R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• Following in father’s footsteps
• Cyclist & trekker

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
AGITATION: The agitation against the closure of Government College for Boys led by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad entered sixth day on Tuesday. Agitating students of Government College for Boys and BK Senior Secondary School burnt the effigies of the Minister for Education Mr Khushal Behal at Hall Gate here.

SURVEY: The 58th round of the regional training conference of the National Sample Survey Organisation was held here under the Chairmanship of Mr S.L. Minaria, Deputy Director (North Zone), Jaipur on Tuesday. It would conduct a survey on housing conditions, village facilities, human disability, household consumer expenditure and key data relating to the employment and unemployment status. Mr MK Ujjania, Deputy Director, Punjab, presided over the conference.

BATHINDA
FOUND DEAD: The body of a new-born girl was found abandoned on a piece of land near the local Parasram Nagar on Tuesday. The body was wrapped in a polythene bag and pigs had eaten some portion of the feet. A post mortem was conducted at the hospital and later the body was handed over to Sahara, an NGO, for burial. A case has been registered under Section 318 of the IPC. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, said efforts were being made to find out the parents of the girl.

POWER CUT: The power supply will remain cut off in some parts of the city between 7 a.m. and 12 noon on Thursday due to the necessary repairs and maintenance.

BONDED LABOUR: Mr Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner on Tuesday claimed that there was no case of bonded labour in the district. In a press note issued here, he said a meeting was held with members of the committee formed for looking into instances of bonded labour.

FAZILKA
ARRESTED: The police has arrested an inspector and another person on charge of theft of wheat. According to Mr Swarandeep Singh, DSP Fazilka, a patrol party raided the premises of Vipin Kumar on the outskirts of the town and recovered 11 quintals of wheat and Rs 6,500 in cash from him, which he was to pay to an inspector of the Punjab Agro Industries in lieu of wheat, which he had allegedly purchased. The police has arrested Vipin Kumar and inspector Bali Ram under Sections 379, 411, 406, 409. 

HOSHIARPUR
LIQUOR SEIZED: The District Excise and Taxation Department achieved a big success on Tuesday when a team headed by Mr Balbir Sharma, Inspector, intercepted a car HC-01H-3647 and seized a huge quantity of whisky and rum worth Rs 2.50 lakh from it.

ARRESTED: The Haryana police has arrested Ravi Kumar, Pritam Singh, Parshotam Lal and Ram Parkash of Bassi Balon village for allegedly mentally torturing Tikka Ram, acting sarpanch of the village, following which be committed suicide on Tuesday. According to the police, the accused had made complaints against the acting sarpanch that he had embezzled panchayat funds.

SEIZED: The Sadar police on Tuesday arrested Tarlok Chand of Punj Pipli Bahadurpur mohalla and seized 207 litres of liquor from his car. His accomplice, Ravi Shanker of Premgarh mohalla, managed to escape. The Mukerian police also seized 45 litres of liquor from Ravinder Singh and Rohit Sharma.

ARRESTED: The district police arrested Bhajan Singh, a proclaimed offender of Talwandi Dadian village, on Tuesday. He was wanted in a case registered under the Excise Act on July 15, 1997,

DHARNA: A dharna by members of the Kisan Sabha led by Mr Gurmesh Singh, Mr Ram Singh Kadiana, Mr Inderpal Singh, was held here on Wednesday. They later presented a charter of demands to the local Subdivisional Magistrate. In a press note, Mr Gurmesh Singh warned the state government that if their demands were not accepted, members of the sabha would intensify their agitation.

SEMINAR: The Indian Society for the Development and Alternative Systems organised a seminar on alternative systems of medicines here on Wednesday. Dr Dharmbir Kapur presided over the seminar. Dr Jagmohan Singh Dardi, secretary of the All-India Medicos Society, said the alternative systems of medicine were now a separate entity.

CASE REGISTERED: The Hariana police has registered a case against sarpanch Binder Kaur and panch Bhagat Ram of Sarain on Tuesday under Section 407, 420 of the IPC. After enquiry, it was found that only Rs 24,000 had been utilised for the development work, whereas the remaining had been embezzled by the sarpanch and the panch.

SUPPLY SCHEMES: Inhabitants of 42 villages of the Talwara block located in the montane sub-mountainous area of Kandi district will get supply of safe drinking water very shortly. Twelve schemes have been prepared at a cost of Rs 7.40 crore and construction work will start soon. This was disclosed by Mr Romesh Chander Dogra, health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab, while addressing a gathering after the inauguration of a deep tubewell in Talwara. The Health Minister said, to provide health facilities in the remote areas of the state, mobile health services would soon be started in Punjab.

