BATHINDA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Green Avenue and Jhujhar Singh Nagar Welfare Society here: president — Mr Jagsir Singh; general secretary — Mr Satpal; and treasurer — Mr Darshan Kumar.

COMPUTERISED: The local branch of the State Bank of Patiala was completely computerised on Tuesday. Mr Amar Nath Singla, an old customer of the bank, inaugurated the computerised branch. Mr Mahadev Balani, MD of the SBOP, said with this branch the number of computerised branches of the SBOP had touched 353.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
CAR TAKEN AWAY: Mr Darshan Lal Goyal, a resident of Sector 44-D, Chandigarh, lodged a complaint with the Amloh police on December 16 that his car CHO3E-6526 was forcibly taken away from his driver near Salana village in Fatehgarh Sahib district by miscreants at gunpoint. 

GURDASPUR
ENDOSCOPY: The local branch of the Indian Medical Association organised a talk by Dr Samir Rai on Scope of Endoscopy in Urology. Dr Rai said drinking ample quantity of water, and lemon water without salt, could prevent formation of stones. Consumption of tomatoes did not lead to formation of stones and drinking beer did not remove them. These, he said, were myths.

NAWANSHAHR
GRANT FOR SALARIES: Mr Jatinder Singh Kariha, local MLA and Mr Jagjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner, on Monday handed over the drafts for Rs 30.3 lakh to the Nawanshahr, Rahon, Banga and Balachaur municipal councils of the district as grant-in-aid for disbursement of salaries to the octroi employees for December. According to an official press note, the state government has released the grant for the payment of salaries to the employees.

NOMINATED: Mr Ashwani Kumar and Mr Roshan Lal have been nominated presidents of the SC and BC cells, respectively, of the city Congress by Mr Raman Kumar Ummat, president, District Congress and Mr Sohan Lal, district president of the Congress BC cell. (M).

PATHANKOT
CHAIN FAST: The Workers Union of Thein Dam (CITU) has started a chain fast in support of their long-standing demands. In a press note, Mr Natha Singh, president of the union, said while the Chief Minister had conceded the demands and announced a package on March 4, 2001, the government had refused to implement the same. The workers also held a dharna in front of the office of the chief engineer on Tuesday demanding implementation of the package announced by the CM.

HEPATITIS CAMP: The Rotary Club here organised a hepatitis-B camp at Adlakha Hospital. According to Mr Ashneel Makkar, president of the club, more than 150 persons were injected hepatitis-B vaccine by Dr Vijay Juneja. 

PATIALA
MEETING: The executive body of the PSEB Officers (Accounts) Association at a meeting held here on Monday demanded the appointment of an independent full-time Member, Finance and Accounts of the board. The body also urged the Chief Minister to appoint one of the heads of departments of either Finance, Accounts and Audit Wings of the board for the post. The president of the association, Mr J.P. Makol, stated that the present Member, Finance and Accounts though a capable officer cannot pay needed attention to this department because of holding dual charges.

APPOINTMENT HAILED: The Welfare Association of the District Public Relations Office has hailed the appointment of Mr Ujagar Singh as the District Public Relations Officer. The President of the Association, Mr Surjit Singh, said he was given a welcome party was organised here on Tuesday on his joining office.

TRAINING PROGRAMME: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, sector 27, organised a sandwich training programme on quality management for senior executives of Vardhman group, Winsome group, GN Auto Enterprises at CRRID, Sector 19, here on Tuesday. The workshop was conducted by Mr Suresh Lulla who has especially come from Mumbai for delivering the lecture. He will visit the companies and discuss the problems typical to each. Three sessions every month would be organised with the same batch for the next six months, according to the Principal of the college, Dr PK Vasudeva.

PROBLEMS HIGHLIGHTED: The House Owners Association, Sector 20, apprised Mr Gian Chand Gupta, the newly elected Municipal Corporation councillor, of the problems of the area on Sunday and priority works needed to be done. Mr Gupta reportedly assured the association members that all the problems would be solved. Mr N.S. Mitha, Mr S.S. Chawla and Mr O.P. Dabla, president, general secretary and legal advisor, respectively, of the association were also present on the occasion.

WELCOMED: The newly elected Municipal Councillor from Ward No. 13, Ms Harpreet Kaur Babla, was welcomed by the Government Press Colony Welfare Association in Sector 28-B. The residents came forward with their grievances and problems faced during the day to day life. After the oath ceremony, Ms Harpreet Kaur, promised the residents to look into their problems. “I will myself go and approach people and remove their grudges.” she said.

AMBALA
TWO KILLED: Two persons were killed in separate road accidents here on Tuesday. According to information, a tempo driver Khuswant Singh was killed when his vehicle collided with a truck near Bulana village on Ambala-Hisar road. The police has registered a case against the truck driver. In another accident, Shamsher Singh died when his trolley overturned near Beholi village.

THREE INJURED: Three students of Majri village were injured and admitted to the local Civil Hospital when they were beaten up by some operators of a private bus here on Tuesday. The residents of the village met the Deputy Commissioner in this regard who has directed the Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, to inquire into the matter. The former sarpanch of the village, Mr Pritam Singh, said earlier too the operators of the private buses misbehaved with the villagers. He urged the Administration to ban the service of the private buses in their area.

PROCESSION: The HSMITC Employee Joint Action Committee took out a procession in Ambala City to press upon their demands. Later the members of the committee submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala. According to a senior leader of the committee, their main demand is to implement the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission.

DEMONSTRATION: The Haryana unit of National Federation of Telecom Employees, BSNL, held a demonstration outside the office of Chief General Manager, Telecom, Haryana Circle on Tuesday to press for their various demands. The employees raised slogans against the “lackdaisical attitude” of the senior officials and demanded that their grievances must be redressed at the earliest. Employees from the nine Secondary Switching Areas (SSA) in Haryana participated in the dharna. The federation leaders said, “Many issues are hanging fire since long and very urgent and important issues have not been taken care of.” Among others, the issues include non-posting of telecom mechs in number of exchanges in Haryana circle, refund of five-day wages, non-implementation of orders of regularisation of part-time and full-time mazdoors, non-grant of pay scale of postman to linemen, serious delay in implementation of orders on compassionate grounds appointments in Hisar SAA, non-payment of enhanced washing allowance, reduction in pay of mazdoors promoted as regular mazdoors, non-supply of summer uniform and shortage of staff in grade ‘C’ and ‘D’ in Haryana Telecom Circle. 

DHARNA: The Haryana State Minor Irrigation Tubewell Corporation workers’s joint action committee staged a dharna in Ambala city on Tuesday. The HSMITC workers demanded that the government must immediately implement Fifth Pay Commission. they said that if no action was taken soon, then they would have to intensify their agitation. HSMITC joint action committee member I.K. Sharma said even though the state government is giving its employees the pay commission recommendations, they were not being given enhanced pay. Mr Baldev Singh, vice-president of the HSMITC, said facilities which were earlier being provided are gradually being withdrawn.