The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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PUNJAB

Abohar
Raksha Bandhan celebrations: Hundreds of students participated in the Raksha Bandhan celebrations in the Flower Valley Public School here on Saturday. The girl students applied vermilion on the forehead of each male child before tying rakhi. Sweets and toffees were exchanged in an environment that was charged with emotion and affection. It was virtually a spectacular show with a wide range of rakhi being displayed on hundreds of hands. In the rakhi making and greeting cards making contest that was held on the occasion, the winners were adjudged by Kiran Vij and Sandhya Setia as: Junior classes: 1. Simranjit 2. Sonali 3. Shaifali Midha; middle classes: 1. Aditi Asija 2. Manav Babbar; senior classes: 1. Shweta Kataria 2. Ramandeep Kaur 3. Dipika Jain.

Scouts take out rally to create social awareness: An eight kilometre hike that started from the base camp in village Kerakhera and dispersed at the same place after touching Dhaani Des Raj was one of the activities undertaken during the the five-day Tritiya Sopan Scouting camp which concluded at the Government High School on Saturday. On the way, the scouts learnt about the functioning of hot mix plant and farming, scout master Bhupinder Utreja informed. The participants earlier took out a rally to create awareness among the villagers against illiteracy, drugs and female foeticide. Headmaster Sushil Kumar Goyal and district scout commissioner Darshan Lal Chugh exhorted the students to participate in the scouts and guides training at all phases and spread feelings of patriotism.

AMRITSAR
Refresher course: Guru Nanak Dev University will organise a three-week refresher course in performing arts from September 5 to 25 in Academic Staff College (ASC) of the university here. Dr H.S. Bhatia, director, ASC, said the course was being conducted in collaboration with the Department of Music. Dr Bhagwant Kaur, professor and head, Department of Music, has been appointed subject coordinator of the course.

Barnala
Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti constituted: A eleven-member Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti of Barnala was constituted here on Saturday to lend its support to the nationwide-protest lodged for re-allotment of land to the shrine board. Convener Ram Niwas Sharma said that the Sangarsh Samiti would organise a prabhat pheri on August 11 and would also stage a blockade for two hours.

Teachers get yoga training: As many as 34 DPI teachers of government schools of Barnala took a training in yoga to train the students in their respective schools. The five-day training programme was conducted at the Government Boys School, Barnala under the Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan. Ravi Bansal, district president of Patanjali Yog Peeth, Barnala, imparted training to the teachers. He said that the teachers were trained in various discipline of yoga and pranayam.

BASSI PATHANA
Sapling plantation: To create awareness among the masses for making Punjab as a green state, the Student Organisation of India (SOI) has initiated “Plant trees, save environment” drive in the state. The members and office bearers of the organisation would go around the state to plant trees and create awareness, said Gurpreet Singh Raju, national president of the SOI, while addressing a function at Mairan village on Saturday.

HOSHIARPUR
73 cases of power theft: A team of the PSEB, Hoshiarpur circle, conducted raids on a residential colony of the Police Lines located in the Civil Lines and Rishi Nagar areas in the wee hours on Friday to check the theft of power and detected 73 cases of power theft by officials of the law protecting agency. According to executive engineer, PSEB, City Division, Harish Sharma, out of the checked 273 connections, 73 were found stealing power. Penalties of more than Rs 8 lakh had been imposed.

PATHANKOT
Old Students Assn: The installation ceremony of the Old Students Association was held here on Friday. Punjab transport minister Mohan Lal was the chief guest. Sudershan Verma newly elected president of the association was administered the oath with other office-bearers, including general secretary B.R.Gupta and treasurer Raman Gupta.

3 held under Excise Act: The police arrested Satnam Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Geeti and reovered 3,000 ML illicit liquor from their possession here on Saturday. A case under sections 61/1/14, Excise Act, has been registered against them.

