The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, January 5, 2001,
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

AMRITSAR
SEMINAR: Guru Nanak Dev University will organise a three-day international seminar on ‘‘Ethnic Dimensions in International Politics’’ from January 8 to 10 at Guru Nanak Bhawan Auditorium of the university. According to Dr Gurnam Singh, director of the seminar, more than 50 scholars from abroad as well as from the country will participate in the seminar.

BATHINDA
EYE CAMP: The Divine Eye Research Foundation (DERF) organised a free eye camp and eye donation awareness programme at Lal Singh Basti, in which 10 patients were identified for cataract surgery. This was stated by Mr Rakesh Kumar Narula, president of the DERF, here on Wednesday.

FAZILKA
BODY RECOVERED: The body of a young married woman has been recovered from control barrage of gang canal here by the police. She was reportedly missing for the past few days.

JALANDHAR
ARRESTED: The police has arrested Dev Raj for allegedly stealing two-wheelers. Six two- wheelers were recovered from his possession. Mr Gaurav Yadav, SSP, said here on Wednesday that a case had been registered under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC.

KHAMANO
APPOINT: after the termination of services of 22 BDPOs by the Supreme Court of India, no appointment has been made so far. Due to this the public has been suffering a lot. The public id demanding new appointments in their place.

COMMUTERS: Local and government buses mainly operators are charging more than the said fare from commuters on some routes. These routes are mainly Samrala-Khamano, Samrala-Khanna and Khamano-Khanna. The public has demanded action against the culprits.

LUDHIANA
TOURNAMENT: Sahibana defeated the Khasi Kalon Club in the final match of football tournament organised by the Youth Sports Club, Sahibana, here on Thursday at Government High School, Sahibana. Mr Pawan Dewan, chairman, All-India Youth Congress Urban Development, presided over the closing ceremony and distributed prizes. A trophy and a cash prize of Rs 4,000 were given to the winner team, while the runner-up team was awarded a cash prize of Rs 3,000.

EXHIBITION: Knit-vision 2001, a five-day exhibition on hosiery knitting, textile garments, manufacturing, knitting machinery, was inaugurated at Welcome Palace, Sarabha Nagar, here on Thursday. In the exhibition computerised knitting machinery from nearly 20 countries have been displayed. Some indigenous computerised machinery manufacturers have also displayed their circular knitting machinery. Knitting machine parts and other accessories have also been displayed.

WELFARE CAMP: An animal welfare camp was organised at Pamali village on Thursday. The Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension sent a team of experts, including Dr M.P. Gupta, Mr Harish Verma and Mr J.S. Bhatti, to the camp. Ninety cases of buffaloes, cows, dogs and bullocks were treated free of cost. Farmers were advised to adopt regular and timely vaccination and proper managemental practices, including insemination at the right time to get excellent results of reproduction. According to Dr K.S. Verma, programme coordinator, NSS, the farmers were highly satisfied from the camp.

ELECTIONS: The group, led by Mr Rajinder Singh Grewal, father of the city Mayor, Mr Apinder Singh Grewal, made a clean sweep in the elections to the Gurdwara Singh Sabha of Sarabha Nagar here. Mr Grewal defeated Mr Wassan Singh for the post of the sabha chief. The following candidates were declared elected as block representatives: Block A — Mr Manmohan Singh, Block B — Mr Harjit Singh Kahlon, Block C — Mr Pritpal Singh Khera, Block D — Mr Jatinder Singh Sandhu, Block E — Mr Shingar Singh Sandhu, Block F — Mr Avtar Singh, Block G — Mr Kuldip Singh Grewal, Block H — Mr Pritam Singh Chawla, Block I — Mr Harinder Pal Singh, Block J — Mr Surinder Singh Sethi, Block K — Mr Santokh Singh Sidhu.

HAILED: Jubilant Congress workers distributed sweets and organised functions to celebrate the election of Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, MP, to the All-India Congress Committee (AICC). Mr Krishan Kumar Bawa, Secretary of the PPCC, and Mr Pawan Diwan, Chairman of the Urban Development Cell of the Indian Youth Congress, attended the party functions in Rajguru Nagar and Shastri Nagar, respectively. Mr Gurdev Singh Lapran, Joint Secretary of the PPCC, said a large number of panches and sarpanches of the Kila Raipur area had also welcomed the election of Mr Ghalib. The district unit of the Urban Development Cell of the IYC has congratulated the PYC President, Mr Devinder Singh Babbu, who has also been elected a member of the AICC.

