AMRITSAR
FREE COACHING: Swami Vivekananda Study Circle will hold free coaching classes for girls for the B.Ed entrance test at ShahzadaNand College for Girls, Green Avenue, here from May 15. Members of the circle have been providing free social service to local residents since the past four years.

BATHINDA
ONE KILLED: One person was killed when a vehicle hit him on the Bathinda-Mansa road, about 16 km from here, on Monday. The old man, who could not be identified, seemed mentally challenged. The police registered a case.

LIONS CLUB: Mr Jaswant Rai Garg has been elected vice-district governor of District 321-F of Lions Club. This was stated in a press note.

GURDASPUR
ILLICIT DISTILLATION: The police on Tuesday arrested three persons, including two women, for illicit distillation. The accused have been identified as Parnam Kumar, a resident of Jaura Chhatran, Karnail of Deeda and Sudesh of Gharota.

CHEAT ARRESTED: The police has arrested an ex-serviceman for cheating a man of his money on the promise of getting him a job in the Army. Mr RPS Brar, SSP, identified the accused as Gurdev Singh. He was arrested on a complaint by Daljeet Singh, a resident of Geeta Bhawan road here.

HOSHIARPUR
KANDI VIKAS FORUM: The Kandi Vikas Forum at a special conference held here on Monday appealed to all NGOs farmers and religious organisations to unite on one platform for pressurising the government to solve the problems being faced by inhabitants of the kandi area. The Conference expressed concern over the non-completion of the city bus stand due to paucity of funds.

CONDEMNATION: Christians of Shamchauras at a meeting held under the presidentship of Mr Dalbir Masih here on Monday condemned those elements who had recently distributed literature against the Sikh religion. In a press note, he stated that Christians had always respected all religions. Christians had never propagated against any religion. This was an act of some miscreants who trying to disturb the peace in Punjab.

MANSA
LICENCES SUSPENDED: Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, District Magistrate, has suspended the licences of Ahluwalia Communications Net work and Gold Star Cable TV Network with immediate effect. The action has been taken on the recommendation of Mr S.S. Srivastava, Senior Superintendent of Police, following the registration of a criminal case against the owners and employees of these cable networks.

MUKTSAR
‘START INDUSTRY’: Ms Usha R. Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, said on Tuesday that youths should not focus on getting government jobs and instead should set up small-scale industries, according to a press note. She said under the Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna, the District Industrial Centre had given loans of Rs 1.1 crore to 375 persons for starting small-scale industries during the previous financial year. 

PATHANKOT
GRACE MARKS: Students of B.Com (Part I) have demanded that they be given grace marks in the paper for computer application held by Guru Nanak Dev University on April 18. The students, in a communication to the university authorities, said more than 30 per cent questions in the paper were “out of syllabus”.

OVERRUN BY TRUCK: Army Havildar Sukhvinder Singh was killed when he was run over by truck near Mirthal on the Pathankot-Jalandhar highway on Sunday. He was on his way to his native village in Tanda in Hoshiarpur.

ROAD REPAIRS: Punjab Urban Development and Housing Minister Raghunath Sahai Puri has said that the state government has earmarked a sum of Rs 1163 crore for the construction of new link roads in the state. The government has sanctioned Rs 3 crore for road repairs in Gurdaspur. He was addressing a function at Ladochak village in connection with the stone-laying ceremony of the Ladochak-Jamalpur road to be constructed at a cost of Rs 6.50 lakh here on Sunday.

PATIALA
GRANT FOR MARTYRS’ KIN: The District Sainik Welfare Officer Lt-Commander Surmukh Singh, disbursed an ex gratia grant of Rs 8 lakh to next of kin of martyrs of various operations in Jammu and Kashmir here on Tuesday.

JAN HIT SAMITI: The Jan Hit Samiti distributed books, dresses and fees to needy schoolchildren at its annual function organised at the Language Department here. The president of the organisation, Mr I.D. Sharma, and founder, Mr Om Parkash Kaushish, distributed dresses and books to 630 students while six ceiling fans were given to three schools.

