R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• Trust to promote higher education
• Sonepat lad shines in golf

PUNJAB

AMLOH
CELEBRATIONS: Mr Sadhu Singh Dhramsot, MLA, Amloh said a sum of Rs 5 lakh would be spent on the village school building and infrastructure, Rs 1 lakh on dharamshalas (general and SC) besides Rs 50,000 on the construction of boundary wall of cremation ground. He was speaking on the occasion of the celebrations of birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas at Anian village, one kilometre from here, on Tuesday. He asked the people to follow the path shown by the great guru. Mr Pakhar Singh Salana, chairman, Zila Prishad, Mr Joginder Singh Naraingarh, member, Block-Samiti, Mr Pargat Singh Sarpanch, Anian and Mr Baljeet Singh, vice-president Block Samiti Anti- Corruption cell also spoke on the occasion.

ELECTED: In order to promote education in the area a meeting of Baba Atar Das Vidyak Committee Bhamarsi Jer chaired by Baba Ganga Ram elected the following members here on Tuesday for the year 2003-04: president - Hardev Singh ; senior vice-president- Sant Singh ; vice-presidents - Pritam Singh Mulepur, Daljeet Singh, Naranjan Singh and Harbhajan Singh Mudarian; and general secretary - Hardev Singh Bhamrasi.

AMRITSAR
FOUND DEAD: Jag Narain of New Rajesh Nagar, Batala road, was found dead in his home here on Tuesday. According to a complaint lodged by Uma Devi, wife of the deceased, at the Sadar police station here, when she along with her children returned from Delhi last evening she found her husband dead. The body bore injury marks. A case has been registered under Section 302, 34, IPC.

DEAD: Bibi Gurdial Kaur (92) mother of Bhai Ram Singh, general secretary, Akali Dal (Amritsar), died at Bazpur in UP on Tuesday after a brief illness.

INAUGURATED: Mr Kirpal Singh Badungar, President, SGPC, will inaugurate a gate constructed in the memory of Baba Makhan Shah Ludhiana on Thursday. The gate has been built by the Dharam Parchar Committee of the SGPC at Talwandi village in Hoshiarpur district.

BATHINDA
ONE ARRESTED: The police on Wednesday arrested Pritam Singh who was allegedly involved in the incidence pertaining to the theft of Rs 1 lakh and a bank passbook from the residence of Shinder Singh at Nehianwala village on July 30 last year. Pritam Singh of Dadupura village in Gaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh had accepted his involvement in the theft, said the SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh.

YOUTH ELECTROCUTED: A youth was electrocuted when he stumbled up on an electric wire in the Parasram Nagar area, that became loose following the thunderstorm on Tuesday night. The youth while returning home from work could not see the wire that was laying on the road after it was cut off from the pole. He died on the spot. The deceased has been identified as Rakesh Kumar (25), a resident of Parasram Nagar.

BODY FOUND: Volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa found a naked body of a girl near Burj Mehma village on Wednesday. The cause of the death could not be known. The body was taken to the local Civil Hospital.

TRAINING PROGRAMME: The Vocational Rehabilitation Centre has launched a special programme to train the physically challenged persons is stitching and embroidery. According to a press note issued here on Wednesday, persons, both male and female, in the age group of 18 to 40 years, having 40 per cent disability were eligible for getting training under this programme which would be given free of cost. During the one-year training period they would also get a stipend of Rs 300 per month.

DHARNA: The jail guards would hold a dharna on Thursday near the local Central Jail to show their resentment against the non-acceptance of their demands. Mr Gurmail Singh Baja, president of the association of jail guards said in a press note here on Wednesday that the dharna would be held as the authorities did not provide them proper kit, including uniform for summer and winter seasons.

RALLY HELD: Continuing their agitation members of the Technical Services Union (TSU) of the PSEB on Wednesday held a rally near the office of the Superintending Engineer (SE) of Bathinda division and later took out a march in the city to show their resentment against non-acceptance of their demands. The TSU had on Tuesday burnt the effigy of the Superintending Engineer and had shouted slogans against the SE for his adamant behaviour towards the demands of the employees.

DHURI
SET UP: Mrs Roop Kaur Bagrian, member, Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee, inaugurated the office of the Dhuri Block Congress Committee at old grain market here on Tuesday. Nearly 500 persons, including Congress activists, attended the inauguration ceremony.

