R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• A holy place cries for care
• ‘Rashtriya Chikitsak Ratna Award’
• Meditation camp

PUNJAB

WATER TREATMENT PLANT: The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, will inaugurate a potable water treatment plant at Talwandi Sabo on Friday. The plant has been constructed with the help of the Government of Uruguay and it will purify 4 lakh litres of water daily, Chief Engineer, Public Health, Mr Manmohanjit Singh, said.

HOSHIARPUR
PIRATED CDS: The local police raided Arora Music Centre at Krishna Nagar here on Monday and recovered 300 pirated CDs. Parveen Kumar, owner of the centre, was arrested and case under Section 64 of the Copyright Act registered against him.

NRI BOOKED: On the complaint Darshan Singh of Ambala Jattan village, the Tanda police has registered a case under Sections 420, 495 and 120 B of the IPC against an NRI, Satinder Singh, his father, Faquir Singh, mother, Jagir Kaur, and brother, Stephon, of Dagana Kalan village for fraudulently marrying his daughter, Kuljit Kaur.

CASE REGISTERED: On the complaint of Karan Singh of Kandhala Jattan, the Tanda police registered a case under Section 420 of the IPC against travel agent Kamaljit Singh of Sehge village on Monday. Karan Singh had alleged that Kamaljit Singh took Rs 1,50,000 from him for sending his son-in-law abroad. He neither did so nor returned the money.

WOMAN KILLED: Neelam Devi of Passi Thiara village was killed while two others — Rakesh Kumar and Bimla Devi — were seriously injured when some robbers assaulted them with sharp-edged weapons and iron rods at Bimla Devi’s house in Kunta village on Wednesday. They took away two steel almirahs containing gold ornaments and other valuable articles. A case has been registered.

‘PENSION ADALAT’: To redress the grievances of defence pensioners drawing pension from the DPDO Office here, a “pension adalat” will be held on August 23, according to a press note issued by Mr J.K. Chawla, SAO, Hoshiarpur, on Tuesday. It said pensioners should send their grievances in writing in duplicate to the in charge, DPDO, by hand or by registered post before July 31.

NARCOTICS SEIZED: The Sadar police arrested Baljit Singh, alias Gula, of Akhlaspur and seized 2 kg of opium from him on Tuesday. The Tanda police arrested Bhupinder Pal Singh of Jaja and the Dasuya police arrested Kuljit Singh of Dasuya and seized 3 gm of smack each from them. Cases have been registered.

JAGRAON
PO ARRESTED: The Raikot police has arrested a resident of Kaur Singh Wala village, Darshan Singh, who was declared a proclaimed offender on December 2, 1994, by the court of Mr Dilbag Singh, JMIC, Jagraon, in a case registered against him under Sections 304A and 279, IPC. The accused was produced in the court of Mr H.S. Grewal, who remanded him in judicial custody till July 2.OC

LUDHIANA
PCCTU DHARNA: The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union has decided to hold its dharna on June 25 instead of June 27. Stating this in a press note, Prof Kanwaljeet Singh, state secretary of the union, said the decision had been taken in view of the Budget session that would conclude on June 26. He said the members would join members of the Joint Action Committee at Matka Chowk, Chandigarh. The members are demanding restoration of 95 per cent grant-in-aid, implementation of pension-cum-gratuity scheme and new schemes to boost higher education.

ELECTED: Mr Kishan Lal Sachdeva was unanimously elected president of the Truck Operators Union Machhiwara on Tuesday. The rival faction headed by the former president, Mr Sukhdev Singh Benipal, boycotted the elections. Mr Jasdev Singh has been elected vice-president.

JAGRAN: The Jai Durga Sudhar Sabha held its 14th annual Bhagwati jagran at Gandhi Nagar under the supervision of its president, Mr Baldev Singh, on Monday. A shobha yatra of the holy flame from Jwalaji was taken out before the start of the jagran and the jagran was inaugurated by Mr Parminder Mehta, a youth Congress activist. Among others present on the occasion were Mr Som Nath Miglani, Mr Ajay Malhotra, Mr Manohar Lal, Mr Sita Ram Shankar, Ms Sunita Sharma, Mr Raghuvir Singh, SHO, Division No. 4, and Mr. Girdhari Lal.

RELIEF DISTRIBUTED: The Dhanda Charitable Trust distributed relief among 111 widows of the town at a function held at Shri Dandi Swami Tapovan, Civil Lines, on Monday. Addressing the gathering, Mr Suraj Bhan Jain said the next function would be held on July 21 at 11 am.

ROPAR
CANTEEN RAIDED: After receiving complaints regarding poor quality of tea and other items in the canteen of the Mini Secretariat here, Dr A.P. Chaudhary, District Health Officer, on Monday conducted a raid on the canteen. Dr Chaudhary checked the utensils cleanliness, tea and food items being served in the canteen and issued a warning to the contractor to improve the standards failing which a strict action would be taken against him. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
REMAND EXTENDED: The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.K. Kaushik, extended the judicial remand of the Income Tax Commissioner, Karnal, Mr Madan Lal, till July 2 here on Wednesday. The hearing on the interim bail application filed by Mr Lal was also adjourned for June 21. A CBI team had arrested Mr Lal for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh in a tax assessment case from a firm at Karnal on May 9. During the argument, the counsel of Mr Lal stated that the wife of his client had been suffering from some intestine disease. He prayed the court to grant him interim bail. However, the CBI counsel opposed the bail application.

