R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

DERA BASSI
CASH COLLECTION: The Punjab State Electricity Board has opened a cash collection centre for electricity bills at Mubarikpur village, about 2 km from here. The centre will start functioning from Monday and will serve thousands of consumers. Earlier, they had to travel a long distance to reach the PSEB subdivision office at Dera Bassi for the payment of electricity bills. Residents of Daffarpur, Kakrali, Kheri, More Thikeri, Mubarikpur, Mubarikpur Camp, Bhankharpur, Nimbuana, Meerpur, Sundran, Pandwala and other villages will use the facility. A notification has already been issued to the sarpanches of these villages. Residents of the area have expressed happiness over the opening of the cash collection centre.

HOSHIARPUR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Human Rights Cell (Hoshiarpur): president — Mr Gian Singh; vice-president — Mr Malkiat Singh; general secretary — Ms Pushpa Sharma; and treasurer — Mr Prem Nath.

KHANNA
ROBBERY BID: An attempt to loot the house of Varinder Kumar, a cloth merchant, was foiled by a resident of Mata Rani colony. According to the FIR, Sunil Gupta, a resident of Delhi, allegedly entered the house of Varinder and asked his wife and mother to hand over valuables at gun point. He was overpowered and handed over to the police by the resident. His accomplices, however, managed to escape.

MOGA
RESENTMENT: Residents of various villages in this district on Saturday protested against unannounced power breakdowns during past few weeks. Residents of Fatehgarh Panjtoor village, 30 km from here, on Sunday, said there was no power in the village for 22 hours on Saturday. Manjit Singh, a resident of the village said they had decided to stage demonstrations in front of the PSEB office.

PATIALA
PRICE HIKE: The Federation of Aarhti Association of Punjab urged the government to take immediate action against the hike in minimum support price for wheat from Rs 550 per quintal to Rs 580 this year. Expressing concern on the pathetic condition of wheat storage here, Mr Bal Krishan Singla, President of the federation, said the price hike and the paucity of storage facility would make the wheat stocks rot.

COMPUTERISED: The Police Department here is all set to be computerised. Computers have already been installed in the control room at Police Lines. All the data of the department, including the FIRs, will now be stored in computers. All officials are being trained for the purpose. The department is further planning to install computers in all police stations of the town.

OCTROI FLAYED: The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal has condemned the auction of octroi by the Punjab Government. In a press note issued by the mandal it was alleged that the government was controlling the Municipal Corporation as the elections to the body had not been held so far. The mandal said if the decision was not rolled back, it would organise a dharna in front of the MC office.

RAIDS: A furnance oil company in Mandi Gobindgarh was raided by the local Excise Department here and documents showing a purchase worth Rs 6 crore were seized. The owner was evading tax by not showing any sale on papers. Officials said the furnace oil was purchased by the owner from refineries in Panipat and Mathura and the sales were shown outside the state to shift tax liability. The owner was however selling the material in the state. As per a rough estimate, the minimum penalty in this case would be more than Rs 1.2 crore.

SANGRUR
GRANTS: At a function organised at Balian village on Saturday grants worth Rs 7 lakh, from the MP local area development fund of Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, were handed over to nine panchayats and authorities of a local school for developmental works. Mr Surinder Babbi, press secretary of the SAD (Amritsar), said grants were distributed by Mr Jeet Singh Alloarkh, president of district unit of the SAD(A), and other leaders of the Dal to the panchayats of Gurdaspur, Mangwal, Nanakpura, Balian, Thalesan, Khuraani, Rampura Basti, Akoi Sahib and Ganga Singh Wala.

SMALL SAVING GRANTS: Grants worth Rs 5 lakh have been given out of small savings award money to panchayats, educational institutions and youth clubs of this district by Mr Anirudh Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner. This was stated by Mr Mohan Sharma, District Savings Officer, here, on Saturday.

TARN TARAN
DISPUTE: On a complaint of Mr Harbinder Singh, a resident of Marhana village the local police has registered a case against Ajmer Singh, Gurbinder Singh Bachan Singh, a document writer and two others for making forged documents including, power of attorney to get five acre of land located at Rainwali village (Tohana), Haryana. Mr Harbinder Singh alleged that his first uncle, Ajmer Singh, a resident of Rainwali, village prepared forged documents in connivance with Bachan Singh and others to get five acre of their grandfather’s land situated at Rainwali village transferred in the name of his son Gurbinder Singh.

