BARNALA
Inaugurated: V.K. Ohri, DC, inaugurated the science block at Lal Bahadur Shastri Arya Mahila College Barnala here on Tuesday. Bharat Bushan Menon, secretary of the college management, while applauding the role of the staff for imparting good quality education to girls, said with the opening of the block the college became the only girls college in the district to have science stream. Neeru Ohri , wife of the DC, gave away the prizes.

BATHINDA
Suicide: Labh Singh, a youth, allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with a gun in a house near the bus stand road. The body was found lying in a pool of blood, on Wednesday. A suicide note has also been recovered from the spot. In it he had mentioned that he was committing suicide due to psychological stress.

SDO caught: PSEB SDO, Gidderbaha, Sukhdarshan Bansal, was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 5,000 as a bribe from farmer Malkit Singh to get his tube-well connection sanctioned from an executive engineer concerned. The SDO was caught in the presence of two government witnesses and one shadow witness. The bribe money taken from Malkit Singh was recovered from Bansal’s pocket, SSP (Vigilance) M.S. Dahiya said.

FARIDKOT
Inspection: Vice-chairman of the state Planning Commission J.S. Bajaj visited the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences on Tuesday. He visited a few wards and hospital’s emergency wing and expressed concern over faulty machines and institute’s functioning. He was here as the university was to given Rs 400-crore Central grant to be routed through the planning commission.

Ferozepur
Held for graft: Vigilance sleuths have arrested district food and supplies officer Satpal Bhusri posted at Fazilka while allegedly accepting Rs 1,500 as a bribe from Hans Raj of Shashmabad village, Fazilka. Satpal was arrested in the presence of two government witnesses, Shuman Singh and Nathu Ram Duggal.

HOSHIARPUR
Man crushed to death: Ganga Ram of Chak Gujran was crushed to death by a bus (HP-39-3954) at the local bus stand on Wednesday. The Model Town police has registered a case under sections 304 (A) and 279 of the IPC against bus driver Pritam Singh.

Booked for kidnapping: On a complaint of Joginder Singh of Sunni village, the Mahilpur police has registered a case under sections 363 and 366 of the IPC against Kuldip Singh for kidnapping his daughter. In his complaint Joginder Singh alleged that Kuldip Singh had abducted his 17-year-old daughter Rajni.

SHOs transferred: SSP Anita Punj on Wednesday transferred station house officers (SHOs) of the city and Model Town police stations inspector Praveen Kumar Kanda and sub-inspector Sukhwinder Singh, respectively, following a protest dharna and chakka jam by shopkeepers of the local Phagwara road on Wednesday. She has also served show-cause notices on both officers and instructed to take departmental action in this regard.

JALANDHAR
No VAT on dhabas: CM: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has assured a delegation of dhaba owners, which met him on Tuesday, that no VAT would be imposed on them. Dhaba owners in a press note here expressed the hope that the dhabas would be kept out of the purview of VAT after the CM’s assurance. The association claimed that BJP leaders like Manoranjan Kalia, Rajinder Bhandari, Avinash Rai Khanna and Navjot Singh Sidhu had also lent a patient hearing to them.

MBA exam toppers: Students of the Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology, Ludhiana, have attained top three ranks in the MBA (second semester) examination conducted by Punjab Technical University. Chanpreet Kaur is first with 92.36 per cent, Megha Jain second with 90.5 and Kirpal Singh is third with 89.75 per cent marks.

Medical camp: A diabetes and heart check-up camp will be organised at Rattan Hospital in Shahid Udham Singh Nagar from 10 am to 12 noon here on Thursday. Managing director of the hospital Balraj Gupta, in a press note issued here on Wednesday, said, besides medicines, patients would be provided facilities like ECG, blood sugar and neuropathy tests, diet counselling and patient education material free of cost during the camp.

Samrala
CAMP: Under the dynamic leadership of Gulzar Singh Raniky, minister for animal husbandry, Punjab in collaboration with the Oriental Bank of Commerce is holding a fertility, camp anti-rabic vaccination camp and Eye camp at Bhagwanpura village, 5-km from here on Saturday.

APPEAL: Harpal Singh Dhillon former chairman of the market committee, Samrala has criticised the Punjab Government for enhancing the interest in co-operative society loans to the poor farmers. The rate of interest was as it is very high and it was very difficult for the farmer to pay it. Dhillon appealed to finance minister Manpreet Badal to reconsider the case and issue orders for reduction of interest.

MEETING: A condolence meeting was held here on Friday by the members of the Press Club under the chairmanship of Sanjay Garg on the sudden death of senior journalist, Narinder Bhullar of the Punjabi Tribune.

BILASPUR
Minister visits hospital: Newly appointed health minister Sujan Singh Pathania visited the Civil Hospital, Ghumarwin, on Tuesday evening. He took stock of the conditions prevailing there. He visited all wards and talked to the patients and asked about difficulties being faced by them. He found all doctors and staff present and performing their duties. He praised arrangements and development works being done by the Hospital Rogi Kalyan Samiti.

Crushed to death: Santi Devi (55) of Dhar Tatoh village was crushed under a bus on Ghagus bridge while trying alight from it. The HRTC bus was on its way from Neri to Bilaspur. Her husband Krishanoo Ram was also travelling with her in the same bus. Traffic remained jammed for some time.

DALHOUSIE
Fraud: The police has registered a case of fraud against certain security officials of a construction company working on a hydroelectric project in Chamba district for taking the locals for a ride on the pretext of providing jobs to them in the company. According to sources, the complainant named Ujjal, a resident of nearby area, who got the FIR lodged with the police had alleged that the security officials had taken Rs 6,000 from him for getting him a job in the company.

KULLU
School: Agriculture minister Raj Krishan Gaur inaugurated an upgraded middle school at Benchi, around 15 km from here, on Wednesday. He said the government was committed to the all-round development of children studying in government schools. He said Manali would get an industrial training institute (ITI) very soon. This was stated by Gaur at a public meeting on the occasion of laying of foundation stone of the Rs 71-lakh science block building of government senior secondary school, Manali, on Tuesday.

Kumarhatti
Accident: Ajit Kumar, who hailed from Bihar, was killed on the spot while auto driver Swaran Singh sustained serious injuries when a rear wheel of the auto got separated before it hit a tipper coming from the opposite direction on the Baddi-Sai road on Wednesday.

Rape charge: A 13-yr-old girl was allegedly raped by a 50-year-old man of Purla village, near Parwanoo. Victim’s mother Rama Shanker, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, has alleged that the man raped her daughter on Monday afternoon while she was alone at home. A case has been registered.

MANDI
1 dies in mishap: An oil tanker (JK 02T-6509) that was on its way from Pathankot to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir fell into a nullah near Megal on the Pathankot-Mandi highway, around 12 km from here on Tuesday night. The driver of the tanker, Dharampal, a resident of Jammu, was killed on the spot.