CHANDIGARH

Panchkula
Liquor vends challaned: A team from the district excise and taxation department today challaned nine liquor vends at Kalka for selling liquor before 9 am. Deputy excise and taxation commissioner (excise) J.S. Chahal said there were numerous complaints against the vendors that they started selling liquor early in the morning. A team comprising assistant excise and taxation officer Nawab Singh and inspector S.D. Sharma reached the town and found that at least nine vends had been opened till 8 am, said Chahal. — TNS

HARYANA

AMBALA
Fire destroys oil drums: Several drums of transformer oil were destroyed by fire at Dhulkot power station in Ambala City early on Saturday morning. The drums were kept in a godown. The police informed the fire brigade about the incident at 2 am. Two units of fire brigade rushed to the spot and the fire was doused after two hours of struggle. The exact cause of the fire could not be ascertained so far. It is said the incident occurred due to short circuit. — OC

BHIWANI
Petrol station looted: Three armed youths looted thousands of rupees from a petrol station at Kaunt village on Friday. They also opened fire at employees of the station. The incident happened when the employees were asleep. The trio attacked them and attempted to open the door of the office. They opened fire at Ajit and Mandeep when they protested. Ajit sustained a bullet injury in his hand. The miscreants ran away after looting the cash. The police has registered a case. — OC

FATEHABAD
Theft case: The police has not been able to find any clues in the theft incident at the residence of Subhash Sharma, director of the MM Group of Educational Institutions on Friday. The thieves could not do much damage as they decamped with artificial ornaments, probably taking those to be original. The thieves had entered the house by breaking a grill of a window. — OC

KURUKSHETRA
Man commits suicide: A man allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a rope in his room at his house in the city on Friday. Karan Singh (50) took the extreme step as he was under under depression since a long time, his family said. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. According to preliminary reports, it appeared to be a case of suicide as there were no injury marks on the body of the deceased, the police said. A case has been registered and investigations are in progress. — PTI

SIRSA
Municipal panel chief assaulted: Four persons allegedly assaulted the president of the Ellenabad Municipal Committee and his family members at their house, the police said on Friday. Khiali Ram Mauriya, his wife Girdawari Devi and son Surinder were assaulted on Thursday when they asked two persons to leave the area, after the latter were found arguing in front of their house in an “inebriated state”, said the police. The four accused forcibly barged into their house and assaulted Surinder and his parents. — PTI

YAMUNANAGAR
Lok adalat: As many as 291 cases were disposed off at a lok adalat organised by the District Legal Services Authority held at the district courts complex here on Saturday. Secretary of the authority and CJM Poonam Suneja said the cases, which were disposed off at the adalat, included 132 civil cases and two cases related to the Hindu Marriage Act. The adalat was held on the instructions of the Haryana Legal Service Authority. — TNS

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Suicide: Monika Devi (25) of Bada-da-Ghat village, near Ghumarwin, is said to have consumed some poisonous substance and was rushed to the regional hospital here after she was first brought to the nearest primary health centre at Bhararadi on Friday afternoon. Reports said doctors tried their best to save her but she could not be saved and breathed her last in the evening. The police has registered a case and are investigating while her body was handed over to her family after the post- mortem examination. — OC

FIR registered: District Civil Supplies Department here has registered an FIR against a government depot holder on Friday. Reports said when the police raided the government fair price shop of Pritam Singh at Reeh village in Suharghat area it found that there was no record of any kind kept of any stock or sale and supply of the commodities like rice, pulses, sugar, salt etc. and the depot holder had no explanation for this serious lapse on his part. — OC

Misuse of govt office: The district unit of state employees federation here has demanded the government to take immediate action to ensure that the central office of state federation at Shimla Secretariat is not exploited by anybody for any objectionable activities. Addressing mediapersons here of Friday, district unit president Chetram Verma and general secretary Anil Chadha said presently the state employees have been divided into five state-level organisations and the state government had not given recognition to any of them but one of the organisations, which hardly had any notable following in the field. It had forcibly taken possession of this room by breaking its locks. — OC

