R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

• REGIONAL POTPOURRI

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
INSTALLED: Mr K.R.S. Sobti was installed president of the Rotary Club (Cantonment) at a special function held here on Tuesday. The Editor- in- Chief, The Indian Express, Mr Shekher Gupta, presided over the ceremony, which was also attended by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Narinderjit Singh, and the Vice-Chancellor, Dr H.S. Soch.

I-DAY FUNCTIONS: All Lions Clubs of the city celebrated Independence Day at a joint function held here on Tuesday. Later, Mr O.P. Soni, MLA, inaugurated Lions Eye Hospital at Ranjit Avenue. The Shri Guru Ravi Das Sabha and the Institute for the Blind also organised special functions.

MAGAZINE RELEASED: An educationist and Punjabi writer, Mr Narinder Singh Soch, released the inaugural issue of the magazine ‘‘Jiwan Rishman’’, printed by the Kesh Sambhal Parchar Sanstha here on Tuesday. The first copy of the issue was handed over to Mr Bhagwant Singh Dilawari, a social worker. Later, the organisation held a free medical check-up camp at Sant Singh Sukha Singh School.

KHARAR
DONATION: The Retail Karyana Merchants Association has given a donation of Rs 50,000 to Shri Ram Bhavan, a community centre, under construction here on Wednesday. The association has decided to give a donation of Rs 5.1 lakh to this bhavan and has already given Rs 1 lakh last month. Mr Surinder Sharma, president of the association, said that the remaining amount would be given soon.

SAMRALA
POULTRY FARMERS: The Punjab Poultry Farmers Association on Wednesday decided to sell eggs to the Punjab Poultry Farmers Cooperative Society. Mr Inderjeet Singh Kang, spokesman for the association, said the commission agents in Delhi were reaping profits by purchasing eggs at a very less price.

VACANT POST: The post of tehsildar here has been lying vacant since July 6. It is causing great inconvenience to the public.

ASSOCIATION: The Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association on Wednesday decided to help the unemployed veterinary officers to get jobs and to urge the government to implement the Indian Veterinary Counsel Act, 1984.

NAUJAWAN SABHA: Youths of Kubbe village have formed a “naujawan sabha”, which will help in keeping the village clean, plant trees and organise a mela in the memory of Baba Bule Shah. Mr Shiam Mangat was elected president and Mr Kamaljeet Singh general secretary, respectively.

TARN TARAN
DETAINED: Ten persons of Khemkaran have been detained under the Gambling Act by the Khemkaran police. Police sources said here on Tuesday that a special drive had been launched against antisocial elements in the border belt.

CHANDIGARH

HONOURED: Six branch managers of the State Bank of India Zonal office were felicitated for their performance in deposit mobilisation. They achieved more than 100 per cent budgetary goals during 1999-2000. Trophies and cash awards were presented to them by Mr S.J.S. Chaterath, Deputy General Manager of the Haryana module. The branch managers are Mr R.K. Sharma (Sadar Bazar, Ambala cantonment), Mr R.K. Thukral (Pathreri) Region-I, Mr S.C. Bhatnagar (HAU, Hisar), Mr R. Malodia (Sikanderpur), Region-II, Mr D.K. Sharma (Model Town, Karnal), Mr P.K. Narang (Shamgarh) Region-III.

CELEBRATED: Vanamahotsava was celebrated at the police lines, Sector 26, here on Wednesday. Mr Bhim Sain Bassi, Inspector-General of police, planted a sapling of ashoka tree. All the SSPs, SPs and DSPs of the Chandigarh police were present on the occasion. In all 400 saplings of ashoka, silver oak, pride of India, gulmohar, neem, poplar and many other trees were planted by officers and jawans in the Police Lines complex.

COMPETITIONS: The sixth inter-school competitions on story writing, painting, debate and declamation will be organised on August 17 at Arts Gallery, Sector 10, by the Rotaract Club Chandigarh. Almost 500 students from over 20 different schools from and around the city are expected to participate.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the SAS Association: Chairman —Mr Satish Joshi; President — Mr Mubarak Masih; Vice-Presidents — Mr Jit Singh and Mr Rajiv Tewari; Secretary — Mr R.S. Madaan; Joint Secretary — Mr Jasbir Singh; and Treasurer — Mr Ashwani Dogra.

RALLY: A massive rally was organised by the employees of the Super Bazar before its head office in Sector 22 here on Wednesday. While addressing the rally, Mr Kamlesh Chander Patpatia, General Secretary of the Super Bazar Chandigarh Employees Union, criticised the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Union Territory, for recommending to the administration to pack off the Super Bazar. He urged the administrator, Lieut-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), to look into the whole affairs and direct the Deputy Commissioner to review his decision to pack off the Super Bazar.

I-DAY: Independence Day was celebrated by the Azad Bharatiya Seva Dal, Chandigarh, in Balmiki Colony, Phase 10, SAS Nagar. Sweets were distributed on the occasion and the branch President, Mr Jagdish Khanna, unfurled the flag.

VICE-CHAIRMAN: Mr Sham Lal has been appointed Vice-Chairman of the Labour Cell, Chandigarh.

