The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Dera Bassi model block for dairy promotion
Tribune News Service

Dera Bassi, April 10
Milkfed has adopted Dera Bassi as a model block for promotion of dairy farming in the state. This was announced by Punjab Cooperation Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh today.

He was addressing a public meeting after inauguration of bulk milk coolers at Handesra and Samgauli, installed at a cost of Rs 22 lakhs. Captain Kanwaljit said cooperative department has planned this scheme of dairy farming to usher in a ‘white revolution’ in the state and help landless and Dalit community members increase their daily incomes.

He said Milkfed would develop the block as role model for other areas of the state and inspire every household in the block to engage in dairy farming. He said this process would be implemented in other areas of the state as well.

Kanwaljit disclosed that the department had formulated a plan for funding of dairy farms, under which loans were being provided for establishment of big dairy farms and for purchasing of one or two cows by marginal and small farmers. He said milk produced by these farms would be procured by Milkfed. He claimed that Milkfed was paying the highest prices for milk produce to dairy farmers as compared to private companies in the sector.

V.K. Singh, MD Milkfed, said Milkfed has launched a unique scheme of milking of animals at a common place for members of women dairy cooperative societies. Under the scheme Milkfed would provide free milking machine to the societies and members would have to bring their animals at the office of the society for milking. Milk collected at these common facilities would be more hygienic and would reduce the cost of maintaining dairies.

Parminder Singh Chalaki, chairman, and H.S. Grewal, GM of Milk Plant, Mohali, said the plant was processing around 2.5 lakh litres of milk daily against a capacity of one lakh litres. They said this capacity would be enhanced to 10 lakh litres in the days to come and in the first phase it would be enhanced up to three lakh litres per day in the coming six months. At present 819 milk societies were associated with the Milk Union, Ropar, they added.

Hospital’s blood bank sans licence
Tribune News Service

A view of the blood bank at the Governmnent Rajindra Hospital in Patiala on Thursday.
— Tribune photo by Rajesh Sachar

Patiala, April 10
The blood bank of Government Rajindra Hospital here is running without a licence since the past 15 months, which is a serious threat to the safety of thousands of patients from the Malwa belt that visit the hospital every month. The licence, which is mandatory, is granted by the drug controller after certain checks are made.

According to rules, a team has to visit the blood bank concerned from the New Delhi-based Central Drug Control Authority. Sources disclosed today that for the past one year, due to some inexplicable reason, the New Delhi-based team has failed to visit and check the facilities at the blood bank. The team ensuress among other things, the cleanliness of the place where blood is collected and later a detailed report is prepared. Its only after the report is submitted to authorities concerned that a decision is made whether to grant a licence to the blood bank or not.

The licence of the hospital’s blood bank, which has a capacity to store 17,000 units of blood, was to be renewed in December 2006. Out of this, the blood bank collects nearly 8,000 units from various donation camps held around the year in the region.

However, much to the surprise of many, neither this lapse has been noticed by the local health authorities and nor by any senior hospital official.

Meanwhile, The incharge of the blood bank, Shashi Prabha, said that she had sent several reminders to the authorities concerned but she had got no positive response.

On the other hand the Drug Inspector Dr Amit Duggal said that the licence would be granted only after the New Delhi based teams makes its presence felt. However, when the team comes is anybody's guess and till then the poor patients are likely to suffer.

Commissioner threatened by junk dealers, probe ordered
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 10
The commissioner of Patiala municipal corporation M.P. Arora was allegedly humiliated in his own office by a group of about one dozen junk dealers, here today.

The junk dealers, known for their proximity with certain leaders of the ruling party, were said to have been upset over allotment of tenders pertaining to discarded vehicles of the civic body to another party. Led by Harpal Singh Bittu, the group alleged that they were upset over allotment of tenders to the other party which according them had filed their papers after them and without the earnest money.

