The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

MAILBAG

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
Dead: One Mandeep Kaur died after she consumed poison on Friday. Her body was found in the toilet of a house in Sunder Nagar here. SHO Jagrup Singh had visited the locality. It was learnt that the police has found a suicide note. The city police has initiated a probe into the death of the married woman, sources said.

Robbery: After one Ramesh Kumar received multiple injuries in a road mishap last night and was referred for treatment to Sriganganagar, his family got another setback as burglars robbed them of cash and gold while they were in Srignanganagar. On Saturday, when the family returned, it found the locks of bedroom and kitchen broken. A complaint has been lodged with the police.

AMRITSAR
MLA’s driver, gunman held, released: The gunman and the driver of a car belonging to Manjeet Singh Manna, MLA from the Khadoor Sahib constituency, were arrested for allegedly being in a compromising position with two women in the wee hours of Friday.They were taken to the police station, but later released. IG, Border Range, Rajpal Meena said the car was stopped by the police on suspicion, but the two were released as the women turned out to be the wives of the gunman and the driver.

Barnala
Distributed: As many as 425 students of Sandhu Patti Government Primary School, Gandhi Arya High School, Government Primary School, Bazigar Basti and Aaklagarh Basti were deistributed shoes and socks, president of the Shri Bala Ji trust Gyan Chand, said here. He said 50 blankets were also distributed to the poor.

BATHINDA
Awarded: District Red Cross Society, Bathinda, was awarded by General SF Rodrigues, Governor, Punjab, for obtaining first position in membership and donations in the state.

Tournament: Indo-Canadian Punjabi Sports and Cultural Club, Toronto, held a meeting in Bathinda regarding the fourth international Indo-Canadian kabaddi tournament, which is being held on January 6, 2008 in the city. There will also be girls' kabaddi show match, 40-year-old men's open competitions, giddha and bhangra during the tournament. Various responsibilities were assigned to village kabaddi clubs to make the event successful.

Attacked: Honeybees attacked at least a dozen people near Gate Number 1 of Thermal Colony here on Saturday injuring one of them seriously. It happened when a beehive broke down accidentally and bees got aggressive. The incident continued for more than three hours.

CHANDIGARH
Badal mourns Pannun’s death: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday expressed grief over the death of India's former high commissioner to Ghana Dr Daljit Singh Pannun, who died after a brief illness. In a message Badal described Dr Pannun as a multi-faceted personality with the qualities of the head and heart. His contribution towards the uplift of the weaker sections of society would be remembered by all.

CLP meeting on Dec 17: Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has convened a meeting of the Punjab Congress Legislature Party on December 17 at the Punjabi Regional Committee Hall in the Vidhan Sabha.

Fazilka
Appointed: Senior advocate Vishnu Dass Kataria has been appointed as Additional Standing Government Counsel for a period of two years. His appointment would be governed by the terms and conditions of the Law and Justice Ministry. Senior advocates Jaipal Singh Sandhu, Subhash Chawla, Sushil Gumber and Manoj Tripathi hailed his appointment.

Jalandhar
CBSE test series: MBD Alchemie, India’s largest online educational academy, launched CDs of CBSE test series for the Class X and XII board examinations-2008. The CDs will be available through more than 10,000 leading booksellers spread across the country.

Moga
Lok Adalat: Ranjit Singh Randhawa, Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, took part in the Lok Adalat held here on Saturday. He also went to the local sub-jail in order to take stock of the living condition of the prisoners.

PATIALA
Lok Adalat: A special Lok Adalat under the direction of Justice Mehtab Singh Gill of Punjab and Haryana High Court-cum-executive chairman, Punjab Legal Service Authority and under the supervision of Inderjit Singh Walia, district and sessions judge-cum-chairman of the District Legal Service Authority, Patiala, was held on Saturday. Walia informed that 51 lok adalats in Patiala district were held in 2007 in which 3,889 cases of different kinds were decided.

Phagwara
Power shutdown: Power supply to the areas of New Model Town, Khottrra Road, Onkar Nagar, Rattanpura, GT Road, Pipa Rangi, Shiv Puri, Hoshiarpur Road, Daddal Mohalla, Mot Bazar, Katehra Chowk, Palahai Gate, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Palahai road would remain suspended from 9 am to 3 pm on Sunday.

Tarn Taran
1 killed, 2 hurt in road mishap: One person was killed, while two others were hurt, when two motor bikes collided near village Soorwind. The deceased has been identified as Baljit Singh (30) and the injured were Kulwant Singh and Pargat Singh.

CHANDIGARH

MOHALI
Killed: An unidentified motorcyclist was killed in an accident on the Raipur Kalan village road on Saturday. The victim, in his early twenties, seemed to have been hit by a speeding vehicle. The dead body was sent to the civil hospital where it would be kept for 72 hours for identification.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Theft: As many as 30 mobile phones worth Rs 1.5 lakh were stolen from Subhiksha showroom at Ambala City on Friday night. Showroom manager Vineet said he discovered the theft in the morning when he came to open the showroom. He found that the locks were in tact but the shutter was tempered with. He said as many as 30 mobile phones were missing. No clue of theft was achieved so far. A case against unknown thieves has been registered.

