R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMLOH
MEDICAL CAMP: A two-day eye operation and multispeciality camp organised by All-India Eye Relief Society, Bhadson, in association of the Desh Bhagat Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital, Mandi Gobindgarh concluded at Bhadson near here on Sunday. As many as 250 patients of skin, dental, gynae, piles, fistula, paediatric and 590 patients of eyes were checked up and given medicines free of cost. About 50 cataract patients were operated upon in Primary Health Centre by a team of doctors led by Dr Parshotam Goyal from the Civil Hospital, Nabha, informed Dr Bakhshish Singh, secretary of the society.

AMRITSAR
MAN ARRESTED: Harjinder Singh, a resident of Dhaleta village in Jalandhar, has been arrested for allegedly possessing a fake visa. In his complaint lodged at Rajasansi police station, Mr Rachhpal Singh, AGO, stated that the accused had a fake stamp on his visa for Ujbekistan. A case has been registered.

HOUSE BURGLED: Miscreants burgled the house of Daljit Singh at Sant Avenue and decamped with gold jewellery, Rs 20,000, the VCR and a VCP on Monday.

DRIVE LAUNCHED: In a drive launched by the SSP against narcotics, the police has seized two illegal distilleries and recovered 120 kg of Lahan with 27,750 bottles of illicit liquor in separate incidents.

SEMINAR ORGANISED: Mr Raj Kamal Choudhry, Additional Deputy Commissioner, while speaking at a seminar organised by the District Consumer Welfare on World Consumer Day here on Sunday, said the district administration would form a special action plan for the protection of human rights. He said consumers should file cases at the district-level consumer form, if they found any substandard things and suspected any fraud.

DORAHA
CULTURAL PROGRAMME: A cultural programme will be organised by the Dharat Suhavi Sahit and Cultural Manch, Bija in the sacred memory of Principal Sant Singh Sekhon on March 29 at Bija village. Mr Jagdev Singh Jassowal, president and promoter of Punjabi culture in India and foreign lands, will preside over the function. Releasing this information the president of the manch, Mr Kuldip Singh Barmalipur, said various cultural items and renowned singers would render their performance in the show. Among those who will be honoured for their contribution in the field of music and culture include Debi Maksoospuri, Inderjit Nikku, Angrez Ali, Mohammad sadik, Labh Heera and others. This is an annual feature of the manch and every year the people from cultural field are honoured by the Dharat Suhavi Sahit and Cultural Manch, Bija.

KHANNA
JUDGE’S VISIT: Mr R.L. Anand, inspecting Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, visited Khanna Civil Courts here on Monday. Mr Anand was received at PWD Rest House by the members of the Bar Association, Khanna. The Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, Mr V.B. Handa, also accompanied him. Later Mr Anand visited the courts of Mr G.S. Dhillon and Mr Munish Arora. He also addressed a meeting of lawyers in the Bar room.

LUDHIANA
HOLI CELEBRATIONS: The Gitanjali Ladies Club celebrated Holi with great fervor. Colours mixed with rose petals were smeared on the forehead of members. A fancy dress competition and hasya kavita pratiyogita were also organised. In the fancy dress competition, Shabina was declared the winner whereas Pami Sidhu and Sheetal Nayyar were declared first and second runners-up. Over 15 members participated in the hasya kavita pratiyogita. The winners of this poetry contest were Dr Achla Gupta, Ms Anita Kundra and Ms Harbans Kaur Makkar. The judges were Ms Suksham Ahluwalia and Ms A. Gakhad.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: Bangiya Samsad, Ludhiana, organised a blood donation camp at Parkash Nagar here on Sunday. The camp was inaugurated by Mr A.K.Bhandari, president of the samsad. The camp was held under the guidance of the District Red Cross Society in which over 15 members donated blood. The collected blood will be donated to the Red Cross Society.

