The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, March 11, 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

BALACHAUR
SEWING MACHINES: Five sewing machines were presented free of cost to widows belonging to economically weaker sections by the State Bank of India, Samundra, at Dhamai village, 14 km from here, on the International Women's Day, Mrs Kavita Manwani, wife of Mr D.L.Manwani, General Manager, State Bank of India, Chandigarh, highlighted the role of women in the development of society.

FEROZEPORE
POWER SUPPLY: More than 280 villages have been provided with 24-hour electricity supply during the current financial year. Disclosing this, Mr S.S. Chawla, SE, PSEB, said 3,527 new electricity connections and 725 new tubewell connections had been released during this period. He said 530 new distribution transformers had also been installed.

KISAN CARDS: A farmers credit card camp was organised at Peeruwala village in which 82 Baroda Kisan Credit Cards were issued and loan worth Rs 27.50 lakh sanctioned. The Bank of Baroda has also set up Farmers Club to redress their problems at the village level and to apprise them and other people engaged in allied agricultural activities about various bank loan schemes.

BLOOD CAMP: A blood donation camp was organised by the Shaheed bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology in collaboration with the District Red Cross Society. Hundreds of students and NSS members donated blood.

SEMINAR: The Social Welfare Club, Zira, organised a seminar on career counselling in Zira in which Col K.K. Marwaha delivered the key-note address. Information regarding higher education in India and abroad was provided to students. Colonel Marwaha also shared information regarding recruitment in the Army.

GURDASPUR
MINISTER: Mr Khushhal Bahl, Education Minister, while addressing a large gathering in the Civil Services Officers Club here on Saturday, said the Congress had been voted to power because it had exposed the "corruption" of the previous SAD-BJP government. Referring to his department, Mr Bahl said all postings, transfers and appointments would be made on merit.

LUDHIANA
TALENTED ARTIST: Rampal Sehota can make pencil sketches on clothes. But this self-taught artist can’t make his ends meet by exercising his talent for colour and design. A business house commissioned him to paint on 15 ladies suits. He has been told that he would get payment as and when the suits were sold. His efforts to raise a bank loan and assistance from the Ministry of Textile office at Hoshiarpur have not succeeded.

CONVENTION: Eminent endocrinogists participated in a convention on ‘Diabetes management and complications’ held at a hotel here on Sunday. Addressing the gathering, Dr S.K. Wangnoo, a senior consultant with the Department of Endocrinology, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, said diabetes was assuming epidemic proportions in India and there was a need to fight the silent killer. Dr G.S. Wander from Hero DMC Heart Institute spoke on ‘Management of CAD in patient with diabetes mellitus’. Other speakers included Dr S.B. Khurana, a former Principal, Dayanand Medical College, and Dr Parminder Singh, Head of the Department of Endocrinology, DMC.

MOGA
YOUTH HURT: A local youth, Paramjit Singh, suffered a leg fracture when the car he was driving collided with a truck on the Moga-Chandigarh road, 66 km from here, on Saturday.

PATIALA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punjab State Electricity Board officers (general services) Association: president — Mr S.P. Sharma; vice-president — Mr Narang Singh general secretary; Mr S.P. Sharma.

PHAGWARA
MISHAPS: Three persons, including a woman and her son, were killed in a pile-up involving a Maruti, a Tata Safari and a scooter near Rawalpindi on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road on Saturday night. The woman, Salinder kaur (50), and her son, Manjit Singh (22), were on the scooter. The third victim, Mamta Sharma (21), was travelling in the Maruti. A girl, Kamla (20), who was riding a bicycle, was knocked down to death on the GT Road by a bus. Meanwhile, the body of an unidentified person was found from near the Bein rivulet, 12 km from here.

ROPAR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punjab Irrigation Clerks Association, BBMB: president — Mr Kuldeep Singh; patron — Mr Bishan Dass; senior vice-president — Mr Rakesh Kumar; general secretary — Mr Kuldeep Singh; and joint secretary — Mr Surinder Kumar.

NOMINATED: Mr Ashok Manocha has been nominated on the governing council of the North India Tax Advocates Association. He is also the president of the Rotary Club, Bhakra Nangal.

ARRESTED: The Nangal police has arrested Dinesh Kumar, a resident of Bhatoli village in Una district of Himachal Pradesh, on the charge of stealing a scooter from Naya Nangal. The police said the stolen scooter had been recovered from the suspect.

ZIRAKPUR
SHIVRATRI MELA: The Shiv Mandir Committee, Chhat, will organise a Shivratri Mela in the village on Tuesday. According to Mr Keshow Ram Dhiman, president of the committee, Punjabi folk singers, Palli Detwalia and Saranjit Kaur, would perform on the occasion. A langer would also be served to mark the day.

