Friday, September 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India
 Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

No free power for farmers
8 to 13 pc hike in Punjab tariff mooted
Chandigarh, September 5
The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission, according to informed sources, has decided to impose power tariff on the agricultural sector, which was exempted from paying it by the previous SAD-BJP Government in 1997. The debate whether the farming sector should pay power bills or not has been going on in the state for the past several months.

    Punjab page: PSEB points finger at Dhindsa

	Chandigarh Tribune: Storm uproots 100 trees in zoo Two tuskers clear zoo roads of tree trunks and foliage after high velocity winds left a trail of destruction at Chhat Bir Zoo late on Wednesday night. — Tribune photo Karam Singh

Teachers great asset: Kalam
Honours 284 with national awards
New Delhi, September 5
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today honoured 284 teachers with national awards for meritorious service, stressing the importance of India’s five million teachers whose efforts, he said, could change the lives of its billion people.
In video (28k, 56k)

ICC seeks damages from BCCI
Kolkata, September 5
In a strange twist to the crisis gripping world cricket over players’ contracts, the International Cricket Council tonight demanded “damages” upto Rs 130 crore from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to compensate it and the sponsors.

India dismisses Pak allegations
New Delhi September 5
India today rubbished Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s allegation that India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was involved in attacks in that country and said it was an attempt to divert attention from the truth.

World page
  ‘Keep off’ J&K poll, America tells Pak
  PM to meet Bush, not Musharraf

Haryana IGP arrested
New Delhi, September 5
After evading arrest in a customs duty-evasion case for more than a year, the Haryana Inspector-General of Police Harish Kumar was today arrested by the Delhi police on the charges of violation of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA).

Bhattal leaves without CM’s nod Chandigarh, September 5 Did Punjab Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal target senior Congressmen, including Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, during her meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, before leaving for Canada yesterday? Her suggestion to Mrs Gandhi that the party should take a serious view of the foreign jaunts of all such Congressmen who go there and hold only indoor meetings with the rich and influential than interact with NRIs at large is being politically viewed as a direct dig at the Chief Minister and his colleague, Finance Minister, Lal Singh, in reference to their recent “controversial trip to the UK and the USA.”