Jalandhar, November 9
If the recently proposed scheme of developing a residential colony in 380-acre land near the Amritsar bypass gets through, it will be the biggest scheme of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) in the city.

The scheme, which has already got a nod in a trust meeting recently, envisages covering of four villages, including Lidran, Salimpur Musalmana, Gadaipur and Fazalpur. The proposed residential colony will touch Suranussi on one side and Focal Point on the other side. The existing 13.96-acre scheme of the JIT of LIG flats at Master Gurbanta Singh Enclave will then be encompassed in the larger scheme.

There also is a plan to lay out a 200 feet-wide road across the area so as to provide an easy link to the industrialists to railway station via Pathankot bypass and Domoria overbridge. The engineers involved in the project claim that the road would help solve major traffic problem in the area for at least another decade.

While residents in the area, supported by politicians from the opposition party and certain property dealers, had opposed the move sometime back, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had then pacified them claiming that the land would not be acquired forcibly.

The JIT has finalised the land-pulling scheme for the purpose. It is being proposed that anyone whose 1-acre land would be acquired would be compensated by being allotted a residential plot of 900 sq yd and 121 sq yd of commercial land, which could be an SCF. For those owners who do not wish to be compensated with land for the land scheme would get money as per the rate decided by the Deputy Commissioner or revenue officers.

Kapurthala, November 9
In an effort to boost tourism in the district, the World Tourism Organisation has prepared master plans for Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi.

Stating this here today, Deputy Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary said the project would be funded by Asian Development Bank. However, he refused to divulge details in this regard.

In reply to a question regarding dilapidated condition of various historical buildings located in the district, including Gole Kothi and District Courts, he said all buildings would be repaired under the project. The Punjab Tourism and Development Board was spending Rs 2 crore on the necessary repairs of Moorish Mosque, Shalamar Bagh, Kamra Bagh and other buildings, he added.

Chaudhary said Rs 70 lakh had been spent on the construction of a fast food restaurant at the Kanjali picnic spot and the Public Works Department (PWD) was doing the sewerage work, which was likely to be completed within two months.

Stating that the government had already given holy city status to historical town Sultanpur Lodhi, he said Rs 33 crore would be spent on the widening of the 100-feet Kapurthala-Sultanpur Lodhi road during this year.

The DC said the project had been sent to the Punjab Infrastructure and Development Board for sanction. The Kapurthala-Subhanpur road would also be widened soon, he said, adding that there was a problem between the Forests Department and the PWD, which would be sorted out and the work on the widening of the Kapurthala-Subhanpur road would be started soon.

Jalandhar, November 9
Charanjit carved the sculpture of the US President to gift it to him during his visit.

However, he could not pass on his piece of art to the US President as Obama cancelled his proposed Amritsar visit and Charanjit was not able to manage resources to present the sculpture somewhere in New Delhi or Mumbai.

Obama’s not an exception, Charanjit has not been able to gift sculptures to all the great personalities, whom he created in clay, for the last three decades, as some of them were already dead and others, who are still alive, are simply ‘too great to be approached’.

By using silt-free clay available in the canal flowing near his village, Charanjit Singh of Lesrivaal village near Adampur, a medical practitioner-cum-sculptor, has made sculptures of various national icons of both pre and post independence India and eminent political figures of South Asia, including Swami Vivekanand, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr BR Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Maulana Azad, Lala Lajpat Rai, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mahatma Gandhi and Gautam Buddha.

Born in a middle class rural family, he had never undergone any professional training in clay art and modeling.

“I used to make clay idols of gods and goddesses during childhood. I was in class V when I first made the sculpture of Bhagat Singh. This art was in my blood since childhood and it gets polished with each curve and cut, which my hands have been giving since then”, he added, while posing with the sculpture of Obama.

He said it took around 10-15 days to make such sculptures and it was around one to two months during initial days.

“To make blueprints of faces of such eminent figures, I study about their personality from books, newspapers and internet. Above all, sculptures of only those personalities can be made, who enjoy great reverence in the artist’s heart”, he said.

