R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
CASE REGISTERED: Gurjit Singh Tinna, president of the Truck Operators Union and an accountant and cashier of the union have been booked for allegedly misappropriating Rs 20,000.

BOOKED: Subhash Chander and Joginder Singh residents of Dharam Nagri have been booked under Section 376 of the IPC for allegedly raping a woman outside the farm house of Sher Singh. In another complaint lodged under Sections 452 of the IPC by a resident of Baslluana village against Vijay Kumar and Subhash Chander, residents of Nanak Nagri, it was alleged that the two forced entry into her residence teased her in the presence of Mohinder Kaur a neighbour to press for the withdrawal of a case against Sarabjit Singh and Harminder Singh.

AMRITSAR
INVITED: Dr Om Parkash, Reader, Mathematics Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, has been invited to present his research paper at ‘‘Asian Fuzzy System Symposium-2000’’, an international symposium on theory and applications of soft computing, from May 31 to June 3 at Tsubuka science city, Japan.

BATHINDA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Wholesale Cloth Merchants Association of Bathinda for the next three years: president — Mr Bhoj Raj; vice-president — Mr Amar Singh; secretary — Mr Rajeev Mittal; cashier — Mr Krishan Kumar; and joint secretary — Mr Sukhinder Singh.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
SURVEY: A special survey is being conducted to identify the families living below poverty line which have also lost the head of the family in the district and a special grant would be given to such families, Mr B.S. Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, said while addressing a function at Mallowal village. Addressing a rural gathering the Deputy Commissioner said development work in the district would be accelerated. Earlier, Mr Sudan laid the foundation stone of a new road from Tanda Badha to Paheri, to be named after Sqn Ldr Raj Kumar, who had died in a plane crash on April 25 in the district.

KAPURTHALA
ELECTED: Mr Surjit Singh, a lawyer has been elected president of the district unit of the BJP. The announcement of his election to the post was made by the state president, Mr Daya Singh Sodhi on Tuesday.

PROTEST: Resentment prevails among the employees of Rail Coach Factory, Hussainpur, near here, over a ban on the entry of the central vice-president of the Technical Employees Association of Railways (TEAR), Mr Tej Paul Singh, in the coach factory. Mr P.K. Kaushal, Mr Sarvjit Singh, Mr Paramjit Singh, Mr Talib Mohammad and Mr Bachitter Singh, leaders of employees in a statement here on Tuesday criticised the Railway Protection Force for stopping Mr Singh at the gate of the factory and for not allowing him to enter the factory premises in order to participate in the general body meeting of employees held on May 19.

LUDHIANA
ADC TAKES OVER: The Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), Mr S.R. Kaler, took over the charge here on Tuesday, in place of Mr K.Shiva Prasad. Earlier, Mr Kaler had served as SDM, Ludhiana and before the new assignment, he was SDM, Nawanshahr.

MOGA
TRAFFIC DISRUPTED: The lifting of wheat from grain markets in about 60 km stretch on Moga-Ludhiana road has become a traffic hazard. Hundreds of trucks loaded with wheat are parked on both sides of the main road between Moga and Ludhiana and disrupt the normal flow of traffic.

PATIALA
PROTEST RALLIES: Punjab Pradesh Congress Vice-President Sant Ram Singla said on Wednesday that the party would shortly start another round of protest rallies in the state to mobilise people against the anti-people policies of the Akali-BJP government. In a statement here, Mr Singla said the Congress had held protest rallies at all the district headquarters. He said now the party would take its message to the block level. Mr Singla said the party was concentrating on highlighting the problems of the common man as well as farmers.

'END TO TRANSFERS': The PSEB employees federation on Wednesday met the chief minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Power Minister, Mr Sikandar Singh Malooka, and pleaded with them that keeping in view the stay order the management should not order large-scale tranfers. The deputation led by federation President Charanjit Singh Walia also urged the authorities to announce cadre-wise pay scales.

PHAGWARA
COMPUTERISATION: Kapurthala is the first district in the state to have water coolers in all eight police stations. The police stations have also been computerised. Claiming this here on Wednesday the SSP, Kapurthala, Mr Iqbal Singh said libraries had been set up at the police stations with a grant of Rs 20,000 given by Punjab Transport Minister Raghubir Singh and eight computers had been donated by son of Maharaja of Kapurthala, Brig Sukhjit Singh.

PHILLAUR
COURSE CONCLUDES: The police and the prison departments should coordinate with the Red Cross in tracing missing persons in order to provide better tracing services, this was stated by Dr A.A.Siddiqui, ADGP, Punjab and Director of the Punjab Police Academy, while presiding over the valedictory function of two-day training orientation course organised by the Red Cross , Indian Red Cross Society and Punjab state branch here on Tuesday. Mr Hans Lindstroam of the ICRC said the objective of the course was to sensitise the personnel of the police and prison departments in this regard.

