BATHINDA
KILLED: Constable Balkar Singh died when the escort Gypsy in which he was travelling collided with a truck near Jeeda village, 30 km from here, on Saturday morning. Mr Gurbachan Singh, another constable, was injured. The truck driver absconded but the vehicle was impounded, police sources said.

PRESENTED: Mr Chiranji Lal Garg, Science and Technology Minister of Punjab, said the state government was making efforts for providing financial assistance to people. He was speaking at a programme organised at the local Kusht Ashram. He handed over a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the ashram.

FAZILKA
KILLED: Kashmir Chander (30), a resident of Tahliwala Bodla village, 12 km from here, was killed when his scooter was hit by a tractor-trailer on the Malout road on Friday. The Sadar police has registered a case.

DEAD: Charan Dass (45), a sweeper at the local Civil Hospital who had sustained serious burn injuries on August 27, died on Friday night. In his dying declaration he alleged that he had been set ablaze by his brothers-in-law, Raj and Pammi.

GURDASPUR
CLEANLINESS DRIVE: The local Rotary Club launched a cleanliness campaign at the main bazar here on Friday. Mr Rakesh Jyoti inaugurated it. About 24 dustbins were placed in the area and posters urging people to keep the area clean were distributed among the shopkeepers.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Rotary Club, Gurdaspur (mid-town): president — Prof Raj Kumar; Vice-presidents — Major S.S. Kondal and Prof S.S. Jaspal; secretary — Mr Jagdish Singh Dhillon; joint secretary — Mr Rajiv Dutt and treasurer — Dr Arvind Sharma.

HOSHIARPUR
INAUGURATED: Mr Iqbal Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, inaugurated a branch of Punjab National Bank at the SPN College premises, Mukerian, on Friday.

INAUGURATED: Mr Om Parkash Saini, general secretary, District Congress Committee, inaugurated the INTUC office here on Friday. Office-bearers of several trade unions were present on the occasion.

KHAMANO
ARRESTED: The main accused in the Gurpreet Singh kidnapping case, Sarabjit Singh, has been sent to jail. He along with three others had allegedly kidnapped Gurpreet Singh of Ria village, 8 km from here. The other accused have not yet been arrested by the police.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Lok Bhalai Party: president Ms Gurmit Kaur; general secretary — Ms Harbhajan Kaur; Vice-president — Ms Bakshish Kaur; and Ms Bachan Kaur; and senior vice-president Ms Pritam Kaur. 

KHANNA
TRACED: A boy who went missing under mysterious circumstances on Friday was traced on the same day by the local police. Rishwa, a son of Raj Kumar of Mohalla Inder Puri, went missing while playing near a park. Members of his family informed the police. 

LUDHIANA
WELCOME PARTY: The GGN Institute of Management and Technology organised a welcome party on Friday. All BBA and BCA freshers were invited on the stage to give their brief introduction which was followed by song, dance and choreography items by seniors. The main attraction of the day was the personality contest in which more than 30 freshers took part. Noor Chauhan of BBA was crowned Ms Personality and Vishal Chawla of BCA was chosen Mr Personality. The various parameters for selection were appearance, confidence and their ability to answer questions. Mr Kuldip Singh, Principal of the institute, encouraged the students for the efforts made by them. 

DECISION WELCOMED: Mr Sukhdial Singh, president, Ludhiana Machine Tool Makers Association (LMTMA), welcomed the decision of the government of announcing incentives to the small-scale industry. He appreciated the government for raising the excise exemption limit from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Mr Kirpal Singh Sagar, general secretary, LMTMA, urged the government to make provisions for giving subsidies to the small-scale industry for technology upgradation and modernisation. 

COMPETITION: The Life Insurance Corporation, Ludhiana division, has organised a painting competition at Guru Nanak International Public School as a part of celebrations of insurance week. More than 40 students from Class VI to Class VIII participated in the competition. Students painted beautiful landscapes. Ravinder Kaur of Class VIII was declared first, followed by Varinder Singh of Class VII and Manider Kaur of Class VIII. Mr Anil Gupta from the LIC was present on the occasion. 

