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Regional potpourri


PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
Nominated
: Dr Gurjinder Singh has been nominated president of the Sikh Youth Federation, Bhindranwale, after Balwant Singh Gopala decided to step down due to his some personal engagements. Gopala nominated Dr Gurjinder by honouring with a siropa and a kirpan.

NABHA
Talk on sex tests
: A talk on "Role of Man in Determination of Sex of Child" was held at the Rotary Club here. Delivering his speech, Rotarian S.K.Batish said the technical fact should be printed on marriage and birth certificates to educate the masses that it is man and not woman who is the determinant of the sex of child.

PATIALA
425 patients examined: Dr A.S. Sekhon, principal of Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital (GSMCH) and dean of Gian Sagar Colleges, underlined the need to create health awareness among the poor and downtrodden sections of the society on Sunday during a day-long medical camp at Gian Sagar Rural Health Centre at Gajjukhera village. Medical specialists of the college provided specialised medical treatment to 425 patients during the camp.

SANGRUR
Protest march: Under the banner of Berozgar BEd Adhiyapak Front, Punjab, unemployed BEd teachers, led by district president Sukhwinder Singh Narike, took out a march through the town on Sunday. They were demanding the issuance of appointment letters to selected 14,000 ETT and BEd teachers and publication of advertisements for recruiting 18,000 more teachers in government schools.

125 donate blood: More than 125 persons donated blood at a camp at the Sant Nirankari Satsang Bhawan here on Sunday. The blood was collected by teams of Sangrur and Malerkotla Blood Banks.

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CHANDIGARH

MOHALI
Power shutdown:
The electricity supply of all outgoing 11KV feeders from the 66KV sub-station, Mullanpur Garibdass, will remain suspended from 8 am to 12 noon on Monday due to urgent maintenance works.

PANCHKULA
Nature campaign: DLF Homes announced the launch of a nature campaign in the tricity to spread awareness on global warming and climate change on Sunday. As
a part of the drive, employees of DLF Homes actively planted more than 100 trees
in the tricity.

Eye camp: More than 150 patients were examined and free medicines were provided to them on the International Grandparents’ Day celebrated by the Sai Tara Ummat Foundation at Senior Citizens' Council Hall, Sector 15, on Sunday. A free eye check-up camp was held in collaboration with Grewal Eye Institute on the occasion. Chander Mohan, deputy chief minister, Haryana, was the chief guest.

Training programme: Agricultural scientists, foresters, block development, panchayat officers, civil engineers, geographers, town planners and administrators are expected to participate in a one-day training programme on the theme of ‘Generation of Data Base and Mapping of Water Harvesting Structures using GPS Technology’ on Monday at Amravati Enclave.

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HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
Finance panel delegation
: An 11-member delegation of the 13th Finance Commission headed by its chairman Dr Vijay Kelkar will come to Haryana on July 16. An official spokesman said various departments would give their presentations to the delegation on July 17. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would address the meeting while finance minister Birender Singh would give the welcome address.

KAITHAL
Installation function
: Lion Ravi Jaitly was installed as the president of Lions Club Central, Kaithal, for 2008-2009 at the installation function of the club, which was held here on Saturday. District Governor Dr R.K. Sood was the chief guest at the function. Former district Governor Dr Kamlesh Bansal was the installation officer of the ceremony and Lion Madhu Aggarwal was the guest of honour. Lion Ranvir Parashar and Hans Raj were the masters of the ceremony.

KALKA
Sahara Resort demolished:
The department of town and country planning, under a demolition drive, razed Sahara Resort on National Highway-22 near Surajpur. The enforcement team of the town and country planning along with the police, bulldozed the resort, which was spread over two acres. According to sources, the resort was issued notices in 1997 to stop construction and the matter was in the court.

Dance Mania: J.S.R Productions, Mohali, organised a mega dance competition - Dance Mania 2008 at Ambedkar Auditorium, HMT Complex, Pinjore on Sunday. Producer Dweep Raj Kochhar revealed that more than 250 people in the age group of 3-40 participated in the competition.

KURUKSHETRA
Conference on journalism
: Prof B.K. Kuthiala, director of the Institute of Mass Communication, Media Communication and Media Technology, Kurukshetra University, will make a presentation at a four-day international forum on “Principles of journalism as enunciated in ancient Indian scriptures”. The conference is being organised by Asian Media Information Communication (AMIC) and Philippines Association Communication Educators in Manila, Philippines, from July 14 to 17.

REWARI
Man dies
: An unidentified person, who was admitted to the Civil Hospital here for treatment by some shopkeepers after he was found lying unconscious in the new grain market here on Saturday, has died. The police took the possession of the body and got it placed in the hospital’s mortuary for identification.

