R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
BAN ORDERS: The District Magistrate has banned movement of civilians on the Indo-Pakistan border from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, the order will not be enforceable on the G.T. Road.

NCC CAMP: An annual training camp for junior and senior division of the NCC will be held at Sri Guru Angad Dev College, Khadoor Sahib, from September 30 to October 11 under the command of Lt Col Mukul Dobhal, Commanding Officer, 11 Punjab Battalion, NCC, Amritsar. Four hundred cadets will attend the camp.

VIKAS PARISHAD: The Bharat Vikas Parishad took financial responsibility of seven poor brilliant girl students, and 11 poor T.B. patients besides adopting Rasulpur village for its development this month. It opened a new branch at Rayya under the patronage of Dr Pran Nath Bhanot.

BATHINDA
AGITATION: Members of the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology Teachers Association started an agitation on Monday in protest against the non-implementation of revised pay scales and non-payment of arrears to them by the authorities concerned. Mr Lalit Mohan Sharma, secretary of the association, said they would boycott classes from September 30 if their demands were not met by then.

GARHSHANKAR
BODY FOUND: An unidentified body has been found at Mahilpur village on the Jaijon road. The police has registered a case under Section 174 of the IPC.

HOSHIARPUR
SCHOOL BUILDINGS: The Punjab Government will spend Rs 20 lakh each in all segments of the state Assembly for the improvement of buildings of primary, middle, high and senior secondary schools during the current financial year. This was stated by Mr R.S. Sandhu, Education, Secretary, Punjab, at Government Senior Secondary School, Mahilpur, 24 km from here, on Monday. 

HIT-AND-RUN: Malkiat Singh, a milk vendor of Fatehpur village, died when his motor cycle was allegedly hit by a car near Hardokhanpur on Monday. The Sadar police has registered a case.

KHARAR
HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTED : The Lions Eye Hospital being constructed at a cost of about Rs 40 lakh at Chamkaur Sahib is near completion and will be inaugurated most probably in October. This was disclosed by Col B.S. Garcha, region chairman of the club, while talking to mediamen here on Tuesday after visiting the patients who were operated upon in the free eye operation camp organised by the Lions Club, Kharar, at Civil Hospital Kharar. He appreciated the efforts of Mr Sudarshan Verma, President of the Lions Club, Kharar, and his other members for organising this camp and said this was a successful camp.

LUDHIANA
MEDICAL CAMP: A free medical camp to check patients suffering from, brain diseases will be held at Tootiyan Wala Mandir, Shivpuri, on Thursday. According to a press note, Dr Gurinder Pal Sachdeva of B.L. Kapoor Memorial Hospital will examine the patients and medicines free of cost would be given to the needy. 

COMPETITION: The Vardhman Group of Companies and the Department of Clothing and Textiles, Punjab Agricultural University, will organise a competition in traditional embroidery with Magika threads on September 27. The winners will be awarded prizes in a prize distribution function to be held in October. Delineating the importance of such competitions, Dr. O.P. Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Clothing and Textiles, said such competitions go a long way in reviewing the interest of the modern time - starved women in rich textile heritage of India and thus preserving it for the posterity. There was a dire need to preserve of acute competition from machine-made textiles which were cost-effective , better in quality and commercially producable. 

CELEBRATION: Urban Estate Ramlila Dussehra Committee, Dugri, will be organising Dasehra mela on October 7 which will be presided over by the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation Mayor, Mr Apinder Singh Grewal. An emergency meeting was held here in which the present president Mr. Ravi Gupta had resigned from the post and Mr Adarsh Vijay Manga was unanimously elected new president of the committee. According to Dr. Shiv Gupta, Dr. Utpal Joshi, SP, Headquarter will be performing flag hoisting ceremony and Mr. S.R. Kaler, Additional Deputy Commissioner will give away the prizes. The guest of honour will be Mr Bharat Bhushan Garg, Executive Magistrate. 

NOMINATED: The district president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Harbans Lal Sethi has nominated Mr Pran Bhatia as new group leader of BJP councillors in the municipal corporation. Mr Bhatia will replace Mr Inderjit Panchhi, who has resigned from the post of leader on health grounds. 

DENIAL: The welfare society of H and I blocks of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar has denied allegations levelled in the issue of Ludhiana Tribune of September 21 about certain irregularities in construction work at the site for community centre. In a written statement Er T.K. Passi, president of the society, claimed that no shops were being constructed as alleged in the press report but the welfare society had undertaken the construction of dental dispensary, office block and store room. The city Mayor Mr Apinder Singh Grewal, Mrs Gopal Kaur, councillor and Mr Darshan Singh Shivalik, councillor had laid the foundation stone of a hall in the community centre on August 27. Moreover, the allegation of submitting a fictitious bill for Rs 40,000 for maintenance of parks was incorrect and baseless, since the society had not submitted any such bill. 

CAMP: A free eye operation camp will be held at Shri Phul Muni Jain Trust, Sunder Nagar, on Saturday. Mr Mohinder Pal Jain, Chairman of the trust, said Dr J.M. Singh and his team will conduct eye operations. Medicines and spectacles will be given free of cost to needy.

MOGA
PENALTY: Transport Department officials have realised a sum of Rs 23,37,400 from vehicle owners in the district as penalty for violating traffic rules during the current financial year, Mr Pritpal Singh Grewal, District Transport Officer, said on Tuesday.

