The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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Regional potpourri
Disease failed to paralyse her spirit
Disease left lower body of Pooja Sharma paralysed, when she was in teens, but it could not dampen her spirit. In March 1991, just before final matriculation examination Pooja, had fever, which virtually changed the life of this bubbly adolescent girl.

Mental maths champion at 11
Keeping alive family tradition
Preferring social work to politics

PUNJAB

Bathinda
Camp held: Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Vikas Manch organised an awareness camp to solve the problems of Sanjay Nagar, Bangi Nagar and Udam Singh Nagar, Deep Nagar, Awa Basti. A memorandum was presented to Harminder Singh Jassi, MLA, Bathinda. Balwant Rai Nath Valmiki presided.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
Cancer camp: Cancer roko, a breast and cervix cancer awareness project initiated with support of MKC Trust, England, was carried out on Saturday at Khalaspur village by Mehar Baba Charitable Trust, here. MBCT ladies field officers lectured women on the disease and motivated them to get registered for free check up camp.

Hoshiarpur
Body found: Body of Buta Ram (30) of Mehngrowal was fished out of the Mehngrowal Dam today. According to police sources, Buta Ram left his house last evening and did not return home. Today, his cellular phone and some identification card were found at the Mehngrowal Dam site. The police fished out his body from the dam and sent it to the local civil hospital for post-mortem. It is suspected that Buta Ram, who had been practicing as an RMP at Atwarapur village, committed suicide due to some family reason.

Cash stolen: Thieves struck at two villages in the district and stole cash, desi ghee, ration goods and tube-well motors last night. According to police sources, miscreants broke into the shops of Balwant Singh, of Duggal village and Ranjit Singh of Randhawa village at Adda Randhawa and stole ration goods, cash and about 20 kg desi ghee. Thieves also stole six tubewell motors of different persons from their fields at Mansurpur village in Mukerian.

RAJPURA
Theft: Two thefts were reported at religious places in Badoli Gujaran village from where Rs 39,000 cash was stolen by some unidentified miscreants after breaking ‘gullaks’. The incident was brought into the notice of nearby police officials by its priests. A case in this connection has been registered.

Tarn Taran
Girl abducted: A teenaged girl of Rattoke village, 25 km from here, was abducted by a youth, identified as Kuldeep Singh of the same village. His friend Bikarmjit Singh of the Jallewal village also assisted in the act. A case under sections 363 and 366 of the IPC has been registered against the duo. The victim’s father in his statement to the police alleged that Kuldeep lured his daughter to marry him. The police said raids had been conducted to trace the girl and the accused.

Man booked: Mintu (22) of Bath village, 8 km from here, has been booked by the Sadar police for molesting a married woman of the same village. According to information, the accused forcibly entered the house of the woman when he found her alone in the house. But the accused escaped when she sounded alarm. A case under sections 354, 452 of the IPC has been registered against the accused on the statement of the victim.

CHANDIGARH

MOHALI
Killed: Basanti Lal, a resident of Bhagalpur, was killed in an accident at Phase VII bus stand on Friday. According to the police, Basanti Lal, a daily wager, went to the bus stand to board a bus with his friend Dheeraj. When a bus coming from Balongi side entered the bus stand, the deceased was hit by it and died on the spot, the police added. A case was registered.

ZIRAKPUR
Shop burgled: Thieves decamped with electronic items worth thousands of rupees from a shop in Zirakpur on Friday night. Anil Kumar, owner of Ashoka Radio, alleged that he found the locks of the shop to be broken this morning. The shop was ransacked and valuable electronic goods were missing. A case was registered.

HARYANA

CHANDIGARH
Housing scheme: With a view to catering the housing needs of defence personnel, the Haryana government has approved Jai Jawan Awas Yojna to allot group-housing sites for construction of multistoried apartments and it has also floated exclusive defence sectors in some areas of the state. Stating this here on Sunday, an official spokesman said exclusive defence sectors had also been floated at Jhajjar, Rohtak, Hisar, Jind, Bahadurgarh and Rewari. The defence personnel were also being provided a discount of 10 per cent in the allotment.

Ravidas Jayanti: Haryana Governor AR Kidwai and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda greeted the people on the occasion of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. In a message issued here on Sunday, the Governor described Guru Ravidas as a great saint and said he led a life of faith and devotion and dedicated himself to the cause of the poor, irrespective of caste, creed and religion.

KARNAL
5 hurt in accident: Five persons were injured when the car they were travelling in was reportedly hit by a tractor near Ketru village here on Saturday. All five were members of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA). The team headed by Rattan Singh had gone to Uttar Pradesh in search of some criminal and was returning to Karnal when the accident took place. The axle of the tractor suddenly broke down and the driver lost control over the vehicle. The other injured members of the CIA team were identified as Gurmail Singh, Pramod, Rakesh and Jalora Singh.

