R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
SURVEY CONDUCTED: A study has found that the maximum number of tuberculosis (TB) cases are reported in the age group of 20-39 years. The study was conducted jointly by Dr Kulwant Bhatia Professor and Head, Department of TB and Chest Diseases, medical college and Dr Vishal Verma junior resident. The survey was conducted on 150 persons. It studied the effect of “directly observed treatment short course” (DOTS) under the revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. The youngest patient was 10 years of age and the oldest of 85 years.

WATER ISSUE: Congress leader and Chairperson Improvement Trust Mrs Ratna, on Saturday defended the unequivocal stand of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in protecting the interest of river waters of Punjab by abrogating all previous agreements on water sharing with neighbouring states. She said Punjab did not have surpass water and thus could not spare water for the SYL canal.

Gurdaspur
RESERVATION DEMANDED: The Christians have demanded reservation for their weaker sections as was being given to the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In a conference held here on Saturday Christians of Gurdaspur district alleged that the Congress and the SAD had been promising reservation benefit to them during elections, but failed to keep it.

Jalalabad
‘GREEN CITY’: Punjab Forest Department has proposed to accord ‘Green City’ status to this border town, which is also a native place of the newly appointed State Minister for Forests, Mr Hans Raj Josan. Mr Amrit Pal Singh, Forest Range Officer, Jalalabad, said the proposal in this regard had already been forwarded to the government and on its approval, trees costing Rs 35 lakh would be planted in the town.

SUICIDE: Bholan, a newly wed, committed suicide by hanging herself in her in-laws’ house allegedly due to dowry harassment on Friday. According to an FIR lodged with the police, Santosh Rani mother of Bholan alleged that her daughter was subjected to physical and mental torture for bringing inadequate dowry.

Jalandhar
MEETING: Demanding the fulfilment of their demands, members of the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (AIFUCTO) met Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh on Friday. Stating this in a press release, Dr V.K. Tewari, national secretary, AIFUCTO, said the members wanted an immediate solution to their demands such as, parity of DPEs and librarians with the teachers, third promotion to the selection grade and Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) from January 1, 1996.

Moga
VISITED: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge, Mr Adarsh Goel, on Saturday visited the Moga subjail and heard the grievances of inmates. Mr Justice Goel said the high court had asked the state government to construct bigger jails. Additional District and Session Judge Harjinder Pal Singh, Deputy Commissioner G. Ramesh Kumar, SSP M.S. Chhina, and Chief Judicial Magistrate Subhash Chand Gupta were also present.

BODY FOUND: The body of a labourer was found in a pond at Nathoke village near here on Friday. Sources said the deceased was a resident of Baden village in UP and was working in a local rice mill. The sources said the labourer had gone for fishing on Wednesday. He had gone missing since then. There were no injury marks on the body. The police has handed over the body to his family members.

Malout
STOLEN: In yet another incident of theft, gold and diamond jewellery worth about Rs 1.25 lakh was stolen from the house of Bhoga Singh, a bank manager of Bhai ka Kera village, at Water Works road here on Friday night. This is seventh incident of theft in less than a week in Malout.

Nawanshahr
ALLEGED: On the issue of alleged harassment by the octroi contractor local traders on Saturday gathered at the city police station in support of Mr Kamal Deep Sharma, local dealer of the Hutch mobile company, who had filed a complaint against the octroi contractor for taking his goods worth Rs 90,000/- in his possession on July 17 without issuing him any receipt, even though he had paid the octroi tax of Rs 2,700. Earlier, Mr Sharma had brought the matter into the notice of Mr Lalit Mohan Pathak and Mr Bhushan Kumar, president and Executive Officer of the municipal council, respectively on Thursday. But they expressed ignorance.

POETRY CONTEST: The local Shivalik Public School organised a poem recitation competition here on school premises on Saturday. While Rishabh Sareen, Puja Sharma, Ashim Arora and Kranbir Singh Pooni bagged the first three positions, respectively, in the junior group, in senior group Rahul Sabharwal, Satinder Jit Kaur and Gajul bagged the first three positions. Anchita Bhardwaj was given consolation prize.

APPOINTED: Mr Gurbax Singh Gill has been appointed Counsellor Correspondent for Nawanshahr district by the British High Commission, New Delhi.

Patiala
FREE ACUPRESSURE CAMP: Dr Jagwinder Singh Ghuman, a noted acupressure specialist, is organising a two-day free acupressure camp near the bus stand on July 26 here in the city. 

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of Rashtriya Social Welfare Organisation: president — Mr Nirmal Singh, vice-president — Mr Inderjit Singh; secretary — Mr Anoop Singh Baba; general secretary — Mr D.P. Atley and joint Secretary — Ms Manpreet Kaur.

