R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
DRESS CODE: The Sikh Chintak Manch has appreciated the introduction of a “dress code” by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, which bans the wearing of skirts and caps by Sikh girls and boys while paying obeisance at gurdwaras in Delhi. The manch has urged the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, to introduce the same dress code in gurdwaras under its management.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punjab-aided Schools Pensioners Cell: president — Mr Prithvi Raj Sareen; and general secretary — Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman.

BARNALA
FLAGGED OFF: Mr Deepak Raj Garg, District Transport Officer, Sangrur, and Mr Rahul Bhandari, subdivisional Magistrate, Barnala, flagged off nine truckloads of food items and seven Tata Sumos of the local Shiv Seva Sangh to participate in the sixth vishal bhandara for pilgrims of Amarnath yatra from Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Chowk on Thursday. Mr Bhandari said the food items sent were worth Rs 21 lakh.

FARIDKOT
SEMINAR: Dr Arun Kumar Oroan, SSP, Faridkot, has asked all educational institutions to form teams of students to help the police in controlling traffic during the vacation. He was speaking at the fourth traffic awareness seminar at the local Government Girls Senior Secondary School on Thursday. The police in collaboration with the district administration had constituted committees at the subdivisional level to remove encroachments to ensure smooth plying of vehicles in the district, he added.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
POLLUTION CAMP: A free pollution check-up camp was organised by the Citizens Club, Bassi Pathana, here on Thursday. Mr M.S. Jaggi, DTO, inaugurated the camp. Mr Jaggi said such camps would be organised in all districts with the help of social organisations. He also urged the drivers to get their vehicles checked regularly to avoid pollution. Mr Kuldeep Malhotra, president of the club, highlighted the achievements of the club.

GURDASPUR
THIKRI PEHRA: All eligible adults in the district living in rural areas will give thikri pehra during the rainy season and will do patrolling at night. They will inform the flood control room here about the flood situation in the Ravi and the Beas. Orders passed earlier to impose dusk-to-dawn curfew within 500 meters of the border will not apply to persons giving thikri pehra.

KAPURTHALA
NOMINATED: Mr Ashok Behal and Mrs Rupinder Kaur Jhita, both Councillors, have been nominated members of the local Improvement Trust by the Punjab Government according to Mr Om Parkash Behal, chairman of the trust.

SEMINAR: A seminar is being organised by the district unit of the Kirti Kisan Union, here on July 19 to educate people regarding the entry of foreign goods into India and the “exploitation” of the farm sector according to Mr Balwinder Singh Bajwa, state general secretary of the union.

KHANNA
RECRUITMENT: An open recruitment rally of the Army for Ludhiana, Ropar, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts will be organised from July 15 to 21 at the local A.S. College for Boys. The recruitment will be held for the posts of sepoy and technician.

ONE ARRESTED: The Khanna police arrested Sunil Gupta of Delhi, who was wanted in a case registered at the local police station, here on Wednesday for forcibly entering the house of Mr Ravinder Kumar along with four other persons and demanding cash and valuables at gun point. The other four are still at large.

MALERKOTLA
ESSAY COMPETITION: The local branch of the Bharat Vikas Parishad organised an essay-writing competition for school students here on Thursday. Mr Vinod Sharma, president of the parishad, said the winners would be honoured at a function on July 16.

THEFT: Five ceiling fans, science equipment and other items were stolen from the Government Middle School, Hussainpura, on Thursday. The school authorities have informed the police.

NAWANSHAHR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Sri Banke Bihari Gaushala Committee: chairman — Mr Jai Gopal Bhucher; vice-chairman — Mr Inderjit Sareen; president — Mr R.C. Sareen; general secretary — Mr K.D.Sareen; joint secretary — Mr Sham Murari Laroyia, cashier — Mr Gopal Sharma.

ASSOCIATION: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Baba Sain Bhagat Welfare Association: chairman — Mr R.M.Kohli; president — Mr Madan Lal Kapoor; vice-president — Mr Bal Kishan Balli; general secretary — Mr Harish Kumar Mukandpur and cashier — Mr Pawan Kumar Chandla.

PROMOTIONS: A deputation of the Punjab State General Category Welfare Federation under the presidentship of Mr Sham Lal Sharma, met Mr Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Dr Upinderjit Kaur, Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, Mr Ajit Singh Kohar , Mr Jagjit Singh Garcha (all ministers), Mr R.S.Mann, Chief Secretary and Mr Jarnail Singh Wahid, member of the SS Board, at Chandigarh on Thursday to express their resentment over the meeting of the ministers and bureaucrats, belonging to the Scheduled Castes, with Mr Parkash Singh Badal to press him not to implement the Supreme Court’s verdict regarding quota promotions given in the Ajit Singh Janjua case.

PATHANKOT
CONVICTED: Mr Karnail Singh, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) on Wednesday convicted nine persons under Sections 326, 325 and 452, IPC, to rigorous imprisonment for two-and-a-half years each and imposed a fine on them.

CHANDIGARH

ALLEGED: As many as 163 government allottees, who were allotted houses on June 23, have alleged that they had not been given electricity connections by the UT Electricity Department. In a press note here on Wednesday, they alleged that this was despite the security deposited by them. In addition, there were no switchboards in the houses, they alleged.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been installed as the office-bearers of the Lions Club, Chandigarh Plaza: President — Mr Bhaskar Arya; Secretary — Mr Virender Gulati; PRO — Mr Jaswant Dhawan; and Treasurer — Mr Sudarshan Goel.

