AMRITSAR
Jashan-2008 begins: Inter-departmental cultural competitions, Jashan-2008, of Guru Nanak Dev University campus was inaugurated here on Wednesday at the Dasmesh Auditorium with competitions of poetical symposium. More than 1,000 student artistes from 37 departments of the university are participating in the event which will conclude on March 2. Dr A. K. Thukral, dean, Students Welfare, inaugurated the festival and Baljit Singh Sekhon, director, Youth Welfare, was also present on the occasion.

Land record digitisation: Computerisation of land record of this district is likely to be completed by the year-end. With the completion of the process, copies of land record would be available at the click of the mouse. Deputy commissioner K.S. Pannu said most of the data from the four tehsils in the district had been digitised by two teams with 30 members each, working in two shifts.

BARNALA
Youth commits suicide: One farm labourer Labh Singh (26), of Tallewal village, hanged himself to death. He was facing hardships for quite a long time and was living in depression. He is survived by his wife and two minor sons. The police has registered a case under section 174 of the Crpc. The dead body after the post mortem has been handed over to the family of the deceased. 

Bathinda
Trains to halt: The residents of Goniana have welcomed the Railways’ decision to continue the halt of the Punjab Mail and the Janata Express at the station. Sources in the Railways said conceding the residents’ demands the railway had withdrawn its decision of cancelling the stoppage of the trains at the station from March 1. 

Annual function: The Malwai Punjabi Satth, Mandi Kalan (Bathinda), would organise its fourth annual function on February 29 at Tajo Patti Dharamshala, Mandi Kalan, where Dalbir Singh would be honoured with the Karam Singh Memorial Award and Bhupinder Singh Artist with the Lehna Singh Majithia Award. 

Blood donation: To mark the bhog ceremony of Mata Jangeer Kaur of Mandi Kalan village, a blood donation camp was organised here on Wednesday where 25 units of blood was collected. 

Defaulters property sold: Two properties of loan defaulters worth Rs 21 lakh were today sold by the State Bank of Patiala, Dharamkot branch. Assistant general manager J.K Gupta informed that 25 per cent of the money is recovered on the spot which amounted to Rs 5.43 lakh. He said that the bank has a number of other properties listed for sale in March under intensive recovery campaign. However those interested in settling their dues without auction are welcomed and would be given suitable treatment, he added. 

Protest rally: On the call given by the joint forum of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) against the realisation of their demands, a protest rally was organised by the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant Employees’ Federation in front of the main gate of the thermal plant here on Wednesday. Addressing the rally, the federation’s president Gursewak Singh Hari Nau demanded from the government the abolition of Electricity Act, 2003, regularisation of contractual employees and reinstatement of the terminated employees among other things. 

Demanded: State president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Kiranjit Singh Gehri, in a press release issued here on Wednesday, stated that he presented a memorandum to the Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, in which he had demanded that the farmers of Punjab should be allowed to purchase Bt cotton seed from Gujarat. 

Chandigarh
Grant for kin of Akali workers: SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh each for the dependents of two Akali workers who had died in an accident while returning from Delhi after attending the SAD-BJP rally. One of the deceased, Nirmal Singh was from Gardala village in Ropar district and other Darshan Singh Fauji form Jangpur village in Ludhiana district. 

Hoshiarpur
Agent booked: A fake travel agent duped a person of Rs 12 lakh in the name of sending him abroad. The Mahilpur police has booked Hardev Singh of Badowal in this connection. According to police sources, Raj Kumar of Bagpur alleged that Hardev took Rs 12 lakh for sending him abroad. But neither did he send him abroad nor returned the money. 

Peddler nabbed: The Sadar police, on a tip-off, arrested Pappu Parjapat of local Mohalla Sunder Nagar and seized 4.5 kg of ganja from him. He was booked under various sections of the NDPS Act. 

Pistol seized: The Model Town police seized a .315-bore desi pistol along with a live cartridge from a youth on Monday night. According to police sources, he was booked under sections 25, 54 and 59 of the  Arms Act. 

Jalandhar
120 CT students get degrees: Nearly 120 students of CT Institute of Management and IT received degrees during the second annual convocation held at the Shahpur campus, here today. Vice-chancellor of Punjab Technical University Dr SK Salwan was the chief guest on the occasion. He awarded degrees to the students who completed MBA, MCA and BCA courses between 2005 and 2007. Chairman medal was awarded to Onkarbir Kaur for securing first position in the university examination. Dr Salwan urged the degree holders to start their own ventures. 

Mansa
Vocational training: The vocational training scheme for girls would now begin in 30 more schools of Mansa district. The district project coordinator of the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan, Darshan Singh Dhillon, informed that a total of 12,600 girls were getting benefits of this scheme. The scheme is already operational in 100 schools of this district, including 24 schools of block Bhikhi, 46 schools of block Budhladha, 14 schools of Juneer, 13 schools of Sardulgarh and 33 schools of Mansa block. 

Nawanshahr
New facility: There’s good news for Nawanshar residents. Now, they can know the status of their applications filed in various government departments at the click of a mouse. Deputy commissioner Gurpal Singh Bhati inaugurated the ‘online service’ at Suvidha Centre, here on Wednesday.  The facility will be extremely useful for the NRIs, the DC added.

PATHANKOT
Murder case solved: The police claimed here on Wednesday that it had solved the murder case of Rajinder Kumar of Sangalpura,Gurdaspur. SSP, Lok Nath Angra, said Heera Lal of Sangalpura, Gurdaspurand Mohan Lal of Behrampur had been arrested.The financial transaction was the cause behind the murder.