R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

TWO KILLED: Inder Singh (55) and Rajinder Meghwal were crushed to death on Saturday by a vehicle on the Tibbi-Nohar road in Sriganganagar district while they were drinking water from a roadside handpump. A case has been registered under Sections 275 and 304A at Tibbi police station.

AMRITSAR
BANNED: The District Magistrate, Mr S.S.Puri, on Friday prohibited the sale to 106 medicines, which adversely affected health causing psychological and physiological dependence. He further prohibited the carrying or storage of these medicines without a valid licence. The banned medicines include pentazocine, alprazolam, diazepam, nitrazepam, oxazepam, buprenorphine etc.

RESCHEDULED: Guru Nanak Dev University, on Friday postponed the counselling dates to MCA/MBA courses to July 8 , 9 and 11. The counselling was earlier scheduled for July 4. Dr H.S. Sidhu, coordinator, MCA/MBA (FYIC)- 2002 informed that the counselling for the first 100 merit position holders under the general category and candidates under the reserved category would be held on July 8. Counselling for the first 300 merit positions under the general category, first 30 under the rural area category and all qualified candidates in other reserved categories for MCA (FYIC) at Jalandhar and Gurdaspur and MBA ( FYIC) here would be held on July 9 and the NRI category for MCA (FYIC) at Amritsar, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur and MBA (FYIC) here had been scheduled for July 11.

BATALA
URS FESTIVAL: The three-day annual Urs festival celebrated in the memory of Syed Nazar Mohayudin Sahib concluded here on Saturday at his darga at Mian Mohalla here. Nearly 1,000 devotees from Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir) reached here on Thursday to offer Namaz at the shrine.

BATHINDA
PATWARI HELD: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested Darshan Singh, a revenue patwari posted at Gehri Devi Nagar, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2000 from Jagmail Singh of Jodhpur Romana for getting his mutation sanctioned. The information was given by Mr Baljinder Singh Grewal, SP (Vigilance), in a press note issued on Saturday.

FARIDKOT
ROBBED: Two motorcycle-borne youths robbed Ashok Kumar, a pesticide dealer, of Rs 2 lakh on the Faridkot-Sadiq road here on Saturday. The miscreants stopped Ashok Kumar while he was coming on his scooter from Sadiq at about 8 p.m. and looted the amount after throwing chilly powder in his eyes. A complaint has been lodged with the local police.

ELECTED: Ms Surjit Kaur, wife of late Mahant Sewa Dass Singh, has been unanimously elected president of the All-India Akali Dal, Pheruman. Dr Jasbir Singh Chawla and Dr Gurmit Singh have been nominated general secretaries of the party. Dr Gurmit Singh has also been given the additional charge of the president of the Punjab state body.

HOSHIARPUR
ARRESTED: The Mahilpur police arrested Dilbag Singh of Bhoina and registered a case under Sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act on Thursday for being in possession of 135 kg of poppy husk. The police also arrested Kishan of Digruron and seized 1 kg opium from him.

THREE KILLED: In three separate incidents which occurred on Thursday, Mohinder Singh, Beldar, was crushed by a car near Shah Nehar Colony, Talwara. In another incident, Sunil of Mundian Jattan committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance. Meanwhile, body of a Sikh youth was found near powerhouse No 2 at Hajipur. The identity of the deceased has not been established.

JALANDHAR
WORKSHOP CONCLUDES: A four-day-long workshop on imparting special training pertaining to the functioning of courts to the ministerial staff of different courts of the district concluded at the Judicial Complex here on Saturday. As many as 105 employees of different courts of the Jalandhar Sessions Division participated. The information was given by the District and Sessions Judge, Mr MM Aggarwal, here.

KAPURTHALA
FLOOD PROTECTION: The Punjab Government has allocated Rs 55 lakh for flood protection measures in the district in the wake of the coming monsoon. In a press note issued here on Saturday, Mr Rakesh K. Verma, Deputy Commissioner, said the district administration had taken all steps for the prevention of floods.

STOLEN: Two motor cycle-borne youths allegedly stole Rs 1 lakh from the tool box of the scooter of Keemti Lal near the Shiv Mandir Chowk on Friday, the police said. The miscreants fled after committing the crime.

LUDHIANA
ELECTED: A meeting of the Mahrishi Bamiki Nagar C Block Welfare Association was held here on Sunday to elect various office-bearers. Mr M. L. Anand has been appointed chairman, while Mr R. K. Walia has been appointed president. Others include Mr Ramesh Sharma as general secretary, Mr Amrit Lal Jain as secretary and Mr V. K. Kakkar as financial secretary.

TAX EXEMPTION SOUGHT: The District Youth Congress president, Mr Parminder Mehta, has demanded exemption of entertainment tax on the patriotic movies. Addressing a function organised in memory of Bhagat Singh, he said, these films help in creating awareness about the life and times of the great heroes of the freedom movement and these should be exempted from the tax. 

PROTEST: The DMC Employees Union continued with its protest on Sunday and reiterated its demands. The union alleged that the management of the hospital was not serious to resolve the issue and resolved that they would continue with the agitation in a peaceful manner untill their demands are not met. These include merging the Hero DMC Heart Centre with the DMC Hospital, stopping contractual appointments and implementing the MoU signed some time back in letter and spirit.

CUSTOMER MEETS: The Punjab and Sind Bank has decided to organise customer meets in different branches to highlight the achievements of the bank over the next fortnight. The Divisional General Manager of the bank, Mr R.S. Chattwal, will attend to one such meet at Jodan village in Ludhiana district where he would interact with women self-help groups, besides others. The bank has registered a net profit of Rs 23.04 crore in the year ended March 31, 2002, with an operating profit pegged at Rs 163.70 crore, according to the Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, Mr N.S.Gujral, who was in the city on Friday.

CONDOLED: The Punjab Agricultural University authorities have condoled the demise of Dr Satwant Kaur Bhangu, Professor in the Department of Home Science Extension, who passed away on June 17. Lauding her role as a professor, her colleagues said she had spent 25 years spreading light in the rural areas among the uneducated masses. She had been contributing her write-ups for several magazines, newspapers and journals. Her father, Col C.S. Dhillon, was also present at the meeting.

PATHANKOT
FRUIT WAXING UNIT: The town will soon have a fruit waxing and fumigation plant for litchi and mango growers, which has been approved by the Punjab Government. This was disclosed here on Saturday by Mr Rajiv Mahajan, president of the Pathankot Fruit and Vegetable Society.

HARYANA

KURUKSHETRA
POSTPONED: Kurukshetra University has notified that entrance test for admission to B.Tech (Instrumentation) scheduled for June 30 has been postponed. The entrance test will now be held on July 1.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

KANGRA
BODY FOUND: The police recovered the body of Roop Lal, a resident of Jalladi on the banks of Jallian Khud near here on Friday. It has been sent for postmortem. A case under Section 364 of the IPC has been registered.