R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
MEDICAL CAMP: As part of the 14th Road Safety Week being organised by the District Transport Office and the district traffic police, a free medical check-up camp was organised at the local bus stand. Bus drivers and conductors were examined on the occasion.

DORAHA
GRANT FOR GAUSHALA: A grant of Rs 5 lakh was been released for the Sarav Dharam Gaushala by Rajya Sabha member Lala Lajpat Rai on Saturday, according to Mr Vinod Gupta, member of the Gaushala Committee. "Last month Lala Lajpat Rai came to the gaushala and announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh. We shall now be able to keep the cows in better hygienic atmosphere.'' At present the gaushala shelters 125 cows.

KHANNA
LOHRI CELEBRATED: The festival of Lohri was celebrated at Kauri village in a unique way with welcoming the birth of new born girl child at a function organised by the Social Security, Women and Child Development Department, Block Khanna in association with the Human Mission Punjab on Saturday. The function was presided over by the SDM Khanna, Mr Manvesh Singh Sidhu, and the chief guest was Mr Som Parkash, Director, Social Security, Women and Child Development Department, Punjab. Mr Som Parkash said that to check the female foeticide the society must change its psychology. He said that the decreasing ratio of girl child due to female foeticide was dangerous for the society. Dr Sawraj Singh Principal Rekha Bhardwaj, Principal Varsha Shukla, Principal Manjinder Kaur and Prof Harpal Bhatti were among the prominent speakers. Gifts were also presented to the newly born girl child at the function.

FUNCTION: The fifth annual prize distribution function of the Disabled Society Punjab was organised at local Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in association with Thomson Multi Media (P) Ltd and the managing committee of Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Khanna on Saturday. Prizes were distributed to individuals and organisations, who worked for the betterment of disabled persons. In the individual category, Gurpreet Singh of Sadepur village in Sangrur district and Mr Rajinder Kumar, Deputy Manager, State Bank of Patiala were awarded Sant Atar Singh Mastuana Memorial Award and Freedom Fighter Kishori Lal Jethi Memorial Award, respectively. In the organisational category the award was presented to an organisation Paryas, working for treatment of the disabled by occupational physio and speech therapy. The prizes were given away by MP Shamsher Singh Dullo, Bhai Jasvir Singh Khalsa and SDM Manvesh Singh Sidhu. The individual prizes included cash of Rs 5100 and prizes to organisation included Rs 3100 in cash. Blind students of the Blind School of Sector 26, Chandigarh, performed shabad kirtan. The function was addressed by Mr Mehnga Singh Kalsi, Mr Bhupinder Singh, Mr Satish Sehgal, Mr Jot Ram, Mr B.K. Jethi, Mr Harjit Singh Malhans, Mr P.S. Rahi, Mr Joginder Singh and Mr Raj Kumar Maggo.

LUDHIANA
SELECTED: In the group Mathematics Olympiad examination conducted by the CBSE on December 1, 2002, at Jalandhar, Anant Gandhi from Kundan Vidya Mandir has been selected to appear for the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad to be held on February 2 and 3 at Delhi. He will be attending a four-day enrichment camp organised by the board for the selected students from January 20 to 23, 2003, at Delhi. 

CLOTHES FOR THE OLD: The Atri Times Eye Research Foundation, Sita Nagar, distributed woollen clothes among senior citizens at Swami Vivekanand Vridh Ashram here on Saturday. Mr Arun Atri, foundation president, said that they were also distributing clothes and woollens among poor and needy in the city. 

SUKHMANI SAHIB PATH: To celebrate the birthday of the tenth Guru Gobind Singh, a path of Sukhmani Sahib was organised at Gupta Model School on Saturday morning. The students, staff members and parents attended the path. Deputy Mayor Sushil Gupta, and many other educationists from other institutes participated. The students sang several shabads. Afterwards, langar was served to all present. Ms Simi Gupta thanked everyone for their participation.

SEWA DAL MEETING: A meeting of the Congress Sewa Dal was held here under the chairmanship of its newly appointed chief organiser, Mr Nirmal Singh Kerha. It was attended among others by the additional chief organiser Mr Ravinder Bagga, the Mayor, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, MLA Milkiat Singh Dakha, the DCC president, Mr K.K. Bawa and a youth Congress leader, Mr Pawan Dewan. It was announced at the meeting that Seva Dal would organise a week-long workers’ training camp from January 28 which would be inaugurated by the national chief organiser, Mr Prahlad Yadav. The speakers pointed out the important role being performed by the Seva Dal in strengthening the party across the country.

SEMINAR: A ‘Talent Development’ seminar was held at Everest Public High School, Giaspur, on Friday. Mrs Asha Sharma, Principal, presided over. Students from different classes participated in the function. Satish of class VI spoke on life and works of Bapu while Rohit of class IX spoke about betterment of students’ life. A fancy dress competition for the tiny tots was also organised. Ms Poonam Sharma and Ms Hamida Bano gave away the prizes to the winners. In Primary group Kamal was first, Raju was second whereas third prize was given to Jatin. In junior group Sheela got first prize, second prize was given to Simple and Jyoti Balore got third prize.

