AMRITSAR

Rs 1.13 crore distributed among 61 villages: Bikram Singh Majithia, information and public relations minister, distributed cheques worth of Rs 1.13 crore to 61 villages under the Majitha constituency for their overall development during a sangat darshan programme at Kathunangal village here on Sunday. He asked the sarpanches to spend the money for the development of the area in a planned way, besides warning them that if any person would not spend the money for development, action would be taken against them. He said the government had initiated many works for the development of the area, including establishing four new electricity grids, building an Adarsh School and setting up sports stadiums. 

One held with 100 gm smack: The district police has nabbed Harjinder Lal, alias Buby, of Ekta Nagar, Chamrang Road, here for allegedly possessing 100 gm smack. A case under the NDPS Act at B-division police station here has been registered. 

BARNALA

Foundation day: To celebrate the first foundation day of the Arorevansh Sabha, Barnala, a cultural programme was organised at Shanti Hall here on Sunday. About 150 delegates from various districts of Punjab and Haryana participated in the meeting. Stage secretary Satish Sindhwani said that the members of the Arore Vansh Sabha would strive hard to curb social evils like dowry and female 
foeticide and discourage the use of drugs among the youth. Municipal committee president Makhan Sharma declared that a roundabout in the city would be named after Arut Maharj, a ruler from the Arore vansh. 

BATHINDA

White stripes on roads: As an initative for people’s welfare, the Aasra Welfare Society painted white stripes to identify humps on roads in Lal Singh Basti, near the police apartments and close to the statue of Shahid Jarnail Singh Rathore. Member of the Punjab Traffic Advisory Committee and founder of the Aasra Welfare Society Ramesh Mehta informed that this work would be further carried out in the same way. He further said that traffic related seminars would be organised with the help of traffic cell’s in charge Pyara Singh and Sukhjinder Singh, by  the society in the near future. 

Drinking water stalls set up: The Dost Welfare Society provided free drinking water for people coming to the ‘free health fair’ at the civil hospital in Bathinda. Members of the society put up stalls of drinking water there. President Ashok Balianwali and general secretary Gulshan Wadhwa of society, along with Rakesh Goel, Vijay Singla, Anup Garg,Harjinder Singh contributed to the cause. 

Jalandhar

BJP dist unit gets office-bearers: The district unit of the BJP has announced office-bearers of its executive committee and appointed Punil Shukla as its general secretary. Naming the other office-bearers, district unit president of the party Ravi Mahendru said Ravi Chopra, Subhash Bhagat, Satish Kapoor and Hansraj Chopra had been appointed district vice-presidents and Ram Lubhaya Kapoor treasurar. Mahendru revealed that Amarjit Singh Amri and Deepak Telu had been appointed district secretaries of the party. 

MALERKOTLA

2 students honoured: Mohammad Anwar and Jatinder Singh, students of Sohrab Public School, Malerkotla, who won gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the recently held 53rd National Kick-boxing Championship in Orissa, were honoured by the school on Saturday. Amjad Ali, chairman of the school, said Mohammad had been selected for the Asian School Games also. 

Mansa

Cops flayed: Jagroop Singh, state secretary of the Communist Party of India, Punjab, criticised the atrocities of state police here on Sunday saying that there was no government in Punjab and only the police dominates the state. He said the recent example of the police atrocities was Bathinda, where the police beat the Industrial Training Institute students. Jagroop also criticised the state government’s polices that created unemployment. He added that the government should generate jobs for the youths and that benefits of development must reach all sections of society. 

Mansa

Distributed: The Ashra Lok Seva Club distributed warm clothes at the Maha Singh Freedom Fighter Secondary School, Bhamme Kalan village, in Mansa district. Deputy commissioner Surjit Singh Dhillon was the chief guest on the occasion. Project chairman of the club, Tarsem Singh Semi, said that the campaign for distributing the clothes is getting good response from the donors. He informed that the club would start a campaign against drugs soon. The DC praised the services of the Ashra Lok Seva Club. 

MOGA

Honoured: As many as seven oldest police pensioners were honoured on the Police Elders’ Day, which was celebrated at the Police Lines here on Sunday. Ashok Baath, officiating district police chief, listened to the grievances of pensioners and assured them of an early solution. Chairman of the Punjab Police Pensioners Welfare Association, Surinder Singh Sandhu, also a retired deputy superintendent of police, drew attention towards the various problems being faced by the pensioners of the department. As usual, a two- minute silence was observed in the memory 
of three pensioners who died last year. 

Nawanshahr

Wedding gift: Baldev Nayyar, a social worker, with the assistance of the Lions Club, city smile, Banga, gifted a sewing machine, ladies suits and cash for arranging tea and snacks for the marriage party on the occasion of the wedding of daughter of a slum dweller at a brick kiln situated at Kahma village. 

Debate winner: A district-level declamation contest was held at the government senior secondary school, to commemorate 150th anniversary of Kuka Movement. Manpreet Kaur (Government Senior Secondary school, Nawanshahr), Jashandeep Kaur (Government Senior Secondary School, Aur) and Renu Bala (Government Senior Secondary school, Musapur) won the first three positions, respectively. 

School function: KC Public School organised its annual prize distribution function here on Sunday. While Prem Pal Gandhi, chairman, KC Education Society, presided over the function, SSP B. Chandra Sekhar was the chief guest. He gave away prizes to the students who had excelled in academic, sports and co-curricular activities. The students presented a cultural programme on the occasion.

Athletic meet: An athletic meet was organised on the second day of “Amardeep Mela-2007” at Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College here to commemorate the birth anniversary of Amardeep Singh Shergill and the raising day of the college. The event was inaugurated by a philanthropist Sadhu Singh Shergill.

Pathankot

Ex-Cong minister cremated: Veteran Congress leader and former transport minister Raghunath Sahai Puri was consigned to the flames today at the cremation ground of Sujanpur, his native town and the constituency he had represented as minister from 1994-97 and 2002 to 2007 in the Amarinder government. His son Naresh Puri, president of the Municipal Council, Sujanpur, lit the pyre. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, DC, Gurdaspur, laid the wreath on the behalf of CM. 

Jammu

Theatre team heads for Kerala: A 26-member team of Natrang left for Kerala to participate in the two national theatre festivals in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam. The team would enact the highly acclaimed Dogri play “Ghumayee”, written and directed by Balwant Thankur. 

Kaul represents India at IATC: Noted theatre critic Ravinder Kaul has represented India at an international conference “Western Classics in Asia’s Stage” hosted by the China section of the International Association of Theatre at Beijing. Ravinder was the lone representative of the Indian section of IATC. The conference was the first of its kind organised by China after its inclusion in the IATC. 

Udhampur

3 killed in road mishap: Three persons were killed, while another three were injured, when the car they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge near Kud on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, about 50 km from here. The deceased were identified as Santokh Singh (31), a resident of Bakshi Nagar in Jammu, Amandeep Singh of Digiana and Amit Sadhotra of Housing Colony, Udhampur. Three persons died on the spot, while the other three were seriously injured. The injured were shifted to the Government Medical Hospital, Jammu.