The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, April 10, 2003, 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

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Chilling plant project in cold storage
Rare honour for Vijay Gupta
Crusade against drug addiction

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
CONDEMNED: The Democratic Citizens Forum in a memorandum to the Prime Minister through SDM Jaskiran Singh on Tuesday demanded that India should condemn the US attack on civilians in Iraq. The Abohar Journalists Association in the protest march from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk to the subdivisional complex joined members of the forum.

AMRITSAR
CONVOCATION: Mr Harbhagwan Singh, Advocate General, Punjab, will be the chief guest at the annual convocation of the Department of Laws, Guru Nanak Dev University, on Saturday. The convocation will be held in the Guru Nanak Bhavan Auditorium of the university.

‘YADGARI’ MELA: The Amar Shaheed Yadgari Committee will organise a ‘yadgari’ mela on Sunday. Mr Vijay Mishra, convener of the committee, said a rally would be organised from Jallianwala Bagh to Guru Nanak Bhavan. Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, national general secretary of the CPM and Dr S.P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, would take part in the mela.

URGED: The president of the Improvement Trust Workers’ Union, Mr Phool Chand Gandhi, in a letter to the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has urged to fulfill the long-pending demands of the workers.

INJUSTICE ALLEGED: Three sarpanches have alleged injustice to the students who appeared in the examination of Punjabi-A of Matric class of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) at SSS School centre, in Jagdev Kalan village last month. The centre was cancelled on the recommendation of the flying squad during the examination as the question paper of one student was found missing.

BATHINDA
WELFARE FEDERATION: Mr Shiv Pal Goyal, spokesman, General Categories Welfare Federation, in a press release issued here on Tuesday said the federation had been organising mohalla meetings in various villages of the district to generatic public support for the state-level anti-reservation rally to be held at Talwandi Sabo on Baisakhi.

100 PER CENT RESULT: Mr Baldev Singh, head teacher, Government Elementary School, Chhatiana village of the district, in a press note issued here on Wednesday said this year also the result of Class V was 100 per cent. He said it had been continuing for the past many years.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of Sarv Dharam Manav Seva Sangathan: president — Mr Kamal Kumar Garg; senior vice-president — Mr P.K. Bansal; vice-president — Mr S.R. Gopal.

APPOINTED: Mr Prem Kumar, a resident of the city, has been appointed president of the Janata Dal (Secular) by Mr Darshan Singh, president of the state unit of the party, as per an official press note issued here on Wednesday.

SAVINGS AGENTS: The Small Savings Agents Welfare Association in a press note issued here on Wednesday said the staff at various post offices of the city should be increased keeping in view the increased workload.

HOSHIARPUR
DEMANDED: Mr Jagdish Mitter, secretary, Kandi Vikas Forum, has demanded the construction of 1 km-long pucca road from Thaker village to Kalaran. Addressing a conference of the forum at Thaker village on Monday he said the construction of the road would benefit farmers of the above villages.

ARRESTED: Narinder Singh, a travel agent of Ema Jattan village was on Monday arrested by the Garhshankar police for cheating Surinder Singh of Noldi Khurd, Khanna police station. According to police sources Narinder Singh allegedly took Rs 2,60,000 from Surinder Singh for sending his son to Italy. Narinder Singh sent the boy to some other country where he was arrested and remained in prison for over five months. Later he was deported to India. When Surinder Singh asked Narinder Singh to return the money he refused. Surinder Singh got registered a case under Section 420 of the IPC against Narinder Singh with the Garhshanker police.

LUCKY DRAW WINNER: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Hoshiarpur branch, has declared telephone subscriber, Mr Gurcharanjit Singh, having telephone No. 250494 as the lucky draw winner for paying telephone bills regularly without surcharge and disconnection. Mr Ghail Chand, General Manager, Telecom, Hoshiarpur, gave the India Telephone Cards worth Rs 5,250, including ST to Mr Gurcharanjit Singh winner of the scheme in a function here on Wednesday.

KHARAR
SUCCUMBS TO INJURIES: Baldev Ram (50), the Gura village sarpanch, who was run over by a pick-up truck on the busy Chandigarh-Kurali road near Mullanpur-Garibdass village on Monday, succumbed to his injuries at the PGI, Chandigarh, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

LUDHIANA
EXHIBITION: The Rehwa Society is organising an exhibition of Maheshwari sarees here from April 10 to 11. Maheshwari sarees traditionally come in a mix of silk and cotton. Each saree has 1500 years of history woven into it. In 1760, Ahilya Bai Holkar, the ruler of Indore, revived the Maheshwari tradition.

