R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
CONDOLENCE: Bibi Jagir Kaur, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, on Monday condoled the death of Arjun Singh, father of Mr Harbhajan Singh Halwarvi, Editor, Punjabi Tribune, and expressed sympathy with the bereaved family members.

THEFT: A theft reportedly took place at the residence of Mr Bhagat Singh in the New Golden Avenue area near the bus stand here on Sunday when he and his family were out of the house. t of the house. The thieves decamped with gold jewellery worth Rs 1.7 lakh and Rs 30,000. An FIR has been lodged in the Rambagh police station.

RURAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE: Guru Nanak Dev University has established its first rural university, Ram Singh Pathania College at Niari ( Dhar Block) village, 35 km from Pathankot. The Minister for Higher Education, Punjab, laid the foundation stone of this college recently.

LUDHIANA
RESENTED: The Fastener Manufacturers Association of India has strongly resented the move by the Punjab State Electricity Board to effect an increase in the power tariff for industry and other categories of consumers. The FMAI Chairman, Mr Mohinder Pal Jain, said in a statement on Tuesday that the state government had forgotten its commitment to the representatives of industry that burden of free power supply to farm sector would not be put on other categories of consumers, including the industry, and there would be no hike in tariff on this account. He also charged the State Government with neglecting the industry, which was passing through a severe crisis due to demand recession and various other factors. Maintaining that the industry, facing an acute financial crunch, was not in a position to absorb any more burden in the shape of a tariff hike, Mr Jain said the industrial units would be ruined if the government and the PSEB went ahead with the proposed hike.

ALLEGED HARASSMENT: Ghumar Mandi shopkeepers have alleged harassment at the hands of traffic police by way of indiscriminate challans of vehicles parked in front of their shops. Mr Narinder Singh Makkar, Vic-President of the Ghumar Mandi Central Shopkeepers Association, said on Tuesday that in the absence of adequate parking provision for a large number of vehicles of shopkeepers and customers, the traffic police resorted to massive challaning of vehicles and the step was proving a big deterrent to customers visiting one of the premier commercial centres in the city. Mr Makkar said the mess was created by the civic authorities as many of the commercial complexes that had come up in Ghumar Mandi were sanctioned without making provisions for parking places. He said the authorities should make arrangements for parking of vehicles in the area and till then, the shopkeepers and the customers should be spared the harassment by traffic police.

MOURNED: Prominent Congress and Youth Congress activists in the city on Tuesday have mourned the death of former union minister and senior party leader Rajesh Pilot in a tragic road accident on Sunday. In separate statements, the District Youth Congress President Mr Pawan Diwan, and senior party functionaries Mr Parminder Mehta and Mr Sukhwant Singh Dugri termed the death of Pilot as an irreparable loss to the party and the nation. They said in the death of Pilot, people of Punjab in general and the farming community in particular had lost a true friend.

MALERKOTLA
YOGA CLASSES: A free yoga education unit was opened here on Sunday in the premises of the Government College by the Bharatiya Yoga Sansthan. A sansthan spokesman Dr Satish Kapoor, told the mediapersons that the classes would be held regularly.

CLOSURE FEARED: The brick-kiln industry is the only industry in the country to witness an 82 per cent increase in the sales tax in a span of just 18 months. This was disclosed by Mr Kamlesh Kumar Longowalia, district president, Brick-Kiln Owners Association. He said in a press note that the government had imposed a royalty of Rs 45 per 1000 bricks and hiked the annual licence fee from Rs 100 to 2000 and security fee from Rs 2500 to Rs 10000. The Mining Officer has issued a notice to all brick-kiln owners to deposit the royalty failing which action would be taken against them. He said that almost all brick-kilns were on verge of closure. He said that owners were sore over the decision and have decided to go on an indefinite strike from July 1.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Malerkotla Welfare Association: president — Mr Bimal Pahuja; vice-president — Mr Naseem Anwar Khan; general secretary —Mr Munish Jindal; finance secretary — Mr Rakesh Jindal and secretary — Mr Jeet Kumar Gogia.

APPOINTED: The Punjab Government has appointed Mr Avtar Singh Medavi as Chairman and Hazi Mohammed Ismail Rahi as Vice-Chairman of the Market Committee Malerkotla.

MOGA
POLICE STATIONS: Various police stations in the district at present are without a telephone connection for the past several weeks. According to the Telecommunication Department, the telephone connections of these police stations have been disconnected as they did not pay their bills. According to reports the telephone connections of Moga city police station, the police station of Division Number two here and also of Ghalkalan police stations have been disconnected.

