Abohar
Man killed in road mishap: One Udaypal (40) of Dhaani Loonawali was killed as he lost control over the pickup van that he was driving on Thursday night. As per the information available with the Tibbi police, the van hit a roadside tree near RD 654 of Maseetwala headworks resulting in death of the driver on the spot.

Batala
Youth held with narcotic: The Narcotic Cell of the district police arrested a youth with narcotic powder. SSP Naresh Arora told mediapersons here yesterday that Sub-Inspector Harjinder Singh and his police party stopped a youth, identified as Goldy, resident of Malawe Di Kothi in the district, near Misharpura village. When the police searched his pockets, it seized 310 gm of narcotic powder from him. A case under the NDPS Act has been registered.

BATHINDA
Strike hits bank services on 2nd day: Banking services continued to suffer on the second day of the strike by public sector bank employees here on Friday. As no transactions took place, work at private sector banks that stayed open was also hit. As per rough estimates, transactions to the tune of over Rs 600 crore came to a halt during the two-day strike. Employees, who were participating in the nationwide strike, the call for which was given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), were demanding stoppage of mergers and privatisation, compassionate appointments, wage revision and pension option.

CHANDIGARH
Honour for two jawans: It was a red letter day in the lives of two lowly paid Punjab Home Guard volunteers, namely Jaswant Singh and Avtar Singh, as Punjab DGP PS Gill yesterday decided to honour them by recruiting them as constables in the Punjab police. They had shown exemplary courage at the risk of their lives by nabbing three poppy husk smugglers after an encounter in Rajpura in June.

Ferozepur MC election: Justice Permod Kohli of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today restrained the state of Punjab and Ferozepur DC from convening the meeting of the local municipal council for electing its office-bearers till further orders. Notice of motion was also issued to the respondents for August 24.The directions follow a petition filed by Ashwani Grover and 12 other members of the municipal council, through senior advocate Satya Pal Jain. The petitioners were claiming the state government, under undue political influence, was not notifying the names of elected office-bearers. Instead, it was planning to call another MC meeting to hold the election again. The petitioners also sought a direction to the state to notify the names of Ashwani Grover, Prem Nath and Kanta Rani as the president, the senior vice-president and the vice-president.

CHANDIGARH
HJC allotted poll symbol: The Election Commission of India has recognised the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) as a regional party and allotted it an election symbol. Announcing this here on Friday, HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi said the election symbol of the party would be a “woman carrying two water pots”. He also announced the appointment of the presidents of 56 block units of his party. Karnal Municipal Council chairman Balvinder Kalra; Jatinder Nath, son of former Minister Jagan Nath; and former president of the labour cell of the Haryana Congress Narinder Tyagi announced their decision to quit the Congress and join the HJC.