R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AHMEDGARH
MEETING: A meeting of the ITI Employees Association of PSEB was held at 66 KV grid on Wednesday, which was presided over by Mr Sadhu Singh, secretary of the state body. Mr Gurbachan Singh Mohali, division president, said the association resolved not to participate in strike on May 16.

ELECTED: Mr Ramesh Ghai, secretary, Beopar Mandal, Ahmedgarh, said Mr Pawan Sharma and Mr Binder had been elected as chairman and president, respectively, of the mandal. Mr Surinder Tayal and Mr Satish Jain had been elected as vice-president and general secretary, respectively.

AMLOH
Plea: A social worker and member of the gram panchayat of Anian village, Mr Baljit Singh Anian, has urged the Chief Minister to provide 24-hour power supply to the village for which the fee was deposited with the PSEB on June 25, 1997. He demanded probe for unnecessary delay.

GURDASPUR
RALLY HELD: Employees of the PSEB, under the aegis of Struggle Committee, held a rally at Nehru Park here on Thursday to impress upon the board to concede their demands. Later, they went to the office of the Superintending Engineer and presented a charter of demands.

HOSHIARPUR
SURPRISE VISIT: Mr Hans Raj Ganger, Director, Welfare, Punjab, paid a surprise visit to the creche centre at the local Rishi Nagar mohalla and the sewing centre at Shergarh village, 5 km from here, on Tuesday. Both these centres are being run by the Welfare Department, Punjab.

KHANNA
COPS SHIFTED: The SSP, Khanna, Mr Devinder Singh Garcha, has transferred four police officials in the Khanna police district. As per the order, Sub-Inspector Hari Mittar has been posted as in charge of the Doraha police chowki; ASI Lekh Raj has been posted at the Kot police chowki; Satwant Singh, in charge, Kot police chowki, has been sent to the Police Lines; and ASI Dharam Singh has been posted at the Doraha police station.

COMPLAINT: The sarpanch of Bhaini Sahib village, the Administrator of Gurdwara Bhaini Sahib and some panches of nearby villages have lodged a complaint with the General Manager, Telephones, Ludhiana circle, against the negligence of exchange staff of Bhaini Sahib. They demanded action against the erring employees and officers of the department. Copies of the complaint have been sent to the Union Minister of Telecommunication and the Chief General Manger, Telecom, Punjab and Chandigarh.

LUDHIANA
INAUGURATED: In order to cope up with the cut-throat competition in the market, the Liberty Group has decided to open 25 multi-complexes in Punjab. This was announced by Mr Sunil Bansal, Executive Director of the group, who was here on the occasion of opening of company’s outlet on Wednesday. The Chairman of the group, Mr P.D. Gupta, inaugurated it.

LAWYERS’ FORUM: Mr Pardeep K. Arora and Mr Tejinder Bhanot were elected as president and general secretary, respectively, of the Young Lawyers Welfare Forum, Ludhiana, at its meeting held here on Wednesday. The other office-bearers and executive committee members are: senior vice-president — Mr Jagdev Singh Virk; vice-president — Mr K. Harpal Singh; secretary — Mr Sanjay Moudgil; and finance secretary — Mr Ripon Chadha. The members of the executive committee are: Mr Tarvinderjeet Singh Jagi, Mr Surinder Kashyap, Mr Amandeep Bhanot, Mr Surinder Atoria, Mr Gurcharanjit Singh, Mr Satish Sharma, Mr Parminder Rattan, Mr Dalip Batish and Deepak Kumar Rana.

MALERKOTLA
SIX INJURED: Six persons were injured when a van collided with a truck at Bhogiwal village, 5 km from here, on Wednesday. A scooterist was also injured in the accident. The van, of Punjab and Sind Bank, was going from Ahmedgarh to Patiala. Six persons, including bank Manager Davinder Singh, gunmen Balwinder Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, clerk Amritpal Singh and driver Gurmail Singh, were injured in the accident. The scooterist has been identified as Rajwinder Singh son of Gulzar Singh of Malerkotla.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
FUNCTION: A meeting of the Punjab Adventure Club chaired by its state president, Mr Surmukh Singh, was held here on Wednesday and decided to organise its annual function on May 18 at Government Senior Secondary School, Machaki Mall Singh village, in Faridkot district. Students up to Class VII of 12 schools will be given uniforms along with shoes. Competitions will also be organised on the occasion.

