R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
FOUR HELD : The police on Friday raided Rani Jhansi Market after reports that lottery ticket sellers indulged in Satta there. Four persons identified as Jagdev Singh, a former head constable of Rajasthan police, Sunil son of Babu Ram, Sunil son of Om Parkash and Bittu were arrested under the Gambling Act.

Amritsar
FARE HIKE OPPOSED: Ms Laxmi Kanta Chawla, State vice-president of the BJP on Friday opposed the move of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation to increase bus fare by six paise per kilometre.

ADMISSION RACKET: Mr Satya Pal Dang, senior CPI leader demanded a CBI probe into the Guru Nanak Dev University’s admission racket where Rakesh Kumar of Chheharta allegedly paid Rs 2.75 lakh to secure admission in MCA course of the varsity.

Barnala
7 HELD : The police arrested seven persons under the NDPS, Gambling and Excise Acts and recovered Rs 43567 and 17 kg of poppy husk from them. Three were identified as Major Singh, Kamlesh Kumar and Vinod Kumar. Also Gurmit Singh and Harjit Kaur were arrested and 17 kg of poppy husk was recovered from them.

Batala
CHRISTMAS CELEBRATED: Christmas was celebrated on Wednesday in almost all churches here. A big function was held at Girja Ghar Church on City Road, where Christians from all walks of life participated. Christmas was also celebrated at the Church of Salvation Army near Railway Crossing, Dera Road, here and churches of Methodist School and Baring Union Christian College.

Ferozepore
POOR GIVEN WOOLLENS : The Organisation for Children’s Education and Development — an NGO — organised a function at Government School for Boys, Mamdot, where nearly 500 poor students from 30 government primary schools of the border segment were given woollen pullovers, shoes and school books free of cost.

Hoshiarpur
ARRESTED: The police here arrested Julfi, son of Pritam Chand of Kotli village, Dharamsala (Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh) under Section 459 and 460 of the IPC. He was involved in a looting incident at Dhamiala village on July 24, 2003. In this incident Julfi along with his accomplices, allegedly killed sewadar Parkash Ram and injured some other persons of a dera.

CABLE OPERATORS: The following were elected office-bearers of the Punjab Cable Operators Welfare Association on Wednesday: president — Mr Harbhajan Singh (Hoshiarpur); senior vice-president — Mr Rakesh Chopra (Kapurthala); vice-presidents — Mr Mohinder Pal Singh (Amritsar), Mr Sarabjit Singh (Ludhiana) and Mr Romesh Verma (Jalandhar); general secretary — Mr Harminder Singh Basra (Phagwara); and joint secretary — Mr Simranjit Singh Walia (Batala).

Jalandhar
MC MEETING: The meeting of the Municipal Corporation will now be held on December 29. It was earlier postponed on December 18.

LUDHIANA
FUNCTION: Before the people were entertained by local artistes at a cultural programme ‘Jee Aayen Nu’, Mr Sham Sunder Juneja, a traffic missionary, explained the rules of traffic explicitly through a coloured slide show at a function organised by the State Transport Advisory Committee at Punjabi Bhavan here on Saturday. A seminar was also held on ‘Sadak suraksha jeewan raksha'. The SP (Traffic), Mr Gursharan Singh, also explained that observance of rules and regulations in traffic could save a lot of lives. The cultural programme comprising typical Punjabi culture kept the audience glued to their seats. A poster exhibition displaying the causes of accidents was also put up.

MEDICAL CAMP: A free medical check-up camp was organised here on Saturday at Shri Krishna Mandir, Krishna Nagar, by Dr Ashok Puri, president, Lions Club, Ludhiana, in collaboration with the Shri Krishna Mandir Sabha. The camp was organised keeping in view the ever-increasing incidence of various diseases and high cost of health services becoming out of reach of vast majority of the people. Hundreds of patients were examined for various diseases and medicines were distributed free of cost.

KAVI DARBAR: The Shaheed Udham Singh Memorial Trust celebrated birth anniversary of Shaheed Udham Singh by organising a ‘kavi darbar’ at Gujjranwala Guru Nanak Khalsa College here. Well known poets like Dr Surjit Pattar, Gurbhajan Gill participated in the darbar. The general secretary of the trust, Dr Jaswant Singh Chamak, highlighted contribution of Udham Singh to the freedom struggle. The chief guest of the function, Prof Gurdip Singh, Principal of the college, said, “Udham Singh during his life time gave the message of secularism.”

