R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
ANIMAL FAIR: The annual animal fair on Divali will commence on October 22 and continue till October 31 at Vallah Grounds. This was stated by Mr Narinderjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner, here on Thursday. The fair provides an opportunity to exhibit good breed animals.

BATHINDA
FLYOVER: Residents of the trans-railway areas under the flag of the “Khooni Phatak Hatao Sangharsh Committee” have demanded the construction of a flyover as early as possible. Mr M.M. Behl, general secretary of the committee, said the Railways had allocated Rs 1 crore for the project, and the reports that the project had been dropped, were baseless.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
ADULTERATION: Mr B.S. Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, said a special team had nabbed a fertiliser dealer of Sanghol Sidhu Khad Store selling adulterated fertiliser to farmers. He said the team had seized a stock of adulterated fertiliser and registered a case against the owner of the store.

FEROZEPORE
KISAN SABHA: Punjab National Bank organised a kisan sabha at Badhai village on Thursday which was attended by more than 200 farmers and sarpanches of various villages. While addressing the sabha, Mr G.B. Singh, Chief Manager of the bank, said the bank had earmarked Rs 160 crore loan for this region which included Rs 88 crore for the agriculture sector. He exhorted farmers to adopt the bank’s Krishi Card scheme. He also distributed 78 krishi cards.

TEACHERS’ PROTEST: The Engineering College Teachers Association (ECTA) of the local Shahid Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, observed a “chalk down” strike in protest against the non-fulfilment of their demands pending with the state government. The ECTA, at a meeting on Friday, decided to intensify the agitation by boycotting the internal assessment exams. The teachers demanded immediate implementation of the revised pay scales to the whole staff.

KHANNA
Principal'S request: Mr T.R. Bahia, Principal of A.S. College, Khanna, has requested the SDM Khanna, Mr S.S. Gill, to hold a meeting of students and staff of the college with transport owners, police officials and district transport officer to avoid any further clashes between students and transport employees. He wrote the letter after the incident in which a conductor and some of his companions had beaten up a student of MA (part I) of the college on Thursday. He said that it was sad that the transport authorities were not implementing the state government orders regarding the staff and the students of colleges. He said the administration should take immediate steps to avoid any untoward incident. 

LUDHIANA
MASS MARRIAGE: The annual mass marriage function of poor and needy girls was organised by the Public Social Welfare Council (regd) on Sunday at Janj Ghar, Gandhi Colony, Model Gram, Ludhiana. According to a press note issued on Friday by Mr Surinder Ghai, president of the council marriages of two poor girls were performed and household goods of daily use were given to them by the council. 

CONDEMNED: Prominent congress activists, including Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, M.P., district congress committee (urban) president, Mr Surinder Davar, PPCC general secretary, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, and several others have condemned the SAD-BJP government in Punjab for use of force against congress workers at Chandigarh during a state-level procession against non-purchase of paddy. In a statement here today, the congress leaders said the government was frustrated over the overwhelming response to the congress protest and police repression against peacefully agitating workers was tantamount to murder of democracy. Asserting that every political party had constitutional right to protest against ‘anti-people’ policies of the government, the congress activists said that as and when, the government acted in unjust manner, the party would oppose the same and lodge protest in a democratic manner. 

NEW OFFICE: Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) will soon open a regional office in the city to provide better and high-level services at the doorstep of its customers. It was officially stated that Mr V.K. Kashyap, assistant general manager, working as regional head at Jalandhar, would take charge of the Ludhiana region. 

ELECTED: The following have been elected-office-bearers of the Excise and Taxation Officer’s Association of Ludhiana district: President — Mr R.K. Grover; General Secretary — Mr B.B. Gargas; Sr Vice-President — Mr Lal Singh; Vice-President — Mr Surjit Singh and Ms Urvashi Goel; Finance Controller — Mr A.L. Bansal; and Joint Secretary — Mr H.L. Chadha. 

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among Punjab pensioners over the recent notification regarding reimbursement of medical expenses incurred by the pensioners for the treatment of chronic diseases. They are sore over the reduction in the number of chronic diseases against which the pensioners were availing reimbursement. Pensioners also demand that the condition of no reimbursement up to Rs 6000 on the treatment of chronic diseases should be rolled back. 

ISO-9002 granted: Auto Forgings of focal point Ludhiana has secured ISO-9002 certificate by ICI Jas-ANZ. The chairman of the company, Mr Vinod Gupta, appreciated the hardwork of his employees for attaining this milestone. He said in a press note he would leave no stone unturned to maintain the quality system and in future they wish to enter global market and strive for QS 9000. 

MOGA
PCO UNITS: The General Manager, Telecommunications Department, Ferozepore range, has directed the owners of STD/PCO units in the Moga, Ferozepore, Muktsar and Faridkot districts to install coil collecting boxes in front of their respective units. They would otherwise face disconnection of units, it was stated here on Thursday. The owners of the units protested against these orders.

NAWANSHAHR
TELEPHONE BILLS: Residents here are facing difficulty in depositing their telephone bills as only the main post office situated on the Rahon road collects bills whereas the number of subscribers has increased manifold. The subscribers have to wait for their turn for hours. Also, there is no shelter for those who queue up to pay bills.

