R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AHMEDGARH
BSP RALLY: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) block president, Mr Bharpur Singh, has said the party supremo, Mr Kanshi Ram, will address a rally at Dussehra Ground, Dehlon, on Monday afternoon. All the preparations for rally have been completed, he said.

AMRITSAR
STUDY CIRCLE: The Swami Vivekanand Study Circle of the Shahzada Nand College for Girls organised their valedictory function on Thursday. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Narinderjit Singh, who was the chief guest, lauded the role of the study circle in providing coaching free of cost to over 130 girl students and preparing them for professional colleges.

FARIDKOT
DRAINS’ CLEANING: The Punjab Government has granted Rs 50 lakh for cleaning up the 35-km-long drains in the district. Disclosing this here on Thursday, Mr A Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said the work on 12-km-long-drains had been completed. He directed the department concerned to complete the cleaning up of the remaining drains.

ELECTED: Mr Gurpartap Singh Brar and Mr Amar Nath Verma have been elected president and secretary, respectively, of the district Red Cross Senior Citizen Welfare Club.

GOVERNMENT JOBS: Under a plan of the Punjab Government, the district administration has recommended the cases of 22 persons, whose families were affected during militancy in the district, to various departments for providing government jobs to them. Mr A. Venu Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, said in a press note here on Wednesday that three persons had been given jobs under the plan.

COMMISSION SOUGHT: A meeting of the General Category Welfare Federation, Punjab, was held here on Tuesday. They pressed the Punjab Government for setting up a general category commission to protect the interests of the people in the state. This was stated by Mr Sukhbir Singh, district president of the federation, in a press note here on Wednesday.

GURDASPUR
RELIEF: The district has received about Rs 14.39 crore for distribution among farmers who made distress sale of paddy between September 21 to October 14. Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, said on Thursday that the amount would be distributed next week. Committees headed by Subdivisional Magistrates had been constituted to start distribution from Monday, he said.

HOSHIARPUR
2 DEAD: Two brothers, Daljit Singh and Baljit Singh, of Dosanjh Kalan, died on the spot when the Maruti van in which they were travelling collided with a Tata 407 truck, near Garhshankar on Wednesday night. They were heading for Anandpur Sahib.

SUICIDE: Chamandeep Singh, son of Kulwinder Singh, allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a well at Dera Bagari Shah village on Thursday.

LABOURER DEAD: Bahadur, a Nepalese labourer, succumbed to his injuries at the house of his employer Darshan Singh at Begumpur Jandiala village on Thursday. A branch of a sheesham tree had fallen on him while he was cutting it on Thursday.

ARRESTED: Mr Sanjeev Kalra, SSP, Hoshiarpur, said in a press note here on Thursday that Harbhajan Kaur, alias Bhajno, had been arrested in connection with the alleged murder of her husband Satpal in alliance with her alleged paramour Ashwini Kumar.

KHAMANO
TRIPLETS BORN: A woman belonging to Manderan village, Bhakro Kaur, gave birth to three baby girls, of which only one has survived. She had one girl child earlier, too.

DEMAND: Residents have demanded early repair and widening of the bridge situated on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway, a portion of which was broken on June 13. Every day thousands of vehicles pass through the bridge and any delay in the repair can result in a mishap.

CHARGE TAKEN: Mr Balwinder Singh assumed charge as Naib Tehsildar of Khamano on Friday. He has been transferred from Majri in Kurali block. Mr Karamjit Singh, the outgoing Naib Tehsildar, is still waiting for his new posting.

DHARNA LIFTED: A dharna against the Nagar Panchayat, Khamano, against removal of kiosks belonging to Dalits ended on Thursday after the Nagar Panchayat Administration and demonstrators reached an accord. According to the accord, the demonstrators will be given land equal to that which was acquired by the Nagar Panchayat, near their houses. The compensation will be given to those who suffered losses. The dharna was going on since June 15. After the acceptance of its demands, the action committee held a rally under the command of Ms Bhinder Singh Ranwan, Babu Gurdial Singh Amrala, Master Sukhdev Singh and other leaders.

