The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, November 13, 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

ABOHAR
THEFTS: Eight incidents of theft were reported from the markets of Circular Road, Trunk Bazar and Old Fazilka Road. Resentment prevails among the shopkeepers against the theft.

BATHINDA
COOPERATIVE WEEK: The District Cooperative Union will observe Cooperative Week between November 14 and 20. During the week programmes related with the cooperative movement will be organised in different villages.

FARIDKOT
TECHFAIR: The Adesh Institute of Engineering and Technology, Faridkot, won the first prizes in paper presentation, technology management and software model during the annual Techfair-2002 organised by the ISTE at Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Fatehgarh Saheb, last week. A total of 40 technical institutes of the region participated. Namrata Arora and Anshu Gupta got the first position in paper presentation, Supriya Jhajj and Nupur Singh in technology management and Sumit, Sidharath, Vani and Sunil in software model. Ms Sonia S. Kumar and Ms Anshu Gupta were declared the runners-up in paper presentation and group discussion, respectively. Prof S.K. Gandhi, Faculty Adviser, ISTE, New Delhi, was presented with the award of honour by the ISTE.

LUDHIANA
SILVER JUBILEE: The Shri Chandan Bala Jain Yuvati Sangh will celebrate its silver jubilee on Wednesday by organising a cultural function at Guru Nanak Dev Bhavan from 7.30 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to a press note issued by Ms Subh Jain, spokesperson for the sangh, here on Tuesday. Ms Aruna Oswal will preside over the function while Ms Sunil Aggarwal, wife of Deputy Commissioner, Anurag Aggarwal, will be a special guest.

SATSANG: The Divine Life Society held its fortnightly satsang at Shastri Nagar on Sunday evening. Dr Shiv Sharma, Mr Surinder Rana, Mr Sham Lal Kalia and Ms Sarla Raheja sang hymns. Discourses were also delivered on the significance of satsang and the teachings of the Gita.

JAGRAN: The Raghunath Seva Dal will hold its eighth annual Bhagwati jagran on November 23 at the Raghunath temple, according to a spokesman for the dal. At a meeting held here on Monday, the dal members decided to take out a shobha yatra of the holy flame brought from Jwalaji in Aggar Nagar. The shobha yatra will culminate at the jagran site. Uma Lehri from Jaipur and Vijay Soni from Kolkata will sing hymns in praise of Goddess Bhagwati. Ajit Pal Singhal and party will perform Ganesh Vandana and tell the story of Tara Rani. The dal members who attended Monday’s meeting were Mr Satish Gupta, Mr Krishan Gopal Bansal, Mr Parmeshwar Dass, Mr Shyam Sunder Gupta and Mr Surinder Garg. Meanwhile, the Avadh Navyuvak Sangh has decided to hold its annual Bhagwati jagran on November 16 at Railway Colony.

IDOL INSTALLATION: A three-day idol installation ceremony started at Shri Durga Mata Mandir in Kucha No. 7 of Field Ganj on Monday under the supervision of Pandit Ravi Sharma. Among those who performed puja of the idols were Mr Surinder Pal Wadhwa and Mr Gulshan Wadhwa. The idols will be installed on Wednesday and Swami Ved Bharti will hold a satsang on the occasion, according to a spokesman for the temple managing committee.

APPEAL: Jain Acharya Rattan Muni on Monday called upon the people to pledge to donate their eyes after death. The muni was addressing a religious gathering at the Jain Sthanak in the Rupa Mistry street after offering prayers. He said no donation was greater than eye donation.

PAEDIATRICIAN RETURNS: Dr Tejinder Singh, Professor of Paediatrics, Christian Medical College and Hospital, returned after attending a workshop at the National Institute of Nutrition, Hanoi, Vietnam. The workshop focused on the use of information technology (IT) for awareness related to global nutrition. The workshop was a follow-up activity of a training programme, organised at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and was sponsored by the Swedish International Development Agency. Dr Rajeev Kapoor, Deputy Medical Superintendent, in a press note issued here on Tuesday said it was a computer training programme based on the principles of educational psychology and motivated the learner by liberal use of access devices for self-directed learning.

WORKSHOP: The VLCC will organise a workshop on “Age Management” on November 16. According to a press note, the one-day workshop will be focussed on the needs of the day-to-day skin care and the extensive treatments allowed to reverse the ravages of time on the skin. The seminar will be addressed by cosmetologist and aroma practitioner Ms Reeta Juneja.

MANSA
DC’s ASSURANCE: Mr Surinder Krishan Ahluwalia, who recently took over as the Deputy Commissioner, told mediapersons he would try to provide corruption-free administration. He said steps were being taken to provide an underbridge to ease traffic and encroachments would be removed.

DELIMITATION PANEL: The PPCC has constituted a delimitation committee to recommend the delimitation of the Vidhan Sabha constituencies of the district. Mr Ram Pal Dhaipi, Mr Ajitinder Singh Mofar, Mr Sher Singh Gagowal, and Mr Sukhraj Nat are the members. At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday Mr Dhaipi said there was a combined Lok Sabha constituency for Mansa and Bathinda districts. He said the PPCC would be requested to convene a joint meeting of the delimitation committees of both districts.

CBSE PANEL: The CBSE has constituted a two-member inspection committee with Mr H.S. Puri and Mr Karam Chand as its chairman and member, respectively. The team on Monday inspected SDKL DAV Centenary Public School in connection with the affiliation and up-gradation of the school.

