The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, December 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
ONE SHOT: One person was shot while three were injured in a shootout over a land dispute at Ajnala here Thursday. Amrik Singh of Uttar Pradesh was shot over some land dispute. A case has been registered.

BATHINDA
ELECTED: Mr Baltej Singh has been elected president of the Bathinda Mini-Bus Operators Union. Mr Major Singh Bhullar and Mr Sukhvir Singh Brar were elected vice-presidents of the union while Mr Gurdip Singh and Mr Mulakh Raj Billa were elected treasurers.

FARIDKOT
FAKE PENSION CASES: The district administration has identified 4,242 ineligible persons who had been getting pension under various categories for the past few years. In a press note on Thursday, Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said the orders had been issued to stop their pension.

GURDASPUR
ARRESTED: The police has arrested Sunil Kumar of Pathankot and Anu of Panur in Himachal for their alleged involvement in certain theft cases. According to the SSP a motorcycle, a scooter, and one VCP, besides other stolen goods have been recovered from their possession.

PROHIBITED: Mr KAP Sinha, District Magistrate, has banned the movement of public near rail tracks, canals and their distributaries and on the Dhussi bandh on the Beas from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. untill February 15. Movement from the international border to the security fencing and from there to 500 metres inside the border security fencing has also been prohibited.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the General Samaj Party: President — Mr Vijay Kumar Sharma; senior vice-president — Mr Sajjan Singh; vice-president — Mr Parvinder Singh; general secretary — Mr Satpal Sharma; secretary — Mr Sanjiv Abrol; and teasurer — Mr Vinod Kohli.

HOSHIARPUR
CASES REGISTERED: The police has registered two cases against four travel agents for cheating people on the pretext of sending their wards abroad. The Tanda police has registered two cases.

KHARAR
REMANDED: Mr Roshan Lal Chouhan, Judicial Magistrate, Kharar, here on Friday remanded two persons, arrested in connection with question-paper leakage of the Punjab Nursing Council, in judicial custody till Tuesday. He also ordered that Gurpal Singh and Charanjit Singh should be produced before the Special Judge, Ropar, on that day. Mr Jatinderjit Singh Punn, Public Prosecutor, had pleaded for the police remand of the accused claiming that information was yet to be collected from them.

LUDHIANA
JOR MELA: The annual Jor Mela to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh will be held from December 28 to 30 at Manji Sahib gurdwara in Alamgir, near here. This was stated by Giani Jagjit Singh, manager of the gurdwara.

MARTYRDOM DAY: The Arya Samaj, Dal Bazar, will hold a function on Sunday in connection with the martyrdom day of Swami Shradhanand who laid down his life for the country during the freedom struggle.

BOOK RELEASE: Dr T.S. Anand’s book “Modern Indian English Fiction” was released by Prof. Sohinderjit Singh, acting president , Khalsa Educational Council (GRW), at Gujranwala Guru Nanak Khalsa College here. The book is an anthology of critical essays on various facts of Indian fiction in English Prof Avtar Singh of Punjabi University hailed it as a milestone in Indian fiction. Dr T.S. Anand and the associate editors, Prof L.S. Bedi and Ms Hargunjot Kaur, were lauded for their efforts in the preparation of the book.

MEDICAL CAMP: The 15th free medical check up camp by the New Shivpuri Shopkeepers Ekta Club in association with the Vishv Yog Sansthan, will be organised on December 22 at Shivpuri Chowk. A team of eminent doctors, including Dr Ramesh, Dr J. William, Dr R.K. Mehta, Dr Charanjit Kalra, Dr Anurag and Dr Amardeep Singh Kohli will check-up the patients at the camp.

MUSHAIRA: The Bhartiya Masihee Dal will organise a Christmas Mushaira on December 22 at Bethel Prayer Home, Issa Nagri. Popular poets will attend this mushaira. Mr Rakesh Pandey will be the chief guest, said Mr B.M. Frederick the general secretary of the dal in a press note released on Friday.

MANSA
PATWARI SUSPENDED: Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, Deputy Commissioner, has placed Niranjan Singh, Patwari of halqa Hirke in this district, under suspension on charges of corruption and irregularities in the issuance of revenue record.

ARRESTED: The police has arrested Hardev Singh of Rampura Phul, for possessing 35 kg of poppy husk. The police has registered a case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act. He was produced in court which sent him in judicial custody.

MOGA
POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The police on Friday claimed to have nabbed an alleged woman smuggler and seized 20 bags of poppy husk worth Rs 2 lakh from her. Her son, however, escaped. A case has been registered.

MUKTSAR
GRANT GIVEN: Mr Apurv Devgan, Principal, DAV Public School, in a press note here on Thursday said the school had been given Rs 1 lakh as grant for development by the Punjab Forest Minister, Mr Harbans Lal, on its annual day celebrations.

