R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
Walk out: The NIPEF and PSEB Engineering Association, Patiala, and Engineering Association, Patiala, and engineers of border zones, Amritsar, staged a walkout from their offices from 12 noon to 2 p.m. on Friday to express solidarity with the agitating engineers of the UP State Electricity Board against trifurcation of the UP Electricity Board and its consequent privatisation. Engineers of the border zones appealed to the Centre to intervene in the matter to avoid unnecessary harassment to public.

Traffic blocked: The “rehriwalas” and “khokha” owners blocked traffic on Friday for more than four hours at Batala road in protest against the anti-encroachment drive, launched by Mr Subash Sharma , Mayor, Municipal Corporation.

BATHINDA
Women held: The local police arrested two women on Friday for allegedly stealing telephone wires near Giani Zail Singh Engineering College here. According to Mr Hemant Kumar, ASI, 10 rolls of telephone wires costing about Rs 20,000, were recovered from them. A case under Section 379, IPC, has been registered. The arrested women have been identified as Bhago and Beero, residents of Amarpura Basti here.

KAPURTHALA
Sentenced: Mr Jagroop Singh Mahal, special judge, sentenced Kura Ram, a junior engineer of the Punjab State Electricity Board, on Friday to four years' imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the charge of accepting a bribe of Rs 1,200 from Niranjan Singh, a farmer of Maqsoodpur.

MOGA
Arrested: The Baghapurana police in the district has arrested Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Charik village, and seized eight bottles of illicit liquor from him, the SSP, Mr S.S. Chauhan said here on Friday. The police also seized eight bottles of liquor from Nirmal Singh of the same village.

Crop dumped: A large number of vegetable growers in the district have dumped their cauliflower crop near their fields as there are no buyers in the markets. A number of farmers have started feeding it to stray cattle and pigs.

NAWANSHAHR
Career options: The District Education Department organised a career awareness talk on Friday at Government Senior Secondary School, Kahma about 8 km from here. Mr Narinder Singh, District Guidance Counsellor, delivered a lecture on the topic of career options after matric and senior secondary classes. About 200 students of these classes attended the programme.

PATIALA
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Citizens for Social Action here: president — Prof V.P. Nayyar; vice-president — Mr G.S. Dandora; and secretary — Mr H.S.Arora.

PHAGWARA
Seminar: The Punjab Rural Education Promotion Council, Ludhiana, organised a seminar on need to improve educational standards in rural institutions at local Kamla Nehru College for Women on Thursday. The Deputy Commissioner of Kapurthala, Mr U.K. Singh presided.

Seminar: A seminar against child abuse was organised here on Friday under an Indo-British project and Mr A.P. Bhatnagar, Additional DGP, Punjab, presided. In his presidential address he said there was a need to safeguard the interests of children through social awakening.

TARN TARAN
Pistol seized: The Khemkaran police seized a .12 bore pistol from Surjit Singh, a resident of Assal Uttar village, and a case under Sections 25/54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against him.

Parents' association: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Parents Association: president — Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal; general secretary — Mr Phoola Singh; vice- president — Mr Daljit Singh Nagpal; joint secretary — Mr Kewal Singh; organising secretary — Mr Rupinder Singh; and treasurer — Mr Darshan Singh Gill.

Cultural programme: A cultural programme was organised at Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Sarhali, on Friday. Mr Surinder Singh Kairon, former MP, presided over the function and Mr Tarlochan Singh Tur , MP , was the chief guest.

CHANDIGARH

Cheque presented: Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, has been presented a cheque of Rs 5,100 for maximum participation during the recently concluded Road Safety Week. The money has been given by Mr K.K. Kapoor, Chairman of the local Congress Cell for Sports, Culture and Foreign Affairs. The school had not only the maximum participants but also won six awards during the week. The money was handed over to the Principal of the school on Saturday, according to a statement by the traffic police.

