Batala
Mini-secretariat for Batala: A mini-secretariat will be raised on 12-acre land at Maal Mandi on the Gurdaspur road, chief parliamentary secretary Jagdish Sawhney informed in a meeting held here today.Sawhney presided over the meeting of the Batala development board in the town hall where he declared that a mini-secretariat constituting judicial, executive and all offices of the administrative machinery would be constructed.He further disclosed that Justice Vijender Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court visited the spot recently and approved construction of a judicial complex at the place. The meeting was attended by deputy commissioner of Gurdaspur Vivek Pratap Singh, Batala SDM Sandeep Rishi, MC president Subhash Sekhri and other officers.

BATHINDA
Conservation day: About 100-m-long poster conveying the message to protect the environment by planting saplings was displayed by students of the local Saint Joseph Convent School outside its premises to mark the nature conservation day here on Saturday.In another event, volunteers of the local Goodwill Society planted 50 saplings in the premises of the ESI dispensary to celebrate the Vanamahotsav. Kulbir Singh, medical specialist, along with other staff members of the dispensary participated in the function. 

Cheese seized: Now the district health authorities have seized about 30 kg of sub-standard cheese being brought to this town from Haryana.This is the second case of food adulteration here, which has come to light in the past few days.About 30 kg of cheese was seized by a team of district health authorities.A legal action was being taken against the supplier of the cheese. 

HOSHIARPUR
Teen raped: Sadar Police has booked Rinku, a resident of Bassi Mustafa, under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC for allegedly raping a teenaged girl of Dalewal village. Father of the victim alleged that his 14-year old daughter was abducted by their neighbour Sunil Kumar’s driver Rinku. The accused kidnapped her while she was on her way to the fields in the morning and raped on in the Tata Sumo which the he was driving. The accused fled after throwing her on the road out of the vehicle. 

Jalandhar
Potter finds many readers: The Harry Potter mania seems to have gripped the city children as 75 books were sold by Universal Book Depot at Mai Hiran Gate till this afternoon. The new series of the book, Harry Potter and the death of hallows, arrived at the store at 7.30 am and since then the retail sale was on. Shp owner Ajit Rakheja said most of the buyers were children of the age group of 12 to 15 years. He said a special stall was put up in the Model Town market in the evening where too the response was good. “Several schools and individuals had made advance booking”, he said.

Phagwara
Power shutdown: There will be no power supply to Hadiabad, Satnampura, Bhagatpura, GT Road and Santokhpura on Sunday from 8 am to 10 am, while power supply would remained switched off to the local GT Road, Kherra Road, Model Town, Gurunanakpura, Urban Estate, Rattanpura, Onkar Nagar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar from 9 am to 3 pm due to maintenance work. This was disclosed by senior executive engineer Sanjeev Kumar this evening. 

HAMIRPUR
Inaugurated: Anita Verma, MLA, inaugurated a bridge at Rihala nalah on Friday constructed at a cost of Rs 32.10 lakh. She said 15 bridges and 6 buildings had been constructed and Rs 100 crore had been spent on these and out of 1,617 villages, 1,170 villages had been linked with roads. 

BSNL: Chief general manager (CGM) Anil Kaushal of BSNL Himachal circle said 2006-07 had been declared as the broadband year and broadband services at 244 locations had been planned. He said soon 4.3 lakh lines would be added to broaden mobile connections. Kaushal said caller ID-based Internet facility under the brand of ‘NET ONE’ would be launched shortly.

Stabbed: A young man, Pradeep (24), was stabbed to death in Tal area of the district on Saturday. He was stabbed in the back after a verbal duel with a local youth. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to Hamirpur hospital.

KUMARHATTI
Labour laws: Stressing upon the need to change the old labour laws, INTUC All-India president G. Sanjeeva Reddy said no governments had ever done anything for labourers’ welfare. Reddy was talking to mediapersons at Parwanoo on Saturday, during his two-day visit to state. He said INTUC would not tolerate injustice to labour class at any cost. 

Burglary: Burglars struck at a garment shop here on Friday night and decamped with garments worth Rs 5,000. The shop was situated along the Kalka-Shimla national highway and was adjacent to a motor mechanic shop. The burglars first entered the mechanic shop from where they picked up the equipments to break open the lock of the shop. Luckily, they failed to notice the costly garments lying in the shop. The possibility of involvement of migrant labourers cannot be ruled out.

PALAMPUR
Vet grads take oath: CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University organised oath-taking ceremony for veterinary graduates of the G.C. Negi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences here on Saturday. Vice-chancellor of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, V.K. Taneja was chief guest, while Tej Partap, vice-chancellor, presided over the function. 

SHIMLA
Meeting: The Shimla chapter of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) will organise activities to create public awareness on various social issues besides concerted efforts for achieving excellence in profession. The decision was taken at the executive committee meeting of the PRSI here on Friday evening. National vice-president of the society Rajesh Kumar presided over the meeting. Chairman of the Shimla chapter of the society B.D. Sharma also spoke on the occasion.

Two killed: Two persons were killed and three seriously injured when a Maruti car rolled down a khud near Theog on Friday. The car (HP-09A-0718) was on its way from Shimla to Kotkhai when the mishap occurred near village Kui on the Theog-Chaila road. The deceased were Gina Chand (40) of Bahal village in Kotkhai and Bansi Lal (45) of Gumma. The injured, Kamla of Chauri in Karsog, Rajender of Theog and Laik Ram of Kotkhai, were admitted to the IGMC.