R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

HOSHIARPUR
SEIZED: The city police arrested Rajesh Kumar of Mohalla Bahadurpur and Ravinder of Roop Nagar on Tuesday and seized 2.70 lakh ml of countrymade foreign liquor from them. Their accomplice, Sunil Kumar, escaped under cover of darkness.

JAGRAON
LAWYERS’ STRIKE: All members of the Bar Association here observed a complete strike paralysing court work. A delegation of four members of the Bar left for Sangrur to participate in a state-level rally to be held at the District Judicial Complex against lathi charge on the lawyers on May 18, when they were going to lay the foundation stone of the chambers in the newly-built judicial complex. The striking lawyers demanded suspension of the SDM and DSP responsible for the incident. 

KHAMANO
RAPE BID: Hardip Singh of village Gaggarwal near here tried to rape a 7-year-old girl but her sister aged 5 years alerted the family and the child managed to escape. According to information available, Kamaljit Kaur (7) and her sister Akpreet Kaur (5), were playing near their house. Hardeep Singh alias Mithu tried to take the children to a deserted place and was about to disrobe Kamaljit when her sister, Akpreet, sensing trouble ran home and told her mother about the matter. When the mother, Paramjit Kaur, reached the place the youth fled. The Khamano police has registered a case under Sections 376, 311 of the IPC against the accused but he is still absconding. The father of the children is a tempo driver and was not at home when the incident occurred.

ONE BOOKED: Balwinder Singh, a resident of Khanna, was arrested for operating a satta racket. On a tip off, ASI Amardeep Singh of Khamano, raided a place near patwar khana at Sanghol, near here. The accused has been booked under Sections 13-A and 387 of the IPC and Rs 130 were recovered from him on the spot.

KHANNA
ANIMAL FAIR HELD: An Animal fair was held here on Thursday at the military grounds in contravention of government orders from 6 a.m. to about 9 a.m., when people informed about it to Sukhwinder Singh Gill, SDM, Khanna. He directed the police to go there which in turn dispersed the mandi. Nearly 1,000 farmers and traders had come there to sell or buy cow and buffaloes.

WOMEN ATHLETES: Three women athletes from Punjab Police, Manjit Kaur and Inderjeet Kaur in 400 metres and 800 metres respectively and Surinderjit Kaur in the short put category have proceeded to Indiana (USA) to participate in the World Police Games there. They were seen off at Khanna by officers, relative and friends.

SUICIDE: A woman committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance here on Wednesday. According to information, a housewife Rajni (30), consumed some poisonous substance due to a domestic quarrel. She was rushed to the local Civil Hospital from where she was referred to Rajindera Hospital, Patiala, where she was declared dead. The police has registered a case.

LUDHIANA
RESIGNATIONS: The state president of Nationalist Congress Party, Mr Swarn Singh, has made it clear that no district president of the party had the constitutional right to suspend or expel any office-bearer of the district party unit. Referring to certain news items published in a section of the press to this effect, he said that taking disciplinary action against any office-bearer was the job of the state level disciplinary action committee. He said no action had been taken so far by the party leadership on the resignations, submitted by several district level office-bearers in protest against the style of working of the district president Mr Rashpal Singh Gill recently and all those office-bearers continue to be in office. 

HAILED: Mr Chander Shekhar Sahota, president, Block Congress Committee, has hailed the Congress agenda for the welfare of Dalit community, announced by the PPCC president, Captain Amarinder Singh in the SC/BC ekta rally held in Jalandhar recently. He said here today that the steps outlined by the PPCC chief for emancipation of the weaker sections were proof enough that the party was really concerned over the plight of the scheduled castes and backward classes. The Dalit community, he added, had also reciprocated the gesture of Congress leadership by participating in the rally in large numbers.

TB CLINIC: The foundation stone of Nishkam’s TB Clinic at Nishkam Sewa Hospital, Jujhar Nagar, was laid here yesterday by Mr M. M. Vyas, chairman, Ludhiana Improvement Trust. Mr K.K. Sud, while giving details of Nishkam, said activities of the ashram activities include educating the street children, adult education, managing sewing school centers, computer training programme for females, daycare centers, dispensaries and Senior Citizen Home. Mrs Sukhwinder Kaur, Municipal Counsellor, appreciated the services of Nishkam who also met ailing patients and the needy girls of the locality. Mr Singla of Krishna Charitable Hospital informed that a free polio operation camp would be held on October 4 and 5. The distinguished guests included Mr H L Sethi, Mrs Sukhwinder Kaur, Mrs Jaswinder Kaur, Mr Singla among others.

NAWANSHAHR
POWER CUTS: Local residents are sore over frequent power breakdowns. In some localities, tubelights and other electronic goods have got damaged due to a sudden increase in the voltage. Dr Shiv Kumar Tejpal, senior vice-president of the local Municipal Council has urged the authorities concerned to attend to the power supply-related complaints speedily.

TRANSFER: Mr B.S. Sidhu, Additional District and Sessions Judge, has taken over the charge from Mr Harbans Lal, who has been transferred to Mansa. Meanwhile, Mr Gobinder Singh Matharu, CJM, has been promoted and posted Additional District and Sessions Judge, here.

