AMRITSAR
AWARD: Dr Amritpal Kaur, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Science of Guru Nanak Dev University, was awarded the Ratna Laxman Rao Best Woman Teacher Award — 2000 at the 17th national seminar of the Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science held recently at Thiruvanthapuram (Kerala).

ELECTED: Dr Jairup Singh, professor of human genetics, Guru Nanak Dev University, was unanimously elected president of the Indian Society of Human Genetics during the 26th annual meeting of the society held recently in Hyderabad. He is also the coordinator of the Centre for Genetic Disorders of the university.

DORAHA
INJURED: A man was injured when he was hit by a bus while he was walking his way near Chummo village along with his son and brother. According to an FIR registered at the Payal police station, Nirmal Singh was going with his son Buta Singh and brother Gurcharan Singh from Malaud to their village (Babarpur) when a bus (PB-11B-2131) hit him. He was admitted to the hospital. The bus driver managed to flee from the spot. 

DISTRIBUTED: Cheques worth Rs 6,68,100 were distributed to 131 persons under the Shagun Scheme by Mr Amarjit Paul, SDM, Payal, and Jathedar Sadhu Singh Ghudani, local MLA. 169 pension-approval letters were also issued on this occasion. According to the SDM, "1300 cases have been accorded pension-approval letters out of a total of 3000 in the sub-division. The pending cases would be approved and distributed by March 31." 

CAMP: The third Hepatitis-B vaccination camp would be organised by the Dashmesh Charitable Dispensary on Saturday. "The injections would be administered at concessional rates of Rs 80 and Rs 40 for adults and children, respectively, " said Mr Inderjit Singh Kala, president of the dispensary.

HOSHIARPUR
THEFT: Some miscreants entered the house of Dr Neelam Tiwari in Mohalla Mauri Bahadurpur here on Wednesday evening and decamped with Rs 11,000 and gold ornaments worth Rs 6,000. The police has registered a case in this connection.

FRAUD CASE: On a complaint of Mrs Meena Rani Chandani of Talwara, the police has registered a case under Sections 406, 420 and 34 of the IPC against Mahesh Gupta of Talwara for fraudulently taking Rs 87,730 for shares from her.

KILLED: Lashkar Singh (30) of Gaggar village died on the spot when his scooter skidded. His cousin, Kuldip Singh, was injured in the incident.

JAGRAON
CHECK-UP CAMP: The Rotary Club arranged a free sugar and blood pressure check-up camp at Tehsil road where hundred of persons availed of this opportunity. 

LICENSES ISSUED: The Motor Vehicle Licensing Authority issued 775 learner's driving licences within a period of 40 days.

KHAMANO
RALLY: The Joint Employees Coordination Committee, Khamano, on Friday held a rally in front of the PSEB office at Khamano against the Budget proposals and the alleged victimisation of workers. The speakers in their address termed the Budget as anti-employees. They demanded that dismissed revenue patwaris should be reinstated immediately. They flayed the proposals of decrease in interest rate on provident fund, 10 per cent decrease in work force, privatisation of government and semi-government establishments. They also flayed the cases registered against the powermen at Bathinda and Patiala. 

INJURED: Some persons travelling by a Contessa car (DL-1Cg-6545) tried to hit a policemen on duty at a special naka laid by the Khamano police. According to the information available, the police had a secret information that some objectionable material was being transported through that car. When car was signalled to stop, the driver speeded it up an tried to hit the policemen. The constable, Mr Bijay Kumar, was injured in the process. The car was coming from Chandigarh towards Ludhiana. Khamano police has registered a case under Sections 279, 307, 353, 424 and 511 of the IPC and has impounded the car, but the driver of the car who was later identified as Parminder Singh of Machhiwara is absconding.

KHARAR
LION CLUBS: The annual region conference — Mehar 2001, of District 321 F of Lions Club will be held on March 18, 2001 here. The conference will be presided over by Lion B.S Garcha .The District Governor, Lion N.K Grover, will be the chief guest and Vice District Governor Lion D.K Sood will be the guest of honour. As many as 350 delegates from clubs from Chandigarh, Kharar, Chamkaur Sahib and Mohali are likely to attend the conference.

MACHHIWARA
MISHAP: A youth, Rajnish Sachdeva (20), son of a local transporter, Mr Ram Sachdeva, and a student of Guru Nanak National College, Doraha, was killed on Thursday night in a mishap which took place near his home. According to the information available, his head was crushed under his own truck when it suddenly started moving. He died on the spot. The local truck operator union has expressed its deep concern over the accident.