Gangrape: 1 more held: The police has arrested the main accused, Ravinder Yadav, a resident of Jharoda village, for his alleged involvement in the gangrape of a young married woman (24) of Mirpur village. Ravinder’s accomplice Anil Yadav of Pranpura village was arrested by the police on July 9. Another accused, Raj Pal of Odhi village, is still at large. Ravinder and Anil allegedly raped the woman, after which she fell into the hands of Raj Pal, who also allegedly raped her.

SONEPAT
Government college
: Though the third and the last cut off list of Government College, Gohana, was released on Saturday, a large number of seats earmarked for general as well as reserved categories were still lying vacant, said principal of the college S.C. Sharma. He said before commencing the admissions to first-year classes of BA, BCom (vocation), BCom (general), BBA and BSc in the college, the seats were earmarked for every reserved and non-reserved category.

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HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
5 hurt in group clash
: Five students were injured when two groups of students clashed on the premises of the government post-graduate college here on Saturday. Vijay Kaushal and Babu Ram, AVBP activists, Ashwani Thakur, Pardeep Thakur and Dilwar Singh, members of the Bilaspur Students Association, were injured. The clash was a sequel to the ragging of some students and consequent quarrel between the two groups. They indulged in stone and brick pelting. Counter cases were registered against the groups.

Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Himalaya Parivar: Ram Lal Pundir- district president; Hukam Singh Thakur- general secretary. It also elected Prem Lal Beena, Keshav Anand Bhardwaj- vice presidents; Jagar Nath Sharma- assistant secretary and Krishan Lal Nadda- finance secretary.

MANDI
Work under NREGA
: President of the Gramin Kamgar Sangathan Sant Ram Thakur has alleged that over 900 applicants of the Khani panchayat in Bali Chowki tehsil, who applied for work under the NREGA around 15 days ago, have not got work so far. He said the issue came to light during an NREGA awareness camp organised in the Khani panchayat area on Saturday. Moreover, those who had worked under the NREGA in the area earlier had not received payment worth around Rs 2 lakh so far, he added.

Award for panchayats: The evaluation team of the sanitation mission has selected the Chamar panchayat in Balh and the Killing panchayat in Gohar area under the Maharishi Balmiki Sampurn Swachchta Purskar Yojna. These panchayats will get Rs 3 lakh each as reward for their achievement, according to a district sanitation mission release.

SHIMLA
Employees’ demand
: The State Employees Confederation has opposed the government move to amend promotion and recruitment rules for senior lab technician, radiographer and operation theatre assistant on the ground that it would harm their interests. General secretary of the confederation alleged such moves were a handiwork of bureaucracy that wanted to discredit the government by taking anti-employees decisions. The proposal was formulated during the previous Congress regime only to shower benefits on favoured few. It could not be implemented due to announcement of the Assembly poll. The proposed amendments would deprive paramedical staff in the above said categories, who had put in more then 30 years of service, of promotional avenues, he alleged.

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Regional potpourri

An inspiration for women
A woman and into farming! To many this may appear
somewhat unusual

Shashi Sabharwal is being honoured by Haryana agriculture minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha at a function.
Shashi Sabharwal is being honoured by Haryana agriculture minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha at a function.

This is fact and she has been doing well for eight-nine years in a sphere considered the domain of men.

She is Shashi Sabharwal, an entrepreneur with a difference.

She has made a mark in agriculture and was able to generate handsome earnings from 25 acres of the family land , diversifying farming, which includes strawberry, mushroom, cereals and vegetables.

Shashi took up farming after her marriage with Vijay Sabharwal of Kurukshetra.

Her husband, being busy with social service activities could not spare much time for agriculture. When her children grew up and went out for studies, Shashi decided to take interest in farming by growing strawberry on a small area of family farm. Soon, she set up a mushroom farm also.

Then there was no looking back and gradually she was completely into agriculture and trying the latest and scientific techniques for getting good yield and generating extra income from it.

“I harvest three crops in a year by sowing’ ‘toria’ or mustard in between the rabi and paddy crops. I also grow pulses and peas, which give me extra income and make soil richer with nitrogen also. This way I am saved from excessive use of urea, which harms soil and human health,” avers Shashi.

“After the last irrigation of wheat crop, I scatter seed of ‘dhencha’, a nitrogen- fixing leguminous weed. When we reap wheat ‘dhencha’ starts growing. By the time paddy is to be sown dhencha is waist high. We plough standing plants of ‘dhencha’ into the fields and it saves us from using urea fertiliser,” she adds.

She has been bringing more and more of her fields under organic farming which does not require use of urea or pesticide.

“I grew flowers, baby corn, broccoli, strawberries etc, but the marketing of these products is a problem,” she says.

She suggests the government or some private agencies should come forward and help in the marketing of such crops.

Seed of wheat and paddy produced by Shashi is also of better quality and local farmers find it worth buying.

“Does being a woman handicap her in any way”, Shashi says she does not believe women are weaker than men in any manner.