MEMORANDUM: The All-India Anti-Corruption Morcha submitted a memorandum to a local tehsildar against patwari Gurdail Singh, who had allegedly duped the department by appointing Babu Ram in his place. The morcha was headed by its joint secretary, Mr Hari Singh.

CASE REGISTERED: The local police has registered a case against the husband of Rakesh Kaur, Gurinder Singh, and her in-laws for allegedly torturing her for bringing insufficient dowry. Rakesh Kaur, a resident of Palasaur village, in a complaint lodged with the police on Friday said she got married to Gurinder Singh three years ago and was regularly tortured by her in-laws.

CHANDIGARH

AMARNATH YATRA: A 22-member contingent of the Tribune Group of Newspapers left for the Amarnath shrine on Saturday night. The yatra is being organised by the Shiv Shankar Seva Dal of Patiala.

HARYANA

KURUKSHETRA
ACCIDENT: A 12-year-old boy, Upkar Nath, was run over by a truck on the railway road here, on Saturday. The police has registered a case of rash driving and causing death due to negligence against the truck driver.

SIRSA
POWER THEFT: The local unit of the HVPN has detected 25 cases of power theft in Dwarkapuri. According to official sources, a team of HVPN employees headed by the SDO, Mr Jain, on Saturday found as many as 25 meters tampered in Dwarkapuri . Department has decided to hand over these cases to the police.

TWO ARRESTED: The district police has arrested two persons in connection with the killing that took place in the main bazar on Friday. According to police sources, Vikram Nai and Rakesh were arrested on Saturday on a complaint lodged by the brother of the victim, Nirmal Sharma, who worked at a shop in Rori bazar. The assailants stabbed him several times. Nirmal was taken to a hospital where he survived for about three hours. A case has been registered against the accused.

SONEPAT
STRIKE OBSERVED: A strike was observed by shopkeepers, along the old DC road, here on Saturday in protest against the non-laying of sewerage pipes for the past two months by the officials of Public Health Department. Shopkeepers also blocked the traffic.

ARRESTED: The local police arrested Madan Lal, a resident-of Brahm colony, on the charge of possessing charas, here, on Saturday.

INSPECTION: Mr Sultan Singh, SDO (C) along with other official inspected pumping out of the rain and storm water from various areas of Kharkhauda town, 19 km from here, on Saturday. He also warned the squatters to vacate the municipal and panchayat lands.

BURN INJURIES: A youth, Monu, sustained burn injuries when he came in contact with a live electric wire at Bandepur village, 3 km from here, on Saturday. He was immediately hospitalised and is stated to be out of danger.

RALLIES; The Haryana unit of the Centre of India Trade Unions (CITU) has decided to organise rallies and dharnas at all district headquarters on July 31 in support of its demands. Mr S.N. Solanki, president of the Haryana unit of the CITU, told mediapersons here on Sunday that their demands include withdrawal of hike in the prices of essential and rationed commodities and petroleum products, enforcement of all labour laws in the industrial units and increase in the wages of workers.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Bilaspur unit of the Himachal Government Teachers Union: president — Mr Roshan Lal Sharma; vice-president — Mr Dogra; general secretary — Mr Kuldeep Singh Bhaboria; joint secretary — Mr Jai Singh Thakur; and treasurer — Mr Badam Singh Chauhan.

SEMINAR: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jagdish Chander Sharma, has said the Department of Horticulture will organise a two-day exhibition and seminar here at Kisan Bhawan to popularise mango orchards in the district. Best mango growers will be given prizes.

HAMIRPUR
ITI INSTITUTE: An Industrial Training Institute will start functioning at Bhoranj in Hamirpur district by the end of this year. This was stated by Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman, HP Education Minister, while addressing a public meeting at Tikkeri Minhasan village, 30 km from here, on Saturday. The minister said the aim of the government was to provide job based education.

NAHAN
FLORICULTURE TECHNIQUES: The Deputy Commissioner of Sirmaur, Mr Rakesh Kaushal, has urged farmers of Mohron to adopt floriculture techniques to improve their livelihood. He said the government was providing loan of Rs 10,000 to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and Rs 7,500 to IRDP families for promoting floriculture. Mahipur, Panjahal, Nehli Dheera, Katah Sheetla panchayats had been selected to promote floriculture on large scale, he added.