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Residents Association, Sector 36: President — Lieut Col K.S. Grewal; Vice President — Lieut Col B.S. Sekhon; Secretary — Major Raj Kumar Passi; Finance Secretary — Sqn Ldr Bhagat Singh; Medical Advisor — Col R.K. Dutta; Advisor — Sumit Mahajan.

KHARAR
Phone connection: The local Telecommunication Department has received orders for the release of new telephone connections to those persons who are on the waiting list up to 3950. A spokesman of the telephone exchange Kharar has requested all such persons to contact the exchange on phone numbers 47470 or 47471 for the release of the connection.

SAS NAGAR
Health camp: As many as 32 children in the age group of 3 to 5 were examined at a health check-up camp, organised by the Ranbaxy Community Healthcare Society at Bhataur village in Kharar, near here, on Friday. A community talk on malnutrition was also organised on the occasion.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Scooterist killed: An unidentified scooterist was killed in a road accident here on Saturday evening. According to police report, the scooter had collided with a private bus. The police has registered a case against the bus driver.

HISAR
Labourers' protest: Hundreds of labourers, including women, held a rally and staged dharna here on Saturday in protest against the anti-labourer attitude of the Haryana Police. Mr Satbir Singh, state president of the CITU, while addressing the rally criticised the Chautala government. He threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the state government failed to take steps for the upliftment of labourers in the state.

KAITHAL
Photo I-cards: The photo identity cards of all voters in the five Assembly constituencies of Kaithal, Pai, Guhla, Kalayat and Pundri will be completed by January 31, 2000, the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer, Dr Mahavir Singh said. He said the names of about 12 per cent voters figure in the voters' list already but their photo identity cards had not been prepared.

REWARI
Rally: Students of Government College, Bawal, took out a rally at Bawal, 14 km from here, on Thursday to protest against the alleged irregularities and misappropriation of college funds by the college Principal. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the tehsildar of Bawal and urged him to forward it to the Chief Minister and sought an inquiry into the matter.

SONEPAT
Protest march: A large number of widows and handicapped persons took out a joint procession here on Friday in protest against the failure of the state government to double their pensions on par with old-age pensioners. They held a rally in front of the offices of the Civil Surgeon and the Deputy Commissioner demanding increase in pension. A memorandum was also presented to the Deputy Commissioner by Mr S.N. Solanki, CPM leader.

Demonstration: Employees of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam held a demonstration in front of the 132 KV power sub-station at Fazilpur village, about 3 km from here, on Friday in support of the striking power employees in UP. They also raised slogans against the state and the Central governments.

YAMUNANAGAR
Orientation programme: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), regional office, Chandigarh, organised a one-day orientation programme here on Thursday to promote the rural non-farm sector in the district to create awareness and to familiarise the field functionaries with the rural non-farm sector schemes and promotional programmes of NABARD.

Three killed: Three persons were killed and one was injured seriously on Friday in a head-on-collision between a car and a tractor-trailer at Jarodhi village, 12 km from here. The Jagadhri police has registered a case under Sections 279/304-A of the IPC and bodies have been sent for postmortem at Civil Hospital, Jagadhri.

Prohibitory orders: The District Magistrate has promulgated Section 144 till March 8,2000, in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. Under this the carrying of weapons in public places has been banned.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
Nominated: Mr D.P. Malhotra has been nominated general secretary of the district unit of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) and Mr Surender Kumar Sandhu as a President of the district youth wing of the HVC according to a press note issued here on Saturday.

KUMARHATTI
Liquor seized: The Parwanoo police seized 60 bottles of English wine worth Rs 18,000 from a van on the Kalka- Shimla national highway, on Thursday night at Himachal Pradesh police barrier Parwanoo, about 21 km from here. According to the police the driver of the van had been arrested and he confessed that he had loaded the wine from Chandimandir and was taking it to Shimla. The police has impounded the van and a case under Section 61/1/14 of the Excise Act has been registered.