R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
THREAT : Irrigation employees were being threatened, the Amritsar Irrigation Employees Federation alleged this in a meeting held here on Monday. The association would prepare a documents on the goings-on in the department.

MC STAFF PLEA: Municipal Corporation employees who had earlier been reverted to their previous posts have urged the state government to drop its appeal against them in the Supreme Court. The employees’ association has pleaded that all 27 of them had been reverted after nearly 10 years of service. The Punjab and Haryana High court had upheld their promotions hence the government should not press its appeal against them.

CO’S CAR HITS SCOOTER: Two persons Kirpal Singh Bhatia and Harvinder Singh were injured when black Ambassador car of a commanding officer hit a scooter at Lawrence Road chowk here on Monday. The CO’s vehicle failed to follow the signal, eyewitnesses said.

DHARNA BY STAFF: Members of the Punjab Government Driver and Technical Employees Union staged a dharna against alleged ‘misbehavior’ by a senior health official here on Monday. In a statement union president Naranjan Singh alleged that the official used abusive language against a driver of the department.

BEST NCC CADET: Cadet Bhupinder Singh of number one Punjab Bn NCC Army wing was selected as the best cadet during the NCC directorate-level annual training camp at National Institute of Technology at Jalandhar. He is the student of army school here.

BARNALA
DEMAND: Mr Ved Parkash Tallewalia, president, Kacha Arhtiyas Association, Barnala, in a letter to Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, has demanded the sacking of Mr Avtar Henry, Food and Civil Supplies Minister. He blamed Mr Henry for non-payment of paddy purchased by Pungrain.

LUDHIANA
AWARENESS RALLY: An awareness rally will be flagged off from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Stadium, Pakhowal Road, on November 20. Many religious and political dignitaries are expected to attend the rally. It is being organised by the Ludhiana Students Union. A blood donation camp in collaboration with the District Red Cross Society will also be organised on the occasion. The collected units of blood would be given to dengue affected patients. The president of the youth wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon will be the chief guest.

DECRIED: The Punjab government’s reported move to hike the bus fare by six paise per km is altogether unjust and unwarranted. Bus fares were last raised in the first quarter of this year. Public Cause, a city-based social service organisation, urged the Punjab Chief Minister to drop this move. To tide over the financial crunch of the state transport, it suggested the government to either withdraw the free-travel concession available to various sections of the society or treat the state-owned transport as “public utility service” and meet the transport losses on account of free-travel concession from the state exchequer.

PROGRAMME: The State Bank of India, Gill Road, Ludhiana branch organised an adult literacy programme on their premises here on Tuesday. The programme was inaugurated by Mr S.K. Kapoor, Chief Manager. About 50 persons participated in the programme. They were taught basic vernacular by the staff of the bank led by Mr N.K. Gosain, Manager. On the occasion, Mr Kapoor said the main aim of organising such literary programmes was to write and read which might help them in doing their daily work. He further said the State Bank of India, Gill Road, Ludhiana branch, was always in the forefront in organising such literacy programmes. The branch had organised six such programmes this year. On this occasion, study material were distributed among participants which were purchased by the staff out of their savings.

SANGRUR
WORKSHOP: A workshop on "parenting" was held at the local General Gurnam Singh Public School. Thirty parents of students of various classes attended the workshop which focussed on the growing educational and vocational needs of the children in today's competitive world. Besides Mrs R. Pandey, Principal, Mr Labh Singh and Mr R.P. Singhal, GM and DGM, respectively, of the BSNL, Sangrur, and Dr Surinder Singla, a chest and TB specialist also attended the workshop.

HARYANA

Fatehabad
RIGHT TO EXPRESSION: The Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the right to expression. But the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's tried to smother it. Dr Mahavir Narwal of Chowdhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, said this at the DYFI seminar organised here on Monday. He recalled emergency when similar attempt were made at muzzling the press.

Kurukshetra
SEMINAR: A national-level seminar on heritage tourism, discourse on Bhagvadgita and promotion of Kurukshetra as heritage centre will be held at senate hall of Kurukshetra University, here on December 1. This was stated by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr A.K. Chawla, on Tuesday.

SIRSA
DOCTORS HONOURED: On the fifth anniversary of the local Baba Bihari Charitable Hospital, 22 medical practioners and 23 social workers were honoured on Sunday. Among the honoured were Dr Karan Singh, Dr S.P. Garg, Dr Jeewan Garg, Dr D.P. Kar, Dr Yogesh Sangwan, Dr R.S. Sangwan, Dr Bhawna Sachdeva and Mr Parveen bagla.

SEWERAGE PROJECT: Residents of local Rania Gate and nearby area have decided to move to court against the irregularities committed while laying the deep sewerage there. They have sent a notice to the Chief Engineer, Superintending Engineer of the Public Health Department and Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa. They said the deep sewerage project to be laid at a cost of Rs 4 crore, was sanctioned in 1996. The work started in 1997 and has had several hiccups since.

SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr R.S. Bagri, has sentenced a person to 5 years’ of jail after finding him guilty of smuggling poppy husk. Bikkar Singh, a resident of Shergarh of the district, was arrested under the NDPS Act and 4.9 kg of poppy husk was seized from him. The Judge after the hearing sentenced Bikkar Singh to 5 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.

Yamunanagar
Two Dead: Two persons died in two road accidents here. Bachana Singh, a resident of Taranwala near here, was going on his bicycle on Tuesday when he was hit by a bus. He died on the spot. In another accident, Sham Bahadur (40), who worked in a metal industry in Jagadhri, was hit by an unidentified vehicle on Monday at Yamunanagar bypass here. He also died on the spot.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

DALHOUSIE
DEMAND FOR FUNDS: The Block Congress Committee has urged Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to construct a stadium at local Nehru Park here. In a letter to the Chief Minister, Mr Kamal Kant Kochhar, general secretary of the committee, demanded allotment of funds for building a stadium at nehru Park.

NAHAN
IRRIGATION SCHEMES: Zila Parishad members have urged senior officials to visit the lift irrigation schemes in Neri-Jagala and Dewthi- Majhgaon. They said Madighat- Dinger- Madhana road had busted at many points, despite warranty by the contractor. Members have urged the chairman, for inspection by the panel constituted by the Chief Minister. Members raised these issues at the quarterly meeting of the Parishad held on Monday.

UNA
FALSE PROMISES: Former Chief Minister prem Kumar Dhumal alleged on Monday that the Congress had forgotten its promises made to the people of the state during the last Vidhan Sabha elections. He also said there was a increase in corruption and unemployment in the state. he was addressing mediaperons at the function held by the Una Press Club. he said the Congress had promised that one member from each family would be provided a job and the Congress would work to end the corruption but these were not followed. he said due to problems created by state government no multinational or corporate houses had set up any industry in the state.