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Abohar
Netaji remembered: Firing of crackers and distribution of sweeta among children and other citizens marked the celebration of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary in Subhash Nagar here on Friday. Dr N.C. Chatterjee, chairman of the Subhash Chandra Bose Trust led the gathering in offering flower petals on the portrait of Netaji. The function was attended by the principals, teachers and students of Ek Jot Senior Secondary School, Swami Vivekanand Public School, Grameen Kalyan Samiti School and Guru Nanak Model High School besides other residents of the adjoining locality, who had opened a dharamshalas also in Netaji’s memory.

Workers stage protest: Scores of daily wage earners, led by the BJP councillor Thakur Dass Siwan, organised a demonstration in the new grain market here on Friday. They were expressing resentment over dumping of the dead animals/cattle near the mandi yards. They shouted slogans against the contractors as well as the BJP-led municipal council for polluting the environment.

Anandpur Sahib
Judicial remand: Dharamvir Singh, brother of former MP Dharam Pal Yadav, was sent to judicial remand till February 5. He was produced before the court of senior divisional judicial magistrate Jeetinder Kaur Walia. Dharamvir was arrested on January 20, with fake currency worth Rs 4,500, and Rs 20,000 more cash was confiscated from him.

Bathinda
Medical camp: A free medical check-up camp for women and children will be organised at Shaheed Sandeep Singh Senior Secondary School, Parasram Nagar, from 9 am to 3 pm on January 25. A press released issued here stated that all the medical tests will be conducted free of cost.

Seminar held: Acting upon the orders of the Punjab Legal Aervices Authority, assistant district attorney, Rakesh Soni organised a seminar to create awareness among people about the legal issues at village Shergarh, here today. During the seminar, Banse Lal Sachdeva, Gurminder Singh Bhullar, Ranbir Singh Brar and some other advocates were also present.

Polybag menace: Authorities of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated that to solve the waste plastic menace, from December 2008 to January 20 this year, children of various schools collected 513 kg of waste polythene. As per the details, Summer Hill School stood first in the per capita collection, while Delhi Public School and Des Raj Memorial Senior Secondary School stood second and third, respectively.

R-Day function: Students of the Blooming Buds play way school today celebrated the Republic Day with fervour and enthusiasm. They danced to patriotic songs. The tiny tots were clad in dresses worn by those who fought for independence of the country. The teachers told them about the importance of the day. A student dressed as Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister, unfurled the tricolor. Headmistress Reena Gupta, distributed sweets to the students.

CHANDIGARH
Physicians’ conference: Noted physician Ajit S Puri of Patiala, currently senior consulatant, Department of Medicine, SL Marwari Hindu Hospital, Varanasi, will chair the 64th Annual Conference of Physicians of India (APICON) being held at Noida from January 29 to February 1. Dr Puri, who was recently awarded Punjab Rattan, is author of three world acclaimed books, “How To Prevent Common Diseases”, “Bird Flue: Countering The Terror” and “All You Wanted To Know About SARS”.

Hoshiarpur
Cold claims life: An unidentified person died due to severe cold at Uchi Bassi, near Dasuya town in the district on Thursday night. The police has sent the body to the civil hospital, Dasuya, for a post-mortem examination.

Electrocuted: Sanjay Kumar (22) of Farsoli under Aligunj police station of Etta district (Uttar Pradesh), presently residing at Railway Station, Nasrala, was electrocuted at his residence on Thursday night.

Jalandhar
Rally held: National president of the democratic Bharatiya Samaj Party Vijay Hans today organised a rally to urge the weaker sections of society to bring the party into power to safeguard their rights. He said the consecutive governments at the Centre had done nothing except working for their vested interests. He asked the party workers to uplift the Dalits and people living below the poverty line.

Mansa
Lab technicians to hold rally: Medical Laboratory Technicians Association, Punjab, would hold a protest march at Gidderbaha constituency of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on January 25 in favour of their demands.

Republic Day preparations: A district level function to celebrate January 26 would be held at the Nehru Memorial College, Mansa. Informing this, Deputy Commissioner, Mansa, Kumar Rahul said that the parade would be organised by the policemen, home guards and NCC cadets. The function would be presided over by the deputy speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Satpal Gosain.

