The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, August 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
PAINTING COMPETITION: A painting competition was organised at pingalwara here to mark the ninth death anniversary of Bhagat Puran Singh. At least 65 children from 16 schools participated. The theme of the competition was “bhagat Puran Singh and his contribution to humanity”. Springdale, Guru Harkrishan Public School, DAV Public School and BYBSL Public School took part in the competition. Jaspal Singh won the first prize in the junior group and Rakesh Kumar of Khalsa College Higher Secondary School topped in the senior group.

BATHINDA
POWER CUT: Due to some necessary repairs at the 11 kv express and 11 kv civil station feeders power supply to some areas of the city will remain off from 8 am to 11 am on August 5. An official press note issued here on Friday stated the areas affected would be Civil Lines, court complex, Bhagu road, Civil Hospital, Guru ki Nagri, Power House Road, Poojan Wala Mohalla, TV and radio station localities.

APPOINTED: Mr Ranjit Singh Grewal has been appointed convenor of the Human Rights Wing of the District Congress Committee. This was stated by Mr Manish Sehgal, secretary, state unit of the wing.

ARRESTED: The district police has arrested Sukhmander Singh of Lehra Mohabat village for allegedly smuggling liquor and seized 12 bottles of country liquor from his possession. A case under Sections 61, 1, 14 of the Excise Act has been registered against him at Nathana police station.

DECLAMATION CONTEST: Nidhi Mittal of St Joseph School, Harsh Mittal of Police Public School and Swati Bishat of St Xavier School, respectively, bagged the first, second and third prizes at the declamation contest organised on the topic ‘Bio-technology Revolution. — Benefits and Problems’ at the local SSD Senior Secondary School on Thursday. This was stated in a press note issued here on Friday by Mr M.L. Mishra, secretary, SSD Senior School.

APPOINTED: Mr Kiranjeet Singh Gehri of the city has been appointed member of the telephone advisory committee (Punjab circle) till March 2003. This was stated in a press note issued here on Friday by Mr Harbans Singh, general secretary, of the state unit of the Dalit Sena.

DHURI
PRIZE DISTRIBUTION: The annual prize distribution function of Bhartia Girls College, Sherpur, was held on Thursday. Mr Gobind Singh Kanjhla, Minister for Social Security, Woman and Child Development, Punjab, was the chief guest. Mr Kanjhla announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the college and Rs 5 lakh for the development of the Sherpur Assembly constituency.

FARIDKOT
DCC CAMPAIGN: The District Congress Committee will launch a campaign from August 20 to mobilise the party workers at the grass-roots in the district keeping in view the forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab. To monitor the programme ward-wise committies in rural and urban areas have been constituted, Mr Surinder Iqbal Singh Brar, President, DCC, said here on Friday.

HONOURED: The district administration has decided to honour those who achieved top positions at state-level in education and sports on August 15. The decision was taken at a senior district officers meeting held here on Friday. Mr Hussan Lal, Additional Deputy Commissioner, presided.

JALANDHAR
DHARNA: Employees of the PSEB organised a dharna in protest against the indifferent attitude of the management towards their demands at Shakti Sadan on Friday. This was stated by Mr H.S. Minhas, general secretary of the Technical Services Union.

FUNCTION: The Punjab Art Theatre will organise the Punjabi Cine Awards 2001, function on Sunday in which artistes would be awarded Kala Shree Awards.

LUDHIANA
CRICKET TOURNAMENT: Sargodha National Public High School, Ludhiana, registered a 13 run victory over Government High School, Miller Ganj, Ludhiana, in the finals of the Inter-High School Cricket Tournament here on Saturday.

MACHHIWARA
INAUGURATED: Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, Punjab has inaugurated the upgraded Government High School at Sehjo Majra. Earlier, Mr Atwal laid down the foundation stones of two roads, one from Bhaman Kalan to Hyatpura and the other from Bhaman Kalan-Fatehgarh Gujran to Beliewal.

