BATHINDA
KILLED: At least one person was killed and five others were injured in two different accidents at Balluana village, about 17 km from here, on Monday. In the first accident a tempo overturned, killing one woman on the spot and injuring three others. In another mishap a couple was seriously injured when their scooter got punctured. Cases have been registered.

KHAMANO
MEETING HELD: A meeting of Dalit Kisan Dal was held at Manela village under the chairmanship of its General Secretary Bhinder Singh Ranwan, near here. Stating about this, sarpanch Ravinder Singh of Manela told that village unit of DKD was formed at this meeting. Ms Pritam Kaur was nominated president, Ms Harbhajan Kaur as secretary and Ms Shamsher Kaur was elected vice-president of the party’s village unit. Some more appointments were also made on this occasion. Bahadur Singh Ranwan was appointed president of Fatehgarh Sahib district and Gurnam Singh Daudpur was appointed president of Ludhiana district. Mr Ranwan in his address to the party workers appealed them to reach in large numbers at the proposed conference on March 26 at Samrala. He told that shagan scheme, old-age pensions, 24-hour supply of electricity to the villages, release of sikh youths from jails, violation of human rights in Central Jail, Patiala, and other demands will be discussed at the conference. According to Mr Ranwan, Mr Ravinder Singh, MLA Morinda , Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Ms Surinder Kaur of the BSP, Pishora Singh of the BKU (Ekta) and Iqbal Singh Kapurthala, President, DKD, will address the gathering.

LUDHIANA
COLLECTED: Drafts worth Rs 5.05 lakh for the Gujarat Earthquake victims were given to Mr Satyanand Munjal, president, Arya Samaj, at a function organised at BCM School today. The amount has been jointly collected by the students and staff of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar; R.S. Model School; BCM School, Chandigarh Road and BCM School, Focal Point.

EYE CAMP: Over 600 patients were examined and more than 46 eye operations were performed by Dr Ramesh, director, Eye Bank, Mansuran, during a free eye camp at Ghaloti village on March 17. The camp was inaugurated by Mr H.S.Sidhu, SP, Khanna. Mr Khanna appealed the villagers to donate their eyes. He also pledged to donate his eyes after death. The family of Darshan Singh of Goslan village was honoured for donating eyes by Dr Kuldeep Kaur Sahni, Senior Medical Officer, Payal. Dr Ramesh informed that another eye camp would be held on March 24 at Kamalpur village (Jagraon).

CHECK-UP CAMP: Over 86 workers were found suffering from skin diseases, 131 for general heart problems, and six workers were diagnosed as suffering from acute hearing loss during a free medical check up camp for Industrial workers held by the Directorate of factories and Health Department, Punjab, at Highway Cycle Industries, GT Road on Monday. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Umesh Munjal, managing director of the company. Over 450 workers were examined in the two-day camp for ENT, skin, chest and other diseases. Medicines were provided to the needy and all pathological tests were done on the spot. Mr B.K. Aggarwal, deputy director, factories, said that 23 such camps had been organised in the district and about 12,000 workers were examined and treated during the camps.

WORKSHOP: Social Security Women, and Child Development Department, Punjab, is running many projects for the welfare of women and children. Integrated Child Development Service, Ludhiana organised Project 1 - Udisha Training Workshop (Rural) at block level at Sahnewal. The chief guest of the function was Mr Kuldeep Singh, PCS, SDM (East) Ludhiana. Mr Gurcharan Singh Child Development Project Officer gave details about the progress of their many schemes like ICDS, Kanya Jagriti Jyoti Scheme, Mahila Shakti Yojna, Balika Samridhi Yojna, Maternity Benefit Scheme, Pradhanmatri Gramya Yojna. The main theme was empowerment of women under Udisha training. Mr Ranbir Singh, Incharge, Food and Nutrition Department, Government of India, gave a talk on health and nutrition and also emphasised the need for breast feeding. He explained the causes of malnutrition and gave suggestions for prevention of malnutrition. Another Udisha programme was undertaken at Doraha by Mrs Suranbir Kaur Gill. Under her guidance, a one-day workshop of anganwadi workers was organised. Students of Sidhu Nursing College gave a talk on the common diseases of children and women and suggested preventive measures.

