Tribuneindia...Regional Briefs

	REGIONAL BRIEFS	Saturday, May 1, 1999
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BATHINDA
Cremated: The body of Gurbax Singh, Municipal Engineer, who died in a road accident near Ludhiana on Wednesday, was cremated on Thursday. the office of the Municipal Council remained closed on Thursday, as a mark of respect to the deceased.

GARHSHANKAR
Arrested: The Garhshankar police arrested Gurmail Singh, alias Golloo, Balbir Chand and Rakesh Kumar of Kuthan who were allegedly involved in a theft of 2.25 lakh from Mr Tarsem Lal's house at Jassowal village. A case has been registered against them. In another incident, the police arrested Sohan Singh of Daulatpur for possessing a 12 bore pistol and some live cartridges.

LUDHIANA
Meeting: A meeting of the District Youth Congress (Beopar Cell) was held here on Friday at which the problems of industrialists were discussed. The members criticised the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, for his failure to withdraw octroi, and for enhancing electricity charges and imposing 2 per cent sales tax on medicines and 4 per cent sales tax on hosiery and readymade garments.

NANGAL
Demanded: The Punjab Government employees, on deputation with the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), have demanded that the office of the Executive Engineer, Jalandhar Mechanical Drainage Division, should not be shifted from Nangal to Jalandhar. In a letter to the Chief Minister and the Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister, these employees have stated that they are dependent on this office for collecting their dues.

NAWANSHAHR
Demand: Mr Kewal Singh Badwal, President, and Mr Sansar Singh Dhak, Secretary of the district Ex-Servicemen's Cell, in a press statement on Thursday, urged the state government to set up here an office of the District Sainik Welfare Board and the Defence Pension Disbursement office (DPDO).

PATIALA
Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of Gurdwara Shri Guru Harkishan Sahib (Anand Nagar-B) here: President — Mr Ram Singh; General Secretary — Mr Chand Singh; and Cashier — Mr Teja Singh.
Samiti: The Rashtriya Netraheen Sangharsh Samiti has urged the Punjab Government to accept their long-pending demands. In a statement here on Thursday, samiti General Secretary Kishori alleged that the administration did not heed the demands of the blind. He said a deputation of the samiti would meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on May 12 in Chandigarh.
Tubewell: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, on Thursday directed Public Health officials to restart a tubewell in Rohar Jagir village which had not been working for the past two months. He also disposed of complaints regarding denial of old age pension and financial help to the needy.

PHAGWARA
Demand: The action committee-cum-legal cell of the Indian Medical Association, Punjab, in a representation to the Chief Secretary, on Wednesday demanded the implementation of the Punjab and Haryana High Courts judgement, in a criminal writ petitions ordering the Director, Health Services and the SSPs to weed out quacks practising allopathy running unlicensed medical shops and hospitals.

SAMRALA
Awarded: The 55th annual Singh Sabha was held at Malikpur on Wednesday. Nirala Kav Manch gave away the Kavishar Jarnail Singh Award for the year 1999 to a renowned bard Dhadi, Baldev Singh Kaliyan.

College teachers: In a joint statement, Dr Jagwant Singh and Dr L.S. Kheeva, President and Secretary, respectively, of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union, has urged the Chandigarh Administration to release the UGC pay-scales without further delay. Meanwhile, the Chandigarh District Council has appealed to teachers to spare more time for evaluation of answer sheets to enable early declaration of results.
Retired: Dr Dharamjit Singh, Vice-Principal and Head of the Hindi Department of Government College, Sector 46, retired here on Friday after putting in 25 years of service. He was given a warm send-off by the Principal and staff members of the college.
Top position: The Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, and the DAV Public School, Sector 15, have secured top positions in the inter-school Competition Master Mock CET-PMT Examination conducted by the Cybernets on April 4 and 11 at Lajpat Rai Bhavan, Sector 15. The GMSSS, Sector 16 and GMSSS, Sector 18 secured second and third positions, respectively, in the medical stream. Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, and the GMSSS Sector 10 bagged second and third places, respectively in the non-medical stream.
Honoured: Darshan Singh Aulakh, an actor and Nasib Singh Nasib, a folk singer, were honoured by the Punjab Irrigation Secretariat Clerical Association at a function in the Sector 18 Sinchai Bhavan here on Friday. Mr Roshan Lal, Registrar of the IB Head Office in Punjab was the chief guest.
Medical camp: The Aggarwal Sabha will organise a free medical camp at the Aggarsen Bhavan in Sector 30 on Sunday. The General Manager of The Tribune Trust, Mr S.D. Bhambri, will inaugurate the camp, according to a press note.
Womens' conference: A two-day All-India Disabled Women Conference would be held here in June. The conference will be organised by the National Handicapped Welfare Council. It would start from June 26, a council spokesman said here on Friday.
Condemned: Senior leaders of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee have, in a press note issued here on Friday, condemned the procedure laid down by the Chandigarh Administration for preparing electoral rolls. Principal Gurbachan Singh, General Secretary of the committee alleged that many persons had approached the CTCC with complaints of harassment by the administration staff.