SANGRUR
TATKAL SCHEME: Mr S.K. Thaman, Deputy Chief Engineer (Operation), Sangrur Circle of the PSEB, said here on Tuesday that the circle had so far released 457 tubewell connections, out of the 517 test reports received, under the PSEB’s ‘‘tatkal scheme’’ for farmers. Mr Thaman said the remaining 60 connections would be released within the next couple of days.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: Mr Amarjit Singh Sarna and Mr Naib Singh have been elected President and General Secretary, respectively, of the Chandigarh Gurdwara Asthapan Committee. The other office-bearers are Senior Vice-President — Mr Kuldip Singh Chandha; Vice-President — Mr Joginder Singh Joga; Propaganda Secretary — Mr Sarup Singh Saaqi; Finance Secretary — Mr Balwant Singh; and Cashier — Mr Jagjit Singh.

OFFICE-BEARERS: Mr Manmohan Lal Sarin has been elected President of the Alliance Francaise “Le Corbusier” de Chandigarh. The other officer-bearers are Vice-President — Mrs Gurshinder Aulakh; Secretary — Dr Vipnesh Bhardwaj; Treasurer — Mr Y.R. Kapur; and members — Mrs Kavita Das, Mr Surinder Jhina, Mr Walter Kissinger, Mrs Sheh Popli, Mr Narinder Rawal and Mr Shiv Singh.

COOPERATIVE BODY CHIEF: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Army Welfare Housing Organisation Cooperative and Maintenance Society: President — Lieut-Col J.S. Panag; Vice-President — Mrs Harbhajan Singh; General-Secretary — Lieut-Col A.S. Bajwa; and Treasurer — Lieut-Col B.S. Grewal.

WORKSHOP: A one-day teachers training workshop on "solid waste disposal and environment" was organised by the World Wide Fund for nature-India at the Sector 11 karuna sadan on Wednesday. As many as 25 teachers attended the workshop which was conducted by Dr Sangeeta Jund and Ms Balwinder Kaur under the national environment awareness campaign sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Lectures were also delivered by Dr R.C. Sobti of Panjab University and Dr Surinder Kumar of the northern region office of the Ministry of environment.

CONCLUDES: A five-day special sant samagam to commemorate the martyrdom day of Sri Guru Arjun Dev was organised by the Naujawan Sewa Dal of Mani majra at Gurdwara Mata Raj Kaur here. Sant Dalbagh Singh of Rohisar Sahib, Malowal, enthralled the gatherings with his recitation of kirtan and discourses.

AN ACT OF HONESTY: The torch of honesty still burns. Lieut-Col S.K.Mohan received a lady's purse having been presumed as lost for ever. The purse had fallen in Sector 34, Colonel Mohan said here on Wednesday. Mr Rajesh, working as a therapist with a clinic in Sector 34, found the purse and handed it over to his employer. The doctor called up the Colonel's house informing about the purse's discovery.

HARYANA

AMBALA
RENOMINATED: Lieut-Col B.N.Bali (retd) has been renominated as Vice-President of the Zila Sainik Board for a further period of two years. In addition, Colonel Bali will be ex-officio member of district public relations and grievances committee, a release said.

KAITHAL
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among senior citizens, who have been deprived of the benefits of old-age pension scheme launched by the Haryana Government. A large number of senior citizens gathered at the Mini-Secretariat here, on Monday to lodge a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Mahavir Singh, in this regard. They complained that in spite of being eligible to be included in the list of beneficiaries their names had not been included in the list, forcing them to travel from remote villages of the district to the district headquarters to present their case.

KURUKSHETRA
SEMINAR: The Registrar of Kurukshetra University Dr Hawa Singh, inaugurated a three-day seminar-cum-workshop on restructuring B.Ed, course in Haryana universities here on Tuesday evening. The workshop is being financed by the NCERT and organised by the University College of Education, Kurukshetra.

ORIENTATION COURSE: The Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Prof Hoshiar Singh, emphasised on the need of holding a national seminar on the role of teachers at the valedictory session of the 33rd Orientation Programme of Academic Staff College here on Monday evening. According to the Deputy Director of Academic Staff College of the university, at least 47 teachers (18 male and 29 female) participated in this four-week long Orientation Programme.

REWARI
GANG BUSTED: With the arrest of four persons, Kaluy, Rakesh, Rinku and Sube Singh, the Rewari district police claims to have busted a gang involved in the theft of wires. The gang was active in various parts of the district for the past six months. Mr A.S. Chawla, said the culprits had confessed that they had stole telephone and electric wires in various villages.

SONEPAT
QUADRUPLETS: Mrs Anita (25), a resident of Ahulana village, gave a birth to three sons and a daughter at a private nursing home here on Tuesday. However, the quadruplets died after some hours.

THREE HELD: The Ganaur police has arrested three persons in connection with the alleged murder of Rameshwar, a resident of Aghwanpur village on May 14. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr K.P. Singh, told mediapersons here on Wednesday that the arrested persons had been identified as Rajinder, Ramesh and Ajit.

