The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, December 1, 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

BATHINDA
YOUTH FEST: A four-day zonal youth festival of Punjabi University, Patiala, will begin on December 5 at Guru Nanak College Budhlada, Mansa. The SGPC President, Mr Kirpal Singh Badungar, will inaugurate the festival. Students of 20 colleges of the area will participate in various events.

HOSHIARPUR
EXCHANGE OPENED: A new RSU exchange of 2,000 lines has been commissioned at Bajwara village. This was stated by Mr Mohan Lal, General Manager, Telecom, in a press note here on Saturday. He said with the opening of the exchange, the telephone subscribers of Bajwara area would now have to add 290 or 291 before the last three digits of the old numbers. The new number scheme will be implemented from December 2.

LUDHIANA
SEMINAR: “Gautamji, a noted Vedanta exponent and disciple of internationally eminent philosopher and writer Swami Parthasarathy, shall deliver a lecture on “The secret of success” at Hotel Majestic on Tuesday. The seminar would be organised by the Ludhiana Management Association, according to Mr Rajinder Gupta, president, and Mr V.K Goyal, general secretary, LMA. Mr Goyal, while giving details about Gautamji, said his outstanding contribution to society was the translation of subtle philosophic themes into practical techniques of self-management suited for the modern corporations, management and educational institutions. He was a faculty resource for the Young Presidents Organisation (USA), the World Presidents Organisation, and the World Economic Forum (Switzerland) in addition to leading management bodies worldwide.

LITERARY ORATIONS: The Postgraduate Department of English, Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana, orgnaised literary orations for M.A. students on Friday. Dr Gurpdesh Singh, Head of the English Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, delivered an extension lecture on ‘Semantics connected with linguistics’. Dr H.S. Nankoo, Reader, English Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, illuminated the young minds with his lecture on the topic ‘Stem of consciousness’ coined by William James and how the stream begins and needs in Virginia Woolfe’s novel’ Ms Dalloway. He highlighted all the psychological associations and how we are put into an actual moment of thought and the simultaneously of experience.

RALLY: The Kul Hind Kirti Kisan Sabha has criticised the state government for making the power supply to domestic as well as agriculture sector costlier. In a communique by the sabha today, Mr Kuldeep Singh and Mr Lakhwinder Singh Buani, declared their support to various six farmer organisations already protesting against the hike. The sabha also invited the general public to extend their support to these organisations. Both the leaders said the sabha would participate in the protest rally scheduled for December 20 outside the office of the Punjab State Electricity Board, Patiala, to protest against the hike.

SHOBHA YATRA: A shobha yatra was taken out from Chhawni Mohalla by the Ram Darbar Ayojan Sabha on Friday. Prominent among the participants were Mr Madan Lal Bagga, Mr Satish Nagar, Mr Ashwini Sharma, Mr Surinder Sawhney, Mr Pawan Sharma and Mr Darshan Singh Ahuja.

MUNI WELCOMED: Students of USPC Jain Public School, Jamalpur, welcomed Jainacharya Shiv Muni ji Maharaj on Friday. A cultural programme was also presented by schoolchildren. Those present on the occasion included Mr Rakesh Jain, president of the North Zone chapter of the Mahavir Jain Yuvak Mandal, Mr T.R.Jain, Mr Janki Dass Jain, Mr Mohinder Pal Jain and Mr Prafull Jain.

SANT SAMMELAN: The Madho Puri Welfare Committee will organise a sant sammelan from 8 am to 11 am at the volleyball ground on the Gaushala Road on Sunday, according to Mr Harsh Thapar, president of the committee. He said that Acharya Shiv Muni, Gian Muni, Swami Ved Bharti, Swami Brahm Jyoti and Swami Ramnik Muni would participate in the sammelan.

NAWANSHAHR
SEMINAR: The district Education Department with a view to creating awareness among schoolchildren on various educational and vocational courses organised a seminar at Government High School, Mehrampur, about 15 km from here, on Saturday. Mr Narinder Singh, District Guidance Counsellor and Mr K.C. Sharma, career teacher, delivered special lectures, according to Ms Kulwant Kaur, headmistress of the school.

LECTURES: The Science Department of Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, about 20 km from here, under its intellectual activity programme organised special lectures of eminent scholars — Dr S.S. Bir, founder head of Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala and Dr S.S. Dhillon, consultant, Science and Technology Department, Punjab.

PHAGWARA
COLLEGE STANDS SECOND: The local Kamla Nehru College for Women has bagged the second position at the Inter-College Lok Kala Pardarshani held at GND University, Amritsar, according to a press note by Mrs Kusam Verma, college Principal, here on Thursday evening. Fifteen colleges affiliated to the university had participated in the two-day Heritage.

VULGARITY IN SONGS: A meeting of the Punjabi Kala and Sahit Kendra, on Friday asked the Punjab Government to ban vulgarity in songs, set up a censor board for screening songs of audio-video cassettes and called upon Punjabis to shun those artists who promoted vulgarity in songs.

