R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

• A transmission tower sans foundation?

• Serving animals is his hobby

• Heart care for railmen
  

AMRITSAR
APPOINTED: At a board of trustees meeting of the local SSSS College of Commerce for Women, Sant Singh Sukha Singh group, on Tuesday unanimously appointed Mr Gunbir Singh as honorary general secretary and Mr Dewan Singh as president of the college.

HOSHIARPUR
2 KILLED: Mr Avtar Singh, son of Prem Singh, a resident of Bharowal died on the spot and his two sons, Tajinder Singh and Varinder Singh, were seriously injured when their scooter dashed against a tree while they were going to Mubarakpur. Varinder Singh succumbed to his injuries on his way to the hospital. Tejinder Singh was admitted to the local Civil Hospital, Garshanker, in serious condition.

DHARNA: About 200 workers of GNA Industry, Mehtiana, continued their dharna in front of the district court here for the second day on Tuesday. They are demanding the implementation of January 2001 agreement between the management and the workers to reinstate the retrenched workers.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Arya Samaj Mandir, Kamalpur: president —Prof Naval Kishore; senior vice-president — Mr Dharam Vir Kapoor; vice-president — Ms Sumedha Sahni; secretary — Prof Yash Pal Walia and treasurer — Prof Inder Dev Sharma.

KIDNAPPED: Ms Prem Lata, wife of Ram Parkash a resident of Bassi Gulam Hussain, has lodged a complaint with Sadar police station that his 17-year-old son, Munish, was allegedly kidnapped by Jeet Singh Saini of the same village. She said on April 9 Saini who suspected that her son stole his cycle, took Munish to Bhootpur, and since then her son had not returned home.

KHARAR
CONDOLENCE MESSAGE: The Governor of Punjab, Lient-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), has sent his condolence message to the family of Maj H.P. Singh, whose second barsi was observed in Mundi Kharar recently. In his message, the General said Major H.P. Singh sacrificed his life for the unity and integrity of the country and his example would continue to motivate people.

KHAMANO
MEETING: A meeting of Akali Dal(B) workers of Khamano area was held here at Gurdwara Sahib Khamano Mele Wali, under the chairmanship of the Planning Board member Sarwan Singh Suhavi. In his address to the people President of the district Fatehgarh Sahib Youth Wing, Mr Gurpreet Singh Bhatti, appealed Akali workers to tell people about the policies and achievements of the Punjab Government. When asked about the poor condition of roads in the area, Mr Bhatti said that a master plan of this area had been made by the government and soon development works would resume. He also said that the problem of muddy water in the city was under consideration and would be worked out soon. He also said that he will come here every Friday to solve the public grievances. The meeting was addressed among others, by Sarpanch Kulwinder Singh Bilaspur, Balwinder Singh Khamano , Kashmir Singh and Sarpanch Dalip Singh Jatana.

LUDHIANA
PAU UNION: The Punjab Agricultural University Employees Union has decried the non-implementation of a number of decisions of the varsity Board of Management regarding the employees’ demands. In a memorandum submitted to the Finance Minister, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, here on Wednesday, the Union said that though the board had passed certain demands six months ago but the finance department of the state government had been sitting over them. They have also condemned the government for not regularising the daily wage employees. A press note of the union said that the Finance Minister had assured them of and early solution. A meeting in this regard would be called shortly at Chandigarh.

MANSA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Lions Club: president — Mr Satish Kumar Goyal; secretary — Mr Manoj Kumar Garg and treasurer — Mr Subash Giggi.

APPOINTED: Ms Santosh Joga, municipal councillor, and Dr Lakhwinder Singh Musa, president, district Youth Akali Dal (B), have been appointed members of the district Sales Tax Advisory Committee.

VIDHAN SABHA POLL: The Lok Bhalai Party will field 90 candidates and leave rest of the seats for those who want to form an alliance with it in the Vidhan Sabha poll. This was stated by Mr Jodha Singh Mann, national general secretary of the party, here on Tuesday.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district Aggarwal Sabha: president — Mr Kesho Ram; and vice-presidents — Mr Raj Kumar and Ms Krishna Bholl.

