The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

MAILBAG

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMRITSAR
Rs 42 lakh tax evasion found: As part of a drive launched by the Excise and Taxation Department to check the evasion of VAT across the state, the Amritsar unit of the department has unearthed a case of tax evasion worth Rs 42 lakh in the sale of tobacco products. Assistant excise and taxation commissioner Raj Pal Singh said here on Wednesday that the mobile wing of the department found that M/s Gauri Mal Faqir Chand, near Model Town, Gurdaspur, dealing in wholesale of “Kranti” bidi, had made a sale of Rs 3.36 crore without paying any tax.

Beas poll violence: 19 get bail: Additional Sessions Judge Karnail Singh here on Wednesday granted bail to 19 accused booked in a case of illegal assembly, culpable homicide amounting to murder, on the basis of a CD, which allegedly showed visuals of violence in Beas in run-up to Assembly elections. Two separate applications for bail for 10 and nine accused each were filed before the court. Four persons were granted anticipatory bail earlier in the case.

Abohar
Dead: Karamjit Kaur, vice-president of the Rajasthan Women Hockey Association and president of its Sriganganagar unit, died at the PGI on Tuesday. She was cremated at Sriganganagar on Wednesday. She had been working as a teacher in a government school in the nearby village.

Distributed: The Aggarwal Sabha here on Wednesday distributed shoes and socks to about 100 needy students of the Government Primary School and Government High School (branch) here, during the 9th programme of the second round of its Students’ Welfare Fortnight.

Barnala
Arrested: The Dhanaula police arrested one person with 3.5 bottles of county made liquor on Wednesday. As per SSP Parmjeet Singh Garewal, the police conducted a raid at the premises of one Major Singh of Kaleke village and found an illegal Batthi (earthen stove) to make country-made liquor. It seized 3.5 bottles of illegal country-made liquor. A case has been registered.

Seminar: To make the students aware of environment conservation, a seminar was organised at the Government Primary School hostel here on Wednesday. The seminar was presided over by district education officer (elementary) Roshan Lal who prevailed upon the students to plant a minimum of five trees in their life and ensure their post-plantation care.

Bathinda
Life imprisonment: The District and Session Judge, Madam Sabina, today awarded life imprisonment to Mander Singh of Chuge kalan village for killing his wife. It may be mentioned here that Mander had served life imprisonment earlier before in connection with murder of his brother. Mander killed his brother as he suspected him having relationship with his wife. After completing the sentence, he killed his wife on December 20, 2006. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.

Expelled: The president of Municipal Council Goniana, Sadhu Ram has been expelled allegedly for misusing the funds on Wednesday. Three other members of the MC have also been served warning on the same issue. It has been reported that there was a dispute between the two groups of the members and one group had leveled allegations upon the other that they had misused the funds received for the up gradation of slum areas. However, there were several charges leveled against him. On the other part, Sadu Ram claimed it a political vendetta.

Fire: A tailor shop, Punjab tailors, located at Shanti market, Dhobi Bazar, was gutted late this evening under mysterious circumstances. Two fire tenders took about half an hour to douse the flames. It has been reported that the shop was closed when the fire broke out.

Hoshiarpur
Mass feast: The 71st annual bhandara, in the memory of Brahmleen Swami Sachdanand Maharaj was organised by Sadhu Sewa Munshi Ram Sud Board of Trust at the local Sukhi Choi Ashram, Bahadurpur, on Wednesday. A round-the-clock sankirtan is being recited by the Sri Harinam Sankirtan Mandal on the occasion.

CDs seized: The Sadar police, on a tip-off, raided Raju Music Centre, Aslamabad, on Wednesday evening and seized 230 pirated DVDs, 250 pirated VCDs, 145 pirated CDs and five obscene DVDs.

LeharA Mohabbat
LeharA Mohabbat thermal unit: The first unit of the stage-II of the Lehara Mohabbat Thermal Plant will become operational this year. According to sources, the unit will synchronise by January 16. If the synchronisation process is completed successfully, the unit will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal by January 20. The first unit of stage-II was to be completed by December 2006. However, its completion was delayed.

MALERKOTLA
CA killed in road accident: Parminder Kumar Rikhi (30) of Ekta Nagar here was killed in a road accident on Wednesday. Parminder was a CA. He was coming here when his car was hit by a truck on the Ludhiana road near Gaunspura village. He was brought to the Civil Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. A case has been registered.

Moga
Case registered: The Baghapurana police has registered a case of corruption against suspended naib tehsildar Bachittar Singh Dhadda under various sections of the IPC.

