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THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
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TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

Regional potpourri

  • Khadi’s ramp-age

  • Artificial avians woo feathered friends

  • Chemistry calling

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
Consumer councils: The 20-member District Ferozepore Consumer Protection Council will have only one representative of the consumers. The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Punjab, issued a notification on behalf of the Governor, Punjab, to establish the District Consumer Protection Councils. The Deputy Commissioners of the respective districts will be the chairmen. They have been directed to convene at least two meetings of the councils during the year.

Awarded: The Bharatiya Dali Sahitya Academy, founded by Mr Jagjivan Ram, former Deputy Prime Minister, has conferred fellowship awards on Ms Khazan Devi Parihar of Ghallu village and Mr Gautam Kumar, a journalist Dr S.P. Sumanakshar, president of the academy, said the two local residents were selected for their exemplary social services and literary activities related to uplift of the down trodden and the backward.

HOSHIARPUR
Snatched: Two unidentified motor cycle-borne youths snatched Rs 2500 and a blanket from Leka Ram, a migrant labourer, while he was going back to his village from Adda Paldi on Saturday. The Mahilpur police has registered a case under Sections 382 and 34 of the IPC.

Jalandhar
Wages Act: Safai Karamcharis have also been included in the list of those people, who were getting minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Act, Ms Santosh Chaudhary, the chairperson of the National Commission For Safai Karamcharis, said here on Sunday. She was addressing the sixth national conference of employees of the Punjab and Sind Bank, organised by the SC, ST Employees Welfare Council of the bank. Ms Chaudhary was accompanied by Mr Galjinder Singh, general manager of the bank, Mr N.S. Virk, general secretary of the All India Punjab and Sind Bank Officers’ Federation, Dr Uditi Raj, chairman of the All India Confederation of SC, ST Organisations, Mr R. N. Vaidya, president of the All India Punjab and Sind Bank SC, ST Employees Welfare Council.

demand: The SC, BC Mulazam Sangharash Committee, Punjab, has urged the state government to clear backlog of promotions in different departments in view of the recent issuance of a notification for the implementation of the 85th Amendment of the Constitution. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mr K.S Pal, and Mr Amrik Singh Bangar, the Chairman and General Secretary of the committee, respectively, said “Though the SC, BC employees are happy over the implementation of the Amendment by way of notification, but a lot is yet to be done.”

Kapurthala
Agents booked: The Talwandi Chaudhrian police has booked two travel agents on charges of duping a resident of Dariawal village of Rs 6 lakh on the pretext of sending him to Germany here yesterday. According to the police, the accused Sodhi, a resident of Saiflabad village, and Sukhdev Singh of Kishan Singh Wala village received Rs six lakh in February 2004 from the complainant Kulwinder Singh for emigrating him to Germany. After receiving the money, the accused boarded Kulwinder for Moscow and allegedly left him there alone. In a similar incidence, on the complaint of Jagjeet Singh, a resident of Gujarwal village in Ludhiana district, a case of forgery has been registered against Narinder Singh, his wife Kamaljeet Kaur, both residents of Kassochahal village, and Baljeet Kaur, a resident of Kala Sanghia. The accused promised Jagjeet Singh to send him to Italy for which they demanded Rs 8,50,000. Jagjit was boarded to Indonesia through a flight by the accused after receiving Rs 5 lakh. Later, the accused also took the balance Rs 3.5 lakh promising to send him Italy.

NAWANSHAHR
Distributed: The Lions Club, City Smile, Banga, distributed uniforms among the poor and needy students of Government Elementary School, Kajla. Mr Baldev Nayyar, district chairman, Lion Club, presided over the function.

Blood donated: The local K.C. College of Education in collaboration with Blood Donors Council organised a voluntary blood donation camp on the college campus here on Sunday. Brig H.S. Bhandal (retd), CEO, K.C. Group of Educational Institutions, inaugurated the camp where as many as 57 units of blood were donated by the staff and students.

PATHANKOT
Auctioned: Octroi posts of Gurdaspur within the municipal limits of the city were auctioned to a private contractor Messars Sain Ram and Company on Saturday. According to Mr Raman Behal, president of Municipal Council, the posts were auctioned for Rs 3.17 crore for the year of 2006.

Phagwara
Remand: All the three opium smugglers, who were arrested by the Phagwara police along with 7.5 kg of opium, were produced before the local Judicial Magistrate on Saturday who sent them in police remand till December 19.

SANGRUR
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the SLIET Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Employees’ Welfare Association, Longowal: chief adviser — Mr Prithvi Singh; president — Mr Dhanender Kumar; vice-president — Mr Subhash Rai, general secretary — Mr Harbhajan Singh; joint secretary — Mr Satpal Singh; and cashier — Mr Ravinder Kumar.

TARN TARAN
Road accident: Balwinder Singh, a resident of Chola Sahib was killed and his companion Harbans Lal was injured when his Gharooka struck with a milk tanker near Aladin village at Tarn Taran bypass on Saturday. Swarn Singh, a rickshawpuller was also injured in the mishap.
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CHANDIGARH

100 patients examined: Nearly 100 patients were examined at a free diabetes camp organised by Kansal Medical Hall, Sector 16, and BD (I) Private Limited in Chandigarh on Sunday. Diet charts were distributed among patients. BD (I) Private Limited is a US-based company that has introduced painless insulin syringes in the market.
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HARYANA

Fatehabad
New courses: The Manohar Memorial Education Society here has decided to introduce job-oriented courses like diploma in pharmacy and diploma in laboratory technology in its institutions. The society has also decided to introduce postgraduate courses in its arts faculty, B.Sc classes in medical, non-medical and computer science besides some new subjects like sociology and public administration at the undergraduate level at Manohar Memorial College by it. The society has also decided to extend the construction work of the college of education by constructing an extra floor.

