R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
POLICE REMAND: Six members of an inter-state gang of criminals were brought here from Sriganganagar on Wednesday in connection with crimes committed by them in this subdivision. They are Jagdish Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Veer Singh, Inderpal, Sunder and Ramesh Kumar. A court here remanded them in police custody for three days, sources said.

AMLOH
KISAN SAMMELAN: A kisan sammelan is being organised at Chanderpur (Maharashtra) on November 9. Around 5 lakh farmers from 17 states will arrive there on a call of Mr Bhupendra Singh Mann, chairman co-ordination committee, to decide the line of action of the stir to be launched against anti-farmer policies of the Centre and state governments. This was stated by the state chief of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Mr Baldev Singh Mianpur. He said farmers from Punjab would participate in the sammelan in large numbers. They have been directed to reach the Delhi railway station on November 8, he said.

SEMINAR: A special seminar will be organised on the occasion of free legal aid day celebrations at Chanarthal Kalan village in Amloh constituency on Sunday at 10 a.m. This was stated by Mrs Neelam Arora, Civil Judge (Senior Division). The seminar will be chaired by Mr Mahinder Pal, District and Sessions Judge, Fatehgarh Sahib. Mr S.K. Ahluwalia and Mr Shiv Kumar, DC and SSP, Fatehgarh Sahib, respectively will also be present at the function.

BATHINDA
FUNCTION: The local Swami Vivekanand Study Circle will hold its annual day function on Monday at SSD Girls College here. Prof R.K. Mahajan, president of the circle said Mr Kuldip Nayyar, an eminent columnist and former Rajya Sabha member, would be the chief guest. Mr C.S. Talwar, MD, Backfinco, would preside over the function.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
BAL DIVAS: The District Red Cross Society would celebrate November 14 as “Bal Divas” at Aam Khas Bagh Sirhind, where a district-level function would be organised and more than 10,000 children and students would participate, said Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, Deputy Commissioner. Competitions in various sports, painting, rangoli, recitation of shabads, fancy dress, choreography, solo songs, solo dances, bhangra, gidha and other events would be organised for senior and junior sections, respectively.

HOSHIARPUR
agents booked: The police has registered two cases against six travel agents. One of the travel agents, Ramesh Kumar of Surapur village, has been arrested. On a complaint of Mr Sarup Singh of Behbowal, the Hajipur police has registered a case under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC against Deepak Kumar, A.B. Nath and his wife and Malkiat Singh. In another case, the Garhshanker police, on a complaint of Kuldip Singh of Alawalpur, has registered a case against Romesh Kumar of Surapur and Satnam Singh of Degham.

Abduction Case: A case of abduction of a girl of Bajrawar village has been registered against Naresh Kumar and Surjit Singh of the same village. The father of the victim reported that Naresh Kumar took the girl on his motor cycle for her school on Tuesday.

VISIT: Mr D.R. Bhagat, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur, along with Mr Raghbir Singh, Assistant General Manager, Nabard, and engineers of the Dholbaha Dam Construction circle inspected the Patiarian Dam on Friday. Mr D.R. Bhagat expressed satisfaction on the progress in implementation of the project. This project when commissioned will benefit villagers of Patiari, Kharkan and Dalewal. Mr Raghbir Singh said the Nabard had sanctioned 78 projects in Hoshiarpur district.

Kharar
Seminar: Lions Clubs International District-321-F organised a joint district awareness seminar, “Generation Next 2003”, here under the chairmanship of Mr Preet Kanwal Singh, committee chairman of Lions Quest. According to a press note issued here on Wednesday, Mr R.K. Mehta, district governor, attended the seminar as the chief guest. Keynote speaker on Lions Quest Lion Omi Arora from Mumbai talked in detail about the Quest programme emphasised on protecting today’s generation from social evils. He said that Lions Quest took care of the development of the entire personality of a child. Schools should adopt this programme for inculcating self-discipline, responsibility and self-respect among adolescent students. Talking on environment, Dr Reena Singh said every person was responsible for the harm to the ozone layer and all human beings should care about the environment.

