Amritsar, December 3
The delay in the construction of parallel service lanes beneath the newly constructed railway overbridge in the Islamabad area has become a bane for the residents. The shopkeepers of the areas are the most hit by the inordinate delay as businesses have dwindled drastically in absence of roads.

Earlier, the residents had to borne undue delay in the completion of railway overbridge. Started in December 2007, the construction of 650-metre-long bridge, which was expected to be completed with 13 months, got delayed by couple of years due to alleged non-cooperation of various government departments. The bridge was opened for traffic in mid of October this year after the Deputy Commissioner gave his go ahead.

“The electronic gadgets in my shop including TV and calculators break down due to clouds of dust whenever a vehicle passes through the dilapidated roads,” rued Kamal Bhatia, a telecom shop owner in the area. Though the company which was assigned to construct the bridge and roads is claiming to complete the roads within a couple of weeks, but it seemed that it would not be completed in near future, he said.

“Our business has already been dented by due to the construction of overbridge, but the delay in the construction of roads has further marred the prospects of restoring our business,” pointed out another shopkeeper, Naresh Kumar.

Moreover, the heavy vehicular traffic that enters the area through Bakar mandi from Jhabal road side is leading to often traffic jams in the already congested area of Islamabad and Haripura.

“The movement of trucks after the construction of bridge has increased a number of times. Earlier, there was not any movement of trucks. Now it has led to traffic chaos. The traffic police and district administration must look into this,” said Ramesh Sharma, an inhabitant of Haripura.

Manoranjan Jain, project manager of the construction company, which is assigned with the job for building the bridge said the work of laying the road would be completed within couple of months as the work has already started.

Tarn Taran, December 3
A 2.5-km slippery stretch of the Amritsar-Khemkaran road, near Gaggobua village, 20 km from here, has been claiming lives for the past two years but the PWD doesn’t seem to be caring for all this due to which people face a lot of inconvenience.

Two weeks back, a bank branch manager and his wife died when their car dashed against a tree on the roadside as soon as he applied brakes to stop the car.

It is interesting to note that the entire Amritsar-Khemkaran road, being a border road, has been built with modern technique and is in a very good condition. This is the reason why drivers usually travel at a fast speed here.

But the speed costs dear on the 2.5-km-long slippery portion where drivers fall prey to the defect and lose control over their vehicles if they try to apply brakes.

Reports say as many as 12 persons have lost their lives on this road during the last 11 months. Police sources say in many cases, incidents with people receiving minor and major injuries in accidents have even gone unreported.

Sources say there might not be any day when an accident does not take place on this road.

SHO of Chabal police Sukhdev Singh said here today that he had written a number of letters to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and other officials during the past six months to remove this defect, but the department was taking nothing seriously.

Warning noticeboards have been installed on this portion but even then accidents happen every day.

Deputy Commissioner Khushi Ram said he had issued instructions to the PWD Executive Engineer to remove the defect immediately.

Amritsar, December 3
The team of Ludhiana bagged the first place during the 39th State Science Exhibition, which concluded at St Francis School here today. The second and third places were occupied by the teams of Amritsar and Patiala, respectively.

The Amritsar team also grabbed 15 prizes under various categories. The Punjab Education Minister, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, who was chief guest, gave away prizes and certificates to the winning teams. Meanwhile, three special prizes were also given on the occasion.

Manisha, lecturer of science and mathematics at Government Senior Secondary School, Town Hall, was honoured for her achievements in teaching and dedication towards imparting education to children.

Another honour was extended to president of the Recognised Affiliated Schools Association (RASA) Kulwant Rai for being helpful in conducting the science exhibition and a teacher of Ashoka Senior Secondary School, Sushil Gupta, was honoured for his regular contribution in creating science models for national-level competitions. The minister, while extending his thanks to the management of St Francis School for offering the school premises to hold the exhibition, said such exhibitions should be conducted on regular basis as it would generate interest among the students towards more innovative experiments and technologies.

“Such occasions also offer a chance to the students to have an interaction with students from other district and exchange views about their creations,” he said.

The Director, State Institute of Science and Technolgy, Satinder Kaur, Director, Public Instructions (Secondary), Davinder Singh, District Education Officer, Surjit Singh, and District Science Supervisor, Kailash Chander Sharma, were also present.