Arrested: The detective staff of Ambala police has nabbed three youths for possessing a pistol and 10 live cartridges. The youths belonge to Tarantaran and Amritsar. A case under the Arm Act was registered against them. Later, the youths were produced in a local court which remanded them to police custody.

CHANDIGARH
Interest waiver: If the loanees of Gurgaon district deposit the balance of the principal loan amount before December 31, which was taken by them under Lai or Mai Rural Scheme, then the complete interest will be waived. An official spokesman said the balance principal loan amount could be deposited in the office of the DC, Gurgaon, at room no 208, mini-secretariat. For getting more information in this regard, the persons can contact on telephone no 2322877.

KALKA
Youth fest: Students of Government Postgraduate College excelled in the zonal youth festival of the Ambala zone of Kurukshetra University organised from December 11 to 13 at Arya Kanya Maha Vidyalya, Shahbad Markanda. In the one-act play titled “Main Phir Aaonga”, directed by Munish Joshi, the college team bagged the second position. Meena Devi of BA II stood second in Indian light vocal category, Neha Bhalla, BA III, stood second in folk song (solo), Vineet of BA II won the best actor award while Anita Sharma of BA II won the best actress award in one-act play. Gurmeet of BA III bagged the best actor award in the Haryanvi skit contest. College principal R.S. Mann congratulated the winners.

KURUKSHETRA
Office-bearers elected: The following were declared elected office-bearers of the Kurukshetra University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) here on Friday. President Om Prakash Gehlawat, vice-president Dr Ramesh Kumar, secretary Dr Kusumlata and treasurer Sanjeev Dhawan.

Appointed: Former vice-president of the District Congress Committee, Kurukshetra, Mohinder Singh has been appointed as the organising secretary of the committee by Phool Chand Mullana, president, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee.

REWARI
Seminar held: District officials of various departments and teachers of various schools participated in a district-level seminar held under the joint auspices of the renewable energy department and the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency to mark the National Energy Conservation Day at the conference hall of the district secretariat here on Friday. DC Chander Prakash directed officials to replace electric bulbs and tubelights in their offices and other departmental buildings with CFLs by December 31.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
Jailed for adulteration: Rajesh Chauhan, Judicial Magistrate (first class) at Ghumarwin near here, has found one shopkeeper, Jagat Pal of Daroh village, near Ghumarwin, guilty of violation of Section 16-1, A-1 of the HP Food Adulteration Act and has sentenced him to six months imprisonment with additional fine of Rs 1,000 for keeping adulterated red chilies powder in his shop.

HAMIRPUR
Cong manifesto praised: Local MLA and Congress candidate from Hamirpur constituency Anita Verma has termed the Congress manifesto as pro-poor that takes care of every section of the society. She said the promises made in the manifesto were aimed at improving the condition of the poor.

Nurpur
Woman commits suicide: Seema Bibi (24), wife of Alam Deen, a resident of Bhadroya in this subdivision, committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance on Thursday night. The deceased got married in 2000 and was having strained relations with her in-laws. She reportedly consumed poison and was rushed to the civil hospital, Pathankot, where she died.

Shimla
Two youths untraceable: Families and friends of the two youth, Aman Sood (29) and Sandeep Walia (40), met the director general of police and the SP here on Friday to request them to trace them. Aman and Sandeep had left Shimla on December 10 for Rohru to make supplies and collect payments.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
Tributes paid to Sanjay Gandhi: Congress leader and chairman of the All-India Mahatma Gandhi National Foundation, Zahir Abbas Bhatti, along with other party leaders paid rich tributes to late Sanjay Gandhi on his birth anniversary on Saturday. Bhatti described him as a great political leader, who helped in reshaping the political and democratic set up of the country besides, initiating measures for the socio-economic transformation of the poor.

Rs 7.57 cr for schemes: Jammu District Development commissioner Hirdesh Kumar Singh on Saturday reviewed the performance of various banks at the District-Level Review Committee (DLRC) meeting for 2007-08. Chief manager (SBI) R.K. Kaul apprised Singh that banks had made total disbursements of Rs 544.28 crore up to September 2007, against the annual target of Rs 881.39 crore. Kaul further informed that Rs 7.57 crore had been sanctioned in favour of 630 beneficiaries under the SGSY, PMRY, JKSES, KVIB and other government-sponsored schemes.

Pipeline inaugurated: Congress legislator from Jammu-east, Yogesh Sawhney, on Saturday inaugurated the laying work of the PHE pipeline at Peerkho. He said the project would benefit as many as 100 families. Later, he along with Municipal Corporation (MC) mayor Narinder Singh and MC commissioner Vinod Sharma visited the Talab Khatikan to inspect the ongoing work of high mast light. Sawhney along with divisional commissioner Sudhanshu Pandey and DC H.K. Singh visited Kot Bhalwal where the MC plans to develop a land fill site for solid waste management.

Condolences paid: Former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) patron Dr Farooq Abdullah and party president Omar Abdullah on Saturday expressed shock and grief over the sad demise of two party workers - Tariq Ahmad Rathore and Rinko - in a road accident in Mandi area of Poonch district. Meanwhile, a condolence meeting was also held at the party headquarters. NC leader Dr Shehnaz Ganai also expressed sympathies with the family of the deceased.