R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATALA
PRIZE DISTRIBUTION: An annual prize distribution function of the Baring Union Christian College was held here on Friday at the college main hall. Hundreds of people along with the students and staff attended the function. Dr Kehar Singh, Chairman, PSEB, was the chief guest.

GURDASPUR
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among residents of Municipal Colony situated on the Jail road against the lack of civic amenities. The residents of Sunder Bagh and Farid Nagar have also complained against the lack of regular sweepers in the area.

SAPLINGS STOLEN: The Shahpur Kandi police on Saturday arrested Dyal Singh and Darshan Singh, both residents of Kot, for stealing eucalyptus and shisham saplings which were planted by the Irrigation Department on its land near the village on the bank of Ravi. According to the SSP, plants worth Rs 3,000 have been recovered from the residences of the accused. A case has been registered against them.

LUDHIANA
BODY FOUND: An unidentified body of a youth was found floating in the Buddha nullah near the Sundernagar area here on Friday.

EMPLOYEES' PROTEST: The Punjab Agricultural University Employees Union on Friday staged a dharna in front of the university Administrative Block. Mr D.P. Maur, president and Mr Amrit Pal, general secretary of the union, said they were protesting against the alleged anti-employee policies of the state government and university authorities.

MUSICAL EVENING: A musical programme was organised by the Dance, Drama and Music Club of Punjab Agriculture University,at the university students' home here on Thursday. Zamir Ahmed, ghazal singer, enthralled the audience. The programme was organised by Mr Sampson David, senior cultural officer, Association of Indian Universities. Mr M.S. Garewal, welfare officer and secretary of the club, said the purpose of organising the programme was to promote art and culture.

WORKSHOP: A Pharmacy workshop was on Friday inaugurated by a former Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences at Gujranwala Guru Nanak Khalsa College of Pharmacy. The workshop was sponsored by the Pharmacy Council of India.

MOGA
PHONE COMPLAINTS: Residents and panchayats of Ladhaika village said here on Friday that their telephones were lying dead for the past several weeks. Aikender Singh, a resident of the village, said they were receiving inflated telephone bills and were forced to pay them. He demanded that authority concerned should look into the matter.

PROTEST: Private bus owners operating in Bagapurana area on Friday protested against the hike in bus stops fee. The fee had been increased from Rs 2 per vehicle to Rs 10 by the bus stand management. They have urged for the withdrawal of the hike.

ROBBERY: Some unidentified armed men on Friday looted Rs 50,000 from a medical store situated on the GT road. Two persons allegedly went to a medical store and demanded some articles from the shopkeeper. When he went inside the room to fetch the article miscreants removed his cash box containing Rs 50,000 and escaped. A case has been registered.

VEHICLES CHALLANED: Officials of the Transport Department here have realised Rs 5 lakh as penalty imposed on vehicle owners, during last month for violating traffic rules. This was stated here on Friday by a spokesmen of the Transport Department. As many as 450 vehicles were challaned.

PATIALA
BOY KILLED: Lavjot Singh, a class IX student, was killed in a road mishap on the Mall Road near Malwa Cinema here on Friday morning. The boy was riding a two-wheeler when a truck (HBS-5716) hit his vehicle in the rear. He was a resident of Vikas Colony here. The boy suffered a head injury. The police has registered a case under Section 304 of the IPC. The truck driver fled from the scene of the mishap.

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ: The Punjabi University Geographical Society organised Punjab inter zonal geographical quiz contest under the aegis of the Association of Punjab Geographers here on Friday. The Government College for Boys, Sector 11, Chandigarh, won the trophy. The second and the third positions were won by DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh, and Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women, Jalandhar, respectively.

POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The district police has seized about 16 quintals of poppy husk from a truck carrying construction material. Mr Harpreet Singh Sidhu, SSP, said in a press release here on Saturday that the drug was seized during checking of truck No. HR-47-3127 from near Shatran village. He said the truck was carrying 400 sacks of floor chips but underneath these about 45 gunny bags of poppy husk had been kept. The driver of the truck Amrik Singh has been arrested.

