The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, January 26, 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
SCIENCE EXHIBITION: The Science Society of the local BBK DAV College for Women organised a science exhibition on Wednesday. The exhibition was inaugurated by Prof P. L. Butzer, Aachen, Germany, and Prof M .Z. Nashed, Delaware University, USA.

LUDHIANA
DHARNA: Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) activists took out a protest march and staged a dharna at Mini-Secretariat here to protest against privatisation, globalisation and to focus on the plight of workers in the wake of sickness of industries, closures, lock-outs, retrenchment and compulsory and voluntary retirement schemes. Addressing the gathering of brick kiln workers, FCI employees and industrial labour from hosiery, textiles and engineering industries, Mr Chander Shekhar, General Secretary of the state unit of CITU condemned the NDA government for its policies which could lead to annihilation of indigenous industries once the domestic market was flooded with foreign goods. He also criticised the government for its attempts to make retrograde changes in the labour laws at the behest of the WTO. Other speakers, including Mr Tarsem Jodhan, Mr Amar Nath KoomKalan, Mr Vijay Dogra, Mr Tarlochan Singh, Mr Raghbir Singh Benipal, Mr Major Singh Punnawal, Mr Sher Singh Pharwahi, took the government to task for pathetic plight of farmers, complete breakdown of public distribution system, worsening law and order situation in the state and a malicious hatred campaign against the migrant workers.

TICKET DEMANDED: All-India Sikh Students Federation (Bhoma Group) has urged the SAD high command to nominate the federation chief, Dr Manjit Singh Bhoma, as the party candidate from the Majitha Assembly constituency in the byelection to be held on Feb 19. A meeting of the AISSF held here last evening under the presidentship of Mr Pritam Singh Bharowal resolved that allotment of party ticket to Dr Bhoma will go a long way in mobilisation of youth and students in favour of SAD and will also be in keeping with the aspirations of electorate of Majitha constituency.

R-DAY FUNCTIONS: The district unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will organise functions in Issa Nagri, Near CMC, Government Primary School, Mundian Khurd, Rajiv Gandhi Colony in Focal Point and Basti Bhai Mani Singh, Near Basti Jodhewal, to mark the Republic Day. According to Mr Ramesh Nanchahal, senior vice-president of the party, the district president Mr Rashpal Singh Gill will unfurl the national flag at these functions.

GURPURB CELEBRATED: The management, teachers and students of Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Gujarkhan Campus, celebrated the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh here on Wednesday. The bhog of akhand path was performed in the morning, following which the raagi jatha and students recited kirtan. After ardas, langar was distributed. Present on the occasion were Mr Gurbir Singh Sarna, general secretary of the management, and Ms A.K. Bansal, Principal of the college.

CONTEST: Nearly 55 senior section students of Kundan Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines, participated in the salad making contest organised by the home science department here on Thursday. The contest was divided into Indian and continental categories. In the category of Indian salads, Rupali of Class XI bagged the first prize for the three beans salad while Neha Thapar of Class XII clinched the second prize for grapes and cheese salad. Third prize went bracketed to Mansi Kumra of Class XII who shredded a variety of vegetables very finely in her rangeela kachumbar salad and Usha Arora of Class XI who used a filling of potatoes, peas, beans and cheese in her stuffed tomatoes salad. In the category of continental salads, Sakshi Mahajan of Class XI won the first prize for Chinese nutrient salad in which she used lentil and cabbage. Aarti Arora of Class XI won second prize for macroni corn salad which she dressed using macroni, noodles, corn and coriander leaves. Ms Kiran Grover, Assistant Professor, Home Science college, Punjab Agricultural University, and Ms Sushma Gupta, lecturer, Government College for Women, pronounced the judgement. Ms I. Kumar, Principal, gave away the prizes.

