AMRITSAR
CONFERENCE: A conference on “National update on hypertension-2000” will be organised in the city on November 12. It will be inaugurated by Mr Manoranjan Kalia, Minister of Medical Education and Research, Punjab. This was stated by Dr Adarsh Kumar, Head of Cardiology Department, Government Medical College, Amritsar, and organising secretary of the conference.

PORUS MELA: The Folklore Research Academy will organise a mela on the Indo-Pak border from November 30. The mela, known as the “Raja Porus Indo-Pak Punjabi Mitarta Mela,” is celebrated in memory of Punjabis from both countries who lost their lives during the Partition riots.

BATHINDA
RAILWAY AUTHORITIES: The management of M.H.R. Senior Secondary School has condemned the local railway authorities for ordering the closure of its branch without any prior notice. In a press note issued here on Wednesday, Mr Jethu Ram Bansal, manager of the school, alleged that the railway authorities had locked the main gate of the school from outside.

FEROZEPORE
PROHIBITORY ORDERS: The District Magistrate, Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhu, has issued prohibitory orders as a precautionary measure to keep a check on anti-social elements. In his orders, Mr Sidhu has restricted public movement along the 100 metre stretch of railway lines, rivers, distributaries and drains falling under his jurisdiction from 9.30 pm to 5.30 am till December 31.

COMMISSION AGENTS: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhu, on Wednesday ordered all commission agents of the district to make the payments of procured paddy to the farmers through cheques at the rate of Rs 540 per quintal by Friday, failing which strict action would be taken against them.

HOSHIARPUR
OLD-AGE PENSIONS: Mr Gobind Singh Kanjhla, Minister for Social Security, Woman and Child Development, Punjab, launched the National Old-age Pension Scheme the Central Government at Rallan village in Dasuya subdivision of the district on Tuesday. He issued sanctioned letters along with cheques for Rs 75 each to 30 beneficiaries. Mr Kanjhla also announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the development of the village.

BUS ACCIDENT: As many as 23 bus passengers, including driver and conductor, were injured when a Punjab Roadways bus (PB-12C-9210) of Jagroan depot in which they were travelling rammed into a tree near Phuglana on the Hoshiarpur-Phagwara road, 16 km from here, on Tuesday. The bus was coming from Chintpurni.

ANTI-CORRUPTION BOARD: The following have been elected office-bearers of the national executive of the Public Anti-Corruption Board of India: vice-chairman — Mr Narinder Pal Sharma; general secretary — Mr Ashwani Marwaha; secretary — Mr Nagesh Dutta; treasurer — Mr Sat Pal; and organiser — Mr Dilbag Singh.

AWARENESS WEEK: On the concluding day of Vigilance Awareness Week observed by the local DIC branch on Monday, all staff members of the branch made a pledge to eradicate corruption, remain vigilant and work for the growth and the reputation of the organisation and the country.

KHANNA
SANGAT ORGANISED: A sangat darshan programme was organised on November 5 at police station , Payal, by Mr R.N. Dhoke, SSP Khanna, Mr Sadhu Singh Ghudani, MLA, Payal and the leaders of the various political parties. About 400 persons of the area attended it. Mr Dhoke said that the main objective was to bring the police and the public on a single platform.

LUDHIANA
APPOINTED: Mr Sukminder Pal Singh Grewal, has been appointed new president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Punjab, by the national president of the party Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Earlier, Mr Grewal had served as district president of BJP Kisan Morcha, secretary of the state unit of BJP Kisan Morcha and general secretary of district (rural) unit of the BJP. He said strengthening of the yuva morcha, the youth wing of the BJP and bringing more and more youth, particularly in the rural areas, under the party fold, would be his top priority.

DEMANDED: Former SGPC president and chief of Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD), Mr Gurcharn Singh Tohra, has urged the Union Government to issue a commemorative postal stamp to mark the birth centenary of Sardar Sobha Singh. In a letter written to the Union Communications Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Tohra said the birth anniversary of the noted artist falls on November 29. Throughout his long career, the artist had devoted his entire work to Sikh Gurus and revered personalities of all other religions. His paintings were put up at prominent places like Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, Raj Bhavans in various states and major art galleries. Issuing a commemorative stamp in the memory of the great artist would be a deserving and real tribute to him, Mr Tohra added.