TARN TARAN
SUB-INSPECTORS PROMOTED: The Inspector-General of Police, Border Zone, Amritsar, has issued orders for promoting eight Sub-Inspectors to the rank of Inspector. The names of the promoted Sub-Inspectors are Mrs Jaswant Kaur, Mr Jagjit Singh, Mr Harjinder Singh, Mr Balbir Singh, Mr Pooran Singh, Mr Sukhdev Singh, Mr Kirpal Singh and Suba Singh.

COMPUTER DAY: The World Computer Literacy Day-2002 was launched on Thursday here by the management of NIIT. Mr Kewal Kumar, SP, (Hq), performed the launching ceremony. Ms Harwinder Kaur, in charge of the NIIT centre, thanked the participants.

CHANDIGARH

SYMPOSIUM: “We know jogging is good for health. But we don’t do it. We know smoking is bad for health but we don’t give it up”, says Mr Asit Ghosh, country’s leading behavioural specialist and motivator. “This is a problem of attitude”, he said in a talk with TNS here yesterday. He tries to change the attitude through talks and seminars. Mr Ghosh who also heads X’Celiors Centre, under Tuff Trak Trust, has taken up a number of social projects for attitudinal development for school students and rural population. The centre will hold a symposium called ChAABI (Change Attitude and Build India) at the Polytechnic for Women, Sector 10, on December 1 which will be presided over by Swami Brahmeshanandaji, secretary, Rama Krishna Mission, Chandigarh.

RETIRED: Ms Pamela Singh, Head, Department of Music (Vocal), Government College for Girls, Sector 11, Chandigarh, retired on Friday after putting in 31 years of service. Apart from being a regular performer with All-India Radio, Rohtak and Shimla, she had also performed for Doordarshan, Jalandhar. She had also worked under the guidance of Neelam Mansingh and had been the lead singer for many plays that were performed at national and international festivals.

PLEA: Teachers of colleges affiliated with Panjab University are demanding the university to conduct a refresher course in history in the current academic session. Dr R.P.S. Josh, a fellow, in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, has said: “Many teachers of the city and Punjab are due for promotion in the senior and selection grade. For this teachers are expected to attend the refresher course”. Dr Josh said: “The staff is learnt to have cancelled the course which was unfortunate to many deserving teachers. The university needed to look into the matter urgently”.

WORKSHOP: A workshop on holistic sciences was organised at the Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, by the NSS unit here on Saturday. The NIAHSNI, an institute for alternative medicine from New Delhi, was invited to conduct the workshop. Dr S. Sethi, in his introductory speech, focused on the need of alternative naturaopathy techniques for holistic healing of body and mind. The workshop was concluded by a talk delivered by Yogshrimoni Gopalji, Chairman, NIAHSNI, who focussed on alternative methods of healing.

WORKSHOP FOR NGOs: In State AIDS Control Society Chandigarh organised a workshop on “Networking of NGOs” working in the field of prevention and control of HIV/AIDS here on Thursday. The Director of UT Health Services, Dr C.P. Bansal was the chief guest. Nine targeted intervention project and five awareness projects being implemented in association with the State AIDS Control Society were presented during the workshop. The NGOs which participated in the workshop were: Family Planning Association of India (Mohali branch), Society for Support to Voluntary Agencies, Indian Council of Social Welfare (Chandigarh chapter), Progressive Education Society, All India Women Conference, Yuv Satta, Servant of People Society, Surya Foundation, Red Cross Society, Blood Bank Society, Voluntary Health Association of Punjab, and Sehat Society.

FOOD FESTIVAL: A South Indian food festival, being organised by St Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Church as part of its jubilee celebrations on the church premises in Sector 46, will be held on Sunday. Various dishes, including fish curry, thapioca, palppam and curry, will be available.

ELECTED: Mr Rishi Surinder has been elected as chief adviser and Mr Muni Narinder as president of the Sri Ram Nam Sumrin Satsang. The other office-bearers are: senior vice-president — Mr Nirbhay Ram; vice-president: Mr Vijay Garg; general secretary — Mr Bishan Lal; secretary — Mr Sushil Sharma; financial adviser — Mr Mukesh Sharma; cashier — Mr Harinder Kaushal; and press secretary — Mr Ashok Arora.

CONDOLENCE MEETINGS: In condolences meetings organised by the Hindi Department of Panjab University and the Banaras Hindu University Alumnus Association here on Friday condolences were paid to a noted Hindi poet Shiv Mangal Singh ‘Suman’.

YOGA CLASSES: The yoga classes being organised by the Bharti Yog Sansthan Kendra at Sector 48 Green Park will now be held at community centre in Pushpak Society from Sunday onwards.

PANCHKULA
MEETING: A meeting of the Sri Vishwakarma Kalyan Sangh will be held at Ramgarh on Sunday. The meeting will be chaired by Mr Roop Ram Dhiman.

AIDS DAY: The Family Planning Association of India observed World AIDS Day on ‘Live and let live’ at Abheypur village on Friday. An interactive session on HIV/ AIDS prevention and transmission for truck drivers was held. As many as 30 drivers participated in the session which was conducted by Mr Dalbir Godara from the Haryana AIDS Control Society.

