The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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PUNJAB

ABOHAR
Petroleum dealers: The petroleum dealers of Abohar, Fazilka and Jalalabad sub-divisions were provided with a common platform with the formation of the Abohar District Petroleum Dealers’ Association on Monday. Earlier, president of the Punjab Petroleum Dealers’ Association J.P. Khanna, had approved the bifurcation of the Ferozepur district unit, keeping in view the problems being faced due to the size of the district. Inder Dev was elected as president, Sudesh Dhuria as vice-president, Krishan Kamra as general secretary, Dinesh Modi as joint secretary and Sanjeev Bhadoo as cashier of the association.

Free eye camp: Dr Satish Nagpal of Hanumangarh conducted 21 operations with the FOCO system during a day-long free eye camp organised by the Rotary Club, Abohar Midtown, at Dr Chhabra’s hospital here on Sunday, president of the club R.L. Narang informed on Monday. A team of Rotarians, including N.K. Kalra, Manish Narang, Kanshi Ram, A.R. Talwar, Ramesh Sidana, Sushil Miglani, Vipan Jagga, Satinder Setia, Vinod Setia and B.L. Sikka, assisted the visitors.

Office-bearers take oath: Raj Kumar Garg, Sanjay Chhabra and Vipan Gupta were administered the oath of office as president, secretary and cashier respectively of the Bharat Vikas Parishad’s Sardar Patel branch by Sandeep Watts, representative of the state body, during a function held at the Arorvansh Bhawan here on Sunday.

Rally against privatisation: The joint front of about a dozen trade unions organised a rally at the Nehru Park here to denounce the government for pursuing the privatisation policies in the fields of education, health, roads, water and electricity. Convener of the front Balwinder Singh along with Puran Ram Raipura, Harnam Singh Dalmirkhera, Ram Kumar Verma and Ram Bilas of the Mill Majdoor Colony were among those who criticised the state and the central government for falling for the charm of the MNCs.

BATHINDA
Student excels in PMT: Vivek Sharma, a student of Harbhajan Institute here, has secured 134th rank in the PMT examination held by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE). Hailing from Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh, Vivek was taking coaching at the institute for two years now. He gave credit to the faculty of the institute, who helped him in achieving the feat. Besides Vivek, over 20 students of this institute, including Nipun Bansal, Sahil Yakhmi, Ravinder Singh Gill, Harsumit Singh and Suhid Khokhar, have been placed below the rank of 1000 in the examination. Director of the institute Harbhajan Singh and Prof. Jaydeep Syal have congratulated the meritorious students and their parents.

Dalit Sena flays Badal: District president of the Dalit Sena and the chairman of the Lok Janshakti Party, Kiranjit Singh Gehri, in a press release issued here on Monday, criticised the Punjab Police for acting at the behest of the Badal-led state government while referring to the cases registered against the Dalit activists for violation of section 144 of the IPC. He accused the state government of being anti-Dalit and said by acting so, the government would not be successful in gagging the Dalits.

FAZILKA
Electrocuted: Satnam Singh (42), a labourer working in Hauz Khas village of this sub-division, was electrocuted while he was helping in erecting a pole. According to Narinder Singh, son of the deceased, his father along with others were working in the fields of Angrej Singh for erecting the Punjab State Electricity Board poles when a pole touched the live 11 KV wires resulting in his electrocution. He died on the spot.

FEROZEPUR
One injured in road mishap: One person identified as Gurmit Singh was injured in a road accident at Mohamand Khan Niazian village on Sunday. The accident took place at around 6 pm when Gurmeet’s car collided with a tractor-trailer. Gurmit Singh was admitted to the civil hospital. The driver of the tractor-trailer ran away after the accident. An FIR number 81, dated June 8, under sections 279/337/338/427/ of the IPC had been registered against unknown persons at the Mamdot police station.

Six booked for assaulting: The Guruharsahai police has registered a case against six persons, including two women, under the IPC allegedly for thrashing one Vinod Kumar, a resident of Jeewan Arian village (Guruharsahai). Vinod informed that during panchayat election, he had a dispute with some persons. Some days back, Satnam Singh, Balwinder Singh, Surjit Singh, Amrik Singh and Kako Bhai, residents of Jeewan Arian, came to his residence and exchanged heated words with him. He was injured following the altercation.

