The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, January 19, 2002, 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
SEMINAR: A two-day seminar was organised at Khalsa College Senior Secondary School by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, Chandigarh. During the seminar, Prof Mandeep Kaur, Prof Bindu Sharma and Prof Priya Darshani delivered lectures on pollution and its prevention. About 100 heads of various schools participated in the seminar.

PULSE POLIO CAMPS: The Health Department is setting up 1,877 camps for its pulse polio immunisation programme. Of these, 1,793 are fixed camps and the remaining are mobile ones. The camps will be manned by about 7,900 volunteers. The three-day programme will commence on Sunday.

QUALITY EDUCATION: About 200 delegates representing various colleges and other educational institutions of the state will deliberate on the need for improving education to mark 2002 as the year for quality education at a state-level seminar to be held at the local DAV College on Sunday. This was stated by Mr M.L. Aeri, Principal of the college, here on Thursday.

FEROZEPORE
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Bharat Vikas Parishad organised a blood and eye donation camp in the city on Thursday. According to Mr N.K. Dixit, president of the parishad, more than 100 persons donated blood and 20 pledged to donate their eyes. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Rattan Lal, Chief Manager, State Bank of India.

MOGA
CAR STOLEN: A Maruti car belonging to Angrez Singh, a resident of Langeana village under Bagha Purana police station in the district, was stolen on Friday from a place near the Nagahiya “peer” mela site where he had gone to offer prayers.

DISTRIBUTED: The local Sukhmani Sahib Sewa Committee on Thursday distributed 150 woollen clothes among poor students at a programme held at Ramgarhia Memorial Hall.

NAHAN
WORKSHOP ORGANISED: A one-day workshop on the formation and capacity building of self-help groups under the Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana was organised here on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Commissioner, Sirmaur, Mr Rakesh Kaushal, said the thrust of the scheme was to promote group activities. The Project Officer, DRDA, Mr Rajesh Kumar, said self-help groups were being formed for members of IRDP families with a view to bringing them above the poverty line.

PATIALA
VARSITY FUNCTION: Punjabi University’s Department of Correspondence Courses organised a prize distribution function for the sessions 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. The students securing first and second positions in their respective subjects were awarded gold and silver medals, respectively, along with a set of books and certificate. The prizes were distributed by the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, who announced that a Global Institute of Punjabi Studies would soon be established along with a mosque on the university campus.

YOGA CLASSES: Narayan Public School, Patiala, has introduced regular yoga classes for its students under the supervision of yoga teacher, Mr Yudh Vir Singh. The Principal of the school said there was a positive response to this move from the student community.

PHAGWARA
RALLY HELD: Employees of the local Ramgarhia Polytechnic on Thursday held a rally and sat on dharna outside the residence of the Punjab Tourism Minister, Mr Swarna Ram, in protest against the cut in the grant to polytechnics. Mr P.L. Bagga, convener of the Polytechnic Staff Welfare Association, told the minister that the reduction of the grant-in-aid to four polytechnics of Punjab had resulted in the non-payment of salaries to the staff for the past five months.

PHILLAUR
POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The police has arrested two persons and seized 72 kg of puppy husk from their possession during a naka near the Sutlej bridge here on Thursday. The accused have been identified as Gurmaij Ram of Sargundi village and Paramjit of Goraya village.

ROPAR
DC’s ORDER: The Deputy Commissioner, Ropar, on Thursday passed an order directing all heads of departments to ensure that workers of various political parties do not damage public property by pasting posters, writing slogans and painting election symbols. He also stated that no political party should be allowed to permit its workers to make use of individual land, building, compound, property, etc without his permission.

CHANDIGARH

FREE SERVICE: Autospace Network of the Industrial Area here will organise a free service camp on Saturday and Sunday. The service centre is offering free general check-up, battery check-up, oil and coolant top-up, top body washing and a 20 per cent discount on wheel alignment and balancing of vehicles on these days. TNS

GENERAL BODY MEETING: A meeting of the general body of the Panchkula and Chandigarh Yadav Sabha will be held at Yadav Bhavan, Sector 12, Panchkula, on Sunday at 11 am to elect office-bearers of the sabha, according to the vice-president of the sabha, Mr B.S. Yadav.

PANCHAYAT OFFICIAL: The UT Chandigarh Panchayat Vice-Chairman, Mr Mohinder Singh, whom the Congress claimed to be its member, expressed his commitment to the Nationalist Congress, here on Friday. He said he was the head of the NCP UT kisan cell. The president of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, Mr B.B. Bahl, said Mr Singh was amongst those members of the panchayat who had come to party office to express their allegiance to the party after their election.

PRIZE DISTRIBUTION: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation on Thursday organised the prize distribution function of its promotional campaign “H.P. Dhamaal Kare Malamaal”. Mr K. Muralidharan, general manager of the corporation (north zone) presided over the function. During the campaign customers were issued lucky draw coupons. The bumper prize, a Bolero, sponsored by Mahindra and Mahindra, was won by Mr Dwarka Saini of Jammu. The function was convened by Mr T.S. Sawhney, chief regional manager, Chandigarh Retail Region.

