ABOHAR
INQUIRY: Mr Jaskiran Singh, SDM, has ordered an inquiry into the allegations levelled against Mr Jaswant Singh, sarpanch of Rukanpura Khuikhera village. The action was taken on the basis of complaints lodged by Mr Balbir Singh and Mr Tehal Singh, residents of the village. They alleged that funds received for development works had been misused.

AMRITSAR
ARRESTED: Harjinder Singh, a resident of Sabhana Mithapur in Gurdaspur district, has been arrested by the district police on charges of possessing a fake passport. Mr Manjit Singh, Immigration Officer at Amritsar international airport, in a the complaint lodged at Rajasansi police station here on Wednesday alleged that the accused was to board a Turkistan flight numbering T-328 when he was found possessing a fake visa. He was returning to England.

MASS MARRIAGES: Mass marriages of 19 couples belonging to the economically weaker sections of society were performed at a function organised by the Rotary Club, Midtown, here on Wednesday.

BATHINDA
PENSIONS: Chaudhary Santokh Singh, Social Welfare Minister, Punjab, on Wednesday said Rs 155 crore had been earmarked for giving pensions to the old, widows and physically-challenged under the social welfare pension schemes in the financial year. He was addressing a function at Moga which was organised to distribute aid among the physically challenged. One hundred tricycles, 20 wheelchairs and 50 hearing aids were distributed among the physically challenged.

UNIFORMS DISTRIBUTED: Ms Shewta Verma, Chairperson, Hospital Welfare Section of the District Red Cross Society, on Thursday distributed uniforms among students of Government Primary School, Kheta Singh Basti, on behalf of Ambuja Cements Limited. Later Ms Surinder Kaur Kataria, DEO, (P), Ms Chanchal from Ambuja Cements and Ms Verma planted 26 saplings on the school premises.

MEMORANDUM: A section of SC/BC employees, led by a state-level coordination committee, on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and submitted a memorandum to him. Mr Matthew Sukhchain, district president of the committee, alleged that the state government was anti-Dalit and anti-employee. The activists also raised anti-government slogans.

AWARENESS RALLY: Mr P.K. Ramanathan, Territory Manager, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, said here on Thursday the corporation had decided to hold awareness drive about the petroleum conservation. With the help of Police Public School, a rally on the importance of saving oil would be held on Friday. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, would give away prizes to the winners.

EFFIGY BURNT: Members of the Employees Federation of the PSEB on Thursday burnt an effigy of the Haldia Committee protest against the proposed formation of corporation in place of board.

DERA BASSI
ILLEGAL POSSESSION: An illegal possession over a common passage in Dandrala village was removed by the Panchayat authorities with the help of local revenue authorities here on Thursday. The passage on the government land had been allegedly encroached upon by an influential resident of the village for the past couple of years. A team of revenue officials, including Mr Jarnail Singh, Kanoongo, Mr Ranjit Singh, Patwari, and Mr Meet Singh, Additional Secretary, Panchayat, alongwith Ms Surjit Kaur, sarpanch, Mr Amarjit Singh and Ms Mohinder Kaur, visited the spot and got the passage vacated. 

FARIDKOT
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Bar Association, Faridkot: president — Mr Sukhwinder Singh; vice-presidents — Mr Ravinder Singla, Mr Ashok Mittal, Mr Parshotam Chaudhry, Mr Gurmeet Matta and Mr Mangat Arora; general secretary — Mr Surinder Dhir; press secretary — Mr Navjot ; and treasurer — Mr Amardeep Dhillon.

GURDASPUR
GANG BUSTED: The police has busted a gang of women thieves and arrested all its four members. Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, identified the accused as Raj Kumari, Darshna, Soma and Pushpa, all residents of Paniar under Dinanagar police station, and recovered 37 sarees from their possession.

DRIVE: The Batala police, in a drive against drug-addiction, arrested two pedlars and registered cases against the accused at Batala and Sri Hargobindpur police stations. Dr Naresh Arora, SSP, Batala, said Harvinder Singh was caught for selling drugs to the youth.

HOSHIARPUR
GANG BUSTED: The district police succeeded in unearthing an inter-district gang of robbers with the arrest of four of its members during nakabandi on Wednesday. Mrs Gurpreet Deo, SSP, stated this in a press note here. She said the gang members were identified as Jaswant Singh alias Santu and Lakhbir Singh alias Chhota, both residents of Uladni, Surjit Singh alias Jeeta of Bassi Gulam Hussain and Shiv Kumar of Mehmoodpur Gadarian.