INAUGURATED: A vishram ghar has been built in Guru Tegh Bahadar Hospital for the attendants of patients. This four-storey building has been built at a cost of Rs 40 lakh with the help of the Dumra family. This facility will be inaugurated by Justice Kuldeep Singh, a former Judge of the Supreme Court on January 7. Dr Kirpal Singh Chugh will also inaugurate a dialysis unit in the hospital on the same day.

MALERKOTLA
KILLED: Mohammed Ghulam (39) was killed and five persons were injured in a road accident near Gill village, 24 km from here, on Wednesday. According to sources, they were on their way from Malerkotla to Ludhiana when their four wheeler collided with a bus coming from opposite direction.

SHOES DISTRIBUTED: The Wariam Nishkam Sewa Sanstha here distributed shoes worth Rs 10,000 to 204 needy students of primary schools at Amargarh village, 14 km from here, on Wednesday. This was stated by Mr Sarabjit Singh, Sarpanch of the village.

MANSA
URGED: The local Bharatiya Sanatan Dharam Mahavir Dal will send its 50 volunteers to Kumbh mela at Allahabad on January 10 to assist the devotees. Members of the dal today urged the Union Railway Minister to issue concessional passes for these volunteers.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Photographers Association: convenor — Mr Kanwal Kumar Singla; president — Mr Om Parkash; vice-president — Mr Sat Pal Monga; secretary — Mr Amrit Garg; and treasurer — Mr K.K. Aggarwal.

BLANKET DISTRIBUTION: The local Sahara Social Welfare Club will distribute 200 blankets among the needy persons on January 13, according to the club president, Mr Surinder Chandpuria.

MOGA
THEFT: Thieves struck at the house of an employee of Nestle India Limited at the local Civil Lines area and took away cash notes, gold ornaments and other goods with an estimate worth of Rs 1 lakh. The police has registered a case.

PATIALA
ELECTED: Mr Sukhdev Singh Sodhi was elected as the President of the District Taxation Bar Association. The other members elected unanimously were: vice-presidents — Mr Rajesh Malhotra and Mr Vinod Jain, secretary — Mr Adish Bajaj, general secretary — Mr Ajay Alipuria and auditor — Mr R.P. Bhambri.

ADDRESSES: Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, while addressing the A class officers of the university said that officers should adopt pro-change attitude to bring about improvements in the prevailing administrative situation to meet the new challenges and expectations of the students community. Dr Ahluwalia laid emphasis upon the use of the information technology (IT) to update their administrative skills.

SEMINAR: A seminar on “Protection of environment” to be chaired by Dr M.P. Kapoor, Director, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, is being organised by the Citizens for Social Action in collaboration with the Patiala Management Association under the patronage of the Punjab Pollution Control Board on January 6 at 10 a.m. here in the Seminar Hall of Thapar Corporate Research and Development Centre. Mr M.C. Mehta, a renowned environmentalist of the international repute and the Magsaysay awardee, and Major Gen J.S. Lacshar (retd) would be the main speakers on the occasion.

SAMRALA
TRIBUTES PAID: Rich tributes were paid to Ravinder Kumar, brother of a Samrala-based senior advocate, Mr K.C. Kapoor in the local Durga Mandir on Thursday. All the members of the Bar associations of Samrala, Khanna and Ludhiana, besides representatives of political parties, have also expressed their grief.

MEETING: A meeting of the Tehsil Patwar Union was held here on Thurday on the premises of the tehsil courts. The meeting was headed by Mr Parminder Singh Toor, President of the body. Patwaris of Machhiwara, Koom and Khamanon Circle attended the meeting. Members of the union have decided to sit on a dharna in front of the subdivisional headquarters from January 17 to press for the acceptance of their demands.

Tehsildar dead: Tehsildar Gurbax Singh died here on Wednesday after a heart attack. Many prominent persons attended his funeral at Ludhiana.