DEMOLITION CONDEMNED: The local unit of the Bharatiya Communist Party has condemned the Department of Forests for demolishing the house of a poor farmer Lakhbir Singh of Jodhewal village, near here. The party alleged that the department the officials had misbehaved with women present in the house.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Life Insurance Agents’ Federation, Samrala branch, patron — Mr Krishan Lal Shir; president — Mr Harpal Singh; general secretary — Mr Sukhwinder Singh Gill; senior vice-president — Mr Jasvir Singh; joint secretary — Mr Jasmeet Singh; press secretary — Mr Rajinder Prasad Heii and advisors — Mr Mehar Singh Gogia and Mr Surinder Kumar Nehra.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party, unit Koomkalan: president — Mr Kuldeep Singh Kashyap; senior vice-president — Dr Sanjeev Garg; vice-president — Mr Ashok Mittal and Mr Arun Luthra; general secretaries — Mr Suresh Aggarwal and Naveen Jain; secretaries — Mr Kapil Tara; senior cashier — Mr Surinder Joshi; cashier — Mr Hans Raj Malhotra, Mr Surinder Jindal, Mr Rakesh Nehra, Mr Ramesh Bansal, Mr Vijay Jain, Mr Vijay Mittal, Mr Kewal Krishan Goyal, Mr Krishan Chopra, Mr Balbir Singh Babbar, Mr Baldev Singh Ashat, Mr Satish Mittal, Mr Ramesh Kumar, Mr Sham Lal Jain, Mr Vinod Singla, and Mr Surinder Kumar Jatiwal.

MALERKOTLA
PENALTY IMPOSED: The PSEB authorities (Malerkotla division) inspected 25 industrial units on Monday and imposed a penalty of Rs 1,25,000 on consumers having unauthorised load.

MANSA
INSTALLED: Mr R.C. Goyal, a taxation advocate, and Mr Pawan Garg, Development Officer, LIC of India, were installed as president and secretary of the local Rotary Club, respectively, here on Saturday. Dr S.B. Lal Mittal, former district governor of the club, presided over the function. Mr Sukhwinder Singh, MLA, who was the chief guest, promised to give a grant of Rs 21,000 for the projects of the club.

FAREWELL: Mr Yurinder Singh Hayer, SSP, was given a farewell party on his transfer by the local SDKL DAV Centenary Public High School on Saturday. Ms Raji P. Shrivastava, Deputy Commissioner, lauded the services of Mr Hayer during his tenure of 4 years.

SAMPLES TAKEN: On the directions of Ms Raji P. Shrivastava, Deputy Commissioner, the district health authorities took 80 samples of potable water in the district. While 76 samples were taken from the water works, four were taken from ‘dhabas’. The results of 54 samples received from the laboratory showed that 23 samples drawn from the water works had failed the test. Even the sample taken from the District Court complex had failed the test.

NAWANSHAHR
PLANTATION DRIVE: The Doaba Social Welfare Society along with the Forest Department organised a tree plantation drive here on Friday. It was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jagjit Singh.

SANGAT DARSHAN: The Deputy Commissioner in a press note issued here on Friday said since the past four months as many as 475 disputes were redressed during the weekly sangat darshan programmes organised at his office.

PATIALA
SAPLINGS PLANTED: The Gayatri Parivar under the aegis of the Gayatri Tirath Shanti Kunj, Hardwar, planted around 100 saplings of fruit trees at the local Indian Air Force Station here on Saturday. Issuing a press note, the press secretary, Mr A.K.Sharma, said the programme was inaugurated by Station Commander Wing, Mr K.S.Gill, and Mr R.K.Singla, a social worker. The saplings were also planted by Mr Madan Lal Gupta, Mr A.K.Sharma, Mr Ramesh Sharma and Mr Surinder Singh, members of the Gayatri Parivar, apart from other army officials. According to another press note, the Helping Hands would also plant saplings on the Jagdish Ashram road, behind Rajindra Hospital on Sunday. The information was given by president, Mr Vijay Gupta and general secretary, Mr Jatinder Narula, of the society.