Religion for peace, harmony

A teacher from Hardwar teaches a child how to write at a function of the yoga camp in Waryamkhera village of Abohar area.
A teacher from Hardwar teaches a child how to write at a function of the yoga camp in Waryamkhera village of Abohar area.

The Hardwar-based Dev Sanskriti Vishawvidylaya founded by spiritualist and social reformer Acharya Shri Ram Sharma has brought warring land owner factions in some villages on platform. Those who were not on good terms for years performed “five kundi havan yagya” at the valedictory function of week-long “yoga sadhna and medical assistance camp” organised in Baba Bhola Giri’s ashram in Waryamkhera village of Abohar sub division in the first week of July. Landowners are related to political leaders of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and had access to present and past Chief Ministers. Today they looked like humble villagers. A team of teachers from the Vishawvidylaya comprising Jyoti Upadhyaya, Pragya Devi, Pushpa Sharma, Sudha Patel and Monu Bala during their stay in the village for eight days preached brotherhood and harmony and trained residents in yoga and treated some of them with nature cure system. They also taught women and children to perform “deep (lamp) yagya”.

Some residents requested these teachers to give the first lesson from books to their children under the “Bal Vidya Sanskar” ceremony at the function. Sant Sumer Giri and sarpanch Lal Chand Bhadoo jointly performed the opening ceremony by lighting the lamp. Hosts for the yagya were: Inderjit Bhadoo, Roop Ram, Rajiv Bhadoo, Jagdish Saharan, Surinder Bhadoo and Het Ram who performed “poojan” along with their spouse before starting the yagya. Also present were former sarpanch Shiv Narain Bhadoo senior Congress leader and Dhanpat Rai Siyag district BJP vice-president. Jyoti Upadhyaya, team leader from Hardwar, said late Acharya Shri Ram Sharma had spread Swami Dayanand’s message in the country and abroad. Nihalkhera-based Shaktipeeth’s chief organiser Hira Lal Chauhan claimed yagyapathy could solve all kinds of problem. N.K. Bhatia, Daya Ram and Om Parkash organised exhibition of spiritual literature on the occasion.

Ramesh Kumar principal M D Model School and educationist Sudesh Kumar said such camps help change the mindset of villagers. Five persons convinced to give up consumption of liquor.

Translator of Mahabharata, Bhagvat into Kashmiri

Kashi Nath Bhagwan
Kashi Nath Bhagwan

Kashi Nath Bhagwan, who passed away last month despite poor health at the fag end of life, realised his dream by translated into Kashmiri, ‘Mahabharata’ and Bhagvat.

Bhagwan, first Kashmiri poet who completed translating of the sacred works early last year.

Bhagwan translated more than 8,000 verses from 156 chapters of 18 purvas (sections) of Mahabharata into Kashmiri poetry in single volume comprising 800 pages.

Bhagwan under took translation of 17,800 verses of 334 Adiyas from 12 Askands of ‘Baagwat’ as his life’s mission at the fag of his life when he crossed 77 and completed the work in 2001.

Bhagwan, was born into the family of teacher Vasudev Raina in Anantnag town in Kashmir valley on April 21, 1921 and was brought up under the guidance of two poets Laximan joo and Shive ji Raina. Bhagwan, did his early schooling from & the Central Mission school Anantnag graduated from Shri Partap College Srinagar and did his B.Ed from Kashmir University. He started as primary school teacher and in 1950 was selected member of the mobile training squad to train the teachers modern method of teaching. He rendered 23-year service in the Teachers Training School at Anantanag as teacher educator from 1954 and was promoted headmaster of the same school. In 1976 Bagwan retired from teaching job, as principal government senior secondary school mattan.

Bhagwan was adjudged the ‘Best Teacher’ and an award was presented to him by then union education minister M.C. Chagla in 1965.

Bhawgwan started writing poetry from childhood and published his first composition of ghazals Nalay Dil’ at the age of 19 in 1940 ‘Bhagwan’ became a house hold name in Kashmir valley following the publication of ‘Sharika Daiya’ a composition of devotional songs in 1950. These songs were sung by famous singers of the state besides devotees in temples and Hindu marriages.

In his fight against social and political evils in society, Bhagwan published ‘Tuith Nabad’ (Bitter Sugar) a composition of songs of social political themes. His other publications are ‘Acchar Gund’ (Bunch of words) a book of devotional songs, ‘Mukta Dale’ (costly wealth) comprising an asset for Kashmiri literature.

Mahabharata, in the words of Pandit Bhagwan, is not a scripture of war only but a scripture which guides a person in life and righteousness in teachings of Bhisham Pitamah besides Lord Krishana.

Bhagwan was bestowed with Vitasta Award by Nagrad Adbhi Sangam, Jammu and Hemal Award by Nagirai Literary Forum in 2006.

Moti Lal Kemmu, a scholar and additional secretary of Jasmmu and Kashmir Art Culture and Languages demanded ‘Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Kashmiri language.

— Contributed by Sushil Manav, Raj Sadosh and Ashok Raina





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