ARRESTED: The district police arrested two robbers, Upkar Singh and Iqbal Singh, both residents of Kotli village, Tanda, on Tuesday. According to police sources, two pistols along with 10 live cartridges and lottery tickets worth Rs 35,000 were recovered from them. Sources said that they snatched lottery tickets worth Rs 50,000 from Sukhvinder Singh alias Bittu, agent of Punjab Lotteries and Laxmi Lotteries Agencies, Tanda on July 6. They also stole Chetak Bajaj scooter, PB-0H-8392, of Sanjiv Kumar of Tanda.

KAPURTHALA
DIRECTIONS ISSUED: Following a complaint, the Deputy Commissioner here, Mr Rakesh K. Verma, has directed the Executive Officer of municipal council, Phagwara, to hold an inquiry and submit a report if any modifications had been made in the estimates prepared for the works of sangat darshan. A perusal of the record by the Deputy Commissioner prima facie revealed that in some cases different handwriting and ink had been used raising suspicion that the original estimates may have been tampered with.

KHAMANO
CRITICISED: A joint action committee has criticised the Congress for anti-employee policies. They took out a protest rally and demonstration in the town gave memorandum to the SDM. About 20 spokespersons of different organisations urged the government to take back these proposals.

KHARAR
FUNCTION: The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, will visit Kharar on Thursday to participate in a function being organised at Khalsa Senior Secondary School in connection with the birth anniversary of the first Defence Minister, Baldev Singh Dumna. The Khalsa school is amongst six schools of Ropar district that are being run under the chairmanship of Mr Ravi Inder Singh, a former Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, and a family member of Dumna.

LUDHIANA
TOPPER IN B.ED: Pratima Nassa, student from the BCM College of Education, has topped among city students in BEd examination conducted in April, 2002. She has scored 784 marks out of 1,000 and stood second in Panjab University. Mr S. K. Nanda, Principal of the college, and members of the college management have congratulated Pratima on her success.

EXHIBITION: ‘Naturelle’, an exhibition of creations on nature would be organised by the Society for Advancement of Academics, Sports and Cultural Activities (SAASCA) at Students’ Home, Punjab Agricultural University from July 12 to 14. The exhibition which would include creations stones, pottery, lampshades, wood and plants made by Dr M.L. Sood, Professor in the Department of Zoology, and his dentist daughter. Dr M.A. Zahir, Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, will inaugurate the exhibition.

TRAINING COURSE: The Department of Family Resource Management, College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University, will organise a short training course in ‘Home decoration’ from July 14 to 15 for women. Dr S.K. Mann, Dean, College of Home science, said trainees would get theoretical and practical training in table setting and table etiquettes, window treatments, colour in the home, glass painting, rangoli, party decoration, metal embossing, pot decoration, flower arrangement, gift wrapping, artificial flower making and personal grooming.

MALERKOTLA
ELECTROCUTED: Dalbara Singh, a labourer, was electrocuted at Somal Kheri village on Tuesday in the house of Piara Lal where he had gone to repair a wall. He was immediately admitted to the Civil Hospital where he was declared dead.

NAWANSHAHR
APPOINTED: Mr LK Ohri has been appointed Zonal Chairman of Lions Club District 321-D. Mr Jarnail Singh, Ms Nirmal Kaur and Mr Rajeev Gautam have been elected as president, secretary and treasurer, respectively.

PROTEST: The Berozgar Adhyapak Front has decided to hold a dharna on July 19 in front of the office of the District Education Officer in protest against the callous attitude of the state government towards the employees.

POPPY SEIZED: Dr Naresh Kumar Arora, SSP, in a press note here on Tuesday informed that the police had arrested two narcotics smugglers — Sukha Singh of Rurka Kalan village (Jalandhar) and Bhaga of Jabbowal village (Nawanshahr) — and seized two bags of poppy husk from them. Both have been declared proclaimed offenders in cases of smuggling of narcotics.

PATIALA
ENVIRONMENT WEEK: The Environment Week was organised by the Morning Star Fellowship Society at Government School, Daffarpur, Patiala. The Director, All-India Citizens Welfare Association, was the chief guest. The Health Educator, Family Association of Idnia, Dr Ramesh Sharma, presided over the function.

SAMRALA
STRIKE: In protest against the alleged high-handedness of Vigilance Bureau while conducting raids on their offices, the Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar, Samrala, struck their work here on Wednesday. In support of the revenue officers the officials of the ministerial staff also struck their work, causing inconvenience to the general public, specially for the farmers who came to get their registries of sale deeds and mortgage deeds to be registered at the Tehsil headquarters. It is also learnt from reliable sources that the revenue officers have decided to boycott the registries work of sale deeds or mortgage from July 15, if the Vigilance Bureau didn’t stopped the wrong methods of raiding their offices.

