Nakodar, October 17
A three-month-old child reportedly disappeared from a house at Mohalla Rehmanpura here on late Monday night. As the parents of the child suspected kidnapping, the police registered a case and launched a hunt to trace the child.

The Infant’s father Jasvir Singh told the police that his son Dharamvir along with his two siblings had slept with his mother Paramjit Kaur in their house on Monday night. As his wife woke up on Tuesday morning, she found the child missing from the bed.

Meanwhile, the police along with teams of dog squad and fingerprint experts reached the spot, but they could not get any vital clue.

Gurmit Singh, Station House Officer, said it seemed to be a case of kidnapping as the door latch inside the room was found broken.

A case under Section 365 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons.

Shahkot, October 17
A man was crushed to death by a tractor-trailer on the Malsian-Shahkot road here this morning.

The deceased, identified as Preetam Ram, alias Preetu, was resident of Miyewal Araiyan village, near here.

Sources said Preetam Ram along with his friends Sukhdev Singh and Manga, also residents of the same village, was going to Billi Braich village on a scooter and the moment they reached near Malsian, their scooter was hit by a tractor-trailer from the rear. Preetu fell on the road and was crushed to death by the tractor-trailer.

The tractor-trailer driver, Lakhwinder Singh, resident of Bathinda, attempted to flee, but was nabbed by the police later on. After impounding the vehicle, a case of negligent driving was registered against him.

Jalandhar, October 17
The Bilga police today claimed to have nabbed four persons in an alleged case of cow slaughtering. According to the police, the accused had eaten the beef of a calf after cooking the same at their residence in Bilga.

The accused were identified as Sonu, Bablu, Raju and Saleem, all residents of Bihar, but now residing in Bilga. They run a fast food "rehdi" at the village.

Sources said last month the accused had got a calf from a villager for rearing. A few days later the calf fled from their house, which was later handed over to a gaushala by villagers. The accused then brought back the calf from the gaushala.

The matter came to the fore after Bilga resident Baldev Singh today complained to the police that on October 6 he had seen the four persons slaughtering the animal and later cooking its beef. Acting on the complaint, the police rounded up the migrants and during questioning they confessed to the crime.

Though the police has not recovered any beef from the migrants, yet on the basis of their confession a case under Sections 3, 5 and 8 of the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955, and Sections 295, 201, 148 and 149 of the IPC has been registered against the four migrants.

Jalandhar, October 17
He is the curator and founder of a poetry movement, which has greatly broadened the way poetry is perceived.

As a voice-over artiste, media trainer and former anchor, Jeetenndra Ramprakash, who was inherently inclined to poetry right since his college days felt a need to work on it.

After spending 10 years pursuing TV projects (he was also a English news anchor on DD and hosted the popular show Morning ZEE on Zee TV) he took to voice-overs.

He gave voice-overs to some esteemed projects, including documentaries and light-and-sound shows for various Indian forts. He also started training mediapersons and gave speech-training lessons.

Conversing with The Tribune on the sidelines of Sadho Poetry Film Festival, he said it was his love for poetry and the constant need to revive it that gave birth to Sadho.

“Poetry has a huge place in literature and history. What I generally felt was that the passion with which people have always pursued poetry is somewhere on the wane. So Sadho was initiated with an intention to revive poetry. Since so many forms - poetry, literature, films, graphic art, etc - come together in this art, it strikes a greater chord with a large number of people.”

“I researched a lot about poetry and the kind of experiences I had were life changing. The first poetry film festival was initiated by Germany, second was in Argentina and ours is the third. So spending some time watching and understanding such projects, the Sadho Films Project was initiated in 2002-2003,” he said.

Notably, Sadho Film festival is also the first Asian poetry-film festival and the first sign language poetry film festival in the world.

“Sadho Poetry Film Festival has 11 to 12 volunteers, all of whom are passionate about poetry. An inherent rule of Sadho is no one can take money from Sadho, only give to it. Sadho’s funding comes from the contributions all of us put into it,” Rampraksh added.

The Sadho volunteers include poets, film-makers, journalists, graphic designers, members of NGOs, many of whom have also made film contributions to the Sadho Films Project.

Speaking on the impact the festival has on the smaller cities and the reason the Sadho team takes it, on priority basic, to the relatively smaller towns, Ramparkash said, “In the smaller cities people have also been taken by surprise with the festival. Since exposure is less, the festival is all the more needed in such places to widen the horizons of the people. Smaller cities have definitely been on our agenda.”