MANSA
EYE CAMP: Ms Raji P. Shrivastava, Deputy Commissioner, on Friday inaugurated a three-day eye operation camp at Phaphre Bhaike village in the district. Dr Pardeep Bansal, eye specialist, will operate upon patients. Boarding, lodging and medicines will be provided to all patients free of cost, according to the club president, Mr Sukhmohinder Singh.

HUNGER STRIKE: The indefinite hunger strike of the two workers of Mansa Cooperative Spining Mill entered the seventh day on Friday. The condition of the workers — Mr Jagdev Singh Chakerian, secretary the Save Mill Action Committee, and Mr Ashok Kumar — is stated to be serious. Workers of the mill organised a rally here on Friday and raised slogans against the Punjab Government.

PATHANKOT
MC BUDGET: The Sujanpur Municipal Council has passed a budget of Rs 2.03 crore for 2001-2002, according to the council President, Mr Vinay Mahajan. He said following the upgradation of the council to class B from class C, adequate funds would be provided for the construction of a children’s park and development of a Dalit basti.

PATIALA
DYC ACTIVISTS STAGE RALLY: Activists of both rural and urban units of the District Youth Congress staged a protest rally against the BJP-led government’s alleged involvement in the shady transactions as exposed by a website. Addressing a rally, Mr Jaswinder Singh Randhawa, president of the rural unit of the youth congress, asked the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to resign on moral grounds keeping in view the Tehelka .Com expose. Mr Sanjeev Bittu, a senior leader of the DYC, said that the people of the country felt cheated by the government and added that such a government had no right to stay in power.

BOOK RELEASED: At the Principals Conference held at the Punjabi University here on Friday, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, released a book on ‘Fiscal Deficit of States In India’ edited by Dr Janak Raj Gupta, Dean, College Development Council, who is also a professor in the Department of Economics. The book provides both a theoretical background and the empirical evidence pertaining to many states in the country in so far as explicit explanation of a deficit budget is concerned. It also illustrates the various concepts of deficit.

PRESENTED: A paper on ‘An outline of a united front against globalisation’ was presented by Dr Swaraj Singh at the Arts Centre here on Friday. It suggested all the forces under the cloak of ‘Globalisation’ should unite under a minimum common programme. Professor Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, presided over the function. Speaking on the occasion, he said that we should oppose all kinds of domination and discrimination.

RALLY: A special Air Force recruitment rally for youths of Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar districts will be organised at Rink Hall, Baradari gardens, here from Wednesday to Friday for non-technical trades of the Indian Air Force. Only those candidates will be eligible to take part in the recruitment rally who have been born between September 1,1982 and September 1, 1985. Candidate must be a matriculate with a minimum of 45 per cent marks with English as a compulsory subject. Candidates should have a minimum height of 152.5 cms and weight should be corresponding to their height. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, has appealed to the youths to make the best use of this opportunity.

PHAGWARA
POPPY SEIZED: The police seized 240 kg of poppy husk worth Rs 1 lakh at Chowk Baba Gadia, near the new Sabzi Mandi on Wednesday. It was hidden in a tractor-trolly loaded with sand. The driver, Bhupinder Lal, alias Ghori, has been arrested under Sections 15,61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and the vehicle impounded.

ROPAR
DEPENDANTS: The Punjab Government has provided jobs to the dependants of 44 victims of terrorist violence in the district. In a press note issued on Thursday, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr G.S. Grewal, said the district administration had received 102 claims from the dependants of government employees and other people who were killed by terrorists.

BANNED: The District Magistrate, Mr G.S. Grewal, has banned the use of loudspeakers from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. within the limits of the district till May 9. The order has been issued in view of the ongoing school examinations.

SAMRALA
SEMINAR: The Bharti Kisan Union is going to organise a seminar on the WTO regime on March 18 at Jat Bhavan, Chandigarh. This was stated by Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, general secretary of the union , here on Friday. He said that Mr Sard Joshi, farmer leader, Dr S.S. Johal, Prof Pardeep Apte of Poona, Dr Barun Mitra and Mr Suvik Chakarvarti, Editor of the Economic Times will address the seminar. On behalf of the Chief Minister, Punjab, Dr G.S Kalkat, Vice-Chancellor of PAU, Ludhiana, will also participate, he added.

