FAZILKA
Killed: Boor Singh (25) of Chak Kheowala village, was killed in a road accident on Wednesday night when his scooter was hit by a tractor trailer near Chack Pakhi village, 18 km from here.

150 phones dead: More than 150 telephones have been out of order in Fazilka town for the past one week. Breakdown was due to dust storm and rain. Despite repeated complaints the Telephone Department has not rectified the faults allege subscribers. Subscribers alleged that complaints were not recorded. Officials of the Telephone Department complain of shortage of technical staff, which delayed restoration of phone functioning.

Rs 60 lakh distributed: Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Cooperation Minister, Punjab, at a specially organised function in the Fazilka Cooperative Sugar Mill premises in Bodiwala Pitha village, 15 km from here on Wednesday evening disbursed cheques for Rs 60 lakh among 700 cane cultivators as part of balance payment of sugarcane payable to farmers.

JALANDHAR
Passports issued: Passport applications received at the office here up to serial number 402/7592/99 till February 4,1999, have been processed and despatched to persons whose applications were complete in all respects till the week ending on June 5.

Bribery case: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested Gurbaksh Singh Chadha, a patwari at Chak Dana village in Nawanshahr district, for allegedly accepting bribe. Mr R.P.S Bajwa, Superintendent of Police, Vigilance Bureau, said here on Thursday that the patwari was caught while accepting Rs 2000 from Mr Baldev Singh of Khurd village for submitting the registry of a land. A case has been registered under Section 7,13(2), 88, IPC Act.

KAPURTHALA
Sentenced: The Sessions Judge, Mr Baldev Singh, has sentenced Darshan Lal and his two sons, Satish Kumar and Roop Lal to life imprisonment on the charge of murdering their relative, Jagdish Lal, of Nangal Majha village in Phagwara subdivision. A fine of Rs 5,000 each was also imposed and in case of default they will have to further undergo imprisonment for three months each.

LUDHIANA
Challaned: During a month-long campaign launched in the city, the traffic police has challaned 7,224 persons and Rs 13,08,476 were collected as fines. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Goel, while addressing a meeting of the district Traffic Control Committee.

MOGA
Accident: An unidentified youth travelling by a scooter on Wednesday night was killed on the spot when a tree got uprooted and fell on his scooter due to storm which lashed the region, 33 km from here near Jagraon on the Moga-Ludhiana road. His body was sent for a post mortem examination.

Two teenagers drowned: Two teenaged boys on Wednesday reportedly drowned in a village pond near Dosanjh in this district where they had gone to graze cattle. Both of them went to the pond and drowned in it when they entered it for a bath. Bodies, recovered by the police, have been sent for a post mortem examination.

Tributes paid: Tributes were paid to Baba Banda Bahadur by a large number of parties which attended the function in Nachhattar Singh memorial hall on Wednesday and organised by the Bairagi Maha Mandal Punjab. Former member of Parliament Jagmeet Singh Brar was the chief guest.

NAWANSHAHR
Neo-literates: The district Literacy Society organised a "sakharata chetna samaroh" here at KC Palace on Thursday to honour neo-literates. The Deputy Commissioner, Dr Roshan Sunkaria, presided. He gave away prizes to as many as 933 neo-literates.

PATIALA
Patwaris' demands: The Revenue Patwaris Employees Union here on Thursday staged a rally in front of the local tehsil office on the 10th day of their agitation demanding status of technical staff, higher pay scales and refusing to do additional work. Mr Satnam Singh, District President of the union, said the patwaris had been on a par with clerks in matter of pay scales, while their duties were more stringent.

Union: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punsup Ministerial Staff Union here:- President — Mr Nachattar Singh; Senior Vice-President — Mr Bikhraj; Vice-President — Mr Gurmeet Singh; General Secretary — Mr Paramjit Kaur; Joint Secretary — Mr Madan Lal Verma; and treasurer — Mr Shivpal Singla.

Federation: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Income Tax Gazetted Services Federation: Chairman — Mr J.B Bhardwaj; Secretary — Mr Satinder Choudhary; and Treasurer — Mr Krishna Garg.

PHAGWARA
Appointed: Mr Harjit Singh Parmar has been appointed the Chairman of the State Cooperative Cell of the PPCC by Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC chief. Mr Parmar had headed the National Federation of Cooperative Banks, Punjab State Cooperative Bank and the Central Cooperative Bank, Kapurthala.

Meeting: The next meeting of the Rural Advisory Committee of the Chandigarh Administration would be held on July 4, it was learnt here on Friday. Though the agenda for the meeting is still to be finalised, various issues and demands of people of rural areas, including improvement in basic amenities, are expected to figure prominently at the meeting which is being convened after a gap of several months.

