The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, February 17, 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

AHMEDGARH
AWARENESS CAMP: A women awareness camp was organised at Chhana village by the Pandit Dhanraj Social Welfare Society in association with the local Mahila Vikas Mandal recently. During the two-day camp, Mr Jagdeep Singh ‘Manjit’ and Mr Nirbhai Singh, educators of the Central Workers Education Board, educated women about family budget, environment protection, child care and importance of literacy. Mr Jupiter Sharma spoke about small family norms. Participants were paid honorarium by the board.

VACCINATION CAMP: The Sarabha Nagar New Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, organised a hepatitis-B vaccination camp in the school campus on Saturday for the third dose. More than 250 students and teachers were administered the third and final dose. Office-bearers of the Rotary Club assured the school administration of holding such camps in the future.

AMRITSAR
SUGGESTIONS: The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal has sought the government’s attention on certain suggestions on the budget to improve industrial and economic growth. Mr Amrit Lal Jain, president of the mandal, has proposed restructuring of income tax, ceiling of PPF contribution to be increased to Rs 1 lakh annually, landlords with more than 100 acres to be brought under the purview of income tax, besides other measures.

MURDERED: A 15-year-old girl, Kiran, resident of Mehta locality here, was allegedly killed by Harbhajan Singh of the same area on Thursday. Kiran had been working for Harbhajan Singh. When Kiran did not return home from Harbhajan Singh’s house, her mother Rani Kaur filed an FIR alleging that he had killed her. The police found the body of the girl from his house. A case has been registered against him and the body sent for a post-mortem examination.

SEMINAR: A two-day seminar on politics in Punjab ‘the communal cauldron’ will be organised at Guru Nanak Dev University on Thursday which will be inaugurated by Kuldeep Nayyar, eminent journalist. The seminar will be organised by the Department of Political Science. This was informed by Dr Narang, Director of the seminar, in a press note issued here on Friday.

LUDHIANA
KIRTAN DARBAR: The Baba Namdev Sewak Society, Shivpuri Road, Sekhewal, will organise a three-day kirtan darbar from Friday in memory of the saint. Mr Davinder Singh, secretary of the society, said in a press note that on the opening day, a nagar kirtan would be taken out from Baba Namdev Bhavan in the morning. Religious discourses would be organised from 7 pm to 1 pm on Friday and Saturday. The session of religious discourse would be held from 9 am to 2 pm on the closing day. Langar would be served round-the-clock in the kirtan darbar, he added.

MOGA
SEIZED: The Baghapurana police has impounded a vehicle and seized 13 bags of poppy heads from it near Thira village. The police has arrested Darshan Singh of the village in this connection.

STATUE: A cemented 40-metre-tall statue of Lord Hanuman has been installed in the old grain market here. The statue has been built at a cost of several lakhs of rupees which were donated by residents of the town.

STRAY CATTLE: Farmers of various villages in the district on Friday urged the government and people of the region to construct another ‘goshala’ in the town for the stray cattle. The stray cattle, they say, are causing traffic problems and inconvenience to public.

PATHANKOT
KIDNAPPER HELD: With the arrest of a suspect, Pyari, the local police on Saturday claimed to have solved the kidnapping of an infant from the local Civil Hospital last month. SP Bachan Singh Randhawa said the child was recovered from a house in Akarpur village in Batala district on Friday.

SAMRALA
DEATH CONDOLED: The Panjabi Sahit Sabha, Samrala, on Saturday condoled the death of Karnail Kaur, wife of Jaswant Singh Khatra and mother of Mr Jagtar Singh Khatra, DPI (Schools), Punjab. This was stated by Mr Behari Lal Saddi, general secretary of the sabha.

CHANDIGARH

POLITICIAN DEAD: Founder president of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, Lachhman Singh, died of a heart attack on Saturday. He was 87. His cremation will take place at the Sector 25 cremation ground. He is survived by four sons. He was a close associate of Partap Singh, Giani Zail Singh, Darbara Singh and Comrade Ram Singh. He was the only non-official member of the National Prohibition Council of India among Governors of all states. He was instrumental in setting up the PGI Welfare Committee.

MEDICAL CAMP: As many as 450 people attended a medical-cum-awareness camp organised by the Lions Club Rose, Chandigarh, in collaboration with the State Aids Control Society (UT) at Maloya village here on Saturday. Anganwari workers had earlier visited about 4,000 houses of the area to inform people about the camp. Ms Kailash Seth, president of the club, in a press release said the club has been organising such camps in the village for the last five years. Ms Seth also announced that an eye operation camp would also be organised at the Civil Hospital, Mani Majra, from February 23.

ELECTED: Mr Praduman Pandey and Mr R.S. Heer have been elected president and general secretary of the Punjab Civil Account Association (Class III and IV) respectively.

PANCHKULA
CELEBRATED: Basant Panchmi was celebrated at Blue Bird School here on Friday. Children dressed in yellow clothes were exuberating the true spirit of spring. The programme began with the Nursery students reciting ‘vandana’ followed by the children jiving to various popular Hindi and English numbers. A choreography on the song “Aaye jhoom ke basant” was also appreciated by the audience. The festival was also celebrated in Amravati Public School, with the Principal, Ms Poonam Gupat, first explaining the significance of this festival. The staff and students offered prayers to Saraswati and cultural events were also organised. Kite-flying competitions were also held and Amit Gupta with his team of Class II students stood first, while Lalit with his team of KG students was declared runners up.

