The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, August 15, 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

AMRITSAR
INAUGURATED: In its community service project, the Rotary Club, Amritsar cantonment, on Wednesday took over the Kennedy Avenue park for beautification. The inaugural programme was presided over by Mayor Sunil Datti.

FARIDKOT
SEMINAR: Mr S.K. Gupta, a veteran district Congress leader who is also Chairman of the local Improvement Trust, has exhorted teachers to take concrete steps to promote the Sarv Sikhiya Abhiyan. He regretted that the dropout rate in government schools was still 60 per cent. Mr Gupta was presiding over a seminar organised by a DIET institution here on Thursday.

FEROZEPORE
MURDERED: Gulzar Singh, 54, was murdered allegedly by sons of his sister at nearby Basti Lehngaeana village on Thursday night, the police said on Friday. The police has booked Joginder Singh, Balwinder Singh and Gurnam Singh on the murder charge. It is alleged that when the victim objected to the abuses hurled at him by the drunk accused, the latter hurled bricks at him, killing him.

HOSHIARPUR
BOAT TRAGEDY: The next date of the hearing of the Malta boat case has been fixed for October 21 before the “Corte di Assise”. This information was given to Mr Balwant Singh Khera, Chairman, Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission, by Mr C. Ravi, Under Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.

INJURED: All 22 passengers of an overcrowded autorickshaw were injured when the vehicle overturned in a bid to avoid a collision with a bus near Nangal Shaheedan village on the Hoshiarpur-Mahilpur road on Friday, the police and hospital sources said. In another mishap, a woman cyclist, Gurbaksh Kaur, 30, was hit and killed by a truck near here native Kahlwan village on the Hoshiarpur-Dasuya road on Friday, the police said.

JALANDHAR
ARRESTED: The police has arrested three persons for gambling and seized Rs 50,000. According to the police, a special team raided one of the hideouts of gamblers and arrested three persons, including Daljeet Singh of Model Town, Davinder Kumar of Rasta Mohalla and Vasudev of Guru Nagar while they were receiving coded slips for gambling nd money from the customers. A case has been registered.

LUDHIANA
PSEB SEMINAR: The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Employees Federation will organise a seminar on the proposed privatisation of the PSEB by the state government here on Sunday. According to state president of the body Surinder Singh Pehalwan, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, former Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh, President of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ajmer Singh Lakhowal and representatives of the PSEB Engineers Association and Council of Junior Engineers, among others, would participate in the seminar.

I-DAY CELEBRATIONS: The Government Pensioners' Association in association with New Courts branch of the State Bank of India would observe the 57th Independence Day at Pensioners’ Bhavan in Mini Secretariat here on Friday. Mr Samir Saran, Deputy General Manager of the bank from Zonal Office (Punjab), would unfurl the national flag. This was stated by Mr B.R. Kaushal, president, Punjab State Pensioners’ Confederation, in a statement here on Monday.

PATIALA
EX-SERVICEMEN’S PLEA: The Indian Ex-Services League, Punjab and Chandigarh has condemned the decision of the Centre for rejecting the long-pending demand of ex- servicemen regarding One Rank One Pension. The league said it would mobilise two million ex- servicemen in the country to demand the right of serving up to the age of superannuation.

I-DAY CELEBRATION: Blossoms School here started its Independence Day celebration with tree plantation here on Thursday. Students of preparatory wing of the school also paid homage to martyrs. The Principal of the school, Mrs Ravi Singh, and the Director, Mrs Daisy Grewal, were also present at the function.

NEW DIPLOMA: Punjabi University here has introduced a post graduate diploma in insurance business in the Department of Correspondence Courses from this academic session.

COOKERY CONTEST: Mrs Gurvinder Kaur, Mrs Kanchan, Mrs Narula has bagged first, second and third position, respectively, in sandwich making contest which was organised by Cremica Group in Maharani Club here on Wednesday. Mrs Neena Jain and Mrs Usha Sood has also won first and second prize, respectively, in salad-making contest.

