Traffic blocked: Students of Guru Nanak Dev University blocked traffic in front of the university gate on Friday. They were demanding the withdrawal of fee hike and acceptance of their demands. They also raised slogans against Punjab Government and university authorities. The student leaders, including Jaskarn Singh, Gurkirpal Singh and Ms Shiwani, threatened to intensify the agitation if their demands were not accepted at the earliest.

BATHINDA
Exhibition opens: A three-day exhibition dedicated to tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth organised by Guru Kashi Cultural and Historical Centre was inaugurated by Mr Gurtej Singh, SDM, on Friday at the local Teachers' Home. Hundreds of people visited the exhibition on the opening day. Mr Harvinder Singh Khalsa, President of the GKCHC said the aim of the exhibition was to depict the Sikh philosophy and major events related to the life of Guru Gobind Singh and other Sikh martyrs.

HOSHIARPUR
Seminar: An NRIs' seminar was organised by the main branch of the State Bank of India, Hoshiarpur here on Friday. Mr K.K. Mehra, Deputy General Manager SBI (Zonal Office), Punjab and Chandigarh, presided over the seminar which was attended by NRIs and general customers of the bank. Mr Vinod Ohri, Chief Manager (PBD), and others highlighted the facilities being given to the NRIs by the bank.

JALANDHAR
Dharna: A number of activists of five pro-left farmers' organisations staged a dharna at new tehsil complex here on Friday. They were demanding withdrawal of hike in diesel price and power tariff for domestic consumers and farmers. The rally was addressed by Mr Kulwant Singh, former CPI MLA, and Mr Lehmbar Singh Taggar, the General Secretary of the Punjab Kisan Sabha.

Killed: An unidentified migrant labourer was crushed to death by a private bus near Nangal Sapror village on Jalandhar-Phagwara road on Friday. His body had been taken to the Civil Hospital for postmortem.

NAWANSHAHR
Educational competitions: The Punjab School Education Board, Mohali, organised a three-day educational competition here at JSFH Khalsa High School in which school students from Ropar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr districts participated. The competitions concluded here on Friday. The host school won the maximum number of prizes.

Workshop: The District Literacy Society organised a 'kala jatha' workshop here at Baradari Club on Friday to prepare kala jathas of students in order to generate awareness about population control and general health among masses through songs, poems, street plays and slogans. As many as 80 kala jatha incharges participated in the workshop, which was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chairman of the District Literacy Society, Dr Roshan Sunkaria.

PATIALA
Demands accepted: A number of long-pending demands of the students of Punjabi University have been accepted and implemented by the university authorities. Stating this in a press note issued here on Friday, Mr Bhupinder Singh Cheema, President, Organisation of Punjabi University Students (OPUS) said an STD-PCO booth had started functioning from girls' hostel number 2. Mr D.S. Dhillon, Dean, Students, inaugurated the booth. This was one of the major demands of the girls. The university had also accepted students' demand of starting UGC-NET coaching at the IAS Coaching Centre on the campus, and the demand of frequent bus service to the city, had also been accepted.

PHAGWARA
Doctors' strike: PCMS doctors and paramedical staff, along with members of five other employees' unions, observed a pen-down and tools-down strike and staged a dharna inside the local Civil Hospital in protest against an alleged graft case registered by a Vigilance team against Dr Kailash Kapoor. A press note by Mr Jhirmal Singh Bhinder, a spokesmen of the coordination committee of the Paramedical and Health Employees Union, Punjab, also alleged that the doctor was manhandled by the raiding party at his Harikishan Nagar residence on Thursday. It was also said that Rs 1,900 were not found from the doctor but were lying on the floor where the amount had been thrown. Protesters demanded a probe into the incident. Meanwhile, the Patwar Union, Municipal Council Employees Union, Panchayat Secretaries Union, Teachers Union and Indian Medical Forum joined the doctors' strike.

Flayed: An emergency meeting of the local IMA Executive on Friday flayed the arrest of a senior doctor of the local Civil Hospital in a false case. A press note issued by Dr Mohan Singh, Hony Secretary of the local IMA, alleged that the doctor was implicated in a false case and demanded a withdrawal of the case.

ROPAR
Young lawyers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Young Lawyers Bar Association: President — Mr Udham Singh; Vice-President — Mr Vishkaram Jit Singh Rehal; Secretary — Mr Jugal Kishor Sharma; Joint Secretary — Mr Ranbir Gupta; and Cashier — Mr Jarnail Singh.

Urdu classes: Free classes of Urdu language will be held here from January 1,2000 by the District Language Office. According to Mr Dalbir Singh, District Language Officer, all persons desirous of learning Urdu can submit their applications by December 31 at the District Language Office here.

Science exhibition: The district bagged several top positions at the recently held 28th Punjab State Science Exhibition, organised by the State Institute of Science Education, Punjab. According to a spokesman of the local Sahibzada Ajit Singh Academy, students of the academy — Tasveer Kaur and Talwinder Singh got first positions in the model of sub-theme No 5. Tasveer Kaur got second position in an on-the-spot painting competition on ‘‘Pollution and its bad effects’’.

Relay fast: Employees of the local Cooperative Sugar Mill continued their relay fast for the 11th day on Saturday in support of their demands. They held a demonstration and staged a day's dharna in front of the mill gate. However, the Haryana Sugar Mills Workers Federation which had threatened to stop the work at the mill, has so far failed to implement its earlier announcement in this regard.

