R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
THEFTS: Two shops were burgled in the Batti-Hatti market situated at Maan Singh Gate on Friday. Mr Kuldip Singh, owner of Sevak Traders, said thieves decamped with Rs 45,000 cash and ransacked the shop. Another shopkeeper, Khem Singh, alleged that cash was missing from the cash box.

NAGAR KIRTAN: Sri Guru Singh Sabha with the help of several Sikh societies will take out a nagar kirtan on January 4 to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh falling on January 5. This was stated by Mr Gurdeep Singh, officiating president of the sabha. He said gurpurab would be celebrated as per the Nanakshahi calendar.

HONOURED: Mr Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Kirtowal village in Patti subdivision, has set a record by growing 818 quintals of sugarcane on one acre of land. He was honoured by Mr Kanwaljit Singh Lali, MLA and chairman of Sugarfed, at a function organised by the Sheron cooperative sugar mill.

REFUTED: Mr Dalmegh Singh, secretary, SGPC, here on Saturday refuted the allegation of misappropriation during the Zor Mela celebrations at Chamkaur Sahib and Fatehgarh Sahib. He said pandals and stages were prepared as per tender norms. A seven-member sub-committee was constituted for the purpose.

URGED: Mr Satya Pal Dang, CPI leader, here on Saturday urged the Election Commission of India to put a check on the appeals by caste-based organisations to vote for a particular party. Such appeals were being published in the print media. He said seeking votes on caste basis was illegal.

Bathinda
RETIRED: Col Amarjit Singh, Colonel “Q” of Headquarters 81 Sub Area, retired from service on Friday. All officers and jawans of the headquarters gave him a warm send off. He served the Army for more than 34 years in various capacities.

Nawanshahr
GANG BUSTED: Mr M.F. Farooqui, SSP, here on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in printing fake Indian currency. He said a police party led by DSP (D) Mr Jagtar Singh and Mr Gurchetan Singh, in charge of the CIA Staff, raided a house near Manji Sahib Gurdwara and nabbed the three members of the gang.

DEATH ANNIVERSARY: To commemorate the death anniversary of Chaudhary Jagat Ram Soondh, a former minister, a shradanjhli samoroh will be organised at Soondh village on Tuesday. He was gunned down by militants in 1988. Giving this information, Mr Tarlochan Soondh, MLA and son of late Chaudhary Jagat Ram, said the Chief Minister of Punjab and other prominent Congress leaders of the state would address the gathering.

CRITICISED: Mr Hargopal Singh, general secretary, state unit of the BSP, here on Sunday criticised the state government for cancelling a holiday on the birth anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. He said it was an anti-Dalit decision and Dalit ministers and MLAs in the ruling party had not raised the voice against the decision.

CAMP: The local BLM Girls College organised a 10-day camp at Jafferpur village. As many as 40 volunteers participated in the camp. Projects like cleanliness of cremation ground, planted saplings and awareness drive against illiteracy and AIDS were undertaken. Dr Brij Mohan Barthwal gave training to the participants in various techniques of yoga, Ms Suman Rajpal and Ms Aruna Pathak, camp coordinators, said here on Sunday.

PATIALA
ELECTED: Mr Ashwani Garg has been elected president of the Patiala Industries Association following a meeting of the executive members. The other office-bearers who were elected at the meeting are: Mr Vikram Goel — vice-president, Mr Paramjit Walia — general secretary; Mr Rakesh Goel — joint secretary and Mr Subhash Gupta — Finance Secretary.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: The Patiala Citizens Welfare Society organised its 31st blood donation and medical check up camp in collaboration with Modern Laboratory at Tripuri here recently. The camp was inaugurated by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Dr K Sharma, and 270 samples were taken on the occasion, society general secretary Ashok Chawla said here.

APPEALED: The Sudhar Sabha headed by Bhai Paramjit Singh has appealed to the state government to direct the Punjab State Electricity Board to recruit dependents of its deceased employees immediately. The sabha said the PSEB had ended this policy without any reason and said the sabha would join the ongoing strike by the dependents of deceased employees in case the board did not reverse its earlier decision on the issue.

NSS CAMP: A 10-day NSS camp was organised by the Jasdev Singh College of Education, Kauli at Kauli village. Disclosing this programme officers Dr Rajinder Kaur and Ms Charanjit Kaur said besides conducting cleaning exercises, the students also learned about the aims and objectives of NSS. Institute Director Tejinderpal Singh Sandhu presided over the closing ceremony of the camp.

ELECTED: Mr Shamsher Singh has been elected president of the Khalsa College Non-Teaching Staff Association. The other office-bearers elected are: Mr Inderdeep Singh — vice-president; Mr Harminder Singh — general secretary; and Ms Harjit Kaur — Treasurer.

