Amritsar, March 1
The Indian Railway’s Sanskriti Yatra, an exhibition train, marking the 150th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore arrived here today. The attendance of locals remained thin, as the event was not adequately advertised.

Railway official PK Khumari, who is travelling in the train since it was flagged off by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee from the Rail Museum in Howrah on May 9, 2010, said each coach of the five-boggy exhibition train had a specific theme. These themes displayed varied aspects of Tagore's life and teachings. The first coach named Jibon Smriti was named after the legendary poet's famous autobiography.

The second coach is named after his magnum opus Gitanjali. Similarly, the boggy displayed Tagore's beautiful songs, verses and poems. Another coach was christened as Jogajog - Muktodhara and it was a reflection of Tagore's literature and dramas.

The fourth coach Chitrarekha showcased his painting skills besides paintings of other eminent artists were also on display.

The last coach named Sesh Katha displayed photographs of Tagore. Besides, it also offered artefacts and souvenirs from Shantiniketan. Led by Assistant Traffic Manager, Manmohan Singh Sandhu railway officials welcomed the train. On a nationwide tour, the exhibition train would return to Howrah on May 8, 2011.

Amritsar, March 1
No member of a political party would now be the office-bearer of the Durgiana Temple Management Committee as per the new amendments made in its constitution. The amendments were passed during the general house meeting of the temple held here today.

The amendments were put forward by Harish Taneja, general secretary of the committee, while Satpal Mahajan, president, presided over the meeting.

The general house meeting also decided to conduct elections for selection of new office-bearers after every five years wherein no interference of political party would be tolerated.

He said in future the elections would be conducted by a three-member committee appointed by the working committee members.

Informing this, Harish Taneja said to avoid any bungling or misappropriation of funds, an internal auditor and charted accountant would be appointed to audit the financial record.

Among others who were present during the meeting including Ram Parkash Chopra, Surinder Mohan Mehra, both patrons, Ramesh Sharma, General Secretary and Raj Wadhawa, manager of committee.

Taneja said the general house also passed a resolution urging the police to nab Surinder Arjun, former Congress leader and president of the committee, who has been absconding for the last three years after the charges of corruption.

He had been declared proclaimed offender by the court, he said.

The general house also passed various development works of the temple, including gold plating of the main sanctum sanctorum. He said the work of gold plating of two sides had already completed while the work on third side would be completed in 2011-2012.

It is also pertinent to mention here that several previous members of the committee had objected to the amendments of the constitution and holding of meeting describing the current management committee as illegal. They had threatened to approach court against these amendments.

Amritsar, March 1
Veteran players and sports enthusiasts are irked with the government over the omission of Amritsar as a venue for the seven-day Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games, which kicked off at four districts in the state.

Billed as the state’s first biggest prize money tournament, the SAD-led coalition government ignored the holy district as one of the hosts of the tournament, they maintained.

The tournament will see players from 11 sports disciplines vying for honours. However, not a single of them was allotted to the city, which has sent a contingent of 299 members, including, 43 officials.

Hockey has been given to Jalandhar, shooting to Mohali, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting and volleyball to Patiala and athletics, basketball, kabaddi, football and tug-of-war to Ludhiana.

Veteran hockey player, Balwinder Singh Shammi, who donned the Indian colours in 1988 Seoul Olympics, said hockey matches of either girls or boys could be allotted to Amritsar as it has an astro-turf ground in Guru Nanak Dev University.

He anticipated that Jalandhar hockey stadium must be in a tight situation as it is holding six to seven matches a day. He said these ties could easily be shared with the neighbouring district of Amritsar. He said the district had traditionally been a fertile ground of hockey players.

Former national athletes Gurinder Singh Mattu said the district had produced an array of athletics and wrestling players. He opined that holding of the tournament could have given a much-needed fillip to the youngsters to turn to sports in a big way.

When contacted, Director, Sports, Pargat Singh said Guru Nanak Stadium, Amritsar’s only stadium, was currently under construction. Besides, it was a general stadium that could not be developed into a venue for a particular game.

He said Amritsar was invariably on priority of the department as the district had produced many renowned players. He said keeping in view the potential of games in the region a synthetic track for athletics was being laid at Tarn Taran. He disclosed that there was a plan to lay astro-turf somewhere either in Amritsar, Gurdaspur or Tarn Taran depending upon availability of the space.

He said the state was trying to get Hockey Champions Trophy, expected to be held in December, this year. He assured that if the tournament was granted to Punjab then Amritsar would be one of the venues.

Amritsar, March 1
The employees working in far-flung areas of the border under the banner of Border Area Employees’ Struggle Committee today demanded conveyance allowance of Rs 1,000 besides revision of border area allowance as per the new pay scales.

They have decided to approach the Member Parliaments and MLAs of border area including Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur. Initiating the process they submitted a memorandum to Vir Singh Lopoke, chairman, District Planning Board.

Aman Sharma, senior member of the committee, claimed that as per their information instead of revising the border area allowance as per the new scales, the government was trying to end the facility of whatever border area allowance they were getting. He said this would put extra financial burden on the employees who had to visit far-flung areas to work. The association urged the government to grant 25 per cent increase in border house rent allowance (BHRA). The committee pointed out that the employees, including teachers, health officials, have to travel about 30-50 kms from their city to reach to their service places.