LANES: A sum of Rs 4.78 lakh would be spent on the construction of streets and drains in the Teachers Colony and in the Bakkerkhana Road area, falling under ward number 8 of the town, said Mr Surinder Mohan Tejpal, municipal councillor, in a press statement on Thursday.

PHAGWARA
LATRINES: A sum of Rs 20 crore would be spent in the current year on building latrines for the poor in Punjab, said the Punjab Tourism Minister, Ch Swarna Ram. A green belt would be created along the Chaheru-Mehli bypass and trees would be planted along the proposed four-lane road between Phagwara and Chandigarh, said the minister.

SAMRALA
ONE KILLED: Gurmukh Singh from village Rampur Khanluti near here was killed in a road accident at the local bazar near a sweetmeat shop on Wednesday evening. He was reportedly going on the moped when a school van struck him. The body was brought by the same school van to the local Civil Hospital and was handed over to the legal heirs after postmortem. The police have registered a case.

TARN TARAN
KILLED: Swaran Kaur, alias Gurdip Kaur (50), a widow, was allegedly killed by four persons of her own village, Pandori Gola on Wednesday morning by hitting her with a tractor. The suspects have been identified as Heera Singh and his three sons, Balwant singh, Kulwinder Singh and Sukhwant singh.

CHANDIGARH

HONOUR: The local Rotary Club has decided to present a Badge of Honour to all the Army personnel and others who are working for the construction of the concrete path in front of Army Cantonment area between the Thikriwala Chowk and Major Manvender Singh Chowk. The Rotary Club said that about 35 people who are working on the project for the welfare of the people will be awarded to encourage and appreciated their attempt.

HARYANA

CONGRESS GRASS: The members of Citizens Council have expressed concern over the fast growing congress grass in the Sadar area, specially in the vacant plots of land. The council demanded that a special task force should be formed to remove the grass. They said that the congress grass leads to various ailments and the municipal authorities were not paying attention towards removing them, a release said. 

BHIWANI
REJECTED: A local court has rejected the bail application of a former Superintendent of District Jail, Bhiwani, Mr R.K. Gupta, co-accused in the case of release of a prisoner on the basis of fake documents. The matter had come to light when the SDM, Bhiwani, conducted an inquiry on the directions of the Deputy Commissioner who had received an anonymous complaint in this regard.

ACCIDENT: A former sarpanch, Deewan (80), died and another person received injuries, when a tractor hit the three-wheeler in which they were travelling. The tractor driver fled the spot after the incident. The police has registered a case.

ELECTED: Mr Praveen Garg has been elected president of the Rotaract Club, Bhiwani. Mr Rajiv Wasan and Mr Sunder Lal Jindal have been nominated general secretary and treasurer, respectively, of the club.

KAITHAL
TRAINING CAMP: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Phateh Singh Dagar, on Thursday called upon the youth to shun bad habits. He was addressing a 10-day training camp organised by the ‘Sarvdeshik Yuvak Parishad’. The convener of the camp, Mr Desh Bandhu Arya, stressed upon the need to remove social evils like dowry and child and bonded labour.

NARNAUL
FOLLOW RULES: Dr R.B. Langian, Deputy Commissioner, Narnaul, has asked the drivers and owners of vehicles to follow the traffic rules and directions issued in the wake of the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling. Action would be initiated under Section 207 of the Motor Vehicles Act against those flouting helmet rules, Mr Langian said.

ROHTAK
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS: The stretch of the NH-10 from Sampla to Asthal Bohar would be four-laned at an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore. This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik, while addressing a meeting of officials of national highways on Tuesday. He said Rs 2.27 crore would also be spent on the widening and carpeting of national highway 71-A passing through the district.

SIRSA
SUICIDE: Gita Devi committed suicide on Wednesday by consuming celphos tablets. She was a resident of Ellenabad and was having a discord with her husband due to his addiction to drugs. A case has been registered by the police.

SONEPAT
SPECIAL DRIVE: A special drive was launched by the district administration on Wednesday to remove the encroachments on municipal land on the Sonepat-Rohtak road. The demolition squad was assisted by a number of duty magistrates and a strong contingent of the police. Residents of the area alleged that there was a curfew-like situation and they could not move freely and were harassed by the police.

1 DEAD: Ramesh Kumar, a worker, was killed on the spot when a water storage tank fell on him in a factory situated at the HSIDC complex in Kundli village, about 25 km from here, on Wednesday. The police is inquiring into the case.

SUICIDE: Hem Chand, a youth, was reported to have committed suicide by taking celphos tablets in his house at Rathdhanna village, about 5 km from here, on Wednesday. A family feud was stated to be the cause of the suicide.

INJURED: Balbir Singh of Fazilpur village was injured when a bus knocked him down on the Sonepat-Bahalgarh road, near his village, on Wednesday. He was taken to the hospital and was stated to be out of danger.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

UNA
TRAFFIC JAMS: Traffic jams near the Una bridge on the Una-Nangal road have become a major nuisance to residents and commuters. Similar is the condition around the bus stand. The residents have urged the district administration to streamline the traffic in the city.