The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, August 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India

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50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

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R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATHINDA
DEVI LAL MEMORIAL: The memorial to Devi Lal, the former Deputy Prime Minister, being built at Mandi Kilianwali near the Punjab-Haryana border at a cost of Rs 1.25 crore, would be completed by the end of this month, stated Mr Sarvesh Kaushal, Special Secretary to the Chief Minister. In a press note issued here on Saturday, he said the inauguration of the memorial would be done by Mr Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh in September. Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab, would preside.

LUDHIANA
EYES DONATED: Dr Ramesh, director, Eye Bank, Mansuran, has successfully transplanted the eyes of the deceased Devki Ram, a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh, to two patients, aged 70 years and 54 years, respectively. According to a press note, the family of Devki Ram agreed to donate his eyes after getting the motivation from a cop Balwinder Singh of Bhanour village. The eyes were transplanted to the patients free of cost.

HOSPITAL SERVICES: Jyoti Kendra Charitable General Hospital, Kitchlu Nagar, started its emergency services block, Intensive care unit for children, Dentistry department and computerised laboratory on Sunday. Mr Hitendra Jain, general secretary of the hospital, in a press note said the new units were inaugurated by Lala Lajpat Rai. A free general medical check-up camp was also organised on the occasion.

AYURVEDA LECTURE: The 27th Public Health Lecture on “Ayurveda — an Alternative System of Medicine” will be held on Friday at the Dumra Auditorium of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital. According to a press statement, the lecture will be delivered by Dr Madan Gulati, Assistant Director, Directorate of Indian System of Medicines and Homoeopathy, Chandigarh.

WEBSITE: Textile4all.com, a textile industry website promoted by Mr Ashok Oswal, has launched a special feature, virtual garment plaza, to serve exclusively the Ludhiana clientele. According to Mr Oswal, the users would be able to find details of brand names, price range and the available variety of garments in his range.

MEETING: A deputation of the Democratic Teachers Front, Punjab, Ludhiana unit, led by its president Mr Bhajan Singh, met the Technical Education Minister, Mr Jagdish Singh Garcha, here on Sunday and apprised him of the alleged bungling in the transfer case of Ms Sudesh Bajaj, Principal of Senior Secondary School, Lalton Kalan. The deputation also told the minister that the FIR registered against the village Sarpanch in connection with the transfer case was baseless, said a press note issued by the teachers’ front here on Sunday.

IMA MEETING: A meeting of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) state-level committee was held at Doraha on Sunday under the presidentship of the state president, Mr O.P.S.Kande, to decide the various modalities of the proposed conference of the Punjab IMA (PIMACON 2001). Dr Gursharan Singh, president of the district unit of the IMA, in a press note said the proposed conference would be held at Sahnewal on November 18, 2001. Dr H.S.Sidhu and Dr Jagmohan were appointed chairman and secretary, respectively, of the organising committee, he said. The theme of the 56th PIMACON will be “IMA against female foeticide”. Eminent personalities from all over India are expected to attend the conference.

WORKSHOP: Show Biz Media, will organise a one-day beauty workshop on Tuesday, here at hotel Gulmor, which will be followed by a fashion show on Wednesday. According to Ms Kriti Kohli, the director of the company, the event will be helpful to improve the quality of life among women. The fashion show will be choreographed by Mr Samir Bhatia.

INAUGURATED: G.R.Hospital for surgical, orthopaedics and allied specialities was inaugurated on Sunday at Jamalpur focal point.

MANSA
INSTALLATION: Prof M.L. Gupta and Mr Prem Kumar Aggarwal were installed president and secretary, respectively, of the recently created Rotary Club, Mansa Greater, on Saturday by Rotary International District Governor-3090, Rotarian Vijay Gupta, here. A souvenir to commemorate the event was also released.

MOGA
CM’S HELP SOUGHT: Mr Gurcharan Singh, a resident of the Civil Lines area here, has sought the intervention of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Director General of Police, Mr Sarabjeet Singh, into the murder case of his son Amrik Singh, who was shot dead about three months ago. He stated that the police had rounded up certain persons for interrogation in this connection, but they had been let off. He said the real culprits had not been booked so far.

CROP DAMAGED: Kharif crop sown in two hectares of land by a farmer in Marimustafa village of the district has been reportedly damaged by American bollworm and also due to spray of spurious insecticides. Similar reports have also been received from other villages in the district. The farmers have demanded that experts of Punjab Agricultural University should be sent here to probe into this menace.

NANGAL
EMPLOYEES’ DHARNA: The Class III and IV employees of the Nangal Municipal Council on Friday staged a dharna in front of the old office of the council to protest against the proposed move of the Punjab Government to abolish octroi. They raised slogans against the government. They said they feared losing their jobs with the abolition of octroi. The council has an annual budget of about Rs 10 crore out of which about Rs 8 crore come by way of octroi. Public sector units like the NFL, Naya Nangal, and the PACL are the major sources of octroi revenue for the council.

PATIALA
INVITED: Dr Jagbir Singh, Reader in the Department of Zoology, has been selected and sponsored by the Commonwealth Science Council, London, to participate in the third International Congress of Vector Ecology to be held in Barcelona, Spain, from September 16 to 21. Dr Singh is the only Indian scientist to have been selected. Dr Jagbir Singh will present his research findings on the “Systematics of mosquitoes of North-West India”.

