R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

FEROZEPORE
ASSISTANCE: The District Red Cross Society has provided financial assistance totalling Rs 11,000 to Ganga Ram, a labourer, whose two sons lost their lives in a fire mishap in the grain market at Fazilka on April 18. An official of the society said labourers who were injured had been provided assistance of Rs 1,000 each.

GURDASPUR
DESTROYED: Wheat crop in more than 600 acres of land in the Bet area of Beas has been destroyed in a fire. The affected villages are Gurnepur, Saidowal, Saini Bhurian and Darapur. According to Mr P. K. Subharwal, SDM, Gurdaspur, more than 12 case of wheat burning have been reported in this subdivision.

HOSHIARPUR
CASE SOLVED: The police has solved the murder case of Baldev Singh, alias Deva, a resident of Khurdan village. Baldev Singh’s dead body was found on the backside of a liquor vend on April 30. Mr R.P. Mittal, SSP, told mediapersons here that Lachman Singh, owner of a ‘ahata’ and Balwinder Singh, son of Gurdial Singh of Malmazara, were arrested in this connection. Both culprits had confessed to their crime and the police had recovered the sharp-edged weapon used by them for committing the murder.

FLEECING: Mr Raj Kumar Nidder, General Secretary, and Mr Tara Singh, Secretary of the Shivalik Consumers Association, have condemned the fleecing by gas agency holders while issuing DBC. In a press note issued here on Wednesday, they alleged that the owners of these agencies were charging Rs 4,300 for a connection with hot plates whereas the consumer was supposed to pay Rs 2,377 for DBC , pipe and regulator. They further alleged that these agency owners force the consumers to buy hot plate.

SENTENCED: Mr R L Roozam, District and Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur, has sentenced Avtar Singh, a resident of Jaura village, to life imprisonment. According to the FIR, Avtar Singh had murdered Manjit, son of Om Parkash of the same village, on September 14,1998.

KHARAR
SI ISSUED WARRANT: Mrs Neelam Arora, Judicial Magistrate, Kharar, on Friday issued Production Warrant for May 15 to Sub-Inspector Malvinder Singh Malhi, who is already booked in a custodial death case, in connection with a fresh case registered against him by the Kharar police on a charge of threatening Mr Gurmakh Singh, father of Devinder Singh who died in police custody.

NIRANKARI CHIEF: Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Ji, chief of Niarankari Mission, addressed a religious congregation here on Friday in Sant Nirankari Bhavan. Addressing the gathering, he asked the people to follow the path shown by the Saints.

LUDHIANA
LOK ADALAT: As many as 120 cases falling under the civil, criminal, recovery, the Hindu Marriage Act and motor accident claim categories were settled at a Lok Adalat held in the District Courts here and settlements worth Rs 16.49 lakh were awarded to the parties involved. According to Mr Surjit Singh, Assistant District Attorney, Legal Services, 220 cases were presented at the Lok Adalat. Another Lok Adalat for bank recovery suits exclusively will be held here on May 20.

ARRESTED: Rajinder Pal Githa, who was declared as a proclaimed offender 26 years ago, was arrested on Wednesday by the police. According to the information available, Githa was declared a proclaimed offender in a case relating to the possession of 50 bottles of illicit liquor.

PATHANKOT
SEIZED: The division number 2 police has arrested Vikas Bhatia, son of Mr Jagdish Lal Bhatia, a resident of Kapoor Street, Amritsar, and seized a huge quantity of lotteries from him of Mizoram and Bhutan. The lotteries were banned in Punjab after the implementation of the Punjab State Lotteries Rules, 1998. A case under Section 7 of the Punjab State Lotteries Rules has been registered against the accused.

PATIALA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Vikas Colony Sudhar Sabha for the year 2000-2001: President — Mr Prem Chand; Vice-President —Mr R.P. Sood; General Secretary — Mr B.N. Chaudhary and Cashier — Mr Devinder Parkash Goel.