On the other hand, Arora denied the allegations and said his office people had told him that the other party had deposited bank drafts worth Rs 50,000 along with the requisite application. He apprehended that junk dealers could be having some sort of ‘political patronage’ and they had barged into his office at around 1 p.m. today only with an objective to assault him.

Meanwhile, on the basis of a complaint filed by the commissioner, Patiala SSP S.K. Asthana has entrusted the probe to DSP Kesar Singh. The Municipal Workers Union has condemned the incident and has demanded immediate arrest of junk dealers.

Union leaders Prem Paharia, and Pushpinder Pathak said no such unsavoury incident would be tolerated in the civic body. “In case anti-social elements try to spoil the atmosphere, we would sort them out at our level. We stand by our officers and other employees,” said the union leaders.

Central grant for development of Punjabi language
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 10
The Punjabi University’s Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Language (ACTDPL) has received a grant of Rs 25.48 lakh for development of a ‘Grammar Checking System for Punjabi’ from the ministry of communications and information technology, government of India.

The two-year project has been allocated to Dr Gurpreet Singh Lehal, director of ACTDPL, who will be the principal investigator. Mandeep Singh and Vishal Goyal, a research scholar and lecturer in computer science department of the university, respectively, will assist him.

This is the fifth major research project awarded to the ACTDPL during the last two years. Earlier, the centre had bagged research projects for development of Gurmukhi, an international project for conversion of Shahmukhi (Urdu) script to Gurmukhi script, as well as projects for translation from Urdu script to Devnagri and Roman scripts.

According to Dr Lehal, this will be the first automatic grammar checking system for any Indian language. Besides its obvious applications in word processing, the system can be used with other information processing systems where the input needs to be corrected grammatically. Besides this, the grammar checker will also be used for Punjabi grammar teaching and testing in the Centre’s multi-media based Punjabi teaching website (www.learnpunjabi.org <http://www.learnpunjabi.org>).

It will also be integrated for post-editing in other natural language processing projects being developed at the centre such Hindi-Punjabi machine translation system and Gurmukhi.

This is the first grammar checking system for Indian language, which will be developed in such a way that its technology could easily be extended for developing grammar checking systems for other Indian languages such as Hindi and Urdu which share grammatical features with Punjabi.

BPL families to get smart cards
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 10
The Punjab State AIDS Control Society organised a function at Karan Farms today. The function was attended by volunteers of ASHA, ANMs and NGOs from Ludhiana, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar and Patiala districts.

T.R. Sarangal, secretary, health and family welfare, was the chief guest. Civil surgeon Dr Avtar Singh Jarewal welcomed the chief guest and other senior officers of the health department.

T.R. Sarangal briefed the audience about the salient features of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna which is being launched in five districts i.e. Patiala, Sangrur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur. He further said under the scheme, BPL families would be issued smart cards which would entitle them to get free treatment up to Rs 30,000 within a year for a family of five members.

The civil surgeon talked about various steps being taken by the government to root out female foeticide, food adulteration, drug abuse and AIDS under guidance of health and family welfare minister Prof Laxmi Kanta Chawla.

Dr S.B. Pandhi, SMO, thanked the chief guest and other officials of the department.

Ex-MC councillor roughed up
Tribune News Service

Kharar, April 10
A group of people, allegedly in an inebriated state, assaulted former municipal councillor Roshan lal, here today. The incident took place when Roshan Lal went to check water supply of the area at 7:30 pm.

However, at the Khanpur tubewell he saw the operator Jaswinder Singh, resident of Jhungiyan, in an inebriated state along with his friends. Roshan Lal confronted them and asked Jaswinder to release water supply to the area. This led to a quarrel and Jaswinder and his accomplices allegedly attacked Roshan Lal, who sustained serious to his head and face. He was rushed to civil hospital, Kharar.

Jaswinder and his accomplices are on the run and Kharar police have initiated an inquiry.

Wheat crop gutted
Our Correspondent

Ambala, April 10
Around 10 acres of wheat crop was burnt in Badi village near here due to short-circuit today.