FREE MEDICAL CAMP: Mr M.S. Narang, SDM, inaugurated a free medical camp held at Sekhpur village on Sunday. Eye awareness and drug prevention activities were taken up during the camp that was organised by the Nishkam Sewa Club.

TEACHING UNDERPRIVILEGED: Blossom School undertook its second phase of “Each one Teach one” project involving students of ninth and tenth class of the school. They interacted and checked the performance of underprivileged children from Chotti Raun village. The children were filled with enthusiasm to meet their friends from the school. Mrs Ravi Singh, Principal of the school, distributed sweets and clothes to the children.

SYMPOSIUM: With a view to promoting effective rapport with the public, the PSEB organised a state-level Poetic Symposium here on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Baldev Singh Mann, administrative member of the PSEB, stressed that the literature and arts be used to serve national ideals of democracy, socialism and secularism. Mr Mann, who is also the president of the PSEB Central Cultural Council, added that the council with its healthy entertainment programmes would exercise utmost care in the consumption of the electricity and help the board in controlling the menace of power theft in the state.

SAHNEWAL
STONE LAID: Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, visited Lakkhowal village on Saturday. He laid the foundation stone of a school to be upgraded from middle to high school standard.

HARYANA

AMBALA
NEW POWER METERS: A meeting of the Lok Sangharsh Manch to discuss the new electronic power meter issue was held here on Sunday and was presided over by Mr B.M. Sarhadi. The manch expressed resentment over the new electronic power meters and criticised a statement made by Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala. They claimed that honest people who regularly paid their electricity bills were the worst affected by the new meters since it allegedly ran faster. They said the electricity officials must prove that the new power meters showed similar readings to the old meters by simultaneously installing both the meters.

ROADWAYS UNION: A gate meeting of the Roadways Karamchari Union was held under the presidentship of Mr Rakesh Batra on Sunday. The speakers at the meeting said a lot of improvement had taken place with the introduction of new buses in the fleet of the Haryana Roadways. They welcomed the decision of the state government to consider their various demands, according to a press note.

SONEPAT
MURDER CASE: The Murthal police has registered a case of murder against four persons, including two women, of Bakhtawarpur village in the district. According to the police, it took action on a complaint made by Mr Bijender Singh, brother of the deceased Bala Devi whose body was found hanging from a tree on August 19. The suspects have been identified as Anand, Satish, Krishna and Rajbala.

HOUSE BURGLED: A burglary was reported to have been committed in the house of Ranbir at Barota village, about 25 km from here, on Saturday night. Goods worth thousands of rupees were stolen. According to the report, the house owner had lodged a report with the police.

WATER SHORTAGE: Resi-dents of Kalan mohalla and its adjoining areas remained without water on Saturday. They had to fetch water from distant places to meet their requirements. Many residents alleged that the Public Health Department had curtailed the supply of drinking water without any reason.

HONOURED: The Haryana Governor, Babu Parmanand, has honoured the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the president of the District Red Cross Society, for rendering outstanding services to the poor and deserving persons in the district. According to official sources, the society has created a record by enrolling more than 1 lakh members and collecting Rs 50,000 in an year. It has also collected more than 1,000 units of blood in one year.

SUICIDE: Poonam was reported to have committed suicide by consuming celphos tablets at Khewra village, about 13 km from here, on Saturday. According to the police, family quarrel was stated to be the cause of suicide.

FIVE HURT: Five persons were injured, three of them seriously, when a Maruti car hit a motor cycle on the G T Road near Teha village, about 15 km from here, on Saturday. According to a report, the car was on its way from Kurukshetra to Delhi.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH: Mystery shrouds the death of a married woman at Mahmoodpur village in the district on Saturday. According to a report, the police has sent the body for a post-mortem examination.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
FREEDOM FIGHTER DEAD: Ramrakha Sharma (90), a Praja Mandal freedom fighter died at Chaunta Thathal village, 90 km from here, on Friday. His funeral on Saturday was largely attended. Those present included a former MLA and Congress leader, Dr Biruram Kishore and the District Mahila Congress president, Ms Rooprani.

STRIKE CALL: The District Employment Officer failed to resolve the dispute between the Resin and Turpentine Factory Workers Union, Raghunathpura and the factory management. The union would go on a strike, said the union general secretary, Mr Sunder Ram on Saturday.

SHIMLA
COMPETITION HELD: Syndicate Bank organised a drawing and painting competition on drugs abuse at Laureate Public School here on Saturday. The objective of the competition was to inculcate creative and innovative skills among the students.

POWER SUPPLY: The HPSEB has said the electric supply to the Spiti valley had been affected due to a damage caused to the Rongtong power house and because of the long transmission line. A spokesman for the HPSEB said here on Friday that generation in the Rongtong power house had been hit for the past over a month due to the melting of a glacier which had damaged the intake of the project. The power supply from the Nathpa substation had also been interrupted because of landslides which were damaging the 22 KV network in the valley.

HPU TO PAY DAMAGES: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday directed Himachal Pradesh University to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation to a petitioner, Ms Rachna, in lieu of the undue delay in declaring the re-evaluation result. The petitioner alleged that she appeared in BA-III and she was declared failed. She applied for the re-evluation in July 1997 but the university declared her result in March 1998. She was declared pass. It was alleged that the undue delay in declaring of the re-evaluation result had caused great loss to her. The high court also directed the university to pay Rs 5,000 as cost of the petition.