The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, March 26, 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

AMRITSAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following were elected office-bearers of the local Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) here on Sunday: president — Dr Sudesh Sharma; secretary — Dr Karun Thapar; and joint secretary — Dr Meena Ghosh. A seminar was also organised in which Dr Gagandeep Singh, Head of the Neurology Department, Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, spoke on ‘Resistant convulsions (epilepsy) in children’.

ELECTIONS: The Himachal Sudhar Sabha Jalianwala Bagh today announced support for the Congress in the forthcoming Corporation House elections. The sabha also urged Congress leaders to give ticket to a party worker, Mr Bhandari Lal Sharma, from ward number 1.

CONDOLED: The SGPC has condoled the death of Amar Singh Ghanupur, a former member of the SGPC. In a press note issued here on Sunday, Dr Gurbachan Singh Bachan secretary, SGPC and Mr Harbeant Singh, additional secretary, expressed their grief on his death.

URGED: The Nagrik Welfare Forum has urged the state government to delimit municipal wards before the forthcoming elections in May. Mr B.K. Chopra, general secretary of the forum, said that majority of wards in Punjab were not in conformity with mandatory instructions, rules and prescribed norms.

COURT CASES: The Police Pensioner Welfare Association has expressed dismay over delay in announcements regarding withdrawal of court cases on police personnel during the period of militancy in Punjab. This was stated by Mr Sukhdev Singh Chhina, chairman of the association, in a press note issued here on Sunday.

HONOURED: Dr J.S. Bal, Professor of Horticulture, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, was honoured for his research on ‘ber’ at the annual convocation of Khalsa College here on Sunday. He has also developed weed management practices for kinnow, grape, pear and ‘ber’.

BATHINDA
SUICIDE: Sneh Lata, 38, a resident of Sarabha Nagar, committed suicide by jumping into lake No. 2 of the GNDTP here on Sunday. Police sources said she had marital problems. Her body has been recovered and a case registered in this connection.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
MEETING: A meeting of the District Grievances Committee will be held at Bachat Bhavan, here on March 27 at 12 noon under the chairmanship of Mr Vikas Partap, Deputy Commissioner. The people can submit their grievances in writing to the committee.

KHAMANO
MEETING: A meeting of the Art and Craft Unemployed Teachers Union will be held at Chatar Singh Park, Ludhiana, on April 7 to chalk out next course of action. According to Mr Rajdeep Singh Lali, its president, there are nearly 8,000 unemployed teachers and more than 5,000 posts are lying vacant. He says a delegation will soon meet the Chief Minister in this regard.

FUNCTION: The annual function of Sant Isher Singh Public School at Ranwan will be held on March 30. Sant Ajit Singh Hansaliwale will inaugurate the complex of the school. Mr Dalwara Singh, DPI, will gave away prizes.

LUDHIANA
SHOBHA YATRA: The Kashyap Rajput Sabha took out a shobha yatra from Durga Mata Temple, opposite Chand Cinema, here on Sunday. Before the start of the yatra, a function was held at which Mr Rakesh Pandey, Minister for Printing and Stationery, was the chief guest. Mr M.S. Birmi, MLA, was also present. A large number of Kashyap Rajputs from all over the state were present. Organisers later presented mementos to the chief guest and other dignitaries.

LANGAR: An annual langar in connection with the akhand path by the Mohalla Sudhar Sanstha of New Ashok Nagar was held here on Sunday, according to Mr Kuldip Marwaha, its president.

IDOLS INSTALLED: Idols representing the nine planets of the cosmic constellation were installed in Ayappa Temple, here on Sunday. A havan yagya was also performed.

MANSA
PLOT AUCTION The revenue officials from the Tehsil office, Budhlada had to return without auctioning the plot of Chhota Singh of Ahmedpur village on Monday as the activists of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta) did not allow anybody to give his bid. The officials had gone to auction the plot of Chhota Singh as part of the executive proceedings of the court decree obtained by Ram Kishan, Commission agent of Budhlada.

CIA RAID: A police party of CIA staff intercepted a truck a truck, carrying three stolen “jhotas” )he-buffaloes) at naka near Thuthianwali village crossing on Monday. The police has registered a case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC against the arrested accused.

