The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, March 29, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
RALLY: Mr Gurbir Singh Sandhu, member of the PPCC and former chairman of the market committee, will head the five-member organising committee on behalf of the District Ferozepore Congress Committee to make arrangements for a rally to be held at grain market, Jalalabad West, on April 9. This was stated by the DCC president and former minister, Mr Sajjan Kumar Jakhar, on Wednesday.

BATHINDA
BLOOD DONATION: The local United Welfare Society (UWS) organised a blood donation cum-AIDS awareness camp on Sunday night at Government Senior Secondary School, Paras Ram Nagar, in the city. Dr Jagjit Singh, District Immunisation Officer, was the chief guest. Eleven units of blood were collected and the donors were honoured by the district Red Cross Society.

HOSHIARPUR
BOOKED: On the complaint of Sarabjit Singh of Singhpur, a case has been registered under Section 420 of the IPC against travel agents Harnek Singh and Sukhwinder Singh of the local Islamabad locality for taking fraudulently Rs 8 lakh for sending him to America. The complainant stated the travel agents had taken Rs 3.64 lakh from him in April 1998 for sending him to America. But instead they sent him to hawain from where he was arrested and deported to India. In November 1998, they sent him to Peru on paying Rs 2.16 lakh. He was again arrested and deported to India.

JAGRAON
WHEAT STOLEN: Five quintals of wheat was reportedly stolen from the house of Ms Attabai of Tihara village. She suspected it to be the handiwork of Swaran Kaur wife of Shingara Singh as she had agreed to return the same, but later on refused. A case under Section 380 of the IPC has been registered at the Sidhwanbet police station.

JALANDHAR
1 KILLED: A 13-year-old boy was killed and one person was injured when their scooter was hit by a van at Maqsoodan Chowk here on Tuesday. Manpreet Singh of Maqsoodlpur village, Bholath, died on the spot while his uncle Jaswinder Singh has been admitted to the local Civil Hospital. A case has been registered.

LUDHIANA
KHALSA BIRTH CELEBRATIONS: The Bir Khalsa Dal will observe the birthday of Khalsa on the occasion of Baisakhi with gaiety and festivities. According to Mr Rajinder Singh Bhatia, adviser of the dal, Akhand Path would commence at Gurdwara Shahid Darshan Singh Pheruman on April 11 and bhog would be performed on April 12. On the same day, a nagar kirtan would be taken out from the gurdwara. Led by ‘panj piyaras’, it would pass through Dholewal chowk, Partap chowk, Bhagwan chowk, Jaimal Singh Road, Gill chowk, cycle market and Vishwakarma chowk. Amirt Sanchar would also be performed during the celebrations.

LABOUR UNION: The Raj Mistry Labour Union, affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) will organise a rally near Lord Mahavira Homeopathic College in Haibowal locality here on Saturday to focus on the problems and demands of masons. Dr Subhash Sharma, state president of INTUC, will be the chief guest and Mr Swarn Singh, vice-president, will preside over the rally.

FLAYED: The United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association has reacted against the decision of the PSEB to close down all steel furnace mills for 10 days due to shortage of electricity. Mr Inderjit Singh Navyug, senior vice-president of the association, in a press statement said the industry was already passing through recession. The association urged the Punjab Government to intervene in the matter.

MEDICAL CAMP: Nearly 500 patients were examined at a free medical camp organised by the Youth Wing of the SAD at Khanpur village recently. Villagers from Khanpur, Sarinh, Alamgir, Dangora, Gill, Duleh, Jarkhar, Jasran and Rania were examined.

NAWANSHAHR
LOOTERS HELD: The SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh, in a press note issued here on Tuesday, said five persons — Deepak Sharma of Mehmoodpur village, Jasbir Singh, alias Kala of Usmanpur village, Jaswinder Singh, alias Binda of Ranewal village, Joga Ram of Pallian Khurd village, Shingara Ram of Nawanshahr — had been arrested from Balachaur on Sunday. The police recovered Rs 20,000 in cash and gold jewellery from them . They had looted the cash and jewellery from Mr Kulbhushan and his brother while they were returning home on a scooter on March 1.

DRIVE: The District Literacy Society with a view to motivating people to work for the success of post-literacy drive currently under way in the district, took out a ‘jago’ in the nearby village, Mallpur Arkan, on Monday. Mr Pritam Singh Johal, SDM, Mr T.R. Bhatia and Mr Didar Shetra, project coordinators, among others addressed the gathering.

TROPHY: The local branch of the Life Insurance Corporation of India has been adjudged the best in Jalandhar division. It has won the running trophy for increasing its new business by 39 to 21 per cent in February. This was stated by Mr Faqir Chand Jassal, Branch Manager, in a press note here on Wednesday.

