The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, November 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

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R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BARNALA
CARDS: About 170 farmers were offered agriculture credit cards worth Rs 1.70 crore at an agriculture credit card camp organised by Oriental Bank of Commerce (Barnala branch) at Government High School, Barnala on Friday. Mr Ashok Verma, Assistant General Manager, Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rural Development) Wing Head Office, New Delhi, was the chief guest.

DHURI
SHOP BURGLED: Miscreants broke into a music shop near the Sangrur railway crossing here on Friday night and decamped with articles worth more than Rs 15,000.

FARIDKOT
RALLY: On a call given by the state body of the Arya Pradeshik Pratinidhi Sabha, more than 800 children of the DAV School, Kotkapura led by Mrs Kiran Verma, Principal along with other members of the staff held a chetna rally carrying playcards and banners in Kotkapura on Friday.

FEROZEPORE
NSS CAMP: The National Service Scheme (NSS) organised a blood donation camp in association with the Society of Mechanical Engineers of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology here on Friday. The camp was conducted with the help of Lions Club and 50 persons donated blood.

KHARAR
JAN CHETNA YATRA: A Jan Chetna Yatra is being organised by the DAV institutions of Kurali: DAV Model School, Kurali, BR DAV College for Women, Kurali, and Chakwal National Senior Secondary School, Kurali, on Saturday at 10.30 a.m. to create awareness among the people about the social evils such a corruption, foeticide, caste issue and the dowry system. The Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Mr Jagmohan Singh Kang, will flag off the rally at the Chakwal National School and the chairman of the local managing committee will inspire the students.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The local Rotary Club is going to organise a blood donation camp at Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Kharar, on December 2, 2002, from 9 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., informed Neelam Kumar, project chairman . A team of doctors from Blood Bank, PGI, Chandigarh, will collect the blood on the occasion. The club president, Mr Harpreet Singh Rekhi, has appealed to the people of the area, and students of schools and colleges to come forward for this noble cause. Donor’s badges and appreciation certificates will be given to all the donors by the club.

LUDHIANA
POOR GIRL’S MARRIAGE: Maa Bhagwati Club will marry off a poor girl on Sunday at a function to be organised at Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Deep Nagar, Civil Lines, according to Mr Avinash Sikka, president of the club. He said in a press release here on Friday that Mr Davinder Singh Mandher, ADTO, Ludhiana, Mr Darshan Singh Makkar and Mr Davinder Kumar Gupta will be among the special guests on the occasion who would bless the newly-wed couple.

LUCKY DRAW: Mani Ram Balwant Rai took out the lucky draw for the monsoon dhamaka scheme here recently. The scheme started from July 1 and included those customers who purchased goods worth Rs 1,000 or more at a time, for which they were allotted coupons. The draws were taken out by Ms Amrit Varsha Rampal, a local councillor. Mr Varinder Mohan Behal won a Bajaj Chetak scooter as the first prize, while Mr Satish Jain won a Whirlpool refrigerator, Mr Amit Matta won a 3-CD changer and Master Ranjot won 10 gram of gold. Mr Jasbir Singh and Mr Prathipal Singh won a mixer-grinder each, while Dr Virender Takyar, Mr Narvinder Nath Kalia, Ms Rosy Dhir, Mr Gurdeep Singh, Ms Usha and Ms Bhanu Kiran won prizes in the “One-minute Ki Loot” scheme.

MANSA
SHOT DEAD: Gurlal Singh (35), a resident of Dodra village under Budhlada police station in the district, was shot dead on Friday, allegedly by his uncle, Hakam Singh. Gurlal Singh and Harvinder Singh were going on a scooter when the suspect who was standing armed with a gun along with his brother Bhura Singh and sons Pala Singh and Malkiat Singh, shot at Gurlal. Harvinder also sustained an injury in the shooting. The Budhlada police has registered a case against the suspects, who have absconded.

NAWANSHAHR
LOANS: Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over a function at Saroya, about 20 km from here on Friday, disbursed loans amounting to Rs 6.30 lakh among self-help groups of Karimpur and Torowal villages to start their own ventures. He instructed the BDPOs to propagate various job schemes launched by the government.

DRIVE: The District Health Department, under its special health awareness drive launched in the district, organised a programme at Government Senior Secondary School, Sahlon, about 7 km from here on Friday. Dr Arjan Singh Gill, District Health Officer, delivered a special lecture on diseases due to iodine deficiency.

BONDED LABOUR: Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over a meeting of the District Committee on Bonded Labour here on Friday asked the officials of different departments and organisations to put an end to the problem of bonded labour especially child labour. He issued notices to the owners of hotels and dhabhas in the district to conduct a medical examination of the children working at the establishments and submit a detailed report about their living conditions within 15 days.

SAMRALA
CULTURAL PROGRAMME: A cultural programme is being organised by the gram panchayat and the Naujawan Sabha in Kotla Bharri village on Sunday, according to the Director, Mr Hari Singh. The programme will be presided over by Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, and will be inaugurated by Mrs Harbans Kaur, MLA Khanna.