Relay fast: The relay fast by members of the New Punjab Khadi and Village Industries Board Employees Union entered its third day on Friday. The employees are demanding payment of arrears, bonus, promotion orders, grant of grade of technical staff equivalent to that of Industries Department, revival of recovery section and acceptance of other demands as mentioned in an 11-point charter. Leaders of various trade unions, including Mr Romesh Chandolia, Mr Sajjan Singh, Mr Dharamjit Singh and others, addressed a rally of the agitating employees outside their office in Sector 22 here. They urged the Punjab Government to accept the demands of the employees, failing which, other trade unions of employees would also be forced to join the agitation.

Cancellation deplored: The Parents' Association of Students Studying Abroad has deplored the cancellation of flights from Ukraine to India. According to the General Secretary of the association, Mr S.S. Bedi, several hundred Indian students studying there are unable to return to their homeland during summer vacations since no other airline operates on this route. The association has urged the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy to immediately restore flights from Kiev to New Delhi or make alternative arrangements.

Computer training: According to a press note, 12 teachers of Central Polytechnic, Chandigarh, are being imparted training in local area networking (LAN), Internet working, desktop publishing (DTP), computer aided design (CAD). This module is part of the composite computer literacy programme started by Dr S.K. Aggarwal, Director of Technical Education. In the first module which was conducted in January this year, the teachers received training in MS-Office, multimedia, Internet and e-mail, the note says.

Appointed: The UT Administration has appointed Dr M.L. Jalota, Medical Officer (Homoeopathy), the Registrar of the Council of Homoeopathic Medicine for the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Kashmir Day: The Chandigarh unit of the Bharatiya Janta Party will observe June 23 as the Kashmir Day in accordance with the decision taken by its national office. This coincides with the martyrdom day of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Founder-President of the Jana Sangh. Mrs Uma Bharti, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, will visit the city on that day and address a special gathering.

PANCHKULA
Midwives trained: The local unit of the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) organised a training programme for midwives at its premises in Sector 4 here on Thursday. As many as 21 midwives participated in the programme. The Branch Manager of the local unit of the FPAI, Mr Amit Gupta, said the midwives were given training on antenatal care and identification of high-risk pregnancy, safe delivery and post-natal care and nutrition.

Sweets distributed: The Upkaar Society of Panchkula distributed clothes to jhuggi dwellers in Indira Colony here on Wednesday.

FARIDABAD
Arrested: The police on Wednesday arrested six persons, including two women, for allegedly indulging in prostitution in a house on Nagla road. The arrested persons are Radha and Babita, both married women, Satbir, Rakesh and Kishen and Shyam Singh.

FATEHABAD
Open darbar: At an open darbar organised by the district administration at Bhattu Kalan 147 complainants appeared before the Deputy Commissioner Mr V.Rajashekhar. Banmandori villagers complained of insufficient supply of potable water to village. Mehuwala residents also had similar complaint. The Deputy Commissioner directed officers of the Public Health Department to redress the grievance. A fresh survey to determine eligible poor was also demanded. Bhattu Kalan villagers demanded a place for stray animals.

PANIPAT
Power theft: The Haryana Vidut Prasaran Nigam (City Division) has conducted raids to check power thefts. Rs 6.99 lakh has been recovered as fines during May. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi.

SIRSA
Succumbed to injuries: Balbir Singh (32), a tractor driver of Khuian Nepalpur village in the district succumbed to his injuries at the local Civil Hospital here on Wednesday. According to informed sources, he was going back to his village when his tractor collided with a bus near the local Air Force station. Two other persons travelling in the tractor were also injured seriously. The bus driver has reportedly absconded.

SONEPAT
Suicide: Two cases of suicide were reported from the city and a nearby village on Wednesday. The victims were identified as Naresh (24) of the local Janata Colony and Rajesh (20) of Thana Khurd village. According to another report, the police has also recovered the body of one Ram Dass (28) and sent it for a post-mortem examination.

Water supply: Water supply to the city remained disrupted for the 10th day on Thursday. However, no reason has been given in this regard by the Public Health Department. The Residents Welfare Association have protested against the curtailment in the supply of drinking water.

Dharna: Members of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Multi-Purpose Health Services Karamchari Mahasangh on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the office of the chief Medical Officer here stressing on their demand for the removal of anomaly in their pay scales. Later they presented a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Resentment: The Himachal Pradesh State PWD Ministerial Staff Association has expressed resentment over the government's decision regarding the implementation of two agreements it had signed. The General Secretary, Mr Lekhram Kondal, threatened to launch an agitation if their demands were not accepted.

CHAMBA
Car recovered: The police has recovered a (PB-32-R 4138) from near the Chamba heliport. It was stolen on Wednesday. Rs 2 lakh in cash also kept in the car had been stolen. The car belonged to a broker of Amritsar, Mr Gaurav Mahajan.

KULU
Offices opened: Three new subdivisional ayurveda offices have been opened at Ani, Banjar and Katrain in the district. This was stated by Mr Karan Singh, Minister of State for Primary Education, at Chhabra, 30 km from here, on Wednesday while inaugurating an ayurvedic health centre. The minister also announced that the village would soon have a road.