R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

DORAHA
DIES OF BURNS: Balwinder Kaur, who tried to commit suicide by pouring kerosene on herself and her children, died on Wednesday night. The deceased was married and had two children aged 5 years and 3 years each. On the fateful day of January 28, she fought with her father-in-law and mother-in-law early in the morning over a small issue and shut herself and her two children inside, where she poured kerosene on all three and set all three on fire. In the meantime, the door was broken by neighbourers. She received 90 per cent burns and breathed her last at DMC, Ludhiana. In a statement to the police before the magistrate, she said that her in-laws were responsible for her suicide attempt. They used to quarrel with her over petty issues and the bone of contention between them was some property dispute. The police is following the case under Section 174 of CrPC 

HOSHIARPUR
MURDER: The Sadar police has registered a case under Sections 302 and 201, IPC, against Ranjit Kaur, alias Rani and her daughter Harjinder both residents of Mehgowal and her lover Malkiat Singh of Hardokhanpur for allegedly murdering her husband Gurdev Singh, a truck driver, who has been missing from the house for the past 13 months.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among the sales tax assessees here over the payment of social security for women and children development cess being charged by the Excise and Taxation Department on sales tax for which the authorisation of collection has only given to the State Bank of India in the district.

LOK ADALAT: To settle the disputes of loan cases of banks, a special lok adalat will be held in the court of the Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Dasuya, on February 4 at 10 a.m. as per the directions of Punjab Legal Services Authority. A seminar will also be held on the occasion. Mr L.R. Roozam, District and Session Judge, Hoshiarpur, said that Mr Justice H.S. Bedi of Punjab and Haryana High Court and Chairman, Punjab Legal Services Authority, will inaugurate the seminar to provide information regarding free legal aid.

DEMANDED: Janata Dal leaders Balwant Singh Khera and Raj Kumar Nidder alleged on Wednesday that telephone services were badly affected in the country after the announcement of 200 km local call service by Mr Paswan. They said that Mr Ram Bilas Paswan should resign on moral grounds.

JALANDHAR
CONVICTED: A man and his two sons and a brother were on Thursday convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by Additional District and Sessions Judge Gurdev Singh. Parmjit Singh of the nearby Kartarpur town, his sons Bhupinder Singh and Jaspal Singh, and brother Dayal Singh were also handed out six months’ and two months’ imprisonment for wounding a man and his two sons, while his third son, Amarjit Singh, had died of stab wounds when four of them were assaulted by the accused over a trifle in february, 1999.

DACOITY: Armed dacoits looted gold jewellary, silver and cash worth more than Rs 1.50 lakh from the house and shop of Darshan Kumar and his son Anil Kumar after wounding a man and his daughter-in-law in Dakoha village on the city outskirts before dawn on Thursday, the police said. Terror-struck Darshan Kumar, a lineman with the Punjab State Electricity Board, told reporters that at least eight men armed with a gun and lethal weapons entered his house and one of them hit him with a rod, wounding him.

KILLED: Two migrant construction workers, in their early twenties, were roasted to death in sleep in a fire which gutted a foam mattress factory in Chamiara village near Mand on Jalandhar-Kapurthala road, on Thursday, the police and hospital sources said. The victims were identified as Pandey and Amir-ul-Ansari, both hailing from Bihar.

KAPURTHALA
RELIEF CAMP: Several social organisations organised a relief camp at local Sabji Mandi chowk to collect relief materials for earthquake victims of Gujarat. Mr Manu Dev Gautam, president, Jai Jawan Welfare Organisation said cash and relief material worth Rs 10 lakh was collected which was handed over to the District Red Cross society.

KHAMANO
CLOSING CEREMONY: The Nehru Yuvak Kendra, Fatehgarh Sahib, will organise closing ceremony of the youth week at Bilaspur village, near here, on Monday in collaboration with the Gram Vikas Club which will be chaired by Mr Utamjot Singh Rathore, District Youth Coordinator. Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, will be the chief guest on the occasion, informed Mr Dilbagh Singh, president of the club. 

