AMRITSAR
LITERARY BOOKS: Guru Nanak Dev University has invited authors to send books on fiction, poetry, drama and prose in Punjabi for the selection of awards for 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Dr S.P. Singh head of the School of Punjabi Studies, GNDU, said the awards were Bhai Veer Singh Galap Award for Punjabi fiction, Bhai Mohan Singh Amahir Award for poetry, Ishwar Chander Nanda award for drama and Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari award for prose. He said all literary works must specify the dates of publication.

LOK ADALAT: A sum of Rs 84,69,219 was awarded in bank recovery cases at a lok adalat on pre-litigative bank loan disputes. The lok adalat was organised by the subdivisional Legal Services Committee, Tarn Taran, under the supervision of Mr Justice V.B. Handa, Sessions-Judge-cum-Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Amritsar. As many as 276 cases were disposed of and Rs 1,30,07,969 were recovered.

BATALA
SCHOOL OPENED: Punjab Transport Minister Raghubir Singh inaugurated Bal Bharti Public School here on Monday. The minister lauded the efforts of the trustee, Mr Ramparkash, of the Pushpawati Trust in opening the school. He gave away Rs 50000 for the school building.

DORAHA
LIQUOR SEIZED: Twelve bottles of liquor were seized from Devinder Kumar of Lakkar Mandi here by a police party headed by Mr Karnail Singh, ASI, near Gurdwara Katana Sahib. He has been booked under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act. 

FARIDKOT
LEPROSY CAMP: The district Health Department organised a leprosy camp here on Tuesday on the 53rd martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi. More than 200 persons were examined. A leprosy patient was detected at the camp, said Dr V.S. Mohi, Civil Surgeon, Faridkot.

GURDASPUR
THEFT CASES: Two cases of theft were detected and gold jewellery , a colour TV and a VCP were recovered. The articles were stolen in October last year from Pathankot. Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, said on Tuesday that Satnam Singh, alias Titoo of Abul Khair near here and Sonu , alias Gorkha of Nepal, had confessed to having stolen things from the house of Mr Jasbir Singh, DSP, CBI.

RESIGNED: Seventeen activists of the CPI of the Dina Nagar block in the district on Tuesday resigned from the party to protest against the alleged indifferent attitude of the secretary of the district unit of the party. At a meeting held at Dina Nagar, it was observed that their repeated complaints to the state office had yielded no results.

HOSHIARPUR
PROBE DEMANDED: The local Consolidation Department transferred the ownership of Dalits’ Dharamshala and two kanals of land to a member of Swarnkar community in Malout village in the district during the last consolidation of land. Dalits of the village have demanded probe into this bungling and action against officials concerned. They also demanded the land and the Dharamshala back.

TWO KILLED: Chandu Ram of Allipur village was crushed to death by a bus while he was standing with his son at the village bus stand. The Mukerian police has registered a case. In another incident, Gian Kaur of Phuglana village was hit by a Maruti car and succumbed to her injuries at the local Civil Hospital. The Sadar police has registered a case.

JALANDHAR
WORKSHOP: The Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi organised a painting workshop at Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Jalandhar, from January 26 to January 28. The participants included Mehar Singh, Madan Lal, J.S. Garcha, Satwant Singh, Ashwani Verma, Satwant Singh, Sumail and Saruchi. The artists interacted with Fine Arts students and were shown slides of works of Sobha Singh and those of the participants.

KHARAR
WOMAN KILLED: Ms Pritam Kaur, resident of Rurki Kham village, was killed when the scooter on which she was travelling along with her husband, was knocked down by a running truck (PB-IIC-5415) last night. According to the police husband was injured. The police has registered a case under Sections 279 and 304 A of the IPC against the truck driver. 

LUDHIANA
DENTAL CAMP: The Department of Community Medicine and the Department of Dentistry of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital will organise a free dental awareness and check-up camp at its rural health care centre in Pohir village on Wednesday. Two visiting doctors from Scotland will also check patients along with dentists of the DMCH. Giving this information, Dr V. Mohan, Professor and Executive Head, Department of Community Medicine, said 90 per cent of the rural population suffered with dental problems due to ignorance and myths related with the dental health. A unique feature of the camp will be a lecture on “How to manage the oral hygiene”, informed Dr J. Bindra, head of the Department of Dentistry. 

