The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, June 30, 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

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
ARRESTED: As many as seven persons, mostly migrants, have been arrested by the district police for allegedly begging outside ‘panj peer’ at Hall Gate. Those arrested have been identified as Bhagat of Gorakhpur, Vijay Choudhry of Bhagalpur, Jai Ram of Chennai, Vinod of Sitapur, Raju of Bhagalpur, Kalu Jaman of Godhpura, and Gurmit Singh of Tangra at Jandiala here.

HOSHIARPUR
PO HELD: The Garhshanker police has arrested a proclaimed offender, Sudesh Sharma of Parbhat in Zirakpur, who had been charged with crushing a cyclist to death.

HUNTING: Officials of the Wild Department caught Sham Singh of Chak Ronta and Asman Singh of Barnala hunting partridges in the Shahpur forest area of the Garhshanker Forest Division late Saturday and produced them before the Subdivisional Magistrate of Garhshanker, who remanded them in Judicial custody till July 11. The hunters can get to pat a fine of Rs 25,000 each and undergo three years imprisonment under the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972.

JALANDHAR
KILLED: A man was crushed to death when a truck hit his bicycle from the rear near Maqsoodan Chowk here on Sunday. The police has registered a case against the driver of the truck, who fled the place.

ARRESTED: The district police has arrested three persons on the charge of peddling narcotics and seized 30gm smack from their possession. Following a tip-off, a special police party laid an ambush at Dhand Mohalla here and caught Balihar Singh of Punia village and Inderjit Singh of Dhand Mohalla, who led the party to the third person, Parvinder Singh of Dhand Mohalla.

LUDHIANA
INAUGURATED: Mr Rakesh Pandey, Minister for Stationery and Printing, inaugurated a physiotherapy unit at Shree Raghunath Hospital on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pandey said the hospital was doing a good job by providing facilities like physiotherapy. District Congress president, Jagmohan Sharma and director of Oswal Cancer Hospital, Satish Jain were the guest of honour on the occasion. Mr Pandey gave Rs 1 lakh to the hospital.

ELECTED: The People Welfare council held a meeting under the presidentship of Mr Mangal Nath Bali in Gurdwara Guru Singh Sabha, Ajit Nagar. Mr Gurdip Singh Randhawa, general secretary of the council, highlighted the work done for the welfare of the people. The following persons were elected unanimously: patrons — Avtar Singh, Kala Singh Dogra, Pritam Singh Dogra, Mangal Nath Bali, Thekedar Amrik Singh, Surinder Happy, Inderjit, Om Parkash Verma, Manna Singh and Mota; chairman — Jasbir Singh Dogra; president — Raj Kumar Vaid; vice-presidents — Jarnail Singh Dogra, Rajesh Khokhar, Amrik Singh, Kadi Mattu, Balwinder Battra, Balbir Randhawa, Vijay Mattu, Surinder Sharma; general secretary — Gurdip Randhawa; and cashier — Hajara Singh.

NAWANSHAHR
DHARNA: PSEB employees of Nawanshahr circle staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here on Friday in protest against the proposed privatisation of the board. They also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

PHAGWARA
BURGLED: The house of Sansar Chand, a linemen in the Telecom Department, was found burgled in the local Basant Nagar on Friday. The burglary took place when Sansar Chand and his family were out of the station.

WHISKY SEIZED: The police on Friday seized 12 boxes of whisky from three persons Santokh Singh, Lakhbir Singh and Tarsem Singh of Bhabiana village. The whisky being smuggled in a jeep was seized near the Rawalpindi area. They were arrested under various sections of the Excise Act.

SOCIALIST FRONT : Mr Kesar Singh, president of the Socialist Front, Punjab, on Sunday released the following names of the front’s state office-bearers: vice-presidents — Mr Gurmit Singh Jaja (Hoshiarpur), Mr Jagdish Anand (Ludhiana), Mr Mohan Singh (Bandala) and Mr Mohan Singh (Nawanshahr); general secretary — Mr Amar Hada (Sirhind); joint secretary — Mr Mukhtar Singh (Amritsar); and cashier — Mr Hukam Chand.

