The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, July 30, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATHINDA
INJURED: At least 17 persons, including children, were injured when a van of Police Public School rammed into a tree near the local military station. The van was going from Bathinda to Bhuchu when one of its wheels got detached. Two rickshawpullers were also injured. All injured persons were admitted to the military hospital. Children were discharged after they were given first aid.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
BLOOD DONATION: Mr B.S. Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, inaugurated a blood donation camp at Bassi Pathana yesterday. The camp was organised by the Blood Donors Society, Bassi Pathana, Rotary Club, Sirhind, and the Bharat Vikas Parishad, Bassi Pathana. More than 150 units of blood were donated to the teams of the PGI and Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. Mr Sudan announced a grant of Rs 25,000 to the society.

GURDASPUR
RALLY: Employees of the Telecommunications Department held a rally here on Friday in protest against the proposed privatisation of the department after August 15. Speakers at the rally said if the decision to privatise the department has not withdrawn the employees would intensify their agitation.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among employees of the suburban subdivision of the PSEB, here against the authorities for their inability to shift the office of the SDO, (Suburban) to a safer place. According to a spokesman of the employees, the floor level of the office is about three feet lower than the road level and during rainy seasons it is often waterlogged. It becomes difficult for the consumers to pay their bills.

HOSHIARPUR
DIED: Sahil (8) son of Jatinder Agarwal died on the spot when the roof of the room in which he was sleeping with his mother Kusam and sister Rajni at his house in the Nai Abadi locality here collapsed on Friday night. Kusam and Rajni were also wounded. They were admitted to the local Civil Hospital where their condition is stated to be out of danger.

MOGA
MONEY FOR REPAIRS: The Punjab Government has decided to spend Rs 20 lakh for the repair of building of various government schools situated in all constituencies of the state during the current financial year. Punjab Education Minister Tota Singh said here on Thursday special funds had also been approved for the repairs of dilapidated buildings of government schools all over the state.

PATIALA
REGISTRATION FOR PILGRIMAGE: The Patiala Colonies Welfare Federation has invited applications on prescribed form for pilgrimage to Sri Nankana Sahib (Pakistan) in November, 2000, on the eve of birthday of Sri Guru Nanak Dev. Application forms can be obtained in person from the office of the federation at 1, Charan Bagh, Patiala. Applications received after August 15 will not entertained, association President Avtar Singh Brar said.

SEWING TRAINING CENTRE: The Bharat Vikas Parishad has decided to open a sewing training centre for widows and destitutes and poor women. Mr Bharat Bhushan Sirhindi, press secretary of the parishad, said the centre would be inaugurated by Seth Kulwant Rai on Sunday at Prem Dham Sarav Hitkari Vidya Mandir, Sanauri Adda. He said about 50 women will be selected for the first batch. The project convener, Ms Sukesh Jain, said after the training these women would be given free sewing machines so that they could earn their livelihood. She said the parishad would also provide free cloth during the training period.

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION CENTRE: Punjabi University has decided to provide educational facilities at its extension centre at Mohali for the students of the BCA and other courses, including those who were earlier enrolled at Guru Amar Dass College, Mohali, and Arctic College, Mohali, which have been disaffiliated by the university. According to an official release, steps for creation of necessary infrastructure were underway. The admission forms for these courses are expected to be made available by the third week of August at the university extension centre, Mohali.

PATHANKOT
SUICIDE: Two persons Balwinder Kumar and Sharanjeet Kaur, both residents of Ajnala, committed suicide on Tuesday night after consuming poisonous substance at Hotel Shika. Dejection in love affairs had reportedly made them commit suicide. After postmortem a case has been registered at police station division No 1 here.

ROTARY OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Rotary Club Central, Pathankot: president — Mr Ashok Gupta; vice-president — Mr Hardeep Makhan; secretary — Mr Rajiv Nayyar; treasurer — mr Ashwani Sharma; and P.R.O. — Mr Sham Chadha.

PHAGWARA
SANGAT DARSHAN: In a sangat darshan held here on Friday, Deputy Commissioner V.K. Singh and SSP Iqbal Singh, Kapurthala, heard 40 complaints and redressed most of them on spot, referring remaining ones to the departments concerned.

