R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

DORAHA
OLD-AGE HELPLINES: More and more old-age helplines would be established by Helpage India in collaboration with voluntary organisations. Helpage India is the sole organisation running various old-age helplines and programmes, said Ms Poornima Chauhan, programme adviser, Helpage India, while presiding over a function organised by Baba Sain Bhagat Welfare Society at Doraha about 25 homeless aged people were provided with food, clothes and Rs 150 each. The BSB Welfare Society adopted 50 aged people and the declaration of starting an old age helpline in Doraha was made.

FARIDKOT
DATE EXTENDED: The Punjab Government has extended the date for receiving applications by the Deputy Commissioners of the respective districts to June 30 this year for those who had failed to avail the benefit of the ‘Shagun’ scheme from April 1, 2000 to March 31, 2001 in the state. Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said here on Friday that the state government had also increased the time limit to a month for submitting applications by the persons concerned after or before the marriage of their daughters.

PROBE ORDERED: Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, has deputed Mr Babu Lal, District Education Officer (Secondary), to probe the incident in which eight students of Gandhi Memorial Senior Secondary School, Kotkapura, were allegedly locked in a room by the school authorities for having not done their homework. The inquiry officer has been asked to submit its report within a week. Ms Nina Goel, Principal, has denied the charges saying that the students were detained for 10 minutes only to sort out their problems in studies and later let off.

HOSHIARPUR
BODY FOUND: An unidentified body of about 40-year old person was found in the local Bank Colony on Thursday. After postmortem of the body it was cremated by the police. In another incident, Anil Kumar, 26-year old son of Sain Dass, committed suicide by consuming some poisonous pills at Salurian Kalan village on Wednesday.

STOLEN: Some miscreants stole garments worth Rs 19,000 from the shop of M/s Bains Garments at Mahilpur on Wednesday night.

KAPURTHALA
DHARNA HELD: Workers of the Pendu Mazdoor Union and Kirti Kisan Union held a procession on Wednesday to press the PSEB authorities to maintain single phase supply of power in villages and towns.

FAIR: The traditional fair of Mata Bhadrakali will be organised at Sheikhu-pur village near here from Friday.

LUDHIANA
ORGANISED: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) organised an open house session chaired by Mr V.S.Srivastava, General Manager, Telecom, at his office on Thursday. The session was held to interact with the public for redressal of general grievances and to take suggestions for improvement of the telecom services. According to a press statement, participants were welcomed by the GM who suggested various ideas for further improvement of the department and to provide better services to the BSNL subscribers.

ELECTED: The members of the Roopika Ladies Club unanimously elected Ms Sukhraj Kaur as their new president for the year 2001-2002. According to an official press release on Thursday, Ms Meena Girhotra was elected the secretary of the club. The new president said her team will focus on various social projects for the welfare of women, poor children, widows and deprived ones. Ms Sukhraj said several training programmes in the field of cookery, tailoring, stitching, music and dance will be started for club members. Poor students will be given financial aid and blood donation camps will also be organised.

PHONE INSTALLATION: Claims of instant connectivity notwithstanding, there are growing complaints against the private telephone operators. Suresh Jindal, a resident of Focal Point area, has complained that despite repeated efforts, he is not able to get new telephone connection for which he applied to Connect, a private operator, over a month ago. The complainant said on January 9, 2001, he had booked a telephone with Connect on the form number 002018 and got the assurance from them that the phone will be installed by the first week of March. Ludhiana Tribune contacted the concerned person who said his telephone will be surely installed within a day or two. 