PRINCIPAL HELD: Rattan Singh Saroha, a former principal of the local CRZ Senior Secondary School, was arrested here on Tuesday by the police on the charges of alleged misappropriation of school funds to the tune of about Rs 5 lakh. He was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate who remanded him to custody for two days for further investigations. It is alleged that the suspect had prepared fake bills and embezzled about Rs 5 lakh from the funds meant for the school.

ARRESTED: The CIA police arrested a youth Jatinder, alias Kala, of Bhainswal Kalan village on Tuesday for allegedly possessing a country-made pistol. A case under the Excise Act has been registered against him.

GRANT-IN-AID: The Haryana Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 12 lakh as grant-in-aid for the Sonepat Municipal Council to enable it to release two months’ salary to its employees. The employees of the municipal council have been protesting against the non-payment of salary on time.

RALLY: The Haryana Government Cooperative Development Ministerial Staff Association will hold a rally on June 8 in the city. Mr Surinder Kumar Sharma, general secretary of the association, told mediapersons here on Wednesday that the rally would be addressed by senior leaders.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARAMSALA
SUICIDES: Three persons, including a couple, committed suicide by consuming poison in Kangra district, during the past two days. According to the SSP, Mr K.C. Sadyal, Madan Lal (32), and his wife, Pinki Devi (28), took this extreme step after a tiff. In another incident, Leela Kumari (22), a resident of Ghurath village, near Indora, died after consuming poison. Her body has been sent for post-mortem.

MANDI
JOINED: Himachal PWD Minister Mahinder Singh said here on Tuesday that the president of the Chachiot Mandal Congress, Mr Uttam Ram, former BDC chairman Dalip Singh Thakur and two panchayat pradhans — Mr Chiter Singh (Bali Chowki) and Mr Punya Kumar (Thata Ghaniar) had joined the HVC(M) along with their supporters.

SUNDERNAGAR
CONVICTED: Mr O.P. Sharma, Sessions Judge, Mandi, yesterday has convicted Chaman Lal of Pipli Tehsil, district Mandi for raping a Dalit of Troh village of sadar subdivision and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for four years and a fine of Rs 4000. The amount of the fine will be paid to the victim as compensation.

ELECTED: Mr Jai Ram Thakur was elected a president of the district unit of the BJP unanimously on Monday. Mr Jai Ram is BJP MLA from Chaichot Assembly segment and is also holding the post of state president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Records from Theog

THEOG is a small scenic town, 27 km North of Shimla. It has a population of about 4500. Three distinguished persons from here have already made to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Slim 24-year-old bearded Ramesh Khachi after 11 hours and 2 minutes of static wall-press sitting on September 22, 1992 made entry into the book.

In this posture one sits with back pressed against the wall with no support to the bottom. The legs and the thighs make a right angle at the knees. In 1989 Madan Verma of Theog made to the record book for doing the feat for three hours.

In 1990 one Briton Paddy Doyle sat in the posture for four hours. Ramesh broke the Briton’s record by a huge margin.

In 1988 dentist Dr Rajinder Singh made to the Guinness Book of World Records by typing on a manual typewriter for 10 hours with a speed of 98 words per minute with 99.97 per cent accuracy.

In 1995 Ajay Sharma, then seven, did 1760 sit-ups in 35 minutes and earned his place in the Limca Book of Records. He has to break the record of 3200 sit-ups in 60 minutes to find his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Computerisation

The Nawanshahr district administration work is being computerised. A site has been made ready for setting up the National Information Centre (NIC) unit here.

Necessary hardware and software is expected to reach here soon for making the unit operational.

Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Deputy Commissioner, said land registration documents in Nawanshahr subdivision had already been computerised. These documents would be made computerised in Balachaur sub-division soon.

The Commissioner, Jalandhar division, Mr B.K. Srivastava, inaugurated the computerisation of land registration work here on May 8.

Though due to the teething troubles in the system, public is facing inconvenience. They have to spend more time than usual to get their land registered.

Old is gold

Octogenarian Hans Raj, the owner of Shiv Motor garage, drives his 68-year-old Ford car in Pathankot city. He purchased the car in 1947 at Amritsar.

In the fifties of the two cars in the city one was the Ford of Mr Hans Raj. In 1965 as an Army contractor he supplied material to Army units in the car. he took supplies in the car to border areas. “Even my family has grown fond of this car,” said the proud owner.

Progressive farmer

Dr Surinder Kasnia grows strawberries in Sirsa. He has reaped a record harvest of 500 to 700 gm of fruit per plant in the country.

Dr Kasnia was given the State Best Farmer award by the Haryana Chief Minister at a function held at Yamunanagar last month.

Contributed by Pramod Bharti, Sriniwas Joshi, Bharat Bhushan Dogra and Bhupender Dharmani.