LUDHIANA
ATHLETICS MEET: Divya Dhanda stole the limelight on the second day of annual athletics meet of Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, here on Friday. Divya bagged two gold in long jump and 100m hurdles events. The other results are as follows: Long jump: In girls section: Group C: Divya Dhanda 1,Rupinder 2, Rachna 3; In boys section: Group A: Anubhav Sood 1, Sahil Bajaj 2, Inderbir 3. 400m: In girls section: Group C: Malika Sobti 1, Jagriti Thapar 2, Riti Jagota 3; Group A: Anisha 1, Alisha 2, Mariam 3; In boys section: Group B: Sandeep Dhand 1, Raghav Kapila 2, Rahul Yadav 3; Group C: Kartik Bansal 1, Sachin Dhanda 2, Jagjot Singh 3. High Jump:In girls section: Group B: Simrit 1, Meenu 2, Aabrik 3; Group A: Deep Shikha 1, Anchal 2, Supreet 3. Shot put: In boys section: Group C: Karan 1, Navjot 2, Gautam , In girls section: Group A: Pallavi 1, Anisha 2, Sharal 3. 1500m: Boys: Raghav Aggarwal 1, Parvesh Paul 2, Cyril 3. 600m: Boys Group A: Xavier 1, Dhruv Verma 2, Ravish Arora 3. Discus throw: In boys section: Group A: Hargurdeep Singh 1, Micky Rana 2, Gurtej Singh Grewal 3.

NEW CARDIAC CENTRE: The Hero Heart Centre at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital is expected to be operational from the first week of February 2001. The centre will have all modern facilities, including relevant X-rays, angioplasty, cardiac surgery, open heart surgery, close heart surgery and beating heart surgery. Disclosing this here on Friday, Dr Vijay Mohan Kohli, who recently took over as Chief Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the centre after giving up his job in Sweden, centre would be unique and exclusive in the entire region with a team of three senior doctors, resident doctors, anesthesiologist, perfusionist and specially trained nurses. He disclosed that a ‘Well Person Clinic’ will also be established for creating public awareness.

YOUTH CLUB: The Department of Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana, will organise a state-level declamation contest of members of Youth Clubs operating under the department on December 12, 2000, at Government Senior Secondary School, Galib Khan, district Ludhiana. According to Dr G.S. Momi, Head, Department of Extension Education, PAU, the sixteen winners of the district-level declamation contests earlier organised by the Department will participate in the contest and speak on different topics related to agriculture and rural life.

AWARDED: Dr Guriqbal Singh, working as Assistant Agronomist (Pulses), in the Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, has been awarded the Dr P.S. Deshmukhi, Young Agronomist Award, for the year 1998, for his significant research in the field of agronomy. The award was presented to him by the Indian Society of Agronomy at its national symposium on ‘Agronomy Challenges and Strategies in the new millennium’ held at Gujarat Agricultural University Campus, Junagadh (Gujarat), recently. Dr Singh is conducting Agronomic research on different pulse crops. He did his Ph.D, from the University of Wales, Bangor (United Kingdom), where he studied the effects of herbicides on biological nitrogen fixation in peas. He is a life-member of the Indian Society of Agronomy, Indian Society of Pulses Research and Development and Indian Ecological Society. He is also a fellow of the Indian Society of Pulses Research and Development.

BOOK WEEK: To promote reading habits among students, a ‘book week’, organised for students of Kundan Vidya Mandir, concluded here on Thursday. More than 2,500 students visited the library during the celebration. Students read out book reviews and spoke on the importance of inculcating reading habits during the morning assembly. The students were apprised about the latest arrivals in the library. Some of the latest releases on computers, animal kingdom, fairy tales, drawing and painting were displayed during the exhibition. Prizes were given away to the most regular readers as per the library records. The prize winners are - Nikita Sood of Class XII, Shashank Sharma of Class XI, Achlesh Sood of Class X, Nishta Mehra of Class IX, Yashika Goel of Class IX, Neeraj of Class VII, Ashish Sood of Class VII, Swati Gupta of Class VII, Rishab Bhanot of Class VI and Ankit Sharma of Class VI.

