R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

EXCISE ACT: The Mahilpur Police arrested Dharam Pal of Aslamabad Mohalla and recovered 3,96,000 ml whiskey from his Tata Sumo last night.

JAGRAON
EYE CAMP: Baba Nand Singh Isher Singh Charitable Trust Nanaksar Kler is organising an eye camp at Nanaksar Kler on March 16 and 17, in which Dr Dhanwant Singh, an eye specialist from Patiala, will check the patients and perform operations.

LUDHIANA
PRAYER MEETING: A prayer meeting was held at Jesus’s Sacred Heart School, South City. Sisters and Fathers of various schools participated in the prayer. The prayer meeting was attended by the chairman and other members of the society. The school will start its functioning from April this year. It is spread over 5 acres of lush green and pollution-free environment.

FREE MEDICAL CAMP: A free medical check-up camp, ENT and eye camp, was organised by Dr T.S.Cheema, Medical Super-intendent, Dr B.L.Kapur Memorial Hospital, on Friday. The camp was inaugurated by district governor of the rotary club Harminder Singh. At least 490 patients were examined at the camp. Blood Sugar and other tests were conducted and medicines were distributed among patients free of cost.

QUARTERLY MEET: The 17th Quarterly Meet of Ludhiana Orthopaedic Association will be held on Sunday at hotel Baron. Dr R.S.Sidhu, general secretary, said Dr Kending Ron, Senior Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon from USA, will deliver a talk on ‘Tibia Vara in Children and Flexible Nails for Femur fractures’.

FAREWELL FUNCTIONS: Farewell parties for the students of MA were organised at the Khalsa College for Women and Guru Nanak Girls’ College here on Friday. At Khalsa College several dance items were presented on the occasion parties organised for final year students of MA Punjabi and political science. Similar parties were also held at Guru Nanak Girls’ College, Ramgarhia Girls’ College and Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Model Town.

IT EXHIBITION: Tech Show-2002, an exhibition on information technology, was inaugurated at Welcome Palace on Friday. An array of IT products like computer hardware, software, networking and security, telecommunications, gaming, computer books and consumer electronics were displayed. The bigwigs of IT industry including Compaq, HP, HCL, Wipro, Zenith, Epson, Samsung, LG and Canon participated in the exhibition. Mr Paramjit and Mr Anuj, organisers of the exhibition, said the exhibition was receiving a very good response from students, professionals and businessmen. They said the exhibition would provide opportunity for business generation and market penetration. Mr Harjinder Singh, Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, was the chief guest at the opening ceremony.

CONCERN: Jagdaguru Shankracharya Swami Divyanand Tirath ji Maharaj has expressed concern over the Supreme Court decision not to allow puja at the Ram mandir site in Ayodhya. Delivering a discourse at the 43rd Dharam Sammelan being held by the Bharat Dharam Pracharak Mandal at the Daresi grounds here on Thursday, the Shankracharya said banning of puja in the name of secularism was a cause of concern for the entire Hindu population of the country. He said the need of the hour was to introduce an education system which could teach the value of patriotism to the new generation.

WINNERS: The Shivratri Mahotsav Committee would honour the prize-winning participants of the shobha yatra at a function to be held on April 28, according to Mr Sunil Mehra, president of the committee. According to the decision given by the panel of judges, the first prize was won jointly by Yuva Sangh, Chhawni mohalla and the Durga Mata Temple, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, and the second prize was shared by Durga Mata Mandir, Jagraon Bridge and Jai Baba Balak Nath Mandir, Vishwakarma Nagar. The third prize has been awarded to Bajrang Bali mandir, he added.

CELEBRATED: Maun Sankranti was celebrated on Thursday at Shri Ram Sharnam Ashram, Daresi Road, with religious fervour and zeal. A large congregation on the occasion listened to recitations from Amritvani and Bhakti Parkash scriptures. A 24-hour ‘jap-yagna’ was also started on the occasion. The mohalla sudhar committee of Peeru Banda Mohalla in Salem Tabri organised a langar on Thursday on the occasion of Maun Sankranti.

FUNCTION: The New Young Five Star Club and the management of Maa Vaishno Devi Charitable Hospital, Kali Sarak, jointly held a function here on Thursday at which Mr Rakesh Pandey was the chief guest. The chief guest assured the audience that he would spare no efforts for the progress of the city and he would take up the matter of reducing Sales Tax with the Chief Minister.

MALERKOTLA
RESENTMENT: There is great resentment among local residents against the Health Department authorities for not providing a woman doctor at the 100-bedded Civil Hospital here for the past six years. They alleged that a woman doctor Balveer Kaur had taken charge a year ago but she went on leave after a few days.

PATIALA
RUKSAT ORGANISED: A farewell function, Ruksat, was organised by BA part-II students of the Government College for Girls here on Friday. Ms Avneet was adjudged Miss GCG. She was followed by Miss Manpreet and Miss Avani Sharma in that order. The Principal of the college, Dr G.K. Jaggi addressed the students on the occasion. TNS

BAIL PLEA REJECTED: The bail application of B.S. Cheema was dismissed by the District Sessions judge, Mr S.N. Aggarwal, here on Friday. Mr Cheema was allegedly involved in the assault on a Punjabi University teacher H.S. Bhatti on the university campus on March 5. The defence counsel argued that it was not made clear in the FIR that Cheema was directly involved in the attack. He also said Cheema was being falsely implicated in the case.

