ABOHAR
SEMINAR HELD: The Indian Medical Association organised a seminar on consumer protection and general insurance here on Thursday. Senior advocate Shashikant Gilhotra gave details of the Consumer Protection Act as applicable to doctors.

RIFLES STOLEN: Some rifles were stolen from an arms shop near the subdivisional complex here on Thursday. Jagtar Singh, owner of the shop, told the police that all eight locks were found broken when he entered his shop on Friday morning. The exact number of rifles stolen is yet to be ascertained. A case has been registered.

AMRITSAR
ACUPRESSURE CAMP: A three-day acupressure-cum-magnetic therapy for the treatment of back pain, consistent headaches, stomach ailments, stress related problems would be organised from January 3 to January 5 at Senior Secondary School, Jagdambey colony, here. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) is organising the camp, Mr Sachin Mehra, general secretary of the state unit of the NSUI, announced here on Thursday.

FARIDKOT
HONOURED: Mr A.Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, here at a district-level function held here on Friday honoured with sanman patras and certificates, 30 persons who were detained in jails for more than six months for participating in Dharam Yudh Morchas launched by the SAD in the state.

KAPURTHALA
TWO HELD: Two persons were held on Thursday for possessing 2 kg of opium, during a naka under Talwandi Chaudhrian police station. The arrested have been identified as Sukhchain Singh of Jamaliwala village in Ferozepore district and Karnail Singh alias Kala of Sangojla village of Kapurthala district. A case has been registered against them under NDPC Act.

ID CELEBRATED: A function was organised on Thursday in local Idgah to celebrate the Id festival. Ms Upinderjit Kaur, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister, participated in the function and announced a grant of Rs 50,000 to the Idgah and for development of a school.

LUDHIANA
FAULTY POWER CABLES: The electrical short circuit, resulting from loose and dangling power cables created a scare, besides damaging a large number of electrical fixtures and appliances in Guru Ram Das Nagar, Near Dhandari Kalan here on Thursday evening. According to residents, there was repeated sparking from loose power cables, which caused massive damage to television sets, electric bulbs and tubes and many other house hold appliances. The residents said repeated complaints to the Punjab State Electricity Board had failed to evoke any response. The PSEB was demanding Rs 27,000 from the residents for removal of dangling wires and fixing electrical poles in the locality, while the people were in no position to make such a payment, the residents complained.

FLAYED: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has flayed the SAD-BJP government in Punjab led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, for what he said were increasing atrocities against Dalits and other weaker sections. Dr D.P. Khosla, Vice-President of BSP, Punjab, alleged that without exception, the entire members of state cabinet, were misusing the government machinery to make their personal fortunes and development of the state had been put on a back burner. “The way Mr Badal had bowed to the pressure mounted by the BJP and the RSS for inclusion of yet another BJP legislator in the state cabinet, it was amply proved that the Chief Minister had failed to safeguard the interests of the minorities and had become an ally of the RSS for propagating ‘Hindutva’.” The BSP activist announced that his party will strongly oppose all policies of the government, which were detrimental to the interests of the common people, particularly the Dalits. He claimed that in future no government in Punjab, will be able to survive without the support of the BSP.

ELECTORAL REFORMS: The Akhil Bhartiya Shiv Sena headed by Mr Jagdish Tangri has called for massive electoral reforms to uproot the corruption and malpractices from the political system of the country. In a statement, the party chief, Mr Tangri, has suggested that the electrol machinery should provide a common platform and media coverage to each candidate so that black money could not play any role in the electoral process. All processions, rallies and public meetings should be completely banned. Other suggestions given by the party include imposing a ban on non-serious candidates, prescribing minimum educational qualifications and maximum age limit for contestants to the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and making ‘single chance - single constituency’ norm mandatory for all elections.

WIDOW PENSIONS: The 41st monthly widow pension disbursement function of Sri Gyan Sthal Mandir Sabha, Chowk Subhani Building, will be held on January 7, according to the sabha press secretary, Mr Naresh Goyal. Prominent among the guests on the occasion would be Mr Shrawan Kumar, Chief of the Nishkam Sewa Society, and the police inspector, Mr Shankar Dass, and a couple of Congress leaders.

IDA OFFICE-BEARERS: Dr Rajiv Bali, Chief Medical Officer (Dental), Punjab Agricultural University Hospital, Ludhiana, has taken over as the president of the Indian Dental Association, Ludhiana, branch for the year 2000-20001. The other office-bearers include Dr K.S. Bedi and Dr Puneet Girdhar as vice-presidents, Dr Rajesh Bhanot as honorary secretary, Dr Vikas Jindal as honorary joint secretary, Dr Neeraj Tanjea as honorary treasurer, Dr Gajinder Singh as CDE representative, Dr S.P. Singh as CDH representative and Dr T.P. Singh as president elect.

MACHHIWARA
ELECTED: Mr Harjit Singh Sherian was elected unanimously as the new circle Jathedar of the SAD(B) Machhiwara, according to an information available here on Friday. Baba Gurbachan Singh Machhiwara Kham and sarpanch Kuldeep Singh Jatiwal were elected senior vice president and the secretary general, respectively. Other office-bearers would be announced later on. Mr Gurcharan Singh Mithewal, chairman, Market Committee, Machhiwara, Mr Gurdyal Singh Kotala, vice-chairman, PADB, Machhiwara, sarpanch Mewa Singh Ranwan and many others have hailed the election for being unanimous. Expressing his views, Mr Sherian assured that he would try his best for the welfare of the people. He said that rural units of SAD in this area would be set-up at the earliest possible.

MANSA
COMPLAINED: Mr Ralla Singh, block vice-president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta), has written a letter to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, complaining about the alleged absenteeism of a teacher of the Government Middle School, Piplian village of the district.

