R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

LUDHIANA
SITAR RECITAL: Music Department of DD Jain College organised here sitar recital programme of Darshan Sood, sitarist. After then she played Raag Todi and Raag Multani and thrilled audience. Principal and students thanked All India Radio star for playing for them.

AYURVEDIC CAMP: An Ayurvedic Medical Camp was organised by Arya Samaj, Dal Bazar at SDP College for Women concluded here this morning. A havan was conducted by Pandit Surinder Kumar. 

CHANDIGARH

Mohali
ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Mohali Chemists Association: president — Mr Harish Singla; and general secretary — Mr Vikram Jeet Singh.

Panchkula
SEMINAR: A seminar on use of reiki for healthy living was organised at Laxmi Narain Mandir in Sector 6 on Sunday. Over 50 persons participated in the seminar. Reiki masters Brig Prem Kumar (retd) and Mr Ashwani Khanna spoke about the origin and benefits of reiki. 

SCHOLARSHIP: Shweta Sharma, presently studying at IIM, Bangalore, has won the prestigious Aditya Birla Scholarship. She is among 21 persons selected from all over the country for the scholarship. The scholarship is given to those having good record in academics and extra-curricular activities.

HARYANA

Bhiwani
COMPENSATION: The Lok Adalat on Saturday ordered an insurance company to pay a compensation of Rs 81.92 lakh to the dependents of the deceased, killed in a road accident. The Lok Adalat, presided over by Mr R.C. Bansal, the District and Sessions Judge in the case of Dhanpati, widow of Hawa Singh of village Hadodi versus Maan Singh was settled with agreement of both the parties. In this Motor Accident Claim Tribunal case, the Judge ordered the New India Assurance Company to pay the amount to the plaintiffs. As many as 22 persons were killed in the accident.

Fatehabad
PULSE POLIO: The Haryana Health Minister, Mr M.L. Ranga, on Sunday inaugurated the pulse polio campaign in this district by administering polio drops to a child at the Balmiki Dharamshala here. Speaking on this occasion, Mr Ranga claimed that polio had been completely eliminated from Haryana and there was not a single patient of polio in the state this year. He said that 38 lakh children were being administered polio drops during each phase of the pulse polio drive.

Hisar
BIASED: Ms Jasvir Kaur, secretary of the Sarv Karmchari Sangh, Haryana, at a district-level convention of women employees here today, said the Haryana Government was biased against women and this had resulted in lowering of their status. She said in view of the increasing incidents of physical and mental harassment of women employees, committees should be formed in all departments to check the wrong-doings.

Kaithal
LIFE TERM: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr V.K. Bakshi, sentenced Shiv Prasad to life imprisonment and fined him Rs 5000. According to information, Surjit Kaur of Cheeka in her complaint alleged that Shiv Parshad, a domestic servant at her residence, hit her son Tejinder with an iron rod after an altercation, resulting in his death. The police registered a case under Section 302 and 304 against the servant.

INAUGURATED: Sant Jagir Singh of Pehowa inaugurated a free eye check-up and operation camp organised by ‘Sewa Sangh’ at Geeta Bhavan here on Saturday. Nearly 1,000 patients were checked by doctors. DOWRY: Two women became victims of dowry seekers during the past 24 hours in two separate incidents. One woman, Karnailo, died when she was allegedly pushed from the roof of her house by her in-laws and the second was allegedly burnt alive. She was admitted to a hospital with serious burn injuries.

Sonepat
BUSTED: With the arrest of two youths, the Sadar police on Sunday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of car thieves operating in parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, during the past few years. According to official sources, the arrested youths were identified as Krishan of Juan village in Sonepat district and Sandeep of Faridabad. The police also recovered a stolen car from their possession.

NEW BUSES: As many as 31 new buses have been added to the fleet of the Sonepat depot of the Haryana Roadways. According to a report, at least 27 buses of this depot had become unserviceable. The Sonepat Roadways depot had earned a revenue of Rs 2,19,47,865 during the year 2003-2004.

Yamunanagar
SUICIDE: A 27-year-old man, Pankaj, allegedly, ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling of his cattle shed on Friday. He was said to be suffering from mental tension for quite sometime.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Chamba
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been nominated office-bearers of the district unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC): working president — Mr Kalyan Singh Rana, vice-presidents — Mr Gian Thakur and Mr Hem Raj; general secretary — Mr Om Prakash; Joint Secretary — Mr Joginder Pathania; organising secretary — Mr Dhani Ram, finance secretary — Mr Subhash Chand; and senior adviser — Mr M.R. Salalia.

ANNUAL FUNCTION: A nine-day annual function celebrations of the Dayananda Math here concluded on Sunday with the offering of ‘purnahooti’. Earlier, a shobha yatra was taken out in the main bazars of Chamba town on Saturday evening. According to Swami Sumedhananda, founder of the ‘math’ they had been serving society, especially the poor and sick of the backward region of Himachal Pradesh by running Maharishi Dayananda Mahavidyalaya, Adarsh Vidyalaya, free eye hospital, natural health centre and ayurvedic pharmacy.

Dharamsala
PROTEST: To condemn the arrest of three Tibetans in Nagchu, 400 km from Lhasa, activists of the Dharamsala Regional Tibetan Youth Congress sat on a day-long fast at the McLeodganj Bus Stand on Saturday and also took out a candle-light procession in the evening. Tsering Ihamo, general secretary of the association, said his organisation was concerned about the human rights situation in Tibet today. “We have been receiving news from Tibet about stories of atrocities on Tibetans,” he said.

Hamirpur
SEVEN HELD: The Hamirpur police on Saturday arrested seven youngsters of Hamirpur town in connection with Friday’s incident at Anoo, in which three persons were injured in a clash between two groups. Cases under Sections 308, 324 and 148/149 of the IPC had been registered.

CULTURAL FESTIVAL: Hill affair — 2004, annual cultural festival of the NIT, Hamirpur, will be held on the campus from November 3 to 5. Various varieties of cultural programmes and literary events like debates, quiz, mind sport, group discussions essay writings as well as the fashion parade will be organised as part of the festival. Mr Vikas Saroha, joint secretary of the Hill affair-2004 organising committee, said it would help the students to explore their hidden talent.

Palampur
RESTRAINED: The local forest authorities restrained the municipal authorities from dumping garbage in the forest land here on Saturday. The forest department also put barbed wire and prevented the municipal vehicles from entering the forest carrying garbage. Mr K.B. Rehaland and Ravinder Sood, president and general secretary, respectively, of the Palampur Welfare and Environment Protection Forum, welcomed the decision of the department.