CAMPAIGN: The district police has started a campaign against eve-teasing and deployed constables, including ladies, in civil dress near local colleges and girls schools. The police arrested Amit Balmiki of the local Clock Tower area, Parminder Singh of Jhadial and Tajinder Singh of the local Mohalla Bahadurpur when they were teasing girl students in front of Government College here on Wednesday.

MANSA
ONE KILLED: One person was killed and four were injured in a collision between a PRTC bus and a tractor-trailer near Bhamekalan village. According to information, Mukhtiar Singh (65) died on the spot.

POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The local police has arrested Gurjit Singh, a resident of Barnala, for possessing 25 kg of poppy husk. A case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered. The accused was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Harsh Mehta, who sent him to judicial custody.

NAWANSHAHR
CHEQUES: Mr Charanjit Singh Channi, Lok Sabha member from Hoshiarpur, distributed cheques amounting to Rs 7000 each among 53 government primary schools of Balachaur (education block-1) under the sarv shikhiya abhiyan scheme at Balachaur, about 20 km from here, on Wednesday. Addressing the gathering.

DISTRIBUTED: The Lions Club, City Smile, Banga distributed shoes and socks among 20 poor children of Government Primary School and the Anganwari centre at Kajla village on Wednesday. Mr Baldev Nayyar, a social worker, presided.

CAMP : The Acharata Atma Ram Jain Swasathya Sewa Samiti, Sundernagar, Ludhiana and the local unit of the Mahavir Jain Yuvak Mandal organised a free medical check-up camp at Rahon on Sunday. A team of 35 doctors from the CMC, Ludhiana, and Mohan Devi Oswal Hospital, Ludhiana, examined about 3500 patients.

PATHANKOT
DHARNA: The BSNL Employees Union staged a dharna here on Wednesday in support of its demands. Mr Ravi Kant Sharma, general secretary of the union, said that a charter of 27 demands, including modernisation of telecom factories, LTC facility, bonus group insurance of employees and medical facilities, was given to the General Manager, Telecom, Pathankot district circle.

PATIALA
ACTION SOUGHT: Students of the local Government Physical Education College organised a rally in the city and later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner seeking action against two university teachers on Wednesday. The teachers had been accused of sexual harassment. They also demanded the transfer of the college principal.

OIL CONSERVATION: The oil conservation fortnight, which was organised by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to spread the message of oil conservation concluded here on Wednesday. Mr Rakesh Bhasker, District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC), here was the chief guest at the concluding function.

SONI PTI UNION CHIEF: The following have been elected office-bearers of the PTI Employees Union, Chandigarh: president — Mr Somnath Soni; vice-president — Mr Joginder Anand; general secretary — Mr Dilbagh Singh; joint general secretary — Mr Vijay Dabur; treasurer — Mr Boorbal Singh; council member — Mr Amrik Singh and executive members — Mr Meharwan Singh, Mr Bhagwan Singh, Mr Mohan Chandra and Mr Netar Singh.

ROCKETRY WORKSHOP: Science teachers got a hands-on experience of designing and launching model rockets during the ongoing workshop on rocketry, being organised by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, here. About 45 teachers from various schools in Punjab as well as Chandigarh are attending the workshop. The programme is being conducted by Mr D.R. Baluragi, a retired professor of Physics from Karnataka. Friday’s session would include experiments on multi-stage rockets. 

HIKE CONDEMNED: The Welfare Association MIG-I Houses, Sector 40-C has condemned the recent hike in rates of cable connection by cable operators in Panchkula. The association has observed that the hike had been made arbitrarily. In a press note issued here on Wednesday Mr S.K. Khosla, general secretary of the association, has urged the cable consumers not to pay the increased rates.

SAS NAGAR
LABOURERS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY: About 700 members of the Construction Workers Labour Union gathered at the Labour Chowk, Sector-44, Chandigarh, on Wednesday to express solidarity with one of their contractors working here in Phase XI. The contractor, Mr Gopal Shukla, has alleged that his employer, Mr Rajwant Singh, who is working with the Hyderabad police, has refused to pay for the part of the house he has got constructed in Phase XI here. Mr Rajwant Singh on the other hand states that he has already paid over Rs 2.65 lakh to the contractor.