MEET: The Ludhiana Orthopaedic Association held its 17th meet at Hotel Baron here on Sunday. Dr Ron Kending, a senior Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon from the University of Mississippi, USA, was the main speaker. Dr Ron informed the delegates about the increasing number of obese children in the USA due to wrong food habits and decrease in physical activity. Obesity, he said, was one of the reasons for deformities in lower limbs found in African-American children. He also presented his work on use of flexible nails in long bone fractures in children. Over 50 delegates attended the meeting. Others who spoke on the occasion were Dr M.K. Mam of Christian Medical College, Dr N.K. Aggarwal of the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Dr R.S. Sidhu of Sidhu Hospital, Doraha.

CONTEST: The team from the Gujranwala Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology has bagged the overall trophy in Anjuman, an inter-college cultural and literary contest for management institutes held at Punjab Agricultural University. The college students won 13 prizes in 18 events including fashion show, collage-making, face painting, rangoli and mehndi. Prof Kuldip Singh, director of the institute, said he was pleased as the students had participated in the contest for the first time and won the overall trophy.

INSPECTION TEAM: The Panjab University inspection team will visit local colleges on March 27 for administrative and academic auditing on March 27. The team headed by Prof P.S. Jaswal, Department of Laws, PU, would assess different activities in the colleges like writing for journals, participation in conferences, organising seminars, extension lectures, examination of various facilities for the students, checking of laboratories and libraries, utilisation of UGC grants given to the colleges for the ninth plan to be over on March 31 this year and discussing various schemes for the 10th plan for PU colleges. The colleges likely to be visited include Arya College, Kamla Lohtia Sanatan Dharam College, BCM College of Education, Partap College of Education, Mai Bhago College for Women, Ramgarh, and those located at Samrala, Jhar Sahib and Karamsar.

CONVOCATION: The annual convocation for the graduate and postgraduate students of SCD Government College will be held on Saturday. Mr Khushal S. Behl, Education Minister, Punjab, will be the chief guest on the occasion, informed Principal A.S. Turna. Over 400 students would be awarded degrees for BA, BSc, BCom, MA and other courses.

SHOBHA YATRA: A shobha yatra in connection with the annual mela of Baba Balak Nath was taken out here on Sunday jointly by the managements of Baba Balak Nath temple and Shri Durga Mata temple. The shobha yatra, which started from Prem Nagar, passed through Ghumar Mandi, College road, Damoria bridge, Chhawni mohalla, Sabzi mandi and Daresi road before culminating at Shiv Puri later in the evening. A kirtan darbar was held before the start of the yatra.

JYOTISH MEET: The Aryavrat Jyotirvigyan Sanstha held a function here on Sunday to distribute diplomas to the astrology students of the institute who passed a six-month course. Mr. Rakesh Pandey, Printing and Stationery Minister, Punjab, gave away the diplomas and lauded astrology as the ancient science of India. Among other who attended the function included Mr Arun Kumar Bansal, Mr Suresh Atray, Mr Jagdamba Parshad Gaur, Mr Pardeep Dhall, Mr Rajesh Maurya and Prof Mohan.

CASSETTE RELEASED: A maiden cassette of Sukhminder Tariuual, ‘Dhiya di Pukar’ was released at Attiana village by Harpal Tiwana recently. The young singer who is a typist by profession, was motivated by the issue of female foeticide and declining sex ratio in the state. Since he has a passion for singing, he thought that he should give the message that killing the girl child was a heinous crime. The lyrics’ Dhia no mangda koi nahi’ and the sad cry of a girl child singing ‘sada duniya te aan wala kho gaya adhikar’ will surely touch the chords of the heart.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
BODY FOUND: The local police has recovered the body of Hari Parshad, 38, a Nepali labourer, hanging from a tree at Ambey Majra village, two kilometres from here on Monday. Mr Harinder Singh, SHO, said that the police, on the statement of Mrs Malti Devi, wife of the deceased, has registered a case u/s 174 of the Cr PC The post-mortem was conducted in the local civil hospital. The reason of death is not known.

SHO TRANSFERRED: The police chief, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mr B. Chander Shaker, has transferred Mr Harinder Singh as SHO Mandi Gobindgarh, Mr Balwinder Singh as SHO, Amloh and Mr Kashmira Singh as SHO, Sirhind.

