R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• NGOs do yeoman service
• Chosen for UGC research award
• A city with colourful past

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
BEOPAR MANDAL: A joint meeting of the beopar mandals of the state would be held at Faridkot on May 12 to discuss the reimposition of octroi. Mr Madan Lal Kapoor, president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said on Tuesday that the traders would request the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to find suitable alternative but not auction or reimpose octroi.

BOOKS DISTRIBUTED: The two branches of the Bharat Vikas Parishad organised functions to distribute books to hundreds of students at R.S.D. Girls High School and Shri Sanatan Dharam Putri Pathshala here on Monday. Mr Bool Chand Nagpal inaugurated a sewing and embroidery training centre for women on the RSD complex, Mr Parveen Chawla, said in a press note issued on Tuesday.

POPPY HUSK: The Sadar police has seized 38.5 kg poppy husk from a car coming from Rajasthan which was intercepted on the road outside Ramsara village. Barkat Singh, driver of the car, and his accomplice Mahender Singh, residents of Sammewali village (Muktsar), were arrested under the NDPS Act. They were remanded in police custody by the judicial court for a day.

ELECTED: Mr Gurdev Singh has been unanimously elected secretary of the People’s Law Forum in place of Mr M. M. Bhal, who had resigned. This information was given by Mr Vasudev Aggarwal, president of the forum, in a press note issued here on Tuesday.

AHMEDGARH
TEACHERS' UNION: The Government Teachers Union has condemned the DEO (Primary), Sangrur, for allegedly shielding officials involved in tampering with answer-sheets of students appearing in class V examination conducted by the SCERT. Speaking about the outcome of a meeting of the union held on Monday at local children’s park, Mr Sikander Singh Jartoli alleged that the DEO’s office had tried to shield those officials who had tampered with four answer-sheets of students at the Pharwahi centre. It was also alleged that the DEO had been taking arbitrary decisions about promotions, appointments and rationalisation and had allotted stations of choice to his favourite officials by ignoring meritorious ones. 

AMRITSAR
APPOINTED: Dr Surjit Singh Narang, Professor of Political Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, has been appointed Director of the newly established Centre for Punjab Politics at the university. He said the centre would analyse the elections to the panchayat, municipalities, municipal corporation, Assembly and parliamentary seats.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been office-bearers of the Sales Tax Practitioners Association: president — Mr G.S. Grover; vice-president — Mr R.K. Grover; and secretary — Mr R.K. Uppal.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Indian Medical Association, Amritsar (IMA): president — Dr Bholla Singh Sidhu; senior vice-president — Dr Rakesh Kumar Madaan; junior vice-president — Dr Rakesh Nagpal; hony secretary — Dr Jasdeep Singh; and hony financial secretary — Dr K.S. Bhatia.

BARNALA
REMANDED: Mr Malkiat Singh Keetu, MLA, who is lodged at the sub-jail here for alleged misappropriation of Truck Operators Union’s funds, was remanded in judicial custody on Tuesday by Mr Gurjant Singh, Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)-cum-Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barnala. Keetu was produced in the court following the completion of his police remand.

HOSHIARPUR
THEFT: Rupees 5,500 were stolen from the house of Manjit Kaur, wife of Kashmir Singh, at Garhshanker on Monday. A case has been registered in this connection.

FRAUD: A case of fraud was registered against an activist of a voluntary organisation on Monday. Mr Gurdial Singh, Principal of Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Mukerian, informed the police that Baldev Singh, activist of Jiwan Jyoti Scheme Cancer Society, collected Rs 15,000 from the students for a social cause, but he allegedly misused the same.

MURDER: Gurnam Singh of Buban village was allegedly murdered by Sukhdev Singh and Sonu of the same village on Tuesday. According to police sources, a land dispute was the reason behind the crime. A case has been registered under Sections 302 and 34, IPC.

CRUSHED TO DEATH: Pooja (7), daughter of Babu Lal, was crushed to death by a vehicle at the Balgan chowk, Dasuya, while she was crossing the road. The owner of the vehicle reportedly fled.

ARRESTED: The Tanda police on Tuesday arrested Romesh Singh of Lahian village and seized 6,750 ml of illicit liquor from him.

MALERKOTLA
SUICIDE: Balwinder Kaur, wife of Darshan Singh of Mohallah Nusrat Khani, committed suicide by allegedly consuming poison on Tuesday. According to the police, a family dispute was stated to be the reason behind the suicide. A case has been registered.

MOGA
PROJECT: A joint project of the Asian Foundation for Health, Lions Club (City) and the district police will be launched soon to get a new ambulance for assisting those hurt in accidents. This was stated by president of the club S.K. Bansal here on Wednesday.

TREE DAMAGED: Trees in Ferozepore, Muktsar, Faridkot and Moga districts have been damaged following burning of wheat and paddy straw. The state government has been urged to ban the practice all over the state.

FIRE: Harvested wheat crop lying in a field of a farmer at Phulewala village under Baghapurana police station in the district was burnt following a fire which broke out on Tuesday. Fire tenders were able to bring the fire under control after two hours.

KILLED: Amarjit Singh of Jhakharwala village in the district was killed on Monday when his car collided with a tractor-trailer near Bajakbana village on the Moga-Bhaginda road.

DHARNA: Local residents on Tuesday staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding immediate removal of Narinder Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat.

ELECTED: Mr Surinder Singh Dhillon was elected president of the Guru Nanak Centre Tempo Union (regd), Samrala, here on Wednesday. Others who were elected were senior vice-president — Mr Zira Ram; vice-president — Mr Malkiat Singh Ghulal; general secretary — Mr Avtar Singh Lotte; and treasurer — Mr Kuldeep Singh Ghulal.

