R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATHINDA
POWER CUT: The power supply will remain cut off in some areas of city from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday due to some repair work to be carried out at the 33 kv Bathinda urban power line. The areas affected will be Civil Lines, Model Town, Court Complex, the Bhagu road, the Civil Hospital, the TV and radio station, Water Works, the Sewerage Board, grain market, the power house road, Poojanwala Mohalla, Old Sirki Bazar, Hazi Ratan, the Mehna chowk and the old bus stand area.

PADDY PROCUREMENT: Various procurement agencies have purchased about 2,01,984 tonnes of paddy in the district till October 4. Mr R. Venkatratnam, Deputy Commissioner, in a press note issued here on Friday said, about 50 per cent of the total expected arrival this year had reached mandis. The agencies had been asked to speed up the procurement, he added.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT: The government has spent about Rs 2,500 crore in the past four years on the development of the rural areas in the state. This was stated by Mr Chiranji Lal Garg, Punjab Minister for Science and Technology, while addressing a gathering of farmers at Bhagu village on Friday. Every effort would be made to provide basic facilities like roads, drinking water, etc., to the villagers, he added.

FARIDKOT
ARMY RECRUITMENT: A week-long Army recruitment rally concluded at the Nehru Stadium here on Friday. As many as 7,000 candidates from Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepore, Mansa, Moga and Muktsar districts appeared in various Army recruitment tests of these, 600 have been identified to undergo a medical test on Saturday, said Col K.K. Marwah, Recruiting Officer, branch office, Ferozepore.

GURDASPUR
BODY FOUND: The mutilated body of Bholi, wife of Mr Dalip Chand, sarpanch, Sanghour, who went for a satsang in Dorangla village on September 23, was found on Thursday from the fields. According to Mr Sukhdev Singh, a telephone call was received on September 25, at the residence of the Baldev Singh, that Bholi had been killed and her body was lying in the fields outside the village but no body took the call seriously. The police has registered a case under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC.

FARMERS’ CAMP: More than 5,000 farmers participated in the district-level training camp held here on Friday by the district Agriculture Department. Mr Gulzar Singh Ranike, Minister of State for Agriculture, was the chief guest and Dr R.K. Rampal, Joint Director, presided over it. Mr Ranike impressed upon the farmers to use latest technology to get maximum yield and quality production.

HOSHIARPUR
SALARY: Resentment prevails among employees of Drainage Division Hoshiarpur, who have not got their salaries since June. In a notice served to the Executive Engineer here on Thursday, the employees asked him to arrange their salaries of four months before October 10, failing which they would be forced to start an agitation. They said it was difficult to meet their domestic expenditures.

INSTALLED: Mr Manjit Singh Sahota, Mr Hargobind Singh and Mr Jagdev Singh were installed as president, secretary and cashier of the Lions Club, Hoshiarpur, respectively, by Mr Vinod Mahajan, district governor, and Mr J.B. Singh Chaudhary, deputy governor of District 321, at a function organised here on Wednesday night.

STRIKE OFF: In response to the assurances given by the chairman and members of the Chandigarh Homoeopathic System of Medicine Council, students of Homoeopathic Medical College Hospital, Hoshiarpur, called off their strike on Thursday. Dr Bhupinder Singh, chairman, Dr Rachpal Singh, Dr O.P. Vig and Dr Puri, members of the council, gave a patient hearing to the students and their parents. They assured to fulfil their main demand of shifting them from Hoshiarpur college to another college shortly.

JALANDHAR
DISSOLVED: Mr Ramesh Bunty, president of the district unit of the Punjab Youth Congress, dissolved the district unit (urban) of the PYC here on Thursday. In a press note issued here Mr Bunty said the step had been taken in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state and to weed out those workers whose performance was not up to the mark. He said all block-level units had also been dissolved. Mr Bunty said the district unit would be reconstituted by October 20.

KAPURTHALA
COP ARRESTED: The city police have arrested Paramjit Singh, a Head Constable posted in local city police station, on a charge of extorting money from the owner of a finance company. According to police reports, Mr Ajaib Singh, a local financier had lodged a complaint with the police that Paramjit Singh had allegedly been harassing him to give Rs 10,000 failing which he would get him involved in a false criminal case. The police arrested the Head Constable and produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Dharam Singh who remanded him in police custody till October 5.

