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It’s raining VVIPs as poll fever grips city
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Three jail guards face the music as undertrial flees from hospital
City resident defrauds ambassador
Participants at a workshop on story telling in Amritsar on Sunday.
Buses, auto-rickshaws leave little space for other vehicles to move on city roads. Tribune photo :
Vishal Kumar
Rajiv spreads the laughter dose
Northern Indian Anatomical Society holds conference
‘Tree Talk’ for art lovers
The final five
Junior docs call off strike
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It’s raining VVIPs as poll fever grips city
Amritsar, November 13 With most of political personalities belonging to the holy city and busy in presiding over one programme or the other, at least over a dozen key politicians from both the ruling alliance and the opposition will not spare any chance to pay a visit here. Another reason for Amritsar being such a favourite city is the presence of SGPC head quarters, known as mini Sikh parliament, and Golden Temple here. The frequent visits of VVIPs have overburdened the administrative and police officials, who are busy 24x7 in facilitating political programmes while it is the common man who suffers most. It also has taken its toll on the health of the police officials. Police officials especially the lower rank officials have been working for almost 16 hours a day. A large number of police personnel are deputed to provide security to the leaders. The police officials also remained on their toes round-the- clock during the World Cup kabaddi tournament held in the city a couple of days ago. Being one of world’s major tourist destinations, the city records the maximum footfall. It will not be inappropriate to say that the city police is already grappling with the problem of staff crunch. According to estimates the city has 4,500 policemen to safeguard a population of over 20 lakh. It’s not only the common man who is feeling the pinch but also the police and administrative officials who were finding it difficult to cope with the situation arising from continuous VIP duties. “For two days we have been working continuously day and night due to the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal who was here for Kabaddi matches and inaugurating various development projects in the city. Tomorrow, rath yatra of Lal Krishan Advani, senior BJP leader, will arrive and we are preparing for it,” said a senior police official on the condition of anonymity. Apart from this, high security was provided to Kabaddi teams during Kabaddi World Cup matches held here. Gulcharan Singh Charak, in-charge, Punjab Congress affairs, also visited the city. The city is home town of Social Welfare Minister, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Animal Husbandry minister, Gulzaar Singh Ranike and Bikram Singh Majithia, former cabinet minister among others.
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Three jail guards face the music as undertrial flees from hospital
Amritsar, November 13 Pargat Singh, hailing from Sarhali village in Tarn Taran district, was awarded seven years imprisonment for attempting to murder his wife in 2008. Doctors attending upon him said he was a genuine patient and had complaint of severe pain on his chest. Dr Manjit Singh said, "Pargat's ailment was of serious nature. He had developed swelling on the right side just below the neck and had been referred to Civil Hospital on November 3. Doctors at the civil hospital referred him to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital from where he escaped," he said. Jail Superintendent, Amritsar, TS Maur, said the inmate might not be notorious but it was diligence on the part of the guards could not be ignored. “As soon as the matter was brought to my notice, the three guards who were on duty at the time of his escape were suspended and they will face a departmental probe. A case in this regard has been registered with the district police Majitha. This was not the lone instance when the jail inmates took advantage of the leniency of the escort guards. On March 19, an undertrial, identified as Happy, a resident of Tung Bala locality of the city, gave the guards a slip at the district courts complex where he was to be presented before the judge. He was booked in 2008 for chain snatching and was lodged in jail since. Similarly, on December 10, 2010, an Afghan prisoner who had been serving sentence under drugs and narcotics offence and on August 30, 2010, a Pakistani inmate Niyamat Ali, had escaped from the custody of jail personnel. Afghani national Shahjahan too was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital for medical aid and escaped right under the nose of four jail escort guards on duty. Official speak The inmate may not be that notorious, but the negligence on part of the guards cannot be ignored. As soon as the matter was brought to my notice, the three guards who were on duty at the time of the incident were suspended and will also face a departmental probe. — TS Maur, Jail Superintendent, Amritsar
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City resident defrauds ambassador
Amritsar, November 13 He purchased goods worth Rs 2 lakh online using State Bank of India’s credit card of the Indian ambassador. Pandey came to know about the shopping after he received the information of Rs 2 lakh purchase from the bank, it is learnt. The accused, who deals in electronic goods here, had bought a 10-gram gold coin using a fake identity of Satinder Singh of Guru Nanak Pura locality where the procured items were to be delivered. But when police reached Amritsar the address was found to be fake and the phone number given by the accused at the time of booking was also switched off. "He deliberately gave the fake address so that the courier company was forced to contact him and then he would personally collect the order," said an official. However, police got his new phone number from the credit card company and asked him to collect his order from a post office in Amritsar. He was arrested from the spot. During the raid the police recovered four gold coins of two grams each and a desktop computer from his house procured through online shopping on the stolen card. Committed a fraud earlier too
