AMLOH
MEDICAL CAMP: A medical check-up camp was organised by Desh Bhagat Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital at Amloh. Mr S.N. Singh, Principal of the college, said here on Friday that 180 patients were examined. Such camps would be organised fortnightly in the villages to provide awareness and prevention from fatal diseases, he added. Dr Zora Singh, Chairman of the trust, said the hospital would soon be provided with modern treatment facilities.

CONFERENCE POSTPONED: Mr Harvel Singh, Secretary General, Punjab, and Mr Harnek Singh Badali, District President of the Dalit Front, in a joint statement, had postponed the proposed conference of the front at Amloh scheduled for Sunday which was to be presided over by its state president. According to the press note, the conference had been postponed on the appeal of Mr P.S. Badal, President Shiromani Akali Dal and Chief Minister, Punjab, to participate in the conference called by National Democratic Alliance at New Delhi on the same day.

AMRITSAR
FREE EDUCATION: The Guru Nanak Dev University has decided to provide free education facility to wards of Sikh migrants who were victims of the 1984 riots. This decision was taken by Syndicate of the university in its recent meeting held under chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr H.S. Soch.

UNIVERSITY SYNDICATE: The Punjab Health Minister, Dr Baldev Raj Chawla, besides Mr Prem Singh, an advocate from Jalandhar and Mr Charanjit Singh Chadha, an industrialist, have been unanimously elected members of the Syndicate up to June 30 by senate of the Guru Nanak Dev University in its recent meeting, according to Dr R.S. Bawa, Registrar of the University.

BATHINDA
MCA COURSE: The Desh Bhagat Institute of Management and Computer Sciences, Muktsar, has been given permission by the All-India Council of Technical Education, New Delhi, for starting the Masters in Computer Application (MCA) course in the institute from the next academic session. This was stated in a press note of the institute issued here on Wednesday.

DECISION CONDEMNED: The Punjab Government College Teachers Association (PGCTA) has condemned the decision of the government to revert seven current duty charge Principals to lecturers. In a press note issued here on Thursday, Mr Jaipal Singh, president of the union, said the way the government had taken the decision was humiliating.

REPORT DENIED: Mr Surinder Singh Gill, principal of the local Khalsa School, in a press note issued here on Thursday said no clash occurred in the school premises between supporters of former and present presidents of the Chief Khalsa Dewan on March 16 as was reported by a section of the Press.

FARIDKOT
MORAL EDUCATION: Dr J.S. Gujral, Vice-Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, has underlined the need for introducing moral education, along with medical and technical education, in educational institutions in the country. He said this while presiding over a Millennium Equinox function of the Adesh Institute of Engineering and Technology at Machaki village, 7 km from here, on Thursday.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
ELECTED: The following were elected unanimously the office-bearers of Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib Teachers’ Union, in an election meeting held here on Friday. President — Prof Sital Singh Tiwana; vice-president — Prof Parminder Kaur Randhawa; secretary — Prof Dharminder Singh Ubha; treasurer — Prof Naresh Gupta and delegates — Prof Sardul Singh, Prof Kashmir Singh and Dr Harminder Singh.

GURDASPUR
SUSPENDED: Mr Baldev Singh, Deputy Director Panchayat, Jalandhar, has placed under suspension Rajbir Singh, Panchayat Secretary. According to official sources, the Block Development and Panchayat Officer here had complained that the Panchayat Secretary had misbehaved with him under the influence of liquor.

HOSHIARPUR
CONSUMERS DAY: To create awareness among consumers about their rights, the district-level consumers day was celebrated here on Thursday. A function was organised at the Zila Parishad Hall in this connection which was presided over by Mr Dharam Dutt, Additional

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER: Mr H.P. Handa, president of the District Consumers Forum here was the chief guest.

KAPURTHALA
POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The district police on Wednesday arrested two persons in Dayalpur area falling under Subhanpur Police Station for carrying poppy husk bags weighting 630 kg in a truck, according to Mr Iqbal Singh, SSP. Those arrested have been identified as Jaspal of Nawanshahr district and Parshotam Dass of Panipat district. A case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act have been registered following recovery of 21 bags of poppy.

