R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
TEACHERS’ BODY: Dr Devinder Singh of Psychology Department was on Wednesday elected president of the Guru Nanak Dev University Teaching Association by defeating Dr Jagroop Singh Sekhon, Head, Political Science Department. Dr Lakhwinder Singh, Business and Commerce Department was elected vice-president, Dr Kuldeep Singh, Political Science Department, secretary and Dr G.S. Virk, Botanical Environment Department, as joint secretary. Among others who won the elections were Dr Lakhwant Singh (treasurer) and six executive members were Dr G.S Kang, Dr Abdul Faruk, Dr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Dr Adarsh Pal Vij, and Dr Rajinder Singh Sandhu.

WARNED: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) warned that it will not allow the Divya Jyoti Jagran Sanstha to preach against Sikhism. Mr Dalmegh Singh, secretary, SGPC, in a press release here on Wednesday said Ashutosh and his disciples were against trying to disrupt peace and harmony in the state. The SGPC had already apprised the government of the situation wherein Ashutosh was indulging in activities against Sikhism.

Faridkot
NEW COURSES: The District Sainik Welfare Board will start classes to impart free training in Punjabi stenography and computer applications to the needy, widows and wards of the ex-servicemen in the district at its Sainik Institute of Computer and Stenography from September 1. In addition, the institute will also give training of PGDCA and DCA to graduates and those who had cleared senior secondary classes, respectively, said Lt Col Hardevinder Paul Singh (retd), Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare Board, in a press release on Wednesday.

INVITED: Following the directions of the Punjab Government, the district administration has invited applications from dependants of terrorist victims and 1984 riot victims to rehabilitate them on compassionate ground in the government service. In a press note here on Wednesday, Mr Alok Shekhar, Deputy Commissioner asked all deserving persons to deposit their applications along with a true copy of the FIR, red card and dependant certificate besides an affidavit signed by all members of the family for non-availing of such opportunity earlier in his office soon.

Gurdaspur
DHARNA: The joint action committee of the PSEB workers on Wednesday staged a dharna outside the office of the local Superintendent Engineer in protest against the debundling of the board and Electricity Bill 2003. The workers of the PSEB alleged that the present power crisis in the state was the result of the half-hearted policies of the government in the power sector.

RALLY: Representatives of the Primary School Teachers’ Union of the Gurdaspur held a rally against the acting District Education Officer (Primary), Ms Manjit Kaur. The teachers were protesting against the alleged dictatorial attitude of the acting DEO. The protesting teachers initially gathered at Sukha Tala park and later held a rally raising slogans against the acting DEO.

Hoshiarpur
DEMANDED: Capt Amarinder Singh should resign from the chief ministership of Punjab on moral grounds due to his failure for providing drinking water to the residents of the Kandi area. This was demanded by Mr Des Raj Dhugga, MLA from the Garhdiwala segment of the district, here on Wednesday. He said residents of the Kandi area of Hoshiarpur district was facing an acute shortage of drinking water. Many of the water supply schemes had gone out of order due to various defects and severe power cuts being imposed by the PSEB.

DEAD: Dr Harish Ohri, a leading dentist and a social activist, died in the local Civil Hospital on Wednesday. He was suffering from cancer. He was 55 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Dr Ohri was president of ‘‘Savera’’, a social organisation of Hoshiarpur, and was associated with many social and religious organisations of the city.

Moga
BOOKED: An arhtiya has been booked for misappropriating Rs 7,70,000, which he had borrowed from Gursewak Singh, a resident of Pattohirasingh. Gursewak Singh, in a statement, said Sitaram, an arhtiya based in Nihalsinghwala, had taken a loan of Rs 7,70,000 from him for two years. After completion of the term, when Gursewak asked the accused to return his money he started making excuses thus delaying the payment.

Nawanshahr
PROTEST: The district unit of the Govt Secondary School Teachers Union organised a protest rally and burnt an effigy of the Secretary, Education, in front of the office of the District Education Office here on Tuesday in protest against the anti-employee notification by the state government. The union leaders, Mr Shital Singh Chahal, Mr Harbant Singh Moron and Mr Pardeep Kumar, led the rally and demanded immediate withdrawal of the notification.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Schools Tournament Committee: president — Mr Vikram Rahil; general secretary — Mr Harbans Singh Gohlron; vice-presidents — Mr Gurmail Singh Sahlon, Mr Balbir Singh Saini and Mr Kashmiri Lal; and organising secretary — Mr Gurpal Singh.

Phagwara
FLAYED: SAD (A) president and former MP Simranjit Singh Manny on Tuesday flayed the decision of the NDA to boycott all parliamentary standing and consultative committees and criticised in this regard. Talking to newspersons here, Mr Mann asserted that the boycott would have far-reaching consequences.

ROAD MISHAP: Rekha (22) was killed and nine others were injured, two of them seriously, in a road accident on the GT road near Sapror village, 6 km from here, on Wednesday. It was learnt that a Tata Sumo ploughed into the roadside tented squatters of Sanyasi Dwakhana selling indigenous medicines. Rekha was killed while her mother Reshma and Sunita were injured.

