R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
MEMO to DC: The Catholic Christian Welfare Action Committee here on Friday submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner urging him to hand over the body of Father Mark Barnes to them so that they could bury the body properly and build a memorial in his name. Mr Francis Bhatti, president of the committee, said if the authorities concerned did not hand over the body to them, the committee would launch state-wide protests.

ALLEGATION: Dr Shavinder Kaur Johal, president, Istri Akali Dal, said here on Friday that her party would approach the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, to remove the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, as he had allegedly misused his powers during the Ajnala byelection. She said if their plea was not accepted, they would be forced to launch an agitation.

Hoshiarpur
BODY FOUND: The body of an unidentified man was found near a well of Jhajha village here on Friday. The body was sent to Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Jalandhar
INAUGURATED: Ms Lakshmi Raman, president, Army Wives' Welfare Association of Western Command, inaugurated 'Thimayya Park' in the cantonment here on Friday.

JAGRAON
GATE MEETING: Representatives of various cooperative sugar mills of Punjab held a gate meeting at Cooperative Sugar Mill, Jagraon, on Saturday. It was presided over by Mr Tejinder Singh Nani. The bureaucracy was blamed for the plight of sugar mills in the state. It was demanded that the supply of seed for cane should be done through sugar mills to encourage farmers to grow more. The meeting was also addressed by Mr Randhir Singh Dhillon, Mr Avtar Singh Malhi, Mr Gurcharansingh Gill and Mr Charan Singh Jandi. 

Ludhiana
Rally: The Punjab Nirman Mazdoor Union held a rally here on Saturday. Addressing the rally, CTU senior vice-president Tarsem Jodhan said over 15,000 members of the union would participate in the rally in Chandigarh.

Seminar: A seminar on solar photovoltaic was conducted in association with PEDA here on Friday. Mr Chaand Shukla Hadiabadi of IDSL, Mr R.K. Gupta, Manager, PEDA, Chandigarh, Mr Anupam Nanda, District Manager, PEDA, were among those who attended the seminar. 

DISTRIBUTED: The Lions Club Ludhiana Royal distributed books and stationery at Bal Sudhar Ghar, Shimlapuri, on Friday. Mr K.S. Sohal, vice-governor (dist) to 321-F, was the chief guest. More than 100 children were given books on the occasion.

Mandi Ahmedgarh
TSUNAMI AID: The management and staff of Jain Muni Shri Kundan Kanya Mahavidyala presented a draft worth Rs 15,500 to Dr Maghar Singh Kalia, Circle Education Officer, for tsunami relief. Mr Mukesh Sharma, Executive Magistrate, was presented a draft worth Rs 5,000 by Mr Data Ram Sharma, founder of Sanatan Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School.

MANDI GOBINDGARH
RIMT FEST: A Cultural festival will be organised by the Regional Institute of Management and Technology (RIMT) on Monday and Tuesday. The festival will be inaugurated by Mr M.S. Grewal, Registrar, PTU, Jalandhar. 

CHANDIGARH

WEIGHTLIFTING: The Chandigarh’s weightlifting team won two silver and bronze medal in the 57th Men and 20th Women Senior National Weightlifting Championships held at Guwahati, Assam. In 77 kg Inderpal Singh, silver medal; 85 kg — Baljit Singh, silver and bronze medals.

Mohali
MUSICAL EVENING: A musical evening was organised by Skydreamz Productions at Pracheen Kala Kender here on Saturday. Jatinder Shah, who has given music to more than 15 plays, presented songs based on the lyrics of Surjeet Patar, Shiv Kumar Batalavi, Pash and Nandlal Nurpuri. The audience had a delightful time at the two-hour programme, which was inaugurated by Mrs Lakhwinder Kaur Garcha, OSD to the Punjab Chief Minister.

HARYANA

AMBALA
Poetry contest: An inter-college poetry competition was held Government College, Ambala Cantt yesterday. GMN College principal Dr RR Malik was the chief guest. Dr Malik spoke on the role of poetry in life and stressed upon the importance of poetry in highlighting issues. Kumari Archana of Dev Samaj College, Ambala City was first, Deepak Chaswal of Government College, Ambala Cantt was second while Gurpreet Kaur of MDSD College, Ambala City was third. Consolation prizes were won by Vijay Kumar and Manu Lakhotra.

Car recovered: The police here recovered a stolen Maruti-Esteem car and arrested a resident of village Ratangarh in this regard. The police nabbed Sanjay when he was crossing near Peer Baba Chowk at Ambala City in the stolen car. The police registered a case.

Bhiwani
CASE REGISTERED: A case has been registered against Balwant and Karan Singh, residents of Mandholi village, on the charge of misbehaving with a government official and threatening him with dire consequences. It is stated the said official went to Mandholi village on Thursday night for inspection where water was being stolen through a pipe from a canal. When he objected to this, they misbehaved with him and threatened him.

ORDERS ISSUED: In order to prevent any untoward incident during the counting of votes on Sunday, the District Magistrate has promulgated Section 144 around 200m radius of the counting centres. The orders will remain in effect till the end of counting of votes.

KILLED: An old man was crushed to death when a train ran over him near Dhani Faugat here on Friday. The victim could not be identified.

INJURED: Six persons were injured in a group clash that took place at the Ladhan Pana area in Charkhi Dadri subdivision on Thursday night. The police said the cause of the scuffle was some property dispute. A case has been registered.

Jhajjar
ACQUITTED: A local Fast Track Court has acquitted Khusiram, Kamal, Mahender, Azad and Jasbir, residents of Gurgaon and Bahadurgarh, in a case related to possession of fake currency and stamp papers.

FORUM ORDER: The District Consumer Forum has directed the BSNL to charge bimonthly rent from the consumers of Ladarawan village as per the rent fixed for the rural consumers. The BSNL was charging Rs 240 as rent on bimonthly telephone bills instead of Rs 100 fixed for rural consumers from February 1, 2003.

SCHOLARSHIP: The National Institute of Fine Arts (NIFA) distributed scholarships amounting to Rs 600 each to 78 students of Government Girls High School and SD High School here on Friday. Mr Pritpal Singh Pannu, director of NIFA, said a sum of Rs 93,600 would be awarded to students during the current academic session.

Kaithal
ORDERS: District Magistrate H.S. Malik said here on Friday that the gathering of five or more persons had been banned within a radius of 200m from voting counting centres. He said these orders had been issued under Section 144 CrPC on February 27. In another order, under Section 54 of the Punjab Excise Act 1914, the magistrate directed the closure of all liquor vends. It would not be served in hotel, restaurants, and clubs on that day.

Panipat
ORDERS: District Returning Officer Anurag Rastogi has imposed Section 144 of the CrPC around all three counting centres in order to avoid any untoward incident and to maintain law and order on Sunday during the counting of votes.

Sonepat
ARRESTED: The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Saturday arrested three youths, namely Neeraj of Garhi Ghasita, Ramesh of Railway Colony and Ravi of Rajinder Nagar, on the charge of consuming liquor and creating a scene at the railway station. According to a report, the GRP has registered the case against them and sent them for the medical check up.

BAN ORDERS: The District Magistrate, Mr Vidya Dhar, on Saturday promulgated the prohibitory orders under Section 54 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, making it obligatory for the closure of all liquor vends in the district on February 27, the day of counting for the General Elections to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha 2005.

RETIRES: The District and Sessions Judge of Sonepat, Mr B.L. Single, retired from service on Saturday. According to a report, members of the District Bar Association gave a farewell party to him.