The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, January 8, 2002, 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

AMLOH
APPOINTED: Mr Sardual Singh Sagu, a resident of Amloh, has been appointed general secretary of the Backward Classes’ Cell of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee by the Mr Jasbir Singh, a former minister and State Chairman of the Backward Classes Cell of the PPCC.

ENROLLMENT OF VOTERS SOUGHT: Mr Dalip Singh Pandhi, a former minister in a fax communication to the Chief Election Commissioner, has urged him to order the enrolment of voters for the 117 assembly constituencies, under Section 23 of the Representation of People Act, 1950, as the District and State Election Officer had failed to attend the telephone calls on this matter. Mr Pandhi claimed that a large number of voters have failed to get their identity cards despite repeated announcements. In some cases, identity cards have been shown as delivered in the voter lists though voters have not received the cards. There were various cases where the cards were found defective as the names in the cards differed from the photos printed on the cards. Mr Pandhi further stated that he had contacted the Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, Ms Usha R. Sharma, and she has confirmed that registration of voters under section 23 of the RPA Act cannot be refused. Mr Pandhi presented some voters before the mediapersons whose enrolment forms were refused by the Registration Officer, Amloh.

BATHINDA
SCHOOL TIMINGS: Mr R. Venkatratnam, District Magistrate, has issued an order that all government and private schools in the district will start at 10 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. In an official press note issued here on Monday it was stated that the school timings had been changed due to the cold weather. The order would continue till January 31.

JALANDHAR
POWERS DEMANDED: The Enforcement Department has submitted a proposal to the Finance Ministry demanding special powers to arrest the accused of foreign exchange irregularities in connection with terrorism-related activities by amending the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. This was stated by the Director of Enforcement Department and Special Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Mr S.S. Dawra, while talking to mediapersons at the Red Cross Bhavan here on Sunday.

LUDHIANA
ACADEMIC SESSIONS: The district unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) organised academic sessions here on Sunday evening, which was attended by over 200 doctors. The academic sessions were preceded by two presentations. A noted endocrinologist of the region, Dr R.J.Dash, gave a presentation on diabetes. He said the main cause of diabetes was the decreased physical activity and stress in day to day life. Dr L.S.Chawla, former Vice-Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, and Dr Gursharan Singh, president of the IMA, honoured the distinguished guests. The other presentation was given by Dr H.S.Pannu a cardiothoracic surgeon. He spoke on the rising trend of heart attacks. He attributed the increase in heart attacks to sedentary life, stress and smoking. He also emphasised on the role of surgery in emergency chest pain. He asserted that the safety of cardiac surgery had increased manifold after the advent of latest equipment.

LECTURE: The Ludhiana Management Association will organise a lecture on ‘Stress management’ at College of Agricultural Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, on January 10. Stating this in a press note, Mr V.K. Goyal, general secretary, said Dr Gurpreet Singh Wander, chief cardiologist at Hero DMC Heart Institute, would talk about various simple, practical and easily understandable methods on stress management to prevent ill health and increase work efficiency.

INTER-SCHOOL CONTEST: The Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle will organise an inter-school shabad singing contest at Baba Isher Singh Public School on January 9. Students would be divided into two teams, junior group with students till Class VIII and senior group with students from Classes IX to XII, said Ms Mandeep Kaur from the circle. She also said that each school would be represented by one team from each group with four to seven students in each team.

HONOURED: Mr Darshan Singh Tabiba, a progressive fish farmer, was honoured by the Department of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sarjit Singh Gill, Additional Director in the department, said Mr Tabiba had produced high quality production while minimising the costs at his farm in Hayatpura village, 25 kms from the district. He praised him for winning Babu Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puruskar for meeting record production and using innovative techniques. Dr Gill said Mr Tabiba was the first farmer to have used press mud in feed of fish and pigs and his experiments had been published in book of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. The council gave him a cash award of Rs 1 lakh to encourage him. Dr G.S. Momi, head of the department, also appreciated the efforts of the farmer.

MALERKOTLA
BUS RAMS INTO TREE: Ten persons were injured when a bus rammed into a tree near Sandor village on Sunday. According to information, the bus was coming here from Raikot when it hit the tree. The injured were admitted to the local Civil Hospital.

