R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
TUBEWELL STAFF RALLY: The Tubewell Employees Welfare Union and the Tubewell Employees Workers Union held a rally here on Wednesday outside the divisional office of the Punjab State Tubewell Corporation. They urged the Chief Minister to take a positive view of the demands of the PSTC staff.

Amritsar
LAND GRAB BID: Members of the Dayanand Nagar Extension Welfare Society on Wednesday complained against a group of builders who allegedly tried to grab the corporation road on the Lawrence Road commercial area. The builders allegedly dug a piece of land measuring 100 square yards valued at Rs 35 lakh on the road belonging to the corporation for constructing basement of a building.

FARMERS’ GHERAO: Six farmer associations on Wednesday gheraoed the Deputy Commissioner’s office and held a rally. They in a memorandum to the DC, demanded compensation for those whose land were mined, waiving of electricity, water bills, etc.

Bathinda
SPORTS CLUB: The Babu Hari Singh Sports Club, Kuti Kishan Pura village on Wednesday decided to construct a library in the village in the memory of ‘Babu Hari Singh’. The following were elected office-bearers of the club: president — Mr Kanwaljit Singh Kuti; secretary — Mr Amandeep Singh; vice-president — Mr Iqbal Singh; joint secretary — Mr Ram Singh; and press secretary — Mr Sarabjit Singh.

Jalandhar
HELD FOR BRIBERY: Mr Sarabjit Singh, an employee of Kapurthala Civil Surgeon’s office, has been caught while taking a bribe of Rs 1,000 from a radiologist for processing his file. A case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against him.

Six HELD: The police here arrested Vijay Kumar of Ladowal village in Ludhiana and Sukhdev Raj, Vir Pal, Sham Lal, Bhutto and Roshan on the charge of committing burglaries.

LUDHIANA
New NGO: The Manav Social Circle, non-government organisation (NGO), was formed here on Wednesday. The following have been elected office-bearers of the circle: chairman — Mr Inderjit, president — Dr Rinkle Sodhi; secretary — Mr Resham; treasurer — Mr Prabhdeep Singh; Mr Halal Ahmad Manzoor; and director — Dr Rehan. 

Medical camp: A free medical camp will be organised at Shri Gyan Sthal Mandir , Chowk Subhani Building, on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dr Gupta, a skin specialist from Dayanand Medical Hospital, and Dr Anil Kumar will examine the patients. Poor patients will be given free medicines. 

MANDI GOBINDGARH
Namdev Sabha: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Baba Namdev Sabha, Mandi Gobindgarh; patron and advisers — Mr Bhajan Singh Jassal, Mr Teja Singh, Mr Jagir Singh Marjara, Mr Harchand Singh Rattan and Mr Satpal Trar; president — Mr Ammin Chand Bhatt; general secretary — Mr Balwinder Singh Jassar; senior vice-president — Mr Narender Kumar; vice-president — Mr Gurdev Singh Marjara; cashier — Mr Ujagar Singh; press secretary — Mr Gurdev Singh Jassal; secretary — Mr Dharam Pal; auditor— Mr Mahender Singh; executive members — Mr Labh Singh, Mr Krishan Kumar, Mr Dayal Singh Lucky, Mr Gurdev Singh, Mr Gurmeet Singh Bittu, Mr Dharam Pal, Mr Hari Singh, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Mr Joginder Singh Bedi, Mr Som Nath and Mr Hakim Singh. 

Nawanshahr
PSEB STAFF DHARNA: The PSEB Employees Joint Forums organised a dharna here on Wednesday in the DC office complex to protest against the move to privatise the PSEB. It submitted a memorandum to the SDM.

Phagwara
ONE ARRESTED: The police nabbed Avtar Singh, alias Tara, of local Baba Gadhia and recovered from him 230 intoxicating capsules. Tara admitted that he consumed the drug and sold 10 capsules.

CHANDIGARH

LALRU
FUNCTION: Students of Samta Public School, Lalru, presented an impressive cultural programme to mark the 4th annual day and prize distribution function here on Wednesday. The function started with Saraswati Vandana which was followed by cultural events. Bhangara and giddha were the main attractions of the function. While addressing the gathering, Mr Jagjit Singh, Minister for Department of Local Government, Punjab, stressed the need of providing quality education in rural areas of the state. 

MOHALI
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: The two-week development programme for MBA faculty of Punjab region being held at the Gian Jyoti Institute of Management and Technology ended on Wednesday. Prof S.P.S. Pruthi, former Director of the IIM, Ahmedabad, was the chief guest on the occasion and delivered the valedictory address in which he emphasised the need to be alert and watchful of the existing and emerging environmental realities of the world business scenario.