Amritsar, December 3
The Dal Khalsa in a communique to Dr Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, here today urged him not to reduce the Punjabi lectures in its B.Sc courses.

Harcharan Singh Dhami, president of the organisation said the proposal would mar the employment prospects of Punjabi teachers in times to come.

It is pertinent to mention here that the proposed move of the university Vice-Chancellor has drawn flak from all quarters of the society, while state Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan strongly opposed the proposal.

While regretting, Dhami pointed out that the trend was very concerning for the people who love their mother tongue and trying to promote it at every level. He said other universities might follow the same trend, which would be detrimental for Punjabi language, while adding that no student had asked for decreasing the periods of Punjabi language.

Amritsar, December 3
DAV International School, Amritsar, achieved another milestone by winning the British Council International School Award (ISA) for the session 2010-2013 for the second consecutive time. Principal Anjana Gupta said the award has been conferred upon on the basis of the academic and co-curricular performances of the school. It is to note that this award was received by the Principal at an award function held in Chennai through Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission, Mike Nithavrianakis. As many as 86 schools from all over India were in competition to vie for this coveted award.

An outstanding dossier of 400 pages was prepared by the school representatives. It highlighted all the important activities of the school, especially those which were conducted at the international level. “We had compiled all those activities conducted by our school for the students as well as teachers abroad which included seminars in the US, the students and teachers’ interaction programmes in the UK and Singapore, alike. In this respect, the students of Peddie School, USA, also visited our school,” she said. About their teaching methodology, Gupta said the school had been initiating to introduce teaching knowledge test (TKT), the basic idea of which would be to enhance the teaching skills of the teachers up to the international level.

“Our idea is to prepare a platform of international stature so that the children should always be comfortable in future if they have to face any global dais. “The credit goes to my whole staff which, like a true team spirit, would always endeavoured to maintain perfect synthesis of our traditional values and modernity in our curricula and environment. We have also been regularly conducting the University of Cambridge ESOL examinations like YLE, KET and PET. From this session, we have started conducting FCE too”, she told. 

Amritsar, December 3
Even as the government has initiated many steps to control AIDS, rampant drug addiction, especially the rising trend of injecting drugs and lack of morality are the bigger hindrances in stemming the problem.

There is an urgent need to sensitise people at the grassroots level, especially people living in the rural areas.

Sex education, through a language that is conducive to the environs of the Indian society, could become a vital instrument in controlling the deadly disease, says Dr Ravi Saini, founder member of the AIDS Awareness Group (AAG) and an expert in the field.

Dr Saini pointed out that every section of the society has become prone to the disease, which was once limited to the bridging community of truck drivers.

He cited lack of morality and drug addiction, especially through injecting drug user (IDUs), as the reason for the spread of this disease at such a brisk pace.

Even the elderly were found using single needles for dispensing the shot of drugs in the Bhikhiwind area, he said.

According to data available with the Punjab AIDS Control Society, Amritsar has the highest number of HIV positive patients in the state.

Out of a total 1,35,334 people tested in the Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC) in Amritsar till October this year, as many as 7,650 were found HIV positive, followed by Patiala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

Although about 80 to 90 per cent patients contracted the disease through unprotected sex, the IDUs are increasingly becoming another major source of the transmission of the AIDS revealed, Dr Saini.

Though it is heartening to see the government initiating many steps to check this problem, yet the situation is very alarming. The number of people treating the patients has also been seen to be on a rise, he added.

“Lack of morality, such as extra marital affairs being depicted now-a-days in soap operas have a direct impact on the psychology of the common man and the government should come out with some plans to check this trend in media,” said Dr Saini.

Amritsar, December 3
Violations of MC norms are going unchecked. The unipole, installed after uprooting a tree in a greenbelt on the old jail road, has got an advertisement hoarding. And it seems the civic authorities are hand in glove with offenders. The Amritsar Plus on October 13 highlighted the incident of installing a unipole.

Amritsar, December 3
Modern man is caught up in the intricate labyrinth wherein the western culture is exercising its negative influence on literature, opined Jaswinder Singh, Professor in Punjabi from Punjabi University, while addressing the national seminar on “Samkali Punjabi Sahit: Bhasha Ate Sabhyachar” held in Khalsa College for Women, Amritsar.