PHAGWARA
CLARIFICATION: The Phagwara Truck Operators Union has clarified that no office-bearer of the union or truck operator had been arrested as mentioned in these columns on Thursday.

PHILLAUR
SANCTIONED: The Railways has sanctioned a 35-km stretch of railway line between Taran Taran and Goindwal. Stating this Railways sources said here on Friday that the department proposed doubling of the railway line between Jalandhar and Jammu Tawi. They said railway bookings would be computerised at Udhampur-Palampur, Jalandhar cantonment and Dhandhari Kalan railway sections within the next six months.

RALLIES: The Bahujan Samaj Morcha will hold rallies in all 117 assembly constituencies after enrolling 1 lakh new members by the end of this month. This was stated here on Friday by the national president of the morcha, Mr Satnam Singh Kainth.

SAMRALA
“OPEN DARBAR”: An “open darbar” will be organised at Focal Point Mehdoodan here on Tuesday. The meeting will be presided over by the Chief Minister of Punjab. Mr Parkash Singh Badal, This was stated here, on Wednesday by Mr Kirpal Singh Khirnian, member SGPC.

ELECTED: Mr Hardial Singh Gill has been unanimously elected as president of the Arhtiya Association of the grain market at Sahnewal. Earlier, Pandit Ram Sarup had resigned from the post on Wednesday.

TARN TARAN
DEAD: Mr O.P. Verma (65), a senior advocate and a former councillor, died here on Thursday. The cremation ceremony was attended by several lawyers and representatives of different political, social and religious organisations. The local judicial courts too remained closed for the second half to pay homage to the departed soul.

RALLY: Employees working in different Punjab Government departments such as Education, Health and the PSEB on a call given by the Punjab Mulazam Sanghrash Committee, organised a rally on Thursday at Chabal township against the latest government orders to recover the border house rent (free accommodation) allowance received by the employees working in the border belt during the past couple of years.

CHANDIGARH

VIKRETA SANGH: Members of the Samachar Patar Vikreta Sangh, Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula, at a general body meeting held on Friday evening decided to support the hartal of the Chandigarh Coordination Committee of Newspapers and News Agencies Employees Union on May 8, according to Mr R.K. Sharma, General Secretary.

AGITATION PLANNED: The Citco Workers Union has decided to launch agitation against the privatisation of Hotel Shivalikview. This was decided at the executive meeting of the union here on Thursday. The meeting took serious note of the anti-employee and anti-people policies of the Chandigarh Administration.

SESSIONS JUDGE: The new District and Sessions Judge, Mr H.S. Bhalla, on Friday assumed office. Mr Bhalla, earlier posted at Bathinda as the District and Sessions Judge, is replacing Mr B.S. Bedi who retired earlier. Judicial Magistrates (1st class) and the UT Additional District and Sessions Judges called on the new DSJ to welcome him. He was also greeted by some members of the UT District Bar Association along with its President N.K. Nanda.

TALENT AWARD: Himjeet Singh Bains, a student of DAV College, has been awarded the All-India Talent Scholarship Award by the International Children’s Excellence Fund. Himjeet was awarded for his performance while at Shivalik Public School in 1998. He is also a winner of the National Talent Search Examination and the All-India Talent Scholarship Award.

PANCHKULA
FLAYED: The House Owners Welfare Association of Sector 10 has condemned the removal of the wall of some houses by the Estate Office. A press note said that house numbers 238 to 246, 460 to 486, 517 to 543, 583 and 626 are low-lying. The toe walls protected their houses from flooding in the rainy season. — TNS

SAS NAGAR
WORLD PRESS: The local Press Club has organised a function to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Mr Bhupinder Singh, President of the club, said the freedom of Press was under threat from the corrupt people and the mafia. He sought high-level committees to be constituted by the government to take care of freedom of press.

