R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• A neglected samadhi
• Mandi boy’s debut album
• Planthoppers attack rice crop

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
BOOK RELEASED: Dr K. Venkatasubramanian, member, Planning Commission, released a book, “Punjab Society: perspective and challenges”, at Guru Nanak Dev University on Tuesday. Edited by Dr MS Gill, reader in the Sociology Department of the university, it has five sections on contemporary Punjab, agrarian development, social change and globalisation, rural credit institution, women empowerment and development and environment.

BARNALA
CAMP: More than 500 persons suffering from heart and blood pressure-related ailments were examined and treated at a medical camp organised by Lions Club,  Barnala, at the local Civil Hospital complex on Sunday. According to Dr Rakesh Goel, president, Lions Club, Barnala, Dr Gurpreet Singh Sidhu, a renowned cardiologist of the Patiala Heart Care Centre, Patiala, along with his team of doctors, including Dr SPS Bagga, Dr Dharam Vir Gandhi, Dr P. Jaiswal, and Dr Ashok Jayant from Patiala attended it.

HOSHIARPUR
ARRESTED: The district police during nakabandi intercepted a motorcycle and arrested three of its occupants on the Chintpurni road near Banjer Bag here. Mr Opinderjit Singh Ghuman, Officiating SSP, Hoshiarpur, stated in a press release here on Tuesday that the arrested were identified as Vicky and Kuku, residents of Ram Nagar colony, Ambala City, and Romesh Kumar alias Mehshi of Katche Quarter, Hoshiarpur.

LUDHIANA
URS: The annual Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer will be held near the Sacha Sauda market on the Ferozepore road on Thursday evening, according to Mr Sumit Thapar, president, Aashique-e-Khwaja Society, which is holding the event. The purpose of holding the Urs was to promote the message of world peace and mutual love as propagated by the great Khwaja. Several ‘qawals’ from Ajmer will sing the praises of the great saintly figure all through the night and a community kitchen will be also be held.

FUNCTION: A function in connection with Teachers’ Day was held in Arya College (women section) here on Wednesday. On this occasion, a declamation contest and poetry recitation competitions were organised. Ms Satisha Sharma, in charge, women section, was the chief guest. Various students spoke on topics like ‘Teachers as nation builders’, and ‘Are teachers our role models?’ The winners in the declamation contest were: Rachna (B.Com II) first; Sonam (BA I) second; and Vibhuti (B.Com II) third. In the poetry recitation contest Sonam (BA I) stood first and Vasudha (BA III) bagged the second position.

MACHHIWARA
CONTEST: A fancy dress competition was organised at the local Sacred Heart Convent School in which 77 Nursery and LKG students participated. According to the Principal, Sister Joyas, three teachers, Sister Joby, Sister Kazida and Sister Sherley, judged the performance of the tiny-tots. The winners from Nursery were: Saurav (first); Karman Benipal (second); and Amarinder Singh (third). The winners form LKG were:Aman (first); Amandeep (second); and Gurleen Kaur & Priya Kaur (both third).

MANSA
DHARNA: Employees of the Mansa Central Cooperative Bank on Wednesday sat in dharna in front of their head office here. They want the bank to recall staff on deputation and withdraw pay-parity letter and conditions imposed on employees for promotions.

KHULA DARBAR: A Khula Darbar organised at Mall Singh Wala village of the district last evening was presided over by Mr Raj Kamal Chowdhary, Deputy Commissioner, Mansa, who redressed grievances of 57 persons on the spot.

PATIALA
MEETING: A Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Polytechnic and ITI Employees Association held a meeting here on Wednesday and condemned the state government move to privatise 18 polytechnics and 106 ITIs in the state. Speaking on the occasion Co-Convener of the committee Jasvir Singh urged the state government to take back the decision to privatise the government technical institutes.

ROPAR
UTI FLAYED: The District Tax Bar Association, Ropar, has flayed the UTI authorities for a delay in issuing permanent account number (PAN) to assesses. In a press note issued here on Wednesday, the vice-president of the association, Mr Ashok Manocha, said the association had also written to the Central Board of Direct Taxes about the issue.

DELEGATION: A two-member delegation of the All-India Forward Block, comprising general secretary of Punjab, Mr V.P. Saini, and Mr Barun Mukherjee, is going to visit North Korea to attend the 56th foundation day celebrations of the country. Mr V.P. Saini gave this information in a press note, issued here on Wednesday. He said the delegation was going on an invitation of the North Korean Government.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BSNL UNION: The BSNL Employees Union on Wednesday decided to hold an indefinite dharna in front of CGMT, Haryana circle office, from September 15. Demands of the union include the payment of honorarium for achievement of annual target of telephone connections, timely issuance of uniform to eligible staff and payment of the OTA to Group C and D. 

HEALTH COMMITTEE: A three-member committee has been formed to look into the provisions of blood safety. The committee members will compromise Dr D.S. Jaspal, patron of the Haryana unit of the Indian Medical Association, Dr S.K. Gupta, former Director, Health Services, and Dr Ajay Madan. Mr Raj Kumar, Commissioner, Health, held a meeting in Ambala with members of the association on Tuesday. He spoke about the decision of the government to involve private doctors in health programmes.

