R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AHMEDGARH
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Red Cross, Ludhiana, organised a blood donation camp at the local Shanti Tara College, in which more than 100 students and teachers donated blood. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Amarjit Sandhu, Principal of the college.

DRUG ABUSE MAXIMUM IN PUNJAB: The percentage of people consuming drugs is maximum in Punjab, disclosed Mr D. R. Bhatti, ADGP, who is Director of the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur. He was speaking to Ludhiana Tribune after a public function on Saturday. He maintained that the rural and illiterate people had been consuming opium and poppy husk for long, and the landlords had been arranging drugs for the labourers working on their farms in order to make them work more. Pointing to the ever-increasing road accidents, Mr Bhatti disclosed that the number of persons dying annually in such accidents in the state was five times the number of murders taking place per year. While the figure of the latter stood around 600, that of the former was about 3,000, he added. Mr Bhatti emphasised upon the need to make women more aware. He sought public’s assistance in educating them, as it would go a long way in improving their status. 

PULSE POLIO CAMPAIGN: The Rural Hospital Welfare Society Mansuran, organised a Pulse Polio Programme in which the children upto 5 years were given balloons along with the polio drops. Dr Ramesh, Director, Eye Bank, Mansuran, said 90 per cent children with their parents came to get polio drops. The hospital was decorated with balloons to attract and educate the masses for the eradication of polio. 

SKIN TREATMENT: To impart the latest techniques on skin treatments to the beauticians of Punjab, Grace Beauty Clinic and Institute will organise a beauticians seminar on skin treatments with Aroma Oil on January 22. Ms Indra Ahluwalia, Director, Grace Institute, in a press statement on Monday said Dr Blossom Kochhar, a renowned Aroma Therapist, will conduct the seminar. 

FREE VACCINATION CAMP: Deepak Hospital will organise free Hepatitis-B vaccination camp on the hospital premises on every fourth Sunday of the month. According to a press statement, three such camps have already been conducted at the hospital in which over 5,000 patients were given free vaccinations. The fourth camp will be held on January 27, fifth on February 24 and the sixth on March 24,2002. 

AMRITSAR
ATTEMPT TO RAPE: The Sultanwind police has booked three persons — Jasveer Singh, Parkash Singh and Angrej Singh, all sons of Ajit Singh of Sultanwind — for allegedly attempting to rape Kuldeep Kaur, of the same area, on January 17. The case was registered on Saturday.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The police arrested Baijnath of Damganj for possessing 81 bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor. The police also arrested Balbir Singh, Resham Singh and Kabal Singh and seized illicit liquor from them.

MEDICAL CAMP: Kanwar Public School has organised a medical check-up camp to commemorate the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh on the school premises on Monday. Besides students of the school, the camp was open to residents of the area.

BICYCLE RALLY: The Balig Vidya Seva Lehar, an institution aimed at educating illiterate adults, held a bicycle chetna rally for peace of Jandiala Guru, near here, on Monday. This was stated by the Principal, Mr Avtar Singh.

LOK ADALAT: Nearly 72 cases of pre-litigative bank loans, pending loans, civil, criminal and under Section 138 of the NI Act were taken up for settlement at a special lok adalat held at Pathankot on Sunday, 41 cases were disposed of through compromise and a sum of Rs 24,03,235 was recovered by banks awarded by the lok adalat. This was stated by Mr Manoj Kumar, Assistant District Attorney, Gurdaspur, in a press note.

KHARAR
POLIO DROPS: As many as 3,223 children were given polio drops at 12 camps organised by the Rotary Club in association with the local Health Department here on Sunday. According to Mr Karam Singh Mundi, president of the club, members of the club were present along with Health Department staff at these camps. 

FUNCTION: Little Blossoms School here celebrated its 14th anniversary at its new building on Sunday. Mr Satya Pal Jain, former MP, Chandigarh, was the chief guest and Major Jiwan Tiwari, president, Indo-China Friendship Association, presided over the function.

LUDHIANA
SEMINARS: A seminar on ‘Challenges of AIDS’ was held under the AIDS Awareness Programme in BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, here on Sunday. Natasha of Class XI and Kirat Anand of Class VIII spoke on the issue. They emphasised on the preventive measures and tried to remove myths and misconceptions about the disease. In another seminar, Mr S.D. Kalia, Principal, BCM Senior Secondary School, spoke on ‘Teaching skills’ in Swami Dayanand Hall. He exhorted the teachers to make learning process an effective and impressive one. 