CHAMBA
Rain plays havoc: Downpour accompanied by thunderstorm caused damages and interrupted essential services, including electricity supply, water supply and telecom services, in the Dharwala area of the district, 25 km from here, on Thursday evening. Some houses have developed cracks in certain areas of the Dharwala belt. Electricity transmission lines and telephone lines were broken down by the rain. Water sources were even damaged in the area, thereby, disrupting the water supply. A loss of more than Rs 2 crore has been reported so far, sources said. — OC

HAMIRPUR
Condemned: The Nadaun Block Congress Committee has condemned certain Congressmen for targeting HPCC president Viplove Thakur and vice-president Rajinder Zar for party’s defeat in the Hamirpur byelection. The committee members said some leaders who had contested against the party nominees as rebels during the last Assembly elections were issuing baseless statements against the party leaders now. — TNS

Workshop: The electrical engineering department of the NIT will organise a five-day workshop from Monday. The workshop would be inaugurated by Prof R.L. Sharma, director of the NIT. Being organised under the technical education quality improvement programme (TEQIP), the workshop would provide ‘hands-on-training to the participants in repair and maintenance of electrical and electronic equipment. 
— TNS

KULLU
Stone laid: Khimi Ram, Deputy Speaker, state Vidhan Sabha, laid the foundation stone of a veterinary hospital at Jallugran village in the Parvati Valley, about 20 km from here, on Saturday. The hospital would be sixth of its kind in the state, which would benefit the four panchayats of Jallugran, Ratocha, Chong and Shat of this district. Kullu district has 16 veterinary hospitals, 93 veterinary dispensaries and one polyclinic, which are functional and provide quality vet-aid. — OC

KUMARHATTI
Havildar cremated: The mortal remains of Havildar Satwinder Singh (23) were consigned to flames with full military honours at Kawan village near Nalagarh on Saturday. Satwinder, who had completed his training at AEC Training College and Centre, Panchmadi, Madhya Pradesh, was found dead near Agra on June 4. He had reportedly fallen from a running train. The body was brought here on Saturday. A large number of villagers, sitting MLA from Doon Vinod Chandel and Ramshehr naib tehsildhar Thakur Lal Negi attended the funeral. — OC 

Camp concludes: A five-day comprehensive camp, which was held at Army Public School, Dagshai, near here, under the aegis of ‘Satnam Sarva Kalyan Trust’, concluded on Saturday. Dr Harjinder Singh Majhail, director principal of the school, gave a detailed introduction about the activities of the camp and the trust in his concluding address. More than 100 students from different schools participated in the camp and learnt meditation, yoga, music, Gurmat sangeet, martial arts (Gataka), hiking, and trekking etc. — OC

MANDI
NGO’s plea: Activists of the Himalayan Niti Abhiyan, an NGO engaged in promoting environmental awareness in the state, has urged Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal to make villagers stakeholders in the new environment and carbon credit policy and implement the National Forests Rights Act, 2006, throughout the state. Convener of the NGO Guman Singh said the carbon credit policy would not be successful unless villagers were made stakeholders. —TNS

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Srinagar
Boost for bat industry : The Jammu and Kashmir government is setting up a common facility centre in Anantnag district at a cost of Rs 6.57 crore, which will provide seasoning and testing facilities for Kashmir cricket bats. Industries and commerce minister Nawang Rigzin Jora on Saturday said the centre would open up new vistas of exports for cricket bat industry of the state and added that over 12 lakh willow clefts would be seasoned annually. — PTI

Soldier’s body recovered: The body of a soldier buried under a snow avalanche since January this year in north Kashmir has been recovered, official sources said today. They said Kiran Kumar of the Marhatha Light Infantry was buried under a huge avalanche in Rajputy Tekri on January 9 following heaviest snowfall in 20 years. — UNI