GONIANA
FLAYED: Activists of the SAD on Tuesday burnt the effigy of the Punjab Government here for its failure to keep a check on its ministers who had reportedly indulged in immoral activities. They raised slogans against the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh for his alleged failure to govern the state properly.

HOSHIARPUR
CASE REGISTERED: A complained of torture by in laws for more dowry has been lodged by Varinder Kaur at Tanda police station. The police has registered a case.

DEAD: Bibi Gurdial Kaur (92) mother of Bhai Ram Singh, general secretary, Akali Dal ( Amritsar), died at Bazpur in UP on Tuesday after a brief illness.

INAUGURATED: Mr Kirpal Singh Badungar, President, SGPC, will inaugurate a gate constructed in the memory of Baba Makhan Shah Lubhana on Thursday. The gate has been built by the Dharam Parchar Committee of the SGPC at Talwandi village in Hoshiarpur district.

CASE REGISTERED: A complained of torture by in laws for more dowry has been lodged by Varinder Kaur at Tanda police station. The police has registered a case.

ARRESTED: The Mukerian police has arrested Sarwan Singh of Bagowal village under Sections 377, 506 of the IPC for allegedly sodomising Subhash of the same village.

KHANNA
MEETING: A meeting of the local unit of the CPI (M) was held at the local Grain Market on Wednesday. The meeting was organised to prepare for the 30th All-India Kisan Sabha being organised from March 6 to 9 in Jalandhar. Earlier, national General Secretary of the party, Comrade Harkrishan Singh Surjit, said in a press conference that the farmers of the nation are in a poor condition and the WTO regime would make their life difficult. He said in Bathinda district, Harkishanpur village had been put on sale. He said the CPI (M) had constituted four commissions to study the condition of the farmers. The meeting was also addressed by Mr Diwan Singh, president of the Punjab unit of the CPI (M), Mr Rachhpal Singh, president, Kisan Sabha, Punjab, and Mr Sukhwinder Singh, president of the district unit of the sabha Punjab.

HONOURED: Doctors and staff of the local Civil Hospital along with some volunteers were honoured for their work during pulse polio drive at a prize distribution function held here on Tuesday. The Additional Director General Police, Mr Bhatti, was the chief guest. The prizes were given to doctors, including Dr Dharm Pal, SMO, Dr V.K. Aggarwal and Dr P.D. Singla, along with around 50 staff members of the Health Department and some volunteers.

LUDHIANA
MEDICO KILLED: Misha, a young medico and daughter of Dr Wahegurupal Singh and Dr Harkanwal Sidhu of Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, died in a road accident in Jammu on Wednesday. She was pursuing MBBS at Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences, Jammu. Misha was the only child of Dr Singh, who is working as the Medical Superintendent with Guru Tegh Bahadur Charitable Hospital here. A condolence meeting was held after the news was received here. A number of people attended the meeting and expressed their condolence to the bereaved family.

TRIBUTE PAID: Tributes were paid to former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh on his 75th birth anniversary. A function was organised by the Pradesh Youth Congress, which was presided over by its senior vice-president Amarjit Singh Tikka. He urged the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to set up a memorial for the leader.

MEDICAL CAMP: The local SDP College for Women organised a medical check-up camp on Wednesday in the seminar hall of the college. Ms S. Verma, Principal, inaugurated the camp. Ms S. Zindal, Head, Department of Political Science-cum-medical check-up in-charge, Ms Nivedita Arora and Ms Sudesh Bhalla, programme officer, NSS, welcomed the chief guest and doctors. A team of doctors comprising Dr Manju Gupta, ENT, Dr Yadvinder, Dr Kanwalpreet, dentist, Dr Manpreet and Dr Sandeep from Bhagwan Ram Charitable Hospital, Daresi Ground, examined more than 500 students. An extension lecture was also delivered by Dr Renuka Sharma, gynaecologist.

NURSING COURSE: A first aid and home nurse training course being organised at Khalsa College for Women, Civil Lines, since February 15 will continue till February 21. Students are being trained to give first-aid to patients who have fractured their limbs, received burn injuries, wounds and snake bites. Demonstrations are being given to students about how to give mouth-to-mouth respiration and treat drowned patients. Ms Usha Chopra, member, Red Cross Society, is training the students. The Principal, Ms Varinder Kaur Thind, has shown interest in the course. The course has been organised by Ms Devinderpal Kaur and Ms Honey Walia 

GREAT PERFORMERS: The local Sanskritik Samagam plans to organise a mega programme on Friday. The programme has been divided in two sessions. The first session will be 'mind storm' - a mind show by Pradip Rao. The second session will be a 'piano concert' by Brian Silas. Brian has been widely acclaimed as the new star of piano.

