R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
ELECTED: Mr V.K. Mehta has been elected Chairman of the Punjab chapter of the Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Adjusters. Informing this in a press release here on Wednesday, Mr Mehta said Mr U.P.S. Sachdeva (Ludhiana) had been nominated Vice-Chairman while Mr Swarandeep Singh (Ludhiana) had been elected secretary of the association.

HONOURED: Dr Harmohinder Singh Bedi, a senior professor in the Department of Hindi, Guru Nanak Dev University, was honoured with Sahitya Mahaupadeya (honoris causa) degree at Pune by the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad.

ANNUAL DAY: The district Red Cross Society-run deaf and dumb school held its annual day function in the school premises. Col S.P. Singh, Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare, was the chief guest. This was informed in a press release by the secretary, Red Cross Society here, on Wednesday.

URGED: Ms Laxmi Kanta Chawla, state vice-president, BJP, on Wednesday urged the state government to increase the salaries of Home Guards and SPOs. In a press release Ms Chawla said the government should make provision for this in the next budget to be presented in June.

Batala
CONVOCATION: The annual prize distribution-cum-convocation of the S.L. Bawa DAV College, Batala, will be held on Saturday on the college campus, according to the Principal, Mr V.K. Bhatia.

OFFICE BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearer of the Sahit Sabhyacharak Vikas Manch: president — Mr Dayal Singh Sandhu; vice-president — Mr Krishan Chand Kainth; general secretary — Mr Jaswant Hans; secretary — Mr Amar Singh Sidhu; and financial secretary — Mr Ajit Kamal.

Hoshiarpur
LIQUOR SEIZED: In its drive against anti-social elements the district police, the Sadar police, Hoshiarpur intercepted a car and recovered 1,71,000 ML of country-made foreign liquor on Wednesday. Ranvir Singh, alias Goldi, who was bringing the liquor from Chandigarh in the car escaped. Meanwhile the Mahilpur police raided the haveli of Kishori Lal at Binjon village and seized one working still there. A case has been registered against Sukhdip Singh alias Billu, Sham Lal and Kishori Lal of Binjon, Veeru and Joga Singh alias Jaggi in this connection.

ACCIDENT: Seven members of a family, including four children of Baddan village, were injured when their car rammed into a tractor near Vangal Shahidan on the Hoshiapur- Chandgiarh road on Wednesday. The injured were admitted to Civil Hospital here from where Komal (5) was referred to DMC, Ludhiana.

CASE REGISTERED: The Tanda police has registered a case under Section 409A of the ABCD Act against Sandeep Kumar, alias Sonu, and Suneel Dutt of Rode village for allegedly doing business in fake currency notes.

Jalandhar
DEMANDED: As many as 150 members of the District Bar Association, have rallied behind senior Congress leader Mr Balbir Singh and appealed to the Congress High Command to allot the party ticket to him in view of his contribution to the development of the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency. A statement issued by these 150 lawyers, said, “We, the members of the District Bar Association, Jalandhar, appeal to the Congress High Command to allow the ticket for the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency to Mr Balbir Singh, taking into consideration his contribution to the development of the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency.

LUDHIANA
Seminar: A seminar on ‘Managing yourself’ was organised for the staff of the Government Polytechnic for Women (GPW) and the Government Institute of Textile Chemistry and Knitting Technology on GPW premises here on Thursday. Over 60 members of the faculty attended the seminar. While welcoming the participants, Ms H.K. Toor, Principal of the GPW, highlighted the importance of managing oneself in today’s scenario. Dr M.A. Zahir, human resource development adviser in Trident Group and former Dean of the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Punjab Agricultural University, also spoke on the occasion. Dr Y.K. Anand and Dr Rakesh K. Wats of the National Institute of technical Teachers’ Training Institute and Research, Chandigarh, coordinated the programme.

Training camp: An animal welfare and agriculture-related camp was held at Sidhwan Bet, about 13 km from here. The Animal Husbandry Department, Punjab, and the Agriculture Department, Punjab, conducted the camp. About 142 animals were treated for various diseases. A seminar was also held to educate farmers. Dr Kanwal Sharma, Senior Veterinary Officer, Jagraon, inaugurated the camp. Dr Naresh, Dr Gurcharan Toor, Dr Gurmit Singh were experts of the Animal Husbandry Department. From the Agriculture Department, Dr Baldev Singh, Dr Davinder Singh, Dr Amanjeet and other officials addressed the farmers. 