MANSA
KILLED IN CLASH: A person was killed and another seriously injured in a clash over irrigation of fields. According to the police, Surjit Singh of Dalel SinghWala village, near here, was beaten to death by Gurdeep Singh, Kaka Singh, Parmjit Singh and Gurmeet Singh. His companion, Mr Karamjit Singh, was seriously injured. The police has arrested the accused and registered a case.

PATIALA
VOTING MACHINES: The sealing of the crucial belt units and control units of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to be used in the forthcoming Assembly elections will be undertaken after January 29 in the presence of either the candidates or their representatives. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr J.S Bir, after a meeting held at the Red Cross Bhavan. He said the entire process of transporting EVMs to respective Assembly segments would be transparent and the machines would be taken to their destinations 12 hours before the actual polling starts. He added that the machines would be guarded by CRPF personnel at the strong rooms of counting centres. 

SAMRALA
GURPURB: The birthday of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated at Guru Granth Sahib Gurdwara and other gurdwaras with religious fervour here on Monday. The SDM, Mr S.S. Brar, appealed the devotees to follow the foot-steps of the Guru. 

TARN TARAN
ABDUCTED: The father of a 20-year-old girl has complained to the police that his daughter has been abducted by a youth Jaswinder Singh. The police has registered a case under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC on Sunday.

BODY RECOVERED: The Sadar police recovered the body of a woman from Piddi village on Saturday. The post-mortem examination was conducted on Sunday at the local Civil Hospital. The police has registered a case under Section 174 of the Cr PC.

HARYANA

AMBALA
FOUNDATION STONE: The local MLA, Mr Anil Vij, on Monday laid the foundation stone for Dhobi Dharamshala. Mr Vij said the demand for the dharamshala had been made during the ‘sarkar apke dwar’ programme and a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh had been provided for its construction. He said work was under way to construct a median and put up streetlights from DAV School to Tangri river and a plan had been chalked out for providing streetlights on the stretch of GT road from Ambala Cantt to Ambala City. 

DOG SHOW: The Haryana Young Pet Society organised a dog show at DAV College ground here on Monday. The general secretary of the society, Mr Vishal Chibber, said 121 dogs from different parts of the state participated in the show. There were 21 different breeds of dogs. 

HISAR
AGRICULTURAL CENTRE: Haryana Agricultural University has established an Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC) which will be dedicated to farmers on February 2, the foundation day of the university. Disclosing this here on Sunday, Mr Vinay Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said Dr Punjab Singh, Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) would inaugurate the centre.

KALKA
ERRATIC POWER SUPPLY: Residents have been facing erratic power supply in the town for the past few days. Frequent disruption in power supply has not only caused inconvenience to general public but has also affected business. 

YAMUNANAGAR
BAR ASSOCIATION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Bar Association: president — Mr Satinder Pal Dhanda; senior vice-president — Mr Dinesh Chauhan; vice-president — Mr Ziley Singh; general secretary — Mr Mukesh Garg; joint secretary — Mr Angrish Sharma; and treasurer — Mr Joginder Singh Tehiwala.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
ROPEWAY: The Bilaspur District Congress Committee has criticised the decision of the Himachal Pradesh Government to allot the construction work of a ropeway between Anandpur Sahib and Nainadevi shrines to a private company. It demanded that the construction of the ropeway should be done by Shri Nainadevi Temple Trust itself.

HAMIRPUR
TENANTS’ UNION: Members of the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad Tenants Union have protested against hike in the rents of the premises they live in without taking them into confidence. The union on Sunday held a meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Revti Raman Sharma and took strong exception to the parishad’s decision of enhancing the rents.

PALAMPUR
HOSTEL PROBLEM: Girl students of Himachal Pradesh Rajiv Gandhi Ayurvedic College, Paprola, has been facing great inconvenience in the absence of hostel accommodation for them. A spokesperson for the girl students said here on Sunday that there was provision of the accommodation for 51 girls but in the absence of power connection no room had been allotted.