KHAMANO
CULTURAL MELA: The Development Operational Youth Society, Punjab, is holding a Cultural Mela on March 26 from 10 a.m. at Dana Mandi, Khamano, in which Labh Heera, Gurbakhash Shonkey, Nachhatar Gill, Kuldip Toor, Ms Amandeep Umrao and many more singers will present their skill of singing. The opening ceremony of this mela will be done by Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon, MLA, and this function will be chaired by Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo, MP, Ropar. Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhathal, former chief minister of Punjab will be the chief guest on the occasion. Gurbakhash Shonki and wife of Kargil martyr Dilbag Singh of Panaichan village will be honoured in this mela. This was stated here by the general secretary of the organisation, Mr Amardeep Singh.

DEMANDED: Many residents of Barwai and Chari village has demanded to increase channels of telephone exchange situated at Chari. They reveal that although the exchange has widened upto 10,000 lines but the channels remain the same and people face great difficulty in connecting telephones because due to less channels these lines remains busy all times.

LUDHIANA
DONATED: Mr Pritam Singh Jagpal, alumnus of Guru Hargobind Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, donated Rs 10 lakh to the GHG Khalsa institutions during his visit here on Friday. Mr Jagpal is currently settled in the US and visited the college with his family after 65 years. He was welcomed by Mr Manjit Singh Gill, president of the management, Mr Manjit Singh Khattra, principal, staff and students of the institutions.

SACRILEGE CONDEMNED: A meeting of the All-India Sikh Students Federation (Badal) was held here on Friday to discuss the party’s stand on the issue of sacrilege of mosques at Amritsar and Patiala. Presiding over the meeting, Mr Kulwant Singh Ranike, senior vice-president of the federation, condemned the incidents of sacrilege at Amritsar and Patiala. He also warned communal forces disturbing the peace in Punjab. Mr Kulwant Singh said the federation would ensure that all religions were equally respected in the state. The federation also urged Mr Parkash Singh Badal to take personal interest in the matter and deal with the communal elements high-handedly who were bent upon vitiating the secular atmosphere in the state.

WELCOMED: People For Animals, Ludhiana, has welcomed the decision of Union Cabinet making it mandatory to display on the labels of food stuffs the ingredients of the product. The move has been widely welcomed by the vegetarians throughout the country, they claimed.

HOMAGE: The Inquilabi Kendra, Punjab, will pay homage to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev at a function to be held at Sherpur Chowk on Sunday noon. A joint meeting of the Inquilabi Kendra, Moulders and Steel Workers’ Union, Punjab Industrial Workers’ Union and Lok Ekta Sangathan was held here on Thursday to review the arrangements for the function. A revolutionary play would be staged by Sirjan Art Centre, Raikot, apart from music and choreography programmes at the function. Other organisations such as the Democratic Teacher Front, Taraksheel Society are also collaborating to make the function a success.

DECISION CONDEMNED: The Punjab Government College Teachers’ Association has condemned recent orders of the Punjab Government of reverting back seven current duty charge principals to lecturers. Giving this information, Prof Jaipal Singh, President, GCTA, said that seven lecturers promoted as current duty charge principals and posted at different places, which have now been replaced by newly promoted principals, causing humiliation to them. He said that several senior lecturers have not been selected for the purpose and instead some juniors have been promoted. Professor Jaipal said that such a situation occurred because of the current promotion policy based on annual confidential reports (ACRs). The ACRs were written very casually and arbitrarily and there was no objective criterion to award grades by ACRs, he said. The association has demanded that old promotion policy based on seniority be restored for government colleges and all senior lecturers be promoted as principals and on others posts still lying vacant.

INAUGURATED: SSI, a Computer education centre, was inaugurated by Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, here on Friday. The centre will offer latest courses in programming, networking and e-commerce. Besides, other short duration courses will also be offered by the centre.

MC EMPLOYEE SUSPENDED: The Commissioner, of the Municipal Corporation, Dr S.S. Sandhu, has suspended Vijay Kumar beldar in the MC, for remaining absent from duty, without informing his senior officers. Dr Sandhu has issued a warning to the employees to perform their duty diligently failing which strict disciplinary action would be taken against them.

MACHHIWARA
TRIBUTES PAID: The Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh was observed in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Public School here on Friday. On the occasion, students of the school sang patriotic songs. A dental check-up camp was also organised on the school campus in which Dr Kulwant Singh Ghai, a renowned dental surgeon from Civil Hospital, Khanna, made the students aware of dental diseases. Later on Dr Ghai examined all the students of the school. Dr D.L. Jain, Manager of the school, Ms Anita Jain, Principal, Dr Kulwant Singh Ghai, teachers and students paid tributes to the great son of India.

