Abohar
Farmers to uproot Bt cotton: Some farmers of village Kallarkhera on Friday joined hands in uprooting Bt cotton plants in their respective fields as the size of the plant was lower than the prescribed standard and it was sans fruit as well. The farmers including Mohinder Kumar sarpanch, Rajesh Kumar, Likhma Ram, Balram, Baldev Singh, Onkar and Manphool Singh said the crop had become a victim of leaf curl virus that had spread due to drought-like conditions. The state government had failed in making canal water available to the farmers of the tail-end villages. The plants were drying one after another. Water supply has been again suspended for a week. They had purchased the Bt cotton seed of the same manufacturer through the cooperative society. In village Daulatpura too, farmers Rajinder Kumar and Vinod Kumar said they had decided to plough cotton fields due to the similar conditions.

Three held for fishing: A team of the Wildlife department on Friday nabbed three persons as they were fishing in prohibited wildlife sanctuary area. Sources said the team seized 65 fish from a pick-up van near the drain on the outskirts of village Dutaranwali and arrested Gurcharan Singh, Tanuk Lal and Kanchan Kachhua under various sections of the Wild Life Protection Act 1972.

SANGRUR
6 MDS courses recognised: In an exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 10 of the Dentist Act 1948 (16 of 1948), the Central government after consultations with the Dental Council of India has given recognition to six Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) courses being run by the Guru Nanak Dev Dental College and Research Institute, Sunam, vide its letter dated August 26, 2009. Giving this information on Friday, Dr Vikram Sharma, director-trustee of the college, said as per the letter, the MDS degree in pedodontics, oral medicine, orthodontics, conservative dentistry, periodontics, prosthodontics, awarded to students of Guru Nanak Dev Dental College, Sunam, by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, had been recognised by the government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. Dr Sharma said the first batch of 17 MDS students of the college had recently passed out with 100 per cent results. The college was already recognised for 100 seats of Bachelor in Dental Surgery (BDS) while nine batches of the BDS had passed out from the college so far, he added.

Sriganganagar/Abohar
Route change of Udyan Abha Toofan Express: There will be some change in the route of 3007/3008 Udyan Abha Toofan Express from September 6 to 12, informed GL Meena, chief public relations officer of North West Railway on Friday. Owing to renovation work at the Kanpur railway station, the train will be run via Chandmari-Kanpur central Panki and would not halt at Kanpur. The other trains to be affected by the changed route are 2307/2308 Jodhpur-Howrah-Jodhpur and 2315/2316 Udaipur-Sealdah-Udaipur Ananya Express.

Chandigarh
ABVP panel out: The ABVP announced its panel for upcoming PU elections at a press conference here today. Aswathy Rajan, Ph.D scholar from the zoology department, will contest for the post of president while Rattan Negi for vice-president, Kunal Kumar general secretary and Ritu Gupta for joint secretary.

4 LPG cylinders seized: Four domestic cylinders of the Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation weighing 14.2 kg were seized from two shops in Pipliwala Town, Manimajra, during a raid today. The raid was conducted to check on the misuse of the LPG cylinders in Pipliwala Town by officials of the Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Workshop on road safety: The Chandigarh Traffic Police organised a road safety workshop at Saint Kabir School in Sector 26 here. The police said over 350 students of the school participated in the programme along with school director-cum-principal JP Singh, additional principal Gurpreet Chadha and other staff members. Police personnel distributed over 1,000 pamphlets carrying the road safety slogans to the students and staff. UT SP (Traffic) HS Doon delivered a lecture on the road safety.

Ambala
SP Bharti takes charge: Ambala Districts First Woman SP Bharti Arora took charge of her new assignment here today. A 1998 Haryana Cadre officer Bharti Arora was earlier posted as SP Railways at Ambala. Talking to TNS, she stated that her immediate priority would be to control the increasing crime rate in Ambala. In the recent past, the city has been the witness to thefts, the most recent being a theft at a jewellery store and a bank.

Chandigarh
Pvt school teachers’ pay: While the Haryana government is to still satisfy university and college teachers about their pay revision, another section of teachers — those working in the government-aided private schools — are on warpath now. A delegation of the Haryana Aided School Lecturers Association met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here on Friday to press their demand for pay revision. However, the meeting reportedly ended on an acrimonious note. General secretary of the association Rajesh Dhanda alleged in a statement issued here today that Hooda not only misbehaved with them but they were also pushed out of CM’s residence by security personnel. He said the association would now launch an agitation and would also approach AICC president Sonia Gandhi for justice. Meanwhile, principals of the government schools have decided to go on mass casual leave on August 31 to protest against the failure of the government to remove anomalies in their pay scales.

Sonepat
Villagers block road: Hundred of residents, including women, of Farmana, Nizampur Majra and Ridhau villages today blocked the Gohana-Kharkhoda road for around six hours in protest against the erratic power supply for the past many days. Large number of vehicles, mainly heavy ones, remained stranded on the road during the blockade. According to the information, after reaching at Farmana Power House, the irate villagers blocked the road in front of it in protest. After receiving the information of the blockade, SDM Jag Niwas, DSP Vikas Dhankhar and XEN NK Sharma reached on the spot and persuaded the residents to lift the blockade assuring uninterrupted power supply as per schedule timings. The residents alleged that they were not getting power supply regularly for the last two months and average daily supply during this period had been hardly three to four hours.