While a city resident was arrested by the Delhi police, the city police did not have any idea about the modus operendi of the accused or the details of the investigations even as the Delhi police have claimed that more arrests are likely to be made in this connection while adding that he had committed a similar crime earlier too. Nirmal Singh, SHO Sultanwind Police station said, “We were never the part of the investigation and has little knowledge about the proceedings in the matter.” However, he confirmed that the Delhi police had raided the residence of the accused falling in our jurisdiction, after taking us into
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Gift children life lessons wrapped in stories
Neha Saini Tribune News Service
Amritsar, November 13 “We have to break the chain of classroom heavy education system in India as it may make your id an academic genius but do nothing for his intellect," says Priya Kurian, an illustrator-cum- writer who creates children books. In Amritsar to conduct a workshop at One Up, a library-cum-experience centre, Priya emphasises upon alternate learning tools of education. “Children should enjoy learning. We see them start young in school with textual education, but allowing them to express freely through the visual or creative medium helps to develop their mental, intellectual and emotional quotient as well." “Illustrations too are a language in which they can speak, in an interesting way to communicate with their elders," says Priya. The habit should develop early. Agrees Eric Miller, the founder-director of the World Storytelling Institute in Chennai conducted a workshop on storytelling in Amritsar. “For kids, it is another creative way to get education. Puppetry, animation, illustrations and acting are all mediums of telling a story through performances." His method is conversational, asking kids to put themselves into the shoes of the protagonists in the story and judge for themselves. "My stories may or may not have the same outcome as the original but at least it enables them to play up their imagination," he says. Our story telling has been based on our religious and mythological texts. Then there were folktales, tales of legends and legions from regions across the country. But with the effects of modernization, storytelling took a back seat. “Thankfully, in India the art of storytelling did not die. It just got overshadowed by the TV, Internet boom,” says Miller, adding, “Traditional stories, folktales etc were based on everyday life. Through a story we can understand our inner self by putting ourselves into the similar situation.” Miller also is interested in breaking virtual walls and sharing stories through videoconferencing. "Visualisation and painting stories are also something that catches children's attention. Storytelling is like one-man theatre, where you play all the parts and also involve the audience." Miller is trying to drive game design towards storyline-centric gaming. But parents too have a role to play. "They have to identify and encourage these skills in the child early on. Expose him to as many such activities and then let the kid decide what he or she wants to do in life," says Priya.
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Buses at terminus become source of traffic jams
Amritsar, November 13 Besides roads around the bus terminal, traffic chaos from Bhandari bridge to Tara Wala Pull and from Mahan Singh Gate to railway crossing on Amritsar-Tarn Taran road via Gurdwara Shahidan are order of the day. Several accidents also take place in these areas due to undisciplined driving and heavy traffic flow. A large number of buses ply on Jalandhar-Amritsar GT Road, which is a national highway connecting the border district with the national capital. Thus, it experiences a great rush of commuters. Besides, major cities of the Punjab, Jalandhar and Ludhiana are located on this road while it connects with roads leading to Patiala and Chandigarh. Drivers of buses, especially private ones, do not mind parking their vehicles on a roadside for picking up and dropping passengers. Auto-rickshaw drivers also park their vehicles around the buses to catch passengers first. It invariably leads to competition among the autorickshaws. The thoughtless competition leads to parking of vehicles on the middle of road. It not only hits smooth traffic flow and also aggravates the chances of accidents. In the past, the Amritsar traffic police initiated many programmes to discipline auto-rickshaw drivers but these failed to deliver any result. The long-held impression that traffic chaos will vanish with the operationalisation of the elevated road has been proved to be non-working, said Shamsher Singh, a resident. A possible solution
Prashant Purohit, manager, Rohan and Rajdeep, a private concern managing the Inter-State Bus Terminal, said traffic chaos could end if the provision for plying inbound and outbound buses from the terminal to elevated road was made. He said the matter was raised in the quarterly meeting of the transport department with the district administration. He said at this stage only experts could say whether it was feasible or not. A senior official of the Punjab Roadways said that he, in his private capacity, had forwarded a plan to the government before the start of the construction of the elevated road. Apparently, it was not taken into consideration. Hence, the bus terminal does not have access to the elevated road. As per the plan, buses coming from Fatehgarh Churriyan, Batala and Majihta bypasses could access the elevated road through Mehta road. On the other hand, inbound and outbound buses to and fro from Malwa region could access the elevated road to Tara Wala Pull from there they could turn to Tarn Taran road via Sultanwind.