Meeting: A meeting of the district-level review committee of Ludhiana was held here yesterday. It was presided over by Mr Sumer Singh Gurjar, ADC (Development), Ludhiana. Mr Gurpal S. Malik, AGM, Lead Bank, Ludhiana, Mr R.P. Jain, AGM, RBI, Mr Dev Raj, AGM, Nabarad, and officials from the government agencies participated in the meeting. Ludhiana district has achieved the targets and all government-sponsored schemes, it was said. Mr Sumer Singh Gurjar, ADC (D), advised the banks to lend more to the priority sector. Mr R.P. Jain, AGM, RBI, advised the banks to adhere to the government guidelines and dispose of all pending cases under the government-sponsored schemes. Mr Gurpal Singh Malik also addressed the meeting.

BSNL counter: Mr G.S. Julka, General Manager (Telecom), BSNL Ludhiana, launched an online cash counter at the Haibowal telephone exchange yesterday. Mr Julka said people could deposit their landline, mobile, WLL bills at their nearest cash counters, adding that ITC cards, sanchar net cards, excel pre-paid cards recharge coupons were also available at 52 cash counters.

Counselling: A three-day seminar for counselling of parents, students and teachers began at DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, here on Thursday. Dr Ashok Sahni, professor and honorary director of the Indian Society of Health Administrators (ISHA), Bangalore, highlighted the role of teachers in the present-day scenario. He said that teachers could go a long way in solving problems of the youth, developing human potential, character building and shaping their creativity.

SCHOOL FUNCTION: Guru Nanak International Public school, Model Town, organised a “graduation” ceremony for kids of upper kindergarten here on Thursday evening in the school premises. Ms Sheweta Verma, wife of Deputy Commissioner, presided over the ceremony. Gagandeep Singh bagged the prize for the best singer. Komal Kiran was declared the best orator in English. Satwantjit Kaur was awarded with the best artist prize.

BIRD CLUB: A group of keen bird watchers of the city have got together to form a Magpie Birding Club. The aim of the club will be to promote awareness about birds among the people and acquaint them with the role played by them in maintaining an ecological balance. The club will also organise lectures and educational tours for the students of various schools and colleges. 

WORLD THEATRE DAY: Art Theatre will present its comedy drama ‘Mirch masala’ on Friday in the open air theatre of Punjabi Bhavan. The play is being staged to mark the eve of the World Theatre Day. Mr Sumer Singh Gurjar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (development), will preside over the function. The play has been written by Jatinder Brar and directed by H.S. Randhawa in which amateur artists of Ludhiana like Rakesh Pathak, Raj Kumar, Raman Kumar, Premjit Kaur, Gauri Sood, Preeti, Rajjo and Amarjit Kaur will take part. Main role of veera ji will be played by Rajinder Jhande.

SELECTED: Randeep Kaur of BCom II year and Seema of BA III, two NSS volunteers of Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women, have been selected by the Youth Hostel Association of India to attend the International Youth Festival for Peace to be held at Seoul, Korea, from July 15 to 19. The students had been selected on the basis of national youth festival-2004 held at Tata Nagar, Jharkhand, by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The students had also participated in a national integration camp held in the college in December 2003.

Pathankot
Eye Camp: A three-day free eye operation camp concluded here on Thursday Mr Prem Kumar Mastana, chairman, Durga Jyoti Manav Kalyan Samiti said more than 1000 patients were examined and 187 cataract operations were performed by a team of eye specialists. Medicines, spectacles were distributed free of cost among the patients by the samiti.

Leased out: The district administration leased out all three “pattans” of Narot Jaimal Singh here on Wednesday. The administration has been able to fetch a revenue of Rs 1.90 lakh this year. Mr Amarjit Singh, Tehsildar, here conducted the bid proceedings in the presence of Mr Paramjit Singh, Block Development and Panchayat Officer and contractors.

MUDDY WATER: Residents of the Garden Colony area have complained of the supply of muddy drinking water for the past 15 days. Mr Baljit Singh president of the colony, alleged that the municipal authorities had failed to sort out the fault.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Chamba
BAN ORDERS: The Election Commission of India has ordered a ban on the carrying of firearms, ammunition and lethal weapons and weapons other than firearms during the Parliament elections. Giving this information here on Wednesday, the District Magistrate, Mr Rahul Anand, said these orders would remain in force till May 15.

Kangra
YOUTH ARRESTED: Mahesh Kumar, a resident of Donga Bazaar, was arrested by the police from his residence on Wednesday and 490 gm of charas was seized from him. A case under Section 20-61-85 of the Narcotics Act has been registered.

Solan
ARRESTED: Three youths from Jind district were arrested by the local police on the charge of attempt to robbery on Tuesday. The CIA staff of the local police found the activities of these youths in the town suspicious. The SP, Mr Abhishek Trivedi, said a police party which raided their room in a local hotel on the Mall Road, recovered two country-made loaded pistols of .315 and .12 bore along with 12 rounds of live cartridge from them.