Star Asian Marathon Champion Sunita Godara from Delhi lead the rally from the ‘Golden Temple’ early this morning.

Sunita Godara (51) is a pioneer woman marathoner of India, with 50 medals to her credit including 25 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals she won in string of international achievements in 26 countries .

Morning walkers and others joined Students, Teachers and Non-teaching staff of DPS in large numbers at the Rally that was flagged off from the Holiest Sikh Shrine and aimed at not only solidarity for the games to raise awareness about fitness for a healthy heart .

Smartly dressed in Tea-shirts and caps in support of the Games, students carried placards and raised slogans in support of the games and especially prayed for the grand success of ‘Indian Players’ who are readying to participate in the games.

Principal of the school Mrs Sangeeta Singh informed that the objective of the Rally is to bring people together in support and solidarity of Commonwealth Games and to promote the spirit of sports in youth at school level.

The rally passed through the heart of the city in the hall bazaar and followed from court road to Queen’s road and culminated in a one-Km sprint to Company Bagh- also popular as the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Prizes were given to Boys and Girls by Sunita Godara in the first three positions who reached the finishing point.

BY RASHMI TALWAR

AMRITSAR: To test the general knowledge and upgrade students on the latest developments in Information Technology sector the 1st IT Olympiad test 2010 was organized by Asia’s top IT trainer– NIIT (Amritsar center) for students of  various educational institutes in the city today.

More than 3000 students of seven schools of the city participated in the activity.

Among the educational institutes that benefited from this activity of awareness about new advancements and concepts concerning Information Technology were DAV International School, Prabhakar School, Ryan International, Police DAV Public School, Ashok Vatika School, Delhi Public School and Angel World School.

The student group mostly comprised from classes 6th to 12th. As many as 21 students in each educational institute attained top three positions corresponding to their classes in the Olympiad. Mr Gurjeet Sekhon NIIT Director along with school principals presented medals and certificates to the prize winners.

Mr Sekhon while addressing students explained them about the  huge benefits  accrued by banks , Corporate Sector besides hospitals  and  various other areas by new concepts concerning Information Technology that could be helpful not only to the concerns but also to students in job placements .

Earlier School principals and other heads of the department extended a warm welcome to the NIIT Director and  Mrs. Neeru  Bagga (Marketing  Head NIIT  Mall Road center) who addressed the  audience  and explained about the  motive to organize IT Olympiad  test which was not only to  check the general  Knowledge of the students but also to make them aware about the potential of jobs in keeping with  latest advancements in IT technologies.

AMRITSAR:

Corporation health officer Dr Yogesh Arora said following its initiative to catch stray dogs, animal organizations like Blue Cross had raised objection to the method, terming it “cruel”. Also, some employees had been bitten by the animals.

The specialized training in Jaipur has been organized by People for Animal Welfare. They will teach how to use special implements for catching dogs, besides handling the animals in a less cruel way. A dog catching drive was currently on in Jaipur, Dr Arora said. Amritsar had an estimated 25,000 stray dogs.

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AMRITSAR:

The students also had a glimpse of STS-132, the final flight of Atlantis Space Shuttle, at the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre. The space shuttle is targeted for launch on May 14. The team included Harleen Kaur, Vanshu Mahajan, Shrey Mittal, Jaspinder Singh Randhawa, Rommail Singh Johal, Rikin Khanna, Harmanbir Singh, Rajwinder Singh, Jashandeep Singh and Harkanwar Singh. Three other members of the team, Navreet Singh, Malikbir Singh and Tanveer Singh, won a space competition organized on this occasion. Vanshu Mahajan, a Class VII student, was appreciated for his presentation on the parts of a rocket.

The students were elated on the unique experience that they got at the trip. Not only did they get a chance to take a sneak ‘ peek into space but also came face to face with the challenges such as time and resource management and budgeting that the scientists confront prior to a space mission. “It was an exciting trip. We were taught about land rovers, space shuttles and rocket launchers, which are usually associated with NASA’s Mars mission and other space odysseys,” said Harleen Kaur, the lone girl accompanying the team.