Since the festival has also been actively promoting child artistes and has made some pretty startling finds along the way, Ramparkash, while speaking about the response from children, said, “Children love it, specially the animated films. Many of my colleagues’ children took to making films inspired by the works.”

Talking about those intending to undertake such an initiative, Ramparkash said, “All of the volunteers who are associated with Sadho have a day job. So it’s basically about burning the midnight oil. Read a lot, see a lot, take an apprenticeship and learn the rules of the game and then break them.”

“I believe that those really passionate about becoming part of a project like this eventually find a way,” he added.

Talking about the Sadho team’s future plans regarding the festival, Ramparkash said, “Currently we are looking toward taking the festival to more people. And in the near future, we will also produce audio albums in poetry.”

Sadho currently has 177 select poetry-films from 41 countries and six continents. It has rare-archival poetry-films made by film-makers and poets like Allen Ginsberg about 25 years ago, whose original copies have probably been lost. It has been lauded by artistes, film-makers and mediapersons in India and abroad.

Jalandhar, October 17
Thousands of youths aspiring to join the Army turned up at the recruitment rally being organised by the Army Recruiting Office (HQ) at Guru Nanak Stadium in Kapurthala.

“We have got overwhelming response from youths of Punjab,” said Col Atul Bisht, Deputy Director-General (Recruiting), Headquarters, Recruiting Zone (Punjab and J&K), after inspecting the rally.

Col Bisht said the rally was being organised for the youths of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur districts. “Over 17,000 youths have participated in the rally till date. The physical fitness test (PPT) and physical measurement for successful candidates were completed today," the officer said, adding that the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) of successful candidates would be held at Guru Nanak Stadium, Kapurthala, on October 28.

Col Bisht said basically the recruitment rally was meant for the four districts for soldier general duty (GD). In addition, the recruitment rally was also open for all districts of Punjab for the soldier (technical) and soldier (religious teacher) categories.

He said there was an overwhelming response from Hoshiarpur district, which was traditionally known for maximum representation in the Army. “Response from other three districts - Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr - has also improved as compared to the previous rallies conducted. The next rally will be held at Ludhiana,” he said.

Jalandhar, October 17
The election to the NRI Sabha would be held on January 27 next year.

The Sabha was currently run by a 24-member advisory committee, headed by Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner S.R. Ladhar, who is also the Chairman of the NRI Sabha.

"Candidates will be able to file their nomination papers between January 7 and 9 and the scrutiny of papers will be conducted on January 10. Candidates can withdraw their papers on January 11. Efforts will be made to ensure that the office-bearers are elected unanimously, for which a meeting will be held on January 13. Conditions and rules will be finalised in a meeting of NRIs or their representatives on October 28 at the Apeejay School auditorium. It will be presided over by Punjab Minister for Revenue and NRI Affairs Bikram Singh Majithia,” said Ladhar after holding a meeting on the NRI Sabha poll here today.

He said the issue of making appointments of employees in the district units was also discussed. “Powers for this were likely to be delegated to district presidents,” said Ladhar, who was accompanied by the NRI Sabha executive director Khushi Ram.

Phagwara, October 17
The police arrested four robbers, who were fleeing after looting canter driver Des Raj of Ludhiana near Rubal Hotel on the national highway last night.

The Superintendent of Police, Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, said the police had impounded the car used by the robbers and recovered the looted amount of Rs 27,500 and a mobile phone from them robbers. A case under Section 394 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the robbers.

Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said Des Raj, who was working for Basant Ice-Cream, Ludhiana, was returning to Ludhiana after collecting the amount from Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Mukerian, etc, when the robbers robbed him.

Phagwara, October 17
“Apna Apna Akaash”, an anthology of Hindi poems by 36 poetesses and edited by retired IAS officer Usha R. Sharma, Prem Vij and Dr Shashi Prabha, was released at a colourful function in the Kamla Nehru College for Women here today.

College managing committee chairman Inder Sardana presided over the function. Sahitya Shiromani Dr Harmahinder Singh Bedi, Dr Mohan Sapra, Himanshu Sharma, Vimla Dheer, Surjit Dukhi, Raj Sharma, Dr Kulwinder, Dr Rupika, Vinod Kalra, Neelam Jhulka, Kirti, Ramesh Sobti, Kamlesh Ahuja, Seema Jain, besides college director Kusum Verma and Principal Kiran Walia were present.