DEMONSTRATION: On the call of the Cooperative Bank Employees Federation, Punjab, the employees of Patiala Central Cooperative Bank organised a demonstration in front of the head office of the bank here on Tuesday. Addressing the rally, Mr Malinderjit Singh Malhi, additional general secretary of the state federation said Cooperative Banks were neither a public sector undertakings nor a quasi public institutions, hence they could not be treated as Punjab Government employees. He added that it was an injustice towards the employees of these institutions by implementing the letter of pay parity issued by the Chief Secretary, Punjab, in Central Cooperative Banks and the PADB.

ANNUAL DAY: Kendriya Vidyalaya, Number 3, Patiala cantonment, celebrated its annual day on Tuesday. Students presented a colourful variety show on the occasion. Brig G.S. Dhillon presided over the function while Ms Tapinder Dhillon gave away the prizes. The Principal of the school, Ms Samerjit Kaur, presented the annual report of the school.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Excise and Taxation Department Pensioners Welfare Association: Patron — Mr M.S. Ghumman; president — Mr Bhagwinder Devgan; vice-president — Mr S.K. Kapila; general secretary — Mr Inderjit Singh Bajaj; joint secretary — Mr P.K. Mehta; and finance secretary — Mr Tarlochan Singh Oberoi.

PHAGWARA
POLICE REMAND: A travel agent, Sardara Ram, was remanded in police custody for one day by Ms Navjot Kaur Sohal, Sub-Judge, Junior Division, here on Tuesday. The agent was arrested on Monday on the charge of duping a youth of Rs 7 lakh. The agent allegedly promised to send him to Italy but made him shuttle between China and Thailand.

REMAND EXTENDED: The police remand of Samir Bansal was extended for two days on Tuesday by the Sub-Judge, Junior Division. Bansal was earlier on a three-day police remand. He had surrendered before the GRP on Friday and was presented in court on Saturday. He was wanted in a case of abetment of suicide by his wife, Kanchan Bansal, and his daughter, Mitali.

CHEQUE FOR GRANS: The HelpAge India, a social organisation working for the well-being of elderly persons, released a cheque for Rs 2,94,197 for the “Adopt-a-Gran” programme, here today. On the behalf of the organisation, Mr Pritam Serai, Director, Satluj Public School, Panchkula, handed over the cheque to Dr S.S. Banolta, general secretary of the Himachal Harijan Kalyan Sansthan, Theog, Shimla. Mr Bhavneshwar Sharma, Senior Executive Officer of the HelpAge India, Chandigarh Chapter, said the organisation had adopted 18,000 grans across the country under the programme.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Residents Welfare Association, Sector 23-D, for 2003-04: patrons — Mr R.N. Sahai and Mr K.L. Parbhakar; president — Mr Gurdev Ram; senior vice-president — Mr Birinder Singh; vice-president — Mr Sadhu Singh; general secretary — Mr Charanjit Singh; joint secretary — Mr Harbans Lal; organising secretary — Mr Khushi Ram; finance secretary — Mr Sudarshan Kumar; and auditor — Mr A.P. Bhandari.

CHECK-UP CAMP: The 119 Battalion of the CRPF, presently deployed at Sector 43, hosted a heart check-up camp on Tuesday. About 350 persons, which included CRPF personnel, their families and members of the public, were examined. Senior doctors of Mukat Hospital and Heart Institute examined the patients. About 100 ECG and another 100 blood sugar tests were carried out free of cost. The commandant of the battalion, Mr Imran Mirza, thanked Mukat Hospital for its services.

DELEGATION: A delegation of the Residents Welfare Association, Sector 45, met the UT Administrator, Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), today and apprised him of the pathetic conditions of roads, streetlighting and sanitation services. The delegation demanded a park in the sector. 

KALKA
SYSTEM RESTORED: The computer system of Kalka railway station, which had been out of order for the past few days, was restored on Monday. According to an official of the railway station, the computer system is not directly connected with Delhi and if there is any failure in the system at Chandigarh, the system at Kalka is also affected.