PESTICIDES: Pesticides used for killing rats by farmers in the fields in this district were found spurious . Farmers told mediapersons here on Monday that the pesticides had no effect on the rodents similar was the case in respect of other insecticides and certain other medicines used for spraying crops which were also found to be spurious.

NAWANSHAHR
COUPLE KILLED: Jang Singh and Paramjit Kaur of Dera Bassi died on the spot and their daughters Varinderjit Kaur and Maninder Kaur were severely injured when their Maruti car banged into a tree near Jeendowal village on the Nawanshahr-Jalandhar main road on Sunday.

WATER COOLER: The local unit of Sri Ram Shrnam organisation installed a water cooler at bus stand here to provide drinking water facility to public. Mr Davinder Singh Sandhu, General Manager, Punjab Roadways, Nawanshahr unit, inaugurated it on Monday.

GOVT FLAYED: The local unit of the PWD Field and Workers Union, Punjab, at a meeting here on Monday, criticised the state government for its dilly dallying attitude towards daily wage workers whose services were not being regularised despite assurances. They also alleged that the salaries, uniforms and tools etc were not being provided properly to them. A state-level rally would be organised at Banur on June 20 to protest against this, said Mr Bhajan Dass, general secretary of the union.

PATIALA
CARDIOLOGIST: Dr Dhiraj Gupta, a cardiologist working at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, has been invited at the 35th annual scientific meeting of the Association of European, Paediatric Cardiology to be held in Strasbourg, France, from June 14 to 17. His research paper dealing with mechanical prosthetic valve replacement in small children will be presented at the meeting. Dr Gupta, who hails from Patiala, is an alumnus of the PGI, Chandigarh, and AIIMS, New Delhi.

PHAGWARA
BODY IDENTIFIED: The body of a youth found on the Palahi road here on May 29 has been identified as that of Sandeep Chadha (22) of Phagwara. The police has registered a case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC. Sandeep was a student of a polytechnic and had gone to attend college on May 28.

EX-DSP BOOKED: A case of cheating and criminal intimidation has been registered under Sections 420 and 506 of the IPC against Mr Gurmit Singh, a retired DSP. Mr Gurmit Singh, in collusion with a travel agent, had allegedly defrauded Charanjit Singh of Rs 65,000 promising to send him abroad. Charanjit was neither sent abroad nor was the amount returned to him.

TARN TARAN
RAPE ATTEMPT: Gurmeet Singh of Kot Siwian village under the Chabal police station was booked under Sections 376, 511 and 506 of the IPC for allegedly attempting to rape a teenaged girl of the same village.

BOOKED: The local police has registered a case under Sections 304B and 34 of the IPC against Hardeep Singh, husband of Kashmir Kaur (25) who was burnt to death on Friday at the local Fatehchack Colony. Kashmir Kaur’s father-in-law, Jaimal Singh, and mother-in-law, Narinder Kaur, have also been booked. The case was registered on a complaint of Kashmir Kaur’s father who alleged that his daughter’s in-laws were demanding more dowry and burnt her.

CHANDIGARH

WORKSHOP: A personality development workshop for youngsters will be held in the city by ‘Chisel’, — a division of Tuff Track International Limited. It will be a five-day workshop scheduled from June 19 to 23. The classes will be held at Commonwealth Youth Programme, Asia Centre, Sector 12.

CONTEST: The Chandigarh Institute of Performing Arts (CIPA) will organise a dance competition “Disco Dewane — 2000” at Tagore Theatre here on June 25. The competition will be open to all young talented dancers. Selected dancers will also be recommended for the Tara channel.

CPWD: The following have been elected office-bearers of the CPWD Junior Engineers Association: president — Mr V.K. Sharma; vice-president — Mr L.D. Ghera; joint secretaries — Mr Jagdeep Rai and Mr Shree Pal; secretary — Mr Rakesh Bhambi; and treasurer — Mr B K Sharma.

TOPPER: Shakil Ahmed, a student of Kendriya Vidayalaya, Sector 31, has topped the school in matriculation examination conducted by the CBSE by scoring 91 per cent marks.

EXPEDITION: An expedition of the Chandigarh Adventurers Association has returned to the city after climbing Mt Kala Nag (6387 mts) in the Garhwal Himalayas. The team comprised of Mr Ravinder Kumar, Mr Raj Kumar, and Mr Member Singh, who also hosted the Tricolour atop the peak.

