PATIALA
FAMILY PLANNING CAMP: A free family planning (lapro-tubectomy) camp was organised at the primary health centre, Dudhan Sadhan, in Patiala district here on Friday. The camp was organised under guidance of SMO P.D Singla. On the occasion, Dr Sanjay Bansal, noted surgeon examined the patients.

Nominated: Mr Rajinder Kumar Gupta has been nominated as general secretary of the All-India Film Goers Association here.

PLANTATION DRIVE: The State Bank of Patiala, Mall road branch, organised a sapling plantation drive on the premises of Khalsa College here on Saturday. The General Manager (Operations), SBOP, Mr M M Sehgal, launched the drive by planting a sapling in the college grounds. He also inaugurated the two-day annual sports meet of the college.

ANNUAL SAMAGAM: The annual samagam of Nanaksar (Kaleran) will be held at the Sector 28 Nanaksar here from March 1 to 7. According to Baba Sadhu Singh, samagam will start with the beginning of Sampat Akhand Path on March 1 and conclude on March 7 with the bhog of akhand path. There will be a kirtan darbar on March 7.

MEETING: A meeting of the Vishvakarma Sabha, Chandigarh, held under the chairmanship of Mr Mataram Dhiman, president of the sabha. It was unanimously decided that the Sabha will organise a ‘Vishavkarma Samaj Sammelan’ on March 14 at 10 a.m. at Nehru Park, Sector 22. Mr Dhiman said this would be first Vishvakarma Samaj Sammelan of Northern region in which all members of the samaj from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Delhi and Chandigarh will participate. The problems being faced by the community would be highlighted in the sammelan. 

HEALTHCARE FOR URBAN POOR: A pilot project in four districts, for providing comprehensive healthcare to urban poor through private sector, has been sanctioned by Union Ministry of Health, said Haryana’s Secretary and Commissioner of Health, Mr Rajkumar, at 31st annual national conference of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine at Bhargava Auditorium on Saturday. He stressed that the main challenges facing public health today was to find ways of providing affordable, accessible and good quality care to the people, particularly the poor.

SEMINAR: A seminar on ‘Encouraging scientific awareness in the community’ was organised at the Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology, Chandigarh. In her-key note address, Mr Vimal Bhargava, Principal of the college, said the science was a critical investment in national interest. She said after having achieved food security, the ideal to be achieved was nutrition security. Mr Vivek Atrey, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, Chandigarh, stressed the need for a holistic approach on education. 

LAUNCHED: Chitkara International School on Friday launched ‘ Chitkara Championz Club’ to enable the children to learn more and help broaden their horizons. The club plans to organise a series of workshops involving children and their parents. As part of the activities of the club, the first workshop on ‘Walking with dinosaurs’ is being organised jointly with the British Library and Natural History Museum on Sunday. 

MEDICAL CAMP: The services of a health specialist would be available within the Haryana Civil Secretariat here at a weekly interval as a part of the initiative taken by the government to provide health check-up facilities to its officials at a place of their work. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting, which Chief Secretary A.N.Mathur had with Commissioner and Secretary, Health, Mr Raj Kumar, after going around a three-day health check-up camp, which concluded at the Haryana Civil Secretariat here on Friday. 

WELCOME CEREMONY: The Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC) under the aegis of the Department of Information Technology, Chandigarh organised a welcome ceremony for the students of the Government Polytechnic for Women, Srinagar at SPIC Centre of Excellence, Punjab Engineering College, here on Friday. Fourteen students have come to Chandigarh for a special practical training on networking, computer graphics and hardware at SPIC centre. 

INTERACTIVE SESSION: “Everything including world peace is possible through prayer, if one prays scientifically,” said world-renowned spiritual healer Jer Master while delivering a talk on the theme “Peace is possible” at Bal Bhavan in Sector 23 here on Saturday. Addressing the gathering, Ms Master said spiritual healing is all about understanding God and putting His power into action for helping others.

PANCHKULA
RALLY: The local unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Saturday organised a rally in protest against rising unemployment among the youth. Addressing the rally, the Kalka MLA, Mr Chander Mohan, promised jobs to youth if the Congress was voted to power in the next Lok Sabha elections. Flaying Haryana Government’s policies, he claimed that the retrenched employees would be taken back on jobs by the Congress.

AMBALA
Art of living foundation: Mr Nitin Limaye, senior teacher in the Art of Living Foundation, said they were aiming to initiate projects in one lakh villages by 2006. Talking to mediapersons here on Friday, Mr Limaye said the foundation has adopted 20,000 villages. “We have 4,500 kendras spread over 148 countries,” he said.

jain public school: A prize-distribution function was organised by the Rashtrabhasha Vichar Manch at Lord Mahavir Jain Public School, Ambala Cantt. A cultural quiz was also organised. Utkarsh Bansal of Class X won the first prize, while Anchal Yadav of Class X and Shikha of Class X remained second and third respectively. Dr Pramod Jain and Dr Anu Jain were chief guests.

sonia’s roadshow: Organisation secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Viresh Shandilya said on Friday that Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s roadshow had received an overwhelming response. “All Congress activists want Mrs Gandhi to become Prime Minister,” he said. He strongly criticised the BJP for giving membership to history-sheeters.

scooter taken away: Three miscreants took away a motorcycle of Gian Chand of Tandwali village at pistolpoint, near Barara, on Thursday. It was the third incident in the district in the past two months when miscreants looted people at pistolpoint. Last week two muffled miscreants had looted three vehicle-owners, near Naraingarh.