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Unruly scenes mark MC budget session
Cricket mania grips city as India take on Pak in World Cup semis today
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Durgiana Temple panel passes Rs 10.5-cr budget
20-member GND varsity planning board formed
Punjabi theatre needs boost: Dr Atamjit
Farmer, workers to intensify stir
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Unruly scenes mark MC budget session
Congress refutes Mayor’s
charge Reacting over the allegations of physical assault made by City Mayor Shwait Malik yesterday after the budget session, Congress delegate HS Bhatia today said the issue was unnecessarily exaggerated by the Mayor and his party men. The chaos on the MC premises was created by Class IV employees who were unhappy over non-acceptance of their genuine demands. Despite giving assurance to them, the City Mayor dropped their demands from the House agenda, thus infuriating them. “It was not proper for the Mayor to get them booked or raise finger at the Opposition for no reasons,” he said.
Amritsar, March 29 MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said there had been over 300 per cent improvement in executing development works. House tax collection, which was about Rs 7 crore in 2002-2007 during the Congress regime, has been gone up to Rs 17 crore. The collection went up from Rs 6 crore to Rs 16 crore in case of water supply and from Rs 5 crore to Rs 14 crore in case of the building wing. Congress councillors led by Opposition leader Ranjan Agarwal and councillor Navdeep Singh Goldy, however, launched a protest and said the budget was a mere eyewash. They alleged all development works were limited to the wards governed by the BJP or the SAD councillors whereas the Congress-led wards had been totally ignored. They also raised slogans against the Mayor. Congress councillor Ajit Singh Bhatia alleged the water-disposal system in the golden avenue block and the east Mohan Nagar areas of his ward (No. 20) had not been rectified despite repeated reminders. “We don’t see any development and find no logic in Mayor’s boasting of development projects that remained only on papers,” he said. Another Congress councillor Ranjan Aggarwal said the vigilance inquiry into the alleged scam in laying of roads had not been executed till date. Out of Rs 100 crore, only Rs 72 crore was spent on road projects, but the authorities had failed to give any account of the remaining money. While the situation inside the conference hall led to ruckus in the House, an equally piquant situation arose outside the conference hall when several SAD-BJP councillors, including Mayor Shwait Malik, alleged that they were roughed up by some opposition party men. Malik called up Deputy Commissioner of Police AS Chahal and demanded immediate suspension of the officer on duty during the budget session. Councillor Mini Sehgal (ward No 45) alleged the attackers seemed to be under the influence of liquor. Prabhjot Kaur (ward No 43) said she was saved by his driver, while she was moving out of the House. A case under Sections 307, 186, 353, 342 and 149 of the IPC has been registered with the e-division police station, against 11 persons. Two arrests have also been made. Meanwhile, the Nagarpalika Karamchari Sangh staged a protest outside the conference hall against the exclusion of their charter of demands regarding regularisation of the services of 433 Class IV employees. President of the sangh Jaspal Kumar said some of the employees had been associated with the corporation for the past 15 year, but they had not been awarded the regular scales so far. |
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Cricket mania grips city as India take on Pak in World Cup semis today
Amritsar, March 29 Multiplexes are luring cricket fans to watch the much-awaited contest on big digital screens while old popular cinema halls are also not in the mood to give in. Anam and Rialto have installed banners for wooing cricket fans
to witness the nerve-wrecking match on the big screen. In order to withstand competition from multiplexes, these theatres have kept ticket prices very low. While multiplexes are charging Rs 400 and above, these theatres
are offering tickets for Rs 50 each. Ashish Shukla, Head Exhibition, Cinepolis India, said Cinépolis would show the match at its local theatre at Celebration Mall here. The theatre has a seating capability of more than 300. He said the 70-mm screen would offer wide-angle high-definition video with stunning clarity. Moreover, there would be no commercial breaks between overs. Hotel Country Inn and Suites has installed a big screen with the catch word “Clash of the Titans” to attract fans. There are many hotels in the city which are making combo offers to woo as many customers as possible. On the other hand, artisans, factory workers, office-goers and employees of various departments are expected to abstain from their work to view the match. Davinder Khanna, secretary of the Sarraffa Association, and Billu Jain of the Jewellers Association said there was no announcement for keeping the shops closed tomorrow. However, they said majority of the artisans had informed them that they would not report on work tomorrow. |
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Durgiana Temple panel passes Rs 10.5-cr budget