MALERKOTLA
DEMANDED: Mr Harbhajan Singh Dhindsa, president of the state unit of the government Classical and Vernacular Teachers Union, Punjab, has demanded two special increments from the state Government in lieu of promotion to all classical and vernacular teachers on the Himachal Pradesh pattern. He also demanded the early implementation of the accepted demands.

MANSA
APPOINTMENT: Ms Amrit Raina, member of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, retired here on Wednesday. Ms Darshna Sharma, Principal of the local S.D. Kanya Mahavidyalaya, will join the forum on December 11 in her place.

MEETING HELD: The Deputy Commissioner, Ms Raj P. Shrivastava, chaired a meeting of representatives of NGOs held here on Wednesday to discuss the Punjab Government’s AIDS, polio and tuberculosis control programmes. Dr Niranjan Singh Suman, Civil Surgeon, said that with the cooperation of NGOs and senior citizens, the district administration would eliminate these diseases from the district.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the Student Federation of India: president — Mr Kulwant Singh Kotli and secretary — Mr Swaran Singh Phaphre Bhaike for Budhlada; president — Mr Amandeep Sharma and secretary — Mr Binder Pal Bareta for Sardulgarh.

PENSIONS: Ms Raji P. Shrivastava, Deputy Commissioner, said at a meeting here on Thursday that Rs 1.22 crore had been distributed to 27,063 pensioners. As many as 22,241 elderly persons, 2,080 widows, 624 children and 1118 disabled persons received pension from the Social Security Department. All pension related applications received up to September, 2000 were settled, she added.

LAUDED: Ms Amarjit Kaur Jangal, local municipal councillor lauded the state government’s decision to encourage the municipal councils and nagar panchayats at a meeting of her ward on Thursday. She said as per the notification, the president of the municipal council would be given a salary of Rs 3000 supplemented by an entertainment allowance, a constituency allowance and an honorarium.

PHAGWARA
PROCESSION: Environmentalists and NGO activists organised a ‘jago-cum-mashal’ procession to create awareness among the masses for a healthy environment. The march was held prior to the 10th Environment Fair to be organised by the local Environment Association on December 9.

ROPAR
FUND RAISING: The local Deputy Commissioner on Thursday inaugurated the flag day fund-raising campaign by donating Rs 501. Mr Didar Singh, vice-chairman of the Sainik Welfare, made an appeal to the people to contribute generously for the welfare of the armed forces.

SAHNEWAL
DIED: Mr Rajinder Singh Dard, former councillor and son of Mr Jagir Singh Dard, former member Parliament, died of heart attack on Thursday. He was 50. He is survived by his wife and three children. The cremation took place at Sahnewal on Friday. Many prominent persons attended the cremation.

AMBALA
ELECTRICITY: The Haryana Government has made a provision of electricity in unelectrified dhanies in the Morni block of Panchkula for which a sum of Rs 24 lakh have been earmarked for the Shivalik Development Agency. It was disclosed by the Commissioner, Ambala range, Mr Chander Singh, here on Thursday. He said there is a need of Rs 34 lakh more for this project and added that a survey was conducted in the Morni area in this regard.

YOUTH CLUB: The Youth Management Club of the AIMT, Ambala city, secured first position in the state level declamation contest organised by the Kurukshetra Vikas Board. Ms Anuradha was awarded a shield, Bhagwat Geeta and cash prize.

KILLED: An undertrial prisoner was killed in a road accident on Thursday evening. The deceased, Sundar Singh, belong to Guhla Cheeka of Kaithal district. He was sent to Ambala Central Jail recently. According to the police he was taken to Guhla Cheeka on Thursday to attend the trial by the jail authorities. In the evening he was brought back to Ambala. As soon as he stepped down from the bus at the Polytechnic Chowk, around 500 metre close to the central jail, an unidentified truck hit him. The police has registered a case against the truck driver on the complaint of the head constable.