EYE CAMP: An eye operation camp was organised at Nirmal Ashram, Banga, about 12 km from here on Wednesday. The Deputy Commissioner, Dr Roshan Sunkaria, inaugurated the camp in which 696 patients were examined and 170 operations preformed.

COMPLAINT: Residents of the city in a letter sent to the Administrator, Punjab Wakf Board, Ambala Cantt, have accused the Imam of the local Baradari mosque of practising sorcery. They alleged the Imam was influencing a number of women. Residents have demanded immediate transfer of the Imam and an inquiry into the matter.

SEMINAR: The district police, under its special awareness drive launched in the district to create awakening among students about the menace of drug addiction, organised a seminar at R.K. Arya College here on Thursday. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, Mr Pritam Singh Johal, SDM, Mr S.K. Sharma, Principal and Dr Ranvir Singh Rana among others spoke on the occasion.

BUS SERVICE: Residents here have urged the state transport authorities to arrange for bus service from Chandigarh to Amritsar via Nawanshahr between 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. as people have to face a lot of inconvenience in the absence of any bus service.

PATIALA
STRIKE: The Food Corporation of India (FCI) Employees Democratic Front will be holding pen down strikes to protest against the government’s policy of not calling in experts for formulating a proper storage and transit policy and against the government’s arbitrary policy with respect to special loading. In a press note issued here on Thursday, Mr Raghubir Singh, convener of the front, said the front had decided to hold such strikes at various places of the state. Mr Raghubir Singh also demanded a uniform transfer policy, promotions relating to class 4 employees, providing employment avenues to the kith and kin of FCI workers and getting a clear railway receipt. Mr Raghubir Singh said that the main reason for the FCI going in the red was the inefficiency of the top brass of the corporation and procurement of poor quality food-grains by the officers by issuing verbal orders to its lower cadres. 

SUNAM
MISHAP: One person was killed and another wounded when their motorcycle collided with a truck on the Patiala road near Nagra village, 14 km from here, on Thursday. The deceased was identified as Sukhwinder Singh, a lineman in the Punjab State Electricity Board, Sunam. The truck driver is absconding. The police has registered a case.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office- bearers of the Industrial Training Employees Union, Sunam; president — Mr Gurcharan Singh Harika; vice-president — Mr Nek Singh; secretary — Mr Sohan Singh Bhangu; treasurer — Mr Dev Raj Garg; press secretary — Mr Girdhari Lal Jindal.

CHANDIGARH

roughed up: A former union leader, Mr KS Kaler, had to face the ire of a woman member of the Employees Union in Power, when the former was allegedly roughed up by Ms Amarjeet Kaur, after the oath ceremony of the union which came in to power in Thursday’s elections. Mr Kelar had allegedly used unparliamentary language against his woman colleague. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
stressed: The local bodies officials, who visited the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, on Thursday stressed on self-reliance. The senior local bodies officials included Mr S.K. Maheshwari and Ms S. Rajan, who interacted with Municipal Councillors in a meeting attended by councillors from Ambala Cantonment, Ambala City and Naraingarh. The officials, referring to the new house tax formula, said the formula had been successful in Faridabad and the formula was comparatively much better than the present one. They also said Municipal Councils must ensure effective resource mobilisation. The officials also said that regular monthly meetings must take place. The Municipal Councillors, on their part, spoke about the local problems including sewerage, bad road and poor street lighting. 

FATEHABAD
BRIBERY CASE: The police has arrested Prithvi Singh, an official of the Animal Husbandry Department, for accepting bribe from a villager. The complainant, Mr Satya Narain, from Bighar village, told the DC that the official working in the local veterinary hospital had demanded a bribe of Rs 2000.

SONEPAT
FIRE: Goods worth about Rs 2 lakh were allegedly set on fire by Om Parkash at Harsana Kalan village, about 5 km from here, on Thursday. Om Parkash is reported to be a psychiatric patient.

HELD: The police arrested six persons on a charge of gambling in a raid at a den near a cinema house here on Thursday.

DIRECTED: The district administration has geared up to check any untoward incident on the Divali. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sudhir Rajpal, has directed the official agencies to take precautionary measures.

ARRESTED: Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, in a press note issued here on Thursday, said the Banga police had arrested Rachhpal Singh, son of Harcharan Singh and resident of Heon village and seized 20 gm of smack from his possession. A case under Sections 20, 61, 85 NDPS had been registered at Banga police station.

ELECTORAL ROLLS: Dr Roshan Sunkaria, DC-cum-District Electroal Officer, in a press note issued here on Thursday, informed that the revision of electoral rolls of the Nawanshahr, Banga and Balachaur assembly segments falling in the district would be done from November 2 to 30. Special arrangements would be made for the convenience of voters at polling stations. The claim and objection forms could also be had from the offices of electoral registration officers, added the release.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARAMSALA
SALARIES NOT PAID: Thirty seven employees of the Health Department in Kangra district have not been paid their salaries for the past six months. The Kangra Non-gazetted Employees Federation has urged the Health Minister to get their salaries released.

SHIMLA
COMPETITION: The state unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad will organise a general knowledge competition for class X and plus two students on October 22. A spokesman of the parishad said more than 12,000 students would participate in the state level competition. As many as 250 centres had been set up in the state for the competition.