FARIDKOT
INAUGURATION: Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, inaugurated a new complex of the Improvement Trust here on Friday. Mr Harjinder Singh Baggar, Chairman of the trust, said a plan had been finalised to construct a residential colony consisting of about 500 houses opposite the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital and a shopping complex near the old bus station here.

HOSHIARPUR
ARRESTED: Mr Sanjeev Kalra, SSP, stated in a press note here on Thursday that during a nakabandi at the Bullanwari chowk on Wednesday the police stopped three scooter-borne youths and found them to be members of a gang of thieves. They were arrested and identified as Bhag Mal of Allahabad village, Deepak Kumar of local Bhagwan Dass Kharkhana road locality and Varinder Kumar of local Dhobi Ghat locality. The scooter and some jewellery were seized from them.

BODY FOUND: The body of a young man was found near the Dihana choe on Thursday. The Mahilpur police has registered a case under Section 302, 201, IPC.

THEFT: Some jewellery and a CD player worth Rs 30,000 were stolen from the house of Mr Ved Parkash in the local Aslamabad area on Wednesday. Mr Ved Parkash is a clerk in the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

MISHAP: Hari Kishan of Fathe Singh Nagar, Ludhiana, died on the spot when a Tata 709 truck dashed into a tree near the Krudha bridge on the Hoshiarpur-Pathankot road on Wednesday. The truck was going from Ludhiana to Pathankot.

JAGRAON
LIQUOR SEIZED: The police has arrested Bittu Singh, village Abupura in Pangian Bihariput area and seized 22.680 lts of illicit liquor. A case under sections 61,1 and 14, of the Excise Act has been registered. 

CONFERENCE: The Gram Panchayat and residents of Manuke village would organise a five-day religious conference to mark the birth anniversary of Baba Narain Singh ji from Monday, under the supervision of Baba Ghala Singh at Manuke. Many musicians, singers and religious personalities are expected to participate in the conference. 

KHAMANO
RESENTMENT: Local residents are sore over the apathy of the postal staff and miserable condition in the local post office. They have to stand in open in long queues for getting postal stamps, envelopes, money-order forms, etc, and depositing their telephone bills. Besides this, there is no sitting arrangement and drinking water facility. They have demanded the district administration to take action. 

FIRST POSITION: Kiranjit Kaur of Guru Nanak Public High School got first position in Class X in Khamano block by securing 573 marks out of 650. 

AUCTION: An auction for octroi post of the local nagar panchayat was held at the office of Deputy Director, Local Self Government Department, Patiala, on Friday. The work of collecting octroi was awarded to Raju Khanna for a sum of Rs 41.65 lakh. Traders and shopkeepers of the area were unhappy over the auction because the SAD-BJP alliance had failed to fulfil its promise of not conducting an auction for collecting octroi this year.

KHARAR
EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: The local Municipal Committee has sanctioned a sum of Rs 7.48 lakh to be given as a loan to 34 beneficiaries under the Swaran Jyanti Employment Scheme in a meeting held here on Thursday. Mr Gian Chand Gupta, executive officer of the committee said these loans would be given by various banks to these persons for starting their projects. He said out of this amount Rs 1.12 lakh would be given as subsidy by the committee. The meeting was attended by representatives of various banks and the Community Development Society.

ADVOCATE DEAD: Ripudaman Singh, a senior advocate, died on Thursday after sudden illness. He was cremated in SAS Nagar on Friday. A large number of advocates from Kharar, Ropar and Chandigarh were present on the funeral.

CAMP: A sudsidised Hepatitis B immunisation camp will be organised at Nia Shehr village on July 15 by the Youth Club Nia Shehr (Regd). According to a press note issued here on Friday. The camp will be organised from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

LUDHIANA
FELICITATED: The newly elected District Congress Committee (rural) president, Mr Gurdev Singh Lapran, was felicitated at a cultural festival in the memory of Peer Baba Bahal Sher at Bharowal Kalan village in the district. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Lapran claimed that the party was fully geared up for the coming Assembly election. Mr Mohinder Singh Kalyan, former member of Rajya Sabha, alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to mislead people through indiscriminate distribution of grants at his sangat darshan programmes. Noted artists, including Gurdev Dhillon alias Bhajna Amli, Angrez Ali, Jatinder Dholon, Kuljit Mani, Bikkar Bharowal and Bunty Dalewala, regaled the audience with their songs and skits.

CUSTOMER MEET: The Ludhiana Central Cooperative Bank would organise a customer meet on Saturday at all its 56 branches in the district. According to Mr N.K. Sharma, Manager (Head Office), the exercise was aimed at soliciting the suggestions of the customers in respect of the services rendered by the bank. The interaction would also provide an opportunity to know the aspirations of its customers, on the basis of which the bank could come out with tailor-made schemes for financial assistance to various sectors. 

OCTROI EVASION: During an intensive checking of video coaches arriving in the city during night and early hours of the morning, the enforcement wing of the Octroi Department has seized 300 packages, containing goods on which octroi was not paid. According to Mr Raminder Singh, Additional Commissioner, the packages were kept in safe custody and cases would be decided on production of relevant documents by the respective claimants. 

