The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, May 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
CONDEMNED: Mr Tarun Chug, former president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has condemned the lathi charge on Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists protesting against the anti-student policies and fee hike on May 7. He said the students’ demands were genuine and they were protesting peacefully when the police lathi-charged them.

GRIEVANCES PANEL: Mr Satya Pal Dang, senior CPI leader urged Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to constitute district grievances committees (DGC) to redress grievances of the public. He said no committee had been constituted for this purpose.

PAINTING CONTEST: A painting competition for students of IX and X classes would be organised at Khalsa College Senior Secondary School by the Amritsar Vikas Manch on May 13 under the National Environment Awareness campaign (neac) 2003-03. The competition is open to all schools. Themes of the competition are water as an elixir effects of water pollution conservation of water resources.

PLEA TO MINISTER: Mr Joginder Singh Bharti, and Ms Usha Mehta, president and general secretary respectively of the District Headmasters Association has urged Punjab Education Minister Khushal Behal to release the books free of cost to SC and needy students. They also demanded to defer annual summer vacation by at least 15 days.

BOOKED: The police on Friday booked as many as 11 persons for the theft of power. The booked persons include Charanjit Singh, a resident of Basarke village, Bhaini, Sarwan Singh, Bakhshish Singh, Deepak Kumar and Jaswinder Singh, all residents of the Naraingarh area, Khazan Singh and Shamsher of Rampura, Ajit Singh of Chhehrata, Balwinder Singh of Amardas colony, Manjit Singh and Om Parkash of Hetram Colony.

GURDASPUR
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among PSEB employees in Gurdaspur subdivision against the apathy of the EPF Commissioner, Amritsar, for ignoring PSEB employees of the division regarding the issuance of EPF slips. According to official sources EPF slips have not been issued by the EPF Commissioner, Amritsar to PSEB employees of Gurdaspur division for the past more than six years.

ARRESTED: The police on Saturday arrested Rajnish Singh, a resident of Talwandi Raja Dinanath and recovered a truck from him. Mr R.P.S. Brar, SSP, said that the accused had stolen the truck from Hameshpur in Panchkula district. A case under Sections 379/411/420/467/468/471 of the IPC has been registered.

HOSHIARPUR
DHARNA THREAT: Resentment prevails among employees of the Punjab State Tubewell Corporation, Hoshiarpur, as they have not received their salaries for March and April. In a press released here on Saturday, Mr Baldev Singh, circle president, PSTC Worker’s Union, Hoshiarpur, said all employees of the corporation would stage a day-long dharna in front of their circle office here on Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of their salaries.

MASS LEAVE: Members of the Hoshiarpur Central Cooperative Bank Employees Union have decided to go on mass casual leave on Tuesday in support of their demands.

KAPURTHALA
SPECIAL CAMPAIGN: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Verma, has stated that a special campaign will be launched from Monday for the disposal of pending mutations. He said the Revenue Department had issued detailed instructions for the campaign. The Sub Divisional Magistrates will supervise the work and Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) will be the overall in charge of the campaign.

LUDHIANA
JAGRITI ABHIYAN: The National Alliance of Street Vendors of India (Northern India) in a meeting held on Saturday decided to organise Jagrity Abhiyan on Thursday. The coordinator of the Movement of National Alliance of Street Vendors, India, Mr Vighnesh Jha, said the aim was to show that condition of footpath workers in Punjab was worsening. Mr Bal Krishna Pappi, head of the Rehri Phari Union, Punjab, said the situation of the vendors was pathetic. Mr Ram Singh, Mr Teerath Singh, Mr Surinder Chinda, Mr Harvinder Singh, Mr Hansraj Tandon, Mr Jagdish Walia, Mr Bhagwan Das, Mr Chand Gandhi and Mr Jaikishan Naiyar were also present.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Rotary Club, Ludhiana North, will organise a free medical camp at Government High School, Bhanhor village, on Sunday. Dr Ramesh, an eye surgeon from Mansuran, Dr Rajpal Singh Grewal, ENT, Dr Karnail Singh Dil, general physician, Dr Bhupinder Singh Gill, a dentist, Dr Daljit Singh, medical officer of PHC, will attend to the patients and distribute free medicines. Dr S.N. Tewari, Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, will inaugurate the camp.