FRAUD ALLEGED: Gurjit Singh of Nangal Kalan village in a representation submitted to the SSP Mansa, on Monday alleged that he has been defrauded by travel agent Jagga Singh and his wife Paramjit Kaur of Roomi village and Surinder Singh alias ‘Shinda’ of Khada village of Rs 1.25 lakh.

MOGA
ACCIDENT: One person was killed and four others were injured when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck near the Moga bypass on Sunday. The injured have been admitted to a hospital where their condition is said to be serious. The police has registered a case.

DUST STORM: Farmers of various villages in the district suffered losses when their standing wheat crop was destroyed in a dust storm on Sunday.

BODY FOUND: The Baghapurana police on Sunday found the body of a unidentified sikh youth in a field at Phulawan village. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination and investigations are on for its identification.

PATIALA
MTP CENTRES: The Civil Surgeon, Dr Inderjit Walia, has directed all nursing homes, clinics and hospitals conducting MTPs in the district to get their centres registered with her office. The centres have to apply on ‘proforma A’ available at her office. Dr Walia also warned that hospitals and nursing homes which did not get their centres registered were liable to be punished under criminal proceedings.

ARHTIYAS’ DEMAND: The Federation of Arhtiya Association of Punjab appealed to the government on Monday to withdraw the licence on foodgrains and oil seeds. The president of the association, Mr Bal Krishan Singla, said the withdrawal of the licence would result in a comfortable stock position and free availability of goods to the public. The association has also requested the Central Government to exclude foodgrains and oil from the Essential Commodities Act.

COMPUTER LAB OPENED: The State Bank of Patiala opened a computer lab at the Rajindra Deva orphanage here on Monday under the Community Services Banking to provide computer training to the inmates. Earlier also, the bank had established such labs at Yadvindra Puran Niketan and SDKS Shakuntla Senior Secondary School.

CONFERENCE: The National Service Scheme (NSS) Department of Punjabi University will hold a conference of all its programme officers on Wednesday to review NSS activities and chalk out an agenda for future. The conference will be presided over by the Dean of Students, Dr Ajit Singh Bhatia. The Director of the NSS, Dr B.S. Mann, said the discussion would focus on plans for introducing NSS as an optional subject in college.

PHAGWARA
KILLED: An unidentified person was crushed under a train at the Satnampura railway crossing on Sunday. In another incident, two persons, Gurinder Kaur and Rana, were injured in an accident between a scooter and a cycle on the GT Road near Chaheru.

SAMRALA
HOLI CELEBRATED: Members of the Lions Club Samrala, under the chairmanship of Mr Rajbir Mangat, celebrated Holi in the local Rainbow Palace. The Congress MLA, Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon, was the chief guest. On this occasion, it was decided to recommend the name of Mr K.S. Sohal for the post of 321-F District Vice-Governor. The three new members of the club namely Mr Manjit Khullar, Mr Vinit Aggarwal and Mr Raman Khullar were welcomed by Mr Naib Singh Neelon.

ELECTION: The elections of the Samrala Press Club will be held on March 31 at the local Civil Rest House at 6 pm, according to Mr P.S. Batra.

TARN TARAN
2 KILLED: Rajbir Singh(10), and Dalbir Singh (26), residents of Padhari Kalan village, were buried alive at Malchack village on Saturday while digging a well.

ACCIDENT: Baljit Singh of Harike village was killed on the spot when he lost control of his car and hit a tree on the roadside. In another incident, the Khemkaran police arrested Mukhtar Kaur of Ramuwal village for possessing 200 gm of opium.

CHANDIGARH

CITCO UNION POLL: The open elections of the CITCO workers union will be held on April 16 . The existing union has failed to announce the election date which is otherwise due this month according to a release. It said the CITCO employees had also sent a letter in this regard to the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Chandigarh. Those interested in contesting the election may procure nomination from the office.

