Amritsar, October 11
The executive body of the Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association (GNDUTA) today held a fresh round of talks, targeted to resolve the ongoing deadlock, with the VC AS Brar and his team, this morning.

The teachers' representatives took a first-hand view of the VC's stance on various demands of the faculty and demanded an account of the steps he has promised to redress their grievances in 'black and white'. Though the VC had agreed to their demands yet the teachers have decided to hold a general body meeting tomorrow at the Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan conference hall.

GNDUTA president Balwinder Singh said, "Though there were some positive vibrations from the side of the authorities, yet we asked the VC to clear his stand in writing. He has agreed to this and we are waiting to receive a written proposal from him. Before announcing the further course of action, we would analyse the contents of the letter which would be read out in front of the teachers during the meeting of the general house scheduled to be held tomorrow."

Meanwhile, the dharna by teachers being held outside the VC's office entered its fifth day today. A large number of teachers were present. Dr DS Sogi, secretary, GNDUTA, spoke about the progress made in the context of the softening of the stance of the varsity authorities towards teachers' demands.

Dr Sohinderbir Singh, senior faculty member from the Punjabi Department shared his pain on being refused one week leave by an impulsive VC which he said was governed by no logic but personal whims only.

He also read couplets written by him in this context. HS Bhatia from the Department of Punjabi and Dr Soodan from the Department of Botanical Sciences spoke on the glorious journey of GNDUTA till date as well as the contrasting attitudes of the past Vice Chancellors who were far more pragmatic and rational, according to him. 

We express deep concern about the grossly unfair rejection of the teachers on flimsy grounds under the Career Advancement Scheme of the UGC, suspensions of teachers and victimisation of teachers. The university authorities have been arbitrarily deciding the date of promotion of the teachers without any objective criterion. It is sad that the government has been keeping mum. We have urged Punjab Governor to take a stock of the situation at the earliest
— satnam Singh, convener, Punjabi university coordination committee

Amritsar, October 11
The decision of the safai karamcharis to end the strike has not helped the residents of the holy city much, if the heaps of garbage piled up or burnt in different parts of the city is an indicator. The employees of the Municipal have found an easy way to solve the waste management problem. Just light a fire to the heap of accumulated garbage and forget about it.

It’s the simplest way to dispose of the garbage but the harm caused by this act is much more severe, but who cares. The officials who have to take steps to conserve the environment are themselves turning a blind eye towards the issue, thereby indirectly supporting the erring workers.

At some places, the sanitary employees burnt the garbage in the bin itself, thus leaving the environment heavily polluted.

The garbage near the bin (see picture) at the Queen’s road (near Alexandra Senior Secondary School), speaks volumes about how the officials have turned a blind eye to the “unpardonable” attitude of these sanitary employees, who instead of lifting the garbage from the bin to the designated place, burn it on the road itself to save “their time and extra effort”.

The garbage heaps were spotted in almost all the parts of the city, except the area around the Golden Temple or the road leading to the Sikh shrine. The Lawrence road, Mall road, Queens road, Circular road and the Basant Avenue areas which are frequented by tourists the most, were found to be littered with garbage all over.

Ironically, the Mayor Shwait Malik and the AMC Commissioner have recently been bragging about spending over Rs 12 crore for cleanliness projects in the city by introducing over 2,000 garbage bins in the city. The AMC authorities claimed to induct 90 rag-pickup tractor trolleys and claimed to induct 90 rag-pickup tractor trolleys, 150 new rag-picking trucks, 10 dumper placers, four road-sweeping machines, 60 hand-driven rehris and 60 rickshaw rehris,daily, in an endeavour to make the city “neat and clean”.

The Tribune team took rounds of various corners of the city only to find that this “heavy loaded” mechanism to deal with the garbage problem of the city is being defeated by its own men.

Trash burning in barrels can smoulder and as a result produce greater amounts of harmful chemicals. Harmful chemicals can also be present in the ash from the fire, the experts said.

However, trash containing plastics, polystyrene (such as foam cups), and bleached or coloured papers are examples of materials that can produce harmful chemicals when burnt.

Amritsar, October 11
A 21-year-old man Sandeep Kumar was allegedly murdered during a group clash in Islamabad area here today. No arrest has been made so far.

The police has registered a case under Section 302/148/149 IPC as well as Section 25 /54/59 of the Arms Act against Raman Kumar, Ravi Kumar and five other unidentified persons in connection with the case, according to the police.

According to Ashwani Kumar, father of the deceased and a resident of Mehar Pura Gurbax Nagar, Jhabal road, his son was stabbed to death with a sharp-edged weapon by some miscreants who intercepted him near Dhupai road.

The accused fled from the spot, according to the police.

“My son was taken to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital by some passers-by where the doctors declared him brought dead,” he said.

Kapurthala, October 11
Three members of a family residing in Amritsar were killed, while three others sustained injuries in a road accident near Gadana village in Kapurthala district.

The mishap occurred as a car collided head on with a truck near Gadana village on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway this afternoon.

The deceased have been identified as Satish Gupta, his daughter Himani Gupta (8) and relative Raj Kiran.

The injured have been admitted to a private hospital at Subhanpur.

The victims were going from Jalandhar to Amritsar in a car, which collided with a truck coming from the opposite side causing Satish Gupta’s death on the spot, whereas his daughter Himani and Raj Gupta succumbed to injuries in the private hospital.

