R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• Surgery sans bleeding, tissue damage
• They too serve by donating blood
• Rare books attacked by termites
  
  

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
EYE CHECK-UP CAMP: The Lions Club of Amritsar held a free eye check-up camp here on Tuesday. Mr P.C. Grover, president of the club presided.

BATHINDA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Muslim Human Welfare Society, Punjab: president — Mr Sukhdev Khan; senior vice-president — Mr Dara Khan; general secretary — Mr Yashpal Bansal; secretary — Mr Iqbal Khan; and treasurer — Mr Abdul Haq Master.

RALLY: Members of the Bathinda Central Cooperative Bank Employees Union held a rally in the city on Monday and sat on a dharna in front of the head office of the bank to protest against the non-acceptance of their demands by the authorities concerned.

HOSHIARPUR
TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS: Mr Mohan Lal, General Manager, Telecom, in a press note here on Tuesday said during the August, 2001, an additional switching capacity of 4,400 lines was installed in Hoshiarpur SSA. During the same month 1,210 new telephone connections were also released.

LIQUOR SEIZED: During a joint nakabandi by the Excise and Taxation Department and the police, a Fiat car bearing registration No. PAB-8822 was intercepted at the local Bahadurpur Gate here on Monday and seized 18,000 ml of whisky.

JALANDHAR
CRUSHED TO DEATH: Sarabjeet Kaur (17) of Abadpura locality was crushed to death by a Rajasthan Roadways bus here on Tuesday. According to the police, the victim, a BA Part-I student of the evening college of Guru Nanak Dev University, was waiting for conveyance near Abadpura chowk, when the mishap occurred. The driver has absconded. A case has been registered.

LUDHIANA
MUSICAL SHOW: The Sutlej Club, Ludhiana, will organise musical programmes on Friday and Monday on the club lawns. According to a press note by Mr A.S. Chawla, general secretary of the club, singer Shankar Sahwney will perform on the first day. Ms Manjula Jain, cultural secretary, said the Seagram’s magical show, earlier scheduled for Saturday would now be held on Monday. Mr S.K. Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner, will be the chief guest on the occasion.

SAMRALA
ACQUITTED: Ms Asha Mehta, Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, acquitted Balbinder Singh and Budh Singh of Punian village, and Gurmel Singh of Bhagwanpura village, here on Wednesday. They were arrested by the local police under Sections 34, 5 and 61 of the Excise Act in September last year. They were reportedly making nuisance at the main chowk in a drunken state.

CHANDIGARH

CONDEMNED: The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union condemned the alleged rude behaviour of the Punjab Police towards its agitating leaders. A press note issued by the union stated that its president, Prof K.B.S. Sodhi, and general secretary, Prof J.S. Randhawa, were detained, roughed up and later on released by the police at Ludhiana on Tuesday. The episode caused resentment among college teachers working in non-government aided colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh. It said the teachers were agitating in support of their demands, which included implementation of the Pension-cum-Gratuity Scheme, release of arrears, and re-designation of DPE as Lecturers in Physical Education.

HARYANA

AMBALA
HIKE CRITICISED: The district Youth Congress on Wednesday held a demonstration against the hike in rates of medical services at the Civil Hospital. Among others, Mr Brahm Pal Rana, Mr Bittoo Chawla, Mr Tarun Chugh, Mr Randeep Singh, Mr Narinder Pali and Mr Tel Ram were present. In a memorandum it criticised the commercialisation of health by charging Rs 5 per check and Rs 10 as bed charges per day from each patient in the hospital. The memorandum stated that there was a lack of maintenance and sanitation services in the hospital. Basic amenities, like STD PCO booth were also missing. It also lacked a medicine shop on the hospital premises with round-the-clock working facility.

CONDEMNED: Different wings of the Arya Samaj conducting educational institutions held a meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Bhushan Kumar Oberoi. They condemned the “high-handedness” of the Education Department by appointing an administrator of Arya Girls High School. They resolved to launch an agitation in protest against the appointment.

