The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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PUNJAB

Abohar
Accused surrenders: One more accused identified as Karamjit Singh of village Dharampura has surrendered before the railway police here, sources said. The GRP had on June 25 registered case against eight persons for staging a dharna on the railway track here thereby obstructing movement of the Delhi-bound Intercity Express. Three of them had already surrendered; pressure was being mounting up to ensure surrender by rest of the accused, police said today. The dharna was staged to express resentment over delay in arrest of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief.

Amritsar
Withdrawal of affidavit sought: Criticising the SGPC leadership for submitting a distorted affidavit regarding the definition of Sehajdhari, the Sikh Youth of Punjab (SYP) today urged the SGPC to withdraw the same from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The party believes, “there’s no concept of Sehajdhari as such”. The SGPC has erred and its executive committee members who are going to meet on Dec 28 should realise what wrong they had committed. They also demanded a strict action against Punjab Advocate-General Hardev Singh Mattewal along with Sikh History Research Board chairperson Dr Anurag Singh, the brain behind the filing of false and distorted affidavit.

Plea against anti-terror bill: The Khalra Mission Organisation (KMO) has urged President Pratibha Patil not to give her nod to the new bill aimed at making existing laws strict against terrorists. Harmandeep Singh, president, KMO, on Friday said the law would subsequently be implemented against Indians while the terrorists coming from foreign countries would remain out of bound of it. The organisation also wanted the provision of legal aid to Kasab, sole terrorist held for the Mumbai attacks. It also raised doubt at frequent visits of Rahul Gandhi to Amritsar and said the Sikh community would not pardon his family for attacking the Golden Temple. The KMO was against any kind of war between Indian and Pakistan as Punjab had to bear the maximum brunt in earlier wars between the two nations.

Chandigarh
Cong meeting on Dec 29: A meeting of the MLAs and ex-MLAs, state office bearers and presidents of District Congress Committees of Punjab Congress will be held on December 29 at Congress Bhawan. The meeting will be presided over by Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress. According to Raj Pal Singh, general secretary and in-charge of the media department of the state Congress, the meeting has been convened at the direction of party high command to gear up the party machinery at booth level and participation of political nominees in revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India.

Ludhiana
Sareen for transparency in PPCC: Anil Sareen, who was recently nominated to Punjab Public Service Commission, has said he will ensure transparency in the commission. He says he will try his best to do justice to the position being entrusted upon him by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. A Ludhiana-based taxation lawyer, Sareen has been state secretary of the BJP for the past more than a decade.

Nawanshahr
Annual function: Ralla Mal Bhucher DAV Public School organised its annual function here on Friday. SP (HQ) J.S. Gill was the chief guest and senior officials of the DAV Managing Committee P.P. Sharma and J.S. Patial presided over the function.

Religious meet: The Maharaj Lal Dass Brahmanand Bhuriwale Charitable Trust would organise a religious function from December 27 to 29 at Tapparian Khurd village to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Lal Dass. Free medical check-up and eye operation camps would also be organised.

Pathankot
Poppy husk seized: The police arrested Romesh Kumar and Surjit Singh and seized 4 kg of poppy husk from them here on Friday during a naka at Barth Sahib on the Pathankot-Amritsar road.

Patiala
Anurag Joshi bags honours: Anurag Joshi, lecturer of Electrical Engineering in Thapar College, here, has bagged the best Polytechnic College Teacher Award for 2008. He received this award at the 38th Annual National Convention of Indian Society for Technical Education held at Bhubaneshwar.

Tarn Taran
Office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the District Bar Association: President - Shamsher Singh Kang; vice-president - Iqbal Singh; secretary - Gurjit Singh Gill; and joint secretary - M.P. Soni.

IMA’s office-bearers: The following have been elected office-bearers of the local district unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA): President - Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal; secretary - Dr Dinesh Gupta; vice-president - Dr Karnail Kaur; joint secretary - Dr G.S. Dhaliwal; organising secretary - Dr G.S. Bhargawa; treasurer - Dr R.D. Singh; publicity secretary - Dr Joginder Singh; patrons - Dr Manmohan Singh and Dr Karanjit Singh; and advisers - Dr K.S. Chug and Dr S.S. Kainth.

CHANDIGARH

City team in national sports meet: The Chandigarh sports department is fielding a 36-member team, including three officials, in the National Sports Festival for Women Group-III being held at Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh) from December 26 to 29. The competitions are being held in athletics, badminton, hockey and lawn tennis.