SCIENTIST INVITED: Mr Navdeep Singh, Assistant Entomologist, Department of Entomology, PAU, has been awarded Research Assistantship to pursue his PhD programme at Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA. He would pursue his research programme in genetic engineering of corn varieties for aphid resistance by unravelling the plant enzyme system in defence of phytotoxicity caused by saliva injection and feeding by aphid. He would proceed on a study leave to take up his assignment in the 3rd week of July.

MOGA
MEETING CONVENED: The local Ramgarhia Welfare Society convened a state-level meeting of all Ramgarhia societies at the Vishkarma Bhavan here on Sunday. Member of the executive committee of the association Gurmeet Singh said the meeting would ask its members to support the candidates put up by Ramgarhias in the state for the Assembly and SGPC elections.

CAMPAIGN: The district police has decided to launch a special campaign in the district for providing a clean administration, to protect life and property of the people and check anti-social elements. This was stated by Senior Superintendent of Police Sharad Saiya Chauhan while talking to mediapersons here on Friday.

AMBULANCE: Deputy Commissioner Kanwalbir Singh Sidhu on Friday asked the Moga Municipal Council to buy at least two ambulances for those hurt in mishaps at the Moga, Ludhiana, Ferozepore and Amritsar road crossing, where many mishaps had occurred during the past few days. He said the district administration had decided to organise traffic awareness camps all over the district.

UNFIT DRINKING WATER: Tap water supplied to various villages in the district has been found unfit for human consumption. Villagers told mediapersons here on Friday that the drinking water supplied to them through the reservoirs was never clean. They further complained that in several villages no drinking water supply as the water reservoirs there had been lying idle and no repairs carried out.

MEETING: A meeting of the Punjab Non-Aided Affiliated College Principals and Managements Association was held at Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, about 20 km from here, on Thursday. The participants expressed resentment over the callous attitude of the state government for not bringing the colleges under the 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme despite numerous assurances. This was stated Mr B.D. Budhiraja, general secretary of the association.

INJURED: A young married woman, Ms Babita, sustained serious burn injuries when her clothes caught fire while preparing a meal on a stove in her house at Murthal village, about 8 km from here, on Thursday. According to a report, she was rushed to the local Civil Hospital, from where she was shifted to college hospital at Rohtak.

PATIALA
MOURNED: The National Theatre and Arts Society (NTAS) on Friday mourned the death of film director, Surinder Singh, who breathed his last on Thursday in Pune. Mr Surinder Singh belonged to Jalandhar and remained in the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, as Head of the Department of screenplay writing.

DEMANDED: Mr Kulbir Singh, general secretary, Punjab State Karamchari Dal, during a meeting held here today, demanded 15 per cent house tax by the Punjab Government for employees as was given to the employees of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar corporations. He added that as per the declaration made by Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, it was decided that like other corporations, Patiala employees would also be given the 15 per cent house tax. He added that now the government was not fulfilling its promise.

COACHING CLASS: A brief inaugural coaching class for July-December, 2001 session of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, Chandigarh-Panchkula chapter, was held on Thursday in DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, Chandigarh. The function was presided over by Mr Deepak Rai Walia, executive director, Dhillon group. Amongst the key speakers were Mr D.C.Arya, Mr S.S.Mann, Mr Gulshan Kumar, Mr Rakesh Bhalla and other managing committee members.

PATH AND DISCOURSE: The Swami Sivanand Seva Sadan in Sector 23-A will organise pooja, Ramayana path and discourse on the teachings of Swami Sivananda Ji on Saturday. A press note issued by the secretary of the sadan said apart from organising langar, prabhat pheri would also be taken out on this occasion.

URGED: The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations urged the local MP, Mr Pawan Bansal on Friday to allocate 50 per cent of his total area development grant to get back lanes paved in a rolling plan to be devised by him during his tenure. In a letter written to Mr Bansal the association said the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation had neglected the back lanes in Phase 1 in Chandigarh. Some sub sectors in phase-1 have got the back lanes paved and in some cases security gates on both ends had been installed. A statement issued by Air Marshal Randhir Singh (retd), Chairman of the FOSWAC, said the authorities expressed their inability to execute this work for want of funds.

SAPLING PLANTATION: As many as 200 saplings were planted during a sapling plantation drive at Government Middle and High Schools in Bapu Dham here today. Launching the drive, the local Member of Parliament, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal announced that he would pay for the construction of two rooms in the middle school and a stage for holding functions in the high school out of the MP fund. The Area Councillor, Mrs Suneeta, was also present on the occasion.

CERTIFICATES: Eleven girls and 21 boys received the Commonwealth Certificate in IT Excellence at a ceremony after the commonwealth youth programme Asia Centre here on Thursday. These 32 students received the certificates for a variety of short-term courses ranging from six weeks to four months.

SONEPAT
ASSAULTED: Ranbir, a local resident, sustained injuries when he was attacked by his brother at Palri Kalan village, about 15 km from here, on Thursday. According to a report, he was stated to be out of danger. A dispute over some land was stated to be the reason behind the incident. A case has been registered.