R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
DIED: Rajni (18), who had been admitted to the Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital here on June 18 succumbed to her burns on Monday evening, sources said. A daily-wage earner’s daughter, Rajni, had been burnt to the extent of 80 per cent while cooking food at her residence in a slum area.

SUICIDE BID: A married woman tried to commit suicide at Kerakhera village, near here, by consuming insecticide on facing humiliation due to sexual exploitation at the hands of three persons on Monday. The woman told the police at Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital here that three residents of the same village forced their entry into her house in broad daylight when other members of her family had gone to the fields. They allegedly bolted the door from inside and tried to rape her. Someone came and forced the miscreants to run away. She felt so humiliated that she thought of ending life by consuming insecticide.

Amritsar
‘PRAYAS’: The Amritsar Institute for Childhood Disability under the tutelage of Shri Jagan Nath Welfare Trust has started ‘Prayas’, an NGO, to make the children born with disability due to cerebral palsy independent. Mr Vijay Kumar Chopra, Chairman, Hind Samachar Group of Newspapers, inaugurated the institute on Monday. Mr Arun Khanna, founder-member of the institute, said the institute’s main aim was to serve the children afflicted with cerebral palsy. Mr Khanna said Dr Mansoor Alam and Dr Dureja of the Institute for Childhood Disability, Delhi, would provide service to the institute free of cost.

INJURED: Mr Karamchand Sharma, general secretary of the Amritsar Newspaper Hawkers Union, was injured when his bicycle was hit by a car on the Majitha Road bypass on Monday.

Barnala
ASSOCIATION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Parent- Teacher Association, Government High School, Sanghera: president — Mr Pritam Singh Toni; vice-president — Ms Jasbir Kaur; and secretary — Mr Nikka Singh.

Batala
RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among telephone subscribers of the Railway Road, Barrian Mohalla and Tibba Bazaar against the failure of the telecom authorities to restore their phones which have not been functioning for the past five days.

Hoshiarpur
WORKSHOP: To educate students of Multipurpose Health Workers (Female) Training School about the significance of mother’s milk, a workshop was organised by the Health and Family Welfare Department, here on Monday under the presidentship of Dr Manjit Kaur, Civil Surgeon, Hoshiarpur.

JAGRAON
Block elections: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Indian Ex-services League Punjab and Chandigarh, (Raikot block): president — Hav Sadhu Singh; senior vice-president — Hav Bhupinder Singh Bassian; vice-prsidents — Sub Chanansingh Daudhar, and Hav Jagir Singh Jalaldiwal; and general secretary — Sub Balbinder Singh.

House burgled: A house has been burgled in Shastri Nagar. According to information, some persons broke open the lock of the house of Bhushon Lal nobody was present in the house. Gold ornaments and a mobile set has been stolen. The police has registered a case under Sections 454 and 380, IPC. No arrest has been made so far.

Scooter stolen: Ranbir Singh Kala of Latala is alleged to have stolen a scooter belonging Surinder Kumar of Raikot. The Raikot police has registered a case under Section 379, IPC. 

LUDHIANA
BKU dharna: The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) would hold a protest dharna here on Tuesday to press for acceptance of pending demands of farmers in the wake of WTO regime and globalisation. More than 10,000 farmers from the district were expected to participate in response to a call given by the ‘global farmers movement’ said the acting president of BKU, Mr Manjit Singh Kadian and the general secretary, Mr Sharanjit Singh Mehlon. The demands included concessions and subsidies for the Indian farmers at par with those in developed countries, clearing of all old debts standing against farmers, rate of interest for fresh loans be reduced to 4 per cent, all funds generated through Punjab Mandi Board be utilised for rural development and creation of infrastructure in farm procurement centres, repair and renovation of rural government schools be undertaken and the farmers be issued pass books to avoid exploitation by commission agents.

MEETING: A meeting of the Youth Congress Legal cell held was here on Tuesday under the presidentship of its state president, Mr Harpreet Singh Tinku, at the Civil Rest House in which Mr Shiv Kumar Kalyan, district chairman (Rural), Harjasdeep Singh ( Rana) district president (City) , Maniderpal Singh, tehsil president, Samrala, Amrit Verma, tehsil president Khanna and other office-bearers also participated.

workshop: A mathematics workshop was organised in B.V.M. School on Tuesday in collaboration with Aloha learning centre here. Ms Anuradha Ganesh, the master trainer of Aloha India gave a first lesson to students about Aloha.

