R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATHINDA
TEACHERS UNION: The Unemployed ETT Teachers Union on Wednesday criticised the policies being adopted by the government regarding the recruitment of primary teachers. In a press note here, Mr Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi, president of the union (Malwa zone), urged the authorities concerned to wipe out the ‘sikhia karmi’ scheme and demanded that only ETT qualified candidates should be considered for ETT posts. The condition of 20 marks for interview in the ETT entrance test should be reviewed.

DHURI
GANG BUSTED: The local police has busted a five-member gang of robbers. Mr Ranbir Singh, DSP, said in a press note the leader of the gang Sahib Gurubir Singh, alias Shahabi, and three of his accomplices were arrested by the Amargarh police and two stolen cars besides two pistols were recovered from them. A case has been registered under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
INAUGURATION: The computerised driving licence system in the local District Transport Office was inaugurated by Mr B.S. Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, on Wednesday. Mr Malwinder Singh Jaggi, DTO, told mediapersons the district had stood second in the state in collection of revenue from the transport sector.

LUDHIANA
BOOK FAIR : Scholastic India organised a children’s book fair on Wednesday at the local Lakshmi Ladies Club with a view to promoting reading among children by exposing them to a range of attractive and interesting books. Scholastic India produces a range of books, magazines, activity programmes, videos and software to serve the needs of children in their early years before they enter regular school.

MALERKOTLA
ANTI-ENCROACHMENT DRIVE: A massive anti-encroachment drive has been undertaken by the administration and the municipal committee here. Encroachments were removed from the Sirhandi Gate, Jarag chowk, Mandi road and the bus stand area. However, shopkeepers and other affected persons said the permanent structures constructed by persons having political patronage were hardly touched by the demolition squads.

APPOINTED: Mr Sayed Mumtaj Ahmed Shah appointed chairman of the local Improvement Trust for two years at a function held here on Wednesday. Mr Nusrat Ikram Khan Bagga, Cabinet minister, SDM Jaspal Singh Jassi and DSP Surinder Singh Saini were also present on the occasion.

NAWANSHAHR
ARRESTED: The local police on Tuesday conducted raids at two video centres here and arrested owners Vijay Kumar and Narinder Sharma and seized 14 blue films video cassettes from them. A case under Section 292 has been registered against them.

PATIALA
COMMITTEE: A high-level committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Mr K.S. Kang, Municipal Commissioner, to oversee the bottlenecks affecting the flow of traffic near the Rajpura Chungi and the main bazars of the city. The committee will also go into the encroachments made on the Patiala-Rajpura road by truck operators which create a big obstacle in the free flow of traffic on this busy highway. The committee, constituted on the orders of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, will be submitting its report within 10 days. The other members of the committee include the Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department (B and R), officials of the District transport Office and the district traffic police.

PHILLAUR
DETAINED: The police took into custody about 100 Communist activists on Thursday who were trying to block traffic on the G.T. Road here. The agitators who were raising anti-government slogans were taken to the local police station.

ROPAR
SPEED POST: The Deputy Commissioner , Mr G.S. Grewal, inaugurated speed post services at the Head Post Office here. The postal authorities present on the occasion informed that the speed post facilities would be extended to the District Post Office soon.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Panchayati Raj (PR) Class-I Engineers Association: president- Mr Satish Chawla; general secretary- Mr Mohinder Pal; and vice- president- Mr Kuldip Singh Garcha.

PROTEST: The ETT candidates held a protest march and sat on a dharna in front of the local secretariat on Wednesday against the decision of the Punjab Government to consider B.Ed. candidates for the recently advertised primary teachers’ posts. Mr Avneet Chada, general secretary of Unemployed Elementary Teachers Union alleged Mr Tota Singh, Education Minister, Punjab, had gone back on the assurance given to the ETT candidates on January 16, 2000. He had said the government would not consider B.Ed. candidates for these posts. However, now the B.Ed. candidates have been asked to apply for the posts.

SAMRALA
CONDEMNED: Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, General Secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, talking to reporters here on Thursday, strongly condemned the brutal police lathi charge on farmers and women at Chandigarh who were protesting against the land acquisition for Anandgarh.

CHANDIGARH

TRAINING: A one-day training workshop on the family health awareness campaign was organised for the benefit of opinion leaders by the Citizens Awareness Group in collaboration with the AIDS Control Society at SC and ST Youth Welfare Dharamshala, Ram Darbar, Phase II, here on Thursday. As many as 50 volunteers attended the workshop. The key speakers were Dr N.M. Sharma, Project Director, AIDS Control Society, UT Ms Amrit Ahluwalia, NGO Adviser, Dr Vandana Dewan and Dr Ajit Saroa. The main object of the workshop is to create awareness about family health programmes among the youth and social workers of the Ram Darbar area.

