R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMLOH
CM’S VISIT: Hectic activities in the district have begun in connection with the proposed sangat darshan programme of the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, at Fatehgarh Sahib on June 26. SAD has called a meeting of the Amloh circle here on Wednesday 6 to assign duties to party workers. The proposal to build a new sub-divisional complex has again come into limelight with the visit of Mr Vikas Partap, Deputy Commissioner of Fatehgarh Sahib, here on Monday. People of the town are quite hopeful that the Chief Minister would make announcement for building of the sub-divisional complex and the sewerage system in the area.

CYCLE RALLY: A cycle march by 100 activists of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which began at Bhadson village near here on Tuesday, would reach Chandigarh in the evening. It will pass through Chehal, Amloh, Mandi Gobindgarh, Fatehgarh Sahib, Badali, Chhuni, Landran and Mohali. The activists are supposed to join a big rally of the party in Chandigarh. Mr Harchand Singh Nasrali, district president of the Fatehgarh Sahib unit of the BSP, is leading the cycle march. He informed that two vehicles with first aid and equipment for cycle repair were accompanying the march.

FARMERS AWAIT PAYMENT: The farmers of Amloh assembly segment have not received any payment since February for the sugarcane supplied by them to the Cooperative Sugar Mill, Rakhra. The delay has affected the plantation of paddy. In a joint memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and senior Akali leader Jathedar Amar Singh Nalini and Mr Gurmeet Singh, Mr Swaran Singh, Mr Sarvjit Singh Zaildar, Mr Nirmal Singh and Mr Sarbjit Singh, sarpanches of Jhijran, Rattangarh, Dhatonda, Gunia Majra and Suhagheri villages, respectively, have urged them to get the payments released at the earliest.

AMRITSAR
CONDEMNED: Dr D.C. Sharma, senior vice-president, and Dr R.S. Sethi of the PCMS Association in a joint statement here on Monday condemned the Punjab Government for the non-implementation of the recommendations of the Fourth Punjab Pay Commission.

VIVEKANAND CENTRE: Swami Vivekanand Studies Centre has been established on the Guru Nanak Dev University campus. The University Grants Commission has sanctioned Rs 4,60,000 for the centre, said Dr H.S. Soch, Vice-Chancellor of the university. Dr Harmohinder Singh Bedi, a senior Professor of the Hindi Department, has been appointed coordinator of the centre.

ELECTED: Mr N.S. Behl and Mr Bikram Singh Malhotra, were elected president and secretary respectively, of the District Sales Tax Bar Association on Monday.

HOSHIARPUR
AGITATION: The local Janwadi Naujwan Sabha will launch an agitation against the municipal authorities if they failed to improve the deteriorating condition of Dhanna Singh park. Mr Satpal Singh, president of the sabha, stated this in a press note here on Monday.

KHAMANO
DEMANDED: A meeting of the Bahujan Samaj Morcha was held at Durga Dharamshala here under the chairmanship of Mr Avtar Singh Latour, general secretary, Punjab. He said after the block-level meetings, five big conferences would be held. The meeting demanded that the Mandal Commission report should be implemented and hike in power tariff should be taken back. It was also addressed among others by Mr Raghvir Singh Badla, district president, Mr Rajwinder Singh Bhalmajra, district general secretary, Mr Gurbachan Singh Dhiman, secretary, and Mr Surinder Singh Farour, president of the Khamano block.

MEETING: A meeting of SAD (Badal) MLAs, members of the SGPC circle jathedars and working committee members of the Ludhiana rural will be held at Gurdwara Alamgir Sahib on Saturday. This was stated by Jathedar Daya Singh, district president, SAD (B), Ludhiana, here on Tuesday.

KHANNA
DRUG MENACE: The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Punjab unit would launch a movement against the drug mafia, this was stated by the unit president Mr Sukhwinder Pal Singh Grewal who had come here along with the BJP Beopar Mandal president, Mr Harish Bedi, to attend a function at Rahon village on the samadhi of Peer Baba. Speaking to the mediapersons, he said the morcha would fight the increasing menace of drug-addiction amongst the state’s youth. He warned the Pakistan government against smuggling of drugs in Punjab. He informed that the next meeting of the office-bearers of the BJYM (Punjab) would be held at Goraya on Wednesday.

NATAK MELA: The president of the Indian People’s Theatre Association has informed that Natak Mela-2001 would be held at the Rotary Bhavan on Sunday at 8 p.m. Sat Begane, a play written by Mr Ajmer Singh Aulakh and directed by Mr Jagdish, would be staged on the occasion.

