Pritpal Singh Southall – “Sikhs in Kabul” will be aired this Sunday on Sikh Channel

“ਸਿੱਖ ਇਨ ਕਾਬੁਲ” ਡੋਕੁਮੰਟਰੀ ਫਿਲਮ ੩ ਜੂਨ ੨੦੧੨ ਨੂ ਸਿੱਖ ਚੈਨਲ ਤੇ ਦਿਖਾਈ ਜਾਵੇਗੀ |

سیکهـ ها و هندوها در کابل” روز یکشنبه درین کانال نشر می گردد

“सिख इन काबुल” डोकुम्न्ट्री फिल्म ३ जून २०१२ को सिख चैनल पर दिखाई जाएगी |

World Premier: A documentary film about Sikhs from Kabul, Afghanistan will be premiered coming Sunday, 3rd June 2012 at 7 PM only on Sikh Channel.

Watch it online on http://www.sikhchannel.tv or on Sky Channel 840 – Time: 2 pm EST (North America) – 7 pm UK – 8 pm Europe – 11 pm Afghanistan – 11.30 pm – India

Synopsis: Documentary focuses on the Sikh community of Afghanistan that have dwindled from 80,000 to a mere 1000 as of 2012. The proud Afghan Sikhs have been a part of the culture and heritage of Afghanistan ever since the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev Ji visited Kabul on his return from Baghdad and Mecca to India in the 16th century.

This film has captured the testimonies of the surviving Sikh families of Kabul who live in appalling conditions within their damaged Gurdwaré (Sikh place of worship) where 2 families are confined to a room. Since the American invasion of 2001 numerous wealthy Sikhs fled in haste to Pakistan and Europe, but some unable to flee were stranded and today their dilemma is worse than ever.

Please watch the documentary, tell your friends and family

Pritpal Singh
ਸਰਦਾਰ ਪ੍ਰਿਤਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ
सरदार पिर्तपाल सिंह

Watch the trailer !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNokxT5koXw

The Tribune – Law to nail fraud NRI grooms soon; Sukhbir orders census of deserted brides; Punjab Police to have all-women commando unit

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 30. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the state government would come out with a strict law within two months to ensure Punjabi girls were not duped by NRI bridegrooms.

Speaking at a seminar on “Overseas marriages” organised jointly by the Punjab Police and the National Commission for Women, Sukhbir said, “The law will check “holiday marriages” and marital frauds by NRIs. Punjab will not tolerate any fraud being committed with its daughters.”

Sukhbir said the law would stipulate complete verification of NRIs seeking to marry a Punjabi girl, compulsory registration of such marriages and getting details of NRI grooms from Indian consulates abroad.

The Doaba region of Punjab has witnessed maximum frauds NRI marriages.

About deserted brides, he said, “I have directed the police to conduct a census of such deserted wives who will be provided legal assistance. We will take help of the External Affairs Ministry to track the guilty grooms.”

Calling for pressurising NRIs who had deserted their wives in Punjab, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the photographs of offenders should be put on a website so that such grooms and their families could not defraud more people.

The Deputy Chief Minister also announced that the government would recruit 2,000 women police inspectors and a few DSPs over the next six months. “We are in the process of raising an elite all-women based commando unit as part of the Special Services Group. They are going to be trained by Israeli sharp-shooters and would also be handling VVIP security,” he said.

Sukhbir also formally inaugurated a website (www.crimeagainstwomen.co.in) and a helpline 0181-2221645 for women in distress. Hitting out at Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh, Sukhbir Badal said the allegation of vendetta was a “desperate attempt by him to seek another extension” for his captaincy of the party after the MC polls.

Former Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, Punjabi singer Shamina Shafique and Shiromani Akali Dal vice-president Hans Raj Hans also suggested remedial measures to check the malpractice.

Jalandhar Zone IG Gurpreet Deo, incharge of Punjab Police’s NRI wing, said 122 complaints had been received from deserted brides in 2011 and 59 cases had been registered so far this year.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120531/punjab.htm#1

The Tribune – Inclusive government Omar style, Jammu & Kashmir Cabinet meets near Line-of-Control

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 30. In an effort to reach out to people in far-flung areas of the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today visited Teetwal in Kupwara district on the Line of Control (LoC).