Bus fare hike:The Marxist Communist Party of India (MCPI) has condemned 10 per cent hike in bus fares in Punjab. The move was aimed solely at benefitting the transporters’ lobby said the state secretary of the party, Mr Kuldip Singh here on Tuesday. The MCPI has also decried the cabinet decision for setting up a private university for vocational and technical education.

BEREAVED: Teenaged daughter of Mr Manjit Singh Khalsa, a journalist with the Punjabi Tribune, was cremated at Gaushala cremation grounds here on Tuesday. The 16-year-old girl Harpreet Kaur, had died in a road accident on Monday. 

MANDI GOBINDGARH
Demand: Compulsory collection of Rs 10 per student from government schools through the district Red Cross Fund to celebrate Teej festival at district level, should be stopped, said Mr Vinod Mittal and Mr Baljeet Singh Annian president and vice-president, Anti-corruption Federation of India (Block Unit) in a joint statement here on Tuesday. They said that poor students study in government school, while students of private schools who can afford to pay, have been left-out from this collection. This collection may encourage dropout rate, as many government school students do not even have shoes which are provided to them by NGOs. Also as the collection coupons have been issued to schools as per number of students, in some cases, the teachers have to pay from their own pockets for the unsold tickets.

Nawanshahr
DHARNA: The district unit of Lok Jan Shakti Party organised a dharna here on Monday in protest against corruption, unemployment, rise in prices of essential commodities and the policy of privatisation. Mr Amar Singh Mehmi, Mr Nasib Chand Laroya, state president and secretary, respectively, of the Lok Jan Shakti Party, Mr Harjinder Singh, state president of the youth wing of the party, Mr Nanak Dass, Mr Maggar Singh, Mr Ashwani Kumar Mahey, presidents, respectively, of the Nawanshahr, Ropar and Jalandhar district units also addressed  the dharna.

Pathankot
US award: Dr Navdeep Kaur Bajwa, a local resident, has been selected for prestigious “Ribbon award” by the USA. The Ribbon awards are given to the top 5 per cent of manuscripts as selected by the organisers of the each. Dr Bajwa was earlier working as senior research fellow in the Department of physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Patiala
Tree plantation: Blossoms School celebrated the tree plantation day here. Students planted saplings on the school campus. 

“Save environment drive”: Various social organisations of the ward No 50 planted saplings, to mark the “save environment” drive here on Tuesday. Fifty senior citizens of the ward, who planted the saplings pledged to take care of these plants for at least five years so that their benefits could be enjoyed by the future generations. Councillor Naresh Duggal, said saplings of indigenous species were planted so that health of the people could be taken care of. Mr Anil Bharati asked the residents to plant at least one sapling on their birthday.

Environment day: The Golden Youth Club, in collaboration with the State Bank of Patiala, celebrated the environment day in the Government Ayurvedic Pharmacy on Tuesday. The club president said to control the pollution, the club would plant 10,000 saplings this year. The chief guest, Mr K.S Sandhu, Additional General Manager, State Bank of Patiala, emphasised the need for the collective efforts by education, social and political organisations to save the enviornment. Mr Malwinder Singh, member, Punjab Pollution Control Board, said the environment could only be saved by planting more trees.

Honoured: The India International Friendship Society has selected Dr Saroj Rani, Head, Department of Fine Arts, Punjabi University, Patiala, for the Vijay Shree award. The award ceremony is to be held in Delhi on September 2 where a Certificate of Excellence will be presented to her. Dr Saroj Rani was a member of the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademy. She is the founder member of the Fine Arts Department of Punjabi University and also member of various academic bodies of other universities.

ENTRANCE TEST: Punjabi University has extended the last date for submitting forms for the B.Ed entrance test to be conducted by the Department of Correspondence Courses for in-service teachers on August 21. According to a press note, the forms can be submitted with the late fee of Rs 1,000 till August 10; with the late fee Rs 1,500 till August 15 and with late fee of Rs 4,000 the last date is August 18. 

OFFICE-BEARERS: Mr Sanjeev Kumar Goyal has been re-elected president of the Patiala Rice Millers Association for the third consecutive year. Other office-bearers are: chairman — Madan Sophat; patron — Pawan Kumar Singla; vice-presidents — Mr Tarsem Gupta, Ramesh Gupta and Mr Anil Goyal; general secretary — Mr Dilbag Singh and Mr Jaswinder Singh Rana; cashier — Mr Subash Gupta.

