The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

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50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
PUNJABI WEEK: ‘Punjabi week’ was celebrated by Guru Nanak Dev University at Preetnagar village. Students of the School of Punjabi Studies presented a cultural programme. A seminar and a poetry competition were also organised.

HONOURED: Dr Surinder Bir, Reader, School of Punjabi Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, was awarded ‘Majhe di Shaan’ by the Majha Rang Manch and Sabhyacharak Centre, Tarn Taran, for the year 2003 for his contribution to literature.

BATHINDA
COMPETITIONS: Rachita Midha stood first in the girls section while Amlik stood first in the boys section in fancy dress and modelling competitions organised by Blooming Buds School on Friday on Children’s Day. Mrs Kamalpreet Kaur Brar was the chief guest.

PHYSICS MEET: The physics association of the local Government Rajindra College organised a seminar on, "Role of waves in quantum mechanics" on Saturday. Dr S.P.S. Virdi, Dean Colleges, Punjabi University, Patiala, and Dr A.K. Sikri, subject expert, delivered lectures on the topic. Ms G.K. Bhattal, Principal of the college, praised the role of the teachers in organising the seminar Prof Chint Ram, head of department, delivered the vote of thanks.

KHARAR
VETERINARY VANS: The Punjab Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fish-ries and Dairy Develop-ment, Mr Jagmohan Singh Kang, flagged off veterinary vans from the Civil Hospital at Kurali, near here, on Friday. Mr Kang said the mobile veterinary services would benefit cattle owners in far flung areas of the state. He said 45 vans would cover 540 villages in the state. He said the services would include artificial insemination and preventive vaccination.

LUDHIANA
YOGA CAMP: A mass yoga camp will be held on Sunday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in a park behind Durga Temple, Dugri, Phase 1. The camp is being organised by the Bharatiya Yog Sansthan. It will be attended by participants of yoga classes held all over the city. Yoga teachers will teach pranayam and dhyan. Mr Hardyal Singh Aulakh, district president of the sanathan, will talk on how to remain healthy.

CASSETTE RELEASED: A cassette of devotional songs, “Maan na karin bandiya”, was released here on Friday. Sung by a famous raagi Bhai Kulwant Singh, the cassette is being marketed by Sarab Sanjhi Gurbani. Jc Ajay Naib, chartar president of JC Royal, was present. Bhai Kulwant Singh said this was the third album he had released.

EYE CAMP: A two-day eye operation camp, organised by the Lions Club, Jagraon, was inaugurated here on Saturday by Mr Gurdip Singh Bhaini, former MLA and Chairman of the Tubewell Corporation of Punjab, at the Civil Hospital, Jagraon. Dr Sukhjinder Kakkar, eye surgeon at the hospital, examined hundreds of eye patients. The operations will be conducted tomorrow.

SABHYACHARAK MELA: The Amar Singh Chamkeela Yaadgari Trust, Jagraon, will organise the fifth Sabhyacharak mela in the memory of Amar Singh Chamkeela, a folk singer, near the Truck Operators Union office tomorrow. It will be inaugurated by Mr Jagjit Singh Lopo. Sadhu Dilshad, a lyric writer, will be presented a gold medal and renowned folk singers of the state will take part in the programme.

FEROZEPORE
CO-OPERATIVE WEEK: Farmers should make full use of multipurpose co-operatives societies through which they can get agriculture equipment on instalments, which would bring down their production costs, Mr Ravinder Singh Sandhu, Parliamentary Secretary said while presiding over an inaugural function to mark Cooperative Week.

MOGA
BIRTH CERTIFICATES: Mr G. Ramesh Deputy Commissioner, note said the distribution of birth certificates has been started in the district and more than one lakh children under 10 years of age would be given the certificates.

NAWANSHAHR
SAINIK BOARD: Mr Harjit Inder Singh Grewal, Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over a meeting of the District Sainik Board here on Friday, the district administration would take effective steps to remove encroachments on properties of ex-servicemen and their widows. Besides, ex-servicemen would be provided ample self-employment opportunities by providing them with loan facilities under various schemes. A dispensary under the E.S.H.S. Scheme would also be set up for their convenience.

PATIALA
NEWBORN WEEK: The Department of Paediatrics, Government Medical College, on Saturday celebrated New Born Week under the auspices of the National Neonatology Forum. The function was inaugurated by Dr Surinder Singh, Principal.