ELECTROCUTED: A youth was electrocuted in Allahdin Majra village, 20 km from here on Friday. According to the information he had gone there to attend a marriage. When he was washing his hands he came in the contact of an electric wire. The police handed over the body to his relatives after the post-mortem at the Civil Hospital, Ambala city.

MAHA YAGYA: The Union State Minister, Mr I.D. Swami, will visit Ambala city on December 10 to attend Vishaw Kalyan Maha Yagya organised in Parushram Bhavan. The President of the District Brahmin Sabha, Mr Piyare Lal, said it would be a religious celebration.

DECISION HAILED: The Shiromani Akali Dal, Haryana, has expressed its gratitude to the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, for announcing official holiday on the occasion of Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom day. The General Secretary of the dal, Mr Ranbir Singh Fauji, said in a statement here on Friday that the dal had been demanding for it for a long time and it would be a homage to the great Sikh guru.

HISAR
HOME GUARD CAMP: A district-level Civil Defence and Home Guard Training Camp was held at C.A.V. High School here on Thursday. Addressing the camp, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi, called upon home guards to play an effective role during natural calamities. He also gave away prizes to those who had won gold medals in rifle shooting and judo during the All-India Sports Meet held recently at Kurukshetra.

SUPPORT EXTENDED: The CPM has extended its support to residents of Kanwari group villages in the district who are protesting against the inadequate supply of irrigation and drinking water in the area. In a press note issued here on Thursday, Mr Satbeer Singh, general secretary, said the villages were facing a drought-like situation but the district administration had not taken any step in this regard. He demanded that the state government should declare the area as drought-hit.

DEVELOPMENT: The local municipal council has spent Rs 4 lakh on the development works in the town during November. According to a council spokesman, Rs 96,000 was spent on paving streets in ward Nos 14 and 15 and an equal amount on repairing a road from ward No 4 to 6.

JHAJJAR
THEFT: Burglars broke into two shops here on Wednesday night. The thieves struck Bharat Medical Store and decamped with Rs 50,000. In another incident, Rs 10,000 was stolen from Surendra Hardware Shop. The police has registered a case.

KARNAL
WORKSHOP: A farmer-expert workshop-cum-cattle show was organised by the Dairy Extension Division of National Dairy Research Institute in Budhakhera village in the district. Dr B.N. Mathur, eminent scientist and Director of the institute, called upon the dairy scientists to strengthen bonds with farmers to identify site specific technology.

REWARI
ELECTED: Mr Shankar Lal Gupta, senior advocate of the town, has been elected president of the Public Education Board which runs three colleges and a senior secondary school here.

SIRSA
KANYADAN YOJNA: Under the ‘Kanyadan Yojna’ of the Haryana Government, more than Rs 13 lakh has been distributed in the current financial year. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Amit Jha, here on Thursday. As many as 264 Scheduled Caste girls had benefited by the scheme, added Mr Jha.

PLANTATION DRIVE: More than 5.20 lakh saplings have been planted on 477 hectares in the district up to November this year. Stating this, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Amit Jha, said the drive had been launched to make the six blocks of the district green and meet the challenge of air pollution.

SONEPAT
PHONES DISRUPTED: The communication with Delhi, Noida and Meerut remained disrupted in the city for several hours on Thursday following a fault in the telephone system. The system was restored late in the night. Fault in the underground cables at Narela (Delhi) is stated to be the cause of the collapse.

DEMONSTRATION: Hundreds of Dheemar caste (Bengal) persons held a demonstration in front of the office of the District Electoral Officer here on Thursday to press for the inclusion of their names in the electoral list. They also sat on a dharna. They have been living at Palra village in the district for the past 30 years.

EYE CAMP: A team of eye surgeons examined 156 patients at a camp organised at Ganaur, 16 km from here on Thursday. Twenty two of them were identified for eye operation. The patients were given medicines free of cost.

GAMBLERS ARRESTED: Anil and Harbans were arrested on Thursday on a charge of gambling at Gohana, 35 km from here. According to the SP, cash and other articles of gambling were seized from their possession. A case has been registered against them.