CONDEMNED: An emergency meeting of the local chapter of All India Ambedkar Naujwan Sabha was held here. The meeting, chaired by the sabha president, Mr Iqbal Singh Khalsa, condemned the gruesome killing of two Sikh youths in the border district of Poonch in J and K. It warned the Jammu and Kashmir government that if it was incompetent to ensure the safety of Sikhs in the state, it had no right to remain in power. The meeting also appealed to the central government to take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of Sikhs in the troubled state.

DHARNA: Members of the Circular Road Shopkeepers Association, led by their president, Mr Des Raj Pahwa, downed their shutters today to stage a dharna against the continuing hazard of stagnant water on the market road. Angry shopkeepers blamed the Gaushala people for the mess. They alleged that cowdung coupled with fodder, flowed down the road from the Gaushala, which blocked the drain and sewerage as well, resulting in overflowing water onto the road. The shopkeepers said they had been facing great hardships for the past fifteen days. The road was also a nuisance for the passersby. They said that gaushala authorities were scattering garbage only to harass shopkeepers who were running businesses from shops owned by the gaushala. The gaushala had stopped receiving the rent from these shopkeepers in a bid to make them vacate the shops.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
PRICE HIKE: The biggest steel market of Asia has recorded a change after the announcement of the current budget. According to a survey conducted here, the steep hike in prices of both raw material and finished goods has registered a hike. The rates of the steel registered like round, CTD bars, angles, joists and other non-flat producers were quoted from Rs 250 to Rs 350 PMT on higher side. Similar was the position with re-rollable material, raw material like ingots, billers. Shop breaking material rates were being quoted on the upper side by Rs 200 to Rs 350, whereas according to market sources this hike was purely temporary and will not stay any longer. Mr Anil Suraj, hony general secretary, All India Steel Re-Rollers Associationship, attributes this steep hike to increase in prices of raw material. Mr Sohan Lal Gupta, president, Gobindgarh Merchant Chamber, is of the opinion that there is no increase in the demand of finished goods.

MANSA
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of the Punjab School Aided Teachers Union: president — Mr Sadhu Ram Loomba; vice-presidents — Mr Vir Chand Goyal and Ms Sneh Lata; secretary — Mr Gurmail Singh and treasurer — Mr Tek Chand Sharma.

TARKSHEEL SOCIETY: The following have been elected office-bearers of Khiwan Khurad village unit of the Tarksheel Society: president — Mr Pargat Singh Chahal; vice-president — Mr Sukhwinder Singh Chahal; general secretary — Mr Bahadur Singh Dhilon; secretary — Ms Sukhdeep Kaur Chahal and treasurer — Mr Jagtar Singh Dhilon.

BRIDGE REPAIR SOUGHT: Residents of Ralla village in the district have demanded repair of Jajjar bridge which has been damaged badly since a long time. The bridge is situated on the main Sirsa-Ludhiana road which remains over-crowded and full of heavy vehicles.

'EXTEND ROUTE': Devotees of Prajapati Brahmakumaris have urged the Railway Department to extend the route of Jammu Tawi-Jodhpur Express to Abu Road (Mount Abu). In a fax to the Railway authority on Friday Mr Girdhari Lal Fatta said by doing so, a large number of devotees of Northern India would be benefited, as Mount Abu was the headquarters of Brahmakumaris. The mission was spread over 80 countries of the world, he added.

MOGA
DEMONSTRATION: A large number of persons, belonging to various political and social organisations, here on Sunday staged demonstrations against involvement of several union ministers in the tehelka scandal and demanded that all of them should be booked immediately.

INJURED: Three occupants of a car were seriously injured when their car dashed against a tree, about 45 km from here, on the Moga-Ludhiana road here on Sunday.

SEWING CENTRE: The president of the Punjab Sewa Bharti, Mr Manmohan Gupta, on Sunday inaugurated a sewing centre at Lohara village under the Dharamkot Police Station in this district. This centre will cater needs of several hundred poor women of the region. The general secretary of the local unit of the organisation distributed five tricycles to disabled poor persons on the occasion.

PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION: The annual conference of the Punjab Pensioners Association is proposed to be held at Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab on April 7 and the Punjab Finance Minister, Mr Kanwaljit Singh, will preside over it. This was stated here on Monday by the president of the association, Mr Hardev Singh.

GHERAO: A large number of members of the Punjab unit of the BKU, along with farmers, on Monday left for New Delhi to participate in a gherao of the Parliament to protest against failure of the Union Government to fix price of forthcoming wheat in Punjab.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Mool Bharti (S), Punjab: president — Subhash Gulati; senior vice-president — Joginder Singh Kussa; vice-president — Davinder Singh Brar, Baghapurana and general secretary — Surinder Kumar.