ELECTED: The following have been office-bearers of the Samrala Tehsil Patwar Union: president — Mr Parminder Singh Toor, senior vice president — Sukhdev Singh; general secretary — Mr Budh Singh; joint secretary — Mr Ashwani Kumar; cashier — Mr Ram Pal, press secretary — Mr Kashmira Singh; district members — Mr Sukhdev Singh, Paramjit Singh Dhillon, Jagtar Singh, Avtar Singh, Gurbachan Singh and Paramjit Singh Virk.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

GLOBE TROTTER: Mr Sylvain Quenel, a globetrotter on a peace environment mission, met the Governor, Dr Suraj Bhan, here today. Dr Bhan appreciated the efforts of Mr Quenel who also called on Chief Minister PK Dhumal and informed him about his mission.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Following in father’s footsteps

Salil V Bhatt, son of legendary slide player Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, represents the 10th generation of the famous Bhatt lineage where music has been flowing for more than 500 years.

Being the son of the world famous Grammy award winner Salil has been under intensive training of Mohan veena for more than 13 years. One of the youngest and most promising exponents of Mohan veena, His soulful and vibrant music is winning him accolades wherever he has performed.

With a masters degree in music and A grade of AIR, Salil has performed throughout the country as well as abroad. He is also a regular performer for AIR and the television network along with other prime television channels.

Salil reflects the dynamic style of rendering the classic nuances on Mohan veena in his concerts. His style incorporates the authentic and systematic exposition of classical Indian ragas and embellishments of world music. His baaz (style) assimilates the ‘gayaki’ (vocal) and ‘tantrakari’ (instrumental) representations. He specialises in playing high speed taans demonstrating his great skill on Mohan veena.

He has also performed a number of new-age fusions inheriting this talent from his father. He has played in a rare collaboration with Mexican guitarist David Heidalgo in Santa Barbara, USA. He has also experimented with Australian guitarist Lawrie Minson.

Cyclist & trekker

He gets up at 4.30 every morning, takes out his machine, climbs uphill and reaches National Highway. From there he zooms off touching Mashobra and the world famous Naldehra golf course.

This is no story from a fiction book or a space man but a real life story of a cyclist who is regularly carrying out the above ritual when most of Shimla is asleep. By the time the Shimlaites get up, he is immersed into law books and is preparing for another day. Yes folks you have guessed it right, this is the story about a lawyer from Shimla called Mr H.P. Singh. This cyclist interestingly always has a rucksack on his cycle and in his car because you never know when he might start climbing a hill, because he is a keen trekker and a photographer also. He has trekked to various places several times but his favourite holiday spots are Mussoorie and Shalli Ka Tibba, a picturesque hilltop near Shimla, famous for its lush environs.

When Mr H.P. Singh was asked to comment on his background and cycling, he burst into laughter and said: “As far as my background is concerned, I am the son of Mr Santokh Singh, a social worker, and late Mrs Gursharan Kaur.

Commenting on his cycling, H P Singh further adds: “I was born in Shimla and did my entire schooling from K.V. Jakhu and did my law from Government Boys College, Shimla. Right from my childhood aeroplanes and flashy cars did not fascinate me, but cycles always haunted me.”

In December, 1972, H.P. Singh along with two of his friends, Rajinder Sood and Manjeet Singh, both of them basically from business families took off with just Rs 1500 in their pocket from Shimla to Bangladesh on their 57-day cycling tour. The Hero Cycle Group of Companies basically co-sponsored their tour by taking care of all the wear and tear on the way. On an average they travelled about 150 km in a day and their maximum run was 202 km on one day that’s from Ambala to Agra via Delhi. On the entire route the local dhabas and some of the relatives gave them the feeling and pampered them in such a way that for a moment they thought they were war heroes of the Indo-Pak war.

Another heroic cycling tour of Singh is to Pooh in Kinnaur district because when a devastating earthquake hit Kinnaur, 5 on the Richter scale, in 1976, H.P. Singh was moved and did not eat for almost 55 hours and locked himself in a room. When his father consoled him and told him that “Nobody can stop nature. Simply spell out what is in your mind.” H.P. Singh replied “Father, this earthquake has touched me. Do grant me permission to cycle to Pooh and other earthquake affected areas”. His father granted him the permission on a Monday in 1976 and on the consecutive Wednesday H P Singh along with his friends was distributing relief material and sweets.

— Contributed by Ambika Sharma and Ravi Bali