This is not just the art of carving but it also teaches you about the life histories of great personalities and their contemporary social-political values and culture, said Charanjit.

Due to limited resources, I could never arrange any exhibition to display all my creations for the public and to those, for whom I made them.

“I never received any economic help from any quarter. Artists cannot spare full time to art due to other economic constraints. If the government offers its helping hand, I wish to start an art school, so that this art can be taken down to the next generations also”, he said. 

Jalandhar, November 9
Andaman’s his home. It’s the place where he started painting with a makeshift brush made of some hair cut from a bull’s tail and tied to a piece of wood. The inspiration for his brilliant sculptures which have made waves in the city, and the nation, also comes from the island. But the Genesis - the water colour paintings’ exhibition that he put up at Virsa Vihar here from October 29 to November 3, came as a pleasant surprise to the art lovers. This was nothing like the tall, tip-toed, pouted, raw ladies which abounded both his sculptures and previous paintings (of course, we don’t even talk about his scrap wonders with nails jutting out of them. Those were completely different works). But the latest exhibition of sculptor-painter Basudep Biswas, who’s the only guy from Jalandhar to have made it to the National Exhibition of Art (Delhi), that too for nine times, was an altogether different creed of work. These 54 paintings were all about nature and its various hues.

The exhibition, it sort of shocked city residents, thanks to the marked difference in style and medium. We never saw water colours by Biswas earlier. The paintings were mostly about flowers, trees with an amazing various-hued sky in the background and a multi-hued ground underneath, with some villagers and scarecrows thrown in, in some of the paintings. A lone, gray-hued water colour work of his (which has been awarded nationally and has been sold now) depicting crops beneath an overcast sky, stood out for its mood. Another work - a brilliantly yellow-flowered tree made one think of spring and laughter. There were a couple of pouted ladies of his too. Looked different in the water colours. Except four older works, all others (about 50) were created in a single month. “I had my autumn break and wanted to do something while I sat at home. So I did water colours,” said Biswas, who’s got admirers in people like Javed Siddiqui and Satish Gujral (also Biswas’ own favourite). Why a shift in the medium? “Oh I started with them. As a student at Shantiniketan (Kolkata) I used to make New Year greetings for around 300 kids every year with water colours. I would spill colour on a big piece of paper and do different things with it. Then cut the paper in pieces. It used to be a hit with all. I wanted to do water colours again. This seemed like the perfect time.” Any qualms about the exhibition? “Many people came in. It was initially supposed to be only till Monday but I had to extend it. But all said and done, Jalandhar needs to wake up to art. If you call them, some come. But basic art awareness is low,” quips Biswas.

Jalandhar, November 9
Since they took to the self-correction mode and demolished or withdrew their permanent encroachments on their own, the shopkeepers of Rainak Bazaar and Sheikhan Bazaar now demand that they be given better civic amenities by the Municipal Corporation in lieu of it.

The shopkeepers have demanded that several electricity poles which fall five to 10 metres in front of their shops be withdrawn backwards since they block the way of the commuters and invite encroachments by vendors selling their goods on carts.

Another demand says that in view of the expected influx of NRIs to the city and market in the coming few weeks, the MC officials should get the roads recarpeted.

“We have supported the officials so much by withdrawing our extensions. It is time for us to talk about our problems. The roads need to be revamped. There are no public urinals in the entire market area, which is a big problem for visitors,” said Buta Singh Sachdeva, who owns a garment shop in Sheikhan Bazaar.

Since the deadline given by Municipal Town Planner Hemant Batra, in view of Divali sales, ends tomorrow, the shopkeepers in the area are apprehensive about the next move by officials.

“It remains to be seen how officials respond to the high-handedness of certain shopkeepers who have not withdrawn their frontal portions after the marking done by the MC officials, claiming to have links with top politicians and bureaucrats,” says the buzz in the market.

The shopkeepers have also rued that the Sunday bazaar, which had been lifted two weeks back, was back in place again. “A dharna by the vendors in front of the residence of a minister has made such a big drive by the MC officials ineffective,” ridicule some of the shopkeepers.

