The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HARYANA

JHAJJAR
Inspector cremated: The mortal remains of BSF inspector Nafe Singh, who died of cardiac arrest while on duty, were consigned to flames with full military and civil honours in Chimni village here on Sunday. He was posted at India-Bangladesh border in Kolkata and is survived by wife, two sons and two daughters. A contingent of the Indian Army and the Haryana police reversed arms and fired a volley of shots in the air while bidding farewell to him. Jhajjar City Magistrate Virender Sangwan along with other administrative officers and several local Congress leaders laid wreaths on the occasion.

Poppy husk seized: The police busted a gang of drug traffickers by arresting two persons and seizing 20 bags of poppy husk here on Sunday. The arrested persons have been identified as Meer Singh and Mahender, residents of Matanhel village in the district. The duo was stopped on suspicion near a naaka installed outside Matanhel village. They were produced in a court, which sent them in judicial custody for 14 days.

2 hurt in mishap: Two labourers were injured when an unidentified vehicle reportedly hit them from behind on the Jhajjar-Bahadurgarh road near a polytechnic institute in Bahadurgarh here on Sunday. The injured identified as Salim and Mohamad Jafer, residents of Bihar, were admitted to a hospital from where Jafer was referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, due to his critical condition. The incident took place when they were doing labour work along the road.

KURUKSHETRA
‘Decontrol petro prices’: Secretary-general of the INLD and former Haryana Finance Minister Sampat Singh on Saturday demanded decontrolling of petrol and diesel prices in public interest. He said this while addressing a press conference at the residence of state president of the INLD and former Haryana Transport Minister Ashok Arora here on Saturday. Sampat Singh said decontrolling of petrol and diesel prices would lead to a sharp competition among oil companies and due to this petrol and diesel prices would automatically fall as these prices had fallen when petrol and diesel prices were decontrolled in 2002.

REWARI
Rewari accident: Death toll 5: With the demise of one more accident victim, Sirjani, daughter of Madhava Sharma, who succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital in Gurgaon on Sunday, the death toll in Saturday’s collision of buses has now risen to five. Meanwhile, the police, which has registered a case of culpable homicide in this regard, has arrested Surrender Singh and Ajay Kumar, driver of the two private buses which collided head-on near Masani village. They were produced before the Duty Magistrate, who remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.

Woman gangraped: A middle-aged woman (45), a resident of Kankarwali Colony here, was allegedly gangraped by her abductors, who forcibly picked her up from her residence and then took to an isolated place in Kaluwas village on Friday. The police has registered a case of abduction and gangrape against the accused - Surender Yadav, Vijay Yadav and Jaipal Yadav, all residents of Kaluwas village. Meanwhile, the woman was medically examined in the local Civil Hospital, which confirmed sexual assault.

DEHRADUN

Dehradun
Art camp during SAF Games: The artists associated with Jago, an NGO, will participate at an art camp to be held during the forthcoming SAF Winter Games at Chamoli. The announcement was made by Uttarakhand tourism and culture minister Prakash Pant at Welham Boys School where an art camp is under way. While appreciating the paintings on display, the minister invited them to participate in the camp at Chamoli. On the third day of the camp on Sunday, artists presented their paintings to Pant who later handed over the paintings to state president of Jago, Dr Dipankar Roy. The paintings donated by the artists will be auctioned by Jago and the proceeds will be utilised for its fight against terrorism.

Bhatia wins Vyapar Sangh poll: Harish Kamal Bhatia has been elected as the president of Rajendra Nagar Vyapar Sangh Dehradun for the sixth time in a row. Bhatia’s latest success came against Rakesh Vohra whom he defeated by a margin of 85 votes. Bhatia expressed gratitude to the voters for reposing faith in his leadership. “I have taken up the problems of Rajendra Nagar businessmen and have worked towards their redressal,” he said. He pledged to work with renewed vigour for the challenges being faced by the traders of the region. “The win is the recognition of the commendable works done by Harish Bhatia,” Gyan Prakash, one of the traders said. Prominent traders at Rajendra Nagar, Kisan Chandra Sharma and Yogesh Bahuguna too have welcomed Harish Bhatia’s win. Constituted in 1992, Rajendra Nagar Vyapar Sangh came up due to the efforts of Rakesh Maindola, a prominent trader from the region.

