R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Amritsar unit of the Punjab Medical Representatives’ Association: president — Mr Ranjeet Sehgal; vice-presidents — Mr K.S. Kakkar, Mr Mohit Jaitley and Mr Sushil Gupta; and secretary — Mr T.R. Dogra.

HOSHIARPUR
MALTA TRAGEDY: A special meeting of families of the Malta boat tragedy victims will be held at the office of the Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission here on January 7. Mr Meher Singh Heera, general secretary of the probe mission, said in a press note here on Monday that information regarding cases against the culprits in Italy, Greece, Pakistan and Malta would be provided at the meeting.

GREETINGS: Mrs Mohinder Kaur Josh, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, visited the juvenile and old-age homes at the Ram Colony camp on Monday to extend new year greetings to inmates of the two institutions.

CRITICISED: Mr R.D. Singh, district president of the Janata Dal and Mr Adrash Gupta, city president of the Janata Dal, have criticised BJP leaders for allegedly misusing government machinery for holding a rally at the local police grounds here on Sunday.

JALANDHAR
FLAYED: The alleged attempt by the district administration to stop Mr Santosh Chaudhary, Phillaur MP, from laying the foundation stone of a health centre at Bhogpur township has invited criticism from several Congress leaders, including Mr Balbir Singh, local MP, Mr Amarjit Singh Samra, Nakodar MLA, and Mr Tejinder Bittu, organising secretary, PPCC. They have decided to take up the issue with the chairman of the Member Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Committee and in Parliament. 

KAPURTHALA
FOUND DEAD: Balbir Singh, a resident of Jalandhar, was found dead in a hotel room in Begowal village on Monday. According to the police, Balbir Singh had hired the room in Hotel Kapil on Sunday night.

CASE REGISTERED: The city police on Monday registered a case under Sections 451, 427, 147 and 149 of the IPC against nine persons of the local Shastri Market on the charge of forcibly entering the house of Raj Kumar of the same locality and breaking his household articles.

KHAMANO
ACCIDENTS: Two persons died and four were injured in two separate accidents which occured around Khamano during the past two days. In the first accident, one person was killed and two were injured when a Maruti car (no. PB-11L-0663) coming from Patiala, collided head-on with a truck (no. DL-IG-5706) coming from the opposite direction on the Sanghol-Bassi road. The deceased was identified as Jatinder Singh of Ablowal village. Two persons, Mr Parminder Singh and Mr Atinder Singh, who were injured, were admitted to a hospital at Morinda. The Khamano Police had registered a case while the truck driver was absconding. In another accident, two scooter-borne persons, Angad Singh and Ranvir Singh of Manela village, near here, were seriously injured when they were hit by a speeding Maruti Zen car (No. PB-10Z-0072). Both were rushed to the PGI at Chandigarh, where Angad Singh died due to severe head injuries. A case has been registered against the car-driver. 

PADDY: Although the paddy season is yet to begin, still. about 20,000 bags of paddy are lying at the Khamano Mandi under the open sky. Payments of commission agents to the tune of about 1 crore and 25 lakh are still pending, but the procurement agencies do not seem to have bothered about it, despite appeals by farmers and commission agents. Many bags of paddy will be ruined due to rain but arrangements had not been made to save them. The commission agents and farmers of this area had appealed to the Deputy Commissioner. Fatehgarh Sahib, Mr B.S. Soodan, to look into the matter and to get the payments released. 

MILKFED: Milkfed, Punjab, has taken special steps to tackle the obsession of the World Trade Organisation with milk products. Disclosing this here to media persons, Mr Darshan Singh, Director Milk Plant, Ludhiana, and Mr Darbara Singh Dhillon, said that after the taking over of Dr B.M. Mahajan as Managing Director of Milkfed, remarkable changes had been made. The procurement of milk had touched a new high in the past three months. Now Milkfed was planning to launch a new campaign Verka Doodh Pio to increase the sale of Verka products. They also disclosed that the export of Verka products was gaining momentum. On the instructions of Mr Mahajan, special attention was being given to raw material and production of milk products as per international standards. It is to mention that all 5,800 milk producing societies in the state had been directed to insure the supply of Verka Cattle Feed to producers. The leaders had also welcomed the decision of Milkfed to decrease the rates of Verka cattle feed. 

