Amritsar, December 10
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation would soon have a new address. The reason is that to develop the existing Town Hall, the pink U-shape 140-year-old heritage building, from where the MC Office at present is being operated, has been shortlisted in the list of the prime spots to be developed as a mega tourist destination.

For that reason, a two-acre land in the Ranjit Avenue area has been demarcated for establishing the new MC office and the process of architectural planning according to the requirement of the MC is already underway.

Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda, while confirming this development, said the Town Hall building has been chosen under the state government’s integrated development programme for the city.

“The civic body has passed a resolution in the general house for the eviction of the Town Hall building which was built somewhere near 1870. The new office would be built up in Ranjit Avenue. The task of designing the new building has been assigned to the GND University’s architectural wing”, he said.

When asked, the MC Commissioner said shifting of the office on new destination would hardly affect the general public. “Actually, the city has been divided into eight zones which cater to all parts of the city. Since we have our sub-offices in each of these zones, it would hardly matter to them, if the main head office is shifted to another place,” he said.

Nevertheless, the MC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Punjab Tourism Board and the revenue generated from reprocessing the Town Hall building would fall in the pocket of MC only.

“In a way, it would be an additional source of revenue generation for the MC, and the money generated from this arrangement would be ploughed back into the development works of the city only,” he said.

P.K. Goyal, the executive engineer and a nodal officer, for this project said a meeting to expediting the project was held here today and the tenders for construction of new building would be called soon.

Amritsar, December 10
Due to the lack of adequate cadavers available with the Government Medical College, the study of medicine is being hampered. One opinion is that it has been caused due to the mushrooming of private medical institutions, which manage to get the cadavers required for medical studies.

The other opinion that does the rounds is that lack of body donations is the major reason behind the shortage of corpses for medical education and research.

As per requirement, at least 25 cadavers are needed annually for various streams - running under the medical college - which include MBBS, BDS, post graduation, anatomy, bio-chemistry, physiology, nursing etc.

But the college receives only four bodies per year, which is causing the number of students, in a group attending a dissection practical, to increase.

Earlier, the medical college used to receive corpses from All India Pingalwara Charitable Society but due to the opening of private medical colleges, the number has reduced to four.

“We can not hand over every dead body to the medical college. Not only private colleges, we also have to give bodies to the Ayurvedic College. Moreover, the death rate at the Pingalwara has decreased considerably with time and due to better facilities and technology available with the society. Moreover, the GMC authorities were always reluctant to cooperate and asked the society to send the bodies to the college, which is difficult for us,” said Dr Inderjit Kaur, president of the society.

Barring the Pingalwara Society and body donation, the college has no other source of getting the corpses.

“Body donation remained a principal tool for anatomists and medical teachers teaching anatomy. Learning anatomy without practical dissection on human bodies is considered unsatisfactory,” said a teacher in the department of anatomy.

Interestingly, the State Anatomy Act provides a clause for the supply of unclaimed bodies to hospitals and teaching institutions for research and education. But the district and police administration never bothered to provide unclaimed bodies to the GMC in this regard.

“The district administration and police administration can provide unclaimed bodies, which have not undergone postmortem,” said Dr Tripta Sharma, head of the department.

She said the department had written to the principal a number of times in this regard and was waiting for the response of the authorities.

Dr SS Shergill, principal of the college, said he would take up the matter with the district administration. But some provisions and procedures have to be formulated before the district administration could hand over the bodies to the medical college. I would definitely have a dialogue with the DC in this regard and hopefully some positive outcome will come through, he added.

“The government medical college authorities have never approached us. Whenever the authorities would come to us, we would definitely do something in this regard,” said KS Pannu, DC, while talking to The Tribune.

Amritsar, December 10
For promotion and spread of Punjabi language, Guru Nanak Dev University would establish Resource Centre for Comparative Literature in the Punjabi Department of the university.

This centre would be established under the XI plan general Development Assistance Scheme of  of University Grants Commission, New Delhi with a grant of Rs 5 lakh.

Vice-Chancellor A.S. Brar said with the establishment of this centre a research centre would be created at the university for enhancing research in this area involving languages like English, Punjabi and Hindi.

Dr Paramjit Singh Sidhu said Rs 3 lakh would be spent on equipments, while required books would be purchased with Rs. 2 lakh.

Amritsar, December 10
Increasing awareness for extensive scope of creativity in various fields is making students give precedence to modern courses over medical and paramedical fields not only in Punjab, but in the entire country, said Usha Albuquerque, Director, Career Smart, who was here to hold career counselling sessions for students of Spring Dale Senior School.

Around 150 Spring Daleans received career counseling from her since Monday. “Medicine and paramedical courses have taken a plunge. The trend these days is more for engineering, particularly in the field of computers and automobiles, architecture, designing, business management and corporate law,” she said.

