevi, Butala village, Gurdwara Panchayati, Pheruman village, and
Gurdwara Panchayati, Gaggadbhana village. In the Chabhal Kalan area, Gurdwara Baoli Sahib, Khehra village, Gurdwara Gursar Satlani, Hoshiar Nagar village, Gurdwara Panchayati, Bhakna Khurd village, Gurdwara Committee Dharamshala Bhai Diwan Singh, Bhuse village, and Gurdwara Guru Granth Sahib, Khasa village, have been earmarked for preparing voter cards. For Verka constituency, Gurdwara Sangrana Sahib, Gurdwara Sann Sahib, Baserka village, Gurdwara Dharamshala, Her village, Gurdwara Committee Dharamshala, Mira Kot village, Gurdwara Maiyan Wala, Majitha village, and Gurdwara Guru Granth Sahib, Ibban Kalan village, have been selected for preparing voter cards. For Amritsar City (East), Gurdwara Vallah Sahib, Vallah village, Gurdwara Nanaksar, Verka village, and for Amritsar (Central) the Golden Temple are places to get voter cards prepared. Gurdwara Chheharta Sahib will serve for the Sikh voters from Amritsar (West). Gurdwara Brar Madoke, Brar village, Gurdwara Ber Baba Nanak, Vairoke village, Gurdwara Committee Dalah Kiralgarh, Dalah village, Gurdwara Committee Dharamsala, Josmuhar village have been selected in the Chogawan block for preparing voter cards. |
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Woman comes to rescue of daughter-in-law
Amritsar, June 29 Her case was put up before the human organ transplant committee headed by medical superintendent, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Dr R P S Boparai. “Under the law only a family member can donate his/her organ to save the life of their patient and in this case the patient’s mother-in-law Satbir Kaur consented to be a donor,” said Boparai. Amanpreet Kaur has a child while her husband lives abroad. Meanwhile, seven cases were put before the committee for permission out of which three cases were granted permission for transplant. Kashmir Singh consented to donate his organ to his son while Thuru Ram of Gurdaspur would be getting organ of his wife Sudesh Rani. |
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138th in IAS
Amritsar, June 29 Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and SGPC President Avtar Singh presented
her a cheque for Rs 2 lakh, a model of the Golden Temple, a siropa and a set of books on Sikhism. Sandeep Kaur talking to Amritsar Plus said her father was a
class IV employee in the Morinda sub-tehsil. The SGPC President said Sandeep Kaur did not lose her faith in the Gurus despite facing untold economic and other hardships. He asked the youngsters to emulate her to achieve success. He said that another successful IAS
candidate, Prabhjit Singh, who secured 16th place, would be honoured. |
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Chawla wants to see Punjab a ‘dry’ state
Amritsar, June 29 “If Gujarat can be run without the help of any revenue generated through selling liquor, then a policy on the same pattern must be adopted for Punjab which is reeling under the problem of excessive liquor consumption and drug addiction,” she said. Chawla said women should come forward to eradicate the problem of drug and liquor consumption. “Women can play a major role in this direction. Social health activists, ASHA workers and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), who constantly interact with households in villages can be trained to make people aware of the ill-effects of liquor or prohibited drugs,” she said. Similarly, as a mother, it should be her prime duty to maintain a healthy environment at home by discouraging family members against liquor consumption, she emphasised. Elaborating on the steps being taken by the Health Department, the minister said dramas and street plays, especially ones on anti-drug themes, would be organised in villages in various pockets of the state. There has been an alarming increase in intravenous drug use (IDU) in the state if the stats with the Punjab AIDS Control Society are considered. Confirming this, Additional Director, Punjab AIDS Control Society, Dr M.M. Sharma, said the number of IDUs had doubled which was recorded in 2007. “The data with us says the percentage of IDUs was 13 in 2007, but now it is 26 per cent, to be precise. Due to this menace, cases of hepatitis-A and B, AIDS and other deadly diseases have increased,” he said. |
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Govt defaming farmer bodies to garner central funds: CPI
Amritsar, June 29 While talking to The Tribune, he demanded high-level probe into the episode of pasting of posters in the Malwa region and alleged that it was the handiwork of ‘some government agencies’. “Protests by the farmer organisations were a result of wrong policies of the state government that has led to poverty, unemployment and rampant drug abuse in cotton belt where the number of suicides of farmers is also high,” he added. However, he did not completely rule out the presence of Maoist elements saying the extremist groups use these conditions as weapons to exploit the youth. “We don’t support Naxalism but the farmer organisations in Punjab were forced to agitate due to corrupt practices of political leaders who are misusing their power to curb even the genuine demands of peasant community,” said Dr Dyal, who was here to protest against the price rise. On the river water issue, the senior communist leader pointed that there was a need to review the sharing of water with other state after every 20 years. At present when the water table has depleted considerably, the river water issue should be resolved through negotiations while emphasising the Punjab was in urgent need of more water. Meanwhile, a number of activists of the CPI held an agitation against the Congress-led UPA Government and burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Various communist leaders including Amarjit Singh Asal, District Secretary, CPI, speaking on the occasion alleged that the central government was playing in the hands of major corporate and business houses and oil companies. Addressing the gathering, they demanded the rolling back of rise in prices of petroleum products including LPG. “It is an irony that despite the great opposition from many political parties and its allies, it had shamelessly resorted to free market of petroleum products under
the pressure of national and international oil companies,” he said. He said this would hit the agriculture and
industrial sector hard. Accusing state government of double standard, Asal said on one hand the Punjab Government was criticising the central government for inflation, on the other it has not reduced cess on petroleum products due to which the petrol prices are highest in the state as compare to other parts of the country. Meanwhile, the activists of CPM also burnt the effigy of the UPA government and held demonstration at
Hall Gate area. |
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UPA policies anti-people: Pasla
Tarn Taran, June 29 This was alleged by Punjab CPM chief Mangat Ram Pasla, who was here to address a seminar on “Role of Leftist forces in the present period, in removing the pitiable condition of the poor section” organised by the district unit of the party. Pasla said the policies of the UPA government, which were being formed on the dictation of imperialistic forces, had forced the Union Government to raise the prices of petroleum products, cooking gas and kerosene. |
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After 91 years of the historic Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, the state government has accorded recognition to the descendants of victims of the incident and issued certificates to 10 families in this regard.
Amritsar, June 29