R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

KAPURTHALA
TRAINING CAMP: A district-level farmers’ training camp was organised at the local Jagatjit Club on Thursday. Mr Gulzar Singh Ranike, state Agriculture Minister, presided.

LUDHIANA
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT: Dr Swarandeep Singh, president, Punjab Agricultural University Speaker’s Forum, will deliver a talk on different aspects of personality development on April 11 at the Students Home. A communique from the Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle said this here on Friday. 

POWER CUTS: Several industrial associations in the Focal Point area have resented the unscheduled power cuts in the Focal Point area for the past two days, which has severely hit the working of the industrial units. In a joint statement, the office-bearers of various industrial bodies said, the power cuts were hitting the working hours of the industrial units. They pointed out, while the Punjab State Electricity Board had been busy in collecting minimum charges from the unit holders it had failed to ensure un-interrupted power supply to consumers. The representatives demanded regular and uninterrupted power supply for the industrial and other consumers to avoid inconvenience and harassment to people. 

PAINTINGS: The Fine Arts and Photography Club, Punjab Agricultural University, will organise “Agaaz” an exhibition of paintings by Harpal Singh, an eminent amateur artist from April 9 to 11at students home. Mr Apinder Singh Grewal, the Mayor, will inaugurate the exhibition. 

PRIZE DISTRIBUTION: The prize distribution function of the aao bune knitting contest and bunte bunte kismat chamke organised by the Vardhman Spinning and General Mills will be held on April 13. The prizes will be distributed by television personality Renuka Shahane, who is also the brand ambassador of the company. The contests were held in 2000 and 2001. About 5,000 prizes were won, including a Matiz SD car as the first prize. The winners of the mega contest were announced on February 28. In continuation of its campaign, the company is organising an aao bune inter-school contest on April 12 for students from 15 schools at Kundan Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines. TNS Contest for kids: Pankhudi, a social organisation, will hold a dance and drawing contest for children in the Municipal Park of Model Town Extension tomorrow evening. The contests would be open for children of different age groups from different schools. Pre-nursery to KG children would be given topics on shapes, fruits and vegetables. Class I to V children will paint festivals and seasons. Class VI to X children would be given topics like pollution, population, drugs and earthquake. For dance contest, two groups would be formed, one from Classes KG to V and and the other from Classes VI to X. 

PATIALA
PUNJAB & SINDH BANK: The All-India Punjab and Sind Bank Officers Union (AIBOU) welcomed Mr N.S. Gujral as the chairman and managing director of the Punjab and Sind Bank here on Thursday. In a press note signed by Mr G.S. Tiwana, ex-general secretary of the All-India Punjab and Sind Bank Staff Federation, Mr G.S. Khera, president of the AIBOU and Mr R.P. Singh, organising secretary, the employees hoped that their demands would to be fulfilled soon. 

ADVISORY COMMITTIE: Mr Surjit Kumar Mehta, vice-president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, has been nominated as the member of the Sales Tax Advisory Committee. Mr Vijay Kapoor, senior vice-president of the mandal, thanked Mr Chiranji Lal Garg, Law and Justice Minister, Punjab, for making his appointment. 

SANSKRIT PLAY: The State Language Department with the cooperation of the Punjab Government will organise a ‘Sanskrit play competition’ at Atma Ram Kumar Sabha Senior Secondary School on Thursday here. Giving this information, Director of the department, Mr Madan Lal Hasija, said five awards would be given to the participants for their performance. 

SWEEPING MACHINE: The city roads will now present a much more cleaner look than ever before with the city municipal corporation (MC) introducing a unique tractor trailed road vacuum sweeper machine costing nearly Rs 7 lakh. Giving this information, Mr K.S. Kang, Commissioner of the Corporation, said that the roads would get cleaned by just pressing a button of the machine. The entire waste would be dumped on the outskirts of the city and the environment would now remain clean and tidy. 

DEMANDED: The Forum for Common Cause on Friday demanded that a geriatric unit be opened in the Rajindra Hospital at the earliest for the benefit of the aged. In a statement here, Mr Mohinder Singh Walia, president, said that such a unit was required as the number of aged persons was increasing everyday and their medical needs differed from the needs of the young people.