The seminar, sponsored by the UGC, was conducted by the Postgraduate Department of Punjabi. Honorary Secretary Khalsa Governing Council, S Rajinder Mohan Singh Chheema and college Principal Dr Sukhbir Kaur Mahal inaugurated the seminar.

The Principal emphasised the need to conduct such seminars which give our mother tongue her due place.

Nevertheless, Jaswinder Singh in his keynote address gave his insight into the innumerable challenges being faced by Punjabi literature in the contemporary times. He elaborated on three aspects of contemporary Punjabi literature: Indian Punjabi, Pakistani Punjabi and the Punjabi of immigrants. “Indian Punjabi is rich and has vast horizons as compared to Pakistani Punjabi. The need of the hour is fight this tough battle at intellectual level and once again adorn our Punjabi language and literature with all her beauty, colour and fragrance,” he said.

In his presidential address, Professor Jagbir Singh, Head of Department of Punjabi, Delhi University, apprised the audience with the present state of affairs wherein modern man is devoid of true literature, music and art.

“There is an endless mad race to achieve material comforts. Modern man has marginalised our rich cultural heritage and language. Our Vedas and our eleventh Guru, Shri Guru Granth Sahib impart us true words of wisdom but the irony is that modern man does not know how to unearth the beauty hidden in them. Globalisation sweeps us into a mad race and as a result, literature of contemporary times turns out to be porn and leads us astray. The need of hour is to bring to the limelight such literary works which assist us in facing the challenges, make us thinking beings and help us in leading a disciplined life”, he said.

In the first academic session, S Joga Singh, professor in Language Science Department, Punjabi University, Patiala, illuminated that our mother tongue, Punjabi is losing her aura in the present times.

“A four-year-old child, who is well-versed with his native language, is compelled to learn not only the foreign language but also is forced to learn other subjects in the foreign languages as soon as he joins school. Using the intrinsic beauty of Punjabi language, a Punjabi can release his pent-up feelings, emotions in the most touching way,” he said.

Dr Jagjit Singh, Professor in School of Research, Punjabi University, Patiala, said language is the means of expression and it should accept changes with the passage of time. Dr Ravinder Singh, Associate Professor in Punjabi Department, Dial Singh College, Delhi University, also shared his thoughts on Contemporary Punjabi Literature. Dr. Parminder Singh, Professor & Head of Department of English, threw light on the kind of literature being written in the contemporary times. Earlier, people used to be deeply rooted to their literature and had strong affinity towards reading books & library. But in the present times, modern man is assaulted by globalisation and under its pressure he has lost the bonding and unification with literature.

In the second academic session, Chairperson Dr Dharam Singh, HoD & Professor in Punjabi Research School, Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr Rajnish Bahadur Professor in Punjabi Department DAV College, Dr Paramjit Kaur Sidhu, Lecturer Malwa College Samrala, Dr Parampreet Kaur, Lecturer in Khalsa College for Women, Dr Prabhjit Kaur, HoD Punjabi Department, Shanti Devi Arya College, Dinanagar, read out their research papers on Contemporary Punjabi Literature: Language and Culture and shared their valuable opinions with the audience.

Amritsar, December 3
More than 4,000 students of Spring Dale Senior School and Spring Blossoms School reiterated their pledge to love books and inculcate a habit of reading to help them mature into good and responsible citizens on the occasion of World Reading Day that was celebrated on Friday.

Tarn Taran, December 3
Gold medalist Mandeep Kaur Cheema and silver medalist Manpreet Singh of the recently concluded Asian Games were honoured in a function here today.

SSP Preetpal Singh Virk presided over the function, while Alwinder Pal Singh Pakhoke, chairman, Punjab Warehousing Corporation, was the chief guest.

Cheema won the gold medal in the 4x400 metre relay race, while Manpreet Singh got the silver medal in boxing in the 91-kg category.

A cash prize of Rs 11,000 was given to Cheema and Rs 5,100 to Manpreet Singh. Manpreet is a resident of Palasour village, 5 km from here, while Mandeep Kaur is a resident of border village Cheema Khurd, 32 km from here.

Nirmal Singh, member, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), said both the athletes would be honoured again in the area. 

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