NABHA
Bus shelter inaugurated: A pharmaceutical company dedicated another bus shelter to residents here. Praveen Kumar Gupta, director of the company, inaugurated the shelter at the Rohti bridge and B Jagdish Rao, site director of the company here, handed over the scroll of control to an official of the Nabha administration. Earlier, a rain shelter was built by the company at the Thuhi road.

NANGAL
134 women examined: As many as 134 women were examined at the free medical check-up camp held at NFL. Surbhi Mahila Milan, a women’s club of the NFL, in association with the MKC Roko Cancer Charitable Trust, New Delhi, had organised a breast cancer detection camp at NFL hospital. VK Bansal, General Manager, (I/C) NFL, and his wife Meena inaugurated the camp. Meena, president, along with office-bearers of the club, monitored arrangements of the camp.

SANGRUR
Co told to pay widow: The local District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited to pay Rs 10.75 lakh against three life insurance policies to Jaspal Kaur, widow of Balwinder Singh of Pharwahi village in Barnala district. The forum, including president MD Sharma and member Harvinder Sharma, has also directed the company to pay interest to the complainant at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from the date of repudiation till realisation. The forum also asked the company to pay Rs 5,000 to the complainant in lieu of the litigation expenses.

Crockery items gutted in fire: Crockery items worth lakhs of rupees were gutted when a fire broke out in a crockery shop at Dhuri, 13 km from here, on Thursday night. However, the cause of fire could not be known immediately. Sources said the fire had been brought under control by fire brigades from Sangrur and Malerkotla after a struggle of some hours.

14 students selected for jobs: Thirtytwo students of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) of the local Bhai Gurdas Institute of Engineering and Technology (BGIET) participated in a recruitment drive, conducted for students of 2009 batch at the campus on Tuesday. Fourteen students were finally selected at an annual package of Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh by a multinational company, Telecom Network Solutions Private Limited, Noida, for training-cum-placement.

Rs 2 lakh, 2 revolvers stolen: Unidentified persons on Tuesday stole Rs 2 lakh and two revolvers of .32-bore from a car by breaking the glass of the driver side’s window of the car in the new grain market here. City in charge of local police station William Jeji said Balwinder Singh and Tarsem Singh, partners in a rice sheller near Bhawanigarh, reported the matter. A case under Section 380, IPC, has been registered.

TARN TARAN
Rural Dept transfers: The state government has transferred nine officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Department. According to information they are: Sarabjit Singh Walia, Randhir Singh Mudhal, SP Angra, Kulwant Singh, Kirpal Singh, Amandeep Singh, Rajinder Singh Batra, Satish Chander and Amrik Singh Sidhu.

HARYANA

BHIWANI
Fake currency recovered: The police arrested a man with fake Indian currency worth Rs 50,000 from auto market here on Friday. The arrested has been identified as Navrattan of Biran village of Bhiwani district. The police recovered 50 notes of Rs 1,000 denomination each.

CHANDIGARH
Special pay: The Haryana government has decided not to change special pay given to different posts or cadres. However, it will be discontinued for the posts carrying a grade pay of Rs 6,000 per month and above with effect from January 1, 2009.

FATEHABAD
Cop held for graft: The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau caught Sub-Inspector Krishan Chander, posted at Police Post, Meond, in this district, red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 from Banshi Lal and Mewa Ram, respectively. Both are residents of Shakarpura. While stating this here, a spokesman of the bureau said a case had been registered against the accused.

SIRSA
Protest over ration cards: A large number of women on Thursday held a demonstration against the alleged discrimination in the preparation of yellow ration cards. Led by Raj Rani, a local Haryana Janhit Mahila Congress leader, the women raised slogans against the authorities and gave a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. The women alleged that their names had been struck off from the BPL list by the authorities, while those having pucca houses and cars had been included.

YAMUNANAGAR
PU VC honoured: The vice-chancellor of Panjab University, Dr RC Sobti, was conferred with Seth Jai Parkash Memorial Award - 2008 in the annual meet of the Mukandians held at Mukand Lal National College (MLNC) held on Thursday. The award carrying a cash prize of Rs 51,000, a citation and shawl was given to him by Ashok Kumar Seth, chairman of the Seth Jai Parksh Mukand Lal Institutions of Knowledge and Service.