LUDHIANA
HONOURED: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is organising a function on January 6 to honour doctors for outstanding contributions to their field. According to Dr Gurcharan Singh, District President of IMA, the list of the doctors who are to be honoured at the function, include Dr S.B. Khurana, former principal of DMC, Dr L.S. Chawla, Dr S.N. Gupta, Dr S.S. Grewal, Dr V. Satija, Dr R.N. Saha, Dr B.K. Ahuja, Dr O.P. Aggarwal, Dr Harbans Sidhu from Doraha and Dr R.P. Suara. The function would be organised at the IMA Bhavan at 8.00 p.m. The academic session would be presided by Dr Navneet Chaudhary, Professor and Head, Laparoscopic Surgery, DMC. 

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punjab Ophthalmic Officers Association: patron — Mr Jatinder Katoch; president — Mr Narinder Mehta; general secretary — Mr Jaswinder Singh; senior vice-presidents — Mr Sukhwinder Singh and Mr Karnail Singh; vice-presidents — Mr Rakesh Sharma and Mr Harjit Singh; organisation secretary — Mr Mohanjit Singh; press secretary — Mr Harpal Singh; finance secretary — Mr Ravind Sharma; joint secretary — Ms Jagdish Kaur; and advisers — Mr Pardeep Tondon and Naresh Luthara. 

MANSA
APPOINTED: Mr Maninderjit Singh Bitta, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorism Front, has appointed Mr Jagsir Singh Billu as the general secretary of the state unit of the front.

DHARNA STAGED: Several trade unions, political parties and other organisations staged a dharna here on Monday at the district court and raised slogans against the state government. They submitted a memorandum to Mrs Raji P. Shrivastva, Deputy Commissioner, in which it was alleged that the local cooperative spinning mill had been sold by the state government at a throwaway price.

MOGA
GURPURB: The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated here with great enthusiasms by all sections of society. Special functions were held at almost all religious places where leaders of religious and political parties paid tribute to the great Guru. Earlier, a big procession, organised by the Gurdwara Propaganda Committee, was taken out.

PATIALA
INAUGURATED: Mr Raja Narinder Singh, Minister of Public for Health, inaugurated a water tank under the Rural Drinking Water Supply Scheme at Khanurki village in Nabha sub-division, near here, on Sunday. He had earlier inaugurated the village Focal Point and a school building. Besides, he donated a cheque of Rs 8 lakh for the uplift of nine adjoining villages. At present, nearly 80 people have already been given cheques worth Rs 4 lakh under the Shagan Scheme initiated by the government. Raja Narinder Singh said the state government was also laying and recarpeting 30 km of link roads each year for the development of the village. 

ORIENTATION COURSE: A two-day orientation course in pedagogy as part of the Punjab Elementary Education Programme was organised for sikhia karmis, (teaching workers ) appointed from among untrained rural youth, on Saturday and Sunday in Government Primary School, Model Town, under the aegis of the Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, New Delhi, and Dr T.R. Sharma, Professor (retd) and Dean Education, Punjabi University. The course inaugurated by Mr Harman Singh Bajaj, DEO (primary), Patiala, consisted of lectures, demonstrations, teaching aids improvisations and group discussions. The main speakers for the course were Dr Agyajit Singh, former head of the Psychology Department , Punjabi University; Dr Meenakshi, Head and Dean, Department of Education, Punjabi University; and Mr Raghuvir Singh of the Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, Delhi, apart from various other speakers. The stress was on child psychology, teaching technology, pedagogy, heredity, environment and stages of human development-intellectual, physical and emotional. Dr T.R. Sharma also spoke on children’s behavioural problems and various devices to tackle them. 

PRESIDENT ELECTED: Mr Ashok Gupta was elected president of the Maha Punjab Sewa Sangh on Monday. The other elected members are: Chairman — Narinder Pal Verma; vice-presidents — Mr Harinder Bansal and Mr Ashok Mehra; secretary — Mr Prem Chand Sharma; joint secretary — Raj Kumar ‘Bobby’; and cashier — Mr K.K. Bansal. 

