The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, July 27, 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

HOSHIARPUR
DOWRY CASE: On the complaint of Jaswinder Kaur, daughter of Sucha Singh of Mona, the police has registered a case against her husband Tarlochan Singh and father-in-law Sewa Singh, sarpanch, under Section 498-A. In her complaint she stated that she was married with Tarlochan Singh nine years ago. Tarlochan Singh and his father used to torture and beat her for more dowry.

BLOOD DONATED: Mr Parampal Singh Sidhu, DIG, Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, inaugurated a blood donation camp organised by Bhai Ghaniya Ji Charitable Blood Bank Hoshiarpur at Police Recruits Training Centre Jahan Khelan, 8 km from here, on Thursday. As many as 40 jawans of the centre donated blood.

LUDHIANA
TOPPER: Vandana Khera, a student of the Partap College of Education, Ludhiana, has topped the B.Ed examination of Panjab University securing 834 marks out of total of 1030. The result was declared by the university on Friday.

COLLEGE FUNCTION: Recitation of Gurbani and kirtan by Bhai Harpreet Singh marked the beginning of new academic session at Gujranwala Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Ludhiana, here on Saturday. Mr Gurdip Singh, Principal of the college, welcomed the students and urged them to work hard, be punctual and disciplined. Prof P.S. Kapur, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, urged the students to follow the path shown by Guru Nanak Dev. Students of postgraduate and undergraduate classes attended the function.

YOGA CAMP: The Bharatiya Yog Sansthan, Punjab, will organising a free mass yoga camp on Sunday at Rose Garden from 5.30 am to 8 am. The president of the All-India Bharatiya Yog Sansthan, Mr Prakash Lal, and the Chief Secretary, Mr Rishiram, will be present at ‘antar shuddhi’ programme. This information was given by the president of the Bharatiya Yog Sansthan, Punjab.

HOMAGE PAID: Students of BVM Senior Secondary School, Udham Singh Nagar, paid homage to the Kargil martyrs. The students took a pledge to maintain peace and sacrifice their lives for the sake of the country.

SUBMERSIBLE PUMP: Work for installing a new submersible pump has begun in Arya Mohalla, Ward No. 49. Mr Rakesh Kumar, area councillor, has been instrumental in getting the project started. A ‘puja’ was performed on the occasion. The foundation stone was laid by senior Congress leader Ashok Parashar Pappi. Mr Parashar said the problem of water scarcity in the locality and surrounding colonies in the ward would be over once the pump became functional. Among others Mr Sukhdev Thapar, Mr Vijay Kochar, Mr Ram Sarup Lekhi, Mr Harish Sharma, Mr Jeewan Wadhera, Mr Satish Gupta, Mr Neeraj Malhotra, Mr Rachit Kochar, Mr Munish Sama, Mr Balraj Sharma and Mr Sunny Kochar attended the function.

DEMAND: The Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee secretary, Mr Parminder Mehta, has called for a suitable increase in the strength of judges in the lower courts in Punjab. In separate letters written to the President of India and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, he has pointed out that the number of judges in the subordinate courts in almost all major towns is very low which led to inordinate delay in dispensation of justice. He has said that Ludhiana city, with a population in excess of 30 lakh and just seven judges in the lower courts, is an example in this context. He has also stressed the need of setting up more ‘lok adalats’ to provide speedy justice to the litigants.

PATIALA
90 MIGRANTS HELD: The Patiala Police has arrested 90 migrant labourers moving in suspicious circumstances since Friday night in an attempt to find a clue to the brutal murder of an ex-serviceman and his son at Banur. SSP Paramraj Singh Umranangal said the police was also coordinating with its Haryana counterparts and the Haryana Police had also nabbed two persons in this regard. The migrant labourers had been arrested from Banur, Rajpura city, Rajpura sadar and Patiala sadar.

AFFILIATION GRANTED: Punjabi University Patiala has given affiliation to the Punjab College of Education, Rajpura, for 100 seats in B.Ed course, which will be filled through counselling being conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, from July 30 to August 4. The Director Principal of the College, Dr Agyajit Singh, said the college had already been approved by National Council of Teachers Education.