CHANDIGARH

CELEBRATED: The tiny tots of Century Public School, Naya Gaon celebrated their annual day and prize distribution function here on Thursday. The function started with Sarasvati Vandana and was followed by cultural programmes. The harvest dance and Rajasthani Morni dance was very beautifully portrayed by the children. The fancy dance competition and rhymes by lower classes were highly lauded by the audience. The Education Minister of Punjab, Mr Tota Singh, was the chief guest. The function concluded with the prize distribution ceremony.

FAST: The Super Bazar Employees Joint Action Committee have flayed the decision of UT Administration to close down the Super Bazar. Mr Kamaljit Singh, General Secretary of the committee, alleged that the authorities were making allout efforts to dispose of the stocks and assets to cover up the irregularities made by the management during the times of successive administrators appointed to manage the organisation. He said the officials closed their eyes to the large-scale corruption and did nothing to stem the rot. He said if their appeal before the Secretary, Cooperation, was turned down they would approach the courts. Meanwhile, the relay by the employees entered its 39th day on Thursday.

RALLY: The MC Road Workers Union organised a rally in Sector 17 on Thursday to mobilise the workers for the dharna to be staged in front of the MC office on January 18. The dharna is being organised by the Joint Action Committee of MC employees and workers to protest against the long- pending demands of the MC employees. The demands highlighted by them are that the employees transferred by the Administration be treated on deputation, vacant posts be filled, uniform be released to the Class III workers and implement local travel allowance of Rs 250 to Class III and IV workers. They have also demanded two month’s arrears of daily wages, which is pending for the last four years. The rally was addressed by Mr P. Kamraj, general secretary of the union. Meanwhile, the working committee of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Public Health Workers Union has decided to participate in the dharna on January 18. The members condemned the Administration as well as the MC for not implementing the genuine demands of the workers. The demands include regularisation of all work-charged and daily-wage employees, concession in water bills and abolition of the contract system.

DEAD: Mool Chand Premi, a prominent activist of the Seva Bharati in this region, died at the Government Hospital, Sector 32. He was 87. Premi hailed from Dera Ghazi Khan (now in Pakistan) and had settled in Chandigarh. He offered satyagraha against Emergency in 1975 and remained in jail for 19 months. He wound up his business in 1984 to work wholetime in service of the people. He is survived by five sons and two daughters. His cremation was attended by a large number of eminent persons.

HARYANA

AMBALA
NEW COMMISSIONER: Mr Maha Singh has took over the charge of new Commissioner of Ambala range here today relieving Mr Chander Singh. Soon after resuming the charge Mr Singh visited the office of the Shivalik Development Authority. Later he visited the tehsil office and listened the problems of the people visiting the office. He said on this occasion that the working of the tehsil would be made more effective and transparent.

HONOUR: The Haryana College Teachers Union will organise a function to honour the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala on January 7 at DAV College, Pehowa. According to Dr Sudarshan Gasso, general secretary of HCTU, the function is being organised for accepting most of the pending demands of the teaching community, a release said. Among others, Haryana Ministers, Mr Ashok Kumar and Mr Jaswinder Singh and the Kurukshetra University Vice-Chancellor, Mr R.S. Chaudhary are expected to attend the function.

CENSUS: The second phase of the census training programme has started here on Wednesday at the Municipal Council, Ambala sadar. The district census officer, Mr R.K. Kakkar is, coordinating the census training. Similar training camps are being held at Barara, Naraingarh and Ambala City, a release said. The second phase of census will start on February 9 and end on February 28.

BHIWANI
LOK ADALAT: A lok adalat will be organised at the judicial complex here on January 20. This was stated by the District and Sessions Judge, Mr N.S. Ahlawat, here on Thursday.

NABBED: The police on Wednesday arrested three members of a gang, Surender, Bijender and Suresh of Mittathal village in the district, when they were planning to rob a petrol pump. A case under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC has been registered.

DEMANDED: Local auto-rickshaw drivers have submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, demanding allotment of space for the parking of their vehicles.