NABHA
4 held with poppy husk: The CIA police of the town on Wednesday arrested four persons on the Nabha- Patiala road and seized 250 kg of poppy husk from the . The accused Satnam Singh, Partap Singh, Dharminder Singh belong to Tarn Taran and Moga districts while their local link Baghel Singh resides near Gate No. 40. They were sent in police remand for one day by the local court.

2 cows electrocuted: Two cows on Wednesday were electrocuted in the Hira Complex market near Dulladi Gate and died on the spot. This market belongs to the Improvement Trust and has heaps of garbage all over place.

Nawanshahr
Shops burgled: Burglars struck at two shops on Karyam Road here on Tuesday night. The miscreants broke into KS Telecom and Sahib Light and Digital Sound shops and decamped with a computer, mobile phones and recharge bucks worth Rs 1.25 lakh along with light and sound equipment worth Rs 1.50 lakh from the shops.

PATIALA
Elected: Advocate Ashok Jain has been elected president of the Patiala District Taxation Bar Association at its election held on Wednesday. According to information, Jain polled a total of 63 votes against 39 polled by his rival T.N. Sharma.

Phagwara
Man falls into dry well, hurt: Davindra Goel of the Guru Nanak Pura locality sustained injury after falling in a dry well near GPO here on Wednesday.It took over one hour for a fire brigade team to rescue him. Later, he was admitted to a private hospital. Goel had fallen in the well when he lost control over his motocycle while saving himself from getting hit by a van.

CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH
Multipurpose hall: The city will soon have a multipurpose hall-cum-convention center for marriage, conventions, exhibitions and art and cultural activities. The issue was discussed at the coordination committee meeting convened by adviser to the UT administrator Pradip Mehra. A dharmshala constructed at Dadu Majra village will be inaugurated by union minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal on January 12.

Cong acts against Bhajan men: The president of the state unit of the congress party, Phool Chand Mullana, on Wednesday wrote a letter to all presidents of the district Congress committee asking them to submit a list of party workers who had joined the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) recently. He has sought the list of such congress workers within the next 10 days. This move came a day after AICC general secretary and in charge of the party affairs of the Haryana unit of the Congress Margaret Alva said the party would begin the process of ouster of Bhajan Lal loyalists.

MOHALI
Top ranking: Gian Jyoti Institute of Management and Technology (GJIMT) claimed that it has been ranked as the top management institute of Punjab by 'Business World', a business magazine, in its latest ranking of 100 top management institutes of the country. The institute also stands 35th in the all India rankings of institutes. The faculty and students celebrated their performance on the institute premises on Tuesday.

PANCHKULA
Body found: The body of 24-year-old unidentified youth was found on the railway track on Wednesday. The face of the deceased was badly mutilated. According to the police, the body was found near Baltana village. A case was registered and the body was sent for postmortem.

ZIRAKPUR
Man found dead: Bhag Singh, a resident of Solan, was found dead near Nabha Sahib Gurudwara on Tuesday. Onlookers found the victim dead in a hutment near the gurudwara. The body was sent to the Dera Bassi civil hospital where it was later identified. It is learnt that Bhag Singh had come to see his friend in Chandigarh and seemed to have died due to extreme cold. The police has begun inquest proceedings.

HARYANA

AMBALA
2 run over by train: Two persons were run over by a train on Wednesday morning. According to information, a resident of Ghel village died when he was crossing the rail track. In another incident, a person was run over by a train near Ambala Cantonment railway station. The deceased could not be identified. The bodies were sent for postmortem to the local civil hospital.

Parvasi Diwas: The NRI department IPCSI (International Chamber for Service Industry) will organise the Annual Paravasi Punjabi Diwas 2008 - an international conference on investment opportunities for the Indian diaspora and domestic corporate for overall economic growth of Haryana at Panchkula on January 12. Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be chief guest.

Protest: Students of SD College, Ambala Cantonment, protested against the ban for three matches on cricketer Harbajan Singh for the alleged racial abuse. A large number of students, including girls, gathered in the college ground on Tuesday morning and raised slogans against the umpires who favoured their home team.

KAITHAL
Clerk, ASI in vigilance net: Clerk of the district kalyan department, Kaithal, Rohtash has been caught red-handed by the Haryana vigilance bureau while allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 800 from Harikesh, a resident of Kalayat. A case has been registered. In another case, ASI, Barwala police station, Hisar, Ram Kishan had been allegedly caught red-handed by the state vigilance bureau while accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from Satyawan, a resident of Kharak Punia village, Hisar. A case had been registered against the accused.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Sundernagar
Welcomed: The Cricket Association of Mandi welcomed Sanjeev Katwal, OSD to the Chief Minister, on Monday night. The association appealed to the Chief Minister to order the provision of a cricket ground to promote this sport here. The association president handed over a resolution in this connection to Katwal and requested him to take up the matter with the Chief Minister.