Vadodara Beat

Raising day celebrated
The Corps of Air Defence Artillery celebrated its 6th raising day here on Sunday. A statement said besides other functions, Brigadier Arjan Dutta, brigade commander addressed officers and exhorted them to enhance professionalism. Having been accorded a status of a separate arm since 1994, the Artillery has had several laurels during World War II, 1965 and 1971 wars and several crucial operations.

Inauguration
State Forest Minister Kanjibhai Patel will inaugurate a seminar on joint forestry here on Monday morning. Top officials of the forest department will be present on the occasion, Vadodara circle conservator C N Pande said in a release. Various issues pertaining to co-operation from social fora to plant more trees in forest areas would be discussed at the seminar. More than 69,000 hectare forest areas in Surat, Bharuch, Narmada, Vadodara, Panchmahals, Sabarkantha, Junagadh and Dahod have already been covered.

Rly counter
The Vadodara division of the Western Railways kept its manual counters open as the computer reservation system in Vadodara was closed on Sunday to felicitate merging of the Mumbai Passenger Reservation System with the Delhi Passenger Reservation System.

IoE session
More than 200 corporate members and students from engineering streams participated in the 39th annual session of the Institution of Engineers Gujarat chapter here on Saturday. Gujarat University actingvice-chancellor Dr H M Desai delivered the welcome address, while S L Patel, State chief engineer, was installed as the new chairman for the sessions 8217;98-2000. State Narmada and Irrigation Projects Minister Jaynarayan Vyas, who was the chief guest on the occasion, felicitated 23 meritorious students.