R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
DECIDED: Mr Raminder Singh, Deputy Commissioner, has decided to allow farmers of border villages to work on their land, located near the international border between India and Pakistan, for eight hours daily. The decision was taken at a meeting held with members of the Jamnoori Kisan Sabha (JKS) and Border Sangarsh Committee (BSC) here on Friday.

HAILED: Guru Nanak Dev University has hailed the announcement of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to establish a national institute of Guru Granth Sahib Studies and a centre for bio-technology for the university on Friday. Dr S.P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for assuring to provide financial assistance for the projects.

FREE TREATMENT: ‘Smile Train’, a foundation promoted by former US President George Bush Sr, Bill Gates and Hollywood stars, including Candice Bergen, Paul Newman and others, has tied up with local Amandeep Hospital for providing free treatment for cleft lip and palate and other congenital deformities.

TEACHER’S DAY: A function was organised at DAV Senior Secondary School here on Saturday. Prof Darbari Lal, Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, was the chief guest. The Additional Commissioner (Development), Mr Baljit Singh, presided. Professor Darbari Lal announced a grant of Rs 50,000 to the school.

STOLEN: Gold jewellery and Rs 2.70 lakh were stolen from the house of Dr Kailash Sharma, Medical Officer, Ayurvedic Dispensary, Golden Avenue, here on Saturday. A case has been registered.

SALARY NOT PAID: Employees of the Amritsar International Hotel have not been paid salaries for the past 10 months and allowances for the past four years. The Punjab Tourism Employees Union has listed these grievances in a letter to the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh. The union chief, Mr Mangal Singh Dhillon, has said that the employees were being paid only 52 per cent dearness allowance.. The employees who had taken VRS had not been given their dues.

SEMINAR: Guru Nanak Dev University will hold a one-day national seminar on the significance of Nagri Lipi at its Guru Nanak Bhavan auditorium on September 6. It will be organised by the Hindi Department of the university along with the Nagri Lippi Parishad, New Delhi, and the Manav Bharti Shiksha Samiti, Hisar.

Gurdaspur
Teacher’s Day: A function was organised at Government Senior Secondary School in Varsola village here on Saturday. Mr Khushal Behl, a former minister, presided. Mr Behl said three more classrooms would be constructed. He also honoured nine teachers. Fiftyfive poor students were given school uniforms and three financial aid.

Nawanshahr
TEACHERS DAY: Red Rose Public School celebrated Teachers Day here on Saturday. Ms Swaran Sikka, Principal, delivered a special lecture to highlight the life and philosophy of Dr Radhakrishnan.

COMPETITIONS: Students of local Government — Senior Secondary School – Navkiran Kaur , Amandip Kaur and Rajdeep Kaur and others — have excelled in the district-level ‘Educational Competitions’ organised by the Punjab School Education Board here on Friday.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the “English Literature Society of Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur( Nawanshahr): president — Mr Buta Ram; vice president — Mr Gaurav Bhanot; secretary — Ms Kanchan; and treasurer — Mr Ravi Pal.

Phagwara
SUSPENDED: The Director, Local Bodies Department, Punjab, has suspended Mr Paramjit Singh, Executive Officer, Improvement Trust, for various charges.

FIVE INJURED: Five persons, including three brothers, were injured in a group clash at Ranipur village here on Saturday. The injured are Gurdip Singh, Gurdev Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Harjinder Singh and Kulwinder Singh. The clash had erupted over a dispute on parking of a mini bus.

Pathankot
SEMINAR: A seminar on diabetes was organised at the Military Hospital here on Saturday. Lt. Gen. K.K. Khanna, AVSM, presided over the seminar.

Sangrur
CONDEMNED: The District Bar Association (DBA), has condemned the lathi charge on lawyers at Lucknow. Mr Gurtej Singh Grewal and Mr Gurbinder Singh Cheema, president and secretary of the DBA, respectively,have demanded strict action against the police officials. 

CHANDIGARH

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Sri Ram Leela Committee, Sector 27: chairman—Mr Tarloki Nath Modi; president—Mr Dharam Pal Gupta; senior vice-president—Mr G.C. Kalia;vice-presidents—Mr Om Parkash Gulati, Mr Vinod Khosla and Mr Sudhir Gupta; general secretary—Mr Mamu Ram Goyal; joint secretaries-Mr Subhash Chand and Mr Manoj Kumar; ground secretaries—Mr Ved Parkash and Mr Jatinder Gupta; and treasurer—Mr Rajesh Modi.

Drive: The Citizens Association, Sector 21, in collaboration with the Horticulture Department, organised a tree plantation drive on Saturday. MP, Pawan Bansal, inaugurated the drive by planting the first sapling.

Solidarity expressed: The Federation of Sector Welfare Association (FOSFAC), at a meeting here on Sunday under the chairmanship of Mr P.C. Sanghi, Councillor, expressed its solidarity with the Chandigarh Housing Board Residents Federation on need-based building bylaws in UT.

Teachers’ day: An art and craft exhibition was organised at St Peter’s School, Sector 37, here on Saturday to mark Teachers’ Day. Schoolchildern were also dressed as Radha and Krishna to celebrate Janmashtami.

DOCTORS’ MEETING: Several city doctors attended a meeting organised by Hamdard (Wakf) Laboratories, New Delhi, on Sunday. The Regional Sales Manager, Hamdard, Mr A.P.S. Oberoi, laid emphasis on the growing acceptance of alternative systems of medicine by the masses.

