The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, April 23, 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
DONATED: Dr Hira Lal Khanna, a philanthropist, on Monday donated Rs 2 lakh to build a new block for the resident students of the institute for the blind.

BATALA
DA NOT PAID: Mr Davinder Pal, president of the local unit of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, in a statement issued here on Sunday said the retired persons from the Local Bodies Department had not been given last two increments of the Dearness Allowance (DA). The sangh demanded that the Punjab Government should release these DA instalments immediately.

JAGRAON
LIQUOR SEIZED: The local anti-gunda police, while on a partol near Gulabi Bagh, arrested Piara Singh hailing from Bishan Nagar, Patiala, and Baljinder Singh, both residents of Gulabi Bagh, from their houses and seized 445.25 litres of liquor. According to the information, the two used to buy liquor from Chandigarh and surrounding areas at cheaper rates and sell it here. The police has registered a case under the Excise Act.

OFFICE-BEARERS: Mr Amrit Lal Gupta has been elected president of the Machinery Dealers Association. He is also the president of the Local Beopar Mandal. Mr B.S. Hans, Mr Surjit Singh, Mr Subash Jain have been elected general secretary, vice-president and treasurer, respectively.

LUDHIANA
LEADER BEREAVED: Mr Inderjeet Sarin, father of Anil Sarin state general secretary of the Bharatiya Janta Party, died here on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 70. A number of political and social organisations have mourned the death of Mr Sarin and expressed their condolences to the bereaved family. His cremation will take place on Monday.

SEMINAR: The Gee Finishing School and Immigration Services organised a seminar on immigration services to New Zealand and Australia on Saturday. Several businessmen, entrepreneurs, professionals, agriculturists, poultry and dairy farmers attended the seminar

ELECTED: Mr Subhash Chander Puri was unanimously elected as president of the Punjab Engineering Drawing Staff Association, here on Saturday, according to Mr Sudesh Kumar, newly elected press secretary. Others elected were: Mr Babu Singh Mann, general secretary, Mr Om Parkash Jhammat and Mr Gurdev Singh Charan, senior vice-presidents, Mr Major Singh, Mr Raj Kumar , Mr Yash Pall and Mr Baljinder Singh as vice-presidents, Mr Himmat Singh , secretary, Mr Sukhwinder Singh, cashier.

BOOK FAIR: A three-day book fair was inaugurated at Kundan Vidya Mandir on Monday. A variety of books on science, technology, history and fiction were put on the fair. Besides these, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and comics were also on sale. Students from various classes were taken on a round to the fair. Ms I. Kumar, Principal, formally inaugurated the book fair.

ISO CERTIFICATION: The Punjab College of Technical Education has become the first management college in Punjab to get ‘ISO 9001:2000’ certification for complying with the international quality standards. Stating this in a press note, Dr K.N.S. Kang, director of the college, said the college pioneered in starting mutual funds for the students, bagged top positions in university examination, won overall trophies in cultural festivals and achieved the level of 100 per cent for MBA placements.

DEWAN ENDS: A dewan organised by the Sant Baba Mohinder Singh Nishkam Sewa Society at the Ram Park in Model Town concluded on Sunday evening with Baba Bhupinder Singh ji Jaragwale giving the final discourse. He said only the name of Waheguru could salvage the suffering world. A community meal was also served.

CONDEMNED: The Punjab Bank Employees Federation has condemned the attack against the trade union movement and the privatisation and globalisation move. Mr Naresh Gaur, secretary of the federation, in a press note on Monday said the meeting to celebrate the 57th Foundation Day of All-India Bank Employees Association was held at Indian Bank, Clock Tower on Saturday. Mr Ashok Awasthy, president of the association, alleged that in the name of globalisation, there were attacks on public sector banking and public sector enterprises.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
POWER CUT : Power cut imposed by the Punjab State Electricity Board from April 29 will hamper the steel production of the town. With onset of the summer, fear of heavy power cuts had gripped the manufacturers, said Mr Anil Suraj, general secretary Merchant Chamber, Mandi Gobindgarh. The unscheduled power cuts generally happen in the summer season and caused heavy losses. The Chamber has urged the state government to stop power cuts to avoid losses to industry.

PATHANKOT
SENTENCED: Mr Harish Anand, Judicial Magistrate (First Class), on Monday sentenced Joginder Singth of Sahon Mazra village, Ambala, to one-year imprisonment and fined him Rs 1,000 in an accident case, in which a child was killed.

CHARGE ASSUMED: Mr Puneet Goel on Monday assumed the charge of Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) here, while Ms Bhawna Garg, who was transferred to Gurdaspur, assumed the charge of SDM, Gurdaspur.

SAMRALA
SARPANCH SUSPENDED: Mr Harnek Singh, sarpanch of Rohle village, 4 km from here, has been suspended by the Additional Director, Panchayats, Punjab, Mr Joginder Singh, for irregularities under the Panchayati Raj Act, 1944. The BDPO here said as per directions of the Additional Director, the charge of the Gram Panchayat has been handed over to the senior panch of the village.

MEETING: A meeting of the members of the local press club was called here by the new SDM, Mr Jaspal Jassi, in which he listened to the problems of the city as well as of the subdivision. Mr Jassi promised to solve the problems of the general public on merit basis. Mr Jassi also said there was no problem regarding the procurement of wheat and lifting of wheat etc. Earlier, he visited the mandis of the subdivision.