NAWANSHAHR
CONVOCATION: The local Dayanand Amarnath College of Education for Women organised annual convocation function here on Sunday. Dr S.P. Singh, Dean, College Development Council, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, was the chief guest. He conferred B.Ed degrees on 110 girls who had passed the examination during 1997-98 and 1998-99 sessions.

PATHANKOT
BHOG CEREMONY: The bhog ceremony of Krishan Kumar Billa, journalist Jagwani, Jalandhar, who died in a road accident on March 11 was held on Monday at his native village Khanpur. Anil Khurana, president of the local Press Club, gave financial assistance to the bereaved family on behalf of the club.

ANTI-ENCROACHMENT DRIVE: In a drive to check encroachment and cleanliness of the town launched by the local municipal council, the council has improved the sanitation, cleanliness and lighting arrangements at various colonies including Mission Road up to Garden Colony.

PATIALA
KISAN MELA: A kisan mela will be held at Rakhra, 15 km from here, on March 31 under the aegis of the Punjab Young Farmers Association. The focus will be on cultivation of basmati varieties of rice and the reduction in costs through adoption of minimum tilling technique and the transportation on soil beds without pudding. The foundation seeds of the latest and the highest yielding variety of paddy Pusa-44 will be distributed among farmers. Besides this, they will be able to buy the improved seeds of vegetables. Scientists of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute will interact with farmers.

TB CURE: The city will start the Directly Observed Treatment Short Courses (DTOS) for tuberculosis from Saturday. The preparations made in this regard were looked into by a three-member team from the Centre, which was satisfied with the training and other activities regarding the commencing of the DTOS on World T.B. Day.

LIONS CLUB: Mr H.R. Narang has been unanimously elected as president of the Lions Club. The other office-bearers are: vice-president — Mr R.K. Sehgal; secretary — Mr Balbir Singh; treasurer — Mr Surinder Mittal; and PRO — Mr Iqbal Sabharwal.

RALLY: A special Air Force recruitment rally for the youth of Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar district will be organised for non-technical trades of the Indian Air Force at Rink Hall (Baradari) from March 21 to 23 here. Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, Deputy Commissioner, informed that Sqn Ldr Ravi Bhargav, OC, No 1, Airmen Selection Centre, Ambala Cantonment, will visit the city with his team to conduct the rally.

ROPAR
ABSENTEE DOCTORS: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr G.S. Grewal, has asked the Principal Secretary (Health) to take action against the absentee doctors and staff posted in the ayurvedic dispensaries in Tira, Rani Majra and Mullanpur Garib Dass villages. In a press note issued here on Saturday he ordered the Assistant Commissioner (Grievances) to conduct a surprise check at the ayurvedic dispensaries in the area.

SCHOOL FOR POOR: The local wing of the Punjab Bal Bhalai Council has opened a evening school for the poor children. The school was inaugurated by the Chairperson of the local Red Cross Hospital (Welfare Wing), Mrs Ravinder Kaur Grewal, on Saturday.

SAMRALA
WOMAN DIES: Pooja, daughter of Pran Nath of Samrala, died on Sunday under mysterious circumstances. She was married at Bagli Kalan village near here about six months back. The body was brought there for post-mortem. According to the SHO, Mr Arvind Puri, the deceased was pregnant. The police has registered case under Section 174 of the IPC.

SANGRUR
WORKSHOP HELD: A state-level workshop on ‘projects for development of my town’ was organised here on Sunday by the Punjab (east) unit of the Bharat Vikas parishad. In this workshop, 175 members of 26 branches of the state participated.

AMBALA
SOCIETY: The Ambala chapter of the Rationalist Society Haryana held a meeting under the presidentship of the regional treasurer, Mr Gurmit Singh. The new office-bearers of the chapter are: president — Mr Satish Bahadur; vice-president — Mr Gulzar Singh; secretary — Mr Anupam Singh; additional secretary — Mr Nar Singh Kumar; treasurer — Mr Atma Singh; propaganda secretary — Mr Charanjit Singh; press secretary — Prof Rajiv Chandra; and advisors — Mr Balbir Singh Saini, Mr B.M. Sarhandi and Mr Gurmit Singh. It was decided in the meeting that regular meetings of the Ambala chapter would be held on the first Sunday of every month at Indra Gandhi Park, Ambala Cantonment.

