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Bathinda
Jail visitor held with drugs: Staff of the Central Jail, Bathinda, nabbed one Gagan Deep Singh of Mansa and recovered about 4,000 habit forming tablets from his possession on Wednesday. Sources said the accused had come to hand over the drugs to Rinku, an undertrial lodged in the jail. But he was nabbed during search at the entry point. The jail staff handed over the accused to the Kotwali police. He has been booked under the NDPS Act.

Korfball championship: The Government Rajindra College, Bathinda, won the inter-college korfball championship held at the Punjabi University, Patiala, recently. In a press release issued here, Surjeet Singh, head of the Physical Education department of the college, said the college authorities welcomed the winning team.

School benches donated: The Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Pipelines division NRPL Bathinda, donated 40 three-seater benches to the Government Elementary School, Dhadde village, on Wednesday.

School kids visit press: Believing that children should not be bound within the four walls of a classrom to gain knowledge, Silver Oaks school here organised field trips for its students. Students of class II visited The Tribune press where they learnt about the printing process, packing and cost of production of the newspaper. They also visited the fire brigade. LKG students had fun at Chetak Park, UKG students visited the deer park at Bir Talab and students of class I visited the OBC bank at court complex and the post- office to enhance their knowledge.

Ravinder strikes gold at GZSCET sports meet: On the inaugural day of the 17th annual athletic sports competitions of the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCET), Ravinder Singh won the top position in the 800 metre (men) race held on the college premises here on Thursday. Meanwhile, Shaifali clinched the medal in shotput (women) competition and Deepak Palial stood first in long jump (men) category.

Rajindra College annual function on Feb 27: The Government Rajindera College is organising annual prize distribution function on the college premises here on February 27. Giving information, principal Sukhchain Rai Garg said the chief guest of the function would be finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who would distribute prizes to more than 300 students for their achievements in different fields.

Jalandhar
Annual athletic meet:A two-day annual athletic meet was held at the Lovely Professional University. During the first day, the major events which took place were races in various categories like 200 m, 800 m, 1,500 m 4x100 m relay, 4x400 m relay, 5,000 m, 100 m hurdles, 110 m hurdles, shot put, long jump, discus throw and triple jump. Harinder Kumar was adjudged the best male athlete while the honour of the best female athlete went to Sandeep Kaur.

BSNL broadband lies paralysed:Hundreds of telecom subscribers were facing inconvenience as broadband services of BSNL were lying paralysed in most parts of the Phagwara town for the last 15 days. One BSNL officer on condition of anonymity said telephone cables were being cut by the employees engaged in six laning work of national highways. Meanwhile, the telecom officers could not attend to the problems as it was alleged that they busy in the BSNL Mela.

Best player award:Manpreet Kaur of Kamala Nehru College For Women, Phagwara, won the best player award in ball badminton at Senior National Games held in Andhra Pradesh. Players from various states participated in this event.

One killed:One Chaman Lal, who was reportedly under the influence of liquor, was run over by a train near Phagwara railway station on Wednesday night. The GRP has registered a case and sent the body to local Civil Hospital for the post-mortem examination.

Bank of India loan:The Bank of India has decided to grant education loan to girls on one per cent less interests than boys, said Deputy General Manager Pawan Bajaj. He disclosed that female students would be provided education loan at 9 per cent interest as compared to 10 per cent for male students.

Nawanshahr
Resentment over increment cuts: Resentment has started brewing up among employees of the Punjab State Cooperative Banks over the decision of the state board of directors to impose a cut on the rate of annual increment from 4 to 3 per cent. A meeting of the employees of Nawanshahr Central Cooperative Bank was held here today to protest against the alleged ‘anti-employees’ decision of the state board of directors.

Tarn Taran
Teachers not paid salary for January: Dilbag Singh, a district resource person (DRP) and representative of the Director-General of School Education (DGSE), has taken serious note of not paying the salary for January 2010 to as many as 50 teachers of the local SGAD Government Girls Secondary School till date. The DRP at a meeting with the school staff today said some alleged irregularities in the school management had already been brought to the notice of the DGSE. He held responsible the school authorities for failing to pay the January salalry to the staff. District Education Officer (SE) D.K. Mahia said due to a shortage of budget the staff of some other schools too had not been paid their salary and she had instructed all the authorities schools to make arrangements for releasing the salary by taking the budget from the DPI (SE), Punjab, Chandigarh.

Employees’ dharna: On the call given by the Punjab and UT Employees Joint Action Committee and the Punjab Subordinate Services Federation (PSSF), employees of different departments held a dharna outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner to demand acceptance of their demands. PSSF finance secretary Balkar Valtoha demanded early removal of the anomalies of the Fifth Pay Commission causing great injustice to the employees. The organisations also demanded a raise in the wages of the daily wagers, contractual employees, ASHA workers and aanganwari workers. A memorandum was also submitted to the district authorities regarding the demands.

CHANDIGARH

Justice AK Mittal bereaved: Sarl Kanta, mother of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal, a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, breathed her last this morning due to cardiac arrest. She was 81 and is survived by husband Group Captain Satish Chand (retd), two sons, a daughter and grandchildren.

Palsora resident attacked: A 27-year-old Palsora resident, Vikram, was seriously injured after being attacked by unidentified persons in Palsora here late this evening. The victim, who was returning home, had an altercation with four youths and was attacked with sharp-edged weapons. He was admitted to the PGI in a serious condition.A case has been registered.

Panchkula
Contest tomorrow: The Mr and Miss Panchkula contest will be held at the Indradhanush Auditorium in Sector 2 here on February 27.Thirty contestants will vie for the title. The event, being organised by the ShowBizz Folk, is scheduled to begin at 6 pm.KK Khandelwal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Haryana, will be the chief guest on the occasion.

HARYANA

Chandigarh
HSGPC honours Hooda with siropa:The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (ad hoc) on Thursday presented a siropa and a shawl to CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda for fulfilling the demand of the Punjabi community to declare Punjabi as second language in Haryana. An official spokesman of the committee said members of the committee led by working president Didar Singh Nalwi met the Chief Minister and thanked him for this historic step

Kaithal
OBC celebrates anniversary: The Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) celebrated its 68th year of its inception here. A function was held at local timber market branch of the bank which was followed by a customers meet. Sethi said the bank had 1,500 interconnected service outlets and 926 ATMs.

Blood donation camp: As many as 200 persons donated blood at a camp organised at Sanatan Dharam Mandir here recently. This camp was held under the aegis of Haryana Cooperative Transport Society. ADC Ramesh Verma inaugurated the camp. In his address, Verma appreciated the noble gesture of activists of the society who took intiative to organise this camp.