R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
INQUIRY: Mr Maninderjit Singh Dhuna, general secretary, Sarb Hind Shiromani Youth Akali Dal, has alleged that the Central Government is not serious about the inquiry into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He also alleged that the government was dilly-dallying on the issue with the constitution of new commissions of inquiry.

HEALING CAMP: A three-day Reiki healing camp while be organised here by the Reiki Centre from Monday. Reiki healing would be given free of cost under the supervision of Mr Harish Chhabra and Ms Asha Chhabra.

BATHINDA
SCIENCE EXHIBITION: The two-day science exhibition to be held at Des Raj Memorial Senior Secondary School on October 30 and 31, for the school children of the Bathinda subdivision, has been postponed. The exhibition would now be held on November 2 and 3 at the same venue.

OFFICE BEARERS: A meeting of the Dalit Liberation Front was held here on Saturday. According to Mr M.S. Khalsa, press secretary of the front, following have been elected as the office bearers of the state organising committee: president — Mr Harjit Singh; vice-president — Mr Gulab Singh; general secretary — Mr Jasveer Singh and press secretary — Mr Major Singh.

LAW FORUM: The following were elected as the office-bearers of the district unit of the Punjab Law Forum in a meeting held here on Sunday under the presidentship of the chairman of the forum Mr M.L. Angi: president — Mr Mahesh Kumar Chaudhari; vice-president — Mr Sukhwinder Kaur and secretary — Mr Yogesh Sharma.

20 BOOKED: The district police authorities have booked 20 persons for their alleged involvement in various criminal activities and seized 16 litres of illicit liquor, 70 kgs of lahan, two working distilleries and Rs 28,025 from them. According to Dr Jatinder Kumar Jain, SSP, the police has registered cases against Jit Singh and Dara Singh, residents of Bir Talab village and Kaka Singh of Kothe Kartarpura, under the Excise Act at the Kotwali police station.

EYES DONATED: Mr Vijay Bhatt, president, United Welfare Society, in a press note issued here on Saturday, said the family members of Sham Lal Sethi, who died on Thursday, had contacted the District Red Cross Society for donating the eyes of the deceased. The case was referred to the local Civil Hospital where Dr Maninder Singh Brar performed the operations to remove the eyes which were sent to the eye bank at Guru Gobind Singh College, Faridkot.

PROMOTED: Mr R.S. Dhillon has been promoted Engineer-in-Chief by the Punjab State Electricity Board, stated a press note of the board. He was serving as Chief Engineer, Operation Zone (West), here.

MEDICAL CAMP: Mr Rakesh Narula, president, Bathinda Vikas Manch, in a press note issued here on Saturday, said a medical camp was organised by the manch on Friday for the people living in the slum areas. As many as 62 patients were examined by Dr Amrit Sethi, Dr R.N. Maheshwary and Dr Iqbal Singh. Medicines were given free of cost during the camp.

LUDHIANA
EXHIBITION: Ravoy gems have brought some different kind of jewellery ranging from Rs1,000 to a few lakhs. The exhibition has been on for two days at Maharaja Regency. Ravoy gems have strings of different kind of stones ranging from aquamarine to garnets to amethysts and many more. They offer a unique jewellery using silver beads and precious stones set in silver in extremely contemporary designs. The designs of jewellery for bridal wear are hand crafted and care is taken to see that the edges are rounded so as not to get entangled into expensive sarees. Beautiful sets made of this stones are available in a wide range.

VEDIC LECTURE CONTEST: Mitali Tiwari of Brahmrishi Bawra Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh road, won the inter-school vedic lecture contest organised by the Ved Parchar Mandal at Arya Samaj, Dal Bazar, here on Sunday. She spoke on the life of martyr Haqiqat Rai who refused to change his religion and chose death. Priyanka Verma of Veer Haqiqat Rai High School, who spoke on “Contentment surpasses all wealth” was adjudged second while Shailendra Kumar of SVM High School, Dugri Road, who spoke on ‘Relevance of Gita’s message in modern times’ was declared third in the contest. Prof Vedvrat Vidyalankar (Arya College), Mr Sanjiv Dawar (RK Arya College, Nawanshahr ) and Ms Namrta Soni (Kendriya Vidyalaya, Baddowal) were the judges. Prinicipal Vishwanath Goswami, Dr S.B. Bangia, Mr Kalyan Mohan Bhagat and Mr Veer Abhimanyu gave away the prizes. 

DASEHRA CELEBRATED: To celebrate the Dasehra, the members of Geetanji Club organised a cultural programme on the club premises on Saturday evening. The main attraction of the programme was solo dance items and daandiya raas by club members and guests. The stage was decorated with colourful lights and flowers. The members were dressed in Indian outfits like sarees and lehanga cholis. The evening started with solo dance competition. The members in orange, red, green, yellow coloured outfits presented daandiya. The club presented the ambience of typical navratra festival and members, guests and children enjoyed every moment of dance and music. Over 50 members danced to different daandiya tunes. Shashi Sharma, Kiran Gupta and Jyoti Chopra were given prizes for their dance performances. The judges included Ms Sonia and Ms Manju Prakash. Mr Roshan Gupta, president of the club, presented a vote of thanks on behalf of the club members.