MACHHIWARA
CLERK HELD: The vigilance officials nabbed a clerk red-handed on Wednesday while accepting a bribe of Rs 500. On the instructions of Mr H. S. Randhawa, SP, Vigilance Bureau, Punjab Flying Squad, a team led by DSP Harjab Singh caught a clerk Harlochan Singh and a vaseela navis Narinderpal Singh red-handed while accepting the bribe. The accused had demanded the money from Jarnail Singh of a nearby village, Hambowal Beat. The amount according to the vigilance officials was recovered from the accused in presence of a government witness, Mr Shavinder Singh, Treasury Officer Kharar.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
STEEL POLICY: The Ministry of Steel, Government of India, is preparing a National level steel policy to improve the health of iron and steel industry in the country. In order to increase the consumption of steel in the country various suggestions are being given by the producing industry to the Ministry of Steel and in this respect, a committee has also been constituted by the government said Mr Anil Suraj, honorary general secretary, All-India Steel Rerollers Association, in a press note released here on Wednesday, who is also a member of the said committee. He suggested that the government is keen to improve the health of this industry which is possible only if the consumption of steel in construction, housing and agricultural sector get increased. The committee has already held a meeting on this issue.

NAWANSHAHR
INAUGURATED: Two newly-constructed class rooms at Government Senior Secondary School, Sahiba, about 15 km from here, were inaugurated on Tuesday. This was stated by Mr Lokesh Mohan Sharma, Principal of the school, on Wednesday.

SAMPLES FAILED: Under the inputs quality control programme launched by the district Agriculture Department, as many as 88 samples of fertilisers and 144 of insecticides were taken, out of which 3 samples of fertilisers and 6 samples of insecticides failed. This was stated by Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Deputy Commissioner, here on Thursday.

PROTEST: Employees of the local ITI wore black badges to protest against the implementation of double shift time table in ITI’s in the state. A state-level dharna will be staged in front of the office of the Director, Technical Education and Industrial Training, in Chandigarh on February 2, an official press note said.

DISTRIBUTED: The Lions Club, Banga (Mehak), organised a function at Government Primary School for Girls at Khatkar Kalan village, about 10 km from here, on Thursday to distribute shoes to poor and needy students. Nearly 100 pairs of shoes were distributed on this occasion.

PATIALA
DOG SHOW: The Patiala Kennel Club will hold the dog show at Polo Ground here on February 11. The last date for the registration of dogs is February 4. Mr David Grimbly from Zimbabwe and Mr C.V. Sudarsan from Chennai are the judges.

URGED: The Public Interest Litigation Aid Forum (PILAF) has urged the Governor, Punjab, to take immediate steps against officials responsible for using substandard material in the construction of 10 flats in Sewa Singh Thikriwala Nagar. The president, Mr Ram Singh Salooja, said the flats in the HIG, medium and low income groups were almost on the verge of collapse.

CONFERENCE: Dr T.S. Kaler, Chief Cardiologist, Escorts, discussed the use of beta adrenoceptor blockers in ischameic and non-ischameic cardiomyopathy in moderate to major heart failures during the second day of the International Conference on Pathophysiology and Drug Therapy of cardiovascular disorders held at Punjabi University here on Thursday. Dr R.P.Sapru, a former head, Department of Cardiology, described new modalities to treat heart failures, especially electrical manipulations. Dr Balbir Singh, Director, Cardiology, Batra Heart Centre, assessed the use of antiplatelet, low molecular weight heparin and nitrates to treat patients suffering from coronary syndromes.

ROLE OF IT : Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, North-West Region, Chandigarh, Mr J.S. Ahluwalia, emphasised upon the increasing role of Information Technology in all spheres of life and urged the officers to put in their best to learn and adopt new developments in IT. This was said during the inaugural workshop on “Computerised processing of returns” here on Thursday. The department has launched a major drive to adopt information technology in the department. Mr B.M. Singh, Commissioner, Patiala, highlighted various modules of computerisation programmes in the department. The workshop was attended by Mr B.S. Rattan, Additional CIT, Patiala, Mr Harbhajan Singh, Additional CIT, Bathinda, Mr P.S. Sachdev, JCIT, Patiala, and a number of other officers of the department.