GUJRAL VISIT: Mr I.K. Gujral, former Prime Minister of India, will visit Kapurthala on October 6 to see the progress of work of Pushpa Gujral Science city being set up in memory of his mother on the Kapurthala-Jalandhar road near Wadala Kalan village, according to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Vivek Aggarwal. Mr Gujral will also preside over another function at the civil rest house here in connection with the heritage of Punjab.

RECOVERED: The district police on Thursday arrested Satpal, a resident of Sabdulapura, falling in Sultanpur Lodhi police station on the charge of possessing poppy husk, according to Mrs Gurpreet Deo, SSP.

ARRESTED: Mrs Gurpreet Deo, SSP, said here on Friday that 38 proclaimed offenders had been arrested, during the past four months. As many as 42 cases under the NDPS Act had been registered during the period and some drugs seized. She said in the compaign against anti-social elements, 42 cases were registered and some arms seized.

LUDHIANA
LECTURE: Dr Kulwinder S. Gill, senior scientist, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, delivered a lecture on ‘Structural and functional organisation of wheat and other grass genomes’ at Punjab Agricultural University here on Thursday. The scientist shared latest developments regarding genetic basis for improving the yield potential and quality of wheat with the PAU scientists. Dr G.S. Nanda, Director of Research, PAU, presided over the programme. The lecture was jointly organised by the Crop Improvement Society and Department of Plant Breeding. Earlier, Dr G.S. Chahal, secretary of the district unit of the society, while introducing the scientist, said Dr Gill was an alumni of the university who went to the USA after completing M.Sc in Plant Breeding.

CULTURAL COMPETITION: The Asian Club will organise an inter college competition in gidha, lecture, story telling and essay writing competitions at the Government College for Women on October 13. A meeting will be held on October 11 at Ludhiana Public School, to discuss the details of the competition under the guidance of Ms Ruby Fernandez. Future programmes of the club will be finalised where old and new members have been invited. All colleges interested in getting registered for the competitions may contact Commercial Art Gallery, Ghumar Mandi. No registration fee will be charged.

SEMINAR ON BEAUTY: A beauty seminar was organised in Hotel Abhishek recently. Ms Sudesh Rana, a beautician from Rohtak, provided beauty tips to the beauticians in the seminar. Around 160 beauticians from Jalandhar, Malaut, Ludhiana , Khanna and Jagraon participated in the seminar. The seminar was organised by the Learners Academy. Mr Sachin Vishishth, secretary of the academy, said their academy had already organised 40 such seminars.

CONSULTANT PHYSICIAN : Dr Nitin Sood, has joined Jyoti Kendra Charitable Hospital as consultant physician. Mr Ashok K.Setia, Chairman of the hospital, in a press note stated that Dr Nitin Sood , a specialist in critical care and emergency services, will examine patients in the hospital between 8.30 am and 2.30 pm on all working days and will also attend emergencies round-the-clock. The hospital also provides medical facilities in the department of eye, gynaecology and obstetrics, dentistry, paediatrics, pathology and radiology.

GAS CONSUMERS: The Ludhiana Gas Consumers Association has urged the government to direct the companies to put a fool-proof seal on the LPG cylinders to check the pilferage of gas by agencies and their employees and to ensure an accountability for the full weight of the cylinder. Mr C.S. Ahuja, president of the association, said the consumers were losing between Rs 20 and 30 per cylinder due to less weight. The companies required to put fool-proof seals similar to the seal on soft drink bottles with date and name of the bottling plant mentioned on it. In a letter written to Mr Ram Naik, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, he pointed out that despite a number of reminders, the oil companies had never given a thought, fearing accountability. He urged the minister to direct the companies to place such seals at the earliest.

MALERKOTLA
DEAD: Shingara Singh, a resident of Guslan village near Malerkotla died in a hospital at Ludhiana on Thursday. He was injured in an accident, near Guljar Hospital on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla road, on Monday.

NOMINATED: Mr Prem Chand Goyal, patron, Sanatan Dharam Sabha, here has been nominated as the executive member of the Aggarwal Dharam Prathinidhi Sabha, Punjab.

APPOINTED: Haji Abdul Latif Thind has been appointed as manager of the Islamia Kamboj High School management committee here and Mr Mohammed Salim Ratan as headmaster of the school.

MOGA
CAMP: The district administration has decided to organise five farmers’ training camp in each block and 330 such camps in rural areas in the district during the next two months to impart training to farmers to improve their produce. This was stated here on Friday by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Kanwalbir Singh Sidhu, while addressing a farmers’ camp on the premises of the local Bhupindra Khalsa School.

