R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
PROGRAMME: Under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, the All-India Women’s Conference will conduct an environment awareness programme at Attari on January 29. A number of villagers from border villages would participate.

HONOURED: Guru Nanak Dev University honoured its outstanding student-artists who brought laurels to the university by winning the Association of Indian Universities Overall Championship Trophy in the North-Zone Inter-Varsity Youth Festival at a special musical programme, “Sur sangam”, organised by the Department of Youth Welfare of the university at the Guru Nanak Bhavan Auditorium here on Monday. The festival was sponsored by the AIU and the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.

GURDASPUR
ARRESTED: The police has arrested Bharat Bhushan and Amit Sharma, both residents of Pathankot, for involvement in the theft of vehicles. This was stated by Mr Varinder Kumar Sharma, SSP, on Monday.

BLUE FILMS: Pankaj Sharma, resident of Pathankot, has been arrested for showing blue films and preparing duplicate VCD cassettes. Disclosing this here on Monday, the SSP said a case under Sections 293 IPC and 62-68-A Copyright Act, 1957, had been registered against him.

CLUB FORMED: The Nand Lal Nurpuri Cultural Club has been constituted in the local Government College under the patronage of Ms Ranjana Sharma, Vice-Principal. Mr Avtar Singh, Principal, talking to newsmen here on Sunday said four students, Navgeet Kaur and Gurinder Singh, BA (final), Renu Bala, BA (2nd year) and Simranjit Kaur, BA (Ist year), had been selected by the club for the award of a scholarship of Rs 200 each for the year 2002-2003.

HOSHIARPUR
ANNUAL FUNCTION: Presiding over the annual prize distribution function of Government Senior Secondary School for Boys, Tanda, Arya Putri Pathshala, Gurhdiwala, and Government High School, Bambeli, here on Monday, Mr Charanjit Singh Channi, local MP, lashed out at publishers of help books for publishing books written by unexperienced and unauthorised persons. He announced grants of Rs 1 lakh each for all above schools out of his MP fund. He gave away prizes to students.

KAPURTHALA
FUNDS: Punjab Education Minister Khushal Behal has released over Rs 4 crore from the District Planning Board for various development works. He was presiding over a meeting of the board here on Monday.

KHAMANO
ELECTED: Mr Harbans Singh Pandher and Mr Avtar Singh Suhavi were unanimously elected chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, for the Block Samiti. The Electoral Officer, Mr Ravinder Kumar, SDM, declared the result.

KHARAR
R-DAY FUNCTIONS: The Republic Day was celebrated at a subdivision-level function organised in Christian High School here on Sunday. Mr Sukhwinder Singh Gill, SDM, Kharar, unfurled the National Flag. A function was also organised in Chamkaur Sahib in Dashmesh Public School in which Mrs Krishna Mittu, general secretary of the Punjab Pardesh Mahila Congress, unfurled the National Flag.

SCRIBE BEREAVED: Kalyan Wati (83), mother of Pawan Kumar Jain, a senior journalist here, died after a brief-illness on Sunday. Among those who attended the cremation were Mr Gurmeet Singh Khangura, DPRO, Ropar, on the behalf of the Public Relations Department, Mr Satish Jagota, president of the District Working Journalists Association and Mr Ajit Singh Longia, Naib Tehsildar, Kharar.

LUDHIANA
PROTEST RALLY: The city division employees of the Punjab State Electricity Board held a protest rally on Tuesday to chalk out a programme for February 4 against the privatisation of the board. Flaying the decision of the Centre and the state government for the privatisation of public units, they said the states in which the board had been privatised, electricity supply, line losses and unit rates had increased.

EXHIBITION: A handicraft exhibition has been organised by Adarsh Gram Udyog Samiti, Kaithal, here. The exhibition will help rural women from Haryana to sell their handicraft items. The exhibition, which will conclude on January 30, was inaugurated by Mr Nahar Singh Gill, Mayor, here. 

JAPANESE SURGEON: Dr Munemasa Ryu, Chief of Surgery and Director of Chiba Prefectural Hospital, Sawara, Japan, will visit Mohan Dai Oswal Cancer Treatment and Research Centre on February 3 and 4. He will examine and operate upon patients with gall bladder of bile duct, liver and pancreatic cancer.

EYES DONATED: Eyes of Gurdeep Kaur (40), a resident of Siar village, were donated to Puranjot Eye Bank by her husband recently. Both corneas were successfully transplanted to two patients from Laddowal and Ludhiana.

ESSAY COMPETITION: A state-level essay competition on the conservation of petroleum products was held on Tuesday in which three students and a teacher from KVM clinched the first and second positions respectively in various categories. In group B category, Mithila Sharma of XI bagged the first prize and Ashima Sood of XI won the first consolation prize whereas in group C, Mrs Sonia Verma bagged the second consolation prize. The Principal, Ms Neena Khanna, said the winners would get their prizes on January 30 from the Institution of Engineers, Chandigarh.

BOOK EXHIBITION: GTB National Public Senior will organise a book exhibition on Friday on the school premises. Principal Gurpreet Kaur Dhillon in a press statement on Tuesday said many distinguished publishers and book-sellers will exhibit their latest publications.

LECTURE: An extension lecture on international business was organised at G.G.N. Khalsa College on Tuesday by Prof Parneet Singh, coordinator and Prof Mukta Kalra of the Department of Foreign Trade Practices and Procedures. The guests of honour were Mr Neeraj Gupta, manager, and Mr Amarjeet Singh, executive from the Corporate Exports Department of the Vardhaman Group of Industries here.

