Condemned: Mrs Satya Devi, president of the Dismissed Teachers Union of the district, condemned the state government on Monday for arresting the state president and other teachers of the union and for their overnight detention in the police station. She said the dismissed teachers would continue their agitation till they were reinstated.

JALANDHAR
Employees' union: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Standard Electricals Employees Union here: president — Mr Om Parkash; vice-presidents — Mr Lalan Kumar and Mr Randhir Singh; secretary — Mr Resham Singh; head cashier — Mr Karnail Singh; and cashier — Mr Bidhi Chand.

KAPURTHALA
Four dead: Four deaths have been reported in this district during the past 24 hours. Asha Rani (15), a resident of factory area here, committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance on Wednesday. A family dispute is said to be reason behind the suicide. While, Paramjit Singh, a plumber, was electrocuted at Sheikhupura village when he was repairing a water tap on Wednesday. In another incident a middle-aged resident of Kalasingia village died after consuming excessive amount of liquor and a scooterist, Gurpreet Singh (23), was killed when his scooter was hit by a truck near Wadala railway crossing on the Kapurthala-Jalandhar road here on Wednesday. The police has arrested the truck driver Nirmal Singh and impounded his truck.

LUDHIANA
Awarded: Dr G. Avasthi, Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine, Dayanand Medical College, has been awarded the prestigious Dr R.S. Tiwari Oration Award for the year, 1999. He will be presenting his work on serum lieid profile inpatients of Coronary Artery Disease, and their first-degree relations, at the annual conference of the Geriatrics Society of India at Science City, Calcutta.

Dharna: On a call given by the Punjab State Pensioners Confederation, hundreds of Punjab Government and semi-government pensioners staged a dharna at the mini secretariat on Wednesday. The protesting pensioners also submitted a 30-point memorandum of demands to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Goel.

MALERKOTLA
Five hunters arrested: The local police has arrested five hunters, Babu Khan, Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Bashir, Salamdin and Mohammad Yousaf, all residents of Qila Basti here on Wednesday and recovered one blue bull from their possession. According to Mr Atma Singh, SHO of city kotwali, all arrested persons used to hunt blue bulls in the Mansa area. The police has registered a case against the accused under Section 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act and Section 429 of the IPC.

Girls missing: Two teenaged girls, Rekha Rani (15), and Devki (13), both residents of mohalla Charjan, here have been reported missing since February 6. According to Pali Ram, father of Rekha Rani, an FIR has been lodged at the local police station but whereabouts of both the girls have not been known so far.

Quiz contest: A quiz contest based on the syllabus of Class X was organised by the local Asian Club here on Wednesday. Students of nine schools participated in the contest. The team of S.S. Jain Model High School was declared a winner. Mr A.C. Sharma, principal of the school, gave away the prizes.

Surprise check: Mr Musrat Khan Bagga Minister of Sports, Punjab conducted a surprise-check at the office of the Punjab State Tubewell Corporation here on Thursday and found the XEN and two SDO's absent from duty. The attendance register was also locked in the XEN's almirah. Employees of the corporation also complained to the minister that they were not given uniform allowance by the SDO concerned.

PHILLAUR
Course for cops: Mr D.M. Silveria, a human resource development expert from Mumbai, conducted a specialised course on inter-personal relations and self development for senior police officers at the Punjab Police Academy here on Thursday. The course was inaugurated by the Director of the academy, Mr A.A. Siddiqui.

SAMRALA
Thieves held: The Machhiwara police arrested five thieves on Thursday and recovered .12 bore gun a pistol and some other weapons from them. The police also recovered some TV and VCR sets, stereo systems, and gold ornaments from the arrested persons.

SANGRUR
Income tax camp: The income tax authorities here organised an income tax awareness camp for new assessees and general public here on Thursday. Mr B.S. Rattan, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax (Patiala range) presided. About 1,000 assessees filed their returns which were processed and accepted on the spot.

PANCHKULA
School function: The annual function of Shemrock International School will be held on the school premises in Industrial Area, Phase-I, here on Saturday. The local MLA, Mr Chander Mohan, would be the chief guest on the occasion.

