R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
MAN KILLED: Milkha Singh, a resident of the Ragar Nangal village near Majitha, was crushed to death when a speeding truck, coming from the opposite side collided with his motor cycle on Wednesday. Rattan Lal, who was standing next to the motor cycle, was critically injured in the accident. The driver fled from the spot. A case has been registered at the Mehta police station.

RALLIES BANNED: District Magistrate Narinderjit Singh, has banned protest rallies, meetings, raising of slogans and other types of demonstrations which are provocative in nature, under Section 144 from October 25 to December 23.

BJP CRITICISED: Mr Nazar Singh Siadpur, a senior leader of the Patti tehsil unit of the Hindi Committee Party (Marxist), has criticised the BJP for ‘‘its non-productive economic policies’’. He also said that the Central Government was communalising education.

BATHINDA
BEGGAR DIES: A beggar died on Friday at the local railway station due to prolonged illness. Volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa took the body to the civil hospital for a post-mortem examination. The police handed over the body to the volunteers for cremation.

MEDICAL CAMP: A free homoeopathic medical camp will be held on October 28 by the Young Welfare Society. This was stated in a press note issued by the club here on Friday.

FARIDKOT
IMMUNISATION DRIVE: The district health authorities have constituted 186 teams to launch a special six-day polio immunisation programme from October 30. Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said the teams would go from door to door to administer polio drops to 86,764 children in the 0-5 age group with the help of 38 supervisors. A case of polio had been found in Pehluwalia village, said Dr SS Toor, Civil Surgeon, Faridkot.

DAIRY FARMING: The Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot, has urged the unemployed youth to adopt dairy farming as a profession. He said as many as 26 persons were already employed in the profession with the help of a loans sanctioned to them. Nearly 20 others would be brought under the programme before the end of current financial year he said.

HOSHIARPUR
LIQUOR SEIZED: A special campaign against smuggling of liquor has been launched in Jalandhar division and large quantities of lahan stills and boilers seized a team of the Excise Department. According to the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr S.C. Manchanda, a team lead by the Excise and Taxation officer, Mr K.S. Sahota, and comprising excise inspectors, Mr Surinder Pal Singh, Mr A.S. Kang, Mr Jarnail Ram and Mr Naranjan Dass, conducted searches in the area.

LOK ADALAT: The District and Sessions Judge, Mr L.R. Roozam, said in a press note that compensation of more than Rs 11.59 crore had been awarded in 7017 cases in lok adalats held in the district so far. He further stated that 7767 cases were taken up in 70 lok adalats held in the district till September 30.

LUDHIANA
NOMINATED: A senior leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal and veteran councillor, Mr Kulwant Singh Dukhia, has been nominated a member of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust for a period of two years by the Punjab Government. The nomination has been hailed by the SAD-B vice-president, Mr Amarjit Singh Bhatia, and president, Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran, Mr Pritpal Singh Pali.

MEETING: The district-level advisory committee of the Excise and Taxation Department met here under the presidentship of Mr S.S. Kondlas, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, in the Mini Secretariat here. In the meeting, attended by department officials and private members, several problems faced by traders and industrialists were discussed. While emphasising the need to enhance revenue collection of the department, Mr Kondlas gave information about value added tax (VAT) and turnover tax. Among others, Mr Kirpal Singh Arora, Mr Jatinder Pal Singh Saluja, Mr Mohan Singh Chauhan, Mr Jaspal Lotey, Mr Avtar Singh Sarin, Mr Jatinder Mittal and Mr Baljit Sharma were present in the meeting.

COMMITTEE FORMED: The Bhagwan Valmiki Youth Sabha has chalked out an elaborate programme for Valmiki Jayanti, to be observed on November 1. In a meeting, presided over by Mr Garcha Hans and Mr Narendra Nahar, an organising committee was set up to make all arrangements for celebration. Office-bearers of this committee are: chairman — Mr Garcha Hans; president — Mr Narendra Nahar; vice-president — Mr Ramesh Bunty; general secretary — Mr Naresh Bobby; secretaries — Mr Amit Rocky and Mr Mahesh Kumar; cashier — Mr Lovely Nahar; press secretary — Mr Varinder Nahar; and stage secretary — Dr Amarjit Kadaria.

