Man kills three, self over illicit relations
Bathinda, July 19
Enraged over his relatives’ objection to his illicit relationship with a woman, a resident of Bangi Rughu village last evening shot three persons, including two of his nephews dead and seriously injured a woman before reportedly committing suicide.

Panorama on Ranjit Singh to be handed over today Amritsar, July 19 The Punjab Government would virtually launch its election campaign from this Holy City by handing over the Rs 5-crore Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama to the Municipal Corporation, apart from laying foundation stone of a Rs 173-crore elevated road here tomorrow. A view of the panorama depicting the capture of Multan Fort, at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama in Amritsar. — Photo by Rajiv Sharma

NRI, son killed in mishap
Rajpura, July 19
The home-coming trip for an NRI couple residing in the USA ended in a disaster in the wee hours today.

Refined way of corruption by cops
Moga, July 19
Some policemen here have allegedly discovered a refined way of corruption. They book a person under a criminal case and ask that person to engage a particular lawyer who gets a hefty amount for representing him in the court and the policemen receive their commission from the lawyer.

COMMUNITY

Preneet’s help sought on UT-Rajpura rail link 
Chandigarh, July 19
The Member of Parliament from Patiala, Mrs Preneet Kaur, has been urged to take up the issue of linking Chandigarh to Rajpura through the rail route. Bhai Ashok Singh Bagarian, an eminent social activist and Sikh intellectual, has written a letter in this connection to Mrs Preneet Kaur.

Revive PDS in villages: BSP
Chandigarh, June 19
The Bahujan Samaj Party has urged the Punjab Government to immediately revive the public distribution system (PDS) in the rural areas to bring relief to Dalits, poor farmers and other marginalised sections of society.

Minister's effigy burnt
Phillaur, July 19
Hundreds of the residents of Nakodar led by the Bahujan Samaj Party state general general secretary, Mr MP Singh Goraya, sat on a dharna before Nakodar Nagar Council office, blocked vehicular traffic and burnt the effigy of Punjab Revenue Minister Amarjit Singh Samra in protest against his and the nagar council's inability to provide them potable water, which had resulted in the spread of gastroenteritis in Nakodar.

Storm water sewers sought
Patiala, July 19
The Urban Estate Phase 2 Residents Welfare Association has urged the PUDA authorities to look into the issues of lack of storm water sewers and throwing garbage.

Libra apprised of progress of schemes
Fatehgarh Sahib, July 19
To review the progress of various Centre sponsored schemes initiated in the district, a meeting of the Vigilance Monitoring Committee was held under the chairmanship of Mr Sukhdev Singh Libra, MP, here yesterday.

MLAs asked to explain absence
Chandigarh, July 19
The Punjab Congress has asked eight of its MLAs to explain why they did not attend a crucial meeting with Mr Janardhan Dwivedi, in charge of the party’s Punjab affairs, on Saturday.

AGRICULTURE

Farmers’ loans: officials to meet on July 25
Chandigarh, July 19
A team of senior officers led by the Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, will hold a meeting on July 25 in Delhi with Union Government officials with regard to loans advanced by nationalised banks to farmers in the state. Sources said the Secretary (Banks) of the Union Government would also attend the meeting.

New Bt cotton seeds enthuse farmers
Amritsar, July 19
With the introduction of new Bt cotton seeds which are resistant to the American Bollworm disease, farmers of the Valtoha block of Amritsar district have shown keen interest in the cash crop once again.

ADMINISTRATION

Ban on transfers
Chandigarh, July 19
The Punjab Government has imposed a complete ban on transfers in the School Education Department with immediate effect.

CRIME

Heroin worth Rs 35 cr seized
Ludhiana, July 19
A team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) today seized 35 kg of heroin worth Rs 35 crore in the market from a truck that was allegedly taking the booty from Amritsar to Delhi.

Man killed by brothers
Tarn Taran, July 19
Nishan Singh (28) of Sheron village was murdered by his two brothers last evening over a minor issue. The Sadar police has registered a case under Sections 302 and 34, IPC, against the accused.

Son held for farmer’s murder
Batala, July 19
Murder of Dhir Singh, a farmer of Mann Sand Wal village, has been solved by the Batala police and his son and daughter-in-law have been arrested .

Minister’s securitymen beat up 2 old women
Ropar, July 19
Security personnel of the state Minister of Social Security and Development of Women and Children, Mrs Gurkanwal Kaur, allegedly thrashed two old women on the Ropar-Nawanshahr road near Jamitgarh Bhalla village here today.

Travel agents dupe man of Rs 3 lakh
Hoshiarpur, July 19
A case of duping an innocent person of Rs 3 lakh by travel agents was reported at Hariana police station last evening.

Teenaged gangraped
Hoshiarpur, July 19
A case of gangrape of a teenaged girl of Nasran village was reported at Mahilpur police station last evening.

3 injured in truck-car collision
Batala, July 19
Three persons were injured in a head-on collision between a truck and a car near Sheikhupur police chowki on the Batala-Amritsar road here today.

3 killed in road accidents
Rajpura, July 19
As many as three persons were killed in separate road accidents near here since Monday night.

EDUCATION

Shortage of lecturers hits science students
Sangrur, July 19
With the cancellation of deputation of some science lecturers and shortage of science lecturers in various government senior secondary schools in Sangrur district, students have been suffering.

Funds cleared for medical colleges
Chandigarh, July 19
The Punjab Government today released Rs 22.86 crore for infrastructure development in Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot and Dental College, Patiala, for the year 2006-07.

Denied certificate, student blames Tehsildar’s office
Chandigarh, July 19
Sector 49 resident Shrutika Sahni has alleged that functionaries of the Tehsildar’s office in Ludhiana refused to follow the new directives of the Punjab Government on the issue of residence certificates, as a consequence of which she was unable to appear for counselling for admission to engineering colleges.

Electronics seats filled
Ropar, July 19
All seats of mechanical, electronics and communication, information technology and computer science engineering under the management and the university quota have been filled at the IET, Bhaddal.

Schools seek exemption from road tax
Ropar, July 19
The Punjab unit of Independent Schools Federation of India yesterday urged the Chief Minister that private schools may be exempted from road tax levied on the buses which are used for ferrying students only. The Haryana Government has already exempted road tax on school buses.