Tribuneindia...Regional Briefs

	REGIONAL BRIEFS	Thursday, October 15, 1998
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BATHINDA

Call: Members of the Agriculture Technocrats Action Committee, Punjab, will hold a rally in front of the District Courts on Thursday in support of their demands, according to Mr Satwant Singh, Secretary of the committee.

DERA BASSI

Honoured: Two teachers, Mrs Vidya Sharma and Mr Jaswinder Singh, state awardees, were honoured at a function organised by the Rotary Club of Dera Bassi (City) here on Wednesday. Mr Jagmohan Khandelia, District Governor, Rotary International district, gave away the mementoes.

KHANNA

Five arrested: The police claims to have arrested five member of a gang of robbers, according to Mr R.S. Hundal, SSP. The police recovered two scooters, two pistols and some iron rods from their possession.

LUDHIANA

Traffic challans: As many as 3175 persons were challaned for violating various traffic rules and Rs 15 lakh was collected in fines by the traffic police during the last month, according to Mr Arun Goel, Deputy Commissioner. He was addressing a meeting of the Traffic Control Committee here on Tuesday.

Clerk arrested: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested Mr Rajpal Handa, a clerk in the Treasury Office, for allegedly issuing fake credit certificates and misappropriating funds, according to Mrs Shashi Prabha Dwivedi, Police Captain, Vigilance Bureau.

Dharna: The Punjab Agricultural University Employees Union held a dharna and a rally in front of Thapar Hall on Tuesday. Employees were demanding the release of arrears of the new pay scales and removal of anomalies in their pay structure.

Elected: Dr P.S. Rangi, Senior Economist ( Marketing), Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, has been elected Vice-President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Marketing for a period of two years.

MALERKOTLA

Bank extension: The State Bank of Patiala, Mullowal branch, has opened a temporary extension counter in grain market of Mullowal to help farmers, according to Mr B.L Jain, Branch Manager.

NAWANSHAHR

Seminar: The local Agriculture Department organised a seminar on "Farmers Training Camp" here on Tuesday. As many as 2000 farmers of the area attended the seminar, which was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Roshan Sunkaria.

ROPAR

Urged: The North India Federation of School Lecturers has urged Union Minister for Human Resources and Development Murli Manohar Joshi to direct the State Government to implement the National Policy of Education, 1986.

Lok adalat: A district-level Lok Adalat will be held on October 17 at the District Judicial complex here. The adalat will be inaugurated by Mr Justice H S Brar of the Punjab and Haryana High Court

Audit officers: The local Audit Officers Association has demanded the removal of anomalies in its pay scales. Mr M.R. Saini, President of the association, said they were getting lower pay scales as compared to their counterparts in similar posts.

PANCHKULA

Divali mela: The Lions Club (Mid-town) in coordination with the District Red Cross Society will organise a Divali mela in Sector 9 here on Friday. The City Magistrate said the mela would be inaugurated by the state Tourism Minister, Mr Raj Kumar Saini.

FARIDABAD

11 arrested: With the arrest of 11 persons, the local police claimed to have solved five murder cases committed during the past week, Mr Mohammed Akil, SSP, said here on Tuesday. He said three other suspects had been identified.

HISAR

Workshop: The Haryana State Remote Sensing Application Centre, Hisar, and the Department of Space organised a regional workshop on satellite data products and their uses in natural resources management on Monday. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr D.R. Rao, Director, National Remote

KURUKSHETRA

Sub-Inspector arrested: The Sub-Inspector, Mr Niranjan Singh, of the CIA staff, Kurukshetra, was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act here on Monday for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 during a raid conducted by Mr Swaran Singh, DSP, and Mr Shri Ram, Inspector, State Vigilance Bureau.

Camp: The local Rotary Club , and the Rotary Village Corps, Ramgarh, organised a health check-up camp at Ramgarh village on Sunday. As many as 250 patients were examined and given medicines free of cost

SIRSA

Sammelan: The annual sammelan of the Punjabi Sahitya Sabha was organised here on Monday. Mr J.P.S. Dhaiya, Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sirsa, presided over the function. A book written by Dr Raj Kumar, a renowned poet and writer of Sirsa, was released on the occasion.

Rally: Members of the local unit of the Haryana State Class IV Employees Union held a rally here on Monday. Leaders criticised the State Government for not accepting their long pending demands.

Gang busted: With the arrest of six women, the police claims to have busted a gang of poppy husk smugglers, Mr B.S. Sandhu, SP, said here on Tuesday. He said the police recovered 230 kg of poppy husk from them.

Function: The local Leo Club organised a function to install new members of the club here. Mr Arun Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner, presided over the function. He distributed six sewing machines among poor and needy women.

SONEPAT

Body found: The police found the body of Dharminder, from the Western Yamuna Canal near Barwasni village on Monday. According to the police, the youth belonged to Dewru village and his body bore injury mark. A case of murder has been registered.

Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of the Indian Medical Association: Patron — Dr R.N. Sachdeva; President — Dr S.K. Gosain; Vice-Presidents — Dr Mahesh Gupta and Dr Subhash Mathur; and Secretary — Dr Rawal Garg.

Suicide: Two cases of suicide were reported on Monday. The victims have been identified as Mrs Raj Rani (30) of Ganaur and Mrs Hoshiari (55) of Deepalpur village. Both committed suicide by consuming poison.

YAMUNANAGAR

Two arrested: The police arrested Joginder Singh and Amarjeet, local residents, on Tuesday and seized one pistol and two cartridges from them. They have been arrested under the Arms Act.

HAMIRPUR

Announced: The Himachal Pradesh Government will spend a sum of Rs 33 lakh in Hamirpur district this year for the promotion of horticulture, the HP Education Minister, Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman, announced at Saned village on Tuesday.

Association: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the HP Ministerial Staff Association (Department of Irrigation and Public Health): President — Mr Khem Chand Sharma; Senior Vice-President — Mr Des Raj Bhardwaj; and General Secretary — Mr Manjeet Singh Thakur.

KULU

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Himachal Rabbit Breeders Association: President — Mr Ranjit Parmar; Senior Vice-President — Mr B.K Thakur; General Secretary — Mr Devender Kumar Sharma; and Treasurer — Mr Om Prakash Negi.

SOLAN

Workshop: The Vice-Chancellor of the Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Prof L.R. Verma, inaugurated a four-day national training workshop on ‘‘Participatory Approaches in Watershed Management’’ on the campus on Monday. Mr S.K. Pandey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, was the chief guest.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Postman with a healing touch

Raju Ram needs no introduction. He is posted at Jwalamukhi Sub-Post Office as a postman. An energetic personality with a charming smile, he wields respect among the old and the young alike.

Raju lives in his small cottage situated on the Jwalamukhi-Dehra Road, 2 km away from the city. He has been blessed with the healing touch to cure without medicines those persons who are bitten by snakes. Hundreds of men, women and children can be seen visiting him for treatment, specially during the rainy season when snakes are active.

A simple person, Raju is a devotee of Lord Shiva. He learnt the theory of healing from his "guru"at an early young age. His "guru"also taught him to serve people without charging anything.

Raju believes that he is doing everything with the blessings of God. "Divine power helps me function smoothly", he comments. He says so far nobody has died at his doorstep. During the treatment period, he never takes food or water nor does his patient. Both do not sleep, day or night, till the patient recovers from the snake bite.

As per his treatment style, he treats the patient with a "mani". "Mani" is mostly worn by a snake on its hood. It is believed that the snake with a "mani" never dies and takes foods every day and mostly drinks milk. According to the Hindu mythology, such a snake is worshipped and people called it the "naag devta". Raju says snakes are not dangerous. They attack people only in self-defence.

Raju places the "mani" in the wound caused by a snake bite. The "mani" extracts the poison. After that he gives the patient boiled water, rice and "desi" ghee as food. It is a record that during the past 42 years nobody has died at his doorstep or gone back without satisfaction.

More than 500 persons were treated by him without any assistant during this season.

Drawing Rs 500 to Rs 700 per month as salary from his job of a postman, most of the money is spent by him in the worship of God and other daily needs. Food and lodging facilities are provided by him to his patients. This is the biggest achievement of his life and an example of self-less dedication and brotherhood.

Principal honoured

Mrs Reena Nagrath, Principal, DAV Public (Senior Secondary), School, Ambala City, has been presented with the Bharat Scouts and Guides Thanks Badge Award. She was given the award by the Haryana Governor, Mr Mahabir Prasad, at ceremony held at Raj Bhavan on September 11 last. The award has been given to her for her efforts to promote the activities of Bharat scouts and guides among students. Mrs Nagrath says it is rare that a public school has been chosen for such an award.

Earlier, she was awarded by the DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi, for promoting excellence in education. The district administration has also honoured her for her role in the field of education.

Mrs Nagrath says ever since the school was granted affiliation by the CBSE, students have been securing top positions in examinations for 10 plus one and two classes, apart from extra-curricular activities.

In the inter-state competition for schools at Abohar recently, the school got the first prize in the overall competition for seniors.

A student of class XI of the school, Indivar Verma, recently won scholarship in the National Mathematics Olympiad.

Unsigned passport

A passport issued in the name of one Sandeep Kumar, son of Surinder Kumar, resident of Ward No 10, Gahoon Road Balachaur, by the Passport Office, Jalandhar bearing No 6082283, dated August 31, 1998, is a unique case. The passport bears the office seal of the Superintendent, Passport Office, Jalandhar, on two pages, but has not been signed by the superintendent or any issuing authority.

Mr Surinder Kumar, who showed this correspondent the unsigned passport, said his son could be put behind bars for producing an unsigned passport.

Contributed by Bijender Sharma, Jai Parkash Mann and Subhash Joshi.