R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Batala
BAN POLYTHENE BAGS : The Citizens Welfare Association, here on Saturday demanded a ban on the recycle polythene bags as these were lifted from heaps of garbage or waste of hospitals and were not good for packing pulses, sweets, vegetables and bakery items etc.

DEMAND: The World Health Organisation (WHO) had approved 250 life saving drugs. However, about 50,000 types of medicines are sold in the market at present. Mr Davinder Pal, secretary, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Punjab, has urged Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj to mark an inquiry in this regard and ban the drugs which are selling without the approval of the WHO.

Hoshiarpur
FAIR HELD: To raise funds for poor and needy patients, the local Hospital Welfare Section organised a fair at Green View Park here on Saturday. Members of the organisation had set up stalls of eatables, woollen clothes and readymade garments at the fair. This was stated by Ms Sukhwant Kaur Bhullar, the chairperson of the section.

Pathankot
PROCESSION: A procession of artists from various parts of the country was organised here on Saturday to mark the 14th All-India Festival of Performing Arts. It was organised by Rama Kala Mandir here. More than 300 artists participated in the procession.

HELD WITH CHARAS: The police has arrested Vikramjit, alias Vikki, of Kothi Pandtan village and seized 7 kg of charas from his possession. A case under Section 20/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Mair Rajput Sawarankar Sabha; president — Mr Ashok Verma; vice-president —Mr Madan Lal Verma; general secretary — Mr Sat Pal Verma, and treasurer — Mr A.K. Verma.

PATIALA
LECTURE: The Department of Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Punjabi University, has organised the Sardarni Kailash Kaur Memorial lecture on 'Moral values in Indian traditions and contribution of Sikh Gurus' here on Friday. The lecture was delivered by Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, Dr Bhuvan Chandel . The lecture was presided over by Vice-Chancellor Sawarn Singh Boparai. While addressing the gathering Dr Chandel said that the reality of man and his search for values in the context of his socio-economic existence seems to constitute the foundation of man's intellectual enterprise. 

Phagwara
THEFT :Valuables worth Rs 87000 were stolen from a shop at Panshatta village on Thursday night. The police has registered a case.

ASI SUSPENDED: ASI Jatinder Singh, in charge, police post, Chiheru, has been placed under suspension for dereliction of duty. SI Sulakhan Singh, Traffic in charge, has been sent to the Police Lines.

Phillaur
BJP PLEA: Punjab BJP president Avinash Rai Khanna on Friday urged Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh order security of Shri Devi Talab Mandir and Shri Durgiana Mandir.

SAMRALA
ELECTED: The followings have been elected office bearers of the local Bar Association: President — Mr Uttam Chand, vice president — Jaswinder Singh Nagra, secretary — Mr Surinder Singh Rai, and joint-secretary — Mr Parminder Singh Grewal. 

TRIBUTES PAID: Tributes were paid to Jathedar Jagmohan Singh Makkar, president, SAD (B) at Machhiwara, 9 km from here. MLA Koom Kalan Mr Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, highlighted the sacrifices rendered by Jathedar Makkar towards the Akali Dal, journalism and the area of Machhiwara in the social sphere. Jathedar Kuldeep Singh Jatiwal thanked the participants. 

APPRECIATED: Hamdardvir Naushaharvi, a noted Panjabi writer has welcomed the decision of the Senate of Punjab University to introduce examination of LLB in Panjabi medium from the coming accademic session. Prof Nausheharvi also demanded to introduce Punjabi as medium of teaching and examination for LLB also. 

Tarn Taran
ANIMALS' CAMP: The Animal Welfare Department organised a farmers’ awareness and animal welfare camp at animal hospital, Lalpur village, here on Friday. More than 100 animal owners of the village participated in the camp who were explained animals in winter disease.

MINI BUS OPERATORS: The Mini-bus Operator Workers Union here on Friday resolved to move court against the impounding of its buses by the government for a rally at Amritsar and Jalandhar by Mr Ravi Inder Singh.