KAITHAL
TUBEWELL CONNECTIONS: The Haryana Government has released 26000 tubewell connections to farmers during the past four years besides inaugurating 53 new substations and increasing the capacity of 214 substations. This was revealed by Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala after inaugurating the 220 kv substation at Cheeka, 35 km from here, on Tuesday. He also inaugurated two 132 kv substations at Kangthali and Bhagal in this district.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KULU
RECOVERED: The district police recovered 1,100 kg of charas from Dile Ram, son of Gian Chand, a resident of Khadoha, at Sainj village, 45 km from here, on Tuesday.

MANDI
PLAN: Mr Rangbila Ram Rao, Excise and Taxation Minister, disclosed that a plan had been drawn up under which as many as 2700 houses would be constructed in the state for persons living below the poverty line under the Rajiv Avas Yojna during the current financial year. Mr Rao was addressing a public meeting after listening to and redressing on-the-spot grievances of people at the “Sarkar Aap Ke Dwar” programme at Trifalghat.

STRIKE: Work on the 800-MW Koldam hydroelectric project costing over Rs 4500 crore now under execution in Mandi and Bilaspur districts has come to a virtual halt due to strike by workers under the banner of CITU which entered its 12th day on Wednesday.

SHIMLA
WEBSITE: Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, launched the official website of Kinnaur district here on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, he said the website provided complete information about the district, its history, culture, tourism, administrative set up, places of interest, fairs and festivals, prominent religious centres and monasteries, besides trekking routes identified for adventure tourism which were bound to attract a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. He said Kinnaur was the sixth district in the state which had launched its official website.

KULU DASEHRA: The Kulu Dasehra Festival will be celebrated from October 5 to October 11 this year. This was decided at a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, here on Tuesday.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

A neglected samadhi

The samadhi of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, a great Sikh warrior, today stands in a dilapidated condition. Situated in the holy premises of Baba Atal Sahib in Golden Temple, the samadhi is in shambles and needs urgent repair (see picture).

Despite assurances by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, to repair and preserve the samadhi of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, nothing has been done in this regard. The plaster on the walls of the samadhi has peeled off exposing the Nanakshahi bricks of the ancient heritage structure. Plants that endanger any construction like pipal and banyan are growing freely in the cracks and crevices further damaging the structure.

The condition of the samadhi on the galliara side of the Golden Temple is no better.

Sultan-ul-Qaum, Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia born on May 13, 1718, was a versatile genius and a national leader of Sikh community whose leadership, personality and firm believe in the values of ethos of Sikh religion had proved a powerful source of inspiration and motivation to his contemporaries. Having made great contributions towards the history of Punjab he proved to be not only a devout Sikh but also a great warrior and thus enjoyed status of a highly respected spiritual leader among the Khalsa.

Mandi boy’s debut album

Siddharth Katyan (23) of Mandi town in Himachal is all set to rule the hearts of music lovers with the release of his debut album “Tu Hae Kahan”.

Siddharth said the audio of the album had already been released by US-based music company, DAS Music Entertainment. Directed by Dhananjay Sharma the album contains 11 songs. Sanjay Tripathi is the producer while Siddharth and Shweta Sharma are the models for the video release of the album.

Siddharth’s love for his homeland can be felt by listening to sole “pahari” number ‘Sahiba’. One English song “I need you” has also been included in the album. “SID”, as he is affectionately known, is a son of a local journalist Hemkant Katyan. His aptitude for music became known at the age of three. At school he started winning prizes.

In 1992 he achieved the distinction of becoming the first singer in Himachal Pradesh to get a scholarship from the state. After doing his MA in music Siddharth prevailed upon his parents to send him to Mumbai to start a new life in tinsel town where he worked with renowned music director Ravinder Jain and did a number of shows and assisted him in a few albums. He gave background music for detective serial named “Detective K” which was telecast on DD Metro.

Planthoppers attack rice crop

Rice crop at certain places in Punjab has been attacked by the white backed planthoppers. The insects suck the cell sap particularly from the leaf-sheath and cause the crop to dry up in patches. The hoppers continue moving and killing the crop in the neighbouring field. The area of the dry patches enlarges.

It is also likely that the insect will affect the millets, maize and other grasses. Farm experts say the planthoppers thrives on rice which is the most preferred host plant.

Experts say the planthopper is small in size, measuring about 3mm in length. The body is black in colour except the dorsal part of the thorax and antinae which are pale yellow. The planthopper lays eggs in masses in the midrib and leaf-sheaths. Each mass contains seven to 19 eggs. The egg caps are long and narrow. The eggs hatch in about six days. It takes about 11 to 12 days before it becomes adult.

Adult insects live for 9 to28 days during which a female insect lays an average of 119 eggs. Agriculture Director Ajmer Singh said a female could lay up to 350 eggs during her life span.

The species in the past had been found in the rice producing countries like Brazil, Bangladesh, Columbia, China. Egypt, Indonesia. Nigeria, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, USSR, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.

PAU experts have suggested that the affected crop should be sprayed with insecticides.

Contributed by Pawan Kumar, Kishori Lal and Bhagwan Dass