The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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

PUNJAB

Abohar
Sneh Lata crowned Teej Ki Rani: Sneh Lata Gaba was crowned as Teej Ki Rani during the colourful Teej festival organised by the Bharat Vikas Parishad, secretary of the NGO Kashmiri Lal Bansal informed on Monday. Sunita Makkar was the chief guest while Simmy Garg presided over the festival, which was attended by many. Renu Threja threw light upon the significance of the festival. Children presented a variety of programmes, including folk dance and songs, to entertain the audience. Ritu Wadhwa and B.S. Bansal conducted the programme. On the occasion, tricycles were presented to the differently abled.

Audition test conducted for Miss Punjaban: Contestants from Fazilka, Muktsar and Sriganganagar went through the audition test organised by the PTC, a private television channel, in the first phase of selections for the Miss Punjaban contest being held at Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College, principal Neelam Arun Mittu informed on Monday. Ten students of the host college are among the list of candidates who have made it to the list of those selected.

BALTANA
Mobile snatched: Sapna Katoch, a resident of Panchkula and working in private office at Baltana, reported that her mobile was snatched in daylight by an unknown youth near Baltana main market on Monday when she was on her way to office at around 10 am. She stated a youth on a motorcycle had hit her from back and snatched the phone. She also stated that the boy had covered his face with a cloth. The report was submitted to the police.

Bathinda
Blood donation: The Aasra Welfare Society held a blood donation camp at Gurukull Computer Hardware and Network Institute here on Monday where 24 volunteers donated blood.

Tree plantation: The DAV College and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in a joint operation planted around 500 saplings at Guru Nanak Dev Senior Secondary School here besides two government schools at Bhucho, said J.S. Anand, principal of the college.

Teachers’ meet: The Unemployed B.Ed Teachers’ Front (Punjab), Bathinda unit, in a meeting held here on Monday announced that they would hold a protest march in the city on August 9 against the failure of government to provide jobs to the unemployed teachers in the state.

Hoshiarpur
Naina Devi deaths mourned: Members of the District Bar Association (DBA) abstained from courts after 11 am on Monday to condole the death of pilgrims at the Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh. At a meeting presided over by DBA chief R.P. Dhir, members expressed shock over the tragic incident and prayed for the peace of departed souls. They condemned the management of the shrine for not making proper arrangements for the safety of devotees.

ISO certification: Local Indira Colony, adopted by an NGO, Clean and Green Association (CGA), has been recently awarded ISO 14001-2004 certification by the central government. To celebrate the achievement, the NGO organised a function here on Sunday. CGA founder and chairman Deepak Mittal said the NGO initiated the project of making Hoshiarpur clean and green in 2004 and more than two dozen localities had been covered.

LALRU
Liquor seized: The Lalru police today recovered around 440 boxes of liquor being smuggled from Chandigarh to Rajasthan. According to the police, they received information that a truck containing liquor had left Chandigarh. The police set up a naka near Ghollumajra village and intercepted the truck containing 440 boxes of English liquor. The local police has arrested Swarn Singh and Sandeep Singh, both residents of Jammu and Kashmir. A case has been registered against the accused at Lalru police station.

Nawanshahr
Blood camp: The Nawanshahr chapter of the All-India Crime Prevention Society in collaboration with the Rotary Club and the Blood Donors Colony Welfare Association organised a voluntary blood donation camp at Rotary Bhavan here on Sunday. The camp was inaugurated by the deputy commissioner’s wife Prajakta Nilkanth. Fifty units of blood were collected at the camp.

PATIALA
Saplings planted: The Environment Society of Government Bikram College of Commerce, Patiala, launched a plantation drive in the college premises, as per the direction of the Punjab government. Principal Satinder Kaur said the six former principals of the college and the participants, including in charge of the environment society Prof Harnek Singh, planted saplings in the campus.

Theatre fortnight: The National Theatre Arts Society, Patiala, launched Tiranga Theatre Fortnight of their prestigious “Kul Bartaant”, a Punjabi adaptation of a radio play, at Baradari Gardens on Monday. Dr Sudhir Verma, head of Sadbhavna Medical and Heart Institute, who was the chief guest, lauded the efforts of NTAS and distributed prizes to as many as 30 artistes. NTAS director Pran Sabharwal said that Tiranga Theatre Fortnight will cover three main districts - Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala and Sangrur.

