R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

Regional potpourri

• Tale of too many cities
• Banking on women’s skill

Elected; The 11-member committee of Punjab Pradesh Dhanak Samaj elected Dr Baldev Jaitop as its new general secretary at meeting held on Saturday. Presiding over the meeting, D. R. Bagri alongwith the other members of the committee conducted the oath taking ceremony.

One killed: Harnek Singh of Rampura was killed while Gurcharan Singh, the pillion rider, of Gill Kalan village, sustained severe injuries in an accident near cantonment area on Sunday.The police sources said while overtaking, the motorcyclist lost control and was hit by the bus. Both the motorcyclists were rushed to the civil hospital, where doctors declared Harnek brought dead. The Cantonment police initiated inquest proceedings for further action under section 174 of the CrPC. After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to the family members. 

CHANDIGARH

ECRUITMENT DRIVE: Under its Infosys campus ambassador programme, Infosys will conduct recruitment drive in various colleges of Chandigarh on November 5. The recruitment activities will be conducted at Chitkara College and Ryat Institute and the final year students will be eligible for the same. 

MOHALI
Freshers’ party: Indo-Global Colleges organised a freshers’ party on its campus at Abhipur on Sunday. The function was inaugurated by Neelam Singla along with director of Indo-Global Colleges Dr S.K. Goel. Nitish and Saloni were selected Mr and Miss Fresher, respectively while Ritu Raj and Harmeet Kaur were declared Mr and Miss personality.

Musical evening: A musical evening ‘Sureele Geetan Di Ik Sham’ was organised on Saturday by Swar Sangam in association with SAS Institute of Information and Technology in the Industrial Area. Singer and composer Prabhjot Bali, known for his compositions for the lyrics of Shiv Kumar Batalvi, performed at the institute. Ishmeet Kaur won great applause.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Haryana Day: Former president of the Bar Association, Ambala Cantt, Om Prakash Malik said the Haryana Day holiday should be revived for courts. In a letter addressed to the registrar general, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Malik said Haryana was formed on November 1, 1966 and since then, offices of Haryana Government and courts used to be closed for holiday. Malik said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had discontinued this holiday. He sought the revival of the old system of observing November 1 as a holiday in Haryana.

Elected: A meeting of the Central Bank of India Employees’ Union, Haryana, was held on Sunday. Indian National Bank Employees’ Federation’s general secretary Subhash Sawant was the chief guest. State-level office-bearers were elected at the meeting. A.L. Chopra of Ambala was elected president, B.S. Gill of Chandigarh general secretary, S.K. Berry of Amritsar senior vice-president, D.S. Reehal of Ludhiana vice-president, Pankaj Jain of Ambala treasurer and V.D. Sharma of Gurgaon auditor.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Bereaved: Banti Devi Upadhyay (84), wife of a prominent freedom fighter late Devi Ram Upadhyay, died on Saturday night. Her funeral was held at Luhanu ghat. District and Sessions judge A.S. Jaswal, Chief Judicial Magistrate Dr Baldev Thakur and members of the district Bar Association attended the funeral and offered their condolences. Banti Devi was mother of senior advocate Kranti Kumar Upadhyay.

Snake bite: The absence of a doctor at the primary health centre at Kutheda near Ghumarwin cost a woman her life. The woman who was identified as Kubja Devi was bitten by a snake in the fields. She was immediately rushed to the health centre at Kutheda, but due to the absence of a doctor there, she had to be rushed to the Ghumarwin civil hospital. She died on the way to the hospital.

CHAMBA
Phone cable stolen: Around 900-m telephone cable belonging to the BSNL has been reportedly stolen from the Mangla and Khajjiar areas. The cable was estimated to be worth around Rs 50,000. Consequently, more than 300 telephone connections went out of order in these areas. Such incidents have reportedly become quite common in these areas.

House gutted: A double-storey house was reportedly gutted in Purthi village in the Pangi tribal valley on Sunday evening. The loss is estimated to be over Rs 3 lakh. However, there was no loss of human life and livestock. The house belonged to Lali Ram.

HAMIRPUR
1 dies in mishap: Hem Raj (42) was killed and Kamlesh Kumar was injured on Sunday morning when their truck (HP 36-1020) plunged into a deep gorge near Tohni Devi. The incident occurred at Chahad village when Hem Raj lost control over the truck and it fell into a 400 feet gorge. He was taken to Tohni Devi hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Campaign: The North Zone Insurance Employees Association (NZIEA) has decided to intensify its campaign against FDIs in the insurance sector. Talking to mediapersons on Saturday,NZIEA general secretary Anil Kumar Bhatnagar said their organisation would intensifying its campaign against the proposal to introduce the comprehensive bill by the UPA government in Parliament since this was not in the interest of the country.

