R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
SAD (A) RALLY: The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) organised a rally from Gurdwara Baba Deep Singh to the office of the SDM, Ajnala, to draw the attention of the district authorities to the demands of residents of Ajnala. The rally, led by Mr Baldev Singh Sarsa, gave a memorandum to the SDM, demanding construction and repair of roads, cancellation of a case registered against Randhawa Filling Station and release of the last year’s arrears to farmers by a sugar mill in Ajnala.

DERA BASSI
OLD STUDENTS: Following directions of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Government Degree College, Dera Bassi, with the assistance of its Alumni, formed the Old Students Association (OSA). The office-bearers of the OSA were elected with Ms Shakuntla, college Principal, as chief patron. The other office-bearers are: president — Mr Paramjit Singh; senior vice-president — Mr Ashwani Kumar; vice-president — Mr Rakesh Kaushik; general secretary — Mr P.S. Joshi; joint secretaries — Mr Gurjant Singh and Mr Chaman Kumar; and treasurer — Mr Rakesh Garg.

Placement test held: As many as 718 candidates from various engineering colleges, affiliated to Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, took a campus placement test organised at the Sri Sukhmani Institute of Engineering and Technology, here today. The test was organised by a Chennai-based telecommunication company , Sterling Telecom and Net System Limited. Lt-Col N.S. Julka (retd), training and placement officer of the institute, said the selected candidates would be issued appointment letters to their e-mail accounts directly.

NAWANSHAHR
RELAY FAST: A meeting of employees of the Privately Managed Government Aided Schools of the district was held here on Friday under the presidentship of Mr Hans Raj Sharma to mobilise employees to take part in the on-going district-wise relay just in front of the residence of the Education Minister at Gurdaspur. The employees are demanding revoking of the decision to scrap the pension scheme, lifting the ban on recruitment and clearing pending “approval” cases.

PROMISE UNKEPT: Mr Ashwani Ballagan, president of the district unit of the BJP, in a press note here on Friday said the government had failed to keep its promise of releasing payment of paddy to farmers within 24 hours. Farmers and commission agents had been facing awaiting their payments for the past one month, he alleged.

ZIRAKPUR
ARCHITECTS: Members of the Zirakpur Architects Association have alleged that staff members of the Zirakpur Nagar Panchayat harass them when they go to deposit cash for their files pertaining to the blue prints of building plans. The architects complain that they have to wait for days together for getting the building plans sanctioned by the officers concerned. Apart from this, the architects are also facing finance-related problems in the absence of permanent cashier in the civic body office. 

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: Mr Mukesh Bassi has been elected as President of the Chandigarh Youth Industries Federation. He has also been authorised to re-constitute the executive body.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
Vikas Shivir: A five-day Yuva Mandal vikas shivir, organised by the Nehru Yuva Kendra, concluded at Barasand, about 35 km from here, on Friday. As many as 35 leaders from various yuva mandals were provided training in environment protection and development of cleanliness, apart from mobilising villagers for challenging social evils and participating in development programmes launched by state and Central governments.

CHAMBA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) Employees Union: president — Mr Tek Chand Kapoor; senior vice-president — Mr Naresh Kumar; vice-presidents — Mr Dharam Pal and Mr Kewal Singh; general secretary — Mr Hem Raj; secretary — Mr Tarsem Lal and cashier — Mr Anil.

Dharamsala
3 LABOURERS HURT: Three labourers were seriously injured while working on a building due to an electric shock from overhead wires. According to reports, the accident occurred when three labourers — Happy, Sunil and Naresh — contacted live overhead wires during construction work at the house of Surjit Singh and Parmodh Singh of Pragpur. All three were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Dehra, where they were reported to be out of danger.

KULU
DISTINCTION: A local boy has achieved the distinction of being the youngest web designer of Himachal Pradesh. Puneet Verma, a student of class X of Our Lady of the Snows School here, has designed a website with animation affects. Puneet has learnt Macromedia Flash (5.0), Microsoft Front Page, Macromedia Director (8.0), Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Fireworks.

1 killed: One person was killed on the spot and another injured in a head-on collision between a truck and a car near Nirmand, near here on Saturday. The victims were travelling in the car. The injured was referred to the IGMC hospital, Shimla.

Kumarhatti
POLL ROLLS: The district administration has geared up for revision of poll rolls from November 17 to December 8. A rehearsal meeting was held at the Kasauli tehsil office on Friday in this regard.

Paonta Sahib
BLOOD DONATION: A blood donation camp was organised at Shree Gurugobind Singh Government Degree College here by its NSS unit. Mr Ram Lal Tomar, programme officer, NSS, said 21 students donated blood.