NOMINATED: The chairman of the district unit of the Urban Development Cell of the Indian Youth Congress, Mr Akshay Bhanot, has nominated the following office-bearers of the district unit: vice presidents — Mr Karan Kalia, Mr Gurinderjit Singh Sidhu, Mr Karamjit Singh Grewal, Mr Amarjit Singh Bindra, Mr Paramjit Kala, Mr Dharminder Verma, Mr Varinder Pal Singh Sonu, Mr Harpreet Singh Dang, Mr Parmod Aggarwal, Mr Tarnjit Singh Tarni, Mr Gurcharan Singh Saini, Mr Munish Tandon, Mr Vijay Kumar, Mr Rajiv Billa; general secretaries — Mr Amanpreet Singh Aulakh, Mr Sanjeev Nahar, Mr Mohammed Naseem Ansari, Mr Devinder Kumar Johar, Mr Swarn Singh Happy, Mr Daya Singh Mehta, Mr Vikas Bhagi, Mr Parveen Kumar, Mr Ajay Shukla, Mr Rajinder Kaka, Mr Sukhdev Gill, Mr Charanjit Sonu, Mr Gurmukh Singh Gill; secretaries — Mr Bhagwant Singh Gill, Mr Tilak Raj Moudgil, Mr Hardeep Singh, Mr Sadhu Singh, Mr Upkar Singh, Mr Amit Batta, Mr Govind Kumar, Mr Harpal Singh, Mr Bikkar Singh, Mr Dharminder, Mr Shammi Malhotra, Mr Bharat Kumar, and Mr Neeraj Kataria.

EXHIBITION: Serecon India in association with the World Gold Council will organise an exhibition-swaran sambandh from November 10 to 13 at Park Plaza Hotel, Ludhiana. Reputed jewellers and jewellery designers are expected to participate in this exhibition. Swaran Sambandh would showcase the designer gold creations of the leading Indian designers. This was disclosed by Mr Jayant Vij, the PR coordinator for Serecon India, at press conference, here, on Wednesday.

MALERKOTLA
ENCROACHMENTS: The local Municipal Council removed encroachments in Telian Bazaar here on Wednesday. The local Citizen’s Welfare Council has appreciated the step and demanded that the encroachments in other bazaars, especially near the bus stand, should also be removed immediately.

EYE CAMP: A free eye operation camp will be held at Dera Baba Aati Dass, in Himtana village, 8 km from here, on November 19. Dr Dhanwant Singh will examine the patients and medicines will be distributed free of cost.

KAVI SAMMELAN: A kavi sammelan will be organised by the local Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in collaboration with the North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala, at the local Government College on November 11. Mr Surjit Singh Kalia, Principal, Government College, will inaugurate the function.

PPCC DELEGATE: The newly elected PPCC delegate from Malerkotla (urban), Mrs Rajia Sultana, said at a press conference that PPCC delegates were unanimous in their support to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Mrs Sultana announced the name of Mr Ashok Kumar as the new block president of the local Congress committee.

MANSA
CONDEMNED: The District Bar Association on Wednesday condemned the behaviour of chief Judicial Magistrate Sukhdev Singh towards the local Bar and boycotted his court during the post-lunch session.

QUIZ COMPETITION: Amrinder Singh, a class VIII student of the local Dasmesh Public High School, has bagged the first position in a state-level quiz competition organised at Patiala by the Punjab Languages Department on November 4. This was stated by Mr K.M.Vashisht , Principal of the school.

TB CONTROL: The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr Raj Kamal Chowdhury, chaired a meeting of representatives of NGOs held here on Tuesday to discuss the Punjab Government’s tuberculosis control programme. Mr Niranjan Singh Suman, Civil Surgeon, said special TB checking teams had been deployed in the district for the purpose.

ORGANISED: A two-day orientation programme organised by the Regional Resource Centre for Adult and Continuing Education, Panjab University, on "Reproductive and child healthcare for population control" concluded on Tuesday. Project coordinators from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ferozepore, Gurdaspur and Nawanshahr participated in the programme, according to a press note issued by Mrs Manjeet Paintal, Director of the centre.

CRITICISED: A meeting organised by the office-bearers of the Block Congress Committee at Mani Majra here on Wednesday condemned the decision of the Chandigarh Administration to exempt the eight acres of land to five private nurseries on the Chandigarh-Mani Majra highway. Presiding over the meeting, committee President Surender Singh demanded that the Administration should withdraw its decision of nurseries and concentrate on rehabilitating the localities of Mani Majra which lack civic amenities, including water, sewerage, electricity, roads and sanitation.

INAUGURATED: The Home Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, Mr R.S. Gujral, inaugurated the new wing of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, here on Wednesday. Mr Gujral laid stress on the overall development of the personality of the budding youth. Children performed Dumb-Charades and sang nursery rhymes.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the ITI Qualified Workers Association: President — Mr Manmohan Singh; General Secretary — Mr Daljit Singh; Senior Vice-President — Mr Dhian Singh; Vice-President — Mr Ran Singh; and Secretary — Mr Kushal Pal Bhatia.

CEREMONY: The charter presentation and installation ceremony of the newly constituted Lion's Club, Chandi Mandir, and the Leo Club, Panchkula Mid-Town, was held here on Tuesday. District Governor Vinay Sagar Jain presented the charter to President Sashi Kuthiala, besides installing their teams for 2000-2001.

CHITRAKALA-2000: To promote the use of safety measures while using LPG, Navratan Oil Company has organised a painting competition Chitrakala-2000 at Bal Bhavan here on Thursday. More than 100 students nominated by the leading schools of Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar are going to take part in the competition. The occasion will be used to generate awareness among participants on safety education and oil conservation techniques.

