In brief

Farmers’ training camp held in Mohali
MOHALI: The agriculture department of Punjab,in association with the Agriculture Technology Management in Phase VII,organised a district-level farmers’ training camp here on Friday. Joint Director,Agriculture,Nirankar Singh inaugurated the camp. Addressing the farmers,experts warned against overexploitation of groundwater. “This is reducing the water table everywhere. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and in India it is getting crucial day by day. More than half the world’s wetlands have been lost,” said one of the speakers. More than 2,000 farmers from rural areas of Mohali district participated in the camp. Experts from agriculture department and Punjab Agricultural University,Ludhiana,spoke on the occasion.

Auto driver rewarded for honesty
MOHALI: An auto-rickshaw driver,Ram Naresh,was rewarded by Army Institute of Law principal Anjana Kakkar after he drove to the institute to return a mobile phone,which a student had left in his vehicle earlier in the day. Students and staff members applauded Naresh’s act of honesty. Naresh,who lives at Shahimajra in Sector 58,Mohali,drives the auto-rickshaw on rent to earn a living.

Woman donates ambulance in memory of son
CHANDIGARH: Jarnail Kaur,a resident of Sector 20-A,Chandigarh,donated an ambulance to PGIMER on Friday in memory of her late son Gurinder Pal Singh Nagra,a handball coach. The keys of the ambulance were handed over to PGI Director Prof K K Talwar. Gurinder died in an accident two years ago. Jarnail Kaur has already donated an ambulance to Punjab Red Cross.

‘Bio-paradigm’ held at UIET
CHANDIGARH: SBE-UIET (Student Chapter of Society of Biological Engineers),in association with the Technical Committee organised Bio-Paradigm,a model-making competition at University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET),Panjab University,in Chandigarh on Friday. SBE,an international body under the aegis of American Institute of Chemical Engineers,has set up its first International Student Chapter in India at UIET. Nearly 100 biotechnology students from the UIET participated in the event. Models on various topics—protein purification techniques,DNA replication,polymerase chain reaction and others — were displayed. The event was judged by Dr Sanjeev Puri,the head of biotechnology department,along with other senior faculty members. Prizes and certificates were awarded to the winners in various categories.

‘NREGA ensures economic security to poor’
MOHALI: On the fourth day of Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign,organised by the Press Information Bureau at Majri in Mohali district,Block Development Officer Sarabjit Kaur and Kharar legislator Balbir Sidhu spoke on the importance of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and its implementation in Majri block. “NREGA is an ambitious plan of the Central Government to change the fate of the rural poor by ensuring them economic security. It gives them social security,” said Kaur. Sidhu said government schemes could be successfully implemented only if the implementing authorities were accountable to the people. He stressed the need to change the mindset of the society towards gender discrimination.