CHANDIGARH

STUDENT TOPS EXAM: Madhu Bala, a student of the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Institute of Vocational Studies, Sector 27, topped the vocational examination with 89.5 per cent marks while Seema Gulati and Pooja Sharma won the second and third positions securing 88.5 per cent and 85 per cent marks, respectively, in the third semester, according to results declared recently.

PANCHKULA
STUDENT GETS PRIZE: Neha Aggarwal, a student of Class X of Manav Mangal School, Sector 11, has won the first prize in the state during the first leg of the Fourth National Science Olympiad. This was organised by the Science Olympiad Foundation earlier this year, said the administrator of the school, Mr Sandeep Sardana. He said another Class X student, Anmol Sharma, had also been selected in the competition. Both children will participate in the second leg of the competition to be held in May.

GURUKUL VISITED: A congregation of Jain saints visited Jainendra Gurukul here on Monday, on the eve of 2600th “Janam Kalyank Varsh” of Lord Mahavira. The saints, who arrived here under the aegis of Acharaya Shiv Muniji Maharaj, addressed students. They said the gurukul had been the abode of great saints. Meanwhile, it is learnt that Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala will lay the foundation stone of the Lord Mahavira Research and Meditation Centre at the school tomorrow.

WHEAT PURCHASE: As many as 5,728 metric tonnes of wheat has arrived in the mandis of the district till April 20 as compared to 471 metric tonnes during the corresponding period last year. The Deputy Commissioner said here on Monday that only 26 metric tonnes had been purchased by traders, while the remaining had been procured by government agencies, namely Hafed and Confed, at the minimum support price.

SAS NAGAR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the executive committee of the local branch of the Family Planning Association of India: president — Dr Surjit Kaur Sandhu; vice presidents — Col R.K. Dutta (retd) and Mr B.S. Dosanjh; honorary secretary — Mr J.S. Arora; honorary treasurer — Mrs Manjeet Sodhi; member — Mrs Kamaljit Saini, Mrs Ameer Sultana, Mrs Krishna Gupta, Mr Harwant Singh, Dr Manmohan Kaur, Mr Ajaib Singh and Mr Dinesh Gupta.

HARYANA

AMBALA
COUNCIL’S DEMANDS: The Citizens Council, Ambala cantonments, has demanded the opening of a government girls degree college, specially for lower and middle income group students. The council has also demanded another hospital since the Civil Hospital is overcrowded and poor people had to wait for long for their turn”.

WATER SHORTAGE: Harijan Basti of Kanwla is facing water shortage for the past 15 days. The Dr Ambedkar Samiti, Kanwala, held a meeting on Monday under the presidentship of Mr Mangat Ram Dhawri. The samiti discussed the issue of water shortage. It demanded action against tubewell operators. Members said officials had already been intimated about the problem but to no avail. The samiti decided to take action if the demand was not met.

MEETING: A meeting of the Lok Sangharsh Manch was held at Subhash Chandra Bose Park under the presidentship of Mr B.M. Sarhadi. The manch has demanded that pink ration cards should be issued to those living below poverty line, women given pay equal to that of men, concrete roads constructed and urinals improved.

COMPLAINT: The Executive Director of Advanced Microdevices (Pvt) Ltd, Mr Ashawant Gupta, has complained to the Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala, regarding excess parking charges at the Ambala cantonment railway station. Mr Gupta in a letter addressed to the DRM said he had gone to the railway station at night to pick up somebody when he was given a Rs 10 parking ticket. The amount was too much for two minutes’ parking, he said. The Station Manager, Mr Prem Prakash, said he was looking into the matter.

KAITHAL
HINDI WEEKLY: Mr Ram Pal Mazra, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Haryana, released the first copy of a Hindi weekly here on Sunday. Mr K.B. Pandit, president of the Haryana Patarkar Sangh, speaking on the occasion said the organisation would provide legal aid free of cost to the scribes facing defamation cases in courts.

LOK ADALAT: As many as 226 cases were settled at a lok adalat presided over by Mr R.C. Bansal, Additional District and Sessions Judge, here on Sunday, according to an official press note issued here on Monday.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
MONKEY MENACE: Residents of several sectors in the town, particularly Baba Bangali (Raura) sector, are being harassed by monkeys who are said to have been released here after being carried in a truck from some other place four days ago. A rabid dog has also created terror in the Luhanu area where it has bitten a number of cattle and dogs.

KANGRA
MEDICAL REPS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of the Himachal Pradesh Medical Representatives Association: president — Mr Aman Sood; vice-president — Mr Narinder Sharma; general secretary — Mr Satish Kaul; joint secretary — Mr Ajay Chaudary; treasurer — Mr Rakesh Sharma; and auditor— Mr Shalinder Gupta.

MANALI
RESOLUTION PASSED: The Manali Bar Association in its meeting presided over by its president, Mr Krishan Gopal Thakur, here on Monday resolved to boycott the court-cum-office of the local Tehsildar-cum-Sub-Registrar, Mr Ashwani Kumar Sood, for his alleged revengeful and vindictive attitude towards a local lawyer in particular and towards local advocates in general. In the resolution it was decided that the boycott of the Tehsildar will continue until and unless he tenders unconditional apology and the administration takes stringent action against him.