AMLOH
BODY FOUND: The mystery shrouding the sudden disappearance of Mr Dharamvir (50), a partner of National Rice Mills, Amloh, was solved on Tuesday when his body was handed over to his family by the local police. According to the police, Mr Sudesh Paul, son of the deceased, had lodged a complaint with the police on February 1 regarding the disappearance of his father, after he had gone to Maharaja Palace to attend a marriage party in the town, on January 30. The body was recovered from the Bhakhra Canal near Khanauri village in Sangrur district. The police suspect it to be a case of suicide.

AMRITSAR
“WETLAND DAY”: The Zoological Society of Guru Nanak Dev University and the Chandigarh chapter of the World-Wide Fund for Nature-India jointly celebrated the “world wetland day” by conducting lectures and an interaction session on various aspects of conservation and management of valuable but fragile eco-systems in wetlands at the university’s Guru Nanak Bhavan here. Dr Anish Dua, Mr Gopal Johri and Mr Chander Prakash highlighted the ecological and socio-economic factors relating to wetlands.

MEDICAL CAMP: A free medical camp was organised by the local Desh Bhagat Memorial Ayurvedic College and Hospital on Monday at Sounti village , near here. A team of five doctors checked up 80 patients and gave them medicines free of cost. The Principal of the college , Mr Sat Narain Singh, said that out of 80 patients, 40 were of the general nature while 10 had surgical problems. They were advised to get themselves admitted for operations. Mr Singh told that the college will organise another camp shortly for family planning and administration of vaccines.

BARNALA
AIDS CAMP: The local Lions Club organised an AIDS prevention awareness camp at the local Truck Operators Union complex on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Hazari Lal Bansal, Chairman, Punjab AIDS Control Society, highlighted various measures and precautions needed for the prevention of AIDS.

TEACHERS’ DEPUTATION: A deputation of teachers of private colleges led by Prof Rakesh Jinda, president of the Sangrur district unit of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), called on Mr G.P.S. Shahi, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Punjab, to apprise him of the “poor plight” of teachers serving in private colleges in Punjab against non-aided posts on Sunday at Panjab University Extension Library, Ludhiana. The deputation urged Mr Shahi to initiate steps to bring non-aided posts of private college teachers under aided posts.

BATHINDA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit of the Punjab Ayurvedic Medical Services Association: president — Dr Baljit Singh; vice-president — Dr H.R. bansal; secretary — Dr Sanjiv Pathak; and treasurer — Dr Judge Pal.

MOVE CONDEMNED: Mr Amrit Pal Singh Brar, member, national executive, Nationalist Congress Party, on Monday criticised the state government’s move to change the affiliating university of the Muktsar, Malout and Gidderbaha colleges. In a press note, Mr Brar said the move was not in the interests of teachers and students.

POST OFFICE: The postal authorities have issued instructions to open the main post office till 9 p.m. on week days. Mr P.K. Chugh, Postmaster, in a press note issued here on Monday, said the main post office would remain open beyond the normal working timings till 9 p.m. and the facility of registered post, speed post, sale of postage stamps and money orders would be available.

QUAKE RELIEF: employees of the local unit of the National Fertilisers Limited have decided to donate one day’s salary as relief to earthquake victims. Residents of the NFL township had sent a truckload of relief material earlier.

LECTURERS’ MEETING: Mr Mahesh Kumar, district president of the Government School Lecturers Union, in a press note issued here on Monday, said a state-level meeting of lecturers would be held on February 7 to discuss the drawbacks of the seniority list issued by the Circle Education Officer, Jalandhar, which had created confusion even before its implementation.

NSS CAMP: Students of the Partap Nagar branch of MHR Senior Secondary School organised a one-day NSS camp in which 50 NSS volunteers took part. A tree plantation and sanitation drive was also launched by them on the school campus. This was stated by Mr K.C. Gupta, Vice-Principal of the school, in a press note issued here on Monday.

HOSHIARPUR
2 KILLED: Naranjan Singh of Purana Bhangla village died on the spot when he fell from a bus at Manna village on Sunday. He was going to Naushera. In another incident, an unidentified person died at Talwandi Kalan on Sunday when he was hit by a truck. The Mukerian police has registered a case.

PROCLAIMED OFFENDER: Ravinder Singh, a proclaimed offender of Rata Guda village in Amritsar district who was wanted in a case by the Tanda police, was arrested on Sunday, Mr Sanjeev Kalra, SSP, Hoshiarpur, said on Monday.