MEETING: A meeting of the Development Operational Youth Society, Punjab, was held here under the chairmanship of Mr Pavitar Grewal. Support was expressed to the hunger strike by unemployed teachers in front of DPI (P) Office. Attitude of the Education Minister towards their demands was also condemned. Immediate recruitment of ETT teachers was demanded at the meeting so that better results could be ensured in the education sector. 

LUDHIANA
DELEGATION ASSURED: The Union Communications Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, has assured a delegation of PCO holders that their demand of service charge on all local calls will be considered. According to a press note, a delegation of the Telephone Advisory Committee comprising Mr Amar Singh Pradhan, Mr Narinder Pal Sura, Mr Ramandeep Lali and Mr Rajesh Goyal met the minister in New Delhi and brought to his notice their demand. 

CONTEST: A knitting contest was organised at BCM School by Vardhaman Spinning and General Mills. According to a press note, 250 students participated in the contest. The prize winners included Neha Nayar, Kuldeep Kaur, Pallavi, Ruchi, Palka Arora, Prerna Bhatia, Deepika Narang, Parul Mahajan, Neha Malik, Sonia Jasan, Priyanka Mehan, Madhu Garg, Abhishek Sharma and Dinsehwar Preet. 

VACCINATED: Over 300 students and teachers of Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women were vaccinated against hepatitis-B, in a camp organised by Jay Cee Club, here on Thursday. Ms Rajinder Kaur Gill, principal of the college, told students about the importance of administering vaccines. 

APPOINTED: Dr Sandeep Puri has been appointed as the new Medical Superintendent of the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. He replaces Dr G.S. Wander, who is tipped to be appointed as the Director of newly set up Heart Centre. Dr Puri was working as a Deputy Medical Superintendent of DMCH, since November 1997. After completing his MD in internal medicine from the DMCH, he joined as a senior resident in cardiology at Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. He joined as a lecturer in the DMC in 1992.

CELEBRATED: Students of Nankana Sahib Public School, Gill Park, received prizes for their performance in academics, sports and cultural activities at an annual function held here on Thursday. A cultural programme was also organised, in which students presented skits, song and dance items. Ms Davinder Kaur Batra, principal, read out the annual report. Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi, president, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, was the chief guest.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The general body meeting of Raikote unit of the Indian Medical Association for electing office-bearers was held here on Thursday. A two-minute silence was also observed in memory of those killed in the Gujarat earthquake. Dr S. S. Sandhu, Dr Ramesh Jain, Dr Manbir Singh, Dr B. L. Bansal, Dr Satish Jain and Mr Harjinder Singh have been appointed patron, president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and joint secretary respectively.

MANSA
MEETING: The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Raji P. Srivastava, chaired a meeting of the district officials and representatives of NGOs and said that three collection centres at the subdivision level had been opened to collect money, blankets, clothes and eating material, for Gujarat earthquake victims and appealed to send demand drafts in favour of “Red Cross earthquake relief fund Gujarat”, payable at Mansa to the district administration.

DIRECTED: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, here has directed to the National Insurance Company to pay Rs 4.15 lakh to a complainant Mr Gurdish Singh Manshahia of Mansa Khurd village in the district. His car was destroyed in a fire accident.

CONTRIBUTED: Different employees unions of the district administration have decided to donate one day’s salary to the Gujarat earthquake victims and have been advised to forward their drafts to Ms Raji P Srivastava, Deputy Commissioner and President, Red Cross Society. The drafts should be in favour the Red Cross Relief Fund-Gujarat payable here.

RATION: The public distribution system (PDS) seems to have become a subject of public criticism in the district. A large quantity of rationed levy sugar and kerosene supplied to the depot holders (fair price shops) is allegedly sold in the black market instead of reaching the ration card holders. Consumers are being fleeced by the depot holders and are deprived of their monthly ration. The consumers have complained about the non-availability of rationed commodities, poor quality of levy sugar, faulty weighing, overcharging and diversion of levy sugar and kerosene to the black market but to no avail.