COMPUTER JOBS: Aptech Computer Education, Ludhiana, organised a seminar on “Job opportunities” for Aptech students on Thursday at their premises. Mr Rajeev, Regional Technical Head, delivered the lecture about latest technologies namely Internet and J2EE frameworks and their implementation in India and abroad. The seminar also provided an insight into career possibilities and prospects for the existing students undergoing training in different Aptech centres. Aptech has started a regional placement cell for the purpose. Mr Navsher Singh Nain, Centre Head, Aptech, Ludhiana, said the US slowdown in economy is an opportunity for Indian IT industry receiving outsourced work not only in the field of software development but specially in the IT enabled services like medical transcription, call centres etc. According to him, Nasscom Mackinsoy studies estimate that 40 million jobs of Rs 80,000 crore worth of business would be generated by the year 2008 in India from US and Europe.

DEMANDED: The Block Extension Educators Employees Union, Punjab, has demanded an early filling of 84 vacant posts of the block extension educators to ensure easy availability of medical education to the people. According to a press release by the union here on Thursday, block extension educators have to educate the people about tuberculosis, AIDS, Hepatitis, Malaria, Cancer and other diseases in collaboration with the staff of the Health Department and other officials. The block extension educators have also to distribute literature on vaccination programmes, organise exhibitions and film shows and hold health education camps. The release further said that out of the 142 sanctioned posts in Punjab, 84 were vacant. In Sangrur district, all the posts were vacant whereas in Ludhiana eight posts were vacant. Similarly, at the district-level, 10 posts of Deputy District Community Education Officers were vacant.

NEW PROJECTS: The Ludhiana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union announced the introduction of some new projects after a general house meeting here on Thursday. The union has, under a project of the Technology Information Forecasting Assessment Council, adopted 28 dairy farms which are being developed envisaging production of clean and quality milk by using latest modern techniques in dairy farming. This project costing Rs 2 crore will go a long way in encouraging the milk producers to produce milk on scientific lines and will add to their knowledge of dairy farming. It would help milk producers compete with international products. Secondly, a Cooperative Institution Building Programme will would also be launched. Under this programme, training as per the guidelines of the NDDB would be imparted to the milk producers. For further strengthening and upgrading the milk producers cooperative societies on “Anand Pattern”, training would be imparted to the committee members which would be aimed at inculcating an awareness about their rights and duties. And under the Women Dairy Leadership Programme, women entrepreneurs will be encouraged and given training wherein exclusively women societies will be formed in the villages governed by the women themselves. This programme is expected to encourage women in the rural areas to come forward and adopt the dairy farming business to be run and managed by themselves.

TRAINING COURSES: The Department of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organised a training course in youth work for principals, head of schools and teacher-advisors concerned with the youth programme at Kairon Kissan Ghar here on Wednesday. As many as 65 participants from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts participated in this course. While welcoming the chief guest, Dr G.S. Saini, Professor and Head, Department of Extension Education, PAU, persuaded the participants to spread computer and technical literacy among school children. He advised them to bring maximum number of students under this programme to develop their overall personalities and create feeling of self dependence. Speaking on the occasion, various speakers appreciated the efforts of the Department of Extension Education in the implementation of different programmes for the benefit of rural youth, farmers and farm women. Dr S.P.S. Brar, Additional Director of Extension Education (Trg), PAU, appreciated the efforts of the department in channelising the energies of rural youth. He advised the participants to take active part in this programme and provide maximum opportunities to rural youth for developing abilities such as appreciation for discipline, hard work and dignity of labour.

MANSA
MINISTER FLAYED: A deprecation certificate was forwarded on Friday by ‘Abadi roko andolan’ (population control movement) to Mr Laxminarain Singh, Jail Minister of Uttar Pardesh, for producing 11th child this month. Addressing a function here on Friday at Summer Field Public School, Mr Ashok Sadiora, convenor of the movement, read the certificate to the public. It read that the minister had done irreparable loss to the family planning programme by organising a grand party to celebrate his child’s birth.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Veterinary Pharmacist Union of Bhikhi town in the district: president — Mr Sat Pal Singh Dalewan; secretary — Mr Jagdev Singh and treasurer — Mr Raj Kumar.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the management committee of the local Khalsa High School: manager — Mr Baldev Singh Khlala; president — Mr Maghar Singh Sidhu; vice-president — Mr Jagraj Singh Ralla; general secretary — Mr Jagraj Singh Fauji and secretary — Mr Bahadur Singh Khalsa.

