R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• Miss India Universe shares a secret
• School in rural settings
• Rare honour for Dr Shan

PUNJAB

QUIZ CONTEST: The Department of Zoology of Guru Nanak Dev University won the top position in a quiz contest on the environmental science organised by the NSS unit of the Law Department of the university here on Tuesday. The Departments of Botanical Sciences and Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy remained second and third, respectively.

DERA BASSI
ANNUAL FUNCTION: Students of R.K. Public School, participated in the fourth Annual Prize distribution function with great enthusiasm, here on Wednesday. As many as 40 students were given prizes for their outstanding performance in various fields. Mr Balbir Singh, a former MLA, who was the chief guest, distributed prizes and donated Rs 5,100 to the Radha Ji Charitable Trust, which runs the school. Mr O.P. Sharma, Principal, read out the annual report of the school. Prashant Sharma (class X), Gagan (Class VII), Rajinder Kaur (Class VIII), Richa Dogra (Class IX) and Paramjit Kaur (Class IX) were adjudged best students in academics. Harjit Singh (Class X), Prashant Sharma and Amandeep Kaur (both of Class X) bagged trophies in sports while Sukhvinder Kaur (Class X) and Surinder Kaur (Class VI) were declared best students for participation in cultural activities.

DORAHA
CONVOCATION: Annual convocation and prize distribution function of Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, will be held on Friday. The Transport Minister, Punjab, Mr Tej parkash Singh, shall preside over the function and Mr Pawar, a former Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala will deliver the convocation address.

FEROZEPORE
APPEAL: Mr Sukhwinder Singh, Regional Transport Secretary, has appealed to the people to refrain from using unlawful means of transportation. He said the people used mini-trucks, tempos, tractor-trailors which were often overloaded and often caused accidents.

HOSHIARPUR
BANNED: Mr Kirandeep Singh Bhullar, District Magistrate, has prohibited the manufacture and use of polythene bags made of virgin or re-cycled plastic having a thickness of less than 20 microns. Using bags or containers made by re-cycled plastics for sorting, carrying, dispensing or packing of food stuffs in the district has also been banned. The orders will remain in force up to May 2002.

MEETING HELD: A meeting of Block Development and Panchayat Officers was held under the chairmanship of Mr Pritam Singh Dhaliwal, Additional Deputy Commissioner, here on Tuesday. Addressing the meeting, Mr Dhaliwal said people should not travel in trucks, mini-trucks, tractor-trailers and “peter rehris” as these were unauthorised for travelling. He instructed the officials to hold meetings in their respective panchayats to make people aware about this. Mr Harminder Singh, District Transport Officer, also held a meeting of Block Primary Education Officers in this connection.

CONVOCATION: The annual prize-distribution function and convocation of GGDSD College was held at Hariana, about 15 km from here, on Monday. Mr Charanjit Singh Channi, MP, gave away prizes to students. He also conferred degrees upon 181 students.

BOOKED: On a complaint of Dharam Chand, Sarpanch of Hazipur village, the police registered a case under Sections 379, 511 and 427, IPC, against Dharminder, Jaswinder and Gokal residents of the same village, for illegal felling of 7 khair trees on Monday.

POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The police seized 25 kg of poppy husk from Joginder Singh of Pakhowal village on Monday. A case has been registered under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act.

BODY FOUND: The body of an unidentified person of about 50 years of age was found near Kot village on Monday. A case has been registered in this connection.

JAGRAON
FLAG DAY: The Punjab Lambardars Union celebrated its annual flag day here. Mr Pritam Singh Hans, state president of the union, presided over the celebrations. Thereafter at their meeting, they demanded from the Punjab Government an honourarium of Rs 500 for every lambardar as decided by Badal government. Mr B.S. Hans, press secretary, said the tradition of lambardar should continue.