APPOINTMENTS: Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, president of the Lok Bhalai Party, has made appointments of the block presidents of district Mansa. According to a press note issued, Mr Manjit Singh Mian will be the president of Mansa (rural), Mr Deep Chand of Mansa (urban), Mr Bant Singh of Joga, Mr Surinder Singh Sandhu of Sardulgarh and Mr Bhupinder Singh Nambardar will be the president for Budhlada block of the party.

GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE: A meeting of members of the district grievance committee was held here on Thursday which was chaired by Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister, Punjab. Out of the 17 applications received, 15 were disposed of on the spot.

MEETING HELD: A meeting of members of the district planning and development board was held here on Thursday. The Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister, Punjab, presided over the meeting. He also released more than Rs 1 crore for development of different departments of the district.

SAMANA
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Leo Club, here organised on Thursday a blood donation camp in the Government Senior Secondary School, here. In this camp, 33 units of blood was collected by a team from doctors from Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. Nearly 25 trees were also planted at school Samana Lion, Mr D.L. Sood, District Governor, was the chief guest.

SAMRALA
ID-UL-FITR CELEBRATED: Id-ul-Fitr was celebrated here on Thursday on the premises of the local Madrasa in front of SDM Courts, with great pomp and show. A community kitchen (langar) was organised by Bhag Mohamad of Kot Gangurai. Namaz was offered by president of the Madrasa, Ali Husain. The local SDM, Mr Sandeep Hans, DSP Samrala, Mr Sushil Kumar, MLA, Amrik Singh Dhillon and Jathedar Kirpal Sigh Khirnian, member, SGPC, sent their greetings on the occasion.

WARNED: In a press conference of the president of Punjab Patwari Union, Mr Gurmel Singh and cashier, Sukhdev Singh Chauhan have warned the Punjab Government that if their demands were not accepted before January 10, 2001, they would sit on dharna from January 17 at all subdivisional headquarters. Gurmel Singh also said that their main demands included, post of Patwari to be declared as a technical job, not to recruit Kanungos directly increase in quota from 50 per cent to 85 per cent for the post of Naib Tehsildar and that terminated patwaris by reinstated immediately.

DANCE COMPETITION: The Payal Musical Club will hold a dance competition show on December 31 in collaboration with the Lions Club, Chandigarh Plaza, at Tagore Theatre. Participants ranging in the age group of four to 20 years will dance to the tune of film and folk songs, according to Mr Y.P.S. Chauhan, president of the club.

NSS CAMP: S.D. College, Sector 32-C, Chandigarh, organised a function on the conclusion of 10-day regular NSS camp on the college campus. 120 NSS volunteers along with NSS programme officers participated in the celebrations. Dr C.K. Narang, Coordinator, NSS, Panjab University, Chandigarh, presided over the function. In his presidential remarks, he appealed to NSS volunteers to work for the national development and universal brotherhood. He said, without the participation of youth no social change was possible. To mark the valedictory day function, a cultural programme was also presented by NSS volunteers. Dr Narang, chief guest of the day, distributed prizes to the volunteers. The programme was supervised by Dr Safri Lal and Mrs Suman Sarma, NSS programme officers.

CELEBRATED: Government Home Science College, Sector 10, Chandigarh celebrated “Food day” at Khuda Ali Sher on Friday. Dr C.K. Narang, director, NSS, Panjab University, Chandigarh, addressed NSS volunteers and community people on the subject. 100 NSS volunteers, five college teachers and 100 women from rural community participated in the orientation programme on food and nutrition, and health. Dr C.K. Narang said nutritious food did not mean costly food and fresh vegetables were the best nutritious ingredients. He criticised the old notion that desi ghee, nuts and other costly diet was good for health. Dr Jasbir Kaur from Government Medical College, Sector 32, also addressed the volunteers and spoke on the health care and child care. Live demonstration on nutritious food and health was given by NSS volunteers. Prof Mrs R. Brinder, Mrs Rashmi Walia, Miss Seema Jatley had organised the 10-day camp under the supervision of Dr Mrs Usha Dhawal.

ESSAY WRITING: Neha Bansal, a student of the Sector 11 Government College for Girls, has won the gold medal in the essay writing competition organised by the Jat Sabha. The award carries a sum of Rs 2100 in cash. Other winners included Bhavna Ranjan, a student of GGDSD College, Sector 32, who won the silver medal and a cash award of Rs 1100. Tanina Dubey of Dr K.N. Dubey Model School, Rohtak, won the third prize. It carries a cash prize of Rs 700. Consolation prizes of Rs 400, Rs 300 and Rs 200 were won by Ms Shivali Sharma of D.N. College, Hisar, Mr Vashudha of Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 32, and Mr Mandeep Mittal of Panjab University.

BANK ASSOCIATION: The State Bank of India SC/ST Welfare Association on Friday decided to boycott the strike from January 1 to January 3, a call for which had been given by the State Bank of India Staff Association. Mr O.P. Indal, president of the association, said the reasons for the strike were not tangible. He said the management was within its right to transfer any employee as it deemed fit in the interest of the bank. He appealed to members not to observe the “illegal, unjust and malafide” call for strike on various dates.

BOOTH COST: The Chandigarh Auto Mechanics Welfare Association on Friday expressed shock over the announcement of the Chandigarh Administration that a sum of Rs 9.47 lakh had been fixed as the cost of each booth to be given to local mechanics. A press note issued by the association said auto mechanics of Chandigarh would call a general body meeting of the association to discuss the threats issued by the Administration to uproot them. The association said auto mechanics had also decided to oppose any move of the Administration which could delay their rehabilitation. They claimed that they had deposited the money wayback in 1996 and at that time Administration had fixed the price of a booth at Rs 1.42 lakh.