THEFT: Miscreants stole Rs 25,000 and gold ornaments worth Rs 1 lakh from the house of Chanchal Singh at the Aslamabad locality here on Saturday. All family members were away from the house at the time of the theft. The Sadar police has registered a case.

JHUGGI GUTTED: A jhuggi was reduced to ashes in a fire which broke out on Monday morning at the Sunder Nagar locality here. The cause of fire is not known and the total loss is estimated to about Rs 20,000. No loss of life was reported.

KHAMANO
TWO INJURED: Two persons were injured in a head-on collision near Mahesh Pura village near here. According to the police, Ajaib Singh, a resident of Chandigarh, was going in a car (CH-01M 4868) towards Chandigarh with his wife and his car collided with a Maruti van PB-65A-2714 ) coming from Chandigarh. The driver of the van fled after the accident. The local police has registered a case against Jarnail Singh, the van driver, under Sections 279, 337, and 338 of the IPC.

KHARAR
TUBEWELL: The problem of acute shortage of drinking water faced by the residents of many wards here eased to some extent here yesterday when a tubewell installed by the local municipal committee near Kila Chungi started working on Monday. Mr Gian Chand Gupta, executive officer of the municipal committee, said another tubewell would start supplying water this month and another tubewell would be installed in Mundi Kharar. He appealed to the local residents not to misuse the drinking water and warned that action would be taken against the defaulters.

LUDHIANA
TUBEWELL DONATED: A tubewell has been donated to Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bharat Nagar, on Tuesday. Mr Mohan Lal Mehra, a businessman, has spent Rs 53,000 for the purpose. This is the 18th tubewell set up by the donor in the memory of his mother. The school students and teachers would be benefitted from this social cause as this would end all problems arising due to irregular water supply on the campus. 

KIRTAN DARBAR: Baba Namdev Sewak Society, Shivpuri Road, is organising a three-day kirtan darbar from February 9. Giving this information, Mr Davinder Singh Sekha, president of the society, said that the programme will begin as a nagar kirtan from Namdev Bhavan on February 9. The ragi jathas will include Bibi Varinder Kaur Khalsa, Bhai Baldev Singh, Bhai Joginder Singh and Bhai Manpreet Singh. Langar will be served on all the three days, he said. 

OPD BLOCK: Dayanand Medical College and Hospital has expanded its OPD block in terms of area and facilities to increase the handling capacity of outdoor patients with modern and state of art equipment in the departments of eye, skin, dental and ENT for effective and quick diagnosis. According to Dr Sandeep Puri, medical superintendent, the expansion of OPDs would reduce the waiting hours of patients. These departments have already started serving in their new locations in the hospital. Dr Puri said that all OPDs were air cooled with drinking water facilities, toilets, quick information facilities and STD/PCO services. The rest of the OPDs were also under renovation and would be commissioned soon. The sign posting for various departments had been placed at prominent places. The main entrance of the new OPD would now be opposite to the Physiotherapy Department. 

DECLAMATION CONTEST: An inter-house English declamation contest of middle section students from Kundan Vidya Mandir, city branch, was organised here on Tuesday. Nearly 12 students, from Classes VI to VIII, participated in the contest. Jagriti Sharma, a Class VIII student, of Tagore House, was declared first. Urvashi Pahwa, a Class VIII student, of Gandhi House clinched second prize and Deepali Gupta, Class VIII student, of Nehru House, stood third. Anish Bhatia, Class VI student, of Nehru House, won the consolation prize. Ms Maninder, Dr Shuchi, Ms Parveen Dang, all teachers of the school, pronounced the judgement. Ms Shashi Goel compered the contest. Ms N. Mannan, headmistress, appreciated the efforts of the students and gave away prizes to the winners. 

MANSA
RECEIPTS SOUGHT: Senior citizens and various NGOs of the district have demanded that the district administration should print special receipt books with a view to preventing illegal collection of earthquake relief. The receipt books should be in the denominations of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. They alleged that no relief had been sent to Gujarat from Mansa town in spite of collections made by the administration.

CLEANLINESS: Residents of the town have urged the Deputy Commissioner, Raji P. Sirivastava, to take measures for the cleanliness of the town. According to them, heaps of garbage and carcasses of pigs and other animals have been noticed in several places of the town and nothing has been done by the municipal authorities in spite of many reminders to the executive officer and President of the municipal council, Mr Pawan Kumar Mattlwala.

CROSSFIRE: Five persons — Ranjit Singh (45), Sarbjit Singh (22), Balwinder singh (40), Jaswinder Singh (32) and Gurmeet Singh (28) — were injured in an exchange of fire with a bus driver during a marriage reception party here on Monday night. The incident occurred when an inebriated person hit his car against a bus on the road. He then fired at the bus driver who returned the fire resulting in injuries to the five persons.

