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RS NOMINATION
PAC leaves it to Badal
Chandigarh, May 29
As was expected, the Political Affairs Committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today authorised the party chief, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, to name the candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat.

Dayal hints at front of secular forces
Phagwara, May 29
The Punjab CPI secretary, Dr Joginder Dayal, yesterday did not rule out the possibility of a third front of secular forces, including the CPI, CPM, Congress and BSP. Talking to newsmen here, Dr Dayal expressed satisfaction that the Bahujan Samaj Party was coming out of its casteist shell and the CPI would like it to join the secular forces to defeat the communal SAD-BJP combine.

Zaffarwal: I’ll join active politics Hoshiarpur, May 29 Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal said here today that he would join active politics after clearance of his cases. At present, he would not join any political party and had not made up his mind as yet to contest the forthcoming election to the state Assembly.

 Ex-DSP gets bail in rape case
Chandigarh, May 29
Granting bail to a dismissed Punjab Police DSP after prima facie holding that the petitioner could have been implicated in a rape case, Mr Justice S.S. Nijjar of the High Court has asked the Ludhiana Chief Judicial Magistrate to impose strict conditions to ensure his presence during the trial.

SGPC to open schools
Sangrur, May 29
Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi, President of the SGPC, yesterday said there was no alternative to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as he had done a lot for the SAD and Punjab.

Pay tax, HC tells amusement parks
Chandigarh, May 29
All three Amusement Parks in Punjab will have to pay as much as Rs five crore as tax to the state government. This follows a landmark judgement by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court here today upholding vires of Section 2 (d) of the Punjab Entertainments Duty (Second Amendment) Act, 1955, with retrospective effect from August 12, 1994.

POLITICS

Removal of Mansa Cong chief sought
Mansa, May 29
Several senior Congress leaders and more than 2,000 party workers of the district today passed a resolution for the removal of Mr Ram Paul Dhaipi from the post of the district Congress president.

Badal firm on party discipline
Chandigarh, May 29
Reacting to the reported statement made by Punjab Public Health Minister, Raja Narinder Singh, against the Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, said today that no one would be allowed to break the party discipline.

COMMUNITY

‘Harassed’ sevadar commits suicide
Abohar, May 29
Kuldip Kumar, a sevadar of the Kandhwala Cooperative Agricultural Service Society, committed suicide on Saturday night. The suicide has sparked off a controversy with the recovery of a “suicide note” from the deceased.

ABVP opposes talks with Pak
Amritsar, May 29
Taking a divergent view from that of its parent organisation the BJP, the ABVP yesterday asked the Vajpyee government to refrain from holding talks with Pakistan till cross border terrorism was fully stopped.

Gill: ceasefire decision to boost forces’ morale
Jalandhar, May 29
While hailing the recent decision of the Central Government to withdraw the unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, the former Director-General of Punjab police, Mr K.P.S. Gill, yesterday said the ceasefire would boost the morale of the security forces fighting terrorism in the state.

Two migrant labourers buried alive
Moga, May 29
Two labourers belonging to Madhya Pradesh, engaged in the digging of tubewells at villages under Baghapurana police station in the district, were buried alive in separate incidents, according to reports reaching here today. A labourer, identified as Lachhman, who was digging a tubewell at Bhekha village near here, was buried alive.

3 kids drowned in Sirhind canal
Ropar, May 29
In an unfortunate incident three children were drowned in the Sirhind canal at about 4 p.m. here today. According to the sources available here, the deceased include Sanjeev Kumar Sharma (16), son of Mohal Lal, Deepak Kumar (16), son of Arjun Singh of Mata Rani Mohalla and Tarun Kumar (8), son of Sushil Kumar Sharma of Shaheda Mohalla.

Basic facilities lacking at railway station
Bathinda, May 29
The local railway station which is one of the largest railway junctions of the country lacks facilities which even some of the smaller railway stations boast of. Commuters have been complaining about the lack of facilities and harassment at the hands of the Railway authorities.

Suicide case: officer’s arrest stayed
Ferozepore, May 29
The District and Sessions Judge, Mr M.M.S. Bedi, today granted interim stay on the arrest of Mr Rajdeep Singh Brar, Assistant Commissioner, till June 7 in connection with the Kartar Singh suicide case, in response to an anticipatory bail plea moved by Mr Brar.

CRPF constable cremated
Hoshiarpur, May 29
Jaspal Singh, CRPF Head Constable of the 81st Battalion, who sacrificed his life in Assam, was cremated with full state honours at his native village Nangal Thandal today.

CPI backs demands of polytechnics
Phagwara, May 29
The CPI, at a district-level rally held here last evening, adopted a resolution in support of the demands of state-aided polytechnics and asked the Punjab Government to withdraw its “anti-employee” and “anti-technical education” decision to phase out the grant-in-aid to government-aided polytechnics.

SGPC gen secy bereaved
Amritsar, May 29
Wg Cdr Kamaljit Singh (retd), son-in-law of Akali leader, late Master Tara Singh died yesterday after a brief illness.

CRIME

Booked for smuggling drugs into jail
Bathinda, May 29
The district police today acquired production warrants of two inmates of the local Central Jail namely Gurcharan Singh and Gurlabh Singh, who were booked under the NDPS Act along with Jaswinder Kaur in a case of smuggling of intoxicants into the jail.

Woman forced to commit suicide
Bathinda, May 29
Sarbjit Kaur, of Gheributter village in the district was allegedly forced to commit suicide today.

EDUCATION

Institute gets nod to make admissions
Amritsar, May 29
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has accorded sanction to the Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, to admit the fifth batch of 50 students during 2001-2002.

BA, BSc I results of GND varsity today
Amritsar, May 29
The results of B.A. and B.Sc. part I examinations conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University in April/May this year will be declared on May 30. These results can also be accessed from the new official website (www.gnduadmin.com) of the university.