Amritsar, March 29 It envisaged an income of over Rs 6.55 crore for the fiscal ahead. A sum of Rs 5.8 crore would be spent on development works, while Rs 5.52 crore would be needed for expenditure under various heads. On meeting the deficit, Mahajan said the state government and its agency would give Rs 2.7 crore, including, Rs 1.8 crore towards cost of installing a water treatment plant on the temple premises. The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) would pay Rs 1.62 crore for taking over the land of the SDC, while the rest of the deficit would be made good through offerings and donations from devotees, he added. A sum of Rs 3.2 crore had been kept aside for gold-plating of the sanctum sanctorum, using 17 kg gold. Rs 4.39 crore was spent on gold-plating during the fiscal 2010-2011. Rs 6.5 lakh have been earmarked for sprucing up the Mata Dhanwant Kaur Dharamshala. Mata Dhanwant Kaur, who belonged to Rai Bahadur family of Lahore, had got the dharamshala built and donated it to the temple in 1945. It provides shelter to devotees at nominal rates. There are plans to improve sanitary condition in the dharamshala, which has 41 rooms and a big hall. Devotees can stay there for a maximum of three days. With a view to beautify the temple, three fountains would be built and Ved Bhawan hall would be widened to increase its seating capacity. |
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20-member GND varsity planning board formed
Amritsar, March 29 Registrar Dr Inderjit Singh said besides the newly designated/appointed Dean, Academic Affairs, Prof Rajinderjit Kaur Pawar (who would take over the charge on April 1); Dean, Students Welfare, Dr MPS Ishar; Dean, College Development Council, Dr MS Hundal; Professor in charge (Finance and Development), Dr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon; president, University Teachers’ Association, Dr Balwinder Singh and Secretary, University Teachers’ Association, Dr Dalbir Singh Sogi had been appointed members. Former president and secretary of the University Teachers’ Association Dr TS Banipal and Dr Sukhpreet Singh had also been inducted as members of the board, he added. Prof RK Mahajan (Dean, Faculty of Sciences), Prof Radha Sharma (Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), Prof KS Kahlon (Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), three professors, Dr Jaspal Singh Sandhu (Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy Department), Dr Bikramjit Singh Bajwa (Physics Department); Dr Vikram Chadha (Punjab School of Economics); three readers, Dr BS Mann (Commerce and Business Management), Dr Davinder Singh (Psychology) and Dr Saroj Bala (Botanical and Environmental Sciences); and lecturer Parminder Kaur (Computer Science and Engineering) would be the other members of the board, he added. |
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Punjab Naatshala turns 13
Amritsar, March 29 In the words of its founder Jatinder Singh
Brar, “Our mission is to make Naatshala an ultimate choice of the artistes and the viewers. We have been relieved with the gesture of the state government of waiving off the entertainment tax and now it’s been smooth sailing for the
Naatshala,” he said. Earlier, the plays to be staged here were solely dependent upon the sponsorship and the show used to be for free. “We observed that there was no dearth of audience but the performers used to take little interest keeping in mind that they would be getting the fixed remuneration under any circumstances. Consequently, they, too, used to have a casual approach. Even in some cases, their endeavour would be to rope in less number of artistes, but now we have formulated a policy of paid tickets at Rs 50 a seat, wherein the performers know that they would have to be crowd pullers to get the play as well as themselves hit. The footfall is quite appreciable”, Brar said. It is to note that the Punjab Naatshala came into existence on March 27, 1998, with a specific aim of promotion of the art of theatre, by assimilating art with technology to make it more popular among the masses in the modern world of multimedia. “We aim at shaping our commitment to reality, spreading mass awareness about social evils and dogmas, enlightening people about their social obligations, changing their personal attitudes towards importance of time, discipline, civic sense and public security along with neat and clean family entertainment,” he
emphasised. “In this pursuit the Naatshala provides best possible theatrical equipment to the artistes for rehearsals and staging high-quality plays. To attain high-quality performances equivalent to international standards, the Naatshala is trying its best to maintain equilibrium in art, culture and technology by achieving distinction in each field,” he reiterated. The Naatshala has a seating capacity of 225 persons and the maximum distance between the last row seat viewer and the revolving stage is 40 feet. Acceleration, retardation and revolving speed of the stage can be programmed before any performance. “Enough number of sets can be prepared according to requirements of different scenes in a play. The whole system is designed in such a way that when one scene is being enacted the set for next scene can be changed without any hassle,” he said. Further, the lighting system, equipped with digital dimmers with several conventional lights, moving headlights, optical fibre lights, remote-controlled cyclorama equipped with LED lights capable of producing numerous colour schemes and eight channel sound systems, have the capacity to make the audience spell-bound. |
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Young World
Amritsar, March 29 Meeta Pandit is regarded as a living legend in art circles. Ustaad Wasifuddin Dagar delved joyously into various ragas on dhrupad, representing the purest expression of classical music. His emphasis on melodic clarity, spectral fidelity and a bold and emphatic bowing technique were unparalleled. Toppers