SIRSA
Kitchen yards: Kitchen yards will be constructed in all primary schools of the district to store the material meant for midday meal and cooking purpose. The authorities have already constructed such kitchen yards in 153 schools in Rania and Nathusari Chopta Blocks under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Deputy Commissioner SK Goyal said separate toilets for boys and girls had been constructed in all schools in the district. He said the authorities would promote floriculture among students through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

YAMUNANAGAR
Man killed in mishap: A person, Mulup Singh, was killed in an accident near Kamani Chowk here on Saturday. He met with the mishap while he was boarding a Haryana Roadways bus and slipped. He had sustained serious injuries and was admitted to a private hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The police has registered a case against the driver of the bus for causing death due to rash and negligent driving.

Gram panchayats honoured: Ambala Commissioner Mahender Kumar honoured 39 gram panchayats of the district, which had done excellent job in development of their village during a one-day workshop of gram panchayats of the district held here on Friday. The gram panchayats had spent more than Rs 5 lakh on various development works under the NAREGA scheme. The Commissioner said Rs 2 crore had been spend under the employment guarantee scheme and Rs 5.61 crore for cleanness drive launched in the district.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Memorandum submitted: The state unit of the CPI has criticised the state government for its alleged “criminal failure” to enforce all labour laws in power projects and other industries which are being set up in the state mostly by outsiders. Assistant secretary of the party Pravesh Chandel met the DC here on Saturday and presented him a detailed memorandum to be forwarded to the Chief Minister so that his immediate attention is drawn towardsthe injustice being met to these labourers.

CHAMBA
Pay-scales sought: The Primary Assistant Teachers’ Association has sought regularisation of their services and demanded basic pay-scales at par with the junior basic teachers (JBTs) failing which they would resort to statewide stir. In a meeting held here on Sunday, association’s district president Kehar Singh demanded the state government to regularise those assistant primary teachers who had competed five years of service. He also demanded hike in pay-scales which should be equal to that of the JBTs so that they feel secure.

Grievances panel meeting: Public grievances with regard to the PWD, IPH Department, Police Department and Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board could not be redressed in absence of concerned officials in the subdivisional-level grievances committee meeting held at Tissa on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by SDM Hem Chand Thakur. He said the matter was reported to the Chamba DC for further action. Fifty complaints were put up in the meeting out of which 20 were disposed off on the spot while remaining 30 were sent to the concerned departments for forthwith clearance.

DALHOUSIE
Authorities directed to clear highway: Dalhousie MLA Renu Chadha has directed the authorities to clear the snow from the inter-state highway leading from Chamba to Bhaderwah in Jammu and Kashmir via Langera and Padhri Pass which has been closed due to heavy snowfall at different points recently. She further asked officials to ensure resuming traffic as early as possible.

NURPUR
Career awareness camp: UII Global School of Service Management organised a career awareness camp at Bodh, near here, on Sunday. Nearly 150 students participated. The team of experts of the management apprised the students of prospects in the field of hospitality, aviation and retail industry. Assistant manager of the management Deepak Bahuguna said the management had 20 institutes across the country providing different job-oriented degree courses. The management was organising such awareness camps in Himachal to attract youths towards job-oriented courses.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Jammu
Varsity library to open resource cell: The Dhanwantri Library of Jammu University is working to open a resource cell for the visually-challenged persons, besides automate all departmental libraries, centres, directorates of the varsity with it. The resource cell will comprise imported software that are used for the conversion of hard texts into a soft copy form while the other form of the software converts text into voice mode through the JAWS talking software.

Father-in-law held on rape charge: Mohammad Zalal Bhat (50) of Peer Mitha was arrested by the police for allegedly raping his daughter-in-law in the heart of the city here, police source said. Bhat allegedly committed rape on his daughter-in-law when the victim’s husband was not at home on Saturday evening. A case has been registered and accused has been arrested.

Ice-cream company fined: An ice-cream company was fined Rs 15,000 for deceiving consumer of information regarding product and not displaying contact details on its packs here in the state, official sources said on Sunday. The Department of Legal Metrology on Saturday fined M/s Devani Food Products Company, Solan (HP), the manufacturer of Cream Bell Ice-cream, a sum of Rs 15,000 for not abiding by the rules and regulations under the amended rules of Packaged Commodity Act.

Leh
Ladakh farmers in Pune: A group of progressive farmers from Ladakh are in Pune, Maharastra, for a week-long exposure tour in technical know-how to vegetable seeds production. District agriculture officer, Leh, Thinless Dawa said during the tour, these farmers would also be provided extensive training followed by field visit to farms of the state. Dawa said MoU between the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, and the Farmers’ Cooperative Society to market the vegetable seeds to other states.

BSNL services disrupted: Mobile and Internet services of BSNL, which is a main service provider of telecommunication in Ladakh, remain paralysed for the sixth consecutive day here on Saturday. BSNL divisional engineer Phunchok Dorjey said the services were affected due to breakdown of optical fibre cable at Gumri near Zojila Pass.

