BATHINDA
VANAMAHOTSAVA: The Kotkapura Vishwas Lions Club celebrated vanamahotsava at Bhagat Singh Government College, Kotkapura, in association with the local branch of the State Bank of Patiala on Friday. This was stated in a press note issued here by the club. About 100 saplings were planted on the college premises. Mr Surinder Bir Singh Sethi, Principal of the college, Mr Chawla, Branch Manager of the bank, and Mr Ranjit Singh Kakkar, president of the club, addressed the students.

LOANS DISTRIBUTED: Mr A. Gupta, Chief General Manager of the State Bank of Patiala, visited the Goniana branch of the bank on Thursday. Mr Gupta distributed loans to doctors, businessmen, industrialists and farmers of the region. This was stated in a press note issued here on Friday by Mr S.K. Bhandari, Branch Manager of the bank.

CONG MEETING: The local unit of the Congress held a meeting to mark the anniversary of Quit India Movement at the Congress bhavan on Thursday. This was stated in a press note issued here on Friday by Mr Yashpal Bansal, general secretary of the local party unit.

DERA BASSI
EYE CAMP HELD: As many as 666 out-door patients were examined free of cost in an “eye and ENT camp” organised in the memory of late Dr Suraj Prakash Jain by 
Jain Clinic at the local grain market on Friday. Patients were examined at the camp by a team of doctors led by Dr Pushpesh Singh and Dr Rupa Jain. Patients were also given medicines free of cost.

DHURI
2 SCOOTERISTS KILLED: Two scooterists were killed on the spot when their scooter rammed into a Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation bus, near Kakarwal village, 2 km away from here, on Thursday. The deceased have been identified as Gurdip Singh, a Punjab Home Guard jawan, and Gurjit Singh, residents of Rajomajra village. A case has been registered under Sections 304A and 427 of the IPC.

DORAHA
TRIBUTES PAID: A large number of people, including military personnel, administrative officials and members of almost all political parties, attended the bhog ceremony and antam ardas of Major Singh of 4 Sikh Light Infantry Regiment at Lapran village, yesterday. He had laid down his life while fighting with terrorists at Barmulla in Srinagar on July 28. Offering tributes to the martyr, Mr Sadhu Singh Ghudani, MLA, Payal, announced that the government school and the road leading to the village would be named after Major Singh. Besides, a government job would be given to one member of his family. Among those who paid tributes to the martyr were Mr S.K. Sandhu, Deputy Commissioner; Mr Jagjiwan Pal Singh Gill, General Secretary, Youth Akali Dal; Mr Gurkirat Singh Kotli, General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee; Mr Gurdev Singh Lapran, President, District Congress Committee; Mr Kartar Singh Buani, a Communist leader; Mr Mann Singh Garcha, an Akali leader; Mr Beant Singh Duburjee, a Congress leader; Mr Sudarshan Kumar ‘Pappu’ and Mr Adarsh Pal Bector, President and former President of the Nagar Council, Doraha, respectively; Mr Harnek Singh Mangewal, Mr Malkit Singh Dakha and Mr Jagir Singh Dard, former ministers; Mr K.K. Bawa, Mr Ishar Singh Meharban, Col M.S. Randhawa, Mr Amarjit Tikka and Mr Madan Mohan Sharma.

FARIDKOT
COUNSELLING: Following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, fresh counselling for students seeking admissions to various postgraduate medical disciplines based on entrance test will be held at Baba Farid Sabhyacharak Kendra here from August 13 to 14. This was stated by Dr J.S. Gujral, Vice-Chancellor, of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, here on Thursday.

DHARAM YUDH MORCHAS: The district administration has recommended the names of 42 persons who had participated in various dharam yudh morchas and were imprisoned for three to six months for the grant of pension of Rs 300 a month. This was stated by Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, here on Thursday.

GURDASPUR
INSTALLED: The following have been installed office-bearers of the local Rotary Club, Mid-Town: president — Maj Surinder Singh Kondal; vice-president — Mr Jagdish Singh Dhillon; secretary — Mr Lally Cheema; joint secretary — Ms Ravinder Kaur; and treasurer — Mr Suraj Goel.

ARRESTED: The police has arrested Jasbir Singh and Kasimdim of Kahnuvan village for their alleged involvement in the murder of Karnail Singh of the same village on August 30. A case has been registered under Sections 302 and 34 , IPC, in this connection. Mr Sukhdev Singh, SSP, stated this here on Thursday.

