R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AHMEDGARH
HOMAGE PAID: Leaders and representatives of various organisations paid homage to Raj Kumar. He was killed by unidentified miscreants on Teachers’ Day. The local Press union collected funds for the grieving family. Cabinet Minister Nusrat Akram Bagga announced an assistance of Rs 50,000.

BATHINDA
SEMINAR: A seminar to create awareness of legal rights among women will be held on Saturday at the local Bal Bhavan. It will be presided over by Mr B.C. Rajput, District and Sessions Judge and Chairman, District Legal Services Authority. An official press note issued here on Thursday said the seminar would be organised by the local unit of the All-India Women Conference.

DPDB MEETING: A meeting of the District Planning and Development Board (DPDB) will be held here on Saturday. It will be presided over by Mr Tota Singh, Education Minister, Punjab and Chairman of the board. Mr R. Venkat Ratnam, Deputy Commissioner, said in a press note issued here on Thursday that various development works in the district would be discussed at the meetings.

KISAN MELA: To give technical and general information to the farmers regarding the rabi crops, a kisan mela will be held on September 24 at the local Regional Research Centre of Punjab Agricultural University. Mr Sham Singh Dhillon, Director of the centre, said in a press note issued here on Thursday that a meeting of the officials was held here to look into the preparations. He said the farmers would be given high quality seeds during the mela.

EXHIBITION: An exhibition of paintings and terracotta made by the students of Navodaya Vidayala, Teona, will be jointly organised by the Human Resource Development Department of the Central Government and the Education Department of the state at the local AC Market from Saturday to Monday. Mr Karam Chand, Principal of the school, said in a press note here on Thursday that the exhibition would help bring students close to the residents of the area.

DORAHA
DHARNA: Non-teaching employees of the local Guru Nanak National College staged a “dharna” in front of the Principal’s office to protest against the government’s failure to implement their long-pending demands. Mr Sohan Singh Malhans and Mr Sukhpal Singh Dharni lamented that despite repeated pleas and protests, the government had not implemented pension-cum-gratuity scheme, increase in house rent allowance and release of arrears with effect from January 1, 1996. Among others who spoke against the state government included Ms Rajinder Kaur, Mr Amritvir Singh, Mr Vijay Kumar, Mr Manjit Singh, Mr Mohinder Singh, Mr Bachittar Singh, Mr Hans Raj and Mr Ram Nawaz.

BANK OF INDIA: The extension counter of Bank of India at Guru Nanak National College will be upgraded to a full-fledged branch on Saturday, according to a press release issued by Mr R. N. Kalyan, manager of the branch.

JALANDHAR
TB DETECTION CAMP: The district health authorities in collaboration with Lupin Laboratories organised a free TB detection and treatment camp at the local Bhargo Nagar here on Wednesday. Medicines were provided to more than 260 patients free of cost.

KHAMANO
WOMEN’S RIGHTS: A seminar on women’s rights was recently organised by a social organisation, ARTI (Action, Research and Training Institute), at Kalewal village, near here. Ms Mahindra Bhangalia, a social worker from Rajgarh (Himachal Pradesh) was the chief guest. Speaking on the occasion, she exhorted women to be aware of their rights. Mr Surinder Singh Bath, chairman of the organisation, said they would organise more such awareness camps in the area. Others who addressed the seminar included Mr Dharam Pal, Mr Radhey Shyam, Mr Manjit Singh, Mr Devinder Singh, Ms Pardeep Kaur, Ms Kamaljeet Kaur and Hari Singh. They appealed to the women to follow the footprints of Sarojini Naidu, Indira Gandhi, Kiran Bedi and Kalpana Chawla to uplift their position in the society. They strongly opposed the fashion shows aimed at exploiting women.

PRINCIPAL AWARDED: Ms Baswinder Kaur, Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Khamano Kalan, was presented National Award for her contribution in the field of education by Mr Krishan Kant, Vice-President, in a programme held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, on September 5.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Lok Sangam Youth Bhalai Club (regd): president — Mr Baldev Singh; vice-presidents — Mr Jarnail Singh and Mr Jaswinder Singh; general secretary — Mr Hardip Singh; assistant general secretary — Mr Paramjit Singh; press secretary — Mr Devinder Singh; joint secretaries — Mr Gurpreet Singh and Mr Gurjeet Singh; assistant secretary — Mr Jagtar Singh; and store keeper Mr Jarnail Singh.

KHANNA
SUICIDE: Ramesh Kumar (20), a resident of Amloh Road area has reportedly committed suicide by consuming celphos tablets. The police handed over the body to his relatives after the post-mortem examination.

