R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

LIGHTNING STRIKE: Government employees went on a lightning strike to express sympathy with their colleague who had committed suicide after killing his two children at Ferozepore. The employees were protesting against the failure of the authorities in arresting the officer who has been blamed in the suicide note.

AMLOH
LAWYERS' STRIKE: Members of the Bar Association, Amloh observed strike in the courts on Monday to express solidarity with the agitating lawyers of Sangrur, said Mr Ashok Kumar Bansal, president, Bar Association, Amloh.

AMRITSAR
ART EXHIBITION: The All-India 67th Annual Arts Exhibition opened here at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts premises on Sunday. The exhibition received more than 428 paintings, drawings, graphics and sculptures from 209 artists.

BATHINDA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Senior Citizens Council, Bathinda; president — Mr Lakshami Narayan Goel; vice-president — Mr Prem Nath; general secretary — Mr Gurbachan Gupta and cashier — Mr Ramji Dass.

CONDEMNATION: The district unit of the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union condemned the harassment of a senior clerk at the DC office, Ferozepur, which drove him to suicide. Mr Gurjant Singh Grewal, president of the union, said on Monday that the officer concerned should be punished for his actions.

ABOLISH FEES: Mr Harmesh Singh, district president of the All-India Rangreta Dal, said the fee being charged from the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes for computer-coaching in various government schools should be abolished. Speaking at a meeting of the AIRD at Talwandi Sabo on Saturday, he further said that the reserved posts lying vacant in various departments should be filled soon.

DORAHA
LIQUOR SEIZED: The Payal police claims to have seized 12 bottles of liquor from Harvinder Singh of Siar village, while he was trying to smuggle these out of the village. An ASI of the police chowki, Malaud, nabbed the man at a naka. A case under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act has been registered.

FARIDKOT
SMALL SAVINGS SCHEMES: The Punjab Government will collect Rs 3,285 crore from various sources for development purposes during the current financial year in the state. Of the total amount, 80 per cent will be collected under small savings schemes. This was stated by Mr A.Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, while presiding over a district-level function organised here on Tuesday to honour 50 agents.

CLOSURE ORDERED: Mr A.Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, has directed the closure of K.R. Parboil Rice Mill, Kotkapura, following complaints regarding its failure to implement pollution control norms effectively. The matter was probed by Mr Hussan Lal, ADC, who found the owners guilty of violating norms of the Pollution Control Act. The local SDM, Mr Mohan Lal, has been deployed for the enforcement of the Deputy Commissioner’s orders on the unit.

HOSHIARPUR
DELEGATION: A delegation of the Indian Medical Association, Punjab, led by its president Dr O.P.S. Kande, met the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Baldev Raj Chawala, at Chandigarh on Sunday. They were resenting the Drug Controller’s circular issued for checking supply of drugs from nursing homes/hospitals. They threatened statewide agitation if the circular was not withdrawn.

TWO KILLED: Sumit Walia (32), a cable TV operator, succumbed to his injuries on his way to DMC Ludhiana and Harkanwal Rai, son of Raj Kumar, died on the spot, when their cars collided near Bajwara on the Hoshiarpur-Una road on Sunday. Two other occupants were injured in the accident.

BODY FOUND: A body of a young man was found in Salren Dam, 18 km from here, on Sunday. The body was cremated by the police after postmortem examination.

ANTI-TERRORISM DAY: A function marking the Anti-Terrorism Day was organised here on Monday, which was presided over by Additional Deputy Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh.

MARTYRDOM DAY: The Martyrdom Day of Rajiv Gandhi was observed here on Monday. The Samaj Sewa Samiti organised a free eye check-up camp on the occasion in which 140 patients were examined. Tributes were paid to Mr Gandhi by various social and political leaders.

CASE SOLVED: Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Kalra said in a press note here on Monday that the police had solved the bank draft forgery case involving Rs 2,60,000. He said Nishan Singh, as Davinder Singh, had purchased a truck from Santosh Kumari and gave a fake bank draft to her. The police was looking for Nishan Singh.

