Tribuneindia...Regional Briefs

	REGIONAL BRIEFS	Thursday, January 21, 1999
weather n spotlight today's calendar

FATEHGARH SAHIB
Sarpanch's election: The District Election Tribunal has set aside the election of Mr Gurpreet Singh, sarpanch of Sehjadpur village in Bassi Pathana block, in a judgement on Tuesday. The tribunal set aside his election under Sections 74 and 76 of the Punjab State Election Commission Act and has ordered the re-election of a new sarpanch.

FEROZEPORE
Dharna: Members of the Punjab State Electricity Board Employees Federation staged a dharna on Tuesday in support of their demands. Mr Mukhwant Singh Sidhu, patron of the federation, said the agitation would be intensified if their demands were not accepted. They are asking for the cancellation of the transfer of an employee and reinstatement of four employees, among other things.

Resentment: Resentment prevails among employees working in privately-managed aided schools due to the non-implementation of the Fourth Pay Commission recommendations. In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the secretary of the district unit of the Punjab State Recognised School Teachers and Other Employees Union, Mr K.B Autam, said teachers would boycott examination duty of the Punjab School Education Board if their demand was not accepted.

GURDASPUR
Sarpanch held: The police has arrested Amar Nath, sarpanch of Dholewal village for allegedly misappropriating development grant of Rs 50,000. According to the SSP, Mr Varinder Kumar, the matter was raised at a meeting of a District committee for the removal of grievances by Mr Ram Lal, MLA. A case under Section 409, IPC, has been registered.

MANSA
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bathinda range Chartered Accountants Association: President — Mr Parmod Mittal; Vice-President — Mr Shiv Jindal; and Secretary — Mr Mahesh Jindal.

MOGA
Traffic blocked: Members of the local Bar Association on Tuesday blocked traffic at Dharmkot, 15 km from here, in support of the inclusion of Dharmkot and its neighbouring villages in Moga district.

Strangled: Pritam Singh of Kotla Raika village, under Baghapurana police station in this district, was reportedly strangled by certain persons while he was asleep in his room on Tuesday. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination. Property dispute is stated to be the reason behind the murder.

PATIALA
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Patiala unit of the Punjab Engineering Drawing Staff Association Public Health Department: President — Mr Subhash Chander Puri; General Secretary — Mr Paramjit Singh; and Treasurer — Mr Parmeet Singh.

Function: The Punjabi Sahit Sabha will hold a literary function in collaboration with the Department of Languages, Punjab, at Bhasha Bhavan here on January 31. A book, "Merian Chonvian Khanian", written by Jagdish Armani will be released on the occasion, according to a press note issued here on Wednesday.

Adopted: The Rotaract Club (Central) has started a movement at Mata Kaushalya Hospital here to keep the environment clean in collaboration with the Oriental Bank of Commerce. This was stated by its President Lovleen Saini on Wednesday.

Assured: A deputation of the Punjab Students Union (PSU) met the Education Minister, Mr Tota Singh, and apprised him of their demands and the fee hike by the universities. In a press note issued here on Wednesday, the PSU claimed the Education Minister assured it that the demands would be accepted.

Coaching: The IAS and Allied services Training Centre at Punjabi University here will start coaching classes for MBA, MFC and MCA on February 2, according to Dr G S Bajwa, Director of the centre, here on Wednesday. He said those candidates who had secured 50 per cent marks in graduation can apply for admission. The interview would be held on January 27.

Award: Punjab Today, a Punjabi monthly magazine, has decided to give this year's Punjab Today award to Mr Harbhajan Singh Yogi of the USA for his contribution towards the preaching of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. This was stated by the Editor of the magazine, Mr Kanwar Manjit Singh, here on Wednesday.

PHAGWARA
Looting attempt: An attempt was made to drug the nine-member family of Mr Rakesh Duggal, a trader, and loot the house by their two servants on Monday. The servants had allegedly mixed some poison in the milk which was to be served to the family. Ms Krishna, wife of Mr Duggal, got suspicious and informed the police. Both servants have been arrested.

Laboratory: A hi-tech land test laboratory would soon come up here at an estimated cost of Rs 14.56 lakh, according to Ms Usha R Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala. She also gave detail of the various agricultural schemes introduced.

HISAR
Computer training: Dr B S Dhankar, Assistant Director-General (Vegetable Crops) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) her impressed upon the need of the dissemination of computer knowledge to the maximum number of teachers, scientists and employees. He was speaking at the valedictory session of the month-long training in computers for agricultural scientists at CCS Haryana Agricultural University here on Wednesday.

NARNAUL
Sentenced: Mr R.S Baswana, Additional District and Sessions Judge, on Tuesday sentenced Mahender Singh of Patherwa village (Mahendragarh district) to five years' rigorous imprisonment on a charge of attempt to murder Jang Ram of the same village.

Busted: The police claims to have busted an inter-state gang of dacoits with the arrest of Fajjar of Jaisinghpur. The SP said here on Monday that the accused was arrested from the Majra canal area. During investigations, the accused disclosed the names of his 42 accomplices.

Life term: Mr V.P Bishnoi, Additional District and Sessions Judge, on Tuesday sentenced Jaipal Singh of Manathi village (Rewari district) and a teacher in a private school here to life imprisonment for killing his wife Prakash Kaur of Dongra Ahir village. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.