PATIALA
Teachers transferred: There were 222 surplus teachers of various subjects working in urban and sub-urban areas of Patiala district. Out of this, 167 have been transferred to the schools that were short of teachers whereas 55 were shifted to the needy schools. DEO (elementary) Harvinder Kaur and Ashok Bhalla, circle education officer, did this rationalisation on the basis of the Punjab government policy.

SANGRUR
Lok Bhalai Party’s plea: The Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to enact a law to confiscate the properties of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats on the pattern of smugglers. District president of the party Sardar Ali said here on Friday that the LBP was making efforts to expose the corrupt. He said party president Balwant Singh Ramoowalia also wanted to see a corruption-free society.

Man commits suicide: Karnail Singh (50) of Ram Nagar Sibia village, near here, allegedly committed suicide on Thursday by consuming poison. Karnail was a labourer in the Canal Department. DSP Pritpal Singh Thind said Amarjit Kaur of the same village had complained to the police that Karnail made obscene postures near her house under the influence of liquor. Later, he consumed some poisonous substance and was taken to the local Civil Hospital where he died.

Punjab Agro DM booked: After conducting an inquiry into corruption charges, the local Vigilance Bureau has registered a case against Yash Pal Gupta, district manager (DM), Punjab Agro, Mansa (earlier posted at Sangrur), and Bhupinder Kumar, inspector, Punjab Agro, Sunam. The case has been registered under Section 7, 13 (2) 88, Prevention of Corruption Act, on the complaint of Rajnish Kansal from Sunam, who has been running a rice-sheller for the past many years. This was stated by local Vigilance DSP Roop Singh Maur here on Saturday.

CHANDIGARH

PANCHKULA
Blood donated: A total of 50 units of blood were donated at blood donation camp at Government College, Panchkula, Sector 1, here on Saturday. A seven-member team led by Dr Seema Ghai, in charge, blood bank, Sector 6, conducted the camp inaugurated by R.K. Kataria, DC Panchkula. Sapling plantation was also organised at the occasion.

HARYANA

KALKA
Elected: Kulbeer Rana and Sanjeev Jassal have been elected president and secretary, respectively, of the Bharat Vikas Parishad, Kalka. Vinit Goel has been elected as cashier, Pooja Goel as co-ordinator, Madan Lal Chaudhary, Ashok Jindal and Swati Garg as vice-presidents, Shiv Kumar and Sanjeev Aggarwal as press secretaries, Narinder Gupta and Anil Bassi as assistant secretaries, Navneet Bhasin and Chaman Lal Goel as assistant cashiers and Ashok Jindal was elected as auditor unanimously.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
4 arrested: After having received a number of complaints, a police party on Saturday raided a gambling den at Nalyan ka Naun on western outskirts of town and arrested four persons red-handed while gambling. Reports said the police also recovered an amount of Rs 520 from them and challaned them under Section 13,3,67 of the Gambling Act. They were later released on bail by the police. Those caught while gambling are Suresh Kumar, Budhi Ram, Harmesh Kumar and Tulsiram.

HAMIRPUR
2 die in accident: Two devotees have been killed and 40 injured when a truck carrying them plunged into a gorge near Shahtalai under Badsar subdivision. Pawana Devi (35) and Gagan Deep (10), were killed in the accident. Thirteen passengers have been admitted at Shahtalai and Badsar hospitals. The truck (PB10A- W 7912), was returning after paying obeisance at Baba Balak Nath temple, Deothsidh, to Ludhiana when it met with an accident on Saturday.

KANGRA
2 youths arrested: The police arrested two youths for stealing BSNL telephone cable at Banuva Daka and recovered the stolen cable from their possession and impounded a three wheeler used in the crime on Saturday, the police said. The Jawalamukhi police said two youths, Yashpal Singh and Sureshpal Singh, both residents of Hoshiarpur, had been indulging in the BSNL cable thefts and were caught at Banuva Daka along with the stolen cable.