Srinagar
Truck driver found dead: A truck driver, identified as Ragvinder Singh of Ludhiana, Punjab, has been found unconscious at Hyderpora bypass. He was taken to the Srinagar hospital where he was declared brought dead. The reason behind his death could not be ascertained yet. In another incident, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, an auto-rickshaw driver, of New Colony, Batmaloo, died when a tyre of his auto burst.

Regional potpourri
Disease failed to paralyse her spirit

Pooja Sharma is honoured by Social Security Minister Swarna Ram at the Republic- Day function

Disease left lower body of Pooja Sharma paralysed, when she was in teens, but it could not dampen her spirit. In March 1991, just before final matriculation examination Pooja, had fever, which virtually changed the life of this bubbly adolescent girl. Besides being brilliant in studies, she used to participate in sports and co-curricular activities in school, but the disease confined her to bed. But, neither Pooja nor members of her family, let the disease rule her destiny. With her determination, cooperation and motivation of parents - Ram Gopal Sharma, Suman Sharma, younger sister Preeti and brother Parbodh Sharma, Pooja started regular studies again. From matriculation to graduation, she won national scholarships. After completing graduation with mathematics and economics and B.Ed. from colleges in Nawanshahr, Pooja, used to commute daily to pursue post-graduation in English from the Government College, Ludhiana, as regular student.

In January 2001, she got first appointment in a government school as math teacher and in November 2001, she was selected English lecturer. She joined Government Senior Secondary School, Musapur, where she also acted as officiating principal for a few months. Director-General, School education ( DGSE), Krishan Kumar, recently got her transferred to Government Senior Secondary School, Nawanshahr. Besides teaching, she has been pursuing her study. She has also done MA (Sanskrit) and is doing M.Phil. from Punjabi University, Patiala.

Recently, Pooja was honoured by Social Security Minister, Chaudhary Swarna Ram at the Republic- Day function here.

Mental maths champion at 11

Lakshaya Kansra

Lakshay Kansra (11 ) , student of Challengers Academy in Batala and studying in class VI, stood first in state-level Challengers Abacus and Mental Arithmatic competition held on January 25 at 70 centres in Punjab.

Four thousands candidates between six and 13 years from the state appeared in this test .

Vinod Sharma, programme instructor of the academy, said 51 students of the academy appeared for the test at Wood Stock School, Batala, apart from 35 students of other centres of Gurdaspur district.

Sharma added 100 mental maths sums were given to each student to attempt in 20 minutes. Lakshay Kansra attempted all 100 sums correctly in seven minutes thus breaking records of earlier test held by the academy at Chandigarh Batala Abacus Centre is a franchisee of Challengers Abacus Edu-Tehc (India) Chandigarh.

Lakshay Kansra is younger son of Dr Ashwani Kansra , Director , C.T Institute of Management and Information Technology, Maqsudan campus, Jalandhar, and Neeru Kansra , science teacher, Arya Girls High School, Ohri Chowk, Batala).

Keeping alive family tradition

Parveen Singla belongs to family of freedom fighters and enjoys helping the needy. His father Babu Sant Ram Singla was an advocate and used to fight cases of freedom fighters free of charge. His elder sister Urmala Singla too was a social worker, used to organise eye and medical camps besides resolving domestic disputes of people . She was a regular blood donor.

Parveen Singla has been carrying forward the family tradition, organises eye and medical camps provides for artificial limbs , arranges marriages of poor girls donates necessaries, distributes woollens , shoes and other articles among poor students. These days he is busy campaigning against drugs, dowry and female foeticide . Apart from blood donation camps at various places in Mansa, he has donated blood more than 108 times. To give constructive direction to the youth and serve the humanity he formed P Club. With articles/necessaries he dispatched volunteers to Delhi , UP and other riot-hit areas in 1984.

Preferring social work to politics

Rampal Dhepai is a political leader who prefers social work to politics. He started public life as sarpanch of Dhepai panchayat in Mansa district. He remained sarpanch for 14 years and was honoured with best sarpanch award by then Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Harnam Das Johar. He also launched campaign against drugs and set up gyms in 60 villages of Mansa and a stadium at Dhepai village.

During the Governor’s rule in Punjab, Dhepai village was brought under model gram scheme and Rs 1 crore spent on its development with his efforts. Ram Pal Dhepai had contributed to the development of Government Nehru College, Mansa, after becoming the president of the Old Students Association. He was also vice-chairman of the Tube Well Corporation, Punjab, and is now general secretary of the Punjab Congress.

He felt ignored after the death of Rajiv Gandhi in the party. He has been planning to help cancer patients of Malwa region facing the disease due to contaminated water.

(Contributed by Parmod Bharti, Balraj Mahajan and Parmod Mehta)