R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

FEROZEPORE
EARTHQUAKE RELIEF: The DIG, Mr Hardeep Singh Dhillon, flagged off trucks carrying relief material for the earthquake-ravaged Gujarat. The material, which includes 20 tents worth Rs 2 lakh and other equipment required to set up temporary police stations, has been contributed by the personnel of the Ferozepore police. The Ferozepore range police has contributed Rs 6 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

GURDASPUR
CHEAT HELD: The police on Friday arrested Gulzar Singh of Mihanwala in Hoshiarpur district for his alleged involvement in a cheating case. According to Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, a case under Section 420 of the IPC had been registered against the accused on February 22. The accused had cheated Mr Barkat Masih of Bhattian, Ms Salima of Jhande Lubhana and Mr Mangal Singh of Wadala Granthian of Rs 1.35 lakh on the pretent of getting jobs for their sons.

TRADE FAIR: Mr T.K. Goyal, Subdivisional Magistrate on Sunday inaugurated a 3-day automobile trade fair organised by Pioneer Expositions at the Dana Mandi complex here.

QUACKS HELD: The police arrested two quacks on Friday for their involvement in looting persons by selling intoxicating medicines and cheap herbs. According to Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, the accused have been identified as Billu Singh and Balkar Singh, both residents of Chohal village in Hoshiarpur district.

THREE HELD: The police on Friday arrested three persons for their involvement in robberies and smuggling of illicit liquor. Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, said on Sunday that Meraju of Bihar was arrested and a. 22-bore revolver along with eight cartridges was recovered from him. The Sujanpur police arrested Dharam Pal and Subash Chander both residents of Sujanpur, and recovered 590 bottles of illicit liquor from them. Cases have been registered.

HOSHIARPUR
POPPY HUSK: The Sadar police arrested Harmesh Lal of Chowni Kalan on Thursday and seized 2.5 kg of poppy husk from him.

INJURED: Mr Tej Pal Singh, his sister-in-law, nephew Cheena and Harinder Singh, all residents of Bhai Ditta Nagar, Jalandhar, were injured when a truck No PB-08E-3155 hit their Maruti car near Chack Gujran, 8 km from here, on Thursday. The truck driver fled after leaving the vehicle. A case has been registered.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among government primary teachers of Punjab against the higher authorities of their department for appointing teachers from middle and high schools with two years of service as examination superintendents in the annual examination centres of class V by ignoring primary teachers with 30 years of service, according to a press note issued here on Friday by Mr Mohinder Singh Heer, president of the Government Primary Teachers Association, Punjab.

KHANNA 
PROHIBITORY ORDERS: The SDM Khanna, Mr S.S.Gill, imposed Section 145 of the Cr PC around the main office of the cable network, M/s United City Cable, here on Sunday. According to information, the office of the network was closed by the partner after a dispute between them.

KHARAR
BOOKED: Baldev Singh of nearby Nia Shehar village has been booked by the police on the charge of sodomy. On the complaint by the father of a child, police has registered a case under Section 377, IPC, against the accused, who has absconded. The child has been admitted to the civil hospital.

TRESPASS CASE: The local police has booked more than 12 persons of nearby Paintpur village on the charge of house trespass and causing hurt to Ajit Singh. According to the FIR registered with the police, Happy and other youths came to the residence of Ajit Singh and beat him up. The police has registered a case under Sections 452, 324, 323, 148 and 149, IPC against the accused.

LUDHIANA 
NEW ROAD: The Punjab Government is observing the current year as ‘development year’ and development works in all localities will be taken up on priority basis. This was stated by Ms Manjit Kaur Gogi, a councillor, while formally launching the construction work for a new road in Pavittar Nagar locality in Haibowal here on Sunday. Ms Gogi further said besides the construction of a new road, the pavement of streets was also being taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 27 lakh and the work would be completed soon. The works already completed in the area were laying of sewerage at a cost of Rs.44 lakh and commissioning of a new tubewell at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. Prominent among those present on the occasion were Mr Bhupinder Singh Gogi, Mr Amritpal Singh, Mr Rameshwar Kumar and Mr K.K. Munna.

NOMINATED: Mr Sabhajeet Pandey has been nominated chairman of the labour cell of District Youth Congress by its district president, Mr Parminder Mehta. Mr Mehta has also nominated Mr Uttam Kumar press secretary of the DYC. These appointments have been made with the approval of the Indian Youth Congress president, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, a press release of the DYC said here on Sunday.

