The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, December 7, 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

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Shimla turns heat on forest encroachers
Ahuja is specialities’ chief of IMA
Adalat clears 250 passport cases
Books on Himachal Pradesh

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
FREEDOM FIGHTERS’ PLEA: The District Freedom Fighters Council, in a press note issued here on Tuesday, said freedom fighters were disturbed by rampant corruption in government departments. Dr H.R. Sharma, member of the council, asked the Prime Minister to take steps to end corruption at all levels.

DEMANDED: The Punjab PWD (B and R) reservation protection cell has demanded implementation of reservation policy in government departments, Mr Daljit Singh, president of the association, said in a press note here.

VISITED: Brig A.S. Kalha, Deputy Director-General, NCC, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, visited Amritsar on Monday. He was apprised of activities of the local NCC unit. Ship and aircraft models were displayed by cadets at the Khalsa College grounds.

FEROZEPORE
PROTEST: Members of the teachers union of the local RSD College wore black badges on Tuesday in protest against the indifferent attitude of the college management regarding their demands. The demands include deduction of CPF at the rate of 10 per cent on total salary as per the university calendar, ADA instalments with arrears, benefits to lecturers in senior selection grade as per DPI’s letter and appointment of a regular principal.

GARHSHANKAR
SCOOTER STOLEN: Three youths forcibly took away the scooter of Amanjot Kaur of Sarhala Kalan village near Rupewala village on Sunday. She was driving home from Panchata village when the youths signalled her to stop. She slowed down and tried to move past them but fell when she was hit on the arm. The youths fled away with the scooter. The police has registered a case.

HOSHIARPUR
SUCCUMBED: Gurdev Singh (55), resident of Bhawani Nagar village, succumbed to his injuries at the Civil Hospital, Garhshankar, 40 km from here, on Monday. Gurdev Singh and his wife, Surinder Kaur, were seriously injured when a family of the same village assaulted them on Sunday. The wife of the deceased is undergoing treatment. The police has registered a case.

MEETING HELD: A policy holders meeting was organised at the local LIC office here on Monday to provide competitive services. Issues like late and non-receipt of premium notices and provision to deposit premiums in advance were discussed.

JALANDHAR
SARPANCH MELA: A sarpanch mela will be organised by the Modern Kheti Agro Society here on Saturday to create awareness among farmers regarding the usefulness of cash crops and impact of GATT agreement on agro economy, Mr B.S. Bir, Editor of “Modern Kheti” a magazine, said on Tuesday.

KAPURTHALA
SENTENCED: Mr Gurdev Singh, Sessions Judge, on Tuesday convicted 11 persons of the murder of Sukhdev Singh of Ahli Kalan village, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Two others were acquitted in the case.

KHAMANO
BOOKED: The police has registered a case against Mr Bhinder Singh Ranwan, a leader of the Lok Bhalai Party, for beating up a person of Manderan village. Party leaders said this action was taken as a revenge for his criticism of the poor working of the police. They demanded that the case be withdrawn immediately.

KHANNA
ARRESTED: The police has arrested three persons and recovered 426 bottles of country wine from their possession. According to a press note under a special drive launched against anti-social elements, ASI Jagmeet Singh arrested Surjit Singh of Behlolpur, Vinod Kumar of Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and Gurmukh Singh of Machhiwara for selling the wine illegally. A case has been registered.

NABBED: The police arrested two satta operators, Jaspal Singh of Fatehgarh and Nayapal Singh of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, and recovered Rs 599 and a box of playing cards from them. The police has registered two cases under the Gambling Act.

LUDHIANA
VACCINATION CAMP: A hepatitis-B vaccination camp will be held at St Patrick Public School, Haibowal Kalan, on December 9. This was disclosed by Dr O.P. Anand, Director of the school and secretary of the Lions Club (Samrat), in a press note. He said the vaccine would be available for adults at Rs 60 and for children at Rs 30.

EYE CAMP: A free eye check-up camp was organised by the Lions Club Ludhiana (North) at Government Middle High School, Ambedkar Nagar. Dr Ajay Pal Jain of Guru Teg Bahadur Charitable Hospital examined students and the club provided free eye drops and medicines. Among the members present on the occasion were Mr Jatinder Paul Singh Saluja, Mr G.S. Bansal, Mr K.S. Bawa, Mr S.P.S. Sahpuri, Mr H.S. Lamba and Mr Damandeep Singh Saluja.

