R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

• Regional potpourri
  Girl from sleepy village wins laurels
  

PUNJAB

‘Amardeep Mela’ begins: Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, on Sunday kicked off its ‘Amardeep Mela-2008’. An annual feature of the college since its inception in 1993, the event started with an athletic meet, inaugurated by Dr Ragbir Singh, dean, Academic Affairs, GNDU, Amritsar.

HARYANA

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
Prize distribution function: Chamba DC Munish Garg underlined the need to follow the teachings of Swami Dayananda, the founder of Dayananda Anglo-Vedic ethnicity, who fought a crusade against the social evils by eradicating the superstitions from the Indian society. The DC stated this while presiding over the annual prize distribution function of the local DAV High School held here on Sunday. He also gave away the prizes to the outstanding students. Vice-chairman of the local DAV managing committee K.K. Mahajan welcomed the DC. A cultural programme was presented by the students.

MANDI
Four held: The police on Saturday arrested four persons travelling in a private Santro (DL1Y-8736), after a country made pistol, two sharp-edged weapons were recovered from their car. The four persons have been identified as Anu Kumar (30), Kuldip Singh (25), Subhash (25) and driver Ramdev, all residents of the Baijnath area in Kangra district. They were on their way from Baijnath to Billing when the police stopped the car at Ghata police post and searched the vehicle. Mandi SP said they have been arrested under the Arms Act and the car impounded.

NURPUR
ATM facility: Punjab National Bank, Jassur, near here, provided ATM facility for its customers on Saturday. According to senior manager V.K. Mahajan the customers can withdraw Rs 15,000 in one go and draw maximum Rs 25,000 in a day.

Annual function: The annual prize distribution of the local Noorpur Public School was organised on Sunday. It was presided over by Municipal Council president R.K. Mahajan. The chief guest gave away prizes to meritorious students. The students of the school presented a colourful cultural programme on this occasion.

Check-up camp: The Global Cancer Concern India, a Gurgaon-based NGO, organised a free health check-up camp on the premises of the MCS School, Raja Ka Bagh, near here, on Sunday. As many as 170 patients were examined in the camp. They also provided free clinical test examination in the camp.

One injured: The police registered an hit-and-run case under Sections 279, 337 and 201 of the IPC against Darshan Singh, a resident of Jassur and driver of a private Darshan bus (HP38-7507), on Saturday. It is alleged that the private bus had hit a scooter (PB35D-2305) on the Nurpur-Chamba link road and fled in which Pawan Kumar, son of Chatro Ram, was injured. He was rushed to the local Civil Hospital from where he was referred to the Tanda Medical College.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
Book released: ‘Around the World on Motorcycle’ written by Prof Bhim Singh, chairman, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, was jointly released by vice-chancellor of the Jammu University Prof Varun Sahni and former vice-chancellor Prof M.R Puri in a function held here on Sunday. Prof Sahni compared the motorcycle adventure of Prof Singh with Ghauvera's motorcycle ride in Latin America and described his book as a great source of inspiration for the youth across world.

RAJOURI
Pulse polio programme: On the first day of the three-day pulse polio programme, more than 64,000 children were administered polio drops across the district here on Sunday. The authorities here said leftout children would be administered pulse polio drops in the door-to-door campaign starting from Monday. They said in the campaign approximately 2,500 employees of the Health Department, Education Department and Anganwadi workers participated. Meanwhile, in the neighbouring Poonch district, thousands of children were administered the polio drops.

Srinagar
Sunday market reopens: The “Sunday Market” near here reopened here on Sunday for the first time after November 16. The vendors could not put up their stall due to undeclared restriction imposed by the authorities on all polling days during the second, third and fourth phases in the Kashmir valley. However, on December 14, similar restrictions were imposed by the authorities to prevent people from holding anti-poll demonstration when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed an election meeting at Shangus in south Kashmir.

Food items with pig fat banned: The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has stopped the sale of all food items, including jams, ketchups and chocolates, carrying pig fat. Health officer, SMC, Reyaz Ahmad cautioned general public, particularly Muslims against consuming Kissan Jam, Maggi noodles and Cadbury chocolates till reports come from the public analyst. He said there were reports that porcine products are used to make Jams, Ketchups, Chocolates and other foodstuffs manufactured by Indian Editions of Multi National Companies.