LUDHIANA
POLICE REMAND: Binder Singh of Kothe Premsar (a deedwriter), Ranjit Singh of Malak Printing Press (owner), Gurdeep Singh of Malak road area, (a computer engineer), Nirmal Singh of Jeevan Singh Nagar (a stamp vendor) and Sarbjit Singh of Agwar Ladhai (a PCO owner), who were booked under Sections 489-A, B, C, D, E, 420, 467 and 471 of the IPC for printing fake US dollars and non-judicial stamp papers were further remanded in three-day police custody for interrogation by Mr Hari Singh Grewal, JMIC, Jagraon.

TWO ARRESTED: Two persons, who were fleding in a Maruti car after snatching a gold chain from a woman in Ghumar Mandi, allegedly made an attempt to kill police personnel. They have been booked by the Jagraon police under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC. According to information, police officials received a message about chain snatching following which Mr Balwant Singh, ASI, held a ‘naka’. When the driver of the car was signalled to stop the vehicle, he first slowed down the car but on reaching near, he tried to hit and thereby kill police official. Mr Ramesh Kumar, HC, was actually hit. He sustained injuries. The occupants of the car, who were later identified as Paramjit Singh of Sarhali and Tarpinder Singh of Sarki, were arrested and the vehicle impounded. Mr Hari Singh Grewal, JMIC, Jagraon, remanded both of them in three-day police custody.

CREMATED: Jaswant Kaur, wife of the MCPI national general secretary and veteran Communist leader, Mr Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, who breathed her last here on Thursday, was cremated at Model Town Extension cremation ground. Her cremation was attended by a large numbers of people. She had participated in the Independence struggle. She also remained active in communist activities. Later, she joined government service as a teacher and retired as a headmistress. She was 86. She remained bed ridden for more than three months. Her son and leading nephrologist, Dr Navdeep Khehra, lit the pyre.

NOMINATED: Dr Anil Kapoor, a city-based senior ayurveda practitioner, who is also a member of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics and vice-president of the International Council of Ayurveda, has recently been nominated as member of the governing body of the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ms Sushma Swaraj. He has also been nominated as member of the Punjab State Medicinal Plants Board by the Governor of Punjab.

MANDI AHMEDGARH
Punjabi Week: Ms Rachhpal Kaur, Head of the Punjabi Department of SYM Senior Secondary School supervised workshops on Punjabi writing for students of various classes. Special periods were devoted for teaching fundamentals of Punjabi to students. An on-the-spot story-writing contest was also held on the concluding day. Meenakshi Verma and Harsh Dheer stood first in the senior and junior categories, respectively. The second prizes in these categories were bagged by Ravinder Kaur and Robin Singla. Rupali Dheer and Sonia Verma were adjudged third. Ms Priyanka Sharma, Principal of the school, emphasised on the need to encourage use Punjabi.

Mandi Gobindgarh
MEETING: A meeting of the SC/BC Employees Federation was held here on Friday. Mr Mukhtyar Singh Arshi and Mr Hansa Singh Rurkee, state chief and district president of the federation, respectively, have urged the government to lift the ban on the appointments of employees against the posts which had fallen vacant after the retirement of employees and reconsider the decision of panchayats’ power of supervision of the work of employees.

PATIALA
GARMENT STORE: A garment store ‘Fashion Plus’ in the Leela Bhavan market here was inaugurated here on Friday. A large range of brands for men, women and kids are available in this multi-brand showroom.

TARN TARAN
SEMINAR: Mr Mangat Ram Pasla, CPM leader, Punjab unit, addressed a seminar here on Friday. It was organised by the Shahid Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha. Mr Pasla condemned the policies of the Union and the state government for ‘anti-people’ policies. Mr Pargat Singh Jamarai and others also spoke on the occasion.

Proposal: The Amritsar administration has sent a proposal of Rs 35 lakh to the Punjab government to provide better water supply facility to the residents of this town. This was stated here on Thursday by Mr Raminder Singh, Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over the state-level inter-school athletics meet of Sri Guru Harkrishan Public Schools being run by the Chief Khalsa Diwan. He announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the construction of a room in Bhai Veer Singh Birdh Ghar. As many as 1,600 students took part in the meet.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Residents’ Plea: The Citizens Council here has sought that the construction of a road linking Subhash Park with the Jagadhari highway should be carried out by the PWD authorities. Citizens Council members have welcomed the acceptance of the demand for linking Subhash Park with the Jagadhari highway by the Ambala cantonment MLA, Mr Anil Vij. They said the road would increase the popularity of Subhash Park. They also demanded that the dairies should be shifted at the earliest and demanded construction of a bank square to ease traffic in Ambala Sadar.

