AMRITSAR
WORKSHOP CONCLUDES: A two-day NGO training workshop under the reproductive child health project, organised by the Society of Services of Voluntary Agencies (North), concluded here on Thursday. The former Chief Secretary, Punjab, Mr P. H. Vaishnav, presided over it.

WEBSITE LAUNCHED: Dr H. S. Soch, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, launched an administrative website here on Thursday. The official magazine of the university, University Samachar, was also released by him.

CRITICISED: The executive committee of the Guru Nanak Dev University (Non-teaching) Employees Association, at its meeting held here on Thursday, criticised the action of the Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University in issuing show-cause notices to noted economists, Dr Sucha Singh Gill and Dr U. C. Singh of the Punjab School of Management.

BATHINDA
MAHESHWARI COMMUNITY: A prayer was held in the local temple by members of the Maheshwary community to mark its originating day on Thursday. Mr P. P. Maheshwary, secretary of the sabha, stated this in a press note.

NOMINATED: Mr Sukhjit Singh Neena, has been nominated member of the Telephone Advisory Committee, Bathinda.

HOSHIARPUR
ARRESTED: Mr Sanjeev Kalra, SSP, said here on Thursday that the police had arrested Ajay Khan, alias Rajan of Ashakpur of Bidaon (UP), Ashok Kumar, alias Raj Kumar alias Raju and alias Cobra, of Purhiran, Suresh Kumar, alias Bitu of Model Town, Manohar Lal, alias Bobby, of Garhshankar, Balbir Singh of the Santokhpur Mohalla in Jalandhar and Sodhi Singh of the Ramgarhia Mohalla in the Jhirri Sadaria forest near Argowal village for planning a dacoity. A .32 bore desi revolver, an AK-47 pistol, a .303-bore pistol, 15 live cartridges, an iron rod, a sword, a gatra, two Bajaj Chetak scooters and a mobile phone had been seized.

MEDICAL CAMP: Mr M. L. Kalra, vice-president of Mahavir Spinning Mill, inaugurated a homeopathic medical check-up camp here on Wednesday. More than 400 persons were examined by a team of doctors and students of the local Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital.

PORNOGRAPHIC FILMS: The Sadar police has arrested Kuldip Kumar of Rajpur-Bhaian and Daljit Singh, alias Niku, of Hukran under Section 292 of the IPC on Wednesday for exhibiting pornographic films at the tubewell of Mr Daljit Singh. A TV, VCR and some pornographic cassettes have been seized.

SUNSTROKE: Amrik Singh of Kharal Kalan village died due to sunstroke, near Khokar village, on Wednesday. He was going on a bicycle with his brother.

SUICIDE: Lachman Dass of Meghowal Ganjian allegedly committed suicide by consuming celphos tablets on Wednesday. He was reported to be mentally upset.

LIQUOR SEIZED: The Mukerian police has arrested Harjinder Singh of Ghasitpur and seized 5250 ml of illicit liquor. A case has been registered under Sections 61, 1, and 14 of the Excise Act.

KHANNA
DEMANDED: The Lok Sangarsh Committee convener and many others have demanded the release of Harjinder Singh and others who were allegedly involved in the burning of octroi post here. They have threatened to organise a dharna on June 4 in front of the SDM’s office if the cases against them were not withdrawn.

SEMINAR: A seminar was organised in A.S. Senior Secondary School, Khanna, in which officials from the Pollution Department, Punjab, participated. The students also participated in it. Mr Vinod Ghai, Secretary, A.S. Senior Secondary School, and Mr Sukhwinder Singh Gill, SDM, with a number of prominent industrialists were present on the occasion.

KHARAR
SARPANCHES' DEMAND: Sarpanches of eight villages of the Kharar block have demanded that their villages should be merged together to form a nagar panchayat on the pattern of Zirakpur and named Balaungi Nagar Panchayat. This demand has been made in a letter to Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab, which has been signed by sarpanches of Balaungi Colony, Balaungi, Daon, Bad Majra Colony, Bad Majra, Raipur, Ballo Majra, Behlolpur and Jhujhar Nagar.

LUDHIANA
BIRTHDAY: The Panth Rattan Master Tara Singh Yadgari Committee would celebrate birthday of veteran Akali Dal leader Master Tara Singh here on June 24. The committee met here under the presidentship of Mr Kulwant Singh Dukhia to chalk out an elaborate programme and assign duties to party activists. Giving this information, Mr Amar Singh Shamsher, general secretary of the committee, informed that senior party leaders would participate in the function and pay their tributes to the founder of the Shiromani Akali Dal. 

