R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

FEROZEPORE
Honour for Prof Anand: The HRD Ministry has nominated Prof Sat Paul Anand, Principal, Guru Nanak College, as member of the Northern Regional Committee of the National Council for Teachers Education, Jaipur. Prof Anand will represent Punjab at the six-member committee. 

Ludhiana
EXHIBITION: A two-day exhibition of Thai furniture, decorative and gift items concluded at the Lakshmi Ladies Club on Saturday. Women from Thailand, in collaboration with with women from the city, Jalandhar and Amritsar, put on display a variety of Thai artifacts at the exhibition. 

PLAY STAGED: A play dedicated to Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his companions will be staged on Saturday at Government High School for Boys, Katni Kalan. The play will be staged with the assistance of villagers. A magic show will also be organised by the Taraksheel Society.

CYCLE RACE: The Guru Kirpa Mission Trust, Sita Nagar, organised a cycle race for children after giving them four-week training in cycling. It was done to improve the health of children. The results were: Sanchit Jain 1, Vaibhav 2, Shivek 3 and Rahul 4.

LAUNCHED: Portico, a home decor and furnishings brand, has launched its three new home textile themes for this season, named Ornamental Urban, Flower Market and Flavours of Life. According to the company, the new themes offer innovative, contemporary and ethnic designs.

NAWANSHAHR
Nursing Day: A function to mark “International Nursing Day” was organised at Sandhu Institute of Nursing, Mahalon (Nawanshahr) on Thursday. Ms Kuldip Kaur, Nursing Superintendent of the local Civil Hospital, was the chief guest. Dr DPS Sandhu, former Director, Health Services, Dr Mohinderjit Kaur Sandhu, Ms Harpreet Kaur, principal, Ms Gurpreet Kaur (clinical instructor), and Ms Satwinder Kaur (senior tutor), also addressed the gathering.

ATM facility: Mr Srihari Bhatt, General Manager, Syndicate Bank, inaugurated e-banking and ATM facility at the local branch of the Syndicate Bank. Mr O.T. Mathuni, Regional Manager, apprised the prominent citizens and bank customers of various schemes launched by the bank, informed Mr R.S. Mann, Branch Manager. 

Cheques given: Parliamentary Secretary Parkash Singh handed over cheques worth Rs 27.58 lakh and Rs 1.71 lakh to Lalit Mohan Pathak and Dharam Pal Banger, presidents of Nawanshahr and Rahon municipal councils, respectively, for carrying out development works in urban areas. He said a sum of Rs 99.75 lakh had been sanctioned for providing basic civic amenities in the urban areas in the district. 

Visit to villages: Activists of the women’s wing of the district-level NGOs’ coordination society — Upkar — visited Chuharpur, Langroya, Nai-Mazara and Sloh villages on Saturday to mobilise people to rise against femicide and drug addiction. Besides distributing pamphlets, “nukkad” meetings were organised at the villages. Deputy Commissioner’s wife Sarita, Shashi Sareen, Jatinder Kaur Pathlawa, Kulwant Kaur, Rajinder Gidda, Rashmi, Prem Lata, Santosh Saini, Kamala Bhutta, Sudesh Uppal, Joginder Kaur were present.

Pathankot
Gate at Madhopur: The state government will construct a gate at Madhopur, the last town of the state on the Pathankot-Jammu national highway. Talking to mediapersons here on Saturday, Housing and Urban Development Minister Raghunath Sahai Puri said it would be designed and build on the lines of Delhi Gate and India Gate at a cost of Rs 1 crore. A shopping complex would also come up near the proposed gate to attract tourists, he added.

Pension cheques: Local MLA and PTDC chairman Ashok Sharma distributed cheques among 146 pension beneficiaries under different schemes at a ceremony at the local Improvement Trust here on Friday. He also distributed a sum of Rs 15,000 among poor women.

SAMRALA
MOBILE TOWER: A new mobile tower of BSNL at Manupur village, 12 km from here, will be inaugurated by Mr S.R. Aggarwal, Senior General Manager (Operations) Punjab circle Chandigarh on Tuesday, said Mr S.S. Dhami, DET (Phones) Samrala, here on Saturday. Mr G S Julka, General Manager Telephones, Ludhiana, will also address the audience. 

