The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, June 29, 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

BARNALA
MEETING: The Beopar Mandal Barnala held a meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Prem Chand Aggarwal, chairman of the mandal, to condole the demise of Pandit Som Dutt, veteran Congress leader. Expressing shock over his death, the mandal activists, Mr Ram Saran Dass Goyal, Mr Prem Pritam Jindal, Mr Narinder Kumar Sahoria, Mr Ram Sarup and Mr Karamjit Singh Billu, said Pandit Som Dutt was popular as a well-wisher of businessmen.

BAD ROADS: Residents of Barnala are sore over the bad shape of roads in Barnala. The residents have complained that the roads were full of potholes and badly in need of repair.

FAZILKA
COMPLAINT: Mr Sita Ram of Radha Swami colony, here, has complained to the Human Right Commission, Punjab, alleging that the city police had beaten him in custody and hurled abuses regarding his caste. According to medico-legal report, Mr Sita Ram had a blunt injury mark on his right buttock. SHO Jaswinder Singh Gharu has, however, denied the allegations.

FEROZEPORE
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Rotary Club, Ferozepore Cantt: president — Dr Sukhdev Deora; general secretary — Mr Nikhil Gupta; joint secretary — Mr Rajneesh Sharma; and treasurer — Mr Jiwan Kalia.

LUDHIANA
WEBSITE LAUNCHED: The local Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic has become the first polytechnic in the state which has launched its own website depicting all required information about the oldest polytechnic in the region. The website www.gndpoly.org was launched here on Thursday by the Department of Computer Engineering, Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic, under the supervision of project coordinators, Mr K.S. Mann and Mr H.S. Jawanda. A press release issued by the polytechnic said that Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic is providing a three-year diploma in computer engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and post-diploma in automobile and tractor engineering. Many short courses are being run by the same institute under the community polytechnic.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The Lalumal Street Shopkeeper’s Association has elected office-bearers. The following members have been elected at a meeting held here on Friday. Mr Harish Chander Aggarwal has been elected president, Mr Manjit Singh Chhabra chairperson and Mr Maninder Singh Galhotra general secretary of the association.

IMPROVEMENT TRUSTS DISSOLVED: The Punjab Government has dissolved all the Improvement Trusts in the state. With the appointment of government officials as administrators, the trusts have been directed not to organise any draw of lots for allotment of plots in the residential or other schemes. Giving this information, Mr Raminder Singh, Administrator, Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), said earnest money deposited by the people for allotment of plots in various schemes of the LIT was being returned through account payee cheques on the addresses given by the applicants by registered post. He further asked the applicants to intimate if there was any change of address so that earnest money could be returned on their new addresses. The cheques of pending earnest money could also be personally collected by the applicants, if they wished to do so on production of necessary documents and proof of identity.

BUS PASSES: Medical students of local colleges have written to the Director of State Transport, Punjab, demanding concession in bus fare. Stating this in a press note, Mr Ashok Verma, general secretary of the Desh Bhagat Ayurvedic College Punjab Students and Parents Association, said that in reply to their letter, the Director said that he had issued a circular to the principals of all medical, dental and ayurvedic colleges of Punjab to send him the details of the number of students seeking bus passes and the approximate budget, however, none of the principals had sent the details till date.

NAWANSHAHR
PATWARI SUSPENDED: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, suspended Patwari, Manoj Kumar, and served him a chargesheet following a complaint by Surinder Singh of Nurpur village at a ‘‘khula durbar’’ organised here at DC office on Wednesday.

TRAFFIC RULES: The Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over a meeting here on Wednesday to enforce traffic rules, stressed upon the need to involve NGOs in creating awareness among the masses regarding the traffic rules. He also directed executive officers of the municipal councils to identify areas for parking zones in the towns.

BLOOD BANKS: Mr Gurinder Singh Toor, chairman of the Punjab State Blood Donation Committee, in a press note issued here on Thursday said the committee had urged the government to scrap the licences of blood banks indulged in the ‘‘trading’’ of blood, provide proper facilities and encourage charitable institutions to set up blood banks with a missionary spirit.

PHAGWARA
HONOURED: NRI Lakhwinder Singh Basra and columnist Piara Singh Bhogal were honoured on Wednesday at their native Palahi village for their contributions to the community. Former Punjab Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh honoured them.