Gang of thieves busted: A gang of thieves, involved in seven cases of theft, including LPG cylinders, electricity meters and inverters, was arrested by the CIA staff here on Thursday. In a press conference held here, SP Vikas Arora said the arrested included Gian Chand, Balram, Gurdeep and Rajan Walia. They had confessed to their involvement in all seven cases.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
PoK citizen dies: A citizen from PoK, who had come a fortnight ago on cross-LoC bus service, died of cardiac arrest at Mendhar tehsil of western Poonch district, official sources said on Friday. The visitor, identified as Mohd Zamaan (64), a resident of Kotli Hajeera in PoK died on Thursday at Sain Meeran Shah Ziarat in the Gountrian area of Mendhar, the sources said. Zamaan had come to meet his brother-in-law Mohammad Hussain at Thera Thopa village. “He was rushed to District Hospital, Poonch, where doctors pronounced him as brought dead,” an official said.

2 women held with liquor: The state police arrested two women along with country made liquor in the Bishnah area, 25 km from here, sources here on Friday said. “On specific information, the police raided Kotli Charkan village on Thursday night and arrested two women while manufacturing liquor at their residence,’’ the police sources said. The police seized 20 litres of alcohol and 900 litres of ‘lahan’ from the site. The accused have been identified as Shakuntla Devi and Pooja Devi, both residents of Kotli Charkan village.

20 shops gutted: Twenty shops and a residential house were gutted in a fire in Khari market of Banihal tehsil in Ramban district on Friday, the police said here. The fire started from a shop and later engulfed 20 shops and an adjoining house of Abdul Rashid at Khari market, they said. Residents and the police rushed to the spot along with fire tenders, which doused the fire at around 4 am. However, there was no loss of life or injury to anyone in the incident, they said. The cause of fire and loss to the property was being ascertained by the concerned agencies, the police said.

SRINAGAR
Youth killed: A 24-year-old youth was killed while cutting a tree in Baramulla district on Friday, sources said. The spokesman said Ghulam Rasool Lone was cutting a tree near his house at Hale-Jageer. Lone died on the spot when he came under the falling tree, the spokesman added. In another incidence, two persons were injured when a truck in which they were travelling turned turtle near Parniya on the Srinagar-Uri national highway, the spokesman said. He said another person was injured when he fell from the rooftop of a bus at Janbazpora. The victim was identified as Fayaz Ahmad Lone.

Cong leader dead: Tirath Ram Amla, a veteran Congress leader and businessman, passed away in New Delhi on Friday. He was 95. He had been associated with the Congress and remained a member of Rajya Sabha for about 22 years since 1964. He had also been a treasurer in the Pradesh Congress Committee for many years. The death has been widely condoled. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his condolence message has paid tributes to Amla. He has also praised Amla’s role in shaping history of the state. Amla’s son, Krishan Amla, a leading businessman here, is also an active member of the party. A condolence meeting was held at the office of the state Congress Committee later here on Friday and paid tributes to the departed leader. The meeting was presided over by senior PCC leader Muzaffar Ahmad Parray and attended by a number of party leaders.

Restore essential services in Ganderbal, says minister: Minister for Forests and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmed on Friday directed the administration to restore the essential services, including power, water, in Ganderbal district which were disrupted due to heavy snow and rains that lashed the area last week. The minister issued directions to the administration on the complaints of people urging for restoration, augmentation and expansion of water and power supply besides, storage of sufficient stocks of foodgrains and other commodities. Ahmed, during a tour to far off areas of the district, visited his home constituency, Kangan, and took stock of the situation after the snowfall and rains.

Udhampur
BSP for early work on hydel projects: The Kishtwar unit of the BSP has demanded that work on approved hydroelectric projects should be started as early as possible. A delegation of the Kishtwar unit of the BSP apprised Rakesh Wazir, state unit general secretary and candidate for the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, on Wednesday that though the government had approved some hydroelectric projects for Kishtwar, work was yet to begin on these projects. They demanded that work on the Budsar, Puckel Dool, Karthai, Kour and Retly hydroelectric projects should be started immediately as this would create job avenues for local youth. The delegation also demanded degree colleges in Marwah and Parder blocks of Kishtwar district. Wazir assured the delegation of taking up these demands with the authorities concerned.