INAUGURATION: Mr Ram Pal Dhaipi, president, District Congress Committee, told mediapersons on Friday that the Punjab Pradesh Congress chief, Capt Amarinder Singh, would inaugurate the Congress Bhavan building at Budhlada on May 20. Mr Dhaipi said the PPCC Chief would also address the District Congress Committee meeting there.

PATWARIS: All the 73 Patwaris have been reinstated by the Punjab Government according to Mr Sukhdev Singh Chauhan, cashier of the Punjab Patwar Union here on Thursday. Mr Chauhan, while talking to mediapersons, said these patwaris were terminated in the year June, 1999, when the patwaris were on an indefinite strike. Mr Chauhan thanked the Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister, Punjab over this decision.

CHANDIGARH

WORKSHOP ON MUSIC: The Department of Music of PU will be conducting a month-long workshop in Indian classical music in June, an official press release said here on Friday. The course is aimed at providing proper guidance to the seekers to appreciate and relish nuances and virtues of the classical music. Lectures and demonstrations with the help of electronic aids will also be conducted. The department will also conduct a week-long workshop for postgraduate students. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
LECTURERS’ ASSOCIATION: Haryana School Lecturers Association has demanded that the school teachers should be given same facilities as the college lecturers were getting. The association press secretary, Mr Satbir Saini, on Friday claimed that the government was not considering their demands. He said that Mr Chautala had announced on November 5, 2000, that teachers would be given the status of gazetted officer, but six months have elapsed without any action in this regards. Mr Saini said that all the teachers except school teachers have been given “step-up” benefit. He said that while personnel were given the benefit of promotion after 10 and 20 years of service, there was no such thing for the school teachers.

TWO ARRESTED: Detective staff of the district police has nabbed two convicts who had jumped parole. Both the convicts were undergoing sentence for murder in the Ambala Central Jail. The Superintendent of Police, Mr Sandeep Khirwar, said that Ram Kumar had gone on four-week parole on September 5, 2000, and Tindi had gone on four-week parole on January 16 this year. A case was registered against both of them when they did not return. Detective staff, however, managed to nab both of them.

DACOITY PLAN FOILED: With the arrest of five persons, a dacoity plan was foiled in Naraingarh by a team of CIA staff. A release said that five persons, Vinod Kumar, Ram Singh, Gulshan Kumar, Subhash Chandra and Sunil Kumar, who were allegedly planning a dacoity, had been nabbed. One .315 bore pistol and four cartridge were recovered from Vinod Kumar while another .315 bore pistol and two cartridges were recovered from Sunil Kumar and Subhash Chandra each.

DISPOSAL: The Deputy Commissioner Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam, has directed the Ambala Sadar and Ambala city councils to provide sites to the Ambala Cantonment and Ambala city units of the Indian Medical Association for dumping of biomedical waste to private nursing homes of twin cities. The state president of the IMA, Dr D.S. Jaspal, informed the DC that almost 95 per cent of the biomedical waste of nursing homes was being disposed of by adopting autoclave, microwaving and shredders. He assured the Deputy Commissioner that the remaining waste would also be destroyed as per the byelaws after announcement of a dumping site for the purpose. The Deputy Commissioner showed concern over the fall in female ratio in the district. He urged the members of the IMA to discourge sex determination tests and female infancide. The Civil Surgeon, Dr Kaushik, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahender Kumar, District Health Officer, Dr U.K. Lamba, president Ambala City and IMA, Dr V.N. Sood, and president of the Ambala cantonment unit, Dr R.K. Aneja, were also present in the meeting.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

APPOINTED: Mr Prithivi Vikran Sen has been appointed the chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress (Kisan Cell). His appointment has been made by Mr Randeep Singh nabha, convenor of the IYC (Kisan Cell).