The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, April 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

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

PUNJAB

AHMEDGARH
SEMINAR: A seminar on ‘Ahinsa — Key to Global Crisis’ was held in Sanatan Vidya Mandir here. Mr Satish Jain, president of the SS Jain Sabha, was the chief guest and Mr Gora Lal Jain, secretary of the sabha, presided over the function. In his keynote address, Mr Satish Jain urged the audience to adopt ahimsa and follow the teachings of Lord Mahavira. The Gujarat riots were also criticised at the seminar. Mr Data Ram Sharma, an educationist, and Ms Kamla Devi Sharma, Principal of the school, also spoke on the occasion. Books on the teachings of Lord Mahavira and Gandhiji were presented to students.

AMBEDKAR SOCIETY: Mr Darshan Singh Ballowal, an office-bearer of the Doctor Ambedkar Social Welfare Society, said the society would observe Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on Sunday. Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, would be the chief guest. Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, MP, Mr Malkiat Singh, MLA, and Ms Razia Sultana will be special guests.

AMRITSAR
AWARENESS CAMPS: The local unit of the All-India Women’s Conference held environmental awareness camps at Dayal Rajputtan and Gurgh Wind villages in the Tarn Taran-Bhikhiwind area, near here, on Friday. The camps were sponsored by the Ministry of Forests and Environment under the NEAC 2000 Project. Ms Ranjit Chhatha, president of the unit, presided over the camps.

BATHINDA
NOMINATED: Mr Ashok Kapur, president, Northern India Cotton Association Limited, has been nominated member of the Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (Ferozepore Division) by the Union Ministry of Railways. This was stated by Mr R. Bhatt, joint secretary of the association, in a press note issued here on Friday.

DERA BASSI
MEDICAL CAMP: As many as 540 patients were examined in a free medical check-up camp organised by the Panchayat of Mubarikpur village and the local unit of the Bharat Vikas Parishad in the village, about 2 km from here, on Saturday. A team of doctors, headed by SMO Dr Ram Kumar of the Dera Bassi Civil Hospital, examined the patients. Earlier, Capt R.R. Bhardwaj, Deputy Chairman, Planning Board of Punjab, inaugurated the camp and emphasised on the role of NGOs and village panchayats to organise such camps for public welfare.

GURDASPUR
HUNGER STRIKE: Congress workers, led by Mr Gurbachan Singh Babbehali, acting President, District Congress Committee, participated in a mass hunger strike held in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here on Friday. It was in pursuance of a directive by the All-India Congress Committee and the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee seeking the ouster of Mr Narendra Modi. Mr Babbehali condemned the BJP Central leadership for supporting Modi’s action in dealing with the Gujarat situation.

KHANNA
CHECK-UP CAMP: A dental-care and check-up camp was organised in the local Grain Market by the Bank of Punjab on its founder’s day on Saturday. About 400 patients were examined at the camp by Dr Gautam Punj, formerly of the Christian Medical College and Hospital of Ludhiana. The bank gave away free medicines to patients. Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, praised the bank its social activities. Mr D.K. Bhardwaj, branch head of the BoP, told the gathering about various social service activities of the bank.

LUDHIANA
SCIENCE QUIZ: A science quiz was organised here by a local newspaper, in which, students of many schools participated. Nine students of Shivalikwala Doon School won prizes. Jaya Suri of Class X, Kriti Handa of Class 1X and Abhay Varan of Class VIII won the first prize; Nihirka Katyal of Class X, Ruby Sharma of Class IX and Shagun Jain of Class VIII won the second prize. Third prize went to Radhika Thapar of Class X, Jaspreet of Class VIII and Harmanpreet of Class VI. Samridhni of Class V1 got the consolation prize.

BOOK FAIR: A two-day book fair organised by Scholastic India on the premises of the USPC Jain Public School concluded here on Saturday. The fair was a big hit with parents and students. Books that attracted everyone’s attention included ‘Star Wars’, ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’, Satyajeet Ray’s ‘Bachpan Ki Yadein’, ‘How to Raise Your Child’s Self-Esteem’, ‘Teenage Blues’ and ‘Career Guidance’. Scholastic Readers’ Club of the school is highly active. On this occasion, a book review competition was also organised, where best reviews were judged by a panel. Simran Chana and Abhinav Mishra got the first and second prizes, respectively.