First semester Bachelor of Design students of BBK DAV College for Women, Amritsar, have bagged top three positions in the examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University. Sabha Mehra, Surbhi Arora and Tamana Tuli have bagged the first, second and the third position, respectively. Dr Neelam Kamra, Principal of the college, said, “I wish the students best of luck for their future endeavours. This has been possible due to the collective efforts of the dedicated staff of the department and enthusiastic students.” Applauding the toppers, Head of Department Mandeep Sokhi and Assistant Professor in Design Lalit Gopal congratulated the students and expressed hope that the new students would take lead from them. Workshop
A workshop on “Teaching four language skills” was held in DAV International School. It was conducted by Cambridge ESOL at Sahodaya Schools Complex, Amritsar. Neeru Sethi, academic coordinator, ESOL examinations, was the resource person. Manish Puri, manager, schools, ESOL examinations, was also present on the occasion. The aim of the workshop was to make teachers of English learn the integrated use of four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) while teaching in the classroom. Besides the teachers of the host school, the workshop was also attended by teachers of 24 different schools from all over Punjab. The workshop began with the lighting of a lamp. The guests were honoured by school Principal Anjana Gupta by presenting them bouquets. In her address to the participating teachers, she extended a warm welcome to all of them and highlighted the important role played by language teachers in enhancing language skills of the students. English - being a foreign language - is difficult to learn as well as teach. Learning this language is based on the four skills - learning, speaking, reading and writing. Resource person Neeru Sethi also spoke on the occasion. She emphasized on the four language-learning skills through various activities like dictation, supplying missing information, picture description and chain story. Interaction
Students of Spring Dale School here had an opportunity to interact with Holland-based Director Kris Kristenson and witnesses documentaries filmed by him. Based on the theme of runaway brides, the documentaries pertained to studies conducted by Kristenson in Punjab, Bengal, Ladakh and Japan and dealt with various reasons that forced brides to run away from weddings. The idea to make such documentaries struck her while vacationing with a friend, Kristenson said. Dowry, superstitions prevalent in various conservative societies, familial pressures pertaining to marriage, fear of losing their freedom, aversion to the tradition of plural marriages in most societies and a host of other concerns made women run away from marriages, Kris said. “Such instances are a rarity in Europe though these can be widely found across other cultures,” Kris said. |
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Punjabi theatre needs boost: Dr Atamjit
Amritsar, March 29 He said this while delivering the Sardar Mahan Singh Dhesi Memorial Lecture under the auspices of the School of Punjabi Studies of Guru Nanak Dev University here. Playwright and theatre personality Jatinder Brar presided over the function. Earlier, Dr Sukhdev Singh Khahra, convener of the function welcomed the guests and spoke about Sardar Mahan Singh Dhesi. Dr HS Bhatia conducted the proceedings. Speaking on “The litterateurs: Creation and staging of creation”, Dr Atamjit said the under-development of theatre in Punjab could be attributed to political, economic and religious reasons. The personal perceptions of playwrights were also responsible for this, he added. He also traced the history of theatre movement in Punjab and interacted with students on creative writing. He said any creation could be meaningful only if the writer was honest and full of conviction. Moreover, his subject should be multi-dimensional. “The writer should have the courage to express his inner feelings as only this can distinguish him from others,” he added. Among others, Shiromani Natakar Kewal Dhaliwal, Dr Jagdeep Sachdeva, Dr Paramjit Singh Judge, Shiromani Poet Parminderjit Singh, Dr Gurmeet Singh, Dr Harbhajan Singh Bhatia and Dr Harchand Singh Bedi also expressed their views on the subject. Dr Kanwaljit Grover, Dr Harjit Kaur, Dr Kawaljit Jassal, Dr Raminder Kaur, Dr Darya, Dr Barkat Ali, besides students and research fellows of the School of Punjabi Studies were also present on the occasion. |
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Farmer, workers to intensify stir
Tarn Taran, March 29 The conference was organised by the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC) with the assistance of 16 state-level farmer-worker organisations to pay tributes to Angrej Singh Bakipur on his 7th death anniversary. A large number of women farmers also participated in the conference. The participants listened to the views of their leaders patiently for hours together in spite of hot conditions. Satnam Singh Pannu of the KSC, Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan of the BKU (Ugrahan-Ekta) and other leaders condemned the policies of the state and the Union Government. They said these policies had made the condition of farmers and workers pitiable. They raised slogans against the government for allegedly delaying the acceptance of their demands. |
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