BEDS DONATED: The State Bank of Patiala has donated 10 hospital beds to the Pingla Ashram on the Sanour road along with blankets and mattresses under the community service scheme launched by the bank. Ms Sukla Das, wife of managing director A.K. Das, handed over the beds and other material to ashram in charge Balbir Singh.

SHABAD GAYAN: Sri Aurobindo International School won the first prize in the Shabad Gayan competition organised by the Budha Dal Public School. Our Lady of Fatima Convent School and Budha Dal Public School, Samana, claimed the second and third position, respectively. Dr Gurnam Singh, Dr Jagtar Singh and Baba Uday Singh were the judges.

PHAGWARA
POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The police on Friday siezed 24 sacks of poppy husk from a truck while peddler Gurdip Singh of Doraha escaped. The police got a tip off that a truck was parked behind a house in Satnampura here. Its driver was said to be waiting for customers of poppy husk. However, the driver escaped abandoning the truck before the police party reached there.

ROPAR
RECOVERED: The Ropar police has recovered jewellery, TV sets and other stolen material worth Rs 2.5 lakh from the gang of robbers. The SSP Mr Surinder Pal Singh, in a press note issued here on Saturday said the goods were recovered on a tip-off of arrested gang members Ramanand and Shiv Kumar of Machiwara.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Diploma Engineers Association of the Public Health Department; president — Mr Randhir Singh Gill; vice-president — Mr Avtar Singh Saini; general-secretary — Mr Kashmiri Lal; joint-secretary — Mr Jasbir Singh; organising secretary — Mr Ram Lal Gupta and finance secretary — Mr Subhash Chander Sood.

CHANDIGARH

SETTLED: As many as 31 cases were settled and Rs 16.27 lakh was awarded as compensation, on Friday in the Special Lok Adalat organised by the State Legal Services Authority in order to settle the outstanding dues of Punjab and Sind Bank, Sector 17 against the defaulters. Besides it, Rs 1.23 lakh was recovered on the spot from the borrowers. This Special Lok Adalat was headed by Mr Sant Parkash, member secretary-cum-judge, Permanent Lok Adalat. Mr K.K. Monga, and Mr Saroj Jain, both members, also attended the Lok Adalat.

OUT OF ORDER: Diagnostic equipment worth Rs 4.5 crore at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) have been lying out of order for the past five years. The report of the Auditor General for the year 2002-03 has pointed out that 26 such machines have been lying out of order for want of repair. These machines are Rs 50 lakh colour doppler, Rs 9.54 lakh autoanalyser, Rs 9.7 lakh ultrasound scanner and Rs 3 lakh automatic film processor.

HERITAGE WEEK: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is celebrating the World Heritage Week from November 19 to 25 throughout the country. An officer of the ASI said the aim of the heritage week was to create awareness among the public, especially college and schools tudents about the rich cultural heritage of the country. The Chandigarh circle of the ASI has been entrusted with the conservation and preservation of monuments of the national importance in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The week-long celebrations in the city is being arranged at Fine Arts Museum, Panjab University.

MEETING: The executive body of the Footpath Workers Rozgar Bachao Samiti has urged the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation to issue identity cards and provide ‘pucca’ booths to them The general secretary of the Samiti, Mr Arjun Dass, said a number of memorandums had been given to the officers concerned, but nothing has happened. The samiti members said they would hold a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office on November 27 after taking out a procession.

AWARDED: Vidyun Sood, a student of St Anne’s Convent School, has been awarded the first prize for an essay writing during a contest held by the Indian Railways to celebrate 100 years of the Kalka-Shimla rail way track. The topic chosen by Vidyun was ‘ My experience with hill railway’. The Minister of Railways, Mr Nitish Kumar, gave a cash award to the winner at a function in Shimla recently.

COMMITTEE: A delegation of the National Muslim Welfare Society on Saturday met the UT Administrator, Justice O.P. Verma, to demand the reconstitution of Haj Committee of Chandigarh. The president of the National Muslim Welfare, Mohammed Shakir, said the Administrator assured the delegation that their demand would be met.

LITERACY PROGRAMME: A campaign to educate children in the age group of six to 14, years is being launched under a project of Government of India. In a meeting held under the chairmanship of the principal of Sector 39 Government Model High School, Mr Paramjit Kaur, it was decided that a batch of 40 students would be taught for 4 hours in a day.

