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English teaching in schools
Govt fails to provide fresh primers
MOGA, Feb 14 — The introduction of English in rural primary schools by the state government has failed to achieve the desired results in this Assembly constituency represented by Punjab Education Minister Tota Singh.

RS poll: whip ‘can’t be issued’
CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 — A Whip cannot be issued in the case of an election to a Rajya Sabha seat. This was claimed here by Mr Manjit Singh Khaira, who is one of the candidates for the seat and Mr Ravi Inder Singh, chief campaigner against the Punjab Chief Minister. Both addressed a press conference this afternoon.

Villagers allege police terror 
BAKSHIWALA (PATIALA), Feb 14 — The case of over one quintal of gold buried by the last Prime Minister of the princely Patiala state in a haveli in this village has become murkier with residents claiming that the Patiala police had let loose a reign of terror, resulting in 25 to 30 youths fleeing the village and that the entire story was a hoax, even as the police stands by its case.

Shekhawat’s canal visit “eyewash”
FAZILKA, Feb 14 — Dr Mohinder Kumar Rinwa, a former MLA and former secretary of the PPCC has described the visit of Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, a former Chief Minister of Rajasthan, to Gang Canal in Fazilka subdivision as an eyewash. He said when Mr Shekhawat was Chief Minister of Rajasthan he never bothered about the Gang Canal.

POLITICS

Beopar Mandal to contest 25 seats 
FARIDKOT, Feb 14 — The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal has decided to contest 25 Assembly seats in the forthcoming elections in the state. The segments have been identified and the lists of candidates will be announced shortly.

Councillor’s resignation a drama: BJP
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — Mr Mithu Ram Gupta, general secretary of the district unit of the BJP, said yesterday that the resignation of Mr Sewak Ram Bhola from the post of municipal councillor on the pretext that discrimination was being done against Congress councillors by the municipal council was a “drama”.

COMMUNITY

NGOs adopt TB patients
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — As many as 13 non-government organisations have adopted 316 tuberculosis patients in this district on being motivated by the Civil Hospital authorities and district administration.

Road accidents on the rise
BATHINDA: Road accidents are on the rise in Bathinda district. Such accidents, which often claim precious lives, usually occur due to negligence or ignorance of the traffic rules. The other reasons include defective vehicles and bad roads.

Wooing with French perfume 
JALANDHAR, Feb 14 — Girl gangs, comprising college students kept criss-crossing the city streets on their two and four-wheelers, greeting the footloose guys with such comments as “hi handsome” as the latter hurled flowers and “flying kisses” in return.

Cops turn a deaf ear to Romeos’ pleas 
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — All plans by youngsters to present flowers to their valentines were foiled by the district police today. The police had stepped up vigil on the “gheri routes” of the city. Even rose vendors in the city were kept under watch.

Out on streets against govt
MAJITHA, Feb 14 — Hundreds of teachers, government employees, workers, farmers and students today held a massive rally and protest march on a call given by the Punjab Mulazam Sangharsh Committee in the grain market here today in protest against the alleged anti-people-policies of the state government.

DRDA staff oppose winding up of schemes
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — Resentment prevails among employees of the District Rural Development Agencies DRDAs against the proposal of Central Government to wind up 200 centrally sponsored schemes all over the country.

Liquor contractor detained 
LUDHIANA, Feb 14 — The ongoing liquor war between different groups here took a new turn with one of the leading contractors being allegedly detained by officials of the Excise Department for not depositing the licence fee during the past two months. The officials of the department reportedly picked up Mr Roop Lal from the Circuit House, where he had come to attend a meeting with the excise officials.

Menace of cordless phone on the rise 
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — A police official was on duty and scanning various messages on his wireless system. Suddenly his wireless flashed a message, “Sell all stocks of mine immediately. I need hard cash right now...” and the official was shocked. After a while he realised that the message was in fact a ‘disturbance’ in his system, which had caught signal from a cordless telephone.

Sarpanch’s arrest stayed
CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 —Issuing notice to the state of Punjab for March 22, Mr. Justice V.M. Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the arrest of Roshan Lal, former sarpanch of Thalu village in Anandpur Sahib tehsil, in a criminal intimidation case.

SGPC meeting on February 27
AMRITSAR, Feb 14 — Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi, President, SGPC, has convened a meeting of the executive committee on February 27 here in which the decision to send jathas to Pakistan may be taken.

17 baratis injured in bus mishap
ABOHAR, Feb 14 — At least 17 members of a marriage party were injured when their bus collided with a truck on Abohar-Hanumangarh road today.

TA recruitment on March 5 
LUDHIANA, Feb 14 — The recruitment rally of the Territorial Army will be conducted at 103 Infantry Battalion, Sikh LI, GT Road, Miller Ganj, here on March 5, according to an official press note.

CPI dharna on Feb 21
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — The Communist Party of India, Bathinda unit, will organise a dharna on February 21 in protest against the district administration and the state government.

Power shutdown
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — The power supply will remain cut off in some localities of the city on February 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tubewells 
AMRITSAR, Feb 14 — In a significant development, the Punjab Government has decided to release tubewell connections to all villages falling within 16 km of the international border.

AGRICULTURE

Wheat procurement
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — The district administration has made all arrangements for the procurement of wheat that will start arriving in the markets in April. 

101 centres to get wheat
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — As many as 101 centres to procure about 6.60 lakh tonnes of wheat in the coming season would be established in the district.

ADMINISTRATION

Power supply to ITI cut off
BATHINDA, Feb 14 — The electric supply to the local Industrial Training Institute (ITI) has been cut by the Punjab State Electricity Board authorities when its management failed to deposit the amount of penalty imposed on as it has been using more load than sanctioned.

• Obscene posters

CRIME

Three held, stolen goods recovered
TARN TARAN, Feb 14 — The police has arrested three persons and recovered stolen articles worth Rs 60,000 from their possession.

EDUCATION

Decision on marks irks pupils 
FARIDKOT, Feb 14 — Resentment prevails among a large section of open category students against the decision of the Punjab Government to make it mandatory for students to get at least 40 per cent marks in the entrance test for admission to postgraduate classes in state colleges.

Youth Festival concludes
PATIALA — Feb 14 — The three-day Punjabi University Inter-Zonal Youth Festival organised by the Department of Youth Welfare concluded here today. The last day of the festival, which happened to be Valentine’s Day, attracted a record number of students from various departments and also from the colleges affiliated to the university.

MBA entrance 
PATIALA, Feb 14 — Punjabi University will hold a joint entrance test for admission to the courses of Master of Business Administration, Master of Finance and Control and Master of Business Economics for the coming session of March 11.

BUSINESS

Hike commission, arhtiyas urge CM
MANSA, Feb 14 — Mr Narinder Paul Danewalia, president, Punjab State Arhtiya Association, has urged the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, to enhance the commission of arhtiyas on cotton, narma, mustard and other agricultural product of the state.