R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
CONFERENCE ON LABOUR ECONOMICS: A former Prime Minister, Mr Chandra Shekhar, will inaugurate a three-day 44th annual conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics from December 15 at Guru Nanak Dev University here. More than 400 delegates, including top economists of the country, will participate.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES: A seminar on job avenues for graduates was organised here on Wednesday by the placement cell of the Shazadanand College for Girls. Col M S Gupta, Recruitment Officer, talked about the special entry scheme for women in the Army. Dr Rajneesh Arora, Placement Officer, GND University, elaborated on job in the IT sector. Dr Gurjeet Singh, Head of the Department of Law, GND University, also spoke.

THREE ARRESTED: Three persons were arrested and 8 kg of opium was recovered from them. The arrested include Ranbir and Govind Ram, both residents of Rajasthan, and Balkrishan, their local fence. The three were apprehended on a tip-off from the CIA staff.

FEROZEPORE
APPOINTED: The BJP high command has appointed Mr Ajay Bir Singh Sodhi as an executive member of its kisan wing. The BJP state President and general secretary are ex-officio members in the kisan wing. Mr Sodhi, a progressive farmer, was earlier appointed the district unit president of the BJP (Ferozepore) in May, this year.

KAPURTHALA
FREE TUBEWELLS: The Punjab State Electricity Board has sanctioned four connections for tubewells to families of Kargil martyrs in the district against six applications, according to Mr Rakesh Kumar Verma, Deputy Commissioner. He said that connection to remaining families would be released very soon. Mr Verma informed that all these connections had been given free of cost.

FOUR HELD: The district police has arrested four persons on the charge of possessing 200 kg poppy husk, according to Mr R N Dhoke, SSP. he identified the arrested persons as Yodh Raj, his son Raj Kumar, Amarjit Singh and Jagtar Singh, of Tandi Aulakh village in Bholath police station. The police has also arrested Shingara Singh of Lattian Wala village following the recovery of a working still and 120 kg lahan from him.

LUDHIANA
SANKIRTAN: The Banke Bihari Sewa Parivar and the Govind Gaudham organised a sankirtan sabha at a hotel here on Wednesday, in which Vinod Aggarwal and Baldev Sehgal rendered devotional songs. A bhandara was also organised.

JAGRAN: The Link Road Shopkeepers Association, the Campa Cola Chowk Traders Association, the Ludhiana Scooter Association and the Ludhiana Scooter Parts Dealers Association organised a Bhagvati jagran at Campa Cola Chowk here on Tuesday night. The jagran was presided over by Mr Narinder Kumar, chairman of the Jai Maa Durge Mandal.

FUNCTION: A total of 100 widows will be given free rations at a rations distribution function to be held by the Ludhiana Young Welfare Society at the Cycle Market in Tagore Colony here on December 10. Relief will be distributed among 50 widows at a function at Kali Road on December 15.

GURMAT PARIKSHA: About 4,500 students took part in the Gurmat pariksha held by the Guru Gobind Study Circle in Punjab and Haryana colleges. The examinations will be completed by December 3 and students securing the first five positions in every zone will be honoured.

TEMPLE: The foundation stone of a Ram temple was laid by Mr Surinder Sharma and Mr Shiv Chand Gupta at Gurmat Nagar here on Wednesday. The former donated 11 bags of cement and the latter donated bricks worth Rs 5,000 for the temple.

FEAST FOR POETRY LOVERS: A programme for the lovers of poetry, ghazals titled as “Bazam-e-Adab” will be organised on Saturday at Malhotra Mahal, Phase-I, Dugri at 6.30 p.m. Dr Kewal Dheer Sukhwinder Amrit, Mahinder Deep Grewal, Karamjit Singh Ojla, Kulwant Jagraon, Gurcharan Kaur Kochar, Satnam Singh Komal, Jai Kishan Veer, Dr Kulwinder Kaur, Malkit Singh Saini, D K Sachdeva, Darshan Singh Darshan, Harbans Singh Saini, Johan Akbar Rahi, Surjit Singh, Ravi Nandan Sharma, Bhupinder Harsh, Sagar Sialkoti, Surjit Singh Albela, Dev Dildar (Badshah-Sufian-Kalam), Randhir Kanwal and Ashu will participate in the programme.

BAN ORDERS: Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, District Magistrate, here has banned the use of polythene bags in the district under Section 144 of the Cr PC. The order will be effective till January 20, 2003.

HARYANA

AMBALA
MATHS EXHIBITION: A mathematics exhibition was organised at SD College here on Thursday. The exhibition was inaugurated by the Inspector General of Police, Ambala range, Mr Alok Joshi. Participants displayed around 500 charts and 75 models related to different fields of mathematics. Among others, the college Principal, Dr Desh Bandhu, Prof R.D. Gupta and Prof Naveen Gulati were present. In today’s exhibition, Tarun Virmani came first, Mukesh Kumar came second and Pooja Mittal and Ruby Gulati stood third. Shweta got the consolation prize. In chart making competition, Vishal Gupta finished first, Neeraj was second and Nancy Sood got the third position.

DEMANDED: The Jan Sangharsh Samiti on Thursday demanded the immediate withdrawal of development notices sent to different colonies. Mr Balbir Singh Saini said the Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, had sent development notices charging Rs 120 per sq yard from the residents of various colonies. Mr Saini said the common man had been burdened by the new taxation. The samiti would hold a meeting by the end of this week to decide its future course of action.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

SHIMLA
BODY FOUND: The sadar police on Thursday found a body of a shopkeeper on the Shimla-Bharari road. The body has been identified as that of Amit Sood, a dry fruit seller of Lakkar Bazar. The police has registered a case.