Jalandhar
Biker crushed: A 50-year-old motorcyclist was crushed to death under a truck at the railway crossing number C 61 near Maqsoodan here today. According to GRP sources, Gurmail Singh of Lamba Pind village died after being crushed under the truck at the railway crossing when he was trying to overtake it. The truck driver fled from the spot. A case has been registered.

Kapurthala
Two held
District police nabbed two accused Madan Chopra and his brother Manoj Chopra who were wanted in several cases, including attempt to murder. A country made pistol and two sharp-edged weapons were also recovered from their possession.

Ludhiana
Consumer offer: Samsung India launched a consumer offer on its LCD and Plasma televisions on Monday. As part of the promotional offer, any purchase of a Samsung LCD or Plasma television entitles the customer to an assured gift of a home theatre or DVD player.

Training: VETA, a spoken English training academy, launched its training programme for IELTS on Monday. The training programme will be conducted at academy's centres in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Chandigarh. The programme has been designed according to the needs of students, from the stage of training to taking up tests. A help-desk caters to problems of the students in respect of taking the tests.

MANSA
90 donate blood: The Bharat Vikas Parishad, organised a blood donation camp at Guru Nanak Civil Hospital, Bareta, where nearly 90 persons made donations. Babu Ram, president of the BVPsaid they would organise such social activities in the near future and exhorted people to come forward for this noble cause as it can save the lives of others.

Phagwara
Man electrocuted: Labourer Krishan Chand was electrocuted in the hostel of an educational institution at Chaheru on Sunday.

CHANDIGARH

Mohali
Student assaulted: Gurkaranpal Singh, a Class-X student of St Joseph’s School, Chandigarh, sustained injuries when some youths attacked him here on Monday while he was playing at a ground in Phase 3B-II. The assailants allegedly hit the teenager with a cricket bat and kicked him in the stomach. They allegedly included a relative whose family had a dispute over a house with Gurkaranpal’s family. Father of the victim R.P. Singh said his son had been admitted to a private hospital and he had filed a complaint with the police.

Body for green earth: The Defence Accounts Pensioners Welfare Association has stressed on the need to use CFLs, CNG and LPG to reduce pollution and also to adopt the 3R approach - reduce, reuse and recycle. Use of bicycles was also stressed to reduce pollution. The association urged the ministry of health and family welfare to open one dispensary each in Panchkula and Mohali to avoid sufferings of aged pensioners and LTC be given on the pattern followed by the Punjab government.

HARYANA

BHIWANI
Youth commits suicide: A youth of Chang village committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance on Monday. The police has sent the body for postmortem examination and registered a case. The cause of suicide is still uncertain.

Patwari held for graft: The state Vigilance Bureau has caught Om Parkash, a patwari, Halqa Sham Kalan, Bhiwani district, red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Mahabir, a resident of Sham Kalan here. Sources said a case had been registered against Om Parkash under Sections 7/13/49/88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Woman dies in mishap: A 25-year-old woman was killed when an unidentified vehicle hit her at Laad village here on Monday. The deceased identified as Anita, wife of Mahender, of Laad village was crossing a road when an unidentified vehicle hit her. The police has registered a case against the driver of the unidentified vehicle on the complaint of the husband of the deceased.

6 hurt in group clash: Six persons, including a woman, sustained injuries in a group clash at Bamla village on Monday. The police has registered a case. The injured identified as Mamta, Hawa Singh, Amar Singh, Sudhir and Hawa Singh of another group have been admitted to the local Civil Hospital.

Demonstration held: Labourers of local thread units situated in the local industrial area staged a demonstration in favour of their demand of hike in wages outside the DC’s office here on Monday. The demonstrators said factory owners were paying a petty amount of Rs 1,800 per month to them while they worked for 12 hours a day. They alleged that those who demanded an increase in wages were sacked from their services.

CHANDIGARH
European technology park: Oedith Jaharia of Dutch-Haryana Business Consortium has approached the Haryana government to set up a European technology park in Faridabad district at a cost of Rs 1,450 crore. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) is being incorporated for implementation of the project. A spokesman of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation said the project was aimed at attracting European companies for their research and development related activities in the fields of biotechnology, engineering, finance, pharma and other scientific areas.