DEAD: Mr M.R. Vohra (78), district president, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, died due to a heart attack on Thursday. He was cremated here on Friday.

HARYANA

AMBALA
PAK FLAG BURNT: The Haryana unit of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front burnt the Pakistani flag at Jagadhri Gate, here on Friday in protest against the terrorist attack on Raghunath Temple in Jammu. Addressing workers, the general secretary of the front, Mr Sunny Bhinder, said the sole aim of attacks on religious places was to spoil communal harmony. The president of the Chandigarh unit, Mr Rajesh Sharma, and other leaders including, Mr Tek Chand Saini, Mr Virender Kapoor, Mr Sameer Mathur and Mr Parveen Chauhan were present.

DIPLOMA STARTED: A three-year advanced diploma in computer studies was launched at Informatics Computer Centre, Ambala Sadar on Wednesday. The Chief Operating Officer of Edutech Informatics India Ltd., Mr A.V.R.V. Reddy, said under the programme, students would be tought for the first six months in India and subsequently, they could complete their course from Singapore or Malaysia.

AWARENESS RALLY: Nearly 500 NCC cadets participated in AIDS awareness rallies held in Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment on Saturday. The rallies were organised on the eve of World AIDS Day. Col C.K.S. Mann, Ambala Group Commander, flagged off the rally at the War Heroes Memorial Stadium in Ambala Cantonment while Lietu-Col A.K. Sinha flagged off the rally at GRSD Senior Secondary School in Ambala City. Cadets distributed pamphlets among residents.

TROPHY: MDSD Girls College, Ambala City, has won the running trophy in the St John Ambulance district-level competition held recently. A team of five volunteers — Priya, Jyoti, Ritu, Pradeep and Reena — participated in the competition held at S.A. Jain School. The team won gold medal in first aid and home nursing. Priya also won individual first prize.

OFFICE-BEARERS: A meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha was held in the BJP office, Ambala Cantonment on Saturday, which was presided over by the district president, Mr Asim Goyal. The office-bearers are: vice-presidents — Mr Hari Krishna Aggarwal, Mr Sanjiv Kumar, Mr Ajay Gupta; treasurer — Mr Sandeep Sachdeva; district secretaries — Mr Vipin Chandrapal, Mr Jaspal Singh and Mr Randhir Singh; office secretary — Mr Vikas Sharma; press secretary — Mr Sanjeev Bhardwaj; and members are Mr Gurudev Wadhwa, Mr Shiv Dayal Singh, Mr Paramjit Singh, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr Ravikant Sharma, Mr Rajendra Gupta, Mr Jaswant Singh Valmiki, Mr Rajendra Singh, Dr Ram Pal Chapra, Mr Krishna Rana and Mr Suman Singh Adhauli. The Ambala City mandal president is Mr Bijesh Sharma and the Saha mandal president is Mr Ashwani Rana while the general secretary is Mr Sanjiv Mishra.

BHIWANI
AIDS RALLY: Students of the local Industrial Training Institute took out an AIDS chetna rally here on Friday. Earlier, a function was held on the premises of the institute. The chief guest was Dr R.C. Gupta, Chief Medical Officer. Dr K.C. Kajal presided over the function.

FATEHABAD
CAMP: As many as 150 students donated blood during a blood donation camp organised by the local unit of the NSS at Manohar Memorial College here on Friday. The Rotary Club (main) and the District Red Cross Society also lent their cooperation. The SP, Mr K.K. Rao, inaugurated the camp.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
PLAN DRAFT: The Himachal government has finalised the proposed draft of special component plan worth Rs 9.33 crore for Chamba district for the next fiscal year. Mr M.R. Sangroli, Research Officer of the state Welfare Department, said here on Saturday that the government had asked the department to identify five clusters of villages of Scheduled Castes in the district with a view to providing basic amenities.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bhalayee Mata Temple managing committee, Chamba district; president-Mr Kamal Thakur, vice-president Mr Raj Kumar, general secretary — Mr Sulla Ram, joint secretary Mr Jaram Singh, propaganda secretaries — Mr Chatro Ram Sharma and Mr Amar Chand Sharma, and cashier — Mr Man Singh.

SHIMLA
MEETING HELD: The Himachal Pradesh BJP Teachers’ Cell organised a meeting on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prof D.R. Sharma. The meeting discussed BJP government’s policies and programmes. The meeting also decided to meet the Vice-Chancellor regarding the long-pending demands of the teachers.

CONTRABAND SEIZED: The Forest Department on Friday seized 101 sleepers of deodar and kail from a truck (HP-51-2916) in Bhajji area. The sleepers are worth Rs 2 lakh in the timber market. Four persons — Mushataq Mohammed, Pradeep Kumar, Ugan Ram and Ranjit Kumar — have been arrested in this connection. A case has been registered against them under the Forest Act.

APPOINTED: Mr Sukh- winder Singh Sukhu, president of the state Youth Congress, has appointed Mr Sandeep Dutta, general secretary of the Youth Congress legal cell. This appointment comes into effect from Friday.