ASCETIC DEAD: Din Mohammad, 100, reportedly an ascetic, was found dead in his room under mysterious circumstances. According to sources, the police has not taken any action in this regard as the Gram Panchayat was not in favour of pursuing the case.

LUDHIANA
BJP APPOINTMENTS: Mr Harish Bedi of Ludhiana and Mr Anil Sachhar of Jalandhar have been declared area president and ‘mahamantri’ of the state unit of the BJP, respectively. According to the president of the BJP the Beopar cell, state president of the BJP, Prof Vrijlal Rineva, declared a 13 member working committee of the BJP Beopar Cell on Thursday. Right to nominate the district heads of the cell was also given to Mr Harish Bedi. Mr Hira Lal Goyal (Ludhiana) and Satpal Juneja (Amritsar) have been declared vice- presidents of the state working committee. Mr Rajinder Mittal (Patiala), Mr Satpal Pathela (Muktsar), Mr Subhash Vir (Phagwara) and Mr Pardeep Tata (Moga) have been appointed secretaries. While the four appointed working members are, Mr Vijay Aggarwal (Gardhiwala), Mr Sukhdev Kumar (Kort Vadal Khan), Mr Ravinder Dhir (Jalandhar) and Mr Rakesh Duggal (Nawanshahr).

JUNIOR CHAMBER: The Ludhiana Junior Chamber organised a workshop on public speaking for the BA final year students of Government College for Women here on Thursday. Mr J.P. Aggarwal, president of the club, gave tips on the art of public speaking. He said body language, posture, pitch and modulation of the voice were some of the factors that one had to take care of. He asked students to make use of the expressions of fear, anger, joy, reluctance and other emotions. The students were given 10 minutes to prepare the topics and speak on them. Each speaker was analysed for his performance and suggestions for improvement were given. 

PATHANKOT
POLLUTION CAMP: The Lions Club organised a free pollution check-up camp near the S.P. office here on Friday. According to Mr Ravinder Mahajan, president of the club, more than 100 vehicles were checked. A sapling plantation programme was also organised by the club at the local Civil Hospital.

CASE REGISTERED: On a complaint of Mr Chamel Singh of Gharota village, the Sadar police has registered a case under Section 4 and 5 of the Cow Slaughter Act and Section 295 of the IPC. The complainant stated that he found lynched body of his cow on Tuesday and suspected that some unidentified persons had killed his cow.

AGRICULTURE CAMP: An agriculture training camp was organised in Gurdaspur on Wednesday. Dr Guljar Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, advised the farmers not to bring paddy with more than 18 per cent moisture content in the mandis for sale.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among teachers and students of various government schools in the district due to short supply of question papers of Classes VI, VIII and X for the term examinations being conducted by the Punjab School Education Board. Mr Subhash Sharma, joint secretary of the local unit of Government Teachers Union, said the question papers sent by the board were found to be much less than the students appearing in the examination. The schools falling in Uprala Thara, Bhatwa, Bhamlada, Harra, Narianpur, Jandwal, Dukhnairi and Dharkalan villages were facing this problem, he said.

PATIALA
PENSIONERS’ MEETING: The local Punjab Pensioners Welfare Association proposes to discuss the non-implementation of the Fourth Punjab Pay Commission at its meeting scheduled for Saturday at Red Cross Bhavan here. The association president, Mrs H.S. Sodhi, said the association members would discuss the anti-pensioner attitude of the state government. Issuing a press note, Mrs Sodhi said the association would demand an increase in the old-age pension at the age of 65 and 75 years rather than 70 and 80 years as was promised by the Finance Minister during his recent visit to the city. 

INSPECTION TEAMS: The Civil Surgeon, Dr Inderjit Kaur Walia, on Thursday instructed the Senior Medical Officer, Samana, to employ inspection teams to survey vomiting and diarrhoea cases in the area. In a press note, Dr Walia stated that paramedical and health employees be sent to the slum areas to educate people to preventing the reoccurence of the epidemic. The District Health Officer has already despatched a team to Samana in this regard. 

COACHING: The IAS and Allied Services Training Centre at Punjabi University would start coaching for CDS examinations from October 3. The examination would be conducted by the UPSC in February 2002. Giving the information, Dr G.S. Bajwa, Director of the centre, said candidates could apply latest by September 24 and the interview for admission would take place on September 25. 

YOUTH FESTIVAL: Punjabi University would host the North Zone Inter-University Youth Festival on the university campus from November 6 to 10. Giving the information, Prof Daljit Singh, Director Youth Welfare, Punjabi University said over 800 students and artists from 56 universities of northern India would compete in a variety of cultural, artistic and literary activities. A communication to this effect from the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, and the Ministry of Sports and Youth Activities, Government of India, was received by the university here on Friday. 