DISTRIBUTED: Lala Jagat Ram Narayan Seva Sangh and Shri Gyan Sthal Mandir Sabha (regd), Ludhiana, distributed ration and pension to widows at a function held on Sunday at Gyan Sthal Mandir, near Subhani Building. As many as 621 widows were given the aid during the 69th such function organised by the organisation. The programme started with a religious discourse by Swami Yashodhanand. The SSP Vigilance, Mr Kanwarjit Singh, gave a sum of Rs 1 lakh to a sewing centre being run by the sabha.

BOOK RELEASED: Sirjandhara, a forum of creative writers, organised a function at Punjabi Bhavan to release ‘Pilli Itt’. The book is an autobiography of Prof Surjit Singh Bhatia, a prose writer of Punjabi. Prof M.S. Cheema introduced the author to the writers and brought out the background which necessitated the writing of the book. Dr K.K. Minhas, K.S. Kalia, Dr Kuldeep Singh Dheer (former Dean, Panjab University) and Dr P.S. Sohi spoke about the book. A former DPI (Punjab), Mr Gursweak Singh, released the book and presented it to Ms Narinder Kaur Bhatia, writer’s wife. Prof P.S. Kapur (former pro-Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar), Dr H.S. Soch (former Vice-Chancellor of the same university), Dr Surjit Patar (president of the Punjab Sahitya Akademy), Gurbhajan Gill, Prof Ravinder Bhattal, Dr A.S. Sikka, Trilocahn Lochi, Satish Gulati, Prof Malkiat Singh and Principal Inderjit Singh, Surinder Singh were also present on the occasion.

NAWANSHAHR
CONDEMNED: The district unit of the PCMS at an emergency general body meeting here on Saturday condemned the alleged misbehaviour with Dr Gurdip Singh Aulakh, SMO, PHC Sujjon by the two Naib Tehsildars in the presence of other patients. The association members urged the state government to take action against the erring officials otherwise they would be forced to launch a stir.

PATHANKOT
BOOKED: The police has booked five persons for allegedly threatening Inderjit Kaur, a resident of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttranchal to bring more dowry. The police has registered a case under Section 498-A of the IPC.

PATIALA
CHAHAL BEREAVED: Mr Shergang Singh, a former IAS officer and the maternal uncle of Mr B.I.S. Chahal, Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister, died here on Sunday following a heart attack. He was 89. Mr Shergang Singh, who remained the Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon and Bathinda, besides the Financial Commissioner, was cremated at his native village of Sidhwan.

DOCTOR BOOKED: The Banur police has registered a case against a private practitioner of Banur for giving medication which resulted in the abortion of a foetus of a woman of Jhoormajra village under Banur police station. Police sources identified the woman as Binder Kaur.

EYE CAMP: Dr Sukhdip Singh Boparai, an eye specialist examined patients during a free health check-up camp on Sunday organised by the Art of Living Foundation to mark the 47th birthday of its founder Sri Sri Ravi Shanker. According to organiser Satinder Kaur, Dr Boparai also committed on the occasion that he would operate five patients who had serious defects free of cost at the Patiala Eye hospital. She said other specialists also examined more than 200 patients. Medicines free of cost were also given to the patients, she added.

PHAGWARA
MEETING: A meeting of the subdivisonal level Legal Services Committee was held here on Saturday with Ms Navjot Kaur Sohal, Civil Judge, Junior Division, Phagwara, in chair. Applications for free legal aid were presented before the committee for approval.

SANGRUR
PRESENTED: A cheque for Rs 2 lakh was presented to Dr Inderjit Kaur, president, All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society, Amritsar, for the development of the Sangrur branch of ‘‘Pingalwara’’ and for the welfare of its inmates here on Saturday. Mr Tarlochan Singh Cheema, chief administrator of the Sangrur branch of the Pingalwara, said the money had been donated by Mr Narinder Singh, a resident of Canada.

TARN TARAN
SEMINAR: A seminar on ‘‘neo-natal surgical emergencies and weaning, nutrition and development in infancy’’ was organised here on Saturday by the local unit of the Indian Medical Association under the presidentship of Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal, the unit president, Dr Kulwant Singh, Head, Paediatrics Surgery, Guru Ram Dass Medical College and Hospital, Amritsar, spoke on neo-natal surgical emergencies while Dr Naresh Gaurav, another paediatrician, emphasised the need of giving supplementary feed to the children after the age of six months.