SEMINAR: Representatives of various nursing homes, clinics and non-government organisations (NGOs) attended a seminar regarding the implementation of the PNDT Act 1994 here on Friday. The doubts, misinformation and methods of implementation of the PNDT Act were discussed at length. The members were also told about the regulation of genetic counselling centers, genetic labs and genetic clinics in detail. The maintenance of records and the power to search and seize records by the police were explained in detail. The seminar was attended among others by Dr Inderjit Kaur Walia, civil Surgeon, and Mr O.P Singh Kande, president of the IMA. It was explained that a member of the IMA and NGO would be available for the district administration in case they decide to conduct surprise checks.

FEAR MEETING: The Forum for Educational Action and Research (FEAR), at a meeting held here on Friday, appreciated the stand taken by Capt Amarinder Singh regarding the `disgraceful’ activities going on at Punjabi University campus. In a press release, Dr Amarjit Singh Dhillon, President of FEAR, said the same time the form felt that the Chief Minister was not properly guided on the subject as was evident from his statement published in a section of the media The form also felt that their were no inbuilt provisions on the issue of taking action in such a situation. 

ROPAR
BANNED: Ms Seema Jain, district Magistrate, Ropar, has banned carrying all types of firearms by people except police men, during the annual Holla Mohalla festival to be held at Kiratpur Sahib and Anandpur Sahib from March 24 to 29. In an order issued under Section 144 of the Cr PC, she has also prohibited the use of crackers and fireworks, stacking of stones and bricks and parking of vehicles on and alongside the roads.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Rotary Club, Bhakra Nangal, organised a blood donation camp at the BBMB Staff Club on Thursday in which 76 persons donated blood.

SAMRALA
DEATH MOURNED: A two-minute silence was observed by lawyers of the Local Bar Association on Friday to mourn the death of the mother of Mr R.K. Kaushal, Advocate, who died on Thursday night due to heart attack. The lawyers also struck work here for the day, according to Mr Anil Gupta, president of the association. Later, local advocates along with those from Khanna, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ludhiana, including Mr Bhajan Singh, president of the Nagar Council, Mr Harpal Singh Dhillon, president of the Arhtia Association, Mr Devinder Singh Grewal, Eo of the Nagar Council, Mr Anil Sood, president of the Nagar Panchayat Machhiwara, Mr Bhupinder Singh, former chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, took part in the cremation.

MEETING: A meeting of the Kalgidhar Kala Sangam was held under Giani Naurang Singh Kanwal, president. It was decided to get the writings of Lok Kavi Karam Singh Albela published and distributed among people of the area. It was also decided to purchase a plot for the construction of a new head office here, he added.

CULTURAL FESTIVAL: The gram panchayat of Sarwarpur village, 8 km from here, has decided to organise third cultural festival at the village in the memory of musician K.L. Bagga, according to Giani Shamsher Singh Sher and Gurjeet Singh Ghuman. Singers Satvinder Bugga and Daljeet Kaur Khanna will be honoured on this occasion, they added. The festival will be presided over by the local MLA, Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon, while Mr Sushil Kumar, DSP, will inaugurate it.

SANGRUR
KILLED: Akashdeep (24) was killed here on Thursday when he was allegedly cleaning his .12 bore rifle at his residence and it went off accidently. The police said here on Friday that it had initiated proceedings under Section 174 of the Cr. P.C. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
ENCROACHMENTS REMOVED: Shops which were being constructed illegally on Rangiya Mandi main road were removed on Friday. The Executive Officer, Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, Mr A.K. Jain, said the shops were being constructed on MC land by the sarpanch of a village. On the direction of the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, the shops were removed.

POSTAL EMPLOYEES’ DHARNA: Postal employees staged a dharna on Friday in front of the office of the Chief Post Master General, Haryana circle. The postal employees objected to “giving up monopoly of postal services by licensing to private agencies, downsizing of staff strength of employees, decentralisation of postal accounts to dismantle the present structure of public and postal accounts, proposed introduction of panchayat sanchar sewa yojana, curtailment of beats and delivery of public mails and merger of RMS offices to the post offices.”

DELEGATION: A delegation of Haryana Rajkiya Masters Association under the leadership of Mr Lachmandas met the Director, Secondary Education, Haryana, to press for their demands. The President, Ambala unit of Haryana Rajkiya Masters Association, Mr Ram Krishan Kalia, said the delegation stressed on releasing of promotion list for filling up of principal’s post and masters should not be ignored. He said for posts of principal and vice-principal of senior secondary schools, the selection should take place from the regional cadre of masters, a release said.

BHIWANI
SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge has sentenced six persons to 10 years’ imprisonment in a murder case. According to the prosecution, the accused committed dacoity at the residence of a Bhiwani Textile Mills official Mr K.G. Toshniwal, in July, 1998, and murdered his wife, Praveena, before decamping with cash and jewellery. The police had arrested six persons, including a gardener of the mill in this connection.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DHARNA: Dharna was organised in front of the GPO here on Friday by members of postal unions of Himachal Pradesh on the call of Postal JCA (NFPE and ENPO). Speakers, addressing the rally, criticised the move to liquidate postal services by paving way for privatisation and banning recruitment.