The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, July 22, 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
GNDU SCHEDULE: The coordinator of JET(UG) Sciences, 2001, Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr A.K. Thukral, has informed that the reserved category candidates for admission to the B.Pharmacy and other undergraduate courses, the interviews for which clashed with those of Punjabi University, Patiala, may appear for interview on July 25 at 2 p.m. The schedule of the counselling for the other candidates will remain the same i.e. July 24.

SGPC DEMANDS ACTION: The SGPC has taken strong notice of forcible attempt to occupy the land belonging to Sahib Bhai Tara Singh Shaheed Gurdwara at Vaan village by supporters of Baba Major Singh on Wednesday. It demanded action against the miscreants.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Gazetted Services Federation, Amritsar: president — Mr Nirmal Singh; senior vice-president — Mr J R Sharma; vice-president — Mr Tarsem Lal; secretary — Mr S.S. Kanwal; joint secretary — Mr I.K. Chawla and finance secretary — Mr J.S. Sahdev.

GURDASPUR
LATHI CHARGE: The police resorted to a mild cane charge to disperse the candidates who had arrived here on Friday for interview for the posts of clerk in Kalanour nagar panchayat parishad. The interview has been postponed till August 3. It was alleged that a leader of the area wanted to get all posts for his supporters which led to the protest by the candidates.

DEMONSTRATION: More than 500 school teachers of various government primary schools in the district held a demonstration in front of the office of the District Education Officer ( Primary) here on Friday in protest against non-implementation of an agreement arrived at between the Government School Teachers Union and the DEO ( primary) on May 16.

HOSHIARPUR
DIED OF BURNS: Sonia (22) of Piplanwala succumbed to her burn injuries at Civil Hospital here on Thursday. Her clothes had caught fire while she was cooking food on a stove at her house.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The Mukerian police has arrested Sathi of Ghasitpur and seized 52.5 litres of illicit liquor from him. The Hoshiarpur police has also arrested Som Raj of Ghasitpur and seized 6.7 litres of illicit liquor from him. Cases under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act have been registered against them.

KHARAR
FIVE BOOKED: The local police has registered a case against five residents of Tira village under Sections 294, 354, 509, 323 and 34, IPC, on the charges of using indecent language and making an attempt to outrage the modesty of a girl. According to the FIR, the father of the girl had lodged a complaint against Gurpreet Singh, Gogi, Manjeet Singh, Mohinder Singh and Avtar Singh. No arrest has been made so far.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Gurdwara Sahib Akali Daftar: president — Mr Gurcharan Singh; secretary — Mr Parkash Singh; and treasurer — Mr Mohinder Singh Mundi.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The local Lion’s Club would organise a blood donation camp here on Saturday. Mr G.S. Grewal, Deputy Commissioner, would be the chief guest.

SEMINAR: The local Rotary Club would organise a seminar on environment protection cum-tree plantation on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. at Khalsa Sr Sec School in association with the State Bank of Patiala. Mr Sunil Kaushal, assistant general manager of the bank, would be the chief guest.

DEPUTATION: A deputation of Balaungi village and other villages, led by Dr Gurnam Singh, SAD leader, met Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, Minister for Local Self Governments, and gave him a memorandum urging him to issue the notification about the formation of Nagar Panchayat at Balaungi soon after taking the decision in this regard. They told the minister that the area could easily generate an annual income of Rs one crore after its formation as an NAC.

REMAND: Mrs Harinder Sidhu, Judicial Magistrate, on Friday remanded Ranjit Singh in police custody till Saturday. He was arrested by the police in connection with the seizure of illicit liquor in a car bearing red light, a few days back.

ERRATIC POWER SUPPLY: The sarpanches of Peer Sohana, Simble Majra, Bajheri, Sacrulapur, Bibipur, Rora, Batta, Sill, Garangan Sotal and Kherietc village have alleged that they were getting erratic power supply. In a press note issued here on Friday they complained that they were not receiving power supply during the day time and during the nights there was no supply for five hours, daily. They demanded that the power supply be improved, otherwise they would sit on an indefinite dharna outside the PSEB office.

