The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, June 16, 2003, 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

GURDASPUR
RAPED: A resident of Talwandi village under Dharival police station, was reportedly raped on Friday. On an FIR lodged by Mohinder Singh, a case has been registered under Sections 376 and 34-B, IPC, against Jaswant Singh, Wassan Singh and Raju of the same village.

HOSHIARPUR
LOK ADALAT: To settle old cooperative loan cases, a lok adalat was held in the Sessions Court complex here on Saturday. Four Benches were constituted for hearing these cases. Mr R.P. Nagrath, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ms Harveen Bhardwaj, Civil Judge (Sr. Division), Mr K.S. Cheema, Chief Judicial Magistrate, and Mr K.C. Gupta, Civil Judge (Jr. Division), Hoshiarpur, presided over the Benches. As many as 229 cases of the Cooperative Department were taken up and an amount of Rs 13,10,607 was settled by way of compromise in 151 cases.

BOOKED: On a complaint of Balwinder Kaur, wife of Sadhu Singh of Bodal village, under the Dasuya police station, the police has registered a case under Sections 406 and 420, IPC against so-called travel agents Gian Singh and his wife Gurbax Kaur of Gorayan. She has alleged that Gian Singh and his wife took Rs 2 lakh for sending her son Parminder Singh to Germany. They neither sent her son to Germany nor returned the money.

FAKE NAME: On a complaint of SP, Counter Intelligence, Amritsar, the Dasuya police has registered a case under Sections 419, 420, 468 and 471, IPC against Paramjit Kaur, wife of Gurmail Singh of Kathana village. The SP has alleged that Paramjit Kaur mentioned fake name of her husband Gurmail Singh as Gurdev Singh in her and her son’s passport.

ANTI-FLOOD STEPS: To gear up for floods in the ensuing monsoon and to review the flood-protection measures, a special meeting of the district officers was convened by Mr Kirandeep Singh Bhullar, Deputy Commissioner, here on Friday. Mr Bhullar said District Flood Control Room with a Telephone No. 220412 would start functioning under the supervision of the District Revenue Officer from July 1 at Hoshiarpur. He instructed officers of the Drainage Department to clear all drains, choes.

JALANDHAR
SAD WOMEN WING: While showing its concern about spurt in atrocities on women in the state, the SAD has decided to rejuvenate its women wing by giving them due representation in the proposed set-up of the united Akali Dal. Talking to reporters here on Saturday, a former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, said there was a need to redefine the role of women in politics to put an end to atrocities being committed on them.

NAWANSHAHR
MANCH PLEA: Mr Amit Sharma, district convener of the Bharat Tibet Sehyog Manch, told mediapersons here on Sunday that the manch in a letter faxed to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpeyee, has urged him to take up the issue of peaceful solution to the Tibet problem with Chinese leaders during his coming visit to China.

WATER SHORTAGE: Residents of Sharda Mohalla, Ummattan Mohalla, Adarsh Nagar, Shorian Mohalla, Bhucheran Mohalla here have been facing a lot of inconvenience due to an acute shortage of potable water for the past two months. The repeated requests to the authorities concerned are just falling on the deaf ears, allege the residents.

CHANDIGARH

DALIT LEADER REMEMBERED: The Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Federation of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh observed the 18th death anniversary of Dalit leader Prof Yashwant Rai at the Valmiki Bhavan here, on Sunday. Professor Rai was a member of the Constituent Assembly of independent India, which was headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar. He also remained a minister in Punjab. Mr Amar Nath Sarhadi, president of the federation, highlighted the works of Professor Rai. He said Professor Rai was the adopted son of Lala Lajpat Rai who had sent him to London for higher studies. He set up Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial College at Jagraon (Punjab) in the memory of his father. Mr Santresh Rahi, president of the All-India Valmiki Yuvak Sangh, and Mr Balraj Singh, former Deputy Mayor of Chandigarh, were also among those who paid tributes to Professor Rai.

EXHIBITION: A jewellery and suit exhibition by upcoming designer Paromita is going on at Hotel Aroma these days. Her gold patra designer jewellery and hand-painted cotton suits in traditional motifs bears the touch of Bengali culture. Paromita has used semi-precious stones and American diamond to give her creations an ethnic look. For suits, she has used different motifs from Vedas and other Shastras. Another side of the designer is reflected in her vaastu handicrafts.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT: More than 100 participants from different colleges are participating in a personality development programme being organised by the College Development Council of Panjab University at the local GGDSD College. The programme has been developed for providing placement assistance to students taking the course in information technology at affiliated colleges. Brig M.S. Kataria, Mr M.S.K. Vohra and Prof S.L. Sharma handled various sessions at the programme. Principal A.C. Vaid welcomed the guests. Prof Ramesh Kapoor, Dean of the College Development Council, is the coordinator of the programme, which will conclude on Wednesday.

