R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
NSS CAMP: Dr R.P. Asija, Principal, DAV College of Education on Friday inaugurated an NSS camp at Dangarkhera village near here. The campers will beautify Basanti Mata Mandir. The NSS unit of Government Senior Secondary School for Boys organised a camp at Government Seed Farm Colony on the outskirts of the town.

Amritsar
PARAMEDICAL STAFF: Relay fast organised by the Talmel Committee of paramedical and Health Employees, Punjab entered third day here on Sunday. The strikers were seeking the removal of the Director of Mental Hospital for his having filed cases against some workers.

POULTRY LABORATORY: A laboratory by Godrej Agrovet will be set up on Tuesday for providing round the clock diagnostic service and free training camps for farmers in the field of poultry.

Bathinda
KAVI DARBAR: A kavi darbar was organised by the NSS unit of DAV College. It was presided over by Dr Harnek Singh Komal. Dr J.S. Anand, Surinder Preet Ghania, Amarjit Dhillon, Hardam Mann and some other local poets read out their works. This was stated in a press note here on Monday.

READING ROOM: The Goodwill Society has decided to open a reading room for residents of the city in the Paras Ram Nagar area of the city. Mr K.K. Goyal, general secretary of the society, in a statement here on Monday said that the municipal corporation Commissioner, Mr D.K. Tiwari, would inaugurate the reading room.

FOUNDATION DAY: Mr Jagjit Gill Patti, district chief organiser of the Congress Sewa Dal, in a press note here on Monday said volunteers and party workers celebrated the 118th foundation day of the Congress the previous day. The Congress workers had been urged to visit villages to prepare the ground for the upcoming elections.

PROBE SOUGHT: Mr Mohit Gupta, district president of the BJP, in a written statement here on Monday, alleged that due to the internal crisis of the Congress Legislature Party, people had been sensing chaos in the state. He alleged that senior officers of the state were not attending offices and were lobbying to save their plum postings in case the head of the Punjab Government changed. He demanded a high-level probe into the hawala transactions wherein the name of Punjab Chief Minister’s son had been involved.

GRANT FOR LIBRARY: Mr Bhan Singh Bhaura, Lok Sabha Member, on Saturday gave a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the public library from his discretionary fund. The library was founded in 1938.

AKALI (YOUTH WINGS) : Mr Sukhvir Singh of Jassi Pau Wali village has been appointed president of Sadar circle of the Shiromani Akali Dal (youth wing) of the district, Mr Major Singh of Bhagu village president of the Cantonment circle and Mr Nand Singh of Sivian village president of the thermal circle of the youth Akali Dal.

PENSION FOR JAITOI: Non-Resident Indian Jarnail Singh Chahal will send Rs 1,000 per month to Punjabi poet Deepak Jaitoi facing financial difficulty. Mr Chahal born in Lalluana village of Bathinda (part of Mansa) migrated to the USA in 1997. He had been helping the needy of the region.

3 DEATHS REPORTED: The body of Naveen Kumar, identified as a resident of Delhi was recovered from the Kalka Express by volunteers of the Sahara Jan Sewa on Saturday. Probably he died due to frostbite. Family members of the deceased has been informed. In another case body of a middle-aged man was recovered from a water body near Kot Shamir village. A patient of TB was found dead at the Railway station here. The body was handed over to the Sahara volunteers for cremation.

SAPLING PLANTATION: The five-Star Naujawan Club of Kandhwala Amarkot village near here organised a sapling plantation camp with the assistance of Sardar Patel Medical Institute on Friday.

Fazilka
MISHAP: Mr Khema Singh (52) of Mohakam Arain village was crushed to death by a truck near Bagheke Uttar village, 25 km from here, on the Fazilka-Ferozepore road on Friday night.

Ludhiana
CAMP ENDS: The ten day NSS camp of Malwa Central College of Education for Women concluded on Monday. The camp was a great success. A cultural programme was organised by NSS volunteers. The chief guest for the day was Mr Manjit Singh from Ayali village, which was one of the venues of the camp. Different activities like cleanliness of the campus, beautification and landscaping, plantation of ornamental plants, helping the weak and meritorious students; knowledge of personal hygiene and social evils etc. were undertaken.

Histrionics: Ms Jashanpreet Kaur of the local SDP College for Women won the third prize in histrionics in the 45th Panjab University Inter-Zonal Youth festival held at JC DAV college, Dasuya.

STRESS MANAGEMENT: On the second day of NSS camp being held by volunteers of Government College at Pratap Singh village, Prof Har Bhullar, talked of stress management. He said to cope with the stressful living, a positive thinking and outlook was very essential. He advised the villagers to plant more trees to safegaurd the environment.

SEMINAR HELD: An educational seminar was organised at Hallmark Regency, Ludhiana, by Kolkata based GKB Rx Lens Pvt. Ltd here on Sunday. The seminar was attended by around 60 delegates and leading opticians of Punjab state. Dr Subhash C. Verma, president, BJP Ludhiana unit was the chief guest.

Diabetes camp: A diabetes check-up camp was organised at Deaf and Dumb School here on Sunday under the management of Mr Sandeep Chauhan, president of the Asian Club International. Nearly 150 persons were tested for diabetes free of cost and 20 persons were x-rayed and 10 patients’ ECG was taken. DSP Simratpal Singh Dhindsa, who was the chief guest, said he would seek permission from senior officers to allow the club to arrange a medical camp in Police Lines soon.