PATIALA
SEIZED: The District police has claimed to have arrested two poppy husk smugglers and seized poppy husk worth Rs. 1 lakh here on Thursday. Mr Karansher Singh, Station House Officer (SHO) of Julka police station, claimed that a police party stopped a truck coming from Bhunerheri village. When challenged , Darshan Singh and Dalwinder Singh, driver and the cleaner respectively, tried to run away. The SHO said that the police seized 10 bags of poppy husk after a thorough search of the truck and subsequently arrested both the driver and the cleaner. Mr Karansher Singh said that the police had registered a case under the Narcotics Act. He added that the efforts were on to arrest the group behind the smuggling of poppy husk.

PHAGWARA
NEW STYLE: A fancy style of collecting relief for Gujarat quake victims was adopted by local Janata Sewa Samiti. Mr Pattakka, an activist of samiti, wore a dressed as an injured person and stood at the crowded Banga road - Bansawala bazar begging for donations.

TRAFFIC BLOCKED: Traffic was blocked on the Phagwara - Hoshiarpur road by irate Congress activists following a skirmish between them and private octroi employees last evening.

QUAKE AID: The City Cable Network and ZED Career Academy on Wednesday collected aid including cash, clothes, medicines, flour and biscuits for victims of the Gujarat quake.

ROPAR
CHARGE TAKEN: Mr P.S. Grewal, the General Manager (Technical) of the National Fertiliser Ltd (NFL), will take over the charge as the Chairman and the Managing Director of the company.

SAHNEWAL
FRAUD: A case of fraud has been registered against the accused after an enquiry conducted by S.P. City II, yesterday. According to the FIR report, Darshan Singh of Ghari Fazil had accused, Prabh Kaur, Balvir Singh, Raghbir Kaur, Surinder Kaur, Mohinder Kaur of Jodhewal Basti, Ludhiana and Gurnam Singh, Laimbhar Singh, Rachpal Singh, Tarsem Singh, Tony of Ghari Fazil village, of having illegally snatched his property and enlisting it under their name. The enquiry of the FIR report, filed on March 15, 2001, was handed over to S.P. City II, Mr Pramod Bhan, by the SSP and the facts of the statement having been proved, a case of fraud under sections 420, 468, 471 of IPC has been registered against all the accused named.

SAMRALA
TAKES OVER: Mr Darshan Kumar has taken over as Assistant Food and Civil Supply Officer, on Thursday. 

ASSUMES CHARGE: Mr Tara Singh Mahant, has taken over as Manager in the local Punjab National Bank in place of Mr Dang who has been transferred to Ludhiana. 

STRIKE: The indefinite strike by trainees at the local ITI entered the third day on Thursday. Harpreet Singh Lali, president of the trainees’ union, said the strike would continue till their demands were accepted.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: Mr R.K. Khanchi, Senior Medical Technologist, Eccrinology Department, was elected as the president of the PGI Medical Technologists Association in an election held, here on Thursday. He secured a total of 233 out of 343 votes polled. Securing 197 votes, Mr G.D. Mehmi, was elected as the vice-president of the association. Mr Prem Chand has been elected as the general secretary, Mr Suresh Rajput as treasurer and Mr Sanjeev Gupta as the joint secretary.

HARYANA

BODY FOUND: The Sadar police on Thursday claimed to have found the body of a six-year-old boy Rishi from a well, about 10 km from Garh Shahjahanpur village, who had been missing since the last three days. The police believe it to be a case of murder and has detained three persons for interrogation in this case.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

THREE HELD: Three persons were arrested by the police on Wednesday under Section 51 of Protection of Wild Life Act, 1972. The skin of a leopard was seized from them.

SHIMLA
AMBULANCE ROAD: The ambulance road work from Dhingu Dhar to Indernagar Colony in Dhalli ward-18 was not implemented even after the sanction Rs 2.95 lakh three months ago by the Municipal Corporation.