According to information, a short-circuit in the transformer of HVPN, installed in the fields of Naib Singh, led to the fire. However, before the fire tenders could reach the spot the entire crop was gutted. Notably, no arrangement for any such emergency is there in Naggal constituency. Generally, the fire brigade team of Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment rush in case of any fire incident. Naib Singh demanded adequate compensation.

Social worker passes away
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, April 10
Kulwant Singh Gunia Majri, a leading social worker and former sarpanch and member of the market committee, Bassi Pathana, died at his native village, Gunia Majri, after prolonged illness today.

Thousands of people attended his cremation today. The district bar association held a condolence meeting and abstained from work as a mark of respect from the departed soul.

SPORTS

Chandigarh Golfing Tour tees off today
Diplomats, corporate golfers among participants
Donald Banerjee

Chandigarh, April 10
More than 40 golfers from outside the tricity, including six from the Canadian High Commission and three from the Bhutan Embassy, will be seen in action in the third Chandigarh Golfing Tour which will be teed off on the par-72 greens of the Chandigarh Golf Club here tomorrow at 11 am.

Comprising mostly from the travel industry and the corporate sector, these golfers will play on the greens of the Panchkula Golf Club on the second day and then shift to the Chandigarh Golf Range on the final day for a pitch and putt competition in the tournament that has emerged as a very popular event and will go a long way in promoting Chandigarh as a golf tourism destination.

The second Chandigarh Golfing Tour held from November 21 to 23 last year attracted 88 NRIs from India and abroad. Seeing the success of the tournament, the organisers, Chandigarh Golf Associaton and the tourism departments of Chandigarh and Haryana, decided to hold the event twice a year.

J.S. Cheema, organising secretary, said it had been decided to invite NRIs from abroad for the November event and corporate and travel industry golfers for the April competition.

To rope in the best for the big event, the organisers have associated the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Chandigarh, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) in their endeavour to promote golf tourism. The tourism department of the Centre has also lent full support to the tournament, said Cheema.

Among the invitees, Gurbans Sobti from the Canadian High Commission seems to be the favourite as he plays with a handicap of six, with Pradeep Loyal and Brig J.S. Alag, with handicaps of nine and 11, following closely.

For the ladies’ competition, the local favourite, Pauline J.M. Singh, will be pitted against Cathie King and Carol McKinney from the Canadian High Commission.

The main trophy of the Chandigarh Golfing Tour, the Emaar MGF Trophy, will be given to the golfer, outside the tricity, returning the best gross score for all the three days. Another trophy will be given for the best gross score among the golfers invited from Chandigarh and Panchkula golf clubs.

There will be special prizes for the best gross and net score on all the three days besides prizes for the longest drive and nearest to the pin.

Delhi Horse Show
Gursobha is best child rider
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10
Horse riding is a sport of daredevils and the show jumping event is the real test of bravery of the riders. For any child, just participation in the event is a big deal and if he wins top honours in it, it’s an icing on the cake.

Nine-year-old Gursobha Singh has just shown his skills and brought a gold in the same event in one of the biggest horse shows of the country-The Delhi Horse Show- concluded this week at The Army Polo and Riding Club in New Delhi Cantt.

The child prodigy was adjudged with The Best Child Rider (group III) during the show as he won a gold medal in the ‘Fault and Out Show Jumping’, in which the actual control on the beast and speed is being tested. He also won a bronze in the Hacks event.

The Delhi Horse Show, being organised by The Army Polo and Riding Club, New Delhi, with support from the 61st Cavalry under the aegis of Equestrian Federation of India, attracts around 1,000 riders in different categories from all over the country.

The elated lad, who is a fifth class student of Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, is all excited with his achievement. “This is just a starting for a me as I want to compete at international level soon”, Gursobha said.

“I want to excel in Show Jumping as it is the only event that gives not only thrills but also needs planning and presence of mind”, said the kid, who started horse riding just three years back.

