The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

CHANDIGARH

Visited: The two-day visit of general secretary of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), S.M. Qamar Alam, concluded here on Sunday. During his visit, he met several prominent citizens, including Rabinder Kishan, Lt- Col P.J.S. Mehta (Retd), G.S. Grewal, Maulana Shakeel Ahmed Qasmi, Arshad Khan and Mujib Ali. Discussions were held with these leaders ahead of the forth-coming Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, Alam assured the residents, particularly those living in the rehabilitation colonies, that the RJD was committed to the welfare of the general public.

PANCHKULA
Elected: Devinder Mahajan has been elected president of Residents Welfare Association, (regd), Mansa Devi Complex, Sector 4 in a unanimous election here on Sunday. Brigadier (retd) R.P. Singh was elected as vice-president of the association. Shaminder Boparai and Surjit Singh Waraich would be general secretary and convener of the association, respectively. P.K. Kalra has been elected as cashier. — TNS

Discount for elderly: Red Bishop, a Haryana tourism resort, has announced a discount of 15 per cent for senior citizens on Haryana Tourism Day at its restaurant here tomorrow. According to Sumit Sharma, manager, Red Bishop, other visitors would also get a discount of 10 per cent. The children accompanying the visitors would be presented gifts. — TNS

Mohali
Former councillor dead: Former municipal councillor Sujan Singh died on Sunday morning at his residence after a brief illness. Sujan Singh, who is survived by two sons and one daughter, was the nominated member of the Mohali’s first municipal council. He was cremated at the Mohali cremation ground in the afternoon. The bhog ceremony would take place on September 9. — OC

HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
‘Bungling’ in BPL lists: The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) of Kuldeep Bishnoi has alleged “large-scale irregularities” in the identification of the families living below the poverty line in the state on the basis of which the government is to allot free residential plots to these families. In a statement issued here on Sunday, secretary of the party Satpal Kaushik said his party had protested vehemently when the government had first prepared these lists about six months ago. He claimed that following the protests by the HJC, the government had scrapped the earlier lists and had decided to identify the BLP families afresh. However, he said it was apparent from the revised lists that the poor and the deserving had been left out and the favourites of the government had been included in the BPL lists. — TNS

Cong meeting: The Haryana Congress has convened a special meeting of office-bearers and district and block presidents of its backward cell here on September 2. Party spokesperson Ved Parkash Vidrohi on Sunday said the meeting had been convened by Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana to discuss arrangements for the proposed Backward Classes rally scheduled to be held at Rohtak on September 14. The Rohtak rally is being organised to felicitate Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for his announcement to provide 100 sq yards of residential plots to members of the Backward Classes (A) and to give scholarships to students of these communities. — TNS

JIND
3 run over by trains: Three persons have been found dead near railway track at different places in the district in the past 24 hours. The Railway police recovered the bodies of the three from the rail track. The deceased have been identified as Roshan Lal (55) of Ajmer Basti near the Bhiwani road, Raunak Ram (50) of Uchana Kalan and Satish (22) of Narwana town in the district. — TNS

ROHTAK
Farewell function: Students and staff members of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Gandhi Nagar, gave a warm send-off to Manju Dhawan, SS mistress, on her superannuation on Saturday. At the farewell ceremony organised on the school premises, principal Krishna Dalal lauded the sincere efforts put in by Dhawan during her long teaching career spanning more than 35 years. Dhawan thanked her colleagues for their gesture, support and cooperation. She urged them to work hard to ensure a bright future of students and their own satisfaction. A cultural programme was also organised to mark the occasion. — TNS

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Energy conservation: A function was organised to mark Non-Conventional Energy Day here on Saturday. It was presided over by DC Devesh Kumar. Earlier, children from various schools took out a rally to spread awareness about non-conventional energy sources. District project officer, Him Urja, Hitesh Kapoor said painting and declamation contests were also organised on the subject of non-conventional energy. In painting competition, Surbhi, Meenakshi and Kiran Bansal were declared first, second and third, respectively, among senior category, while Jyoti, Kriti Chandel and Bhavana got these positions among juniors. In declamation, Astha Thakur, Anurag and Abhishek Bhathi got the first, second and third positions among seniors, while Payal Thakur, Sonia, Kriti and Poonam got these positions among juniors. — OC

CHAMBA
Man crushed to death: One person was crushed to death under a jeep loaded with sand at Nayagran in Holi sub-tehsil, about 90 km from here, on Saturday. A case has been registered against the driver of the vehicle. The deceased was later identified as Roshan Lal of Bhawarna in Palampur tehsil. He used to work as a carpenter in the area. — OC

KANGRA
Shani Amawasia: As many as 30,000 pilgrims visited the Mahakaaleshwar temple in Mahakaal village in the Baijnath subdivision of this district on the occasion of Shani Amawasia on Saturday. Baijnath SDM D.K. Rattan, who is the chairman of the temple samiti, said on the occasion, thousands of devotees of Lord Shaini thronged the Shaini Dev temple on the premises of the Mahakaaleshwar temple. — OC

MANDI
Patwari held: The state vigilance department on Saturday caught Basant Ram, a patwari, Sahli Patwar circle in Kotli Mandi Sadrr, red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000. The vigilance acted on the complaint of Atma Ram, Marathu village, that the patwari had demanded Rs 2,000 for doing mutation in the land-sale deal of his father-in-law. Basant Ram had been arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act. — TNS

NAHAN
Elected: BJP-supported Brajesh Goyal has been elected director of Himachal Pradesh State Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (HPSARD) from Sirmaur district. The elections were held on Saturday amid tight security. Brajesh got 1,210 votes while his Congress-supported opponent Som Nath got only 601 votes. — OC