URGED: Residents of the Amadhbhai and Raunta villages, under Baghapurana police station in this district, urged the government on Tuesday to make the stretch of about 7 km-long road linking both the villages. The residents complained that the road had not been repaired for long time.

COMPLAINED: Majority of power consumers here complained on Tuesday that they have received inflated power bills during the current month. They alleged that whereas earlier they used to get power bills ranged between Rs 800 and Rs 1000. The bills they received this month ranged between Rs 2000 and Rs 3000. In some cases the bills amounted to Rs 12,000.

BURIED: A resident of Mallianwala village, under Baghapurana police station in this district, was buried alive in the field he was digging on Monday, according to reports. His body was later extricated by villagers and sent for post-mortem examination.

NAWANSHAHR
SEMINAR: The district police in collaboration with the Education and Health Departments and NGOs has launched an awareness fortnight to create an awakening about road safety and drug abuse among school children in the district. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, inaugurated the seminar at the Shivalik Public School here on Monday.

LOANS ADVANCED: The banks of the district have advanced loans to the extent of Rs 62 crore to Rs 96 crore under the district credit plan to the priority sectors to implement government sponsored schemes and programmes for self employment and poverty alleviation during the current financial year, said an official press note here on Monday.

ROPAR
LITERACY WEEK: The Regional Resource Centre for Adult and Continuing Education will celebrate the International Literacy Week from September 27 at Guru Nanak Public School at Chappa Chirri in Ropar district. The focus of the programme is to generate awareness among the neo-learners of the district, informed Manjeet Paintal, Director of the RRC.

CHANDIGARH

PANCHKULA
CONTEST: Students of Government College, Sector 1, participated in speeches, poetical recitation, singing and painting contests at the college as part of the ‘talent show’ contest held here on Tuesday. The Principal, Dr R.L. Madan, presided over the function. The results are as follows: dance — Ritu-1, Shweta and Samta-2; declamation — Amit-1, Sunil-2; poetry recitation — Sajib-1, Ritu-2; quiz — Puneet and Sandeep-1, Sunil and Shweta-2; painting — Puneet-1, Jatin-2; and singing — Baljeet and Neeru-1, Yogesh and Kuljeet-2.

HARYANA

AMBALA
ELECTED: A meeting of the Gandhi Memorial National (GMN) College Teachers Union was held to elect the office-bearers of the unit. The following have been elected for the session 2000-2001: president — Mr R.C. Jindal; Secretary — Mr A.K. Gupta; Vice-President — Mr Rajender Sharma; Joint Secretary — Ms Sushma Sharma and Finance Secretary — Ms Sunita Sharma.

CULTURAL PROGRAMME: A cultural programme on Indian folk dances was organised by the district administration and the Uttar Kshetra Sasnkritik Kendra, Patiala, at Bal Bhavan, Ambala city. More than 80 artists from Punjab, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh took part in the cultural show, a release said. Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Ram Niwas, said it was a cause for concern that the youth today was forgetting our rich cultural heritage and moving towards western influences. Such programmes help in reaching out to the youth, he said.

HISAR
ARRESTED: The police has arrested two persons and recovered five computers stolen from Government School at Balsmand village from them. They were caught while trying to sell the computers at Bhuna, near here.

JHAJJAR
PROTEST: The Socialist Unity Centre of India, Jhajjar unit organised a protest march on Monday in Bahadurgarh against the hike in medical tests fee in government hospitals in Haryana. Workers of the local committee of the party led by the District Secretary Comrade, Mr Anup Singh, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister demanding that the privatisation of government hospital be stopped and asked for a roll back in medical tests fee hike.

JIND
CONTEST ORGANISED: The local Rotary Club and the local C.R.K. College jointly organised a quiz contest at C.R.K. College on Tuesday. Mr Bharat Bhushan Kapur, managing director, Deepak Books, Karnal, was the chief guest at the contest. Mr D.S. Hooda, Principal of C.R.K. College, presided over the contest.

KURUKSHETRA
ARRESTED: Mange Ram, employee at a local petrol pump, was arrested under Sections 7, 10 and 55 of the Essential Commodities Act and Section 420 of the IPC for allegedly selling petrol at retail price without a licence near Bhawaani Khera village, 2 km from here, on Sunday. According to the police over 60 litres of petrol were seized during the raid. The petrol pump owner and his son are reportedly absconding. 

SONEPAT
LOCKOUT: Hundreds of workers of Hilton Rubbers were rendered jobless as the management of the factory declared a lockout on Monday. Leaders of the workers’ union alleged that the management had declared the lockout without any prior notice and they would resort to an agitation on the issue.

DECOMPOSED BODY: The police recovered a decomposed body of a man from a field at Purkhas village, 19 km from here, on Monday. A case has been registered.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

NURPUR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Block Congress Committee here: president — Mr Karan Oberoi; vice-presidents — Mr Harbans Lal, Mr Ratan Singh, Mr Onkar and Mr Rakesh Mahajan and treasurer — Mr Swaroop Sharma.

SHIMLA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Sanjauli Beopar Mandal: president — Mr Shavinder Batish; senior vice-president — Mr Ashwani Sood; general secretary — Mr Kavaljeet Singh; and treasurer — Mr Swaran Singh.

BOYCOTT: The Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation Employees Union has decided to boycott the half-yearly stock verification due on September 30, in protest against the failure of the management to accept its demands, which include revision of pay scales and settlement of various service matters.