PCOs: More then 200 owners of PCOs of the town protested against the 200-km local call facility and demanded enhancement of their commission from 16 per cent to 50 per cent. They said this move of the BSNL had totally ruined their business. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the move.

PROTEST: The Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab, on Monday protested against the sale of foreign goods in the state and the opening up of multinational companies in India. The press secretary of the state unit of the union said the BKU would launch an agitation against the sale of foreign goods.

MACHHIWARA
NRI: Mr Dalbir Singh, an NRI from Australia, who is on a visit to his native village, Uppal, near here, has taken the responsibility for renovating the primary school building. Mr Balbir Singh, Sarpanch of the village, thanked him for his noble gesture. 

BUS SERVICE: A long-standing demand of residents of this area was met on Monday when Kataria Bus Service started a direct bus service between Machhiwara and New Delhi. Mr Anil Sood, president, Nagar Panchayat, inaugurated the new route. 

MALERKOTLA
SEWERAGE CHOKED: Residents of Al-Falah Colony here complain that the sewerage of their colony is blocked since five years. The situation has now become worse as the lanes are flooded with drainage water which has entered their houses also. A resident alleged that the executive officer did not pay heed to the complaints of the residents.

MANSA
CHILD WELFARE: The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Raji P. Sirivastava, stated that Rs 17 lakh had been released to the Social Security and Child Welfare Department under the Union Government’s ‘Pardhan Mantri Gram Uday Yojna’ scheme to provide nutritious food to all infants upto three years of age. The department has identified 4,362 infants who are physically weak and do not have proper growth.

SENTENCED: Rajinder Pal Singh, Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) of Police Station, Mansa Sadar, has been sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1000 under Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The ASI had seized poppy husk from Raj Singh of Chakerian village and received gratification from him.

SAHNEWAL
SPORTS MEET: The sports meet of Khasi Kalan village will be held from February 8 to 11. The events include football, volleyball, kabbadi and dog races. Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, will give away prizes. 

WINTER CARNIVAL: It is time now for the winter carnival at Mount Carmel School, Sector 47. The four-day fun-filled event (from January 31 to February 3) will feature talent hunt exercises, apart from the routine cultural functions. Talent hunt contests will be held for students from Chandigarh and Panchkula. Other attractions will include musical extravaganza and other exciting events to be anchored by ace compere Saibal Sinha. A food festival will go on as part of the carnival, apart from items in the cultural section. A unique show of the evening will be the family number 1 show. Then there will be inter-school contests in fields of dance and fancy dress. Melody Trends will also perform on the occasion. 

VALEDICTORY FUNCTION: Valedictory function of Oil Conservation Fortnight — 2001 was held here at Police Auditorium Traffic Police Lines. Local Oil Industry members of the HPC, IOC, IBP, and PCRA participated in the function. During the fortnight, programmes like dissemination of oil conservation message banners, radio talks, distribution of booklets, stickers to drivers, save LPG, kerosene clinics for housewives, auto emission checks for vehicles, training programmes for drivers etc. were conducted. Mr Parag Jain, SSP, UT, chaired the valedictory function. 

UK THEATRE: The Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi held an audition to select performing artistes, who would tour England for nine weeks in October 2001, on Tuesday. Those selected after today’s audition will participate in the theatre workshop to be organised by the UK based theatre personalities, Andrew Purvin and Sarah. The selected artistes will then be part of The Fetch, a mask and puppet theatre company, which is to undertake the production titled The Land of Five Rivers. Among the selected people will be the ones who excel in skills like acting, dancing, music, mime and puppetry. 

QUAKE-HIT: The employees of the Punjab State Tubewell Corporation have decided to contribute their one-day salary to the Earthquake Relief Fund — Gujarat here on Tuesday. The TBRL Employees Union, Chandigarh, also decided to contribute their one day salary to the relief fund. The Punjab Engineering College Old Students Association donated Rs 21,000 from its fund to the victims of quake. A human chain would be formed at the parking of Sector 37-D market by the Chandigarh Territorial Youth Congress to show solidarity with the victims. The Senior Citizens (Pensioners) Council, SAS Nagar, decided to contribute Rs 5,000 to the relief fund. 