TOURNAMENT: The 4th sports tournament is being organised by Baba Sewa Dass Memorial Panchayati Raj Sports Club from November 28, Sarpanch Harpreet Singh Happy of the Mutton village, 5 km from here on Friday. The tournament will be presided by local MLA Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon and the prizes will be distributed by Mr Tej Parkash Singh, Transport Minister, the Forest Minister, Mr Harbans and MP, Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, he added.

CHECK-UP CAMP: The Lions Club here will organise a blood pressure and diabetes check-up camp on the premises of government senior secondary school here December 1. This was stated by Mr Varinder Jain on Saturday. He said at this camp, the facilities of blood sugar testing, BP testing, would be provided free of cost.

CHANDIGARH

YOUTH FEST ENDS: The Zonal Youth Festival of Panjab University concluded on Friday, an official press note said here on Saturday. The festival held at GGS Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana concluded on Friday evening. Dr Surinder Sharma, director of the Youth Welfare Department, said nearly 8,000 students from 92 students participated in various events. The main items on the list included drama, histrionics, classical vocal, group dance, group song, ‘bhangra,’ ‘giddha’ and literary items, the note added.

AWARENESS CAMP: The Society for Social Health (SOFOSH), organised an eight-day awareness camp for rural women at Hallo Majra, in collaboration with Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board. Experts from the state legal services, T.B and hygiene, literacy, nutrition and diet, pension scheme, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS gave information to women about various subjects. Apart from this they were imparted vocational training in surf-making and mehndi. The participants were given information about loan schemes being offered by banks and forming self help groups.

CONFERENCE: Over 100 delegates from government and private hospitals from the UT, attended the one-day conference on “Diabetes mellitus : an update”, organised at the Government Medical College and Hospital, here on Thursday. During the conference, which was inaugurated by the Director Principal, Dr S.B.S. Mann, panel discussion was organised in which queries regarding diabetes mellitus, diabetes in children, gestational diabetes, effects of diabetes on eyes and diet management were made by the participants. The Nursing Superintendent at General Hospital, Ms Rajinder Dhadda, stressed the important role the nurses can play in creating awareness and teaching monitoring and self injection to the patients and their family.

SAS NAGAR
CRITICISED: Traders have criticised the decision of the local Municipal Council to privatise the work of octroi collection and demanded that it should be withdrawn. At a meeting of traders’ representatives held here on Friday with Mr Kulwant Singh Chaudhry, president of the Phase V Traders Association, in the chair, speakers expressed the view that earlier when the work was privatised, residents faced harassment. They said that wherever such work was privatised, employees of the contractors concerned often humilitated and harassed persons bringing goods. The meeting decided to set up a committee of representatives of the traders’ bodies of various phases to oppose privatisation. Mr Chaudhry was made convener of the panel.

RALLY: As part of the statewide programme of DAV College Managing Committee New Delhi, the DAV Public School here on Saturday took out a jan chetna rally to exhort people to wage a war against evils like dowry corruption and female foeticide. The students gathered in the school premises where they were enlightened about the need to shun these evils. They were also administered a pledge to fight against the curse of dowry. The school teachers too pledged to take the message to curb corruption in their neighbourhood.

HARYANA

AMBALA
TANKER ASSOCIATION: The Haryana petroleum tankers association on Saturday reiterated its demand that tankers from outside Haryana should not fill up from the IOC depot. The association members said that there was no need for tankes from neighbouring states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K to fill up at the Ambala depot since tankers from Haryana were already available. They said that they were facing revenue loss. They said they would meet the authorities concerned at Chandigarh to apprise them of the situation.

PROTEST: Students of Government College, Ambala Cantonment, on Friday raised slogans to protest the stabbing of a student on the college campus on Thursday. Ripudaman Singh, a resident of Dukheri village was stabbed by three persons when he was sitting on the college campus. He sustained stab injuries on his chest and legs. The students demanded that outsiders should not be allowed on the campus. They also demanded that the boundary wall of the college should be raised so that outsiders can not look inside the campus.

CONDEMNED: Death of journalist Chattarpati after he was attacked in Sirsa was strongly condemned at a meeting of journalists held here on Friday. Journalists from different newspapers demanded that a CBI enquiry should be held into the incident. The journalists said suitable compensation should be given to the family members of the deceased. A two-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect. The journalists wore black badges to protest over the incident.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
MISHAP: A person was killed and five others were wounded when an Armada fell into a gorge near Jot on the Chamba-Pathankot road, about 40 km from here, on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Budhi Ram, a resident of Udan Bhatori village in Pangi tribal valley of Chamba district. The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital at Chowari.

UPGRADATION SOUGHT: Residents of far-flung Bhandal-Kihar border sector of the district have requested the state government to upgrade Government High School, Bhandal, to the plus two level so that students living within a radius of about 18 km can get senior secondary education here. Local residents, in a memorandum to the state government, here said that students of this area have to go for Class-XII education to Salooni, the tehsil headquarters.

KUMARHATTI
ADVISORY PANEL: The Chief Minister has promised to constitute a state advisory committee for considering the demands of pensioners. This has been stated by the Solan District Pensioners’ Association. The committee to be chaired by a cabinet-rank minister will have three representatives of the federal body of the HP Pensioners Welfare Association and a representative each from the General Administration Department, said Mr C.L. Rajput, general secretary of the association.