ONE HELD: The Amritsar police has nabbed Kuldeep Singh alias Pappu of Mahal village under Sadar police station, Amritsar and recovered two trucks and one tractor from him. A case under Sections 379, 411 of the IPC has been registered.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTORAL ROLLS: The work of summary revision of electoral rolls of Kalka Assembly constituency has begun from December 16. A press release said the electoral rolls were available in the offices of Deputy Commissioner and SDM, Panchkula, MC and tehsil offices of Kalka and Panchkula, DPRO offices and all patwar khanas, panchayat ghars, and all polling stations in the district till January 7. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
MEMO SUBMITTED: The Ambala Cantonment Traders Federation said on Saturday that soiled currency notes should not be issued by the nationalised banks. The federation in a memorandum addressed to the Deputy Controller, Reserve Bank of India, said, "The nationalised banks stationed at Ambala Cantonment are issuing soiled and spoilt currency notes frequently to the customers.” "The bank authorities have also adopted a procedure to debit the account of the customer at the time of issuing cheque books and some of the banks charge per leaf. The customer does not know the amount being debited. This practice should be stopped," the memorandum adds. 

DENTAL CAMP: A dental check-up camp was organised by the Lions Club, Ambala city Supreme, at Maharaja Public School on Saturday in which a number of patients were examined by a team of doctors of Mulana Dental College. On the occasion, the Regional Chairman, Mr Pawan Chopra, Project Chairman Chaman Lal Gupta, co-chairman Satish Gupta and club president Prem Luthra were present. 

AWARDED: The chairman of the M M Group of Institutions, Mr Tarsem Kumar Garg, was awarded Pride of India International Award and Vishaw Jyoti Award at a function organised in Delhi by the International Business Council on Friday. According to a press release, the former Chief Election Commissioner, Mr GBG Krishanmurti and a former Governor, Dr Bhisham Narain Singh, conferred the awards to Mr Garg. This award was presented to him for his out standing contributions in the field of technical education in Haryana. 

Fatehabad
ACCIDENT: Anil Godara (22) of Matana village was killed and his companion Yogesh of Model Town here was injured seriously in an accident on national highway number 10 on Thursday when their motor cycle hit an ox and skidded. Godara succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Condition of Yogesh is serious. Both are students of Manohar Memorial College, Fatehabad.

Karnal
WORKSHOP: The bio-informatics centre at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here organised a workshop on ‘‘Decision Support and Expert Systems in Dairying’’, on Friday. Artificial neural networks and their potential application, expert systems, decision support systems, data warehousing and data mining techniques besides, a frame work for intelligent system, natural language interfaces, neural computing with their potential application in agriculture in general and dairying in particular were deliberated upon. Participants from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, regional centre of Haryana Agriculture University, Uchani, College of Agriculture-Kaul, National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation, Salaru, Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal and NDRI, Karnal, attend the workshop.

RICE POOL SHARE: Haryana has delivered over 6.63 lakh tonnes of rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the Central pool in which Karnal district led in the contribution with 1.64 lakh tonnes of rice followed by 1.35 lakh tonnes by Kurukshetra, 90,100 tonnes by Kaithal, 86,040 tonnes by Ambala and 56,220 tonnes by Sirsa. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Chamba
HAILED : His Holiness Dalai Lama has thanked Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, Member of Parliament, for mooting a Tibetan University in India. Dalai Lama informed that over 100 separate Tibetan schools and 200 monastic institutions had been established in India since early 1960s. Mr Mann received a letter from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee regarding the establishment of a Tibetan University for the preservation of the Tibetan civilisation.

Dharamsala
REMOVE ENCROACHMENTS: Kangra Deputy Commissioner, Dr Shrikant Baldi on Friday ordered the removal of encroachments outside Dr R.P.G. Medical College.

Kumarhatti
CHEMISTS WARNED : The Subathu police has urged the chemists and stationers not to sell cough syrups and correction fluid to children without doctor’s prescription because children consume it as for intoxicant.

Nurpur
JAILED : A court here on Thursday convicted Nirmal Singh, director of Pee Enn Wires Private, Ludhiana Road, Kupkalan (Punjab) and jailed him for six months as his cheques of Rs 4 lakh was dishonoured by the bank.

Shimla
VIKAS FORTNIGHT : The Himachal BJP will observe ‘‘Vijay Vikas Sankalp Pakhwara’’ from the December 25, birthday of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to take achievements of the BJP government to people and in a bid to win all four Lok Sabha seats.

Sundernagar
SENTENCED: Mr Sureshwar Thakur, Additional Sessions Judge Mandi on Friday convicted Nepali youth Chering Funcho of Kathmandu, for possessing 200 gm of charas and sentenced him to one year’s jail and fine a Rs 25,000. He was nabbed on December 23, 2002 at Kothi village and 200 gm charas was recovered from his possession.