Sangrur
LISTED: Mr Husan Lal, Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur, while enlisting his priorities as the Deputy Commissioner, on Wednesday said his first priority would be the redress the grievances of people. He was talking to mediapersons for the first time after taking over as Deputy Commissioner of Sangrur on Wednesday. Mr Husan Lal said he would ensure 3 per cent reservation for the handicapped in jobs to be filled at the Deputy Commissioner level.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Shri Sanatan Dharam Hari Mandir Sabha, Pracheen Shri Hamuman Mandir, Sector 32-A: chief patron— Mr S.S.Arora; president— Mr R.K.Sharma; senior vice- president — Mr J.C. Sharma; vice- presidents — Mr K.L.Bansal and Mr J.L.Gupta; general secretary — Mr T.K. Goyal; finance secretary— Mr C.L.Sharma and joint secretary — Mr Parveen Verma.

HARYANA

Ambala
CLAY MODELLING: A clay modelling competition was held on Thursday at Major R.N. Kapoor DAV Public School for the tiny tots of nursery and KG. School principal K. Relan said the first prize was won by Tania and Anuj in the nursery section and Gauri and Parth in the KG section. The second prize in the nursery section went to Sarthak and Vrinda while Parth and Yatin won in the KG section.

DEMAND: Residents of Prabhu Prem Puram on Thursday demanded that the tubewell at Khojkipur must be made operational at the earliest. The residents said they were not receiving water since the last 10 days. They said the Khojkipur tubewell from where they are getting their supply has dried up. They demanded that a fresh bore should be done by the Public Health Department so that the residents do not face any water scarcity.

Bhiwani
POLICE REMAND: The main accused in plotting an assault on a local municipal councillor five months ago, has been sent to police remand by a local court. Earlier, the court had sent him to judicial custody for one day when he surrendered before it. The court has sent the conspirator Karmbir to five days’ police custody.

DEMONSTRATION: Activists of the local unit of the Mahila Congress, will stage a demonstration in protest against the deteriorating law and order situation and rise in the number of cases of harassment of women, outside the office of the Deputy Commissioners in the state on July 30. The state general secretary of the Mahila Congress, Ms Bimla Parmar said a memorandum would also be given to the Governor after the demonstration.

MEETING: General Secretary of the Haryana Vikas Party Surender Singh has convened a meeting at Rohtak on Friday to discuss SYL canal issue. Media in charge Balbir Singh said all district presidents and executive body members would participate in the meeting. The party would soon organise a protest rally in New Delhi against the scrapping of the SYL agreement and vague policy of the Chautala government on this, he added.

Fatehabad
BOOKED: The police has booked a local youth for cheating a local branch of the State Bank of India by fraudulently disposing of a property which was hypothecated with the bank. Mr K.K. Mittal, Chief Manager of the bank had lodged a complaint with the police. According to the report, Verender, son of Updesh Kumar, had obtained a loan of Rs 10 lakh. Instead of repaying the loan amount, he sold the hypothecated stock and closed his firm. The police has registered a case.

Jind
SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Jind, Mr A.K. Raghav, on Tuesday sentenced Amrit, Randhir, Satyawan, Raja, alias Rajesh, Vijay, Laxmi Ram, Satpal, alias Pala, Shiv Narain, Ram Dhari and Manoj, all residents of Alipura village of the district to life imprisonment in a murder case.

Panipat
DHARNA: BJP workers from all over Haryana will stage a dharna in front of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh on August 4 against the Punjab Government’s decision to terminate all water-sharing accords with Haryana, Mr Raghwa Nand, a BJP leader from Hisar said here on Wednesday.

Sonepat
ARRESTED: The Kundli police on Thursday arrested Nirmal, owner of Mayank Cold Store, for ignoring safety measures in his cold store. According to a report, a fire had broken out in the cold store which was brought under control after 10 days. The cold store was damaged but the workers escaped unhurt.

CHAIN SNATCHED: Two youths riding a motor cycle, reportedly snatched the gold chain of Geeta who was going to her house on the old DC road here on Wednesday.

REJECTED: A local court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Mr Suresh Ahuja, an SDE of the UHBVN. According to a report, the SDE had been charged with the leakage of information about a surprise check which was to be conducted by the Vigilance wing of the UHBVN at the hotel of Mr Dev Raj Dewan, an independent MLA on June 24.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
GUTTED: Three shops were gutted along with their upper residential portions in a fire that started on Tuesday night at Dakkari Chowk of Ghumarwin town, about 20 km from here. Two fire engines rushed to the spot and fought with the flames for five hours along with local people and the police to extinguished the fire.

Kumarhatti
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among residents of Delgi panchayat over delay in filling posts of lecturers in the Government Senior Secondary School, Delgi, about 15 km from Subathu, after its up gradation from high school in April. No lecturer had been posted for class XI after the upgradation, said Mr. Paras Ram and Mr Mohan Singh, pradhan and uppradhan, respectively of the Delgi panchayat.

Shimla
MEETING: The dentists association of Government Dental College has urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, to appoint doctors who had pass out from the college and had furnished a bond to serve the state on priority. A deputation of the association met the Chief Minister here on Wednesday and brought to his notice that the previous Dhumal government had recruited dental doctors from outside the state even though qualified doctors were available within the state.