AMRITSAR
Farmers to hold conference on Aug 27: The Jamhoori Kisan Union (JKU) in association with the Border Sangharsh Committee (BSC) will hold a ‘kisan jago’ conference at Bhindi Saida village in Ajnala tehsil on August 27.This was announced at a meeting of the JKU and the BSC held here on Wednesday. They have been demanding the opening of gates by the BSF for at least 10 hours a day so that farmers can work in their fields situated across the fence. State president, JKU, Satnam Singh Ajnala, senior vice-president, BSC, Rattan Singh Randhawa and leaders of various farmers’ unions were present on the occasion. Randhawa said at present the gates were being opened for a limited period and it was impossible for them to work.

2 bodies found: The bodies of two aged devotees identified as Gurbaksh Singh of Tarn Taran and Dilbagh Singh of Dera Baba Nanak were found in the Golden Temple complex here this morning. The police handed over the bodies to their relatives .

FAZILKA
Traders end dharna: With the registration of an FIR by the city police on Wednesday against five persons in a case of roughing up and misbehaving with Beopar Mandal, Fazilka, president Ashok Gulbadhar, the two-day-old protest dharna was lifted. All shops were opened after 2 pm. The police has registered a case against the accused, namely Vipan Rinwa, Madan Lal, Cipia, Dinesh Gupta and Sanjiv Sharma, and 10-12 unidentified persons under Sections 452, 380, 323, 148 and 149 on the statement of Gulbahdar. Fazilka DSP Karamjit Singh announced the registration of FIR in the presence of traders who were sitting on dharna outside the police station. He said some accused were arrested and the remaining would be arrested soon.

Jalandhar
Woman kills self: A newlywed has committed suicide by consuming poison following a tiff with her in-laws at Kohala village near Maqsudan. The police has booked Manpreet Kaur’s husband Hardeep Singh and his parents and brother.

Chandigarh
Rape accused gets bail: Justice Masih today granted bail to Haryana DSP Dheertaj Setia, an accused in rape case of a Rohtak housewife, Sarita, by some police personnel. Sarita later committed suicide in June last year, as no action was reportedly taken. 

Hafed spices: Hafed will shortly introduce powdered spices like turmeric, coriander and chilly powder which will be processed and packed in the turmeric processing plant recently set up at Radaur in Yamunanagar district. Due to purity and reasonable prices, Hafed consumer products are quite popular with the consumers which is evident from the fact that sale of these products has registered impressive increase of more than 160 per cent over the annual sales two years ago in financial year 2006-07. 

KURUKSHETRA
Goel appointed HPCC convener: Dr MM Goel, professor and chairman, Department of Economics, Kurukshetra University, has been appointed convener (intellectual cell) of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) by Phool Chand Mullana, president of the HPCC. He is also a member of the executive committee from Haryana in the Indian Economic Association being patronised by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 

KARNAL
Customers’ meeting: A customers’ meeting will be organised by the Haryana Financial Corporation to decide the loan proposals received from the prospective customers on August 27 at 2.30 pm in its branch office here. The corporation provided financial assistance up to Rs 5 crore at competitive terms and interest rate for setting up new industrial units and for expression, modernisation and diversification of the existing units, spokesperson for the corporation said.

REWARI
3 booked for dowry death: The police has booked Rekha’s husband Sanjay, father-in-law Dalip Singh and mother-in-law Sohan Devi, all residents of Qutubpur Colony here, for the dowry death of Rekha. A case of cruel treatment and dowry death has been registered against them on a complaint filed by Raj Kumar Jatav, brother of the deceased and resident of Rampura Colony here. Rekha (25) had got married to Sanjay in May 2005. The complainant alleged that owing to brutal treatment given by her in-laws, Rekha set herself on fire on Monday. She succumbed to her burn injuries on the spot.

REWARI
Girl abducted: A teenaged girl (17) was allegedly abducted from Dabri village, 5 km from here, on August 5 by a youth of the Bawaria caste and resident of Fatehpur village of Jhajjar district. When the family failed to trace her whereabouts even after a long search, the victim’s father filed a complaint on Monday, following which the Rewari Sadar police registered a case of abduction coupled with seduction against the accused.

SONEPAT
Man dies in roof collapse: A person identified as Naveen of Khurram Pur village was killed whereas his father Harkishan and son Monu were injured when the wall and roof of their house in the village collapsed on Monday night. Two buffaloes also died in the incident. They were sleeping in one of the rooms of their house on Monday night when one wall and roof of the room collapsed. The beam of the roof fell on Naveen and he died on the spot. One of the walls of the room collapsed on the buffaloes tied near the wall and two died in the incident. 

1 killed in accident: Ram Niwas of Pai village died on the spot and his son Neeraj was injured when the motorcycle they were riding on was reportedly knocked down by a truck at Kharkhoda bypass on Tuesday. The incident took place when they were going to Kharkhoda from their village. The truck driver managed to run away after the accident. The police has registered a case against the truck driver. The body of the victim was handed over to his family members after a postmortem in the local Civil Hospital.

SHIMLA
Doc awarded: Ayurvedic specialist Dr Rakesh Pandit has been conferred the prestigious “Aryabhatt” award for his outstanding contribution to ayurvedic science. The national award, instituted by Vigyan Bharati (Swadeshi Science Movement in India), is given once in every four years. Pandit is the first ayurvedic doctor and also the first Himachali to bag the award. He is currently posted as officer on special duty in the state department of ayurveda.

Excellence award: Chief Vigilance Officer of the Public Sector Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) KC Sadyal has been awarded the prestigious National Vigilance Excellence Award for the year 2009. Central Vigilance Commissioner Prityush Sinha presented the award at a function held to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Vigilance Study Circle, Hyderabad, on Wednesday. Sadyal is a state cadre IPS officer of 1986 batch and has been on deputation to the SJVN since May, 2005.

Jammu
AWWA Day celebrations: Chairperson of the White Knights Corps Family Welfare Organisation on Wednesday inaugurated the week-long AWWA day celebrations to commemorate the 44 raising day of the corps. A special family welfare meet was organised at Usman Auditorium for the troops stationed at Nagrota. Entertainment programmes were presented by wives and children of army personnel during the function.