PHAGWARA
LOK ADALAT: A lok adalat under the presidentship of Mr harbhajan Das, Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), was held here. According to an official press note issued here on Wednesday, 50 cases were settled on the occasion. The next lok adalat will be held at Kapurthala on February 24.

CHANDIGARH

REFUTED: Certain senior Congress leaders have refuted media reports that they had resigned from the party. Terming the reports as “totally false, frivolous and mischievous”, the leaders namely Mr Harmohan Dhawan, Dr OP Verma, Mr DS Babla, Mr Vijay Pal Singh Dimpy, Mr Raj Kumar Rathore, Mr Kuldeep Singh and Mr Sandeep Singh said “our loyalty to the party is unquestionable”.

TEACHERS UNION: A delegation of the Haryana College Teachers Union, headed by Prof Shamsher Singh, president, Prof Mahipal Singh, organising secretary, and Prof Balbir Singh, member executive, met the Director, Higher Education, Ms Anuradha Gupta, regarding their demands. These included exemption of PhD holders from a refresher course for senior scale, removal of the clause of the state notification regarding published work for teachers in selection grade, implementation of feeder clause cadre of UGC notification for calculating total service of the feeder cadre for promotion in higher studies.

CONTESTS: Some very interesting and mind boggling competitions were held at “The psycho fest” organised by Government College for Girls, Sector 42, here on Thursday. The events of the day were inaugurated by the Principal, Mrs Mohini Sharma, who later gave away prizes to winners. Mrs Poonam Tangri, head of the Psychology Department of the college, organised collage making, badge making, one minute, role playing and story writing competitions.

INAUGURATED: Lionade Jyoti Hall, located in the Lions Club Chandigarh Greater Vocational Training Centre, Sector 30, here was inaugurated by Lion N.K. Grover, District Governor, District 321-F, on Wednesday. Lion Sushil Kapoor, president of the club, said a computer course would start here soon.

R-DAY FUNCTION: Shopkeepers of Palika Bazar, Sector 19, will celebrate Republic Day function at the parking grounds of the market. Mr Ram Paul Sharma, president of the local unit of the Indian National Trade Union, will unfurl the National Flag, while Mr G.D. Kala, Deputy Mayor, Municipal Corporation will be the chief guest.

CAMP: As many as 140 units of blood were donated at a camp organised by the Baba Sheikh Farid Donors Council, Mohali, at CRC Building, Sector 35, here on Wednesday. This 18th blood donation camp was organised in collaboration with the Lions Club Mohali. Eye donation forms were also filled up at the camp. This was stated by Mr Balwant Singh, press secretary of the council, in a press note here.

TELEPHONE DIRECTORY: The work for printing of a new telephone directory of Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar has started and it will be released in March end or April beginning, a press note issued by the local office of the BSNL said. The directory will also contain a section on Yellow Pages.

PANCHKULA
NOTIFICATION: The Haryana Government on Thursday issued a notification to constitute municipal council of Panchkula. It will start functioning from January 26. The election will be held within six months. Giving this information here on Thursday a spokesman of the Local Government Department said Mr Srikant Walgad, Administator, HUDA, has been appointed as Administrator, Municial Council, Panchkula, while Mr O.P. Sihag, Secretary, Municipal Council, Gurgaon, has been posted as Secretary, Municipal Council, Panchkula. The office of this council will be housed in the Community Centre, Sector 4, Panchkula.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Panchkula chapter of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology Alumnus Association: patron — Mr S L Garg; president — Mr F Lal Kansal; vice-president — Mr S L Gupta; general secretary — Mr S R Aggarwal; finance secretary — Mr S C Jindal; executive member and press secretary — Mr G S Shah; other executive members — Mr D P Piplani and Mr S L Gupta.

SAS NAGAR
AUCTION: PUDA earned over Rs 13 lakh from the sale of second-hand vehicles at an auction held in Phase VIII here on Wednesday. A spokesman of PUDA said 10 vehicles were auctioned. The successful bidders have been asked to lift the vehicles by February 2.