GGS-26 emerge champions: By obtaining 193 points, Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, emerged winner of the 12th Senior Women Chandigarh Weightlifting Championship, being organised by the Amateur Weightlifting Association, Sector 42, here today. The Government College for Girls, Sector 42, clinched the second position with 172 points and MCMDAV, Sector-36, got the third position with 71 points.

Mohali
2 vehicles stolen: Two vehicles were stolen from Phase 11 here. Ravi Kumar Goel, a resident of Phase 11, in a complaint lodged with the police said his car (CH 03 X 2287) was stolen from the market. In another incident, a motor cycle was stolen from the Phase 11 market.

HARYANA

Ambala
National sports meet from Jan 5
Two students of Chaman Vatika Public School, here, Amanpreet and Vishal, will represent the 54th National Sports Competition in swimming and diving to be held at Pune from January 5 to January 8, 2009. The school principal said Amanpreet and Vishal showed their excellence in the state-level competition recently.

JHAJJAR
4 injured in road mishap: Four persons, including a woman, were injured in a head-on collision between a truck and a car on the National Highway 10 near Aasauda Turn in the Bahadurgarh subdivision here on Friday. The injured were admitted to the Civil Hospital from where they were later referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, due to their critical condition. The incident took place when the truck coming from the opposite side collided with an Alto car. Consequently, the car overturned and four persons, Himansu, Kailash, Suresh and Sumitra, received serious injuries.

Two hurt in wall collapse: Two women, identified as Tinki and Mona, were injured when a wall of neighbour’s house fell on them at Ashok Nagar in Bahadurgarh town on Thursday. Both were rushed to a hospital where the condition of one of them is stated to be critical. Family members of the victims have lodged a complaint with the police against the landlord concerned. The incident took place when Tinki and her sister-in-law Mona were preparing food in a kitchen.

KURUKSHETRA
Office-bearers elected: Following have been elected as office-bearers of the District Bar Association. Mohinder Singh Tanwar as president for the eighth term, Aman Cheema as vice-president, Gurtej Singh Sekhon as general secretary, Vijay Kumar as joint secretary and Naresh Kumar Saini as treasurer.

REWARI
1 held on rape charge: A 19-year-old girl, a resident of Bhalkhi village, 20 km from here, was allegedly raped by a youth of the village who forcibly barged into her house on Tuesday. On the basis of a complaint filed by Prakash Sharma, father of the victim, on Thursday, the Khol police has registered a case under Sections 452, 376 of the IPC against the accused, Tulsi Ram Sharma. Later, after the medical examination of the girl, the police also arrested the accused.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

HAMIRPUR
2 girls hurt: A bus carrying team from Madhya Pradesh for the 34th National Sports Festival for Women collided with another vehicle at Pipali on Thursday night at 11pm. Two girls received minor injuries in this accident and were discharged after giving first aid. Later, an HRTC bus transported the team members to Hamirpur, secretary of the organising committee of the sports festival Suman Rawat Mehta said.

One dead: A person was killed on Thursday night, near Tahli village, under Badsar subdivision, when a tractor which he driving overturned. Police sources said Prakash Chand (42), a resident of Tahli, died on the spot.

KANGRA
New police beat: A round the clock police beat was inaugurated on Friday by Sub-Divisional Police officer OP Jamwal at the general bus stand here following escalation of crime in the area. He said one ASI, two head constables and five constables have been permanently posted here. The beat would be equipped with communication network to provide better facilities to the people in general, pilgrims and tourists visiting this temple town.

JAMMU & KASHMIR

BARAMULLA
3 killed in mishap: Three persons were killed and two others injured when a truck dashed into a milk shop at Arampora in the old town here on Friday. Official sources said a group of people were buying milk from a shop here when the truck dashed into the shop. Two women and a man were killed on the spot and two others were injured. The driver of the truck has been arrested. The deceased were identified as Fareeda Begum, Jana and Nissar Ahmad Wani.

JAMMU
Anti-adulteration drive: KD Singh Sambyal, health officer of the Jammu Municipal Corporation, has said more than 100 challans had been lodged against those found indulging in the sale of adulterated food items during the past over two months. Appealing to the consumers to remain vigilant while purchasing food items, Sambyal said adulteration had been found in samples of sweets, cheese, edible oil, milk products, among others.

Elocution contest: An elocution contest on ‘Gandhiji’s Economy of Permanence or the Current Concept of Globalisation” was organised by the Department of Students Welfare, University of Jammu, on Friday. Shreya Jain from Women College, Parade, was adjudged the best speaker in the contest. Zain-ul-abdeen Banday and Garvita Khajuria bagged second and third position, respectively.