“The camp was more of an activity-based learning programme as the students were required to execute what they were taught,” said Sonia Mann, the teacher accompanying the team to NASA. She maintained that the students got a chance to interact with NASA’s Chief Engineer of Designs for space shuttles Satish Reddy and Chemical Engineer Heather Paul, who designs space suits for astronauts.

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AMRITSAR:

SSP Preetpal Singh Virk said that the relatives, including Gurveen’s father Joginder Singh, were being questioned and they have admitted to killing the two “to protect the family’s honour”.

Kuljit (50) and Gurveen (19) were brutally murdered by the latter’s family members, while Gurveen’s husband, Amarpreet Singh, was shot in the arm and stomach. He is recuperating in hospital.

“With the statement of the relatives, the honour killing link has been established,” the SSP said. He said three police teams were on the trail of the remaining suspects. “By Friday, the others will be arrested,” he said.

Besides Gurveen’s father Joginder Singh, her uncles Preetam Singh and Mohinder Singh along with her brother Soni and cousins Deba, Lal and Harpal are among those booked for murder.

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AMRITSAR:

In less than a week, Amritsar has had a brush with terror twice. Soon after a crude bomb was found in the Sultanwind area, the police came across 1.8 kg of explosives, along with a detonator, in an abandoned car near the railway station.

The Amritsar police are planning to install 250 CCTV cam­ eras in the city. To begin with, 100 cameras will be put up in the first phase.

Talking to HT, Amritsar Police Commissioner Varinder Kumar said they were reassessing the key locations. Asked whether the decision was prompted by the recent recovery of explosives, he said, “We had been planning this since long, but there is a greater sense of urgency now. CCTV cam­ eras are the need of the hour because it is not possible to man every location.”

The Police Commissioner said though they had set no deadline for the installation of CCTV cameras, their effort would be to have them in place at the earliest.

“We might seek assistance from some private firm after submitting the proposal to the police headquarters,” said a police official.

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AMRITSAR:

Forensic teams from New Delhi and Chandigarh also reached the city to identify the material.

Police Commissioner Varinder Kumar said the forensic teams had taken samples and it will take a couple of days before they could confirm the nature of the explosives.

“The number on the car was fictitious. The police are working on various theories,” he added.

The SIT is headed by the Police Commissioner and includes ADCP (II) Makhan Singh, ADCP (D) H.S. Brar, ACP Lakhbir Singh and an official from the counter intelligence.

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AMRITSAR:

The meeting was attended by Commissioner of Amritsar Municipal Corporation, Superintendent of Police (Traffic), and concerned traffic in-charge of the area and other officials of the MC. Besides, shop owners from Hall Bazar, Fish Market, Ram Bagh, Katra Jaimal Singh, Tahli Sahib market and Bazaar Pachimwala participated in the meeting.

It was decided that the owners of shops located in the stretch from Hall Gate to Goal Hatti to the Municipal Corporation office, Dharam Singh market upto Katra Jaimal Singh would park their vehicles in the designated parking iden­ tified by the MC.

To avoid decongestion, the customers would be allowed to park their vehicles within yellow lines in front of the shops at specified parking rates for two-wheelers and four­ wheelers for a specified time limit. SP (Traffic), along with an engineer of MC has been entrusted with the task of ensuring the marking of necessary yellow lines out­ side the shops. Further, no vehicle would be allowed to park in front of the books market in Hall Bazar. Smilarly, all the vehicles for the stretch of Bharawan Da Dhaba and Katra Jaimal Singh up to Katra Kanhaiya will be parked in the open in front of Gurdwara Santokh Sar.

MC D.P.S. Kharbanda said that they have increased the capacity of the fish market parking lot by five times, which can now house 600 vehicles. “Moreover, we have made two-gate system for easy movement of vehicles,” he added.

Moreover, the administration has narrowed down on parking rates for customers depending on the hours that the vehicle will be parked.

MAKE WAY FOR CUSTOMERS

The Hall Bazaar Traders’ Association, a prominent association of the commercial hub of Amritsar has accused the district administration for not providing a better parking lot to traders and has asked not to charge customers.

A meeting of the district administration, MC and Amritsar police was held with the traders to convince them to park their cars in the parking lot and leave road for customers to park by paying charges as per hours utilized.