AUDIT BODY: The following will be the new office-bearers of the Haryana Civil Audit Association: President — Mr Arvind Pathak; General Secretary — Mr Narender Singh Mehta; Vice-President — Mr Prem Singh; Joint Secretary — Mr Kuldeep Kumar; Organising Secretary — Ms Chander Prabha Malik; Auditor — Mr Jai Bhagwan; and Treasurer — Mr Harbhajan Singh.

PANCHKULA
MARKET 'NEGLECTED': Members of the Beopar Sangh have expressed dissatisfaction with the parking lot in the Sector 11 market which has not been carpeted in spite of the opening of shops. The situation is more lamentable during the rainy season with bushes growing all over the place, making entry to the shops impossible for the shop owners and customers. A delegation led by Mr Shyam Lal Gupta, President of the Sangh, met the Administrator, HUDA, requesting the development of the parking lot. The Administrator asked the men concerned to look into the matter but no work on this has been initiated, they contended.

REMOVED: The Enforcement Wing of the Haryana Urban Development Authority removed encroachments from the residential area in Sector 15, here on Wednesday. Accompanied by the police and a bulldozer, 50 men of the wing removed illegal constructions in the operation which lasted the entire day.

SAS NAGAR
COMPLAIN: Mr Ghyan Sham, a candidate from Ward no. 3 in the forthcoming elections to the SAS Nagar Municipal Council, has complained to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) that certain other prospective candidates in the ward were adopting unethical practises to get his name deleted from the voter list. Talking to mediapersons he said that another prospective candidate had filed objections against his vote. He said all the necessary documents proving that he was a resident of the area had been submitted to the ERO.

HARYANA

FATEHABAD
MUSHROOM FARMING: The Haryana government has made an ambitious plan to encourage mushroom farming in the state. The state government would not only provide quality seeds to farmers but also impart training to them. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik, told mediapersons here on Thursday that the Agriculture Research and Development Institute at Murthal (Sonepat) had been developing quality seeds for the mushroom growers and would provide 100 tonnes of quality seed to the farmers every year. He said a mushroom mela would be organised by the institute from July 24 to July 26.

PANIPAT
FOOD SAMPLES: The Health Department, Panipat, took five samples of food items in June which were sent to the laboratory for testing. Disclosing this, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M.R. Anand, said Azab Singh of Dadhola village, Ram of Kachroli and Surinder Singh of Budhshyam were sentenced to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 each was imposed on them as their milk samples were found adulterated.

ENCROACHMENTS: In pursuance of the government orders, the district administration has launched a drive to remove encroachments on panchayat land here, the Deputy Commissioner, Panipat, Mr M.R. Anand, said encroachments on 1,200 acres of panchayat land had already been removed, which would bring additional revenue to panchayats, he added.

ROHTAK
CONDEMNED: The District Congress Committee (Rural) president, Prof Virender Singh, has condemned the Centre’s silence on the developments in Fiji. He said on Thursday that although Mr Mahendra Chaudhry and his associates had been freed, yet the government did not do anything, but remained a silent spectator. he said the government’s stand had developed a “feeling of insecurity” among other non-resident Indians and had exposed its foreign policy.

SIRSA
MURDER CASE: The Makani murder case has been handed over to the CIA cell of the police. Police sources said on Friday that the district police chief, Mr K.K. Mishra, handed over the file of the case to Mr Rajender Singh of the CIA cell as no clue of the culprit had been found so far. Kamal Makani, son of a nurse, was found dead on a road to Dadu village, 6 km from Kalanwali, on July 4.

SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr C.B. Jaglar, has sentenced the owner of a public fair price shop to one-year imprisonment. According to information received on Friday, Mr Mahinder Singh, Inspector, Food and Civil Supplies Department, had raided the depot of Bahadur Ram of Ward 13 in Dabwali in September, 1996, and found the stock nil on his register while there were 148 litres of kerosene in his shop besides 440 litres in two drums outside his shop. A case was registered under the Essential Commodity Act. The judge found the depot holder guilty and punished him.

SONEPAT
WATER SUPPLY: Almost the entire Sonepat city with a population of nearly 2 lakh remained without water on Thursday following the damage to the main reservoir by a bull-dozer near Murthal village. However, the water supply was restored on Friday.

DEMONSTRATION: Residents of Dera Bagar village, led by Mrs Krishna Hooda, president, Mahila wing, HVP, staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Thursday in protest against the erratic power and water supply in the village. They also submitted a memorandum to the DC.

RESENTMENT: Resentment prevails among Dalits of Bari village against the non-replacement of a transformer by the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam. They alleged that there was no electricity in their houses for the past two weeks and the authorities had failed to replace the transformer in spite of repeated complaints.

BODY RECOVERED: The Kharkhauda police on Friday recovered the body of a jeep driver, Anand Kumar, from a pond at Kirohli-Pehladpur village and sent it for a post-mortem believing it to be a case of murder. The police has registered a case. However, no arrest has been made in this connection.

YAMUNANAGAR
2 KILLED: The driver of a truck, Nepal Singh, died in a head-on collision between the truck and a tractor-trolley near Pansara village, about 5 km from here, on Friday. In a hit-and-run-case, Joginder was crushed to death by a vehicle near Brahman Khera village in Yamunanagar district. The deceased was a resident of Malikpur Bangar village near here. A case has been registered.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

SUNDERNAGAR
OLD TEMPLES: The Mandi Journalists Association has urged the Governor, Mr Vishnukant Shastri, to help save old temples of the district which are of great archaeological importance. They alleged that some miscreants had tried to disfigure the structures of old temples.