KHARAR
BYELECTIONS: Mr Rajbir Singh Padiala, vice-president of the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal, has demanded that the byelection to the post of sarpanch of the largest village of Kharar tehsil, Gharuan, should be held immediately. According to a press note issued here on Friday, Mr Padiala has written that the sarpanch of the Gharuan village has died long ago and according to policy of the Punjab Government, the byelection to any vacancy should be held every year in June and December. He said the villagers were facing a lot of problems as there was no sarpanch and the development work has come to standstill.

LUDHIANA
NOMINATED: Sirjan Sodhi, a student of Class X of Sacred Heart Convent School has been nominated as the 2001 World Champion Amateur Poet and invited to read her poetry at the most prestigious gathering of poets of first class. She will be inducted as an International Poet of Merit and honoured member of the International Society of Poets. Her induction will take place on August 17 in Washington, D.C. during the 2001 International Society of Poets Summer Convention and Symposium.

MEDICAL CAMP: To celebrate the 117th birth anniversary of Master Tara Singh, the management of Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Guru Arjan Dev Nagar, Khudd Mohalla Chowk, will organise a free medical camp on the gurdwara premises. According to a press note, the camp will be inaugurated by Bibi Kiranjit Kaur, granddaughter of Master Tara Singh. The function will be presided over by Mr Gurdev Badal, Agriculture Minister, Punjab, Ms Mohinder Kaur Josh, State Health Minister, will be the guest of honour on the occasion. Patients will be examined for all common diseases by a team of eminent doctors. Free medicines will be given to the patients. All tests will be conducted free of cost.

HEPATITIS-B VACCINATION: The Jyoti Kendra Charitable General Hospital, Main Road, Kitchlu Nagar, will organise its 3rd hepatitis-B vaccination camp on the hospital premises on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The vaccine will be administered under the supervision of doctors of Jyoti Kendra.

RELIEF REJECTED: The Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) has rejected Rs 100-crore relief package being distributed among farmers for distress sale of paddy last year. Mr Gurdeep Singh Deep, district president, SHSAD, in a statement alleged that despite the Chief Minister’s promise of a Rs 350-crore compensation, only Rs 100 crore was being paid, and that too, on certain conditions.

MOGA
THREE KILLED: Two persons were killed when their scooter collided head-on with a truck near the Bughpura crossing, 4 km from here, on Wednesday. In another accident, a scooterist was killed when his scooter collided with a truck near Smalsar village in the district. A cyclist was run over and killed by a truck on the Moga-Amritsar road. Cases have been registered.

PATHANKOT
WORLD BANK AID: Mr Kulbir Singh Sidhi, Deputy Commissioner, in a press note issued on Thursday said Gurdaspur district had been chosen for the World Bank-aided agricultural technology project. He further said a compensation of Rs 14.38 crore would be distributed among the farmers who were forced to sell their paddy between September 21 and October 14 last year.

CIVIL AIRPORT: The foundation stone of the civil airport here will be laid on Friday as stated by Mr Sat Pal Saini, Minister for Information and Technology, on Thursday at a press conference at the PWD rest house. He said Mr Vinod Khanna, MP, had announced a grant of Rs 20 lakh for the maintenance of tubewells of the Sujanpur constituency.

PHAGWARA
STOLEN: Valuables worth Rs 50,000 were stolen from the house of a businessman at the local Harkrishan Nagar on Wednesday. The police has registered a case.

PHILLAUR
ARRESTED: A team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence arrested two smugglers near Paragpur octroi on the GT road and seized 3.4 kg of heroin from them on Thursday evening, said the police. The suspects, Ramesh Kumar and Sham Sunder, were produced before the Judicial Magistrate and sent in judicial custody. The price of the seized drug was estimated at Rs 4 crore in the market, the police said.

ROBBERY: Three unidentified robbers carried away a Tata Indica car near the Phillaur bus stand on Thursday night. The police said the robbers signalled a trader, Suraj Mani, for help and as soon as he stepped out of his car to talk to them, they sped away in his new car, leaving behind their Maruti car which also seemed to have been stolen. The police is investigating.