FEE HIKE ISSUE: The Chandigarh unit of the CPM has supported the demand of the student community for the rollback of fee hike in the colleges in Chandigarh. The party was of the view that the prevailing economic crisis in the country had created problems for the working class. Mr Mohammed Shshnaz Gorsi, secretary of the local unit of the CPM said the Administration was acting in contradiction to the aims of the literacy mission of the government. The party has urged the Administrator to intervene in the matter.

PUBLIC MEETING: Mr Satya Pal Jain, ex MP, listened to the grievances of residents of Pipliwala Town, New Abadi, Mani Majra, at a public meeting here. He was given a charter of demands by Mr B.R. Maini, president of the Welfare Association, Pipliwala Town. Mr Jain assured the residents that he would approach the authorities concerned to get their problems redressed at the earliest. The main demands related to the issuance of no objection certificate (NOCs), concreting of streets, improving water supply and drainage system and the construction of a community centre etc.

PANCHKULA
WATER SUPPLY: A sum of Rs 1.30 crore has been earmarked by the Shivalik Development Board for laying pipeline and strengthening the water supply network. A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of district officials, chaired by Mr Inder Singh, SDM, on Saturday. He said the proposal had been sent to the Public Health Department and the work in this regard would being soon.

ELECTED: Mr H.R. Bhatia has been unanimously elected as chairman of the Senior Citizens Council, Sector 7 committee. The election was held at Kala Gram on Saturday. Mr Bhatia, a former Deputy Secretary, Haryana, is also the organising secretary of the Haryana Retired Officers Welfare Association.

CONTEST: A healthy baby contest was organised in the regional office of the Family Planning Associa-tion of India on Friday. As many as 114 children (between the age group of 0-six years) from the slums and surroungings of Panchkula had participated. Dr Pinkesh Verma, paediatrician, General Hospital, and Dr Sangeeta Pandita, FPAI, judged the children on the basis of their height, weight, nutrition, hygiene and immunisation status.

SAS NAGAR
SEMINAR: Interface of forces of technology, globalisation and business management are altering the politico-economic landscape of the world. These views were expressed by Prof Y.S. Rajan, Vice- Chancellor, Punjab Techni-cal University, Jalandhar, and Scientific Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister, at a seminar on “Techno-logy Business Management and Globalisation” organised at the Gian Jyoti Institute of Management and Techno-logy (GJIMT) here on Friday.

HARYANA

AMBALA
RESENTMENT: A number of students of local schools and colleges coming from adjoining villages expressed concern over the cancellation of bus running on the route of between Mohri, Bhanokheri, Teja and Khanna Majra villages. Students in a memorandum send to the Deputy Commissioner said these rout were allotted to a cooperative society. They threatened that if the bus on this route was not restarted the students would block the Ambala-Hisar road passing through these villages.

SEIZED: The police on Saturday recovered 500 pouches of country-made liquor from a house at Barara. The police on a tip-off raided the house of Tej Singh who had brought the liquor pouches for sale. Tej Singh managed to flee from the house. The pouches were containing the Marka Malwa-1. The police registered a case in this regard.

BHIWANI
EXAM FORMS: The Haryana School Education Board, Bhiwani, will not accept application forms for the annual examination-2004 for regular candidates of matric after November 25 with a late fee of Rs 300 and in case of private candidates after January 13, 2004. Similarly, regular students of senior secondary, both educational and vocational, could submit their application forms with a late fee of Rs 300 up to November 28 and private candidates up to January 13, 2004. The application forms for middle examination may be submitted with a late fee of Rs 300 up to January 2, 2004, by private candidates.

FATEHABAD
GATE MEETING: A gate meeting of employees of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam here was organised outside the city sub-division here. The employees raised slogans in favour of their demands. Addressing power workers, Mr.Pawan Sharma, circle secretary of the employees union, alleged that the government was delaying the process of regularisation of temporary employees and providing jobs to dependents of deceased employees under the exgratia scheme. He said the union would organise a dharna outside the office of the Executive Engineer on Sunday.

COLLEGE LAURELS: Students of the local Manohar Memorial College scored three firsts and a second during the Inter-Zonal Youth Festival held in Dayanand College, Hisar, from November 11 to November 13. According to the college principal Mr K.K. Arora, the college scored the first position in the Haryanvi group song category. Jagdish Maini, a student of the college, was adjudged first in the folk song (general) category, Raj Kumar, another student of the college came first in poetry recitation. Sushil Kumar was adjudged second in the classical (instrumental) category.