AMRITSAR
OFFICE BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Christian alliance, Punjab: Father Daniel Gill — chairman, Mr Sarwar Massey-president, Mr Barnard Masih — vice-president, and Mr George Masih as general secretary.

WORKSHOP: Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Dental Sciences and Research will organise a two-day north zone workshop of oral and maxillofacial surgeons on March 29 in collaboration with the Associations of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, India and IDA, Punjab.

CONSUMER FORUMS: The Government of India is contemplating giving more powers to the consumer redress forums to ensure speedy trial of cases. This was stated by Justice H.S. Brar, president, Punjab Consumer Dispute Forum, here on Friday.

OBJECTION RAISED: The Government School Teachers Union (GSTU) has drawn the attention of the Minister for Education to the non-official duties being assigned to government teachers, especially the primary batch. In a press note issued here on Friday, the union flayed the government for deputing teachers for door-to-door surveys at a time when the annual examinations were round the corner.

BATHINDA
FESTIVAL CONCLUDES: The two-day technical and cultural inter-engineering colleges festival-TRENDZ 2002 concluded at the local GZS College of Engineering and Technology on Friday. As many as 25 colleges from three states participated in the festival. Mr R.S. Dhillon, Engineer-in-Chief Punjab State Electricity Board, inaugurated the function.

DC JOINS: Mr Alok Shekhar, 1994 batch IAS officer, joined as Deputy Commissioner, Mansa, on Friday. He replaces Ms Raji P. Srivastva, who has been shifted as Additional MD, Markfed. Mr Shekhar, who earlier served as ADC of Mansa and Bathinda, was also the Registrar of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana.

ORDER ISSUED: Mr Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner in an order issued here on March 16 has asked all residents of the district, who have come here from other states to register their present and permanent addresses at the nearest police stations. He said those who had employed persons from other states should also get their addresses registered.

DORAHA
OFFICE-BEARERS: A meeting of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teacher’s Union of the Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, was held on Thursday to elect office-bearers of the Doraha unit for the year 2002-2003. Those elected were: president — Mr Sukhwinder Singh Virk; secretary — Mr Madan Bhandari; and finance secretary —Ms Gursharan Kaur. The district president, Mr Kuldip Singh, spoke about the objectives of the PCCTU.

JALANDHAR
INSTRUCTED: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr K. Siva Prasad, on Thursday instructed the Mandi officer and Naib Tehsildar (Colonisation) to jointly conduct an inquiry into the encroachments on government land in various parts of the district. He was presiding over the first “khula darbar” at the district administrative complex.

RUN OVER: Two persons were run over and killed by trains in separate incidents in the city on Thursday. A report from the railway police here said a 45-year-old man, Gurbachan Lal, died near the Arya Nagar railway crossing after being hit by a train. In another incident, a man was crushed to death by a train just near the city railway station.

KHARAR
EYE CAMP: The Citizen Welfare Club, Kharar, organised 9th Shaheed Bhagat Singh Memorial free eye operation camp at the Civil Hospital here on Saturday. Hundreds of persons were examined at the camp. Dr Romesh Dutt Sharma, State Health Minister, was the chief guest. Mr Bir Devinder Singh, MLA, Kharar, Dr Rana Harinder, Civil Surgeon, Ropar and other officers of the Health Department were also present.

FAREWELL LUNCH: A farewell lunch was organised in honour of Lieut Gen Surjit Singh, the outgoing General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, at the Shivalik Officers Institute, ChandiMandir, by the Dogra Officers Regimental Association, on Saturday. Meanwhile, a family welfare meet of women at Chandimandir was held at Manekshaw Auditorium. The president, Western Command Army Wives Welfare Association, Ms Deep Surjit Singh, presided over the function.

LUDHIANA
WORKSHOP: BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School will conduct a three-day workshop from Sunday for teachers. The participants will be told about modern learning systems so that they could meet the growing challenges and expectations of society. Giving this information, Ms Paramjit Kaur, Principal, said the topic of the workshop would be ‘Teacher by heart’. She said the workshop would focus on right attitude to get right results apart from focussing upon the creative learning techniques.

CELEBRATIONS: The Saraswati Ladies’ Club celebrated Holi at a function held here on Saturday. The celebrations began with applying of gulal followed by a cultural programme. Dance items on songs ‘Rang barse bheege chunar wali’ and ‘Khelenge hum holi’ were presented by Ms Rajni Malik, Ms Sharmila, Ms Malwinder Bajwa, Ms Anita Kaushal and Ms Ranjita. Delicacies like ‘gujia’ and other sweets were distributed among the members. Ms Avinash Kaur Walia, president, spoke a few lines on the importance of the festival.

