Abohar
Cong plans to gherao MC: Buoyed over holding successful dharna outside the local Municipal Council over alleged high-handedness of BJP leaders, the Congress now plans to gherao the administrative block of the MC. Giving a hint, MLA Sunil Jakhar said during the mass contact programme in ward 13 on Wednesday night that the council had failed in streamlining sanitation, checking water pollution and making potable water available to over 1.5 lakh citizens despite repeated requests.

GAMC students shine: Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College (GAMC) has won 32 prizes in the PU zonal youth and heritage festival that recently concluded in Jalalabad, principal Dr Neelam Arun Mittu said on Thursday. The students of the GAMC topped in group singing, vocal music, orchestra, classical dance, skit, kali singing, embroidery besides winning individual best prizes.

BATHINDA
City lad wins gold in taekwondo tourney: Bhanu Pratap, a class X student of the MSD School here, won gold medal in the senior 50-50 weight category of the North India Taekwondo Competition held at Dabwali on October 24. Nearly 400 players from various states had participated in the competition. Principal of the school Suraj Setia congratulated Bhanu for his achievement.

Drama contest from today: A state-level drama competition would be held at the Dashmesh Public Senior Secondary School on October 30 and 31. The inauguration would take place at 9:30 am and the closing ceremony would take place the next day at 2 pm.

Medical camp held: With the help of district health authorities, the Dost Welfare Society organised a TB awareness-cum-medical check-up camp at Mandi Kalan village on Wednesday. About 270 persons were examined at the camp, out of which 33 were suspected to be TB patients. Medicines were given free of cost to the patients by the society.

CHANDIGARH
Panel formed: The state government has constituted a seven-member committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to streamline coordination among various departments to ensure faster implementation of the national highway projects. Stating this here on Thursday, a spokesman of the Chief Minister’s Office said CM Parkash Singh Badal had given his approval for the constitution of this panel that would include the Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Principal Secretary, Power, Principal Secretary, Forest, Secretary, PWD (B&R), Secretary, Water Supply & Sanitation as its members and Chief General Manager of the National Highways Authority of India would be its member secretary.

Fazilka
Man held for bike theft: Special police staff in Fazilka nabbed a person during a checking and recovered six stolen motorcycles from his residence. According to the in-charge of the special staff Sanjeev Setia, police laid a check barrier near border village Pakka Chisti. They stopped a motorcyclist coming from the village. During the interrogation, the police came to know that the motorcycle had been stolen. The person was identified as Mohinder Singh alias Koli, a resident of village Sammewali in district Muktsar. Mohinder Singh confessed that the motorcycles were stolen from Fazilka, Abohar and Ferozepur towns. The police have registered a case under section 379 against Mohinder Singh.

Vasectomy camp held: A special non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) camp was held at the local civil hospital today. Six persons were operated by surgeon Dr Rajesh Sharma. To promote NSV amongst male as a permanent family planning measure, the department has decided to give an incentive of Rs 1,100 to each operated case and Rs 200 to the motivator. Civil Surgeon Dr Dalip Kumar handed over the cash incentive to the persons, who adopted this family planning measure. He was accompanied by assistant civil surgeon Dr DP Godara. The civil surgeon said NSV is a simple OPD procedure. The person is advised mild rest for two days and he can resume his routine work shortly. The civil surgeon called upon eligible males to undergo NSV as it is trouble free.

Jalandhar
Term extended: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has given approval to extend the term of Punjab Khadi and Village Industries Board Chairman Vijay Sampla for another one year. According to sources, Badal cleared the file for giving extension to Sampla from October 21.

HMV staff stage dharna: On a call given by the Private Non-Teaching Staff Employees Union, the non-teaching employees of the Hans Raj Mahila Vidyalaya staged a dharna against the state government for not implementing recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, interim relief and 50 per cent DA merger. Union president Kulwant Singh said the government has failed miserably in fulfilling their long pending demands.

Ludhiana
Working of forum inspected: Justice SN Aggarwal, chairman of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, yesterday inspected the working of the District Consumer Forum. He said emphasis was on speedy justice. An additional Bench had been constituted in the city to reduce pendency.

Phillaur
‘Adopt sports, shun drugs’: Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarwan Singh Phillaur has stressed the need for popularising sports to combat the increasing menace of drugs among youths. He was speaking on the concluding day of a district-level elementary schools sports competition at Rurrka Kalan village here on Wednesday. He inspired the youths to adopt sports’ path to have a bright future.