TEACHERS DAY CELEBRATED: Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology celebrated Teachers Day by holding a cultural programme. Highlights of the programme was a special Antakshri competition held for teachers and a talk on the “Role of Teachers”. Children of Chitkara International School also celebrated Teachers Day by presenting flowers to teachers and making greeting cards for them. Students enacted songs and did poem recitation.

INSURANCE WEEK: A drawing and painting competition was held in the divisional office of LIC here on Sunday as part of the Insurance week celebrations to mark 48 anniversary of LIC of India. Children in the age group of 2 to 17 years,who showed exemplary skills, in art and craft participated in the competition. Mr G.S. Pamar, manager ( Pension and group schemes) gave away the prizes to the winners of the competition.

Winners: (first, second, third and consolation) Group A — Shyon Sen, Avni, Arman and Gauri. Group B — Navit Hakhoo, Chirag Jain, Lavish Kaushik and Sanya Sharma. Group C — Sunimarat, Sachin Prashar, Shouvik Sen and Shivang Raina. Group D— Anubha Sharma, Kinny Singh, Surbhi Gupta and Priyanka Vohra. 

NRI DIES: An NRI died in a road accident on Sunday while returning home after visiting the Sector 38 gurdwara here. Tarlochan Singh (68), was allegedly hit by a Maruti car (CH-03 N 0877) at the Shahpur chowk in Sector 38. The driver of the car, Pardeep Thakur rushed an injured Tarlochan Singh to the PGI where he was declared brought dead. The police has arrested Thakur and impounded the car. Thakur was later released on bail. 

MOHALI
INSTITUTE OPENED: An institute to encourage studies related to environment, health and safety (EHS) was opened in Mohali on Sunday. The institute established with a view to help reduce fire related accidents and the losses incurred, was opened by a group of management consultants. The institute will provide training and bring about awareness among the masses, hold training programmes in the industries.

PANCHKULA
Award: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a premiere defence PSU with a unit here, has bagged the prestigious MoU Award for 2002- 03. The award was received by the CMD of the company, Mr Y Gopala Rao, from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in Delhi on Saturday. The award, instituted by the Department of Public Enterprises, is given to top 10 outstanding PSUs for their performance against MoU targets.

Competition: A talent search competition was organised at Government College here on Saturday. The college Principal, Dr O.P. Sihag, presided over the function. While Ramesh of BSc-II and Rupesh of B Com-III won the first prize in the quiz, Naresh of B Com-III and Satish of B Com-III won the second prize. Amit Kumar of B Sc-III and Shiva Sihag of BA-I won the first and second prizes, respectively, in poetic recitation. Shiva Sihag of BA-I won the first prize in speech, while Saraswati of B.Sc-III and Rupesh of B.Com-III jointly won the second prize.

Teachers Day: Teachers Day and Janmashtami celebrations were held at Nav Bal Niketan School, Sector 12 -A on Saturday. Senior students took the classes for juniors, while teachers were enthralled by students.

BJP meeting: A meeting of the Sector 17 unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party was held on Saturday under the chairmanship of Mr M.L. Chaddha. Party members discussed the poor condition of roads in the Sector, especially the B road leading from Sector 16 towards Sector 18, which is also acting as an alternative route to Chandigarh via Mauli Jagran. Residents decided to take up the matter with HUDA and the district administration for the widening and repair of the road.

Water harvesting: The Citizens Welfare Association has demanded that HUDA make provisions for water harvesting and recharging of groundwater by digging deep water harvesting wells in different parts of the district. Mr S.K. Nayar, president of the association, has urged the government to undertake the project at the earliest to save the depleting groundwater level.

Meeting: A general body meeting of the Yadav Sabha will be held on September 23, to pay homage to Rao Tula Ram, martyr of First War of Independence in 1857. The general secretary of the sabha, Col H.S. Yadav, said the meeting would be held at Yadav Bhavan here and a programme would be organised to create awareness of the sacrifices of the martyr.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
PROMOTED: Mr Vedprakash Sharma, senior coach (Bilaspur), Mr Arun Sharma, youth coordinator (Hamirpur), Mr Padam Negi, youth coordinator (Sirmaur), and Mr Gopuram (Una) have been promoted as district youth services and sports officers. Mr Dularam (Kangra), Mr Govardhan Thakur (Shimla) Mr Susheel Sharma (Nahan), all junior coaches, have been promoted as senior coaches, according to Mr Shayamlal, general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Coaches Association.

Chamba
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Anganwari Workers Union: president-Ms Shivani; secretary-Ms Anju Devi; assistant secretary-Ms Kirpu Devi and cashier-Ms Ravindra Kumari.

SENTENCED: Mr P.D. Goel, Sessions Judge, Chamba, has sentenced Rajdeen of Simra village to 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for the offence under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

OPPOSED: The Himachal Pradesh Anganwari Workers Union, affiliated with the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), has opposed the move of compulsory retirement for anganwari workers and assistants in the state. Ms Savitri Devi, president, district unit of the union, said the union would launch a protest against the move.

Kangra
ARRESTED: The Kangra district police chief, Mr S.Z.H. Zaidi, said Mohamad Hussian, resident of Balwal village, was arrested on Friday and 123.5 litre country liquor and 8.25 litre IMFL was found in his possession. A Tata Sumo with 300 litre of illicit liquor was also impounded.

KILLED: Soota Devi was killed when a truck hit her at Maskot village on Friday. The truck driver has been arrested and a case registered.