R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

BATHINDA
MILK FOR PATIENTS: Sri Annanpurna Seva Mandal, a local social organisation started a scheme to provide milk and other eatables to patients of the Civil Hospital, here on Sunday. Mr Shankar Samrat, the renowned magician, was the chief guest.

MEDICAL CAMP: A medical check-up camp was organised here by the local Emergency Blood Club in which 250 patients were examined. The medicines were given free of cost.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Punjab Health Department Sub Offices Clerical Association: president — Mr Sukhminder Singh; general secretary - Mr Jagdev Singh and secretary — Mr Bikramjeet Singh.

REWARDED: The Lions Club, Kharar, has been declared the best club in its category in the District 321F and its president Sudarshan Verma has been declared as the best president in the district. They were rewarded at a prize distribution function held in Patiala on Sunday. The awards were received by Mr Verma and the present President.

LUDHIANA
DECRIED: The District Youth Congress (Labour Cell) has described the rise in prices of essential commodities and lack of proper health cover for the working class. Mr Sabhajit Pandey, chairman of the cell, while addressing workers, meeting, made scathing attacks on the Centre and the state government for neglecting the poor masses and the workers. 

RALLY: The Lok Jan Shakti will organise a public awareness rally at Grain Market, near the Jalandhar bypass chowk, here on Sunday. Among others, the national president of the party, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, and several other senior party leaders will address the rally. Addressing workers, meeting in the Janakpuri area, Mr Kartar Singh Patna, district president, said the party was holding mass contact meetings in each and every corner of the city to mobilise the masses and make the rally a success. 

MANDI GOBINDGARH
APPOINTED: Capt Amarinder Singh, President, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, appointed Mr Makhan Lal Lalka of Mandi Gobindgarh as a member of the manifesto sub-committee for the Scheduled Caste and backward classes of Punjab. 

NOMINATED: Mr Devinder Singh Baboo, President Punjab Pradesh Youth Congress, has nominated Mr Kulwinder Singh as vice-chairman of the Punjab Pradesh Youth Congress (Kisan cell-cum-in-charge of Ropar, Ludhiana Sahib districts. 

PATIALA
PAINTING COMPETITION: About 70 students from slum areas participated in the painting workshop organised by Devinder Cultural Centre for Children in collaboration with the North Zone Cultural Centre at Daru Kuttia, here from June 1 to 15. The girls were trained for painting during the workshop by Ms Parneet Kaur Virk from Budda Dal Public School and Ms Parneet Kaur Sohal from Government College for Girls, Patiala. Dr Ashok Gupta distributed certificates to the children on the completion of the workshop. 

OFFICE-BEARERS: Dr Jasmer Singh has been elected as the president of the Urban Welfare Association at a meeting held here on Monday. The other office-bearers are vice-president: Mr Gurcharan Singh; general secretary — Mr Chettan Singh; finance secretary — Mr Bansi Dhar Arora; and joint secretary — Mr M.S. Nehra. 

Refresher Course: Dr K.S. Dhir, Dean, Academic Affairs, Punjabi University, inaugurated the UGC sponsored three-week refresher course for the management lecturers of college and university in the Punjab School of Management here on Monday. Addressing the participants, he said that in the organisations, the monetary conflicts should be resolved through mutual interactions rather than by coercion. The course would focus on the theme of Global Market and Challenges to Management, he added. 

Saplings planted: Mr Manjit Singh Narang, SDM, Patiala initiated the work of planting saplings by the Market Committee at Focal Point Lang village by planting a sapling in the mandi here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Harbans Singh Lang, Chairman, Market Committee, said the committee would focus to make all efforts to ensure clean and safe environment. 

SAMRALA
TRIBUTES: Tributes paid to Bibi Sahib Kaur by Mr Charanjeet Singh Atwal, Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Mr Kirpal Singh Khirnian, a member, SGPC, and Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, at her village, Kulewal, 5 km from here, on Sunday. Speakers lauded Bibi Sahib Kaur for the social work put in by here. Mr Shamsher Singh, son of Bibi Sahib Kaur, donated Rs 11,000 for a village gurdwara, Rs 1,100 for a Dalit dharamshala, Rs 2,100 for primary school and Rs 2,100 for middle school. 