DOCTORS’ PLEA: The PCMS Association and the Medical Teachers of Government Rajindra College and Hospital have advocated that doctors be given an option of between choosing the non-practising allowance (NPA) and private practice. The Joint Secretary of the PCMS state Association, Dr D.S. Bhullar, said this could resolve the crisis arising out of the decision taken by the state government to abolish NPA. Terming the decision unilateral he said the decision had been taken in haste.

FUNCTION: Tiny tots of Sri Aurobindo International School, while presenting a colourful cultural programme on the occasion of their annual day function on Thursday took their parents and audience down the memory lane where simple things like learning phonetics to the beat of music could bring immense pleasure. Starting the programme with a Sanskrit shalok and vandana, the students of the junior wing presented a composite programme starting with “Baby’s Day Out” in which they told about the things they want to do or advising the audience both children and adults to keep smiling. The Chairman of the Improvement Trust, Mr K.K. Sharma, who was the chief guest gave away prizes to the meritorious students. Ms Kawaljit, Principal of the school, proposed the vote of thanks.

PHAGWARA
NABBED: The police on Wednesday arrested Surinder Kumar and Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, of Madhopur village and recovered two motor-cycles which they had stolen. The police said the two confessed to having broken the ‘golak’ (money-box) at Jassal Jathera shrine to steal the cash.

SAMRALA
STATEMENT HAILED: Members of the local unit of the Anti-Corruption Front have welcomed the statement made by Mr Bir Devinder Singh, Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, that all police personnel deployed with the office of the Lokpal should be withdrawn forthwith. The members, including Mr Rachhpal Singh, Capt Makhan Singh, Mr Mehma Singh Kang, Mr Darshan Singh Balion, Mr K.L. Khanna, Mr Nirmal Singh, said law and order situation had deteriorated in the state.

SANGRUR
CONFERENCE: The district unit of the All-India FCI Class IV Employees’ Union on Wednesday held its annual conference in front of the office of the FCI here. Mr Balbir Singh, Mr S.S. Chatha and Mr Amar Nath were declared elected as president, secretary and cashier, respectively, of the district unit.

CHANDIGARH

WORKSHOP HELD: The Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) organised a workshop on creativity for students of computer graphics at its centre here on Wednesday. The workshop was conducted by well-known designer, Sumant Vadhera, who demonstrated the technique of creativity and designing and advertisement to the students at the workshop.

I-DAY CELEBRATIONS: Dancing to the thumping beats of drum and melodious tunes of patriotic songs, students of the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends (ITFT) celebrated Independence Day at Leisure Valley in Sector 10. Students studying in the institute from different parts of the country, including Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Assam, Karnataka and West Bengal, participated in the celebrations.

RELEASED: A cheque for Rs 1,81,325 was released for Chandi Kusht Ashram by the Principal of Sector 8 DAV Public School, Sarita Manuja, on behalf of Helpage India. The money will provide basic material necessities to 119 senior citizens, out of which 72 are the inmates of the ashram and 47 are the poor slum-dwellers of the city. They have been adopted by HelpAge India under Adopt-a-Gran programme. Under this project they have adopted 1700 senior citizens all over the country.

LECTURE: Eminent sculptor and painter Shiv Singh dealt with the nuances of architectural design during his lecture organised by the authorities of the Chandigarh College of Architecture design here on Wednesday. A special audio visual talk, meant to apprise the students of architecture with the linkages between art and architecture, was laced with significant examples of art and architecture coming together. The artiste, who commands international repute in his field, talked at length about the qualities of a good design as also the various factors that govern it, be it sculpture, painting, mural design, architectural works and the like. Shiv Singh also talked about the inseparable bond between art and architecture through examples of work from the city’s original team of designers.