PULSE POLIO: In Samrala 16 posts, 7 transit posts and 1 mobile post will be created for three days so as to cover approximately 3,100 children to give polio drops, said Dr Harvinder Singh, Senior Medical Officer, Samrala, here on Saturday. Talking to mediapersons, Dr Harvinder Singh, said on Sunday, drops would be given at the booths followed by two days of house-to-house visits. During this pulse polio volunteers from ayurvedic, homeopathic, ITI besides health department personnel will be joining in. The Nodal Officer Dr Tarkjot Singh said that all volunteers and supervisors have been given proper training for the programme so as to ensure complete coverage during second round of pulse polio.

HARYANA

Bhiwani
Bar association programme: The District Bar Association organised a programme on the taking over of R.S. Virk as Additional District and Sessions Judge here on Friday. The programme was presided over by association president Rishi Parmar. Secretary Ved Prakash Sangwan, vice-president Jitender Vashishtha, joint secretary Pawan Bedwal, treasurer Dinesh Sangwan and senior advocates were present.

Police chowki attacked: Enraged with the beating up of a youth at Jui village, 40 km from here, a mob attacked a police chowki here on Friday. Sources said Sombir was thrashed by the police for allegedly stealing Rs 53,000 of Satish. Shopkeepers of the nearby grain market protested the police action after Sombir fell unconscious. The mob then attacked and vandalised the chowki. The DSP later visited the chowki and asked the SHO to conduct and inquiry.

3 get life term: Additional District and Sessions Judge Surender Kumar has convicted three persons for murdering a man over watering of fields and sentenced them to life imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 each. In case of default of payment, the convicts will undergo another six months of imprisonment.

Man killed: A man was killed after he was hit by a Tata 709 on Friday. Om Prakash of Imlota village alleged that he was travelling with Ombir on a motor cycle when the vehicle hit his motor cycle. Ombir died before receiving medical aid. A case has been registered against the driver, who fled the scene.

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Zila Kar Salahkar Sangthan for 2006-07: president — Jeet Ram Gupta; vice-president — Sunder Lal Gupta; secretary — Rakesh Kataria, joint secretary — Pawan Kumar Jain; and treasurer — Madan Lal Garg.

Fatehabad
CA commits suicide: Rohit Joshi (35), a chartered accountant, committed suicide near his residence on Saturday. Joshi had divorced his first wife last year and had married again four months back. He had a son from his first marriage. He is the son of M.L. Joshi, former English lecturer at the local Manohar Memorial College.

Rewari
5 sheep killed: Five head of sheep were killed and several others injured when they got buried under a tree trunk that fell following a storm near Jhal village, around 40 km from here, on Friday. Their shepherd, Kamruddin, also sustained minor injuries. Kamruddin, his two co-shepherds and the sheep had taken shelter under the tree during the storm when the incident happened.

Suicide: A married woman, Anita (20), committed suicide by reportedly consuming poison at her parental house at Kosli on Friday evening. She had performed poorly in her BCom (final) examination held recently. Anita, who was married to Rajender Kumar in November, 2005, had returned to her parental house at Kosli last week. The police has registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC. 

HIMACHAL

Bilaspur
Doctors’ plea: The district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Medical Officers Association has condemned the appointment of a bureaucrat as Director, National Rural Health Mission, in the state and demanded that the post be filled by the senior most doctor of the Health Department. The district association presided by district president Dr N.K. Sankayan also demanded that promotion rules for medical officers be relaxed and amended.

SOLAN
Man kills self: A youth, Sukhdev Singh (36), jumped into a well at Kammawali village near Panjhera in Nalagarh sub-division on Friday afternoon. His body was noticed by a passerby who informed the police.

Sundernagar
Man convicted: Mr A.C. Dogra, Sessions Judge, Mandi, has convicted Krishan Kumar of Thenra Muhalla, Mandi, for possessing 250 gm of charas and sentenced him to imprisonment for two years and fined him Rs 20,000.