CUSTODY: A court at Charkhi Dadri has ordered to send two arrested girls in judicial custody for another 14 days. The girls had been arrested in connection with the murder of Sunil (24) of village Dadhi Bana whose dead body was recovered from fields of the village on December 16. The police had arrested two school going girls of the same village.

KURUKSHETRA
SUICIDE ATTEMPT: A B. Com. second year student, Sunil Kumar, allegedly, tried to commit suicide by consuming poison on the premises of Bhim Hostel in university campus here on Tuesday. He was admitted to a local hospital, from where he was later shifted to PGI, Chandigarh.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the National Integrated Medical Association: patron — Dr R.K. Pareek; president — Dr Arvind Sharma; vice-president — Dr Manish Kukreja; secretary — Dr Sandeep Chhabra; joint secretary — Dr Tulsi Sardana; treasurer — Dr Madan Khanna.

PINJORE
BOOKED: The police have booked two local property dealers for allegedly violating rules framed under the HDR Act of the state. The accused, identified as Karam Singh and Hardyal Singh, were booked by the police on a complaint from the office of the Town and Country Planning. It is being alleged that the duo had unauthorisedly sold out agricultural land near Bitna Road without obtaining necessary permission from the department. Apart from this, they have also been accused of raising unauthorised constructions on the same land. The duo was produced in a Panchkula Court where the Judicial Magistrate released them on bail.

SIRSA
24 INJURED: Nearly 24 persons were injured in two road accidents here. A private bus collided with a truck near the local Air Force Station, leaving around 22 people injured. In another accident, a cyclist and his sister were seriously injured when a tractor-trailer hit them.

SONEPAT
LIQUOR SEIZED: The Kundli police has arrested five persons, Krishan, Ajay and Sunil of Rathdhana village, Kishan of Garhi Haqiqat village and Ranbir of Mahra village, on the charge of liquor smuggling and seized 494 bottles of country liquor and 540 liquor pouches from them. This was stated by the Superintendent of Police, Mr Paramjit Singh Ahlawat, on Thursday.

TWO HELD: The police conducted a raid on shops of lottery sellers near the Haryana-Delhi border and arrested two lottery sellers, Chandan Singh of Timarpur in Delhi and Krishan Kumar of Ganaur, on the spot and recovered Rs 1,250 from their possession. A case of satta gambling has been registered against both.

CANAL WATER THEFT: Officials of the Irrigation Department on Thursday claimed to have detected 58 cases of canal water theft in the district. According to sources, the officials sent 766 cases of canal water theft to the police for the registration of FIRs against the erring persons.

DIRECTED: The district administration on Thursday directed the Irrigation Department to construct a temporary bundh on Drain No 8 between Anwali and Garhi Bala villages and release canal water into it for irrigation. The authorities have also been directed to meet the farmers of these villages and discuss their problems.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among residents of the city against the alleged black marketeering of kerosene by certain depot holders, allegedly in connivance with the officials concerned. Many residents complained that the officials have failed to check the irregularities and malpractices of the depot holders who were allegedly diverting rationed kerosene oil and levy sugar to the black market.

WATER SUPPLY: Residents of New Braham Colony are up in arms against the administration for not restoring the supply of drinking water to them. Many residents alleged that the pipeline had bursted on December 30 but instead of repairing the pipelines, the authorities stopped the supply of drinking water in the colony. The residents have threatened to gherao the officials if the supply of drinking water was not restored immediately.

TELEPHONE BLUES: Large number of telephones at Sectors 14 and 15, Ashok Vihar, Mehlana Road, Vikas Nagar, Shastri Colony, Sikka Colony, four marla and eight marla colonies continued to remain non-functional during the past three days, causing inconvenience to the subscribers. The Telephone District Manager of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Mr Chander Shekhar, has directed the officials concerned to take immediate steps to remove the faults in the underground cables.

GESTURE: Mr Des Raj, a contractor and social activist, distributed blankets among the needy persons at a function organised at Kharkhauda town, 19 km from here, on Wednesday.

STIR PUT OFF: Employees of the Public Health Department on Thursday suspended their ongoing agitation against the authorities, following the hospitalisation of the Superintending Engineer in Delhi. The employees had launched an indefinite dharna four days ago to press for the fulfilment of their demands.