LUDHIANA
TRUST MEETING: The trustees of Ludhiana Improvement Trust expressed their full faith in the chairman of the trust, Mr Madan Mohan Vyas, at a trust meeting on Monday. A resolution was passed in this regard and his contribution towards the development of the city was lauded. The trustees who attended the meeting included Mr Shakti Kumar, Mr Inderjeet Singh Panchi, Mr Praveen Bansal, Mr Suresh Verma, Mr Rajeev Katana, Mr Harish Tandon, Mr Kulwant Singh Dukhia, Mr Darshan Singh, Mr Vir Abhimanyu and Mr Balwant Rai Madhu. The resolution also condemned a “vicious and malicious campaign” launched against Mr Vyas for petty personal interests. 

AGGARWAL SAMMELAN: The 19th national convention of the Akhil Bharatiya Aggarwal Sammelan will be held at Purshottam Bagh, Brahm Sarovar, Kurukshetra, on April 13 and 14. This was stated by Mr Amrit Lal Aggarwal, a member of the national executive of the sammelan. The executive will meet at the same venue on April 12 under the chairmanship of Mr Pardeep Mittal. The convention is being organised under the patronage of Mr Banarsi Das Gupta, a former Chief Minister of Haryana. Mr Aggarwal said the arrangements for boarding and lodging of the participants from all over the country were being made by Sri Vaishya Aggarwal Panchayat, Aggarwal Dharamshala, Thanesar, Kurukshetra.

MACHHIWARA
AFFILIATION: Chopra Senior Secondary Public School here has got affiliated with the Punjab School Education Board, SAS Nagar, for Class XII. The institution was previously affiliated up to Class 10. According to the Manager, Mr Suresh Chopra, the school would continue to impart quality education.

NAWANSHAHR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the All-India Anti-Corruption Board (regd): president — Dr Harbhajan Singh Barnala, senior vice-president — Mr Sukhjiwan Singh, vice-presidents — Mr Sukhdev Singh and Mr Sandip Prasher; and general secretary — Mr Sukhwinder Singh.

SAMRALA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Shaheed Karnail Singh Sports Club Burma: president—Mr Avtar Singh Braham, general secretary—Mr Gurmel Singh Mann, and cashier—Mr Avtar Singh Chahal.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Lambardara Union Samrala Sub-Division: president—Mr Sohan Singh Bharthala, senior vice-president—Mr Gurdeep Singh Sandhu Zulafgarh, vice-president— Mr Nand Singh Baghaur, general secretary-cum-cashier—Mr Gurmeet Singh Behlolpur.

TRIBUTES PAID: Tributes were paid to Ms Bhagwanti, the mother of senior advocate Mr R.K. Kaushal, in Durga Mandir here on Wednesday. Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, announced Rs 1 lakh for the cremation ground where she was cremated last week. Others who addressed the ‘shok sabha’ were Mr Bhupinder Singh Benipal, chairman, Panchayat Samiti, Mr Rajvir Singh Mangat, president, Lions Club, Mr Kamaljeet Singh Dhillon and Mr Jasvir Singh Dhillon, both councillors, and Mr K.L. Mintu, Youth Congress Leader, and Mr Anil Sood, president, Nagar Council, Machhiwara.

SAHNEWAL
INJURED: A man was allegedly attacked and injured by three persons. A case has been registered under Sections 341, 324, 506 and 34 of the IPC at Payal police station. Pargat Singh of Sekhan village in a complaint alleged that Harnek Singh and his two sons Baldev Singh and Bhola Singh attacked and injured him due to which he had to be hospitalised at Malaud hospital. A property dispute is stated to be the cause of the attack.

CHILD ABANDONED: A two-month-old female child was found abandoned by two persons in a field at Ramgarh village, near here, on Tuesday. The local police was informed about the child. The child was, however, adopted by a couple here on Wednesday after the police could not reach any conclusion about its parents.

CONFERENCE: The yearly delegate conference by the District Class IV Government Employees Union will be held on April 7 at Mini Secretariate, Ludhiana, according to state president Jai Chand Sharma. The main demand of the union is promotions after 4, 9 and 14 years and promotion of matriculates without any condition to the class III posts, including bonus of 5 years and to enhance the medical allowance.

