R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

• Regional Potpourri

Amritsar
VARSITY CLARIFIES: Guru Nanak Dev University has issued a clarification regarding the eligibility criteria for admission to MBA/MCA (5-year courses). The Coordinator of MBA/MCA (5-year course) Entrance Test-2005, has said the eligibility for these courses should be read as 50 per cent marks in the qualifying examination (+2 exam) instead of 45 per cent marks as mentioned in the prospectus.

Bathinda
Jathedar’s advice: A separate censor board comprising Sikh intellectuals should be constituted to avoid controversies like ‘Jo Bole...’ in future. This was stated by Jathedar Balwant Singh Nandgarh of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib on Friday. He said a meeting of religious organisations and the SGPC should be called to discuss the issue.

Fire: A timber godown of a private firm on Friday caught fire at Dhobiana Basti here. Timber worth Rs 10 lakh was destroyed. It took three fire engines over three hours to control the fire.

Hoshiarpur
ARRESTED: The police has arrested Lakhbir Singh Lakhi of Shergarh and recovered a motor cycle, a mobile phone, gold ear-rings and chain snatched by him from Ram Tirath of Patti village on April 30.

FATAL FALL: Charan Singh, lineman of the PSEB, was electrocuted when he was repairing wires at an electricity pole due to short-circuit at Tuto Mazara village, near Mahilpur, on Saturday evening. According to police sources, he fell from the pole and was declared dead.

Jalalabad
RALLY HELD: Various social, labour, employee and farmer unions organised a rally in protest against the failure of the state government to start patchwork and premix paste work on the 82-km-long Ferozepore Fazilka road here on Saturday, even after the laying of the foundation stone near Guru Harsahai by the state PWD Minister about a month ago. A protest march was taken out through the streets of the town and later an effigy of the minister was ‘hanged’ as a mark of protest. 

Ludhiana
CIIS COURSES: Officials of the Canadian Institute of International Studies (CIIS) said here today that there were a lot many career options available in Canada in various streams. The officials who are here on promotional tour said the courses included those in engineering, designing and nursing. According to Marketing Manager Amit Sood the thrust of the session was the direct interface of students with the opportunities available globally. During the seminar proceedings various courses available at CIIS were discussed.

School: The mission of Drishti is to enable each child to use his/her potential to its optimum level and its vision is to create a learning environment, said Ms S. Ahlawat, Director-cum-Convener of the school, while addressing mediapersons here on Friday. The school will be run by the Dr R.C. Jain Charitable Trust and Management Society, Ludhiana.

Mandi Ahmedgarh
Mock drill: Though it was a mock drill, the management of the local unit of Shrayans Industries alerted the district administration and the police to evaluate the safety and preparedness of those concerned in an accidental leakage of chlorine gas. On an emergency call by the management, people rushed to the mill where employees were busy handling the “dummy victims”. Mr Harinder Singh, SHO city, Dr Krishan Piplani in charge, Civil Hospital, along with the staff, reached the spot immediately after hearing the emergency siren.

Phagwara
ORGANISED: An AIDS awareness camp and a ‘bal mela’ was organised at the Community Centre, JCT, by ESI Hospital. Dr D.S. Virk, Director, Family Welfare and ESI, was the chief guest. Mr J.C. Sodhi, GM (L&IR), JCT Limited, was the guest of honour. An on-the-spot quiz contest on AIDS was organised.

RECOVERED: Sultanpur Lodhi police on Saturday arrested Swaran Singh and his son Nirwair Singh of Saichan village and recovered stolen pipes worth Rs 18,000.

HARYANA

Fatehabad
New ration cards: The process of making new ration cards in the district has started. The application forms distributed in villages and towns of the district urged people to deposit filled forms with the Food and Supplies Department.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT: A three-day ‘Women empowerment, awareness and child development mela’ will be organised here from May 27. Women sarpanches, panches, member of the Zila Parishad and block samitis, mahila mandals, anganwadi workers and social activists would participate.

Panipat
IMPOSTERS HELD: Two persons posing as Junior Engineer of the Electricity Department were held recently. Surender and Amit were arrested on a complaint of Jasbir of Mukhija Colony. The complainant had alleged that the two defrauded him of Rs 2,000. They were remanded in police custody for three days on Friday.