Samana
BEST CITIZEN: Principal of DAV Public Senior Secondary School, Kakrala, Mohan Lal Sharma has been given “Outstanding Educationist Award and Best Citizen of India Award-2003” by International Education and Management Institute and International Publishing House, New Delhi.

CHANDIGARH

WORKING COMMITTEE: The following have been elected office-bearers of the working committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Industrial Cell): vice-presidents — Mr Shiv Dutt Goyal, Mr Sriniwas Bansal, Mr Subhash Goyal, Mr Pawan Aggarwal and Mr Sanjiv Garg; general secretary — Mr Yudhvir Singh Kaura; finance secretary — Mr Yash Pal Sharma; joint secretary — Mr Bharat Gupta; and office secretary — Mr Sanjeev Sagar.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BLANKETS DISTRIBUTED: Punjab National Bank, Ambala, Sadar branch, on Saturday distributed blankets to the needy at the bus stand and railway station. PNB Assistant General Manager Jatinder Kapil, said the bank was consistently playing a social role.

Kaithal
RS 1 LAKH DONATED: Haryana Transport Minister Ashok Arora, at a function of Chaudhary Ishwar Singh Kanya Mahavidyalaya Dhand near here on Thursday donated Rs one lakh to the college and also released the first instalment of Rs 10 lakh for the completion of the local bus stand. Students presented a cultural programme on the occasion.

BRIBERY CASE: The police has booked Raghbir Singh, an assistant of the District Employment Office here under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mr Raghbir Singh took Rs 60,000 allegedly for arranging a job for a person.

POWER DISCONNECTED: The HVPN reportedly disconnected power supply of 130 consumers for non-payment of power bills.

ANNUAL FUNCTION: The prize distribution function of  Indira Gandhi Public School was held here on Thursday. Mr Anurag Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner. Ms Kala Narang, school  Principal, read the annual  report. Students presented a number of cultural items on this occasion.

Yamunanagar
LOK MANCH: A special Lok Manch programme was held at Alahar village 20 km from here, on Wednesday. It was organised by the Public Relations department with the help of the district administration in the village where Mr Banta Ram Chairman, Sugarfed, Haryana, and the Deputy Commissioner listened to the grievances of over 300 persons.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Dharamsala
AWARENESS CAMPS: The Kangra district Consumer Forum will organise awareness camps in the district to educate consumers about their rights in the rural and semi-urban areas under the Consumer Protection Act 1986.

Mandi
POLIO BOOTHS: The District Commissioner, Mr A.L. Rizvi, said here on Friday that 1103 booths had been set up in the district for administering polio drops to the children on January 4. Mr Rizvi said the task would be accomplished through a network of 4,412 health workers and 221 supervisors.

CHARAS SEIZED: A sadhu, who was concealing 1 kg charas, was arrested from a bus by the CIA wing of the Himachal Pradesh police at Khotinala, about 23 km from here on the Mandi-Kulu stretch on Friday. Mr Sunil Kumar, ASP, said the private bus was stopped and searched. The contraband was recovered from the possession of Anand Giri of Benaras Ghat in Uttar Pradesh. He was arrested and case registered against him under the NDPS Act.

CRITICISED: Mr D.D. Thakur, Congress leader and former MLA criticised the public relations Department to providing public address system to HVC chief Mr Sukh Ram at a public meeting in Kotli on Thursday. The District Public Relations Officer said it was a petty matter.

Nahan
MURDER ALLEGED: Sant Lal of Bhagerna village under Rajgarh Sub-division was allegedly murdered complained Mrs Swaroopna Devi, wife of the deceased on Thursday. Four persons of her village are named in the complaint.

INAUGURATED: Himachal Vidhan Sabha Speaker G.R. Mussafir on Friday inaugurated a building of primary school, Dilman in Pachhad constituency of Sirmaur district. He also directed the PWD department to complete the road from Sultanpur to Dilman before December 31. He announced Rs one lakh for Dhaki road, Rs 50,000 for a road at Baag, and Rs 30,000 for a primary school.