R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Abohar
ROTARY BHAVAN: The town will soon have a Rotary Bhavan. Mr Dev Raj Chaudhary of Azeemgarh has donated a 2-kanal plot for this purpose. This was stated by Dr Ramesh Sidana at the opening address on his installation as president of the Rotary Club, Abohar, Mid-town, on Friday. He complimented outgoing president, Dr Avinash Chander Sidana, for acquiring the land. Manish Narang, secretary for current year, and Dr Harbans Pathak, governor, Rotary District 3090, head of the Public Administration Department at Punjabi University, also spoke on the occasion.

Amritsar
SANCTIONED: Guru Nanak Dev University has sanctioned five additional seats in different courses being run by its affiliated colleges. A university press release here on Friday said that these seats were granted to the colleges on the condition that they would charge only normal fee and would also provide a necessary infrastructure.

FUNCTION: Mr Casparlandoltt, Communi-cation Coordinator, Inter-national Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC), New Delhi on Friday addressed the inaugural function of the one-day programme on ‘Relevance of International Humanitarian Law in the Contemporary Times’.

CONDEMNED: The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union on Friday decided to take head-on the Punjab Government’s move to ban recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff. Prof H S Walia, state vice-president of the union in a press statement here said that the decision to ban recruitments should be withdrawn immediately in the larger interest of the student community.

SEIZED: The Health Department on Friday seized 1350 intoxicating capsules and four bottles of Corex from a medical store situated on the Majitha Road bypass.

Barnala
WORKSHOP: A three-day workshop of Kendriya Vidyalaya Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT) of the Chandigarh region began at the Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) Air Force Station complex here on Friday. Ms T. Isac, Principal, KV, Air Force Station, Barnala, inaugurated the workshop by lighting the candle on the occasion.

FATEHGARH SAHIB
TEEJ FEST: The district Red Cross Society would organise Teej festival on August 8th at Aam Khas Bagh Sirhind, said Mrs Jaspreet Talwar, Deputy Commissioner cum Chairperson District Red Cross Society, at a meeting held in this regard. OC

Jalandhar
BUSTED: Numerous cases relating to armed robberies and snatching were solved as the Jalandhar police on Friday busted a two-member gang of robbers and recovered Rs 9840 in cash, a mobile phone, a gold chain, a country-made pistol and two motor cycles.

Talent hunt: The Hungama TV Captains’ Hunt-2005 was held at Saraswati Modern School here on Saturday. A large number of children had queued up for audition which will continue on Sunday also. Hungama TV Captains’ Hunt will evaluate the kids on the basis of creativity, articulation, on the spot thinking and ability to lead a team. They will also appear on Hungama TV.

Installed: The new office-bearers of Rotary club were installed at a function organised at Rotary Bhavan here on Friday. Rotarian Yash P. Dass was the chief guest. The function started with the singing the National Anthem followed by lighting of a ceremonial lamp. The outgoing president, Rotarian K.K.Chadha, highlighted the achievements of the club during his tenure. The chief guest then installed Dr A.S.Bindra as president and S.P.Karkara as secretary.

Mourned: Dr Ranjit Kaur, Director, Prerna Kender, an NGO, in a letter from England had mourned the death of Dr Atam Hamrahi. She said Dr Hamrahi an advisor of the institute had guided it for the past 15 years. A condolence meeting was held at Prerna Kender to pay homage to departed soul.

Flayed: The district president of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, Mr Bhajan Singh, and the general secretary, Mr Joginder Singh Azad, has flayed Mr Mahinder Singh of the Lakhowal Kisan Union for appreciating the government policy of recruiting teachers on contractual basis. They said the DTF and other teachers groups were striving hard for getting the vacant seats filed on regular basis. They said whereas other employees’ organisations, teachers’ bodies were supporting them the Kisan Union was against teachers.

Training: The Punjab Agricultural Management and Extension Institute (PAMETI) has been providing training to extension personnel working in these districts. A five-day training was conducted by PAMETI on “participatory approach”. The participatory approach was first implemented in areas like Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar and Sagrur under the ITD component of NATP which has been funded by the World Bank. The same ATMA model is being followed in Amritsar, Ferozepore, Patiala and Ropar.

Pay panel: The UPA government is all set to constitute a pay commission to revise the salaries, allowance and pension of MPs. Apart from this, the panel will look into increasing their benefits like official accommodations, telephone, furniture, transport, water, electricity, petrol, medical facilities etc. The commission will make its recommendations from time to time. 