MANSA
CONTESTS FLAYED: Social workers’ meeting was held here on Tuesday. Mr Avtar Singh Joga, general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Economic and Planning Cell, said the recent spurt in beauty titles being won by Indian girls was a calculated move to win the hearts of the Indians by multinational companies.

PHAGWARA
FELICITATED: Educationist Jagat Singh Palahi at a function held on Tuesday at Guru Nanak College to felicitate him, said most US companies were being manned by Indian computer engineers.

SAHNEWAL
DIED: Capt Nishan Singh Gill, the father of martyr Captain Satinder Pal Singh Gill died here on Sunday. The cremation was largely attended. Among those present were Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bulara, Thekedar Surjan Singh, Akali leader, Jathedar Heera Singh Gabria, MLA Jathedar Santa Singh, Umaidpur, Chairman Market Committee, Sahnewal, Baba Jagroop Singh, circle president, Mr Jasveer Singh Khanpur, Mr Karamjit Singh Bhairo Munna, Dr Balwinder Singh Gill, Mr Pawanpreet Singh Gill, Mr Dharam Singh, Dr Shamsher Singh Kaile.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: Following were elected office-bearers of the PUDA Employees Association (Class III): Chairman — Mr Gurmail Singh Ghruan; President — Mr Shiv Kumar Sharma; General Secretary — Mr Ashok Mehra; Senior Vice-Presidents — Ms Isheroop Kaur and Ms Jaspal Kaur; Vice-Presidents — Mr K.K. Garg, Mr Satpal Garg, Mr Ranjit Kumar and Mr Pawan Kumar; Cashier — Mr Vijay Kumar; Joint Secretary — Mr Ravinder Sharma; Press Secretary — Mr Raj Kumar Garg and legal advisers — Mr Pirthi Singh and Mr Bhupinder Singh.

RALLY: The electricity employees and engineers held a protest rally against the Electricity Bill 2000, at Electricity Rehabilitation Division, Sector 19-B, here on Wednesday. The rally was also against the Chandigarh Administration’s reported move to privatise the Electricity Department. Power engineers, junior engineers and workers of the Electricity Department participated in the rally. The rally was addressed by various trade union leaders which include Mr Bhag Mal Rana and Mr Kasturi Lal, general secretary and president of the union respectively. Others who also addressed the rally were Mr Vijay Singh, Mr Ram Swarup, Mr Gopal Datt Joshi, Mr Mehar Chand, Mr Raja Singh, Mr S.K. Saggi and Mr Inderjeet Singh. The main speaker was Mr Chander Sekher, general secretary, CITU Punjab State Committee. The leaders condemned the privatisation move of the government which they alleged were done under the dictates of the World Bank and the WTO.

BOOK RELEASED: An anthology of Hindi poems entitled ‘Utsav’ written by Mr Kuldeep Kumar Bhatnagar, a senior IAS officer of Punjab cadre, was released by Mr Vijay Saigal, Editor, Dainik Tribune, here on Wednesday. While speaking on the occasion, Mr Saigal said the poems written by Mr Bhatnagar are thought provoking and emotional. He pointed out that the poetry of Mr Bhatnagar have different shades of joy, sorrow, tragedy and satire. His poems also reflects the aspect of spiritualism, Mr Saigal added. Earlier Shiromoni Sahitkar, Mr Jigar Jalandhari, Padamshree Sardar Anjum and Mr Nakesh Nakvi also presented their views on Utsav. The students of DAV college regaled the audience through the recitation of poetry of Mr Bhatnagar.

PULSE POLIO CAMPAIGN: The Advisor to the Administrator, Union Territory, Ms Vineeta Rai, will formally kick off the pulse polio campaign on December 9. The National Immunisation Day to immunise all children upto the age of five years is on December 10, 2000, and Jan 31, 2001. The five Rotary clubs in the city including Chandigarh, Chandigarh Midtown, Chandigarh Central, Chandigarh Shivalik, Chandigarh Plaza will put up 100 booths, said Mr Praveen Goyal, President, Rotary Club of Chandigarh.