ELECTED: Lion Rajinder Bansal, Lion R.K. Sharma and Lion Sushil Goyal has been elected as region Chairman, Region Secretary and Region PRO. of the Region I district 321-F of the Lion Clubs International by the District Governor, Lion Dr N.K. Grover, for the year 2000-2001.

HARYANA

AMBALA
MP VISITS VILLAGES : Mr Ratan Lal Kataria, MP, Ambala, is on a tour of villages lying within his parliamentary constituency. As part of the tour, among others, Mr Kataria visited Malwa, Nurpur, Dhanoudi, Dhanouda, Shahpur, Khojkipur, Boh, Babyal and Kardhan villages and promised to start various projects in the villages, including building of school rooms, setting up of drinking water facility and construction of Panchayat ghar, a press note said.

HISAR
HELD: The local police arrested six gamblers from the Model Town area here on Monday while gambling on a public place and seized Rs 49,700 from them. The arrested persons are Jai Bhagwan, arrested persons are Jai Bhagwan, Sunil, Krishan, Satish, Satpal and Sanjeev Kakkar. A case under the Gambling Act has been registered against them.

JIND
BLOOD CAMP: As many as 325 persons donated blood at a camp organised by the Nirankari Mandal, Jind, in collaboration with the District Red Cross Society at Nirankari Satsang Bhavan, here on Sunday. Mr Hawa Singh Dhankhar, Deputy Commissioner, Jind, inaugurated the camp.

PANIPAT
RENOVATION: The 30-year-old mortuary of the Civil Hospital here will be renovated and extended soon. A proposal sent to the state government in this regard has been approved. The PWD is awaiting the funds to start the work. The renovated mortuary would be of 1,20,150 sq ft, area along with a blood bank of 226.50 sq ft total estimated cost of which would be Rs 43.44 lakh. Besides mortuary, a private ward of 10 rooms will also be constructed.

SONEPAT
ELECTED: Ms Rajwanti and Ms Parkash Devi were elected as the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, respectively of the Kharkhauda Panchayat Samiti of this district on Monday. Both the candidates were sponsored by the Indian National Lok Dal ( INLD).

POSTPONED: The election to the post of the President of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was postponed at a meeting of the district unit held here on Monday. The party will announce the fresh date for this election in a couple of days.

MEDICAL CAMP: Shree Sunderkaand Yajna will organise a one-day heart and diabetes check-up camp in the premises of the Mukhi Hospital and Heart Care Centre of this city on June 18. Dr Pradeep Mukhi, Director of the heart care centre, told mediapersons here on Tuesday that noted heart specialist from the National Heart Institute, Metro Hospital, Noida (UP) and Jaipur Golden Hospital, New Delhi, will examine the heart patients in this camp. Well-known diabetes specialist, Dr Rajeev Chawla of Maharaja Agarsen Hospital, Delhi and Dr Amrit Rawal, MD (Medicine), cardiologist and physician will also treat the patients.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
ALLEGED: Mr Vijender Chandel, Vice-President, Gram Panchayat, Behra Jattan village near here, has alleged that he was manhandled by a head constable on Sunday at Sadar Police Station here when he went to record his and some other witnesses statements regarding a complaint he had lodged a few days ago. He alleged that the head constable refused to record their statements under pressure of the accused persons, whom he had named in his complaint and who were also present at the police station. He and other village leaders, later met SP Atul Verma in this regard who deputed an ASP to inquire into the matter.

CHAMBA
MURDERED: Lachho, a resident of Pargana Badial in the Chamba district, was stabbed to death on Monday by Tek Chand, a resident of the same area, as his daughter Roshni has reportedly got married in the victim’s family in court against his will. According to the SP, Chamba , Mr R.M. Sharma , the accused Tek Chand surrendered himself to the police after murdering Lachho. He said a case under Section 302, IPC, had been registered.

SUICIDE: Varinder Kumar (30) of Gandhi Nagar here allegedly committed suicide by consuming poisonous sulphas tablets on Tuesday. He was rushed to the local Civil Hospital in a critical condition where he died after a short while. Marital dispute is stated to be the reason behind the suicide.

VISIT: The Parliamentary Committee on Urban and Rural Development headed by Chairman Anant G.Geeta, on Monday visited the 300-MW Chamera Hydroelectric Project (Stage-II) and expressed satisfaction on the progress which is ahead of schedule. The project is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1700 crore on the Ravi river in the district.

HAMIRPUR
ONE DEAD: Satish Kumar (40), a Junior Engineer in the Department of Irrigation-cum-Public Health, at Bararbath village near here, died following snake-bite on Monday. He was taken to Zonal Hospital here where he could not be saved and died later.