CAMPAIGN: The Khanna Vikas Club has decided to launch a campaign to eradicate TB from the town. This was disclosed by the club chairman, Mr Surinder Khanna. He said the club with the cooperation of the Civil Hospital, Khanna, would start the campaign. Free X-rays and check-up would be provided in the hospital. The drive will be held under the supervision of the SMO, Dr Dharampal, Dr V.K. Aggarwal and Dr Jagmohan Goyal.

CAMP: A camp was organised by the SDM’s office at Issru village. As many as 350 pension forms were distributed by the SDM, Mr Sukhwinder Pal Singh Gill. He said that the beneficiaries of the area would not visit Ludhiana now as the cases would be settled in his office. He said the government would provide Rs 500 on the birth of a girl belonging to weaker section of society and deposit Rs 4500 as fixed deposit.

LUDHIANA
OCTROI EVASION: Enforcement staff of the Octroi Department of the Municipal Corporation has detected as many as 23 cases of octroi evasion in the city in which goods were brought within city limits without payment of octroi by transport companies, courier companies and individuals. According to Mr Ram Tirath, Octroi Superintendent, the evaded octroi and penalty to the tune of about Rs 70,000 was recovered from offenders. Mr Raminder Singh, Additional Commissioner, has issued a warning to industry and business houses to pay the octroi and further said that relentless campaign to bring the defaulters to book will continue.

NOMINATED: Mr Inderjit Singh, President, Chamber of Commercial and Industrial Undertakings, after re-election, has nominated the following office-bearers: Mr Avtar Singh — General Secretary, Mr Phuman Singh — finance secretary; Mr Sarbag Singh Passi — organising secretary; Mr Upkar Singh — joint secretary; and Mr Anand Kumar — Publicity Secretary.

JANATA DAL (UNITED): The following have been elected office-bearers of the district unit (Urban) of the Janata Dal (United): Mr Mohinder Singh Kamboj — President, Mr Daljit Singh Akalgarh, Mr Jagvir Singh, Mr Ravinder Singh, Mr R.S. Chawla, Mrs Paramjit Kaur — vice president; Mr Kamaljit Singh Lovely, Mr Kulwinder Singh, Mr Paramjit Singh Naroo, Mr Raghbir Singh Painter, Mr Ajay Malhotra — general secretaries; Mr Davinder Singh Pappy, Mr Gurmeet Singh, Mrs Jaswinder Kaur, Mr Pritpal Singh Pali — secretaries; Mr Vicky Kalra — Cashier.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
ADHYAPAK DAL MEET: Mr Butta Singh Bhandohal, press secretary of the Adhyapak Dal, Punjab, stated in a press note issued here on Tuesday that a meeting of the Dal’s district unit would be held at Dhiwan Todar Mal hall, Fatehgarh Sahib, on Thursday. According to the press note issues like GPF account slips, ACP cases, improvement in educational system, union elections and other problems would be discussed in the meeting, which would be presided over by its president, Mr Darshan Singh Gill.

NAWANSHAHR
DEATH CONDOLED: The Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal on Monday visited Rahon town to condole the death of former municipal council president Sat Pal Joshi. He lauded Sat Pal Johsi’s contribution towards the development of the town. He announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for the civil dispensary of the town.

PATIALA
EMBROIDERY CONTEST: As many as 107 schools and 15,000 students participated in the embroidery contest organised by the Vardhman Threads that went on for months in various towns. The contest named ‘Magika Embroidery Contest’ was held for Classes VII, VIII, IX and X. The various schools of Patiala, that took part in the contest, were Veerhakikat Rai Model Senior Secondary School, Arya Public School, Arya Girls Senior Secondary School, New Wood Stock High School, Batta Public School, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur School, Children Memorial Public School, BM Khalsa School, SDKS English Model High School, Government Girls High School and SDKSS Girls Senior Secondary High School. 

RALLY: A rally was organised at Senior Secondary School under the guidance of Mr Rakesh Gupta, Senior Medical Officer, and Mr S.S.Sandhu, Principal of the school, at Kauli village here. The purpose of the rally was to spread awareness about various fatal diseases along with awareness on health and family welfare. The programme is scheduled to run from June 1 to June 15. 