PCTE STUDENT EXCELS: Manpreet Kaur Makkar, BCA (4th semester) student of the Punjab College of Technical Education, got first position in the university examinations held in May, 2001, by obtaining 85 per cent marks (595 out of 700). Dr K.N.S. Kang, Director of the institute, in a press statement on Sunday said Manpreet had stood first in the university exams for the second time. He said that it was the eighth time that the PCTE students bagged top positions in the university exams in MBA, BCA and BBA courses till 4th semester of this year.

MACHHIWARA
MEETING: Primary Co-operative Agricultural Development Bank, Machhiwara, held its general body’s second meeting under the chairmanship of Jathedar Chanan Singh Hasanpur, on Saturday at Community Centre which was attended by over 500 members. Before the start of meeting, Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Punjab Legislative Assembly, paid a visit. Mr Bhupinder Sharma, Branch Manager, briefed the achievements of the bank during the short span of the newly organised PADB who earned a profit of Rs 40,10,305 during the period 2000-2001 and the highest recovery position of Kharif-2000 which is 93.7 per cent in the market. Mr Atwal lauded the work and conduct of Bank Staff and its Board of Directors.

MALERKOTLA
ONE HELD: The police arrested Inderjeet Singh of Naromajra village on Sunday for allegedly making obscene phone calls to a woman of the same village. According to the FIR lodged by Mr Ruldu Singh, the accused used to make obscene phone calls to his wife and also threatened her. The police has registered a case under Sections 294, 506 and 509 of the IPC.

MANSA
URGED: Residents of Ward No. 18 have urged the state government to construct the Park road in the area. They said the local Municipal Council had already approved the tenders for its construction, but the work had not yet started.

NABHA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the ABVP (Nabha): president — Mr Amit Bansal; vice-president — Mr Shiv Garg; secretary — Mr Yogesh Khatri; joint secretaries — Mr Rajnish, Mr Neeraj and Mr Vinay; and treasurer — Mr Vishal.

TARN TARAN
TWO ARRESTED: The local SSP, in a press note on Saturday, said the Valtoha police had nabbed a thief, Bhupinder Singh, alias Bhinda, of Kacca Pacca village and had recovered two stolen tractors, three scooters and one Suzuki motor cycle from his possession. A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC has been registered against him. The police also arrested Jaswinder Singh of Varnala village and seized 104 intoxicant injections from him. He has been booked under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act.

CAMP FOR FARMERS: The Punjab Department of Agriculture organised a farmers’ training camp for rabi crops at Khadoor Sahib township on Saturday. Dr Ajaib Singh Agriculture Officer, Amritsar was the chief guest on the occasion. Experts Dr Pargat Singh, Dr Sukhwant Singh and other spoke on the technical know how regarding sowing of rabi crops like wheat, gram, lentil etc and also on diseases of these crops. More than 200 farmers attended the camp.

CHANDIGARH

PANCHKULA
LECTURE: A two-member team of doctors on Sunday delivered a lecture on new dimensions in cancer research. Dr Puneet Gupta, Head Cancer Medicine, Dharamshila Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, detailed the newer insight into cancer causing genes. Mr M.S. Ganesh, renowned cancer surgeon, also spoke on how cancer stricken organs could be spared by using organ sparing techniques. The lecture was organised at Kaiser Hospital here.

DECIDED: The local Sri Guru Ravi Dass Sabha has decided on not participating in a rally being organised in New Delhi against the conversion of Dalits into Buddhism. In a press note, Sube Singh Bahmani, President of the Sabha, has said all followers of Guru Ravi Dass should avoid the rally being organised on November 4.

ELECTED: Wg. Cdr H.L. Ratta (retd) has been elected President of the Senior Citizens Council. Other office-bearers are: vice-president — Mr C.L. Malhotra; general secretary — Mr S.C. Mehta; and secretary — Mr Mohinder Paul.

SAS NAGAR
RESIDENTS’ COMPLAINT: Residents of housing board flats in Phase X here complained that the garbage dumped adjacent to their flats was being burnt, which was emitting foul smell. Mr N.S. Chabra, a resident of the area, said the smoke from the burning garbage entered their rooms, leading to breathing problems and irritation in eyes.

HARYANA

SHIFTED: The Railway police station was shifted from the present premises to the railway station platform on Sunday. According to official sources, the step had been taken for the safety of the passengers.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
MEETING: A large number of Panchayat representatives and members of Bilaspur Sadar block development Committee held a meeting at Chandpur, near here, on Saturday and urged the government to increase their monthly honorarium. The meeting was presided by Ms Soma Devi. She said most of the Panchayat representatives were not in a position to meet the expenditure incurred while on duty due to which some of them resorted to either unfair means or spend out of their own pockets.

FOUNDATION STONE: Mr Narinder Bragta, Horticulture Minister, laid the foundation stone of a community hall -cum-parking complex at Lower Kaithu here on Sunday. He accused the Congress, which ruled the local Municipal Corporation, of raising hurdles in the development projects being taken up by the BJP Government. Mr Ganesh Dutt, the party spokesman, said the government had sanctioned Rs 35 lakh for the improvement of Kennedy House, Annandale road, but the corporation had not started work on it even though an instalment of Rs 8 lakh had been released for the purpose.