MOGA
3 SMUGGLERS HELD: The district police nabbed three notorious smugglers and seized 1050 kg of poppy husk from them on Sunday. Those arrested have been identified as Channa, Budha and Shamsher Singh.

WATER SHORTAGE: Residents of Bambihabhai, Sekha, Daddhur and certain other villages have complained that they have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water for the past two years and the department concerned has failed to maintain the drinking water supply system. They said the residents not only faced an acute shortage of water but whatever water supply was made was contaminated. 

NAWANSHAHR
SEMINAR ORGANISED: The Department of Physics, Kirpal Sagar Academy, here on Sunday organised a seminar on “Global information related to the disastrous earthquakes”. Mr Malkiat Singh and Mr I. Azeez were the convener and coordinator of the seminar. The students read their papers about different aspects of the disastrous earthquakes.

LOK ADALAT ORGANISED: The Punjab State Legal Services Authority, organised a state-level Lok adalat here on Sunday at the judicial court complex with a view to settling matrimonial and bank loan cases. Mr H.P.S. Mahil, member-secretary, Punjab State Legal Services Authority, presided over the Lok Adalat. In all, 508 cases were put before the special court while 250 bank loan cases and 47 matrimonial cases were settled and compensation amounting to Rs 88,34,891 given to the concerned.

PHAGWARA
SCOOTERIST KILLED: One person was killed while eight others were injured in two separate accidents in the area on Sunday. A bus crushed to death a scooterist on the GT road here while the pillion rider was seriously injured. Five members of a band party and two other persons were injured when the Gypsy in which they were travelling overturned.

APPOINTED: Mr N.K. Chopra has been appointed secretary of the Traders and Small Industries Cell of the PPCC, according to a press note issued here on Monday.

INQUIRY: Local Congress MLA Joginder Singh Mann on Monday declared that an inquiry would be conducted into the disappearance of the foundation stone of Civil Hospital laid here in 1986-87 by the then Governor of Punjab, Mr Sidhartha Shanker Ray, and a criminal case would be registered against the culprits. He was talking to mediapersons at the residence of former president of the Block Congress Madan Mohan Bajaj here. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
CONSTRUCTED: Two barracks have been constructed in Ambala Central Jail, which will be a relief to the prisoners. The Superintendent of the jail, Mr Amar Singh, said here on Saturday that 2,250 prisoners had been lodged in the jail against the capacity of 1,050. He said 400 prisoners would be accommodated in the new barracks. He said four doctors would be available in the jail. He said six mentally challenged patients would be shifted to the mental hospital, Amritsar, on the direction of the Humans Rights Commission. 

INSPECTION: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahender Kumar, on Sunday visited various areas of Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment to inspect the sanitation work. He inspected the Rambagh road, the Janki Marbal road, Subhash Park and Shastri Colony. He directed municipal officers to pay special attention to sanitation work. Executive Officers of Ambala City and Ambala municipal councils were also present. 

KAITHAL
HOSPITAL INAUGURATED: The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, inaugurated a 100-beded private hospital here on Sunday. Dr V.S. Dhaka, chairman Vikram Hospital, said the hospital would be equipped with latest equipments and doctors in various departments would cater to the needs of the people of the area. Dr Dhaka said the treatment provided would be much cheaper as compared to big hospitals. Special concession would be provided to the poor and the needy and on every Tuesday the OPD would be free for all patients.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KULU
MEETING: The district Brahaman Sabha organised its maiden meeting on Sunday at Apple Valley Resort here. The sabha revealed that a joint “yagyopavit” function would be organised at Manikaran on May 15 in which all interested families could contact the members of the Brahaman Sabha. There was no caste bar for the “yagyopavit” to be held at the Tirth Sthal.

KUMARHATTI
RESIGNED: Mr Pramood Marwaha, Vice-President Subathu Cantonment Board, has resigned from his post.

NURPUR
PHONE CONNECTIONS: All those who have applied for telephone connections from 1995 to 1999 in technically non-feasible areas in Nurpur subdivision will get their telephone facility through the wireless in local loop (WLL) system. According to Mr D.K. Sharda, Subdivisional Officer, Telecom, the applicants can collect their WLL equipment.