PHILLAUR
DECIDED: The BJP has set up its units in the state to expand its social and political base in the villages. This was decided at a state-level meeting of Punjab BJP office-bearers and BJP legislative party meeting which was held at Chandigarh under the presidentship of state BJP president, Prof Brij Lal Rinwa, on Friday. Party’s press secretary Tarun Chugh gave this information here on Friday.

CHANDIGARH

MATERNITY LEAVE ON ADOPTION: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday issued notice of motion for October 4 on a petition for quashing an order rejecting the plea of an assistant, working with the Haryana’s District Primary Education Officer, seeking the grant of maternity leave on adoption of a child. Claiming the order to be illegal and passed in an arbitrary manner, petitioner Chander Kanta had earlier stated that her application for the leave was rejected on the ground that there was no provision under the service rules to grant leave in such cases.

KILLING OF PASSENGERS CONDEMNED: Lawyers and Human Rights International has expressed grief at the killing of more than seven bus passengers near Jalandhar on Monday in a private bus. The body condemned the incident and demanded punishment for the perpetrators of the crime. The association also demand suitable compensation and jobs for the next of kin of the victims.

EVENING CLASSES FOR CHILDREN: The Lions Club Chandigarh Supreme has started evening classes for the slum area children and wards of down trodden people of the society. As many as 50 students have been adopted by the club on the premises of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 45 on Friday.

PANCHKULA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected the office-bearers of Punjabi Welfare Association: chairman — Mr Shashi Behl; President —Mr Sarwan Mehta; vice-president — Gian Chand Madan; general secretary — Mr P.C. Dua; field secretary — Mr Ramesh Berry; field secretary II — Mr Vimal Rai; secretary — Mr Subhash Kapoor; joint secretary —Mr Vinod Kumar; and cashier — Mr D.P. Manchanda; auditor — Mr Prem Kumar Kalia.

HARYANA

AMBALA
GRATUITY LIMIT: The Haryana College Teachers’ Union (HCTU) has welcomed the raising of gratuity limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.35 lakh for the private college teachers of Haryana. The Finance Minister of Haryana, Prof Sampat Singh, has made an announcement that this benefit will be given to the private college teachers from the date of implementation of the pension scheme. Director Higher Education, Ms Anuradha Gupta, had taken personal interest in getting the limit raised. She had assured a delegation of the office-bearers of the HCTU that their pending demands for the release of arrears from January 1996, and the process for the award of senior grades for the college teachers would also be implemented soon, a joint statement issued by Dr Sudarshan Gasso, general secretary and Prof. V.K. Puri, organising secretary of the HCTU state.

RE-INDUCT JETHMALANI: The Former President of the Bar Association of Ambala, Mr Om Prakash Malik, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has demanded the re-inclusion of Mr Ram Jathmalani in the Union Cabinet. Mr Malik, in a release, has said as the three Shiv Sena ministers have now returned to their ministerial jobs, then there is no point in depriving the country from the services of an outstanding advocate turned politician.

LIBRARY IN MARTYR'S MEMORY: A library is going to be built in Kansepur village in the memory of martyr Manjit Singh who made the supreme sacrifice at Kargil last year. According to the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Mohinder Kumar, the library is going to be built at a cost of Rs 2 lakh from the MP fund of the former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi Lal, a release said. Mr Kumar said that last year, Mr Devi Lal had announced that he would allot Rs 2 lakh each for the martyrs from Haryana so that a memorial could be built. The proposed library is a part of that announcement. The ADC said that a sum of Rs 10 lakh has already been given to the family members of martyr Manjit Singh. The Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik, on July 26, had handed over the first LPG distributorship to the mother of martyr Manjit Singh in Barara.

GREEN AMBALA CAMPAIGN: A special campaign for environment will be run here from August 4 to 14. The Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Chander Singh, will inaugurate the Green Ambala Campaign at Indra Park in Ambala Cantonment. The Acting Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Mohinder Kumar, said on Thursday that the campaign would be run with the assistance of non government organisations. On the first day, saplings would be planted in Indra Park by an NGO, Green Circle, a release said. On August5, saplings would be planted in all the schools of Ambala City and the campaign would be run in different parts of Ambala Cantonment and Ambala City in the ten-day period.

