ABOHAR
Dharna: Farmers of different villages sat on dharna on Thursday outside the office of the divisional engineer of the Irrigation Department at Canal Colony here in protest over erratic supply of canal water for irrigation and drinking through Panjawa and Malukpura minors (sub-canals). 

AMRITSAR
Condemned: The Punjab Medical and Dental Teachers Association on Wednesday condemned the suspension of principal of Amritsar Medical College. Rajinder Singh Sidhu, vice-president of the association, said the government should have initiated an inquiry against J.P.K. Shergill, principal, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital of the college, and H.S. Grewal before taking this step. He urged the government to revoke the suspension orders and order an inquiry. 

New varsity: Guru Granth Sahib World University in Fatehgarh Sahib, to be established by the SGPC, will be functional in June-July, 2009. Former vice-chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia said here on Thursday that a draft bill seeking a specific act for the university had been cleared by the Education Department. 

Barnala
Criticised: The Punjab School Education Board has been criticised for adopting a discriminatory policy under the Sarb Sikhya Abhiyan. Ram Niwas Sharma, district president of the Barhmin Sabha, has said the board provides books free of cost to C/ST students and only girl students belonging to the general category. These books are not available in the market as the board alone publishes the books, the boy students belonging to the general category are finding it difficult to get the books and study. 

Arrested: The police on Thursday arrested three accused in a snatching incident. One Scorpio, one pistol with five cartridge were seized from them. Parmjeet Singh Garewal, SSP, said Jagtar Singh, Harpreet Singh and Jagjeet Singh were arrested on the complaint of a taxi driver, Sukhwinder Singh, who had complained to the police that the trio hired his Scorpio on September 1. On the way at Harigarh they stopped the vehicle, tied his hands and legs and took away the vehicle.

FAZILKA
Intruder shot: Jawans of 20 Battalion of the BSF shot dead a Pakistan intruder on Thursday while three others managed to flee. According to official sources, four unidentified persons sneaked into the Indian territory from the Pakistan side near Pattan post. The BSF jawans asked them to stop. When they did not stop the BSF jawans opened fire in which one intruder was shot dead. 

HOSHIARPUR
Cop booked:Tanda police has booked a cop Kuldip Singh and his father Nirmal Singh, residents of Tahli village, under sections 406 and 420 of the IPC for duping Jaspal Singh of Ballochack in Kapurthala of Rs 5 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad. 

Cyclists killed: Paramjit Singh (18) of Bharowal and Rajinder Kumar of Saila died on the spot when a truck hit their cycle at Saila village on the Hoshiarpur-Chandigarh road, here on Thursday. Truck driver Harbans Lal of Dhada village in Una district was overpowered by people and handed over to the police.

Jalandhar
Plantation drive : A tree plantation drive was carried out in Guru Nanak National College Nakodar to mark the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh. College president Pritam Singh said more than 1,000 saplings were being planted as a part of the drive. He said the college campus was already lush green with nearly 2,000 trees planted around the boundaries and lawns and the 1,000 new trees would add to the beauty of the premises.

Autumn fest: Autumn Fest, an exhibition of home decor and high-fashion clothing, will be organised at Hotel Radisson on September 22 and 23. Organisers Reeti Singh and Niku Sehgal said the exhibition would cater to the styling needs of the visitors, including apparels, artificial jewellery, home furnishings, exclusive paintings, studio pottery, exclusive tiles and accessories, to accentuate home and living. They said the exhibition would be held in association with Jagriti, a cancer support group.

CTC outlet: CTC Emporia, a known name in the fashion industry for the past 45 years, opened its first branch in the state at Shastri Nagar Market here today.Company director Anil Chhabra said so far there were nine outlets in the country and seeing the response, the company was planning to open 100 more in the coming months.Meanwhile, Ajay Kapoor and Anil Kumar, who brought the franchisee to the city, said the outlet had a wide array of designer suits, lehngas, sarees and dress material.

Mohali
PunCom bags tender: The Punjab Communications (PunCom) has bagged a BSNL tender worth Rs 36 crore for the supply of synchronous transport mode equipment (STM-16). Managing director Anurag Verma said it was state-of-the-art technology equipment for transmission of voice and data on optical fibre cable using lasers. Verma said recently PunCom had entered into a strategic tie-up with a Bangalore-based technology company, Ordyn, which was one of the major technology developers and manufacturers of optical telecom transmission equipment in the country. At a meeting held with CEO, Ordyn, R. Venkatesh said various strategic initiatives were discussed to take forward the relationship between the two companies.

