R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
HELD: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited held a safety awareness programme here on Wednesday. Mr A.K. Bhardwaj, sales officer of the corporation, informed about the alternative uses of the LPG.

JOINED: Dr H.S. Bhatia and Dr Dharam Singh from the School of Punjabi Studies, Dr Joginder Singh of History Department and Dr H.S. Bedi of Hindi Department here joined as head of Nanak Singh chair, Bhagat Namdev chair, Ram Singh chair and Sant Kabir chair, respectively, on Thursday.

Hoshiarpur
CASE REGISTERED: The police has registered a case against Tara Singh, son of Chain Singh, of Langah (Mahilpur) on a complaint by Mr Surjit Singh son of Lalji Ram of Bambowal. Mr Surjit Singh alleged that Tara Singh duped him of Rs 2 lakh for sending his son to Korea.

ALLEGED HARASSMENT: Owners of 34 local marriage palaces met the authorities of the Police Department here on Tuesday to register their protest against the alleged harassment by wine contractors of their respective areas. They said a permit from the Excise Department was required to serve liquor on marriages and other parties.

Jalandhar
MOU SIGNED: The local Doaba College has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Wolverhampton University of the UK for bilateral exchange of students and faculty members of the two institutes. This was stated by Dr D.P. Bhardwaj, Principal of the college.

DHARNA: The Prasar Bharti Employees Federation organised dharnas in front of the office of the Jalandhar Doordarshan Kendra and Akashvani in support of their demands. Mr Anil Soni, chairman of the federation, said pay scales of technical and programme officials were hiked, but no such incentive was given to the administrative employees. If disparity in pay scales was not removed, the federation would organise dharnas in all capital cities of various states on December 14 and 17.

Pathankot
KILLED: One woman was killed and another occupant of car injured when their car rammed into a truck at a bypass here on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Parsan Kaur of Mukerian.

KALA UTSAV: Kala Utsav-2004 is being organised at Talab Kali Mata Mandir Auditorium by a society of artistes, Abhinaye Kala Mandir from Saturday. Mr Sat Pal Bhasin, president of the society, has said about 300 artistes from various parts of the country are likely to participate in the utsav.

Phagwara
ARRESTED: The police has arrested Ajay Pathak of Khalwaragate, Munish Kumar of Subhash Nagar and Ratan Lal of Palahigate for allegedly practising “dada-satta” on the pretext of selling lottery tickets. A sum of Rs 830 and some slips of the satta were recovered from them.

Phillaur
DESTROYED: Goods worth several lakhs of rupees and a car were damaged in a fire that broke out in a grocery shop at Railway Road in Goraya on Wednesday night. Sparking from a generator is said to be the cause of the fire. The shop belonged to Mr Raj Kumar.

KILLED: Baljinder Kumar (12), a student of Class vii, was run over by a train when he was crossing the rail track near Goraya railway station on Thursday. The deceased was a resident of Langarrian Mohalla, Goraya.

CHANDIGARH

Panchkula
UNIFORMS GIVEN: Members of the Rotary Club, Panchkula, gave 122 sets of school uniform to primary class students of Government School, Sector 17, here last evening. The school students, mostly residents of Rajiv and Indra colonies, had lost their school uniforms in the floods in August.

Dharna: Members of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Panchkula branch, on Friday staged a dharna near the mini secretariat In protest against the failure of the government to implement the scheme of providing 100-day employment to women. The dharna was organised under the leadership of vice president, Ms Sandhya Purti, and secretary, Ms Krishan Rani, of the association.

Elected: Mr Kulmohan Singh, Additional Director, Industries, Haryana, has been elected president of the Industries Department Welfare Association at a general body meeting of the Association, held on December 8 at Chandigarh. 

HARYANA

Hisar
DHARNA: The Lok Janshakti Party will organise dharnas and demonstrations at all district headquarters of Haryana on December 13, Mr Anil Sihag, vice-president of the state unit, said here on Thursday. He said lakhs of acres of surplus land was lying useless in the state. They would demand that the land be handed over to landless labourers.

Rewari
ARRESTED: Bhim Singh, son of Bishen Singh of Tankri village, took a one-and-half-year-old girl to an isolated place and tried to rape her on Wednesday. The police has arrested the accused on a complaint by the victim’s father.

AGRO-CLINICS: Mr C.R. Rana, Deputy Commissioner, has said as many as 10 Agro-clinics (ACs) and Agro-business centre (ABCs) in the district will be financed by public sector banks under a NABARD project. He said agriculture graduates were being motivated to set up such projects.

Sonepat
LOOTED: Three armed motor-cycle-borne youths reportedly looted a mobile phone shop in the main market of Sector 14, here on Thursday night. It is stated that the youths asked the shop owner to show the mobile phones. Thereupon, the shopkeeper showed a number of mobile phones to them. In the meantime, one of them took out a pistol and threatened him with dire consequences if he raised the alarm. They took away all the mobile phones and fled.

BUS SERVICE: The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has started a new bus service between Mandora village and Narela from Friday.