AMRITSAR
SYMPOSIUM HELD: “Sri Amritsar Glorious Heritage Symposium” was held on Saturday at the Sardar Dharam Singh Engineer Auditorium in the Sardar Thakur Singh Art Gallery. Mr S.G.S. Cheema, Principal Secretary, Cultural Affairs, Punjab, presided over it.

LOK ADALAT: A special lok adalat for settling bank loan cases at the pre-litigative stage is to be held here on October 21. Mr V.B. Handa, District and Sessions Judge, Amritsar, informed that directions in this regard were received from Justice H.S. Bedi, Executive Chairman, Punjab Legal Services Authority and a Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh. Anyone desirous to take his case into the lok adalat can contact the local Civil Judge (senior division) on or before October 20.

BATALA
AIDS STRIKES: AIDS struck again as Lali of Aulakh Beri village in the subdivision fell victim to the disease taking the toll in the district to 30. Earlier, Prem Singh of Khehra village in the Kallanaur block died of AIDS last month.

HOSHIARPUR
RALLY HELD: On a call of opposition parties, activists of various parties staged a rally at Shaheed Udham Singh Park here on Saturday in protest against the non-procurement of paddy by government agencies. Mr Harjinder Singh Dhami, district president of the SHSAD, Mr Gurmesh Singh, district secretary of the CPM, Mr Balwant Singh Khera and Mr Raj Kumar Niddar, both senior leaders of the Punjab unit of the Janata Dal, addressed the rally.

JALANDHAR
HEALTH CAMP: A health camp was organised by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development at the Shaheed Vachitar Singh Gurdwara complex here on Saturday. Around 500 patients were examined and provided medicines free of cost.

KHARAR
INJURED: Three residents of Ludhiana were seriously injured here on Sunday when their Maruti car, in which they were travelling from Ludhiana to Chandigarh, hit a tree. According to the police the car went out of control when the driver tried to save a dog on the road. Mr Gurdeep Singh, Mrs Manjit Kaur and Mr Rajesh were seriously injured and they have been sent to the PGI, Chandigarh.

LUDHIANA
CONTEST HELD: The Friends Library of Nabha organised the eighth annual inter-school general knowledge contest at SKN Model High School, Tilak Nagar, here on Sunday. Over 75 students participated in the contest. There were three groups of students — group A with students from Classes VI to VIII, group B with students of Classes IX and X and group C with students of Classes XI and XII. The students were supposed to answer 100 multiple choice questions in one hour. The questions were based on an array of topics like history, geography, information technology, politics, economics and literature. Similar contests will be held at Nabha, Samrala, Gobindgarh and Patiala and the results will be declared next month after compilation, Mr K.D. Arora, Principal of the school. The first, second and third prize winner will get Rs 500, Rs 300 and Rs 200, respectively.

HONOUR: The Bairagi Mahamandal, Punjab, will honour Baba Bhagat Singh with the Baba Banda Bahadur award on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great legend at Guru Nanak Bhavan here on Monday. The mandal also plans to give some other awards as well. Mr Moti Lal Vora (Swami Ramanand award), Mahant Uttam Dass Hathan (Mahant Lachhman Dass award) and Mr Varinder Bawa (Master Chain Singh award). Captain Amarinder Singh, President, PPCC, will be the chief guest, while Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, Congress MP, will preside over the function, according to Mr Krishan Kumar Bawa, mandal president.

SPIRITUAL DISCOURSE: Sant Rajinder Singh Maharaj, spiritual head, Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission and President, World Council of Religions, will deliver spiritual discourse on October 18 and 19 at the Darshan Academy grounds, Bhamian Kalan, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana. The discourse will be delivered from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the opening day and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the concluding day. 

MALERKOTLA
NIIT CENTRE: A NIIT centre was inaugurated in the Art Gallery of the local government college under the Punjab Government scheme here on Saturday. Mr S.S. Kalia, Principal, inaugurated the computer centre. Prominent citizens besides students and the staff attended the function.

STRIKE THREATENED: The members of the NCC Employee’s Welfare Association (UT) will observe a 4-hour pen down strike if the Chandigarh Administration fails to release their three years bonus and installments of Dearness Allowance, due since July 2000, before Divali, informed Mr Ram Saran, president of the association.

COMPENSATION ANNOUNCED: The members of the Joint Action Committee of the Himachali and Uttaranchali Social Bodies, Chandigarh, on Sunday, organised a rally in the scooter market, Sector-21. They were demanding adequate compensation for the bereaved families of Roop Lal and Nand Kishore, who were murdered while guarding a liquor shop in Sector 24 recently. Later, the rally came to an end after the proprietor of the shop agreed to give Rs 2,75,000 and Rs 3,50,000 as compensation to the families of the deceased, said Mr M.S. Rana, co-ordinator of the committee.

SEMINAR: The Chandigarh-Panchkula chapter of the Institute of Cost and Works Accounts of India and the Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited, Chandigarh, will jointly organise a seminar on Demating, depositories and online trading in Hotel Park Inn in Sector 35 on Tuesday evening. The programme shall throw light on the methods to protect the benefits of investors from different investment schemes. 

THEFT CONDEMNED: The Members of the local unit of the Samajwadi Party, on Sunday, condemned the theft incident which occurred on Saturday in hotel Shivalik View, owned by CITCO. Mr Shivi Jaiswal, president of the unit, said despite giving extra police security to the CITCO owned hotels in the city, the police department has failed to stop the theft cases in these hotels. Other party leaders have demanded adequate compensation for the victims and action against the persons on duty. 

UNION: The Footpath Worker’s Rozgar Bachao Samiti has decided to protest against the indifferent attitude of the Chandigarh Administration in implementing the decisions taken about the footpath workers at two meeting held in January and May this year. Mr Lalit Prasad Verma of the samiti, informed that the members of the samiti will gather before the Municipal Corporation office and a procession would proceed towards the UT Secretariat on October 23 and members of the Advisory Council would be gheraoed at hotel Mount View on October 24.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Parent-Teachers Association of Shishu Niketan Senior Secondary Model School, Sector 22 : President — Mrs S Khorana; senior vice president — Mr J.D. Chawla; vice-president — Mr K.K. Monga; general secretary — Mr M.L. Ghai; joint secretary — Mr Avinash Malik; Auditor — Mr S.C. Singla and PRO — Mr Vinayak.

FACE-TO-FACE: Kaa’ynat Arts organised Ru-b-Ru with an upcoming poet and filmmaker, Goverdhan Kaushal ‘‘Gabbi’’ at the Punjab Kala Bhawan here on Sunday. ‘‘Sama’’, ‘‘Nagin’’, ‘‘Kikar’’, ‘‘Maout’’, ‘‘Chanani’’ and ‘‘Arhi’ were the poems recited by the poet on the occasion.

LUCKY CLICK: A picture clicked by local photographer, Subhash Sapru, has made it to the 39th Oklahoma International Exhibition of Photography, recently organised in Oklahoma city in the USA. It is for the fourth consecutive year that Sapru’s pictures have been getting recognition in the photojournalism section of this international exhibition, informed a press note issued by the Photographic Society of Chandigarh.