BSF jawan found dead: A BSF jawan was found dead inside a camp in Kupwara district on Sunday, official sources said. Constable (driver) Man Singh of the 45th Battalion was found dead in a camp at Langate. A case has been registered and investigations are on to ascertain the cause of his death.

DEHRADUN

DEHRADUN
Two killed in accident: Two persons died while three others sustained injuries after a truck met with an accident in Uttarkashi district. According to the state government officials, a truck bearing registration number UA 10 4796 was going from Dijli to Chniyalesaud when it met an accident near Kawagdi, Uttarkashi. As a result, two persons died while three others were injured. The injured were rushed to Uttarkashi Hospital. The CM Maj. Gen. B.C.Khanduri (Retd) has expressed grief over the incident.

HARIDWAR
Petrol pumps to have cameras: In order to control crime graph, the district administration has decided to installed alarms and cameras at banks and petrol pumps. District magistrate, Shailesh Bagoli, directed all the banks and petrol pumps in the Haridwar to install cameras and alarms-sirens to prevent thefts and robberies. DM also warned the owners and management that action will be taken against those who will not adhere to the directions.

Farmers welcome sugarcane rates: Sugarcane farmers have expressed their happiness on the decision of the state government to fix the support price for sugarcane The sugarcane rates have been fixed at Rs 143 and Rs 148 and the announcement came a bit late with farmers resorting to agitation. District Cooperative Bank, director, Omichand said that government has positively responded to the farmers condition while Sugarcane farmers associations members, Rao Abrar and Pradhan Rishipal thanked CM for the farmer friendly rates. BJP district unit also held a meeting and thanked CM for the announcement of sugarcane rates.

Regional potpourri
Girl from sleepy village wins laurels

Gaganjot Kaur, born in a sleepy Gaddandob village of Abohar sub-division, is one of the three Indian girls who won silver medal in the first Asian Open Compound Archery tournaments which concluded at Yangon in Myanmar on December 14. She had been a good swimmer while studying in a Sirsa school till matriculation and tried her hand in bows and arrows only after getting admission in the secondary class in the LRS DAV senior secondary school in Abohar in 2006.

Joining citizens in welcoming Gaganjot as she returned home, her mother Rajdeep Kaur, father Gurpal Singh and grandfather Sukhdev Singh, nambardar of the village, said lot of hard work and expenses were involved besides grooming and coaching to achieve the distinction. Only three girls had been selected for the nine- member Indian team to compete with archers from six countries. Others were Navneet Kaur from Amritsar and Yogita from Andhra Pradesh.

Gaganjot’s father is a physician in government homoeopathic dispensary in Alamgarh village on the outskirts of Abohar town.

"It is indeed a special day for the sub-divisional town," said principal Kusum Khungar, offering sweets to the budding archer. “Coaching by national archer Ravi Kumar, posted in my school here, and Jeevanjot of Panjabi University besides extensive practice helped me in hitting the bull’s eye, says Gaganjot.

Swimming certainly helped in compound archery whereas she had initially been pursuing traditional Indian archery. The equipment costing Rs 1 lakh had to be acquired. To her bad luck the well tried bow got cracked during trials for the world cup in Kolkata in September. However she was able to be among the three girls who were selected for the first Asian compound archery tournaments hosted by Myanmar. For the Commonwealth games also she ranked 13 while 16-member team was to be selected in a tough competition in November.

Gaganjot is now practising hard to ensure her entry in the second Asian Grand-pix scheduled for February 2009 in Thailand and the Commonwealth games-2010. Trials are to be conducted; she might have to change the equipment again to meet the challenges.

To think of producing teenaged international archers was a dream for this remote area of Punjab but it was actually made possible by Kulbir Singh Kang, president of the Punjab Archery Association, who was the first to promote the game by organising state-level competitions in Abohar during his tenure as additional deputy commissioner long back.

LRS School chairman Dev Mittar Ahuja has announced Rs 21,000 sponsorship in Gaganjot’s name to recognise her win along with other awards.

Contributed by Raj Sadosh