The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, December 16, 2001, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
LOK ADALAT: As many as 81 industrial disputes between employers and workers were taken up at the lok adalat held here on Friday. Out of these, 51 cases were disposed of through compromise and a sum of Rs 56,518 was awarded as compensation to employees. The adalat was presided over by Mr S.P. Bangarh, presiding officer, and conducted under the supervision of Mr M.R. Batra, District and Sessions Judge.

GURDASPUR
KILLED: Jaswant Singh was killed while his father Charan Singh and sons Joginder Singh and Surjit Singh were injured following an altercation with Jit Ram, his brother Mangat Ram and sons Vijay, Gholu and Happy on Friday evening at Ram Nagar Bhoon village, near here. A case has been registered against Jit Ram and the others under Sections 302 and 34, IPC.

JAGRAON
ELECTIONS: With the date of bar election approaching, i.e. December 20, the campaign is hoting up. Mr Mohinder Singh Sidhwan and Mr Subhash Chander are contesting for the post of president and Mr Aju Tandon, Mr Gurtej Singh and Mr Naveen Gupta are in the field for the post of secretary.

JALANDHAR
INQUIRY ORDERED: Mr Gaurav Yadav, SSP, here has ordered an inquiry into a case involving a Scheduled Caste woman of Bhikha Nangal village who alleged that Amarjit singh of the same village had tried to murder her. The SSP said on Friday since the complainant, Bansho, had expressed dissatisfaction with the investigation conducted by the police so far and demanded additional charges under the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, Mr Rajiv Ahir, SP, had been entrusted to conduct an inquiry into the case.

KHAMANO
INTUC MEET: The state-level meet of the Indian National Trade Union ( INTUC) to be held on Sunday at Kharar would discuss the implementation of labour laws in Punjab. Mr Shiv Gupta, state joint secretary, said, “The meeting would demand from the state government the abolition of contract labour in government and semi-government departments, regularisation of ad-hoc employees, payment of bonus to all the employees and to raise the minimum wages to Rs 5,000. The government would be also asked to ensure the implementation of Factory Act, ESI Act, Provident Fund Act and other labour acts.” He further said the INTUC would also discuss the proposed amendments in the Industrial Disputes Act — 1947, Trade Union Act, Contract Labour ( Regulation ) Act — 1970 by the Central Government. The meeting would be held under the chairmanship of Mr Balwant Rai Kapoor, president of the INTUC, and Mr K.K. Bawa, Chairman of the Punjab unit of the INTUC, would be the chief guest.

KHANNA
HONOURED: UNICEF volunteers were honoured by Mr A.P. Bhatnagar, ADGP, Punjab Human Rights Commission, at a function organised by Baba Sen Bhagat Welfare Society here on Saturday. Cash was given to poor women, health cards were issued to the volunteers and copies were distributed to the needy children free of cost at the function. The SSP Khanna, Mr Ishwar Singh, the SP (OPR), Mr Ram Singh, general secretary, Punjab State Apex Body, Gursharnjit Singh and S.S. Manch of Lion Club attended the function.

LUDHIANA
RALLY: The Bharti Kisan Union, Ludhiana, would send a batch of 2,100 farmers from the district on Monday evening to take part in the farmers’ rally the next day at Delhi in support of their demands. Mr Sukhminder Singh Qadian, president of the BKU, said in a press release here on Saturday that keeping in view the response to the rally call, the union had decided to increase the number of Delhi -bound farmers from the proposed 1,000 to 2,100. The dharna at Delhi was being given to demand fixing of prices of farm products in proportion to the general price index and compensation for those cotton growers of the state who had lost 80 per cent of their crops due to the use of spurious insecticides sold to them by unscrupulous traders in connivance with the officials of the state agriculture department. The union would also press the Central Government to fix the minimum rate for sugarcane at Rs 142 per quintal, he added.

MALERKOTLA
IFTAR PARTY: Mr J.R. Devgan, General Manager (Head Office), State Bank of Patiala, distributed 151 cheques under the Utsav Scheme at Arihant Spinning Mill here on Friday evening. Mr Devgan was here to attend an Iftar organised on the occasion of the last “jumma” of Id-ul-Fitr. Mr Devgan emphasised the need for universal brotherhood.

NAHAN
COUNTRY LIQUOR RECOVERED: The Sirmaur police has recovered 265 boxes of country liquor ‘sirmaur No 1’, containing 3,180 bottles, from a truck no HP 16-2526 at the Sangrah chowk on a tip off. According to the police, the driver and two persons accompanying him could not produce permit of the liquor. The police has impounded the truck and arrested the three persons.