Association: A district-level association of school principals was formed here on Wednesday. The following were elected office-bearers of the association: president — Mr Hari Narain Sharma; secretary — Mr Subhash Sharma; treasurer — Mr Santram Nagi; vice-president — Mr Baldev Raj; advisers — Mr Bhagwat Swaroop Garg and Mr S.S. Chauhan; and press secretary — Ms Usha Sharma.

Workshop: An Army marketing workshop was conducted by the Army Placement Agency at HQ PH & HP (1) Sub Area, Ambala Cantonment, on Thursday. The workshop was presided over by Sub Area Commander Brig D.C. Katoch. The workshop was attended by deputy directors from Delhi, Ambala, Patiala, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Shimla and Bathinda. Brig Katoch emphasised that the deputy directors must meet the leading industrialists as often as possible for better output. A common marketing plan was evolved. A strong need was felt for educating ex-servicemen on realities of civilian life with regard to job market, job descriptions and salary structure.

FATEHABAD
MEETING: The Haryana Revenue and Rural Development Minister, Mr Dhir Pal Singh, will preside over a meeting of the District Public Relations and Grievances Committee here on Saturday. The Deputy Commissioner, Dr R.B. Langyan, informed mediapersons here on Wednesday that 10 complaints pertaining to different government departments would be placed before the minister.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested three persons for smuggling of illicit liquor and seized a working still, 49 bottles of illicit liquor and 20 kg of lahan from their possession. The police nabbed Ram Kumar, a resident of Lahrian village in the district and seized a working still, five bottles of illicit liquor and 20 kg of lahan from his possession. Ramesh, a resident of Tohana, was arrested with 20 bottles of illicit liquor while Satyawan, also from Tohana, was arrested with 24 bottles of illicit liquor. The police has booked them under the Excise Act. In another case, the police nabbed Ravinder, a resident of Tohana, with 10 kg of poppy husk and booked him under the NDPS Act.

Kurukshetra
INAUGURATION: Mr Om Parkash Chautala, will lay the foundation stone of eight D-type houses on Kurukshetra University campus on Sunday. This was stated by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr A.K. Chawla, here on Friday. He said Mr Chautala would also lay the foundation stone of the building of the University Institute of Engineering and Technology.

PROJECT: A project titled “Study of Genomic diversity of human populations of North-West India” has been sanctioned by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology. The project will be carried out at the Centre for Genetic Disorders, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Jammu University, Jammu, and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. According to a university spokesman, Kurukshetra University has been sanctioned Rs 10.43 lakh for this purpose.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
HONOURED: The Minister for Industries, Youth Services and Sports Mr Ram Lal Thakur, was chief guest at the district level concluding function Sanskritik Utsava Saptah organised by the Department of Language and Culture at Kotla on Thursday. He urged the department to make all-out efforts to ensure proper protection and preservation of original forms of folk songs, music and traditions. The minister honoured parents of Vijaypal and Rajkumar, both Kargil martyrs, Mr Chamel Singh for administrative efficiency, Mr Rattan Chand Nirjhar for literary contributions, Rajkumar for stage performances, Bhuwan Sharma for music and dance and Jitu Sankhayayan for Himachali folk songs.

ELECTORAL ROLLS: Draft electoral rolls will be kept for the public in offices of the SDM, Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildars, Panchayats and respective polling stations from November 17 to December 8 and all applications for objections on prescribed forms will be accepted till December 8. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Electoral Officer here on Friday.

KUMARHATTI
RAPE BID: A case to attempt to rape a minor girl was registered by the Kuthar police on Thursday. According to information, Hem Chand (15) tried to rape the girl at Samanu village on November 5. The girl was playing with friend outside her house when the accused forcibly took her to nearby forests. He could not succeeded as the mother of the girl reached the spot.

MANDI
INJURED: Eight persons were injured when Tata Sumo, which was on the way to Mandi from Gokhra, fell into a khud . The injured were admitted to Regional Hospital, Mandi.

PAONTA SAHIB
GURPURB CELEBRATIONS: The local Gurdwara Paonta Sahib organised a procession on the eve of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, which passed through the main bazaar. Gatka presented by women was the main attraction of the procession. School children also participated in the March. A kavi darbar will be held on Saturday, according to Mr Kulwant Singh, manager of the gurdwara.