R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Lions Club Barnala for the session 2003-2004: president — Dr Rakesh Goel, secretary— Mr Naveen Garg, treasurer — Mr Mandeep Mittal, and PRO — Mr D.S. Singla.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
HAILED: The appointment of Vaid Hari Krishan as president of the District Congress Committee, Fatehgarh Sahib, has been widely welcomed. Congress leaders and workers hailed the decision of the Congress high command at a meeting held here on Wednesday.

JALANDHAR
MISHAP: Kanwaljit Singh of Ludhiana was crushed to death when a Tata Sierra hit the scooter, he was riding, from the backside near Nurpur village on the Nakodar-Moga road near here on Wednesday. The victim fell on the road and was reportedly crushed over by the vehicle. The driver of Tata Sierra managed to flee.

KHANNA
COMPETITION: The regional office of the Punjab Pollution Control Board at Ludhiana organised a painting and slogan-writing competition at Lala Sarkaru Mal Sarv Hitkari Vidya Mandir here on Thursday to mark World Environment Day. The theme was ‘water — two billion people are dying for it’. More than 150 students participated.

FLAYED: Condemning the state government, the local block unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) has flayed the hike in electricity tariff. Mr Mulkh Raj Man, president of the unit, said in a press note issued here on Thursday that the government had raised electricity tariff to 13 per cent, which was unjustified. He demanded the immediate withdrawal of the hike.

KHARAR
ALLEGATIONS: Mr Raja Singh former MLA, Kharar, alleged that the patients and their relatives were being harassed by the parking contractor in Civil Hospital Kurali near Kharar and they were charging Rs 2 from cycle owners and Rs 3 from scooter owners and Rs 5 from car owners as soon as they entered the hospital gates. In a letter written to the Deputy Commissioner Ropar, he alleged that no notice board had been put up there. He had also demanded action in this matter.

INAUGURATION: Mr Kirpal Singh Badungar, President, SGPC would inaugurate a gate constructed by the management of the Gurdwara Sahib Akali Daftar on Gurdwara road here on June 4.

VETERINARY: As many as 376 animals were checked up in a veterinary camp organised by the Animal Husbandry Department, Ropar in nearby Mianpur village near here on Thursday. A group of specialists under the guidance of Dr K.K. Sharma, Senior Veterinary Officer, Kharar examined the animals.

LUDHIANA
MARTYRDOM DAY: The students and members of the staff of Springdale Public School observed the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev on Thursday. Langar, chhabeel, shabad and speeches were organised on the occasion.

PROTEST: Protesting against the retrenchment of daily-wage workers at Kandi Research Centre, Ballowal Sonkhri, the Daily Paid Labour Union of Punjab Agricultural University said on Thursday that if its demands were not met, it would start a dharna in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor from the first week of June. Mr Gurdeep Chand said members of the union organised a rally on May 27 and presented a memorandum to the director of the research centre.

WORKSHOP: The Better Think Learning Systems organised a workshop for the students of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, BRS Nagar, here on Thursday. The students were given tips on preparations for IELTS and TOEFL examinations.

TOPPER: Abha Devgan, a student of Sacred Heart Convent School, has topped in the humanities stream in class XII from Ludhiana. She has scored 85 per cent marks.

AWARENESS RALLY: An awareness rally was taken out from Government School, Ladhowal, by students of Master Tara Singh College on Wednesday. It was flagged off by Mr Raja Singh, chairman, GRD Academy.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
COMPUTER COURSE: A one-month computer course for teachers is being organised at Gobindgarh Public School here. A computer and multimedia laboratory with 61 computers, printers and scanners has been set up. The school is also organising hobby classes for students.

DC’S VISIT: All requirements of the only rural government college for women in the state at Tooran village, 4 km from here, will be met on a priority basis. This was stated by Mr S.K. Allowalia, Deputy Commissioner (DC), Fatehgarh Sahib, at a meeting with the staff of the college on his first visit to the college on Thursday. He also visited the office complex, lecture halls, library and music room.

MANSA
SURPRISE RAIDS: Mr Raj Kamal Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner, on Thursday conducted surprise raids in government offices. He found Mr Sukhdev Singh, Tehsildar (Elections), Mr Avtar Singh, District Education Officer (Secondary), Mr Baljinder Singh Manna, Deputy District Education Officer (Secondary), Mr Ajaib Singh Sidhu, Horticulture Director, Mr Daljeet Singh Brar, Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare, Mr Jarnail Singh, Function Manager, District Industries Centre, and eight employees of other departments absent. Show-cause notices have been issued and the departments concerned asked to take action against them.

