R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

Regional potpourri
Driftwood delights
Haryana honours Punjabi poet
Joint venture

PUNJAB

Abohar
Yoga in school: Brahmarshi Mission School here has made yoga besides computer education compulsory for the students. Didi Brahmarita Parivarjika, Principal of the school, at the prize distribution function on Friday said yoga would ensure good health for a sound mind and creativity.

Amritsar
SGPC gives relief: The SGPC on Saturday gave Rs 4 lakh as compensation to a Sikh family whose three members were killed over a minor dispute by members of the other community in Musakhera village in Alwar district in Rajasthan in November last year. The SGPC said the committee would also bear the expenditure for pursuing the matter legally.

Khanna
Inaugurated: Mr Avtar Singh, president, SGPC, has advised the students to study with dedication and commitment. He was talking to the students of Mata Ganga Khalsa College for Girls at Kotan, near here, on Sunday after attending the bhog of akhand path. He inaugurated a camp for blood group testing at the college and laid the foundation stone for the official house of the Principal of the college.

Ludhiana
Alumni meet: Around 70 alumni of the Government Polytechnic for Women, Rishi Nagar, held a meeting on the college premises here on Sunday. They shared their experiences and thanked the college authorities for giving them a chance to get together. Principal of the college Harvinder Kaur Toor and chairman of the Alumni Association Neha Gupta were also present.

Spring carnival: An exhibition, ‘spring carnival’ was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Verma, on Saturday here. The proceeds of this carnival will benefit the students of Nirdosh, a school for mentally challenged children. The exhibition by Purnam and Joy -de- Vivre, an NGO, is offering designer costume jewellery, home furnishings, Indo-Western clothes, crystal gift items, candles and many other attractive gift items.

Distributed: Shri Gyan Sthal Mandir and the Lala Jagtram Nishkam Seva Sangh distributed ration and other articles free of cost among 777 women here today. A kirtan by Ashwani Grover of Dandi Swami was held. Lala Lajpat Rai, former MP, presided over the function. Two poor girls were also married off. Mr Satpal Gosain, former Deputy Speaker, blessed the couples.

nalagarh
Opium seized: The police has recovered 500 gm of opium from a passenger in the Punjab Roadways bus yesterday. During a checking of bus passengers at Derowal near here, the opium was allegedly found from the possession of Satwinder Singh who hailed from Ludhiana.

SAMRALA
Programme: A literary programme, dedicated to the aged writers, will be held at Kavita Bhavan here on March 15. Prof Baldeep, Dr Goria, Gurdial Dalal, Raspal Singh, Dr Darshan Singh, Karnail Singh Dhaliwal, Avtar Singh Biling will speak on the problems of the old people.

CHANDIGARH

Five get probation orders: Judicial Magistrate Sudeep Goel, has imposed a fine of Rs 1000 and ordered six-month-long probation for five persons, accused of giving contaminated biscuits to students of the Government School, Sector 37. The biscuits were given under the mid-day meal scheme.

Lecture: The CEO of Bharat Engineers, a city-based company which manufactures research equipment for engineering colleges, gave a lecture at the GGS College of Modern Technology, Kharar, on Saturday evening. He spoke about the practical aspects of using reserach equipment

Director invited: Prof H.M. Swami, Director-Principal, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, has been invited to attend an international conference on "Women and Infectious Diseases" from March 16 to 18 in Atlanta by the office of the Minority and Women's Health, Atlanta, USA. He will chair the conference and present his paper on "A study of observing fast among women in Chandigarh, India".

HARYANA

Panipat
Students get degrees: Dr R.A. Yadav, vice-chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), is concerned over the low rate of growth of students enrolling in technical schools. He was in the town to preside over the convocation function of the NC College of Engineering, Israna, where 260 students were given degrees.