Rewari
CHEQUES GIVEN: Haryana Irrigation and Revenue Minister Ajay Singh Yadav gave away cheques for Rs 50,000 each to Ms Kaushalaya Devi, Ms Tarawati and Ms Saroj Devi at a function organised on the market committee complex here on Friday. The women had lost their husbands in agricultural work-related accidents recently. Captain Yadav also gave away cheques for Rs 1.76 lakh to injured 17 persons.

Rohtak
WORKSHOP: Dr S.C. Bhargava, Head, Dr Vidya Sagar Department of Psychiatry of the local Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, has said the role of nurses and members of patients’ families was the key to a successful treatment of psychiatric patients. He was speaking at a nursing workshop on psychiatric emergencies and their management held here on Friday.

Panipat
DEMANDED: The Ekta Shakti and the Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasabha have demanded the withdrawal of a criminal case against Mr Dinesh Sharma, state president of youth wing of the Ekta Shakti. Mr Virender Maratha and Mr Ishwar Sharma, presidents of Ekta Shakti Party and the Mahasabha, respectively, alleged the district police had falsely implicated him in a criminal case on April 21.

Rewari
ELECTED: Mr Vijay Rao and Mr Sanjay Malik have been elected chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the Rewari Municipal Council. As many as 30 out 31 councillors participated in the election.

Sonepat
TICKETLESS TRAVELLERS: Officials of the checking staff of the Northern Railway hauled up about 100 passengers who were found travelling without ticketless in the incoming and outgoing trains during the surprise checking conducted at the railway station here last night. The special checking continued until 10 p.m. and all the ticketless passengers were let off after the recovery of the actual fare and the penalty.

CLASH: As many as six brick-kiln workers were injured in a clash at a brick-kiln near Kharkhauda town, about 25 km from here, on Sunday. All the injured persons were rushed to the Community Health Centre at Kharkhauda where from three workers were referred to the Civil Hospital at Sonepat for further treatment.

ARRESTED: The police recovered a minor girl who was allegedly kidnapped by a youth from her house at Bayyanpur village in the judicial complex here on Sunday. The youth, identified as Virender, alias Rinku, of the same village was also arrested. The girl and the youth were medically examined in the local Civil Hospital and a criminal assault on the girl was confirmed.

KILLED: Baljinder, a Canter driver, was killed when he lost control on it and it rammed into a stationary truck on the GT Road, near Bahalgarh Chowk, about 10 km from here, on Sunday. The Canter was on its way from Amritsar to Delhi. The victim belonged to Fatehpur village in Amritsar district. The police has sent the body for a postmorteam examination. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Dharamsala
MEETING: A delegation of the Himachal Ayurvedic Medical Officers’ Association met the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, to demand the regularisation of services of ayurvedic medical officers appointed on an ad hoc basis in 1999. Dr Anupam Khanna, secretary of the association, said the demand for the creation of posts at all 36 offices, the grant of two additional increments to all postgraduates and the implementation of the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission regarding ayurvedic medical officers were also raised with the Chief Minister.

Kulu
VISITED: The Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, Lt-Gen Bhupender Singh Thakur, on Saturday visited his native district, Kulu, after assuming the office. He addressed a meting organised by the District Sainik Welfare Board at Circuit House here which was attended by ex-servicemen and district officers.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Parent-Teacher Association of Government Senior Secondary School, Mohali: President — Mr Ramesh Thakur; vice-president — Mrs Kamala Devi; joint secretary — Mr Khem Singh and treasurer — Mr Shiv Singh. Ved Ram, Anita, Nirmala, Ishwar Singh all non-official members whereas Tenzin Dolma, Parbati and Krishna are official members of the PTA.

Nurpur
PHONE FAULT: The telecommunication services in as many as 30 telephone exchanges in Nurpur, Jawali, Rehan and Damtal subdivisions remained paralysed on Friday for over seven hours due to a technical snag in the C-dot telephone exchange, Jassur, near here. As many as 21,000 telephone subscribers were inconvenienced due to breakdown in the local as well as group dialling.