In his first outing during The Delhi Horse Show in 2007, he bagged two medals, which was a big morale booster for the little equestrian. The same year, he again lived up to expectations by notching silver and a bronze medal in Chandigarh Horse Show held at Panjab University.

Giving credits of his feat to his father Kamalbir Singh Dhindsa, a horse trainer, Sobha said, “My father, who learned the art of riding in America from veterans like Marty Engler, inspired me to take on the sport. He is a big source of motivation for me”.

However, he has been polishing his skills under the supervision of the coach Jatinderjit Singh at the Heritage Equestrian Sports Academy, Mohali.

Lauding his disciple, the proud coach is all praise of Sobha: “I am grooming him purely on the classical principles of riding. He has potential to make it big in the sport”.

CRIME

Attempt to dupe bank foiled
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 10
An attempt to dupe a bank of around Rs 6.50 lakh by an unidentified person today was foiled when the alert bank staff found that the cheque presented by the miscreant was a scanned copy.

According to the police, the state head of wholesale banking operation, HDFC, Chandigarh, Krishan Kumar, lodged a complaint that a branch of the bank in Sector 17, Chandigarh, received an account payee cheque of Rs 6,61,558.

However, during processing it was found that the cheque was forged by the account holder. It was deposited by an account holder at State Bank of India branch in Sector 10, Panchkula.

The account in the bank was opened in the name of Anand, a resident of Sector 27, Chandigarh, last month.

According to the complaint it was found that HDFC Bank had issued a cheque of Rs 615 bearing the same cheque number. The accused scanned the cheque and changed the figure of the amount before depositing it with the SBI, Sector 10.

Panchkula police have asked its Economic offences wing to investigate the matter after registering a case under section 420 of IPC against the accused.

BUSINESS

Biz Word
Furniture for summer season
Tribune News Service

City models launch summer collection of furniture by Glass Palace
City models launch summer collection of furniture by Glass Palace.

Chandigarh, April 10
Glass Palace, a city-based outlet, has come out with their new furniture for the summer season. Interestingly, the collection has been designed with soft shades, cool colours and refreshing designs to beat the summer heat.

While talking to the media, Vikram Gupta, owner of Glass Palace, stated that the reason behind launching this collection in the city was that the people were now going in for changing their furniture due to change in the season. He said in this collection, the focus was on colour and wood used in manufacturing furniture. He said this time the theme of the collection was to provide variety with sober looks.

He said the city people were attracted to the monthly instalment scheme launched by the company for purchase of updated furniture.

Tanishq jewellery

Tanishq has announced existing offers on the first year of successful retail operations at Manimajra here today. All customers who invested in Tanishq’s Golden Harvest Savings Scheme will get the last instalment free, thereby entitling them to purchase Tanishq jewellery worth 12 monthly instalments by investing for 11 and a chance to win exciting gifts every month. This exclusive offer can be availed only from 11th to 13th April at the Tanishq showroom.

CULTURE

Bhatti, Mann promote ‘Comedy Ka King Kaun’
Aarti Kapur
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10
Vulgarity in the laughter television shows, which were becoming very popular these days, has to be curbed, as the concept to introduce such shows was to promote family oriented programmes. This was stated by Jaspal Bhatti, a renowned TV and film star, who had come here for the promotion of ‘Comedy Ka King Kaun’ today.

While briefing about the comedy show, which would commence from April 14, Bhatti briefed that the main feature of this show is that the participant would get negative marks by the judges if they use double meaning jokes during their presentation. He said this show would give a platform to the artists who are serious about laughter art and share it with the audience for their real entertainment.

Bhatti said this show would also judge the acting skills of the artists by dividing the show in three segments.

Bhagwant Mann, a comedy artist, who was also present on this occasion, commented that comedy is becoming a business for the humor artists but there is a need to maintain the standards of the performance. He said this show would lay special stress on the sensible and spontaneous comedy.