The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

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R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Bathinda
YOGA CAMP: A yoga training camp was held on Sunday by the Punjab Yoga Sabha at the Yoga Abhyas Ashram of the city in the memory of founder of the ashram Devi Dyal Ji Maharaj. A free counselling session was also held.

Doraha
Annual convocation: The annual convocation and prize distribution function of Guru Nanak National College will be held on March 1 at 10.30 am. Stating this, Mr Jaswant Singh Gill, College Principal, said Dr K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, will confer degrees on students and give away prizes to the winners. Around 150 graduates from arts and commerce streams will be awarded degrees. Fifty students who have excelled in the field of sports, extracurricular activities like the NSS, the NCC, will be awarded medals, roll of honour, college colour and merit certificates. The dress rehearsal of the programme will be organised on Sunday. A meeting of the Alumni Association will also be held on that day.

Fazilka
PHARMACISTS: The Punjab State Pharmacists Association. Ferozepore will launch a two-phased agitation starting from March 14 from Hoshiarpur.

Jalandhar
LANGUAGE DAY: The Government Teachers Union, Punjab, on Saturday observed National Regional Language Day here. Teachers and students from different parts of the state participated in a simple function organised here and pledged to promote ‘Punjabi’ in the country.

Kharar
Inaugurated: A renovated branch of the Union Bank of India was inaugurated by the SDM, Mr Sukhwinder Singh, here on Monday. The branch had now been computerised, apart from making it fully air-conditioned. Mr G.S. Sodhi, AGM, was the guest of honour at the function. Two oldest customers of the bank were honoured on the occasion.

LUDHIANA
SHOBHA YATRA: The Shri Raghunath Mandir Society on Sunday took out a shobha yatra from the Raghunath temple in Aggar Nagar in connection with the installation of idols of Shri Laxmi Narayan and Lord Ganesha at the temple on Wednesday. The yatra, which was led by Swami Nishtha ji, was welcomed at several places by area residents. Women, carrying “kalash” on their heads, also participated in the yatra. Among the officer-bearers of the temple society and prominent citizens who participated in the shobha yatra were Mr N.D. Goyal, Mr Krishan Chand Gupta, Mr Mangat Rai Garg, Mr Bimal Jain, Mr Mohinder Aggarwal, Mr Shiv Kumar Mittal and Mr Prem Chand Gupta.

Poppy husk seized: Two persons, Ramsingh of Dugri and Nirmal Singh of Umrewal, were arrested by ASI Devinder Singh, in charge PP Lohatwadi, in the Akalgarh area and 25 kg of poppy husk was seized from their possession. They were travelling on a scooter (PB-08-AK-9671) when they were pulled over. The police has impounded the scooter and registered a case under Section 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act.

Moga
ACCIDENT: One person was killed while 12 persons were injured when a three wheeler and Tata Sumo collided, 17 km from here near Ajitwal village on the Moga-Ludhiana road on Saturday. The injured were Chanchal Singh, his wife Baljit Kaur, Sarabjit Kaur, Dalbir Singh, Sukhjinder Singh and others.

EYE CAMP: As many as 60 operations were performed and 100 patients suffering from eye diseases checked at one-day free eye operation camp held at Bagha Purana town of Moga district on Sunday.

PATIALA
CUSTOMER MEET: The local Central Cooperative Bank Limited organised a customer meet here on Monday. While addressing the gathering, the Manager of the bank, Mr Malinderjit Singh, informed about various schemes of the bank. Besides this, Senior Manager of the bank Satpal Singh assured the customers that the bank would give better services in future also.

FELICITATED: The Rotary Club, Patiala Greater, felicitated Dr Harbans Pathak on his election as District Governor for the year 2005-06 here on Sunday.

EXHIBITION: A five-day exhibition of LG products was organised at Laxmi Palace here recently. A lucky draw was also held at the end of each day for the customers who have purchased the products during the exhibition.

Pulse POLIO CAMP: The students of Bhai Gurdas General Nursing School organised a Pulse Polio camp on the Sirhind road to administer polio drops to the children below the age of 5 years. As many as 50 students of the school went door-to-door to vaccinate the left out children in the various localities of the city.

Prize Distribution Function: Gurjit Singh and Partap Singh were given rolls of honour in academics for standing first in the University in Honours School in political science and history, respectively, at the annual prize distribution function held at local Government Mohindra College. Ujagar Singh and Liza got the roll of honour in co-curricular activities and the Lord North Book Medal award, respectively. Ms Kartar Kaur Sodhi Memorial Scholarship worth Rs 10,000, Rs 6000 and Rs 5000 each were awarded to Simpy Singla, Prabhjot Singh, Arundeep Singh and Liza, respectively.

PRACTICAL EXAMS: Practical examinations of the undergraduate classes shall be conducted from March 8 to 28. Giving this information Dr Baldev Singh, Chief Coordinator, Examination, said that undergraduate class examinations for the session 2003-04 would start on March 31, an official release said here on Monday.

FUNCTION: The State Bank of Patiala organised a function under its personal banking loan scheme here on Monday. On the occasion sanction letters under the housing loan schemes amounting to nearly Rs 1 crore were distributed among the beneficiaries. Assistant General Manager S.K Ghai highlighted the various loan schemes of the bank. The function was presided over Deputy General Manager N.S Deshpande.

Phagwara
SHOPS BURGLED: Two shops were burgled on Saturday on the second floor of local Hargobind Nagar market. Stolen items are CPU’s, a main server, scanner, laser printer, and software etc.

