AMRITSAR
Urged: Mr Dev Dard, senior vice-president of the Chetan Sahit Sabha, has urged the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Minister for Public Relations, Mr Sewa Singh Sekhwan, to bear medical expenses of Dr Kulbir Singh Kaang, a noted Punjabi critic and author of 65 books, who had suffereda a heart attack recently. In a communication to the state government, Mr Dard said it was a matter of concern that many Punjabi writers, who had contributed a lot to the Punjabi literature were not being looked after properly by the state government.

BARNALA
Camp concludes: A four-day free eye operation-cum-health care camp organised by the local Bhagat Mohan Lal Seva Samiti concluded here on Wednesday. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, MP and secretary general of the SAD. Dr Triloki Nath and his team operated on about 100 patients and examined 1,200 eye patients at the camp.

Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Lions Club: president — Mr Rupinder Singh Sandhu; secretary — Mr Satwinder Singh Jandu; and treasurer — Mr Mandeep Mittal.

BATHINDA
Arrested: The police has arrested Rajinder Singh for supplying opium to a convict, Kulwant Singh, in the Central Jail here on Thursday. About 70 gram opium was recovered from Rajinder during a search in front of the jail by guards.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
Condemned: The district unit of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union has condemned the police lathi charge on a peaceful march of teachers. Prof. Harshwinder Singh, president of the local unit, while criticising the dictatorial attitude of the Badal government said on Friday that four teachers of the Mata Gujri College had sustained serious injuries and women teachers were also "beaten up by the police.

FEROZEPORE
Theft: The STD, PCO booth owners in the cantonment are sore over the increasing number of incidents of thefts in their booths. The president of the association said in a press note here on Friday that some unidentified persons had stolen cash from seven booths after breaking open the locks, within a fortnight. He alleged that the police had not done the needful in the matter.

Scooterist killed: A scooterist was killed in a road accident near Mamdot town, on Friday. His scooter was hit by a truck. The deceased, Ashok Kumar (50) was a PSEB employee.

HOSHIARPUR
Water logging: A comprehensive plan of Rs 16 crore has been prepared to control the water logging problem in Hoshiarpur district. This was disclosed by Mr Iqbal Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, on Thursday at an open darbar held at Jalalpur village in Dasuya subdivision of the district. He said Rs 2 crore would be spent for the cleaning of the old drains, Rs 2 crore for the construction of new drains and Rs 12 crore for acquiring land for these drains.

JALANDHAR
Medical camp: As many as 579 patients were examined and given medicines at a free medical camp organised by the Madan Mohan Lal Sondhi Charitable Trust at Phillaur on Friday. Dr C.P. Bansal, Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, inaugurated the camp. The patients were given medicines, food and spectacles free of cost by Singapore Airlines and Sondhi Travels.

LUDHIANA
Gang busted: The police has busted a gang of thieves with the arrest of six persons and has solved a number of theft cases in the city. The police has also recovered one truck, two cars, four colour TVs, five black and white TVs, three gas cylinders, three gas chullahs, 10 music systems and other articles worth Rs 1 lakh from their possession.

Opposed: The Marxist Communist Party of India (MCPI), has opposed the taxation policy of the Central government by which even the small plot owners and tenants have been brought under the tax-net. Mr Kuldip Singh, the state secretary of the Punjab MCPI, described this policy as totally unjustified.

NAWANSHAHAR
Agro Industries: In order to boost agro-based industry in the state the government has decided to grant 'A' category status to agro industries. This was stated by Mr Sukha Singh Langah, Minister of State for Industries, while addressing a gathering at Dmehatpur Ulladhani village, about 18 km from here, on Thursday. he said the government would provide a loan of Rs 10 lakh on 33 per cent subsidy for setting up agro-based industrial units and no sales tax would be charged for 5 to 10 years. For setting up a milk plant unit the government would provide a loan of Rs 35 lakh, he added.

PATHANKOT
Eye camp: A seven-day free eye operation camp was organised on Friday at Jyoti Bhavan by Durga Jyoti Manav Kalyan Samiti. Seven hundred patients were examined and 87 eye operation were performed by a team of local doctors headed by Dr P. Singh. Medicines, food and spectacles were also given to the patients free of cost.

PATIALA
Lions Club: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Lions Club (Central) here: president — Mr M.R.Verma; secretary — Mr B.L. Sethi; treasurer — Mr Varinder Gupta; and vice-presidents — Mr V.K. Gupta, Mr H.R. Narang and Mr Amarjit Arora.