CHANDIGARH

PRINCIPAL HONOURED: The principal of Kailash Bahl DAV Centenary Public School, Sector 7, Ms Madhu Bahl, was honoured with a shawl and a memento on the occasion of the 178th Janmamahotsava of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati by the Kendriya Arya Samaj, Sector 7, at a function, here on Sunday. She was honoured for her extensive contribution to the field of education, participation in religious activities of Arya Samaj and role in inculcating Vedic values among school children. She was also awarded the second prize for best presentation of tableau in the shobha yatra held on March 7.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Congress Committee (Urban-I): vice-presidents — Mr Rajinder Mittal, Mr Bhupinder singh Sidhu, Mr Jatinder Dhami, Mr Jagdish Goel, Mr Jaipal Jaiswal, Mr T.L. Verma, Mr Ranjit Singh Malwa, Mr Brij Mohan Kohli, Mr Deepak Sabharwal and Mr Chhabu Yadav; general secretaries: Mr Satpal Sharma, Mr Sadhu Ram Nagar, Mr Ajay Joshi, Mr M.P. Sharma, Mr Ram Avadh Yadav, Dr H.P. Dewan, Mr Amrit Pal Singh Chadha, Mr Som Nath Kachroo and Mr Mohammad Azam; treasurer — Mr Harmanpreet Singh; secretaries — Mr Man Singh, Mr Najmul Islam Sadiqui, Mr Jaswinder Singh Bhatia, Mr R.P. Shukla, Mr K.L. Dua and Mr Paramjit Singh.

UNI EMPLOYEES UNION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the UNI Employees Union: president — Mr Sohan Singh; vice-president — Mr Jinesh Jain; general secretary — Mr B.B. Puri; secretary — Mr Kuldeep Singh; and treasurer — Mr Ranjit Singh Dogra.

CELEBRATED: The Indian Council of Social Welfare in collaboration with the ICSW Punjab, the Citizens Awareness Group (CAG), YWCA and Helping Hand celebrated International Women’s Day in Karuna Sadan, Sector 11, Students of Khushee School presented a cultural programme on women’s rights. Earlier, Ms Shrestha Mehta, Honorary Secretary, ICSW, Chandigarh chapter, welcomed the guests and spoke about the importance of the day.

SEMINAR ON PHYSICS: New computational techniques in Physics were discussed at a two-day seminar organised by Physics Department at Panjab University here on Thursday. Dr Rajeev K. Puri said, “simulated annealing technique was of great importance in various fields of science and also in public life. This method finds the optimum values of the structure that costs least energy.” Dr Manjit Kaur discussed common sense reasoning in artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligent systems are being developed to model with probabilities and probable interference computations. Dr Arvind from Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr Sanjiv Puri from SLIET, Longowal, Prof Sunada Banerjee from TIFR, Mumbai, Dr G.P.S. Randhawa from IMTECH and Prof V.K. Jindal also spoke on the occasion. Dr Tankeshwar proposed the vote of thanks.

PANCHKULA
SHOBHA YATRA: DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, has won the third prize for best tableau during a shobha yatra organised by the Kendriya Arya Sabha, Chandigarh, as part of celebrations to mark the 178th birth anniversary of Swami Dayanand. The theme of the tableau was computerisation and Vedic lore. A colourful shobha yatra was organised on Friday in which DAV schools of Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula participated. Tableaux depicting the life of Swami Dayanand and his ideals were taken out in a procession from Arya Samaj Sector 7 to Arya Samaj Sector 27, Chandigarh. Meanwhile, Ms Madhu Bahl of Kailash Bahl DAV Centenary Public School, Sector 7, Chandigarh, was honoured for her contribution to education, participation in religious activities of Arya Samaj and inculcating Vedic values in children.

ELECTED: Mr Baldev Kumar Nayyar has been unanimously elected president of local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was elected at a meeting of the party leaders under the chairmanship of Mr A.P. Manchanda following the failing health of the former incumbent Mr B.M. Talwar.

PROCESSION: A religious procession was organised by the Sanatan Dharam Sabha in order to mark the Shivratri celebrations on March 12. The procession, which began from the Sector 16 temple in the afternoon, passed through Sectors 17, 18, 7, 8 and 9, and converged at the Geeta Mandir in Sector 10. The procession was led by an orchestra playing religious tunes. Hundreds of devotees of Lord Shiva participated in the procession. A cavalcade of trucks, carrying the photographs of Lord Shiva and Parvati, and with devotees singing bhajans and hymns was part of this procession.

