R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
LANGAR: Associated Cement Company (ACC) distributed langar and offered 90,000 coloured calendars of the Golden Temple to devotees on the occasion of Parkash Utsav of Guru Granth Sahib here on Wednesday. A spokesman for the company said the ACC had earmarked Rs 10 lakh for this historic occasion.

Hoshiarpur
Case registered: On a complaint of Mr Balbir Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Dasuya, the police has registered a case under Sections 8 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC against Makhan Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, alias Babbal, and his father Karnail Singh on Tuesday. In his complaint the DSP alleged that the accused offered him a bribe of Rs 20,000 for a favour in a case registered against them.

DIED: Gulzar Singh, son of Balbir Singh of Ghasipur, was killed and Harpreet Singh of Neela Naloya was injured when a military vehicle hit their motor cycle on Tuesday. Harpreet Singh was admitted to the Civil Hospital.

ARRESTED: The Hazipur police arrested Joginder Singh, son of Tarsem Singh, Sewa Singh, son of Jit Singh, Darshan Singh, son of Rattan Singh, all of Dhade Katwal here, on Tuesday in a case registered against them under Sections 302, 148 and 149 of the IPC.

Ludhiana
TALK: A talk on the academic programme and vision of Claflin University, South Carolina, the USA, was delivered today by Dr Shingara Singh Sandhu at Pal Auditorium, PAU, today. He is the Director of research, grants and sponsored programmes at the university. Dr Sandhu said he was working on some kind of faculty exchange programmes between two universities. 

CONVENTION: As many as 86 delegates from India will attend the annual convention of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for peace and democracy, to be held from September 3 to 5 at Lahore in Pakistan. Mr N.S. Nanda, President, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Punjab and Dhan-Pothohar Brotherhood, who will represent Punjab, said the convention would be attended by artists, social workers, writers, students, academicians and professionals from various fields. 

Vedic week: A Vedic week began at the Arya Samaj Mandir in Model Town on Wednesday with Mr Satya Nand Munjal, chairman of the temple committee, welcoming Acharya Vivek Bhushan from Gujarat, a Vedic scholar. A havan yajna was performed after which students of Arya Model School sang hymns. In his opening sermon, Acharya explained that Vedas had been revealed by God with the purpose of guiding mankind as to how to make best use of the bounties of nature created for him.

Nawanshahr
Protest Rally: Students of Government College, Pojewal, under the aegis of the Students Federation of India (SFI) organised a protest rally and burnt the effigy of the Transport Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh Kaypee, 25 km from here, on Tuesday. They were protesting against the lathi charge on students at Mansa. Raman Bhatia, Harmohan Singh, president and secretary of the college unit of the SFI, and Narinder Kumar, Chattar Singh, Rajwinder Kaur, Paramjit Rouri and Rakesh Nayyar, state vice-presidents of the Democratic Youth Federation of India addressed the rally and demanded immediate action against the errant cops and transporters.

GUIDANCE WEEK: The district education and employment departments observed Guidance Week and organised seminars, with a view to creating awareness among the students of senior classes about various educational courses, self-employment ventures and loan facilities, etc, at Government Senior Secondary School, Jadla, Adarsh Bal Vidhyala Senior Secondary School, Nawanshahr, and Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Rahon, during the week. Mr Jatinder Kumar Sareen, District Employment Officer, Mr Balbir Singh, Employment Officer (Psychology), Jalandhar, Mr Dinesh Kumar, District Coordinator (Vocational Education), and Mr Sarwan Suman, District Guidance Counsellor, among others, delivered lectures on different topics.

ALLEGED: The District Arhtiya Association held a meeting under the presidentship of Mr Bakhtawar Singh here on Wednesday. The association urged the state government to clear the bills of sewing of gunny bags. The payments had been made to labourers by them, but the procurement agencies had not been reimbursing the bills, alleged the association.

PATIALA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Sri Guru Singh Sahba: President — Col Joginder Singh Sidhu; senior vice-president—Sarup Singh — Sehgal, vice-president— Baljinder Singh Bedi; and secretary — Premjit Singh.