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Technical Officers Association (PEPSU Road Transport Corporation) here: president — Mr Doop Singh; senior vice-president — Mr H.S. Gill; vice-president — Mr T.S. Mahla; general secretary — Mr Gurdeep Singh; cashier — Mr Rattan Singh; and press secretary — Mr K.S. Bajwa.

GURGAON
Orientation course: The Directorate of Higher Education organised an orientation course here for college lecturers of Haryana on Friday. About 120 lecturers are participating in the 21-day programme. The Director of Higher Education, Haryana, Mr S.K Sexena, said the main purpose of the programme was to increase the efficiency of the teachers.

HISAR
Competitions: A five-day workshop-cum-competitions in literary events concluded here in Dayanand College recently, in which about 50 participants from various colleges affiliated to the Kurukshetra University participated. According to Mr Subhash Sharma, principal of the Dayanand College, the competitions were sponsored by the Department of Youth and Cultural Affairs, of the university.

Budget allocation: The budgetary estimates of the CSS Haryana Agriculture University for the year 1999-2000 have been fixed at about Rs 92 crore. This is about Rs 20 crore more than the last year's estimates. About Rs 55 crore have been allocated for non plan agriculture, while Rs 3.43 have been allocated for non plan veterinary expenditure. The total estimate, includes the annual ICAR grant of about Rs 6 crore and the AHRD grants of Rs 18.35 crore. The budgetary proposals will be discussed at a meeting of the Board of Management to be held on March 23 at New Delhi.

Resignation: The president of the Haryana Jat Sabha, Mr R.S Mann, resigned from his post on Friday due to "factionalism" in the sabha. Mr Mann's term was to end in April. He said, he had been fed up with the ongoing factionalism and politicisation of the sabha.

PANIPAT
Attacked: Some unidentified persons attacked Maulana Hameed (35), a priest of Ghously Mosque, at Sanjay Chowk on Thursday night. The priest was going to attend a marriage. He was injured seriously and admitted to local Civil Hospital. The police has registered a case against the culprits.

Cleanliness camp: The State Community Development Training Centre at Nilokheri in collaboration with the UNICEF organised a one day cleanliness vigilance camp at Bal Bhavan here on Thursday. The camp was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi.

ROHTAK
Criticised: The state unit of the Janata Dal has criticised the statement of the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, regarding rejection of Haryana’s claim on water of the rivers passing through Punjab. In a statement here on Friday, Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, state president of the Janata Dal, described the statement as "undignified" and said it was against the Rajiv-Longowal pact. He said it was unfortunate that Haryana had failed to adopt a unanimous stand on this long-pending issue. He urged the state leaders them to hold an all-party meeting to take a decision on the issue.

Savdhan samiti: The state BJP president, Mr Om Prakash Grover, has constituted a four-member "savdhan samiti" to check the atrocities on women and to assist them in various ways. Ms Santosh Atreja, president of the BJP mahila morcha would be the convenor of the samiti and Ms Veena Chhiber, Ms Neera Tomar and Ms Savitri Devi would be the members of the samiti.

SIRSA
Assaulted: Mr Gurcharan Singh, a resident of Sukhchain village in the district, was injured seriously when he was attacked with sharp-edged weapons by his father and two brothers on Friday. The Badagudha police has registered a criminal case against the accused.

SONEPAT
Protest: The Daily Bus Passengers Association on Thursday protested against the erratic bus service on the Sonepat-Gohana route and urged the State roadways authorities to take immediate and effective steps to ensure that the buses plied in accordance with the schedule laid down in the time-table.

Free eye camp: As many as 655 patients suffering from various eye diseases were checked-up and 54 others were operated upon by a team of eye surgeons at a free eye operation camp, organised by Shri Bajrang Mandal, Haryana at Shershah village, about 30 km from here, on Tuesday. Dr R.N. Sachdeva, Civil Surgeon, inaugurated the camp, and praised the organisers for holding the camp in the remote village.

Town welfare committee: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Town Welfare Committee: chairman — Mr Rakesh Mahajan; vice-chairmen — Mr Shiv Singh and Mr Baldev Punni; chief adviso: — Mr Harbans Mahajan; general secretary — Mr Premdass Sahotra; cashier — Mr Pradeep Sharma; and secretaries — Mr Kishor Puri, Mr Rajiv Mahajan and Mr Mulkhraj.