STUDENTS UNHAPPY: Students appearing in Class X exam being conducted by the CBSE, Delhi, were looking very upset when they came out of their examination centres after appearing in mathematics paper held on March 22. Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, one of the students told that set II was difficult in comparison to sets I. Students demanded from the board that all the sets of a question papers of a particular subject should be of the same standard.

MANSA
BLOOD GROUPING CAMP: Under the aegis of Nehru Yuva Kendra, more than 30 youth clubs of the district organised a blood grouping camp at Jhunir on Thursday and consented to donate blood, whenever required. Mr Ajit Inder Singh Moffar, MLA, Sardulgarh, and Mr Amarjeet Singh, DSP, Sardulgarh, were among others who handed the blood donation consent letters to the organisers.

IMPERSONATOR HELD: A youth was caught on Wednesday by Mr Mahinder Paul, Deputy Superintendent of an examination centre here, for impersonating as Hardarshan Singh in the on-going social studies examination of the Punjab School Education Board. No police case has been registered against the youth so far.

ONE KILLED: Jagsir Singh Jagga (25) of Ghumman village died here on Thursday when his tractor was hit by a bus of the Punjab Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) near Bhaini Bagha village in the district. A case has been registered by the Mansa Sadar police in this connection. According to a report, the bus was on its way from Bathinda to Chandigarh when the accident occurred.

MOGA
MAN KILLED: Prakash Singh, who was reportedly driving a jeep, was killed on the spot while three others were seriously injured when a car coming from the opposite direction collided with it, 18 km from here, on Thursday.

VISION REGAINED: As many as 143 blind persons from all over the district have regained vision following transplantation of eyes by the local Seva Bharti during the past year. This was disclosed here on Friday, by general secretary of the organisation.

PHAGWARA
WATCHMAN STRANGLED: Some miscreants reportedly stormed into the state Engineering Corporation near Chachoki and strangled, Rajinder Singh, a watchman and sped away after taking the Honda City car of owner of the company on Thursday. The car was, however, recovered on Friday from the local Khera Road, disclosed DSP Raj Jit Singh. A case has been registered and manhunt launched for the murderers.

PHILLAUR
WIFE, DAUGHTER KILLED: Hardip Singh’s wife Jasbir Kaur and his three-year-old daughter Sharanjit were killed on the spot when their scooter was hit by a tractor-trailer near Ramgarh village on Thursday. Hardip Singh and his son had a narrow escape.

SANGRUR
SANGAT DARSHAN: At the weekly ‘sangat darshan’ programme held here on Thursday, Mr Ranjit Singh of Mehlan Chowk village demanded immediate arrest of Gurmail Singh for allegedly raping his daughter who had later committed suicide. His complaint was immediately forwarded to the SSP, Sangrur, for immediate action. 

TARN TARAN
CAR STOLEN: A Santro car belonging to Mr Nirmal Singh alias Nimma, a local municipal councillor, was stolen on Wednesday near his residence. A case under Section 379 of the IPC was registered at the local police station against Dalbir Singh, resident of the town. The police sources said the Haryana Police had recovered the car from its territory.

SAS NAGAR
KERALA FESTIVAL: The second annual Kerala festival will be organised by the local Malayalee Samajam at Community Centre in Phase 3B1 here on Sunday.

POLL: The election of the Junior Engineer Federation of Punjab and UT Chandigarh, for the year 2001- 2003 will be held at the PWD ( B and R) Guest House in Sector 19, Chandigarh on Sunday. Mr A.S. Randhawa, general secretary of the Junior Engineers Federation said long pending demands like the implementation of pension scheme in corporations and status of junior engineer after 16 years of service, would be discussed at the meeting. 

AMBALA
DEVELOPMENT: The Haryana Social Welfare Minister, Mr Risal Singh, on Friday said that a sum of Rs 97.70 crore has been earmarked for women and child development during 2001-2002. Speaking at a state-level mahila mandal function at Rukmini Devi Hall, Ambala Cantonment he said the year 2001 is being observed as women empowerment year. He said a lot of efforts were made for the welfare of women, but a lot still needed to be done. A cultural programme was also held. 

ARHTIYA ASSOCIATION: Mr Suraj Bhan Saini was elected president of the Sabji Mandi Arhtiya Association here on Friday. The former president, Mr Mohanjit Singh, was nominated as the chairman of the association. The other office-bearers include: vice-president — Mr Vijay Kumar, secretary — Mr Dalbir Singh, joint secretary — Mr Paramjit Singh, and cashier — Mr Tarsem Lal.