MOGA
ROADS NOT REPAIRED: About 4 km of roads linking Samadhbrai and Raunta villages in the district have not been repaired for the past several years. This was stated by the residents of the village here on Wednesday. They used Mr Naib Singh, MLA, to get the repairs done.

MALERKOTLA
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Bhai Ghanaia Welfare Club organised a blood donation camp at Kup Kalan village, 8 km from here, on Monday. According to the club president, Mr Sukhvinder Singh, 38 persons donated their blood. Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, MP, presided over the camp.

EYE CAMP: Panchayat of Chunner Kalan village along with Sri Guru Hari Rai Sports Club and Pandit Dhan Raj Welfare Society organised an eye camp at Chunner Kalan village on Monday. Dr R S Gill and Dr H.K. Sidhu along with their team examined more than 800 patients and 63 persons were operated upon.

PATIALA
MAGAZINE RELEASED: A function to release the new millennium series of the magazine ‘The Luminary’ was held at Multani Mal Modi College on Wednesday. The magazine was released by Mr Vikas Partap, Deputy Commissioner, Fetehgarh Sahib.

ARTISTS' RESENTMENT: After sharing the credit of organising the four-day World Punjabi Conference in Lahore, the World Panjabiat Foundation, on its return, was likely to face resentment from many artists, writers and poets, who were supposed to attend the conference but were denied visas at the eleventh hour at Wagah border. Pran Sabharwal, a theatre activist and international co-ordinator of the World Punjabi Theatre Movement, said here on Wednesday that after attending the World Punjabi Conference-2000 in Chandigarh, he along with others like Jigar Jalandhari, an Urdu poet and senior vice-president of National Theatre Arts Society, were inspired to visit Pakistan. Pran Sabharwal made a fervent appeal to the Punjab Government to look into the matter. 

BLOOD DONATION: A blood donation camp was organised by the District Red Cross Society and the Dominos Pizza at Bhupindra Road here on Wednesday. The camp was inaugurated by Dr Amrit Lal Dhingra, Civil Surgeon. Similar camps would be organised by the National Volunteers Group at DCW on April 19 and by the Nirankari Mission at their hall on April 22.

PHAGWARA
TREATMENT PLANT: Three and half acres of land had been purchased at Narangshahpur village for setting up a water treatment plant. Besides cleaning the dirty water, fertilisers would also be made from its waste. This was stated by Mr Swarna Ram, Punjab Tourism Minister, while addressing a gathering at Hardaspur village on Tuesday.

SUSPENDED: Bimal Kumar, a Class IV employee of the local Nagar Council, who was arrested for making fake birth and death certificates, was on Tuesday sent to judicial lock up till April 30. Meanwhile, Bimal Kumar has been placed under suspension.

ROPAR
CONVICTED: The additional and District Sessions Judge, Mr Mohinder Pal, convicted DTO clerk Neelam Khullar after she was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe from a person by the Punjab State Vigilance Bureau. She has been sentenced to one year jail and fined Rs 2,000 under Section 13 (2) of the PCA and for six months along with Rs 500 fine under another Section.

CHANDIGARH

SAS NAGAR
CASE REGISTERED: The local police has registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC against Mr Kuda Singh of Mohali village for not informing police about the antecedents of the tenants in his house there. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
LIFE IMPRISONMENT: The District and Sessions Judge, Ambala, Ms Kiran Anand Lal, on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1000 to an accused in a decade-old murder case. According to prosecution, the accused Puran Chand had made an attack on Ravinder Kumar, who later succumbed to his injuries. A case under Section 302 was registered against Puran Chand in Ambala police station.

JHAJJAR
DOWRY DEATH: The Bahadurgarh police on Tuesday registered a dowry death case against five in-laws of the Gaindo Devi in Sankhol village of the district. According to police sources, Kauram of Devarkhana village alleged that her daughter, Gainoo Devi, who got married to Satbir Singh in 1997, was burnt alive by her husband and his four relatives on March16. They were demanding Rs 50,000 as dowry which could not be fulfilled due to Kauram’s poor economic condition. A case has been registered against the accused.