VANAMAHOTSAVA: 5 Punjab Bn NCC carried out a plantation drive at Government Multipurpose Senior Secondary School. NCC cadets along with students of the school planted as many as 150 saplings. The NCC cadets under the aegis of Lt Col N. S. Sindhu, Commanding Officer, took pledge to say no to “poly bags” and to spread the message of “green revolution”.

CAMP: The Youth Clubs Association in association with the local Youth Welfare Department organised a blood donation camp at Sahibzada Ajit Singh Youth Hostel here on Thursday. As many as 100 persons donated blood on the occasion. ADC Shiv Dhullar Singh Dhillon was the chief guest. President of the club Surinder Ghumana, and director of Welfare Department Jeet Singh Buttar spoke on the occasion. The Deputy Manager of the State Bank of Patiala presided over the function.

Phagwara
body found: A badly decomposed nude body of a minor girl was found in a sugarcane field at Chiheru village on Thursday. Worms had eaten away portions of the mouth and eyes. The deceased seemed to be between 10 and 12 years old but the body was rotten beyond recognition.

ZIRAKPUR
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Residents Welfare Society, Saini Vihar, Phase V, Bartana: Mr Tilak Raj — president; Mr Amar Chand — vice-president; Mr Vijay Sharma — general secretary; Mr S.K. Garg — treasurer; organising secretary — Mr Lalit Verma; and Mr Satish Semwal — press secretary.

CHANDIGARH

EDUCATION FAIR: “New Zealand Education Fair 2004” will be coming to Chandigarh on September 7. Representatives from over 20 educational institutions across New Zealand will be present to answer queries of parents and students aspiring to go and study in New Zealand. In addition a series of informative seminars on business studies, engineering courses and student visas will be run simultaneously. According to Mr Peter Hobbs, Trade Commissioner to India, New Zealand offers students high quality, internationally recognised education at undergraduate levels.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BLOOD DONATION: A blood donation camp was organised by the Youth Congress in Ambala city on Thursday. It was inaugurated by the District Congress Committee Ambala Cantonment, Mr Ashok Jain. It was held at Philadelphia Hospital. The decision to hold the camp was taken by Youth Congress activists after four youth Congress activists had met with an accident near Panjokhra Sahib on the Naraingarh road a few days back. They are currently undergoing treatment.

PLANTATION: Vanamahotsava was celebrated at Arya Girls College, Ambala cantonment on Thursday. A rally was organised from the college premises to the residence of the Commissioner, Ambala Division. Dr Jyoti Chandra of the Go Green Brigade, Ms Neelam Inderjit of the Red Cross, Dr Shashi Dhamija, Ms Mamta Jain of the Women Cell, Dr Anupam Arya and Ms Ranju Trehan of the NSS participated, among others. The Principal said the Go Green Brigade endeavoured to spread the message of harmony towards nature.

PROTEST: A demonstration was held by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh at Ambala Cantonment on Thursday The demonstration was held to protest against the reduction in the Provident Fund interest rate. BMS activists said the Union Government had taken an undemocratic step which would have an adverse impact on the workers.

PLEA: Residents of Anand Nagar, Durgiana Nagar, New Paras Nagar and Boh Road on Thursday demanded that they should be separated from the Dalipgarh panchayat. The residents, in a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, claimed that their areas had been ignored by the panchayat. They said the colonies were set up about two decades back and the fund received from the government had not been used in their area. They said there was lack of development in their colonies.

Sonepat
SUICIDE: A youth, Mahavir, committed suicide by consuming poison in his house at Pehladpur Kiroli village, about 15 km from here, on Thursday. According to a report he was in the habit of taking liquor every day.

REMANDED: Sanjay, a gangster, was produced before the Duty Magistrate Ms Rajni Yadav, who remanded him in police custody for seven days for interrogation here on Thursday. A number of heinous crime cases were registered against him in various police stations of the district. A case of murder had also been registered against him in Baroda police station here on September 16, 1995.