KAITHAL
3 booked for rape: A girl of local Patti Afgan has been allegedly raped by three persons for seven days. The girl has alleged that two persons of Chakkuladana village took her to some unknown place and then repeatedly raped her. She escaped from their clutches on June 7. The police got her medically examined and registered case against Harpreet Singh of Polar, Chatar Singh of Chaku Ladana and one more unidentified person.

KURUKSHETRA
Result declared: The result of Kurukshetra University BA (II) compartment examinations held in April was declared on Monday. The examinations controller, KU, Dr Hukkam Singh, said 4,424 students had appeared in this examination and the pass percentage was 46.52. The result was also available on the website of the university, www. kukinfo.com.

REWARI
Man commits suicide: Sunil Kumar (28) reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself at Gokalgarh village, 3 km from here, on Sunday. The police, which held an inquest under Section 174 of the CrPC, said family friction over his addiction to liquor apparently led him to take the extreme step.

3 booked for robbery: The police has registered a case of robbery against three miscreants, Naresh, Mukesh and Raju, all residents of Bakhapur village, for allegedly looting a vehicle, Rs 5,300 and a mobile phone from Satbir of Lalpur village. The trio had reportedly hired Satbir’s taxi on May 6 from the taxi stand at Maharana Pratap Chowk here for Kalgaon near Kotkasim. Subsequently, when they reached Kalgaon, they allegedly looted the vehicle, cash and the mobile phone at pistol point from Satbir.

SIRSA
2 killed in mishaps: Two persons, including a minor, were killed in mishaps during the past 24 hours here. Kuldeep (12) of Tajia village was killed when a motorcycle hit him on Sunday. In another incident, Sangat Singh (35) of Nakora village was electrocuted to death on Sunday. He was working with a spade on his roof when it accidentally came into contact with a low-lying electric wire.

YAMUNANAGAR
Illegal structures: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has identified 1,000 structures along the NH-73A and the Yamunanagar-Saha-Panchkula road, which may face demolition as the same have been constructed in violation of NHAI rules. The buildings that may face the hammer include a large number of commercial buildings. The NHAI identified the buildings after carrying out a survey.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

HAMIRPUR
Short-term course kicks off: A week-long course on ‘Hands on Practice in Electrical and Electronics Equipments’, organised by the Electrical Engineering Department of NIT, was inaugurated on Monday by director of the institute R.L. Sharma. He stressed on the need of such short-term courses under the Technical Quality Improvement Programme.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
2 hideouts busted: Security forces busted two militant hideouts and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in Poonch and Reasi districts on Monday, defence sources said. Troops of the 38 RR busted a hideout in Poonch district and recovered 23 grenades made in Pakistan, two AK rifles, two chinese greandes, huge quantity of assorted ammunition, one sniper sight and a radio. In another operation, troops of the 62 RR and the police busted another hideout in Reasi district and recovered four improvised explosive devices.

Man dies: Rukmani Devi (65), a resident of Rajasthan and who had come to pay obeisance at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine went missing at Katra town in Reasi on Monday. Police sources said Rukmani went missing from the shrine. Meanwhile, Ram Prasad (80) died of cardiac arrest. A resident of Uttar Pradesh, Ram was hospitalised after he complained of chest pain, but he died later.

Minority Commission: The state, which is the only one in the country without a Minority Commission, may soon have one with Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad likely to give his nod to the proposal. The state’s law department has consented to the proposal. The Social Welfare Department set into motion the process of constitution of the Minority Commission after the Union ministry on minority affairs wrote to the state government.

SRINAGAR
4 labourers killed: Four labourers were killed and 25 were injured when a vehicle in which they were travelling met with an accident in Leh on Monday. Official sources said a vehicle of the 51 Rashtriya Rifles carrying labourers skidded off the road and fell into a gorge near Tsol Tak Tangtse. Four labourers were killed on the spot and 25 were wounded.

Timber seized: The police seized a large quantity of illicit timber in north Kashmir on Monday. Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the house of one Ghulam Mohammad Thoker at Dardpora Kunzar in Baramulla district and recovered illicit timber. A case has been registered.