DURGA PUJA: The Bharatiya Pravasi Mazdoor Union organised an impressive function to observe Durga Puja in Hargobindpura Mohalla in Islam Ganj locality. Mr Parminder Mehta, president, District Youth Congress (Urban), who was the chief guest, called upon those present to propagate the message of service to humanity. Mr Sabhajit Pandey, Mr Tarsem Lal Verma, Mr Uttam Kumar, Mr Ajaib Singh Kapoor, Mr Sarbjit Bunty, Mr G.S. Arora and Ms Raj Rani, among others, were present on the occasion.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Lions Club Ludhiana North organised a free medical camp at Government Middle School, Ambedkar Nagar, Model Town Extension on Saturday. Children were examined by child specialist, Dr Ajay Pal Singh, and free medicines were provided to them. Mr Kuldeep Singh, SDM (East), while speaking on the occasion, appreciated the efforts of the club. Among others present on the occasion were Mr H.S. Lamba, Mr S.P.S Shahpuri, Mr G.S.Bansal, Mr Ajay Kaura, Mr Taranjit Singh, Mr Damandeep Singh Saluja, Mr Gurwinder Singh Bablu, Mr Iqbal Khurana and Mr Karamjit Bawa.

QUIZ: Dr Puneet Juneja and Dr Mukesh Gupta of Ludhiana will represent Punjab in the zonal rounds of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics’, Practising Paediatrician Quiz which will be held in Delhi in December. According to a press note, the city doctors had a comfortable win over the teams from Bathinda, Nabha and Patiala in the 5th IAP quiz held at Patiala recently.

EYE CAMP: Over 452 persons were examined and 52 eye operations were conducted during a free eye operation camp organised by the Rananta Family of UK and the Lions Club, Panchkula Central, at the Rural Hospital Mansuran recently. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Harwinder Singh Rananta and free medicines were provided to the needy patients.

HEPATITIS-B CAMP: Deepak Hospital in association with Pfizer Limited will organise a hepatitis-B vaccination camp on October 28 on the hospital premises. According to a statement, adults and children will be vaccinated at this camp.

MALERKOTLA
CAR STOLEN: An Indica car was stolen from College Road here on Friday. The owner of the car, Mr Nirmal Singh, a resident of Ludhiana, has lodged a complaint with the police.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The police has arrested Jagtar Singh, a resident of Sheron village, and seized 10 bottles of country liquor from him. According to the DSP, Mr Kulshinder Singh, a case under the NDPC Act has been registered against the accused.

MANSA
PADDY PURCHASE: Ms Raji P. Srivastva, Deputy Commissioner, Mansa, said on Saturday that various government agencies had purchased 2,54,209 tonnes of paddy in the districts against 1,69,476 tonnes procured in the corresponding period last year. About 87 per cent of the paddy had already been lifted from the purchase centres and Rs 75.36 crore had been paid to the farmers, she said.

EMPLOYEES’ PROTEST: Members of the Municipal Employees Union have been staging an indefinite dharna at Bareta for three days. They are protesting against non-payment of their salaries for the past three months.

LAWYERS CONFERENCE: A state level conference of the Punjab Lawyers Association will be held here on November 3. Mr Pavinder Kumar Arora, secretary, press and public relation of the Mansa district Bar Association, said presidents and secretaries of various bar associations in Punjab would be invited to the conference.

COMPLAINT LODGED: On a complaint filed by Mr Ram Chander, Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Bhikhi, a criminal case has been registered against Bikkar Singh, Sarpanch, gram panchayat of Joga village, and five others for causing obstruction in the performance of his official duty. He alleged that the accused misbehaved with him when he visited the primary school in the village and pelted stones at his Jeep. He also alleged that they demolished one of the newly constructed class rooms in the school. The police has arrested three of the accused.

VOTER LISTS: As per the directions of the union Election Commission, the voter lists will be corrected with January 1, 2002, as the qualifying date in Punjab. According to a press note issued here on Thursday by the District Public Relation Office, the claims and objections would be received from November 3 to 29 (both days inclusive), from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The voter lists would be published on January 7, 2002.