CHANDIGARH

CONDEMNED: The Banking Customers Association on Tuesday condemned the rigid attitude of the State bank of India, Ludhiana Zonal Office, which harassed customers. The two-day strike initiated by the Ludhiana office has affected the trading activities which in turn have hit the values of shares, according to a press release issued by the President of the association here on Tuesday. The association also appealed to the Chairman of the State Bank of India to solve the matter. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
EXAMINED: The Lions Club Ambala City Supreme organised a medical check-up camp at Jandali village on Monday evening in which Dr K.K. Bhatia, Dr Vinod Tayal and Dr Meetali Nagpal examined 260 patients. Free medicines were provided to the patients. Club President, S.K. Sharma and General Secretary Prem Luthra were present at the camp. 

NSS CAMP: The valedictory function of a 10-day NSS camp of Sanatan Dharam College, Ambala cantonment, was held on the college campus on Tuesday. Several welfare projects were undertaken in Valmiki Basti and Dera Batta during the camp. Dr S.P. Sharma, Programme Officer, NSS, presented a report on the achievements of the camp, a release said. The best volunteers, including Brij Pal, Sanjay, Sanjeev, Varsha, Anuradha, Kanwar Pal, Rajeev, Sukhvinder, Deepak, Sunil, Sonia, Ashwini and Sanjeev were given prizes. 

BHIWANI
RESIGNED: Mr Ajit Singh Tanwar, former Municipal Councillor and member of the BJP, has resigned from the party on personal grounds. He submitted his resignation to the president of the district unit.

AWARDEE DEAD: Phool Chand Dewralia, the only Padma Shri awardee from the district, died in Kolkata on Saturday after a prolonged illness. Condolence meetings were held at his native village Dewrala in the district and nearby Behal village.

DEATH MOURNED: A meeting was held on the Vidyagram premises in Behal to mourn the demise of Gindodi Devi, widow of Hanuman Dass and mother of Mr Hari Kishan Chaudhary, chairman of several educational and social institutions being run by the Balla Ram Hanuman Dass Charitable Trust. She was confined to bed for the past many years and had been living with her son in Kolkata

KAITHAL
CELEBRATED: A procession was organised here on Tuesday to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. A large number of Sikhs from the town and nearby villages joined the celebrations.

ROHTAK
MOLESTATION: The police on Monday registered a case under Section 354 of the IPC against Tek Ram, a resident of Gaddi Kheri village, near here, on the charge of molesting his daughter-in-law Shakuntala. In the FIR, she alleged that her husband’s father, tried to outrage her modesty when she was alone in the house on December 26.

SONEPAT
OLD-AGE HOME: Mr Dev Raj Dewan, MLA, inaugurated an old-age home at Hullaheri village, 5 km from here, on Monday. The old-age home consists of a hall, a kitchen, a bath room and a reading room.

GURPURB: The birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated in the city and elsewhere in the district on Tuesday with great enthusiasm. A large number of people, both Hindus and Sikhs, thronged gurdwaras and took part in religious congregations. Langars were also organised on the occasion.

DHARNA STAGED: Employees of the Public Health Department sat on dharna in front of their office here on Tuesday in support of their demands. Leaders of the employees unions declared that the dharna would continue until all their demands were accepted by the authorities.

BURGLARY: Some persons reportedly broke into the office of a private company at Kharkhauda town, 19 km from here, on Monday night and decamped with goods worth Rs 43,000. A report in this regard was lodged with the police by the management of the company.

PROMOTED: The Haryana Roadways has promoted 18 employees of the Sonepat depot for their commendable work. Mr H.C. Jain, general manager of the depot, told mediapersons here on Tuesday that 33 employees were given cash prizes and 56 others awarded certificates.

ACCIDENTS: As many as 13 persons were injured in three accidents on the GT Road and other state highways near here on Monday. According to a report, the injured had been hospitalised and they were stated to be out of danger.

NOMINATED: Mr Lalit Sharma, president of the Rashtravadi Yuva Congress Party, nominated Mr Sanjay Sharma as the secretary of the district unit of the party on Tuesday.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KASAULI
MEETING: An executive meeting of the Jogindra Central Cooperative Bank Workers Union was convened under the presidentship of Mr Ajit Singh at Kumihar, near Subathu, on Sunday. In a press note, the union alleged that their demands, including payment of overtime arrears and benefits on a par with state government banks, had not been fulfilled by the bank management.

HOUSE GUTTED: A four-storeyed house belonging to Tehli Devi was gutted in a fire that broke out at Buruwa village, 5 km from here.