HARYANA

AMBALA
CAMPAIGN: A traffic awareness campaign involving school children will be undertaken here from May 10 to 24. The Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Ram Niwas, said that during the fortnight, about 125 students of Classes X to 12 from Ambala city and Ambala cantonment will be given detailed information about traffic rules and regulations and in turn they would inform the people.

HISAR
BODY FOUND: The body of an unidentified man aged about 50 years was found near the Balak village crossing, about 20 km from here, on Thursday. It is suspected that the deceased had consumed some poisonous substance. The body has been brought to the Civil Hospital here for a post-mortem examination.

POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The Sadar police has arrested Jeet Singh, a resident of Kishangarh in Moga, and seized 15 kg poppy husk from his possession. He was arrested on Thursday at Gangwa village near here. The Barwala police has arrested Ajmer Singh and Dharamvir of Panihari village and seized 30 kg of poppy husk from their possession. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

KAITHAL
SUSPENDED: Two officials of the District Public Relations Office here have been suspended by the Director, Public Relations, Haryana. According to the information available, Mr Sat Pal Vashishtha, District Publicity Organiser, and Mr Ravinder, a clerk posted here, have been put under suspension and asked to report for duty at the Chandigarh head office. The suspension orders are reported to have been issued following an inquiry report submitted by Mr Ramesh Ahuja, Joint Director (Field), Public Relations Department.

YAMUNANAGAR
CAMPAIGN: A special campaign was launched in the Operation Circle, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) here during the past month. Mr R.S. Nandwani, Superintending Engineer, said here on Thursday that seals on about 25,000 meters had been fixed during the campaign. It was estimated that about 40,000 meters of domestic and non-domestic consumers were still without seals and these would be sealed within the next two months. Mr Nandwani said during the extensive checking of meters, 69 cases of power theft were detected during March and April, 2000, and a penalty of Rs 5.69 lakh was collected in these cases.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Prabhandhak Committee Lal Dwara, Jagadhri Road, Yamunanagar: president — Mr Pooran Chand Mehta; senior vice-president — Mr Sat Pal Arora; vice-president — Mr Lalji Ram Thakur; general secretary — Mr Surjit Mehta; and treasurer — Mr Pishori Lal Handa.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
DENIAL: Ms Vinod Chandel, state president of the Mahila Wing of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) has categorically denied that there has been any division in the state body of the HVC. She said the office-bearers like Mr O.P. Rattan, working president, and Mr Inder Singh Thakur, state president of the HVC, had been constitutionally elected.

SHIMLA
DHARNA: The Himachal pradesh University Teachers Association on Wednesday staged a dharna in front of the VC’s office to protest against the government’s “callousness” towards their demands. The executive committee of the association took a serious view of the non-payment of arrears according to the revised scale which were due since January, 1996. The notification regarding the payment of arrears was issued in November.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the HPSEB Draughtsman Association, Capital zone, Shimla: president — Mr D.S. Kashyap; vice-president — Mr Shobha Ram; zonal secretary — Mr Jaswant Singh; joint secretary-cum-press secretary — Mr Satish Arya; finance secretary — Mr Baldev Singh Verma; chief advisor — Mr M.I. Ansari; and auditor — Mr Ram Singh.

WORKSHOP: A four-day workshop on “Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation” began here on Thursday under the District Primary Education Programme. Inaugurating the workshop, Mr Rajiv Sharma, State Programme Director, said the evaluation of students should be such as would bring out their strengths and weaknesses. He underlined the need for introducing grading system at the primary level.

SOLAN
CONCLUDED: A two-day “Orientation programme and hands-on training on accreditation” aimed at improving the educational standards in agricultural universities concluded here on Thursday. The Deputy Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dr S.L. Mehta, said the council would be allocating Rs 150 crore to the agricultural universities as onetime grant for strengthening the infrastructure by renovating and remodelling existing buildings and replacing obsolete equipment with a modern one.