PANCHKULA
MEETING: Low water pressure, repairs of roads, upkeep of sector parks and other problems came up during the meeting of executive committee meeting of the House Owners Welfare Association, Sector 10, on Thursday. It was also resolved to take up the problems with the authorities concerned. The meeting was chaired by Mr K.K. Katyal. Later, Mr N.C. Swami, Mr S.K. Sharma and Mr R.L. Setia were nominated Advisers and Mr B.K Bansal was elected press secretary of the Association.

PLANTATION DAY: JPA Toddlers World observed, Thursday as plantation day in an effort to make its students aware of the importance of a clean and green environment. Mr Alok Joshi, IG, Ambala range, was the chief guest. He assisted the tiny tots in planting saplings. Later, the students entertained him with some enthralling dance performances.

FIRE INCIDENT: Goods worth thousands of rupees were gutted in a fire that brokeout in a house in Sector 15 on Thursday afternoon. It is suspected that the fire was caused by a short-circuit. The tenant of this room in house no 319, Mr Jatinder Pal, was reportedly out for work at the time of the incident. The landlord noticed the fire and called for the fire-tender. Two fire tenders took an hour to douse the flames.

HARYANA

AMBALA
HFC SCAM CASE: The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Surya Pratap Singh, has initiated the process of declaring three former HFC officers and 14 beneficiaries as proclaimed offenders. The court had issued non-bailable warrant against them on August 11 and directed them to appear in the court on August 13 in the multi-crore loan scam of HFC in which a senior IAS officer Ajit Mohan Sharan was also arrested. Non of the 17 appeared in the court on Thursday. The accused are HFC officials P.C. Gupta, Anil Lekhi, and Manoj Arora while the beneficiaries include Arun Mittal, Deepak Gupta, Satpal Gupta, Sunil Gupta, Surender Malhotra, Ashwani Malhotra, Neelam Arora, G.S. Gill, Jaswir Kaur Gill, Vijay Chawla, Sadhna Chawla, Promila Jain, Ramesh Jain and Anil Sareen.

SELECTION TEST: The Chief Postmaster-General, Haryana circle, Mrs K. Noorjehan, has said computer test and objective type written test for general knowledge and reasoning in connection with the direct recruitment of vacancies for 2001 will be held on August 24 and September 7, respectively. She said the recruitment was for vacancies of PA (Post Offices), PA (Circle Office), PA (SBCO), PAs for deputation to APS and Sorting Assistants.

SAPLINGS PLANTED: The NCC and the NSS unit of MDSD Girls College, city organised a sapling plantation camp on Wednesday. The college principal, Dr Kiran Angra, said the camp was held in collaboration with the State Bank of Patiala. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr D.D. Gautam, State Bank of Patiala Branch Manager Mr Pradeep Kumar and NCC Commanding Officer Lieut-Col Anil Kumar were also present. An on the spot painting competition was organised.

LABOURER KILLED: Joginder, a labourer died while spraying insecticide in a field. According to information the deceased was working in the field of Gurcharan, resident of Siwan Majra village. While spraying insecticide, he went to the nearby tubewell and drank some water there. Immediately after drinking the water, he started feeling unwell. He died on the way to hospital. The body was handed over to the relatives after post-mortem examination.

HISAR
PROCESSION HELD: Members of various trade and employees’ unions held a procession in the main markets of the town on Wednesday in protest against the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban strikes. Later, they held a meeting at the local bus stand. Addressing the meeting, their leaders demanded the court to review its decision at the earliest.

KAITHAL
OPEN DARBAR: An open darbar was organised by the district administration at Balu village in Kalayat subtehsil of this district on Wednesday. Murti Devi, a widow, was assured financial help through the Social Welfare Department by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Agarwal, who presided. The Deputy Commissioner directed the Secretary, District Red Cross, to provide hearing aids to Raj Pal of Kharak Pandva. The Education Department officials were directed to provide books and school uniforms to the children of two poor women Suman Devi and Machli Devi of Kalayat.