R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

SANGRUR
10-year RI for raping minor: Additional Sessions Judge Darshan Singh Malwai has awarded 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) to Bikkar Singh of Jakhepal village,near Sunam, for raping a minor girl of Fatehgarh village,near Lehra. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him under Section 376, IPC. The court also awarded RI for five years to Bikkar, besides a fine of Rs 2,500 under Section 366, IPC. It also awarded RI for five years to Bikkar, besides a fine of Rs 2,500, under Section 363, IPC. The sentences shall run concurrently.

CHANDIGARH

HARYANA

AMBALA
Honoured: The Ambala unit of Haryana Janhit Congress honoured families of the martyrs on the occasion of Baisakhi on Saturday. Maj Amit Ahuja’s father and Jodh Singh’s son were honoured. Jodh singh was an eyewitness of Jaliyanawala Bagh killings. The senior leaders of the party Ramesh Singhla, Arjun Lal Kalra, Viresh Shandilaya, Kulwant Singh Manakpur and Ashok Baratia also spoke on this occasion.

CHANDIGARH
Kharif season: Haryana has set a target to produce 51.26 lakh tonnes of foodgrains during kharif season, as against 49.03 lakh tonnes last year. This was decided in a meeting of the state-level coordination committee for agricultural production, which met here on Friday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He said he had written to the Prime Minister and union agriculture minister for timely supply of DAP fertiliser to the state.

Biomass power project: A 6-MW biomass power project will soon be set up in Palwal block of Faridabad at a cost of about Rs 27 crore by the True Electrics and Transmission Pvt Ltd. An MoU to this effect was signed by director of the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) Sumita Misra and Pradeep Anand, managing director of the company. Misra said power from this project would be fed to the state grid for which the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission had already fixed a tariff of Rs 4 per kwh.

Health campaign: The Haryana health department under the national rural health mission has launched a health check-up campaign in schools to examine the health of children between the age group of 5 and 15 years. A spokesman of the health department said the campaign had been launched to examine teeth, eyes, anaemia and malnutrition amongst children and to provide them with free of cost medication. He said during the campaign the children would be educated about the nutritional value of food, importance of proper diet and basic hygiene.

KAITHAL
Sathi variety banned: To check overexploitation of underground water and save the environment from pollution, deputy commissioner Vikas Gupta, exercising his powers as district magistrate, has banned the plantation of the sathi variety of paddy in the district. Through a separate order, he has also banned the burning of leftover wheat straw.

Ex-MC chief, husband booked for cheating: Former chairman of the local municipal council Sunita Bansal and her husband, Krishan Bansal, have been booked under various sections of the IPC on charges of cheating, forgery, embezzlement and misappropriation of public money to the tune of crores of rupees by allegedly committing grave irregularities in allotment of construction works by misusing emergency powers of the Haryana Municipal Act 1973. Sunita was suspended by the director of local bodies, Haryana, on March 25.

REWARI
4 held for attacking cops: The police has arrested four members of a family, comprising Mool Chand Yadav, his son Ram Phal Yadav and his two daughters Usha Yadav and Rajesh Yadav, all residents of Tint village, 12 km from here, for allegedly assaulting a police party as well as a team of DHBVN officials of the Pali substation. The officials had yesterday gone to Tint village to disconnect Mool Chand Yadav’s electricity connection.

SIRSA
Hooda lays stones: Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda inaugurated seven projects and laid foundation stones at four places during his daylong visit here on Saturday. He laid foundation stones of a 132-kV substation and a 33-kV substation at Khairekan and Panihari villages, respectively. The substations would be constructed by the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, respectively. Hooda assured that the government would provide 22-hour power supply, after the addition of 5,000 MW of power in the next two-and-a-half years.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

HAMIRPUR
Course concludes: A short-term course on safe use and maintenance of electronic and electrical gadgets organised by the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department concluded on Friday. Prof R.L. Sharma, director, NIT Hamirpur, was the chief guest of the valedictory ceremony. He encouraged the participants to utilise the knowledge gained in the area of maintenance of electronic and electrical gadgets in their daily life. Proceedings of the course were also released and he gave certificates to the participants. Dr Rajeevan Chandel, head of the department, said the knowledge of safe use and maintenance of radio, tape recorders, television, DTH, mobiles, electric iron, fan, domestic wiring and others gadgets were given to the participants of the course.

NAHAN
Worker killed: Niranjan Singh (30), an employee of Valley Iron, a steel factory situated at Dhaulan Kuan under Paonta subdivision was killed inside the factory in the wee hours on Saturday. Police sources said heavy iron loaded on the crane of the factory fell on the head of Niranjan Singh, who was reportedly working under the crane. He reportedly died on his way to Jolly Grant Hospital in Uttarakhand. The deceased was a resident of Majri in Rampur Bharapur area. The body was handed over to his family members after a post-mortem examination. The Paonta police has registered a case in this regard.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
Plan reviewed: The implementation of the Prime Minister's reconstruction plan for Jammu and Kashmir was reviewed by a central team on Saturday. The team headed by union secretary of border management, MHA, Shantanu Consal, reviewed the implementation of the reconstruction plan. Consal also called on Azad and apprised him of the observations made by the team, official sources said.

Housing policy: The state government has formulated a comprehensive housing policy with the objective of providing affordable shelter to people in the state. State urban development minister Tariq Hameed Karra said the aim was to create an environment for larger participation of the private, public and cooperative sectors in the development of the housing sector.

Srinagar
Two ultras killed: Two militants were killed in separate encounters in Pulwama and Kupwara districts today, while two others were arrested in another operation yesterday. Acting on a tip-off, the police and the Army in a joint operation killed a militant at Kandi in Kupwara district. The identity of the militant is yet to be established. In another operation, a militant was killed after an exchange of fire between the Pulwama police and militants in Chakura area. The identity of the slain militant is yet to be established. Police sources said the militant could belong to the LeT.

Satellite education: Satellite interactive terminals (SITS) in 16 government higher secondary schools have started functioning through educational satellite network, sources in the education department said. The school education department had been allotted two days per week (Monday and Thursday) for delivering lectures through the network, director, Mohammad Rafi said. The first lecture was delivered on Friday, he added.

2 killed in mishaps: Two persons were killed, while six were injured in separate accidents in the Kashmir valley, official sources said on Saturday. Tanvi Yadav (3), a resident of Pune was killed and four others were injured, when their van overturned at Drangbal, Pampore, on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. In another incident, Muneer Ahmad Lone was killed, while another person was injured, when a vehicle hit their motorcycle at Barzulla on the Srinagar Airport road. Meanwhile, Athar Fayaz Shah (5), was injured when a motorcyclist hit him in Batpora in Baramulla district.