PULSE POLIO: Punjab Social Welfare Minister Joginder Singh Mann on Sunday inaugurated the pulse polio programme here. Dr Subhash Sharma, SMO, Civil Hospital claimed that mobile teams also gave the drops to the ‘floating’ population.

Sangrur
PULSE POLIO DRIVE: Pulse polio drops were administrated on Sunday to more than two lakh children at 1,060 booths in the Sangrur district while 44 mobile teams also administrated polio drops to the 0-5 years old children, according to Dr J.R. Bansal, Civil Surgeon, Sangrur here on Sunday evening.

DEVELOPMENT GRANTS: Mr Arvind Khanna, MLA, here distributed Rs 12.95 lakh grant among heads of 20 schools of the Sangrur block for the repair of rooms of schools at a function organised at the Government Elementary School of Chathe Sekhwan village, near here on Saturday. Mr Khanna also inaugurated the new building of the school.

Tarn Taran
ACCIDENT: One person was killed and two others were injured in an accident on Saturday evening at the Sarhali road. The police has registered a case under Sections 304A, 279, 427, 337, 337 of the IPC. In another incident Jatinder Singh alias Sonu (19) of Kot Jaspat village committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance on Saturday night.

ROBBERY: Three armed persons injured, two persons of a family including one woman and looted gold ornaments from Sheron village, 8 km from here on Sunday morning. The injured have been identified as Ms Kailash (70) and her son Bhushan Kumar (38).

HARYANA

AMBALA
Shiromani Akali Dal: Leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Haryana, on Monday expressed their desire to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kurukshetra and Ambala. A joint statement by Mr Deedar Singh Habdi, Mr Kartar Singh Takkar, Mr Sukhdev Singh Gobindgarh, Mr Ranbir Singh Fauji, Mr Sant Singh and Mr Surendra Singh Khalsa said the party which extends support to them in these two seats, they will work for them in the rest of the seats in Haryana.

Demand: The Haryana Exporters Association on Monday demanded that an industrial conference hall should be constructed in Ambala. Dr N.C. Jain, chairman of the association, said there were a large number of scientific instrument units in Ambala. “The need for an industrial conference hall is being strongly felt by scientific instrument units,” he said. He said the hall would serve the purpose of an exhibition centre, meeting place and conference hall.

Fatehabad
SUPERVISOR REMOVED: Mr Surinder Kumar, a Sanskrit teacher, detailed as supervisor at Bhattu Kalan examination centre in this district was removed from duty after a flying squad caught three students copying on Saturday. The flying squad team led by Mr Hari Singh Rinwa, District Primary Education Officer, Fatehabad checked an examination centre at Government Senior Secondary School at Bhattu Kalan, where examination for Class VIII was going on, and caught three students in copying.

Hisar
BODY RECOVERED: Body of Rohtash Kumar (25) of Ram Lal Colony was recovered from the cremation ground on Sunday. There were marks of injuries on his body. The Hansi police has taken two persons into custody in this connection.

TRAINING COURSE: A training course on ‘Advances in Management of Beneficial Insects’ will be organised by the Entomology Department of the Haryana Agriculture University (HAU) here from February 24. The course would be attended by scientists from 10 states, including Rajasthan, Orissa, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat on benefiical insects like honeybee, silkworm, lac insects and other bio agents.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
CAMP CONCLUDES: The Disaster Management Training Camp organised by Nehru Yuvak Kendra concluded here on Saturday. As many as 35 youths from 20 yuva mandals from the district were trained to face diasterrs and accidents like fire, flood injuries, and snake-bite etc and various sudden ailments. Apart from Home Guards, Medical and Health Department and NCC officers, including Commanding Officer Arvind Kaul addressed the campers.

Mandi
CHILD CRUSHED TO DEATH: A six-year-old boy was crushed to death by a bus at Nalsar chowk in Balh valley on the outskirts of Mandi town on Saturday. The driver of the bus has been arrested and bus impounded. The child was identified as Chirag, a first standard student of Beas View Public School, Baggi.

Nahan
CHARAS SEIZED: The Paonta police on Sunday evening recovered one kilogram of charas from the two persons in the area. Gulsher Mohammed of Misserwala village and Chattar Singh of Dabra village under Paonta Subdivision had been arrested. Cases under the NDPS Act have been registered.

STONE LAID: Himachal Speaker G.R. Musafir on Saturday laid the foundation stone of Rs 20 lakh Gagal Shikor lift and drinking water argumentation scheme for Bajga panchayat. he said that Gagal shikor would be developed from the tourism point of view as it had tourism potential. He announced Rs one lakh for school ground at Gagal Shikor, Rs 2 lakh for the construction of rooms of primary school and Rs 50,000 each for Shampur and block road, Rs 15,000 for road to kamaha Ka Devta.

Shimla
COUNSELLING CENTRES: At a press conference on Saturday, Mrs Satya Kapoor, chairperson of the Social Welfare advisory Board, said that family counselling centres would be set up at all district headquarters. At present the facility is available only in eight districts.

APPOINTED: The Himachal government has appointed Mrs Satya Kapoor as Chairperson of the Himachal Pradesh State Social Welfare Advisory Board. She assumed the charge on Friday.

Una
MELA: Eleven day Hola Mela at Baba Badbhag Singh and Dera Baba Manji Sahib at Main village, 42 km from Una will begin on February 28. The district administration under Section 144 Cr PC has issued ban orders to be effective from February 22 to March 14.

WATER FOR VILLAGERS: Rs 32 lakh would be spent to provide drinking water for the Kuthera, Loharli villages of Gagret constituency of Una district, said Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Himachal Minister for Cooperative at public meeting on Saturday.