NAWANSHAHR
EYE CAMP: The Guru Nanak Mission Medical and Educational Trust, Dhahan Kaleran, and the Lions Club, Behram Smile, jointly organised an eye check-up camp at Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Chak Bilga here on Thursday. A team of doctors examined nearly 450 students. Medicines and spectacles were distributed free of cost, said Mr Pardip Sharma, president of the club.

SAMRALA
BAN DEMANDED: Local teachers and writers, in a meeting held here today, have demanded a ban on Jaspal Bhatti’s serial ‘Professor Money Plant’, which reportedly shows the teaching community in poor light. Prof Baldeep, President of the Punjabi Lekhak Manch, said Bhatti ignored the fact that there was still a very large number of capable and dutiful teachers in colleges.

GRANT SANCTIONED: Mr Malkiat Singh Dhillon, President, the Malwa Sports Association, in a press note here on Friday said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, MP, has sanctioned a grant of Rs 2 lakh to the association for promotion of sports in the area. He also said the 8th annual sports festival of the association will be held in the third week of December.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Anganwari Mulazam Union, Punjab block unit of Chohla Sahib: president — Ms Jatinder Kaur Bhail; vice-president — Ms Paramjit Kaur Chohla; general secretary — Ms Davinder Kaur; assistant secretary — Ms Balwinder Kaur Sohawa; treasurer — Ms Kailashjit Kaur; and assistant treasurer — Ms Iqbal Kaur.

CHANDIGARH

MINOR SCUFFLE IN PGI: A minor scuffle between a PGI security personnel and a relative of a patient was reported on Friday night. The security officer was allegedly beaten up by the patient’s relative when he was refused entry in the emergency ward by the security man. No case was, however, registered.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BODY FOUND: A body was found near the bus stand here on Saturday. The deceased had not been identified. The police said the deceased seemed to have belonged to Bihar. Several wounds were found on his neck and other parts of the body. The police suspected a case of murder. The police has registered a case.

HARYANA BANDH: The District Congress Committee is making preparations for the proposed Haryana bandh on November 2. Mr Bittu Chawla, regional media in charge for HPCC, said here in a press note that the local party leaders, had been contacting various bazaar associations in this regard. A meeting of the party workers was also held at the Congress Bhavan here on Saturday in which the District Congress Committee President, Mr Balwant Gupta, general secretary of HPCC, Ms Kiran Bala Jain, were also present.

MEETING: Mr Krishan Kaushal, general secretary of the Haryana Sanskrit Adhyapak Sangh, on Saturday said a meeting was going to be held at Hisar or deliberate on various issues. Mr Kaushal said the meeting, scheduled for November 4, would be presided over by Mr Madan Goptal Shastri. Among others, president and general secretaries of district units will attend the meeting. The issue which are likely to be discussed include master cadre for Sanskrit teachers, implementation of Sanskrit as a compulsory subject and reviving the posts which had been taken away from Sanskrit teachers.

PROMOTED: The Inspector General of Police, Ambala Range, Mr H.S. Ahlawat, on Saturday said 46 Head Constables of Ambala Range had been promoted to the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector. Of the 46 Head Constables who have become ASIs, three are from district Panchkula, 12 from Yamuna Nagar, 15 from Ambala, 11 from Kurukshetra and five from Kaithal.

FATEHABAD
SCHOOL GATES LOCKED: Irked by the failure of the authorities to appoint teachers, residents of Sirdan village on Wednesday locked the main gate of Government Middle School. The primary school in Sirdan was upgraded about six months ago, but no regular staff was appointed. Instead, an ad hoc arrangement of deputing teachers for a few days had been made by the authorities. Most of the students in the school come from poor families.

YAMUNANAGAR
APPLICATIONS INVITED: Moti Lal Nehru Sports School, Rai, has invited applications for admission to various classes for the academic session 2002-2003. Mr Rajiv Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Yamunanagar, said here on Thursday that 50 boys and 25 girls would be admitted to Class IV on the basis of merit and children between eight and 10 years were eligible. As many as 80 per cent seats are reserved for the residents of Haryana. Five students are admitted in each class in the outstanding players category on the basis of various tests.