R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

PUNJAB

FARIDKOT
LIONS CLUB: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Lions Club (Vishal) : president —Mr Surjit Singh; vice-president —Mr Chamkaur Singh; secretary — Mr Kanwaldeep Singh Brar; and treasurer — Mr Janak Jindal.

VILLAGES ADOPTED: The Faridkot Elders Society has adopted 33 villages in Sadiq, Deepsinghwala and Jand Sahib areas in the district to provide medical facilities to senior citizens from September to December. For this six check-up camps will be organised.

MOGA
RAIDS CONDUCTED: The police has conducted raids in various villages and nabbed certain persons and has recovered 35 bags of poppy heads, a car and a mobile from them. This was stated by Senior Superintendent of Police Sharad Satya Chauhan here on Wednesday.

PATIALA
B.A. III RESULTS: Punjabi University will declare the results of B.A. Part III on Thursday and B.Sc. Part II on Friday, according to Mr Paramjit Singh Khaira, Controller of Examinations.

CHANDIGARH

100 DONATE BLOOD: Over 100 persons donated blood at a blood donation camp, organised for thalassemia patients at Hotel Heritage in Sector 35, here on Wednesday. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Ravinder Krishan, an income tax lawyer.

PANCHKULA
BODY'S PLEA: The Citizens Welfare Association has urged the local administration to provide local ring bus service to interlink all sectors so as to save people here from the exorbitant rickshaw rates. The president of the association, Mr SK Nayar, alleged that the people had been deprived of these basic facilities due to the non-cooperative attitude of the Haryana Roadways and the government.

HARYANA

AMBALA
HOODA THREATENS STIR: The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on Wednesday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation against the Chautala government following the registration of cases against local Congress activists after they blocked the GT road to protest against erratic power supply. Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Hooda strongly criticised the government for the registration of cases against 16 Congress activists of Ambala. “The cases are motivated and we are going to launch a state-wide agitation,” he said.

INAUGURATED: The Financial Commissioner of Haryana, Mr L.M. Goyal, on Wednesday inaugurated the computerised registration of revenue documents. Mr Goyal said Ambala was the first district in Haryana where computerisation of licences and registration certificates of vehicles was started. He said with the help of computerisation, not only would the process be streamlined, it would also help in checking corruption.

FATEHABAD
ARRESTED: The police arrested Ram Jiwan, alias Rajinder, and Sachin, both residents of Bhiwani, on Wednesday in connection with the beating up of Haryana Roadways officials here on July 9.

FIVE ARRESTED: Five persons were arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and 24 kg of poppy husk was seized from them. According to a press note by the district police, Minda, Daljeet, Chhinda, alias Surender, and Sardul, all residents of Ahrwan village, and Major Singh of Jakhal were arrested.

HISAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Hansi unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party: president — Mr Santlal; vice-presidents — Mr Nathu Ram, Mr Rameshwardass and Mr Piarelal; general secretary — Mr Madan Singh; joint secretary — Mr Dharambir; and treasurer — Mr Roshan Lal.

SONEPAT
SUICIDE: Mohinder Singh, an aged man, committed suicide by allegedly taking insecticide in his house at Baroli village, about 18 km from here, on Tuesday. According to the police, the victim took this extreme step after the registration of a case against him in connection with the alleged kidnapping of this brother’s wife and her son.

GHERAO: Irate students gheraoed the Principal of CRA College here on Tuesday in protest against their non-admission to the college.

ARRESTED: The Sadar police on Wednesday arrested Suresh, alias Sheesha, and Ravinder , alias Kala, both of Rohat village, in connection with the robberies in the village on Saturday.