“If they use buses for traveling they usually reaches late to their offices especially during winter season when dense fog engulfs the region and using personal vehicles is not economically viable. This put extra mental pressure on these employees,” he said.

He said their counterparts working near their native place were drawing huge benefits and therefore no employees like to go to far flung areas and this becomes a major reason for vacant posts in rural areas.

Amritsar, March 1
Guru Nanak Dev University organised a general public lecture by Prof Richard R Ernst, Nobel Laureate, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, on ‘Enabling a Beneficial Future For Our Descendants. What Can We Do, and What Shall We Not Do?’ at the Dasmesh Auditorium of the university.

An eminent scientist, Prof Alexander Pines, Glenn T Seaborg, Professor of Chemistry, Materials Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US, were also present on this occasion.

Prof Ernst in his lecture said degradation of environment, gap between rich and poor, lack of primary education, population, corruption and unemployment are the major concern in the developing countries.

He said the research should be meaningful and must be for the benefit of general masses. He said the responsibility of any human is to act so those, consequence of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine. He said according to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, let your daily worship be knowledge that god is everywhere and let renunciation of evil actions be the water jug you carry. He said all religions of the world have the different path, but one goal and principle.

While talking about the effective education, he said the most effective way of education is to stimulate the students’ curiosity and the learning would follow by itself. He said a full lecture-room of any education institute conveys a great feeling of superiority to the teacher.

He said the need of hour is that we all should have some role model. He said our goal shall be a prosperous and happy future for our children.

Prof Ernst suggested the students to speak up and express their opinion as freely as ever possible on all relevant subjects. He said that frank personal opinions are more valuable than to avoid making errors. He said that let's dream visions and invent an ideal world and try to implement it.

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor also hounoured Prof Ernst with a shawl and set of university publications on this occasion.

Amritsar, March 1
Nobel laureate Prof Richard R. Ernst from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, laid the foundation stone of the Emerging Life Sciences Block of the Guru Nanak Dev University here today. This building is located near the heritage centre of the university.

Similarly, Prof Alexander Pines of FRS University of California, Berkeley, US, laid the foundation stone of the extension of chemistry block of the university. This building would be located near the chemistry block of the university.

Vice-Chancellor Prof AS Brar, Dean, Academic Affairs, Prof Surinder Singh Registrar, Dr. Inderjit Singh; Dean, Students Welfare, Prof. M.P.S. Ishar; Dean, Life Sciences, Dr. Sukhdev Singh and Dean, Sciences Prof. R.K. Mahajan; Dean, Colleges, Prof. M.S. Hundal; Prof. A.K Thukral; Prof. Subodh Kumar; Prof. S.K. Aggarwal; Zoology, Head, Dr. Anish Kumar Dua; Mr. Mukesh Sharma; Dr. Harish Chander Sharma, Professor Incharge PR; other Non-teaching staff and students were also present on this occasion.

The four-story building of emerging life sciences block would come up at a cost of Rs 2.25 crore. There would be four big lecture halls, eight laboratories, eight classrooms and four faculty rooms.

Amritsar, March 1
Local artistes showcased their talent in music, dance, mime, poetry and other creative skills at a cultural programme held at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA) here today.

Child artistes Ishita, Kashish Sadana, Simran and Sukhman performed dance items on Bollywood numbers.

Female singers Balvinder Grover, Manveen Chamak, Sarla Bubber, Sanjna, Anmol, Tajinder Chhina and Tejinder Ada sang Pujabi and Hindi numbers.

Dr Arindaman Singh Mahal, Kanwarjit Singh, Dr KS Manchanda and Pushpinder Singh Grover offered Punjabi songs and Tappe (a genre of Punjabi folk song).

NS Gabarhia offered satirical poems of Isher Singh Isher.

Baldev Krishan, Bal Krishan Peda and Kuldip Anand were guest singers while music directors HS Sohal and KS Mundri managed the music.

Later, contests in best couple competition, best-dressed competition, group games were held. Surprise prizes to the audience were also distributed. — TNS

Amritsar, March 1
District Youth Congress (Urban), led by its president Dinesh Bassi today gheraoed the residence of Mayor Shwet Malik. They were protesting against his failure to provide details regarding Rs 526 crore development works which he claimed to have carried out in the district.

The activists raised slogans against the mayor. Bassi alleged that the Youth Congress had demanded the mayor to issue a white paper on the details of funds spent on so called various development projects in the city. He said he had given a time of one month and also served a reminder to the mayor, but he turned a blind eye towards their demand. The Youth Congress president threatened that if the mayor failed to provide the information he would come on roads and launch an agitation. 

Tarn Taran, March 1
Hundreds of job cardholders of MGNREGS, under the banner of Socio-Economics Development Programme (SEDP) and Awaz-e-Awam, organised a dharna here today protesting against lapses.

Daniel B Das, coordinator, SEDP, in his address said large number of lapses were being observed in giving jobs to the cardholders.

He said in 34 border area villages, out of 2,435 job cards only 754 cardholders were given jobs, a survey conducted by the organisation found.

There was not even a single village where jobs were given for 30 days in a year. Women folk were denied jobs, alleged Das.