PATHANKOT
FINANCIAL AID: An amount of Rs 50,000 each was given to 68 widows and the next of kin of martyrs of the Sikh Regiment at a function held at Mamoon cantonment here on Friday. Maj Gen R.K. mehta presided over the function.

PATIALA
REFRESHER COURSE: A UGC sponsored course in political science was inaugurated by Professor P.D. Sharma, Head of the Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University, at the Department of Political Science, Punjabi University, on Friday. Nearly 50 teachers from various colleges of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are participating in the 18-day refresher course.

RESERVATION BILL: The General Category Welfare Federation, Patiala, in a press note released here on Saturday condemned the unanimous adoption of the Bill (92nd amendment) by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha which provides for reservation in promotions for members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The president of the federation, Mr Amrik Singh, called the clauses in the Bill as ‘degrading’ for the nation and urged the President of India to return the Bill. He called upon the electorate to refrain from casting their votes to political parties which had given their unconditional consent and support to the Reservation Bill.

PHAGWARA
TEACHERS’ STIR: The agitating Joint Action Committee of Managements, Principals, teaching and non-teaching staff of private colleges will meet at GGM Khalsa College, Ludhiana, on Sunday to discuss means to halt the government “offensive” against higher education and sustain the struggle in public interests. This was stated on Saturday by Principal Tarsem Bahia, spokesman for the committee and president, Panjab University Area Principals Association.

SARBJIT CHEEMA: The Punjabi Kala and Sahit Kendra and Punjabi magazine Sangeet Darpan will hold a “ru-ba-ru” with singer Sarbjit Cheema here on December 18. This was stated by Mr H.S. Preet, president of the kendra and Editor of the magazine.

CHANDIGARH

SEMINAR: A seminar on “Art of Studying for ITT-JEE” was conducted by FIIT-JEE, a premier institute for IIT-JEE training in the country at Ambedkar Bhawan in Sector 37 here on Saturday. The seminar held in three sessions for the aspiring students and the students who appeared in IIT-JEE 2002 registered an overs whelming response from the students. The speakers highlighted the concept of complete training which included both academic as well as physical and psychological aspects of training.

CME TODAY: A seminar (CME-2001) on ‘Recent technological advances in medical imaging and radiation therapy’ will be organised by the Radiology Department of General Hospital, Sector 16, at nurses hostel of the hospital, here, on Sunday. The seminar will be inaugurated by Ms Neeru Nanda, Adviser to the Administrator, Chandigarh.

PANCHKULA
COMPENSATION AWARDED: Mr Munni Lal was awarded a compensation of Rs 53,000 during the District Grievances Committee meeting presided over by the Deputy Commissioner, Ms Jyoti Arora, here on Saturday. According to a press note, Munni Lal’s son and his cow had been killed when they were struck by lightening in May, 1999. The DC also asked the District Treasury Officer to make a compensation claim of Rs 25,000 for a widow from Rampur Tandon village, whose son had been killed by the stray bullets of hunters, while the latter was watering his fields. In another case, the DC ordered that the mining contract of Mr Jagdish Chandra in Kherawali village be cancelled. The Deputy Commissioner also asked private members of the committee to bring any instance of illegal mining to the notice of the authorities concerned. She also took up complaints regarding widow pension, old age pension and pension to the handicapped.

ELECTED: Dr Sunil Dutt Rabra has been elected President of the Social Welfare Organisation, Sector 12-A. Following are the other office-bearers of the organisation: vice-president — Mr Parveen Aggarwal; general secretary — Mr S.C. Sobti; finance secretary — Dr R.N. Gupta; and joint secretary — Mr Vinay Kapoor.

APPEAL: The Haryana Group Housing Promoters and Builders Federation has appealed to HUDA authorities to reduce the rate of interest being charged from plot allottees. In a press note Mr B.K. Sanghi, president of the association, said though interest rate had come down everywhere, HUDA was still charging interest at the rate of 15 per cent. HUDA should bring down the interest rate to nine per cent in order to give relief to plot holders, he said.

SAS NAGAR
BASIC AMENITIES: Residents of Gigga Majra village, located along the Landhran-Banur road, have lamented that their area lacks basic amenities despite several politicians of the ruling regime having made promises in the past few years. The sarpanch of the village, Mr Kaka Singh, said the Finance Minister of Punjab, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, had promised basic amenities. Mr Amrik, a resident of the village, said the approach road to the village was full of potholes. During rains the road link was cut off. The supply of potable water was poor and telephone connections remained out of order.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Mohali Welfare Society: president — Manjit Singh; general secretary — Mr Rajwant Singh; senior vice-president — Mr H.S. Sandhu; vice-president — Surjit Singh; joint secretaries — Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr L.D. Garg; secretaries — Ms Veeran Wali and Ms Satvinder Kaur, and adviser — Mr G.S. Boparai.