FARIDABAD
POSTS VACANT: The Power Department in Haryana has 20,000 posts vacant, but the state government is not filling these due to “pressure from the World Bank.” Claiming this, the All-Haryana Power Corporation Union (AHPCU) has charged the Haryana Government with adopting anti-employee policies. Mr Subhash Lamba, spokesman for the union, said in a statement on Tuesday the authorities were bent upon justifying privatisation.

JHAJJAR
RAPED: A teenaged girl was allegedly raped at Dubaldhan village in the district on Monday, the district police said here on Tuesday. The girl had gone to her auntie’s house in the neighbourhood and on finding the lock of the house broken she entered the house and found Vikas, a resident of the same village, stealing some valuables. The accused then raped the girl and fled. A case has been registered.

PANIPAT
SECTION 144 IMPOSED: The District Magistrate, Mr M.R. Anand, has issued prohibitory orders banning the carrying of weapons on the premises of the District Civil and Revenue Courts in an area of 200m in and around the court premises. The order issued under Section 144 of the Cr. P.C., will remain in force for a period of two months.

ROHTAK
GOVT’S ROLE DECRIED: The state secretariat of the CPM has condemned the attitude of the state government towards farmers whose cotton crops have been damaged. Mr Inderjit Singh, state secretary of the party, said the condition of the farmers had further deteriorated.

SIRSA
TREES’ AUCTION: Irregularities in the auction of trees at various water works have been alleged by the district general secretary of the BJP, Mr Jaimal Singh Advocate. In a press statement here on Tuesday, the BJP leader referred to the auction of trees at the water works of Dholpalia village by the Public Health Deparment, Ellenabad, in the district. He claimed that due to the timely intervention by a BJP worker of the village irregularities of lakh of rupees came to light.

SONEPAT
KILLED: Kishan Kumar, an aged man , was killed on the spot and his son Gurdev seriously injured when a tractor hit their bicycle on the Sonepat-Meerut road near Khewra village, about 13 km from here, on Tuesday. The tractor driver managed to escape and a case has been registered.

STOLEN: A Tata Sumo was stolen at Jasrana village, about 45 km from here, on Tuesday. According to a report, the vehicle belonged to Mr Krishan Dhanik of Naultha village in Panipat district.

ARRESTED: The Gohana police has booked five persons including the husband, in a case related to the death of Saroj of Chidana village. She was reported to have died of burn injuries in her house. According to another report, the Kharkhauda police has booked the husband and five others in a case related to Babita of Chhinauli village, who was allegedly burnt to death in her house.

MURDER: The CIA staff on Wednesday arrested Sant Kumar of Lahroli village in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh in connection with the murder of Taj Pal, a worker of a cable factory at Bidhlan village, on May 25. According to a report, the victim had some dispute with the alleged assailant.

SUICIDE: A shopkeeper, Jagdish, committed suicide by allegedly taking insecticide tablets in his house in Mohalla Kalan here on Wednesday. According to a report, the victim took this extreme step after the failure to repay his debt.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

PALAMPUR
STUDENTS EXPELLED: The Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University authorities on Wednesday expelled nine students for their involvement in an attack on the students in one of the hostels of the university. Sushil Sharma, a student, was seriously injured. A spokesman of the university said two students were expelled for one year while the remaining seven for six months.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Surgery sans bleeding, tissue damage

IT was a momentous day for medical science in India when UK-returned ENT surgeon Dr Amrik Singh, performed adult tonsillectomy with a newly invented plasma blade on Sukhraj Kaur without any tissue damage.

Explaining the procedure Dr Amrik Singh said the surgery was done under a microscope as the plasma blade touched the tissue, it just disappeared and there was no bleeding as the dissection proceeded.

He pointed out that the patient felt no vomiting while the recovery was smooth and painless. It was unlike the stormy post-operative period that is normally the case.

The miracle plasma blade was brought to India by the eminent eye surgeon, Dr Daljit Singh, who was first to use plasma blade during intricate eye surgery this year. Dr Daljit Singh claimed that it was marvel of science perfected by American surgeon Richard Fugo. Explaining the concept of plasma blade, now known as Fugo blade, Dr Daljit Singh said man had now harnessed the energy force which fuelled the sun. The energy, called plasma, made up 99.9 per cent of the universe matter.

