The Tribune – Sikh high priests to meet today; Not likely to take up Big B’s plea

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 24. A meeting of the Sikh high priests will take place at the Akal Takht secretariat here tomorrow.

However, the chances of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan’s letter, pleading innocence in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, coming up for discussion are bleak.

The meeting is to be held from 9 am to 11 am. The priests will release the calendar for the New Year. On the agenda are the controversy stirred by Prof Sarabjit Singh Dhunda by his “objectionable” remark on the Golden Temple and the clash between the SGPC staff and members of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee over Sikh “maryada”.

As demanded by devotees, the Akal Takht had summoned Prof Dhunda. There are reports that he might appear before the high priests to clarify his stand.

Sources say the issue of Bachchan’s letter is in the miscellaneous agenda. The actor had handed over the letter, addressed to the Akal Takht Jathedar, to Gurinder Singh Bawa, the SGPC member from Mumbai, at the latter’s residence on November 28 last year.

The mega star had written that his mother, Teji Bachchan, belonged to a Sikh family. He had dubbed the allegations that he had instigated riots against the Sikhs in 1984 as “baseless”, adding that such charges had hurt his sentiments.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120225/punjab.htm#10

The Tribune – A first in Pakistan: Road named after Indian post-Partition

Puneet Pal Singh Gill, Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 24. In a gesture that will go a long way in strengthening Indo-Pak relations, Member of Provincial Assembly in Pakistan Shazia Ashfaq Mattu has named a road after a Sikh landlord, Pritam Singh Bhinder.

This is the first time post-Partition that a road in Pakistan has been named after an Indian. Former Pakistan MPA Peer Ghulam Farid, who is MPA Shazia’s father, is in Ludhiana nowadays on a visit and presented a photograph of the inauguration stone of the road to the Bhinder family in the city.

The Pritam Singh Road is 6-km-long, 14-ft-wide and starts from Aroop village and ends in Gujranwala city. It was inaugurated in a grand function organised by the MPA on February 19. Before Partition, the Bhinder family owned 750 acres at Kotli Arbang village in Gujranwala district of Pakistan. Shazia’s grandfather Sahibzada Didar Ali and Pritam Singh Bhinder were classmates and best friends in the pre-Partition era.

Both the families revived their ties in 1991.

Peer Ghulam Farid told The Tribune, “In 1991, Pritam Singh visited his village – Kotli Arbang – and found that the road was in a very poor state. He requested us to take care of the road as it led to ‘his’ village.”

Years passed by and both families kept visiting each other. In 2007, Pritam Singh Bhinder passed away.

“Few months ago, Pritam Singh’s son Reetinder Singh Bhinder enquired about the road leading to his ancestral village during a phone conversation. I immediately recalled that Pritam had requested us to construct a metalled road from Aroop village to Gujranwala.

“Tenders were floated and work on the road started six months back.

“On February 19, the road was inaugurated and was named Pritam Singh Bhinder Road,” informed Peer Ghulam Farid.

Reacting to this goodwill gesture, Reetinder said, “I had never imagined that Peer Ghulam Farid would name a road after my father.”

Goodwill gesture

The Pritam Singh Road is 6-km-long, 14-ft-wide and goes from Aroop village to Gujranwala. It was inaugurated at a grand function organised by Pakistan MPA Shazia Ashfaq Mattu on February 19.   Before Partition, the Bhinder family owned 750 acres in Gujranwala district. Shazia’s grandfather and Pritam Singh Bhinder were classmates.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120225/main5.ht

The Asian Age – Reform villages, Kalam urges youth via Facebook

P T Thufail

New Delhi, 25 February 2012. Former President APJ. Abdul Kalam, India’s missile man, on Friday urged the nation’s youth to target reforming villages in the country as ‘vibrant engines of growth’. Dr Kalam interacted with an enthusiastic group of young men and women on the social networking website Facebook.

Organised by Penguin Books India to promote Dr Kalam’s latest book, Target 3 Billion, the Facebook chat attracted a large number of users hooking onto their screen in wait of his response to their questions.

Dr Kalam described his book, co-authored by Srijan Pal Singh, as his experiences and ideas on how the underprivileged population can achieve sustainable development. He said three billion people, almost half of humanity, live in villages and their development should be the nation’s target.

In his book, he said, he has evolved the model of Pura (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) for this purpose. The online crowd was mostly upset with the growing corruption in India and wanted a practical solution from Dr Kalam to get rid of it. Many others were eager to know his take on various other issues in the country, such as child labour, women’s education, power crisis and so on.

Dr Kalam suggested a four-point formula to rein in corruption with stress on value-based education, e-governance, and a change of the youth attitude from what can I take to what can I give. He said that youth should start weeding out corruption from within their families.