Programme: The mahila study centre of the local Government College will organise a programme on Saturday. The Principal of the college, Mr V.K. Pandit, said a lecture on “The status of women in Indian culture” would be delivered by Mr Radhey Sham Sharma, an eminent journalist.

Lions Club: Dr S.S. Bhamra, Zone Chairman of the International Association of Lions Club, in a press note on Friday, said its branch of Panchkula Central had been declared the best club at a regional conference of the club held recently at Solan. Mr Pawan Mittal, President of the Lions Club of Panchkula Central had been judged as the best President of the region.

Pension scheme: A special seven-day campaign to fill up forms of eligible beneficiaries under the old age pension scheme is being launched by the district administration from February 22. The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Aggarwal, said 10 committees had been constituted, which would coordinate the work of filling up the forms of the eligible persons at Patwar circle in rural and urban areas of the district. Those persons who are left out in the seven-day campaign would again be given a chance to fill up the forms at the tehsil level on March 3 and 4.

Loans disbursed: The District Social Defence and Security Office has disbursed Rs 56,300 as interest-free loan to 68 students belonging to scheduled caste families. The City Magistrate, Mr M.S.Yadav, said among the beneficiaries were 29 students of 10+1, 30 students of 10+2, seven students of BA and a student of Diploma in Education.

ZIRAKPUR
Nominated: The president of District Congress Committee (I) Rural, Mr Hardyal Singh Kamboj, has nominated Mr Sunehri Lal Phutela, Mr Bhupinder Singh, Mr Yogesh Jindal and Mr Harbans Singh members of the committee for Zirakpur , Bhankarpur, Dera Bassi and Lalru, respectively.

FATEHABAD
Fraud: The police has registered a case against a former sarpanch and two revenue officials for obtaining loan on forged documents. According to the SP, Mr Rajbir Deswal, Mahavir, a resident of Akanwali village, had lodged a complaint with the police on Thursday that Anup Singh, a former Sarpanch of Bhodi village, Gurcharan Singh and Baslender Singh, both "ilaka patwaris" had forged the documents of his house and obtained loan under a government scheme on those papers.

GURGAON
Renovation of bundh: A sum of Rs 2.5 crore has been spent on the installation of electrically-operated gates at Raoli Bundh, Kameda Bundh and Katla bundh and for the repair and renovation of other bundhs and drain by the Irrigation Department. This project is scheduled to be completed at the end of March 1999.

Looted: Anti-social elements beat up labourers near Teekli village and looted their ornament and cash worth Rs 12,000. According to a complaint lodged at Badshahpur police station these labourer were working in the mines of Haria Hera, 15 km from Badshahpur. They had not cleared the account of a shopkeeper there and shifted to Teekli.

HISAR
Computer course: A month-long refresher course on computer education for agricultural scientists concluded at CCS Haryana Agricultural University here on Thursday. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. J.B Chowdhary, gave away certificates to the participating farm scientists. In his address Professor Chowdhary, while underlining the importance of computers in teaching and research, urged the teachers and scientists to become computer literate.

ROHTAK
Pension survey: The district administration, Jhajjar, has launched a survey to prepare a new list of the beneficiaries of the Old Age Pension Scheme of the state government. According to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Kumar, the survey would be completed in about 15 days and all villages in the district and the towns would be covered by 12 teams set up for the purpose.

SIRSA
Arrests: Three persons, Suresh, alias Bittu, Vikas, alias Bhambu, and Ashok Kumar, were arrested by the police on Wednesday and a case was registered against them under Sections 307, 452, 324 and 323 of the IPC. Ram Chander, a resident of Talweara Khurd village had alleged in a complaint that the three had entered his house on February 13 and assaulted him with lathis and sharp-edged weapons. Mr B.S. Sandhu, SSP, said here on Thursday that Khand Singh of Phaaggu village was also arrested by Rori police on Wednesday and a criminal case was registered against him on a complaint by Jaimal Singh of the same village, in which it was alleged that the accused had assaulted him when he was sitting at bus stand in the village.

Contaminated water: Residents of Nuhianwali village in the district have demanded an inquiry and action against the public health authorities for the supply of contaminated drinking water to residents of the village. Contaminated drinking water being supplied through a leaking pipeline in the village for the past several months was stated to be the cause of outbreak of jaundice there.