DK Pal appointed gen secy: DK Pal is appointed as Central general secretary of the youth wing of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. Confirming the appointment of DK Pal, MLA and Youth Wing President, Pushpesh Tripathy hoped that DK Pal would strengthen the young wing of the party, which he said is very crucial to ensure success of the party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Regional potpourri

Giving ‘Disha’ to life of special children

Geeta Kathuria (right) gets National Trust award from Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar

Majority of people wilt in the face of adversity .Very few take hard times as a challenge and fight the circumstances with courage and determination.

Geeta Kathuria of Sirsa town is one such woman, who took misfortunes in her stride and worked for a place for her in a field she had never dreamt of.

Having devoted her life for the welfare of special children suffering from autism, cerebral palsy, multiple disorder and retardation, Geeta now is director of Disha, a vocational training centre of repute at Sirsa for special children..

Geeta, who hailed from Punjab before marrying in a local family in 1982, had completed her master degree in music from Guru Nanak Dev university in first division and aspired to be a lecturer.

But, life shaped in a different way after she gave birth to daughter Guddu, a special child.

She took admission to an institute for special education and completed her diploma in mental retardation in 1992.

In the meantime, her brother Ashwani Sapra, who had competed his degree in special education at her instance died in accident in 1992 before she could complete her diploma.

But, Geeta did not give up and went on and completed her studies and started Paryas, an NGO, a school for special children, under the District Child Welfare Council.

Later, she founded her own NGO- Disha with support of local people Surinder Bhatia, AC Gaddi, Chander Shekhar Mehta and some others in 1998. Since then, there has been no looking back.

Her services for the special children have brought her several awards and laurels.

Besides getting commendation certificates and letters of appreciation from the district authorities on several occasions, Geeta was awarded silver medal by the Haryana State Child Welfare Council in 1995-96, outstanding achievement award by the National Trust for best residential care centre in 2004-05, the National Trust award for Samarth Project in 2006-07, the award by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the International Women ‘s Day and the National Trust Award for best local level committee for special children in 2007-08.

She faced adversity with fortitude and won

Vidya Wati Sharma

Life of Vidya Wati Sharma of Nabha typifies courage and perseverance. She faced adversity in life with fortitude and took care to educate her family.

Born on February 15, 1919 in a poor family at Ralla village (now Punjabi University Patiala’s campus neighbourhood ) in Mansa district, she was elder among five siblings.. In those days, girls were not sent to school and she could not be educated ... She married Megh Raj Sharma, pharmacist in Army in 1936 and had six sons and a daughter.

The family shifted to Nabha in 1940 as her husband was posted at Nabha cantonment. Everything was hunky- dory. But in 1963 Megh Raj died of heart attack. It was a bolt from the blue for the family which was left without income.. The youngest child was nine then while others were in college or school. The relatives suggested the boys to get menial jobs for a living for the family. Rejecting such suggestions she decided to educate all children . She bought buffaloes, charkha (hand spinning machine) and chakki ( hand operated flour making contrivance ) for livelihood and asked her children to study hard . She grew vegetables in open space around house and did odd jobs to raise children

Waking up at four in the morning, she used to feed and milk buffaloes and would wake up the children after preparing breakfast and lunch for them and send them to their schools . She worked charkha, ground wheat in chakki, used dung cakes as firewood to save money. Though illiterate herself but every evening she woulds sit with children while working charkha and watched them study.

The only source of income was pension of the husband and many times she borrowed money to pay fees of children. ‘God helped Vidya Wati and her hard work paid off as her children got education and rose in life. One son became an SDO in Irrigation Department, another a teacher , another one PSEB chief engineer, one executive engineer, other doctor in nephrology, USA , another cancer surgeon, USA, other director marketing, USA. She also worked to uplift Dhaula, the village of her in -laws.. With funds from sons she got facilities for the village .

She used to say man’s ‘needs’ are few but ‘wants’ are endless . She taught this for contented life to her children and grandchildren. She loved them so much that after her death recently everyone felt she was special to him / her.

Contributed by Sushil Manav and Rajnish Sharma