LUDHIANA
Pensioners' plea: The All-India Government Pensioners Association in a memorandum to Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has demanded early release of the DA instalment at the rate of 10 per cent, due from January this year. Mr Yash Paul Ghai, general secretary of the association, said the Union Budget was silent on the issue.

Honoured: Dr S.S. Randhawa, senior scientist and head of the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Ethics and Jurisprudence, Punjab Agricultural University has been awarded the fellowship of the Indian Society for Veterinary Medicine for 1998-99. She has also ben unanimously elected as secretary general of the society for four years.

MANSA
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Seva Bharati Sanskar Kendra, Mansa: President — Mr Chaman Lal Goyal; Secretary — Dr Sushil Kumar and Treasurer — Mr Pawan Garg.

MOGA
Loans misused: Loans amounting to crores advanced to thousands of parties in the state for setting up small scale industries have been utilised for other purposes. In certain cases the loanees have left the state for good after selling or mortgaging their properties while in many cases even the sureties have been found to be insolvent. According to an official spokesman, a large number of loans given for setting up small scale industries had not been recovered at all. In some cases the arrears dated back to 1960.

NANGAL
Rally held: Bhakra Beas Management Board retirees held a protest rally to press for the acceptance of their demands, here on Wednesday. They are demanding one month pay as bonus which according to them was to be given to all employees on the silver jubilee celebrations of the Bhakra. They were also facing problems while getting their pension dues.

PATIALA
Criticised: The district unit of the Scheduled Caste and Backward Class Employees Federation at a meeting held here on Wednesday, criticised the Punjab Government for stopping promotions of Scheduled Caste and Backward Class employees. They urged the government to start the promotion process soon.

JEs’ rally: Members of the Council of Junior Engineers held a rally in front of the office of Chief Engineer, Enforcement, PSEB, here on Wednesday in protest against the humiliation meted out to one of their colleagues. In a statement council President Rujpinder Kumar demanded the suspension of the responsible official for the incident.

PHAGWARA
Gang busted: The police claims to have busted an interstate gang of car lifters and robbers with the arrest of seven gangsters. Two Maruti cars, two scooters and one Video camera were recovered from them. Those arrested are Narinder Kumar, alias Happy of Nawanshahr, Shamlal Chachowal, Gurpinder Singh, alias, Sonu Harkamla Singh, Jasbir Singh, alias Shira, Pawan Kumar, alias Nikka and Kala of Dosanjh Kalan.

TARN TARAN
Case registered: A case under Sections 307, IPC, and 25, 54 and 59, Arms Act, has been registered against a Punjab Home Guard Jawan, Mukhtar Singh of Dal village in Khalra police station for firing at Mr Kabul Singh of the same village. Police sources said here on Tuesday that he fired with his service gun injuring Kabul Singh.

IMFL seized: The Parwanoo police seized 104 bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor from a Maruti car near Datyar, about 5 km from Parwanoo on the national highway on Tuesday. The car had been impounded while its driver reportedly managed to escape. In another case, the police arrested Pardeep Kumar of Dhamandhar village of Rajgarh sub division for carrying 400 grams of charas.

Seminar: The Servants of the People Society will organise a seminar on “Literature and social transformation in the present context” on March 16. The Governor of Tripura, Prof Siddeshwar Prasad, will preside.

TTTI welfare body : The following have been elected office-bearers of the Technical Teachers’ Training Institute Scheduled/Caste Scheduled Tribe Staff Welfare Association: President — Mr Jasvir Singh; Vice-President — Mr Mohinder Singh; General Secretary — Mr Pritam Singh; Finance Secretary — Mr Pritam Singh II; and Finance Secretary — Mr Jagdish Ram.

PANCHKULA
Blood donation camp: The Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam organised a blood donation camp here on Wednesday. Atleast 120 employees of the nigam, including senior officials, donated blood.

Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Panchkula branch of the Indian Dental Association: Patron — Dr Ashok Soni; President — Dr Kanwaljit Saini; President (Elect) — Dr Suparna Jain; VIce-Presidents — Dr Suman Jyoti and Dr Renu Bindal; Honorary Joint Secretary — Dr Maneel Grover ; Honorary Treasurer — Dr Sandeep Egan and Honorary Secretary — Dr Deepak Grover.

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Haryana branch of the Indian Dental Association: Patron: Dr Manju Datta; President — Dr Nitin Jain; President (Elect) — Dr S.D. Goyal; Vice-Presidents — Dr R.K. Grover, Dr L.C. Jindal and Dr Renu Bindal; Honorary Secretary — Dr R.K. Takkar; Honorary Joint Secretary — Dr Suman Jyoti; and Honorary Treasurer — Dr Ashok Sethi.

Meeting: The local branch of the National Integrated Medical Association organised a discussion on ‘Cure of bronchial asthma by Ayurvedic System of Medicine’ at its monthly meeting here on Thursday.

Plea to DC: Residents of Marble House, a locality in the cantonment, have urged the Deputy Commissioner, Mrs Navraj Sandhu to lay sewerage lines in the colony. In a memorandum, they said they were apprehending spread of gastroenteritis cases, as open drains were creating a health hazard.

BHIWANI
Small savings: Mr K.S. Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, said here on Wednesday that Rs 58.63 crore were collected in the district till February under small savings schemes as against a year's target of Rs 52 crores. He asked prize winners of the scheme who had invested in small savings between January 1997 and August 1998 to collect their prizes from the small savings branch in his office before March 31.

FARIDABAD
Octroi looted: Three armed miscreants looted octroi post number 13 of the municipal corporation located near Badkhal on the night of Tuesday. They attacked employees Bir Pal and Ram Singh with knuckle dusters and took away Rs 22,500 in cash.

ROHTAK
Traffic blocked: Agitated villagers blocked the vehicular traffic on the Gohana-Panipat road on Tuesday in protest against the alleged murder of a youth at Chirana village in Gohana subdivision. The body of Ram Singh, who was allegedly abducted bearing injury marks was found from fields on Tuesday. The blockade was lifted following assurance from the SDM, Gohana.

SONEPAT
Panel meeting: Several government departments, particularly the PWD (B&R) and the Irrigation, were criticised for their inefficient and unsatisfactory working at the monthly meeting of the Public Relations and Grievances Committee held here on Wednesday. Mr P.K. Mahapatra, Deputy Commissioner presided over the meeting as the Haryana Home Minister, Mr Mani Ram Godara, failed to turn up.

Eye camp: A government mobile unit would hold an eye camp at Barthin from March 17 to March 20 and at Nanawan from March 22 to March 25. According to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr M.L. Mahajan, patients would be given medicines and spectacles free of cost.

KULU
Auction: The auction of liquor shops in the district was held on Wednesday. A sum of Rs 6,94,43,000 was collected as against Rs 5,93,21,000 last year. The auction for Lahaul and Spiti shops fetched an increase of Rs 1,05,7,000. Mr R.D. Dhiman, Deputy Commissioner, presided over the auction.