Barnala
Boycott: The VHP has decided to boycott those political parties at functions which had questioned the existence of Lord Rama. This was stated by Bimal Kumar, district secretary of the VHP, here on Thursday.

Bathinda
Camp: The Agriculture Department will hold a technical awareness camp for all farmers of the area at Agriculture Bhavan here on Tuesday. This was stated by Paramjit Singh Sidhu, chief agricultural officer here on Friday. 

Function: Folk dances, plays and songs marked the function held on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh at Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology here on Thursday. Noted director Gursharan Singh was the chief guest on the occasion.

Wildlife Week: The Forest and Wildlife Department celebrated Wildlife Week at Deer Park, Bir Talab, here on Thursday. Quiz, painting and speech competitions were also held on the  occasion. 

BANUR
Teachers found absent: Nine teachers of Government Senior Secondary School, Banur, including the officiating principal, were found absent during a surprise check conducted by education minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur on Friday. The minister reached the school at 9.02 am and was accompanied by DPI (secondary) Jagtar Singh Khattra and other subordinate staff members. Nine teachers were found absent and four of them were late for their duty. Officiating principal Lalita Kumari was also not there. Talking to mediapersons, Khattra said disciplinary action would be taken against the erring teachers, which may tantamount to their suspension. 

GURDASPUR
Contests held: Competitions organised for school students of five villages of the district marked Wildlife Week celebrations in the district. The wildlife wing of the forest department organised various competetions including painting, quiz, essay writing.

Hoshiarpur
Paddy arrival: The procurement of paddy is being done smoothly at all the 54 procurement centres in Hoshiarpur district. As many as 25,165 tonne paddy has arrived in various centres of the district so far.

Jalandhar
Teachers protest: Members of the Government Teachers’ Union held a protest outside zila parishad office, here today. Their demands included benefits under 4-9-14 scale, exemption from duties of preparing mid-day meals, regularisation with full grades. The protesters also sought immediate filing up of vacant posts. Teachers working under zila parishad system who had been today asked to apply for transfers also held a protest. Meanwhile, members of the district government teachers union, Hoshiarpur today staged a day long dharna and rally in front of Zila Parishad to protest against the proposed handing over the control of education department to Zila Parishads’ in state. 

Helping hand: All the Rotary Clubs of Jalandhar have collectively presented their first instalment of Rs 51,250 to deputy commissioner Ajit Singh Pannu for the drug de-addiction programme of the Red Cross and the civil hospital here. District governor S.P.S. Grover, along with other members, handed over the contribution. 

Kharar
Placement drive: Over 2,500 students of engineering technology, computer applications and information technology from various technology institutes registered online for an upcoming campus placement interviews scheduled for Saturday at Rayat and Bahra Centre for Excellence at Sahauran campus of the institute. Vice-chairman, Rayat and Bahra Group of Institutes, Gurvinder Singh Bahra said many more students were expected to turn up for the campus interviews by registering on spot.The special recruitment drive is to be conducted for appointment of engineers with Wipro Technologies Infrastructure Services.

Ludhiana
Guest lecture: GGN Institute Of Management and Technology (GGNIMT) organised a guest lecture on “Data Mining: A promising research area for the students of BCA and MCA”, here today. Parminder Kaur, lecturer (CSE and IT), Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, was the guest speaker for the day. 

Moga
Tributes paid: Members of the Sarv Bharat Naujwan Sabha and All-India Students Union paid tributes to the students killed on this day in 1971 while fighting for rights of common people here on Friday. The ceremony was organised at Regal Cinema. On the occasion the family of Harjit Singh Charik were honoured.

PATHANKOT
Celebrated: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) celebrated its seventh anniversary here on Friday. Musaddi Lal, GMT(D), told the mediapersons here that that Punjab BSNL had launched some schemes for landline and WLL telephones.

Competition: The local unit of the Bharat Vikas Parishad organised a function here on Friday. Sita Ram Kashyap, MLA, Dinanagar, was the chief guest. Bishan Dass Sharma, president of the unit, said on this occasion a National Anthem singing competition would be held among students. 

PATIALA
Blood donation camp: Many people turned up for the second blood donation camp organised by Career Launcher at the Beant Singh shopping complex on Friday. Among the donors were students of Thapar College, Bikram College of Commerce, Government Mohindra College and Punjabi University. A team of doctors from the blood bank section of the Government Rajindra Hospital managed the camp, which was organised under the guidance of Aashima Jain and Bharat Jain, the proprietors of Career Launcher. 

Phillaur
Boy drowns: A young boy Rakesh Kumar drowned in a 40-feet deep village pond at Bilga village last night. The dead body of the deceased could not be located from the pond. Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh said help from Army would be taken to fish out the body.

SANGRUR
Vacant posts: Punjab Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur said on Friday that 4,000 posts of master cadre and 10,000 posts of elementary teacher would be filled within two months. She was at Sunam to participate in the annual prize distribution function of Guru Gobind Singh Public School. She announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the school. A deputation of the district unit of the ETT Teachers Union met the minister and submitted a memorandum of their demands. 

Tarn Taran
Suicide: Neglected by his two sons, a 65-year-old man here on Friday committed suicide by hanging himself at Jindawala village under police station, Patti. According to police sources, the deceased has been identified as Karnail Singh. In his suicide note, he had written that his two sons had also sold off some land in his name. A case had been  registered.