BEATEN UP: Amrinder Singh, a plus one student and resident of Baghapurana town in the district, was allegedly beaten up with iron rods by a driver, conductor and owner of a private bus after having been pushed out of the bus near Chandnawan village, 10 km from here, on Thursday. The student was returning home after attending his tuition at Moga. Teachers and people of the town demanded action against the accused and threatened stir if no action was taken.

NAWANSHAHR
CHEQUES DISTRIBUTED: Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Welfare Minister and Mr Jagjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner, distributed cheques worth Rs 85 lakh among 38 village panchayats, shagun cheques among 20 beneficiaries and pension-papers among 50 beneficiaries belonging to the Aur block in the district at a ‘vikas samagam’ organised at Aur village, 15 km from here, on Thursday.

CONFERENCE: The delegate conference of Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, will be organised here at R.K. Arya College on Sunday. Mr Harbans Lal Sharma, president of the sabha will preside over the conference. About 250 delegates from all over the state will attend the conference.

STUDENTS’ UNION : The Punjab Students Union, with a view to creating awareness among the youth regarding the ‘real motives’ of the USA under the guise of fighting terrorism in the world, has started a “jang virodhi” (anti-war) fortnight in the state. Rallies, conferences and meetings will be organised in educational institutions up to October 20, said Mr Kulwinder Singh Chahal, general secretary of the union.

SAS NAGAR
JCT UNION: The JCT Electronics Employees and Workers Union on Friday ended its 22-day-old relay hunger strike. The President of the union, Mr Adesh Tyagi, said management of the factory had promised to release salary for the month of May. The management has assured the workers that it will discuss various other issues of the workers.

EYE CAMP: A three-day eye check-up camp organised by the Gyan Jyoti Institute of Management and Technology concluded on the premises of the institute here on Friday. The camp was organised in collaboration with Guru Harkrishan Sahib Charitable Eye Hospital, Sohana. As many as, 1750 persons were examined during the camp.

EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY: The Sikh Educational Society will organise a seminar here on October 13 at the Guru Gobind Singh College for Women. Justice Jaspal Singh (retd) and Mr Patwant Singh will be among the main speakers at the seminar to be presided over by former SGPC Chief, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra. The topic of the seminar will be “Sikhs at the crossroads”, according to the organising committee.

HARYANA

CRITICISED: Members of the New Kuteer Cooperative Group Housing Society have flayed the imposition of safety charges by the Railways. In a press note issued by Mr Deepak Rai Walia, the Society criticised the imposition of safety surcharges on the passengers travelling in all passenger, mail, express and super fast trains.

ROHTAK
AGITATION: Employees of the Municipal Committee who are sore over the non-disbursement of salary for the past three months have threatened to launch an agitation if their salary is not given in 10 days. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the district unit of the Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh held under the presidentship of Mr Dharambir on Thursday. Mr Dharambir said the power connections of several employees had been disconnected as they could not pay the electricity bills.

SIRSA
CAUGHT: A revenue patwari was caught red-handed while accepting bribe in a land deal, according to information given by the district police chief here on Thursday. Subhash of Gigoran village had lodged a complaint with the Superintendent of Police, alleging that the village patwari, Babu Singh, had demanded a bribe of Rs 800 to complete the post-registration formalities of 18 kanals of land that he had purchased. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KULU
BODY FOUND: The body of Lot Ram, a resident of Tocha village in the Manikaran valley of this district, was found in mysterious circumstances at his village on Wednesday night. The brother of the deceased alleged that he had been murdered as his head was hit with some rod. A police party has left for the spot for investigations. The body of the deceased has been sent to the zonal hospital, here, for a post-mortem.

KUMARHATTI
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among Kattiwala and Kalranbali villagers in Kalu Janda panchayat under Dharampur block over the setting up of private stone crushers adjoining these villages. The villagers fear stone crushers would have an adverse affect on agricultural land measuring 500 bighas. They are also apprehensive about the negative affects of the crushers on their irrigation sources. There was danger to the ecological balance of the area as the pollution emitted by the crushers could affect the agricultural production, said Mr Ramesh Dass, president of the panchayat.

SHIMLA
THREE ARRESTED: The Rohru police has nabbed Suresh, alias Mohipal, a resident of Ismali in Uttar Pradesh, during a surprise check at Badiara and seized 175 gm of charas from him. A case has been registered under the NDPS Act. In another case, the Rampur police arrested Nokhu Ram of Kanera Choukhari village and recovered 40 litres of lahan from him. A Nepali, Kesar Bahadur, carrying 5 bottles of illicit liquor was also arrested.