R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
Man murdered: Lucky Manish (30), was found murdered with head and arms chopped off near a government school on the Ram Tirath road here on Thursday. The police sources said that the deceased was of criminal background and was wanted in a number of criminal cases. A case has been registered. 

Lecture: Dr Kapil Kapoor from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, will deliver Sardarni Balbir Kaur Brar memorial lecture at Guru Nanak Dev University under the aegis of school of Punjabi Studies, here on March 2.

BATALA
Offices gutted: Local Punjab Kesri office managed at Jalandhar Road was gutted in fire. Timely intervention of the local fire brigade, the office and the adjoining finance company office (Indian Finance Co.) could not be saved. The total loss is estimated to be nearly Rs 5 lakh. 

Fatehgarh Sahib
Job Carnival: Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar (PTU ) in collaboration with Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College (BBSBEC), Fatehgarh Sahib organised PTU “JOB Carnival 06” on the college campus recently. In this two-day carnival nine different companies are conducting interviews of final year students and those who have already graduated from PTU. As many as 1200 students from all over the state are participating in it . College Principal D.S Hira said companies would conduct a written test followed by group discussion to make the final selection.

HOSHIARPUR
Bodies found: Two unidentified dead bodies of young men were found in Hoshiarpur district on Thursday. According to police sources, one body was recovered in Bebhowal village and the other near Bariana village. The police has sent bodies to Civil Hospital, Hoshiarpur for post-mortem examination.

Dowry case: A case of dowry death of a bride from Khapra village of Hoshiarpur district was reported in Hariana Police Station on Thursday. 

2 arrested: Two persons, who posed as associates of a top senior officer of Vigilance wing of Punjab Police and demanded an extortion money of Rs 5 lakh from Mr Surinder Walia alias Dada of Mukerian, were caught by his supporters and handed over to police on Thursday.

Rajpura
Rally held: Mr Suneet Chopra, joint secretary of the All-India Khet Mazdoor Sabha here on Friday at a rally alleged that the Congress-led UPA government was pursuing the "anti-people" policies of the NDA government. He claimed that the National Rural Employment Scheme was the result of the long drawn out struggle of the Left parties.

CHANDIGARH

Alumni get-together: Government College, Sector 11, here is all set to hold its first ever alumni get together on Saturday. The college lawns are being spruced up. Many alumni, including Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, local MP and Union Minister of State for Finance, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, Haryana, KTS will be present at the occasion.

Mohali
Industrial visit: Thirtyfour students of the Sahibzada Ajit Singh Institute of Information Technology and Research here paid an industrial visit to Punjab Tractors Limited, here. The company is rated third in the tractor industry and produces eight different modules of tractors with 30-40 variations. 

Association: Residents of Sector 53 unanimously elected the president and general secretary of the Residents Welfare Association at a meeting held on Tuesday. The office-bearers of the association are: president — Mr J.S. Mann; senior vice-president-Mr Mohinder Singh; vice president — Mr Jagdev Singh Mann; general secretary — Mr Kulwant Singh; joint secretary — Mr Harbhajan Singh; office secretary — Mr Hakim Singh Arora. 

PANCHKULA
Celebrated: The 182nd birth anniversary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati was celebrated on Friday. The students and the staff of Hansraj Public school paid tributes to Swami Dayanand. The students resolved to imbibe his moral ideals and serve the mankind 

HARYANA

AMBALA
Cultural programme: A cultural programme was held at S S Little Angel’s Convent School, Machhonda, today. The Principal of the school, Ms Hemlata Gupta, said a cultural programme comprising skit, songs and dance was presented by the students on the occasion. Members of the school management gave away prizes to winners of various contests and meritorious students.

Bhiwani
Car financed on fake papers: Five persons of Mittathal village have been charged with obtaining a car on finance on the basis of fake documents and not depositing instalments in time. Dharm Chand of local Rudra colony filed a complaint with police that Ashok, Jitender, Kalu, Shamsher and Karmbir of Mittathal village got a Tavera vehicle financed on the basis of fake papers. They never deposited instalment in time and even got the car registered in their names. When he talked to them they responded in unsatisfactory manner. The police has registered a case.

Woman molested: A 52-year-old mentally challenged woman was reportedly molested by a youth at Shyam Kalan village on Thursday. The husband of victim has reported the matter to the police. In his report, Ram Phal alleged that when his wife was going to fields, a youth, Surender, of the same village molested her.

Advocate convicted: The Chief Judicial Magistrate has convicted an advocate in a case of road accident and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment and fined Rs 500. According to prosecution, Jaiveer, son of Gopal of local Kharkari Mod area, lodged an FIR with the police that a car proceeding from Buwani Khera hit his four-year-old nephew, Anju, son of Ramesh. Anju sustained serious injuries. He was referred to the medical college, Rohtak, where he died. 

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Dalhousie
Pathania hits back at BJP: Hitting back at a misleading statement of BJP leader Dulo Ram, the chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Finance Commission, Mr Kuldip Pathania, has denied any death caused by dynamite so far in the Bhattiyat area of Chamba. 

Kangra
Adventure course: An eight-day adventure course for 25 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe youths of this district, being sponsored by the HP Tourism Department, started on Wednesday at the Mountaineering Training Institute Mcleodganj. Mr S.R. Saini, Senior Mountaineering Officer, said this high-altitude trekking course was to train the educated unemployed SC youths so that they can set up their own employment ventures. During this course participants would be given training in snow and ice craft, rock climbing, rappelling and mountain hazard activities.

PNB officers hold protest: The officers of the Punjab National Bank held a dharna in support of their demands outside the office of the Senior regional manager at Dharamshala on Thursday. Mr J.P.Verma and Mr. Ranjeet Singh, President and Secretary of the All India PNB Officers Association addressed the protesting officers and appealed the management to accept their demands. They threatened that if their demands were not accepted the officers of all the PNB branches would join the struggle from next month and all the bank branches would observe a strike on March 31, 2006.

MANDI
Plea to students: The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Subhasish Panda, has urged the students to take practical education to prepare for the future. Presiding over the annual prize distribution function of the DAV Centenary Public School here on Thursday Mr Panda said that the Blooming Highway Project will beautify the highway to make the state clean and green for the tourists and locals in which the students will take part in plantation. The DAV school principal Mr R.K Mangal gave a cheque for Rs. 52 000 as school’s contribution to the Blooming High Project.

NURPUR
Doctors’ association: The biennial election to the state Unemployed Ayurved Doctors Assocation held here on Wednesday in which Sanjiv Culeria was unanimously elected president consecutively for the third team. Yogesh Raina and Vipon Mahajan were elected as vice- president and Sanjeev Sharma as general secretary. Anoop Mahajan and Jatinder Gupta were elected treasurer and joint secretary, respectively. Ashutosh Guleri was nominated as president of the Kangra district unit.

INTUC’s objection: The Himachal Pradesh unit of the Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) has taken strong exception to inviting applications for recruiting forest guards in the Forest Department. Mr Rajesh Sharma, state INTUC general secretary, in a statement here on Thursday said the move to fill these posts in the department with candidates from outside the state was against the interest of the unemployed youths, and added INTUC would not tolerate this exercise. He said INTUC would meet the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, in this connection.