NAHAN
Dharna staged: Employees of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC), staged dharna for two hours in front of office of the regional manager on Saturday, demanding restoration of a bus permit. The HRTC Employees Union led by president, Sukh Ram, expressed strong resentment on cancellation of the bus permit of the Nahan HRTC depot on the Manali-Dehra Dun route and demanded immediate restoration of the permit.

Liquor shop: The mahila mandal, Andheri, Sangrah tehsil, has demanded to close newly opened liquor shop in village because it is situated adjacent to Government Senior Secondary School in the village. President of Mahila mandal, Leela Chauhan, secretary, Raksha Devi and block organiser of Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Kumari Ramesh, said they have written to the district administration to close the liquor shop, which had been opened adjacent to the GSSS, Andheri.

NURPUR
Phone cable theft: Telephone cable theft for the past two nights has disrupted telecommunication network of 200 telephone lines which irked subscribers. According to information, the BSNL telephone cable for 200 telephone pairs with 30 m length was stolen from Ward no 2 on Thursday. The cable thieves again stole a 70 m telephone cable last night. It is suspected that a gang of cable thieves cut the telephone cable and burnt it to extract copper wires. The BSNL has lodged its complaint with the police but no clue has been found so far to nab culprits.

SHIMLA
Postponed: The general house of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) to be held on August 14 has been postponed. Since all MPs, MLAs and senior leaders were likely to attend the meeting, it was being expected that important decisions would have been taken, especially with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections. A party spokesperson said the general house had been postponed due to an important meeting of HPCC chief, Thakur Kaul Singh at Delhi.

Elected: Following have been elected as office-bearers of the Himachal Pradesh Dental Officers Association. President- Dr Vijay Chauhan, vice-president- Prakriti, general secretary- Dr Kamal, joint secretary- Dr Vinod Gupta, press secretary- Dr Pravesh Jhingta, treasurer- Dr Ashish Justa and chief coordinator- Dr Kavish Khanna.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

JAMMU
2 drown in flash floods: Two people, including an old woman, drowned in flash floods in separate incidents near the Line of Control as heavy rains struck normal life in Poonch district, official sources said on Saturday.The woman, identified as Mehda Begum, was killed when she and her daughter Praveen Akhtar were crossing a drain with their cattle in Salwah village of Poonch district on Friday, they said.While Mehda died, her daughter was rescued by the locals.Meanwhile, an unidentified person was also swayed by the floods at the Mankot area here, which witnessed heavy rains on Friday.

SRINAGAR
Militant killed: Troops killed a militant in an encounter in north Kashmir on Saturday, official sources said.They said the troops of 21 Rashtriya Rifles noticed a suspicious movement at Bawan Watsar Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara.In the shootout, an unidentified militant was killed. One AK rifle, three magazines, 60 rounds of ammunition, three hand grenades and one pouch were recovered from the militant.

Registration of houseboats: The number of registered houseboats in Srinagar is around 1200 and ban has been imposed on fresh registration and construction of houseboats in late 80s. The director tourism, Kashmir, said conservation of the Dal and Nageen lakes warranted the number of houseboats should be feasible. He said supply of Cedar timber on subsidized rates by the government for repairs of boats was being taken care of by the forest department.

Probe into girls’ death: The district magistrate Kupwara said reports regarding death of two girls, Furkan Riyaz and Rabia Riyaz, on August 2 was under investigation. He clarified that Furkan Riyaz and her another sister Rizwan Riyaz, who is alive, was also a witness of Tabinda Gani rape-cum-murder case. He added ,apparently, the deaths seemed accidental but for caution the police was investigating the matter.

Eco-tourism plan: Asserting that the state has tremendous potential of eco-tourism, the chief wildlife warden of Jammu and Kashmir said a comprehensive management action plan had been formulated for promotion of eco-tourism.He said the wildlife department in collaboration with the tourism department of Karnataka were undertaking training of staff, tour operators, wildlife guides, bird watchers and the locals involved in management.