MANSA
BOOKED: The police has registered a case under Sections 313 and 307 of the IPC and Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, against Hardeep Singh and his wife, Paramjit Kaur, for allegedly terminating the pregnancy of Ms Jaswinder Kaur without her consent at Alisher Khurd village. Ms Jaswinder Kaur Haswinder Kaur had complained to the police in this connection.

MOGA
BUSTED: The police has busted a gang of spurious desi ghee dealers. A case under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act has been registered against Vijay Kumar and Rakesh Kumar of Badhani Kalan village of the district. This was stated by SSP Varinder Kumar here on Saturday.

CANAL WATER: A meeting of officials of the Irrigation Department, the Punjab State Electricity Board and others was held here on Saturday. Additional Deputy Commissioner H.L. Kumar, who chaired the meeting assured farmers that all arrangements would be made to supply them canal water for sowing kharif crop and canals would be cleaned up.

PHAGWARA
SEMINAR HELD: A seminar on male infertility and the role of micro-manipulator and intra cytoplasmic sperm injection was organised by Virk Fertility Centre, Jalandhar, here on Thursday. Doctors from the Doaba area attended the seminar. Dr S.P.S. Virk from Jalandhar and Dr Gautam Allahabadia from Mumbai were among others who addressed the seminar.

CROP GUTTED: Ten acres of standing wheat crop was gutted reportedly due to sparks from a power transformer at Madhopur village on Thursday. The crop belonged to Balbir Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Dharam Singh and Shiv Singh. Local MLA Joginder Singh Mann and SDM Amarjit Paul, who visited the village, urged farmers to ring up Nos 101, 61944, 60201, 100 and 62813 in case of fire.

SAMRALA
MEETING: A meeting of the Samrala tehsil unit of the Punjab Lambardara Union was held here on Saturday. Mr Sohan Singh Guron, president of the unit, attended the meeting and Mr Jaspal Singh Jassi, SDM of Samrala, was the chief guest. The union members decided to hold a Punjab-level conference and invite the Chief Minister and the Financial Commissioner Revenue of Punjab to it. A memorandum of their demands was given to the SDM. They want a Rs 1,500 grant per month as honorarium, free bus pass for travelling to tehsil headquarters, no arrest of any lambardar without the permission of the Deputy Commissioner, rooms for lambardars in tehsil complex and their representation in gram panchayats, co-operative societies and grievances committees etc.

WELCOMED: Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, national general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, welcomed the decision of the Punjab Government to pay Rs 11,000 per acre in compensation to farmers who have lost their wheat crop in fires. Mr Rajewal thanked Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhathal, Agriculture Minister of Punjab, for announcing the compensation. He said previous compensations have always been a joke.

SANGRUR
LOK ADALAT: A special lok adalat to settle matrimonial cases and a seminar on “Free legal aid” will be held on May 11 in the district judicial complex here. Mr Justice H.S. Bedi, Chairman, Punjab Legal Services Authority, will preside over the seminar.

BAN ORDERS: Mr Sarvjit Singh, District Magistrate, has banned the pasting of obscene posters on government and private buildings, outside cinema houses, on the walls of schools and colleges and in the streets and bazars of the district up to June 22.

COURT TIMINGS: The timings of the judicial courts in the district has been changed from May 1 to July 31. The courts will function from 7 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. during this period.

HARYANA

AMBALA
RESENTMENT: The resident of Jiwan Nagar, Model Town, Ambala city, have expressed resentment over alleged encroachment of a public park. In a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, residents of Jiwan Nagar have alleged that a local resident has cultivated vegetables in the public park and a gate has also been set up. “Two windows are opening into the park and all washed clothes of the family are dried in the park. They are not allowing the children to play in the park,” the letter states. The residents have demanded that the park should be freed from the encroachment.

NEW EO JOINS: Mr Kewal Krishan Jain has taken over as Executive Officer, Ambala Sadar, Mr K.K. Jain, who was earlier EO Jagadhari, replaced Mr A.K. Jain who has been transferred to Bahadurgarh.

MEETING: A meeting of the Haryana Valmiki Mahasabha was held under the presidentship of Mr Mahesh Kumar. District president Somnath Boh said Mr Shyam Lal Sauda has been elected president of Dalipgarh village unit while the other office-bearers include senior vice-president Murari Lal, vice-president Puran Chand, general secretary Jarnail Singh, secretary Gurdev Singh and treasurer Mani Ram, a release said.