TOUR: At least four students of the Department of Laws, Panjab University, will be touring Sweden shortly, Prof V.K. Bansal, chairperson, said while talking to the Tribune here on Wednesday. Students will be going under a student exchange programme. The programme is scheduled for little over a month.

GET-TOGETHER: A get-together of principals from various schools in the city and Panchkula will be held at Himachal Bhavan, Sector 28, on Thursday. A press release of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam issued here on Wednesday said that principals would be apprised of adventure-related activities in white-water rafting, water skiing, canoeing, snow skiing, trekking and aerosports.

PANCHKULA
'REMOVE ENCROACHMENTS': The President of the Citizens Welfare Association, Mr S.K. Nayar, in a press note here urged the Haryana Urban Development Authority to remove all encroachments from covered spaces in front of all SCFs and booths on priority for safe walking of the customers. He urged HUDA to take stern action in case the shopkeepers repeated the act of encroaching upon the passage. He maintained that the shopkeepers were not paying anything extra for encroaching upon government land and should be brought to book.

HARYANA

HISAR
DIPLOMA COURSES: Haryana Agricultural University has started two postgraduate diploma courses in human resources development in agriculture and forestry from the current session. The duration of both the courses will be of one year.

SIRSA
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED: The birthday of the sitting guru of Dera Sachcha Sauda, Sant Ram Rahim Singh, was celebrated with fervour on Tuesday.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

A Gandhian model of uprightness

PAT RAM VERMA, Chairman of the Haryana Freedom Fighters’ Samman Samiti, has set an example of simple living and austere use of government facilities to politicians and bureaucrats.

A true Gandhian, Mr Verma says that if the misuse of government machinery is stopped, the government can substantially reduce non-Plan expenditure.

Mr Verma can be seen walking in the streets in spite of having a government vehicle at his disposal. On being asked why he was not using his car, he says: “The car is for official work”. He is not availing of a government bungalow and other facilities as well. He wants to drive home a lesson to politicians of the day that they are meant to serve the people through first-hand experience of their problem which a government official cannot have by distancing himself on the issue of ‘security’ or any other pretext.

How for will this Gandhian, with dreams of an “upright India,” be able to put on the right track people gone astray is yet to be seen.

Revenue record computerised

The process of computerisation of revenue records in Nawanshahr has started. A unit of National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been set up here, which was inaugurated by Ms Geetika Kalha, Commissioner of Jalandhar Division.

The necessary hardware and software have been provided to the NIC.

Giving this information, Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Deputy Commissioner, told this correspondent that the contract to a private firm to enter data for of all types of revenue records such as jamabandi girdawari, khasra, inteqal (mutation), shajra nasad (pedigree table), roznamacha ( daily diary), has already been given and work would be completed within six months. All revenue records would be inter-linked with the land information system and information about land records would be available online, the Deputy Commissioner said, adding that the work of land registration at Nawanshahr and Balachaur subdivisions had already been computerised and land registration work through computers would soon be started at Banga sub-tehsil.

The computerisation of revenue records would mitigate the problems of people, especially NRIs, regarding their property. It would also put a check on fraud and land disputes pertaining to landed properties, Mr Sunkaria added.

Central recognition for BBC Heart Care

The BBC Heart Care, Pruthi Hospital, Jalandhar, has been accorded recognition by the Director-General, Central Government Health Services (CGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, under CS(MA) rules, 1944, for the treatment of various cardiac ailments for Central government employees and their family members.

Giving this information to The Tribune, Dr C S Pruthi, Chairman cum Managing Director of the hospital, said with this recognition BBC Heart Care becomes the first hospital in the northern region to be recognised by the government for treating heart diseases of Central government employees. The rates fixed for treatment of heart ailments are much less than normal scheduled rates and within the affordable limit of the employees. Earlier only a few hospitals in the country had been given this recognition and many a time patients had to go too far off hospitals to get treatment of heart diseases.

Dr Pruthi said the hospital since its inception had performed all types of heart surgery and cardiac procedures, from simple to very complex with the success rate matching world standards.

Besides this recognition, BBC Heart Care has already been recognised by various other government and public sector undertakings.

Hybrid horticulture catches on

Though Hamirpur district is famous for its brave soldiers, few know that it also excels in hybrid horticulture with a high yield of mangoes, fruits and various varieties of flowers. This was evident the other day when the first woman Deputy Commissioner of the district, Mrs Anuradha Thakur, paid a visit to Jatari village to see for herself the reported damage done to the mango crop. After seeing the mango farm of Onkar Singh, the first person to spread the source of hybrid mango plantation, the Deputy Commissioner was relieved to know that hardly any damage had been done to the standing mango crop by the hailstorm. She encouraged farmers to opt for the hybrid mango crop which could help them financially as well.

She was also shown an old well, constructed in 1932 which remained a source of clean water to the entire area till tap water supply was made available. The well has now been abandoned due to the seepage of rain water. The DC promised to repair it.

Contributed by Bhupinder Dharmani, Parmod Bharti, TNS and Multan Singh Parihar