AMRITSAR
CONFISCATED: Mr Beerpal Meena, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner and, Mr P.P. Nautyal, Circle Officer, in a press note issued here on Saturday said under the powers of Section 8 of the Employees Provident Fund Act, 1962, the Mandi Board account had been confiscated and a recovery of Rs 78.67 lakh had been effected. The Board had not deposited the provident fund contribution deducted from the wages of employees up to 1996-97.

CAUGHT: Sarvinder Singh, a junior assistant in the SDM-I office, here, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 as legal adviser from his brother’s son and his mother Kartar Kaur to forward her case file of ‘guardian pension’. The accused was booked under Section 7 h/v 13(2) 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act at Vigilance Bureau, Jalandhar.

BATHINDA
SOCIETY FORMED: The Sahara Jan Seva formed a blood donation society, Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Blood Donation Society, here on Saturday. The society organised its first blood donation camp at the local Civil Hospital here on Saturday inaugurated by Mr Jaspal Singh, Deputy Commissioner.

JALANDHAR
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Subdivisional Engineers Association of the state PWD Public Health Department: president — Mr K.S. Saini, vice-president — Mr Khazan Singh and general secretary — Mr Mohammad Ishfaq.

KHANNA
SPECIAL PROGRAMME: The Khanna police is planning to launch a special programme on Children’s Day to educate the children about the working of the police stations. This was disclosed by Mr Ram Singh, SP (OP), Khanna, here, on Saturday. The SP said that the children had an open mind. It was important to give them the first hand information about the working of the police stations. Mr Ram Singh said that it was with this objective that Khanna police had decided to give an opportunity to the students to visit police stations and understand their working.

LUDHIANA
BABY CONTEST: The Mother and Child Health Committee of the Ludhiana Citizen's Health Council will organise a healthy baby contest at RS Model School, Shastri Nagar, on November 19. The contest will be open to the children between one to five years of age. A cultural programme contest will also be held in which children up to 10 years will be participating. Prizes and gifts will be given to the children. 

HEPATITIS-B CAMP: The Rotary Club of Ludhiana-North organised a vaccination camp against hepatitis-B at Karanvir Hospital, Haibowal Kalan. Large number of people, including children, were vaccinated at the camp. A team of doctors, headed by Dr Narinder Toor, vaccinated the people. 

CHILDREN'S DAY: To celebrate Children's Day, Holy Child Public School organised a cultural programme for school children. The chief guest on the occasion was Mr S.P. Sharma, Chairman, Private School Welfare Association. The programme was started with the patriotic song, saare jahan se achha, which was followed by the cultural items presented by students. A fancy dress competition was also organised on the occasion. 

FREE MEDICAL CAMP: The fifth free medical camp was organised by the Ludhiana Sewa Sangh at Manu Hospital, Moti Nagar, here on Sunday. According to a press release, Dr Manohar Sharma, Dr Anurag Goswami and Dr Gopal Bansal examined more than 575 patients with problems related to ear, nose, throat and heart. About 300 children and 147 women were examined. Free medicines were given to the needy patients. Blood and urine tests of the patients were done free of cost. 

FELICITATED: The Nagrik Vikas Parishad felicitated the Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Mr Sat Pal Gosain in a function held in the city. The President of the parishad, Mr Bhagwan Das Pahwa, along with Mr Sajan Dhand, Mr Saroj Parashar and Mr Mukesh Pathak hailed the election of Mr Gosain as the Deputy Speaker and observed that the SAD BJP leadership had done the entire city proud by giving the post to Mr Gosain. Prominent among those present at the occasion were Lala Lajpat Rai, member of the Rajya Sabha, Hakim Sham Das, Mr Kishan Gupta, Mr Tek Chand Chopra, Mr Sunil Mehra, Mr Suresh Verma, Mr Harish Bedi, Mr Shiv Kumar, Mrs Sunita Sharma and Mr Devinder Jain. 

BHARAT GAS: “Our main aim is to create awareness among the customers to ensure their safety, so that no untoward incident takes place”, said Mr S.K.Kudaisya, Regional Manager for Bharatgas - North, while launching the ‘24 hours Bharatgas Helpline’ here on Saturday. The Bharatgas Helpline is a service provided by the Bharatgas Distributors of Ludhiana to all their consumers. In case of any leakage or emergency, the consumer can dial the number 98141 26266 and a trained mechanic will soon reach to the customer and take care of the problem. While talking to The Tribune, Mr Kudaisya informed that the protection of customer’s lives was their main motive and when there will be a call from the consumer, the company’s mechanic would reach at the destination within 20 minutes. He added that company had a consumer population of about 90 ,000 in the city itself and it had become a household name for providing the best services to the customers.

