R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
2 HELD FOR RAPE: Two persons have been arrested for raping a minor girl at Ajit Singh Nagar here. They have been identified as Anil Kumar, son of Puran Chand and Balbir Singh, son of Thakur Singh. The court remanded them in judicial custody on Thursday.

SMUGGLING: The police on Thursday arrested Sukhbir Singh Raju, son of Baz Singh of Nai Abadi, here under the NDPS Act and recovered 11 gm of smack from him.

BARNALA
DHARNA: Employees of the PSEB staged a dharna here on Thursday to protest against the Electricity Act, 2003, and a circular pertaining to the compulsory retirement of employees in the age group of 50 to 55 years. The employees of the urban and rural mandals held a dharna in front of the PSEB mandal office (urban). They submitted a memorandum to the SDM in this regard.

FARIDKOT
WOES OF RURALITES: Mr Gurmel Singh, Sarpanch and member, Rural Education Development Committee, Nawan Nathewala village, has stressed on the economic improvement of villagers for the success of the Sarb Shiksha Abhiyan in Punjab. A number of sarpanches and committee members attended the meeting. Another sarpanch wanted education be given free of cost up to college-level for rural children. A sum of Rs 80 lakh was distributed among the rural committees of 95 schools for toilets, repair of classrooms and the purchase of teaching material.

HOSHIARPUR
BOOKED FOR MURDER: The police here arrested Bupesh Kumar Thapa of Gobindgarh Mohalla and seized 2,70,000 ml of whisky from him on Wednesday evening. A case under Sections 61, 1, 14 of the Excise Act has been registered against him. In another case on the complaint of NRI Amardeep Singh, a case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC was registered against Bhupinder Singh for killing his maternal grand mother. His maternal grand mother lived in Model Town.

LUDHIANA
ELECTROCUTED: A youth was electrocuted while working on a electric chaff cutter machine in Umarpura village. Balbir had got married just five months back. He was a member of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Club, a social organisation. 

BURGLARY: Thieves broke into Jograj Music Centre and stole Rs 3,500, a CD player, a deck, 350 CD cassettes, a CD recorder and four speakers worth Rs 35,000. According to the information, the theft was discovered by owner of the shop Sanjay in the morning. 

EYE CAMP: A free eye check-up and operation camp was organised at Poly Eye Hospital, Arya School road here today by Dr Ashok Gupta. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Balbir Kumar Gupta, President Durga Mata Mandir. Dr Gupta examined more than 120 persons suffering from different eye ailments. medicines free of cost and refreshment was given to the patients. Twenty patients were advised eye operations and dates were given to them. 

INVITED: Dr R.S.Bhatia, a medical specialist has been invited to chair an update session of APICON 2004. Dr Major Gen S.Venkataraman said the session would deal with current topics such as immune mechanisms and use of mycobacterial injections as an adjacent therapy to enhance early cure and prevent relapses in pulmonary tuberculosis. 

TREE GUARDS STOLEN: Thirty tree-guards from the Goindwal-Kapurthala road were reported missing on Wednesday night. The tree-guards were installed by the Kar Seva sect Khadoor Sahib around trees planted on all five roads leading to Khadoor Sahib to celebrate the 500th birth anniversary of second Sikh Guru Sri Guru Anged Dev Ji falling on April, 2004. A complaint in this regard has been sent to the Goindwal Sahib police station. The place is hardly 200 metres from the police naka.

HARYANA

KAITHAL
LIFE TERM: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr V.K. Bakshi, here has sentenced Ram Mehar and Kashmir of Bhanpura village to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 10,000 for the murder of Karam Veer and Chander in October, 1999. In case the accused fail to pay the fine, they will have to further undergo imprisonment of a year.

KURUKSHETRA
TEACHERS CLUB: A meeting of the ‘General’ Body of the Teachers Club of Kurukshetra University will be held on December 20 in the Teacher’s Club to pass Budget for 2002-2003 and honour 15 retired teachers of the university. These are: Prof R.S. Dwedi, Prof Hoshiar Singh, Prof R.P. Hooda, Prof Hari Singh, Prof Amir Singh, Prof Usha Gupta and Prof Sharda Gupta etc.

SIRSA
VOTERS’ LIST: Preliminary publication of voters list has been completed, Additional Deputy Commissioner Brinjender Singh said here on Wednesday. Objections and claims can be filed by January 7, 2004 with the registration officer concerned or Assistant Electoral Officer.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARAMSALA
SDMs EMPOWERED: Kangra Deputy Commissioner Dr Shrikant Baldi on Wednesday authorised the eight subdivisional magistrates of the district to exercise the powers of the collector under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 in their subdivisions. The step has been taken to ensure control over the distribution of essential commodities.

KUMARHATTI
BODY FOUND: An unidentified body was found from a nullah along the Chakki Ka Maur-Bhojnagar road near Bhalag Ki Ser village on Thursday morning. The body was sent to the ESI Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The deceased appeared to be an outsider.

SHIMLA
HAILED: Mr Gangu Ram Musafir, Himachal Speaker, on Thursday hailed the anti-defection Bill and said that it would help the presiding officers during crisis in the House. It would go a longway in curbing horse-trading and restoring democratic values in the country he said.

ACCREDITATION: The state government on Thursday stated before the high court that it would withdraw the notice cancelling accreditation to a BJP spokesman and journalist of Shimla Mr Ganesh Dutt. After the statement of the Advocate- General a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Mr Justice R.L. Khurana observed that the state was at liberty to initiate fresh action with regard to the cancellation of the accreditation of the petitioner as per rules.