HEALTH

Tandon visits hospital
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, June 24 — The Punjab Minister for Local Bodies, Mr Balramji Das Tandon, today lauded the role played by traditional systems of medicine in providing health facilities to the people, particularly those who could not afford the expensive treatment in hospital and nursing homes.

Mr Tandon visited Ludhiana Acupuncture Medical College and Dr D.N. Kotnis Acupuncture Hospital in the city and met the patients undergoing treatment with acupuncture system of medicine and expressed satisfaction with the success and recovery rate.

Dr Rajinder Singh, Director of the hospital, Mr Bhupinder Singh, president and Mr. K.L. Malhotra, general secretary of the managing committee of the college and hospital, apprised Mr Tandon of the development of the institutions during the past 25 years.

Dr Inderjit Singh Dhingra, Principal of the colleges pleaded with the minister for grant of recognition to acupuncture system of medicine in Punjab.

Besides senior BJP leaders and other dignitaries, the Joint Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Mr Harjinder Singh, was also present at this occasion.

ADMINISTRATION

400 cadets attend NCC camps
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, June 24 — More than 400 cadets have reported for the NCC camps being conducted at the Government College for Boys, Punjab Agriculture University and at other places in the city.

Col P.S.Bedi, Commandant of the NCC Batallion, said in a press release here today that the two-week camps concentrate on all-round personality development of an individual.He said youngsters were undergoing training in specialised fields like weapons use, drills , map readings ,besides attending lectures.

The release said that adventure activities like para-sailing were also being conducted.

First passport lok adalat clears 700 applications
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, June 24 — More than 700 pending applications of passports of the district and surrounding areas were cleared in the first-ever passport lok adalat held at Mini Secretariat here today.

While the Regional Passport Office had received about 1000 applications for consideration at the adalat, about 750 appeared today. Only about 10 per cent of those could not be cleared due to the lack of proper documents, an official release said in the evening.

Mr K. Siva Prasad, in charge of the adalat, said applications for the year 1998 and 1999 were called and going by the success of the first such adalat, more districts in Punjab and Haryana would hold such adalats.

Minor deficiencies like wrong information, absence of vital information and documents and even photographs led to the delay in the clearance of the passports. He called upon the public to avoid agents if they want no delays.

Use chemical fertilisers judiciously: CAO
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, June 24 — The Chief Agricultural Officer, Ludhiana, Dr Gurcharan Singh Rajajung, has emphasised the need for the judicious use of fertilisers and insecticides.

Listing his priorities after assuming charge, Mr Rajajung told a press conference that the judicious use of fertilisers and insecticides would be encouraged, as it would help farmers save a lot of money. He said the availability of quality seeds, fertilisers, insecticides and weedicides in Ludhiana district was on the top of his agenda.

Dr Rajajung said that to help farmers to get quality inputs like seeds, pesticides and fertilisers, a flying squad of plant doctors had already started working in the district. He disclosed that farmers’ camps would be arranged to guide and educate them and aslo to transfer modern technology to the grassroots. The CAO said that emphasis would be laid on integrated pest management to educate farmers about the right use of chemical, cultural and biological pest control method. He pointed out that these methods would benefit farmers fanancially too.

He revealed that the cultivation of sugarcane, pulses, oilseed crops and maize would be encouraged. Intercropping of minor crops like mentha with major crops such as sugarcane and wheat as well as multicropping would also be encouraged for getting better returns per unit area, per unit time. It would aslo lead to better utilisation of natural resources.

Development works to commence soon
From Our Correspondent

 LUDHIANA, June 24 — The Punjab Urban Development Authority (Puda) has taken up various development works of the urban estate locality in the city. The additional chief administrator (ACA) of Puda, Mrs Jaspreet Talwar, told a joint delegation of the Urban Estates Welfare Association, the Urban Estates Residents Welfare Societies of phases I and II that construction of a cremation ground in phase II would commence soon and the site being used for this purpose in phase I would be transferred to the municipal corporation.

According to Mr B.R. Kaushal, who led the delegation of the residents, Puda had taken a decision in principle to go ahead with constructing a community centre each in phase I and phase II and a swimming pool in the locality from its own resources.

The ACA assured the residents that rules for issuance of no-dues certificate have been relaxed so that the residents did not face any difficulty in getting sale deeds executed.

The delegation, comprising, among others, Dr Shiv K. Gupta, Mr Kuldip Lamba, Mr P.S.Bawa and Mr J.S. Khosla, was further told that pending problems like grant of sewerage connections and street lights would also be sorted out soon.

Mrs Talwar made it amply clear during a detailed discussion with the delegation that Puda intended to come down heavily on those resorting to encroachments, both temporary and permanent, on government land and after giving them 15-day notices, the encroachments would be removed without any further reference.

The delegation brought to the notice of the Puda ACA the problems created by vacant plots in the locality where construction work had not started as yet. The plots had turned into garbage dumps and water stagnating in some of these plots was posing serious threat to health and sanitation. The puda authorities assured that the plot holders would be served with notices to commence construction within a reasonable period.

DC inspects flood protection works
From Our Correspondent

The Deputy Commissioner was accompanied, among others, by Mr Daljit Singh Sandhu, Executive Engineer of the Drainage Department, Mr Manjit Brar, SDM (West), Mr Jaspal Mittal, SDM Jagraon and senior officers of the Drainage, Revenue, Development, Public Works and Police Departments.