ELECTED: Dr Pritpal Singh Benipal has been unanimously elected as president of the Nankana Sahib Public School, Samrala. This was disclosed by Dr Balwant Singh Chahal, additional secretary of the school, here on Monday. 

MEETING: A meeting of the local Public Grievances Committee has not been called so far in by the SDM, who is the president of the committee. This was disclosed by Mr Kuldeep Khullar, one of the members. However, he added that Mrs Raghbir Kaur Khaira, who has recently taken charge as SDM, Samrala, has assured him that the meeting would be called as soon as possible. 

EDUCATION: Only one student of Government Primary School at Bijlipur near here, has passed Class V examination. This was disclosed by Mr Kulwant Singh Tark, president of the Democratic Teachers Front, here on Monday. Talking to mediapersons at the local Civil Rest House, Mr Tark said the primary education system was becoming deplorable in Punjab day by day. He added that about 50 primary schools in Ludhiana district were running without regular teachers and hundred other schools had only one teacher. Mr Tark said while hundreds of E T T-trained teachers were unemployed, the government was encouraging private school education. 

RESULTS: The result of Class VIII of Guru Nanak Public School has remained cent per cent, according to Ms Gurdeep Kaur, the principal of school. The result of Government Senior Secondary School, Manki, has also remained cent per cent, according to Principal Hari Om Kaura. 

MANCH: A meeting of the Punjabi Lekhak Manch, Samrala, was held at Senior Secondary school here on Sunday. It was presided over by Prof Baldeep and Prof Hamdardvir Nausheharvi. During the meeting it was decided that a ‘vichar goshthi’ would be organised on Ajaib Singh’s book ‘Shishe Vichla Akas’, Avtar Singh Billing’s novel ‘Mashalchi’ and a ‘ru-baru’, a programme, with Mr Mohinder Singh Manipuri in July. A senior writer, Isha Singh Passi, talked about his life and writing experiences. In the ‘kavi darbar’, noted poets namely Lal Singh Dil, Dajwinder, Joginder Singh Josh, Kashmiri Lal Khurana, Pravinder Singh, Mohinder Singh Manupuri, Sherinder Soni, Malkiat Singh Ghuman and Ashwani Bhardwaj recited their new poems. 

SANGAT DARSHAN: On the instructions of the DIG, Ludhiana, Mr Suresh Arora, a sangat darshan will be held at the local police station under the chairmanship of the SSP of Khanna on Tuesday. This was disclosed by the SHO of Samrala. 

TARN TARAN
‘SHAGAN’ CHEQUES: Prof Jagir Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Industries Minister, Punjab, distributed cheques worth Rs 18.1 lakh to 355 beneficiaries under the ‘shagan scheme’ at a function organised at Valtoha on Sunday. He said compensation to the farmers holding land across the border fence was soon going to be distributed for the second time and the old age and widow pension cases were also being finalised.

LABOURER DIES: Santokh Singh, a farm labourer of Kotli Saru Khan village, died while digging a well at Chack Kare Khan village on Friday. The police has registered a case under Section 174 of the Cr PC.

CHANDIGARH

Diabetic control camp: A three-day diabetic control camp is being organised at Brahma Kumaris Sukh Shanti Bhavan in Phase 7 on Tuesday. Dr Prem Masand, a cancer specialist and coordinator, diabetes control campaign, along with Dr Sachin, Dr Mahesh, Dr L.R. Sharma and Dr R.P. Malhotra would be holding the camp. A spokesman of the bhavan said the camp would be based on changing life style and meditation. A presentation on ‘stress management for healthy living’ was also organised in coordination with the Rotary, Inner Wheel Club and the Mohali Industries Association. Dr Prem would deliver lecture on Godrej and CICST on June 20 and would hold an interactive session with doctors of the town. 

HARYANA

AMBALA
CUSTOMER MEET: The State Bank of Patiala organised a customer meet at Ambala city on Monday where around 250 customers comprising mainly of cloth market, rice sellers and other clients of the bank were present. Mr J.R. Devgan, GM (operations), presided over the function. The GM assured the clients of the bank to provide better and efficient services to them. He announced the reduction of service charges for issuance of bank drafts for the benefit of bank customers. He informed that the bank was computerised its 73 per cent of business and hope to computerise the rest of the business before the end of this year. He said that the bank has planned to install 25 ATMs (automatic teller machine). Mr J.B. Singla, Chief Manager, Ambala Cantonment branch, apprised the customer of various schemes of the bank. 

