R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Body found: The body of an unidentified person was found near sand bed of the proposed Abohar-Fazilka railway track in between villages Dangarkhera and Choohriwala Dhanna on Monday, police sources said. Preliminary investigation indicated that the deceased was murdered with a sharp-edged weapon that was found on the spot along with an empty bottle of beer. A case has been registered under section 302 of the IPC, the police said.

Amritsar
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the Revenue Kanungos Association: president - Navinder Singh Muradpura; senior VP Randhir Singh, VPs - Paramjit and Sukhram; district general secretary - Palwinder; cashier - Jagdish; auditor - Archana Sharma; and joint secy - Vipan.

Bathinda
Indefinite dharna: Workers of the General Samaj Party will go on an indefinite dharna at the Dr Ambedkar park in the city. They will be led by the party’s organising secretary Shyamlal Bishnandi. The dharna is being organised to protest against the demolition carried out by the officials in the city, which the party claims, has affected only the weaker sections of society.

BSNL woes: The general secretary of the Public Library here, Jagdish Singh Ghai, has written to the Chief General Manager (Telecom), Punjab Telecom Services, requesting him to look into the unsatisfactory functioning of BSNL telephones. A request has also been made that the revised and updated telephone directory of Bathinda be published on fine and readable print. —- TNS

Hoshiarpur
Patwari held on graft charge: SSP (VB), Jalandhar division, Surinderjit Singh Mand said a team led by DSP (VB) Daljit Singh today caught a patwari of Halqua Ramtatwali in Garhdiwala sub-tehsil accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from Kanwaljit Singh of Shahpur (Dasuya). Mand said Kanwaljit Singh approached the VB alleging that the Patwari had demanded Rs 3,500 from him for doing intkal (mutation) of his mother Amarjit Kaur’s newly purchased land. Later, the deal was struck at Rs 3,000. The department laid a trap on Tuesday to nab the patwari.

Violence flayed: Punjab Christian Front chief Lawrance Chowdhary condemned the recent arson case of Kandhamal district in Orissa in which two persons, including a woman, were burnt alive. Churches, houses, shops and police posts, etc, were allegedly set ablaze by Vishav Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists. Chowdhary said some of the non-secular forces had tried to disturb peace and integrity of the country and such elements should be crushed.

Kapurthala
Road mishap: Pardeep Mehta (40) of Mohali died, while his friend Baldev Singh sustained injuries when their car collided with a vehicle near Hamira on the GT
Road here on Tuesday. According to information, the duo were on their way to Amritsar. The injured has been admitted to the local civil hospital and is stated
to be out of danger.

Mansa
Office-bearers elected: The Punjab Kisan Union has formed its new units at different villages of this district. District president of the union Balkaran Singh Balli informed that at Gahle village, Ram Singh was elected as president, Kala Singh as secretary, Mithu Singh as cashier, Makhan Singh as vice-president and Balwinder Singh as joint secretary. At Doluwala village, Jagroop Singh was elected as president, Shinder Pal as secretary, Jagmail Singh as cashier, Avtar Singh as vice-president and Chanchal Singh as joint secretary. At Taamkot village, Kuldeep Singh, Gurdas Singh and Karamjeet Singh were elected as president, secretary and cashier, respectively.

PATHANKOT
5 held for gambling: Five persons - Sunil Kumar, Vishavjit, Rattan Lal, David Jhon and Surjit Kumar were held for gambling here on Tuesdayand Rs 1,915 and 52 playing cards were recovered from their possession. All five were booked under the Sections 13, 3 and 67 of the Gambling Act.

Patiala
Visited: Punjabi University's ongoing campaign to make its campus pollution-free and eco-friendly got a shot in the arm with chairman of the University Grants Commission’s National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) Prof C. Thangamuthu and other members of the team planting saplings in South Asian Unity Park on the campus here on Tuesday. The team was here on its three-day visit to the university and its regional campuses to assess and evaluate the overall performance of the university.

Condemned: “The Punjab government’s excise policy has brought international shame to Punjab,” said culture and heritage conservation initiative convenor Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa. He was reacting to the disgraceful incident that took place at Jiwan Plaza, Patiala, on Monday. He has also demanded total review of the policy to check unlimited sale of liquor in Punjab. He gave a call to various cultural, religious and political bodies to join the efforts to build a peoples’ movement to save Punjabi heritage and culture.

Donated: The two-day Shri Krishna festival concluded at Dr Khushdeva Singh Laprosy Patients’ Colony wherein editor-in-chief of Hind Samachar group Vijay Chopra, along with vice-chancellor of Punjabi University Dr Jaspal Singh and artistes of the National Theatre Arts Society, presented Rs 25,351 cash and 25 blankets to Shri Krishan Mandir Kusht Ashram. The money was collected during the NTAS fund-raising cultural programme.

Sangrur
Dhindsa’s resignation sought: Congress MLA Surinder Pal Singh Sibia on Monday demanded resignations of Sangrur MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and his minister son Parminder Singh Dhindsa from their posts for allegedly “pressuring ” the administration to cancel election of the Sangrur Municipal Council’s chief. Sibia claimed in view of election of the District Planning Committee, in which municipal councillors (MCs) cast votes, the administration administered oath to the remaining councillors of the SAD and the BJP by violating rules.

Protest against police: Doctors and others held a march here on Tuesday against the police not arresting those who had attacked Dr K.G. Singla, his wife and Singla Surgical Hospital, following the death of a woman in the hospital on July 12. The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner. The police has so far arrested five persons , though it had registered a case against
150 persons.

CHANDIGARH

Mohali
Cremated: The police recovered the body Ram Singh, who belonged to Himachal Pradesh, from near a taxi stand in Phase I here today. According to information, Ram Singh worked as a cook in a hotel in Phase I some years ago, but had later quit the job. Then he started begging food and moved about in Phase I. The police informed the family members, but no one reportedly came to take the body. The body was later cremated by shopkeepers of Phase I.

HARYANA

Ambala
Seminar: Police DAV Public School, Ambala City, in collaboration with directorate of project, planning and in-service education of the DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi, organised a seminar for teachers on effective ways and means of teaching mathematics. Noted mathematician Sarita Kaushik explained various innovative ways to teach mathematics. Course director Rachna Bhardwaj laid emphasis on how the teachers could make the subject interesting.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Ganga Raksha Manch formed: The district unit of the Patanjali Yoga Samiti here has formed a Ganga Raksha Manch here for the protection of the Ganges. Meeting of the samiti was presided by its president Yogacharya Naresh Nadda here on Tuesday. He said they had chalked a programme to fulfil their objective. Samiti’s press secretary Arun Dogra said the meeting had decided to organise a district-level rally on September 18 here.

NURPUR
Workshop held: The state Education Department organised a special workshop for the principals and head masters of the government, private senior secondary and high schools here in the BTC girls’ school on Tuesday. It was presided by Subash Dhiman, the deputy director of education. The main objective of the workshop was to educate school heads on the Data Capture Format (DCF) prepared and issued by the union ministry of human resources development. Dhiman said DCF would incorporate detailed information on infrastructure, students and teachers’ strength and schools’ academic results.

SHIMLA
IAS awarded PhD degree: An IAS officer of Himachal cadre, Manisha Sridhar, currently posted as principal secretary, cooperation, has been awarded the PhD degree by IIT Delhi. The topic of her thesis was “technology innovation factor and patent activity in the Indian Industry”. She is the first scholar to receive the degree on the emerging area of patenting.