HOSHIARPUR
POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The Sadar police raided the houses of Balbir Singh, alias Kala, and Suba Singh in the Mugalpura locality here on Wednesday and seized 25 kg of poppy husk. Balbir was arrested while Suba escaped. The Mahilpur police also arrested Bhagwant Singh of Barian Kalan and seized 2 kg of poppy husk from him.

3 KILLED, 1 HURT: Joginder Kaur of Hadian was killed when a bus of Pritam Transport, Jalandhar, overturned crushing her in front of the Mukerian bus terminus on Wednesday. Hardeep Singh of Khanpur succumbed to his injuries at the local Civil Hospital on Wednesday. He was injured when his motor cycle dashed into a bullock-cart near Bassi Daulat Khan on Wednesday.

BANK LOOT BID: Miscreants tried to break open the strong room of the Punjab National Bank branch of Khuda on Wednesday. On a complaint of Amarjit Singh, Manager of the branch, the Tanda police has registered a case in this connection.

TRAINING CAMP: A training camp was organised by the Fisheries Development Agency at Talwara on Thursday. Twentyfive unemployed youths of the area participated in the camp. The local Fishery Officer highlighted various schemes being run by the state government.

LUDHIANA
AWARD: The Sheel Industries, started in 1982, has been awarded QS-9000 certification for manufacturing quality products. According to Mr Sachin Sharma, DGM of the company, the unit had got an ISO-9002 in the October, 1999, and had now received QS-9000. He said all members of the staff were responsible for the achievement. The efforts of Mr Sunil Kumar, Dy Mgt Representative, and Mr Ravi Sarda Managing Director, were chiefly behind the success.

WELCOMED: The members of the New Millennium Club Urban Estate Dugri, have welcomed the appointment of Mr H.S. Sidhu as the new Senior Superintendent of Police. Mr Tarsem Singla, president of the club, hoped that the new SSP would improve the law and order situation in the city and that undesirable incidents, like robbery, kidnaping and murders, would be controlled.

CELEBRATED: The members of the Niharika Ladies Club celebrated Janmashtmi and organised a low-calorie cooking contest here on Friday. A raas-lila on various songs, like makhan chor nand kishor, yashomati maiya se bole nandlala, was performed by the club members. A low-calorie cooking competition was also organised on the occasion. The contest was divided into three rounds: Jhatpat vyanjan round, dessert round and Indian dishes round. Ms Rimmi Dang, Ms Roochika, Ms Mammeet Makkar, Ms Sushma Gupta were given the prizes for their dishes.

MANSA
MURDERED: Teja Singh, a farmer of Ralla village in the district, was murdered by some unidentified persons on Wednesday night while he was sleeping in his fields. A case has been registered. The body has been sent for a postmortem examination to the local Civil Hospital. Meanwhile, the Joga police has reportedly taken a sharecropper of the deceased into custody in this connection.

SAPLINGS PLANTED: Mr B.C.Rajput, District Sessions Judge, inaugurated a tree plantation project of the State Bank of Patiala and planted a sapling in the new district court complex here on Friday. The function was presided over by Mr Mahadev Malani, Deputy General Manager of the bank and more than 50 saplings were planted on the occasion.

MEETING: A meeting of the state unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) was held here on Friday. Dr O.P.S. Kande and Dr R.C.Garg, president and secretary of the state unit, respectively, also attended the meeting in which various medico-legal aspects were discussed. Dr S.S. Sharma, Civil Surgeon, Mansa, presided over the meeting, according to a press note issued by Dr Ranjeet Singh, secretary of the local unit of the IMA.

BOYCOTT: Workers of Budhlada Cooperative Sugar Mills Limited, who have been observing an indefinite fast since June 1, have decided to boycott the Independence Day function. This was stated by the workers here on Thursday. They said no step had been taken by the state Government to redress their grievances.

MOGA
TRAINING CAMPS: The district administration will organise kisan melas and training camps in villages of the district. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Kanwalbir Singh Sidhu, while addressing farmers’ at a camp at Fatehgarh Korotana village in the district on Wednesday.