Amritsar, October 11
Residents may find it difficult to buy firecrackers this Diwali as the wholesale fire-cracker merchants find it hard to find the right place to set up the market. Patakha Market in Jahajgarh area has already been ruled out to set firecracker shops and the traders have so far not been able to locate a suitable place to run their business even after a year. As a result, Police Commissioner, Amritsar, RP Mittal, has not been issued even a single license under the Explosives Act to allow the sale of firecrackers.

As per the norms, the Police commissioner issues licenses for a certain time period to allow the sale of firecrackers which fall under the category of explosives. Similarly, the Union Government issues licenses under the Petroleum and Explosive Safety act for their storage.

The Amritsar Fire Works Association president Harish Dhawan said the sale of crackers was a seasonal affair and its peak season was invariably a month before Diwali. He said the setting up of shops was a costly affair and they had been trying to locate the suitable place but with minimum success.

He said the members of the association had now located a place near the vegetable market at Vallah and were waiting for the permission from the Amritsar Improvement Trust, as it owns the land, to set up the market till Diwali.

He said there were around 30 wholesale traders, who have licenses under the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Act, and all of them procured material from Sivakasi. All of them had their shops at Jahajgarh, he said. The traders and employees were sitting idle in this peak season, he added.

He said all these traders had their godowns at various locations across the city especially at Chheharta, Dhapai and Tarn Taran roads. He said they had sold crackers worth Rs 7 crore last Diwali. Crackers worth the same value were stored in their godowns for this year as well, he said. He feared that te entire stock of firecrackers could gradually get spoiled with the change in the weather.

Earlier, wholesale cracker market used to be situated at IDH Market near the bus stand and Pappar Wala Bazaar near the Golden Temple. However, these markets had to be shifted to Jahajgarh in 2000 after a massive fire had broken out at IDH Market in which material worth crores got perished and loss of human life was also reported in 1999.

Amritsar, October 11
Characters played by women actors left an indelible mark at the three-day theatre festival organised at Punjab Naatshala, which concluded recently. Not just off but on the stage as well. It was women centric subjects dealt with in the four plays staged at the festival. Asking questions about the position of women in the society, the themes were more about women empowerment than the promotion of theatre. The two themes supported and complemented each other.

“The main focus was to promote theatre culture of theatre in Amritsar and provide a platform to local theatre groups. In the process, the issue of women empowerment and their struggle with society was highlighted through these plays,” says Jatinder Brar, director of Punjab Naatshala.

The opening day saw the play Dumroo performed by The Theatre Persons. Directed by Anita Devgan, the play was about the position of women in our society and highlighted their struggles of being subjected to scrutiny, rejection and disappointment at every point in their lives.

Another play Adh Vichale, staged on the second day by Rang Karmai Manch continued with the theme. The closing day saw two plays, Natti vinodini and Anni gali da mod staged by Kewal Dhaliwal’s Manch Rangmanch. Both plays, though different in their story and settings, told the same story of women surrendering to the societal pressures. Natti vinodini was based on the real life story of Vinodini, the first Bengali woman theatre actor who lived in the 19th century. “Set in a time, 150 years back, it showed the struggles faced by a young girl when she decided to do something considered a taboo.

Vinodini worked from the age of 12 to 24, doing 80 plays and portraying 90 characters. She never got the respect she deserved from society or her co-actors since acting was a male dominated industry then. The humiliation ultimately forced her to leave theatre, something she loved, when she was at the peak of her career,” says Kewal Dhaliwal, director of the play. The second play by Dhaliwal, Anni gali da mod was a sentimental weave reflecting the ups and downs of a mother-son relationship, hardships faced by a mother when her son chooses drug addiction over her and finally succumbing to it. The play was written by famous playwright Gurdyal Dalal.

Amritsar, October 11
With five times increase in prices of milk being supplied to halwais in the city this year, the rate of traditional sweets being prepared in pure ghee and vegetable oil have been also hiked by at least ten per cent this year.

Aman Kumar of Mahajan Sweets at Katra Bhagian said that the recurring increase in prices of milk has effected a hike in all milk products. Besides, the rise in prices of cereals, which are widely used in preparation of sweets, also forced the traditional sweetmeat maker to revise the prices.

Even as the rise in prices of key articles used in the preparation of mithai had burnt a hole in people’s pockets. A 10 per cent rise has been witnessed in the prices of sweets. He said the constant inflation had changed the trend as the sales of sweets picked up only a couple of days before Divali. He said, at present, families especially in order to celebrate the first year of the marriage of their children were the biggest buyers.

A customer at a leading sweetmeat shop of the city, Navdeep Kaur said that the inflation of essential commodities had hit their budget hard. She stated that it forced the families to curtail their budget on luxurious and non-essential items. She added that as per the tradition, families exchanged sweets on Divali.

An employee, Surjeet Singh, stated in an agitated tone that, “The government has not been able to evolve a mechanism to fix the prices of ready-to-eat products being sold in swanky, glitzy shops and even by vendors. They hike the prices of these eatables as per their whims and fancies, with no room for consumers to vent out their feelings”. The sweetmeat makers invariably cite the reason for hiking up of the prices of ingredients, behind their decisions to effect a hike in sweet prices.

Amritsar, October 11
As many as 200 students of Swami Satyanand College of Management and Technology, belonging to the graduate and post-graduate courses, were awarded degrees on the occasion of the first convocation of the college held today.

The students from the hotel management, bio-technology, computer application, tourism management and other courses received degrees.

Vice Chancellor, Punjab Technical University (PTU), Dr Rajneesh Sharma, gave away the degrees to the students.