PATIALA
HUNGER STRIKE: The Field and Workshop Workers Union held a two-hour long meeting with the Chief Engineer of PWD during the hunger strike camp organised by the union here on Wednesday. The strike is expected to continue till April 4 due to the unfair behaviour shown by the workers employed on daily wages at the main office of the Public Health Department.

SAMANA
STRIKE CONTINUES: The strike started by municipal employees and safai karamcharis to protest against the alleged assault on the Executive Officer of Samana Nagar Council and against the abusive language used for the employees by the BJP workers has entered its seventh day on Wednesday. Sanitation conditions in the city have deteriorated. The employees of the council also led a procession and demanded arrest of the culprits under Section 307 of the IPC.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Marble Traders Association, Sectors 51-52: President — Mr N.M. Gupta; Vice-President — Mr Gurmukh Singh; General Secretary — Mr H.S. Paul; and Cashier — Mr Bala Singh.

RALLY: Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee (CTCC) held a massive protest rally in Sector 56 on Tuesday to demand the immediate resignation of the ‘tainted’ Vajpayee government. The spokesman of the Party, Mr Rajeev Sharma, has, in a note, said that participants at the rally raised anti-Vajpayee slogans and women workers did ‘siyapa’ signifying the demise of the government, which had jeopardised the country’s security interests. Castigating the Vajpayee government for its all round failure, the leaders of CTCC stated that the bigwigs of BJP are indulging in large scale corruption and thus had lost all moral rights to continue in the office. The Congress president, Mr B.B. Bahl, also attended the rally.

DESIGNATED: Haryana’s Advocate General, Mr Suryakant Sharma, has been designated as Senior Advocate by the Chief Justice and judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. According to a letter issued by the Registrar of the High Court here, addressed to the Registrars of other High Courts, Mr Sharma has been designated as Senior Advocate with effect from March 19.

OFFICE-BEARERS: Members of the Nehru Shastri Furniture Market Union have elected the following office-bearers. President, Mr Hazara Singh; chairman, Mr Seva Singh Rayat; vice-president, Mr Rajesh Wadhawan; general secretary, Mr M.L. Chadha; cashier, Mr Roshan Lal Gupta; auditor, Mr Bodh Raj Gupta, according to a press note on Tuesday.

AWARDED: The Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, has been awarded four stars by the National Assessment Council (NAAC). The college became the first college of education in north India to be accredited and awarded the stars. In a press note, Dr (Ms) Satinder Dhillon, Principal of the college, claimed that the college had voluntarily invited the NAAC for inspection which was held in January last. The Principal said the other three colleges to be accredited by the NAAC are in South India. The NAAC was established by the University Grant Commission in 1994. It assesses and grades the institutions of higher education.

SOCIETY: The Swami Ram Tirtha Society, Punjab, would be starting social service activities apart from school such as helping old age homes and giving stipends to brilliant but poor students in schools. The society would also be engaging itself in arranging free marriages of poor girls. These were decided at meeting of the governing body and the general council of the society on Sunday last. If the budget of the society permits, widow homes on the behalf of the society at Chandigarh and SAS Nagar could be started, he added.

ARTIFICIAL LIMBS: Rotary Club of Chandigarh and its ladies wing, the Inner Wheel Club, will hold a week-long free artificial limbs camp at Saket from April 2. According to Mr Praveen Chander Goyal, president of the club, the camp is being financially supported by Rotarians of Rotary Clubs of Jersey and Ilkley of Yorkshire, UK and the UK based Rotary Jaipur Limbs Project Trust. Free prosthetics including calipers, crutches and other aides will be provided to the handicapped persons registering themselves on any of the days between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. at the camp. The club will also provide free boarding and lodging to the patient and one attendant at Saket. The interested persons have been asked to contact the camp coordinator on phone nos. 770222 and 777940.

FASHION SHOW: Students of the International Polytechnic for Women, Sector 35, will present their creations ‘Fusion-2001’ at the Tagore Theatre here on Thursday. The fashion show, choreographed by Ms Vini Bansal also the organiser of the event is in seven rounds. Students have also prepared filler items during the fashion show. Gagrin will give the music, while the dance items will be choreographed by Ms Ritu Bansal. Creations of 21 students of the institute will be on display by seven professional models, including one from Mumbai and by the students themselves.

ANNUAL FUNCTION: The 19th annual prize distribution function of the Government College for Girls, Sector 42, will be held on Thursday at the college premises. Ms Neeru Nanda, Adviser to the Administrator, UT Chandigarh will be the chief guest and will give away the prizes.

