R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
CRITICISED: Mr Avinash Chopra, state president, Technical and Mechanical Employees Union, inaugurated the annual delegate convention here on Saturday. While addressing, Mr Chopra criticised the state government for adopting anti-employee and anti-people policies. He regretted that the government had not accepted their pending demand for regularising services of daily-wage earners. Mr Piara Singh Mangat, state secretary of the union, presented the annual report.

Amritsar
RESEARCH: Guru Nanak Dev University has decided to set up Bhagat Puran Singh chair to conduct research on his mission. Dr Inderjit Kaur, president, All-India Pingalwara Society, said they had signed a MoU with the university to carry forward his message of universal brotherhood. She said Dr Jaswinder Kaur Dhillion of Department of Guru Nanak Studies, would be head of the chair.

Bathinda
ORDERED: Mr P.M. Das, Inspector-General, Border Range, has ordered re-investigation of a case registered against Dr Amrit Sethi, president of the local Indian Medical Association, and his brother. The IMA condemned the filing of an FIR against Dr Sethi and his brother in a case related to human trafficking. The IMA demanded quashing of the FIR.

Gidderbaha
RAIDED: Officials of the Crime Branch of the Mumbai police raided the house of Dr Sudhir Verma here on Friday in connection with a fake job racket. Dr Verma has been facing the charge of duping a number of youths on the pretext of getting them a job in the Railways. The police interrogated his family members. However, Dr Verma is still at large.

Hoshiarpur
CONDEMNED: The Technical Service Union, PSEB, has condemned the board authorities for handing over construction works, including release of new tubewell connections, meter reading and billing to private contractors. Mr Satish Chander, co-convener of the union, alleged that substandard works done by contractors would badly affect the supply system.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Ministerial Employees Association of the Deputy Commissioner’s office: president—Mr Harmail Singh Logia; senior vice-president—Mr Kashmir Singh Saini; vice-president—Mr Krishan Pal; general secretary—Mr Bhagwant Kishore; joint secretary—Mr Shaminder Singh; and cashier — Mr Jasvir Kumar.

LUDHIANA
SEMINAR: Top Careers and You (TCY) organised a seminar on “Admission Abroad” here on Sunday. Ms Rohini Pahwa, a faculty member, insisted on good preparation to get a good score in the GRE, which was a multiple choice admission test for applicants to graduate schools in foreign universities. Two former students of the institute also spoke. 

Phagwara
CONCERN: A meeting of the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Teachers Union, Punjab, was held here on Saturday. Mr Harbhajan Kaler and Mr Sarabjit Guru, state vice-presidents of the union, addressed the meeting. They expressed concern over the non-payment of scholarship and stipend to Dalit students for the past three years.

SEIZED: The police here on Saturday seized 365 pirated CDs during a raid at Chani Music Centre in Chadhha Market. Mr Rohit Kumar, proprietor of the centre, was arrested.

Moga
THEFT: Thieves struck at the Dagru substation of the PSEB and decamped with about Rs 1 lakh and bank drafts for Rs 33,000 on Friday night. Sources said the watchman, Anand Singh, was sleeping at the substation. The police has registered a case and taken the watchman in its custody for interrogation.

SENTENCED: The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Sukhdev Singh, has sentenced five persons to seven years imprisonment in a robbery case. According to sources, the Bhaghapurana police had arrested them while they were planning a robbery on April 15, 2002. It had also seized two revolvers, two country-made pistols and sharp-edged weapons from their possession.

BOOKED: Three travels agents have been booked for duping two youths of Dhaleke village of Rs 16 lakh on the pretext of sending them abroad. The agents were Sarabjeet Singh, Nirmal Singh and Sadha Singh of Nawajepur in Jalandhar. They were booked on a complaint by the fathers of both the youths, Gurdev Singh and Najar Singh. They had alleged that the agents took the amount from them for sending their sons to England.

Tarn Taran
MEETING: The Border Security Force called a meeting of border area farmers to redress their problems here on Saturday. Mr Gurpreet Singh Gill, Inspector General of Police, was the chief guest. Mr Sewa Singh Shah, DIG, and other officials were present on the occasion. Farmers alleged that the compensation had not been paid for their fields used for fencing of the international border for the past 15 years.

CHANDIGARH

CARROM CONTEST: St Kabir School, Sector 26, emerged winner in all three sections of the carrom tournament conducted at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45-B, here on Saturday. Six schools participated in the tournament. 

PANCHKULA
FUNCTION: The prize distribution function for students of the sewing centre of Sant Nirankari Mandal was held at Sat Nirankari Bhavan in Panchkula on Sunday. As many as 31 girls were given certificates on the completion of the course. Babita Jain and Seema won the first and second prizes, respectively, in the stitching course while Punita Gupta and Sonia won prizes for embroidery course. 

NAGAR KIRTAN: A nagar kirtan was organised here to mark the Baisakhi celebrations. The kirtan began from the gurdwara in Sector 12 and passed through various sectors of Panchkula, before concluding at the Sector 7 gurdwara. 

