R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Chandigarh
18 PCS officers promoted to IAS: The Union government has notified the names of 18 PCS officers in Indian Administrative Service (appointment by promotion) for the select list of 2010 with immediate effect. According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, those who got promotion are Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu, Chander Gaind, Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Dharm Pal, Gagandeep Singh Brar, Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, Arun Sekhri, Manjit Singh Narang, DS Mangat, Jaswinder Kaur, Indu Malhotra, Amar Partap SinghVirk, Gurpreet Kaur Sapra, Preet Dev Singh Shargill, Gurlovleen Singh, Ashwani Kumar, Ravinder Singh and Ritu Aggarwal.

Committee to identify freedom fighters’ kin: The Punjab Government has constituted a committee to prepare a list of the descendants heirs of the freedom fighters who participated in the Kamagata Maru movement. The panel comprises the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Freedom Fighters), Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Principal Secretary (Finance) and Joint Secretary/Director (Freedom Fighters), Ministry of Home Affairs. The government is preparing a draft policy proposal for submission to the Union Home Ministry for suitably honouring all of them. The committee is expected to table the recommendations within three months.

Ropar
3-day disaster mgmt programme begins: The National Disaster Management Authority on Thursday started a three-day training programme for the officials of Ropar, Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar and Mohali districts. While giving a presentation on capacity development and incident response system at the local Government College, authority's senior special trainer Major General (retd) VK Datta said till now, 10 teams had been formed to tackle natural calamities and one such team was posted in Bathinda district. He emphasised on providing required training to the general public.

Sangrur
Two awards for Sangrur principal: Jaswinder Singh Riar, principal of the local General Gurnam Singh Public School, has recently been honoured with two awards for his contribution in the field of education. He was honoured with Rajiv Gandhi Vidya Gold Award by the International Institute of Education and Management, New Delhi, and the Rashtriya Vidya Gaurav Gold Medal Award by the Indian Solidarity Council of India, New Delhi.

30 Red Ribbon Clubs formed: As many as 30 Red Ribbon Clubs have been formed for creating awareness among masses against HIV/AIDS and use of drugs, and in favour of blood donation, in 30 colleges of the district. As part of the training to the club educators, who are volunteers of the NSS programme, a workshop was organised by the Department of Youth Services at the Youth Hostel here on Friday.