HARYANA

YAMUNANAGAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Haryana College Teachers Union: President — Prof K.S. Dhillon; general secretary — Prof Pawan Sharma; finance secretary — Prof S.S. Nandal; vice-president (KU zone) Prof R.K. Nain; and secretary (KU zone) — Prof Naween Gulati. Prof Daryav Singh and Prof Attar Singh have been elected vice-president and secretary, respectively, of the MDU zone.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Miss India Universe shares a secret

This year’s Femina Miss India Universe, Neha Dhupia, inaugurated a branch of the National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFD) at Narnaul recently.

Addressing the audience, she stressed the need to be humble. She lauded the NIFD’s role in launching courses at the grassroot level. NIFD catered to the needs of young boys and girls so as to enable them to participate in contests.

Later, at a press conference Miss India Universe stated that beauty was God’s gift which applied to all women and we should utilise it and serve humanity at large. She expressed a desire to serve the Cancer Society and work to improve the lot of its victims.

Hailing from a Navy officer’s family, the right environment and disciplined life led to her becoming Femina Miss India Universe. “It is all due to the discipline which mattered a lot, she said, adding “since childhood I had developed a fancy for taking part in beauty contests. It is very important to be beautiful and after that all of your acts and conduct should be “beautiful” as beauty is only skin deep.”

Change is the law of nature and with the passage of time the criteria of adjudging beauty had changed. Judgement of beauty earlier was to look healthy, beautiful and have a slender body, but now intelligence, grace, wit, eloquence and confidence played a great deal in beauty contests. Mr Praveen Anand, president of the NIFD (Chandigarh), Mr Ashok Kaushik, Director of NIFD, besides the local SP, Mr C.S. Rao, and Mr Ajai Tewatia, magistrate, were present at the function.

School in rural settings

Imparting quality education in rural settings and to the needy village folk appears to be a story straight out of a fairytale — all the more when the organisation is a private body. This virtual oasis in a desert is Allen Memorial School, tucked away in rural settings in Sunaiya village on Aliwal road about 6 km from Batala. Spread over four acres of land the school is housed in a double storey building imparting education to 500 students up to Class IX. Generous donations from NRIs have enabled the school to charge very little fees. Besides children of widows get free education. The polio-afflicted students have been given wheel chairs. The school plans to acquire another six acres of land. And very soon Sunaiya village will boast of a co-educational degree college.

At the annual function last week the students of the school gave an impressive show of their class in nursery rhymes besides performing the bhangra, giddha (see picture) and one-act play. The Principal, Mrs Juliet Rockey Dean, read out the annual report highlighting the achievements of the school . The manager, the Rev N. Dean, in his address said: “While in other good private schools Rs 1300 is charged at the time of admission, this school charges only Rs 350 at the time of admission.” Prizes were given away to 75 students. The main prize winners were: Best girl student —Mandeep of Class VIII; Best boy student — Maninder Singh of Class VII; Best dancer —Sarabjit Class VIII.

Rare honour for Dr Shan

Dr Harnam Singh Shan, formerly Professor and Chairman, Guru Nanak Chair, and Head of the Departments of Punjabi Studies and Sikh Studies at Panjab University, Chandigarh, has been conferred with a rare honour by The Sikh Review, Calcutta. This oldest and globally recognised literary monthly journal in English of the Sikhs, restabilised in 1953 by the Sikh Cultural Centre, Calcutta, has published its 578th issue (vol. 50:2) under the caption ‘‘Special issue celebrating scholarship honouring Dr Harnam Singh Shan, D.Litt.’’

Including in it nine specimens of Dr Shan’s life-long work on Punjab, Punjabi, Sufi and Sikh Studies, its Editor, S. Saran Singh, has observed in the editorial under the head, ‘‘Celebrating Scholarship: The Genius of Dr Harnam Singh Shan: ... is one such inveterate researcher and educator whose career — from Ph.D (London) in 1964 to D.Litt in 1998, and a long tenure as Chairman, Guru Nanak Chair at Panjab University — has been a voyage of discovery and dedication. We, at the Sikh Review, consider ourselves privileged in recognising and celebrating his may-splendoured contributions to Sikh lore and Punjabi Literature... We commend a selection of his writings in this issue to all our readers even as we salute his pragmatic genius.’’

Contributed by Surender Vyas, Balraj Mahajan and Ashok Kumar