R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMLOH
WELCOME: A divisional convention of the Technical Services Union of the Punjab State Electricity Board welcomed the decision taken at a meeting between the struggle committee of the JE council and the PSEB on July 7. The employees of Tohra, Bhadson, Shamashpur and Amloh sub-divisions participated in the convention held in Ram Bhavan at Amloh, the proceeding of which was released to the press by Mr Jangir Singh, secretary of the union, here on Tuesday. It was informed at the convention that the management had accepted the long-standing demands of the union not to hand over the PSEB in private hands. The union had been agitating for the last 18 months against the privatisation.

AMRITSAR
SOUVENIR: A souvenir named “Panj Pani”, dedicated to the relationship of India and Pakistan, was released by Dr SP Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, and Mr Jagdev Singh Jassowal, former MLA and Chairman of the Vishav Punjabi Sabhiacharak Foundation, here on Wednesday. The souvenir published by the Folklore Research Academy has writings of famous intellectuals and political personalities, including Kuldip Nayyar, Khushwant Singh, novelist Ajit Kaur and Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

FARIDKOT
DIRECTIVE: Mr Hussan lal, District Magistrate-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot, has directed inhabitants of other states to get their names and addresses registered with respective police stations before settling down in any part of the district. In a press note here on Wednesday, he also issued similar orders to the inhabitants and the business community of different sections in the area not to give any shelter to the outsiders across the state without proper verification.

LOAN: The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) plans to disburse a loan of Rs 42 lakh among 140 beneficiaries under various self-employment schemes by advancing it through banks to rehabilitate them in the district. A loan of Rs 4.7 lakh had already been granted to 44 beneficiaries in this regard. In addition to it, a loan of Rs 1.44 lakh with a subsidy of Rs 80,000 had also been delivered to eight handicapped during a camp organised by the District Red Cross Society here last month, said Mr Hussan Lal, Deputy Commissioner and chairman DRDA here on Wednesday.

LUDHIANA
PENSIONERS’ GRIEVANCES: To give a hearing to the grievances of the Punjab Government pensioners, Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, has promised to hold a meeting with their representatives soon at Chandigarh. For this purpose, he has asked Mr Surinder Dawar, MLA, Ludhiana East, to get confirmation of the proposed meeting. Mr B.R. Kaushal, state president, Punjab State Pensioners Confederation, had met the Chief Minister after the function of state-level 54th vanamahotsava held at Ludhiana on Tuesday. Mr Kaushal said the pensioners wanted to remind the ruling party about the promises made to them in its poll manifesto. 

MEETING: A meeting of the Association of Affiliated Schools, Punjab, was held at Everest Public Senior Secondary School, Moti Nagar, here on Tuesday. The meeting was presided over by Mr Rajinder Sharma, president of the association, and had delegates from Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Moga, Nawanshahr, Ferozepore and Sangrur. The members discussed various steps to be taken by it to solve the problems being faced by the schools. Various speakers unanimously stressed upon the authority of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) to give a fair consideration to the genuine demands of the schools and not to take them casually. Regarding the board’s directive to start Class X and Class XII classes in separate wings, it was said it was not possible to purchase it at such exorbitant rates. Moreover, it was very difficult to manage the schools from two different places.

MEDICAL CAMP: A free homoeopathic check-up camp will be organised by the Advanced Scientific Homoeopathic Association (ASHA) on Sunday at Charanjilal Charitable Homeopathic Dispensary in Model Town here. Dr Vipan Gupta, secretary of the ASHA, said medicines would be given free of cost.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
FLAYED: Mr Sohan Lal Dhariwal, Director, Natak Kala Sangam, Mandi Gobindgarh, has flayed the state government for not providing revenue stamps in the post offices for the last many months. Scheduled Caste students need revenue stamps which are to be affixed on the receipt of their scholarships, besides other cash receipts. The revenue stamps are sold in the courts. A revenue stamp worth Re 1 is sold at the rate of Rs 5. The government should immediately provide revenue stamps in the post offices, he said.

MALERKOTLA
INJURED: Three persons were injured seriously when their car collided with a tempo at Naudhrani village, near here, on Wednesday. According to information, Gurjeevan Singh, Baljinder Singh and Parkash Kumar were coming here in their Maruti car when a tempo hit them.

CAMP: A homoeopathic medical camp was organised at Bagrian village, near here, on Wednesday. In this camp, about 400 patients were examined.

PATIALA
WORKSHOP: The State Bank of Patiala in collaboration with the state language department, organised a two-day workshop for the employees of Patiala, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Chandigarh zone. The General Manager of the bank, Mr Pardeep Shankar, was the chief guest at the function. During the two-day-long workshop the Chief Manager (official language), Mr M.S. Jaggi, guest lecturer, Mr Kalbhushan Kalra, Language Officer, Mr Subhash Dhamija, and Deputy Manager Hardev Yadav took various session on different aspects of Hindi language implementation in the banks daily routine.

JANAMASHTMI CELEBRATION: Janamashtmi was celebration in SDSE Senior Secondary School in collaboration with the Shri Sanatan Dharam Sabha here on Thursday. The students enacted various scenes from the life of Lord Krishna, including his birth, childhood and Raas Lila with gopis.

SAPLINGS PLANTED: Over 100 saplings were planted on Wednesday at Kaka Singh Enclave on the occasion of Janamashtmi. The PRTC Chairman, Mr Ved Parkash Gupta, Director, Language Department, Mr Madan Lal Haseja, were the chief guests at the function.

HARYANA

AMBALA
HEARING ADJOURNED: The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr BM Bedi, has adjourned the hearing in the case of senior IAS officer Ajit Mohan Sharan till September 4. Sharan was arrested by the vigilance bureau on June 25 in the multi-crore Haryana Financial Corporation loan scam. The bureau had also arrested a former Executive Director of HFC, U S Cheddar and three others in this regard. Meanwhile, one of the beneficiaries Sukhdev Singh has filed an application in this court in which his counsel Davender Bansal has requested the court to direct the Superintendent of Central Jail to provide medical treatment to Sukhdev or to refer him to the Civil Hospital, Ambala, or to some other medical institute since he had been suffering from heart trouble. Mr Bansal said in the application that the jail authorities had not provided any medical aid to his client who had been lodged in Ambala jail since July 26.

FAKE CURRENCY: A local court has remanded Subhash and Bharat Bhushan to two days police custody here on Thursday. The two were arrested by the Baldev Nagar police on Wednesday while they were trying to circulate a fake currency note of Rs 1000. The police had recovered the fake currency worth Rs 34,000 from their possession. According to the police the suspects had disclosed to the police during interrogation that one of their gang member had gone to Kathmandu a few months back and had managed to get fake currency worth Rs 2 lakh by paying a small amount from there.

KHULA DARBAR: SA Jain (PG) College, Ambala City, organised khula darbar for the students for better interaction of the college administration with students. The College Principal, Dr C.L. Singla, presided over the meeting. He said the khula darbar was organised every year to know the problems of the students and to invite suggestions from them. An extension lecture on ‘Re emerging trends of IT’ was conducted by the computer society of the college. Mr J.S. Gupta, DGM (retd), SBI, was the chief guest.

KAITHAL
DRIVE: The district police in a special campaign launched against bootleggers and manufacturers of illicit liquor unearthed six working stills and seized lahan and illicit liquor in raids conducted at Khurana and Balu villages during the past 24 hours, Mr Yogender Nehra, SP, said on Wednesday.

CONDEMNED: The HSMITC Employees Union (Kaithal unit) has condemned the decision to postpone the proposed Haryana Employees Joint Action Committee rally scheduled to be held on August 24 at Rohtak.