GRANTS DISTRIBUTED: Deputy Commissioner Jasbir Singh Bir, on Friday gave away grants of Rs 1 lakh for the development of a Primary School located at Kaller Bhaini, Rs 1 lakh for cleaning the village water, Rs 50,000 for a dharamshala and Rs 25,000 for bringing up a cremation ground. The DC was here to inaugurate the Civil Veterinary Hospital constructed at a cost of Rs 1 lakh, contributed by the villagers and the Veterinary Welfare Society. He also gave away a grant of Rs 31,000 to the Mata Gujari Sahara Trust on behalf of the District Red Cross Society. The trust provides support to about 200 helpless children and 50 widows. 

ALLEGED: A councillor of the local civic body, Mr Amrik Singh, on Thursday alleged that the Municipal Engineer of the civic body was misguiding elected councillors. He said in a meeting of the civic body held on July 27, an estimated Rs 4.98 lakh had been approved for laying of PCC tiles in front of SCFs from no 122 to 147 in Phase 7 here. But the engineering wing was laying red stones whereas the local government through an order in January last year had banned use of the red stone, he added. 

DEMANDED: The Punjab School Education (Non-teaching) Karamchari Association has sought the reinstatement of 54 daily-wage helpers, who were removed from the job by the board authorities. This was stated by Mr Amar Singh Dhaliwal and Mr Kanwar Singh, both leaders of the union. The dharna by the employees association over the demand entered its 17th day on Thursday. 

CONDEMNED: The ex-servicemen cell of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) on Friday condemned the callous attitude of Punjab Government for ignoring its appeal for providing financial help to Captain Daljit Singh, former gold mediallist in the Asian Games, for his knee-joint replacement. Addressing a meeting at Hamidi village Colonel Zorawar Singh, chairman of the cell, thanked a private hospital in Amritsar for replacing his joint free of cost. At another meeting of the office-bearers of Sangrur, Mansa and Bathinda districts, it was decided to hold a meeting of the ex-servicemen and their kith and kin in Sangrur soon, which will also be addressed by the PPCC President, Captain Amarinder Singh. 

BEOPAR MANDAL: Mr Surjit Mehta, vice-president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, and members of the Sales Tax Advisory Committee on Friday appealed to the Excise and Taxaton Department not to issue notices to small traders falling under the Summary Assessment. The meeting of the mandal held at the Red Cross Hall, was presided over by Mr I.S. Chahal, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner. The members of the Sales Tax Advisory Committee also urged the department to settle the claims by the traders and also fix the hearing for the cases pertaining to the amount of Rs 40 lakh and above after October 31. 

SAMRALA
RE-ELECTED: Mr Krishan Lal Bharti was re-elected as vice-president of the local Nagar Council on Friday. This was disclosed by Mr Devinder Singh Grewal, executive officer of the council. He said Mr Bharti was elected as vice-president last month, but his election was suspended on orders of Mr .K. Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, as no government official was appointed as observer. The election was held again after the appointment of Mr S.S. Brar, SDM, Samrala, as observer.

TARN TARAN
DEMANDED: Mr Jaspinder Singh, state president, and other office-bearers of the Unemployed Multipurpose Health Workers Association in a written press statement issued here on Wednesday have demanded the release of appointment letters for which the subordinate Services Selection Board , Punjab, had completed the interview process about four months ago. The leaders threatened that if their demand was not accepted, they would launch an agitation.

HARYANA

YAMUNANAGAR
THERMAL PLANT: The work on the much-awaited Yamunanagar super thermal plant will start soon. Ms Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, Financial Commissioner, Power and Non-Conventional Energy Sources and Chairperson of the Haryana Power Utilities, stated here on Wednesday that there would be two coal-based power plants of 500 mw each. She said its construction would be undertaken in two phases.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

THANKED: Mr Ashok Sood, senior vice-president, District Congress Committee, Solan and Mr Partap Thakur, general secretary, Kasauli Congress Committee, among others, thanked Ms Vidya Stokes, President, Pradesh Congress Committee and Mr K.D. Sultanpuri, President, Scheduled Castes HP Cell Congress for making Mr Jagdish Chand, member of the cell, according to a press note issued here on Tuesday.

UNA
SENTENCED: Special Judge R.L. Raghu here on Wednesday sentenced Om Prakash of Kuthar Kalan village under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act to rigorous imprisonment for six months and fined him Rs 2000.