PHAGWARA
CAMP CONCLUDES: A five-day “gurmat” training camp organised by the Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle at the local Guru Nanak College, concluded on Monday. In a resolution passed at the camp, the Union Government was asked to ban all those programmes on Doordarshan and other channels that glorified cigarettes and liquor and also asked the state government to declare Punjab as “nasha rehat” (free from intoxicants) state.

SAMRALA
LEKHAK MANCH: The Punjab Lekhah Manch, Samrala, a literary organisation, will hold a meeting at Government Senior Secondary School here on June 17. The manch will finalise the literary programme to be held in the near future. At the meeting, an eminent writer, Ajit Pyasa, will share his literary experiences with the audience. The manch president, Prof Baldeep, and the senior secretary, Dr G. Goria, informed that a kavi darbar would also be held on the occasion.

TARN TARAN
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Medical Practitioner Association, Khadoor Sahib: president — Dr Didar Singh Randhawa; general secretary — Dr Prem Singh; and treasurer — Dr Gurjeet Singh.

CHANDIGARH

HARASSED: Highlighting the case of the widow of late Major R.S. Kaushal, who was harassed by the local Estate Office in a case of property transfer, the local unit of the ex-servicemen cell of the Rashtriya Raksha Dal has written to the president of the Army Wives Welfare Association, Western Command Headquarters, Chandi Mandir, against the indifferent attitude of the bureaucracy towards the widows of defence personnel. Lieut-Col S.S. Sohi ( retd), general secretary of the dal, said correspondence with the PUDA officials regarding the harassment of the widow did not yield any result. 

HARYANA

BHIWANI
CONSUMER FORUM: The District Consumers Redressal Forum has directed a watch dealer, to repolish the gold plated wrist watch of Mr Kokra and also pay him litigation charges. Mr Kokra had bought a watch on an oral guarantee of the dealer, who later retracted from his assurance of prompt service.

INJURED: Lajwanti and Pushpa, were injured on Monday when the car in which they were travelling to Hansi collided head on with Tata Sumo near Buwani Khera. In another incident Krishna (30), died after she consumed some poisonous substance at Kheri Daulatpur village in Buwani Khera tehsil.

ALLEGED: Residents of Ward Nos. 4 to 6, 9,11,15, 18, 23, 28 and 29 have alleged that they are getting water mixed with sewage. Samples of such water were shown to authorities concerned but nothing has been done so far.

MEETING HELD: The local Indian Medical Association in collaboration with the State Bank of Patiala held a meeting to find safe and latest measures for disposing of the medical waste on the ESI Hospital premises. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr S.C. Sharma, described about the incinerator system at the Civil Hospital. Dr Sushil Dhamija stressed on adopting land filling system.

KALKA
MEDICAL CAMP: As many as 500 persons were examined during a free medical check-up camp organised by the Rotary Club, Pinjore Hills, at Gurdwara Manji Sabib. Dr Mohan Mittal, chairman of the project, said a team of doctors from Kaiser Hospital led by Dr Arun Aggarwal examined the patients. Apart from this, certain tests like ECG and X-ray were performed at nominal rates. Patients who had been enlisted during the camp would be provided with free consultation and tests at concessioal rates at Kaiser Hospital during their further follow ups, added Dr Mittal. 

TWO ARRESTED: The Kalka police has arrested two persons and confiscated 23 bottles of wine from their possession. The accused have been identified as Pawan Kumar and Raghubir Chand, respectively, and the case has been registered against them. A case under Sections 61 and 114 has been registered against them. 

NARNAUL
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local Deed Writers Association: president — Mr Musaddi Lal Bhardwaj; secretary — Mr Daya Ram Rao; and treasurer — Mr Ram Gopal Sharma.

NEW TUBEWELL: Residents of Khurampur village installed a new tubewell pump on Monday by using the grant-in-aid given by Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, MP, out of his discretionary fund. Potable water supply would be facilitated through this pump.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

VACCINATION CAMP: The Rotary Club, Solan, with the help of representatives of the local Chewa panchayat, organised hepatitis-B vaccination camps here and at Dagshai on Sunday. As many as 514 persons here and 280 persons at Dagshai were vaccinated.

NAHAN
DEAD: Jeet Singh (30) died after he jumped into the Ranital pond while boating with his friends. He and his friends were under the influence of liquor due to which he could not swim, the police said.

SHIMLA
BURGLED: The house of the Additional Sessions Judge Panthaghat, was burgled on Sunday. The thieves decamped with a colour TV, bed sheets and other items worth Rs 18,000. In another case, Rs 1 lakh was stolen from the house of CPWD employee at the Upper Kaithu area on Monday.