ACUPUNCTURE CAMP: A 15-day free drug de-addiction and acupuncture treatment camp will be organised by Dr D.N. Kotnis of Acupuncture Hospital, Salem Tabri, Ludhiana, from April 12 at Har Bhagatdwar, Verrowal, Nawanshahr district. It will be inaugurated by Ms Lilly Chaudhary, District Social Security Officer, Nawanshahr, and it will be presided over by Mr Harjinder Singh, SDM, Nawanshahr.

KAVI DARBAR: Pankati, a Punjabi literary organisation of young writers, in association with the Punjabi Sahitya Akademi held its monthly kavi darbar at Punjabi Bhavan, here on Tuesday. Gagan Bedi and Prof Harjit Rattara recited poems.

MEETING: At a meeting of the Ramgarhia Educational Council, which was held here on Wednesday, it was decided that five brilliant and deserving students of Ramgarhia girls and boys’ schools be given free uniforms and books. Mr Jagtar Singh Bhambra, general secretary, said classes on computer, music, fashion designing, stitching and cooking would be started from this session onwards.

LECTURE: Dr Vandana Shiva will deliver an inaugural lecture on ‘Environmental, social and economic injustice’ at Punjabi Bhavan here on April 12 as part of the media artists’ lecture series. The author of 11 books and winner of the Right Livelihood Award, Dr Shiva is the founder of the Research Foundation of Science, Technology and Environment, which works on biodiversity conservation.

CONFERENCE: Dental jewellery is the latest craze in dentistry across the world, says Dr Vikas Jindal, joint secretary of the Indian Dental Association, Punjab, who has returned from Germany after attending a conference. The conference, he said, discussed several new techniques in dentistry that included dental imaging, patient awareness software, RVGs with intra-oral cameras, pyorrhoea periodontal chips and tooth implantology procedures.

INAUGURATED: New Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, here inaugurated its computer laboratory set up with latest techniques and Internet facility in collaboration with Riccs Computer Education on Wednesday. Mr H.C. Gupta, Principal and Deputy Director of the school, said computer education would be imparted to students from Class II to XII.

NOMINATED: The Income Tax Department has nominated Mr Ashok Juneja, president, Taxation Bar Association, as member of the Regional Direct Tax Advisory Committee. The committee will be an advisory body for dealing with matters relating to income tax and wealth tax.

HONOURED: The Bairagi Maha Mandal, Punjab, on Wednesday honoured its president, Mr K.K. Bawa, on his 45th birthday. He was also gifted a vehicle by the mandal for his ‘outstanding services’ to society and his community. A function was also organised. A meeting of the mandal was also held, which was attended by senior leaders, including Prof Jeewan Dass Bawa and Dr Rajpal Singh Bairagi. The MLA Dakha, Mr Milkiat Singh Dakha, was also present. It was also decided at the meeting that the birthday of Bandha Bahadur Bairagi would be celebrated in Ludhiana on June 9. A bairagi maha sammelan would also be organised on October 16 at Sangrur.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
CAMP: A free medical check-up camp was organised by the Punjab Health Systems Corporation in association with the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Sports Club at Chhlerri Khurd village in the Amloh constituency. As many as 415 patients were examined and provided medicines free of cost, according to Dr Mahesh Jindal, Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Amloh. Dr Sushil Kumar Bansal, Deputy Medical Commissioner, inaugurated the camp. Dr Vikas, Dr Navjeevan, Dr Navjot Kaur, Dr Amanpreet Singh and Dr Sukhdev Singh examined the patients. Mr Kirpal Singh Badunagar, SGPC chief, Capt Kanwaljeet Singh, a former minister, Mr Narinder Singh and Mr Gurdev Singh, president of the club, were present, among others.

ROAD SHOW: Sewa Kunj Motors Pvt Ltd organised a road show of cars here on Tuesday. The show was inaugurated by Mr Joginder Paul Singla, president of the local Municipal Council.

CHANDIGARH

REFRESHER COURSE: A 21-day refresher course on “Changing contours of public administration”, being organised at the Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, concluded here on Wednesday. According to Prof R.K. Sapru, 23 university and college teachers from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Mizoram attended the programme, which was aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of teachers as well as apprise them about various UGC guidelines. More than 30 resource persons associated with public administration, economics, political science, law and business management were invited to give lectures to the participants.