Vijay Nayyar, secretary of the association, blamed, “Our association, one of the biggest, was not invited for the meeting.”

“We are ready to move to parking lots for our customers but they should not be charged in return. They are coming here for shopping and they may take time, which will eventually increase the parking rates,” Nayyar said.

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AMRITSAR:

The University’s sewage treatment plant came up in the year 2000 while Pingalwara’s plant has been operational since last
year.

GNDU came up with a sewage treatment plant in 2000 following a suo moto case by Punjab Human Rights Commission. The entire work of setting up the plant was done by the engineering department and the teachers of the university.

A FIRST IN THE REGION

At present, the engineering department handles even the task of maintenance of the plant. “We were the first institute in Punjab to come up with the plant and were the only one who got approval by the Punjab Pollution Control Board,” says Heera Singh, Assistant Engineer and in-charge of the plant.

In keeping with the expansion of the university, the authorities upgraded the existing plant two years back and, at present, it has the capacity of 2.5 mlt. The entire water produced by the plant is utilized in the campus itself for horticulture.

ECO-FRIENDLY PLANT

”The entire working of our plant is completely natural. Activated sludge process is used and no chemicals are added in the plant. Besides, very less energy is utilized in the plant for safeguarding the environment,” Singh said.

Furthering its contribution to the environment, the university is in the process of setting up a similar plant on its Gurdaspur campus. The construction is currently underway and would be completed in two months.

IMPETUS TO FARMING

On the other hand, Pingalwara also came up with a sewage treatment plant last year in its Manawala campus. Col D.S. Bawa, chief administrator, said that Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology at Patiala has done consultancy for the treatment plant free of cost. Moreover, the plant came up as an endeavor for Pingalwara.

Mandeep Asija, who is looking after the plant’s functioning, said that the plant has been designed with a capacity of 1 lakh litres keeping the’ coming five years in mind. “Presently, it is using 65 per cent of its capacity,” Asija said, adding that in the present scene, releasing untreated sewage water is considered a crime.

Asija added that despite this, there are several agencies that are releasing untreated water in Ganda Nala. “We are treating sewage water and are utilizing it for agriculture purpose at the Manawala campus;’ Asija said.

Arguments and fights that psychologists term sibling rivalry in fact become an integral part of our adult life. Western culture has an obsession with sibling rivalry that began with the story of Cain and Abel and was elaborated by Freud, who labeled and dwelt on the competition between siblings for parental love and attention. Sibling rivalry usually starts right after, or before, the arrival of the second child and often continues throughout child­ hood.

A hand-made poster proclaiming, “Keep out” with my sister’s name written below it had adorned my room wall for years. I vividly remember the spitting competition my sister and I had, only we did not spit into the air but at each other.

Brothers and sisters spend more time together during childhood than with their parents. What matters more is that as constants in our lives, siblings provide a reference against which to judge and measure ourselves.

They know us in a unique way during childhood and share a history that can bring understanding and a sense of perspective in adulthood. With time, siblings become our best friends, our partners in crime.

As a little girl in school whenever I was asked if I missed the presence of a brother in my life I replied, ”No, my sister’s punches more or less make up for the absence of a brother.”

As we grow older the bonds of a sibling become stronger. A common background, upbringing and values contribute to this factor. Then as we move apart in terms of distance, the heart grows fonder. The same person, who fuelled an allergic reaction in us, is missed sorely and deeply.

I personally experienced this fact when my sister left for Oxford recently to pursue a course in economics. During childhood, we form attitudes that last a lifetime. Growing up with another person makes us see life from a larger perspective and at times from another person’s point of view.

These days a new breed of couples is emerging belonging to the double income single kid bracket. They are the men and women who are highly ambitious and believe in getting the best that life has to offer to them.

But this trend breeds super brats since parents direct all their attention and love on one child.

Children without siblings have trouble adjusting to the fact that life, unlike their par­ ents, doesn’t readily come for­ ward to satisfy all their wants. It is actually ironical arid sad that these couples themselves enjoyed the comfort of a live­ in best friend all their life but are depriving their own kids of the same:

Alas, these kids will never know how it feels to have an in-house support system, laugh at common childhood memories, share secrets and get punched in the nose!