Dr Daljit Singh pointed out that Fugo blade was unlike any other electrosurgical unit used in medicine. The unit operates on flashlight-size rechargeable batteries and cuts the actual cutting time by over an hour. This unit uses a blunt hair-cutting filament which cuts sharper than any scalpel or diamond blade. The temperature on the filament tip reaches approximately 4200° Centigrade yet no heat is generated.

The first such tonsil operation was performed at the SGPC-run Shri Guru Ram Dass Hospital which has taken the lead in using this new technology. The Director-principal of the hospital, Dr U.S. Dhaliwal, said they were all very excited about being the first hospital in the world to use this plasma blade for ENT surgery.

They too serve by donating blood

The Seth Jai Parkash Mukand Lal institutions of knowledge and service can be rightly proud of their contribution to the voluntary blood donation movement in the northern region. The institutions celebrated the silver jubilee celebration of the blood donation movement this year. The concept of voluntary blood donation was introduced in 1972 by late Tilak Raj Chadha, a freedom fighter and the then principal of the MLN College, to commemorate the birthday of its founder, Seth Jaiparkash.

So far about 7500 units of blood have been donated by these institutions on September 5, the anniversary of the founder.

After Mr Tilak Raj Chadha, the flag of the movement was kept flying by Dr K.L. Johar who had recently retired as Vice-Chancellor of Guru Jambeshwar University. Dr Johar, now Vice-President of the Seth Jaiparkash Mukand Lal Education Society, still propagates it in various institutions of the society.

The responsibility has now been passed on to Dr Romesh Kumar, principal of the MLN College, who is himself a star donor having donated blood as many as 69 times. He says that in the beginning, they drew inspiration from Dr G.J. Jolly of the PGI. He has been decorated with the state government’s award as star donor and motivator. He has motivated 25 teachers of the college to donate blood regularly.

The blood donation mela is organised at the Seth Jaiparkash Mukand Lal Institute of Engineering Technology (Radaur); Mukand Lal National College (Radaur); Seth Jaiparkash Polytechnic (Damla); MLN Higher Secondary School, Yamunanagar; Vidyavati Mukand Lal PG College for Women, Gaziabad. Each year, these institutes donate about 2,000 units of blood.

Rare books attacked by termites

Over 20,000 rare and precious books costing lakhs of rupees have been virtually thrown out into the dust-bin by the Municipal Council, Palampur, since it has given its library building on rent to the police department, brushing aside all public sentiments. It is learnt that insects have already damaged half of the books and if no early efforts are made the remaining books would also be destroyed. All requests to reopen the library made to the council by various sections of society have yielded no results and the residents have been deprived of this facility.

Mr Ravinder Gupta, a professor in HP Agricultural University, was badly hurt to know that the insects had damaged over 1,000 books donated by his grandfather, Parma Nand Gupta, to the Municipal Library. Talking to this reporter he said all the books were rare and precious and his grandfather had procured these from Lahore and Calcutta before Independence. He said these books were given to Municipal Council so that the general public could have access to this mine of knowledge. Likewise, a similar number of books given to the library by a former Chief Engineer of Mandi are meeting the same fate.

It will be worthwhile to mention here that the library building was never the property of the Municipal Council. It was constructed by a local family for a specific purpose and later given to the Municipal Council to run a library. But instead of running a library here, the civic body preferred to give it on rent to DSP’s office and dumped the books into a municipal store. A part of the building has been converted into the residence of the Executive Officer.

The Citizens’ Council has already decided to take up this matter with the higher authorities. Though the Municipal Council head, Mrs Shama Shawney, had assured that the library would be restored within a month, nothing has been done even after six months.

Year after year the Municipal Council has been constructing new buildings in the town and giving it on rent but no efforts have been made to set up the library and save rare books.

Contributed by Ashok Sethi, K.G. Dutt and Ravinder Sood