KANGRA
Woman found dead: A 47-year-old women who worked as a chowkidar at the Government Senior Secondary School, Bagli, died under mysterious circumstances on the school campus on Monday morning. Kangra subdivisional police officer Jeet Singh Thakur said Puspa suffered from high blood pressure and she might have died due to it. Some brufen tablets were found from her room. He, however, said there were no injury marks on her body. The body had been sent for a post-mortem examination.

Award: The Indian-International Friendship Society (IIFS) has decided to confer “Rashtriya Gaurav Award” on former minister Vidiaya Sagar for contribution in various fields. The award would be presented during a seminar on “Economic growth and national integration” in New Delhi on November 20. It would be attended by some Central and state ministers, MPs, industrialist, social workers and intelligentsia.

KUMARHATTI
Assaulted: A salesman of a liquor shop here was beaten up by three persons on Saturday evening. The trio, who were liquor contractors, had reached the shop after getting complaints against salesman Sushi Bhardwaj for selling liquor at higher rates. The daily sales register was reconciled with the cash available with Sushil. A difference of Rs 75 was detected. Following this, the salesman was reportedly assaulted. 

NAHAN
Theft: Mohan Lal, a resident of Makkarwali village under Nahan subdivision, has lodged a complaint with the police that gold ornaments put on the idol of Bhagwati Manner Devi in the Shakti temple situated in Makkarwali have been stolen. A case has been registered. 

Regional potpourri
Tale of too many cities

A roadside eatery in Hisar selling Dilli-style food. —Tribune Photo by P. L. Munday

Hisar is not Delhi or any other metro, admitted. But they’re presence can nonetheless be felt here in ample measure. Here’s how.

The town’s most famous sweatmeat seller is the Dilliwala halwai. Despite the recent emergence of sweetmeat sellers with fancy names and shop interiors, the Dilliwala continues to reign, outsmarting the efforts of locals to overtake him. The town’s favourite sweet though is peda Hansiwala, which owes its origin to Hansi a nearby town.

Talking of eatables, the town’s favourite namkeens are the Bikanerwala. And it’s most popular roadside eateries are the rehriwala’s whose specialities are the chhola bhatura Dilliwala or naan Amritsarwala.

When it comes to dressing up, the town’s favourite kurta tailor is Jagdish Satrodwala. Satrod being a village on the town’s outskirts. But if a Hisarwala wants a readymade kurta, then he heads straight to a shop called Lucknow wala.

Women are not lagging behind. When the Hisarwali wants a saree, she walks into a shop called Calcutta Saree. But should she prefer something more colourful and traditional, like a suit or a choli, the obvious choice is a shop called Jaipurwali. And the young girls of Hisar are these days hooked to the salwar Patiala wali.

Apart from cuisine and couture, what you need is a good pair of footwear. Where else can you get better juttis than at a shop, Bhadrawali. The refers to Bhadra, a small town in Rajasthan.

Even the handloom stores bear no mention of Hisar. The residents buy their bed sheets, upholstery and the like mostly from two showrooms named Madras Handloom and Panipat Handloom.

Looks like there is very little the town can call its own, its original. Perhaps, the answer lies in the fact that the town was founded by Feroze Shah Tughlak, who was not a local but an outsider. And he also built a palace here for an unnamed gujjari, who was the daughter of a doodhwala.

Banking on women’s skill

Women learning the art of phulkari in a training centre

In an endeavour to provide self-employment to rural women, especially in villages along the Indo-Pakistan border, the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), has taken an initiative under which already 225 self-help groups (SHGs) have been constituted at various cluster levels. Women are being provided training in handicrafts, handloom weaving and phulkari-making at these centres. These will not only train the women in various weaving forms absolutely free of cost but also sell their products in national and international markets.

The AGM of the bank, T.S. Bagga, says the bank has established clusters in several villages along the Indo-Pakistan border, like Luther, Bhawra Azam Shah,and Lakho ke Behram, where women belonging to the BPL group are being trained in various handicrafts, mainly phulkari.

He feels that this scheme will not only enable rural women get good jobs but it would also help improve their financial position as the entire profits would be passed on to them. It will also help breathe life into the dying art of phulkari, which has great demand in the international market.

The trained women will be appointed as trainers for new clusters and so on, creating a lot of employment opportunities. He has also written to the Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for help in setting up more clusters in Balewala, Mehma, Nhura Kalan, Kari Kalan and other villages along the border.

Contributed by Raman Mohan and Anirudh Gupta