TARN TARAN
MEETING: The local unit of the Government Teachers’ Union has decided to take part in the Flag Day celebrations to be organised on January 31 jointly by the general council of the union and the School Teachers’ Federation of India. A meeting in this regard was organised under the presidentship of Mr Ajmer Singh.

HARYANA

AMBALA
OPPOSED: The president of the Ambala Cantt unit of the Congress, Mr Ashok Jain, has opposed the hike in cable rent. Mr Jain said the huge increase in cable rent was unfair. “It seems that the residents of the city are being forced to pay more for non apparent improvement in services or programmes,” he said here on Tuesday. He said the Congress supported the decision taken by various welfare associations to discontinue the cable connection if there is any further hike by January 31. “The district administration must look into the matter and redress the genuine grievances of the people,” he said. A number of resident welfare association have opposed the hike in cable rent. The associations state that in any case, the cable rent in Ambala Cantt is more than in Ambala City.

DEMAND: The Vikas Parishad has demanded that local Municipal Council president Pandit Shankar Dass should be dismissed from his post. Parishad publicity secretary Satpal Dhall said on Tuesday that the state Vigilance Bureau had registered a case against Mr Dass and had stated in its report that Mr Dass had misused his post.

HUMAN CHAIN: The Ajadi Bachao Andolan will form a human chain on Wednesday to protest against the policy of the WTO regime allegedly forcing farmers to commit suicide. The convener of the Haryana unit of the body, Mr Shiraj Kesar, said here on Tuesday that a 1,200-km-long human chain would be formed with the support of more than 3,000 schools in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh. He said in Ambala, around 7,000 students would take part in it.

TWO KILLED: One person was killed on the Ambala-Chandigarh road when the tractor-trailer which he was driving overturned. According to the police, the deceased was buried under the sand loaded in the trailer. In another incident, a person died on the way to hospital after the sustained serious injuries in a road accident. Surjit was on his bicycle when a scooterist hit him. The police has registered a case in this regard.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Hanuman Kripa Seva Samiti will organise a medical check-up camp at NNMD Model School, Ambala City, on February 2. According to a press note issued by the samiti, prominent doctors of the city would provide medical assistance free of cost.

CRITICISED: The Haryana Animal Husbandry Class IV Employees Union at a meeting held here on Tuesday, criticised the Director of the department for his alleged rigid attitude towards the demands of the employees. The meeting was presided over by union’s district president Rajesh Sharma. The demands of the union include the cancellation of transfers of employees, payment of salary as per as the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission and provision of residential facilities for all employees.

POWER CUTS: The local Science Apparatus Manufacturers Association has expressed concern over the frequent power cuts here. The association observed that power cuts had reached their peak during the past month and science apparatus manufacturers had to suffer due to the lack of power supply.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been nominated office-bearers of the district body of the All-India Anti Terrorist Front: president — Mr Virender Kapoor; senior vice-president — Mr Bansi Lal, vice-president — Mr Ashwani nandra; general secretary — Mr Kuljit Sethi; and press secretary — Mr Pappu Saini. Mr Vinod Dhiman has been nominated president of the Ambala city unit of the Front while Mrs Kamlesh Kharbanda has been made the district president of the women cell of the Front.

CRUSHED TO DETAH: Balbir (12) of the Naya Gaon colony, near Ambala City, was killed to death under a tractor-trailer on Monday. A tractor-trailer overturned when Balbir tried to pull a sugarcane out of trailer. He was killed on the spot. His body was sent to the local Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. In another incident a resident of Mehra Chowk died on Monday under mysterious circumstances. The police was sent to the Civil Hospital here for a post-mortem examination.

MAN KILLED: Raghubir Singh of Ghel village was crushed to death under a train, near the village on Monday. He was crossing the railway track on his scooter when the mishap occurred. He died on the spot.

CABLE CONNECTIONS: In a press note issued by Janak Puri, Inder Puri, Tagore Garden Welfare Association on Monday, it was stated that the rates of cable connections had been increased from Rs 160 to Rs 210 per month. The association warned that if the decision on the hike was not withdrawn, they would disconnect the cable from February 1.

KAITHAL
YOJNA: The Devi Roopak Yojna launched by the Haryana Government to check growing population and the widening gap in the sex ratio in the state has started showing results. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Agarwal, said here on Monday 413 couples had registered to take benefits of the yojna.

DISTRIBUTED: Kisan credit cards worth Rs 24 lakh were distributed among farmers by Mr R.K. Allawadi, Assistant Regional Manager, Oriental Bank of Commerce, at a function organised at Sher Garh village, near here, on Tuesday. Addressing farmers, Mr Allawadi said the OBC branch here had advanced loans worth Rs 5.50 crore to farmers.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Hotel and Restaurants Association, Chamba: president — Mr Anil Mahajan, senior vice-president — Mr Des Raj Sharma; vice-president — Mr Tajender Amit; general secretary — Mr Krishan Mahajan; joint secretary — Mr Raj Kumar Soni, organising secretary — Mr Rajeev Sehgal; and press secretary — Mr Rattan Chand Sharma.

KANGRA
FUNCTION: Renowned folk singer Partap Chand addressed a function organised by the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Sevashrama in connection with the 140th birthday of Swami vivekananda at Naleti village of Dhera subdivision on Monday. Mr Ashok Raina, convener of Vivekananda Kendra, was the chief guest. Group song, declamation and essay writing competitions for students of 20 schools of the subdivision were organised and a yajna was performed.