KIDNAPPED: Ms Shakuntla Devi, a resident of Ambala city, filed a complaint in the local police station that some people came at her residence and kidnapped her daughter. She alleged that the abductors also took away her mobile phone and scooter. The police has registered a case but no arrest has been made so far. 

PESTICIDES STOLEN: Pesticides worth Rs 15,000 was stolen from a shop at Ambala city last night. On the complaint of the owner of the shop, Mr Balwinder Singh, the police has registered a case against some unknown persons in this regard. 

CASE REGISTERED: The Naraingarh police registered a dowry case against four members of a family belonging to Kurukshetra district. The police has registered a case on the complaint of Shanti Devi. Ms Devi alleged in her complaint that her daughter was married in Kurukshetra district. She was being tortured by her in-laws for dowry. 

PANIPAT
DERAILMENT: A coach of a goods train going from Rohtak to Kurukshetra derailed between Mudlana and Israna on the Panipat-Rohtak section on Sunday. However, no loss of life has been reported.

SONEPAT
1 KILLED: Narinder Kumar, a youth of Asawarpur village, was killed on the spot while trying to board a running bus here on Sunday. In another incident, two youths, Anil Kumar of Nahra village and Ajit Kumar of Qumashpur village, sustained serious injuries when the scooter on which they were riding collided with an autorickshaw near Sawli village, about 15 km from here, on Sunday. The youths were rushed to the local Civil Hospital from where Ajit was shifted to the Medical College Hospital in Rohtak for further treatment.

SUICIDE: Neeta, a young girl, was reported to have committed suicide by taking celphos tablets in her house at Bali Qutabpur village, about 25 km from here, on Sunday.

CONTRACT SYSTEM: Leaders of various trade unions, including CITU, on Sunday opposed the contract system prevalent in the industrial sector and urged the state government to impose an immediate ban on it. In a joint press statement, they demanded strict enforcement of labour laws and urged the state government to fix Rs 3,500 per month as the minimum wages of the workers.

YAMUNANAGAR
KIDNAPPED: The Yamunanagar Sadar police has registered a case of kidnapping against three persons of Muzafarnagar district of UP on a complaint lodged by Churu of Bank Colony here. Churu complained that his son, Rameshwar, was allegedly kidnapped and his tractor-trailer found at Kalanour village, near the Haryana-UP border.

KILLED: A person was killed and another injured when a police Gypsy and an auto-rickshaw collided at Buria, 12 km from here, on Sunday. According to information a retired teacher, Om Parkash, who was sitting in the autorickshaw, died while the driver of the autorickshaw, Naresh, has been admitted to Jagadhri Civil Hospital. A case has been registered.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

NURPUR
ACCIDENT: As many as 14 persons were injured, three of them seriously, when a Tata Sumo in which they were coming from Kangra collided with a bus and fell into a 60-foot-deep gorge, near Kotla on Sunday evening. The injured persons have been admitted to the local Civil Hospital.

DENIAL: The Chief Medical Officer, Kangra, has denied a report published in a section of the press recently that 18 persons had died of gastroenteritis in the Chadiar area. He said 10 patients suffering from diarrhoea were admitted to the Primary Health Centre, Chadiar, and were being treated for the same.

SHIMLA
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Department Non-Gazetted Association: president — Mr Chaman Chauhan; senior vice-president — Mr Hem Raj Sharma; vice-president — Ms Shanta Thakur; general secretary — Mr Chaman Lal; joint secretary — Mr Surinder Sharma; finance secretary — Mr Rajesh Sirkek; and press secretary — Mr Het Ram Verma.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Medical Teachers Association of the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Dental College: president — Dr Kashmir Singh; general secretary — Dr R.K. Abbey; vice-president — Dr Chander Mohan; joint secretary — Dr M.L. Dhar; social secretary — Dr Rajeev Bhardwaj; and treasurer — Dr R.S. Chauhan. Dr S.R. Thakur, Dr Rajiv Seam, Dr Urmil Gupta and Dr Narbir Singh Thakur have been elected members of the executive.