ACUPRESSURE CAMP: The Ek Noor Welfare Society organised an acupressure medical camp which was inaugurated by former Punjab Law Minister, Mr Chiranji Lal Garg. Mr Ashwani Kumar, general secretary of the society, in a statement on Thursday said a large number of patients were told about the benefits of acupressure.

PATIALA
SEMINAR: Punjabi University will host the 20th national seminar of the Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres (IASLIC) on the theme “Digital Information Systems and Services” from Friday to Monday. The Minister of Higher Education, Punjab, Mr Khushal Behl, will inaugurate the seminar and the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr S.S. Boparai, will preside over the function. This information was given by Punjabi University’s Head of the Department of Library & Information Science and local organising secretary, Dr Jagtar Singh. said among others, Dr Prithvish.

CONTACT PROGRAMME: The personal contact programme for BEd course at Punjabi University, scheduled to be held from December 23, has been postponed. Giving this information, Head of the Department of Correspondence Studies, Dr Bhupinder Singh Khaira, said the new date would be announced in a few days.

TERM EXTENDED: The term of Mr N.S. Johal as the Head of the Punjabi University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been extended till July 19, 2003. His term had ended on December 13. Mr Johal, who has an MS degree in communication from America, has been instrumental in introducing the usage of advanced equipment, including latest computers and video cameras, in the department.

SCHOOL FETE: Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 3 organised a fete on its school campus here on Friday. Stalls of various eatables and games were put up by the students of different classes. The Principal of the school, Ms Samerjit Kaur, said all steps were being taken by the staff of the school to ensure an all-round personality development of the students.

INTERACTIVE SESSION: Punjabi University’s Department of Punjabi organised an interactive session with Punjabi writer Kirpal Kazak on Thursday. Answering queries from the students, Prof Kazak narrated his experiences of interactions with various nomadic tribes where he got a chance to get acquainted with their lifestyle, culture and taboos.

GATE RALLY: The All-India Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Railway Employees Association organised a gate rally in front of Diesel Component Works here on Thursday in protest against the `Anti-Reservation ‘ policies of the management. The president of the association, Mr Gurdarshan Singh, the general secretary of the association, Mr Bhajan Lal, addressed the rally.

PHAGWARA
ULTIMATUM: Residents of about 12 villages on Thursday served an ultimatum on the government to either repair dilapidated roads within a month or face an agitation. A press conference was held at nearby Palahi village in this regard.

CRIME RATE DOWN: The DIG (Jalandhar Range), Mr Rohit Chaudhary, on Thursday told newspersons at Rehana Jattan village, 20 km from here, that the crime graph had gone down by 25 per cent while the recovery rate had registered a 2.5 fold increase in the past five months against the corresponding period last year.

ROPAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Old Students Association of the local G.M.N. Senior Secondary School; chief adivisor Mr M.L. Chopra president Mr Raj Kumar Kapur; vice-presidents — Mr Anil Malhotra, Mr Ramesh Aggarwal and Mr Tej Pal Singh; general secretary — Mr Chetan Aggarwal; secretary — Mr Pyara Singh Kataria; and treasurer — Mr Jagan Nath Passi.

TARN TARAN
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Bar Association: president — Mr Hakam Singh Sandhu; vice-president — Mr Inder Pal; secretary — Mr Bikram Arora; and joint secretary-cum-treasurer — Mr Manjinder Singh.

1 KILLED: Bakshish Singh of Thathian Mahantan village a near Sarhali, was killed on the spot when he was hit by some vehicle on Wednesday. A case was been registered.

BOOKED: Bikramjit Singh, Jagjit Singh and one other have been booked for making threatening calls to Mr Amritjit Singh of Chabba village.

CHANDIGARH

PATIENTS EXAMINED: About 58 patients, including 20 children, nine adolescents, five men and 24 women, were examined at a reproductive and child health and family awareness camp in Khuda Alisher village. Eight children were immunised against various diseases. Anti-natal cases were referred to the Government Hospital, Sector 16. The camp was organised by the Servants of the People Society, Lajpat Rai Bhavan, Sector 15, in association with SOSVA.

CAMP FOR CHILDREN: The art of living will organise a residential course-cum-camp for children between the age group of nine to 14 and 15 to 19 at Sadhopol, near Chail, from Saturday to Wednesday.

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: The local unit of the BJP has extended the membership drive by a month to December 31. Party president Yashpal Mahajan said the party would celebrate Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday on December 25 as “Vikas Divas.” A function would be held in the BJP office in Sector 33 in this regard.

TRAINING: About 50 NSS volunteers were given first-aid training by the Red Cross Society in Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 33, here on Thursday. The training was aimed at making NSS volunteers more capable in their work of “serving the humanity”, stated a press note. Tthe school Principal, Mr Karan Singh, also spoke on the occasion.