CHANDIGARH

ELECTED: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Shree Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Subhash Nagar, Mani Majra (UT): president-Dharam Pal Sharma; general secretary- Ram Karan Sharma; finance secretary- Surender Kumar Vats; auditor- G.C.Manchanda; propaganda secretary- Harish Sharma; store in charge - Sahi Ram Chauhan; and members- Bal Kishan Sharma, Puran Singh, Ashok Sharma, Hans Raj Thakur and Tilak Raj.

MOHALI
Save earth week: In an effort to sensitise the impressionable minds of children towards the cause of environmental preservation, the “Mission Save Earth” week observed at Ashmah International School concluded here on Monday. The week, which aimed at generating interest amongst kids in nature’s invaluable bounty to mankind, saw a hectic activity on the last day as students displayed their works and craftsmanship based on environment.

HARYANA

Hisar
Villagers torch liquor shop: Agitated over the behaviour of drunkards, residents of Gianpura on Monday torched the liquor shop in their village. The villagers also burnt a jeep and three motorcycles of the owner of the liquor shop. Complaining that drunkards used to tease women and create trouble, the villagers had been demanding the closure of the liquor shop for quite some time but no action was taken by the local authorities.

REWARI
5 cows die of asphyxiation: Five out of 12 cows apparently died of asphyxiation when they were being taken in a small vehicle by smugglers. The smugglers left all cows, including the dead ones, on the Delhi-Jaipur highway near Nikhri village, 12 km from here, on Sunday. A postmortem of dead cows was conducted at a veterinary hospital in Dharuhera and the live ones were sent to a gaushala near Bawal.

Internet services: Poor functioning of the BSNL broadband Internet services here has been causing trouble to numerous consumers in the Rewari region. Repeated complaints made to the senior officials concerned for rectification of erratic services has yielded no results.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Freedom fighter dies: Praja Mandal freedom fighter Ganga Ram Gauttam (85) died at his native village Baloh, near here, on Saturday. His funeral was attended by large number of political leaders and panchayat representatives, including former Congress MLA Birooram Kishore.

CHAMBA
Bear kills one: One person was killed on the spot and four others were injured when a bear attacked them at the Gudda beat of the Baindal forest range here on Sunday. According to the Forest Department sources, the deceased was identified as Shyamdin, resident of Luddu village of the district. On receiving the information about the attack, a team of forest officials rushed to the site. An immediate relief of Rupees 1 lakh would be provided to the next of kin of the deceased.

2 feared dead: Two persons were feared dead while four others were seriously injured, when a jeep fell into a gorge at Dalli village near Holi, 75 km from here, on Sunday. The police officials from the Bharmour tribal subdivisional headquarters rushed to the spot to trace the bodies of the deceased, the report said. It would take sometime to extricate the bodies, it added.

HAMIRPUR
Bus falls into gorge: As many as 18 passengers were injured when the bus in which they were travelling plunged into a gorge at Sangarla on Monday. The injured were admitted to Badsar hospital in a serious condition. The HRTC bus was on its way from Raiyan to Mehra.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
Man dies: Pawan Kumar (28) was killed when the roof of his house caved in due to heavy rainfall in the Akhnoor tehsil of Jammu district on Monday. Official sources said Pawan died on the spot as the roof collapsed.

SRINAGAR
Rs 555 cr for water schemes: The state government has approved Rs 555.03 crore for the Under Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) in the valley, an official spokesman said on Sunday. The new water supply scheme will cover 1,199 habitations and benefit a population of 10.84 lakh people. Under the ARWSP, 21 schemes would be completed this year at a cost of Rs 40.67 crore and would provide potable water facility to 40,000 persons in 44 habitations, the spokesman said. In addition, 54 water supply schemes were expected to be completed during the current financial year under phase IV of the ARWSP to provide drinking water to about 2.62 lakh people in 251 habitations, the spokesman added.

De-addiction camp: The police organised a de-addiction camp at the Town Hall in Sopore on Sunday. Over 200 persons attended the camp and were counselled by the experts. About 18 of these were referred to the de-addiction centre in Srinagar. Drug addiction has become a big menace in an otherwise conservative Kashmir society with youths, including a decent proportion of girls, have taken to different forms of substance abuse. Police sources said hashish was illegally grown across Kashmir and was common among boys, while girls resorted to painkillers.

Body recovered: The police recovered the body of a youth from the Jhelum on Sunday. Official sources said the body of 28-year-old Samir Ahmad Dar was fished out from the Jhelum near Safa Kadal bridge. However, it was not known how he drowned in the river, they added.