BATHINDA
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bharat Vikas Parishad: President — Mr Vipan Bhargawa; Senior Vice-President — Mr Shakti Goyal; Vice-President — Mr Vinod Goyal; Secretary — Mr Lovkesh Sharma; Joint Secretary — Mr Rakesh Watts; and Treasurer — Mr Rakesh Garg.
Clarification: Mr Manmohan Singh, Deputy Director, Horticulture, Punjab, in a press note issued here on Wednesday clarified that capacity of 23 cold stores located in this district were nine lakh quintal instead of nine lakh tonne as published in The Tribune on March 30.

HOSHIARPUR
Impersonator arrested: Mr Jiwan Singh, ASI, in charge of Pur Hiran police chowki, arrested Faqir Chand of Kadiana village on Wednesday for cheating many persons by impersonating as a former MLA, press reporter and a doctor. Mr R.P Mittal, SSP, Hoshiarpur, stated in a press note that Faqir Chand took Rs 2,000 from Surinder Singh of Pur Hiran for getting him employed in the local ESI hospital. During interrogation, Faqir Chand revealed that he cheated Baldev Singh of Jandore and Madan Singh of Dasuya and took Rs 22,000 each from them for getting them government job. A case under Sections 419 and 420 of the IPC has been registered against him.
Two convicted: Mr R.M Gupta, District Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur, convicted on Wednesday two accused in a rape case. He sentenced Brahm Dutt of Ramdaspur and Sarwan Kumar of Tanda to seven years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined them Rs 1,000 each under Section 376, of the IPC. He further sentenced Brahm Dut to two years' RI and fined him Rs 500 under Section 363, IPC and three years' RI and a fine of Rs 500 under Section 366, IPC. The Judge awarded further sentence of three years, RI and a fine of Rs 500 on Sarwan Kumar under Section 368, IPC. According to the FIR, both the accused raped a girl of Jia Sahota village on February 9,1996.

FEROZEPORE
Union: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local RSD College Teachers Union: President — Mr V.K Bhandari; Vice-President — Mr D.P. Sikri; Secretary — Mr R.P. Garg; and Finance Secretary — Mr Gurtej Singh.

HOSHIARPUR
Gas agency inaugurated: Mr Suresh Arora, DIG, Jalandhar range, inaugurated Hoshiarpur Police Gas Service, set up by the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, at Police Lines here on Tuesday. Mr R.P.Mittal, SSP, said that as many as 64 gas connections had been given to the terrorists affected families of policemen. Besides this 100 connections had been provided to the retired police officers. Mr Arora distributed 40 cookers and 40 sewing machines among the widows of police personnel.

JALANDHAR
Phone exchange: The telephone exchange at Nawanshahr has been expanded by 2,000 lines, according to Mr Rajesh Wadhwa, General Manager, Telecom. He said optical fibre cable link was also being established between Nawanshahr and Jalandhar.

LUDHIANA
Yuva JD chief: Mr Satpal Singh Lamba has been appointed district president of the Yuva Janata Dal, Mr Surinder Sharma, state president, said this here on Tuesday.

MANSA
Loans: The State Bank of Patiala has released a Rs 186.83 crore district credit plan for the year 1999-2000. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sanjay Kumar, in a press note issued here on Thursday said Rs 156.32 crore would be given as loans for the agricultural sector, while Rs 18.26 crore for the industrial sector. He said the district credit plan for 1999-2000 was 31.96 per cent higher than the district credit plan for 1998-1999.

PATIALA
Meeting: The Petroleum Dealers Association has called a state executive meeting here on April 8 to decide on the increase of 2 per cent sales tax on petrol. This was announced here on Wednesday by the association's joint secretary, Mr Avinash Gaur.
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Food and Supplies Inspectors-II Union here: President — Mr Jagdev Singh; Secretary — Mr Ram Kumar Bansal; Senior Vice-President — Mr Charanjit Singh; Joint Secretary — Mr Rajinder Singh Mangat and Cashier — Mr Balbir Singh.

ROPAR
Tax exemption: On the request of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the Himachal Pradesh Government has provided an exemption from the payment of motor vehicle tax to the vehicles carrying pilgrims from and to Himachal Pradesh for attending the tercentenary celebrations at Anandpur Sahib from April 8 to 14.