ROHTAK
ELECTED: Virender Singh Chauhan, Staff Correspondent of the Dainik Tribune, here was unanimously elected as president of the district unit of the Haryana Union of Journalists at a meeting held here on Monday. The general body authorised Chauhan to nominate office-bearers and members of the executive committee.

SONEPAT
THEFT: Thieves reportedly broke the locks of a house located in Sujan Singh Park here on Tuesday and decamped with cash and jewellery worth several thousand rupees. An FIR has been lodged in this connection.

PATWARI HELD: A patwari was caught red-handed by the officials of the Vigilance Department while accepting a bribe from a farmer here on Tuesday. A case has been registered against the patwari.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

GUJARAT RELIEF: The NCC group Headquarters in Himachal Pradesh and NCC units under its command have sent Rs 1.61 lakh as contribution towards the victims of Gujrat earthquake. Apart from this a large quantity of blankets and clothes have also been despatched.

A transmission tower sans foundation?

SPICE Telecom has built an 80-ft-high tower, allegedly without any foundation over a three-storey house on Tulsi Narain Street in Mansa. The residents of this thickly populated locality have been agitating against the installation of the tower fearing it may collapse any time, causing damage to the life and property of those living in the vicinity.

Mr Inderjit Singla, an advocate, told newsmen, that widespread damage was caused by the earthquake in Gujarat while several persons died due to a mechanical defect in the merry-go-round at the Surajkund mela in Faridabad. In the event of its collapse, the tower could cause loss of life.

He, along with other residents of the locality, met Deputy Commissioner Raji P. Sirivastava and requested her to dismantle the tower. On her directions , the District Transport Officer, Mr Chahal, visited the spot and stopped the installation of the tower, but the company again started construction after a few days.

Mr Singla alleged that no permission has been obtained from the Municipal Council or the Public Works Department for erecting the tower. He wanted the tower to be built at an open space with a deep foundation to prevent its collapse.

Serving animals is his hobby

Mahant Hira Dass of Koriawas village in Narnaul subdivision is well known for service to animals. He has not been recognised as such but a few facts are proof of him taking up care for animals as his hobby.

A buffalo being looked after by the Mahant on his temple premises won the first prize at a district-level milching completion organised at Narnaul recently. The yield was 22.5 litres of milk.

In 1968 at the North Zone Pashu Mela in Haryana organised by the Animal Husbandry department at Rohtak, a pair of bullocks ( Nagori breed ) was adjudged the best with the result in 1969 during the All-India Congress Conference held at Suraj Kund (Faridabad), Mrs Indira Gandhi conferred an award on the mahant.

At a national level animal exhibition held at Jaipur in 1975, a Haryana bred cow from his ashram was awarded the first prize. The then President, Mr V.V. Giri, conferred commendation certificate along with a prize on him. The animals reared at the ashram have been adjudged the best at various exhibitions in the country.

While talking to The Tribune the mahant said service to the suffering animals was his hobby right from childhood. He said animals should be reared like an infant with a feeling of service to dumb animals, who reciprocated the gesture of love and affection and faithfulness. Leaving aside cows, buffalloes, horses and other animals are also being tended at the ashram, he added.

Heart care for railmen

The BBC Heart Care at Pruthi Hospital, Jalandhar, has been recognised by the Northern Railway for the treatment of heart diseases and cardiac procedures of its employees and dependants.

With this recognition BBC Heart Care becomes the only private hospital in the northern region which has been recognised by the Northern Railway for treating heart diseases of railway employees. The rates approved for treatment of heart ailments of railway employees are the same as approved and accepted by the Director-General, Central Government Health Services (CGHS), Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Earlier the railway employees had to go to hospitals far off the treatment of heart diseases. This recognition is certainly a blessing to the Railway employees of Ferozepore Division, covering Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and a part of Rajasthan, as they will now be able to get treatment at their door-step.

(Contributed by K.K.Goyal, Surendra Vyas and TNS)