JALANDHAR
ELECTED: The following have been appointed office-bearers of the Jalandhar District Yoga Association: president — Mr Sanjeev Kumar; senior vice-president — Mr Subhash Gandhi; vice-presidents — Mr Gurbachan Singh, Mr Ajay Pathania, Mr Pardeep Kumar Singh and Ms C.M. Markanda; secretary — Mr A.K. Chadha; joint secretaries — Mr Ashok Kumar, Mr Naresh Sharma, Mr Brij Bhushan, Mr Jaswant Singh, and Mrs Rupa Basak; treasurer — Mr Vikas Arya; and press secretary — Mr Pawan Sharma.

KAPURTHALA
WOMAN DIES: Soni Bai (24), a migrant labourer from Madhya Pardesh, was burnt to death when her hut in Bhagwanpur village caught fire on Sunday. According to police reports, her hut caught fire from the flames of a stove where she was cooking. A case has been registered.

LUDHIANA
TRAINING CENTRES: The Rural Development Agency (RDA) was providing training to the rural youth for self-employment ventures. Addressing a meeting of the governing body of the RDA here on Monday, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sandhu, informed that under the SGSY Infrastructure Funds Scheme, 26 centres were being run in the district for this purpose. Besides the Punjab Technical Education Minister, Mr Jagdish Singh Garcha, Mr Rakesh Pandey and Mr Bachan Singh Cheema, both MLAs, senior officers from various government departments attended the meeting. Mr A.K. Sinha, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Dev) explained in detail the achievements of the RDA and various government schemes formulated for the welfare of the rural population.

TIKKA MEETS SONIA: The former senior vice-president of the Punjab Youth Congress, Mr Amarjit Singh Tikka, along with other party functionaries, met the All-India Congress Committee president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, in Delhi to felicitate the party leadership over the success in Assembly elections in several states. He assured the party president that Congress was all set to regain power in Punjab, where Assembly elections were scheduled to be held early next year. Mr Tikka, while assuring the party chief that Congress was performing well in Punjab under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, welcomed the formation of a committee, led by the former Union Finance Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, to sort out differences between various factions in the PPCC.

JOINT FRONT: The Danga Peerit Welfare Society and the Bharatiya Valmiki Dharam Samaj have decided to form a joint front to achieve unity among riot victims, Dalits and migrant workers. A joint meeting of the two bodies, held under the presidentship of Mr Surjit Singh and Mr Vijay Danav, decided to set up district and circle units of the joint front, which would act as a bridge between the neglected sections of the masses. According to Mr Vijay Danav, adviser, SAD, the proposed joint front will be a wing of the SAD and would also include representatives from other minority communities.

MACHHIWARA
EYE CAMP: An eye camp will be organised at the Poly Eye Clinic, Machhiwara, on Thursday. According to Dr Ashok Gupta, an eye surgeon, patients would be checked up and provided medicines free of cost.

MEETING: A meeting of the local unit of the Lok Bhalai Party will be held on Monday at Gurdwara Charan Kanwal Sahib, Machhiwara. The meeting will be presided over by Mr Paramjit Singh Sidhwan, general secretary of the party. Others who will attend the meeting include Mr Ravinder Singh Turna, president of youth wing of the party, Mr Ujagar Singh Badowal and Mr Malkiat Singh Ghumman, both executive members of the party.

MANSA
CAR ACCIDENT: A car carrying Veena Bhatia (20), proprietor of a boutique on the local Laluana road, her one-year-old son-Abhi, along with her parents and a sister fell into the Bhakra canal near Patiala on Saturday. According to delayed information reaching here on Tuesday, they were on their way from Mansa to Ambala in Haryana, when the mishap occurred. Only the body of Veena’s father has been recovered so far.

MOGA
MEDICAL CAMP: A two-day medical camp organised at the local Sant Sai Baba Murlidhar Ayurvedic College concluded on Tuesday. Mr Ajmer Singh, SDM, inaugurated the camp.

PATIALA
RESENTMENT: The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers Association has expressed concern over the inordinate delay in the finalisation of promotional scales of the engineers as the Pay Anamoly Committee had promised to settle the promotional scales by January this year, but till yet nothing has happened. A delegation of the engineers met the Board Management in this context and urged to clear the issue as soon as possible. The association reiterated its demand for three promotional scales after completion of 9,14 1nd 23 years of service. The engineers also demanded parity in scales for all gazetted categories. They cited the case of the UPSEB where there was a complete parity in scales of these three categories and the engineers there had been granted three increments in the recent pay revision.

