R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

• Presidential tailor’s wish

• Rare achievement by eye surgeon

• Cardiac OPD at your doorstep

AMRITSAR
REFRESHER COURSE: Mr R.L. Bhatia, MP, will inaugurate a three-week refresher course in political science on Thursday at Guru Nanak Dev University here. The Vice-Chancellor of the university would preside over the inaugural function. This was stated in a press note issued here on Tuesday.

DEATH MOURNED: Dr S.P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, on Tuesday mourned the death of Punjabi scholar and critic, Dr Harbhajan Singh. Teachers, students and researchers of the School of Punjabi Studies of the university have also expressed their condolences. SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar has also mourned the death.

SEMINAR: A majority of population in Punjab is prone to heart diseases due to their eating and living habits, said Dr H.P. Singh, senior consultant of Escort Heart Institute, while addressing a seminar ‘‘Happy Clients Day’’ organised by the VLCC here on Tuesday.

BATHINDA
ROAD MISHAP: Jasbir Kaur and her daughter-in-law Parminder Kaur were killed on the spot and four other members of the family were injured when their car dashed against a tree, near Bhucho Khurd, on the bathinda-Barnala road on Wednesday. The family was going to Mohali from Midha falling in Malout subdivision of Muktsar district.

FARIDKOT
IMPOSTOR HELD: Vir Singh, a retired Army jawan of Balbir Basti here, was arrested on Tuesday for posing as retired Subedar Major of the Army. In a press note issued here on Wednesday Mr Harinder Singh Chahal, SSP, Faridkot, said the impostor filed an affidavit as Subedar Major on May 20 last to the District Sainik Board for availing more benefits from the army. A case has been registered under sections 420, 465, 466 467 and 468 of the IPC.

KHANNA
DEMANDED: Mr Hari Singh Tohra, president, Punjab State Karamchari Dal has urged the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, to fulfil the demands of government and semi government employees. Mr Tohra demanded that work-charged employees and those working on an adhoc basis should be confirmed on the Haryana patron. He also demanded an increase in the medical allowance, uniform payment and release of DA instalments. He threatened to launch an agitation if the demands of the Dal were not fulfilled.

JAGRAN: The Jai Durga Seva Society is holding its 10th annual Bhagwati jagran on October 26 at Gobind Nagar in New Shimla Puri, according to a press release here on Wednesday.

EXHIBITION: A science exhibition was conducted in Senior Secondary School, Maneli Dhanaula. The result of this exibition are elementary — Jatinder Singh of Government Middle school I, rural (Sec ) — GHS Jatana Ucha — Karmjit Kaur I, in the secondary level — food and nutrition — Khamano School I and Raipur Majri II, Sub Theme- Khamano I, Raipur Majri II, Transport and communication — Kheri Naudh Singh School I — Khamano II, energy- Khamano I, Raipur Majri II, Educational technology - Poonam and Vandna (Sanghol) I, Gurvinder Singh (Faraur) II, Teaching aid competition — GHS Sanghol-Amarjot Kaur I.

KHARAR
BONE DENSITY CAMP: The local Rotary Club in association with Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai, is organising a free bone density check up camp at Khalsa Senior Secondary School on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to Mr Ashok Sharma, Project Chairman of the club.

LUDHIANA
POOJA ENDS: A series of poojan ceremonies concluded at Prachin Shiva temple at Gaughat here on Tuesday with the temple priest Lalit Mohan Shastri supervising the final rites and rituals. A poojan and aarti function was held which was presided over by Parshottam Sharma.

MEETING HELD: Principals of Private schools held a meeting recently at Tedi Road, Shimla Puri under the chairmanship of Bag Singh. Balwant Singh, Dr Deepak Manan, President, Rai Public Senior Secondary School, Rajesh Nagra, Sadhu Singh, Mrs Suman Lata, Rupinder Kaur, Umesh Chaudhry, Trilochan Singh, Gokaran Tiwari, M.K. Dhiman, Surinder Kumar Singla attended the meeting. Another meeting will be held on November 24 at Adarsh Senior Secondary School Giaspura. 

CELEBRATED: A large number of ‘parbhat pheris’ were taken out in several parts of the old city as well as in outer colonies on Tuesday to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Ram Dass. Functions were organised in gurdwaras and elsewhere. Kirtan darbars were held at various places and community kitchen were organised. 