Function: The local chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature — India organised a function to welcome migratory birds at Sukhna Lake on Thursday. On-the-spot painting, nature quiz and bird identification competitions were held.

SAS NAGAR
Honoured: Dr Birinder Sachdeva, dental advisor to the Northern Institute of Continuing Education and Research, has been invited to address students of the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, at the graduation ceremony to be held in the university campus on January 25 next year. Dr Sachdeva will also be honoured with the “Paul Harris Award” on the occasion.

Stir threatened: The local MLA , Mr Anil Vij has threatened that an agitation will be launched if the government dumped the Saha Growth Centre scheme. He said this centre was the lifeline of Ambala and would provide employment to hundreds of youths. Mr Vij said in a statement that although the state government had not made any announcement in this regard but senior officers had hinted that the scheme had been dumped by the government. He said the government had already acquired 400 acres at Saha for this project and a compensation of Rs 12 crore had already been paid to the farmers. So to wind up the scheme at this stage would not be a wise step.

HISAR
Section 144: The District Administration has promulgated Section 144 within a radius of 200 metres of all examination centres in the district. According to official information here on Saturday the decision had been taken to prevent any kind of disturbance or obstruction during the entrance test of JBT and OT classes scheduled to be held on December 12

PANIPAT
Sugar recovery: Sugar recovery in the Co-operative Sugar Mill is likely to witness an increase this year from producing about 8.15 kg of sugar from a quintal of sugarcane last year to about 9 kg. The mill has fixed a target of crushing about 22 lakh quintal of sugarcane as compared to about 16.98 lakh quintals last year. This information was given by the Chairman of the sugar mill, Mr Sandeep Garg, here on Saturday. Mr Garg said the farmers would be paid the price of sugarcane within 15 days and till December 9 an amount of Rs 1.80 crore had been paid to the farmers.

Status restored: The Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, has agreed to restore the status of sub-tehsil to Balla in Panipat district. The announcement was made by the Chief Minister after a deputation of Assandh Assembly constituency led by the MLA, Mr Krishan Lal Pawar, met him in Chandigarh and pleaded for the restoration of sub-tehsil status to Balla which was abolished in 1991.

Agreement: Residents of the town heaved a sigh of relief after an agreement between the safai contractors and municipal council authorities on Thursday over contractors' threat to terminate the contract after December 8 due to non-payment of dues to them for the last two months. The council authorities have agreed to make 25 per cent payment immediately and rest of the payment will be made within 10 days. On the other hand, the safai contractors have postponed their threat for 10 days. They made it clear that if payment was not made within 10 days then they would terminate the contract.

SIRSA
One held: One person was arrested under Sections 302, 323, 324 and 34, IPC, and 25, 54 and 59, Arms Act. According to a press note issued by the police on Friday a case was registered on December 3 in which Dayanand, Arun and their father, Nathu Ram, residents of Gosaiana village in the district, were booked for shooting Bhagwana Ram and injuring his brother and father with sharp-edged weapon. The police has arrested Dayanand, the prime accused in this case.

Arrested for gambling: The police has arrested six persons in three different cases as a part of its drive to curb gambling and sale of illicit liquor in the district. The police said on Friday that five persons had been arrested under Sections 13, 3 and 67, of the Gambling Act, and had recovered a sum of Rs 650 from them. In another case, Subhash, was arrested by Dabwali police in the district for running an illicit liquor unit.

Injured: Three persons were injured in a jeep-truck collision on NH-10 near Air Force Station on Friday. The injured were, later, admitted to the local hospital.

SONEPAT
Parking lots: The District Magistrate of Sonepat, Mr Sudhir Rajpal, on Saturday enforced an order under Section 144, CrPC, prohibiting the parking of maxi cabs, taxis, auto-vehicles and tempos at non-specified places in the city. The District Magistrate has already identified six places for the parking of these vehicles. The specified parking lots are at — Sonepat-Bahalgarh road near HUDA office, Sonepat-Gohana road near Akroi Mor; Sector 23 parking; near Gandhiji's statue, Delhi camp; Sector 14 and 15 dividing line on Murthal road and Kalupur octroi post on Sonepat-Rohtak road.

Murder solved: The Gohana police claimed on Saturday to have solved the alleged murder of a youth whose body was recovered from a field in Butana village last month. The police has arrested a driver of an auto-vehicle in this connection. The culprit had allegedly burnt the body and it could not be identified.

Body found: The Railway Police found the body of a worker, Sardara, lying on the railway track between Sonepat and Harsana Kalan, about 3 km from here, on Friday. The police believe it to be case of suicide.

KOTKHAI
Spurious insecticides: A large number of untested pesticides and insecticides, have flooded the market in the horticultural belt of the state and has resulted in increased soil toxicity and loss of soil fertility. Stating that this was one of the major causes of poor production of apple and other fruits in the area in the past few years, Mr Sanjay Chauhan, Joint Secretary of the Himachal Kisan Sabha, demanded an immediate ban on the issue of unlimited licences to shopkeepers for selling these insecticides.

NAHAN
Demanded: Mr Prem Chand Aggarwal, General Secretary Paonta Congress Mandal, in a press statement issued here on Friday, demanded that at least two vehicles should be provided at the Majra police post as the post has a large and sensitive area under its jurisdiction and there was no four wheeler available at the post.