R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
PROBE INITIATED: The SGPC on Monday revealed that a probe was on to identify the quality of work being carried out by its contractors. In a press release here, the SGPC authorities said all works carried only with the offerings of ‘‘Guru Ghar’’ should be of top quality and anyone found compromising with the quality of the construction material would be dealt with severely.

THREAT: The Punjab and Chandigarh Private Colleges Non-Teaching Union has threatened to hold protest rallies against the state government for its indifferent attitude towards their demands. In a press release here on Monday, Mr Sahib Kumar, press secretary of the union, said if the government ignored their demands they would not support it in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

‘THIKRI PEHRA’: The District Magistrate, Mr Raminder Singh, on Tuesday ordered “thikri pehra” to prevent damage to power transmission lines, substations and transformers, rail lines, government properties, flag stations and other government offices. The order will remain in force till April 23.

COURSE: A free pre-recruitment training course will be started from March 1 at Sainik Welfare Office here. Informing this in a press statement here, Lt-Col S.P. Singh, Deputy Director, Sainik Welfare, said the course would be completed in 42 days. He said interested candidates should have passed matric with 45 per cent marks. The course would include ex-servicemen, SCs and poor children. He said preliminary investigations would be held from February 23 to 28.

KAPURTHALA
RALLY HELD: Employees of nationalised banks on Monday staged a protest rally in front of State Bank of Patiala on the Mall in support of their demands. The employees were demanding the implementation of the revised pay scales. Mr Ramesh Sharma, Mr Nirmal Singh, Mr Vinay Dogra and Mr Shayam Gupta, all employee leaders, addressed the rally.

RECOVERED: The Sultanpur Lodhi police on Sunday arrested Kashmir Singh of Latianwala village and Satpal of Boot village for possessing poppy husk. The SSP, Mr S.K. Asthana, in a press release on Monday said a raid was conducted on the hideout of the two and bags of poppy husk weighing 40 kg each were recovered. A case under provisions of the NDPS Act has been registered.

SANCTIONED: The Punjab Government has sanctioned Rs 2.93 crore for distribution as pension among 47,388 beneficiaries of the district in this financial year according to Mr Rakesh Verma, Deputy Commissioner. Mr Verma said here on Monday that in the first phase the district had already received Rs 14 lakh for disbursement as pensions among the beneficiaries. After verification 1285 persons had been found ineligible for pension, the DC said.

LUDHIANA
TALK: The Ludhiana Management Association (LMA) will organise a talk on ‘Managing self — a key to success’ on February 27. This was stated by Mr Manjit Singh, president, in a press note issued here on Wednesday.

PATIALA
ELECTED: Dr D.S. Bhullar, Senior Medical Officer from local Government Medical College, has been elected as vice-president of the Indian Academic of Forensic Medicine at a general body meeting of the academic held at Goa recently.

CONFERENCE: Inner Wheel Club, Patiala, organised a district conference here recently. President of the club Rosher Eruch Chindhy was the chief guest on the occasion. Ms Kuljeet Banga, Leela Jaswal, Veena Barghav, Neelam Khosla were also present on the occasion.

NCC CAMP: NCC Camp of 14 Pb Bn NCC Nabha was inaugurated by Lt. Col. S.S Aujla (Camp Condt) at Old ASC Battalion here on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, Lt. Col. Aujla said the basic aim of the camp was to lay emphasis on the personality development of the cadets. He further added that during the camp, various competitions including shooting, line area, map reading, drill, weapon training, volleyball will be organised.

ELECTED: Vijay Gupta, Deepak Malhotra, Sanjay Gupta, Amrinder Pabla, S.P. Singh and Rajesh Bansal have been elected as chairman, vice- chairman, secretary, treasurer and executive members, respectively, of the Northern India Regional Council here on Wednesday.

PHAGWARA
BODY FOUND: The body of a new born male child was found abandoned on the track between Khajurala and Chaheru villages on Tuesday. The GRP has registered a case in this connection.

CHANDIGARH

PANCHKULA
SARKAR AAP KE DWAR: An amount of Rs 35.21 lakh has been spent on the development works in Barwala block under the third phase of the “sarkar aap ke dwar” programme of the Haryana Government. According to a press note issued here on Wednesday, the amount has been spent on the recarpeting of roads, construction of sheds at the cremation grounds, construction of additional rooms in the schools and building of “dharamshalas” for the Scheduled Castes.

HARYANA

HISAR
ARRESTED: The district police has arrested two persons from different places in the district for smuggling contraband. A police spokesman said here on Tuesday that Gurdeep Singh of Japta Khera village in Fatehabad district was carrying poppy husk from Rajasthan on a motorcycle when a police team, on a tip-off, nabbed him at Adampur, near here. The police seized 20 kg of poppy husk from his possession. The Adampur police has registered a case against him. In another case, the police arrested Pritam Singh of Sainipura village from the bus stand, Hansi, and seized 10 gm of charas from him.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
BAN ORDER: The Deputy Commissioner Subhasheesh Panda, has banned the carrying of firearms and ammunition from February 28 to March 5 under the Kotkehloor police station area in this district under Section 144 of the IPC. A notification here said this had been done with a view to maintaining peace and security and law and order.

CHAMBA
COMPENSATION: Residents of Chamba town have sought compensation for depriving them of their fundamental forest rights for the past more than 10 years. They say that they have been deprived of their timber distribution rights on the plea that they have settled in Chamba town after 1939.