SYMPOSIUM: Addressing a symposium on ‘Water shortage in Punjab’ in Bagh Wali Gali here on Wednesday, Jain Muni Shri Alokji Maharaj blamed the Bhakra Dam and the general propensity among the masses to use water far in excess of their actual requirement. He said the shortage of water in a state with five rivers and scores of other water bodies was the result of our interference in nature. Though the country benefited in the form of power generated, a price had to be paid for stopping so much of water in its stride and making a dam. He also supported the state government’s decision to disallow free power to the farmers.

WATER AND SEWERAGE BILLS: The BJP has reacted to the recovery of interest and surcharge on water and sewerage bills, which was kept in abeyance during February and March this year when the city residents were provided the facility of payment of arrears without interest. The vice president of the district unit of the party, Mr Pran Bhatia, said in a statement here on Wednesday that there was widespread resentment among people against the arbitrary and unjust attitude of the civic administration.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of district unit of Janata Dal (U): president - Mr Balwinder Singh Gorkhi; vice presidents - Mr Amarjit Singh Sethi; Mr Salwinder Singh, Mr Parduman Singh; general secretary - Mr Gurbachan Singh; cashier - Mr Nitin Nahan; secretaries - Mr Kashmiri Lal Koda, Mr Harbans Singh, Mr Avtar Singh, Mr Manjit Singh Kahlon and propaganda secretary - Mr Anil Kumar.

MANSA
KILLED: Ram Rekh (50), a local cloth merchant, was crushed to death when his motor cycle collided with a truck on the Mansa-Barnala road, near Ralla village on Tuesday. His son, Yadwinder, who was driving the motor cycle, was also injured. In another mishap Mukhtiar Kaur, a middle-aged woman, was crushed under a train, near Budhlada.

MOGA
LEVY CESS: A local resident on Wednesday urged the government to withdraw the levy cess on generators in the state as the power consumers were already burdened with other heavy charges. A deputation of consumers will also meet the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, in this regard.

HARYANA

AMBALA
YOUTH FESTIVAL: MDSD Girls College, Ambala city, has done well at the inter-zonal youth festival held at RKSD College, Kaithal. MDSD girls College will now represent Kurukshetra University at the intervarsity youth festival to be held at Allahabad. At the inter-zonal level, Haryanvi group dance-recommended, Haryanvi solo dance-recommended, classical vocal(solo)-recommended, mono acting commended, a release said. 

OFFICE-BEARERS: A general body meeting of Panun Kashmir, Ambala unit, was held in Vijay Nagar on Tuesday. Mr J.L. Koul, who has been re-appointed as area coordinator for two years, constituted a new body. The new constituted body comprises charman N.N. Kaul, vice-chairmen Satish Hidoo and Sanjay Kaul, in charge organisation Ashok Walli, organising secretaries B.B. Dass and Surinder Pandita, public relations officers Bharat Bhushan Raina and S Bhal, press and publicity secretary O.N. Watal, financial secretary J.L. Kachrao, assistant financial secretary Sunil Raina and secretary O.N Kaul, a release said. The women’s wing was also constituted headed by Ms Santosh. The other members are Basanti Chaman, Basanti Bhat and Asha Raina.

KURUKSHETRA
HONOURED: Ten retired teachers of Kurukshetra University have been honoured by the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Mr R.S. Chaudhry, on the occasion of the annual general body meeting of Teachers Club held recently.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Teachers Club: president — Dr N.S. Kaushal, Chairman of Department of Punjabi; vice-president — Dr (Mrs) Asha Pandey of the Music Department; honorary secretary — Dr R.K. Bhatia of Physical Education; joint secretary — Dr Hari Singh of University College; and treasurer — Dr Manoj Mishra of University College.

DIRECTED: The District Magistrate, Mr Abhilaksh Likhi, in an order issued here on Tuesday, directed all able-bodied youths of villages in this district to perform patrol duty at night to prevent sabotage and ensure the security and safety of the main installations, including railways bridges and tracks, trains, telephones, electricity, transmission and telegraph lines, grid, substations, bus-stops, bridges, culverts and public health tubewells.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
CULTURAL FEST: A function was organised on Monday at Baloh (Khrota) village, 35 km from here, by the District Cultural Council, in collaboration with other cultural organisations like Himachal Art, Cultural and Language Academy, District Language and Cultural Department, Himkala Sangam Deoth and Rukman Sanskriti Kala Manch Rahiyan, Palthi. The chief guest, Deputy Commissioner, Mr Chamel Singh, honoured 10 persons on the occasion.