PLEA TO MC: The residents of Mohalla Preet Nagar in Ward No 31 have urged the MC administration to check the discrimination with certain areas in the locality in the ongoing work for laying of sewerage pipes. At a meeting of the residents of the affected areas in the colony, presided over by Mr Balbir Aggarwal, vice-president of the district unit of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the residents alleged that the MC authorities had not responded to their earlier demand for laying 30-inch dia pipes instead of 10-inch pipes on the main road, Gadri Baba Gurmukh Singh Road from Street No 26 to Matharoo Chowk. A memorandum submitted by the area residents to the MC Commissioner called for fair treatment to the locality and uniformity in the sewerage project, without any kind of discrimination with any particular area. 

GURPURB CELEBRATIONS: The managing committee of Gurdwara Chhevein Patshahi, CMC chowk, and Guru Hargobind Sahib Sewa Society have chalked out a joint three-day programme in connection with the birthday celebrations of the sixth Sikh Guru. According to the tentative programme, a big ‘Parbhat Pheri Nagar Kirtan’ would be taken out on June 5 from the gurdwara dedicated to the sixth Guru at CMC chowk at 5 a.m. which would pass through old Civil Hospital road, Kalgidhar Chowk, Nimwala Chowk, Khwaja Kothi, division number three chowk and Baba Than Singh chowk before returning to the gurdwara. A big Dhadhi durbar would be held the same day at 7 p.m. On the second day of the celebrations, two sessions, called Gurmat Samagams, would be held at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. A play titled ‘Ankheelay Yodhey, Sukha Singh Mehtab Singh’ would be staged at 9 p.m. On the concluding day (June 7), a kirtan samagam would be held from early morning to 2 p.m. and a Mahan Kirtan Durbar would be held from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, Jathedar, Akal Takhat, who is a special invitee, is also likely to attend the celebrations. 

MANSA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local branch of the Rotaract International Club: president — Mr Ashwani Garg; vice-president — Mr Suresh Singla; secretary — Mr Rakesh Sethi; and treasurer — Mr Rajinder Garg.

PATHANKOT
DECLARED: Sujanpur has been declared a block by the Punjab Government. Mr Sat Pal Saini, Information Technology Minister, announced this at the PWD Rest House on Wednesday. He also called a meeting of the delegations of 40 villages at the local Temperance Hall and listened to their grievances.

PATIALA
ALUMNI MEET: Members of the 1972-1976 batch of the GOMCO Alumini Association decided to hold the silver-jubilee function of the body on December 22 and 23 here. In a press note issued here, Dr Naresh Raj, Press Secretary of the body, said a continuing medical education session would also be held on the occasion. At a meeting of the body here on Friday, the alumini also decided to donate C-ARM equipment to the hospital. Dr Manmohan Singh was elected the President of the association. The other office-bearers are as follows: Secretary — Dr K.D. Singh; Finance Secretary — Dr J.P.S. Walia; and Joint Secretary — Dr Rajinder Bharti.

THEATRE FESTIVAL: A musical play, ‘Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh’, was staged at Abhinav Theatre in Jammu to mark the conclusion of the Inter-state Prithvi Raj Kapoor Theatre Festival. The festival of the National Theatre Arts Society (NTAS) included two other performances of the play at Pathankot and Jammu, which were sponsored by the North Zone Cultural Centre of Patiala.

SEMINAR: A seminar on the production of cheap and quality milk will be organsied by the Fodder Development Wing of Animal Husbandry Department and the Don Bosco Rural Institute of Kauli on Monday here.

CHOSEN: Mr Jai Prakash Gupta has been elected the President of the Sanatan Dharam Mahabir Dal of Punjab here. The other office bearers are as follows: Vice President — Mr Rameshar Dass Goyal; General Secretary — Mr Ishwar Chand Sharma; Joint Secretary — Mr Krishan Lal Saini; and Cashier — Mr Devinder Kumar.

HONOUR: Mr Vijay Kumar Goyal, a social worker and a former zonal chairman of the Lions Club, was elected the Chairman (Environment) by the District Lions Club at a meeting here on Friday.