MEETING: Mr Harinder Gupta, Ms Amita Rishi and Mr Arun Sharma were unanimously re-elected as the president, secretary and treasurer, respectively, during the general body meeting of the Bharat Vikas Parishad here on Friday. According to Mr Bharat Bhushan Sirhindi, press secretary, the parishad will chalk out plans to fight against social evils like dowry and child labour, in addition to the projects undertaken by the parishad during the last year. He said that the arishad would also adopt projects to fight against the increasing impact of western culture on the youth. Presiding over the function, Mr R.C. Modi said that during the coming year, medicinal plants would be planted at various places. 

APPOINTED: Dr Ritu Lehal of the Punjabi School of Management Studies of Punjabi University has been selected as the principal investigator for the project on ‘Comparative study of organisational climate, organisational role of stress, quality of work-life, job satisfaction and management effectiveness in men and women executives in India’ for a period of three years. The budget of the project is of Rs 3 lakh. Dr Parveen P. Balgir of the Department of Biotechnology is yet another teacher to be selected as the principal investigator for the project ‘Isolation of pediiocin producing lactic acid bacteria using molecular biology techniques and study of their bio-preservatives potential’ for a period of three years with a total outlay of Rs 5 lakh. 

DISTRIBUTED: An amount of Rs 4.59 crore was distributed for inter-caste marriages, provision of free books to children and for various other scholarship schemes by Raja Narinder Singh, Public Health Minister, during a seminar on ‘Caste system and social differences’ organised at the Ambedkar Hall here on Thursday. Presiding over the function, Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Social Welfare Minister, said last year Rs 141 crore were spent for the uplift of the Scheduled Castes. 

SAHNEWAL
LAND DISPUTE: A complaint has been lodged with the Sahnewal Police in a land dispute case. The FIR states that Zora Singh of Kadiana Kalan decided to buy a property of 27 canal and 2.5 marle, belonging to Mela Ram of Machian Khurd. The rate was fixed at 3.25 lakh per ‘kila’, out of which, Zora Singh initially gave 2 lakh per ‘kila’ to Mela Ram. The two dates fixed for the registry of land were June 15, 2000 and October 20, 2000. But Mela Ram did not turn up on both the dates for the registration and on the contrary, stole Zora Singh’s motor, switch and starter. A case has therefore been registered against the accused under sections 457 and 380 of IPC. 

SAMRALA
MAHAVIR JAYANTI: Mahavir Jayanti was celebrated here on Friday at the local Jain Mandir, with great pomp and show under the supervision of social workers, Padam Jain and Virinder Jain. On this occasion, religious congregations were held and bhajans were recited in the praise of Jain Mahavir Ji. Jain devotees of Machhiwara also attended and free ‘langar’ was served. The local SDM, Mr Sandeep Hans, and DSP, Mr Sushil Kumar, appealed the public to follow the foot-steps of great Mahavir Ji. 

LEO CLUB’S AID: Leo Cluba will foot the bill of highway First Aid Post Ambulance. It was decided at a meeting of the club held here on Friday under the presidentship of Mr Harinder Kalra. Talking to the media, Mr Kalra said that Leo Club had taken the responsibility of shifting accident victims to the nearest hospital by meeting the fuel and petrol charges of the Highway First Aid Ambulance. On this occasion, Mr Abhai Jain, was made the patron-in-chief of the club. 

GRANTS DISTRIBUTED: Mr Sukhdev Singh Libra, Member, Rajya Sabha, distributed development grants to panchayats of Chack Sarai (Rs 1.20 lakh), Sultanpur (Rs 75,000) and Mushkabad (Rs one lakh). In an impressive function, Mr Libra assured more monetary help to complete pending panchayat projects. He was accompanied by Mr Tejinder Singh, SGPC member, Mr Mohinder Singh Bhanglan, circle president of AISAD and Mr Inderjit Singh Lopon, district president. The sarpanches thanked Mr Libra for this help. 

TALWANDI SABO
CHETNA SAMMELAN: Sikh nari chetna sammelan will be organised here on April 7 and 8 by the Sikh Nari Manch. This was stated in a press note issued by the manch here on Friday.