PRAVASI BHARTIYA DIVAS: Punjab and Sind Bank, Zonal Office, Ludhiana organised a three-day-long ‘Pravasi Bhartiya Divas’ at its zonal office which concluded here on Saturday. Mr Rajinder Singh Chhatwal, Deputy General Manager, while speaking at the concluding function, stressed on the need of opening maximum number of accounts of NRIs. He also lauded the policies of the bank regarding various facilities being provided to the NRIs. He lauded the role of the Prime Minister of India for allowing dual citizenship for the India diaspora, which, he said, would definitely boost the economy of the country.

PATHANKOT
GRANT FOR SCHOOL: Mr Raghunath Sahai Puri, Urban and Housing Development Minister, Punjab, on Friday announced a grant of Rs 51,000 for Manav Public School, Madhopur Cantonment, on the occasion of its 24th annual function.

SENTENCED: Mr Ranjit Singh, Judicial Magistrate, here on Friday sentenced Parmodh Singh, a resident of Gosianpur village, to one-year imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 on him for killing a man while driving in a rash and negligent manner. According to Mr J.K. Chopra, Assistant Public Prosecutor, on June 23, 2000, the accused, who was driving a private bus, caused the death of a cyclist, Salwinder Singh. A case under Sections 304A and 427 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused at Sada police station.

DROUGHT RELIEF: The Punjab Government has released Rs 65.87 lakh to Mr Puneet Goyal, SDM, as special drought relief to be distributed among farmers of the area.

ILLICIT LIQUOR: The police has arrested two persons and seized 30 litres of illicit liquor and 12 bottles of rum from their possession. According to police sources, Roop Lal, alias Rupa, of Awankha village, and Rajinder, alias Mintu, of Sujanpur were arrested from the area falling within the jurisdiction of the Sadar police station. Two separate cases under Section 61 of the Punjab Excise Act have been registered against them.

PATIALA
LOK ADALAT: Nearly 274 cases out of 796 cases were settled at the second Lok Adalat organised by the Cooperative Department of the Mall Road here on Saturday. The lok adalat which was presided over by the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Department, Mr K.S. Pannu, was attended by members of various cooperatives and PADCs. The District and Sessions Judge, Mr A.S. Sodhi (retd), Mr P.C. Singhal and Mr N.S. Saini also participated in the lok adalat.

PROTEST RALLY: Members of the Unemployed B.Ed Teachers Front on Saturday held a sit-in at the Fountain Chowk here, blocking the flow of traffic for nearly an hour, in support of their co-members who had undertaken a fast unto death stance in Chandigarh in support of their demands. Members of the front earlier protested in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

CONFERENCE: The Development of Punjabi Language Department of Punjabi University here will organise the 19th International Punjabi Development Conference on “Punjabi language, literature and culture: global context” from Wednesday. Over 300 delegates are expected to participate in the conference. The conference would be inaugurated by Dr S.S. Johal, former vice-Chancellor, and the keynore address would be delivered by Dr Jagtar Singh Grewal, former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

PHAGWARA
TWO NABBED: The local police has arrested Manjit Singh, alias Manga, of Khama village in Nawanshahr district, and navdip Singh of Achharwal village in Hoshiarpur district, and seized a .32-bore pistol, five cartridges and a knife from their possession. A press note issued on Friday by the police said the two had confessed to having committed crimes in the districts of Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur.

PHILLAUR
ELECTRIFICATION: The electrification of the railway track between Ludhiana and Mauli on the Ludhiana-Phagwara rail section has been completed. The electrification of the track between Phagwara and Mauli would be done next week. Stating this, railway sources said here on Saturday that a goods train with an electric engine had a trial run between Ludhiana and Goraya. The electrification of the track between Ludhiana and Jalandhar would be completed by March-end, the sources said.

SAMRALA
DEAD: Mr Kundan Lal Kalra, father of Mr Sant Parkash Kalra, Chairman of the Samrala Press Club was cremated here on Saturday. He died on Friday. The local SDM, Mr Jaspal Singh Jassi, the SDM Shahkot, Mr O.P. Popli, mediapersons of Samrala, Khamano and Machhiwara, other prominent persons were present.

NO PAY: No salary has been given to the field staff of the local Forest Office for the past more than three months and the other officials/officers for the month of December, causing great hardships to them. The festival of Lohri being near, the employees demanded the release of their pay on Monday, said their president Bahadur Singh here.

DEATH MOURNED: A two-minutes silence was observed in the memory of renowned kabaddi player Jantee (30) who died due to a heart failure in his village Panrukha, near here. A condolence meeting was held here on Saturday of the local Dangal Committee at the Civil Rest House here under the presidentship of Mr Tarlochan Singh Kang, in which many international players, and national players were present, according to Mr Yash Pal Sharma, press secretary.

HARYANA

ENCROACHMENTS: Mr Vijayendra Kumar, deputy Commissioner, presiding over a meeting of the Public Relations and Grievances Redressal Committee on Saturday, directed district officers to take effective steps to remove encroachments on government, panchayat and municipality land. He said a campaign should be launched in this regard.