PHILLAUR
BODY FOUND: The body of Ajay Kumar ( 3), who went missing on Sunday, was found from fields at Achhahur village on Monday. The police has registered a case.

SAMRALA
ACCIDENT VICTIM: The crushed body of an unidentified person was brought to the local Civil Hospital for a post -mortem on Wednesday. According to police sources, the unidentified person was killed in a road accident on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana road, near PSEB Ghulal grid station.Due to storm and rain the vehicles one after another kept crushing the body as result it could not be identified. The deceased was wearing a red and white sweater, white shirt and a black blanket.

TARN TARAN
INSPECTED: Mr Justice M.S. Singal, a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday visited the court of Mr Rajinder Aggarwal, Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, senior division, and the court of Mr Rakesh Kumar, SDM, Junior Division, for inspection.

INAUGURATED: The survey of families living below the poverty line was inaugurated on Monday by Mr Bhupinder Singh, SDM. The SDM asked the employees deputed for the job to carry out the work sincerely as it helped the Central Government to release grants for the state for families living below the poverty line.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BANDH PEACEFUL: The bandh organised by the Bharatiya Kisan Union got over peacefully in Naraingarh and Shahzadpur. Except a stray incident near Bhara village, the response to the bandh call was lukewarm. At Bhara village, a group of the BKU activists tried to block the road, but policemen quickly cleared the road. The Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam, said there had been a zero response to the bandh call. “There was no untoward incident and everything was peaceful,” he said. There was a heavy deployment of police since early Wednesday and senior officials had been constantly monitoring the situation.

HORSEMAN KILLED: A horse and his owner got killed in a road accident on the GT Road near Kali Paltan bridge at Ambala Cantonment late on Tuesday. The owner of the horse, Kanwar Pal, lived in Shiwala Mandi of Ambala Cantonment. He usually booked his horse for marriage ceremonies. Late Tuesday, when he was riding his horse back home after attending a marriage party, a truck hit him on the GT Road, killing Kanwar Pal and his horse on the spot. The truck driver sped away and the body of Kanwar Pal was brought to the local Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination, after which it was handed over to Kanwar’s relatives. The police registered a case against the truck driver in this regard.

THREE GET SHOCK: A person working in the Ambala City police station got injured early on Wednesday when he came in contact with a live electricity wire in the police station. The shock made him fall down the stairs and sustain serious injuries. He was rushed to the local Civil Hospital, from where, he was shifted to the PGI, in Chandigarh. In another incident, two employees of the Electricity Department received electric shock while working on an electricity pole near Sector 10 of Ambala City late on Tuesday. The line on which they were working was switched off from main point, but a live wire from a generator came in contact with the line, which passed a current in it. Lineman Gurmukh Singh and another employee were the ones hurt. Earlier too, such incidents have occurred in the city. A number of genset owners have been crossing their wires with the department lines, which may lead to some major incident anytime.

POETRY RECITATION: An inter-college poetry recitation competition organised by the Punjabi Sahitya Sabha was held in GMN College here on Wednesday. The competition was held in the memory of poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Eight teams participated in the competition and the team trophy was won by SD College, of Ambala Cantonment. In the individual category, the first prize went to Satwinder Kaur of Jain College, while Mohit Gupta of SD College, of Ambala Cantonment, was second and Ekta of SD College, of Ambala Cantonment, stood third. Punjabi poetess Amar Jyoti was a special invitee and the competition was presided over by the Chairman of Baba Farid chair, Dr Deepak Manmohan Singh. Dr Sudarshan Gasso of GMN College spoke about the poetry of Shiv Kumar Batalvi.