Dr BANSAL: Dr A.S. Bansal, retired professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, has been selected by the All India Council for Technical Education for its Emeritus Fellowship. Presently, he is serving as Director of Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology, Gujarkhan Campus. The fellowship is given to a scientist who is actively involved in some research work after his superannuation. The fellowship carries an honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month and a contingent grant of Rs 30,000 per annum for two years. Dr Bansal is a vice-president and founder regional selection chairman of Indian Society of Technical Education (ISTE). He is also a recipient of the Maharashtra State National Award for outstanding research contribution in engineering and technology. Dr Bansal won Ford Foundation Fellowship for higher studies and did Ph.D from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), University of Southampton, UK. He has contributed several papers in international conferences in the field of noise and vibration. 

MALERKOTLA
ARRESTED: Ranjodh Singh of Kallarh village was arrested for carrying 35 bags of poppy husk, according to the SHO, Dehlon, on Sunday. A case has been registered.

LOK ADALAT: Three Lok Adalats were held here on Saturday where 25 of the 42 cases were settled. Mr S.K. Sachdeva, Additional Civil Judge, Senior Division, presided.

KILLED: Teja Singh (50) was killed in an accident near Bhogiwal village, 4 km from here, on Friday. He was reportedly hit by a tempo while crossing a road. The driver of the tempo, Ashwani Kumar, was arrested under Sections 279 and 304 of the IPC.

SEMINAR HELD: A seminar was held in the judicial complex here on Saturday under the presidentship of Mr S.K. Sachdeva, Additional Civil Judge, Senior Division, to make people familiar with the free legal help services. Booklets regarding these services were also distributed on the occasion.

MANSA
BAN ORDERS: Ms Raji P. Srivastave, District Magistrate, has banned the use of polythene bags in the district. She has also prohibited the use of loudspeakers without prior permission and has instructed all marriage palaces, hotels and restaurants to get no-objection certificates within 15 days. The orders will be effective till January 7, 2001.

BYELECTIONS: All arrangements have been made for the byelection of three sarpanches of Jhanda Khurd, Mojia and Datewas villages and eight panches of Hakam Wala Rehle, Mojia, Joga, Dingna, Fatta Malokey and Kusla villages to be held on November 26, according to the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), Mr Parkash Singh Lamhey. The nominations will be filed on November 16, scrutiny will be done on November 17 and withdrawal on November 18.

CONVENTION HELD: A convention on saving education was held here on Sunday at the local Government Senior Secondary School. Mr Partap Samal, secretariat member of the All-India Save Education Committee, asserted the need to save education from being privatised and commercialised.

ROPAR
BANNED: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr G.S. Grewal, has banned all kinds of rallies and dharnas in the Court Complex of the district from November 13 to January 12, 2001, by invoking provisions under Section 144 of the IPC.

MARTYRDOM DAY: The Servants of the People Society will organise a fortnight programme from Friday to mark Lala Lajpat Rai's martyrdom, here. The programme will begin with a seminar on 'Power of education in the information era'. An exhibition of books will also be inaugurated on the same day at Lal Lajpat Rai Bhavan, Sector 15. A slum cleanliness drive will be also launched on Sunday at Bapu Dham Colony. An inter-school declamation contest for awareness on the menace of AIDS and drugs abuse among school students will also be organised on November 23. This was stated by Mr Onkar Chand, secretary of the Society, in a press note issued, here on Sunday. 

PROTEST: The Federation of U T Employees and Workers and the Chandigarh U T Subordinate Services Federation, will organise a demonstration here on Monday in protest against the callous attitude of the Chandigarh Administration towards the staff of the Super Bazaar. Leaders of the front urged the Administration to manage funds to reopen the Super Bazaars and pay the salaries of the employees due from August 2000. The leaders also demanded a C B I inquiry into the affairs of the Super Bazaars. 

SAS NAGAR
POOR WATER SUPPLY: Entrepreneurs of the extension area of Industrial Focal Point of Phase 9 have complained of poor water supply in the area for the past three days due to failure of tubewells being run by the Punjab State Industrial and Export Corporation (PSIEC). Mr Amardeep Sharma, an entrepreneur said the tubewells in the area were dependent on power supply and whenever there was a power cut the power supply failed. 

MELA: A kids' mela was organised by Bright Star Public School In Phase 3A here on Sunday. The mela was inaugurated by Mr Brij Lal Ranwa, state president of the BJP, Mr Ajit Sailani presided over the function. 

AMBALA
CHILDREN'S DAY: The District Child Welfare Council will organise Children Day on November 14 at Bal Bhawan, Ambala city. Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam will be the chief guest while Mrs Sunita Gautam, chairperson, of the council will preside over the function. A cultural function will also be organised on this occasion.

SONEPAT
INAUGURATED : Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, MP, inaugurated a four-day Bal Mela organised by the Haryana State Social Welfare Board on the campus of Hindu Girls College here on Saturday. Ms Lajwanti, Chairperson of the Board, and Ms Anita Dhankar, Chairperson of the Haryana Mahila Vikas Nigam, were among those present.