R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

IMPRISONED: Two dealers of insecticides have been sentenced to one-year’s rigorous imprisonment for maltreating three officials of the Agriculture Department The civil judge awarded rigorous imprisonment for one year under Sections 356 and 506 of the IPC to the two dealers — Suresh Satija and Vijay Golcha. It was alleged that the accused had prevented Mr Surjit Singh, Mr Sukhdev Singh and Mr Gurvinder Singh of the Agriculture Department from taking samples of insecticides on August 25, 1998.

AMRITSAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been appointed office-bearers of the Punjab Civil Medical Services Officers Association: patron — Dr Jagjit Kaur (civil surgeon); president — Dr Harjap Singh Mahl; senior vice-presidents — Dr G.K. Uppal, Dr Kanwaljit Singh, Dr Sant Parkash Singh Dhillon; vice-presidents — Dr Harjit Bharti, Dr Harwant Singh Gill, Dr Surinder Singh Bedi and general secretary — Dr Lakhbir Singh.

BALACHAUR
KILLED: Four persons were killed and seven others injured when a school van collided with a scooter on the Balachaur-Garhshankar road near Rurki Kalan village on Monday. The deceased have been identified as Kamlesh Kumari of Pojewal village, Jaswinder Singh and Balkar Singh of Rurki Mughlan village and Jagdeep Singh of Dansiwal village. A case has been registered against the driver of the school van.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Sirhind unit of the Bharat Vikas Parishad: president — Mr Sanjeev Sharma; senior vice-president — Mr Ashok Batra; vice-president — Mr Vaneet Sharma; secretaries — Mr Puran Sehgal; joint secretary — Mr Anil Sood; cashier —Mr Sham Lal Gupta; and joint cashier — Mr Sumeet Modi. 

KHAMANO
EYE OPERATION CAMP: The Bharat Vikas Parishad will organise a free eye operation camp at the local Civil Hospital from Friday to Saturday. Free eye testing and operations will be performed at the camp. Eye operations will be performed by Dr Naresh Chauhan, according to a press note released by the parishad president Sunil Gupta.

ASSEMBLY POLL: Mr Amarjit Sohal, president of the local block congress committee, has expressed a hope that the Congress will win the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Assembly elections with full majority, including the assembly seats of Samrala segment. He was talking to mediapersons here. He said the party would try to fulfill the promises made to the people. 

LUDHIANA
PAU TO SIGN MOU: Punjab Agricultural University will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BJS Electronics Inc, USA, for technical collaboration relating to man and material development. The MoU will be signed by the PAU Vice-Chancellor, Dr K.S. Aulakh, on behalf of the university and Mr Jaswinder Singh Saini on behalf of BJS Electronics Inc, USA, on Wednesday. Mr Jaswinder Singh Saini, a graduate of the College of Agricultural Engineering of Punjab Agricultural University, migrated to the USA after his studies and by dints of his qualities and hard work was able to establish BJS Electronics as one of the topmost companies of the USA in this field. 

MOGA
ROAD ACCIDENTS: Two persons died on the spot while four others were injured, two of them seriously, in two accidents near here on Monday. According to reports, one of the passengers was killed when the three-wheeler in which he was travelling collided head-on with a truck, about 10 km from here on the Moga-Zira road. In another incident, a resident of Gill village in the district, was killed when his scooter skidded near the Phulewala canal bridge, 24 km from here.

PATHANKOT
RELAY FAST: The relay fast by workers of Ranjit Sagar Dam entered into 64 th day on Monday. The RSD workers union had threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike commencing from February 25 in protest against the RSD Management. Mr Harinder Singh Randhawa, general secretary of the union, said the demands of the workers included 25 units of free power to each employees, jobs to family members who had died in accidents at the dam site, execution of work on the Shahpur Kandi barrage project among others. He further said the management had failed to implement the package announced by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee during his visit to the dam site on March 4, 2001.

ROPAR
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local unit of the Bharat Vikas Parishad: president — Mr Raj Kumar Kapoor; senior vice-president — Mr Hement Kalra; vice-president—Mr Dev Raj; secretary — Mr Sudhir Gulati and cashier — Mr Ashwani Dharan.

SANGRUR
INAUGURATION: Mr Sarbjeet Singh, DGP, will visit the town on Wednesday to inaugurate a police martyrs’ memorial stadium built at the local police lines here. Giving this information here on Monday, Mr Mandip Singh Sidhu, SP (Headquarters), said DGP would also inaugurate a police martyrs’ memorial gate at Gajjan Majra village near Malerkotla.

TARN TARAN
ARRESTED: The Verowal police has arrested Palo, along with her lover, Nishan Singh, for allegedly murdering her husband, Taran Singh, five months ago. A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered against the accused on Sunday, the police sources said on Monday.

CASE REGISTERED: Following a complaint lodged by Harbans Kaur, a case has been registered against her relatives Sajjan Singh, Bholi and Sawan Kaur for allegedly defrauding her, the police sources said on Monday. Four members of Harbans Kaur’s family were shot dead by militants in 1989 in Rataul village, 8 km from here. The accused after producing fake certificates withdrew huge amount as compensation from the facility to be given to the victims of militancy in Punjab.

HARYANA

BHIWANI
SENTENCED: The court has sentenced 18 persons to one-year’s imprisonment in a power cable theft case and fined them Rs 500 each. The accused have been undergoing one-year imprisonment. The matter of wire stolen from near Dinod and Bapora villages had come to light in 1996 and 30 persons were booked. However, two of them died in the meantime. Meanwhile, two persons were sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment for looting railway passengers two years ago.

CHALLENGE: The Bhiwani depot of Haryana Roadways has decided to challenge the decision of the court at Ambala wherein the roadways has been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 21 lakh in an accident case which occurred near Ambala a year ago. The court passed the order on February 14 to impound three buses of the depot if it failed to pay the fine. The General Manager of the depot, Mr Yogesh Chand Bhardwaj, said the orders would be challenged in the high court.

LOOTED: Three motorcycle-borne miscreants have looted a hefty sum from two employees of the HVPN at gunpoint near Jaimalpura village. According to reports, Rajpal and Mahabir, both HVPN employees, were going to deposit a sum of Rs 1 lakh from Baliali powerhouse to Tosham subdivisional office on a scooter when they were stopped by three youths who looted them.

NEGOTIATIONS: The second round of tripartite negotiations regarding Khanak settlement were held between the administration, mazdoors and representatives of crusher owner on Monday at Tosham. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Harpal Singh, said the meeting was held in a congenial atmosphere.

PANIPAT
WATER SUPPLY: The Public Health Department has launched a special drive to augment water supply in as many as 102 villages of the district. According to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M.R. Anand, the work of augmentation had been in progress in 40 villages which would be completed up to April this year.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

SOLAN
WLL INAUGURATED: Mr Sapan Kumar Bose, General Manager, Solan Telecom District, inaugurated BSNL’s Wireless Local Loop (WLL) based fixed and mobile telephone services here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, he said the BSNL had set up two towers at Kasauli and Chail which would enable WLL cellular telephone users to reach out to a vast area lying between Shimla, Manimajra, parts of Chandigarh, Rajgarh and Nalagarh-Baddi belt.