Rewari
Two get life term: The Sessions Judge, Mr R.C. Bansal, has sentenced Parvesh (24) and his accomplice Rakesh (26) to undergo imprisonment for life holding them guilty of killing Om Prakash, a resident of Kharagwas village, near here, in December, 2001. He has also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on each of the two convicts. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

MANDI
“Wage war against female foeticide”: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Subhasish Panda, on Wednesday urged women to come forward and be aware about their rights and development schemes and wage a war against female foeticide in the district. Addressing a gathering at the International Women's Day function organised by the District Red Cross Society at Riwalsar, about 25 km from here, Mr Panda said women's awareness about female foeticide could check the evil. 

NAHAN
Legal literacy camp concludes: The Legal Services Authority on Wednesday organised a legal literacy camp here on the occasion of Internaional Women's Day. Addressing the participants, District and Sessions Judge KL Sharma said it was a matter of concern that those accused of harassing women were often let off owing to lack of evidence. He urged women to express their views fearlessly and apprised the gathering of the provision of recording evidence in camera. Chief Judicial Magistrate TS Kaisth, District Atorney KS Thakur, SP DK Yadav and District Consumer Forum chief VK Sharma also spoke. 

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Driftwood delights

The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has made an innovative use of driftwood at Talwara township. A museum has been set on the Talwara-Mukerian High-way (Hoshiarpur) and the driftwood collected from the Beas waters has been showcased here.

The raw pieces have been classified as scrapped, shaped, and polished/varnished for presentation purposes. The museum has a collection of wild and ferocious animal figures too. Some wooden artefacts display various human postures.

Floating wood pieces are a common sight during the floods in the Beas and its tributaries like the Gaj, Baner, Dehar etc. The driftwood comprises tree, trunks, stumps, twigs, branches, etc. The main types of wood are bamboo, kher, pine and talee.

Other pieces from local trees like the kambel, rajaan, berry, sareen, sanan and kangoo can also be spotted. Buffeted around in the flood waters, these pieces get twisted, rolled, cut and torn, acquiring various shapes resembling animals, birds, reptiles and fishes. Some pieces are so imaginative and breathtaking that they straight away merit a space in drawing rooms in their original form.

Haryana honours Punjabi poet

The Haryana Punjabi Academy has conferred the prestigious Santokh Singh Puraskar of Rs 1 lakh on Dr Ramesh Kumar, the Principal of Mykand Lal National College, Yamunanagar. The award was presented by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at a function recently.

There are not many Punjabi writers in Haryana, though the number of Punjabi-speaking people is fairly large. Yet, the Haryana Government has recognised their efforts. It has instituted new awards for writers and also raised the amounts of some of the existing awards.

Dr Ramesh Kumar has written some 20 books of poetry, the latest being “Photo-Frame”, which contains 53 of his poems. Well-known Punjabi critic Satinder Singh Noor appreciates his new poetic style, which is different from the traditional simple poetry.

A distinct characteristic of Dr Ramesh Kumar as a writer is his innovativeness. He is known for his “Shahernama Faridkot”, which presents the city’s heritage, culture and history in a the poetic form, a new experiment in Punjabi literature. 

Joint venture

Pawan Kumari (left) shows the custom-made imported titanium knee which has replaced her cancer-afflicted joint.

Pawan Kumari, a 21-year-old girl from Mukerian, who had been virtually immobilised by a cancerous growth in her knee, can now not only walk but also run normally.

This is thanks to an operation, during which her entire six-inch-long cancer-inflicted knee joint was removed and replaced with an imported artificial knee.

The girl had been bed-ridden for several months and with the painful tumour growing rapidly, she was advised by doctors to get her entire leg amputated. But keeping in mind her marriageable age, Pawan Kumari and her parents were not ready for such a drastic step.

The girl was sinking into the dark abyss of depression when hope beckoned. She visited the Jalandhar-based Devi Talaab Charitable Hospital, where doctors decided to make her undergo a operation to remove the cancerous growth.

“We not only removed the tumour but also about six inches of the afflicted knee and replaced it with a custom-made titanium knee joint, imported from Singapore. She is doing fine now and there is hardly any probability of a recurrence of the tumour,” says Dr Jashniv Kapur, head of the Orthopeadic Department at the hospital.

“I am looking forward to a new future and plan to marry soon,” Pawan Kumari says smilingly. — Contributed by TNS, Nirmal Sandhu and Varinder Singh