PANCHKULA
NSS CAMP: Mr Ishwar Singh Sheokhand, Assistant Director, NCC and NSS, Haryana Government ,visited the NSS camp of Chaman Lal DAV Senior Public School at Chotta Haripur on Thursday. He appreciated the efforts made by students in their literacy programme for the women. The volunteers also took part in poster and card making and rangoli.

NETRAHEEN SANGH: A delegation of the Netraheen Jagriti Sangh met the Member of Parliament, Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, at the BJP office here and presented their charter of demands. Mr Jagjit Singh Saini, General Secretary of the sangh, said in a press note that they had been demanding reservation in government jobs, government jobs for children of the visually impaired. 

Health camp: A camp on allergy and thyroid problems was organised on Thursday at ENT Allergy Centre, house no 61,Sector15 here. Dr Suman Kumar, Dr Rachna Mittal and Dr Neena Mehta attended to over 70 patients. Medicines were distributed by Protec company. Blood tests were done at nominal rates. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
SPORTS DAY: Angels Public School, Barara observed its annual sports day on Wednesday. The school principal, Mr D.K. Sharma, said events included badminton and kho-kho. Winners will be given prizes at the annual day function. 

Cleanliness drive: The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee deputy spokesperson, Dr Pradeep Chauhan has said that the party was carrying out a different wards of the cantonment. He said the drive had been launched after the authorities failed to maintain hygienic condition. Party volunteers cleaned the streets and sprayed medicine in drains. 

WELCOMED: The Haryana Akali Dal at a meeting held on Thursday welcomed the appointment of Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal as in charge of its organisational affairs. The general secretary of the party, Mr Ranbir Singh Fauji, said the state executive expressed its full confidence in his leadership. He said now the Akali Dal would play an important role in the Haryana politics. 

Ms Charming: Ms Sangeeta was declared Miss Charming HARTRON at a fashion show organised by the HARTRON Workstation Ambala City on the occasion of Christmas function held at Panchayat Bhavan here on Thursday. Over 20 students of the institution took part in the fashion show. A colourful cultural function was organised by students in which bhangra, dance songs and solo dance were present. The Santa Claus distributed sweets and toffees among the kids present there.

Theft: Mobile phones reportedly worth Rs 3 lakh were stolen from a shop at the Cantonment on Wednesday. According to the information, the locks of the shutters were broken when he was coming back from the morning walk. The police registered a case in this regard. 

Hisar
KILLED: One person was killed in a road mishap at Chainat village on the Hansi-Barwala road near here on Tuesday due to poor visibility. According to the police, Madan Lal, a resident of Chainat village, was crossing the road when a vehicle crushed him. He died on the spot. A case has been registered.

SUSPENDED: The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Deepti Umashankar, on Tuesday suspended the Sarpanch of Dabra village near here. Twelve members of the village panchayat had complained against the sarpanch, Ms Roshni Devi, alleging that some persons of the village had encroached upon the panchayat land with the help of the Sarpanch.

Kaithal
POLIO DROPS: The district administration has made all arrangements to administer polio drops to children in the age group of 0 to 5 years on January 4 next year, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Agarwal said here on Thursday. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
MOVE RESENTED: The District Bar Association here has resented the location of one of the seven fast track courts of the Additional District and Sessions Judge at Ghumarwin despite earlier government notification stating that these courts would be set up at Bilaspur, Mandi, Una, Kulu, Chamba and Hamirpur to dispose of pending cases.

Chamba
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Non-gazetted Employees Federation, Department of Horticulture: president — Mr Manohar Lal Hiteshi; senior vice-president — Mr Sukh Dev; vice-presidents — Mr Hukam Chand, Mr Saroop Singh, Mr Vijay Kumar, Mr Chaman Singh, Mr Nudhu Ram; general secretary — Mr Rattan Chand Kotwal; joint secretary — Mr Amar Singh Thakur, and finance secretary — Mrs Suman Mahajan.

Dharamsala
PATWARI HELD: Mr Kishen Chand, patwari of Pathiar Patwar circle was arrested while he was accepting bribe of Rs 500 from Ajay Kumar of Pathiar for supplying him copies of revenue record. A case under Sections 7 and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was registered against him.

WOMAN KILLED: A woman died while two others were injured in different accidents in the district during the past 24 hours. According to the SP Kangra, Shanti Devi, was hit by a truck while she was walking near Ram Chowk on Monday evening. She was shifted to Dr R.P.G. Medical College Hospital, Dharamsala, where she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday morning.

Mandi
MEETING: The meeting of the executive body of the Himachal Pradesh Attorney Association has called upon the state government to fill the vacant posts without further delay. Expressing their gratitude to the Chief Minister for conceding some of their demands, Mr N.K. Sharma, president of the association, said the state government should provide witness chambers to the witnesses coming from for off places for appearing in various courts.