MEETING HELD: The district grievances committee meeting was held here on Monday under the presidentship of the Haryana Agriculture Minister, Mr Jaswinder Singh Dandhu. Mr Sandhu said the committee had succeeded in recovering Rs 5.22 lakh from a private limited company which has benefited 73 investors.

KURUKSHETRA
INAUGURATED: The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, called upon the youth and stressed the need for implementing information technology in a big way. He also stressed upon the need to give impetus to biotechnology to increase agricultural production in the country. Dr Joshi was here at a function organised by the Parsu Ram College Management Committee on Sunday to inaugurate the first block of the college constructed at a cost of Rs 15 lakh.

ROHTAK
VEHICLE SNATCHED: Two youths snatched a Tata 407 vehicle loaded with mustard seed bags at gunpoint in Jhajjar district on Sunday. According to police sources, Om Prakash of Pali village in Mahendragarh district was going in a Tata 407 vehicle to sell mustard seeds in Najafgarh.Two youths intercepted the vehicle near Dhakla crossing in Jhajjar and forced the driver to alight from the vehicle.They allegedly made away with the vehicle carrying 50 bags of mustard seeds.They also robbed the occupants of the vehicle of Rs 1400. The Jhajjar police has registered a case but no arrest made so far.

SONEPAT
ARRESTED: Joginder, a resident of the city, was reportedly arrested for causing damage to a telephone exchange at Sisana village, about 25 km from here, on Sunday in protest against officials of the telephone exchange who declined to install a telephone at his shop instead of his house as he had applied for a telephone connection at his house. He also reportedly assaulted an employee of the exchange.

HONOURED: A veteran journalist R.D. Sapra was honoured for his contribution to the profession as well as society at a function organised by the haryana Brahmin Sabha here on Sunday. Mr Raghbir Singh Bhardwaj, president of the sabha and the INLD leader, Mr Prem Atrey, presented a shawl and some cash.

INAUGURATED: Mr Dev Raj Dewan, an independent MLA, inaugurated a school Gian Vidya Peeth on the Sonepat-Rohtak Road near Kalupur octroi post here on Sunday. A variety programme was presented by school children on the occasion.

INJURED: A woman and her daughter sustained serious injuries when they were attacked by a group of persons at Hullehri village, about 5 km from here, on Sunday. A family quarrel is stated to be main cause of the attack. However, no arrest has been made.

SANCTIONED: The Central Government has sanctioned an amount of Rs 1.85 crore for execution of development schemes in rural areas of the district during the current financial year. According to official sources, the Sonepat Zila Parishad has already identified villages where this amount will be utilised for their development.

INSPECTED: Mr Sudhir Rajpal, Deputy Commissioner, accompanied by Dr Sultan Singh, SDM, and other officials of the Irrigation Department inspected protection bund along the Yamuna river near Asadpur and Memarpur villages on Sunday and directed the authorities to complete repair work before onset of the monsoon season.

MANHUNT: The police has launched a massive hunt to apprehend Mahant Chand Nath of Baba mastnath Sansthan of Asthal Bohar (Rohtak), his gunman Randhir and a Haryana Police constable Raj Singh in connection with alleged murder of Baba Azad Nath of Asalwal village in Rewari district of Haryana.

DENTAL CAMP: As many as 150 patients suffering from various dental disease were examined and treated by a team of doctors at a free medical check-up camp organised by the Rotary Club here on Sunday. According to Mr T.C. Alakh, president of the club, medicines were provided free of cost to all the patients.

WOMAN ASSAULTED: A woman was assaulted by her son-in-law Madan Lal at Bindrauli village, about 10 km from here, on Sunday. According to a report, she was immediately rushed to the local Civil Hospital where she is stated to be out of danger. A family feud is stated to be cause of the incident.

GRIEVANCES SETTLED: As many as 22 out of 28 complaints were disposed of at monthly meeting of the District Public Relations and Grievances Committee held in the Panchayat Bhavan here on Sunday. Mr Sudhir Rajpal, Deputy Commissioner, presided over the meeting as the Country and Town Planning Minister, Mr Dheerpal Singh, failed to turn up. According to an official press note issued here, the Deputy Commissioner also disposed of nine of the 12 complaints pending for the past six months on priority basis.