ASSOCIATION: The PGI Engineers Association resolved to contribute one-day salary for Gujrat Relief Fund to help earthquake victims, said Mr P.S. Saini, president of the association. 

BLOOD CAMP: As many as 180 units of blood was donated by the members of UT Engineers’ Association Chandigarh at a camp organised in the Inspection Bunglow, Sector 19, here on Tuesday. Mr Avtar Singh, general secretary of the association, said employees of various wings of the Engineering Department, UT, Chandigarh, participated in the noble cause. Mr Rakesh Singh, Finance Secretary-cum-Secretary Engineering, inaugurated the camp and appreciated the donors. Mr R.K. Jain, Chief Engineering Department, was also present of the occasion. 

HISAR
BLOOD DONATION: The Akhil Bhartiya Guru Jambheshwar Karmchari Kalyan Samiti organised a blood donation camp for quake victims at Bishnoi Mandir on Monday. Fiftyone employees of the samiti and members of the Haryana Veterinary Association have decided to contribute a day’s salary to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The decision was taken by the Central Executive Committee of the Association.

TELEPHONE EXCHANGE: Telephone subscribers of the Mills Gate area are confused as the telephone exchange installed recently has been connected to the Hansi telephone exchange instead of Hisar. The subscribers with STD facility are not able to lock the STD. They complain that no officials are available in the main exchange to guide them. When contacted, Mr Ramesh Arya, General Manager, Telecom, said he would enquire into the matter.

KAITHAL
DRIVE LAUNCHED: Mr Surinder Barwala, MP, inaugurated a cleanliness drive launched by the local municipal council in the Amar Garh colony here on the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi here on Tuesday. The SP, Mr A.S. Chawla, the SDM, Mr Ashok Bishnoi and the DSP, Mr Amir Singh Sabharwal, were among those who participated.

PANIPAT
DRIVE: A cleanliness drive was started in the local Jagjivan Ram Colony on Tuesday. It was inaugurated by Social Welfare Minister Risal Singh. The drive will continue till February 15, 2001 under the supervision of Subdivisional Magistrate, Mr Kulwant Karsan, and others.

ROHTAK
BODIES FOUND: The police found the bodies of a woman and an infant on the roadside near Lahli village on Monday. The bodies, yet to be identified, have been sent for post-mortem.

SONEPAT
FIRE: Cotton and other goods worth Rs 10 lakh were gutted in a fire which broke out in a cotton factory about 15 km from Larsauli village. According to a report fire spread from an electrical spark. The fire was brought under control within a few hours.

KILLED: A scooterist died on the spot when he was hit by an unknown vehicle on the GT road, about 25 km from Kundli village. The victim was identified as Kulwant Singh of Chander Vihar, Delhi. The police has registered a case.

NOTICE: The Haryana Urban Development Authority has issued notices to shopkeepers in Sectors 14 and 15 to close shops constructed in their houses within a month. The residents are resenting the move.

INJURED: A youth fell down from a minibus on the Sonepat-Murthal road and was injured seriously. He is stated to be out of danger. According to the report, a tyre of the bus bursted and the youth fell on the road as he was standing on the footboard of an overcrowded bus. 

KUMARHATTI
BUS SERVICE: The discontinuation of Darla-New Delhi bus service has led to resentment among residents of more than 20 panchayats falling between Dharampur and Darla. The bus service was discontinued by the Solan depot nine months ago. The move has caused great inconvenience to the business community, particularly of Subathu, Arki and Kunnihar. The bus service has been limited to Chandigarh.

SOLAN
CYLINDER BURSTS: One person died and two others received serious burn injuries when a cooking gas cylinder burst in Redu village under the Nalagarh police station. The deceased has been identified as Ram Asra and the injured are Gurdian Singh and Tek Ram, both of the same village.