SCIENCE CONGRESS: The Punjab State Council for Science and Technology will organise the 8th state level children’s science congress on December 7 and 8 at Indira Holiday Home , Sector 24 and Bal Bhavan here. On the first day of the congress, nearly 200 children selected from all over the state will present their projects on the current year’s theme, indigenous scientific knowledge for a better tomorrow. On the second day the winners of the state level and in other activities will be announced. The chief guest on the second day of the function will be Mr Rajan Kashyap, Principal Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Science, Technology and Environment. The winners at the state level would participate in the national level congress which will be held at Calcutta between December 27 to 31.

PANCHKULA
DANCE CONTEST: The Lion Club (Mid-Town) Panchkula and the Leo Club (Mid-Town) Panchkula will jointly organise an open dance competition Lions Boogie Woogie under its child care programme at Yavanika in Sector 5 here on December 9. According to a press statement, Mr Kishore Rahi, President of the Lions Club (Mid-Town), children between the age group of six to 16 years will participate in the dance competition. Mr Sham Lal Bansal, patron of the Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Panchkula, will be the chief guest.

INAUGURATED: Mr S.K. Monga, Deputy Commissioner of Panchkula, inaugurated the new premises of Punjab National Bank at Sector 5, here on Wednesday. The function was presided over by Mr A.K. Bhargva, general manager of Punjab National Bank, North Zone. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Monga stressed on the need of lending loan on soft terms to the underprivileged section of the society. Mr Bhargava informed that new facilities would be soon provided in the branch.

HARYANA

HISAR
APPOINTED: Dr R.K. Lakra, professor of entomology, has taken over as Project Director in the Directorate of Research, Haryana Agricultural University, it was officially announced here on Tuesday.

MEETING: The general body of the Haryana Irrigation Engineering Officers Benevolent Fund will meet at the Canal Rest House in Rohtak on Friday, Mr Damodar Sharma, secretary of the fund, said here on Tuesday.

GANG BUSTED: Six members of a gang of vehicle thieves were arrested on Tuesday and vehicles worth over Rs 15 lakh were recovered from their possession, Mr Sandeep Khirwar, SP, said here on Tuesday.

ROHTAK
SUICIDES: Sunita (22) of Subana village reportedly consumed poison and died at the PGIMS here on Monday. She was married four years ago and is survived by a son and a daughter. In another incident, Gangaram of Jamalpur village too committed suicide on Monday. The cause of the suicide is not yet known. In a separate incident, Jaspal Singh of Mansa district in Punjab was killed in a road accident near Kharkhauda village on Monday. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Haryana state chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics: President — Dr Satish Sharma, Vice-Presidents — Dr Suman Sethi and Dr P.K. Singla, and Treasurer — Dr Tajender Kharbanda.

SIRSA
ALLEGATION: Former Irrigation Minister and senior Congressman Jagdish Nehra on Tuesday alleged that the supporters of the Chautala government were being elected members of the gram samitis.

SONEPAT
DEMOLITION OPPOSED: Officials of the demolishing squad had to face resistance in their attempt to demolish unauthorised structures and encroachments on municipal land in Jatwara Mohalla here on Tuesday. The officials failed to carry out the demolition.

KILLED: One person was killed in a tractor Jeep collision on the Sonepat-Rohtak road near Kharkhauda, 19 km from here, on Tuesday. A case has been registered in this connection.

RAIDED: A series of raids were conducted here on Tuesday and four persons were arrested for gambling. Cash and other gambling articles were seized from their possession. Cases have been registered.

STOLEN: A mobile phone was allegedly stolen by two youths from a shop in the Gita Bhavan area here on Tuesday.

GROUP CLASH: Five persons sustained injuries when two rival groups clashed over a land dispute at Shahpur Tagga village, 20 km from here, on Tuesday. A case has been registered.