CPM CAMP: The district unit of the CPM organised a seven-day camp against corruption in front of the district courts complex on Monday. The party has sought complaints from the public against corrupt officials so that the issue could be taken up with the authorities concerned. This was stated by Ms Amarjit Kaur, councillor and secretary of the district unit of the CPM.

PATIALA
MEMORIAL LECTURE: The first Colonel Harpratap Singh Dhillon Memorial Lecture was organised by the Department of Encyclopaedia of Sikhism at Punjabi University here on Tuesday. Major Gen Himmat Singh Gill (retd) Chairman, Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi spoke on the occasion and stressed on the need for the Sikhs to faithfully adhere to the Sikh code of conduct in their daily life.

FUNCTION HELD: Dr Ambedkar Library and Study Circle, an organisation for the scio-educational and cultural uplift of the Dalits organised a function on Tuesday to celebrate the anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s visit to the city in October 1951.

BAL MELA: The Devinder Cultural Centre for Children, Sular will organise the sixth bal mela on November 17 in which more than 1,500 children from nearly 100 schools will participate in painting competition, sports, skill games and quiz programmes. College making and clay modelling competitions will also be held for higher classes.

CELEBRATIONS: The Department of Co-operation, Punjab Government, will celebrate the 49th All-India Co-operative Week & Inauguration of co-operative Lok Adalat at Verka milk plant on Thursday. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will be the chief guest.

STRIKE: Employees of Canara Bank will hold a protest strike here on Friday in response to the All-India strike call given by employees unions of the bank against the proposed privatisation of banks.

SAMRALA
CPM CAMPAIGN: The CPM worker of the tehsil started a five-day anti-corruption campaign on Tuesday, according to Mr Bhajan Singh secretary of the tehsil unit of the CPM and president of the Nagar Council, Samrala, here. The party workers will court arrest on November 18 in protest against the anti-people and anti-farmers policies of the Congress government in Punjab. Mr Brahm Dev Anjan, Mr Uttam Chand and many other workers were present on the occasion.

MEMORIAL: The Saddi and the Otal communities of the area are erecting a memorial to their forefathers at Ottalan village, 3 km from here, according to Mr Raj Kumar Saddi, finance secretary of the Saddi Sabha. The Amavasya of the Bhadson month is observed by the Saddi community of the area as the forefathers day. The community members from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Mumbai, the USA, the UK etc come to take part in the ceremony of paying obeisance to their forefathers. The project, which is half complete, lies in the vicinity of Baba Bhai Dalbara Temple.

SUNAM
HUNT: Shaheed Udham Singh Government College organised a talent hunt competition here on Monday. The following are the winners: Rama Joshan (rangoli), Vikramjeet (poster-making), Gurdeep Singh (painting), Mukesh Sharma (declamation), Prabhdeep Singh (recitation), Manjeet Kaur (singing) and Jashandeep Singh (fancy dress). Mr K.L. Batra, president of the old student association of the college, presided over the function.

CHANDIGARH

WORKSHOP ON AIDS: In order to create awareness against, AIDS, a four-day National Youth Workshop is being organised by the Red Cross Society in collaboration with its Punjab branch. About 80 Red Cross volunteers from 18 states are attending the workshop. The main objective of the workshop is to train youth for peer education on HIV/AIDS so that they can educate other youth about the dreaded disease. Inaugurating the workshop, Director Health Services, Punjab Dr D.P.S. Sandhu, who is also the Vice-Chairman of Punjab State Red Cross Society said youth could play a vital role in creating awareness about AIDS.

PANCHKULA
CLARIFICATION: Apropos of the news item, “It’s branded schools vs Local Giants”, published in the columns of this newspaper on November 11, it was inadvertently mentioned that the admission fee of Tiny Tots — a branch of Delhi Modern Convent is Rs 10,000. The admission fee is Rs 4000 with Rs 600 as monthly fee. The error is regretted.

ELECTED: Satbir Singh, Sachin Kaistha, Amardeep Sharma, Ajay Sharma and Neetu Prashar have been elected as office-bearers of Young Lawyers Association. Mr Maninder Singh Bitta was elected as treasurer during a meeting of the association convened today.

HONOUR: People’s Forum, Panchkula, will honour all children who have brought laurels in the fields of education, culture and other co-curricular activities on November 24 in Sector 14. This was stated by Mr Randhir Singh Badhran, president, of the association on Monday.

COMPETITION: More than 120 children participated in poster making competition at Bal Bhavan here on Tuesday. Children made posters on the topics of AIDS awareness, environment and Children’s Day. A mehandi competition was also organised and 40 children from 20 schools of the district participated. The results of these competitions will be declared on Children’s Day.

VALEDICTORY FUNCTION: The valedictory function of Anti-Tobacco campaign by HMT Ladies Club was held in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Auditorium on Monday. Dr Nitin Jain, president of the Indian Dental Association, delivered the keynote address and highlighted the adverse affects of nicotine on brain cells. Dr. Neena Saini, a renowned dentist spoke about benefits of yoga in the quitting process of smoking.

PRESS DAY: The Panchkula Journalists Association will celebrate Press Day on Thursday and chief parliamentary secretary, Haryana, Mr. Rajpal Mehta, will be the chief guest.