Consumer forum: The Consumers’ Protection Forum on Thursday urged the government to reconsider its decision of shifting the site of the District Administrative Complex from Sector 62 to some nearby village. Forum’s chairman Albel Singh Shyan and president P.S. Virdi said the residents were disappointed about the government’s latest move as they said Sector 62 was centrally located where important offices and business establishments had been planned. The shifting of the site to a village could lead to connectivity problems.

Grant for Press Club: Ropar MP Sukhdev Singh Libra stated that the Congress government at the Centre had been meting out step motherly treatment to Punjab. The MP was talking to mediapersons during a ‘Meet the Press’ organised by the Mohali Press Club on Thursday. He announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the club. The MP said compared to other states, the Union government had never tried to encourage industrialization in the state. He added that a group of MPs had recently met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and apprised him of the problems facing the state.

PATHANKOT
Summoned: Subdivisional judicial magistrate H.S. Gill has summoned executive officer Parminder Singh, section officer Amarbir Singh and head draftsman Parkash Chand of the local improvement trust in a case involving demolition of shops. Complainant Ram Murti Mahajan has claimed his shops, located at Patel Chowk, were demolished despite these conforming to the building bylaws.

Patiala
Sports seminar : The Department of Physiotherapy and Sports Sciences, Punjabi University, in collaboration with the Exercise, Fitness and Health Alliance (EFHA), will be hosting the first international conference on physiotherapy and sports sciences from October 4 to 9. The theme of the conference will be “Enhancing Health Through Movement” and the thrust will be to provide a common platform for exercise scientists and research scholars to discuss the challenges that come in the way of improving health at global level. 

Samrala
FUND: Devi Dayal Sharma, president of the club, said R.P.S. Pawar, principal secretary, sports, has sent Rs 2 lakh for the sports club, Samrala, for stadium’s development. The club members thanked the principal secretary as well as Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, former minister, for this gesture.

Inaugurated: Keeping in view the demand of the area, United Agro Foods has opened a new sheller at Mehdoodan, 10 km from here, on Thursday which was inaugurated by Baba Surmukh Singh of Ghungrali. Former MLA Amrik Singh Dhillon, member, SGPC, Jathedar Kirpal Singh Kheernian, president of the district SAD unit, Santa Singh Umaidpuri, president of the Document Writers Association were also present.

Tarn Taran
Vehicle lifters’ gang busted: The Valtoha police claims to have busted a gang of vehicle lifters and arrested five youths and seized eight motorcycles and scooters from their possession. The accused have been identified as Surjit Singh of Kalsian, Ramandeep Singh of Marri Nau Abad, Rajwinder Singh of Wan, Nirvail Singh and Manga Singh of Bhikhiwind. The accused used to steal vehicles from busy markets and later dispose them on fake papers.

TOANSA (RUPNAGAR): Pharmaceutical company DSM Anti-Infectives (DAI), which has its plant at Toansa, completed one year of operating a process to produce Purimox (enzymatically produced Amoxicillin Trihydrate). DAI claims to be world’s number one supplier of penicillin and penicillin derivatives and has a workforce of over 3,000 and has production sites in Holland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Mexico, India, China and Egypt. India is a focus area of activities that DSM is developing and promoting. The site at Toansa employs nearly 500 people most of who are from in and around Punjab.

Ambala
Tablets administered: Sub-divisional magistrate M.K. Ahuja administered iron and folic acid tablets to students of Government Senior Secondary School, Prem Nagar, Ambala, here on Thursday. This was done as part of Haryana government’s initiative to improve the health of children. Ahuja said a large number of primary school children are suffering from anaemia and worm infestation. He stated that Education Department and the Health Department would join hands to combat the menace of anaemia and polio.

DC warns violators: The district administration has decided to take action against the vehicles running without proper documents. DC Mohammad Shayin on Thursday said it had been brought to his notice that three-wheelers were carrying schoolchildren above the prescribed capacity and the drivers were not carrying proper driving licences. He added most of the drivers did not have registration certificates, insurance and permits and anybody found violating rules would be challenged. He asked school authorities to ensure that students do not come to schools on two-wheelers without a proper driving licence and that illegal parking should also not be allowed in front of schools.