YAMUNANAGAR
DEVELOPMENT WORK: Mr Rajeev Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, said here on Monday that a sum of over Rs 6 lakh had been incurred on development work under the Kandi Project by the soil conservation branch of the Agriculture Department during November.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI
Shimla turns heat on forest encroachers

THE Shimla Municipal Corporation has for some time been feeling concerned about the increasing incidence of unauthorised constructions. Raising of “dharas” in forested patches stealthily has been posing a threat to the town’s environment. While the forest staff has been trying to stop such constructions, those having political clout manage to bring political pressure and go ahead with their encroachments.

The corporation had recently given a directive with regard to checking and stopping any unauthorised construction, especially in municipal forest. Accordingly, a forest department team led by Mr Mela Ram, Range Officer, demolished six dharas put up by unauthorised settlers. The accompanying photo shows a demolished dhara.

The action raised a lot of hue and cry. They gheraoed the forest officials concerned and went to the extent of hurling abuses against the officials. They even threatened dire consequences, including liquidation of the officials.

At the demolition site, the affected families complained that they had been working in town for some time and being low income people could not afford to go in for proper accommodation.

Mr Varinder Shandil, a municipal councillor of the area said the encroachers were not working for the Municipal Corporation but were running their own businesses. They were, therefore, not justified in encroaching on municipal land on the pretext of poverty.

Mr Partap Singh Thakur, president of the Van Karamchari Sangh, said he and his colleagues took pride in working to stop all degradation of municipal forests by unauthorised settlers. But the presence of a judicial officer as well as armed protection to the demolition squad would go a long way towards ridding municipal forests of encroachers, he said.

Mr K.N. Kashyap, municipal commissioner, when contacted, said he would go all out to stop illegal construction, especially in the municipal forest areas, but the encroachers managed to pressure it to adopt a “go slow” policy on demolition. Though the process of bringing down the temporary sheds is lengthy and difficult, nevertheless the corporation was resisting undue interference.

As regards protection to the demolition staff, the official said whereas the municipal forest staff was fully trained to deal with such situations, yet protection could be considered and provided, if found essential.

Ahuja is specialities’ chief of IMA

Dr Iqbal Singh Ahuja, who brought the test tube baby technology to northern India, has been installed as Chairman of the IMA Academy of Medical Specialities, Punjab. The Ludhiana-based doctor is the Director of the Iqbal Nursing Home. The installation ceremony was presided over by the Punjab Minister for Health, Dr Baldev Raj Chawla.

In his inaugural address, Dr Ahuja stressed on the coordination of various specialities. Brotherhood among doctors and following of ethics was the basic need, he added

He warned doctors who were deviating from the ethics and said the first casualty of this deviation would be the faith of the patient. The relationship between the patient and the doctor was of paramount importance which should be guarded by all doctors, he added.

Adalat clears 250 passport cases

The staff of the Regional Passport Office at Chandigarh, in tandem with the Ferozepore Deputy Commissioner, held a “passport adalat” at Red Cross Bhavan in Ferozepore city during the weekend. It was organised to clear passport applications submitted between January 1, 1999, and May 31, 2000 pending at the RPO’s office for non-furnishing of essential documents.

About 400 applicants turned up. During the course of the day, RPO officers cleared about 250 applications and the rest were returned after advising them to furnish the correct information or documents. In addition, about 115 fresh applications for passports were accepted. This exercise, undoubtedly, saved them time and money. Over 300 fresh applications at Rs 10 each were sold at the counter, usually sold by travel agencies at exorbitant rates.

About 1000 applicants, mostly residents of Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepore, Moga and Mansa, were invited to participate in this adalat along with documents to get their cases cleared.

This was the first “adalat” in this region held by the RPO. Holding of such adalats helps create on awareness among the public about the importance of the passport, creates confidence and faith in the passport office and minimises the role of unscrupulous touts and agents who misguide applicants.

Books on Himachal Pradesh

Harvinder Singh Chopra, advocate at Tarn Taran, has earned a name for himself for writing on Himachal Pradeshas his books have been acclaimed by a number of institutions, bar associations and eminent personalities. The four books he has written explore the social, cultural, religious and economic aspects tourist centres, historical places as well as on the flora and fauna of the state. His accounts owe their authentic note to his extensive travelling in the state and his search for rarities in the state continues.

Contributed by K.L. Noatay, TNS and Navdeep.