Jalandhar, January 1
While the entire nation is up in arms against the crime against women, a newborn baby girl was found abandoned in the open sky in chill at a vacant plot in a city locality today.

In what may be termed as height of callousness, the newborn girl, wrapped in a polythene, was abandoned in tall grass at a vacant plot in a colony near Amrit Vihar adjacent to Verka Milk Plant on the Jalandhar-Amritsar National Highway Number 1.

A migrant woman from Bihar found her dead when she was grazing some animals in the vacant plot. She noticed the girl wrapped in the polythene.

The woman told her neighbours about the baby girl who in turn informed the police in no time.

Subsequently, the police personnel, led by the SHO of division number 1 of city commissionerate reached there and took the body in its possession.

Meanwhile, a first information report (FIR) under Section 315 of the IPC has been registered against the unknown persons.

The SHO said, “Efforts are on to nab the culprits who had abandoned the girl child. We are also taking DNA sample of the abandoned girl child for matching it with the probable accused for taking the case to ITS logical end. We are getting information from the midwives and nearby nursing homes to get information regarding the accused.”

Apart from investigating the matter in a scientific manner, the police has also reportedly activated its informers in the area to get clues regarding the probable culprits.

Nakodar, January 1
Doctors and staff of Nakodar Civil Hospital remained busy in a New Year party for more than an hour during the working hours, with about 50 patients forced to wait for the doctors, including Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

When this correspondent visited the hospital in the afternoon, many patients were seen cursing the hospital staff. Radhye Shyam of a nearby village told The Tribune that he had been waiting for the doctors for more than an hour, while a 75-year-old man alleged that the doctors had told him to sit and wait and had gone to celeberate the New Year party, "which could be celebrated after the working hours".

Jalandhar, January 1
The much-publicised project regarding the renovation of Nehru Garden, hanging fire for over two years, will be completed soon after the monsoon in 2013.

Talking about his priorities regarding providing more facilities to the citizens in the New Year, Jalandhar Mayor Sunil Jyoti said the remaining work of the Nehru Garden project would be completed soon, but its landscaping work would be done during the monsoon. So the renovated Nehru Garden would be dedicated to the general public after the rainy season, he added.

The project has been hanging fire for the past over two years. The previous contractor had even been chargesheeted for going slow with the work. Ever since, the cost of the project has escalated from Rs 3.27 crore to Rs 3.84 crore with contract going to AS Enterprises.

Mayor Sunil Jyoti, accompanied by Municipal Corporation (MC) Commissioner Vinay Bublani, Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia and Deputy Mayor Arwinder Kaur Oberoi, further expressed the hope that the construction of the Burlton Park project would likely be started by the end of this year.

Sunil Jyoti said, “ The MCJ is going to tell the Punjab and Haryana High Court in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) writ filed in connection with the Burlton Park project that it would plant a number of more saplings in the complex for keeping the area green.”

“Hopefully, the HC will allow the MCJ to go ahead with the project in the larger public interest and the construction work for upgrading the international-level sports stadium in the Burlton Park,” he added.

Stating that the priority of the MCJ in 2013 is to make Jalandhar clean and green, Jyoti said the horticulture branch of the MCJ had been asked to achieve the target of giving the city a greener look.

“Apart from planting saplings in various areas of the city, specific parts will be beautified with landscaping,” he added.

“The MCJ had also decided to take the help of corporate sector and educational institutions to adopt roundabouts and a particular patch of road to beautify and in lieu of that, they may put their hoarding in that area and thus it will be beneficial to all.”

Besides, three foot over bridges (FOBs) would be built near DAV College, Khalsa College and APJ College for pedestrians to cross the road, he said, adding that the construction of the much-required Chandan Nagar project would also be started this year after completing the process of acquiring the land in this regard.

When asked whether the MCJ had got adequate funds to carry out these projects, Jyoti evaded a direct reply and said that the income of the MCJ had risen from Rs 126 crore (between April 1, 2011, and December 31, 2011) to Rs 136 crores (Between April 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012).

At the same time, he stated, “ The Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral is providing a sweeping machine to the MCJ from his MPLAD fund. The machine will have the capacity of cleaning 5 km road per hour.”

