R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

JALANDHAR
FARMERS TO AGITATE: Six farmers’ organisation — Zamhoori Kisan Sabha, Punjab, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta), Kirti Kisan Union, Punjab Kisan Sabha, Khetibari Kisan Vikas Front and All India Kisan Sabha — have resolved to launch a statewide agitation against the Congress government for not implementing their accepted demands. The demands include dues to sugarcane growers, and abolishing sales tax on pesticides and Rs 30 per quintal bonus on paddy. The representatives of these bodies met here on Sunday.

LUDHIANA
EXHIBITION: DAV Public School, Ludhiana, organised an exhibition on Saturday to showcase creativity of the students. The students displayed the models and charts prepared during summer holidays. There was prize for the best chart and best model.

GREEN CLUB: To curb the growing pollution, a Green Club has been constructed by environment conscious young people of the city. At their meeting held at Kala Ram Nagar, Jamalpur, the president of the club, Mr Deepak Gupta, urged the authorities to ban the manufacture of polythene bags. He said polythene even leads to death of a large number of animals and asked the district administration that they should banish big units involved in manufacture of polythene.

SDM BEREAVED: Gajinder Pal Singh, father-in-law of the SDM (East), Mr M.S. Jaggi, passed away after a prolonged illness at Panchkula on Sunday evening. He was 60 and had retired as a Joint Director of the Department of Industrial Training. He is survived by his wife, Amarjit Kaur, a daughter, Inderveer Kaur, and a son Atamveer Singh.

TRIBUTES PAID: Tributes were paid to Bhupinder Singh Laddi, a known sportsperson and a upcoming social worker, who died in a road accident recently, by the people from all sections of society at a largely attended shardhanjali samaroh at his native village, Bhundri, 25 km from here, on Sunday. Those who paid their tributes included Mr Malkiat Singh Birmi, Minister for Jails, Housing and Urban Development, Mr Gurcharan Singh Galib, MP, Mr Avtar Singh Brar, general secretary, PPCC, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, Mayor, Mr Harmohinder Singh, president DCC(R), Mr Sadhu Singh Jandali, district chief, BSP, Mr Gurdeep Singh Bhaini, ex-MLA and Mr Avtar Singh Malha, a senior Akali Leader.

SEMINAR: The Punjab State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry organised a seminar on Monday. It was attended by about 50 entrepreneurs and representatives from industry. Speaking on the occasion, Mr SK Rai, chairman of the CII, Punjab Council, stressed upon the need to adopt ‘Kaizen approach’ as, he observed it happened to be a “powerful vehicle to catalyse transformation in an organisation”.

CHANDIGARH

SAPLINGS PLANTED: The Lions Club, Chandigarh Greater, on Monday planted around 100 saplings of various varieties at Government High School, Karsan, and at its own building in the same village. According to Lion Arun Uppal, president of the club, the saplings were planted mainly by handicapped children who have been getting physiotherapy treatment by the club.

SEMINAR: A seminar “Financial Reforms — Impact on Indian Economy” was organised here on Sunday. Welcoming the delegates, Mr N.K. Gaur, general secretary, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, said bank unions were opposed to the privatisation move of the government as it would result in the loss of financial sovereignty and exploitation of agriculture and SSI sectors. Mr Prabhat Patnaik of Jawahar Lal University and Dr Sucha Singh Gill of Punjabi University, Patiala, presented papers.

SCOOTER RECOVERED: The UT police has arrested a SAS Nagar resident, Harbir Singh Gill, allegedly for stealing a scooter of Panjab University resident, Mr Vibhas Kumar. He had allegedly stolen the scooter on the intervening night of July 13 and 14. He has been booked under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC. The stolen scooter has been recovered from his possession. Meanwhile, Narinder Sharma of Sector 37 has been booked for rash driving and causing damage to the roundabout on the roads dividing Sectors 9 and 10 here on Sunday.

4 HELD: The police has arrested four persons from different parts of the city and recovered 140 pouches of liquor from their possession on Sunday. Those arrested have been identified as Dinesh Kumar, Pawan Kumar, Manohar, all residents of Mauli Jagran and Ramesh Kumar of Kumhar Colony, Sector 25.

DEMONSTRATION: The secretariat of the Punjab unit of the CPI met here on Monday and decided to hold a demonstration at Matka Chowk on July 28 to oppose the state government’s “anti-people” policies. Mr Gurnam Kanwar, member secretary of the secretariat, in a press note said a team of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would visit here on July 28 to hold talks with the state government on various economic issues and fiscal reforms. In fact, the demonstration would be a protest against the visit of the WTO officials, he added.