LUDHIANA
DEMAND: The management and staff of GHG Khalsa College for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, have demanded the appointment of a full-time doctor at the government dispensary being run on the campus. Mr Kirpal Singh Bhattal, a management member, said the college had constructed a government dispensary and residence for the doctor on its campus and the doctor had been appointed by the District Health Department. He said due to lack of staff in the department, doctor was now working on part-time basis. He said that on Monday last, a college student had fainted, and the non-availability of doctor at the dispensary had created a problem. Mr Bhattal said there were hardly any doctors available in the vicinity of the college and the doctor at dispensary was serving the students and the population living nearby. He said he had requested the Health Department authorities several times to appoint a doctor on full-time, basis, however, nothing had been done so far.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Electronic Traders Association, Ludhiana: patron — Mr Amarjit Singh Happy; chairman — Mr Daljit Singh Tuli; president — Mr Narinder Singh; vice-president — Mr Om Parkash Sharma and Mr Tejwinder Singh Shelly; general secretary — Mr Parwinder Singh Bobby, Mr Manjit Singh Shelly and Mr Vijay Chopra; secretaries — Mr Devinder Pal Singh Puppy and Mr Pawan Kumar; joint secretary — Mr Harjinder Singh and Mr Surinder Singla; and cashier — Mr Surinder Bindra.

SHSAD OFFICE-BEARERS: Mr Buta Singh, acting president of the district jatha of the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal has nominated, Mr Harbhajan Singh Bajwa as senior vice-president and Mr Randhir Singh as vice president of the district unit of the party.

NCP MEETINGS: The district president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Mr Rashpal Singh Gill, addressed meetings in several villages, including Ladhowal, Munnewal, Bego Khurd, Barewal, Rajewal, Humbran, Khaira Bet and Burj Lambran to mobilise the party workers and masses to prepare for the forthcoming Assembly elections. Several organisations and village panchayats urged the NCP district president to nominate Mr Daljit Singh of Bego Khurd village as party candidate from Dakha Assembly segment. Mr Gill, while giving an assurance to the people that their sentiments would be conveyed to the party high command, said selection of party candidates would made on the basis of merit and the prospects of winning.

MALERKOTLA
YOUTH CLUB ELECTION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Youth Club, Qila Rehmatgarh: president — Mr Rashid Handa; senior vice-president — Mr Mohammed Khalil; vice-president — Mr Didar Singh; general secretary — Mr Mohammed Ismail; and cashier — Mr Salim Zafar.

BANK MEETING: Sangrur Central Cooperative Bank Limited, Khanpur branch, organised a customers’ meeting at Khanpur village on Friday. Mr J.B. Garg, manager of the bank, disclosed various schemes for farmers and industries.

PATIALA
TRUCK UNION: The Patiala Truck Operators Union on Saturday demanded that the increase in the passing fees be minimised, failing which the union would go on a strike. This was stated in a press note issued by the union here. It criticised the recent meeting of the STC held at Jalandhar in which the decision to fine the overloaded truck was taken, which the union condemned. The union added that since the truck industry was already running under loss, the idea to further issue fine on the overloading was completely out of question. The union also added that some relief must be given with regard to the charging of fine on the overloaded trucks. It added that even the five-year permit fee in Punjab be reduced.

BLOOD DONATION: A blood donation camp would be held on Friday at Arna Barna Chowk here. It was decided during a meeting of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha while viewing the low availability of blood in blood banks at Rajindra Hospital. Others present at the meeting were Inder Kumar, president, Varinder Khanna, Anil Bhushan Jain, Sanjeev Dhiman, Sanjeev Garg and Manwinder Arora.

LEGAL HELP FOR POOR: A panel of the Legal Aid Lawyers would be reconstituted and experienced lawyers would be given an opportunity to defend the cases of poor, down-trodden and unrepresented undertrials. This was decided during a meeting of the District Legal Service Authority held under the chairmanship of Mr S.N. Aggarwal, District and Sessions Judge, here on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Member Secretary, Punjab Legal Services Authority and the Chairman of the Subdivisional Legal Services Committees. It was also stated during the meet that a special Lok Adalat for settling criminal and civil cases would be held at Rajpura on Wednesday. The authorities added that the legal aid given in 62 cases had been approved.