CELEBRATED: The foundation day of the Bharat Scouts and Guides India was celebrated as flag day with a view to reaching the community and popularise the aims and objectives of the international man-making movement of scouting. This year while celebrating the day almost two lakh scout flags were distributed in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh by scouts and guides. Top adult leaders of the movement arranged visits of the dignitaries and well wishers of the movement throughout the region. The State Chief Commissioner, Bharat Scouts and Guides, Punjab, Ms Vidya Vati, presented flags to the Education Secretary, Punjab, and the directors of the Education Department to enroll their support and cooperation to promote the character building movement in the region.

FREE CLASSES: The Department of Correspondence Studies, Panjab University, is starting its second batch of free classes in basic English for those students who are on its rolls. The classes will commence on November 15.

NAGAR KIRTAN: Nagar kirtan in connection with the parkash utsav of Sri Guru Nanak Dev will be held on Thursday. It will start at 12 p.m. from the Sector 19 gurdwara and will pass through Sectors 27, 28, 29, 30, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 37 and will terminate at the Sector 40 gurdwara.

AMBALA
SESSION HELD: A special session on "Leadership — key to success" was held at the Shri Atmanand Jain Institute of Management and Technology, Ambala city. The lecture was delivered by the Principal of the SD College, Ambala cantonment, Dr Desh Bandhu. Dr Desh Bandhu emphasised that in order to become a good leader there was the need to have good communication skills, power to motivate others, willingness to appreciate good performers, ability to manage time, to cooperate with others and to coordinate the efforts, a release said. He stated that it was imperative that if one wanted to be accepted as a leader, one must have the ability to plan logically and scientifically so that the assignments could be carried out in the most efficient and effective manner.

KURUKSHETRA
SELECTION COMMISSION: The Haryana Government’s decision to constitute a selection commission for the recruitment of university and college teachers, including professors and readers, has been termed as “ill-conceived” by Prof Bhim Singh Dahiya, former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University. The government should reconsider the matter and consult the UGC and the NIEPA before implementing its policy, he said on Tuesday.

ROHTAK
CENSUS-2001: Ms Anita Chaudhary, Commissioner, Rohtak division , addressed officials of Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat , Jhajjar and Rohtak districts at a training conference for the second phase of Census-2001 here on Tuesday. She said the work of tabulation of houses had been completed in the state during the first phase in May and the next phase would begin on February 9, 2001.

SIRSA
LEGAL SERVICES DAY: The Chief Judicial Magistrate here said the district legal services authority would organise a district-level function at Guru Hari Singh College on Thursday to mark Legal Services Day.

SONEPAT
STUDENTS’ PROTEST: A large number of college students held a procession here on Wednesday in protest against the non-acceptance of their long-standing demands by the state government. They marched through the main bazaars and reached the mini-secretariat, where their leaders submitted a charter of demands to Mr Ashok Yadav, ASP.

CRIME RATE: The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, is reported to have taken a serious view of the increasing incidence of crimes in the district and directed the district authorities to take immediate steps to check crime. According to official sources, Mr Chautala halted at the PWD (Buildings and Roads) rest-house in Rai while he was on his way to Panipat on Tuesday and talked to Mr A.S. Chawla, SP, in this regard.

LIQUOR SEIZED: As many as 228 bottles of English wine and country-made liquor were seized by the police near Kharkhauda town, 20 km from here, on Tuesday. Naresh and jatinder Kumar were arrested in this connection and a case was registered against them under the Excise Act, the police said.

MURDER SOLVED: With the arrest of a couple, the police on Wednesday claimed to have solved the murder of Dharam Kaur of Bhainswal Kalan village in the district. Mr AS Chawla, SP, said the arrested persons had been identified as Mahavir Lambardar, son of the deceased, and his wife, Bimla, who confessed to having committed the crime.

DHARAMSALA
STUDENTS’ PROTEST: Students of Sanskrit College, Pragpur, blocked traffic at the Pukharon-Hoshiarpur road for one hour on Tuesday. They were demanding adequate accommodation on the college premises, the police said. The students handed over a memorandum to the SDM for its onward submission to the state government.

CRUSHED: Munish Kumar, an owner of a bus, was crushed to death at Mallan in Kangra district on Monday evening, the police said.

MANDI
ANTI-POLYTHENE DRIVE: A campaign has been launched in the town by the nagar parishad against the use of polythene products and bags. This was stated by the nagar parishad chief, Mr Pushap Raj Sharma. Residents of the town, along with representatives of NGOs and political organisations collected polythene bags from different parts of the town on Monday and dumped them 6 km away from the town.

SHIMLA
MATHS SEMINAR: The Department of Mathematics of Himachal Pradesh University organised a three-day national seminar on “Mathematical analysis and applications” to mark the world mathematics year. Inaugurating the seminar, Dr S.K.Gupta, Vice- Chancellor, of the university, highlighted the seminal contribution made by Indian mathematicians.