AWARDED: The National Theatre Arts Society (NTAS), Patiala, conferred its annual National Integration Award-2005 on writer-journalist Rawel Singh Bhinder and social worker Jaidev Singh for their contribution to society and development of theatre and arts. Both the award winners donated their award money to the leprosy patients colony.

HELD: The police has arrested three persons for practising “dara satta” under the Gambling Act. The arrested persons were Sanjiv Kumar of Mehligate, Raju of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar Tibbi and Parminder Singh of Tambakoo Kuttan Mohalla. Some “parchis” were seized from their possession.

CHANDIGARH

Elected: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Sales Tax and VAT Bar Association: chairman —Mr S.S. Arora; chairman (study circle) —Mr I.S. Bhatnagar; vice-chairman (study circle) —Mr Lalit Kundra; chairman (tax club) — Mr H.C. Parmar; vice-chairman (tax club) —Mr Naresh Gupta; senior vice-chairman —Mr L.B. Gupta; vice-chairman —Mr Hitesh Puri; president — Mr N.K. Vasudeva; senior vice-president — Mr R.L. Mehdiratta; vice-presidents — Mr Ashok Malhotra and Mr Ajay Jagga; general secretary — Mr C.L. Chaudhary; and joint secretary — Mr Anand Shani.

EXHIBITION: A variety of handmade products and other artifacts are on display at an exhibition ‘Poonfuhar’ at Panchayat Bhavan, Sector 18. It is organised by The Tamil Nadu Handicrafs Development Corporation Ltd. It was inaugurated by the UT Mayor, Ms Anu Chatrath on Sunday.

Office-bearers: Taking note of the increasing road accidents in the region, 35 like-minded citizens of the city from different walks of life held a meeting in Sector 10 on Sunday. Mr Amar Manchanda, a former Chief Traffic Warden of the Traffic Cell, chaired the meeting. At the meeting it was unanimously accepted to give the group a shape of an NGO — Traffic Awareness Organisation. The main objective of the organisation would be generating awareness among the people. Elected members of the committee are president — Amar Manchanda; vice-president — Dr Daleep Pandita, general-secretary — Praveen Kumar Walia; and treasurer — Rajeev Tiwari.

EYE camp: An eye check-up and operation camp was organised at Satsang Bhavan, Sector 26, here on Sunday by the Cost Accountants Society, Panchkula, where 158 patients were examined. A team of PGI doctors, led by Dr Anuradha, examined patients. As many as 99 patients were called to the PGI for further investigation. The society will bear their cost of medicines, operation and transportation. Mr Pawan Bansal, MP, inaugurated the camp, while Mr Sohan Lal, Deputy Mayor, Dr Kailash Chander of the State Bank of India were special guests.

APPOINTED: Prof Pahalad Aggarwal, Vice-Principal, Government College, Sector 46, was appointed Principal, Government College, Sector 11, here on Sunday. Prof Aggarwal has 33 years of service as a lecturer in commerce and has been an active member of theatrical groups in the city.

HARYANA

Hisar
CAUTIONED: The Sampurna Kranti Manch has cautioned voters against the tall claims and promises of the politicians during the state Assembly elections. Prof Devender Singh, president, said that corruption, unemployment and education were the issues that must be raised by the public during elections.

Panipat
LOOTED: Robbers looted a jeep driver of Rs 6,000 near Chhajpur village here on Saturday. He was ferrying passengers from Panipat to Kairana in Uttar Pradesh for past some time.

JOINED: The district vice-president of the Indian National Lok Dal and a member of the local Improvement Trust joined the BJP in the presence of its state president, Prof Ganeshi Lal, here on Saturday.

Sonepat
SHOT AT: Mr Ram Kishan (38) sustained bullet injuries when he was shot at by a youth, Raju, said to be the son of his brother, Prithvi Singh, while he was working in the fields at Mohana village, 19 km from here, on Sunday. The injured was rushed to the local Civil Hospital where he was stated to be out of danger. A dispute over agricultural land is stated to be the cause of crime.

INJURED: A youth, Sandeep (21), was injured when he was shot at by four youths while he was going to his relative’s house at Jharothi village, about 10 km from here, on Sunday. The injured youth was hospitalised and was stated to be out of danger. Sandeep is a son of Mr Jagdish Chander, Assistant Sub-Inspector of police and posted at Jhajjar. The alleged assailants were identified as Parveen, Pradeep, sons of Prem Singh, and Ravi and Amit, sons of Randhir. All the alleged assailants, however, escaped.