SAMRALA
DSP TAKES OVER: Mr Jasbir Singh took over as the Deputy Superintendent of Police here on Friday. He replaces Mr G.S. Aulakh, who has been transferred to Jagraon. Earlier, Mr Jasbir Singh was posted at Jalandhar.

VANAMAHOTSAVA: The Punjab Khatri Sabha, Samrala, will celebrate the first ‘vanamahotsava’ on Sunday at the Civil Hospital here, according to Mr Kuldeep Khullar, press secretary of the sabha. The sapling-plantation programme will continue till August 23. Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, will inaugurate the programme, while Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon, MLA, Mr Jaspal Singh Jassi, SDM, Samrala, Mr Avtar Singh, member of the District Grievances Committee, will be the guests of honour.

EXHIBITION: A state-level exhibition was held here on Friday in the local Civil Hospital under the supervision of Mr Kirpal Singh, in charge of the health services, according to Dr J.P. Singh, SMO, Samrala. The exhibition aimed at creating awareness about care of newborn babies, importance of mother’s milk and steps to check spread of malaria.

CHANDIGARH

PLEA: The opposition to the proposed decision of the Punjab Government to construct a modern bus stand on a playground in Patiala, has started gaining momentum up with the former Vice-President of the Patiala District Cricket Association, G.S. Banga appealing to the Chief Minister, Punjab, Capt Amarinder Singh, to withhold its decision to convert the Atma Kumar Sabha school playground into a modern bus stand. He said by doing so, sport activities in general and cricket in particular will suffer.

SONG CONTEST: An inter-house group song competition was organised at the Army School, Chandimandir near here on Saturday. In the sub-junior solo song category, Richa Thakuri and Neha Verma secured the first and second position, respectively, while in the junior group song category, Nehru House bagged the first position followed by Gandhi House. In the senior solo song category, K.M. Bhavana secured the first position.

HEALTH CLINIC: There has been a steep rise in the incidence of respiratory ailments especially asthma in the region. This was stated by Dr Amandeep Singh Gill, associate consultant, Fortis Heart Institute here, on Friday. He was speaking at the inauguration of a three-day pulmonary and paediatric clinic. Dr Gill said children and infants were now becoming targets of acute asthma. The special clinic will continue for another two days with Dr B.N.S. Walia visiting the clinic on Monday. Minerva Academy JJ Sports XI in finals.

HEALTH CAMP: A health check-up camp for students of Moti Ram Arya School, Sector 27, was organised by Help Age India, in which as many as 136 students were examined by specialists for eye-related disorders. The camp, organised under the association’s educational programmes in schools, was inaugurated by the Principal, Ms Saroj Savant.

MEETING: A large number of IT professionals attended the third meeting of Chandigarh IT Club held in Sector 22 here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Karan A Singh, UT Finance Secretary, said the club was a forum for informal interaction amongst IT professionals of the city. Among others who spoke included Mr Vivek Atray, Director, Department of IT and CEO, SPIC, Dr Sanjay Tyagi, Additional Director, STPI, SAS Nagar, and Mr Rajan Vasudevan, Director, Safaltek Software Pvt Ltd.

AID TO VICTIMS: The Municipal Corporation would discuss the setting up of a new rehri market in place of the existing Janta Rehri market in Mani Majra during its forthcoming meeting. As many as 34 booths were gutted in a fire on Tuesday. This was stated by the local Member Parliament, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, while talking to Chandigarh Tribune. He had gone to the Janta Rehri market to meet fire victims. Meanwhile, 40 victims of the fire were provided token monetary relief by the UT Administration here on Saturday. Cheques were handed over to the victims by Ms Madhavi Katraria, Secretary UT Red Cross and SDM (South).

MOVE HAILED: The Chandigarh UT Subordinate Services Federation has welcomed the move of the administration to raise the retirement age of its employees to 60 years and grant bonus on the Central pattern. The UT employees are fighting for restoration of the Centre Service Rules and bonus on Central pattern. At its meeting held here on Saturday Mr R.S. Sandhu, Mr Ramesh Kumar and Mr Sant Singh of the federation said their agitation would continue till the administration yielded to their demands.