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Rajiv spreads the laughter dose
One amongst the long list of Punjabi comedy artists ruling the national television, Rajiv Thakur believes Punjabis are natural comedians. “Punjabi virsa and everyday life is full of natural humour. People in Punjab are born with great comic timing. We have a tradition of ‘marasis’, stand up artists who performed in villages. Today, the stand up artists are just a modern version of that tradition,” says the artist. Reality shows have given a platform to many Punjabi artists, who in turn have made sure that they rule the domain. Apart from their genes, what else do they do right? “It’s all about observation. We just try to bring in everyday elements in our comedy and it’s spontaneous,” says Rajiv. He lays down three straight rules for a good stand up artist, “Spontaneity, good acting and knowledge of latest happenings is very important. You have to create comedy out of everyday things.” Blowing away the myth that stand up artists don’t have much scope outside the tube box, he says that the real picture is exact opposite. “We don’t have time for small time characters roles in films. Most of us are very busy with our work on television and so movie offers do come in plenty but until something good comes up, it’s not worth. Personally, I would rather choose to be a sub inspector in Majitha Road tan to become a constable in
Mumbai.” Well said. As for the contestants of laughter da Master, Rajiv is looking forward to find another talented artist from the region. “They have proved themselves in the studio, now they have to do it in front of a live audience.” |
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Northern Indian Anatomical Society holds conference
Amritsar, November 13 They discussed the various causes which result in the defects in the newly born children and the cures which can be implied to avoid the defects. Speaking on the occasion, the head of the sports medicine department at Guru Nanak Dev University said such kind of cases in country are increasing. He added that lack of exercise and unhealthy lifestyle among women increase chances of such cases. Dr Sohan Singh from X-ray department of the medical college said such defects could be diagnosed within 100 days of the pregnancy the help of latest techniques. He added that abortions could be used to avoid birth of such children. Dr Ashok Goyal from department from pharmacology informed patients about the use of certain medicinal drugs that can be avoided to give birth to healthy children.
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‘Tree Talk’ for art lovers
Amritsar, November 13 It was the 70th edition of ‘Tree Talk’
The programme was organised by Amritsar Sacred Heart Alumni (ASHA), an organisation of former students of the school. The programme was unique as it included the components of melody interspersed with poetry, art of painting and music. Shiromani Kavi awardee Parminderjit Singh recited his famous poem ‘Harre Patte’ besides Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Mere Humdum Mere Dost’ by noted radiologist Dr Inderbir Nijjer, Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s ‘Rukh’ by Dr Samir Rai, a folklore about a tree standing as the witness for the Maharaja by Dr Joginder Kairon. Sufi and devotional songs were rendered by Karan Kumar, Kartik Abroal and Hargun Kaur. They are the city’s budding singers who have won TV reality shows. Besides, ‘Live Painting’ by theatre artiste Neeta Mohindra, DPS principal Sangeeta Singh spoke on stubble burning and its impact on the environment. Saplings were also distributed free of cost to all participants.
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The five young stand up artistes from Punjab will fight for a winning position in Laughter da Master grand finale. Rajhveer Boli
Umang Sharma The youngest of the contestants, this 18 year old believes he’s got what it takes to be a winner. “It’s my first ever experience as an artist and facing the camera was tough. But once I got used to it, there was no stopping. If I win, it’ll be a dream come true but if I don’t, then also it just a beginning for me.” Satti Sandy Pursuing MBA from Symbiosis, taking up a career in comedy was nothing of a surprise for this young guy from Phagwara. “I have performed at youth festivals and also won a gold medal for my performance. I think one cannot learn comedy, you are born with the talent.” Surinder Amgural The Jalandhar-based student of journalism mixes comedy with a nose for news. “I create comedy from everyday happenings. The level of competition in this genre is tough now and you have to think out of the box to succeed.” Dheeraj Kumar 21-year-old guy from Taran Tarn believes spontaneity and good observation are his strengths. “I try to find humour in everything I see.”
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Junior docs call off strike
Amritsar, November 13 The resident doctors have been invited for a meeting with the CM on Wednesday after which the Junior Resident Doctors Association took a decision to end the protest. Association president Sneh Singal said the Chief Minister has assured to consider their demands. Singal said the CM has called a meeting of senior officials of the medical education to discuss the matter. Singal said the doctors may again go on protest if the government failed to fulfil its promise. Junior resident doctors, who are also the postgraduation students of medical sciences at the college, had earlier complained that they did not get their remunerations for their services.
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Tell tales
Amritsar, November 13
A theatre artist from Barnala, this 24 year comedian hopes he strike the right chord. “I have been performing at various national level events and usually write my own acts. But the creative team of the show has really helped us in grooming our skills. I have planned a surpise act for the finale.”