HARYANA

Jhajjar
KILLED: Two persons were killed in different road accidents in the district here on Saturday. Subhash, a resident of Khudan village, was going to his village to cast his vote in panchayat elections on a scooter. He was knocked down by an unknown vehicle on the way. In another incident, Prem, a resident of Kharoda village, was killed when his car rammed into a tree on Sampla road. A blue bull reportedly caused the accident.

Panipat
ORDERED: The Haryana Irrigation and Revenue Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, conducted a surprise inspection at the new Grain Market here on Friday. He directed officials of the Market Committee to ensure that food grains of the farmers were purchased at MSP fixed by the government.

Sonepat
SEIZED: Officials of the Indian Oil Company intercepted a rehri carrying LPG cylinders in the eight-marla colony and seized six fake cylinders here on Sunday. Arrested: A youth, Randhir of Rajinder Nagar, was arrested here on Sunday by the Civil Lines police on the charge of possessing charas. According to a report, the police recovered 75 gm of charas from his possession. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Chamba
JE BAILED OUT: The Special Judge, Chamba Division, Mr P.D. Goel, here on Friday ordered the release Mr Jitender Kumar, JE, Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department, on bail. He was caught by the Vigilance Bureau while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1,000 from a transporter.

Kumarhatti
4 COPS INJURED: Four cops sustained injuries when a police Gypsy carrying them was hit by a car near Timber Trail resort on the Kalka-Shimla National Highway on Friday night. The cops were in the pilot vehicle of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

Solan
ARRESTED: The Dharampur police has arrested Inder Singh and Rajinder Singh, for illegally possessing 180 bottles of country-made liquor. 

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

March to empowerment

“I am a refugee In India and can only dream about my country Tibet, which I have never seen,” says the General Secretary of the NGO, Tibetan Woman’s Association (TWA), Passang Dolma.

The 31-year-old Dolma had led a 135-strong Women's Peace March to Ropar recently. The march had started from Dharamsala (HP).

The NGO has been functioning from McLeodganj in Dharamsala since 1995. “Among other things, it aims to motivate the Tibetans girls to get education and to spread awareness about the need to protect the environment. The TWA has also been contributing a lot to guiding the women about preserving Tibetan culture,” she elaborates.

“Out of the total population of Tibetans in India, nearly 50 per cent are women,” she informs. On the need for women's empowerment, she says that the NGO has also been working on various projects to develop leadership qualities among the Tibetan girls and women and make them self-reliant. The women need to be involved in the decision- making process, she feels, adding that out of the 46 members of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, 10 are women.

“All the members of the NGO are working on a voluntary basis. I am working for my satisfaction, with the active support of my parents,” she adds.

Hair-raising ability

Dr Gurinderjit Singh, Chief Dermatologist, Cutaneous & Laser Surgeon at Mohan Dai Oswal Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation, Ludhiana, has been appointed the North Zone President of the Association of Cutaneous Surgeons of India. This honour was bestowed upon him at the organisation's national conference held in Pune recently.

He claims to have done more than 2000 hair transplants till now, having started off in 1988. He reportedly introduced the 'follicular transplant' technique in 1998, which has gained popularity over the years. He has also presented many papers on this kind of surgery at various national and international conferences.

Having performed surgeries like minipuch grafting, split-thickness skin grafting and tattooing for the permanent treatment of stable patches, Dr Singh is currently focusing on chemical peeling and dermabrasion for the treatment of facial blemishes.

A life member of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, he has received training in laser hair removal from Irvine (California).

“Hair removal by laser is far more difficult in the case of Indian skin (Asian skin) as compared to white skin. When high power is used to burn the hair bulb completely, the poor colour contrast between the hair and skin invariably leads to skin burn. This burn, if not properly treated, can cause hyperpigmentation. Therefore, lasers specifically designed for brown or black skin should only be used in these case,” he opines.

Suitable boys

The sounds of silence may be something to rave about for the poetically-inclined. Not so for brothers Bikramjeet and Partap, both deaf-mutes, for whom silence is an endless reality.

Even then, this specially-abled duo has not given up on life. They have taken up work that is tailor-made for them and provides financial independence.

The brothers have their own tailoring shop in Jalandhar. Between the hems and folds of outfits, they have found the route to monetary self-support. Though the present fad for readymade garments has given their tailoring business a setback, they are still meticulous about every stitch that goes into the suits and outfits they make.

First-time customers usually think that the brothers may not understand their instructions. But even finicky customers return satisfied when they find that their directions are followed to a T. Some customers are comfortable writing down their instructions, while for others lip-reading by the brothers suffices.

“It’s not that we have a passion for stitching. We just want to be economically independent. Of course, customer satisfaction matters a lot to us,” Bikramjeet writes, highlighting the words ‘economically independent’ in bold letters.

They dream big. Army life fascinates them. And the very mention of ‘foreign’ has them all smiles. “Dignity of labour is missing in our country. We are not averse to going through the grind, but the returns should be satisfactory,” Partap conveys in sign language, which his mother interprets. Well, theirs is indeed an eloquent silence.