COMPLAINT: Seven tenants of a house owned by a CSIO employee at Burail village have lodged a complaint with the police alleging that their landlord had been overcharging them for both water and electricity. The tenants alleged that the landlord had hiked the water tariff by 50 per cent and similarly he was overcharging them for power supply without even providing the desired quality of supply. The complainants include Mr Kuldip Singh, Mr Ashok Kumar, Mr Manjit Singh, Mr Shiv Partap and Mr Rakesh Kumar.

HOSTEL FACILITIES: The Jat Sabha has decided to extend hostel facilities to the students from rural areas at Jat Bhavan, Sector 27-A. Stating this here on Wednesday, Mr M.S. Malik, President of the sabha, said that the decision had been taken in the wake of problems faced by rural students who came to the city for studies. He also informed that the annual general body meeting and election to the new managing committee of the sabha would he held on May 25 at in Jat Bhavan.

SAS NAGAR
BEAUTY CARE: A book on beauty care, Solah Shingaar, was released by Jointa Doda, President of the Chandigarh Models Association and Choreographer, here on Thursday. The book has been authored by Sunita Mehra, first beautician instructor of the Nehru Yuva Kendra, Jammu. Sunita Mehra said she was willing to give free training to handicapped persons who were interested in learning the skills. — FOC

HARYANA

AMBALA
FREE UNIFORMS: Free uniforms for students belonging to the weaker sections of society were distributed in S.D. Kanya Mahavidyalaya by the President of the Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Prof Tara Chand. While addressing the students, Prof Tara Chand said that there were parents who could send their wards to public schools and our traditional schools were serving the cause of education to the weaker section of society, a release said. The convenor of the Students Aid Committee, Ms Kanta Gupta, said that more students would be given uniforms in the near future.

GATHERING: The Senior Vice-President of the Kisan Cell of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Randhir Chaudhary, said on Thursday that hectic preparations were on for the farmers’ gathering to take place at Hisar on June 20. Mr Chaudhary said: “We are making all arrangements to ensure that the gathering of farmers is a success.” He said that various issues concerning the farmers would be deliberated upon at the gathering.

HISAR
PETTY CASES: Eighteen pending petty criminal cases were settled at a special court held inside the local Central Jail on Wednesday by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sanjeev Aggarwal. Fourteen suspects were released . This was the third such court held here following directions of the apex court to settle these cases expeditiously.

JHAJJAR
SALES TAX : The Excise and Taxation Department detected two cases of sales tax evasion involving Rs 6 lakh near Sampla village on Wednesday. Fine amounting to Rs 2.50 lakh was realised on the spot.

SONEPAT
CASE SOLVED: The Kharkhauda police on Thursday claimed to have solved a case of theft of a truckload of coal worth Rs 5 lakh on Sunday by arresting Narinder of Pehladpur Kiroli village and Mehtab, alias Papoo, of Asoda village. SSP K.P. Singh told mediapersons here that the truck which belonged to Ashok of Rohtak was found missing from Pai village. The FIR was lodged by the truck driver Dayanand.

ARRESTED: The Gohana police has arrested two of the three culprits, identified as Bijendra of Busana village and Surat Singh of Aahar village, who made an attempt to loot Rs 2.90 lakh on pistol-point from Mr Ved Prakash, a trader from Gohana, on Wednesday.

CASE REGISTERED: The city police has registered a case against an SDO and a contractor of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB) on the charge of using substandard materials in the construction of a road between Atlas Cycle Industries Limited and Milton Cycle Industries Limited. However, no arrest has been made in this regard.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
ELECTED: Mr K.K. Gupta has been elected president of the district unit of the BJP here , according to a spokesman of the party.

NAHAN
ELECTED: Mr Daleep Singh has been elected President of the district unit of the BJP in poll held at Rajgarh on Wednesday. He defeated his nearest rival Mr Baldev Singh Bhandari by eight votes.

RALLY: The District Congress Committee organised a protest rally here on Thursday to register its protest against price hike and the "anti-people" policies of the state government. Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and state Congress President Sat Mahajan led the procession up to the Deputy Commissioner’s office where they gave a memorandum to him.

SOLAN
FOUNDATION STONE: Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal laid the foundation stone of a Rs 42.78 lakh Primary Health Centre at Bhumti, 70 km from here, on Tuesday. He assured that his government would accord top priority to neglected areas situated in remote and far-flung parts of the state. Mr Dhumal also presided over the annual function of Government Senior Secondary School , Bhumti. Referring to local demands, Mr Dhumal said Rs 2.8 crore had been sanctioned for the construction of Jabbal-Ukhi-Malkola road under a NABARD scheme.