PENSION ARREARS: The Indian Ex-Services League (Punjab and Chandigarh) has taken a serious view of the delay in the payment of pension arrears of honorary commissioned JCOs. The league office has received numerous complaints from the JCOs that certain regimental centres had not yet worked out their arrears according to the recommendations of the fifth Pay Commission. Lieut-Col Chaman Singh Dhillon (retd.), president of the league, in a press note released here on Sunday, appealed to all centres to work out the arrears on urgent basis and intimate the same to the respective Defence Pension Disbursing Officers. Any further delay in this matter would be reported to the Adjutant General, Army Headquarters, and also to the Defence Minister, added Dhillon.

MEETING: The meeting of the Senior Citizens and Pensioners Welfare Society was held here on Saturday. Mr Balwant Singh, vice-president, chaired the meeting. Two years proposed cut by the government on payment of LTC of its employees and pensioners was condemned. The meeting recommended the name of Mr Harbhajan Singh for the membership of the National Council of Old Pensioners. In another resolution, the last date of membership enrollment for the society has been fixed April 30 and the next meeting fixed for April 14 in Ram Bhavan, Mandi Gobindgarh.

SWINDLER: The city police is on the look out for a cheat who has swindled a number of residents out of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of procuring car loans and bank loans for house construction. Mr Kuldip Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, releasing a photo of Harish Kumar Garg, owner of National Auto Finance Service and Allied Marketing, said the accused had duped a number of persons along with his wife, Neelam Garg. Both of them had vacated their rented residence and office in December. Mr Kuldip Singh told that three cases had been registered against the accused. The first case was registered at the police station of Division Number five on December 13 under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC. The second and third cases were registered under Sections 406, 420 of the IPC at the Sarabha Nagar and Division Number five police stations on February 9 and 21, respectively.

MANSA
MARRIAGES: The Rotaract Club of Budhlada City in the district on Friday organised marriages of two poor girls — Madhu Rani of Budhlada and Kinder kaur of Sattike village — with Ramjeet Singh of Harigarh village and Gandha Singh of Matti village respectively. Mr S.K. Sabarwal, SDM, Mr Narinder Paul Singh, DSP, Mr Parmjit Singh, SHO, Budhlada, attended the ceremony.

PROTEST: The CPM Liberation and Radical People’s Forum and the Revolutionary Youngmen Association on Friday protested against the Jharkhand Government for the firing and lathi charge in Ranchi . They protested against the arrest of Mr Depankar Bhattacharya, national General Secretary, of the forum and other leaders and demanded their immediate release. They sent a memorandum to the Governor.

TARAKSHEEL SOCIETY: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Ralla unit of the Taraksheel Society: president — Mr Gurmail Singh; vice-president — Mr Bahadur Singh; general secretary — Mr Harjeet Singh; secretary — Mr Balour Singh and treasurer — Mr Karamjeet Singh

MELA: The Nehru Yuva Kendra organised a cultural mela at Bhalaike village in the district on Friday. Mr Balwinder Singh Bhundar, general secretary, Shiromani Akali Dal, presided over the function. He issued cheques for Rs 50,000 for library, Rs 15,000 for cultural activities, Rs 2.56 lakh for the development of the village.

PATHANKOT
MURDERED: Ram Krishan (32) was allegedly murdered by his brother-in-law Narinder Kumar at Babowal village in Gurdaspur district on Wednesday. According to the police Narinder Kumar set ablaze Ram Krishan after pouring kerosene on him. Body of the deceased was handed over to the relatives after post-mortem examination. A case has been registered.

PHAGWARA
CONTRIBUTED: The local branch of the Indian Medical Association has contributed Rs 86,500 to the Gujarat earthquake relief , according to Dr Kiranpreet Makkar, secretary of the local branch of the association.

TARN TARAN
DOWRY CASE: On the complaint of Ms Beenu Gupta, the city police has registered a case under Section 498A and 406 of the IPC against her husband Anil Kumar Mahajan and three other members of her in-laws family for demanding dowry and torturing her.

REVOLVER TAKEN AWAY: Constable Pal Singh, posted at the local police lines took away the service revolver of ASI Manjinder Singh. A case has been registered at the city police station, according to sources here on Friday.