The Chief Minister drove to Teetwal after chairing a Cabinet meeting at Tangdar. As Teetwal village is located 16 km from Tangdar, Omar inspected works and took stock of the road stretch connecting the two areas.

Incidentally, Teetwal was badly affected by the earthquake that had shaken the remote area in October 2005. The Kishenganga river also flows through Teetwal and parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“Inclusive development with focused attention on remote areas has been underlined as an important concern in the development policy of the government. The transfer of power and authority from the secretariat to the village level and involvement of people in decision-making is the government’s endeavour,” Omar said while interacting with locals of Teetwal village.

After receiving feedback on the state of the health, road communication, water supply and education sectors of the area, Omar promised to take up the issue of upgrade and improvement of the road between Tangdar and Teetwal at the “highest level” in the Central Government. The road is at present under the supervision and execution of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

He said issues related to improvement in the telecommunication and telephone services would also be taken up with the Centre. Omar passed directions for the creation of a facility centre at the Teetwal crossing point. He also directed for resolving land issues related to the establishment of Degree College, Tangdar.

The District Development Commissioner was directed to identify land for a sports field at the nearby Karnah area. In Teetwal and Tangdar, Omar met various deputations of Gujjars, Auqaf Committee, panchayat members, local Congress committee, transporters, traders, labourers and Bar Association members. Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather accompanied the Chief Minister during his visit to Teetwal.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120531/main3.htm

The Hindu – Attempt to paint India in negative colour on Iran: Nirupama

Washington, 31 May 2012. India has said that there is an attempt to paint it in negative colour on the issue of importing oil from Iran, arguing that it needs enormous energy for its 1.2 billion people.

“Somehow there has been, sorry to say this, some attempt, I don’t know for whatever reasons, to paint India in very negative colours,” Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Nirupama Rao told a select audience here at the Atlantic Council — a think-tank — while responding to questions on importing Iranian oil.

Ms. Rao asserted that India has been transparent on this issue with international partners given its enormous energy security needs.

There is no attempt by India, as is being alleged in certain quarters, to “camouflage payment” of its oil imports from Iran, she argued.

“India has been extremely upfront and has been able to engage in a very frank dialogue with all our partners on this issue,” Ms. Rao said.

“There are energy security needs for India, but we understand there are certain constraints about importing oil from Iran. We are certainly cognizant of those realities. Obviously the amount of oil, we import from Iran has come down,” she said.

“We are a net oil importing country. About 75 per cent of our oil is imported. Iran has been one of our traditional suppliers and many of our refineries are catered to process Iranian crude. But the circumstances today have become more and more difficult for any country to import crude from Iran,” she said.

“We are also cognizant of US concerns, and have remained closely engaged on the Iranian issue. Crude imports from Iran have a steadily declining share in India’s total oil imports — dropping from a level of over 16 per cent in 2008-09 to almost 10 per cent in 2011-12, and these are expected to decline further in 2012-13,” Ms. Rao said.

In her remarks, Ms. Rao said India believes that while Iran has rights to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, it must simultaneously and rigorously fulfil the treaty obligations which it has acceded to.

“We have consistently maintained that Iran must cooperate with the IAEA to address and resolve all outstanding issues that continue to raise doubts in the minds of the international community. India has scrupulously adhered to the multilateral sanctions against Iran as mandated by the United Nations,” she said. (PTI)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3475885.ece

Sint-Truiden – Brussel – Bristol vv 19/04 – 25/04 2012

On the 19th of April I went to Vilvoorde and on the 20th I travelled from Vilvoorde to Bristol via Brussel and  London. I returned from Bristol to Sint-Truiden on the 25th of April.