Shimla
CONSTITUTED: To ensure the proper implementation and monitoring of various programmes being run under the National Rural Health Mission, the state government has constituted a District Health Mission. An official spokesperson on Saturday said the aim and objective of the Rural Health Mission was to provide overreaching umbrella to the existing programmes being run by the Health and Family Welfare Department. These programmes aim at eradicating health problems and diseases like malaria, blindness, iodine deficiencies, filarial, tuberculosis and kala ajar. 

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Shooting star

Having earlier produced a number of well-known photographers, like the late Yog Joy, Rohtak has now thrown up another rising star in the form of Ashish Bahl, who is making waves in Delhi's professional photography circles.

While still in the final semester of the Applied and Professional Photography course at the Pearl Academy of Fashion, New Delhi, Ashish has already won a number of awards, including Nominee Medal at the Butterfly Art Foundation's International Print Exhibition of Art and Photography(BAF-IPEAP), 2005. He has also bagged the first prize for best landscape picture at the All India Nature Photography Salon-2005 organised by The Agrihorticultural Society Of India (AHSI) and sponsored by the Federation of Indian Photography(FIP).

Ashish discovered his passion for photography by accident. After his schooling in science at Rohtak, he went to Delhi, where he graduated in commerce. But tallying financial figures was not what interested him. He was still wondering what profession to choose when he switched on the TV one fine evening and found a show on air where experts were describing the skills required to become a professional photographer. "I suddenly noticed that I had all the skills they wanted in a photographer. In a matter of days, I bought my first camera and was shooting all the time", he says.

Soon, he decided to get professional training from the Triveni Kala Sangam at Delhi. "I travelled to Delhi from Rohtak every day to attend the classes and also complete my assignments," he says with a satisfied smile.

After the course, Ashish started out as a freelance "Though I do all kinds of photography, commercially I prefer product, interiors-exteriors and industrial photography as it pays you enough to earn your bread. But to satisfy my creative side, I shoot landscapes, people and children", he adds.

Recently, he travelled to Leh and Ladakh alone in his car to shoot the snow-covered landscape in the land of the Buddha. Many of his Ladakh photographs have won acclaim.

His favourite photographer is Ansel Adams, the great landscape specialist. He has his own professional website www.grainsandpixels.com where he hawks his talent.

Master of melody

H.L. Agnihotri is a popular teacher of English at the Government College, Malerkotla. Students love this master for another reason too---he is their 'Singing Sir.' Agnihotri is a man of many facets.

He not only writes ghazals but also sings. He has penned three books of ghazals in Hindi---Badalte Rang, Sookhe Patte, and Tootati Sarak. In recent years, he has released six cassettes of devotional songs in praise of the Mother Goddess as well as Punjabi folk music. His popular albums are Ik Waar Aa Ja Haaniyan and Mehran Mai Dian. When asked why he hasn't brought out an album of his own ghazals in his own voice, Agnihotri replies: "This is the next project in my mind. Music is simply a passion with me. I enjoy singing the most."

Class apart

Two years ago, when the results of the Class VIII board examinations were declared, Meenakshi Gargi was thoroughly disappointed as she missed the top position in Yamunanagar by one mark. She had wept the whole night.

Her father, Raj Kumar, a daily-wage labourer, and mother, a peon in her school, comforted her, saying that it was not the end of the road and there were many more examinations to come. Her father says she had remained upset for several weeks.

But this year, Meenakshi, a student of Government Girls High School, Chhachhrouli, has made up by topping the Class X examination in the district. She has scored over 90 per cent marks in four subjects, including Mathematics and English.

Though she came to know her result in the morning, it was not clear until evening that she was the topper in the district. Her parents distributed ladoos to celebrate the occasion.

Meenakshi has keen interest in extra-curricular activities. She has been a favourite of her teachers and is known for asking questions even after school timings.

"Mein jindagi mein bahut bari banna chahati hoon", says this tiny-looking girl. "May be, a teacher," she adds.

Her parents are proud that their daughter has earned them fame and that their son too is good in studies.

Contributed by Raman Mohan, Vikrant Jindal and Nishikant Dwivedi