MEMORANDUM: A large number of members of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Trained JBT Unemployed Teachers Association took out a ‘‘silent procession’’ throughout the town here on Tuesday and later, presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Deputy Commissioner. The protesters have sought appointment letters by November 7.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Presidential tailor’s wish

With the change of guard at Rashtrapati Bhavan, ties between this institution and Jalandhar city have snapped, even as Mohammed Ibrahim Qamar Idrisi, who has been in link between the President’s House, in his capacity of being the personal tailor to two former Presidents for more than a decade, is still optimistic that one day he would be invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan once again by the new incumbent, Mr Abdul Kalam.

Jalandhar-based Idrisi has been personal tailor of Presidents K.R. Narayanan, Giani Zail Singh, S.B. Chavan and VVIPs such as Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan, and Baghdad Governor Anwar Umar Sayeed.

Idrisi, who has been popular among top politicians and bureaucrats for the skills in stitching the “sherwani” and Nehru-style “bandgala” suits, was usually invited to the Rashtrapati Bhavan every now and then for stitching suits and dresses by Gianiji and Mr Narayanan. But, since, Mr Abdul Kalam has preferred to retain his Delhi-based tailor, it seems that Idrisi would not get a chance to serve Mr Kalam, who is known for wearing simple and casual dresses.

But this has not dimmed his spirits. He feels that he has played his “innings” and chance should be given to someone else also, as he feels that he would also be invited by the First Citizen. “Main khush hoon, ke Allah ne Jain Sahib (Kalam’s new tailor) ko mauka diya hai. Saath he main sochtaa hun ki aanewale waqt mein Kalam Sahib mujhe bhi yaad karenge,” says a calm Idrisi, a fourth-generation “sherwani” tailor. He has preserved a number of pictures with a large number of VVIPs, hordes of invitation cards to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and a couple of copies of cheques signed by former Presidents.

Idrisi, who has a team of about 50 tailors working under him and sons, Shahid and Adib, attributes his success to his tailoring teacher, Mr Zahoor Ahmed of Dehra Dun, and to Giani Zail Singh, who introduced him to a number of top political figures of the country after he met him during a public function at Saharanpur in the late seventies. He fondly remembers that Gianiji had got about 21 “sherwanis” stitched for him.

Rare achievement by eye surgeon

Dr Deepak Gupta, a noted eye surgeon from Ludhiana, has become the only eye surgeon in north India and the second in the country, who has been successfully doing the eye phaco-emulsification with both right and left hands. Dr Gupta had been doing this procedure for the past two years regularly and has treated a number of cases successfully. Dr Gupta has also built up a huge library of his video cassettes on this unique technique and is in the process of making a instructional video cassettes for the Phaco Surgeons regarding this technique and several other innovations.

Dr Deepak has presented two papers on “Left eye phaco-emulsification with left hand-A technique for the future” and “3 Dimensional Chop” in the recently concluded “Eye Conference 2002” held at Mumbai. This conference was attended by delegates from India and abroad, including renowned surgeons like Dr Howard Fine, Dr Dennis Shephard, Dr David Apple, Dr F. Rentsch, Dr Mats Lundstorm, Dr Frank Goes and Dr Takato Suzuki. In his papers Dr Gupta highlighted the various advantages of Phaco probe using this technique as the treatment becomes easier. This technique also plays an important role in patients having deep-set eyes or with prominent brows.

Till recently Dr F. Rentsch from Germany and Dr R.B. Vajpayee from AIIMS were perhaps only eye surgeons, who had claimed the same and are using this technique. According to Dr Deepak the technique of 3 dimensional chop is combination of two techniques of phaco chop and karate chop and combining of these techniques has produced a unique concept of “3-dimensional chop” and claimed it to be the technique of the future.

Cardiac OPD at your doorstep

As a part of outreach programme, Fortis Heart Institute and Multispeciality Hospital organsied a cardiac OPD consultation in Moga in association with Mittal Hospital and Heart Centre. Patients from Moga and nearby towns like Zira, Jagraon, Barnala, Muktsar, Harike, Kotkapura, Malout and Raikot got themselves examined by Dr Jagmohan Varma, Senior Consultant, Invasive Cardiology, Fortis Heart Institute and Multispeciality Hospital (Ex-Head of Department, Cardiology, PGI, Chandigarh).

Fortis will hold such kind of cardiac OPD every first, third and fifth Saturday of every month in Moga.

According to Dr Jagmohan Varma, “an increasing number of young Indians are falling prey to coronary artery disease. Urgent steps are now needed to ward off heart disease amongst people. We have initiated this cardiac OPD as part of our effort to reach the doorsteps of the patients who are facing heart problems and require medical attention. They will be able to consult us in Moga itself, thus saving them the inconvenience of travelling all the way to Mohali”.

(Contributed by Varinder Singh, Surinder Bhardwaj and TNS)