SONEPAT
Arrested: Rajbir, a resident of Rathdhanna village, has been arrested by the Sadar police for violating the Excise Act and the Indian Arms Act. The police seized 10 bottles of liquor and a country-made pistol from his possession. According to the police, the culprit was engaged in the smuggling of liquor.

HCMS quota: Dr D.B. Rawal, president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association, welcomed on Thursday the decision of the state government to increase the quota of reservation of seats in the post-graduate course for HCMS doctors in PGI-MS, Rohtak, from 20 per cent to 33 per cent. In a press note issued here, he urged the government to increase the quota to 50 per cent as the reservation quota in Punjab was 60 per cent for government doctors.

Regional meet: A one-day regional meet of oil consumers, energy users and Rand D engineers on "Energy Conservation" was held at the CR State College of Engineering Murthal, on Thursday. It was organised jointly by the Petroleum Conservation Research (PCRA), nor- thern region and the CRSCE. Mr S.K. Singhal, president of the G.T. Road Industries Association, inaugurated the meet.

YAMUNANAGAR
Income tax staff federation: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Income (Tax group 'C') Employees Federation here: president — Mr Vijay Kataria; vice-president — Mr Mohammed Salim; secretary — Mr P.L Kashyap; and assistant secretary-cum-treasurer — Mrs Sarbjeet Singh.

CHAMBA
Rope ways: The state government has given sanction for three ropeways out of the six identified in the interior of Chamba under the Integrated Cooperative Development Project (ICDP) sponsored by the Centre. The five-year project is being executed with an outlay of Rs 5.81 crore. Mr Vivek Mahajan, General Manager of the project said that these ropeways would be constructed at Chanju, Sunara, Garola, Mehla, Bharara and Tikrigarh.

Lok adalat: As many as 21 cases relating to the problems of people of Bhattiyat sub-division in the district were settled on the spot at a open darber held at Kakira township on Thursday. It was held under the chairmanship of Mr J.S. Rana, SDM Bhattiyat.

Samples: The Agriculture Department here had collected as many as 552 samples of seeds, fertilisers and insecticides and found that about 52 of them were spurious. Licences of as many as nine sellers of seeds, fertiliser and insecticides were withdrawn by the authorities under the fertiliser control, insecticides and seed control order. The department collected a total of about 140 samples of chemical fertiliser, 96 of the insecticides and 136 samples of seeds during the routine check-up conducted in 1998-99.

DHARAMSALA
Sentenced: The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr V.K. Gupta, has sentenced, Prem Kumar, a resident of Amritsar, to life imprisonment for murdering Vijay Kumar of Charri village. According to the Public Prosecutors, Mr R.L. Saini and Mr Sanjeev Katoch, the accused, a cloth merchant then, had killed Vijay Kumar, with scissors, on March 25 last year.

KULU
Tour: A group of 33 villagers from the Eco-development area of the Great Himalayan National Park will go on a tour to the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal, and other sites for studying eco-tourism and eco-development activities. The programme is being organised under the Conservation of Biodiversity Project being implemented at the national park. Most of the villagers on this trip are from the existing Village Eco-development Committees.

Office-bearers: The chairman of the BJP Shakti Kendra, Mr Yadvender Singh, nominated the following office-bearers: senior vice-president — Mr Sudhir Bhatnagar; vice-president — Mrs Mani Devi; general secretary — Mr Naveen Sood; secretaries — Mr Prakash Sharma and Mrs K. Shama Mahant; and treasurer — Mr Manoj Sood.

Urged: Mr Dharam Singh, president of the district Primary Teachers Union, said the post of the district Primary Education officer here was lying vacant for the past 10 months. He urged the HP Government to immediately fill the post as the teachers and schools had to face many difficulties.

NURPUR
No classrooms: The Government Primary School at Anoh, which was opened in January last year, has adequate strength of students and teachers but it does not have even a single classroom. The classes are held outside and students have to sit in the open.

SUNDERNAGAR
Parents association: Following have been elected office-bearers of the Parents Association of St. Mary's High School: president — Maj (retd) J.C. Patiyal; vice-president — Mr Jeevan Singh; general secretary — Mr M.L. Mahajan; treasurer — Mr Ramesh Gupta.