CHANDIGARH

TRIP FOR KIDS: The Society for Social Health, Chjandigarh, in collaboration with the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board, has organised a seven-day educational-cum-recreational tour to Shimla for girl students from slums and colonies of Chandigarh. The tour will be flagged off by Ms Kamla Sharma, Chairperson, Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board, at Sector 17 on Saturday. Dr Nareshanand, Director, Society for Social Health, said the tour would be an exposure for learning combined with recreation for the participants who could not get a chance to go out earlier.

HARYANA

AMBALA
DEAD: A man died after an altercation in Matheri Sekhon village on Friday morning. Sucha Singh died, reportedly due to the injuries sustained during an altercation. Apparently, Sucha Singh’s wife had objected to a group of persons dumping soil next to their field. The group of men did not heed her plea. On Thursday night, when Sucha Singh was returning home, he had to cross a small bridge. The group of men refused him access to the bridge on some pretext. That led to an altercation between both the parties. He was later taken to the Chor Mastpur Health Centre where succumbed to his injuries.

TRAINING CAMP: A state-level training camp of Rationalist Society, Haryana, started today in Narwana. Treasurer of the Rationalist Society Gurmeet Singh, said the training camp will be held till June 26. “A number of members from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh are attending the training camp,” he said. Among others, Mr Megh Raj Mittar, Mr Raja Ram, Mr Baljit Singh, Mr Gurmeet Singh, Mr Balwant Singh and Mr Rajendra Bhadaur will address the members.

ELECTRICITY METERS: The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has launched a programme of installation of meters on unmetered tubewells in the district. Mr D.D. Gautam, Deputy Commissioner, said here on Friday that the installation of these meters were being carried out on the direction of the Electricity Regulatory Commission. He clarified that the installation of meters on the tubewells would have no bearing on the billing of the flat rate tubewell consumers and they would continue to get their electricity bills as per the existing flat rate. The meters would be read only once or twice in a year for the purpose of accounting of electricity being supplied to the agriculture sector.

RAPE ALLEGED: A middle-aged widow of Mahesh Nagar area of Ambala Cantonment, in a complaint submitted to the local MLA, here on Friday, has alleged that a constable of a local police station raped her. The local MLA, Mr Anil Vij, said he had received a complaint from the widow. In this regard, he had asked the local SHO to inquire into the matter and take action against the guilty. He said that he had also brought the matter to the notice of the Superintendent of Police, Ambala. Mr Vij told that in the complaint the widow had alleged that on the intervening night of 16-17 June two constables came to his house and took her brother-in-law in custody. She went to police station to make a request to release her brother-in-law. She alleged in her letter that next day when she went to police station to lodge a report, the munshi present their refused to register any case in this regard. Mr Vij said that the SHO of the concerned police station informed him that he was not aware of the incident. However, he assured that he would inquire into the matter and if those found guilty would not be spared.

SIRSA
TRANSFORMER SCHEME: The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has introduced a scheme of dedicated transformer for agricultural consumers. They can have an independent transformer by paying the actual expenditure to be incurred on extension of high-tension transmission lines subject to minimum of Rs 10,000, but should not be a defaulter on agriculture, domestic or any other category of power dues. The scheme is open up to June 30.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Hindu Vidya Sabha and Dharmarth Samiti: president — Mr Gian Parkash Aggarwal; vice-president — Mr Siri Bhagwan; general secretary — Mr Naresh Bansal; and treasurer — Mr Pawan Mittal.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
AGITATION: The district unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in a meeting on Thursday decided to launch an agitation to force HP University, the government and the local college authorities to accept the long-pending demands of the students. The meeting decided to launch an agitation in the shape of rallies, dharnas, indefinite fast and the boycott of classes.

KULU
WELFARE CAMP: A two-day health and family welfare camp was organised by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force under the guidance of Mr A.C.Chobe, Director General, ITBP, at Bokhali village early this week. This was stated in a press note released by the Commandant of the 25 Batallion of the ITBPF here on Thursday.