DUES NOT PAID: Mr Sukhdev Sareen, a member of the GMN College Trust, has demanded that members who have not paid their annual dues do not have the right to continue in the trust. Talking to reporters, Mr Sareen, Mr Raj Kapoor and Prof A.S. Mahajan, of the trust said, in 1991, some members of the trust had failed to pay their annual dues of Rs 500, therefore they had forfeited their memberships. “The clause of Rs 500 was made mandatory in 1971; and, with the increase in the price index, it should have been raised to at least Rs 5,000 per year, but these industrialists, instead, reduced it to Rs 50 per year,” he said. Mr Sareen said that some of these “illegal” members even claimed the TA/DA for attending meetings of the government body, which had never happened in the history of the college before 1991.

QUIZ COMPETITION: A quiz competition was organised by the Urdu Academy in Government College of Ambala Cantonment, where the Haryana Health Minister, Dr M.L. Ranga, was the chief guest. He said the Haryana Government had set up the academy for the promotion of Urdu. He also said encouragement should be given to students who wanted to learn Urdu. Government College of Barwala was first in the context, while Government College of Naraingarh was second and Government College of Kalka was third. Seven teams participated in the competition. Among others, the Additional DC, Ms Neelam Kasni, the City Magistrate, Mr Surendra Singh, the Civil Surgeon, Dr S.L. Kaushik, and the college Principal, Mr P.R. Phule, were present there.

KURUKSHETRA
MEMORIAL LECTURE: The Electronic Society of University College, Kurukshetra and the Electronic Science Department, Kurukshetra University, jointly organised Dr S K Chattopadhyaya Memorial Lecture in the college here on Monday. Dean, Science Faculty of Kurukshetra University, Prof Hari Singh, presided over the function.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Trust to promote higher education

MR Raman Bhalla, former Punjab minister, has constituted a trust in the memory of his deceased son Aman Bhalla to promote higher education in the backward belt of Pathankot subdivision.

The trust has been named the “Aman Bhalla Education Trust” and the first college will be opened in Kotli village, about 12 km from here, on the Pathankot-Amritsar highway. Mr Bhalla said the college will come up on a piece of land measuring 25 acres in collaboration with the Rai Foundation which is a non-profit, non-government organisation engaged in imparting global education with 21 colleges across the country. The trust has provided the land to the Rai foundation on which construction of the building began soon after the stone-laying ceremony performed by Mr Bhalla (see photo). This college will host courses both at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The students will be at liberty to chose either a foreign degree or an Indian degree or both.

The main thrust of the college will be to impart such education to students which will equip them to face the job market in the era of India fast turning into the most favoured place for multinational companies.

The college has plans to impart professional and business oriented education to students like degree course in MBA and professional diploma in insurance besides engineering courses at the degree level.

The Rai International school offers “O” and “A” level school education also on the Cambridge pattern of international examination and the trust has decided to introduce both level school education to benefit the rural school-going children. The trust will give scholarships also to talented and deserving students, Mr Raman Bhalla added.

Sonepat lad shines in golf

When Nikki told his Mom and Dad, after doing his matriculation that he did not want to pursue his studies anymore, and that he would try his luck in golf, the parents had to take a tough decision. Nikki or Amardip Singh Malik was almost on his knees begging for a chance by telling his parents to believe him.

This teenager, hailing from Sonepat district of Haryana, has proved himself right by winning the All India Junior Golf Championship 2002 at the recently concluded All-India Junior and Sub-Junior Golf Tournament held recently at the Karnataka Golf Association course in Bangalore.

Amardip Malik started playing golf, rather late, at the age of 13, at the United Services Club, Mumbai, in April 1998. He won a number of prizes in the tournaments conducted by the ‘Western India Golf Association’ and the local clubs. He shifted to Meerut in May, 2001, to pursue serious golf under the guidance of Mr Romit Bose, a renowned golf coach. Mr Jyoti Randhawa and Mr Digvijay Singh always gave him valuable tips and encouragement, whenever they visited the Army Golf Course, Meerut.

Last year, he started playing on the national circuit and was mostly up against opponents, who had graduated from the under-10 and under-13, and then the under-15 age-groups until he broke through at Bangalore.

Son of Lt-Col Jagmohan Malik (Retd) and his wife Sadhana, herself once a national-level hockey player, Amardip will play the amateur tour for the next four or five years and by the looks of it will eventually turn professional. However he has a goal. “I have always wanted to represent India in the Asian Games”, he says, “I hope to do that in 2006.” For their son’s 18th birthday Jagmohan and Sadhana plan to present him a bunch of autobiographies of sportsmen.

Contributed by Bharat Bhushan Dogra and Chander Koumdi