DECISION CRITICISED: The PCMS Association, Punjab, in a press note stated that it would oppose any move towards abolishing the 60 per cent quota in the Post Graduate courses of State Medical College for the PCMS doctors serving in rural areas. Dr Hardeep Singh, state president and Dr Surinder Singla, general secretary of the PCMSA, said at present 60 seats in the PG courses were kept for those PCMS doctors who were serving in rural areas of Punjab, under tough conditions. The reservation was sustained by the Punjab Government to encourage such doctors. However, the association members claimed that the decision had been misinterpreted by Dr Vijay Kumar, finance secretary and Dr Balwinder Kumar, registrar of the PCMSA. They felt that it had been done to deny facilities to both the rural population as well as the doctors serving them. The PCMSA urged the Chief Minister to intervene in the matter to provide justice to the serving doctors and to the rural masses of the state.

DECLAMATION CONTEST: Atma Ram Kumar Sabha Senior Secondary School held a declamation contest on the sixth death anniversary of Mr Chiranji Lal here on Saturday. Twenty students from different schools took part in the contest. Ms Parneet Kaur would distribute prizes to the winners on Sunday on the premises of school. Kirandeep Kaur of Government Victoria Girls Sr Sec School won the first position, followed by Sushma Yadav of Arya Girls Sr Sec School and Preeti Aneja of SD Model High School at second and third positions, respectively. The judges on the occasion were Mr Gopi Ram Sharma, Prof Tarlochan Singh Mahajan and Mr Gurdas Singh.

STENOS’ DEMANDS : The PSEB Stenographers Union on Saturday demanded fulfillment of their demands, at a meeting held under the presidentship of Mr Dilbagh Singh here. The major demands of the union discussed during the meeting included of filling of vacant posts of Steno cadre in the department, allotment of senior posts to stenos on seniority basis, placement of Junior Stenographers with Senior Executive Engineers and reducing the time gap for promotions of stenos of all categories. The union condemned rude behaviour of board members and asked for the fulfillment of the demands of the stenographers, failing which the union would resort to agitation.

SEMINAR: The State Bank of Patiala on Saturday held a seminar to strengthen the functioning of the bank. Mr J.R. Devgan, General Manager (Operation), addressed the Branch Managers of Patiala and Fatehgarh District. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Devgan stressed on improving customer service, following tough competition faced by the bank and advised the managers to ensure efficiency in delivering bank facilities to public. Mr S.K. Sreen, DGM, was also present on the occasion and stressed upon advances under newly floated credit schemes like annapurna scheme, medi-home flexi scheme, greh kaya kalap scheme, gyan jyoti scheme and financing of commission agents and petrol pumps. Mr S.K. Ghai, AGM, also spoke on the occasion. Meanwhile, the bank also arranged essay writing, poem recitation and race competitions at Government Primary School, Jhandi, here on Saturday. The function was attended by bank officials and village panchayat. A similar function was arranged at Government Primary School, Devi Nagar, Khera Jataan.

CHAIN SNATCHERS CAUGHT: Five women chain- snatchers were caught by the city police during a special drive initiated by the police. According to information, Lacho and Satiya, of Langrohi village , Deepo and Tejo, of Baghria village, and Vidhya of Rohti Channa village, were apprehended by the police. An official note stated that seven gold chains were snatched by the women during the Panchami festival at Dukhniwaran Gurdwara.

SAMRALA
ENCROACHMENTS REMOVED: Encroachments on forest land were removed by officials of the Department of Forests under the supervision of Mr Ajit Singh Sandhu, Range Officer, on Saturday at Iraq village, near here. Earlier the department had also got vacated the forest area from encroachers at Isapur, Mand Jodhwal, Mand Udhowal and Lakhowal villages.

CERTIFICATES ISSUED: About 100 certificates of caste and rural domicile etc, were issued at a camp held in the local senior secondary school under the presidentship of Mr S.S. Brar, SDM, Samrala, on Saturday. Mr Hari Singh, Tehsildar, Samrala, said similar camps would be organised at Ghungrali Panjgrayan village and Machhiwara.