Held for cheating: Gulzari Lal, an assistant lineman working with the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) in Paonta division has been arrested for allegedly cheating a bank. The manager of the HP State Cooperative Bank, Paonta, had complained that Gulzari Lal had taken a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from the bank in his name and then procured three other loans of Rs 1.5 lakh each in different names by producing forged documents. The accused has been remanded in police custody for seven days. — OC

NURPUR
Cheque-bounce case: Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Prem Pal Ranta has convicted Kare Singh of Bharol village under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act. A case was filed against Kare Singh by Kikar Singh of Bhadwar village near here. The defendant has been awarded imprisonment of three months and was ordered to pay Rs 30,000 to the plaintiff. The plaintiff was issued a cheque of Rs 20,000 on January 17, 2001, by the defendant. But the cheque was bounced by the bank. — OC

LPG shortage: Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Ajay Mahajan, also a Congress nominee from the Nurpur Assembly constituency during the previous Assembly elections, has expressed his concern over the acute shortage of LPG cylinders to the domestic consumers in the area. In a statement here on Sunday, he said Congress workers would come to streets to protest against the unprecedented shortage of cooking gas if the state government did not ensure requisite supply of LPG gas. He lamented the consumers were facing acute shortage of kerosene and could not get firewood due to ban on felling in the state. — OC

Shimla
Electoral rolls: Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda said here on Sunday that consequent upon the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in the state, the process of special summary-revision of photo electoral rolls of 68 segments as per approved schedule with reference to January 1, 2008, as the qualifying date, had been completed. She said the electoral rolls of the Assembly constituencies would be made available at http://ceohimachal.nic.in. —TNS

ABVP activists hurt: Three students of Government College for Boys, Sanjauli, were injured in a clash that broke out between activists of the ABVP and the SFI in the institute on Saturday. The clash broke out during the victory celebrations being held by the ABVP, which had won three of the four seats in the recent SCA elections. Three ABVP activists Harsh Sharma, Tarun and Akash sustained injuries during the clash. A case has been registered. — TNS

Regional potpourri

Of a woman with grit and enterprise

Sangeeta Deol at her residence in Dhanal village near Jalandhar. Photo by author

Hers is a story of perseverance and good business sense for which she was given the farmer of India award by Punjab government.

Sangeeta Deol married at the age of 19 in Dhanal village near here in 1970. She became daughter-in-law of a family in debt. Her father-in-law had mortgaged 12 acres . The family made ends meet by tilling land on lease .

She persuaded his father -in -law to sell the tractor to redeem a few acres. To redeem the house and rest of the land she sold jewellery. The in-laws and husband supported her this initiative.

Sangeeta recalls having started poultry with 50 birds sans training. The family had only one room which it used to share with chicks at night exposing the children to unhygienic conditions.

" Three years after I began the poultry business, one day Army men from Jalandhar cantonment purchased my birds without making payment. A couple of days later, I went to collect the money and was shocked to see innocent birds being dressed. I stopped poultry farming from the very same day," she recalls.

As salary of her husband was not sufficient to run house Sangeeta got training in apiculture (bee keeping) and mushroom farming in 1986 from Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana.

Sangeeta tried hand at farming using tractor to till fields for many years.

She started growing mushrooms in a 15X30 feet room on trial basis. " It was a success and poultry sheds were used to grow mushroom.

Few people were aware of mushrooms as a food item. ‘ I used to collect 100 kg to 125 kg of mushroom daily but marketing was a problem. I decided to sell the produce in Azadpur market of Delhi for better price", she claims.

"I used to carry 100 kg to 125 kg mushroom to Delhi every day in train from Jalandhar at 8.45 pm and used to reach Delhi at 5 am the next day. After selling the produce I used to catch train at 1. 30 pm for return journey," she recalls.

" At home, I had to take care of children, cook and prepare for next trip . I did this for three months in a year for four years till people were aware of the benefits of mushroom in Punjab," she recalls. She started bee-keeping with 10 boxes. Marketing of honey was also a problem for three years. In 1995 her business increased to 3200 boxes. She received the farmer of India award, being the first woman to get it.

Sangeeta , to sell honey, formed a company with elder son Pritpal Singh Deol as successor.

Sangeeta was commended as Punjab's leading bee farmer, got gold medal for agriculture diversification, award from Punjab Agricultural University and award from the Kisan Club for honey production but lack of marketing facilities for bee-keepers disheartens her.

Excessive use of insecticides and pesticides in apiculture in Punjab and neighbouring states disappoints her.

Trikha award for Hindi writer

Kamlesh Bharti receives the Dheeraj Trikha award at Kaithal
Kamlesh Bharti receives the Dheeraj Trikha award at Kaithal

Kamlesh Bharti, Hisar- based senior staff correspondent of Dainik Tribune, was given jointly the Dheeraj Trikha Award for excellence in literary and journalistic writing by the Haryana Sahitya Akademi and the Kaithal Sahitya Sabha The award was instituted by Dr Chander Trikha, a former director of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi in memory of his son. Bharti has authored eight collections of short stories.. His latest book "Aise The Tum" was released by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda this month at Chandigarh. He began writing short stories at the age of 17. He began his career as a schoolteacher in 1973 and rose to become principal . In 1990 he joined Dainik Tribune . In 1997 he was posted at Hisar. He has several literary awards to his credit. Six other Hindi writers were honoured by the society were: Kumar Ravindra (Hisar), Vipin Suneja, Rajveer Singh Dhanker and Ramesh Siddharth (Rewari), Ashok Sharma (Ambala) and Darshan Singh (Sirsa).

Contributed by Bipin Bhardwaj and Raman Mohan