PROGRAMME: The Sigma Education and Testing Services, an academic research organisation, has introduced a programme on pedagogical systems. Speaking to mediapersons here on Thursday, the CEO of the organisation, Dr Atul Nischal, said the programme involved a system of “individualised corrective feedback” during tests, which would tell student about the most common mistakes made for each type of problem, thus helping them to identify their mistakes and improve their skills through focused revision.

BAIL GRANTED: A Sub-Inspector of the Chandigarh Police, accused of demanding and accepting money from the wife of an accused in a fake-visa racket, case, was granted bail by Mr Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, here on Thursday. The accused, Swaran Singh, was posted with the Operation Cell of the police and was allegedly arrested red-handed while receiving Rs 5,000 from Ms Pooja Sharma, a resident of Mansa Devi Housing Complex, near the Housing Board chowk. She had the counsel of the accused, on the other hand, had claimed that the Sub-Inspector had been falsely implicated in the case.

PANCHKULA
SEMINAR: A seminar on career in defence forces was organised in Satluj Public School in collaboration with the Poorva Sainik Sewa Parishad (PSSP), here on Thursday. Maj-Gen G.S. Hundal (retd) AVSM, was the chief guest. He advised students to draw full benefit from the information being provided there. Lieut-Gen J.L. Malhotra, patron of the PSSP, Col R.S. Kaushal, convener of the district unit of the PSSP, and Col Ahluwalia delivered lectures.

POWER CASES: With the launching of a scheme for out-of-court settlement of cases, almost one-third of the pending cases have already been settled by Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam. The scheme, which was launched earlier for a period of one month beginning October 16, has now been extended up to December 31.

ROAD SAFETY: The Rotary Club, Panchkula, organised a talk on road safety and traffic awareness for its members recently. Rotarians were exhorted to take up programmes on importance of road signs and educate drivers about traffic rules and regulations. Mr Amar Manchanda, district chairman of the Traffic Regulation Committee , Rotary International District 3080, addressed the members.

HARYANA

AMBALA
CAMP: A martial-art-belt grading camp was held at Indira Park, Ambala cantonment, here on Friday. The camp was conducted by Mr Hemant Sharma, black belt (third degree) and secretary of the Sport Karate Do Association of Haryana. Following players were given various belts: Karan Goel, brown belt; Suhird Singh, green belt; Gautam Sodhi, orange belt; Samrat Sangwan, orange belt; B.N. Shricharan, yellow belt, Gaurav Saini, yellow belt; Milan Saini, yellow belt; Aman Jolly, yellow belt; Rahul Sodhi, orange belt; and Dinesh Alexander, orange, belt.

DHARNA: The General Insurance Employees Association, along with the General Insurance Development Officers Association, staged a dharna to press for their demands, here on Thursday. Issues raised by the employees included unilateral deferment of check-off system, strengthening of GIPSA, appointment of TPA, introduction of broker system, appointments on compassionate grounds and settlement of charter of demands of all cadres of employees. Among others, Mr Romesh Sharma, Mr Mukesh Sharma, Mr Shashi Bansal, Mr Surinder Goel, Mr Jagmohan Jaggi, Mr Nirmal Singh and Mr RB Yadav were also present there.

FATEHABAD
SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr R.K. Sodhi, on Friday sentenced two poppy husk traffickers to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh each of them. The court acquitted two others accused in the case as there was no evidence against them.

KALKA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Public Health Department Mechanical Workers Union, Kalka branch: chairman — Mr Surjit Singh; president — Mr Gurnam; secretary — Mr Gurmail Singh; cashier — Mr Raj Kumar; office secretaries — Mr Bant Ram and Mr Ram Lok; and propaganda secretary — Mr Sant Ram.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Kalka unit of the Shiv Sena: president — Mr Rajesh Kohli; senior vice-president — Mr Krishan Dutt Atri; general secretary — Mr Sanjiv Kumar; vice-presidents — Mr Vipin, Mr Dinesh Kumar and Mr Dharam Singh; secretaries — Mr Devinder Singh, Mr Manmohan Kumar and Mr Vikram; organising secretary — Mr Kapil Kumar; legal adviser — Mr Ashok Kumar; and press secretary — Mr Vijay Singh.

KURUKSHETRA
RICE CONTRIBUTION: The Food and Supplies Department has contributed over 1.48 lakh tonnes of custom milling and leviable rice to the FCI upto December 17 as against about 0.71 lakh tonnes last year. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Abhilaksh Likhi, said on Thursday that during the kharif season, 5,90,481 tonnes of rice had arrived in the mandis of the district.

YAMUNANAGAR
LOK ADALAT: A lok adalat will be held on December 21 at the new judicial complex under the chairmanship of Mr Justice V.K. Bali, who is also the Executive, Chairman of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority. This was stated br Mr R.C. Gupta, District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Yamunanagar on Thursday.