NAWANSHAHR
BOOKS DISTRIBUTED: The local branch of Bank of Punjab organised a function at Government Senior Secondary School here and distributed books to 52 poor but meritorious students. Deputy Commissioner Ashok Gupta presided over the function. This was stated by Mr Narainjit Singh, Branch Manager, in a press note issued here on Thursday.

PATHANKOT
CAMPS: Rashtriya Chetna Parishad on Wednesday decided to organise drugs deaddiction camps at local schools and colleges with the consent of their managements. This was stated today by Mr Vashno Malhotra, president of the parishad.

HARYANA

AMBALA
SLAUGHTER HOUSES: The Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam, has said new slaughter houses will be constructed in Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment. According to him, the government has provided Rs 7.13 lakh as grant to the municipal councils for this purpose. He said on the direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, officials had been directed to construct a modern house and meat market. MC authorities had been asked to conduct surveys in their areas and to ensure that no illegal slaughtering was taking place there.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KANGRA
CULPRITS IDENTIFIED: The local police on Wednesday claimed to have identified the persons who committed a burglary at the Brajeshwari temple during the intervening night of April 28 and 29. The Kangra district police chief, Mr Sanjay Kundu, said the culprits had been identified as Vipin and Rocky, who were absconding. He said police parties had been rushed to Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur to arrest them.

ROAD CONSTRUCTION: The Agriculture Minister, Mr Vidya Sagar, on Wednesday announced that the road between Bhatti village and the Kangra temple would be constructed soon. He was addressing a public meeting following the inauguration of three rooms of the primary school building at Bhatti village. Earlier he inaugurated the 2.5-km road between Baba Sakot and Tarsu Bhatti, constructed at a cost of Rs 5 lakh.

CIVIL SURGEON: Dr S.P. Jagat has joined here as Civil Surgeon in place of Dr N.S. Suman, who has been transferred to ESI, Jalandhar.

KUMARHATTI
SUPPORT TO STIR: The Left parties have come down heavily on the state government for adopting a “dilly-dallying” approach to ending the agitation of cooperative societies workers throughout the state. In a statement jointly issued by Mr Gurdev Singh and Mr Daljeet Singh, district secretaries of the CPI and the CPM, respectively, the leaders supported the demand of workers to regularise them on the pattern of panchayat secretaries.

MANDI
LAUDED: Lama Chospel Zotpa, Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, on Wednesday lauded the role of the district administration for the effective implementation of the special component plan in the district during the last financial year. He was reviewing the progress of the plan.

NAHAN
NABARD SCHEMES: To develop infrastructure in rural areas of Sirmaur district, 20 schemes with the assistance of Nabard have been completed till March, on which Rs 11.40 crore have been spent. This was stated by Deputy Commissioner Onkar Chand Sharma at a meeting of district-level officers held here on Thursday.

SHIMLA
TEACHERS’ DEMANDS: The Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association (HPUTA) has taken serious notice of the “non-cooperative” attitude of the university authorities towards the long-pending demands of the teaching community. Prof V.D. Kaushik, president of HPUTA, said the 25-point demand charter of the association was submitted to the Vice-Chancellor about a month back but no action had been taken so far.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Himachal Pradesh Dalit (SC and ST) Gazetted and Non-Gazetted Joint Employees Welfare Association: president — Mr Ram Chand, senior vice-presidents — Mr Arjun Singh and Mr C.R. Negi; vice-presidents — Mr Chuni Lal and Ms Kamla Dhillon; general secretary — Mr P.R. Kashyap; and joint secretaries — Mr Neel Chand and Mr Ranbir Singh.

UPGRADATION SOUGHT: The local unit of the Trained Nurses Association of India has urged the government to upgrade the local school of nursing to a college of nursing as per the latter’s commitment. A deputation of the association met the Director, Health Services, here on Wednesday in this connection.