PRICE RISE: The Para-Medical Employees Welfare Association and the Class-Four Employees Union of the Government Medical College and Rajindra Hospital here have urged the employees union of the state to join hands in opposing budget proposals leading to price rise of essential commodities. Mr Jang Singh Aahi and Mr Kishan Lal of the two employees groups said the government had provided no relief to poor sections of society or the low income group.

PRIVATISATION MOVE: The Council of Junior Engineers of the Punjab State electricity Board on Friday said that junior engineers would fight against the reported move to privatise the PSEB. It said the states in which privatisation had been implemented had not only suffered from financial crises but consumers were also without sufficient power. It said the Electricity Bill 2000 proposed to be tabled in Parliament during the coming session was not in the interests of the nation.

ROPAR
CAMPS ORGANISED: The District Red Cross organised four camps under 'operation pulaang' to identify disabled persons for providing them with all benefits under the programme at Bairumpur Bhagomajra, Anandpur Sahib, Majri and Ropar during the past 12 days. In these camps 500 disabled persons were examined. This was stated here on Friday by Mr Sukhdarshan Singh, secretary, District Red Cross.

SAMRALA
Upgradation: Seventeen telephone exchanges out of 35 have been upgraded in five months, this was stated here on Friday by Mr H.S. Saroya, Divisional Engineer (Telephones). He said 3,200 new telephones had been provided upto September 1999 and 3,000 lines upgraded by providing C-Dot exchanges. The telephones working with level '77' will be changed to '64' whereas lines of 62 and 63 will remain unchanged.

ZIRAKPUR
ONE HURT: A truck and a tanker had a head-on collision on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway near here on Friday night. Mr Lakhwinder Singh, a resident of Bhankharpur village, who was travelling in the truck, was rescued by a passer-by and taken to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh, with multiple fractures on his left leg. The tanker was proceeding towards Ambala and the truck was coming from the opposite direction. Drivers of both vehicles reportedly fled after the accident.

PSEB MEN: Members of the Punjab State Electricity Board Employees Federation held a rally in front of the local electricity subdivision office on Friday. They were demanding reinstatement of nine employees suspended by the authorities some time ago. Mr Gurnam Singh Gill, President of the federation, said that the employees had been suspended on baseless grounds. Those who addressed the rally included Mr Radhe Shyam, Vice-President, and Mr Karam Chand Bhardwaj, Secretary of the federation.

CHANDIGARH

AIR MARSHAL'S VISIT: The Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, Air Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, visited the IAF’s Advance Headquarters at Chandi Mandir, near here, on Saturday. On his arrival there, he was received by the Air Officer Commanding, Air Vice-Marshal B.M. Bali. The AOC-in-C discussed various operational and administrative matters with senior officers at the headquarters. He was also given a presentation by Air Vice-Marshal Bali.

DELEGATION: A delegation of the Chamber of Chandigarh Industries met the UT Administrator, Lieut-Gen JFR Jacob (retd), in support of its demands. The delegation demanded the formulation of a policy on the transfer of the ownership rights and abolition of the lease of the plots and sheds by the Estate Office and CITCO after 15 years of allotment. The delegation demanded that the issuance of the sales tax forms should be simplified and the payment of the power bills above Rs 10,000 through cheques to be introduced.

PARWANOO
FACTORY WORKERS: Resentment prevails among factory workers due to the alleged non-payment of medical bills by the Employees State Insurance Corporation authorities here. The bills have been reportedly lying pending for payment for the past four to five years. Mr Sat Pal, president of one of the unions here of the factory workers, said the non-payment of medical bills by the ESI authorities had caused a lot of financial burden on the workers. He added that there is a shortage of medicines in the ESI hospital and workers had to buy costly medicines from outside. Devi Singh, General Secretary of the union, said that the local hospital should be authorised to reimburse medical bills up to Rs 500.

