R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
‘RUN FOR RUN’: More than 300 children of Amritsar Cantonment on Sunday participated in a run called “run for run” which is organised to celebrate the national integration and communal harmony week here. The run was flagged off by Ms Sudha Sammatary, president, AWWA.

HOSHIARPUR
SUCCUMBS TO BURN INJURIES: Bimla Rani, wife of Surinder Singh of Sataur, succumbed to burn injuries at the local Civil Hospital on Sunday night. Bimla was seriously burnt when her clothes caught fire while preparing tea on the stove at her residence.

TRAVEL AGENT HELD: The Hajipur police arrested a travel agent Mohan Singh of Mukkowal on Sunday for making false attestation of passport forms. A case has been registered against him.

CYCLIST DEAD: Sarwan Singh of Mehraj Ganj working in a private factory succumbed to his injuries at the PGI, Chandigarh, on Sunday evening. He was seriously injured when a vehicle hit his cycle at the Jalandhar road on Saturday.

JAGRAON
MEETING: The Kirti Kisan Union, the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta), the Kul Hind Kirti Kisan Sabha, the Punjab Kisan Sabha, the Kisan Vikas Sabha, the Punjab Kisan Sabha and the Kisan vikas Jamhoor Kisan Sabha at state-level meeting held here under the presidentship of Hardev Singh Sandhu. They adopted a resolution not to pay the electricity bills to the government till the state government does not exempt the weaker section of farmers from the payment of the loans. They also blamed the government for its anti-farmer policies and for the non-payment of outstanding dues of the sugarcane growers for the last few years. They blamed the Punjab State Electricity Staff for its wrong policies and also for withdrawing the concessions being enjoyed by the people of the state. The union has given a call for holding state-level protest rallies on December at head office of the Punjab State Electricity Board in Patiala.

LUDHIANA
CONDEMNED: The Indian Muslim Council has condemned the attack on the Jammu’s Raghunath Temple in which 12 people were killed by terrorists on Sunday. In a statement here on Monday, Mr Atiq -ur -Rehman, president of the council, said the attack on religious places was unfortunate. Islam does not allow the killing of innocent persons. The perpetrators just want to create enmity between the Hindus and Muslims for their narrow gains, he added. He has demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for family of those killed in the attack. 

AWARDED: The Krishak Bharti Cooperative Limited (Kribhco) and the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) honoured six prominent co-operators for their pioneering work in promoting the cooperative movement as a catalyst for national development. According to information provided by the Kribhco area office here, in a function, jointly organised by the fertiliser giants in New Delhi, Kribhco conferred ‘Sahakarita Shiromani’ and ‘Sahakarita Shree’ awards upon Mr H. Hanumappa, an eminent cooperator and social activist from Karnataka and Mr Bapu Singh Mandloi, a noted activist of the cooperative movement from Madhya Pradesh, for the year 2000-2001. Similarly, the IFFCO presented ‘Sahakarita Ratna’ award to Mr Raj Kumar Tripathi from UP and Mr Ram Niwas Mirdha from Rajasthan for the year 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, respectively. The ‘Sahakarita Bandhu’ awards for these two years went to Mr Amrutbhai Naik from Gujrat and Mr M.C. Nanaiah from Karnataka.

LUCKY DRAW: The Rikhi Ram Nand Lal Self Service Departmental Store in Haibowal locality organised a lucky draw for their ‘festival dhamaka’ offer at a function which had Mr Prem Mittal, senior deputy mayor, as the chief guest. The first prize of Hero Honda motor cycle was won by Ms Krishna of Kitchlu Nagar while the second and third prizes of Samsung colour TV and Automatic Washing Machine went to Mr Narinder Jain and Mr Jasbir Singh of Rishi Nagar. More than 130 other prizes were presented at the function. Mr Hem Raj Aggarwal and Ms Amarjit Kaur, both councillors, were also present at the function.

JAGRAN: The Raghunath Sewa Dal organised a jagran at Raghunath temple in Aggar Nagar on Saturday night. People came in large numbers to witness the huge cave and a fabulous bhavan of Mata Vaishno Devi erected especially for the jagran. Mr Bhushan Garg performed the flag-hoisting ceremony, while Ms Raj Rani lit the holy flame. Prominent among those who attended the function were Mr Deepak Singla, chairman of the sewa dal, Mr Satish Gupta, Mr Krishan Gopal Bansal, Mr Rameshwar Dass Gupta, Mr Krishan Nagpal, Mr Dinesh Goswami, Mr Nand Kishore Goswami, Mr Shiv Narain Gupta and Mr Sushil Maini.

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the temple managing committee of Neelkanth Mahadev Temple in Vadherian mohalla: patron — Mr Sham Kalia; chairman — Mr Rama Kalia; president — Mr Darshan Vadhera; chief advisor — Ms Arun Kalia; vice-president — Ms Premlata Rani; general secretary — Ms Sunita Chopra; secretary — Ms Seema Rani Chopra; joint secretaries — Mr Darshan Chopra and Pandit Shiv Kumar.

RELIGIOUS FUNCTION: The Darbar Vaishno Devi Swaran Mandir Trust would organise a Bhagwati jagran on Saturday near the Division No 3 police station, said a spokesman of the trust. Pandit Vishwamitter and party would sing bhajans on the occasion. The holy flame would be brought from Jwalaji in a special van. It would be showered with floral petals from an aeroplane while en route to the jagran site. A ‘preeti bhoj’ would also be served at 8 pm at the City Palace on the Chauri Sarak before the start of the jagran, he added.

DISCOURSE: On the second day of the Bhaktamar Anushthan on Monday , which is going on at Baba Gajja Jain Community Centre in Sunder Nagar, Muni Shri Vinay Kumar Alok said in his discourse that there were 363 different sects at the time of the Mahavira which kept on quarrelling and fighting. It was Lord Mahavira, who, by his philosophy of non-violence and by his expounded principle of Anekant point of view, was able to eradicate communal hatred.

PAU ALUMNUS AWARDED: PAU alumnus Varinder Singh Sembhi, has been awarded Innovation Potential of Students Projects Award by the Indian National Academy of Engineering for his M.Tech project on modifications and development of rotary tiller blade of rotavator using computer graphics. The award will be conferred on him on December 16, at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, and consists of a certificate, a medallion and Rs 10, 000. He carried out his research under the guidance of Prof D S Wadhwa, Agricultural Engineering, Department of the Farm Power and Machinery.

SEMINAR: Resurgence India organised a seminar on ‘Environmental Pollution and we’ at the Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women, Ludhiana, on Monday. Speaking on he occasion, Mr B.D. Kansal, a former professor of Soils, PAU, highlighted the damage caused to human, animal and plant health by different types of pollutants discharged into the environment by the residents, municipal authorities and the industrial units, especially dyeing and electroplating units. Dr M.K. Sahota, Principal of the college, expressed her deep concern over environment, social and cultural pollution. The teachers and students of the college expressed concern over the ever increasing menace of auto-rickshaws that are contributing significantly in raising the air pollution level by using adulterated fuel.

KISAN CARDS: Mr V.K. Bhandari, General Manager, Central Bank, distributed kisan cards worth Rs 1 crore to 64 beneficiaries on Monday. Mr S.C. Rara, Regional Manager of the Bank, was also present.

HARYANA

JIND
DEMONSTRATION: The district unit of the Haryana Union of Journalists (HUJ), members of the district unit of the Haryana Patarkar Sangh and members of several political and employees organisations led by Mr M.L. Varma, district president of the HUJ, took out a procession and held a demonstration here on Monday in protest against the murder of Mr Ramchander Chatterpati, a journalist from Sirsa.