RELEASED: At the release of his maiden Punjabi music album ‘Tang Pajami Kurhti Laal” on Friday, 20-year-old Gurbawa performed for journalists here. Promoted by Catrack Entertainment Limited, the album comprises eight songs. Its title song is being aired on all major TV channels. While the songs have been penned by Gill Surjit, Raj Kakra and Harjit Har, the music is by Surinder Bachan. The video of the title song has been directed by Azeem Parker. Mr Gaurav Trehan of the music company, answering a question on the violation of contract by singer Babbu Mann, said his company would never record his songs in future. He said the company would soon release an album of Pakistani singer Shazia Manzoor.

AMBALA
281 KG CHURA POST SEIZED: The special task force staff, led by Inspector Mam Chand, has seized 281 kg of chura post. Inspector General of Police, Ambala range, Mr H.S. Ahlawat, said that the special task force raided the residence of Man Singh in Sarapsukhi village on Thursday. Seven sacks of chura post, weighing about 281 kg, were seized from near the tubewell.

MASS-MARRIAGE FUNCTION: The Ambala Sewa Sabha has decided to organise a mass-marriage function. A meeting of the sabha was held under the presidentship of Mr Gurnamdas Mal, in which it was decided that on the occasion of Baisakhi, mass marriage of 51 needy girls would be arranged. The General Secretary, Mr Suresh Arora, said that the parents could submit an application till April 1. A committee comprising Mr Jatinder Singh Bindra, Mr Harpal and Rajinder Gujral would scrutinise the applications. The wedding gifts would be bought by a committee comprising Mr Manohar Lal, Mr B.N. Mehta, Mr Yash Bahal and Mr Mukesh Talwad.

ADDITIONAL STANDING GOVERNMENT COUNSEL: Mr Chander Mohan Sehgal, advocate, has been engaged as Additional Standing Government Counsel in the district and subordinate courts, consumer forum and tribunals at Ambala for conducting Central Government cases (other than the cases of Income Tax and the Railway Department) and the cases filed against the public officers while in service of the Central Government.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT FAIR: The Haryana Governor, Babu Parmanand, inaugurated the Women Empowerment Fair being organised by the Haryana State Social Welfare Advisory Board at the War Heroes Stadium here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, he said that inequalities were still persisting in our society and we had failed to give equal status and growth opportunities to women. He said that several programmes like Kanyadan and Apni Beti Apna Dhan were being run by the government but people must be informed about these programmes so that they could gain from these. He urged the non-governmental organisations to come forward for the empowerment of women. Earlier, Babu Parmanand visited the different stalls set up at the women empowerment fair.

OFFICE-BEARERS ELECTED: The inaugural meeting of the Sarvshakti Aastha Charitable Trust formed at Prabhu Prem Puram, Ambala Cantonment, was held on Friday. The office-bearers are: chairman — Mr H.L. Bindra; vice-chairman — Mr V.K. Sharma; general secretary — Mr Arun Moudgil; joint secretaries — Mr S.N. Verma and Mr K.M. Sharma; treasurer — Mr Subhash Chand Dogra; and auditor — Mr Sushil Mittal. The trustees are Mr S.K. Sharma, Mr Shyam K. Sudan, Mr Vinay K. Sharma, Mr Surindera K. Kaushik, Mr Shanti Swaroop Sharma, Mr Susheel Bharadwaj, Mr Om Prakash Saini, Mr Om Prakash Dahiya, Mr Ramesh Kotru, Mr Arun Sharma, Mr Shri Kant Sharma, Mr Narendra Kumar Sharma, Mr Amar Kumar Saini, Mr Ishwar Chand Sharma, Mr Madan Pal Sharma, Mr Ashok Kumar Watal, Mr Prem Raj Sharma, Mr P.D. Luxman, Mr Raj Kumar Bindra and Mr Nirmal Singh.

TEACHERS’ DEMAND: Government aided schools have demanded pension facilities at par with the government teachers of the state. The organising secretary of the government Aided School Teachers Association, Mr Ramesh Bansal, in a statement said here on Friday that teachers of the most of these schools had not been getting their salaries for the past 20 months as the government had not been providing grant-in-aid to these schools regularly.

MANDI
MISHAP: Mr Bhagat Singh Azad, a District Attorney posted at Rampur, was killed when his car fell into a khud near Pangna in Karsog subdivision of the district on Wednesday.

PM’S EFFIGY: The Mandi unit of the CPM on Thursday burnt the effigy of the Prime Minister after holding a demonstration in the town over the expose of shady defence deals by tehelka.com.