25 April, Bristol Parkway station, First 150 series local train

25 April, Bristol Parkway station, waiting for the Swansea – London Paddington train

25 April, London Paddington
The train from Bristol was slightly delayed

25 April, London Paddington
On my way to the Hammersmith & City Line

25 April, London Paddington, Hammersmith & City Line platform

To see more UK public transport pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157611244941713/

More UK pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Their numbers dwindling, government offers Parsis help

Aditi Tandon, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 30. Parsis, facing demographic peril, have found a close friend in the Congress-led UPA Government which is keen on helping the community improve its overall fertility rates which have been plummeting.

Towards this end, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the nodal ministry for listed minorities, has firmed up a plan which includes sharing the cost of infertility treatment of Parsi couples.

The community, which has shrunk in numbers from a decent 1.14 lakh in 1941 to 69,601 in 2001, has been urging the Centre for long to help married, childless couples with counselling and infertility treatment.

At their own level, the community has been trying to do whatever it can to arrest rapid decline in its numbers, with Census 2011 showing even further decline.

The community wants the Centre to help them with the existing schemes such as the ones being run by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), which counsels infertile Parsi couples and has medical facilities to help them access treatment. But the treatment cost is prohibitive in most cases and that’s where the Parsis want the government to help.

Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid yesterday said the ministry had approached the Planning Commission with a scheme to help Parsis out of this unprecedented population decline. “The scheme would be hopefully included in the 12th Plan,” he said.

Infertility among Parsi couples is the area the scheme will principally target. “Infertility is the biggest cause behind a dwindling population of the Parsis. And the good part is that the Parsis themselves admit this and are keen to seek treatment — something we don’t normally see. We are trying to produce medical and demographic evidence of the decline in the numbers of Parsis and are also exploring the possible engagements on the front of sharing the cost of infertility treatment with the community,” Minority Affairs sources said.

The community is being represented in this fight by noted Parsi poet Keki Daruwala, winner of the Sahitya Akademi award and a former member of the National Commission for Minorities. He recently wrote to Planning Commission member Syeda Hamid seeking help for the community to arrest its declining population.

The letter was accompanied by evidence from Parsi researchers who have identified infertility as a major problem.

The research by one Dinyar Patel, a Parsi, concludes that the population decline in the community is on account of sociological issues not biological. Patel says in the research that dramatic fall in fertility rates was one cause and it was “social and behavioural”.

Parsis marrying late or not marrying at all were fuelling infertility in the community.

It is here that Daruwala has sought the Planning Commission’s help to approve a scheme which would cost about Rs 20 crore to fund infertility treatment of Parsi couples at the existing clinics run by Parsis.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120531/main6.htm

Dawn – Top Pentagon official returning to lead talks with Pakistan

Anwar Iqbal

Washington, 31 May 2012. US Assistant Defence Secretary Peter Levoy is returning to Islamabad next week to lead the American team which is negotiating a resolution to the Nato routes dispute with Pakistan, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

Mr Levoy, who looks after Asia and Pacific security affairs at the Pentagon, led the US contingent at an April 26 meeting with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in Islamabad as well. The US media reported later that Mr Levoy and his team left the meeting abruptly because of certain remarks made by the foreign minister.

The remarks, according to the media reports, were linked to Pakistan’s demand for an apology from the United States over the November 26 air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and prodded Islamabad to close Nato supply routes to Afghanistan.

Since then Pakistan has stopped insisting on an apology as a precondition for reopening the routes. The concession enabled President Asif Ali Zardari to attend the May 20-21 Nato summit in Chicago but his inability to resolve the route dispute further complicated already tense relations between the two countries.

The two sides resumed their contacts after Mr Zardari returned home and because of the bitterness created by the April 26 incident at the Pakistan Foreign Office, this time Islamabad allowed its embassy in Washington to play a lead role in the talks.

The two sides are now working on a compromise formula to resolve the supply routes dispute which will require the United States to rebuild the highways damaged by Nato convoys.

In return, Pakistan will drastically reduce its demand for an increase in charges for overland deliveries of US military supplies to Afghanistan.

http://dawn.com/2012/05/31/top-pentagon-official-returning-to-lead-talks-with-pakistan/