SMALL INDUSTRIES CORPN: The Haryana Exporters Association suggested on Thursday that the Haryana State Small Industries Corporation should be activated. The RBI should set up a special monitoring cell to supervise the disbursement of working capital and term loans limit and financial requirement of SSI exporters. The nationalised banks were ignoring the requirement of SSI exporters, a release issued by HEA said. The HEA suggested that the Haryana Government should establish an information cell at various industrial hubs like Ambala, Panipat, Faridabad and Gurgaon to provide information regarding global tenders floated by Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UNDP and other international agencies. The meeting of Haryana Export Promotion Board should be held with the Haryana exporters every three months and all the district industry centres in Haryana should be directed to appoint an Export Promotion Officer, who should look after the export work exclusively and should be in touch with the exporters regularly to sort out their day-to-day problems, the association suggested.

HISAR
CRUSHED: Mithu (12) was crushed to death by a jeep in Hansi, about 26 km from here on the Barwala road on Friday. The boy was crossing the road when he was crushed by the jeep. He was immediately taken to a hospital but he died on the way. A case has been registered.

SONEPAT
HONOURED: Mr Ashok Dhingra, a development officer with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), was honoured at a function held here on Friday. Mr V.K. Sharma, Divisional Manager of the LIC, gave away a Maruti car as a token gift to Mr Dhingra for getting a record in the business during 1999-2000 in the division.

KILLED: A youth Bijender Kumar, was crushed to death by a unknown vehicle on the G.T. Road near Nangal Khurd village about 10 km from here on Friday. According to the police, the victim belonged to Nangal Khurd village. The driver of the vehicle escaped along with his vehicle. A case has been registered against him.

DELIMITATION OF WARDS: On the instructions of the state government, the district administration has completed the delimitation of wards of the gram panchayat, Kharkhauda. According to sources, ward numbers 1,2,7,15,16,17 and 20 have been reserved for women and ward numbers 17 and 20 have been reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes. Similarly, ward numbers 9,13 and 19 will be reserved for men belonging to the Scheduled Castes and ward No 3 will be reserved for the Backward Classes.

INSTALLATION: Mr Satish Chopra, president of the Rotary Club (Uptown) and his team were installed at a function held here on Friday.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among residents of the Pio Munyari area against the SHO of Kundli police station for allegedly converting a case of dacoity into a theft case. They demanded a high-level probe into the allegations levelled against him. The police also prevented the residents from appearing before the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sudhir Rajapal, who held an open darbar here on Friday to redress the grievances of the people.

YAMUNANAGAR
DEAD: A newly-married girl Kusum died due to burn injuries on Thursday. On a complaint lodged by the brother of the deceased, the police has registered a case under Section 304-B against her husband Shiv Kumar, father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Kusum got married to Shiv Kumar of Marwa Khurd village near here about seven months back. In her statement at death bad on Thursday to the Duty Magistrate, she said she was cooking when suddenly her clothes caught fire. She was admitted to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. But her brother Hari Chand lodged a complaint at Dilaspur police station alleging the involvement of his sister’s in-laws in the case.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
SANCTIONED: The Central Government has cleared a proposal for construction of a jetty and an approach road here on eastern bank of Gobind Sagar for the development of tourism in the town and has sanctioned Rs 20 lakh for this purpose. In a letter addressed to Mr Suresh Chandel, member, Parliament, Mrs Asha Mukti, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, informed him that this amount would be released as soon as a project report is received from the Himachal Government.

RALLY: Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad held a rally and staged a dharna in front of the office of the Principal, Government College, here on Saturday. They later presented a memorandum to the Principal demanding restoration of 30 seats each in MA economics and M.Com classes, reduction in hike in fees, elections to students central association, removal of English as an essential subject, provisional admission to students with (RL) result later, repairs of college building and more furniture in reading room, reconsideration of subject combinations and restoration of photostat machine facility in college here.

SHIMLA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the H.P. Contractors Association: president — Mr B.K. Kuthiala; general secretaries — Mr J.S. Bhogal and Mr Gupta; joint secretary — Mr S.K. Viz; and treasurer — Mr P.K. Sood.