On the power crisis, Dr Kalam said that he would have loved to make Rashtrapati Bhavan solar-powered.

http://www.asianage.com/india/reform-villages-kalam-urges-youth-facebook-372

Netherlands 23 december till 2 January, Den Haag & Amsterdam

26 December, Den Haag, Lijnbaan, HTM RandstadRail TramTrain 4 to De Uithof
I took tram 1 from Scheveningen and got off at Buitenhof, near the Netherlands’ Houses of Parliament, and walked back to Transvaalbuurt from there. These pictures were taken on my way home.

26 December, Den Haag, Lijnbaan, HTM RandstadRail TramTrain 4 to De Uithof

26 December, Den Haag, Lijnbaan, HTM RandstadRail TramTrain 4 and HTM Tram 2 to Leidschendam

 26 December, Den Haag, Transvaalbuurt, Fischerstraat
My ‘home away from home’ in Den Haag

To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/

To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/ 

More Belgium / Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Probe shows foreign hand behind Kudankulam N-protest: PMO

Faraz Ahmad, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 24. Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy today reiterated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s charge that US-aided NGOs are re-routing the funds obtained from abroad to fuel agitation against the opening of the Kudankulam nuclear power station in Tamil Nadu. He also added Scandinavian countries to the list of sponsors of such NGOs.

The Prime Minister had yesterday in an interview with a Science journal pointedly accused US-based NGOs for the current agitation against Kudankulam power station. “What’s happening in Kudankulam…the atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don’t appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply.”

Amidst protests from some of the NGOs and unexpected support from the Opposition quarters, Narayanasamy went a step further and said today in an interview to ANI, “In fact, you know, the NGOs based in the US and also the Scandinavian countries… they have sent money close to the Kudankulam area, to Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Thuthukudi and other places, to some of the India-based NGOs. What has been given, how it has been spent, is being investigated by the home ministry.”

The Minister of State for Personnel said the home ministry had cancelled licences of three of the 12 NGOs whose fund utilisation was under scrutiny. He hinted that Singh spoke on the basis of a Home Ministry brief on the background and funding of these NGOs.

The agitation, as the Prime Minister put it, has stalled the commissioning of two 1,000 MW reactors at this nuclear power generation plant set up with Russian collaboration.

The minister said, “The (Home) ministry is initiating action against one of the NGOs, which did not follow the guidelines.”

He also smelt a rat in “this massive mobilisation” of protesters at the site and said, “I was told that the people who are agitating were brought from various areas in trucks. They are being given good treatment by the organisers,” he said.

“The protesters sat on a hunger strike near Kudankulam project site and have not allowed the workers to get inside.

“They have incited violence and we found out how the money was coming to them, Therefore, these apprehensions and the concern raised by the Prime Minister are correct,” he added.

The BJP, which has all along been skeptical about the role of some West-funded NGOs, responded to the Prime Minister’s charge with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley asking the government to go public saying, “It is a very important statement that the Prime Minister has made. I think the government must make facts in regard to this public so that the veracity of all this is known to the people of India who are in a position then to decide what is the correct position,” Jaitley said.

A. Raja, CPI leader, too, reacted on similar lines saying, if America-based NGOs are playing a role in Kudankulam, then they should be isolated and action should be taken against them, adding, “I don’t think the Prime Minister is targeting the American government.

“If the Prime Minister has any evidence against the NGOs, he should go and tell the people of Kudankulam instead of giving interviews to magazines.”

The NGOs took a strong exception and People’s Movement against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) spearheading the stir against Kudankulam rejected Singh’s remark as baseless.

“It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister has made the allegations without any documentary proof. We strongly deny his observation that the agitation is being funded by other countries,” anti nuclear activist SP Udayakumar said in Chennai today.

The PM’s Take on Agitation

What’s happening in Kudankulam…the atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don’t appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply.

Licences cancelled

The Minister of State for Personnel disclosed that the home ministry has cancelled operating licences of three of the 12 NGOs whose fund utilisation is under scrutiny.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120225/main2.htm

BBC News – Pakistan unrest: Gunmen storm Peshawar police station

Saturday, 24 February 2012. Gunmen have attacked a police station in north-western Pakistan, killing at least four policemen and injuring seven others, officials say.

Up to five gunmen tried to storm the building, in the city of Peshawar.

Exchanges of fire were heard in the area as police tried to repel the attack. Three attackers also blew themselves up, officials say.

Peshawar lies near the lawless tribal belt – a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

The gunmen – armed with assault rifles and bombs – attacked the police station in the heart of the city on Friday morning.

No group has so far said it carried out the attack.

Peshawar has recently been the target of several attacks.

On Thursday, at least 12 people were killed and 30 injured after a car bomb targeted a bus stop in the city.

Militants often carry out attacks across the north-west in retaliation for operations by the army against them in the tribal areas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17150807