DHARNA: Members of the Panjab University Campus Students Council staged a dharna outside the office of the Vice-Chancellor in support of their demands on Wednesday. In a memorandum forwarded to the VC and the Dean University Instructions, the council has pointed out that the fees for a number of courses has been increased upto Rs 1,500 from Rs 670 and demanded that the matter be looked into immediately so that students do not suffer.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the General Insurance Employees’ Association (NZ), Chandigarh Unit: president — Mr Harimal Thakur; senior vice-president — Anand Kumar; vice presidents — Mr Deepak Malik, Mr Ravi Shankar, Mr P. V. Bhanot and Mr Satwant Singh; secretary — Mr Kanchan Kumar; joint secretaries — Mr Anil Sharma, Mr N. D. Tiwari, Mr Satpal Singh, Mr Sudesh Sharma and Mr Tripen Tiwari; organising secretary — Mr Ravinder Verma; treasurer — Mr Bhupinder; and assistant treasurer — Mr Navneet Sethi.

APPOINTED: The Union Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Minister, Mr Sharad Yadav, has appointed a local JD-U leader, Mr Surinder Bharadwaj, as the Director of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation for three years. Mr Bharadwaj had held the same position in the corporation between 1997 and 2000. Mr Bharadwaj said his foremost priority would be to ensure transparency in the functioning of the corporation.

SAS NAGAR
APPOINTED: Mr Javed Aslam has been appointed convener of the Ropar unit of the Minority Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr Harjit Singh Bhullar, Vice-President of the Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha, told mediapersons here on Wednesday that Mr Aslam had been given one month’s time to constitute his committee. He said the cell had not been started in Punjab earlier and now the move had begun from Ropar district. Thereafter, minority cells would be set up in Patiala, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.

HARYANA

AMBALA
HOSPITALISED: Gurnam Singh, an undertrial, lodged in the Ambala Central Jail, was admitted to the local Civil Hospital in a serious condition on Wednesday. Gurnam belongs to Raksera village in Panipat and was lodged in the jail under the Excise Act. Gurnam alleged that one of the inmates had attempted to cut his private parts with a blade. However, the jail authorities refuted the allegation, stating that Gurnam was under mental tension for the past few days and had himself attempted the act.

PATIENT HURT: Panic prevailed in the Civil Hospital on Wednesday evening when Pawan Kumar, a patient suffering from burn injuries, jumped from the third floor of the hospital building. Pawan fell on the seat of a scooter parked there and sustained minor injuries. According to his relatives, Pawan was missing from home for the past days and they were informed about his condition on Wednesday itself. A relative said Pawan was suffering from mental stress.

CULTURAL FUNCTION: A cultural programme of songs and dances was presented by students of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 3, Ambala cantonment, at Rukmani Devi Memorial Hall. The Principal, Pramila Dehra, read the annual report. The Chairman, Brig C.H. Dumasia, Commander 612 (1) AD Brigade, was the chief guest at the function. His wife, Ms R. Dumasia, gave away prizes to students.

HISAR
CONCERN EXPRESSED: Mr Sunil Gulati, Director, Census Operations-cum Registrar General (Births and Deaths), Haryana, on Tuesday expressed concern over the low percentage of registration of births and deaths in the state. He was addressing a meeting of the officials of Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Sirsa and Jind districts here. Mr P.K. Dass, Commissioner, Hisar range, presided over the meeting.

JIND
CONVENTION: Mr S.N. Arya, president, Sarvjan Samaj Manch, Haryana and former Vice-Chancellor, Haryana Agriculture University, said here on Tuesday that different political parties in Haryana were engaged in holding Punjabi sammelans at different places in the state to woo Punjabi voters. He said these parties remembered Punjabis only when during Assembly elections. He said it had been decided to hold a workers’ convention of Sarvjan Samaj Manch in the last week of April at Jind.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
CONDEMNED: BJP state spokesman Randhir Sharma has condemned the decision of the Congress government to increase HRTC bus fares by 25 per cent and called the decision as anti-people. Addressing mediapersons here on Tuesday, Mr Sharma said buses were the only mode of transport for over 95 per cent people of the state and it was this mode of transport which was responsible for the economic growth of the state.

DALHOUSIE
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among local telephone subscribers over the poor signal received through ‘mobile connections’ allotted to them by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). At many points, signal is not available. People engaged in the hotel business say that the problem about the absence of signal to mobile phones is affecting the hotel business as well as tourist inflow to this important tourist centre.

