Bathinda
Cold claims three lives: Three persons have reportedly died of cold at different places in the city. As per information, provided by the Sahara Jan Sewa, the body of a 60-year-old person was found from the verandah of the local Gandhi market. A saint died at the footpath of local Mal Godam road. An eighty-year-old person also died near the office of the local municipal corporation.

Body of girl child found: Body of a four years old girl was found in a bag, which was found abandoned in a compartment of the Assam-Gauhati Express train, at the Railway station here last night. On receiving information, the Sahara workers reached there and informed the railway police, which is now investigating the case.

Dalits urged to quit SAD: District general secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mohinder Singh Sohal has appealed to the Dalits to quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) by saying that the Dalits have been facing disrespect in the SAD. He said the SAD which was once a party of downtrodden had now become a party of rich and dictators. He also appealed to the Dalits to join the BSP by quitting the SAD.

KVK scientific body meeting: A meeting of the scientific advisory committee of the PAU Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Bathinda, was held under the chairmanship of additional director of extension education, PAU, Ludhiana Dr H.S. Dhaliwal here on Tuesday. Deputy Director (Training), KVK, Bathinda Dr Jagdish Grover welcomed the guests on the occasion.

MP visits villages: MP from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday visited five villages of Talwandi Sabo Assembly constituency and distributed cheques worth Rs 50 lakh among the Panchayats for development works in the villages. She also distributed pension sanction letters among 125 beneficiaries of different villages. She visited Laleana, Mahi Nangal, Shekhpura, Fatehgarh Naubad and Gurusar villages.

Chandigarh
SSSB chairman sworn in: CM Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday administered oath of office and secrecy to Santa Singh Umedpur as chairman of the Subordinate Services Selection Board (SSSB) at a ceremony here. Five others were also sworn in as members of SSSB, while others, who were administered the oath included Seelam Sohi, Gurmeet Singh Daduwal, Dial Singh Kolianwali, Jiwan Dhawan and Darshan Lal Jethumajra. Chief secretary SC Agrawal conducted the proceedings of the swearing-in-ceremony of the newly appointed chairman and members of SSS board.

Inquiry against cops: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday took strong notice of the police accepting sweets and money from a religious preacher in Kotakpura town in Faridkot district for providing security during the preacher’s visit there. He directed the state police chief to submit a detailed report in this regard, so that legal action can be taken against erring officers/officials.

Ferozepur
Foundation stone laid: Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon laid the foundation stone of new sub-tehsil complexes at Talwandi Bhai and Mamdot recently. Sekhon also listened to the problems of the villagers during the sangat darshan held on the occasion and instructed the officials to take up their grievances on priority basis. He said that the entire land record was being computerised for the sake of interest of the farmers, who would be able to get the required information about their land without much procedural wrangles involved. An amount of Rs 25 lakh each would be spent on the construction of the two new sub-tehsil complexes, he said.

Hanumangarh/Abohar
Funds for Ghaggar bridge:Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has released Rs 9 crore for the renovation of the Ghaggar bridge that links Tibbi with Sangria, revealed Pradesh Congress spokesperson Dr Param Navdeep, during a reception held at Anmol Bhawan in Hanumangarh this week.

Hoshiarpur
Charas seized: The Mukerian police seized 84 gm of charas on Tuesday evening. According to police sources, Surjit Singh of Ward 12 was arrested under sections 20, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act in this connection.

Girl abducted: A teenager girl of Urmur has allegedly been abducted by three brothers for getting her married with one of them. According to police sources, Dinesh Kumar, son of Jagdish Rai of Ward 5, Urmur, alleged that Goru, son of Narinder Kumar of the same locality, with the help of his brothers Harish and Nand Jain, abducted his 15-year-old daughter. The Tanda police has booked the trio under sections 363 and 366 of  the IPC.

Jalandhar
Rs 8.9 lakh looted: Two miscreants robbed an employee of Raga Motors, located near Rama Mandi Chowk on the GT Road, of Rs 8.90 lakh at the point of knife in broad daylight here today. The incident occurred when Mukhtiar Chand, an employee of the company, was carrying the amount in a bag to deposit it in the Rama Mandi branch of Punjab National Bank. In a complaint to the police, Mukhtiar Chand claimed that two youths with muffled faces came on a motorcycle and stopped him near Rama Mandi Chowk. One of the motorcyclists approached him, put a knife on his temple and took away the bag containing the money.The police has registered a case of snatching against the unidentified persons at the cantonment police station. No arrest has been made as yet.

