Jalandhar, February 17
The Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, is in the process of constructing a bypass along the DAV canal to Gakhlan village that will act as an alternate, shorter route via 120-feet road towards Kapurthala, Amritsar or Pathankot.

Mayor Rakesh Rathour and senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Bhatia announced this during a press conference held here yesterday. They said the tenders for the project had been cleared and it would formally commence on February 23. They said that the project, which would cost Rs 2.1 crore, would involve the construction of a 9-km-long and six-metre wide road along the canal and a skew bridge atop it.

They put the timeframe of the work at nine months.

Asked about an unmanned railway crossing coming in the way, the mayor said it was being planned to get it levelled and manned. “We have already started the process and written to the Railways in this context,” he replied. Bhatia said several encroachments falling on the route also have to be cleared.

The mayor said the cityscape project worth Rs 35 crore, which included painting of white lines on road, construction of centre verges, footpaths and signage in the city was also on.

On the issue of delay in Nehru Garden project, the mayor said, “We have asked the contractor to speed it up. The four-month timeframe has long been over”.

Asked as to why the contractor was not being penalised for the delay, he replied, “We have a provision for imposing a fine from 1 to 10 per cent of the cost of the project. But we have given him some time.”

Regarding Burlton Park, he said the Rs 172-crore project was in the final stage. “We will soon float the tenders for the construction work. The conditions as required for a loan from HUDCO have been cleared. We will leave a 10-acre area in the park vacant as demanded. Even the Punjab Government has given a guarantee in principle,” he claimed having got cleared all decks. On the issue of Domoria Bridge, he said the steel structure of the span part was being readied in a workshop. “We have got the permission of launching of the structure from the railway authorities”, he added.

Regarding third party inspections for road construction, he said a new company would not be roped in. “The work of the previous one was not up to the mark,” he explained. 

Jalandhar, February 17
In its endeavour to streamline the functioning of its distance education cell, Punjab Technical University (PTU) is in the process of setting up a separate directorate on the main campus.

From today onwards, the third floor of the main campus building will be dedicated to the distance education directorate. This will house the offices of the Dean, Deputy Registrar, 15 Assistant Professors, four technicians and separate staff for dealing with the academic work, human resource, accounts section and examination work.

The money-spinning cell of the university is also in the process of setting up two studios on this floor at a cost of Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore each. Outlining the details of the project, Dean, Distance Education, Dr N.P. Singh said online delivery of the lectures would be started around September. “The lectures will then be available live as well as web-based recordings to over 1.55 lakh students across 2,012 centres in the country,” he added.

The Dean added that a whole new working atmosphere would not only give a fillip to the programme, but also benefit the students who would be able to get all their queries and problems related to fee, delay in result, getting detail marks certificate and degree answered and redressed under a single roof.

“Earlier, even the learning centre owners had been feeling a bit dejected. The 45 per cent share from the fee which they had been getting was coming to them almost at the end of the session, which they would now get within a month’s time,” the Dean explained.

Earlier, all departments, including that of accounts, academics and examination, were common for the regular as well as distance education students. “Since the problems of the regular students were being taken on priority, the work of distance education students was given a back seat. But from now on, we expect a better coordinated work,” said Deepinder Sekhon and Maneet Dewan, president and general secretary, respectively, of the All-India PTU Distance Education Programme Association.

Dr N.P. Singh added that he was also trying to revamp the conduct of the examination to check any possible pilferage. “The system of sending question papers online has already been done. We are now making it sure that the examination centres are set up only in the AICTE-approved institutes and state university-affiliated colleges across the country. We will set up centres in schools only when there is no other way out,” he informed.

As a part of another reform, the directorate would allocate the job of collection of answer sheets during examination to a private courier company, which would also provide the daily report to the university while ensuring safe, quick and packaged delivery to it. While the distance education cell was already offering over 60 diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate courses in hotel management, IT, fashion technology, multimedia and journalism, there was a plan to add in more courses from the coming session, the officials revealed.

Jalandhar, February 17
In a major respite to hundreds of industrials units located in the Focal Point Extension, Gadaipur, Bulandpur and Randhawa-Masandaan, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Powercom) has decided to set up a new sub-station grid of 132-kv capacity at the Focal Point Extension.

As of now, only a 66kv sub-station grid is operational for over 800 units established in these localities. However, the grid has already been overloaded for the past many months and setting up of scores of new units was blocked off due to delay in the coming up of the new grid. Moreover, even the expansion of already operational units was not possible as the power authorities used to deny additional power connections and load upgradation for the already existing units.

“The land required for the grid has been earmarked. Now, we would send the proposal to the planning wing of the power corporation. The infrastructure building would start only after technical input from the authorities concerned,” said NK Gandhi, Superintendent Engineer, PSPCL, Jalandhar Circle.

A senior official concerned said that over 200 applications seeking new connections and load upgradation are pending with the PSPCL for the past few months due to over-saturation of the existing substation.