Sonepat
Complaints redressed: The Haryana Revenue and Irrigation Minister, Mr Ajay Singh Yadav, redressed as many as 18 grievances at the monthly meeting of the district Public Relations and Grievances Committee at Panchayat Bhavan here on Saturday.

Body found: The Sadar Police on Sunday found a body on the Sonepat-Rohtak road near Fatehpur village. According to a report, the deceased was identified as Sri Bhagwan, a resident of Dehkora village of Jhajjar district.

Found hanging: A 12-year-old youth was found hanging in his house at Kheri Gujjar village on Sunday. According to a report, the police believes it to be a case of suicide. The youth was identified as Neeru and he is reported to have been pulled up by his father for not going to the school for two days.
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HIMACHAL PRADESH

NURPUR
Drive against encroachments: Residents of Gangath town in this subdivision are up in arms against the encroachments on government as well as public utility places. The residents headed by Subash Sethi, President, local beopar mandal, have launched a special drive to remove fresh encroachments on government land to foil the attempts of the encroachers to grab public utility places in the town. The anti-encroachment committee has even warned the locals to desist from giving support to the land grabbers.

Special training: The Himachal Government has decided to impart special training of Panchayati Raj System to the newly elected gram panchayat pradhans, members of zila parishads and block development committees. Talking to the mediapersons here the Revenue Minister, Mr Sat Mahajan, said the government had earmarked Rs 8 crore for this purpose. The elected representatives will get special training in Maharashtra, Kerala and at Heepa and Baijnath in Himachal Pradesh.
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Regional potpourri

Khadi’s ramp-age

Models sport khadi apparel at a fashion show during a recent exhibition of khadi and cottage industry products in Hisar
Models sport khadi apparel at a fashion show during a recent exhibition of khadi and cottage industry products in Hisar.
— Photo by Mehta

KHADI, which now makes for a trendy fashion statement, has made its presence felt at fashion shows in big cities. But recently, the residents of Hisar also got to see khadi-clad models walking the ramp during an exhibition of khadi and cottage industry products.

The exhibition, organised by the Gramin Seva Mandal of Daaya village to popularise khadi among the masses, evoked a good response. Organiser Rajesh Sindhu said the visitors evinced a keen interest in khadi shawls, jackets, ‘kurta-pyjamas’ and shirts, apart from bed-sheets and khadi-silk products. Besides, many attractive gift items were also on sale.

The participants, who had come from various places to display and sell their wares, maintained that khadi was now a profit-making venture. In all, 30 stalls, including that of Uttar Pradesh Khadi Gramudyog, had been put up on the occasion. Hisar MLA Savitri Jindal and Charkhi Dadri MLA Nripendra Singh inaugurated the show, while SSP Arshinder Singh Chawla was the chief guest at the fashion show.

An exhibition of books was also organised by the Akshardham Samiti, Kaithal, at the Mahabir Stadium here. The organisers, Anil Mehta ‘Fakir’ and Suresh Jangid ‘Udai’ maintained that of late, the demand for Haryanavi folk literature had been picking up.

Artificial avians woo feathered friends

Forest officials floating artificial birds in a wetland of Ropar
Forest officials floating artificial birds in a wetland of Ropar.

IN an interesting move, the Forest Department in Ropar district floated artificial birds in the Sutlej river last week to attract migratory birds to the wetland area. Each artificial bird cost the department Rs 1100.

The Forest Department had got Rs 20, 000 from the Central Government for this scheme. The department was faced with a challenging task, as for such a small amount no firm was ready to manufacture artificial birds. Finally, a Mohali-based artist agreed to do the job. And for this small amount, the department managed to get 18 birds made.

It is sad that such artificial props are needed just because not much effort is being made to protect the hundreds of migratory birds that visit the wetland area every year. The wetland area provides a habitat to more than 150 species of local and migratory birds.

Industrial pollutants from Nangal and Ropar continue to be discharged into the river, which calls for active intervention from the pollution board, Forest Department and the local Administration.

At one time, the wetland area used to attract a large number of migratory birds but with time, the number has dwindled. If the trend continues, even the wetland area may disappear one day. Then, we may need to manufacture artificial birds on an even larger scale to make up for the disappearance of natural winged visitors.

Chemistry calling

Dr Kuldip Singh Dhindsa
Dr Kuldip Singh Dhindsa

THE senior-most Professor in all five universities of Haryana, Dr Kuldip Singh Dhindsa, retired from Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, last month after putting in 34 years of service.

He had joined the university in 1971 as an Assistant Professor. During his long stint with the HAU, he served in various capacities, including Dean, Postgraduate Studies, Dean, College of Basic Sciences, Director, Student Welfare and Chairman of the Sports Council. He has authored more than 150 research publications.

He has worked as Visiting Professor in Germany and the USA and was also awarded the Fullbright Scholarship in 1990 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London. He has also received gift instruments from the President, Federal Republic of Germany, and the Hanouver University for his original researches.

The National Environmental Science Academy (India) conferred its Fellowship on Dr Dhindsa in 2002 and the Best Scientist of the Year Award in 2003.

Dr Dhindsa is of the firm view that research strategies should be technologically sound, culturally compatible and environmentally positive. The basic aim of any good research should be to improve the quality of life of the common man, he feels.

Contributed by Sunit Dhawan, Kiran Deep and Raman Mohan

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