She added that girls were more open to fashion designing, animation and business management, while the boys expressed a desire to explore new areas of herpetology, a branch of zoology dealing with study of reptiles and amphibians, and space.

She said the lack of medical colleges, coupled with the enormity of the medical courses, are some factors that discourage students from taking up the medical field. 

Amritsar, December 10
The first two days of the Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX) got mix response from the people. Traders from Punjab and neighbouring states have put up their stalls of garments, health products, decorative, utility items, leather products and other fashion accessories at the expo.

While less expensive products drew attraction of the people, the expensive ones found few takers.

Pardeep Garg, managing director of Baddi-based company Herbal Trends, involved Alovera farming, manufacturing of Alovera products and herbal drinks, said there was lukewarm response till now. “We did not get response as per our expectations. Let us see what happens in last two days,” he said while adding that people are thronging only during evening hours.

However, Ritu Kapoor, Director, Kashmir Apiaries Private Ltd (KAPL), said claimed that about 80 per cent of the people visiting their stall is purchasing products and the PITEX has been a great success for them. Kashmir Apiaries, a Ludhiana-based company, is involved in manufacturing and export of honey-based products in many parts of the country and abroad.

“Some of products displayed by various companies are out of the reach of common man while there are a number of stalls especially kitchenware items, garments, perfumes, decorative items where have drawn huge crowds,” said Neha Sharma, a local girl, visiting the five-day expo.

Twentysix-year-old Christina and her 45-year-old sister Nang from Thailand, who have put a stall with the vast variety of ladies purses and footwear, were dejected a lot. “We have brought in a very good variety of purses and ladies chappal made of leather look-a-like between the price range of Rs 200 and Rs 400. We could hardly sell them at this attractive price at least till yesterday. Though we foresee that the sale might pick up during the weekend,” said Christina who owns a designing and manufacturing unit ‘Rongtone’ in Thailand.

The same views were echoed by Ratana, who was there to offer artificial flowers in wooden vass.

“The last year it was a so-so response whereas this year it is yet to see how the visitors would respond to my products,” said Ratana.

The same situation was prevailing at onyx marble stalls which drew huge crowds but the visitors were seen somehow reluctant in buying the exquisitely carved decorative as well as utility items.

Mohammad Arshad Alam from Karachi believes that his Onyx creations were marvelous at the price he is offering.

“I am here to sell different articles made up of Afghan-Baluchistan border stones with a price range which starts from Rs 20 to Rs 10,000 in which you can get decorative lamps, flower pots, centre and side table, decorative clocks fitted in this rare stone and I hope that I would get a good response just as I got last time,” he said.

Amritasr, December 10
Members of various Sikh organisations --- All-India Sikh Students Federation (Pir Mohammad), Sikh for Justice, Dal Khalsa --- led by Khalsa Action Committee today took out a candlelight march to commemorate the Human Rights Day. They paid tributes to the victims of over-a-decade-long armed struggle in Punjab, 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Operation Blue Star. They started the march from the Golden Temple and culminated at Hall Gate. Committee chief Bhai Mohkam Singh and Dal Khalsa leader Kanwarpal Singh led the march.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims and the kin of the youths who went missing during terrorism days also took part in the march. The participants were holding placards and candles, seeking an end to human rights violations. They demanded that the policemen “guilty of violating human rights” should be brought to book, the rising instances of illegal detention be checked and political prisoners be released. The district Congress’ Human Rights Cell also observed Human Rights Day. 

Amritsar, December 10
To give a fillip to the newly-launched eco-rickshaw, the Amritsar administration has chalked out a special ‘revenue plan’ for those who would ply them.

With the release of the second batch of 60 more green rickshaws, the administration has allowed them to carry advertisements.

The rates have been fixed at Rs 450 per month for single advertisements, which would be affixed on a specially created rectangular frame at the back end of the rickshaw.

Deputy Commissioner Kahn Singh Pannu said the income generated through advertisements would go to the rickshaw puller’s pocket.

“It would be an additional income for the rickshaw puller. It will fetch them anything between Rs 4,000 to 6,000 per annum”, he said.

Talks are under progress with a number of companies and my endeavour would be to extricate the maximum amount for advertisements”, he said.

When Amarjit Singh, plying ordinary rickshaws on rent for the past 20 years, was told about this new offer of the administration, he was on cloud nine.

“It looks to be a lucrative offer. Earlier, I was a bit hesitant about raising a loan to switch over to the new eco-rickshaw but with this offer, I suppose that it may fit into my budget, because the installment for the new rickshaw would easily be churned out now”, he said.

Another rickshaw-puller Ram Narayan, who has a family of four to support, too planned to own a new eco-rckshaw. “Now, my dream to own a rickshaw is not far. Earlier, I used to manage between Rs 35 to Rs 45 per day as rent, but now I can think of buying my own eco-rickshaw, as through the advertisement panel, I may be able to earn some extra money”, he said.