HARYANA

AMBALA
DEATH MOURNED: The former chairman of Dewan Krishan Kishore Sanatan Dharma Adarsh Sanskrit College, Ambala Cantonment, Mr Shyamnarayan, had died. He was 95. He had served in the Education Ministry before joining the SD College Committee. Presently, he was the SD College Committee vice-president. “Shok Sabhas” were held in various educational institutions run by the committee and rich tributes paid to Mr Shyamnarayan.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

NGOs do yeoman service

Locally organised non-government organisations (NGOs) are working for better than international clubs as the latter are becoming more expensive and less productive. Besides Bharat Vikas Parishad and Seva Bharati two other organisations — Fellows Club and Royal Club — have established their identity prominently by taking up projects of public welfare in Abohar.

Fellows Club has developed a beautiful park behind Surya Motors complex earlier used by the residents of Subhash Nagar, a colony of migrants from UP, as waste dump. The soul behind the project is Mr Jagdish Juneja who had been supervising a free sewing training centre for migrant girls. Play equipment like seesaws for children have been provided in the lawns of the park. The club had now adopted the Samadhi Sthal of Maj. Surender Prasad who had sacrificed his life in Khem Karan sector during the 1965 war. The memorial remained completely unattended, as father of the war hero, Master Teg Ram, a former MLA, had died.

The club members, led by eminent lawyer Sukhpal Singh Sidhu, visited the memorial and resolved to develop a beautiful park there around the samadhi. The place was once a meeting place for drug addicts and Romeos. Within a few days it had undergone a sea change with beautiful plants and paths for morning walkers. New Suraj Nagri is a colony of well-educated residents but it has not been provided with a park either by promoters or the Municipal Council. The Fellows Club would be thus doing a yeoman’s service for the locality, besides paying homage to the martyr.

The Royal Club has proved, in a short span, that the members were not only royal in taste but in social service as well. Unlike members of other international clubs, they quietly visited a government primary school in Jain Nagar. They found that students were not having mats even to sit, most of them did not wear chappals in their feet; the thought of a uniform was a dream. The club arranged many things for children under the leadership of Mr Sarabjit Singh Saini.

A recent project of the club was to install 150 litre water cooler at the cremation ground located at Ram Bagh Road (see photo). The club plans to take over a dalit dharamshala in Arya Nagar which was lying incomplete due to paucity of funds. The project is likely to cost Rs 75,000. Bharat Vikas Parishad had donated 360 units of blood to patients in emergency wards of local hospital last year.

Chosen for UGC research award

Dr P.K. Malik, serving as senior lecturer at Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Yamunanagar since 1988, has been selected by the University Grants Commission for the post-doctoral research award to carry out research work for three years on the topic “Securitisation of assets in India — An empirical examination of its status, problems and prospects”.

Dr Malik got the gold medal for topping the M.Com examination of Kurukshetra University in 1984. Before joining his post he served at M.A. College, Jagadhri, and I.G.N. College, Ladwa. He obtained the doctorate in 1995 from Kurukshetra University on management information systems. His research work on information systems is perhaps the first one in India and he is probably the first college lecturer in Haryana to get this prestigious research award. At present he guides two teachers for Ph.D. and has so far guided 10 M.Phil and 60 post-graduate diploma students.

When contacted by this correspondent Dr Malik said information technology had completely changed the duties of the teacher. Students want that requisite information should be easily available to them and that too in an artistic manner. A teacher is always associated with knowledge management and to be successful he needs to update his knowledge by making full use of information. A person taking up a teaching career always occupies a central place in the hearts and minds of the students. Dr Malik said the government slogan ‘information technology for all by 2008’ has a specific role for a teacher.

A city with colourful past

Shimla was a small hamlet, Shyamla, about 200 years ago. The Gerald brothers spent a night at Jakhu hill in 1817. A fakir used to serve water to travellers there. Now at Jakhu top stands a magnificent temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman and monkeys follow you. There is a jeepable road right up to the temple. You may trek from the ridge also. Tradition says that Lord Hanuman stopped here when he was carrying “sanjeevani” to Lanka.

In 1819 Lord Ross constructed the first hut here and three years later Major Kennedy built the first pucca house. A few years later a British officer reached Shimla with 1,700 porters. The caravan of Englishmen used to visit this town on horseback or mules. The British developed such a liking for the place that they selected Simla as the summer capital of the Viceroy in 1857. By 1903 Shimla was linked with Kalka by a narrow guage track. 809 bridges were built and 102 tunnels were bored to complete this herculean task. In 1850 another church with dressed stones was made near the Western Command office. It is known as St Michael’s Church. The credit for making as church goes to Lord Ripon.

Viceregal Lodge, near Boileauganj, is a sprawling complex with many corridors. It is now known as Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. The building is made of stone. Some modifications were made to the three-storeyed structure over the passage of time but original design was not disturbed. From 1899-1905 during the tenure of Lord Curzon, the height of the minaret was increased. Between 1926-31 when Lord Ripon was in power, another building for the public entrance was added. Many Viceroys and Governors-General lived in this palatial lodge. Even the last Viceroy, Mountbatten spent a few months in this mansion just before Independence.

After Independence this lodge came to be known as Rastrapati Niwas. From 1964 this building was used for higher studies and its name changed. The eminent scholar, Prof Niharranjan Roy, had the honour to be its first Director. This building is a specimen of British architecture of the Renaissance period. It is a must for visitors to Shimla.

Contributed by Raj Sadosh, Ashwani Dutta and Ghan Shyam Gupta