PANCHKULA
Elected: The following have been elected the office-bearers of the Punjabi Welfare Association of Pinjore: Chairman — Mr Sashi Bahl; President — Mr Subash Sikka; Vice-President — Mr Sant Kumar; General Secretaries — Mr P.C.Dua, Mr Charanjiv Nagpal and Mr Deen Dyal Chawla; Secretary — Mr Subash Chander; Joint Secretary — Mr Joginder Nath; and Cashier — Mr D.P. Manchanda.

AMBALA
Wakf Board: Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, Administrator, of the Punjab Wakf Board, said here on Thursday that the board had made a collection of Rs 9.5 crore during the last financial year. He said in the previous year Rs 2.75 crore was spent on various social welfare schemes. The board also announced some welfare schemes for the minorities and backward classes.

BHIWANI
Welfare schemes: A number of schemes have been launched by the District Rural Development Agency for the economic uplift of the poor. Mr K.S.Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, who is also the Chairman of the agency, said here on Friday that the agency had formed groups of women, living below the poverty line in urban areas, under Swaran Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojna for providing them with loans for self-employment projects. Mr Yadav said so far 115 beneficiaries had been given loans worth Rs 28 lakh.

KAITHAL
Two killed: Naresh Kumar and Anita were killed when their car was hit by a vehicle near Kultaran village, 3 km from here on Wednesday. The deceased were coming from Dera Bassi in Punjab to attend a marriage ceremony at Kaithal.
Strike called off: Local Anaz Mandi commission agents who were on strike since Wednesday in protest against the suspension of the licences of some dealers called off their strike on Thursday after their demands were accepted by the authorities concerned.

SIRSA
Compensation: Comrade Swarn Singh Virk, District Secretary of the CPI, and Mr Jai Chand, District Secretary of the Haryana Kisan Sabha, in a joint statement issued here on Thursday demanded compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre from the state government for the farmers, whose wheat crop was destroyed in a fire.
Accident: In an accident near Abubshahr village, one person was killed and another seriously injured on Friday night. The accident occurred when a canter collided with a truck. The impact put the vehicles on fire. The injured was admitted to the local Civil Hospital.
Employment scheme: The Deputy Commissioner, Dr Avtar Singh, said here on Friday that under the SEKF Employment Scheme, Haryana Harijan Kalyan Nigam had given assistance to 1,017 unemployed youths for setting up business and provided loans amounting to Rs 1.54 crore to unemployed youths belonging to the Schedule Castes during 1998-99. He further said the board provided Rs 19.38 lakh as margin money and Rs 54.19 lakh as subsidy to the unemployed in the district.
Cases registered: The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Baljeet Singh Sandhu, said here on Friday that the police recovered stolen property worth Rs 4.72 lakh during the past one month in the district. He further said the police registered 51 cases under the Excise Act and recovered 1,252 bottles of countrymade liquor, 88 bottles of illicit liquor and 46 bottles of IMFL. The police also recovered 9.8 kg of opium and 473 kg of poppy-husk under the NDPS Act. He added that 37 persons were arrested under the Gambling Act and the police recovered Rs 35,158 from their possession.

SONEPAT
Robbed: Mr Niwas Gaur in charge of the District Telegraph Office (DTO), was allegedly robbed of Rs 1 lakh pistolpoint in Indira Colony on Thursday while he was on his way to the State Bank of India's main branch in the mandi area.
Dharna: Members of the Haryana Roadways Karamchari Union staged a dharna in front of the Haryana Roadways depot here on Thursday in protest against the government's decision to privatise the Roadways and its failure to accept their demands. Mr Baldev Singh President of the union, criticised the State Government for its callousness as the Roadways annually suffers a loss of Rs 116 crore.

BILASPUR
Beopar mandal: Uttar Bharat Beopar Mandal, a new organisation of traders belonging to 10 North Indian states, will be formed at a traders' conference to be held in Chandigarh in May, 1999. The organisation will evolve a strategy to ensure that equal taxes are levied in all these states and that no tax is above 5 per cent. It will also seek abolition of octroi and toll tax.
Maitri yojna: Mr Shekhar Gupta, Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Himachal, has urged traders and shopkeepers to take the benefit of the newly introduced maitri yojna" or self-assessment scheme of sales tax, if their annual sale does not exceed Rs 25 lakh.

SHIMLA
Appointed: The Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department Engineers Association, has urged the government to appoint engineers, to various secretariat-level posts ranging from the Under Secretary to the Commissioner for effective functioning of the Public Works Department and for time-bound completion of the projects.