SAMRALA
BLOOD DONATION CAMP: In a blood donation camp held at the Civil Hospital, organised by the Punjab Youth Clubs Organisation (Regd), 35 persons belonging to nearby villages, donated blood, on Monday. The camp was inaugurated by Mr Gurpreet Singh Bhatii, a youth Akali leader.

THREE INJURED: Three members of a family — Manjeet Singh, Attar Singh and Dawarka Devi — were seriously injured on Monday night at Kotala village, near here, when they were attacked by some persons armed with swords and iron rods. In a complaint lodged by a young girl, Amarjit Kaur, daughter of Mr Attar Singh, the culprits came in the night and attacked when they were sleeping. The injured persons were brought to the local civil rest house from where they were referred to Ludhiana. The local police have registered a case. Sources said the accused had been identified.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Adhyapak Dal, Samrala block 1: president — Mr Megh Dass Jawanda of Government High School, Kekrala Kalan; general secretary — Mr Shehspal Singh Bhango of Government Middle School, Bhagwanpura; and Machhiwara block: president — Mr Jasbir Singh of Sehjo Majra and general secretary — Mr Gurmeet Singh of Hambowal Bet.

LAWYERS STRIKE: Both groups of the local Bar Association observed strike to express solidarity with the striking of Sangrur lawyers. The functioning of the court was affected on Monday. The lawyers condemned the lathi charge on Friday.

CHANDIGARH

SAS NAGAR
MEETING: A meeting of various resident welfare associations and members of the Mohali Industries Association and the Mohali gram panchayat was organised at the Ranbaxy Laboratories have on Monday to access the measures taken by the company to control the problem of air odour. The meeting was attended by Mr S.S. Sandhu, President of the Mohali Industries Association, Mr Albel Singh Syan, Mr Amrik Singh Bhatti, Mr B.S. Tej, Mr Gurmail Singh, Mr Surinder Singh, Mr Puran Singh Kirti — all members of resident welfare associations, Dr Naresh Kumar, Vice-President and Mr S.K. Bahl, Senior Manaher (Liasion) of the company. The company has covered the anaerobic filter by scrubbing the laden air with caustic solution on directives of the Punjab Pollution Control Board after residents of the area complained about the foul odour. Mr Bahl, Senior Manager (Liaison), said the company was also evaluating an odour control technology of a USA-based company. Planting of trees was also being undertaken by the company in consultation with Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), added Mr Bahl.

HARYANA

AMBALA
RALLY: A local Congressmen said on Tuesday that the Lalkar rally held in Panipat by the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee was a success. A joint statement issued by HPCC member Narendra Pali, district Congress committee president, Balwant Gupta and Congress municipal councillor Dharam Pal Chaddha said large turnout in the rally has proved that people are unhappy with the INLD government. They demanded that early elections should take place and strongly criticised the state government for the lack of law and order in the state. The Congress pointed out that unemployment has risen under the Chautala government.

MAN SHOT AT: A property dispute led to a man being shot at in Mullana on Tuesday morning. The incident took place when Jodh Singh went to Sukhbir Singh to settle an issue over some property in Shirshgarh village. Apparently, an altercation took place between them which led to the shooting. Sources said that Jodh Singh shot Sukhbir Singh who was rushed to the PGI, Chandigarh. Karan Singh, who was standing close to Sukhbir Singh, sustained pellet injuries.

BHIWANI
DISCONTINUOUS SUPPLY: Following stoppage of milk supply from the plant here, poor patients of local civil hospital are facing difficulty for the past 10 days. The patients used to get milk in the evening.

REWARI
ROAD INAUGURATED: The road from Shishu Shala to the Radha Krishan temple in the local Model Town locality was inaugurated on Tuesday by Dr Sudha Yadav, MP. It has been named by the municipal council after the late Parbrahm Parmarthi, a freedom fighter, journalist and educationalist of the town. Later, Dr Yadav, Mr Harish Arora, president of the municipal council, and others paid tributes to Parbrahm Parmarthi.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
REMEMBERED: Led by Congress president Hoshiyar Singh Thakur, Congress leaders and activists held “prabhat pheris” on Monday marking Rajiv Gandhi’s Day. A meeting was also held in the District Congress Committee office headed by Ms Kunjna Singh, party secretary and other leaders where tributes were paid to Rajiv Gandhi.