PANCHKULA
EXHIBITION: An exhibition of the holiday home work projects of students of Satluj Public School was held on the school premises on Monday. The displays included charts, models, murals, paintings and other creations. Over 1000 exhibits were displayed and the winners of the best exhibits were given a prize and certificate. The winners are as follows:- Sheena (Class VII), Neelay (Class VIII), Aanchal (Class IX), Davinder (Class IX), Smridhi (Class X), Bhavna (Class XI), Kamalpreet (Class XI), Sween (Class XI), Anu (Class XII) and Navkiran (Class XII).

HARYANA

AMBALA
COMPUTER PARTS STOLEN: Thieves took away several valuable parts of computers from a bank at Baldev Nagar in Ambala City on Sunday night. The police said the thieves entered the bank by breaking the grill of a window located at the back of the building.

CASE ADJOURNED: The hearing in a case against BKU chief Ghasi Ram Nain was adjourned to July 26 here on Monday. One of the accused Shyam Lal could not appear in the court as because of some mishappening in his family. The counsel for the BKU filed an application for exemption on behalf of Sham Lal in the court. Nain and other 16 accused persons were present in the court. The Shajadpur police had registered a case against Nain and 18 BKU activists on June 25 for blocking a National Highway and attacking police personnel.

INLD MEETING: A workers’ meeting of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was held at Panchayat Bhavan on Monday. Addressing the meeting, Naggal MLA Jasbir Mallour said the worker was like the spine of a party and the future of the party rested on the hardwork of the worker. He said Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was going to villages to hear the grievances of people. He said Mr Chautala had directed all MLAs and office-bearers to meet workers. Mr Surjeet Singh, Mr Gurbax Singh Bakshi, Mr Jagtar Singh, Mr Hardial Singh, Mr Joginder Singh, Mr Wazir Singh and Mr Chajju Ram were also present. 

APPOINTED: Mr Om Prakash Malik has been appointed Vice-Chairman of the Legal Cell of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC). Mr Malik said he had received a letter in this regard from the Chairperson of the HPCC Legal Cell, Ms Daya Chaudhary.

CRICKET TOURNEY: The Kharga Corps inter-sector cricket tournament for children of soldiers concluded here on Monday. The man of the series award was given to Deepak Bhatt, son of Subedar S.D. Bhatt. The most-promising cricketer award was given to Mandeep Singh, son of Subedar Balbir Singh. A 1 team of sector A won the tournament by defeating C 1 team of sector C.

WAKF BOARD: Senior Punjab Wakf Board officials are believed to have taken a serious note of the alleged involvement of a Junior Engineer (JE) in the disappearance of a newly married woman. An officer has been asked to look into the matter. The JE is said to have been suspended. Four teams were sent to different areas where there was a possibility of the JE and the woman hiding. The teams went to Solan, Gurgaon, Amritsar and Shimla.

HISAR
DROWNED: Two children were drowned in a pond at Siswal village, near here, on Sunday. Naresh (13) and Naveen (9), both brothers, had gone to the pond to clean their bicycle. One of the brothers slipped in the pond and drowned. When the other brother tried to save him, he also slipped and fell in the pond. Both died on the spot.

2 WOMEN ARRESTED: The police on Sunday arrested two women from the local bus stand and recovered 10 kg poppy husk from their possession. According to the police, Seema and Rajni, both residents of Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, had come to the bus stand from the local railway station. A police team, on a tip-off, frisked them and recovered the contraband.

YAMUNANAGAR
ELECTION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Yamunanagar-Jagadhri Chamber of Commerce and Industry: president — Mr Rajeev Sardana; vice-president — Mr Kamal Gupta; secretary — Mr Ranbir Singh; treasurer — Mr Sanjay Malhotra; and joint secretary — Mr Viplove Gandhi.

LIONS CLUB: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Lions Club, Yamunanagar-Jagadhri: president — Mr Vinod Jalotra; vice-presidents — Mr Luxmi C. Puri, Mr Narinder Seth, and Mr Vinod Bansal; secretary — Mr Umresh Sondhi; and treasurer — Mr O.P. Soni. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

PALAMPUR
CRIME BUT NO PUNISHMENT: Over the past six months the police has been rather slack in solving murders, rapes and theft cases in the district. Over one dozen cases of major thefts in the past two months are yet to be solved. This includes the theft of gold ornaments from a local temple and adjoining shops. A minor of Malag village was raped in the fields. Later the girl named the prime accused. But he is still at large. A youth at Khera village was killed with stones. His body was found buried in forest. But none has been arrested so far. An attempt was made to kill Mr Surinder Rana, a local wine contractor by the liquor smugglers at Paror. No efforts have been made to arrest the culprits.