HARYANA

AMBALA
FELICITATED: The MM Education Trust organised a function to felicitate the Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Dr Avinash Chawla, on the MM Engineering College complex at Mulana on Saturday night. Dr Chawla inaugurated students’ fest “Abhiyakti 2003” by lighting a lamp. The Chairman of the trust, Mr Tarsem Kumar Garg, and various principals of the MM Group of Institutions were present. Mr Chawla released a CD ‘Info-2003’ consisting information about the MM Group of Institutions and also a special newsletter of the trust.

BRAHMIN SABHA: The Ambala Brahmin Sabha organised a function at Parshuram Bhavan in Ambala city on Sunday. The Chairman of the Ambala Improvement Trust, Mr Rameshwar Dass Aggarwal, was the chief guest while the local MLA, Ms Veena Chibbar, presided over the function. Jiyoti Maan Mahadev Swami addressed the gathering.

HISAR
ACCIDENT: Two persons were seriously injured in a road accident at Barwala near here on Friday. They were admitted to a private hospital at Barwala. According to the police, a truck hit a tractor when it was turning towards Sarhera road. The tractor driver Satbir Singh and Roop Chand received serious injuries. The Barwala police has registered a case.

SENTENCED: A local court has sentenced three persons to one-and-a-half years imprisonment each on the charge of possessing illegal arms. According to the prosecution, the police has recovered three pistols and seven live cartridges from Ashok Kumar, Krishan Murari and Bhoop Singh, all residents of the local Azad Nagar, when they were allegedly planning to commit dacoity at Juglan bus stand last year.

KALKA
SPECIAL TRAINS: The special trains from Kalka to Shimla which were started last month and suspended after two days resumed service from Saturday. As per the information, the first special train would starts from Kalka at 6 a.m. and the other will start at 12.30 p.m.

PINJORE
DEVELOPMENTAL WORKS: Tenders worth Rs 25 lakh were opened in the office of the local municipal committee on Saturday for various developmental works in the town. The president of the committee said Rs 11.50 lakh would be spent out of the M.P. quota on various developmental works in the town.

YAMUNANAGAR
CONCLUDED: To overcome natural calamities and disasters not only courage and bravery but also proper training was required, said Mr Vijayendra Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, on the conclusion of one week state-level flood relief training camp here on Saturday.

DIRECTED: Presiding over the District Public Relations and Grievances Redressal Committee here on Saturday, Mr Vijayendra Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, directed District Development and Panchayat Officer and Executive Engineer Public Health to ensure that all village ponds were filled with water so that no cattle suffered due to lack of drinking water.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
ELECTED: Captain Brij Lal Chauhan was elected president of the district unit of the HP State Ex-servicemen league at Ghumarwin on Friday. Other members of executive committee would be elected at the general house to be called soon.

DHARAMSALA
RELEASED: The Kangra police on Saturday released the photographs of two youths who were responsible for looting about Rs 6 lakh from the Damtal branch of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank on Thursday morning. According to police sources, the photographs were prepared with the help of computers on the basis of statements of bank employees and other eyewitnesses.

KANGRA
DEMANDED: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP) on Saturday demanded that the Central and the state governments should enact laws regarding minority educational institutions, to ensure that admissions to professional medical and engineering colleges were based on merit and admission process was made transparent with an appropriate fee structure. Mr Ramesh Pappa, national general secretary, ABVP, who was here in connection with a two-day state level personality development camp of ABVP women members at Gupt Ganga Here, raised this demand while talking to mediapersons.

NAHAN
BURNT: Four cattle were burnt alive and two were injured in a fire which broke out in the cow shed of Lachmi Singh at Danguri Tikkar village on Friday.

PARWANOO
BODY FOUND: The police recovered a highly decomposed body of a man from Datyar village, near here, on Saturday. According to a source, the body was spotted by villagers who had gone there to cut grass. The body was lying under debris.

CELEBRATED: The Vth National Technology Day was celebrated here on Sunday by the National Research and Technology Consortium (NRTC), Parwanoo, on their premises. Dr A.P. Jain, former Deputy Director and a senior scientist from National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, was the chief guest . Students of the various schools of Parwanoo visited NRTC laboratories on the occasion and participated in an essay writing contest. Dr S.K. Sinha, scientist in-charge, NRTC, while delivering keynote address, stressed the need of awareness of this day to pay respect to the scientists and technologists of the country.