Jalandhar, November 9
Biryani lovers are in for a delicious piece of news. A restaurant in a city hotel here is all set to present various types of biryanis to its customers in clay bowls.

Hotel Residency, located near the city bus stand, is organising “biryani festival” from November 6 to 30. And for the biryani extravaganza, it has made special arrangement of clay bowls to present the traditional food as an additional attraction for its customers, said hotel general manager Winson Lall.

During the period, 16 types of national and international, vegetarian and non-vegetarian biryanis are being presented in clay bowls.

The GM said master chef Sanjeev Kapoor and his team had specially come to Residency Hotel in Jalandhar to train a staff of 10 persons to prepare Iranian, Hyderabadi, Kashmiri, Pakistani, Peshawari, Arabic, Tamil Naidu and Chinese biryanis.

Jalandhar, November 9
The city traffic police will persuade the auto-rickshaw drivers of the city either to reduce the fare or strictly adhere to the traffic rules framed by the authorities a few months ago.

This was stated by newly appointed ADCP (Traffic) L.P.S. Khehra.

As after the orders that auto-rickshaws will not ferry more than four passengers, the auto-rickshaws owners nearly doubled the fare charges. However, the traffic violation, in the form of ferrying more than four passengers, still goes unabated.

To ensure the smooth flow of traffic on the entire stretch of Jail Road, from Company Bagh Chowk to Workshop Chowk, he said traffic personnel would be deployed there round the clock. If needed, the entry of the four-wheelers would be restricted on Jail Road during peak hours by making alternative arrangements for car parking.

Jalandhar, November 9
MGN Urban Estate-II organised its 6th annual prize distribution function.

Based on the theme of ‘Return to Green’, the function began with shabd. The dances of seven continents stole everybody’s heart. The plays conveyed the message of reducing overuse of natural resources and saving the Earth from perishing.

Principal Jatinder Singh unfolded future plans for the coming year. He read out the annual report. CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi gave away the prizes to the students of the school.

Vineet Joshi planted a sapling to begin the journey to ‘Return to Green’.

Jalandhar, November 9
A week-long national integration camp started at Virsa Vihar here today. The camp is being organised under the banner of Nehru Yuva Kendra. Around 150 youths from Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab are participating in the camp. The camp was inaugurated by ADC (Development) Sarojini Gautam Sharda and Samsun Maseeh, coordinator of the camp. The camp is aimed at providing platform to the youth to come across various cultural aspects of different states.

Maseeh said with the assistance of the Central government, around 228 such camps would be organised across the country and teams of Jalandhar district would participate in such camps in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, and Darjeeling, Wet Bengal, in the coming days.

He said the participants would also visit the surrounding villages to know about the various aspects of rural life in Punjab. He added that board and lodging were being provided free to the participants with the aid provided by the Central government.

Jalandhar, November 9
Civil Judge (Senior Division)-cum-secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) Gurmeet Kaur spoke in detail about the free legal services at a function held to mark Legal Services Day at St Solider Law College on Kartarpur Road here today.

The Legal Services Day is aimed at ensuring equal opportunities and justice to all by legal aid through state and district legal service authorities across the country.

Gurmeet Kaur said members of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, women and children and several other persons were eligible to get free legal services.

CJM R.K. Jain also spoke on this occasion.

Phagwara, November 9
Four Bihari migrant labourers were found unconscious at a rented house in the local Mohalla Prempura this morning. House owner Manohar Lal told the police that five labourers came from Bihar in a train today but four of them found unconscious, while the fifth labourer was found missing.

The police suspects that perhaps the fifth labourer offered poisonous biscuits to them and all the four labourers fell unconscious. Their luggage was found scattered. The police said perhaps the fifth labourer took away the valuables, including cash, mobile phones, watches, etc., of all four labourers. All the four labourers, identified as Gul Mohammad, Amir Mia, Yako Mian and Iqbal Mohammad, were admitted in the Civil Hospital, but were still unconscious till filing of the report.