CHANDIGARH

CLARIFICATION: The acting president of the Nationalist Mahila Congress Party, Ms Chhama Khushuwaha, on Friday clarified that Ms Poonam Sharma was the president of the local unit of the party. Talking to mediapersons, she said the party recognised Ms Sharma as the president. It may be recalled that the president of the local unit, Ms Paramjit Kaur Dhillon, had also staked her claim to the local unit chief’s post and had claimed the support of Mr Tariq Anwar, in charge of the frontal organisations of the party. Earlier, Ms Khushuwaha participated in the concluding function on the female foeticide awareness campaign of the party. The local unit would start a month-long campaign against drug abuse, Ms Sharma added. Meanwhile, Mr Gurbachan Singh, president of the local unit of the party, who met Ms Khushuwaha, urged the high command to end the confusion by naming the president of the mahila wing.

MEMORANDUM: The Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) submitted a memorandum to the Dean University Instruction, Panjab University, here on Friday. It demanded the revival of placement cell, reduction of fee for BSc (HS) computer science and application and BSc (HS) Mathematics and computing course, exemption from the fee of degree of absentia, when applied after date of convocation, revival of facility of re-evaluation for the students whose result were to be announced later, and the provision of coin phone and water cooler in the B.M.S Block on the campus. The president of the organisation, Mr Santokhwinder Singh Nabha, said if no action was taken by the authorities they would start an agitation.

SORE OVER APATHY: Residents of the Milk Colony, Dhanas, are sore over the callous attitude of Administration. They have alleged that an unhygienic condition has been prevailing in the locality. Roads and streets are in dilapidated condition in the area. There is neither any provision for parking in the nearby market nor any road to link the locality with the market. The park in front of the market place is yet to be developed. In the absence of dustbins and cow dung pits, which had to be provided by the Administration, people are forced to use the park as a cow-dung pit. Heaps of cow-dung and garbage thrown in the open by the residents have become the breeding place of mosquitoes. Accumulation of water in the parks and streets, and foul smell emanating from the garbage further add to the woes of the residents. Several requests to the Administration to provide cow-dung pits and dustbins in the area have yielded no fruits, says Mr N.K. Sharma, a spokesman of the colony.

HARYANA

AMBALA
VANAMAHOTSAVA: A seven-day Vanamahotsava was organised at DAV Public school here on Saturday by its NSS unit. Around 170 saplings would be planted by the school students during the campaign. Mrs Sunita Gautam, chairperson, District Red Cross Society, presided over the function organised on the school campus. Dr R.K. Chauhan, manager of the school, and the Principal, Mrs Reena Nagrath, welcomed the chief guest. Mrs Gautam stressed on the utility of trees and the necessity for looking after the plants. She said the plants needed the same kind of care as children needed from their mothers. Mr Reena Nagrath said greener school campus helped creating a stimulating atmosphere and also helped in preserving environment.

ROHTAK
RESIDENTS’ PROTEST: Residents of Rajendra Nagar and the neighbouring localities blocked traffic on the Rohtak-Bhiwani road near the local Hindu College for nearly two hours on Friday in protest against the electrocution of a teenaged boy. The blockade was lifted after a written assurance by Mr M.P. Tyagi, Superintending Engineer, HVPN, that the wires would be either raised or removed. Ravi (15) was electrocuted while he was flying a kite at his rooftop on Thursday.

SONEPAT
NO POWER SUPPLY: Thousands of residents had to go without power on Friday night at Kharkhauda town. The reason for disruption was not immediately known.

ROADWAYS CAMPAIGN: Haryana Roadways has intensified its campaign against ticketless travellers. Mr H.C. Jain, General Manager of the Sonepat depot, told mediapersons here on Saturday that the checking staff of the department had detected 2,511 cases of ticketless travel during the first three months of the current financial year. The officials, he said, also recovered a sum of Rs 2,16,390 as penalty.

TWO THEFTS: Two cases of theft at the Rohtak road area were reported on Saturday. According to a report, the thieves entered two shops and escaped with goods worth several thousands of rupees. The thefts have caused panic among the people of the area.