CULTURAL CONTESTS: Punjab School Education Board’s three-day cultural contests concluded on Friday at Bal Bhavan, Sector 23, with the bhangra team of DAV Senior Secondary School, Amritsar, bagging the first prize in the folk dance category. The second prize went to Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Ropar, and the third was won by JFFF Khalsa High School, Nawanshahr. Mr H.S. Mattewal, Punjab’s Advocate General, who was the chief guest on the occasion, also danced with the participating children. The chairman of the board, Mr Kehar Singh, presided over the function.

PANCHKULA
COLLEGE FUNCTION: The Commerce Association of Government College organised a function here on Friday, wherein a quiz and a paper reading contest were held. Shibela and Rajat won the first prize in the quiz to be followed by Rushar and Apoorv in the second place. Students presented papers on “Terrorism as a threat to mankind,,” Globalisation and liberalisation and IT related issues.’ Sumit Chaudhary won the first prize in the contest, while Neha got the second prize. Apoorv and Poonam stood third.

EXHIBITION: The 11th science and art exhibition of Chaman Lal DAV Senior Public School was held here on Friday. The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr Yog Raj Sachdeva, Regional Officer of the Central Board of Secondary Education. Students had put in a lot of labour in order to make the exhibition a success. They had prepared models showing automatic traffic lights, safe housing, object counter, metal detector, wind energy, hydro-electric power generation, refining and mining of petroleum etc. Bio-terrorism, dialysis, animal cloning, respiratory system etc, too, found a prominent place among models displayed by the students.

WORKSHOP: Mr Krit Serai, Principal of Satluj Public School, led the workshop on IT based classrooms during the orientation programme for Principals being held at Navodaya Vidyalaya, Chandigarh. The paper presented by Mr Serai highlighted the use of information technology in classrooms from a global as well as the Indian perspective. He highlighted the role played by the Central Board of Secondary Education in advancing information technology. He also discussed the case study on the use of IT in government schools in the United Kingdom.

SAS NAGAR
55 CHALLANED: Under a special drive, the traffic police challaned 55 motorists for violating traffic rules in the town on Friday. The District Traffic in charge, Mr V.K. Vaid, said 35 motorists were challaned for over-speeding.

HARYANA

FATEHABAD
WORKSHOP HELD: A one-day workshop for members of Village Development Committees (VDCs) was held in the local Block Samiti office here on Thursday. It was organised by the district administration in collaboration with the Community Development Training Centre, Nilokheri. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O.P. Indora, addressed the gathering at the workshop.

SHAHABAD
MLA BEREAVED: Dayawati, wife of the local BJP MLA Vaid Kapoor Chand Sharma, died on Thursday due to heart failure at her residence. She was 75. Hundreds of people took part in her funeral on Friday.

YAMUNANAGAR
SECTION 144 IMPOSED: Mr Rajiv Sharma, District Magistrate, has imposed Section 144 in the district till February 28 on account of the byelection to the Yamunanagar Assembly constituency. In a press note issued here on Thursday, he passed an order prohibiting the carrying of lethel weapons like licensed firearms, swords and lathis by the public in the area.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the State Lakshman Club for five years: president — Mr S.P. Dhall; senior vice-president — Mr Pawan Nayyar; vice-presidents — Mr B.K. Puri and Mr Sunil Thakur; secretary — Major S.C. Nayyar; joint-secretary — Dr Sunit Puri; and sports secretary — Mr Janak Raj Puri.

DEMOLISHED: A demolition drive was launched by the district administration to remove unauthorised structures on the Chamba-Bharmour highway in Julakari, near here, on Friday. An unauthorised structure belonging to a local resident was demolished.

HAMIRPUR
PANCHAYAT SAHAYAKS: Panchayat sahayaks working in various gram panchayats have not been paid salary since July, 2001. Stating this on Thursday, Mr Manohar Lal, general secretary of the district unit of the Panchayat Sahayak Sangh, urged the state government to release their salary. He has also demanded an increase of their monthly emolument from Rs 600 to Rs 2,000.

DEMONSTRATION: Workers of the LIC and GIC stationed here resorted to slogan-shouting and held a demonstration at Gandhi Chowk here on Thursday in protest against the “anti-employee” policies of the Central Government. They also held a rally at which LIC and GIC leaders criticised the Central Government for not making further recruitments in the corporations.

SHIMLA
SEED SHORTAGE: The district unit of the Congress has expressed concern over the failure of the Agriculture Department to supply potato seeds and fertilisers to farmers on time. The farmers and workers division of the unit has decided to submit a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard. Farmers of low-lying areas have not been able to sow the potato crop due to non-availability of seeds, the unit said.