The district administration has tied up with certain banks to offer special easy loan facility. The aspirants for this vehicle would have to furnish a cross guarantee formality to avail the loaning facility on it.

“This rickshaw would cost about Rs 9,000. We have tied up with the Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, which have offered to extend loans at just 4 per cent rate of interest. We have received above 50 applications and six such cases would be processed today only. At present, we have been getting it manufactured from a Delhi-based company, but seeing its popularity, as many as six local cycle rickshaw manufacturers have offered to make more improved versions of eco-rickshaws. The market competition would definitely force its rate to fall down”, said DC Pannu.

In yet another first move, the administration has also proposed to introduce accidental insurance schemes for eco-rickshaw drivers, wherein they would have to pay an annual premium of just Rs 50 to be the beneficiary of an assured amount of Rs 1 lakh, to be claimed by his kins, just in case of the accidental death of the bearer.

Tarn Taran, December 10
Wild grass provides good fodder to animals; people mostly use it as garbage dumping place, sewage of nearby houses and ever-flowing tap of the MC sometimes makes it a dirty water pool.

Once conceived for humans, a local park has proved it usefulness more to the grazing animals. Shaheed Udham Park, situated on the local Sachakhand road, surprisingly, was never developed as a park in 14 years since its establishment.

The park was earmarked under the Union Government’s Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) scheme. The foundation stone was laid down by the then Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar.

During this period of 14 years, the Municipal Council has failed to plant a single sapling nor any sitting facilities in the park. There is no drinking water facility nor any toilet facility.

At one corner of the park, sewage of as many as 100 houses here, can be seen flowing and at other, pond-like situation develops as the water tap of the MC runs without a break.

The waste of nearby houses was dumped here. Animals in large number can be seen here the whole day.

MC Inspector Baljinder Singh Sanitary confessed that the site had not been developed as a park. However, he said the state government had released sufficient grants to the council for development and the tenders for this park have been called for and the work was going to be started soon and the park would be given a new look soon.

Amritsar, December 10
The PHD Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Punjab Technical University organised one-day seminar on “Excellence in Higher Education: Quality Initiative” at Guru Nanak Dev University here on Thursday.

R.S. Sachdeva, co-chairman, Punjab Committee, PHD Chamber, said, “The government plans to raise gross enrolment ratio in higher education up to 15 per cent.” He expressed an emerging need for introducing new models into higher education to achieve excellence.

In his keynote address, Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University, said today higher education had come to central states in country’s discourse. He explored the issue of foreign universities entering into Indian education system.

“Before the foreign universities are freely allowed to establish themselves in India, certain pertinent issues relating to the enrolment ratio, quality of education, compatibility with Indian socio-cultural system have to be dealt with,” he added.

Speaking on the theme, Dr Parijat De, Director-NITTTR, Chandigarh, expressed his concern about the sorry state of Indian education system. “We lag behind in the research work, being carried out in the foreign countries.” In his view, universities should not confine themselves to just conferring of degrees rather should focus on enhancement of research activities.

Expressing his views on the theme of research work in higher education, J.S. Neerav, Vice-Chairman (BOG), Thapar University, Patiala, said, “No doubt, in the last few years, the level of research work in India has gone up, yet a lot of efforts are needed to be taken”. He recommended a need for media to come forward to highlight the achievements and research work of academicians from time to time.

Anil Wali, MD, FITT, IIT, New Delhi, said education shouldn’t be taken just for education sake, rather all the sectors of the society, agriculture, industry etc. have to be taken care of. “It is imperative for knowledge institutions to collaborate with industry”.

Jane Sanders, Dy Head, UKTI, New Delhi, Daljit Singh Rahon, Director, Doaba Group of Colleges and Dr Prem Kumar, Executive Director, Rayat & Bahara Group also shared their experiences on the theme of ‘Public-Private Partnership: How to make it better’.

Summing up the discussions, Dr Buta Singh Sidhu, Dean Academics, PTU, said there was a dire need to raise the standard of higher education to bring it to the level of excellence.

Dalip Sharma, Regional Director, PHD Chamber of Commerce, Dr. A.P.Singh, Dean Student Affairs, PTU, and other officers of PTU-Pardeep Jindal, Navdeepak Sandhu, Dr. Sarabjit Singh, Dr. Dalvir Kaur, Shashi Bahl, Pryanka Mahajan, Kishore Luthra, Joginder Kumar, Devinder Kumar, Paramjit Singh also participated in the discussion.

Amritsar, December 10
The CIA staff today seized about a kilogram of charas from two drug peddlers in two separate cases here.

Those arrested were identified as Jaimal Singh and Kala Singh, both residents of Naushera Nangli village and the police recovered 730 gm and 250 gm of narcotics from them, respectively.

The police have registered two separate cases under sections 20, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act at the Sadar police station, in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Gate Hakima police have nabbed Harpal Singh and Karam Singh of Angarh locality for allegedly possessing 52 gm smack. A case has been registered.