DHARNA POSTPONED: The Punjabi University Karamchari Sangh (Non-teaching) has postponed its proposed dharna after the Vice-Chancellor its demand to release DA with immediate effect. According to a press note, the decision was taken when a high-level meeting of the university authorities accepted some demands, including the release of DA and gave assurance on other demands. 

DOCTORS MEETING: More than 100 doctors gathered in the local Government Medical College for a general body meeting for pressing their long pending demands. On the occasion, Dr D.C Sharma, general secretary, PCMS Association, urged the state government to raise the ceiling on the pay of the doctors on the pattern of the Centre.

ENVIRONMENT CAMP: The Basant Ritu Youth Club, Tripuri, in collaboration with the Gurdwara Parbandhak Committe of Rabhirpura village, organised a camp to create awareness regarding the enviornment. The club president, Mr Rajesh Sharma, said they had chalked out plan to plant saplings in other villages of the district. He said the club had already planted 600 saplings in the village.

ASSURANCE: The Municipal Workers Union (MWU) said the administration had assured it that workers, who had worked for more than 240 days, would be regularised. Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Patiala, made these assurances at a meeting held here on Tuesday with various worker unions, according a press note of the union.

Phagwara
CHALLANS: The police challaned 394 vehicles in July for various traffic violations. This was disclosed here by the Phagwara traffic police in charge Sucha Singh. A total fine of Rs 12,52,657 was realised during the recent months, he claimed.

DEMONSTRATION: Activists of the Kapurthala unit of the General Categories Welfare Federation, Punjab, held a demonstration in front of the office of the local SDM in protest against the Punjab Government’s move to implement the 85th Constitutional Amendment. Federation leaders Nirmal Singh, Amarjit Singh, Narinder Sharma and VK Malhotra addressed the demonstrators.

FRAUD: The local police has arrested three persons for defrauding the public by selling old lottery tickets and playing dara satta (gambling). The police also recovered Rs 1370 in cash and a large number of slips used for it on Sunday. The arrested were identified as Gurpreet of Maalgodam Road, Rajinder Kumar of Harkishan Nagar and Rudr Kumar of Sachchran Mohalla. A case had been registered against them.

Phillaur
Development projects: The Punjab Government has initiated different projects valued at Rs 1,100 crore, with the help of the World Bank in the state. Stating this former Punjab Social Welfare Minister Santokh Singh told newsmen here on Tuesday that the state government would construct 22 railway bridges and 18 roads measuring 1,000 km at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The government would repair 17,000 km of rural roads. He said the government had set up a special “social security fund” of Rs 450 crore for different welfare schemes for members of the poor sections.

RAIKOT
Homoeopaths: Dr Paramjit Singh Ranu, who has been inducted into the Central Council of Homoeopathic Medicine has claimed that his election would serve a milestone in the development of the homoeopathic system of medicine in the state. He would now be in a better position to speak for homoeopaths.

SAMRALA
BOOK RELEASE: The Punjabi Lakhak Manch Samrala would release a short story book ‘ Ghaur Sawar,’ written by Dr Gulsar Mohamad Goria, general secretary of the manch on August 7 at the local Government Senior Secondary School, according to Prof Baldeep, president of the manch. The programme would be presided over by Dr Jaswinder Singh of Punjabi University, Patiala. Two introductory papers would be presented by Prof Hamdardvir Mausheharvi and Prof Rakesh Raman, Mr Baldeep added. Writers, including Gurdial Dalal, Dr Surjit Singh, Dr Gurmit Kalarmajri Dr Gulsar Pandher, Avtar Singh Billing, Surinder Rampuri and Harbans Machhiwara would also speak.

protest: Teachers protested before the treasury office, Samrala, here on Tuesday. They are demanding their unpaid salary for the past three months. Mrs Sukhwant Kaur Treasury Officer, assured the demonstrators for justice. Demonstrators, under the aegis of the action committee, submitted a memorandum to the local Naib Tehsildar, Mr Sucha Singh. Mr Dalip Singh, president of Block 2, Mr Kulwant Tark , president of DTC, Bakshi Ram, Daljit Singh, Sohan Singh, Jagjit Singh addressed the teachers.