HARYANA

AMBALA
AIDS AWARENESS RALLY: An AIDS awareness rally was organised by the Nehru Yuva Kendra at Barara. The rally started from the Tehsil office and passed through the railway station area main market and culminated at Anaj Mandi, Barara. Mr KPS Gill, convener Nehru Yuva Kendra, said AIDS awareness programmes were being organised in 40 villages, with the assistance of NACO. “Under these programmes at least two youths from each village are explained about AIDS”, he said. Among others, Mr Baljit Singh, Mr Satish Kumar, Mr Manish Kumar, Mr Ashok Saini, Mr Praveen Kumar and Mr Avtar Singh were also present.

CONSTABLE DISMISSED: A constable in the first battalion of the Haryana Armed Police deployed at Ambala, has been dismissed from service for long absence. Constable Bir Singh has been absent without leave since August 6, 2000. He has been dismissed from service after a departments inquiry. The constable has been asked to return his police uniform, identity card and other government articles within 15 days.

PENSION ADALAT: The Defence Pension Disbursement Office, Ambala Cantonment, will hold a mini pension adalat to look into complaints regarding defence pension. ‘Any person drawing defence pension, can file his comlaint till July 13. The Defence Pension Disbursement Officer, Mr R.S. Bahal, said in a press note that the adalat would be held in August.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARAMSALA
JE HELD: The Vigilance branch of the police has arrested a Junior Engineer of the HPSEB for taking a bribe from an applicant for a new connection. Giving details, Mr K.K. Indauria, SP, Vigilance, Dharamsala, said Om Prakash Sawhney, Junior Engineer, Electric Subdivision, Gagret, was caught while taking a bribe of Rs 1,000 from Kuldeep Singh of Panjwar village in Una district.

TOLL TAX: The toll tax barriers set up at the borders of the state in Kangra, Chamba and Una districts have fetched a record amount of Rs 5.71 crore. Disclosing this, the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (North Zone), Mr Ashok Mahajan, said there were 16 toll tax barriers on the boundaries of these districts.

UNITS DISBANDED: The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Technical Employees Association has disbanded all district units which were constituted illegally. This was disclosed by Mr Chandra Bhushan Mishra, spokesman for the association here on Friday.

PALAMPUR
HUNGER STRIKE: The striking teachers of College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, H.P.A.U, on Friday launched a hunger strike in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor. All faculty members joined the strike. Later a rally was held out-side the office of the Vice-Chancellor, where the leaders of the VASTA criticised the HPAU authorities for not accepting their demand.

SHIMLA
EXEMPTION: The Vishal Himachal Pradesh Class IV Employees Association has threatened to start an agitation if the government fails to except its demands for one-time exemption from typing test for promotion. Mr Kishan Dut and Mr Devender Kumar, president and general secretary of the association, said at a press conference here on Friday that the condition imposed from August 2001, was proving to be a big hurdle as many as 2,500 Class IV employees had been denied promotions because of the new rule. They urged the government to grant one-time exemption for promotion. They also demanded increase in promotion quota from 10 to 20 per cent and special pay to all Class IV employees.

BJP MEETING: Office-bearers of the front organisations and various cells of the state BJP will meet here on Monday to chalk out a programme to mobilise party workers for the ensuing Assembly elections. Mr Ganesh Dutt, spokesperson of the party, said Mr O.P. Kohli, all-India Secretary of the party, would attend the meeting which would be addressed by Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, and Mr Jai Krishan Sharma, state BJP chief.

COMPUTER CENTRES: Computer training centres meant for imparting training in information technology to government employees will be strengthened. Disclosing this here on Thursday, Mr Desh Deepak, Director, Himachal Institute of Public Administration, said the Regional Training Centre, Dharamsala, would cover Kangra, Hamirpur, Una and Chamba districts, the Regional Training Centre, Mandi would cover Mandi, Kulu, Bilaspur and Lahaul and Spiti districts whereas the Regional Training Centre, Solan, would cover Shimla, Solan, Kinnaur and Sirmaur districts. Mr Desh Deepak said 23 courses of three days each would be conducted in these centres and more than 2,100 government employees would be imparted computer training under these courses.

CONDEMNED: Mr Kishori Lal Sharma, chairman of the state urban local bodies employees federation, has condemned the Punjab Government for invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act in the state to crush the employees’ strike. In a statement here on Thursday, Mr Sharma said the government had frozen all benefits, including dearness allowance, leave travel concession and leave encashment, and had invoked ESMA to curb the democratic rights of the working class. He regretted that the Punjab Government, instead of settling issues concerning employees, had acted like a dictator.

UNA
WORKSHOP: A one-day district-level medical workshop pertaining to medico-legal cases and post-mortem was organised at Bachat Bhavan here on Wednesday. As many as 35 medical officers and gazetted police officers participated in the workshop.