Album released: A music album, Chamkila Live, by Lucky Chamkila was released here on Sunday. A path of Sukhmani Sahib was organised. Chamkila, Amar Kamal and Romi Gill regaled the audience with their songs.

Elected: The Principal of Green Land Senior Secondary School, Ms Baldeep Pandher, has been elected director of the Ludhiana Sahodya School Complex, an association of 36 CBSE schools of the district.

Pathankot
APPOINTED: Mr Indu Bhushan Bhatia was appointed a member of the Punjab Urban and Development Authority, said Mr Raghunath Sahai Puri, a Punjab Minister, on Saturday.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Wazir Lakhpat Rai Charitable Trust, Jammu, organised a medical camp at Dhayana village near here on Friday. Two hundred patients were examined and free of cost medicines, were given.

Phagwara
FOG-RELATED MISHAP: The police on Sunday recovered a body from near Chak Hakim village on the GT Road. It appears to be a case of hit and run accident due to fog in the area. Vehicles moved with headlights on due to fog. 3 HURT IN MISHAP: Three members of a family were hurt and hospitalised on Sunday after their motor cycle was hit by a bus near the Chiheru Police post on the GT Road. The injured included Ajit Singh his, wife Asha Devi and son Ajay Singh. They were going from Sarna village in Ludhiana district to Pathankot.

Samrala
NSS CAMP: A 10-day NSS camp was inaugurated at Malwa College, Bondli, Prof Gurcharan Singh a former Principal, Government College, Ludhiana, performed the opening ceremony and delivered a lecture on the abuse of drugs in society. Dr Parminder Singh Benipal, Principal, congratulated the volunteers and programme officers. Prof Baldeep Singh, Dean, Students Welfare, presented a vote of thanks at the close of inaugural function. Among others who addressed the volunteers were Prof Baljeet Singh, Prof H.S. Kaler and Prof Manoj Kumar.

POSTPONED: The prize distribution and cultural function of Guru Nanak Public School, Madpur, scheduled for December 30, has been postponed, due to the death of Mr Joginder Singh, Director of the school, according to Mr Harpal Singh, manager. The function would be held on January 10.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Homeland Day: Panun Kashmir, Haryana unit, observed Homeland Day on Sunday. Mr NN Kaul presided over the function while president of the District Congress Committee Ashok Jain was the chief guest. Persons displaced from Kashmir and residing in Ambala were present. Mr Ashok Jain assured help to the migrants. He said the grievances of the migrants would be taken up with the Haryana Government. He said that the financial relief being paid in other states should be paid to the residents here. Among others, Mr Kamlesh Gupta, Mr RR Kathuria and Mr ML Madan were present.

Lucky draw: A lucky draw was organised by Chawla Enterprises for BSNL Excel pre-paid cards on Monday. The first prize went to N Hardev Singh. The second prizes went to Harvinder and A Surya Prakash Reddy. The third prizes went to Pooja Sharma and Vinod Bedi. The fourth prizes went to Raj Kumar Gupta, Arul Raj, Gurcharan Das, Ashar and VP Aggarwal, a release said.

Man assaulted: A man was assaulted near Football Chowk, Ambala Sadar late on Sunday night. Bimal, a resident of Ambala Sadar, was returning from Faridabad. He alighted at the bus stand and took a rickshaw. Then the rickshaw reportedly developed a snag. Thereafter, when Bimal began to walk home, he was assaulted. The assailants snatched his gold chain, ring and purse. Bimal sustained injuries in the incident. 

Fog disrupts normal life: Normal life including rail traffic was disrupted due to fog in the region. Around half a dozen trains remained cancelled while three long distance trains reached about half-an-hour late here on Monday. According to Railways information, 4517 and 4518 Uchahar Express was suspended till further order and 4711-4712 Ganganagar-Haridwar. 4681 New Delhi Jalandhar via Saharanpur, 4660 Amritsar-New Delhi Express and 4731 New Delhi-Bathinda Express were remained suspended for Monday.

Demonstration threatened: The HSMITC Employees Joint Action Committee, Haryana, has decided to hold a demonstration before the Governor House at Chandigarh on January 28 if their demands were not accepted before January 27 by the government. The Joint Action Committee organised a meeting here on Monday.

Sirsa
CRITICISED: The Haryana Sarv Karamchari Sangh on Saturday alleged that the Haryana Government was doing nothing for the benefit of forest department employees and had wound up the Forest Department.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
ILLICIT LIQUOR: A police party raided the shop of Mr Gian Chand son of Sunkaram of Chehadi village near here and recovered 163 pouches of illicit liquor from his possession on Saturday evening. Gian Chand was arrested and a case registered against him under the HP Excise Act, the police said on Sunday.

IT CENTRE: Nehru Yuva Mandal Lethwin near Ghumarwin has been selected for an “Information Technology Centre” under the Rural Information Technology Youth Development Programme, said youth coordinator Som Dutt Zard on Sunday.

Dharamsala
LABOURER SHOT AT: Mr Vishwas Tamang a labourer at Daroh 40 km from here, was reportedly hit by a shot fired by an alleged poacher, said Mr Santosh Patial, Additional SP Kangra.