HARYANA

Ambala
MILK TESTING CAMP: A free milk-testing camp will be organised at Ambala Sadar on Wednesday. The camp is being held at Naveen Scientific Industries, near BD High School, Ambala Cantt. The camp will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 noon in collaboration with Vita Milk Plant, Ambala. Any person who wants to get the quality of milk tested needs to bring 100 ml of milk, a press note said. 

Jhajjar
GRANT: The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Jhajjar, has received a grant of Rs 4.94 crore for providing employment to unemployed youth in the rural areas. The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Suprabha Dahiya, told reporters here on Monday that apart from it, about 5459 metric tonnes of grant would also be allotted for the purpose for the current financial year.

Kaithal
BLOOD DONATION: Nearly 50 persons donated blood at a camp organised by the District Red Cross Society here on Monday. Mr B.S. Malik, Deputy Commissioner, inaugurated it. He informed that this was the 10th blood donation camp organised by the society during the current year.

ARRESTED: The district police arrested eight gamblers during raids conducted on Sunday and recovered Rs 41,580 from them. Giving this information here, the SP, Mr M.S. Sheoran, said these persons were arrested from near the local Truck Union. They were identified as Ashok Kumar and Krishan Lal of Model Town, Umesh Kumar, Krishan Nagar, Jeewan Parkash and Lalit Mohan of Govind Nagar and Ghan Sham Dass and Krishan lal of Subji Mandi.

Rewari
POOR ADMISSIONS: Enrolment of only seven students in mathematics and two students in economics in BA (I) in the current academic session in Government College, Nahar, 30 km from here, has put the students in such a predicament as would now lead to the discontinuance of the classes in these two subjects as per the norms prescribed by the Directorate of Higher Education, Haryana. The Principal, Mr J.P. Yadav, said although, at their request, the Directorate had recently lowered the norms to 25 students in each subject, yet it was unfortunate that they failed to muster the requisite enrolment in the two subjects.

THEFT: Thieves assaulted salesman Suresh Kumar and then broke into the closet of a liquor vend at National Highway No. 8, near Kharkhara village, 12 km from here, in the wee hours on Saturday. They decamped with cash as well as 15 cartons of liquor. The Dharuhera police has registered a case under sections 458 and 380 of the IPC.

DOWRY CASE: Following a directive issued under section 156(3) of the Cr PC by the Chief Judicial Magistrate on a petition filed by a young woman, Anamika Sharma, daughter of Mr Jeewan Dass Sharma of Anand Nagar here, the Rewari police has registered a case of harassment for dowry, a criminal breach of the trust, adultery and criminal intimidation under Sections 498-A, 406, 497, 506 and 34 of the IPC against Vinod Sharma (husband), Jai Dev Sharma (father-in-law) Salochana Devi (mother-in-law), Vikram Sharma (brother-in-law) and Raj Rani (sister-in-law), all residents of Model Town Colony of Kaithal.

Sonepat
POWER SHORTAGE: Hundreds of residents of five villages — Janti Kalan, Janti Khurd, Dahesra, Shershah and Khatkar — held a demonstration in front of the power substation at Kundli village, about 25 km from here, on Tuesday and raised slogans against the state government and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN). The angry residents reached the power substation on their tractor-trailers and staged a protest demonstration. The UHBVN officials assured the residents of regular power supply in future.

SURPRISE RAID: The Civil Surgeon, Dr D.K. Sharma, conducted a surprise raid on the Community Health Centre and found it locked at Bad Khalsa village, about 15 km from here, on Monday evening. The Civil Surgeon summoned Dr Rajinder Prasad, Senior Medical Officer of the health centre, and directed him to take action against the erring staff. The action followed numerous complaints about the locking of the Community Health Centre and the absence of the staff there.

FATAL FALL: An aged woman fell from the roof of the house in darkness at Hanuman Nagar here on Monday night and died on the spot. The deceased was identified as Sumo Devi (60). She woke up around 1 am and proceeded towards the toilet but on account of darkness she fell from the roof and died on the spot. 

Yamunanagar
MID-DAY MEAL: Children of Government Primary School at Panjupura village here had to do without the mid-day meal on Monday as groceries were stolen two days ago. The children had not got the meal on Saturday also. As per information, the head teacher of the school, Ms Dhaneshwari, reported that groceries in a room of the school had been stolen.