FEROZEPORE
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Indian Social Welfare Society: patrons — Mr R.M.R. Manchanda and Mr Sushil Grover; president — Mr Ashwani K.Sharma ; vice -presidents — Mr R.J.S.Kailvi and Mr S.S.Sandhu; general secretary — Mr S.N. Malhotra; secretary (administration ) — Mr A.S. Kang; and finance secretary — Mr Parmod Kapoor.

Bribery: A Junior Engineer (JE) of the Dot and a District Health Inspector have been arrested for allegedly accepting bribe in Moga and Muktsar districts, respectively. Mr Hardial Singh , SP (Vigilance Bureau) said a vigilance party caught Parmesh Singh , a JE posted in a telephone exchange at Nihal Singh Wale while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 500 from Mr Lakhwinder Singh, a resident of Dhoorkot Ranseeh for releasing re-connection of telephone to the complainant. In another case, Gurmeet Singh Sethi, a District Health Inspector, posted in the office of the Civil Surgeon at Muktsar was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs 500 from Mr Harsimran Singh, a resident of Muktsar.

Check-up camp: The Lions Club (Ferozepore Greater ) will organise a two-day free check-up camp for patients having ENT problems at Lion Bhavan, Santlal Road, in the cantonment on August 7 and 8. According to the president of the club, Mr Iqbal Singh Chhabra, medicines and hearing aids will be given free of cost to the needy patients.

Market committee: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Ferozepore district unit of the Punjab Market Committee Karamchari Union: president — Mr Jagdish Singh (Zira), general secretary — Mr Joga Singh (Makhu); vice-president — Mr Rajkanar (Fazilka); cashier — Mr Swaran Singh (Ferozepore); and propaganda secretary — Mr Mandhir Singh.

GARHSHANKAR
Suicide: A resident of Bohra village, Sarla, reportedly consumed poison and committed suicide. The brother of the deceased , in an FIR lodged with police alleged that she was being tortured for bringing insufficient dowry and her husband , Manohar Lal, was demanding more dowry. The deceased is survived by a son and a daughter. A case has been registered against Manohar Lal under Section 304 of the IPC.

Appointed: Mr Pankaj Kirpal has been reappointed general secretary of the state unit of the Youth Congress, Punjab. Orders of his reappointment have been sent by the president of the Youth Congress, Mr Davinder Baboo.

GURDASPUR
Christian Welfare Association: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Indian Christian Welfare Association: patron — Mr N.P.K. Salve, member of Rajya Sabha (Delhi); chairman — Mr Salamat Masih, convener PPCC(minorities cell ), Punjab; senior vice-chairman Dr Sodhi Dass (Chandigarh ); president — Prof Emanuel Nahar , Senator Punjab University ,Chandigarh; vice-president — Mr Johan Masih Barar (Chandigarh); general secretary — Mr Johan Chauhan (Pathankot); joint secretary — Col Daniel Kathgodam (UP) and cashier — Mr Fazialat Masih (Pathankot).

Seminar: A seminar in connection with the Reproductive Child Health programme was held at Pathankot on Wednesday. It was presided over by Dr R.S Sandhu, Director Health and Family Welfare, Punjab. Dr K. Suresh, project officer UNICEF was the chief guest. Delegates of the Health Department and non-government organisations from Hoshiarpur, Ropar and Gurdaspur districts participated in the seminar. Dr Sandhu while addressing the seminar said the morality rate of mothers and new-borns was at present 2 and 30 per 1000 respectively, and efforts would be made to reduce it to half this in the next four years.

Quacks: As many as 46 cases have been registered against quacks in Batala district so far. According to office sources there are about 1,000 quacks in the district practising without proper registration. The Health Department as directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, has forwarded their cases for registration with the police in Batala and Gurdaspur districts.

JALANDHAR
Telephone adalat: The 19th telephone adalat of the Jalandhar Telecom District was held in the chamber of the General Manager, Telecom, here on Wednesday. It was chaired by Mr Rajesh Wadhwa, General Manager Telecom. Mr Wadhwa said cases of service complaints, billing complaints, delayed or non-provision of telephones, shifting of telephones were taken from the telephone subscribers in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts in the 19 adalats held so far. As many as 781 cases have been settled, he said.

Function: The Citizens Welfare and Protection Council here organised "Aashirwaad — 99" at Cantonment Board Senior Secondary School for Boys here on Wednesday, in order to encourage brilliant students. Prizes were given to over 25 toppers of board classes of various schools of Jalandhar cantonment.

KAPURTHALA
Arrested: The district police has arrested four proclaimed offenders involved in several criminal cases in the district. Mr Iqbal Singh, SSP, identified the arrested persons as Nawab , Balwinder Singh, both of Ferozepore district, Manjit Singh of Kapurthala and Jaspal Singh of Sultanpur Lodhi.

LUDHIANA
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Ludhiana Orthopaedic Association: president — Dr J.L. Bassi; secretary — Dr Ravinder Sidhu; treasurer — Dr M.K.Mam; and academic secretary — Dr Mohammad Yamim.