Ludhiana
LIC opens customer zone in city: The Life Insurance of India (LIC), Ludhiana division, today opened its customer zone here. The new set up would serve as a centre dedicated to providing various kind of value-added services to policyholders of the LIC. Inaugurating the customer zone at Dandi Swami Chowk, senior divisional manager SK Aggarwal, Ludhiana division, said the LIC was a premier financial institution of India since 53 years.

Mansa
Nirmal Gram award: Seven villages of Mansa have been selected for Nirmal Gram award by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Gram panchyats of these villages would be honoured by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh. Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul said these villages were selected after conducting a survey by the Ministry of Rural Development. These villages would be entitled for getting grants from Rs 50,000 to Rs 4 lakh on the basis of the population of villages concerned. Deputy Commissioner said that the district administration would also honour these villages on January 26.

CHANDIGARH
Repayment of loans: Haryana Agriculture and Cooperation Minister Paramvir Singh on Tuesday urged farmers to ensure timely repayment of loans so that the same money was recycled and other needy members could take advantage of cooperative loans. He was reviewing the position of advancement and recovery of central cooperative banks and primary agriculture and rural development banks of the state in a meeting held on Tuesday. He appealed the farmers to avail the benefits of timely payment schemes launched by the government.

KAITHAL
Office-bearers elected: The annual elections of the District Bar Association, Kaithal, were held here on Wednesday. Advocate PL Bhardwaj was elected president. He received 290 votes. He defeated his nearest rival RC Goel by a margin of 92 votes. Advocate Dharam Pal was elected vice-president, who got 258 votes. Manoj Chauhan was elected vice-president and he got 292 votes. Devinder Rana was elected joint secretary.

Surjewala for separate SGPC: Shamsher Singh Surjewala, president of the All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, yesterday supported the setting up of a separate SGPC for Haryana to mange gurdwaras in the state. Surjewala also supported the demand for a separate High Court for Haryana.

KURUKSHETRA
Supplementary exams: The supplementary examinations of Kurukshetra University postgraduate classes and semester examinations of various undergraduate classes will commence from December 30. Stating this to mediapersons here on Tuesday, the university spokesman said roll number slips and date sheet had been dispatched to all eligible candidates. Any candidate, who did not receive the same, might collect the duplicate roll number slip from the results branch concerned during office hours.

CHAMBA
Pensioners’ Day: The All-India Pensioners’ Day will be held on December 24 in Mandi in which large number of retirees from the length and breadth of the state are likely to participate. State spokesperson of the Himachal Pradesh Pensioners’ Welfare Association PC Oberoy said various problems of 1.25 lakh pensioners would be discussed on the occasion.

Dalhousie
Illicit wine recovered: The police on Tuesday recovered 6,000 ml of illicit wine from a shop located in the suburbs of the hill town. A case against the shop owner, Vijay Kumar, under the Excise Act has been registered and further investigations are underway in the case.

KULLU
One dies of asphyxia: Amar Nath (20) of Neri village, near Fozal, in the district died of asphyxia on Tuesday. According to police sources, the deceased was working at Nangabag, about 7 km from here. He was found dead in his room and the death was feared to be due to the charcoal angithi kept in the room.

MANDI
Drug peddler held: The police on Tuesday arrested a drug peddler identified as Devi Singh of Sachani, Kullu, after allegedly recovering 1 kg of charas and 1 kg of opium while he was on his way from Kullu to Mandi. According to the police, they had laid a naka at Khotinala when they suspected Devi Singh carrying the consignment. He tried to flee from the place when the police tried to stop him for search.

SHIMLA
Coaching for SCs: Himachal Pradesh University has extended the free coaching scheme for the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and minority communities to help them prepare for the national eligibility test (NET) and state eligibility test (SET) in all subjects of arts and science streams. The scheme will be operative from January 2010. The facility will also be extended to general category students at a fee of Rs 2,500 for full course for the UGC-NET test to be held in June next year. Those interested can apply to Prof DK Sharma, coordinator, Department of Chemistry, in the university by paying a sum of Rs 100 before December 31.

Meeting on Manikaran: Governor Prabha Rau has directed various government agencies to undertake proper and planned development of Manikaran in Kullu district. Presiding over a meeting convened here on Tuesday on the development of Manikaran, she said immediate steps must be taken for construction of a tourism complex, maintenance of roads and posting of a doctor in the primary health centre. The meeting was attended by PWD, Health, Tourism and Food and Supplies Departments’ officials.