REWARI
Five arrested: With the arrest of five persons, three of Patna district, Bihar and two of Uttar Pradesh, the district police claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of burglars. The district police chief, Mr Mahendra Lal, said four out of the five were arrested from their hideout in Jaipur. the police also recovered some items from them.

SIRSA
Arrested: Dimpal of Ding Maur in this district has been arrested in a criminal case registered against him under Section 380, IPC. Giving this information SP said here on Wednesday that the accused had stolen a gold ring on December 30.

Grant: Dr Sushil Indora, MP, visited the local Bar Association on Tuesday and announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the construction of a shed for people visiting court.

SONEPAT
Dacoity bid: The Rai police on Wednesday claimed to have foiled a dacoity attempt with the arrest of six persons. The SP said the accused had been identified as Hari Kanwar, Mukesh and Rajesh of Khanda village, Jatinder of Khungai village (Jhajjar), Sanju of Indira Colony (Sonepat) and Ajay of Sector 15 here.

Labourers' protest: Resentment prevails among labourers of the Forest Department against the non-payment of salaries for the past two months. A meeting of the labourers was held here on Sunday to register their protest against the failure of the authorities to pay the salaries in spite of repeated representations made by leaders of the Forest Department Mazdoor Union, Haryana.

JWALAMUKHI
Body found: The decomposed body of a woman, who had been missing since last week was found from a gorge on Tuesday. The parents of the woman alleged that she was killed by her husband, Kishori Lal. A case has been registered and Kishori Lal arrested.

SHIMLA
Vacant posts: Mr Singhi Ram, a Congress MLA, has said the health services of Himachal Pradesh are in a shambles and the BJP-HVC government has created many vacancies of doctors in the interior areas by resorting to indiscriminate transfers. In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the MLA said about 250 posts of doctor were lying vacant in the state

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Roshni for the disabled

THE warmth of the 'Lohri' fire at Roshni, 25 Gulab Nagar, Rajpura, signified the warmth of concern for the less privileged as the students of Lady Fatima Convent School, Patiala, and their principal, Sr. Elsy, stood around the bonfire with the polio students. The Convent school children distributed among their less fortunate brothers and sisters, mostly from the rural areas of Ropar and Patiala districts, items of daily use which they had pooled together in their concern basket.

In yet another function to be organised at the same venue on January 28 prizes and certificates will be distributed to the students of other schools who helped to translate the concern basket dream of Roshni into reality.

Fr Thomas K.J. the president of Roshni Society and the person behind the "concern movement" said a special campaign had been launched in the last year of this century to create awareness among school children to care for their less fortunate brothers in society, the disabled, through the concern basket so as to bring about a better social order in the next millennium!

Anybody of goodwill is most welcome to join our "concern movement". Roshni believes this new era is ushered by pooling together the mites of many just as the vast ocean is a collection of small drops of water and the vast deserts collections of small grains of sands!

HP farm scientist to be honoured

The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences has selected Dr T.R. Sharma of Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, for the young Scientists Award of the Academy for his outstanding contribution in the field of plant protection sciences. Dr T.R. Sharma is working as Assistant Scientist in the Biotechnology Centre of HPKV, Palampur, since 1991. He has worked on various aspects of disease resistance in different host-pathogen systems using biotechnological approaches and has published more than 20 research papers in various national and international journals. He was a recipient of post-doctoral fellowship of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and worked on DNA fingerprinting at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada for more than one year.

According to Dr B.M. Singh, Dean, College, of Agriculture, and Incharge Biotechnology Centre, HPAU, Dr Sharma has developed tissue culture protocols for the micropropagation of disease free seedlings, microrhizomes and synthetic seeds of ginger. He has also developed a cost-effective tissue culture medium for the micropropagation of ginger. He has developed non-radioactive DNA probes for the specific and sensitive detection of important plant pathogens.

Dr R.S. Paroda, Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, and the President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences has congratulated Dr Sharma for his significant achievements as a young scientist. Dr P.K. Khols, Vice Chancellor of HPAU, has also expressed his happiness and congratulated the scientists for bringing laurel to the university.

The young Scientists' Award carries a medal, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 25,000/- which will be presented to Dr Sharma at the inaugural session of the Agricultural Science Congress on February 21 in Jaipur.

Rare operation

Dr Vinod Kapoor, Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Government Dental College and Hospital, Patiala, has performed a rare operation under local anaesthesia in his department.

Dr Kapoor has performed Sagittal Split Osteotomy (S.S.O.) of the mandible to set the abnormally large bone of the lower jaw into its proper position by splitting the jaw bone and fixing it properly through the mouth only. The operation was performed to help a young boy who reported problems of speech, eating and aesthetics as his lower jaw bone was protruding beyond the upper one.

Dr Kapoor claims he is the first person ever to perform this rare operation of four hours duration without giving general anaesthesia to the patient.

Dr Kapoor suggests one can draw the benefits of patient cooperation in terms of mouth opening and tissue-manipulation. Moreover surgery is easy and better in sitting posture. There are no post-operative complications and patient can walkout of the dental chair smiling, he added.

— Contributed by TNS, Ravinder Sood and Jangveer Singh