Election hailed: The Advance Scientific Homeopathic Association has hailed the election of Dr Paramjit Ranu, Chairman, Punjab Homeopathic Council, as a member of the Central Council of Homeopathy. Dr Ravinder Kochhar, Prinicipal, Lord Mahavira Homeopathic College, Dr Daljit Sharma, Dr Vipan Gupta, Dr Anurag Sood, Dr Sunil Verma, Dr Rajan Kapila and Dr Naveen Sharma congratulated Dr Ranu for his victory. He will be the only member to represent Punjab in the Central Council of Homeopathy.

Meeting: The general body meeting of the PNB Officers Association, Ludhiana, was held under the chairmanship of Mr Shreenivas Iyengar and Mr Harish Sharma, general secretary and President of the All-India Officers Federation, New Delhi. Mr Iyengar assured the officers that their demand for pension would be taken up with IBA.

CHANDIGARH

CELEBRATED: Teej was celebrated on Saturday by members of a women’s club at Punjab Engineering College (PEC). Women put on ‘mehandi’ and played ‘antakshari’.

LAUNCHED: The SBI, PU and Medical Institute of Chandigarh launched “SBI-VISHESH” for affluent customers at English Auditorium, PU on Saturday.

HARYANA

Ambala
SCHOOLS FOR POOR: Vishwas Public School, Ambala City, will open schools for the poor students in slum areas where the students would be given education free of cost. The principal of the school, Ms Indu Kapoor, said that besides academic education the students were persuaded to take part in games and other cultural activities. She said that meritorious students were offered scholarships by the school management. She said that Vishwas organisation would soon open an engineering college and a B.Ed College in Ambala City. 

Sonepat
SUICIDE: A 22-year-old woman, identified as Radha, reportedly committed suicide by consuming celphos tablets in her house at Kabirpur village on the outskirts of the city on Friday night. According to a report, she took this extreme step after a family dispute. The police has sent the body for post- mortem examination.

ASSAULT: A youth, Vinod, was hit with a liquor bottle by Joginder at Thana Kalan village, about 15 km from here, on Friday night. According to a report, the injured youth was referred to the PGIMS. Rohtak for further treatment. The police has registered a case against the alleged assailant and launch a hunt to apprehend him. A dispute over the turn of canalwater reportedly led to the assault.

PANCH’S PROTEST: Mr Ravinder, a panch of Jatheri village, who has been on an indefinite fast in front of the office of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer at Rai, for the past 14 days, was taken away on Friday by the police and was admitted to the local Civil Hospital for treatment. According to a report, the panch had resorted to the indefinite fast to press his demand for the dismissal of the Sarpanch of the village and get a high-level probe conducted into the alleged bungling of panchayat funds by him.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Dharamsala
HOSTELS: A hostel for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes will be set up at Nurpur, with an accommodation for 60 students. Disclosing this, Deputy Commissioner, Bharat Khera, said a total of five places had been identified for setting up of such hostels. The others are Tisa, Paonta , Basa Gohar and Aani.

Hamirpur
RECRUITMENT: Recruitment for the 48 newly-created posts of constables for 3 IR Bn and 15 resultant posts of constables for IR Bn Bangarh ( total 63 posts of constables including constable drivers), will be held at the play ground of NSCB Government College, Anu, in Hamirpur on September 5.

Mandi
LAUNCHED: The Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, on Friday launched a ‘Help’ centre in the town for customers seeking relevant information on the filing of income tax return, PAN number and other services. Mrs Sushila Sonkhla, president, Mandi Municipal Council, inaugurated the centre.

DIRECTED: The Addi-tional Deputy Commis-sioner, Mandi, Mr R S Gupta, on Friday directed heads of the district department to ensure that the money spent from the MP Local Area Funds be utilised for the specifies purpose. He was presiding over the meeting of the heads of the departments.

NURPUR
PRESS CLUB: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Nurpur Press Club: patron-in-chief - Rakesh Bharti; president - Rajiv Mahajan; chief adviser - Kulbhushan Sharma; general secretary - Pradeep Sharma; senior vice-president - Devinder Dadwal; vice-presidents - Baljeet Chambyal, Viney Mahajan and S.K. Atri; secretary - Narinder Gulalia; press secretary - Rishi Mahajan; office-secretary - Sunil Dogra; and cashier - Ritesh Mahajan.