Jalandhar, January 1
As the December dates for the Harivallabh Sangeet Sammlean are announced every year, artistes, scholars, critics and intellectuals from across the country (and the world) begin packing their bags for the oldest festival of classical music at the Shri Devi Talaab Mandir - the Shree Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan.

While Jalandhar is otherwise a city pretty much devoid of "world-class" music throughout the year, the precious festival is the city’s rare window on the treasures of Indian classical music.

But even as the sammelan happens to be the oldest classical music festival in the world and the only surviving classical music festival of heritage importance in the state, what has been bothering music lovers not just for this, but for the past few years is the slipping standards of the festival.

While the festival organisers do not deserve to be blamed for the artistes who fail to turn up due to unavoidable circumstances, they do need to speculate about the choice of artistes who do not complement the stature of a festival which had been known as the pinnacle of quality classical music in the country.

Even as the committee paid attention to the minutest of details for putting up a good show and indulged in hectic crisis management activity to make up for some of the star performers’ unfortunate absence on the last day, even on the first two days when everything went as per the plan, many acts lacked the finesse a Harivallabh artiste is expected to be armed with.

Many who have been seeing the Harivallabh for years, said this was probably one of the least impressive sammelans.

What primarily irks music lovers is the lack of ‘rooh’ (soul) and class at the Harivallabh.

A music connoisseur, who has been witness to the best of classical music concerts in India (and across the world) for the past 60 years, said, “There is a general lack of soulful (roohdari) classical music in many of the performances at the Harivallabh. While a number of world-class artistes were called and some performances were extraordinary, the flip side is that some of the inclusions in the artistes’ list lacked foresight. Some acts felt like a mere filling of space. There is need to look out for the best of artistes and those who would bring finesse to the festival. Listeners need to think they have heard something unique and outstanding, but that is not happening. That is a cause of concern.”

Another bothersome aspect at the festival has been constant disruptions. A couple of times in the midst of performances, lines of dignitaries streamed in, disrupting the show.

A vocalist was irked, being told to stop after he announced the Raga for his next composition, and resumed when other committee members fixed the awkward situation.

A percussionist stopped playing when a stream of people followed a politician into the pandal. He resumed only when the guests were all seated and quiet.

Jalandhar, January 1
B.Tech (Mechanical) final year students of the CT Institute of Engineering, Management & Technology (CTIEMT) claimed to have prepared a bio-diesel from soyabean oil by a process called ‘transertification’.

The students who have prepared this bio-diesel are Priyank, Vikas Kumar, Hunny Minhas and Ujjwal Singh. Talking about its manufacturing process, the students said the bio-diesel was a diesel fuel that was made by vegetable oil (cooking oil) and other common chemicals. “Bio-diesel is a bio-degradable and a non-toxic alternative fuel produced from new or used vegetable oil that is produced from renewable resources. It can be used in any diesel engine without modification,” they said.

The students said the bio-diesel had a favourable emission profile, was renewable, requires no engine modification (except replacing some fuel lines in older engines), could be blended in any proportion with petroleum diesel fuel, had a high cetane number and an excellent lubricity and could be made from waste restaurant oils and animal fats.

Vikas, the group leader, said, “At first we tried to make the bio-diesel from the neem oil through the transertification process but we didn’t succeed because free fatty acid (FFA) of the neem oil was greater than 3 and it is not possible to make bio-diesel with an oil whose FFA is greater than 3. Then we used the karanja and the jatropha oil to make the bio-diesel but again we failed because the quality of the oil was very poor. Then we decided to make bio-diesel from vegetable oil,” he said.

Jalandhar, January 1
Activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union today held an agitation and a flag march at the Dhirpur village against the power bills of labourers and farmers not being waived.

The flag march was carried from Dhirpur village to Kudowaal village, Mallian and ended with sloganeering at Bheekha Nangal.

Addressing the gathering, leaders condemned the state government for not pardoning the electricity bills and not reinstalling uprooted electricity meters of farmers and workers despite electoral promises and compromises with labourer-farmer unions.

They also condemned the government for not meeting the 5-marla residential plot demand of labourers.

Farmers, labourers and activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union were present at the agitation.