R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
SEMINAR: A seminar on “Impact of Indo-Pak relations on Amritsar and Punjab” to be organised by the Amritsar Vikas Manch will be held on April 25. Prof Manjit Singh of Guru Ram Dass School of Planning, GND University, will be the main speaker. Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala, president and Mr Kulwant Singh Sufi, general secretary, AVM, gave this information here on Tuesday.

FUNERAL VAN: The Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Mission Society has offered a funeral van service at a nominal rate but free of charge for the poor. The van has been procured through a donation by Mr Gurmukh Singh Beora, Sajjan Saraswati Foundation, UK Mr Manjit Singh, chairman, in a press note said the society would charge nominally even for outstation carriage. Two such services are already being run by the Durgiana Management and Sewa Samiti.

Hoshiarpur
EXSERVICEMEN’S RALLY: Addressing a rally of exservicemen at Mahilpur, 24 km from here, on Wednesday Lt-Gen N S Malik (Retd) said the NDA Government had fulfilled various demands of exservicemen during its tenure whereas the Congress had done nothing for them during its rule. He said free medical treatment facility had been provided to dependents of exservicemen under the voluntary health scheme. Besides, the practice of cremation of martyrs with full state honours at their respective villages had been started. Mr Tikshan Sud, MLA, also addressed the rally.

LUDHIANA
NURSERY SCHOOL: Computer and library rooms, besides a room to inculcate values in children, have been added to Lovely Lotus Nursery School, BRS Nagar, which were opened for children here on Tuesday. One of the rooms includes pictures and posters on environment and nature studies, religions, good values, good habits and good manners. Ms Harpreet Kaur Gill, Principal, said the newly opened library and computer rooms had books worth Rs 1.3 lakh.

MEDICAL CAMP: The Guru Kripa Seva Mishan Charitable Trust held a free medical camp at Threeke village here on Tuesday. More than 16 patients were operated upon free of cost. Free medicines were provided to the patients. A team of doctors, including Dr Vikesh Sood, Dr Rajesh Arora and Dr Nisha Aggarwal, examined them.

convocation: The annual convocation of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) will be held at Dumra Auditorium here on April 23. Dr K.K. Talwar, Director, PGI, will deliver the convocation address. Degrees will be awarded to MBBS passouts of batches 1997 and 1998, according to Dr Daljit Singh, Principal, DMCH.

COMPLAINT: Principals of local colleges have lodged a complaint with Panjab University Chandigarh, over the anomalies in financial accounting question paper of BCom-I examination, which was held on Monday. The principals alleged that a question in section B of the paper was not taught, while another question in section C mentioned four partners but in the numerical order it had only three. Students who appeared in the examination alleged that some of the questions were outside the syllabus. The principals have sought grace marks for the anomaly.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among residents of Rajguru Nagar Colony over the failure of the authorities of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust to take action against some residents of New Rajguru Nagar for allegedly having connected their houses with the main sewerage and official water supply of the improvement trust. The residents alleged that the connections of sewerage and water were made on Saturday night. The Raj Guru Nagar Welfare Society had lodged a complaint with the Ludhiana Improvement Trust on April 16, but no action had been taken. The residents plan to hold a dharna if the trust authorities did not take immediate action in the matter.

Mandi Ahmedgarh
ELECTED: Mr Gurmeet Singh Chandhar, chief organiser the SCBC Teachers Union, Punjab, informed that Mr Malagar Singh of Patiala and Mr Parminder Singh of Gurdaspur were elected state president and general secretary, respectively. The other office-bearers of the state body included Narinder Singh of Sangrur (senior vice-president), Megha Ram Hans (vice-president) Sohan Lal Sidhu (secretary), Gajjan Singh Moon (press secretary), Atam Singh (finance secretary), Chet Ram (assistant finance secretary) and Darshan Singh (organising secretary).

Patiala
ELECTED: Dr D.C. Bansal, Dr Shashi Pandhi, Dr Girish Sahni, Dr D.S. Bhullar have been elected president, general secretary, finance secretary and secretary Public Relations respectively, of the local unit of Indian Medical Association. Dr Gurpreet Singh and Dr Vishal Chopra have been elected joint secretaries.

Office-bearers: Following have been elected office-bearers of the Dashwesh Nagar Joint Welfare Association : Gulzar Singh-president; Mr B.P. Sharma-vice president; Mr A.K. Basra-general secretary; Mr Balbir Singh-cashier; Mr Jagjit Singh-press secretary; Mr R.P. Lomesh-legal adviser; Mr C.L. Goel-auditor and Mr Alok Dewan-secretary.