SUNDERNAGAR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the HP Diploma Engineers Association: president — Mr RK Vaidya, sr vice president — Mr KD Sharma, vice president — Mr MP Vaidya; general secretary — Mr K.S. Jamwal; additional general secretary — Mr Girdhari Lal; and finance secretary — Mr K.K. Gupta.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Chilling plant project in cold storage

The project to set up a chilling plant in Kaithal by the Haryana Government has been put in the cold storage. Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala laid the foundation stone of this project at Patti Afgan here on August 31, 2000. It is learnt that the land for this project was given on a nominal lease rent by the Patti Afgan Panchayat. The then Cooperation Minister, Mr Kartar Singh Bhadana, presided over this function. Besides the Chief Minister a number of senior officers of the state administration, including Commissioner and Secretary, Haryana Dairy Development, Commissioner, Cooperation, and others had rushed to the town to participate in the programme. The Deputy Commissioner, the Superintendent of Police and the district administration, besides officials of the Dairy Development Department, had made preparations for the inauguration ceremony.

When this reporter, visited the site recently a badly damaged foundation stone surrounded by bushes (see picture) and industrial waste was all that could be seen. Enquiries revealed that the project was shelved as the site was not favourable and sufficient for the project. The department engineers who visited the site a few months after the foundation stone-laying ceremony, rejected the site as it was in a low-lying and flood-prone area.

The nearby shopkeepers, who expected brisk business after the start of the chilling plant and its further expansion, were disgusted over the delay in the execution of this project. They were still optimistic that the chilling plant would be set up soon.

Meanwhile, it is learnt, that the department has purchased a piece of land on the Kaithal-Ambala road here to start a milk and chilling plant. When will this project mature is anybody’s guess.

Rare honour for Vijay Gupta

Mr Vijay Gupta, who hails from Patiala in Punjab (India), is one of the 500 our of 55,000 members of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) to attain the highest distinction of “Fellow ASHRAE”. The title of “Fellow ASHRAE”, was conferred on Mr Gupta on January 25 this year recognising his sustained contributions in the fields of arts and sciences of environmental technology and for his achievements in promoting and providing quality heating, ventilation and air-conditioning design and construction in federal buildings.

Mr Gupta has also been recognised by the National Society of Professional Engineers as “Engineers of the year” and was also declared “Citizen of the Year’ by the members of his neighbourhood community. He was also very active in the US Jaycees, a voluntary organisation engaged in numerous community services, which bestowed upon him the title of “Outstanding Jaycee”.

Born in Barnala, Mr Gupta is the grandson of Lala Kulwant Rai Gupta of Jaurian Bhatian (Patiala), who was a prominent social worker. Prior to his leaving for the USA, Mr Gupta received his education at MHR High School and Government College, Bathinda, and Punjab Polytechnic Institute, Nilokheri. One of his brothers is a District and Sessions Judge in Himachal Pradesh.

Mr Vijay Gupta left India for the USA in 1962. He obtained his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering and currently holds the title of Senior Mechanical Engineer at the US General Services Administration (GSA). GSA manages and maintains over 500,000,000, square feet of space in numerous types of federal buildings, including office buildings, US courthouses and border stations located where the USA borders with Canada and Mexico.

Mr Gupta is at present senior mechanical engineer, General Services Administration, Office of the Chief Architect, Washington, DC. ASHRAE founded in 1894, is an International Organisation of 55,000 persons, which is one of the largest institutions in the world.

Crusade against drug addiction

In its crusade against drug addiction among the youth of the state, Punjab Sports Department is doing a commendable job. Mr Arun Goyal, Secretary, and Kartar Singh, Director, respectively, of the Sports Department have written to all District Sports Officers to take steps to educate youth of Punjab against the menace of drug addiction. Most of the DSOs are leaving no stones unturned in dissuading the youth from taking drugs.

The District Sports Office in Sangrur has been actively involved in removing this menace among the youth. They have organised rallies in different schools, at the stadium and other far-off places. The coaches of the department are also taking advantage of the various tournaments being conducted in the villages these days. they go to these tournaments, help the organisers and also deliver lectures against drug addiction.

The district Sports Officers are planning to conduct paper reading contests, quiz competitions and on-the-spot painting competitions regarding drug addiction in different schools and colleges. They were trying to get the help of the social organisations also.

— Contributed by Satish Seth, Balkrishan Prashar and TNS.