NAWANSHAHR
SEMINAR: The Punjab Students Union organised a seminar on “Future of education and students” at DIET, Naura, about 10 km from here, on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Raminder Singh, president of the Patiala unit, PSU, said the hike in fee in educational institutions had deprived the poor of education.

CONVENTION: The District Literacy Society organised a literacy convention at Bazid Palace here on Tuesday to mobilise sarpanches, panches and social workers to work for the success of the post-literacy campaign currently under way in the district. Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Deputy Commissioner, Mr Pritam Singh Joha, SDM, Mr S.P. Angra, BDPO, Mr Tirath Ram Bhatia and Mr Didar Shetra Sakharata, project coordinators, and a number of sarpanches addressed the convention.

INAUGURATED: Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Welfare Minister, inaugurated a school building and laid the foundation stones of a janj ghar and a project for the construction of streets and drains at Talwandi Fattu village, about 15 km from here, on Monday. The minister announced a grant of Rs 50,000 for the janj ghar.

PATHANKOT
NOMINATED: Mrs Rashi Vasudeva, a prominent social worker of Pathankot, has been appointed nominee of the Punjab State Social Welfare Advisory Board for three years. She has been empowered to help voluntary welfare organisations to expand and improve their programmes. Mrs Rashi was appointed by the Department of Social Security, Women and Child Development, Punjab.

PATIALA
CAMP HELD: The Income Tax Department held a one-day camp in the PSEB head office here on Tuesday to educate employees about the 1/6 scheme. The camp, which was inaugurated by the Chairman of the PSEB, Mr G.S. Sohal, saw a question-answer session in which various queries raised by employees regarding the scheme were cleared. Mr B.S. Rattan, Additional Commissioner, Income Tax, presided over the camp in which senior functionaries of the board,including its members, were present.

CRUSHED TO DEATH: Harjinder Pal Singh a 19-year-old class XI student of Government Multi-Purpose School here, was crushed to death by a overspeeding truck at Wazirpur bus stand on the Patiala-Sangrur road on Monday. The boy ran to board the bus bound for Patiala when a truck of the Sangrur Telecommunication Department ran him over. The truck (PB-13C 9401) was impounded by the police and its driver Raghubir Singh was arrested. Harjinder Pal Singh was brought to Government Rajindra Hospital here and was declared dead.

PHAGWARA
VEHICLE THIEF HELD: Varinder of Nangal Khera village, who drove away a truck from the house of Mukhtiar Singh at Kotrani village on the outskirts of Phagwara, landed in the police net when he was chased and overpowered by the octroi staff and handed over to the police.

AWARENESS PROGRAMME: The Northern Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Standards organised an awareness programme for consumer organisations of Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula here on Tuesday. Mr V.K. Kapoor, Deputy Director-General of the BIS, urged the organisations to actively participate for consumer awareness. Among others who spoke on the occasion were Ms Renuka Salwan, Deputy Director (Public Relations), and Ms K.K. Narang, Director, BIS.

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ: The team of Government College of Girls, Sector 11, won the inter-college geography quiz organised by the college here on Tuesday. Diya, Pikee and Neelakshi of the college won the first prize, while the team from DAV College, Sector 10, got second prize. Government College of Boys, Sector 11, won the third prize. The quiz was conducted by Ms S.K. Sharma, Head of the Department of Geography in the college, while the Principal, Ms Vijaylakshmi, who presided over the quiz, gave away prizes to winners.

KILLING FLAYED: The Chandigarh Nationalist Youth Congress has condemned the killing of Sikhs in Srinagar. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the wing has also condemned the Jammu and Kashmir Government for taking action against protesters in Srinagar.

ORGANISED: A map making competition for school students is being organised by the International Cartography Association in collaboration with the Survey of India. According to the Director of the SOI’s North Western Circle, Brig K S Khatri, the competition is open to students under 16 years of age. The theme of the competition is “Save the earth.” Participants can prepare the maps, not exceeding 17x11 inches, using any number of projections to generate the coastline and other base material. This includes tracing or copying existing maps or using a computer programme. The prepared maps should be forwarded through the school principal by April 12 to the Technical Office based at SOI office in Sector 32, who can also be contacted for more details. The winner will be awarded by the Association.

MYCOPLASMOLOGISTS CONFERENCE: To draw attention to mycoplasmas in the new millennium and new techniques for their diagnosis, a three-day national conference and workshop of Indian Association of Mycoplasmologists will be hosted by the Department of Medical Microbiology, PGI, from February 9. According to Professor Meera Sharma, Head, Department of Medical Microbiology, over 100 delegates from India and abroad will attend the conference.