HARYANA

AMBALA
PGI EMPLOYEES UNION: Members of the PGI Employees Welfare Union, Sweeper Union/Ward Aid Association, PGI Engineering Technical Association, PGI Drivers Association, PGI Ex-servicemen Association and Canteen Employees Association met in the PGI here on Friday and decided to hold elections to the PGI Employees Union in April 2002.

CAR STOLEN: A Maruti Zen car was stolen from Industrial Area, Ambala City, on Sunday. The owner of the car, Mr Gulati, said a man approached his watchman and told him that the driver would not be able to come that day. He added that the driver sent him in his place. The man then asked for the keys of the car so that he could clean the car. It was then that he took away the car. A case has been registered.

MALARIA CHECK-UP: The Health authorities have carried out blood tests on 6,382 persons to cheek malaria. Officiating Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahinder Kumar, said 33,179 chloroquin tablets had been distributed during February and besides malaria, around 7,678 patients had undergone treatment. He said fogging has been carried in different areas, according to a press note.

BRAHMAN SABHA: A team of the district Brahman Sabha visited different villages with regard to Bhagwan Parshuram Jayanti. The team led by the sabha president, Col N.R. Kaushish (retd), along with Mr T.N. Sant, Capt B.B. Bhatt, Mr P.N. Sharma, Mr Subhash Sharma and Mr Somdatt Sharma visited villages in Barara, Adohi and Saha, a release said.

FATEHABAD
SAMPAT SINGH: The Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, on Saturday claimed that the INLD government in Haryana had broken all records of development in the state. Mr Sampat Singh was addressing gatherings at Durjanpur, Thaska, Chikanwas, Chuli Khurd and chuli Kalan villages. He claimed that Haryana was at the top in the country as far as the pace of development was concerned.

PANIPAT
ANNUAL DAY: Parents and teachers should concentrate on the all-round development of children and shape their careers in a way so that they become an asset to society, said the SP, Ms Mamta Singh, while addressing schoolchildren of the nursery wing of MASD Public School on the occasion of its annual day function on Saturday.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
RAJ PANIHAR: The Chamba Welfare Association, an apex body of the non-governmental organisations in the district, has expressed anguish over the "callous" attitude of the Irrigation and Public Health Department for not repairing pipes and restoring the supply of water to the historical Raj naun panihar in the town. The association, in a handout issued here on Saturday, urged the government to restore the water supply to the panihar before the famous annual Suhi fair which begins in the first week of April.

LIQUOR SEIZED: In a raid conducted by the district police, 90 litres of illicit country-made liquor and 24 bottles of branded liquor were seized near Sinhuta. The liquor was being transported by a private van. According to Mr S.R. Ojha, SP, two persons — Malkiyat Singh and Joginder — have been arrested in this connection and a case registered against them.

HAMIRPUR
MEETING: Mr Prem Singh Bharmauria, general secretary of the HP Non-Gazetted Services Federation, said here on Saturday that a meeting of the State Federal Committee of the federation would be held in Bilaspur on March 19. During the meeting, the agenda for the meeting of the JCC with the state government would be finalised. He said all state-level office-bearers and district presidents and general secretaries would attend the meeting.

KANGRA
PRIZES DISTRIBUTED: The Government Postgraduate Degree College, Dhaliara, held its annual prize distribution function here on Saturday. The local MLA, Ms Nirmala Devi, was the chief guest, the MLA gave away prizes to 300 students who had excelled in academics, sports, cultural and other activities, including NSS camps. She also announced solar lights to be installed on the college campus.

MANDI
SHIVARATRI FAIR: Over 200 hill gods and goddesses are likely to converge on the ancient town of temples on the eve of the eight-day international Shivaratri fair being held here from March 12 to 19. They will be accorded a warm reception by officials and members of the Devta Committee on their arrival here on March 11 and 12. They will pay obeisance to Madho Rai, the presiding deity of Mandi state.

NURPUR
PROTEST DAY: On a call given by the all-India Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Himachal Pradesh trade unions will observe March 14 as a protest day and hold a demonstration before the state Assembly. Mr Rajnesh Sharma, state general secretary of INTUC, in statement here on Saturday, said the demonstration would be held under the leadership of the state INTUC president, Mr Amerjeet Singh Baba.

LOK ADALAT: A lok adalat was held here on Friday under the chairmanship of Mr J.K. Sharma, Sub-Judge-cum-Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate. Twentynine cases were brought before the lok adalat of which 21 were settled by way of conciliation.

CAUGHT COPYING: A flying squad of the HP Board of School Education, headed by Mr Vikas Labru, board Secretary, raided the examination centre of Government Senior Secondary School here on Friday and caught eight plus two examinees appearing in the information technology paper while copying.