HEALTH CAMP: A health camp was organised by the District Red Cross Society and Regional Deaf and Dumb Handicapped Centre at Government High School, Chikken, here on Saturday. As many as 503 persons were inspected in this camp and medicines worth R. 22,000 were distributed free of cost. On the occasion, Ms Neerja Anand, in charge of the deaddiction centre, identified 22 cases of addicts, including 18 cases of alcoholics.

FUNCTION: The annual day function of Shemrock Fort was held here on Saturday. Ms Neera Goyal, wife of Chief Secretary, Haryana, Mr L.M. Goyal, was the chief guest, while the Deputy Commissioner, Ms Jyoti Arora, was the guest of honour. Students of the school presented a gala evening of song and dance. The entire show was a confluence of tradition and modernity. With students performing jyotir nritya and mere desh ki dharti to Western dances like Uncle/John from America, enthralled the gathering.

FLOWER FESTIVAL: The annual flower festival will be organised at Town Park here on March 2 and 3, in order to mark the onset of spring. On this occasion, flower arrangement competitions, competitions for school children in painting, rangoli, mehndi, fancy dress etc. and cultural programmes will be organised. In the flower arrangement, there will be six categories from arrangements to cut flowers, bonsai and house gardens and school gardens. Cultural programmes from reputed artistes of various states , katputli show, monkey show, healthy baby show, camel rides and joy rides will be the special attractions.

SAS NAGAR
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: A blood donation camp was organised on the premises of the Mohali Club here on Saturday. Mr Arvinder Singh, president of the club, said a medical team led by Dr H.S. Oberoi from the Civil Hospital, Ropar, conducted the camp. The promoters of the club and their spouses donated blood. Mr Sarpreet Singh, an Arjuna Awardee donated blood for the 38th time.

HARYANA

AMBALA
TRADERS’ DEMAND: The Ambala Cantonment Traders Federation on Saturday demanded that the boundary of Ambala Sadar area should be increased up to Kuldeep Nagar on the one side and up to industrial area on the other side. The federation demanded that there should be a separate industrial area for tiny industries. “HUDA should take up housing project either on the Jagadhri road or the GT road. A five-member committee has been formed to take up these issues and a delegation will meet Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala in this regard,” a press not said.

SMOKING PROHIBITION: The Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam, has directed the heads of various departments to strictly implement the order of the Supreme Court regarding smoking prohibition in their offices. He asked them to take action against the violators. He has also directed the district officials to ensure that nobody smokes at public places, like bus stands, railway station, hospitals and parks.

FATEHABAD
ANNUAL FUNCTION: The local Bal Vatika Public School organised its annual day function, 2002 “Twinkling Stars Evening” here on Friday. The local INLD MLA, Mr Leela Krishan Chowdhary, was the chief guest. The SP, Mr Hanif Qureshi, presided over while the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr C.R.Rana, was the guest of honour.

INAUGURATED: The SP, Mr Hanif Qureshi, inaugurated District -level Panchayat Tournament-2002 at the local Manohar Memorial grounds here on Friday. The SDM, here, Mr R.K.Chauhan, the SDM, Rattia, Mr S.K.Setia, the District Transport Officer, Mr I.S.Dahiya and the Programme Officer, Integrated Child Development Scheme, Ms Asha Setia, were present.

KRISHI CARDS: The local Punjab National Bank, Lead Bank Office, organised a Krishi Card distribution function here on Friday. All branches of the PNB operating in the district participated. Mr H.L.Jindal, Senior Regional Manager of the Hisar region of the bank, presided over.

YAMUNANAGAR
WORKSHOP HELD: Tilak Raj Chadda Institute of Management and Technology here organised a one-day workshop on communication skill development on Saturday. Dr Amar Singh, Dean of Colleges, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, was the chief guest.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
TEACHERS’ UNION: A joint front of the Himachal State Teacher Unions led by its leaders met the Education Secretary to discuss their long-pending demands in Shimla, on Thursday. Addressing mediapersons here on Friday, Mr Roshanlal Sharma, president of the union, said most of their demands were accepted by the Education Secretary who also gave them an assurance that these would be forwarded to the government.

CHAMBA
DIRECTIONS ISSUED: The District Magistrate, Mr S. C. Mehta, has issued orders under Section 144 of the Cr.P.C. directing vendors and labourers working with contractors to get their identification verified in the respective police stations of the district. He stated that the verification had been made mandatory due to the situation prevailing in the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir.

ACCUSED: The Chamba Welfare Association has accused the district administration of stopping the construction work of the new block of the zonal hospital in the town. In a handout issued here on Saturday, Mr J.R. Kapoor, general secretary of the association, said a deputation of the association met the Deputy Commissioner here on Friday who assured them that the work would be resumed very soon.

NURPUR
ENCROACHMENTS: Residents of the Gohlu locality of ward number 2 removed encroachments from their area on Friday. According to residents, they had first filed a complaint with the Revenue Department and the local Municipal Council in this connection, but to no avail.