CHANDIGARH

PANCHKULA
PARENTS DAY: DAV School, Sector 8, organised Parents Day on the school premises here on Sunday to improve communication and understanding among parents, students and teachers. The parents of KG and nursery classes accompanied their wards to the school where they were informed of the teaching techniques being used in school, multimedia and other educational kits on display. Games were organised on the occasion for the tiny tots where parents and teachers played facilitators. 

HARYANA

AMBALA 
INAUGURATION: The Himachal Pradesh Governor, Mr Suraj Bhan, asked the media to diligently discharge its responsibilities. While addressing a gathering at the inauguration of Haryana Communication and Media Network in Ambala City on Sunday, Mr Bhan said that the media was responsible for bringing to limelight several major issues. “The Bofors case was exposed by the media. However, there is a need for the media to highlight the issues concerning the poor also,” he said. Mr Suraj Bhan said it has been observed that comparatively, ‘positive’ news was covered less than ‘negative’ news. “Stress should be laid on positive aspects of news,” he said. Mr Suraj Bhan then inaugurated the HCN studio. Punjab Minister, Ms Satwant Kaur, was present on the occasion. The receipients of “Ambala Ratan” awards, given on the occasion, include Mr Kirti Prasad Jain, Mr D.S. Punia, Dr Sunil Sadiq, Mr Mahinder Singh, Mr Bhupinder Singh, Mr Bharat Bhushan Jain, Mr S.S. Kandhari, Mr G.S. Uppal, Mr Amar and Mr Aneja. 

MEET: An all India conference on naturopathy is going to be held in Ambala from March 26 to March 28. Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, Dr Ved Prakash, in charge of SD Nature Cure hospital, Ambala Cantt, said that about 1,000 delegates from all over the country were expected to attend the conference. “The subject of discussion will be the need to broadbase the science of naturopathy and yoga in the 21st century,” he said. He said the SD Sabha has been running the hospital since 1970. “It has grown over the years and now has its own buildings, treatment wards including facilities for the underprivileged,” he said. Dr Prakash said that facilities offered include steam bath, mud packs, massage and different kinds of baths. “The institute also has arrangement for teaching yoga, which enables a person to remain healthy,” he said. “The institute has been holding conferences and seminars for the propagation of the concept of nature cure,” he added. 

DAM PROJECT: The Chairman of Ganga Raksha Samiti, Swami Avdheshanand Giri, demanded on Sunday that the Tehri dam project be brought to a halt. Talking to mediapersons, Swami Avdheshanand Giri said that the Tehri dam was going to come up in an earthquake-prone area. “Even the Chief Minister has imposed a ban on structures which are more than two-storeys high. Besides being earthquake-prone, the area witnesses frequent landslides, so we demand that serious thought be given to the Tehri dam project,” he said. He observed that in Gujarat, extensive damage had been caused to all those buildings which had water reservoirs on the roof. He stated that “hydraulic system” or ‘‘running water” system could be used. Swami Adheshanand Giri also observed that the Ganga was being polluted by leather factories and sewerage from the urban areas. 

KAITHAL
CONVOCATION: The annual convocation and prize distribution function of DAV College, Pundri, was held on Thursday. The Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Mr R S Chaudhry, was the chief guest. As many as 90 graduates were awarded degrees.

WEBSITE: The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Panipat, has developed its own website — www.panipat.org — which was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M.R. Anand, on Thursday. It is claimed to be the first website of a District Rural Development Agency in India.

SHAHABAD
COMPUTER COURSE: The University Grants Commission has selected Arya Kanya Mahavidyalya, Shahabad, for starting computer course (vocational science). The Principal of the college, Ms Raman Kanta Sharma, said here on Sunday that the commission had also sanctioned a grant of Rs 15 lakh to the college for the purpose.

CASE REGISTERED: The police has registered a case against a prisoner Bijender, alias Bindu, of Lalehri Kalan village and his associates in connection with the alleged attack on some policemen on duty on March 8. According to a report, the prisoner Bijender was produced before a local court and when he was being taken back to the jail, his associates tried to give some articles to him but the policemen on duty did not allow them to do so. Thereupon, they assaulted the policemen and fled.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

UNA
LOOTED: Three armed miscreants looted Rs 4,079 from the Mubarakpur petrol station, 37 km from here, on Saturday. According to Mr Rithwik Rudra, SP, the three miscreants who were in their twenties, came on a scooter, assaulted an attendant at the station and took away the money. A case has been registered.