HEART CHECK-UP CAMP: A heart check-up camp was organised by the local Lions Club at Kali Mata Mandir here on Sunday. Dr Gurpreet Singh Wander, Dr Naved Aslam and Dr S.K. Kumbkarni of Hero DMC Heart Institute, Ludhiana examined about 350 patients. Medicines and ECG facility were provided free of cost.

NAWANSHAHR
MARRIAGE SOLEMNISED: The Blood Donors and Social Services Club, Aur, in collaboration with the gram panchayat and sports club, organised a blood donation camp at Mehrampur village, about 10 km from here, on Sunday. Mr Gurpal Singh Bhatti, ADC (D) presided. As many as 60 units of blood were collected. The marriage of a poor girl was also solemnised by an NRI family on the occasion.

TRIBUTES PAID: Rich tributes were paid to Chaudhary Jagat Ram Soond, a former minister, who was gunned down by terrorists in 1988 at a “shardanjhali samaroh” organised at his native village, Soond, about 20 km from here, on Monday. A large number of Congress leaders and workers attended the ceremony.

PATIALA
INAUGURATED: The Vice- Chancellor of Punjabi University, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, inaugurated the installation ceremony of computers in Girls Hostel 7 on Saturday. The computers had internet facility. This was stated in a press note released by the Dean, Students welfare.

HONOURED: At the 12th-All India Congress of Zoology organised at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Hardwar, Dr H.S. Rose, professor of zoology in Punjabi University, was honoured with a gold medal and honorary fellowship by the Indian Academy of Environmental Sciences recently for his contribution to the subject. This was stated in a press note released by the university.

RALLY: A rally-cum-meeting of ex-servicemen and war widows of Patiala district will be held on January 27 under the aegis of the Indian Ex-Servicemen League (Punjab and Chandigarh) to press for their major demands, including one-rank one-pension and exemption on income tax on pension to ex-servicemen and war widows. This was stated in a press note released by the league.

SELECTED: The Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology has been selected as one of the five competency centres to be established throughout the country under the Centre for National Academic Network for Continuing Education scheme. This project is joint ventured of AICTE and Sun Microsystems India for providing specialised training in Java technologies.

BRAILLE DAY: The blind inmates of the Society for the Welfare of the Handicapped observed World Braille Day at Kishan Singh Kamboj hostel here on Friday. Mr Kishori, in his presidential address, demanded that the government should provide Braille books upto class XII free of cost and at least one Braille library at the district level should be opened by the state government.

HARYANA

AMBALA
MEETING HELD: The general secretary of State unit of the National Ex-servicemen Coordination Committee, Dr Suresh Deswal, on Monday stated that a meeting was held under the leadership of Mr Balbir Singh Gill. In the meeting it was decided that if need be they would go to the forward areas and extend assistance to the families of soldiers. He said the NECC members would hold blood donation camps and provide help to the soldiers. A delegation would later meet the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala and apprise him of their demands.

PUNJABI SAHITYA ACADEMY: Director of Punjabi Sahitya Academy, Major Umrao Singh (retd) on Monday informed that applications had been invited for 2001-02 Bhai Santokh Singh award. He said the last date for receiving applications had been extended up to January 31. The awards is given to a person for his literary achievements and works. The application can be sent to the Sector 8, Panchkula office of the Punjabi Sahitya Academy.

WRESTLING COMPETITION: A wrestling competition to be held at War Heroes Memorial stadium, here on Tuesday and Wednesday has been postponed to January 10 and 11. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr D.D. Gautam, said that the competition was being held in three groups. The first group includes wrestlers up to 16 years, the second group is for wrestlers up to 18 years and the third group is for senior wrestlers. The wrestling competition includes the titles of Zila Kumar and Zila Kesari for the winners.

FATEHABAD
CULTURAL PROGRAMME: The Aims Institute for Information Technology (AIIT) organised a cultural programme here on Sunday. The AIIT Managing Director, Mr Munish Bansal, and the centre head, Mr Munish Arora, gave away prizes to the winners of various competitions held on the occasion.

KARNAL
POLICE’S CLAIM: The district police busted 30 gangs of criminals and recovered goods worth Rs 60 lakh from them during last year. This brought the crime rate down by 50 per cent in the district, Mr P.K. Aggarwal, district police chief, said on Sunday.