NAWANSHAHR
SEIZED: Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, in a press note issued here on Thursday said the police had arrested Surinder Pal, alias Shinder Pal, alias Shinda, alias Baba, of Ghudkan village in Goraya during a naka near Jabbowal village and seized two .315-bore country made pistols, a .32 bore revolver, 10 cartridges and 1 kg of opium. He confessed to his involvement in a number of robbery cases.

SEMINAR HELD: The Balachaur unit of the Free Legal Services Authority organised a seminar on free legal service at DAV Senior Secondary School, about 20 km from here, on Thursday. Mr M.M. Aggarwal, District and Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, and Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Nawanshahr, while presiding over the seminar stressed the need for involving NGOs in awareness drive to popularise free legal service schemes.

LAHAN SEIZED: The Balachaur police has seized 60 kg of lahan from Jhalman Singh of Mazara village, 15,180 ml of the English wine from Gulbachan Singh of Ludhiana and 12 bottles of English wine from Jit Kumar of Yamunanagar. Cases have been registered under Sections 61,1 and 14 of the Excise Act. The Pojewal police has seized 8,250 ml of wine from Tilak Raj of Bagguwal village and registered a case against him. This was stated by Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, in a press note here on Thursday.

DEMANDED: The local Municipal Subordinate Employees Union, at its meeting held here on Thursday, expressed resentment against the Badal government over its reported decision to abolish octroi. The union demanded that octroi employees should be adjusted in other departments on a priority basis before implementing the decision. This was stated by Mr Madan Lal Bhucher and Mr Major Singh, chairman and president of the union, respectively, in a press note.

VANAMAHOTSAVA: A vanamahotsava function was organised by the local branch of the State Bank of India at Guru Nanak College on Thursday. Mr A.L Joshi, Assistant General Manager of the bank, announced that in all 500 plants would be provided to the college. Of these, 150 were planted on the occasion. Mr Amarjit Paul, SDM, emphasised the benefits of plantation.

INTERNET VIRUS: Internet is afflicted by a virus called ‘Red Virus’. This was stated by Mr Manish Kaura, Director, E-Routes, here on Thursday. Internet users should not check unknown mails to ward off the virus, Mr Kaura said.

PATIALA
SALARY DEMANDED: Employees of the Patiala Aviation Club burnt the effigy of Mr S.K. Mittal, Secretary of the Club, in protest against non-payment of the salaries to them for the past 23 months. Mr Balwinder Singh, president of the employees’ association, said the issue had been referred to the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister who had assured that the payments would be soon made to the employees. However, nothing had been done by the authorities in this regard. The employees said if the payments were not made at the earliest, they would be forced to adopt agitational means.

MEETING: The Punjab Home Guards Welfare Association said a meeting of the association members would be held on August 16 at Nehru Park here. Mr Gurmeet Singh, president of the association said the meeting would consider various demands of the association, including the grant of facilities on the police pattern.

KALA BHAVAN: The construction work of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Kala Bhavan at Punjabi University campus was started on Friday with the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia performing the inaugural digging ceremony of the foundations. A university press note released here said the total covered area of the bhavan would be 17,000 square feet and that there would be an auditorium with a capacity of 450 persons on the ground floor.

KUMARHATTI
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE: The occupants of a truck had a miraculous escape when it hung along the road on the Subathu-Arki road, near Subahtu, about 20 km from here, on Wednesday. The incident took place when the driver tried to give way to another vehicle. Traffic on the road was blocked for more than 15 hours and was restored when the truck was removed from road.

CONDEMNED: The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Seconded Staff Union has urged the government not to hand over the Rampur hydroelectric project to the Nathpa-Jhakri Power Corporation until it resolves issues concerning board employees on secondment with the corporation. The union at its annual meeting held here on Wednesday condemned the management of the corporation for meting out a stepmotherly treatment to the staff seconded from the board.

NAHAN
SEMINAR HELD: A seminar was organised by the Department of Agriculture here on Thursday. Mr Chander Mohan Thakur, Chairman, Zila Parishad Sirmaur, said the district had produced 14,000 tonnes of seasonal vegetables and earned a revenue of Rs 4 crore during the current financial year.

SOLAN
DEAD: Veteran Leftist leader of the district, Guru Dutt, died at his residence at Dharampur after protracted illness on Wednesday. He was 82 and is survived by his wife, three sons and one daughter. He was closely associated with the Urdu progressive writers movement