R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

Regional potpourri

• Eating into public space

• First, stage

BARNALA
Gheraoed: A large number of the BKU Ekta(Ugrahan) activists gheraoed the Shaina police station for hours together on Sunday for misbehaving with its district president Shingara Singh. They were demanding registration of a case against SHO Harpal Singh,who had allegedly misbehaved with Shingara.

Husband held: A husband has been arrested for allegedly forcing his wife to commit suicide. Kulwinder Kaur consumed poison owing to continuous harassment at the hands of her husband and in-laws for bringing insufficient dowry. She is survived by two sons. A large number of people staged a dharna in front of the local civil hospital. They were demanding arrest of her in-laws.

BATHINDA
Blood donation: In a unique gesture, Darshan Singh, a teacher, along with 11 other persons, donated 12 units of blood at a function organised in connection with his retirement. The camp was organised with the help of the united welfare society on Sunday.

Remembrance: A manch under the name and style of Lal Singh Dil Yaadgiri manch, has been formed by prominent citizens, writers, intellectuals to build a symbol of remembrance in the memory of Swargi Lal Singh Dill, a noted Punjabi writer, who died on August 14. N.K. Sharma will be the president, Ashwani Bhardwaj as VP, Jagdeesh Neelon general secretary, B.L. Saddi as finance secretary and Sangat Singh Sekhon will be the press secretary.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

NURPUR
Disaster management: State unit vice-president of the BJP and former Rajya Sabha MP Kirpal Parmar has alleged that the state government has failed to strengthen disaster management network, notwithstanding a Bill passed by the previous NDA government at the Centre in 2003. He said this while talking to mediapersons at the newly built Press Club building here on Friday.

Regional potpourri

Eating into public space

Unauthorised roadside eateries at the Urban Estate II crossing on the Delhi road in Hisar. — Tribune photo by P. L. Munday

The main Urban Estate II crossing on the Delhi road in Hisar has virtually become an open-air restaurant with roadside eateries doing brisk business on all sides, from early morning to well past midnight.

While the area on the left side of the road comes under the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the opposite side is governed by the Municipal Corporation. These rehris have become a good source of ‘income’ for unscrupulous officials of both HUDA and the municipal corporation who turn a blind eye to the encroachments. There are two rehris parked permanently on the right of the main entrance to Urban Estate II. These makeshift cigarette and paan stalls draw power illegally from nearby houses.

Opposite these is the biggest public nuisance—a rehriwala selling kulfi. He creates a kind of open-air restaurant in the evening by laying out more than a dozen plastic tables and about 50 chairs for his customers. This rehri is parked right at the crossing, with the result that during summer, dozens of vehicles are parked on both sides of the road by his customers, creating traffic jams. A police PCR van is parked opposite this rehri, but the cops prefer to lick their kulfis rather than clear the road.

In the municipal corporation area on the other side of the crossing, half a dozen rehris sell an assortment of tea, snacks and food from 7 am till dusk.

Enquiries reveal that none of them is paying any kind of fee to the municipal corporation or HUDA, even though they regularly grease the palms of officials and the police. Residents of the Model Town and Urban Estate II have complained to the authorities concerned several times but no action has been taken so far.

However, to give the rehriwalahs their due, the quality of food served by them is good and the rates reasonable.

May be, that’s why they get away with eating into public territory.

First, stage

An actor-director, dance trainer, writer and sportsperson, Dr Anand Sharma of Rohtak is all rolled into one. Serving as a Supervisor in the Department of Youth Welfare, Maharshi Dayanand University, Sharma has been grooming budding artistes for years.

This noted theatre personality of the region has set up the Sargam Theatrical Group to conserve and spread Haryanavi culture. With a view to keeping the Haryanavi people staying outside the state attached to their roots, the group has been organising a number of cultural programmes in different parts of the country and Nepal.

The group has been staging thought-provoking plays like Dulari Bai, Kumar Swami, Poster, Natak Nahin, Samajhdar Log, Girgit, Jangi Ram Ki Haveli, Juloos, Jab Main Sirf Aurat Hoti Hoon, Katha Ek Kans Ki and so on. It has also produced a Haryanavi tele-film Beti on the issue of female foeticide.

Sharma has received a number of prestigious awards and honours for his performance and contribution to various theatrical art forms like one-act plays, mono-acting, mime, skits, Sanskrit plays, Haryanavi orchestra and folk dances. He has won the best director and best actor awards at all-India dance drama competitions. Sharma's teams have won top honours at the International Youth Festival held in Jaipur and at All-India Inter-University Youth Festival at Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. He has also acted as the main villain in Haryanavi feature film Khandani Sarpanch.

Apart from theatre, Sharma has also achieved a lot in fields as diverse as sports and writing books and newspaper articles. He has participated in various state and national-level sports events in hockey and other games. He has written a book on eminent litterateur Kamaleshwar and is penning another on the lives and works of selected Haryanavi poets.

Contributed by Raman Mohan and Sunit Dhawan