Welcoming the development, Narinder Singh Saggu, President, Jalandhar Industrial Focal Point (Extension) Association, said that with the setting up new sub-station years long pending demand of the industrialists would be addressed as most of the industrialists were not in position to install even a small electricity run devices in their units.

Jalandhar, February 17
To give a fillip to diversification, the district will bring 6500 hectares under sunflower cultivation and another 2600 hectares under mustard, toria and green peas.

This was revealed by DC Priyank Bharti while presiding over a meeting of the agriculture review committee here yesterday.

He also urged the officers present to impress upon the farmers to break out of the paddy and wheat cycle and go in for oilseeds, pulses and vegetable cultivation to boost their income.

All dealers, who sell spurious pesticides and seeds, should be dealt with a firm hand and more raids should be carried out on a regular basis to ensure that the farmers were not being sold sub-standard material. So far, the department had taken 600 samples of such products, he added.

As many as 136 farmers had been trained in dairy farming practices and over 90 dairy farms had been set up. The department also aims to bring 55 hectares under pisciculture and 1,100 farmers had been trained in this field. Subsidy has also been availed of by 27 such farmers, he informed.

The department should also impress upon the farmers to go in for drip and micro irrigation techniques since the water table was falling at an alarming rate, he added. 

Jalandhar, February 17
The Punjab Government will organise the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Games from February 28 to March 6 at various venues across the state.

The games will be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal in Ludhiana and the concluding ceremony will be held in Jalandhar. Cabinet ministers, eminent sports personalities and film stars will be part of the event.

Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti presided over a meeting of members of 10 committees associated with organising the games here today. He urged those present to make all best possible arrangements for the sportspersons who would be taking part in various disciplines.

The group 1 hockey matches would be held at the Burlton Park here from March 3 to 5, all shooting fixtures would be played at SAS Nagar, group 2 boxing, weightlifting, volleyball and wrestling matches would be conducted at Patiala, and group 3 athletics, kabaddi, basketball and football matches would be played at Ludhiana, he informed. — TNS

Jalandhar, February 17
Relationship between Hindi and other regional languages was the main theme of the discussion which took place between writers, linguists, grammarians, scholars and language teachers from all over the country in the two-day UGC-sponsored national seminar organised by the Layallpur Khalsa College here.

Organised by the Department of Hindi, the seminar titled “Interrelationship of Hindi with other regional languages”, witnessed intellectual discussions on developing relationships between Hindi and regional languages in the light of development of electronic and print media, particularly information technology.

Speaking during the inaugural session, Vijay Kumar Chopra of the Hind Samachar Group, highlighted the growing influence of English. Noted linguist and former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, Dr Joginder Singh Puar, while chairing the inaugural session, said it was mandatory on the part of any language to assimilate features of other languages in order to survive in the more than ever rapidly changing world of globalisation age.

Principal of the college Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said regional languages should be given their due importance, to promote sense of nationalism among the countrymen.

Prominent journalist and writer Dr Suresh Seth fully supported this view.

In the key note address, Dr Harmohinder Singh Bedi from Guru Nanak Dev University talked about the contribution of Punjabi in richness of Hindi language. He also pointed out the role played by Punjabi in upholding the rich linguistic heritage of Sanskrit.

Dr Sudha Jatinder, Head of the Department of Hindi, GND University, Amritsar, explained the similarities between Hindi and Punjabi on the basis of phonological structure. Dr Rakesh Kumar discussed the relationship between Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, and Dogri.

Noted Hindi literary critic Dr Dharmpal Maini talked about the human values upheld by Gurbani and its relevance in the modern world.

Dr D.S. Kaushal from Kurukshetra University, Dr Joga Singh from Punjabi University, Patiala, Dr Ritu Parna Dutta, Prof Rajni Kant Joshi, Chairman, Hindi Bhawan, Gujarat Vidya Peeth, Ahmedabad, and Prof Vinod Kumar Sinha, prominent journalist from Sitamarhi, Bihar, were also among the speakers.

Jalandhar, February 17
Their farm is an inspiration for many in this area. Seeds, soil treatment, storage or marketing techniques, you name it and the father-son duo Gurdev Singh and Tarlochan Singh have the latest farming strategy up their sleeve.

On their 35-acre farm (not counting their land on lease) in Chomo village (Adampur), they grow wheat, sugarcane, maize, sunflower and potatoes.

In 1961, a plough and a pair of oxen was all their farming paraphernalia consisted of, but today they have all the agricultural implements a farmer might need.

They have rotovators, tillers, seed drills, crushers, thrashers, diggers, reapers, automatic planters and subsoilers. They have also been the first ones to use most of these.

As Tarlochan Singh says, “When the land became hard after years of paddy farming, we bought a subsoiler. At that time there were few others using it.”

Their farm houses a unit where they store their machines and a little workshop where they repair them.

Thanks to lessons learnt from regular visits to PAU seminars (right since the time when MS Randhawa was the VC), they have always been votaries for improved seeds.

Also, radio listeners, they say they picked up many of their vital farming lessons from AIR. “Later, the AIR came to us,” they laugh in unison.