NSS FUNCTION: The annual function of the NSS unit of the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, was held on Wednesday and students presented a cultural function to mark the occasion. Ms Vijay Lakshmi, principal of the college, read out the annual report. Dr C.L. Narang, director, NSS Panjab University, exhorted students to help transform society by eradicating the social evils like gender bias, dowry and develop healthy relations among female members of the family. Dr Narang also promised a third unit of NSS for the college from the next session. The principal also claimed that the residents of the Khuda Jassu were happy with the work done by the students of the college. NSS volunteers, including Saroj Bala, Gurmeet Kaur, Naresh and Monika were given prizes for their outstanding performance during the session 2000-2001.

AWARENESS CAMP: The Society for Social Health, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board, started a seven-day awareness generation camp in Colony no. 4 here on Wednesday. Ms Kanwaljit Saini, president of the Society, while inaugurating the camp, said a lot needs to be done for creating awareness among the women, especially rural and slum women. This was stated by Dr Naresh Anand, secretary general of the Society in a press note.

SAS NAGAR
ASSOCIATION: The following have been elected as the office-bearers of the Sector 70 Social and Welfare Association: president — Mr Dalbir Singh; vice-presidents — Mr Gurdip Singh Dhindsa and Mr Gurmail Singh Kainth; general secretary — Mr J.S. Cheema; secretary — Mr Paramjit Singh Dhall; treasurer — Mr Suresh Verma; and executive members — Mr Raj Krishan Gupta, Mr Pritpal Singh Bindra, Mr Ranjit Bhatti, Mr Gurjit Singh Gill, Mr Labh Singh Baidwan, Mr Gur Iqbal Singh Bains and Mr Jagjit Singh.

HARYANA

AMBALA
ELECTED: Dr Praveen Kohli, hailing from Ambala Cantt, has been elected as ‘sabhapati’ of North Indian Beautician Association for a period of three years. A press note said that Dr Kohli had been given the authority to nominate 25 members. A meeting in this regard was attended by delegates from J&K, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.

NABBED: The local police has nabbed two robbers who used to steal copper coils of transformers. Superintendent of Police, Mr Sandeep Khirwar, said that copper coil worth about Rs 51, 640 had been recovered from the gang. He said that Indrajit Singh and Kuldip Singh had stolen transformers from Badana village and Balana village area and they had taken out the copper coil. When the transformers were stolen, the villagers stepped up vigil. When the duo went to take out the copper coil hidden in Parali, they were nabbed by the villagers. Indrajit threw ‘mirchi’ powder into the eyes of the villagers and managed to make good his escape. The duo was later nabbed by the area police.

FARIDABAD
LOK ADALAT: A special lok adalat held at court complex here on Tuesday disposed of 37 cases of bank loans. A Bench consisting of Additional District and Sessions Judge S.P. Singh, Civil Judge J.R. Chauhan and Chief Judicial Magistrate Jagdeep Jain took up cases involving an amount of more than Rs 12.26 lakh. Interest in several cases was waived off.

FATEHABAD
COMPUTERISED: The complaints and suggestions office of the district police has been computerised. The SP, Mr Hanif Qureshi, said here on Monday that people could now send their complaints and suggestions to the district police through the Internet. He said the people can e-mail their complaints at spfatehabad @hotmail.com. The complaints would not be treated as the first information reports as for that the department needed signatures of the complainants, he added.

WORKERS’ MEETING: A former Union Minister and senior Congress leader, Ms Selja, will address Congress workers at Rattia, Fatehabad and Bhattu in this district on March 30. The HPCC delegate from Fatehabad, Mr Arvind Sharma, said the workers’ meetings had been organised under the party’s awareness campaign regarding Tehelka episode.

KALKA
DEGREES: The 21st annual convocation function of the local Government College was held here on Saturday. The function was held in two sessions. As many as 209 students, including 114 girls, were given the degrees. During the second session, prizes were distributed. Deputy Commissioner Surinder Kumar Monga gave away prizes to the students.

SONEPAT
SCHOLARSHIPS: Mr Arun Kapur, trustee and Additional Joint President of the Atlas Cycles, gave away 30 scholarships on behalf of Shree Narsingh Das Hira Devi Trust to poor but promising students from various technical institutions of Haryana at a function held here on Tuesday evening.

COLLISION: One person was killed on the spot and another injured seriously when a Tata 407 collided with a minibus on the Gohana-Panipat road near Gohana town, about 40 km from here, on Tuesday. The deceased was the driver of the minibus. A case has been registered against the Tata 407 driver who managed to escape.

DOWRY CASE: A case of harassment for dowry has been registered against the in-laws of a woman who died in the Civil Hospital here on Tuesday. According to a report, the woman took insecticide tablets allegedly due to harassment by her in-laws.

ASSAULT: Two youths sustained serious injuries when they were assaulted by a rival group on the Rohtak road here on Tuesday. The injured were taken to the hospital. The police has registered a case.