CAMP: Sambhav, a social work organisation, will organise a vaccination camp for prevention of hepatitis-B, on Sunday afternoon at Government Primary School Housing Board Colony, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar. According to a press note issued here on Saturday, the camp is part of the ongoing ‘Clean Ludhiana’ drive launched by the organisation recently. It aims at a clean, green and beautiful Ludhiana by the year 2010. The organisation had already organised tree plantation drives in various parts of the city.It had also held special lectures in schools to create awareness regarding environment among the school children. 

EDUCATION: A presentation on education opportunities in Australia was held at GGN Khalsa College on Friday. Mrs Bhanu Sidhartha, Education Promotion Officer, Australian High Commission, informed the students about the latest trends, fee structure and education system in Australia. According to her more than 10,000 Indian students were studying in Australia and that more than Rs 4 lakh were required to take any postgraduate course there. Mrs Sidhartha gave some literature to the students and solved the queries raised by them. 

MOGA
DEMOLITION DRIVE: Several kiosks, a portion of the building of the local city police station and a Red Cross shopping complex, having about 12 shops, were on Friday demolished by the local administration in an anti-encroachment drive.

NAWANSHAHR
TRIBUTES PAID: Tributes were paid to Karam Singh Daulatpuri and his associates of the Babbar Akali Movement at a “shradhanjali samaroh” organised at Daulatpur village, about 12 km from here, on Friday. Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Punjab Welfare Minister, presided.

PHAGWARA
REQUESTED: Mr Mohan Lal Behram, MLA from Banga, in a letter to the Punjab Chief Minister has requested him to get the Phagwara-Balachaur road broadened from 22 feet to 33 feet for checking accidents, but without uprooting farmers under the four-laning project.

SAMRALA
TREE PLANTATION: The local Lions Club organised a tree plantation week during which near about 150 saplings were planted in four government schools. According to Mr Rajbir Singh Mangat ,the club president, the local SDM Mr Sandeep Hans participated in the concluding function here on Saturday and he planted a sapling in the premises of Government. Girls Senior School. Mr Hans stressed that everybody should plant saplings every year to curb the growing pollution in our environment. Mr Bachittar Singh Burn, Principal of the school, also spoke on the occasion and underlined the importance of trees. 

FARIDABAD
FREE DISPENSARY: A free homoeopathic dispensary has been started at old Faridabad town by the Sirdi Sai Baba Temple Society here. It was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anand Mohan Sharan, on Thursday.

HISAR
BRIBERY CASE: Officials of the Vigilance Department on Friday arrested Suraj Bhan, an employee of the Regional Transport Authority ( RTA) while he was accepting a bribe from Jagdish, a driver, for renewing license.

TRAFFIC BLOCKED: Employees of the Haryana Roadways blocked traffic on Friday by parking their buses in front of the main bus stand to protest against the transfer of 65 employees of the Hisar depot. They also held a procession and raised slogans against the General Manager and the Transport Commissioner.

CONSTITUTED: The state president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, Mr Shyam Singh Chauhan, has constituted a district council of the union. He has nominated Mr Dharamveer Singh Lohan as president of the district unit. Other office-bearers are : vice-president — Mr Ved Prakash Sharma; general secretary — Mr Krishan Kumar Nain; organising secretary — Mr Om Parkash and treasurer — Mr Prem Singh Yadav.

ELECTED: Mr Narsi Ram Bishnoi of the Environment Department was elected president of the Guru Jambheshwar University Teachers Association here on Friday. He defeated his rival, Mr Milind Parle, of the Pharmacy Department by a margin of 12 votes.

KURUKSHETRA
STUDENTS’ PROTEST: The B. Tech (second year) students of Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra (RECK), on Friday, boycotted classes in protest against the college authorities’ decision to allow students of Regional Engineering College, Srinagar, to appear in the campus interviews conducted by the RECK for its students for employment to various companies.

NARNAUL
SENTENCED: Mr G.L. Goyal, Sessions Judge, sentenced Anil, alias Titu, of Narnaul, to life imprisonment on Friday and fined him Rs 4,000 for murdering Yogesh, also of Narnaul.