KATHAK WORKSHOP: A workshop being conducted by kathak exponent Surekha concluded here on Wednesday. The workshop was held for a month and 18 young dancers learned kathak during this period. Starting from the basics, the young dancers were taught todas, challas, footwork and expressions. 

HISAR
2 CHILDREN KILLED: Two children were killed and one was injured when a wall of a stadium collapsed at Sulkhani village, near here, on Monday. The deceased have been identified as Gobind (14) and Shyam (12), while the injured as Meenu.

KALKA
OFFICER-BEARERS: The following have been elected the office-bearers, of the All-India postal union, Kalka branch: president — Mr Gainda Ram; vice-president — Mr Jai Singh; general secretary — Mr Data Ram and cashier — Mr Om Parkash. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARAMSALA
CONFERENCE: The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Mr Shanta Kumar, will inaugurate the joint biennial conference of the All-India Postal Employees Union, Group C, and extra-departmental agents of Himachal Pradesh at Palampur on June 23. More than 300 delegates from all over the state are expected to participate in the conference.

HAMIRPUR
FOUNDATION STONE: The Himachal Pradesh Minister for Education, Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman, laid the foundation stone of Government Senior Secondary School at Bhoranj in the district on Tuesday. Cultural programme was presented by schoolchildren on the occasion.

NAHAN
MEETING: While presiding over meeting of the Monitoring Committee on the Prevention of Atrocities to SC/ST on Tuesday the Sirmaur Deputy Commissioner, Mr Onkar Chand Sharma asked officials of various departments to coordinate their efforts so that culprits were punished and the victims given timely relief.

SHIMLA
BAN ORDERS: Mr P.C. Katoch, District Magistrate, on Tuesday banned the holding of rallies, demonstrations and processions from Chaura to Jhakri along Hindustan-Tibet Road with immediate effect. The ban was imposed in view of workers’ agitation in the Nathpa-Jhakri projects.

TAKES CHARGE: Mr B.R. Rattan took over as Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Himachal Pradesh, here on Tuesday. He replaced Mr P. Bhaskaran, who has been posted as Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Goa.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

A holy place cries for care

Pilgrims from all over the country visiting the holy shrine of Goddess Durga Mata Jawalamukhi have to face bitter experience due to the inefficient functioning of the temple and Nagar Panchayat authorities. The entire town having a population of about 10,000 has become one of the dirtiest places of pilgrimage due to the poor sanitary conditions. The sanitation in and around the general bus stand is bad. The stench emanating from the place makes it difficult for incoming and outgoing pilgrims even to board the buses. Garbage continues to pile up emitting foul smell. The toilet block of the bus stand is so poorly maintained that visitors generally avoid going there. There is only one entry to the toilet block for men and women. There is no arrangement for drinking water. The garbage dumps, which are seldom cleared, have become breeding grounds for mosquitos and flies. There is no place for parking of private vehicles. These are haphazardly parked causing frequent traffic jams.

Mr Inder Mohan Walia, former Vice-President of the Nagar Panchayat Dehra Gopipur, said the state government should take immediate steps to improve the conditions at Jawalamukhi and Dehra Gopipur towns so that pilgrims as well as inhabitants could get a sigh of relief.

‘Rashtriya Chikitsak Ratna Award’

The Rashtriya Chikitsak Ratna Award (National Gem of Physicians’ Award) has been conferred upon Jalandhar-based renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr B. P. Singh during a seminar on ‘Individual Contribution towards Economic Development’ held recently in New Delhi. The seminar was organised by Nations Economic Development and Growth Society. Mr. Anand Mohan, MP, while presenting the award to Dr. Singh, lauded his contribution in raising the image of India abroad by means of his novel and innovative work in the field of cosmetic surgery. In all 18 outstanding individuals from various fields of Health, Education, Business, Industry and Law were among the recipient of the National Awards.

Dr B. P. Singh has introduced and popularised the concept of cosmetic surgery in northern India in the last decade. His contribution in the field of cosmetic surgery, particularly in perfecting the techniques of Liposuction and Lipo-Injection, has been recognised at the international level. After seven years of dedicated research Dr B.P. Singh presented two original papers on Repeated Liposuction with Lesser Time Gap and Homologous Fat Injection at the Congress of the International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery in San Francisco, California, USA in the year 1999. He was awarded ‘World Leader of Cosmetic Surgery Award’ and ‘Best Scientific Presentation Award’ for his outstanding research. For two years the techniques were put to a rigorous test world over. Fascinated with the successful results, his techniques were applauded and approved at the IInd World Congress on Cosmetic Surgery held at Sydney, in the year 2001.

Liposuction is a surgical method to take out extra fat deposited in various parts of the body while Lipo-injection is the process by which fat is put into certain parts of the body to give them a firm rounded shape. The techniques perfected by Dr Singh have reduced the time and expenditure by almost half as compared to the traditional methods used earlier.

Meditation camp

A three-day meditation camp organised by the Osho Himalaya Dhayan Kendra, Summer Hill, Shimla, concluded at Woodpark Hotel, Dhali, on Sunday (see picture). Swami Vairagya Amrit , who conducted the camp, gave ‘sanyas diksha’ to 11 participants.

Contributed by Ravinder Sud, A.S. Prashar and TNS