PROTEST RALLY: The Haryana Government PWD Mechanical Workers Union organised a rally here on Tuesday in protest against the non-acceptance of its demands by the INLD government.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KANGRA
DEMAND: The postgraduate Government teachers have demanded that their pay scales should be increased from Rs 6400 to Rs 10,650 and two special increments be given to them after the completion of 15 years of service. This was stated by Mr Achar Singh, district president of the Postgraduate Teachers Union, Kangra district, on Tuesday.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Shimla road sinking due to digging

Recently the hill feature on Cart Road near the HP High Court, just above the site for the municipal multistorey shopping centre-cum-car park (under construction) sank. It affected the driveway partly. As a result regulators of the town’s traffic are allowing only light vehicles, cars, pickups, etc to ply. That is despite the fact that more than half the width of the driveway is still intact. Whereas buses can ply as usual, of course one way, who will take the risk, rather responsibility, lest an inexperienced driver falters at the delicate spot?

It is futile to ponder how and why a strong retaining wall was not built before digging the base of Cart Road. Besides, digging has been resorted to only to accommodate the heavy multistorey structure. Suffice to say that the sinking of the road and consequent stoppage of buses is causing hardship to commuters (see photo).

Earlier a person starting from Chhota Shimla could reach the main bus stand by a local bus in just 15 to 20 minutes and a fare of two rupees. Now a bus via the circuitous route takes nearly 60 to 70 minutes to reach the same destination and the fare is Rs six. The only party to benefit appears to be transporters.

Now , it appears that the repairs of the affected road might take months. The man in the street is compelled to accept the hardship as a natural calamity. Extreme hardship to the common man is manifest.

One immediate way to deal with the crisis is to make the taxis of the town to run on the affected portion of the Cart Road on a per seat basis. Light pickup vehicles, which usually carry small cargo, can also be fitted with improvised seats or benches to carry more passengers.

The second and more lasting solution can be to solicit the cooperation of the Corps of Engineers or the Border Roads Organisation to launch a Bailey bridge on a war-footing. This step will make the road fully serviceable, for one-way traffic, at least, in hours. The military engineers will not need days to accomplish this urgent task in public interest.

His dedication helped build up institute

Hard work, sincerity and dedication never go unrewarded.

Prof P. N. Vijayvergiya of Haryana College of Technology and Management, Kaithal, is an example of this truth. He has been awarded the prestigious Millennium Achiever Award by the International Institute of Success Awareness, New Delhi, this year. Earlier he had won a number of other prizes also including Outstanding Professor by the Teacher Forum, Gwalior; Outstanding Engineer by the Engineers Forum, Guna, and Best Citizen Award by the International Publishing House, New Delhi.

Prof Vijayvergiya strongly believes in development and modernisation of technical education and for the purpose, he visited various universities in the USA and Canada. He used the knowledge and experience gathered from the visit to write a number of books and organise seminars and workshops.

After serving in a few colleges in MP, Prof Vijayvergiya joined HCTM on November 1, 1998, when it was in the initial stage of development. His experience proved an asset to the college and under his guidance and continuous motivation, the college made remarkable progress. The college has 180 students divided into four branches (Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics and Communication, and Computer Engineering).

With the efforts of the management, the faculty and the Principal, the strength in the faculties was raised and a new branch — Information Technology — was started, making the total number of students of 250.

The college today has a new building, fully furnished classrooms, well-equipped laboratories, workshop, good computational facilities and a library with a large number of books and periodicals.

Invited to set up eye hospital in Tashkent

An eye specialist of Pathankot , Dr K. D. Singh, has been asked to open an eye institute in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

Stating this, Dr Singh said he had recently gone to Tashkent and remained there for a week during which period he conducted many cataract operations on the newly developed Fecco machine, which he had inaugurated there.

He also acquainted the doctors at Tashkent about the handling of the Fecco machine and the latest techniques used in cataract operations.

The credit goes to Dr Singh for the launching the Fecco machine, in which no cutting nor stitching is done during eye operations.

Dr Singh appreciated the medical policies of the Uzbekistan Government which insisted on strict medical check-ups. He also appreciated the steps taken by the former Russian state to check myopia, which is also on the increase in India. A dire need is there to control this type of disease.

Contributed by K. L. Noatay, Satish Seth and Bharat Bhushan Dogra.