NAWANSHAHR
Seized: In a special anti-narcotics drive the local police has seized as many as 187 bags of poppy husk worth Rs 19 lakh from different nakas set up by the police during the past 20 days. This was stated by Mr Satinder Singh, DSP, here on Wednesday.

Strike: On a call given by the district unit of the Doaba Agro Inputs Dealers Association, the pesticides dealers in the district observed a complete strike and staged a dharna in front of the office of the Chief Agriculture officer here on Wednesday to register their protest against an amendment in the Pesticides Act, 1971. Through this amendment the licence fee on pesticides and insecticides has been increased . The dealers also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Agriculture Officer.

PATIALA
Workshop concludes: A 40-day-long theatre workshop conducted by the National Theatre Arts Society (NTAS) concluded here on Wednesday. Mr Pran Sabharwal, Director, NTAS stated that the trainees , drawn from about 20 local schools, besides getting practical theatre training, met prominent personalities face to face and got an opportunity to interact with them and also with theatre activists from Shimla.

Saplings planted: A sapling plantation and cleanliness drive was undertaken inside the Bahadurgarh Fort, near here, and 1500 eucalyptus saplings and 100 mango saplings were planted in the fort. The Inspector General of Police (Commando), Punjab, here Mr K.L. Likhi, and Mr Gurinder Singh Dhillon Commandant, Fort Bahadurgarh, Patiala, along with other commandants of commando battalions, trainees and staff of Commando Training School planted these trees inside the fort. The IGP Commando further stressed the need to plant more fruit trees within the fort.

Women's front: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party Women's Front, Raipur Rani: President — Ms Snehlata; Vice-Presidents — Ms Madhu and Ms Dwarika Devi; General Secretary — Ms Usha; Joint Secretaries — Ms Krishan Juneja and Ms Babita; and Finance Secretary — Ms Vijay.

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party Women's Front, Barwala: President— Ms Santosh Rani; Vice-President — Ms Naina Wati; General Secretary — Ms Kamlesh Rani; Joint Secretary — Ms Dharam wati; and Finance Secretary — Ms Pinky.

Donated: The Senior Citizen's Council donated Rs 75,450 towards the National Defence Fund, said Mr M.L.Sharma, General Secretary of the council, on Tuesday.

Selected: Four students from the state-- Mayank Bhardwaj (Rewari), Virender Singh (Bhiwani) , Arti Bhalla (Gurgaon), and Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj (Bhiwani) — will be sent by the Haryana State Council for Science and Technology to Lakpat town in Bhuj district of Gujarat for scientific observation of the total solar eclipse on August 11. Ms Rajni, a teacher from Gurgaon , will accompany them as their guide. The selected students had secured first positions in the state-level poster slogan, declamation and quiz competitions held at a state-level seminar on solar eclipse held in Chandigarh on Monday.

SIRSA
Suicide: Guddi, mother of four children and a resident of Mirzapur village in the district committed suicide by setting herself on fire at her in-laws' house on Wednesday. The cause of the suicide was stated to be domestic dispute.

YAMUNANAGAR
Office-bearers: Following have been elected office-bearers of Haryana PWD, Public Health Clerical Association: president — Mr Rajinder Kumar Saini; senior — vice-president — Mr Mahavir Singh and Mr Chaman Lal; general secretary — Mr Bal Krishan Bhatia; and cashier — Mr Aditya Kumar and Mrs Raj Rani.

Road mishap: A government Medical Officer died in a road accident here on Tuesday. Mr Naresh Chander, employee of the Health Department, Haryana , reported that Dr Jagmal, incharge of Primary Health Centre at Kalanaur, near here, died on the spot when his scooter collided with a tractor-trolley on the Yamunanagar-Saharanpur highway. The police has registered a case against the driver of the tractor-trolley under Sections 279 and 304 of the IPC.

SOLAN
Body found: The body of an unidentified man (about 25-year-old) was found from a spot about 30 feet below the Kumarhatti- Nahan road in the vicinity of Sohli village 18 km from here, on Wednesday. The SSP, Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, told mediapersons that the head and the face of the body were badly mutilated. While the head had been smashed with stone or some similar object, the face had been disfigured by throwing acid on it. The police has registered a case of murder and sent the body to the Primary Health Centre, Dharampur, for post-mortem, examination.

UNA
Khair trees: Mr Kashmirilal Joshi, former MLA from Santokgarh constituency in the district , has alleged large-scale cutting of khair trees from government as well as private land in the Beetan area. Mr Joshi alleged on Wednesday that a large number of khair trees had been axed and smuggled to Punjab.

Demand: The Physically Handicapped Welfare Association, Una district, at its meeting held here on Tuesday urged the state government to allow free bus travel to the handicapped persons in private buses also. The association also demanded that land should be allotted to the handicapped persons to enable them to start their own business. The association also demanded that special medical camps be organised at Harol Bangana and Amb to identify the disabled persons in those areas .