RESULTS: The results of the poster and essay contest on ‘Mankind is our business’, organised by Rotary Club are: poster contest — Prabhdeep Kaur 1, Roop Kiran Kaur 2 and Amrinder Preet Singh 3; consolation prizes: Snakshi 1 and Alesh 2; essay contest — Harmeet Singh 1, Danny Sahai 2 and Gurpreet Kaur 3; consolation prize: Shazy 1 and Prabhjot Kaur 2.

DONATED: The Sahibzada Ajit Singh Academy, Ropar, has donated Rs 5,500 to Government Middle School, Railon Khurd, Ropar. Ms Sudesh Sujati, Vice-Principal of the donating academy, said the money was saved by students of the academy by not burning crackers. During a recent function, the cash and gifts were handed over to the school headmaster, Mr Bhag Singh, in the presence of the District Education Officer, Mr Ajmer Singh. Last year, the students of the academy had saved around Rs 50,000 to provide winter clothing to orphans of the Mata Gujri Sukh Niwas.

HARYANA

AMBALA
STONE LAID: Lieut-Gen Kapil Vij, GOC, 2 Corps, laid down the foundation stone of KLP of 2 Corps Grid Signal Regiment at convoy ground at Ambala Cantt on Saturday. It is the first KLP of any Army unit in Ambala Cantt.

FOURTH POSITION: Sonia, a student of MBA of AIMT, Ambala City, secured fourth position in All-India Inter-University Gymnastics Competition. According to Mr Kirti Prashad Jain, secretary of the institution, earlier she had qualified for inter-college competition held at Kurukshetra University.

FARIDABAD
ISSUES DISCUSSED: A delegation of the All-Haryana Power Corporation Workers Union has met the Chairman of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) at Chandigarh recently to discuss the issues concerning the Power Department staff. The delegation discussed the issues of the alleged harassment and victimisation of employees through transfers, privatisation, contract system, removal of pay anomalies, release of bonus and adoption of a proper promotion policy, besides filling up of all vacant posts.

KURUKSHETRA
INAUGURATED: The Kurukshetra University Vice-Chancellor, Mr R.S. Chaudhry, inaugurated the 36th orientation programme organised by Academic Staff College of the university here on Saturday. He called upon college and university teachers to inculcate values in students & Prof P.D. Sharma, Director of the college, highlighted achievements of the college.

NARNAUL
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Cooperative Marketing Society Limited: chairman — Mr Sita Ram Yadav and vice-chairman — Mr Lal Chand.

SCHEME: Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala will inaugurate a canal-based water supply scheme at janjadiawas village on December 18. This was stated by Mr Hoshiar Singh, president of the Mahendragarh unit of the INLD on Friday. he said the scheme would benefit inhabitants of Janjadiawas, Jatwas, Nimbi and Chagiawas village.

MEETING: Former Chairman of the Haryana Planning Board Kailash Chand Sharma at a meeting organised at the BJP office criticised terrorist activities going on in the country. The participants also criticised the policies of Pakistan, marched in procession and raised slogans against Pakistan.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

HAMIRPUR
SCIENCE MASTERS: Eight posts of Science Consultant will be created and 119 posts of Block Education Officer filled from among senior teachers. These decisions were taken at a meeting of the HP Science Masters Association with the Secretary, Education. Mr Manoj Pal Singh Parihar, joint secretary of the association, said on Saturday that the government agreed to create 236 posts of Headmaster in schools and convert the practical allowance into an advance increment to science masters.

KULU
CHARAS SEIZED: District CIA staff along with the police caught a person, Beli Ram, while on patrol at Gandhi Nagar here. On checking, 1.4 kg of charas was recovered from his possession. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered. In a similar incident, about 1.7 kg of charas was seized at the Sainj police post from the possession of Ram Chand, a resident of Ratgal in Thaneshwar tehsil of Kurukshetra (Haryana).

SHIMLA
PLEA TO SHANTA: The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has urged the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Mr Shanta Kumar, to provide 74,625 tonnes of foodgrains (44,625 tonnes of rice and 30,000 tonnes of wheat) to the state at the below-poverty-line rates to ride over the situation arising out of a severe drought.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Himachal Pradesh Police Pensioners Welfare Association: president — Mr K.L. Chopra; senior vice-president — Mr Kamal Narain; general secretary — Mr H.R. Thakur; treasurer — Mr Lekh Ram; and Mr tilak Raj Sharma.