Chosen as certified PUNSEED growers in the area, they were among the first ones to use sprinklers and rain guns at their farm.

They have also devised systematic channels of pipes, ferrying water from their tubewells to irrigate their fields.

On the domestic front too, they believe in being self-sufficient. Their farm has a biogas plant, a storehouse and a kitchen garden where they grow their own vegetables like spinach, garlic, onions, fenugreek and cauliflower etc.

Gurdev Singh says, “A farmer shouldn’t be going to the vegetable market with a bag in his hand. He can at least grow his own vegetables.”

All the vegetables at their home are cooked in the traditional earthen chulha and a brilliant dudh karhni caters to the family and its workers’ everyday lassi needs.

Since another son of Gurdev Singh - Paramjit Singh - is a commission agent in the Adampur Grain Market, they are also sound on the marketing front.

Having their godown in the market also helps, since they had ample space to store their produce in the times of crises.

“We were among the first ones to sow basmati in this belt. Once when there were no takers for basmati in the market we stored it and reaped rich returns later on,” says Tarlochan.

They are creative with agriculture implements not in use. The fountains in their garden at home have the wheel of an atta chakki (wheat grinder) as its base and out-of-use disc harrows for added ornamentation at the top.

Keen on environmental issues too, they are among the few who have always stuck to sowing paddy only after June 5. “Ideally, it should be sown after June 15 but farmers sow it as early as the first week of May. That consumes a lot of water. It’s important for a farmer to be conscious about saving water.”

What about organic farming? “Yes. It’s important. But one needs time to adopt it. Because the land used to indiscriminate use of pesticides takes some time to regain its natural quality, organic farming initially results in losses but the gain in the long run is much more. We do plan to go organic with some of our land from our next crop,” quips Tarlochan Singh.

Jalandhar, February 17
The nursing staff of the Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Hospital today organised a gate rally against the reluctance of the state government in reviving their pay scale in accordance with the recommendations of the pay commission.

The protesters also demanded from the government to regularise the on-contract nursing staff in the department. They threatened that the staff nursing associations would resort to organise strike and protest marches if the government would fail to address their demands.

Jalandhar, February 17
Back in the college days, he and his little tambourine used to rock the campus. He was a heartthrob of the Dashmesh Auditorium crowds at Guru Nanak Dev University.

Back then, the crowds used to look forward to Teji’s and Satinder Satti’s (she was his college mate) song and poetry exchange with bated breath at the youth festivals.

Slowly and steadily riding up the success ladder in the Punjabi music industry, singer Teji Sandhu is now all set to make waves in Bollywood with the title song for the Govinda-starrer “Not Yet 40”. Acclaimed director Monty is the composer for the number titled “Tere Naina”.

The singer chatted with The Tribune on one of his recent visits to Jalandhar, the city that he says he owes his success to.

Born in a family of farmers at Chakoki village, he has countless memories of singing songs during buffaloes’ rides at home.

As a kid, Teji’s initial fascination with music began when he heard his mother sing. Participation in school events early on brought the first taste of success on the stage and by the college days, he was a hero.

Pursuing his education from DAV College, Nakodar, Phillaur and Amritsar, he plunged into the world of struggle right after college, but it wasn’t long before he got his big break.

He cut his first album Gori in 2006, but he says his big break came, “When I was introduced to the guys at Music Wave Company by treasured friend Gurpreet Ghuggi.”

His second venture, a single in the album “Sikka”, happened in 2008.

The surprise package in his life has been his camaraderie with cricketer Harbhajan Singh. “I met him during one of my meetings with Ghuggi Bhaji and we got along really well.”

They are close friends and swear by each other.

Bhajji was a model for a hit song “Aja Mere Mapeyan Di Nunh Ban Ke” of his album “Gori” and they also plan a collaboration for one of the songs of his recently released album “Neele Nain”, which was, incidentally, also released by Bhajji at Mumbai on February 4. His friend Gurpreet Ghuggi was also present on the occasion.

“When Bhajji is back from the World Cup, he would be model for the song ‘Nachna’ in my new album. There are plans to make him the lara (bridegroom) in the video this time,” he laughs.

Teji’s rustic, bold Punjabi voice and his sense of rhythm, right since the tambourine days, makes him a hit with the crowds. He has churned out other hits like “Dil Bari Keemti Cheez” and “Akhiyan Ch Tun Vasdi”.

Looking back, he considers himself lucky that he was able to turn his hobby into a profession.

“A modest village guy now making his voice heard across the nation, what could be luckier,” he says.

His close-knit circle of talented friends in Jalandhar and elsewhere is dear to him and he is respected in the music circles, but he has always been conscious about not letting success getting to his head and loves the fact that he never believed in shortcuts.

“Banda fukra ho janda hai hit ho ke, baad ch ghar baih janda hai. (one gets high-headed with success, later when the riches come, he gets spoilt and sits at home). A shortcut to success is never good. When you get in a long line for the ticket, there is a time when you are first. If you are talented and hardworking, success will follow,” he quips.