CHANDIGARH

INTERACTIVE SESSION: VLCC organised an interactive session at its centre in sector 8 here on Sunday. During the day-long session “VLCC success stories”, people who have already achieved their target in weight-loss and inch loss shared their experiences with newcomers.

PANCHKULA
COMPLETED: The first phase of National Disabled Institute Building being constructed by the National Handicapped Welfare Council, at Sector 12- A was completed on Sunday. Mr Keshav Chander Wadhawan, senior vice-president, Mr. Shyam Sunder Shukla, general secretary, and other office-bearers of the Building Construction Committee and Fund Raising Committee appealed to those present on the occasion to raise funds for the construction work, and a collection of Rs. 1.25 lakh was made on the spot.

CONCLUDING FUNCTION: The concluding function of the summer camp of Cherubic Foster School was held on Sunday. An exhibition cum videoshow was held where the exhibits prepared by children in drawing, sketching, collage making etc. were displayed.

WATER SHORTAGE: Residents of Sector 4, 12 and 12-A woke up on Sunday to see taps in their houses dry. With power supply to the tubewells being disrupted water supply was also affected. It was only at about 8 am that the supply of power was restored and the tubewell began pumping requisite water.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
COOP BODY : Mr Chainsingh Thakur was unanimously elected chairman of the Bilaspur District Cooperative Marketing and Consumers Federation, while Mr Nandlal was elected the vice-chairman of this apex co-operative body of the district, on Saturday.

ECO-CLUB : The Neel Kanth Eco- Club of Government Senior Secondary School, Auhar, near here, has been declared the best Eco-Club in the district out of more than 100 such clubs. The club head, Mr Suman Kumar, said here on Sunday that the State Science and Technology and Environment Council had honoured the club for making the best effort to protect the environment.

MEMORANDUM: Mr Hansraj Sharma, Gram Panchayat president of Makari-Markan, a delegation of village leaders of three panchayats of the Markand-Jukhala area met the Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.C.Jassal, here late Saturday and gave him a memorandum for the Chief Minister. They said the community Health Centre at Markand-Jukhala urgently needed doctors, dental surgeon and technician, ambulance driver and essential chemicals for laboratory tests.

KULU
CHECK-UP: Tagore Heart Care and Research Centre, Jalandhar, organised a free heart check-up camp here on Sunday under the aegis of Shri Hanogi Mata Mandir Trust. Dr G.D. Mehta, Chief Medical Officer at zonal hospital here, inaugurated the camp at the Hanogi Mata Sarai, Dhalpur, where more than 500 persons got themselves checked up.

NAHAN
INAUGURATION: The Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Mr G.R. Musafir, on the occasion of the inauguration of the CRC building at Wasni in Pachhad constituency on Sunday called upon the youth to explore tremendous avenues in tourism in Sirmaur district, for which, the government had a number of schemes. He also inaugurated the Jankhla-Talada road, constructed at a cost of Rs 8.75 lakh, and three rooms of government Primary School at Bando Bharadan.

BODY FOUND : Ravidutt of Bag Pashog village under Sarahan tehsil in Sirmour district, missing since Thursday, was found dead on Saturday, on the bank of a pond in Dhangyari village. The police has sent the body for a postmortem examination.

SHIMLA
DEMONSTRATION: The state Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Friday decided to hold a demonstration at Baspa on August 20 to expose the anti-people and anti-Himachal MoU and the power purchase agreement signed between Jai Prakash Industries and the state government. It castigated the government for ruining the state electricity board.

SUNDAR NAGAR
WIRE THEFT: The police has caught two persons — Roshan and Hoshiyar — on the charge of stealing of high tension electricity wires. The police has recovered 100 kg of electricity wires from the accused, who were caught from Salah village on Saturday.