Phagwara
DEMONSTRATION: Afflicted with continuous and prolonged power cuts, hundreds of irate villagers from six villages, including Bhanoki, Jagatpur Jattan, Nihalgarh, Pandwan, Mouli, and Thakkarki held a demonstration outside the main PSEB office on Banga road, here on Saturday. They shouted slogans against the government and gheraoed the office.

Tarn Taran
OPIUM SEIZED: The Bhikhiwind police has recovered 3 kg of opium from Harjit Singh a resident of Bhail Dhali Wala village, on Friday. The SSP of the local district police said a case under the NDPS Act had been registered. In another incident, the police recovered a .12 bore DBBL rifle from Gurbachan Singh, alias Balli of Sandhra village and a case under the Arms Act has been registered, he said.

GIRLS RETURNED: Two teenaged girls who were abducted by their lovers some 20 days back from the area have been recovered by the police. They were handed over to their parents on Saturday. SSP Gurkirpal Singh said here that one girl, daughter of a brick-kiln worker, had been abducted from the kiln by another worker about 24 days back while second girl was abducted from the local Gokalpura locality 24 days back. The kidnappers have been arrested, he added.

HARYANA

Bhiwani
MEETING: Increasing population has adversely affected the overall development of the country and there is an urgent need to create awareness among the masses in this regard. This was stated by Mr Sunil Gulati, Director, Census Operation, Haryana. He was speaking at a meeting held at the DRDA official meeting room here on Saturday evening. “The population explosion has led to shortage of land, water, living space and even basic resources. Unemployment and poverty have increased and the law and order situation is also deteriorating with time” he said. He observed that people must realise that additional hands in the family did not necessarily mean extra earning.

THREATENED: Activists of the National Student Union of India have threatened to stage a dharna on Tuesday in protest against reducing seats and delay in declaring results by Devi Lal University, Sirsa. The president of rural unit of the NSUI, Mr Rakesh Verma, said here on Saturday that the university had not declared results of several classes and if declared, most of the students had been given as RL. Mr Verma threatened that the NSUI would launch an agitation if results were not declared immediately.

FUNCTION HELD: The founder of ‘Art of Living’ Ravi Shankar was given a warm welcome on his two-day visit to Bhiwani. Blessing the followers Ravi Shankar said life was full of struggle and those who did not honour their entreaters or lovers, they were trapped by tensions.

Hisar
SARV SHIKSHA ABHIYAN: The Nehru Yuva Kendra will run the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan in seven districts of Haryana. These include Rohtak, Hisar, Narnaul, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Faridabad and Yamunanagar. This was stated here on Saturday by Mr RP Bhardwaj, director of the Delhi and Haryana division of the kendra. He said the state government would provide Rs 43 lakh.

Jhajjar
SHOT AT: One person was injured seriously when he was shot at by four youth in Noona Majra village of the district on Saturday. Ajit, a resident of Noona Majra village, earlier had a scuffle with some maxi cab drivers enraged over Friday’s scuffle, four maxi cab drivers identified as Satender, Joginder, Jitender and Talli took him to a STD booth on the bus stand and fired at him from blank point range. He was rushed to the hospital where his condition is stated to be serious.

Sonepat
PROMULGATED: Mr Vidya Dhar, District Magistrate, on Sunday promulgated the Punjab Village Small Town Patrol Act 1918 making it obligatory for the people to do watch and ward duty round the clock on canal banks, drains, bridges, ring bundhs, protection bunds, culverts falling within the jurisdiction of the district.

RECOVERED: The police claims to have recovered a truck-load of tyres and tubes worth several lakhs of rupees from Bahalgarh village. According to a report, the truck was forcibly taken away by four armed car-borne youths near Kultana village near the Sampla bypass while it was on its way from Delhi to Bathinda, on Tuesday night. The driver of the truck Jagat Singh was allegedly beaten up by them and pushed out of the truck.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Janhit Samiti has decided to organise a one-day free medical check-up camp in this city on August 8. The patients would be supplied medicines free of cost by the samiti.

ARRESTED: The police on Sunday claimed that it had arrested as many as four persons who had been declared proclaimed offenders by various courts in the district. According to a report, the arrested persons were identified as Chander Parkash of the Delhi Camp area of Sonepat, Umesh of Kishanpura village in Panipat district, Rohtas of Kabupunia village in Jhajjar district and Ravinder.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Hamirpur
BLAMED: The HP Lok Jan Shakti Party on Sunday blamed the Congress and the BJP for the fiscal crisis, the state was facing. It was due to wrong policies of the parties that the state was in the red, said Sada Nand Chauhan, MLA and state president of the party. Talking with reporters, he said had these parties taken timely steps for the exploitation of its power potential, the state would have not faced present like situation.

DEAD: Two persons, including woman, have died due to snake bite during the past 24 hours in Hamirpur district. While Kaulan Devi, 75, died at Bhyal village of the Nadaun revenue subdivision, a Bihari labourer died at Nukhel village. Both were taken to hospitals where they died.