INSTRUCTIONS: The Deputy Commissioner said here on Thursday that instructions had been issued to the SDMs and the tehsildars in the district to ensure that rate lists were displayed by deed writers and they issue proper receipts. Stamp vendors have also been asked to display their stock position and get signatures on the back of stamp papers to check misuse.

PHONE BILLS FRAUD: An official of the Budhlada post office has allegedly issued bogus receipts to some telephone subscribers for February 2003. This fraud was detected when about 25 telephone subscribers of the area received notices about the non-payment of telephone bill.

HELP SOUGHT: The Deputy Commissioner has issued directions to heads of various government departments in the district not to leave their headquarters without prior permission. He also sought the cooperation of the Press and asked mediapersons to provide feedback about problems being faced by the people of the district.

NABHA
PUBLIC MEETING: Naujawan-e-Hind, an organisation of youth, held a public meeting here recently. The president of the organisation, Mr Rohit Verma, said that the organisation was a voice of general people and its motto was to unite people.

NAWANSHAHR
HELP: The Doaba Sewa Samiti has distributed uniforms, stationery and shoes to certain wards of jhugghi dwellers in and around the town.

PHAGWARA
MLA’s ASSURANCE: The local MLA and Social Welfare Minister, Mr Joginder Singh Mann, assured residents of New Model Town and the adjoining mohallas that a tubewell would be operational next month to augment water supply in the area. The digging work would start soon, Mr Mann assured.

ONE HELD: Daljit Singh, alias Sweety of Hiun village in the Banga area, has been nabbed with an indigenous .12-bore pistol and five cartridges, according to SP Harmanbir Singh Gill.

HARYANA

AMBALA
ESSAY COMPETITION: Students of Ambala College of Engineering and Applied Research have been awarded the top three prizes in an inter-collegiate essay competition. The essay competition was organised by Department of Youth and Cultural Affairs, Kurukshetra University. Shikha Jain of Electronics & Comm was first, Vivek Khera of Biotechnology Engg was second and Mehak Kohli of Biotechnology Engg was third, a press release said.

GOLDEN JUBILEE: The Department of Posts on Thursday issued a postage stamp to commemorate the golden jubilee of ascent of Mount Everest. Mr A.K. Malhotra, Assistant Director Accounts, said that to commemorate the momentous event, the Department of Posts had issued the stamp in denomination of Rs 15. The stamp would be available on sale from Thursday in Philatelic Bureau, Ambala, GPO, and all head post offices counters in the state.

PANUN KASHMIR: The working committee meeting of Panun Kashmir, Haryana, was held on Wednesday at Inder Puri. Haryana state secretary Mr J.L. Kaul said that exception was taken by Kashmiri Pandits to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mr Digvijay Singh’s statement given in Jalandhar which stated that the migration of Kashmiri Pandits’ was a huge mistake. “It is felt that he is quite unaware of the ground realities. Comparing militancy of Punjab with that of J&K is different. The population of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir is not more than 3 per cent. Out of this minority, more than 2000 people were killed by militants,” a release said. The working committee members said, “We are not given the status of even refugees. Some of the people have migrated to places other than Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu.”

PINJORE
MISHAP: Four employees, including a casual labourer of HMT, Pinjore, were injured in an accident in the workshop on Wednesday. Sucha Singh (38), a casual labourer, and Ajit Singh, Hari Krishan, Karnail Singh, all employees of the HMT, were injured when they were pouring melted iron into the drum.

RETIREMENT: The president of the Officers’ Association of HMT, Pinjore said that eight officers of the HMT would retire on May 31. The officers to retire included P.C. Bansal, J.M. Chadha-DGM, Baldev Aggarwal-JGM, M.L. Dhiman-JGM, M.M. Khanna — Deputy Manager, S.K. Bhardwaj — Labour Officer, Harkesh Raghav and Kuljeet Singh — Deputy Engineer.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

HAMIRPUR
WHITE PAPER: Mr Rajendra Rana, the district media in charge of the BJP has demanded a white paper on the recruitment of Class I and II officers by the HP Public Service Commission during 1993-97. The BJP leader has warned the state government against picking on BJP leaders.

NURPUR
COSTLY BEER: Beer bottles with 5 to 8.25 per cent alcohol are sold here for Rs 65 and Rs 70, respectively. As per a notification, the rates for these bottles are Rs 45 and Rs 50, respectively.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local mehra Maha Sabha: president — Dina Nath Mehra; senior vice-president — Sudharshan Mehra; general secretary — Dhrub Kumar; and treasurer — Sat Pal.