HONOURED: The Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana honoured Mr Harchand S. Barsat, a lawyer of Patiala, on being appointed as Political Secretary to the Chief Minister of Punjab at a function held at the Chandigarh Club on Sunday. Mr Harbhagwan Singh, Advocate-General, Punjab and Mr Surya Kant Sharma, Advocate-General, Haryana, were the guests of honour. The Chairman of the council, Mr Anmol Rattan Sidhu, welcomed Mr Barsat by presenting a memento. The function was attended by president secretaries of various bar associations of Punjab and Haryana in addition to the members of the bar council, said the secretary of the council, Mr C.M. Munjal.

PANCHKULA
AUCTION OF SHOPS: An auction of shops will be organised at Mini-Secretariat here on March 27. Three tea stalls, three dhabas and a cold drinks/juice shop will be auctioned.

TUBEWELL: The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Jyoti Arora, inaugurated a tubewell Lohgarh village, a Dalit chaupal at Vasdevpura village and an old-age home at Rattpur village in Pinjore block on Monday. She also listened to grievances of people. Residents of Lohgarh asked for funds to construct a phirni, a cremation ground and for repair of dam. A sum of Rs 50,000 each was sanctioned for the construction of phirni and cremation ground and Rs 4 lakh for repair of dam.

CAREER COUNSELLING: The new session of Aptitude Testing and Career Counselling Centre was launched on Monday by the SDM, Mr M.S. Yadav. As the annual examinations of high school students are over, they feel the need for counselling to select an appropriate course. The institute would guide the students, in choosing their careers, said Dr S.S. Chaddha, Director of the Centre.

FAMILY PLANNING CAMP: The local chapter of the Family Planning Association of India and the Lions Club Panchkula Central, conducted a family planning operation camp here on Monday. Twenty persons underwent laproscopic tubal- ligation at the camp. The operations were conducted by a team of surgeons from the district health administration.

INLD MEETING: The Chief Minister and President of the Indian National Lok Dal, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, will address a meeting of party workers here on Tuesday. This information was given by Mr Pradeep Chaudhary, general secretary of the party. The aim of the meeting is to strengthen the party and address grievances of the workers.

APPOINTED: With the state Election Commission having issued a notification regarding the preparation of draft electoral rolls, the Deputy Commissioner has appointed Mr M.S. Yadav, Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil), as the revising authority. She has also appointed 10 authorised officers to assist the revising authority in preparing the electoral rolls for 31 wards of the Municipal Council. Two officers have also been appointed as reserve officers.

SEMINAR: The Panchkula Journalists Association will organise a seminar on afforestation and environment at DAV School, Sector 8, on Tuesday. Mr Rampal Majra, Chief Parliamentary Secretary of Haryana, will preside over the seminar.

HARYANA

AMBALA
READING ROOM OPENED: The Haryana Olympic Association president and Rori MLA, Mr Abhay Chautala, inaugurated Tau Devi Lal Reading Room at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Park on Monday. Mr Chautala laid the foundation stone of a skating rink to be built at a cost of Rs 6 lakh. He said the government had decided to beautify cities.

ROTARY CLUB MEET: The Rotary Club, Ambala Central, organised a meeting on the visit of the district governor of Rotary International District 3080, Mr Subhash Garg. Mr Garg visited all regular projects of the club, including the Pashupati Kusht Ashram project, free immunisation centre for polio and DPT, Rotary senior citizen library and Rotary ambulance parked at Vardhman nursing home. He inducted six new members to the club. He also presented a Paul Harris fellow recognition received from Rotary International to Mr Manmohan Maini for donating $ 1000 towards its foundation.

DEMAND TO REMOVE GOVT: A former organising secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Om Prakash Malik, demanded on Monday that the Gujarat Government headed by Mr Narendra Modi should be removed following criticism by Mr J.S. Verma, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission. Mr Malik said Gujarat incidents had put a blot on the nation’s image.

SIRSA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the managing committee of the Sirsa Education Society: president — Mr Bhim Jhunthra; vice-president — Mr Parveen Bagla; secretary — Mr Naurang Singh; and treasurer — Ms Kumud Bansal.

YAMUNANAGAR
HEALTH CAMP: The Pensioners and Senior Citizens Welfare Association, in collaboration with a Panchkula-based firm, organised a free heart check-up camp at Dr Sandeep Kalra Hospital on Sunday. Dr Suman Bhandari with a team from Escort Heart Research Centre, New Delhi, examined more than 200 persons in the camp.