SHRAMDAAN: About 300 employees of the State Bank of India and their family members participated in ‘shramdaan’ at Sukhna Lake here on Sunday. Mr Yogesh Agarwal, Chief General Manager, Chandigarh circle, along with Mr J.P. Varma and Mr Anup Banerji, General Managers, and other senior functionaries were present on the occasion. Members of the SBI Lady Club were also present.

SAS NAGAR
MANDIR SABHA POLL: Mr R.K. Khullar, Civil Judge, Kharar, while disposing of an application for permanent injunction on Saturday, restrained Mr Rakesh Kumar, former president of Shiv Mandir, Sri Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Phase IX, SAS Nagar, from holding elections to the sabha on Sunday. Mr Hardev Singh Rana and Mr Sat Pal Sharma, plaintiffs in the case, had pleaded that the elections to the sabha had already taken place on June 1 and both of them were elected president and general secretary of the sabha, respectively. Other office-bearers were also elected on that day. After hearing counsels for both parties, the Judge restrained the defendant from holding parallel elections on Sunday. The defendant has also been restrained from illegally and forcibly interfering in the affairs of the management of the sabha.

HARYANA

AMBALA
INJURED: Three persons were injured when a cow came in front of their car. The driver lost control over the car and the vehicle collided with the cow. According to information, Swatantar Saini was coming from Mandi Gobindgarh and was on the way to Hardwar. Swatantar Saini, his daughter Sugandh and son Akhil sustained injuries.

PLEA DISMISSED: The Sessions Judge, Ambala, Mr C.B. Jaglian, dismissed the bail application of police Inspector, Nar Singh in the Jitender Pahal murder case. Nar Singh is a main accused in the case. Jitender Pahal was allegedly murdered in a false encounter in Jind. The mother of the deceased had filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which handed over the investigation to the CBI. The CBI had filed a chargesheet against five persons, including Nar Singh, in this court.

BODY FOUND: A body was found lying on the GT Road near Ambala cantonment here on Sunday morning. The body has not been identified so far. According to the police, the deceased seemed to be a beggar who might have been hit by some unknown vehicle. The body was lying on the edge of the overbridge.

HISAR
MURDERED: A retired Army man allegedly murdered his wife at Bugana village, near here, on Saturday. According to the police, Satbir Singh attacked his wife with a sharp-edged weapon when she was sleeping at her house. He also injured his brother Satpal and daughter Kamlesh. She died on the spot. There was a minor dispute between them.

SENTENCED: The District and Sessions Judge, Mr Arvind Goyal, on Saturday sentenced a person to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him on the charge of murdering his wife. According to the prosecution, Raju of nearby Uklana, stabbed his wife Rajkumari to death on December 17, 2000.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
FUNCTION: The Joint Morcha of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes Organisations of the district organised a district-level function on Kabir Jayanti at Mandi Manwa, near here, on Saturday. It was presided over by the district president of the morcha, Mr Dinesh Kumar, while state president Onka Singh Bhatia was the chief guest. The morcha demanded setting up of “Kabir chair” at Himachal Pradesh University.

TEACHERS’ PLEA: The district unit of the Himachal Govt Primary School Teachers Union has criticised former BJP government for its failure to implement even written agreement with their state union and has urged the state union to hold talks afresh with the new government for settling their long-pending grievances. A meeting organised in this connecting was presided over by district president Roshan Lal Verma.

NAHAN
INAUGURATED: The Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, Mr G.R. Musafir, inaugurated a forest inspection hut, constructed at a cost of Rs 4 lakh, at Dewthi Majhgaon in Rajgarh on Saturday. He said a Rs 94-lakh project for afforestation and soil conservation prepared by the Forest Department had been sent to the forest development agency which would undertake a massive development of forest in the area during next five years

SHIMLA
RED CROSS FAIR: Mr Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, Governor, inaugurated annual Red Cross fair organised by the welfare section of the State Red Cross Hospital at the Rani Jhansi Park here on Saturday. He called upon the people to donate liberally towards the Red Cross fund. Later in the evening, Ms Pratibha Singh, who is also the vice-president of the section, distributed prizes to the participants.