KILLED: One person was killed in a road accident in Ambala City. The deceased was identified as Rajpal. The police has registered a case in this regard. 

ABDUCTED: A minor girl was abducted from a Naggal village on Friday. On the complaint of her mother the police has registered a case against Satpal. According to police no arrest has been made so far in this regard. 

MANDIR ELECTIONS: The election process for the managing body of Arya Samaj Mandir, Swami Dayanand Marg, Ambala Cantonment started from Friday. The list of voters has been put up in the vicinity of the mandir and the objection to the list can be filed with the secretary till April 15. The subscription, if unpaid, can be paid to the cashier till April 22. The election will be held on April 29 at 3 p.m. 

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the General Merchants Association: president — Mr Vishwa Prakash Walia; senior vice-president — Mr Satpal Singh Oberoi; vice-president — Mr Brij Lal Gupta; general secretary — Mr R.P. Gupta; joint secretary — Mr Gian Chand Gulati; and cashier — Mr Ramesh Madaan.

FATEHABAD
GANG BUSTED: The district police busted a gang of car thieves with the arrest of four members of the gang. The police also recovered two stolen Maruti cars. The SP, Mr Hanif Qureshi, told mediapersons here on Thursday that all the accused belonged Samain village in this district. An unauthorised pistol was also seized from their possession. The police has booked them under Sections 379 and 380 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

HISAR
INADEQUATE WATER: Hundreds of women from 60 villages of Hisar and Bhiwani district took out a procession in protest against inadequate supply of irrigation water to the area here on Thursday. The protesters gathered at the local Chottu Ram Chowk. They also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

JIND
ROBBERS HELD: The district police here has busted a gang of robbers with the arrest of its five members on Wednesday. Stating this here on Thursday, Mr O.P. Singh, SP, said on a tip-off, a police party raided premises of a school at Taloda Kheri village where the robbers were hiding. The police managed to nab five members of the gang while the sixth member escaped. A pistol, three cartridges and three iron rods were seized from them, he said. A case under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against them.

LAND DISPUTE: Five persons, including two women, were injured in a land dispute at Gulkani village in this district on Wednesday. The injured included Harpal, Narinder, Anil, Amarwati and Reshma. All the injured were treated at the local General Hospital.

KAITHAL
OPEN DARBAR: Mr Rajiv Mehta, SDM, Guhla, presided over an open darbar at Kheri Gulam Ali village on Wednesday. As many as 121 out of 138 cases were settled on the spot. The women of Nagal village in deputation met the SDM and demanded construction of lavatories in the village.

SONEPAT
STABBED TO DEATH: Satyavan, a youth, was allegedly stabbed to death by two youths Pardeep and Sandeep at Garhi Sisana village, about 25 km from here, on Thursday. According to preliminary reports, an old enmity is stated to be cause of the murder. The Kharkhauda Police has registered a case against the accused and launched a hunt to apprehend them.

BODY FOUND: The body of a woman (30) was found floating in a canal near Jharot village, about 12 km from here, on Thursday. According to the police, the body was in a decomposed condition and it was sent to the Medical College Hospital at Rohtak for a post-mortem examination. The deceased has not been identified so far.

YOUTH DEAD: Mystery shrouds death of Balwan, a youth whose body was recovered by the police in his house at Bandepur village, about 3 km from here, on Thursday. According to the police, the youth had reportedly taken insecticides. The case is under investigation.

DEMONSTRATION HELD: A large number of women held a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Thursday in protest against the registration of a case against Mr Raj Singh Dalal, president of the Nagar Sudhar Sangharsh Samiti, on the charge of burning effigies of the Prime Minister and the former Defence Minister regarding the Tehelka episode.

HOUSE TAX: Employees of a survey team for assessment of House Tax under the new policy introduced by the state government had to run away following stiff resistance shown by women in Pragti Nagar area here on Thursday.

KULU
CHARAS SEIZED: Charas worth Rs 45 lakh was seized and one Jeet Ram, resident of Sharangar village in Banjar tehsil of this district , was arrested on Thursday. The Superintendent of Police here said 4.5 kg charas was found in possession of the accused.

QUAKE RELIEF: Mrs Chitarlekha Bhargava, a member of the block samiti, nagar, said here on Thursday that all the 25 members of the nagar block development samiti had contributed Rs 500 each to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the Gujarat earthquake victims.