SAPLINGS PLANTED: To create awareness about the importance of clean and green environment, a sapling plantation function was held at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 21, on Saturday. Ms Indira Dhingra, Principal of the school, Mr Bhajan Singh, president of Parents Teachers Association, along with staff and other members of the PTA planted around 50 saplings on the school premises.

CHARITABLE CENTRE: The Swami Ram Tirtha Memorial Society, Punjab on Saturday opened a charitable ayurvedic centre in Sector 24-C for those belonging to the poor section of the society. Inaugurating the centre, the former PGI Director, Prof I.C. Pathak, lauded the efforts of the society in serving the poor and the needy. A team of highly qualified doctors and specialists will give free consultation and services to the poor and ailing. The health professionals will take out time from their family routine to devote time for running the centre.

SEMINAR: The local chapter of the AISEC, a student-run exchange based organisation, organised a seminar on monitoring and usage of “information avenues” at the Art Gallery, Sector 10, here on Saturday. Mr Sarthak Aggarwal, president, explained the role of the AISEC in developing individuals, professionally and culturally, through international internship programmes. The seminar ended with a question-answer session on interpersonal communication.

PANCHKULA
LOK ADALAT: As many as 173 cases were settled in the 23rd Lok Adalat held at the Judicial Complex under the chairmanship of the Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman of District Legal Services Authority, Mr H.S. Bhangoo. The Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, Mr H.S. Dahiya, said about 297 cases were taken up in today's Lok Adalat. As many as 19 cases relating to accident claims were decided by Mr Bhangoo and Mr L.N. Jindal and Rs 22. 46 lakh was awarded as compensation. Fine worth Rs 35,200 was recovered in 139 cases of the summary Motor Vehicle Act, while eight criminal and seven civil cases were also decided by Mr Dahiya and Mr P.K. Yadav.

COMPETITION: In order to hone the acting skills of children, an inter-house histrionic and drama competition was organised at the senior wing of Satluj Public School on Saturday. About 50 students from the five houses of the school-Red House, Yellow House, Blue House, Purple House and Orange House- participated. Dramas with moral messages were staged and Yellow House won the first prize, while the Red House stood second.

CELEBRATED: Environment Day was celebrated by children of Dikshant International School. They organised a poster-making competition on conservation of forests, held a rally in Sector 11, and planted saplings in the Industrial Area.

RESENTMENT: The Small-Scale Industries Welfare Association, Panchkula, has said the implementation of VAT in the state has posed a serious problem for the industrialists. In a press note, Mr Mehar Singh, president of the association, said the implementation of VAT had brought down the sale of goods by almost 50 per cent, and asked the Chief Minister to reconsider its decision on VAT.

MEETING: The regional working committee meeting of the Bharat Vikas Parishad will be held tomorrow at Parishad Bhavan in Sector 12-A. The office-bearers of all shakhas of the parishad from all over the state will participate in the meeting.

HARYANA

AMBALA
SAVING FORTNIGHT: Punjab National Bank, DAV College, Ambala City branch, on Saturday began “savings fortnight” celebrations, according to Mr Chetan Sethi, Senior Manager. Mr Sethi said the fortnight celebrations would go on till August 8 to draw maximum customers towards the bank. the District Manager, Mr I.S. Bedi, said the fortnight is being celebrated all over the zone. To inculcate banking habits among schoolchildren above 10 years of age, the bank would organise face-to-face interaction.

FATEHABAD
SELECTED: Dr Geeta Chowdhary, a local gynaecologist has been selected for “Bharat Jyoti Award” by the Indian International Friendship Society, New Delhi. The award along with a ‘Certificate of Excellence’ would be presented to her on August 20. A letter of the society received by Dr Chowdhary on Friday said that the society was a strong advocate of economic growth and national integration. The society, the letter said, stood as a champion in vital areas of forging friendship between individuals, corporates, regions, religions and nations. The society honoured people of excellence in every field of life.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Rotary Club, Fatehabad : president — Mr Rakesh Mehta; senior vice-president — Mr Manoj Chawla; vice-president — Dr Gulshan Madan, secretary — Mr Des Raj; joint secretary — Mr Manmohan Midha; and treasurer — Mr Pawan Sachdeva.