Duleep Singh’s bust: SGPC’s move to buy it draws flak Amritsar, April 12 The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s move to participate in the proposed auction of the bust of Maharaja Duleep Singh, to be held in the UK on April 19 has drawn flak from a section of the Sikhs all over the world. A white marble bust of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last ruler of Punjab, by artist John Gibson goes on display at Bonhams auction house in London on Thursday. The bust was sculpted in Rome between 1859-60 and is expected to fetch between £ 25,000 and £ 35,000 when it comes up for auction on April 19. — AFP Photograph

COMMUNITY

Toll tax row: Call to intensify stir
Hoshiarpur, April 12
The District Sangarsh Committee has given a call of a day-long traffic blockade, sealing all entry and exit points of the district, on April 28 in protest against the toll plazas on the Balachaur-Dasuya and Hoshiarpur-Tanda roads.

35 complaints redressed at sangat darshan
Amritsar, April 12
As many as 35 complaints were settled at the sangat darshan organised at Circuit house here today. Mr. K.S. Pannu, Deputy Commis-sioner, Amritsar, presided over and heard the grievances of people.

PRTC takes passengers for a ride
Patiala, April 12
The Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) buses have lately become a source of harassment for the passengers.

Multi-therapy hospital planned
Patiala, April 12
An NGO, the International Society of Health Care and Research, will set up a multi-therapy hospital on 4.5 acres at Hardsapur village on the Sirhind road here. The land for the Rs 200-crore project has already been bought.

Sarbjit’s sister to protest near PM’s house
Bhikhiwind, April 12
Having failed to seek a concrete proposal from the Centre for saving her brother Sarbjit Singh from the gallows in Pakistan after seven days of fast, his sister Dalbir Kaur decided to shift her base to the residence of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi.

Guru Granth Sahib shifted to gurdwara
Sangrur, April 12
After getting the building of the Christian Parchar Kendra (Church) at Lehragaga, 40 km from here, vacated from the activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, the police is now protecting the kendra. Activists of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal took control of the kendra yesterday after burning the printed material of the Christian religion. They had also started ‘Akhand path’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib there.

Taksal warns Mohali Punjabi daily
Amritsar, April 12
The Damdami Taksal here today warned publishers of a Mohali based Punjabi daily allegedly for publishing material derogatory to the Sikh community.

COURTS

One gets life term
Moga, April 12
A court here today sentenced to life a person for killing the son of a rikshawpuller here two years ago along with two other accused who were minors.

ADMINISTRATION

Market committees
Chandigarh, April 12
The Punjab government today decided to issue an ordinance to supersede all nominated market committees in the state.

CRIME

Gang of looters busted, four held
Bathinda, April 12
The district police managed to arrest four members of an inter-state gang of looters, snatchers and vehicle lifters operating in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

EDUCATION

SLIET is ‘deemed-to-be-university’
Longowal (Sangrur), April 12
Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (SLIET), Longowal, has been granted ‘deemed-to-be-university’ status by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of Higher Education), New Delhi. The long-standing demand of the SLIET, was fulfilled today when it got a copy of the notification through fax from the ministry. The notification was issued on April 10, 2007.

Varsity directs colleges to recruit regular staff
Patiala, April 12
The directive of the Punjabi university here on the teaching staff has put many colleges functioning under it in a tizzy. The university authorities in an order circulated to all colleges under it has directed at least two third of all teaching staff in the colleges should be permanent.

Paper out of ‘syllabus’
Patiala, April 12
Students and teachers of bachelor of sciences, bio-informatics (first year) at Multani Mal Modi College here have alleged that the final paper of the course was out of syllabus. They have claimed that four questions pertained to protein structure production and protein structure models, which are not part of the syllabus.

BUSINESS