Jalandhar
Woman dies of poisoning: Newly-wed Mamta of Guru Nanak Nagar died of poisoning here on Tuesday. The victim’s husband, Rakesh Kumar, claimed that Mamata complained of a headache and ate something poisonous to get rid of it. The Maksudan police has registered case under section 174 of the IPC and sent the body for postmortem.

Travel agent held: A fake travel agent has been arrested on charges of fleecing Rs 17 lakh from a couple, Satnam Singh and Darshan Kaur. According to a complaint lodged by the couple, the travel agent, Maninder Singh, his brother Deepinder Singh, sister-in-law Lakshmi, and another travel agent, Umesh Sharma, had allegedly cheated them on pretext of sending them abroad. The police is looking for the other accused in the case.

Kapurthala
Slogans condemned: Mr Jagdish Kataria, spokesman of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thakrey), Punjab, on Wednesday condemned the “pro-Khalistani” slogan raising by some Akali leaders at Sri Darbar Sahib.

Scribe bereaved: Rajinder Kumar Prabhakar (73), an NRI from France, died at Jalandhar on Wednesday morning. He was the elder uncle of Harsh Kalia, a Punjabi Tribune correspondent. Prabhakar was in Jalandhar to visit his son. He is survived by his wife and five children.

LUDHIANA
Vocational course: Dayalbagh Educational Institute is running an innovative one-year vocational car mechanic course at three places, including Ludhiana, Melathiruvekatanatha-puram (Tamil Nadu) and Timarni (Madhya Pradesh) successfully. These programmes are targetted at persons living in remote areas with a view to provide vocational training course with certification in vocations that can provide them with immediate employment. Mr Gurcharan Singh, President, Punjab Radhasoami Education Society in a press note issued on Monday said “efforts are being made for the placement of the first batch of students immediately after the declaration of results”. The Dayalbagh Educational Institute has an integrated work-based training programme. The scheme inculcates dignity of labour, basic values of humanism, secularism thus developing personality of well adjusted citizens in the students. The admissions for second year have started and the last date of submitting forms is June 30, 2006 at the office of Vocational Training Centre.

SUMMER SCHOOL: The Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology, Gujarkhan Campus, will organise a summer school from June 26. Students of B.Tech (computer engineering), BCA and MCA from AICTE-approved institutes can join the course. Meanwhile, several students of the institute were selected in the campus placement programme. While IDBI selected five students, Citi Financial three, the Centurion Bank of Punjab four, HDFC Bank two, Gulzar Motors one, Hewitt Associates one and Dell selected two students.

Job placement: The Pinnacle Institute of Fashion Technology (PIFT), one of the premier fashion design colleges of the city, has benchmarked its practical training of various design programmes by achieving 80 per cent job placements of the students since its inception in 2001. According to an official press note, 80 per cent of the PIFTiians from knitwear and fashion designing programmes were well placed in the hosiery and apparel industry of Punjab. Some of them had started their own garment industries in the domestic and export business and the students from interior-exterior designing programme were placed under the established Architect concerns and interior showrooms of Ludhiana. The curricula for knitwear and fashion designing had been meticulously developed from Pearl Academy of fashion, New Delhi and for interior-exterior designing by the eminent team of architects and interior professionals. The teaching methodology in PIFT includes well planned practical training, site visits, guest lectures, work shops, seminars by team of experts from various industries of Ludhiana. The institute is also providing the government recognised certificate along with the diploma to the students.

Dharna: As part of nationwide protest against the proposed mass transfer policy of Class III and IV employees, 60 members of all four general insurance companies, affiliated to the General Insurance Employees Association, Northern Zone, sat on a day-long dharna here on Wednesday. Leaders of the association addressed a rally and said they would spearhead the agitation if their demands were not met.

Condemned: The Chandigarh Beopar Mandal has strongly condemned the fuel price hike. Mr Subhash Sethi, President of the mandal, said the common man was already burdened because of spiralling prices of all essential commodities.