COACHING: The IAS and Allied Services Training Centre in Punjabi University will have classes for the IAS (Mains) examination from June 22 onwards. The eligible candidates can apply by June 11. The Interview will be held on June 12.

APPOINTED: Dr Harbans Pathak has been appointed Head of the Public Administration Department and Dr Balvinder Kaur Brar Head of Punjabi Department.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING: Ms Sushma Purwar, wife of Mr A.K. Purwar, Managing Director of the State Bank of Patiala (SBOP), along with Ms Suman Devgan, wife of Mr J.R.Devgan, General Manager of the bank, today visited Yadvindra Balniketan here and interacted with the inmates and staff. Ms Purwar suggested to give vocational training along with regular studies to inmates.

AMBALA
ARRESTED: The police has rounded up six ‘satta’ operators from various parts of the city, Ambala Cantt and Mulana. The police has also seized about Rs 3,000 from them.

TWO KILLED: Two persons were killed in a road accident near Ambala Cantt on Wednesday. A person named Abha, who was coming to Ambala with his relative on a motor cycle, was killed when a truck hit the vehicle. The police has registered a case against the truck driver.

SUDDEN DEATH: An unidentified person, who was standing near a ticket window at the Ambala Cantt railway station, died suddenly. He had a bus ticket in his pocket. His body was taken to the local Civil Hospital for postmortem.

OFFICE-BEARERS: Mr Jai Prakash Aggarwal has been elected the Chairman of the Phoenix Club of Ambala. The other office-bearers Mr Naresh Chandda — Secretary; Mr Rakesh Aggarwal — Treasurer: and Mr A.R. Sharma — Joint Secretary.

PROTEST: The Uttari Railway Majdoor Union has organised a protest week at Ambala Cantt to seek the removal of disparities in the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations. They also demanded a 50 per cent cut in posts of gazetted officials in the divisions.

BHIWANI
WARNED: The panchayats of Kadma, Gopalwas and Badrai have warned the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam that if the power supply to their villages, is not restored within 10 days, they will start an agitation. Thousands of farmers at a panchayat held at Badhra on Tuesday had decided to withhold payments of power bills in protest against the disconnection of power supply to some residents of Kachna village.

SURRENDERS: The police has arrested a proclaimed offender, Akshay Kumar of Madanheri village in Narnaul, wanted in a double-murder case. He surrendered before a local court at Loharu which remanded him in two days’ police custody.

INTER-VOICE SYSTEM: With the introduction of the inter-voice response system here, passengers can receive information about the timings of trains on telephone Nos. 43568, 43569 or 1330.

KALKA
CHEATING: The police has registered cases against five persons for allegedly cheating two sisters by forging a power of attorney documents of their property. The accused are Ripudaman, Bhagwan Dass Nambardar, Somnath, Bhago Devi and jagir Singh. A case has been registered under Sections 420/465/467/468/471/504/506/120-B and 34 of the IPC, following a complaint by the sisters — Indro and Rachni Devi.

PANIPAT
SENTENCED: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr Raj Rahul Garg, has sentenced Anil to life imprisonment and fined him Rs 10,000 on Wednesday on the charges of murder and attempt to murder a constable. The accused had shot a constable Prem Singh.

SONEPAT
PRIMARY SCHOOLS: On the directive of the state government, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S. N. Roy, handed over the movable and immovable property of 40 primary schools in the urban areas and 403 primary schools in the rural areas to the zila parishad and the civic bodies in the district on Wednesday.

TRAFFIC BLOCKED: Traffic was blocked on the Kharkhanda-Sampla road for about eight hours following the falling of four trucks into a ‘khud’ on Thursday. The police cleared the traffic after pushing the trucks out of the khud.

MEETING HELD: A meeting of journalists was held at the ethnic tourist complex at Rai, about 13 km from here, on Thursday. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.N. Roy, advised the journalists to work in an impartial and fearless manner. The Superinten-dent of Police, Mr Paramjit Singh Ahlawat and Mr Mukesh Pandit, Bureau Chief of Amar Ujala, also spoke.

BILASPUR
MEMORANDUM: Leaders of the Seehara area presented a memorandum to the Executive Engineer, the IPH Department, here on Thursday. They have demanded, an on-the-spot inspection of water taps in their area. They alleged that a contractor had been provided with free water from a tap situated downhill stopping the water supply to the areas at height.