SHOPKEEPER HELD: The Chandigarh police arrested Jaswinder Singh, a shop-owner of Music Point, SCO 1004 and 1005, under the Copy Right Act on Tuesday. A team of police personnel recovered a large number of pirated cassettes and CDs. Sources revealed that the police team was divided into two to arrest the accused with the help of employees of a music company. The police had reportedly recovered 400 CDs, 190 audio cassettes and 20 audio CDs.

PLAY STAGED: The DPI (Colleges), UT, Ms Madhvi Kataria, has urged college students to form groups and create awareness among the people regarding social issues through plays. She said this while speaking at MCM DAV College, Sector 36, here on Tuesday after presiding over the staging of the play by Gursharan Singh, Kavita Di Maut, based on the female foeticide theme. The play was organised by the Voluntary Health Organisation (Punjab) in collaboration with the college.

PANCHKULA
SHOOTING BEGINS: On the inauguration of a Punjabi TV Serial Kamla Vehda Samjhave Keda some shots were taken in Sector 17, here on Tuesday. Director-cum-producer of the serial, Pankaj Kumar Virat, said the serial is full of love, hate, affection, romance and comedy.

SAS NAGAR
EXTENSION GIVEN: The Chairman of the Punjab School Education Board, Dr Kehar Singh, has been given another one-year extension by the Punjab Government. His term expires on February 7. Sources in the government said the State Education Minister had already cleared the file but the formal orders in this regard were yet to be issued.

NAGAR KIRTAN: A nagar kirtan will be organised here on Wednesday in connection with the 624th prakash utsav of Guru Ravidass. According to the president of the Shri Guru Ravidass Naujawan Sabha, Punjab, Mr K.R. Chaudhury, the procession will start from Guru Ravidass Bhavan in Phase VII at 12 noon and after going through various phases terminate at the same place at 5 p.m.

AMBALA
KILLED: One cyclist was killed in a road accident on the GT road here on Tuesday. According to a police report, the cyclist was hit by a truck. The police has registered a case.

QUIZ COMPETITION: Air Force Police School, Ambala Cantonment, organised a computer quiz competition on Tuesday to create interest and awareness among the students regarding computers. Ms Bala Iyer, president, AFWWA (L), was the chief guest. The participants were subjected to rounds like rapid fire, fastest finger first, jumble and multiple choice rounds to test their knowledge, a release said.

TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS: The traffic police challaned 4928 traffic violators in Ambala division last month. A decision on 2861 challans was taken and Rs 15,03,170 was recovered as penalty from the traffic violators in Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar and Kaithal, a release said.

DEAD: A beggar died due to cold at Ambala Cantonment railway station on Monday. The body was recovered by the Railway police which was sent to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

HISAR
QUAKE RELIEF: Employees of Haryana Agricultural University have decided to donate one day’s salary towards the Gujarat Earthquake Relief Fund. The decision was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Mr vinay Kumar, on Monday. Mr Vinay Kumar applauded the NSS volunteers who collected Rs 60,000 for the quake victims.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The police seized 300 bottles of illicit liquor from a woman at Pirawali village, near here, on Monday. A police team raided the house of Hardai, a resident of the village, and seized the liquor.

THIEVES HELD: The district police arrested three thieves from different villages of the district on Monday. They are Sandeep, Harikesh and Gagan. They had stolen a truck from the local Mill Gate area four days ago. The stolen vehicle has been recovered from Delhi.

JIND
PROMOTED: Mr Dev Raj Sirohiwall, District Publicity Organiser, has been promoted as Assistant Public Relations Officer by the Directorate of Public Relations, Haryana, and posted at Narwana.

SONEPAT
SHEDS GUTTED: Two sheds were reduced to ashes when a fire broke out in a mushroom farmhouse at Badhana village, about 12 km from here, on Monday.

CONVICTED: Mrs Ranjani, Presiding Officer of the Special Environment Court, Hisar, has convicted Mr Ashok Jain, owner of Shree Vardhman Dye Chemical Factory, Bahalgarh Road (Sonepat), under the provisions of the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1974, and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment.

HONESTY: A driver and a conductor of a Haryana Roadways bus of Sonepat depot set a fine example of honesty by returning a bag containing Rs 50,000 to its owner, Mr Kashmiri Lal, a farmer of Punjab, on Monday. Mr Kashmiri Lal boarded the bus in Chandigarh and got down on the way leaving behind the bag. He gave Rs 500 each as reward to the driver and the conductor.