CHANDIGARH

SAS NAGAR
RALLY: Workers of the local block unit of the Congress organised a rally against an alleged shady arms deal by the BJP led-government at the Centre in Phase 3B-2 here on Friday. The participants also burnt effigies of the Prime Minister and the former president of the BJP at the traffic-lights point of Phase 7 and 3B-2 which led to disruption of traffic for about 20 minutes. While addressing the participants, senior leaders of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr H.S. Gharuan, Mr Lakhwinder Kaur Gracha, Mr Balbir Singh Sidhu, and Mr Jaswinder Kaka, SAS Nagar block president of the party, demanded action against the BJP leaders. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
DEMANDED: A former MLA and Congress leader, Mr Nirmal Singh, on Friday demanded a white paper on the development work carried out in various constituencies during the tenure of each chief minister. Talking to mediapersons, he said that constituencies of chief ministers have been pampered. “There is a discrimination in development since the time Haryana came into being. The white paper will definitely bring to light favouritism shown to a few constituencies,” he said. Mr Singh also alleged that there had been irregularities in the JBT admission with most of the candidates being from Sirsa. 

PLACEMENT: Shri Atmanand Jain Institute of Management and Technology, Ambala, commenced its placement week from Friday on the occasion of Mahavira Jayanti. In the inaugural session of the placement week, Mr M.M. Verma, general manager, works Wockhardt addressed the students. He emphasised the qualities that a manager should have in this competitive world. 

DEGREE: An M Phil degree was awarded to a student of Kurukshetra University on the collection of essays of Dr Pardeep Sharma Snehi, a senior lecturer of local SA Jain College. Around 250 essays of Dr Snehi have already been published in various journals. He had been the editor of Kurukshetra University research scholars magazine, Divya. 

UNAUTHORISED COLONIES: The Deputy Commissioner has asked the Town and Country Planning Department to demolish construction in unauthorised colonies. He also asked the department to submit a report of the property dealers raising illegal constructions. According to reliable sources a few property dealers have been developing unauthorised colonies and selling plots in violation of various Acts, but the authorities concerned have not been taking proper notice of it. In routine the department instead of taking any strict action against such dealers generally lodged an FIR against them the sometimes demolished some part of the construction to justify that it was not unaware of it. Interestingly the municipal council has been recovering house tax from a few unauthorised colonies. However, these colonies do not have even the facilities of sanitation, drainage and drinking water. 

HISAR
GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP: The First National Gliding Championship will be held at the local airport from April 8. Mr Anurag Rastogi, Deputy Commissioner, who is also the president of the Hisar Aviation Club, said nearly 50 participants from Delhi, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Pinjore, Jaipur, Hisar and Pilani would participate in it. He said two events — spot landing and maximum duration flight — would be included in the championship.

VISIT: A 13-member delegation of Tribhuwan Agricultural University of Nepal visited Haryana Agricultural University here on Wednesday. They met the Registrar, Mr M.S. Kuhar, and the Controller of Examinations, Dr K.P. Singh, and discussed the admission policy, financial system and administrative structure of the university.

HELP: The Narnaud Yuva Sangathan presented a cheque of Rs 11,000 to Mr O.P. Indora, Additional Deputy Commissioner, for Gujarat quake victims here on Wednesday. The members of the Arya Pradeshik Pratinidhi Sabha have also sent relief material worth Rs 40,000.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been appointed office-bearers of the local unit of the Haryana Government PWD Mechanical Workers Union: chairman — Mr Ranbir Singh Bamel; president — Mr Jagdish Chander; senior vice-president — Mr Jaibir Singh; vice-presidents — Mr Sita Ram, Mr Ram Swarup and Mr Satpal; secretary — Mr Kishan Lal; and treasurer — Mr Ghanshyam.

KURUKSHETRA
EARMARKED: The Haryana Government has earmarked a sum of Rs 13.70 crore for distribution of old age, widow and handicapped pension in the district during the current financial year. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mrs Jyoti Arora, here on Thursday.

PANIPAT
INAUGURATED: An office of the District Transport Officer was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M.R. Anand, at Sector 25 here on Thursday. The DC said all transport-related work, except the registration of vehicles, would be undertaken by the DTO office with immediate effect.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KULU
ALUMINUM RECOVERED: Forty quintal of Aluminium conductor was recovered by a police party at Bajaura checkpost, about 15 km from here on the Kulu-Mandi national highway, on Thursday. The truck in which it was being carried has been impounded by the police. The occupants of the truck, however, managed to escape. A case has been registered.

SHIMLA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the HP Pashupalan Vibhag Ministerial Karamchari Sangh: president — Mr Subhash Sharma; senior vice-president — Mr Hans Raj Sharma; vice-president — Mr Panchhi Ram; general secretary — Mr Daulat Ram Garg; and joint secretary — Mr Parmarthi Raina.