Spareparts body: The following have been elected office bearers of the local Spareparts Dealers Association: Mr M.L. Nohria-patron; Mr Ashwani Kumar-president; Mr Gurminder Walia-general secretary; Mr Khem Chand Mittal-senior vice president; Mr Tejinder Singh, Mr Rajinder Singh, Mr Arjan Singh-vice presidents; Mr Lalit Kumar-secretary; Mr Amarjeet Singh-joint secretary; Mr Rajesh Singla-cashier; Malkiat Singh and Mr Partap Singh-advisors.

Invited: Dr Yadvinder Singh, Lecturer, Department of Geography, Punjabi University, Patiala, has been invited by the Secretariat of IGC-UK 2004 to present his paper, “Urbanisation in India: growth of slums and related environmental problems in Ludhiana — an industrial city of North West India”, at the 30th Congress of the International Geographical Union, to be held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, from August 15 to 20.

Tarn Taran
Revolver stolen: A .32 bore revolver along with cartridges besides gold ornaments belonging to Mr Kabal Singh, a Head Constable posted at the local city police station, have been stolen and the local police station has registered a case under Section 457, 379, IPC. Police sources told this correspondent on Tuesday that Mr Kabal Singh in his complaint said besides his revolver, his kara, gold chain and tops had also been stolen.

CHANDIGARH

Shobha yatra: A shobha yatra was taken out from Parsuram Bhavan in Sector 37-C in connection with Parsuram Jayanti on Wednesday by Sri Brahman Sabha. Bhandara will also be organised. According to the sources, havan, sunder kandpath and sankirtan will be held on April 22 from 8 am onwards. Discourse on the life of Bhagvan Parsuram will be delivered by Dr D.P. Maini.

Aao bune contest: About 280 students from 19 schools in the Panchkula zone participated in zonal round of “Aao bune knitting contest” at Satluj Public Senior Secondary school. It was organised by Vardhman spinning and general mills limited. Students from classes VI to XI competed in five categories. During the contest, they knitted beautiful patterns, caps, booties and miniatures purses, besides bags with colourful yarn. As many as 10 best patterns from each category have been short-listed for the final evaluation phase. The top three selected entries in each category shall be awarded with cash prize of Rs 5100, Rs 3100 and Rs 2100 for first, second and third prize, respectively.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
SUPPORT FOR CONG: The Indian National Trade Union Congress will extend support to the Congress in Himachal Pradesh in all the four parliamentary seats. This was announced here on Tuesday by INTUC state president Kanta Sood who was also accompanied by top state INTUC leaders.

BAN ORDER: The District Magistrate-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Mr Subhashsheesh panda, has banned with immediate effect the carrying of all types of arms, ammunition, and explosives in the district due to the Lok Sabha elections till May 14. He also said that a complaints cell headed by the Additional District Magistrate had become functional here.

Nurpur
HP GOVT FLAYED: The Virbhadra Singh Government has failed to provide justice to women and has politicised the Women’s Commission which is a constitutional body. This was alleged by Ms Malvika Pathania, former chairperson of the Women’s Commission in a statement here on Wednesday. She took exception to the appointment of a Congress activist as head of the commission.

BMS PROTEST: Members of the Kangra unit of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) led by district president Madan Rana on Tuesday held a protest demonstration outside the office of the Divisional Forest Office against the retrenchment of daily wage workers of Nurpur, Jawali and Ray forest ranges. The irate members raised slogans against the Forest Minister, Mr Chander Kumar, for his indifferent attitude towards daily wage earners of the Forest Department. The daily wage earners were retrenched in January this year. Later, the BMS leaders were assured by the Forest Department officials that they would be reinstated .

Shimla
DIES IN MISHAP: One person was killed and another injured when the motor-cycle they were riding fell into a ditch near Pandoh in Mandi district on Tuesday. A police report here identified the victim as Mr Jai Gupta, while the injured who is admitted to a hospital in Mandi could not be identified. In another incident, one person was killed and another injured after a fall from a tree in Gumarvin village in Bilaspur district.

Sundernagar
LIQUOR SEIZED: The Sundernagar police recovered 90 litres of liquor in a raid conducted at Slapper village on Tuesday. Mr Ravinder Kumar, a resident of the village, has been arrested and a case has been registered under the Punjab Excise Act. According to DSP K C Rana, who headed the team, the police acted promptly on secret information and raided the premises at night.