DERA BASSI
Welcome: Residents of this subdivision will welcome a group of saints of different communities on Saturday. This group, which had started the journey from Patna to celebrate the tercentenary of the Khalsa will reach Anandpur Sahib on April 11. Headed by Guru Shankracharya, the delegation includes Visra Singh, Karam Singh, Mahant Veidyanath and Sadhvi Ritambhra.

SAS NAGAR
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Sector 70 Social and Welfare Association: President — Mr J.S. Dhillon; Vice-President — Mr Dalbir Singh; General Secretary — Mr J.S. Cheema; and Treasurer — Mr Suresh Verma.

BHIWANI
Polio camp: The fifth free polio checking and operation camp will be held on April 3 and 4 at the local Shree Krishan Pranami Jan Kalyan Trust Ashram. The head saint of the trust, Mr Sadanand said in a press conference here on Thursday that the trust had organised 13 free polio operation camps throughout the country and 3000 polio patients had been operated upon at Bhiwani under aegis of the Ashram.
One arrested: The police has arrested Raj Kumar of Ajitpura village on a charge of murdering his brother, Dalbir. Raj Kumar reportedly wanted to avail a loan for tractor against security of land of Dalbir's wife. He was arrested on a complaint of Mrs Savitri, deceased wife.
Camp: A two-day training camp of mandal and district executives of the BJP will be held at Kakrolli village from April 3. As many as 500 activists are expected to participate. Mr Rishi Prakash Sharma, general secretary of the unit, said here on Wednesday that the state general secretary of Rajasthan and MP, Mr Onkar Singh Lakhawat, the general secretary, Haryana unit, Mr O.P. Dhankhad, would address the camp.

SONEPAT
Memorandum: The Dalits of Mahra village on Wednesday in a memorandum to the Governor, Mr Mahabir Prasad, sought his intervention in allotting residential plots to 53 Dalit families in the village. These plots were distributed among them on June 10 last year. The sarpanch had managed to get the resolution passed by the panchayat for giving this land to a sanyasi of Hardwar for opening an Ayurvedic college.

SIRSA
Case registered: Jarnail Singh and his associate, Om Parkash of Mandi Kalanwali, 40 km from here, were seriously injured in a fight with Gurtej Singh of the same village. The police has registered a case under Sections 148, 149 and 323 of the IPC against the suspects.

YAMUNANAGAR
Inauguration: Mr Ved Pal, Chairman, State Agriculture Marketing Board, Haryana, inaugurated the new hostel building of Seth Jai Parkash Mukand Lal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Radaur on Wednesday. He lauded the efforts of Mr Ashok Kumar, Chairman of the governing body of the college. He announced a grant of Rs 41,000 from his discretionary funds.

HAMIRPUR
Liquor seized: As many as 13 cases of the sale of illicit liquor were detected and 728 bottles of liquor seized here on Wednesday. This was disclosed here on Thursday by the District police chief, Mr R.M Sharma. He said five cases were detected under Barsai police station, four under Sujanpurtia, two under Nadaun and one each under Hamirpur and Bhoranj police stations.
Credit plan released: Mr Kamlesh Kumar Pant, the Deputy Commissioner of Hamirpur, released on Thursday the annual credit plan of Rs 30.67 crore for the district for the fiscal year 1999-2000. There is an increase of 20 per cent in the new plan as compared to the plan for the year 1998-99.

KULU
Tourist killed: Dr Hari Ram Verma, a tourist from Ashok Nagar, Noida, was killed when a Maruti car in which he was travelling hit a wall on Tuesday. His wife Rani Verma, son-in-law, Amit, and his daughter Shalini, were also injured.
Two arrested: Bal Ram and Satish were arrested at Manali on Tuesday for allegedly stealing telephone cables, according to Mr Zahur H. Zaidi, SP, a case under Section 379, IPC, was registered against them.
11 arrested: The police arrested 11 persons during the last-week raids and seized 36,500 ml of illicit liquor and 20,000 ml of 'lugri' in the district. The police chief urged mahila mandals and NGOs to help the police in arresting the culprits.

NURPUR
Two arrested: The Shahpur police has apprehended Narinder and Gurnam of Pathankot for allegedly breaking into a house at Shahpur on Monday. The SSP Kangra said residents raised an alarm when the suspects made an attempt.

SOLAN
7 arrested: The police arrested seven persons of Batoli Kalan village, near the Baddi industrial estate, on Wednesday for allegedly murdering Mangat Ram (42), a resident of the same village, on Tuesday. Some financial dispute was reported to be the cause of the murder.