APPOINTED: An election meeting of the Lions Club Ludhiana Royal was held here recently. Members of the Royal district 321-F unanimously appointed Mr Rana Surat Singh as the president of the club for the year 2002-2003.

MAGNETIC THERAPY CAMP: A three-day free magnetic therapy camp by the Shri Sai Nature Cure and Magnetic Health Centre, Nagpur, was inaugurated on Friday at Jain Sthanak, Sunder Nagar. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Joginder Pal Jain. Patients with ailments like backache, joint-pain, polio, hernia, blood pressure, tuberculosis and obesity were treated on the first day of the camp.

MEETING: A meeting of the Niharika Ladies Club was held at Basant Resorts to celebrate the festival of Holi. The members celebrated the festival by discussing colours of summer flowers and indoor plants. Ms Neelam Kapoor of Techno care Nursery delivered a talk on the maintenance of home gardens and care of indoor plants. A quiz was also organised on the occasion which was anchored by Ms Shaheen and Ms Karuna Singh. Ms Paramjit, Dr Amrit and Ms Jasbir won the first, second and third prize, respectively.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
HOLI: The Mahavar Vaish Sewa Sangh has decided to celebrate Holi on March 29 at Shagan Palace here. Mr Tarlok Chand Gupta, senior manager, Bharti Khad Nigam, will be the chief guest. Mr Radhey Shyam Gupta, president of the Mandi Gobindgarh unit, disclosed that musical and other competitions would be organised at the occasion.

MANSA
RAID CONDUCTED: A police party conducted a raid on a field belonging to Bhajan Singh of Khiali Chahilanwali village and found that he had sown poppy. This was stated by Mr Sudanshu Shekhar Srivastva, SSP, here on Friday. A case has been registered under Section 15, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act.

MOGA
RESERVATION SOUGHT: The Moga unit of the Vishwakarma Ramgarhia Council at an emergency meeting held on Saturday urged the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to keep his promise, made before the Punjab Assembly elections regarding the 27 per cent reservation for the backward classes in government jobs and for admission in educational and technical institutions. Meanwhile, the district president of the Faridkot Backward Classes federation, Mr Pritam Singh Chargal, said his party would launch a state-wide agitation from May in case the Chief Minister failed to do so.

NAWANSHAHR
FAREWELL PARTY: Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur, about 20 km from here, organised a farewell party for the outgoing students, on the college campus on Friday. Ms Ravinder Kaur Shergill, an NRI, presided over the function. Mr Dhiraj and Mr Amandeep Singh, Ms Rajbir Kaur and Ms Amardeep Kaur were crowned as ‘Mr Outgoing and “Ms Outgoing’ in arts and commerce faculties, respectively, informed Dr Surjit Singh Bhatti, principal, in a press note issued here on Saturday.

CRITICISED: Mr Chamkaur Singh Kauri and Dr Shiv Kumar Tejpal, president and senior vice-president of the local municipal council respectively, in a press statement have criticised the Amarinder government for forcing the municipal councils to return the grant money given by the SAD-BJP government for carrying out developmental works.

PATHANKOT
TEACHERS HONOURED: The Lions Club (Greater) honoured teachers, including Mr Ram Lal and Ms Ranju Nijawan, for their outstanding services in the field of education at a simple function held here on Friday. Mr K.K. Gupta, regional chairman of the club, presided over the function while Mr Vinod Mahajan, district governor of the club, was the chief guest.

PAINTING COMPETITION: More than 80 students from different schools participated in an on-the-spot painting competition held here on Friday. The function was organised by Ashok Vatika, a social organisation. Ms Bhawna Garg, SDM, gave away the prizes to the winners.

CATARACT OPERATIONS: A free eye operation camp was organised at the Community Health Centre, Indora, 20 km from here, on Friday by Sri Satya Sai Sewa Sangathan. As many as 650 patients were examined and 58 cataract operations performed. Medicines were also distributed free of cost.

PHAGWARA
WOMAN ASSAULTED: Ms Bharati, a 33-year-old woman, was on Saturday assaulted and seriously injured with a sharp-edged weapon allegedly by her husband Vijay Kumar Shukla at the local Moti Bazar Chowk. She has been hospitalised here in a critical condition. The police has registered a case.

ROPAR
SEMINAR ORGANISED: The S.S. Memorial Educational Society, Chamkaur Sahib, organised a seminar here on Saturday to generate environmental awareness among the rural people. Mr R.C. Dhand, chairman of the society, said the seminar was organised under the national environment awareness campaign.