INAUGURATED: Deputy Commissioner D.D. Gautam inaugurated two rooms of the Bar Association library here on Saturday. The rooms have been constructed at a cost of Rs 2 lakh from the MP fund of Mr Ratan Lal Kataria. Mr Gautam also announced a grant of Rs 25,000 for purchase of new books for the library. Bar Association president S.K. Sharma said the associations was one of the oldest association and it now has 550 members. Among others, SP Manoj Yadava, CJM Sarita Gupta, Additional DSJ S.K. Kaushik, and special Magistrate for CBI cases, Mr J.S. Dhanjal were present.

SANGHARSH VAHINI: Sangharsh Vahini president Hira Lal Yadav said on Saturday that the decision to grant relief to the rural power consumers by the Haryana Government was an indicator of partiality since the urban power consumers have been ignored. Mr Yadav said the state government has introduced several taxes which were proving to be a major burden on the common man. The Chief Minister must understand that a large number of people live below the poverty line in urban areas, he added. He demanded that the relief given to the rural power consumers must be extended to the urban power consumers also.

FATEHABAD
FLAGGED OFF: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O.P. Indora, flagged off the first lot of trucks carrying fodder to Googa Maidi, Fifana and Bhadra areas of Rajasthan. Mr Indora said in all 50 trucks of fodder would be sent from the district to Rajasthan during this summer.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local District Bar Association: president — Mr Gulbahar Singh Retole; vice-president — Mr Ved Kamboj; secretary — Mr Inder Bishnoi; joint secretary — Ms Kiran Sachdeva; and finance secretary — Mr Ramesh Monga.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
DEMONSTRATION: Led by president Vasudev Jaswal and general secretary Brij Lal Chandel, workers of the district unit of the Primary Cooperative Societies Employees Union, held a rally here on Friday. They submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. Addressing the rally, the leaders demanded that the BJP-led state government must fulfil its election promise pertaining to the pay scale of Panchayat Secretaries.

MANGO DISEASE: Dr Basant Lal Sharma, District Horticulture Officer, has ordered all Horticulture Development Officers and Horticulture Extension Officers to launch a campaign in the district to destroy “mango hopper” — a fly responsible for spreading the mango disease called “tela”.

CHAMBA
AMBEDKAR MISSION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of the Ambedkar Mission Society: president — Mr Tilak Raj Hiteshi; vice-president — Mr Purushottam Chandra; general secretary — Mr Shiv Karan Chandra; assistant secretary — Ms Sarita Chandra; treasurer — Mr Sukh Lal; and chief patron — Mr Atma Ram Chauhan.

KUMARHATTI
EXCESS LPG RATES: Residents of Dagshai are sore over the alleged excess rates of LPG cylinder being charged by a private agency based at Kasauli. As against the prescribed rates of Rs 139 per cylinder, the agency has been charging Rs 153 for the past few months, said Mr Babu Ram Sood, former member of the Dagshai Cantonment Board. A complaint in this connection was made to the District Food and Civil Supplies Corporation at Solan, but in vain, he added.

NAHAN
HAND PUMPS: A meeting of I & PH officers was held here on Saturday. Mr Onkar Chand Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, who presided over the meeting, said a proposal regarding the sinking of more hand pumps in Sirmaur district had been sent to the state government. He also asked the District Revenue Officer to invite tenders for the distribution of potable water in the areas facing water shortage.

DOCTOR’S MEETING: A meeting of doctors, legal experts and public representatives was held here on Friday. The Chief Medical Officer, Sirmaur district, Dr V.K. Chopra, presided over. Dr M.L. Gupta, addressed the meeting. The District Attorney, Mr Bhatti, the Additional District Attorney, Mr Barwal, and Ms Mohini Gupta, municipal councillor, were present among others.

PAONTA SAHIB
PROCESSION HELD: About 300 monks and schoolchildren took part in a candle-light procession organised by the local RTYC and the RTWA Puruwala, here on Thursday. The procession was held to mark the 13th birthday of the XIth Panchen Lama. The Lama has allegedly been in the captivity of the Chinese since 1995.