HARYANA

ROHTAK
FLYING SQUADS: The district administration has set up three flying squads in order to check the copying menace in the ongoing annual examinations of matric and 10+2 of the Haryana School Education Board. The team will be headed by Mr Yashender Singh, City Magistrate, Mr Shakti Singh Assistant Director (consolidation), and Mr Dharamvir Singh, Estate Officer (HUDA).

SIRSA
4 ARRESTED: Four persons were rounded up in connection with thefts committed in buses. According to police sources, Om Prakash and Rajinder, both residents of Jind, Chandiram of Hansi and Anil of Hisar were arrested on Saturday by the Nathusari Chopta police. They were identified by Ram Kishan of Rajpuria village who had accused them of stealing jewellery from a box kept under the seat of the bus.

DUTY MAGISTRATES: Ten Duty Magistrates have been deputed for the forthcoming local body elections. This was stated here by the Deputy Commissioner. Mr Ram Pal Singh, Mr Raj Kumar, Mr Shyam Lal and Mr Prem Kumar will work for Sirsa. While for Rania block Mr Roshan Lal and Mr Ram Singh have been deputed. Similarly, Mr M. Yadav and Mr Jagdish Gandhi will look after Odhan block. Mr Vivek Dhankhar and Dharam Pal will look after Chopta block. As many as 23 villages have been identified as sensitive.

ONE HELD: Hoshiar Singh, a resident of Ganda village, was arrested on Saturday for sexually exploiting a minor girl of Mouchiwali village where the relatives of his wife lived. The father of the girl had allegedly accused him of sexually abusing her.

SONEPAT
FIRE: Fire broke out in a truck loaded with cotton and destroyed the goods worth Rs 10,000 here on Friday. The truck driver, however, drove the vehicle into the pond and got the fire extinguished.

DEAD: Parkash (23), a labour died at Qumashpur village, 12 km from here on Friday. According to a report, the victim belonged to Bihar and was working in this village when a mound of earth fell on him.

SUGARCANE CRUSHING : The local cooperative sugar mill has so far crushed 15.57 lakh quintals of sugarcane, this includes 4.29 lakh quintals crushed during the past month. Mr Sudhir Rajpal, Deputy Commissioner, told mediapersons here on Friday that the mill had produced 1.32 lakh quintals of sugar by the end of February 29, and the recovery of the sugarcane was 9.28 per cent. He said the mill had sold 94,083 quintals of sugar in the free sale and another 46,321 quintals for levy purpose.

RECRUITMENT DRIVE: The recruitment in the Army for Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonepat and Panipat districts will be held from March 13 to 16 at Ambala Cantonment. This was stated here on Saturday by the Recruiting Officer, Col Hardeep Singh. The recruitment for Jhajjar will be held on March 13, for Rohtak on March 14, and for Sonepat and Panipat on March 15. The recruitment of Army personnel and ex-servicemen wards will be held on March 16.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KANGRA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of Sewa Bharti — president — Mr Ram Swroop Gupta, vice-president — Mr Narinder Trehan, general secretary — Dr S. Kumbhakarni, joint secretaries — Mr S.K. Sharma and Mr Subhash Sood; and treasurer — Mr O.P Narula.

KUMARHATTI
ARRESTED: The police arrested two persons roaming in suspicious circumstances at the Kashmiri locality, 22 km from here, on Thursday. Those arrested have been identified as Dilshad and Choota, both residents of UP. During interrogation they revealed that they were staying at Kasauli for the past two months and were engaged in cloth business. One of their accomplices was already under judicial remand for committing theft in Shimla.

SHIMLA
ST REDUCTION: The State Sarafa and Swarnkar Sangh has hailed the decision of the Dhumal government to reduce the sale tax on ornaments from four to two per cent as proposed in the Budget presented in the Vidhan Sabha here on Thursday. Mr Sufal Sood, president of the Sangh, said the decision would boost trade and help generate additional revenue as reduction in tax would result in transfer of trade to Himachal from the neighbouring states.