R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

ABOHAR
JOURNALIST DEAD: Ajit Kumar (62), a senior journalist, poet and writer, passed away at the PGI, Chandigarh, yesterday evening. He had served as President of the Punjab Working Journalists Union for many years. He was founder Chairman of the Journalists Welfare Trust and nominated member of the Punjab State Press Accreditation Committee for four terms. Ajit Kumar is survived by his wife, three daughters and son.

WAGES: The All-India SC/BC/ST Minorities Ekta Bhalai Manch has threatened to gherao the District Education Officer (Primary), Ferozepore, if the volunteers engaged under the Compulsory Education Scheme are not paid their wages within 15 days. The president of the manch, Mr Kulwant Singh Bhatti, in a letter to Mr Sandhu Singh Randhawa, Director, Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan, Chandigarh, said that unemployed girls and boys had been engaged on monthly contract against payment of Rs 1,000 each to teach children at the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centre.

BATHINDA
PF COMMISSIONER: Mr P.R. Mitra has taken over as the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner at the subregional office here. He replaced Mr S.D. Parsad. Mr Mitra had been working in West Bengal before joining here.

PATIALA
BAR ASSOCIATION: Mr Amrik Singh Juneja, Mr K.K. Singla, Mr Suresh Mittal, Mr Pritpal Singh Anand, Mr Ashwani Kanojia and Mr Pardeep Singh have been elected as president, senior vice-president, vice-president, general secretary, secretary and auditor, respectively, of the district Taxation Bar Association here on Saturday. 

FUNCTION: SOS Children’s Villages of India, an NGO, organised a function at Jiwan Jyoti Model High School here today. Students of the school collected donations from their near and dear ones under the ‘Young Ambassador’ programme to contribute for orphan children of Rajpura SOS village. 

PHAGWARA
ROAD SAFETY RALLY: Students of various schools on Friday participated in a road safety rally to create awareness of traffic rules and safe driving. Students carried placards on road safety. The rally was preceded by a seminar on road safety at Government Senior Secondary School for boys here.

SANGRUR
POLICE ‘BEAT BOOK’: Ms Preneet Kaur, MP from Patiala on Friday released a police ‘beat book’ for Chhajli village at a function at Sunam. Now a policeman would be made in charge of every ‘beat’ and gather information about people, their character, and vehicles of the village of his area with the help of village panchayat, residents and chowkidar etc.

CHANDIGARH

SEMINAR: A two-day seminar-cum-workshop on ‘ “Quality Higher Education” concluded at Guru Gobind Singh College for Women here on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Prof S.P. Gautam of the Department of Philosophy, Panjab University, said the main aim of education was to impart adequate knowledge and skills. The seminar was chaired by Mr Gurdev Singh Brar. The Principal of the college, Dr Harjinder Kaur, summarised the session.

HARYANA

AMBALA
12 ARRESTED: Nearly 12 passengers travelling without tickets were arrested by a team of railway officials headed by the Railway Magistrate on Friday. The officials checked the tickets of the Ambala-Saharnpur passengers near the Kesri railway station. The arrested passengers were handed over to the General Railway Police. 

DOWRY CASE: The police has registered a dowry case against in-laws of Amarjit Kaur, a resident of Ambala Cantonment. Amarjit Kaur alleged that her husband and the in-laws had been compelling her to bring more dowry. They manhandled her a number of times and threatened to kill her, she alleged. 

MAXI CAB UNION: A meeting of the maxi cab union was held here on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by Mr Narsingh Bidlan. The issue of confrontation between maxi cab drivers and roadways personnel at Kaithal was discussed. The union said the guilty persons should be punished. 

KISAN CARDS: Indian Bank, Boh branch, disbursed Kisan credit cards at a function here on Saturday. Mr S.R. Shivaswamy, General Manager, Head Office, Chennai, was the chief guest while Mr D.P. Singh, circle head, Chandigarh, presided over the function. Mr Mahesh Bajaj, Branch Manager, said more than 200 farmers from different villages participated in the function. In the Kisan Samaroh, Mr Shivaswamy gave 44 Kisan cards to farmers, two Kisan bikes, two rural housing loans and one consumer loan. 

CONCESSIONS: Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee deputy spokesperson Dr Pradeep Chauhan said on Saturday that the concessions were announced by the Finance Minister keeping in mind the forthcoming general elections. Dr Chauhan said: “After crushing the common man, particularly the service class in last four and a half years, the Vajpayee government has suddenly awakened to the problem of this section just because the election are near.” 

FATEHABAD
GRIEVANCE PANEL MEETING: Haryana and Rural Development Minister Dhirpal Singh on Friday presided over the meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee here. Member of Parliament Dr Sushil Indora, MLA from Tohana Assembly constituency Nishan Singh, Deputy Commissioner Mehtab Singh Sehrawat, ADC Nitin Kumar Yadav, City Magistrate Munish Nagpal, SDM Subhash Sheoran, SDM Tohana Satbir Singh Sani and other officers of the district and elected representatives of the panchayati raj organisations were present on the occasion. Six complaints were redressed on the spot.

YAMUNANAGAR
PAYMENT TO FARMERS: Saraswati Sugar Mills Yamunanagar has decided to disburse sugarcane payment from January 12 onwards. Mr Pankaj Malik, Deputy General Manager Saraswati Sugar Mills, informed here on Friday to make payment for the sugarcane supplied to the factory at the last year’s 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
ROAD SAFETY WEEK: In a joint campaign by the Transport Department, the Health Department and the Police checked 98 vehicles and 29 vehicles were fined Rs 28,450 on Friday. Eye sight of 100 drivers was tested for colour-blindness. Vehicles were checked for route-permits, insurance and pollution certificates. Declamation contests, debates and slogan-writing competitions were also organised.

TRUCK OPERATORS: The Himachal Pradesh State Truck Operators Federation has asked Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Authorities of this region to solve the problem of carriage of LPG gas Cylinders from their depot. at Mehat Pur IN Una district with the Truck Operators Union of Mehatpur.

CHAMBA
NON-GAZETTED STAFF: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Chamba district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Non-Gazetted Employees Federation (NGOs): President — Mr Satpal Thakur; Senior Vice-President — Mr Nand Lal, General Secretary — Mr Ajay Jaryal.

NAHAN
POLICE CLAIMS: Mr S.R. Sharma, Superintendent of Police, Sirmaur claimed here on Friday that crime in the district had decreased compared to last year’s.